Starbase 80

Starbase 80 (SB-80) is a Federation starbase located in the Beta Quadrant near the border between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. For much of the 24th century, it had earned a reputation as outdated, poorly maintained, and with a slovenly and unprofessional crew. In 2382, an interdimensional rift opened in its vicinity, transforming SB-80’s identity from a backwards posting to the headquarters for missions of multiversal exploration.

With the Fourth Fleet’s 2403 mission to recover the Displaced, individuals lost across alternate dimensions, Starbase 80 became the launching point for rescue missions.

History

Starbase 80 was constructed in the early 23rd century as part of the network of border defences against the Klingon Empire. Escalating violence led to the development of new weapons and defence systems, and the SB-80 was rapidly outclassed by the new K-class stations. With this and the border shifting with the Federation-Klingon war of the 2250s, SB-80 became a secondary facility supporting lines of transportation and defence on a relatively unimportant part of the frontier.

Its development, maintenance, and upgrading remained a low priority for SB-80 for decades. Enterprising crewmembers and commanders developed a culture of securing equipment and material through whatever informal - though still Starfleet - channels they could establish, such as surplus yards and mothballed ships and equipment. This proved to be a double-edged sword: with SB-80 staying afloat and functional, it could safely remain the bottom of Starfleet’s priority for developing and updating infrastructure.

At some point in the early 24th century, Acamarian Gatherers entered into a territorial dispute with local Federation authorities. This resulted in a settlement agreement under which a section of Starbase 80 was ceded to the Gatherers’ authority, provided they adhered to and upheld Federation law. SB-80 was specifically selected for its political and territorial insignificance. The presence of the Acamarians only exacerbated SB-80’s position as a low priority for Starfleet resources, and they opened new avenues for officers to take unofficial paths to upgrading and maintaining the station.

Relocation

By the 2380s, SB-80 was well established as a backwater posting, with a crew accustomed to being forgotten by Starfleet. Rather than this leading to resentment, officers aboard largely developed a sense of make-do, improvisation, and satisfaction in completing the work before them. By the rest of the galaxy, SB-80 was largely perceived as a pile of junk only holding together because nothing had made it fall apart.

In 2382, a quantum fissure opened near Klingon space, a volatile phenomenon that threatened the entire prime universe. It was stabilised by the crew of the USS Cerritos, forming a permanent portal to other realities. Starfleet sought to secure the portal for strategic and scientific purposes, but high tachyon density near it caused serious quantum instability on modern starships exposed to its effects for any significant period.

The older, largely outdated systems on SB-80 were found to be unaffected by this effect. As such, the station was relocated to stand as headquarters for Starfleet’s portal operations, securing the area and launching exploratory missions through the rift.

The Quantum Fissure

The quantum fissure is a stable portal to the multiverse, acting much like a wormhole, but with no fixed exit point in time, space, or reality. After decades of study, scientists on Starbase 80 have developed and installed technology to manipulate the portal’s tachyon field, allowing them to choose a destination for ships travelling through the fissure.

Even after two decades, expeditions through the portal are primarily probes or low-profile reconnaissance missions identifying the nature of different realities. This has allowed SB-80 to develop a large catalogue of alternate universes that they can secure transport to via the portal. It is, however, a vast, perhaps even infinite, undertaking of study.

While missions to other realities are sometimes more involved, with whole starships undertaking exploratory expeditions, these usually occur only when there is a specific need - such as a reality-spanning emergency - or once reconnaissance has established a basic understanding of the reality, its nature, and its potential threats.

Travel through the portal must be done aboard a ship, like with a wormhole. The endpoint is not fixed in space; while a ship may arrive at the same spatial location (in proximity to the Klingon-Federation border in the prime universe) in the other reality, they also might not. Ships travelling through the fissure are equipped with a quantum beacon, enabling a simple form of interdimensional communication. Teams looking to return to the prime should take position at the egress point and activate the beacon, which will prompt the SB-80 team to calibrate the portal to open and let them travel through it.

The Displaced

In early 2403, a wave of subspace-temporal radiation emerged from somewhere between SB-80 and a location likely near or in Klingon space. This wave was relatively harmless on its own, but was catastrophic when it reached the portal at SB-80. The quantum fissure reacted, amplifying this pulse across time, space, and reality.

Soon after, individuals across the prime universe went missing. Soon after, Starfleet confirmed they had been displaced across realities, scattered and sometimes swapped with their doppelgangers, and undertook missions to rescue and return them. Starfleet Science linked this disappearance to the portal at SB-80, which also became the Displaced’s best chance of being returned home. SB-80 became the main hub for rescue missions, its team calibrating the portal to allow ships to pursue Displaced individuals or bring them to SB-80 for return to their original dimension.

In Play

• Starbase 80 is the infamous station from Lower Decks that finally featured in its fifth season. As a canon location, we are deliberately not going into too much detail about the setting, its crew, and the status of leadership, such as Captain and Admiral Freeman. The station itself is not intended as a storytelling hub, though if you set tales aboard it, you can draw on its canonical depiction for details. SB-80 is established as the fleet canon in this article to establish its position as the launch point for missions through the portal.
• The team at SB-80 can calibrate the portal to take travellers to a specific universe. This might be anything from ‘we have a series of numbers that categorise this alternate reality, and know nothing else,’ to ‘we’ve sent recon missions here and have a good idea of what you should expect on the other side.’ You can use SB-80 and the portal for missions travelling to - or from! - alternate realities for any reason you can imagine, from a specific assignment to simple exploration.
• The system for getting to and from an alternate reality is deliberately simple - calibrate the portal, go through it, return to the portal’s location, signal SB-80, come home. There can be all manner of obstacles complicating this, from errors in the initial calibration, loss of or damage to the quantum beacon, and so on.
• This means that the portal, and travel through it, is under SB-80’s control. This is a launching point for official expeditions to and from alternate realities under Starfleet’s oversight - not a port where unexpected visitors from different dimensions wander through. Likewise, civilians do not use the portal. It is a highly restricted stellar phenomenon, not a public wormhole.
• When depicting SB-80, remember this is a setting from Lower Decks. It is deliberately a little over the top and humorous, and should be treated in the same tone as the show. Depicting SB-80 as a rough, forsaken frontier station with a dark and edgy aesthetic is not appropriate.