Vab

Vab was the first planet in the Vab 7791 star system in Orion Neutrality Area near the border with the Klingon Empire, in the Alpha or the Beta Quadrant. It was an Orion-held world that served as a base to both the Orion Space Navy and Orion pirates.

Vab was a Class G planet with a thin atmosphere and a desert climate. Its orbital path took it between the two stars of the Vab 7791 system, where it endured constant daylight and many kinds of dangerous radiation. Agriculture was impossible and it had few resources. With the system itself located within a dust cloud, it was a particularly dull place.

In ancient times, an unknown race tunneled into the planet and constructed subterranean structures. During the Orion War, 94–57 BCE (reference stardate -20/9401.03 – -20/5712), the Orions fought a great battle for Vab, but later abandoned it. Thereafter, Vab was little-used until the Reverse, when pirates based themselves there to launch raids against both Orion and Klingon worlds.

The Four Years War of stardates 1/94–1/98 (c. 2250 – c. 2255) brought a Klingon task force to Vab 7791. They attacked the pirate base and destroyed parts of the underground facilities, but failed to drive out the pirates. At the conclusion of the War, when the Federation's Orion Demilitarized Zone Commission proposed the Orion Neutrality Area to the Botchok Planetary Congress (BPC), Vab acquired a particular value, lying on the new Orion border with the Klingon Empire.

The Orion Space Navy swiftly moved to seize Vab and turn it in a major base of operations. However, in a particularly blatant piece of complicity with the BPC, Orion pirates continued to also use Vab for resupply and transferring cargo that crossed the Klingon frontier in both directions. Starfleet was helpless to stop the pirates without provoking war with the Orions and the Klingons.

Despite its status, the Vab base was inadequately funded, yet the tunnels and landing bays required frequent maintenance to remain operational. Radiation was major hazard to ships and crews aboveground. In all, it was crowded, dirty and dangerous, and described as a hell-hole. It was the least desired posting in the Orion Space Navy, and rumors told of friction between officers and pirates.

In the late 23rd century, Vab had a technological/sociopolitical index of 999974-74 and a planetary trade profile of GBCGDFH/A(C).

It had a total surface area of 133,141,000 square kilometers, with 100% land mass. It had a gravity of 0.5 g, a diameter of 6,510 kilometers and an equatorial circumference of 20,450 kilometers. About 27% of its makeup was normal metals, 10% was radioactive elements, 8% industrial crystals, with trace deposits of special minerals and gemstones.