Shackleton Expanse
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The Shackleton Expanse is a vast stretch of space in the Beta Quadrant nearly 100 light-years across, lying beyond Klingon and Romulan territories. Until mid-2402, the entire region was afflicted with subspace disturbances which made it impossible to sustain a warp field beyond warp factor 2, slowing interstellar travel to a matter of months or years. Little interstellar development occurred within the Expanse, and expeditions into the region were limited.
In mid-2402, the collapse of the Blackout brought with it the collapse of the subspace ‘Shroud’ across the Expanse. For the first time in recorded history, the region is wholly accessible to all: its inhabitants, its neighbours, and other interested parties. At the same time, Starfleet discovered that the transwarp conduit created in early-2401 by collaboration with the Jurati-Queen and her fragment of the Borg Collective could be safely traversed to its fixed exit point: a star system at the periphery of the Shackleton Expanse. Now, the major powers of the Beta Quadrant have easy access to the region.
History
Klingon and Romulan records note encountering the Shackleton Expanse and the local disruptions which rendered warp travel above warp 2 impossible. This meant travelling to a star system even five light-years away was a journey of approximately six months. While both powers sent various expeditions into the Expanse over the centuries, these missions were few and far between. There is some evidence that the Shackleton Expanse’s presence on their spinward border forced both to expand towards the Alpha Quadrant and each other, looking to each other’s territories and, eventually, the Federation.
The Shroud appears to have only affected warp fields, but not other subspace-based technologies such as subspace telescopes or subspace communications. While the subspace telescopes have enabled limited mapping of the Expanse, the area is so vast that it takes decades to chart mere percentages, and a lack of a communication network limits subspace comms over vast distances.
Sensor records suggest that the Shackleton Expanse was afflicted by the Vaadwaur’s Blackout, local warp travel completely stymied and even other subspace technologies afflicted. No intelligence exists on the impact of the Blackout, but as the disruptive subspace network was destroyed by the Federation and Cardassian Union, so did the Blackout collapse in the Shackleton Expanse.
The Blackout and the Shroud are different - the Blackout disrupted subspace harmonics, while the Shroud is based on a resonance field projected into subspace. Nevertheless, the Blackout affected the Shroud in some way, perhaps in the initial harmonic changes, or with its cessation. For whatever reason, the ending of the Blackout has had the same effect on the Shroud. Whatever disruptions stood in the way of warp travel are gone.
At roughly the same time, Starfleet scientists studying the transwarp conduit created by the Borg Queen formerly known as Agnes Jurati concluded both that the conduit was safe to traverse, and led to a fixed point at the periphery of the Shackleton Expanse. They theorise that the ending of the Shroud stabilised what would have been a dangerous egress point, but warn that there are many unknowns. The original fissure threatened to devastate an entire sector with triquantum waves before it was stabilised into this unusual transwarp conduit, and the Jurati-Queen had warned of an unidentified threat who were responsible.
The Jurati-Borg remain at the mouth of the transwarp conduit in the Vadia system deep in the Alpha Quadrant, ‘guardians of the gate’ against what threats may emerge. Starfleet, however, see the conduit’s stabilisation as an opportunity for exploration that must be seized.
Beta Quadrant Expeditions
Klingon and Romulan governments spent the months after the Vaadwaur invasion focusing on recovery over expansion, but by late-2402 turned their eyes to the mysterious Expanse, rife with unclaimed territory and resources. With the Romulan Free State still consolidating its absorption of the Star Empire of Rator and the Klingon Empire rocked by the rulership of its polarising chancellor, both governments have launched only initial expeditions.
The Romulan Republic is particularly eager for more resources to strengthen and reinforce itself, and has reached out to its Federation allies, proposing joint ventures into a new region of space. The Federation has enthusiastically agreed to commit Starfleet resources to establishing a foothold of exploration and scientific inquiry in the Shackleton Expanse, using the transwarp conduit to facilitate travel to this distant region.
The involvement of the Federation has brought stability to the Beta Quadrant powers’ interests. A brutal scramble for the Shackleton Expanse by the Romulan factions and Klingon Empire would likely spark new tensions and conflicts - to say nothing of the likely suffering this would bring to the Expanse itself. The Federation thus invoked the Treaty of Algeron and the Khitomer Accords, which both contain strict protocols for territorial expansion and scientific discovery.
The parameters which bind the Federation, Romulan Republic, Romulan Free State, and Klingon Empire are clear: the forbidding of military expansion, and ventures and infrastructure into the Expanse are to be for resources or exploration and science only. Doubtless a time will come when ambitions push against these boundaries, but for these initial, fleeting steps into the Shackleton Expanse, the major powers of the Beta Quadrant have an accord.
At the Shackleton Expanse end of the Vadia transwarp conduit, an innocuous and uninhabited region at the region’s periphery, Starfleet has established Framheim Station, a Narendra-class starbase. Formally, it is a starbase where any ship operating under the Khitomer Accords or Treaty of Algeron is welcome to launch its missions - which includes Klingon or Free State starships working independently of Starfleet.
Framheim Station is the only new construction of the Shackleton expedition; while it is the last point of ‘known civilisation,’ the Klingons and Romulans are able to launch missions from their own borders if they wish. Starfleet ships, however, must traverse either the Vadia transwarp conduit or Republic territory to reach Framheim - and then their journey into the Shackleton Expanse can begin.
The Expanse
Little is known about the Shackleton Expanse, its geography or its peoples. The last few centuries have seen only scattered expeditions into its depths by Klingon and Romulan ships. The Federation has directed almost none of its subspace telescopes towards the Expanse, and the Klingon Empire prizes such technology for strategic purposes, and thus paid its spinward border little attention. The Romulan Star Empire accumulated the most intelligence about the Expanse, but much of it was either lost with its collapse, or the Free State is keeping its secrets close to its chest.
Ships venturing into the Expanse may not be going completely blind. There might be an incomplete report from a past expedition, a fragmented sensor record from a subspace telescope, or an initial scan from the last few months. This can offer leads, snapshots, or a guiding star for any mission, but to learn what lies within the Expanse’s depths, Starfleet must see for themselves.
Local Powers
All civilisations have developed in the Shackleton Expanse under the Shroud, which limited warp travel between stars to be a matter of months or years. Of course, to the natives of the Expanse, this is ‘normal’ - a scientific curiosity but conceivably a truth of astrophysics. There is no concept of being ‘freed from the Shroud,’ or a concept of the Shroud existing at all. It is much more as if the galaxy around them has changed to enable their ships to travel at faster speeds - and not everyone possesses the technology for their ships to immediately achieve high warp factors.
This means the expansion of almost every civilisation of the Shackleton Expanse has, for millennia, been limited to their own star system, or - if they are prepared for colonies to be months of travel away - immediate neighbouring systems. Despite this, there will be many civilisations which are highly technologically advanced. Some may even be more developed than the Federation.
Many are also aware of alien life. They may have dispatched ships on long-term expeditions of exploration, or been visited by such travellers. Nothing about the Shroud interfered with the development of subspace communications - though range and efficacy will be limited without the development of buoy networks - or subspace telescopes. It is also perfectly common for a civilisation to find its neighbouring stars to be inhabited with intelligent life.
As such, though the Shackleton Expanse lacks any factions the Federation would normally consider ‘major governments’, and relations and politics are highly localised, this is not a region whose locals are uniformly technologically and socially simple. Civilisations may be highly complex and boast advanced technology despite the geographic constraints. Some may war with their neighbours; others may have built close, if localised coalitions of cooperation.
The Shackleton Expanse is the home of rich local cultures and politics; peoples who may know very little of the galaxy beyond their immediate sector, but are not uniformly sheltered, unsophisticated, or ignorant.
In mid-2402, the Shroud collapsed. Civilisations can now travel further and faster than ever before, if they have the technology to do so. This has likely caused significant disruption or developments, and travellers may find themselves visiting civilisations in a state of flux, and encountering political scenarios undergoing rapid, perhaps unstable change.
The Vezda and the Shroud
For full information, see the Vezda article. This information pertains to the New Frontiers campaign, and should not be considered known by characters from the outset. Any missions set in the Shackleton Expanse may depict the discovery of these truths, however.
Millennia ago, the Shackleton Expanse was dominated by the mysterious Vezda. Travelling through vast networks of interdimensional ley-lines, they ruled by possession, fear, and worship, shaping societies across the region. Many worlds still bear their mark: ruins of towering spires, dormant technologies that once warped subspace, and cultural echoes in myths of blindness and shadow.
At the height of their power, the Vezda constructed an immense network of spires that manipulated subspace to form the Shroud, the resonance field suppressing warp travel beyond factor 2. This isolated the Expanse’s civilisations from one another, ensuring Vezda supremacy while they moved freely through ley-lines. The Shroud persisted long after their fall - likely coinciding with their imprisonment on Vadia IX - and only collapsed in 2402 with the end of the Vaadwaur Blackout.
Though their empire is long dead, the Vezda’s legacy endures in scattered ruins, forgotten cults, and the lingering trauma of millennia under their rule.
In Play
- The Shackleton Expanse is a frontier of rediscovery. For the first time in ten millennia, its worlds and peoples are open to the galaxy beyond. Starfleet’s mandate here is exploration, diplomacy, and science - but every mission into the Expanse can reveal something ancient, strange, or volatile.
- Civilisations across the region are in flux. Some are thriving societies suddenly thrust into interstellar contact; others are fractured, destabilised, or facing crises born of rapid change. Writers should depict how isolation has shaped these cultures, and how they react to newfound freedom.
- Each system in the Expanse can stand alone. Worlds separated by years of travel until recently may have no shared history or politics, allowing for a broad variety of tones - from first contact to political intrigue, disaster relief, or moral dilemma.
- The ruins and relics of the Vezda may appear anywhere, but not every mystery need trace back to them. The Expanse is vast, and its past layered; even Starfleet’s most advanced sensors can only begin to uncover what lies buried beneath millennia of silence.
- Missions here should emphasise discovery and uncertainty. The Expanse is not yet mapped, its alliances not yet formed. Every decision made by Starfleet - every contact, every intervention - could shape how this entire region meets the wider galaxy.
- More details about locations in the Shackleton Expanse can be found in the New Frontiers Areas of Responsibility article.