Nimbus III was a marginal Class L planet in Romulan Neutral Zone, near the Triangle and the Tau Dewa sector. A harsh, desert world where water was extremely scarce, the planet's only value was its strategic location near the borders of the Romulan Star Empire, United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. In the 2260s, a joint colony was founded there by the three powers, but despite dubbing Nimbus III "The Planet of Galactic Peace," the colony eventually failed and fell to poverty and lawlessness within three decades. (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier; Decipher: Worlds; Star Trek Online; PIC novel: The Last Best Hope; Star Trek: Pendragon)
History[]
Initially mapped by the Federation in 2247, the Nimbus colony was founded circa 2267, in an effort by Ambassadors Jetanian, Lugok and D'tran to prevent their governments from going to war. Representatives from the three powers ran the colony from its capital, Paradise City, and all the inhabitants of the colony were volunteers from the three powers who moved to the colony on agreement that weapons were banned in the interest of peace and co-operation. The Federation funded the colonization effort in the beginning as a sign of good faith. Nevertheless, while Federation staff had high hopes for the planet, the Klingon and Romulan governments treated Nimbus III as a dumping ground for malcontents. In truth, both the Klingons and Romulans actively worked to scuttle the project from the behind the scenes, while other parties in all three governments believed the only value the colony held was as a potential avenue for intelligence gathering.
Paradise City, the "capital" of Nimbus III, 2287
The situation was exacerbated when "the great drought" struck the colony. Within a short time, the riverbeds had dried up, what little arable land there had been was laid waste, the local flora withered and died, and most native animals starved. Faced with conditions that had gone from rugged to desperate, the colonists took to in-fighting over what resources remained. Though weapons were forbidden, they fashioned their own, and the situation rapidly deteriorated. Hundreds of colonists raided the spaceport desperate to flee Nimbus III, taking every ship they could, and leaving many more of their compatriots behind.
Riots broke out and two days after the spaceport raid, the remaining colonists stormed the consulates in order to access their shuttlecraft. There were many casualties, Ambassador D'tran among them. Jetanian, Lugok and their surviving staffs were forced to abandon the planet. Order was eventually restored, but the colony was deemed a failure, as many had predicted from the outset.
At the urging of Jetanian and Lugok, the few colonists who wished to remain were allowed to do so, and the three governments reluctantly allowed the "experiment" to continue, with only minimal support. The Federation reduced its personnel to two members of Starfleet and a handful of staff, while the Klingon and Romulan forces pulled out completely apart from sending whichever representatives their governments wished to "exile" there. Lacking a functional spaceport, the planet failed to attract further colonists and, instead, became a sleazy backwater of a world. (Star Trek: Vanguard novel: Precipice, What Judgments Come; Decipher: Worlds; Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
It was long suspected, though never proven, that the "drought" was actually an act of environmental sabotage carried out by Romulan and/or Klingon operatives in order to destabilize the colony and cause a diplomatic incident that would scuttle the peace process. (Star Trek: Pendragon)
Secretly, Jetanian and Lugok agreed to let Nimbus III's public failure serve as a distraction from the real diplomatic work they continued, in hopes of assuring continued peace between the three empires, and in honor of their fallen comrade D'tran. While the "Planet of Galactic Peace" became an object of mockery and public scorn, the true work was conducted in secret, at first on Nimbus, and then elsewhere, in even more remote locations. (VAN novel: What Judgments Come)
Moons over Paradise
In 2287, the Vulcan dissident Sybok used Nimbus III as a base of operations in his quest for Sha Ka Ree. Sybok and his followers took the ambassadors hostage, and used this to lure the USS Enterprise to the colony, in order to take over the starship and breach the Great Barrier. After the Sybok incident, the colony was largely forgotten again, and in 2295, the three powers officially abandoned the "planet of galactic peace" for good. The last Starfleet personnel stationed there had been recalled by 2318. (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier; Decipher: Worlds; LUG: All Our Yesterdays: The Time Travel Sourcebook; Star Trek Online)
Though Nimbus III was nominally ceded to the Romulans, the Star Empire generally left it to its own devices, though the Tal Shiar maintained a number of covert facilities on the planet for monitoring communications in the Neutral Zone and the Triangle, as well as secret research laboratories and black sites where political prisoners and spies were tortured, interrogated, and experimented on. (PIC novel: The Last Best Hope; Star Trek Online)
It was rumored that the Romulan warbirds which attacked the Klingon colony on Khitomer in 2346 were launched from a secret base on Nimbus III. (Decipher: Worlds)
In 2365, the USS Harriman was damaged near Nimbus III while intervening in a confrontation between a Klingon cargo ship and a Romulan warbird. (Star Trek: New Frontier novel: No Limits: "Performance Appraisal")
Criminal elements soon overran the colony, and petty warlords ruled the planet until the citizens rose up against their oppressors and overthrew them. By the late 24th century, some semblance of civilian government had been established, though the planet remained impoverished and desperate. Sometime after the Romulans broke their isolation in 2364, the Federation returned its attention to Nimbus III, and a decision was made to invest more resources into the colony. However, the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole in 2369 shifted everyone's priorities, and the project was put on the backburner. The outbreak of the Dominion War finally curtailed the effort to revitalize Nimbus III altogether. (PIC novel: The Last Best Hope; Decipher: Worlds)
In the early 2380s, it was discovered that Nimbus III fell within the area effected by the immanent Romulan supernova, and in 2384, Starfleet offered to evacuate the residents of Nimbus and transport them to a safe haven. However, before this could be accomplished, the Tal Shiar arrived, claiming Romulan jurisdiction, and forced Starfleet to withdraw. The Romulans then massacred more than fifty colonists, and forcibly relocated the survivors in order to cover up secret Tal Shiar installations on the planet. A recording of the massacre was leaked to the Federation press by Lieutenant Koli Jocan, who resigned her commission in protest over the Starfleet's inaction. (PIC novel: The Last Best Hope)
Some time after the worst effects of the supernova had passed, colonists returned to Nimbus III, and tried to rebuild. A peacekeeping force was established, and the Federation and Starfleet sent some aid at first.
By 2409, the Orion Syndicate had come to dominate the planet, Starfleet had long since withdrawn again, the Peacekeepers were no more, and the planet was under the thumb of Syndicate capo Hassan the Undying. Hassan had turned his club Shangdu into a stronghold from which he oversaw Syndicate operations in the region. The inhabitants of Paradise City lived in constant fear, not only from the Orions, but other criminals, including Nausicaan raiders and Gorn rebels, whom the Syndicate allowed to operate on Nimbus with virtual impunity. Amidst all of this, the Tal Shiar continued their clandestine operations on Nimbus, including the development of thalaron weaponry, and the abduction of the local populace for testing, indoctrination, and slave labor.
After the dissolution of the Peacekeepers, and their betrayal by Starfleet, Law gave up hope and sequestered himself in his home in Paradise City. By that point, the trader Horace Jones had taken up residence on Nimbus, as had Two of Eight, a Liberated Borg who ran the Paradise Bar. (Star Trek Online: Wasteland)
Climate and Geography[]
Surface map of Nimbus III
Nimbus III was dominated by one supercontinent which possessed little surface water beyond stagnant pools and a few scattered oases. The planet's so called "Mossy Ocean" was little more than a shallow, hypersaline lake which could support no significant life other than algae and microbial fungi.
Geologically inactive for millennia, and with no appreciable tidal forces exerted by its moons, Nimbus III had little variation in weather. The average temperature on Nimbus III was quite high and rarely dropped below 25 degrees Celsius in areas such as the badlands. Most humanoids found the climate unpleasant with the exception of Vulcans and similarly-acclimated species. (Decipher: Worlds)
Points of interest[]
- Mossy Ocean • Cheron Mountains • Perdition Mountains • Chongtar Mountains • Sidespar Mountains • Tarach Mountains
- Central Badlands • Starveling Run • Desperation Valley
- Paradise City • Lonely Town • Deadend • Faraway • Deadman's Drop • Road's End • Happy Meadows
- Shangdu • The Watering Hole • Installation 18 • "ancient ruins"
Appendices[]
Background[]
- Nimbus III first appeared in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. "The great drought" is referred to in the script, but not in the final film, so the exact cause of the colony's failure remains canonically unclear, beyond the colonists' disagreements and unrest.
- In a deleted scene from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Family," the hologram of Jack Crusher told Wesley that one of their ancestors had been a "horse thief" on Nimbus III.
- Star Charts places Nimbus III on the coreward side of the Neutral Zone in order to make the journey to the "center of the galaxy" in Star Trek V more manageable. However, a location near the mutual borders of the three powers would seem more likely to found such a colony, so Star Trek: Pendragon originally placed Nimbus in or near the Triangle, which also fits with its original placement in Star Trek Online and its presence early in the Romulan storyline there. However, if the events of The Last Best Hope are taken into account, then Nimbus must be near the edge of the ten light-year radius affected by the Romulan supernova, necessitating the Star Charts location (as the novel based its placement of events on those maps). Ultimately, which version is accurate in Pendragon remains to be seen.
External links[]
- Nimbus III article at Memory Beta, the non-canon Star Trek wiki.
- Nimbus III article at the official Star Trek Online wiki