Turkana IV (planet)

Turkana IV was a colony established by the United Federation of Planets in the late 22nd and early 23rd centuries. Beginning in the 2320's, the colony began suffering an ongoing power shortage when the planet's geothermal output began to inexplicably drop, causing ongoing and escalating friction in the colony's population. In early 2340, the USS Tempest (NCC-10535) visited the planet in an attempt to stabilize civil order long enough that the colony could be wound down.

History
The planet was first surveyed by the USS Monitor (NCC-1901) in 2293, which immediately discovered the exceptional geothermal output of the planet and its abundant mineral resources. A small outpost was quickly established while the Federation Colonial Office began arranging plans for a more substantial colony. A formal colony was founded a few years later in 2297 with an initial population of 2,000 colonists.

Despite the energy and mineral advantages Turkana IV offered, its natural environment was extremely hostile to most humanoid forms of life, necessitating an extensive life support infrastructure to maintain any population for an extended period of time. Toxic gases permeated the atmosphere and a combination of catabatic and atabatic winds blew nearly continuously across a barren landscape. Electrical and ion storms also plagued the planet, frequently but unpredictably transferring mild electric charges to the colony's habitats and the colonists within.

However, with the combination of the planet's abundant geothermal energy and increasingly sophisticated matter synthesis machines (culminating in the modern replicator), the colony was able to expand quickly, ballooning from an initial population of just 2,000 to over 200,000 in less than 10 years.

By the 2320's, the colony's population had passed 700,000 and a full scale terraforming effort was entering the first stage of operation. Meanwhile, Starfleet was beginning construction of a large shipyard facility in the solar system, one that would rival even Utopia Planitia Shipyards in scale and output.

But in the late 2320's, the planet's natural prodigious geothermal output began to dip, slightly at first and then more dramatically into the mid 2330's. The cause for this drop in output remained a mystery, despite the best efforts of the colonists and three separate science teams dispatched by the Federation.

By the 2330's, hopes for a full terraforming and a large shipyard had evaporated. The colony's population had contracted down to less than 100,000, though the power shortage struggled to support even that many. By the mid 2330's, the social order of the Turkana IV colony had begun to fray, with the ongoing power shortage translating into shortages in almost every aspect of a colonist's life and the ongoing state of scarcity weakening trust in public trust and institutions. Early in the colony's life, significant resources were allocated towards building common areas and recreational facilities to compensate for the otherwise harsh living conditions. As the social order began to crack, these facilities were the first to suffer significant deterioration.

By the late 2330's and with no end to the power shortage in site, civil order began to seriously breakdown, with incidents of hoarding, theft, and other scarcity based crimes rising at an alarming rate. The colony's population had also begun to splinter into multiple factions to both guard hoarded supplies and steal supplies from other factions.

By 2339, full sectarian violence was becoming increasingly likely. The Federation Disaster Relief Agency organized a stopgap intervention of support while the Starfleet Corps of Engineers put together plans to install a fusion reactor network large enough to ease the scarcity pressures enough to restore order. But such an effort would take 12-18 months to fully implement, leaving open the possibility that Turkana IV society could fully collapse before the network could be completed. If the fusion network could be completed successfully and therefore social order maintained, the Federation hoped to keep the situation stable long enough to evacuate the remaining colonists over a ten year period.

In early 2340, the USS Tempest (NCC-10535) was dispatched to Turkana IV to prevent further escalation of violence and buttress civic order long enough for the fusion network to be installed.