Badlands

The Badlands is an area of of space made up of intense plasma storms and gravitational anomalies spanning over 84 parsecs and are located in Sector 21305 along the Federation-Cardassian border. The Badlands were believed to have been formed around 500,000 years ago, and contains 2 stars, 17 planets, 43 moons, and a large asteroid belt. (novel: New Worlds, New Civilizations).

The first Federation contact with the Badlands was made by the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) in 2268, and was named the Badlands by the Enterprise ' s chief medical officer, Leonard H. McCoy, after a region on Earth. During that first mission to the Badlands a Romulan Bird-of-Prey was destroyed, and shortly after the crew began exhibiting signs of radiation sickness. Unbeknownst to anyone at this time, the Bird-of-Prey was testing an experimental quantum singularity drive, and the singularity was still traveling around the Badlands. (TOS novella: Star Trek: The Badlands, Book 1).

The next major attempt to chart the Badlands was conducted in 2335 by the Oberth-class science vessel, USS Yosemite. The Yosemite became the first ship to penetrate the plasma storms and was subjected to a subspace incursion that disrupted its power systems. Captain Indul and her crew discovered the the ships warp engines had acted as a lightning rod in the Badlands. (TNG novella: Star Trek: The Badlands, Book 1).

During the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor during the mid 24th century, the Bajoran Resistance used the Badlands as a refuge from Cardassian patrols. The only drawback to using the Badlands as a refuge, was the poor sensor range, so they were often forced to use echo-location to evade the Cardassians. (DS9 episode: "Starship Down").