Hi all, Ric here once more with a video looking into a location within the Delta Quadrant,
and a very interesting phenomena, the Nekrit Expanse.
This area of space comprises numerous Nebula and other interstellar gases and was encountered
by the USS Voyager in 2373 as well as several following episodes as the crew traversed it.
When Voyager first arrives in the Delta Quadrant, excluding the Caretaker (who is from outside
of the Milky Way), they are the most advanced vessel in the neighbourhood.
So when I talk about the comparative levels of technology in this video, I am doing so
in comparison to Starfleet levels.
The Nekrit Expanse itself was simultaneously a messy pool of interference and a dull expanse
of nothing in places.
Crossing it was expected to take a month of travel and it covered an area of several thousand
lightyears.
It posed severe navigational issues with most of the gases scrambling and messing with sensor
readings which could make getting lost rather easy.
Especially as the expanse’s layout was constantly shifting and changing, making establishing
a routine path an impossibility.
On top of this, the area was plagued by unexpected and rapidly forming Electro-kinetic storms,
electrodynamic turbulence as well as plasma storms, which were capable of wrecking vessels.
Plasma storms are also seen as the twisting columns of fire in the badlands.
The electrodynamics, generated by several stars in the expanse, interfered with communications
and transporter signals too and like the position of the gases itself, drifted from place to
place.
The difficulty in mapping the expanse was infamous, but not impossible.
Maps did exist, but if the shifting nature of Nekrit’s contents was anything to go
by, then those maps would have to either have marked stellar bodies that did not drift within
its confines too badly, or were up-to-date enough to be relevant.
Navigating by the stars was often the most viable solution, but when surrounded by interstellar
clouds, often these navigational sights are also obscured.
We have the same problem from Earth when gazing into the depths of the Milky way.
On the very edges of the Nekrit expanse was a trading station that dealt in numerous commodities
for the nearby mining colonies and vessels preparing to attempt a crossing.
This trade point sits before a large interstellar dust cloud of deep purple hues which marks
the northern edge of the expanse a very visible barrier, although beyond that, there is not
guaranteed to be continual nebula, as mentioned, some regions are just voids of nothing but
the background interference.
As for these nearby mines?
They may be on planetoids, but we do know of numerous asteroid fields within the expanse
too, so perhaps these are the target of frequent mining.
There is another interesting thing about the expanse however, that north of it (if the
direction towards the alpha and beta quadrants is south), the species of the Delta Quadrant
were far less advanced than those south of it, on the whole.
Large areas of the fringes of the Quadrant are controlled by the various Kazon sects
who are rather technologically unadvanced when compared to Voyager so much so that it
becomes the entire plot point around them for several seasons.
Now, yes the Kazon stole their technology from the Trabe originally, so you could say
that a large portion of their lack of development can be attributed to them being unfamiliar
with Trabe tech, but I doubt this.
For a start, that theft happened 28 years ago and if the Kazon were completely inept,
then their ships would have been falling out of the sky for decades and they would not
be even as remotely threatening as they are.
It says a lot about the technological levels of the area when these are the biggest issues
the locals have.
For example, we also have the Ocampans who themselves may have had a more advanced civilisation
in the past, but currently exist in a far more sheltered state, literally.
Their level of technology is entirely provided to them by the Caretaker since the inadvertent
warming of their homeworld and loss of water.
We also have Talax, the homeworld of the Talaxians and while they are a hospitable enough people,
their level of tech is rather light too.
The biggest unified powers on this side of the expanse are the Vidiians who had a flourishing
and beautiful society once upon a time, but have succumbed to an incurable disease called
the phage.
This has accelerated their medical sciences out of necessity, beyond even that of Starfleet,
but that is about the only factor that they excel in, although their ships are nothing
to be underestimated either.
Despite their degenerated state, they are one of the more dangerous species here, alongside
the Swarm.
The Swarm I have covered in a recent video, but suffice to say, their technology seems
to be rather comparable to Starfleet’s too.
They have knowledge of advanced detection techniques, such as establishing tachyon grids
and are one of the few with the ability to transport, the other notable one being the
Sikarians.
You could also include the creators of the warring android armies, the Cravic and Pralor
as some of the more advanced races out on the northern side, but both of these are extinct
species at the hands of their creations, but from what we see, their ships were very powerful
although their android technology was advanced but severely limited in several areas when
compared to other artificial intelligences Starfleet has encountered.
The existence of this Nekrit Expanse barrier is actually a blessing in disguise for those
on the North side of the expanse.
Its difficulty in navigating though has actually prevented those on the South side from reaching
these less advanced powers easily.
One of the first threats encountered when passing out of the Nekrit expanse was in fact
the Borg Collective, well in this case it was the fledgling Borg cooperative, but it
shows that the Borg had reached as far as the expanse and attempted to cross it themselves.
We learn that a single cube failed to make the crossing, becoming damaged by a storm
and severed from the collective in the attempt.
We can suppose that the Borg have not continued to try to travel the expanse because… well…
why?
Everything the Borg do is weighed through potential loss and gain, and they have so
much more to assimilate in a southern direction, expanding towards the alpha and beta quadrants
as well as their transwarp tunnels which bypass much of this protected and limited area.
Additionally, most of the technology from the northern side is probably not of interest
to the Borg, and they actively consider assimilating the Kazon to be a net-negative to their goal
of perfection.
But another species south of the border were the Krenim, although thanks to their own temporal
technology, their level of development varied significantly.
Nevertheless, they were incredibly advanced in order to have even begun developing time
travel methods, let alone weaponizing it which is something comparable to Federation development
at least and at their potential future height, where they were the dominant power in their
space thanks to Anorax’s grasp of the timestream.
The Vaadwaur were south of this border too and had uncovered a network of subspace tunnels
known to them as the Underspace.
These tunnels acted as shortcuts around the Delta Quadrant and bypassed the expanse, reaching
as far as the Talaxian homeworld, where they encountered the ancestors of that species,
the Talax-ilzay.
Now these Vaadwaur were not as advanced as the other powers on this list, but they did
have access to this advantageous network which allowed them to prey on the weaker species
over the Delta Quadrant, effectively bullying them.
However they did not create the Underspace, the Vaadwaur too found it and mapped it to
memory, before they were defeated by an alliance that had had enough of their shenanigans sometime
in the 1400s.
One interesting fact that comes from interactions with the Vaadwaur is that the Borg did exist
at this time period, but the collective was a fraction of the size, only covering a handful
of systems.
So even the Borg, as rapidly growing as they are, are a relatively modern species when
compared to the other powers South of the expanse.
The Voth too were primarily encountered beyond the Nekrit expanse however their claim to
space is rather vast and ancient, over 20 million years give or take, so they could
be incredibly far travelled.
Additionally, they seem to be able to traverse the Nekrit expanse with very little difficulty
due to their transwarp ability.
Honestly I think the Voth might be one of the only powers of the galaxy encountered
that could stand up to the Borg, unless the Borg threw everything at them, but overall
their power base was established in this more technological side of the Quadrant.
The Hirogen too were first encountered on this side of the expanse and they might not
be as advanced in some areas as Voyager, but in others they exceeded them.
For example, their armour was incredibly advanced, able to withstand gravitational forces that
would crush a ship, but more interestingly, it appears that like the Voth, their claim
to territory in the Delta Quadrant is vast and ancient.
The communication relay network that Voyager taps into expands all the way to the outer
fringes of the Alpha Quadrant and is estimated to be 100,000 years old.
While the Hirogen society is fractured due to their scattering in pursuit of “the hunt”,
their original culture seems to be ancient and well established over a very large area
of the galaxy.
While nowadays, they are known for their nomadic lifestyle and desire to test themselves against
more dangerous prey, clearly at their civilization’s height, they were a power to be reckoned with
in order to establish such an expansive network.
So this brings me to the reason for the high level of technological development by the
species found south of the Nekrit Expanse; their age.
It appears that those species who dwell here are far older than those on the Northern fringes,
who measure their history in centuries while species like the Voth and Hirogen are talking
multiple thousands of years.
I suspect therefore, aside from the occasional outlier, many of these advanced powers originated
further south in the Delta Quadrant, perhaps even nearer the ancient empires of the Alpha
and Beta such as the Iconians or T’Kon, before expanding north.
The level of development seems to spread generally in a northern direction, with the very fingers
of the Milky Way in the Delta quadrant being where some of the least advanced spacefaring
cultures are.
And additional factor might also be that ships that embark on long journeys (not just Voyager),
are more likely to pass through these areas of space, bringing with them advancements
and trade, whereas they have little desire to travel out to the well, “sticks” of
the quadrant, so those areas remain behind.
Now this is all speculation, but it is an interesting point that the Voyager started
as the most advanced ship on the block, but then more and more frequently found itself
as the underdog as the series progressed and they moved closer and closer to home.
Of course there are outliers everywhere (the Borg in particular are a rapidly expanding
and relatively recent threat) and Voyager’s path only cut a single slice through the quadrant,
so it’s hard to judge but intriguing nonetheless.
Thanks for watching this lore breakdown on the Nekrit expanse, a hazardous bulwark that
divides the Delta Quadrant and the interesting look into a potential history of the Trek
Universe it brings.
I’ve been Ric, thanks again and goodbye!