Dessica II was a Class M planet in the Kaleb sector of the Beta Quadrant, just on the Federation side of the Romulan Neutral Zone. In the 24th century, it had earned a reputation as a hive of criminal activity and a hideout for rogues and cutthroats. (TNG: "Gambit"; Decipher: Worlds)
History and inhabitants[]
Dessica II was discovered and settled by the Romulan Star Empire in 1650. The Romulans established an outpost on the planet to claim the Dessica system. The early settlers found the planet to be hostile; its terrain made navigation difficult, and there was a dearth of exploitable resources. They also faced constant harassment from the Wawus, the planet's aboriginal inhabitants, who used stealth and superior numbers to offset their technological disadvantage. By the turn of the next century, the Romulans had given up and abandoned Dessica II.
The planet remained largely untouched for the next 500 years or so, until after the Earth-Romulan War in the mid-22nd century. When the Treaty of Cheron redrew the Empire's boundaries, the Dessica system was placed just on the Federation side of the new Romulan Neutral Zone. For their part, the nascent UFP paid even less attention to Dessica II than the Romulans had. The planet lay too close to hostile territory to be considered for colonization.
Over time, however, the existence of a habitable world all but ignored by Federation authorities became an open secret, and word spread throughout the criminal underground and among those whose career and life choices required a good hiding place. As a result, outlaws, freebooters, mercenaries and spies of various stripes came to the planet, all of them seeking privacy among Dessica II's rugged terrain. (The First Line: Starfleet Intelligence Handbook)
Even by the mid-24th century, Dessica II was still considered a frontier world, lawless and untamed. Over the years, the population had grown prodigiously. The majority of Dessicans came from off-world and were by nature transient, only staying as long as they needed to. Many lived scattered among hte planet's secluded mountain valleys, collecting in small settlements held together by mutual convenience. Over the years, several semi-permanent enclaves of outcasts from both the Federation and the Romulan Empire, as well as other powers, were established on the planet. Others tried to conceal themselves in plain sight in one of the two major cities, Shiloh and Aglakh. Many of the long term residents were affiliated in some way either either the Yridians or the Orion Syndicate, and while both groups were known to exert considerably influence over affairs on Dessica II, neither controlled the planet in any real sense. In fact, the Yridians on the planet belonged to several different networks and often worked at cross-purposes, and the same was true of the rival Orion factions. Thus, Dessica II boasted a truly anarchistic society, for better and for worse. (Decipher: Worlds)
During the 2370s, it became a hot spot for espionage, especially between the Romulans and Vulcans, and a neutral meeting ground for intelligence agents from many different organizations. In 2370, the Vulcan Isolationist Movement sent agents to Dessica II to search for pieces of the legendary Stone of Gol, and the Romulans responded by sending their own operatives. (TNG: "Gambit"; LUG: The First Line: Starfleet Intelligence Handbook)
After that incident, both the Tal Shiar and Starfleet Intelligence decided to keep a closer eye on the planet. SI established a field office on Dessica, as did the V'Shar, the Vulcan security agency. A group of Romulans, ostensibly archaeologists, arrived on the planet as well, with the stated purpose of excavating the ruins at Nafir, the ancient settlement. Starfleet Intelligence and the V'Shar suspected that at least some of the "archaeologists" were actually Tal Shiar operatives, and monitored the group closely. (The First Line: Starfleet Intelligence Handbook)
Dessica II was also home to an indigenous, aboriginal population of sapient humanoids, who never cared much for the presence of aliens on their world. They were reclusive and secretive, and very little was known about them, although the Dessican colonists referred to them as "Wawus" (after their distinctive hunting cry). When the Romulans first arrived on the the planet, the Wawus were at a bronze age level of development, and fought the newcomers with javelins and melee weapons. By the 23rd century, the Wawus had developed crossbows and forged steel weaponry, though not firearms.
The Wawus were known to live in small groups, existing on subsistence farming and hunting. They did not interact with the Romulan colonists at all except to attack and harass them, and they seemed to feel pretty much the same about the later riff-raff who came to the planet after the Federation took possession of the system. By the late 24th century, no one had yet been able to sample enough of their language to work out a translation matrix, and no one knew just how many of them there were, although estimates put the population in the hundreds of millions. (Decipher: Worlds)
Geography[]
Dessica II's landmass was divided into three large continents linked by narrow land bridges, so that they formed a roughly triangular whole.
Shiloh was Dessica II's largest city, located on the central continent of New Haven. It had an approximate population of just over one million, though any estimate of its size contained a large margin of error since so many of the city's inhabitants were either transient or reluctant to make their presence known. Since the city had no real government, it had no public builds or monuments of any kind, apart from the spaceport, which was built with Yridian money. Shiloh was mostly a sprawling collection of bars, flophouses, dens of vice and residences built with various kinds of ill-gotten gain.
Nafir was the site of the ancient Romulan settlement, located on a hilltop some 480 kilometers due south of Shiloh. The Romulans established Neral Station to study the ruins after the Arctus Baran incident of 2370. (Decipher: Worlds)
Relvanek was another city on the planet, on the coast of the Loren Sea. (Star Trek: Typhon Pact novel: Plagues of Night)
Places of interest[]
- Free Haven: Cataract Crossing • Hammer Mountains • Neral Station • Shiloh • Shoon Lake • Streeper Mountains • Talan's Roust • Toren
- Kertal: Aglakh • Balastrade • Shield Mountains • Southbridge Range • Travisian Coast
- Shorahn: Lake Lithom • Land Wall Mountains • Lortal • Relvanek • Southbridge Range • Vrinak
- Darlock Ocean • Frigid Sea • Krenith Sea • Loren Sea • Sharnok • Timeria • Timerian Sea
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External links[]
- Dessica II article at Memory Alpha, the canon Star Trek wiki.
- Dessica II article at Memory Beta, the non-canon Star Trek wiki.