"Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.
Its mission: to explore and exploit strange new worlds, to seek out new resources,
to boldly go where no man has gone before."
The Solarian Star Federation enjoyed over 300 years of prosperity and still counting. Humanity grew immensely with the average citizen believing there's nothing technology couldn't solve. Yet people became increasingly aware of one thing: they weren't alone. Though they lacked the practical means the Solarians had plenty chances to observe signs of advanced civilizations inhabiting distant stars. They were not alone. There's an entire galaxy filled with life out there. Using various probes humans had countless attempts to communicate yet apparently without any sorts of luck. All is changed after the discovery of hyperspace. Relying on the new physics of this alternate dimension it became possible to travel far faster than previously thought possible. They unlocked the final key to explore the galaxy and it's up for the crew of the Enterprise to take that monumental first step!
Captain Tiberius J. Kirk was at the command bridge of the SFS-1701 Enterprise. It was a freshly retrofitted Vega-class starship equipped for ultra long range exploration. Compared to before it had less Q-Box output to give space for additional construction and research equipment. From the standard 750 the crew also expanded to 1280, brimming with scientists from all fields. While Starfleet couldn't spare more than a single ship for something as half-hearted as galactic exploration they indeed did their best to equip the Enterprise according to its mission. Also understandable they chose a troublesome young officer like Kirk to command this expedition. On the surface he was a former valedictorian from Starfleet Academy and his talents were unquestionable. Yet his behavioral kinks and tenuous attitude with the rules quickly made him a problem figure. In short he was expendable and the leadership would rather have him somewhere far away from the public eye. Meanwhile the media coverage of this introduces the mission as a monumental step towards understanding the galaxy and meeting alien life. In reality the Federation had its hands full with internal affairs and barely had any substantial interest in the project. Sure, they had strong suspicion for alien life out there but that was all theory. That being said Kirk was eager to meet alien civilization, especially the feminine side of them. And given his list of partners there's little he wouldn't able to handle. Solarians within the Rainbow Cluster built their civilization for thousands of years without meeting any other sapient species. Yet starting from the last few centuries the breakthrough in cosmetic surgeries allowed people to look like aliens from popular works of fiction. Hell, Kirk's first officer looks like an elf from whichever fantasy book he took inspiration for!
"Farcaster initialized. Hyperspace corridor is stabilizing."Navigational Officer Tomokazu Espósito Paris reported as he made preparations for long range interstellar travel. The Enterprise is traveling almost a thousand lightyears for the location determined most likely to hold sentient life. There could be numerous other places ripe for exploration but Starfleet determined those look actually useful and there are teams long prepared to seek them out. Yet this neglect might what cause the greatest change within the Federation in centuries.
"We have now entered hyperspace. Estimated travel time is 2 hours 42 minutes."@Commodore Robot
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