Ba'ku Planet

Home Planet of the Ba'ku race it is a M class planet within the Briar Patch. The Ba'ku race are a unique race. The Ba'ku are a people filled with contradictions. Their home world is unknown, but is believed to be located beyond Federation space. Some three hundred years and fifty years ago the Ba'ku had entered a period of rapidly escalating and uncontrolled technological advancement, to the point where they were on the verge of destroying themselves. A group of Ba'ku left their world to begin again, fearing a catastrophe. Determined not to repeat the mistakes the rest of their people had made, the Ba'ku adopted a philosophy of near total avoidance of high technology. The Ba'ku claimed that when a machine was built to do the work of a person, it took away an essential quality of that person.

The Ba'ku planet is unique due to the Metaphasic particles in the rings orbiting the planet. Still unknown why, these particles regenerate the cells of living tissues making the Ba'ku people immortal. The mountain ranges on the planet are filled with kelbonite deposits plus the mountains have a number of subsurfaces hydrothermal caverns.

The Ba'ku homeworld falls under Federation space and with heavy support from Starfleet Command became a Federation Protecterate in 2375 shortly after the Insurection Incident. The Insurection Incident was plan which is has known been annouced a project influenced by Section 31, a rogue section of Starfleet Intellgence. It all started with a race called the Son'a and a man's attempt to seek revenge....

For two hundred years the Ba'ku society continued in a pre industrial state; however, in the 2270's a group of young Ba'ku attempted to seize control of the settlement. They planned to abandon the policy on non reliance on technology and become a star faring species once again, but their attempt quickly failed and the group were exiled from the planet in a spacecraft constructed specifically for this purpose.

Renaming themselves the Son'a, the exiled Ba'ku spent almost fifty years building a technologically based culture on a world beyond Federation borders. In the 2320's they conquered two other species and integrated them into their society as a labor class in order to provide themselves with the manpower base needed to turn them into a major power. By the 2370's the Son'a were maintaining a fleet of some two hundred warships. Their reputation in galactic affairs was not a good one - in part due to their subjugation of other species, but also because they were widely rumored to employ subspace weaponry on their warships. For many years the Federation declined to establish diplomatic relations with the Son'a, but after the beginning of the Dominion war it was learned that the Son'a were able to reproduce Ketracel White in large quantities. The Federation immediately moved to isolate the Son'a from the Dominion and establish an alliance with them, a move the Son'a welcomed with open arms.

However, the Son'a had one major problem; without the unique environment of the Ba'ku planet, the original generation of Son'a were reaching the end of their natural lives. Used to immortality, their leaders became obsessed with regaining the youth they had lost. Unable to challenge the Federation directly, the Son'a seized on the opportunity presented by the offer of an alliance. When they learned that Starfleet had already discovered the Ba'ku settlement and learned of the immortality enjoyed by the natives, the Son'a came to the Federation offering an explanation for the Ba'ku puzzle; high concentrations of metaphasic radiation particles in the planets rings was continually regenerating the genetic structure of the life on the planet. Concealing their Ba'ku heritage, the Son'a offered a method of collecting this radiation via a large orbital vessel they had constructed. The potential was awesome; a whole new medical science would be created, with sufficient radiation present in the rings to treat billions of individuals. However, the collection method involved initiating an isothermic reaction within the rings which would destroy all life on the surface of the planet.

Naturally, the Federation refused this offer as it would contravene the Prime Directive. However, it was agreed to establish a duck blind facility on the surface and conduct covert surveillance of the Ba'ku in an attempt to investigate the planets environment more thoroughly. During this research it became apparent to the Federation that the Ba'ku were not in fact a primitive people; they possessed technological knowledge up to and including warp drive. With Prime Directive considerations considerably eased by the Ba'ku's new status, the Federation decided to proceed with the Son'a plan. The whole Ba'ku population was limited to six hundred people, all living in one small area. The Federation constructed a replica of their village and the surrounding countryside on a suitably similar planet, and a vessel was built which was capable of transplanting the Ba'ku without their knowledge. However, shortly prior to the implementation of the plan Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-E discovered the operation and made it public, including the fact that the Son'a and Ba'ku were one and the same people. The Federation halted the entire project while a reappraisal was initiated.

Shortly afterwards the several members of the Son'a race asked if they could return to the Ba'ku planet. The Ba'ku people were happy to have those who wished to return, return. A small Son'a colony was set up on an island far from the Ba'ku village.

During the Borg War, the USS Cario's saucer section was forced to flee from the Borg within the Briar Patch. On board the Saucer section was a large amount of civilians from the Qualor colony. Once again the Ba'ku people showed their genoristy and allowed for a Federation colony to be set up in over five hundred kilometers from the Ba'ku village. During its years of being set up the colony has grown and developed. It still remains far from the Ba'ku village to allow them room to grow.

Ba'ku Village

Located in the Central Continenant of the Ba'ku planet, the Ba'ku village is situated within a large valley. A flowing river runs through the village providing the villagers with their water supply. The villagers are very dependant on nature itself, and there is no technology at all existing in the village. It is pure heaven.

Below are two surface maps of Baku. One is a normal global map another is the current political map of the planet. The political map was created shortly after the Federation Colony was established on the planet. By the Ba'ku Territory Agreement of 2401, the Ba'ku have full control of the planet, but the territory and borders agreed on will remain in effect. The Federation and Son'a colonies may not go beyond their boundaries.