Volgas

Volgas was the fourth planet in the Hagmi star system in the Orion Neutrality Area, in the Alpha or the Beta Quadrant. It was home to an Orion Colony and its native race, the Psyll.

It was a Class N pelagic world with four moons and a warm temperate climate, a terrestrial atmosphere and a 20-hour-long day. It was primarily used for sea-farming agriculture. Cities here were poden, cities-on-stilts anchored to the sea floor.

The native race, the Psyll, were a sentient, air-breathing cetacean species. A long lost race known only as the Shapers used genetic modification to create the Psyll, likely for use as sea-farming labor. Orion colonists came later, and shared in the benefits of Psyll talents.

Orions and Psyll had a happy and peaceful relationship and worked closely together as partners. This closeness compromised local Orion culture and bothered many non-Volgasan Orions, but local Orions did not care. The groups of Orions shunned each other.

Volgas was also unusual in that it was governed by a pure democracy, with a Congress, President and a World Court. The poden were each lead by mayor-managers, chosen from the citizens and elected by popular vote. Unlike other Orion Colonies, these government bodies had actual power. It also had its powerful families – the Ofish, Tumbel and Wal – and a global corporation in Volgas Food and Transport, but they were secondary to the government.

Wrecked spaceships were rumored to lie at the bottom of the ocean, some from as early as the Four Years War but many were said to be much older. Offworlders dived to the ocean depths to hunt for them and discover their secrets, but the Psyll and Orions were both apparently entirely uninterested in them. They did not stop anyone from exploring for them, but nor did they offer any aid. Some said it was the Psyll who particularly discouraged exploration, but couldn't say why they, an air-breathing race who couldn't go so deep on their own, should care.

In the late 23rd century, Volgas had a technological/sociopolitical index of 999974-77 and a planetary trade profile of AEDBCDE/B(A). It had a population of 2.2 billion Orions and over twice that in Psyll.

It had a total surface area of 593,093,720 square kilometers and, with 6% land mass, a total land area of 35,585,620 square kilometers. It had a gravity of 1.0 g, a diameter of 13,740 kilometers and an equatorial circumference of 43,170 kilometers. About 7% of its makeup was normal metals, 24% was radioactive elements, 5% was special minerals, and the planet had trace deposits of gemstones and industrial crystals.