Skerryvore Station
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- "Take my hand. And we’ll go dancing, underneath the stars."
- —Skerryvore, Station's Dedication Quote
Starbase 101, aka Skerryvore Station is a Vision-class Federation starbase currently assigned to Fourth Fleet's Fourth Fleet Operations. Located in the Skerryvore system, in the Federation interior, the base is part of the Federation's extensive network of deep space communications relays.
Namesake
Skerryvore is a, now automated, lighthouse located on a rocky island off the Isle of Tiree in Scotland, Earth originally built in 1844. The lighthouse was once an important element of lighthouse protections along the Inner Hebridean coast of the Atlantic Ocean, but fell into disuse with the development of GPS mapping and changes to port structures on the UK west coast.
Location
Located at an equal distance between the Avalon Fleet Yards, Starbase 74 & Deep Space 2, SB 101 orbits a mineral-poor protoplanet in the Skerryvore system. It was situated in a tactically unimportant system along the original border in the hopes that this would reduce interest in the station from foreign powers, whilst also linking the Cardassian and Gorn borders logistically.
The nearby systems are mostly uninhabited apart from a few regular civilian mining operations who don’t occupy the system consistently. Scientifically, there are some minor points of interest in nearby locations, but neither are high on the list of priorities for Starfleet Science.
Points of Interest
The Skerryvore Eddy
A slow-moving subspace eddy drifts through the system on a regular cycle, creating minor but persistent interference with warp fields and long-range communications. The course of the eddy is fairly predictable, and vessels passing at warp within five light-years automatically receive current course telemetry from the station to make adjustments where necessary. To date, only 3 ships have been caught in the eddy, but they were only 'becalmed' for a matter of hours.
The Pulse
A pulsar in the neighbouring Caulann system beats on a rhythm that slightly defies standard stellar models. Logged, categorised and promptly forgotten by Starfleet Science, it remains a quiet obsession for the SWIFT team, who have noted a suspicious correlation between its irregular beats and the behaviour of the Skerryvore Eddy. Due to a lack of direct incidents involving the pulsar and the eddy, Starfleet Science has categorised them both as benign.
Service History
Commissioning and Early History
Once an important outpost on what was at the time the borders of the Federation, SB 101 is now a pale shadow of its former glory. Commissioned to act as a frontier outpost during the Federation’s era of expansion to the galactic south, it was to be a last friendly face before entering the unknown. Alongside a number of other installations, they also aimed to provide a relay point between the core Federation territory and exploration between Gorn and Tholian space.
Initial plans focused on providing logistics support, with blueprints to fit a number of expansive fuel and resource storage bays to the station, as well as high-powered navigational beacons and communications systems. For a time, the starbase was a regular rest point for vessels deploying outward, but in the last fifty years has fallen out of usefulness with developments in replicators and advanced warp engines, with ships requiring far less resupply and servicing. Coupled with the commissioning of new facilities at Avalon Fleet Yards and the construction of bigger, more capable bases such as SB406 (Montana Station) and Deep Space 20, SB101 has simply fallen out of usefulness.
2375 Onwards
Several projects have attempted to revitalise the station; incorporating it into Avalon’s long-range warp trials, converting it into an isolated location for subspace research following the discovery of the ‘warp speed limit’ and an unrealised project to convert it to a stellar harvesting platform. Ultimately, however, the station has turned into a somewhat forgotten town in space, one which is proving less costly to keep than it is to decommission.
Configuration
The Radio Room
Arguably, the last asset of SB101 that is beneficial to Starfleet’s wider operations, the Radio Room is located on platform S5, exposed on a limb from the other platforms due to the massive comm relay fitted to its exterior. Mostly automated save for a small team of engineers to see to its upkeep, ‘the Radio room’ (as it is affectionately called by its minders) channels traffic from the vast Federation Frontier and redistributes it to the core worlds. The only part of the station’s infrastructure to receive regular upgrades and refits, the comm array is SB 101’s pride and joy, as well as its final reason for being.
The Fjord - SWIFT Labs (Subspace Warp Innovation & Fundamentals Team)
Located in a number of specially adapted port side platforms, the SWIFT team are one of the few science teams to visit the station that never left. Originally assigned to the base to research avenues to combat the Warp Speed Limit in the late 2360s, the roster included some of the best scientific minds in the quadrant. When drive and nacelle advances occurred as part of designs for the Intrepid and Sovereign Classes, Starfleet Science simply forgot to dismantle the team, and they continue researching subspace to this day.
Many of the team members hail from aquatic species located across the Federation, and the lab incorporates a number of modifications to facilitate their work better. Over time, these facilities have also become somewhat of an unofficial lido for the base’s personnel, allowing the team to socialise more and be integrated into the crew.
Buchanan Street
Named for the impressive shopping district of Glasgow, Scotland, Buchanan Street occupies a cluster of interconnected pods on the stations port side. In the last decade, small-time traders have begun to habitually visit the station as they pass by, offering a glimpse of life beyond the ageing station with both novel trinkets and vital luxuries nestled between plant life that has gone to seed from a lack of care. With semi-reserved counters to house visiting hawkers and a number of long term tenants, Buchanan Street offers a break from the mundane between the scent of roasted Targ and shiny curiosities. Impressive or not, it’s a taste of the outside to the cabin-fevered crew of SB 101.
Fingal’s Ceilidh Hall
Platform P1 was once planned to be a landing platform for the myriad of worker bees who would be assigned to the station to make minor repairs to visiting ships. Alas, the project never came to fruition, and the room is now a largely empty space, save for a number of structural columns that ring the room. Through an accident of architecture, being situated between the station's massive fuel tankage and several core structural membranes, the space is now an unexpected acoustic gem with a gorgeous timbre that permeates the empty room.
Nobody remembers how the ceilidh tradition started (no one can remember a Fingal being on staff). On the last Friday of every month, the roster is quietly arranged, instruments appear from storage, and everyone aboard is expected to participate.
Once a month, it is the most alive place on Skerryvore Station.
In Play
- Skerryvore Station is a starbase command assigned to Commodore Varen Wyll. Members are welcome to visit in their own stories without requesting permission or any expectation of joint writing.
- SB 101 is akin to the 21st-century industrial towns of North West England and North East America, aka ‘the Rust Belt’. It was an installation that was once an important element of logistical planning in the Federation, but has fallen out of use as technology and resources have outpaced its need.
- The inhabitants of the station are a peculiar group of people by virtue of their isolated existence, and are often as surprised by visitors as they are surprised to be there. The station runs on minimal personnel, with assignments on and off the station being rare and new crewmembers a novelty.
- The station remains fully functional, its quirks long since accepted as features rather than faults. Passing ships most often visit to take a moment's rest or seek out supplies, information and support.