THE GALAPAGOS CLUSTER 

TNC 10934(or the Galapagos Cluster, a nickname bestowed upon it by
Terran analysts) is an open star cluster comprised of over 950 stars,
sitting on the rimward fringes of the Scutum Arm outside Federation
space. The body has been a puzzle to Federation scientists for
centuries, remarkable for both it's extreme age(2.5 billion years,
twenty-five times the age these formations are expected to disperse) and
the speed and frequency at which life has evolved in orbit of her
constituent stars. The survey voyage of the USS Krakatoa(2380-2384)
counted 700 inhabitable worlds, at least 175 of which contained some
form of intelligent life. Galapagos represents the fundamental breakdown
of any otherwise credible model of stellar mechanics or evolutionary
biology, for which it is often both celebrated and ignored by the
scientific community. 

Starfleet's interest in Galapagos became less acadamic in 2378 when the
USS Kingston, on patrol in Gold Fleet space, intercepted an unmanned
probe from the Treaji. Starfleet had long known about the existence of
habitable worlds in Galapagos, but long-range observation had given no
indication that such life was intelligent or advanced enough to
construct such a device. When the Krakatoa conducted the first
close-range exploration of the cluster two years later, it uncovered the
existence of a dozen interstellar civilizations. In the intervening
years, fifteen new species in Galapagos have either developed
interstellar civilizations on their own or been helped to modernization
by one of the leading powers. TACFLEET estimates that by the late 2500s
most or all of the species in the cluster will be taking part in the
interstellar arena; the number and population of advanced civilizations
there will rival the Federation. 

THE TREAJI

OVERVIEW 

A reptiloid race which inhabits a handful of star systems on the outer
fringes of Galapagos. The Treaji government is organized as a
Commonwealth of Worlds: nominally headed by an Emperor, each Treaji
world is an internally sovereign dominion of the Commonwealth. Matters
of external importance to the dominions(inter-dominion trade, foreign
policy, etc, etc) are handled by the Dominions Council, a body made up
of appointed representatives from each Treaji world and chaired by a
hereditary Emperor. 

They were not the first in the cluster to discover FTL travel, but
possessing the technology for just over a century, they are among the
oldest and most technologically advanced in the region. They are
presumed to be an influential race in Galapagos, mostly due to the
apparant success of the A'Treaj Royal Trading Company, a civilian
merchant fleet owned by the Commonwealth government. ARTC vessels have
been observed well beyond the Treaji borders; their goods and currency
found in roughly a third of the cluster's markets. High volume
agricultural equipment, zero-gravity alloys and high-speed computers for
a variety of consumer and industrial applications appear to be
particularly popular exports; observers have noted the prevalance of
such goods on developing worlds. 

In spite of Treaji's apparant commercial successes, TACFLEET believes
them to be a comparatively weak military power. Their naval fleet is
dispersed across the cluster, almost three quarters of her known forces
patrol beyond her borders protecting shipping routes from pirate
activity. Her immediate neighbours pose no threat to Treaji sovereignty,
most of them being small, friendly powers that rely on Treaji trade to
prop up their economies. But her territorial claims are small compared
to the other older powers in the cluster. Fleet movements observed in
the last decade suggest that empires such as the Gao'Rothi are whittling
away at the Treaji sphere of influence. 

The Commonwealth appears to be combatting this on primarily diplomatic
fronts. The Treaji have opened up diplomatic relations with a number of
other Galapagos powers in recent years; it's believed that they are
trying to negotiate mutual defense pacts. Along the same lines, the
Treaji have hosted a number of trade summits(2406, 2408, 2409, 2410)
with the intention of drafting a treaty spreading around the
responsibility for deterring piracy. Support for said treaty has been
described as reluctant. 

RELATIONS WITH THE FEDERATION 

The UFP were first made aware of the Treaji from an unmanned Treaji SETI
probe which was intercepted by the USS Kingston in 2378. Two years
later, the USS Krakatoa traced the location of the Treaji homeworld
during her survey of the cluster. First official contact was made in
2380, initiating peaceful, if distant, relations between the two powers.
The cluster's geographic isolation and the Treaji's limited range made
more meaningful pursuits too difficult. The Treaji exchanged diplomatic
pleasantries with every Federation vessel it enountered and offered
escorted passage through their space, but little else came of the
encounter before the 25th century. 

In 2401, however, TACFLEET became interested in the accelerating pace of
Galapagos' technical advancement. The cluster being a very unstable
region politically, analysts at Emerging Threat Assessment became
increasingly interested in the possibilities of Galapagos uniting under
a hostile banner. They made a strong enough case to policy makers that
Galapagos became a long-term strategic objective to UFP external
affairs. In 2404, the Federation placed an embassy on the Treaji
homeworld, a move which the Treaji welcomed but never reciprocated. By
2408, the Treaji agreed to initiate talks about closer diplomatic ties.
In late 2409, talks had officially opened to include the possibility of
Federation membership. 

The Treaji have recently extended an invitation to construct a joint
Treaji-Federation starbase which could accomodate a permanent Starfleet
presence in the area. The proposal is currently being studied by
committee in the Federation Council. 

It should be noted that while the Emperor and the Dominions Council are
inclined to support Federation membership, there are elements of the
population that are strongly opposed. Certain figures in industry have
pointed to the Prime Directive as a direct threat to Treaji commercial
supremacy, noting that a significant portion of the Commonwealth's trade
is done with species that might fall under the PD's umbrella of
protection. Talks have stalled a number of times over gray areas in
precisely this area. 

TECHNOLOGY 

A word on Treaji starship technology bears mentioning. 

The Treaji use warp drive in their interstellar craft, but their
propulsion methods are radically different from the norm. A Starfleet
vessel uses warp drive to bend spacetime, shortening the distance
between two points, and then traverses the condensed distance propelled
by the energy of controlled matter/antimatter reactions. Instead of
matter/antimatter propulsion, the Treaji have exploited the high amounts
of ionized hydrogen in the interstellar medium throughout the cluster by
developing a primitive ion drive. The vessel collects hydrogen ions
through a high-intensity ion scoop, and funnels them into an
acceleration coil. Fueled by a deuterium-helium-3 fusion reactor, the
hydrogen is accelerated and exhausted through the stern, propelling the
craft forward. 

The Treaji propulsion system works very efficiently in Galapagos, even
if it does move their vessels at markedly slower speeds compared to the
matter/antimatter drive. However, as the starship leaves the cluster the
ionized hydrogen becomes more rarified in the interstellar medium. There
is a point at which the ion scoop can no longer gather enough hydrogen
ions to propel the craft, imprisioning the Treaji more or less in
Galapagos. 

The remainder of Treaji technology is several centuries behind the
Federation equivalent, but considered sufficiently advanced to remove
them from the protection of the Prime Directive.