"Understanding new cultures, new languages and new ideas.
Gaining new answers and asking new questions."

Welcome to the headquarters of the Federation's space exploration agency: Starfleet. Based in San Francisco, facing the Starfleet Academy, Starfleet Command is the organisational centre for Starfleet, where all the admirals and other flag officers reside.

Starfleet Command consists of 8 buildings, all of which are named after individuals who have forged Starfleet into the organisation it now is. The buildings are as follows:

Jonathan Archer Building

James T. Kirk Building

Christopher Pike Building

Robert April Building

Zephram Cochrane Building

Quantum Cafe

Surak Building

Phillipa Georgiou Building


Starfleet Command was constructed in 2161 and has been the centre of operations for the Starfleet ever since. Overlooking the San Francisco Bay area, Starfleet Command is in itself just the heart, or brain area, for the 120-odd starbases and other space-dwelling residences all representing the United Federation of Planets' space division. Starfleet Command consists of the Strategic division, Research and Development division, Starfleet Security, Starfleet Intelligence, the Science division to name but a few. All of the division heads are here, the Rear Admirals, Vice Admirals, Admirals, Fleet Admirals and the Starfleet Commander-in-Chief herself. This is the command headquarters for Starfleet and the ultimate oversight over the activities of all of the starships, starbases, stations and facilities that Starfleet has or has ever had. This is where the peaceful exploration of the final frontier is directed and ethically guided by the flag officers with the wisdom and personal first-hand experience of being out on the frontier themselves.





Starfleet Command boasts the most sophisticated communications network known of in either the Alpha or Beta Quadrants. Starfleet Command is able to communicate at any time to any of it's numerous starships, starbases or other facilities through billions of channels of communication, boosted to subspace speeds to counteract the vast distances covered. With the primary mission of Starfleet being exploration of space and scientific discovery, the importance of the chain of comand cannot be overstated. A command decision has to be made on whether to make contact with a new form of life or nation; whilst starship commanders had great latitude on making these decisions on the ground, they need to know they have a reliable link back up the chain of command. First contact or to leave a nation of species alone is the most important decision a command officer will ever make, beyond the life-and-death decisions regarding their crew and ship/station. The Prime Directive governs ALL encounters and is the final arbiter in the decisions made. Whilst Starfleet is out on the frontier trying to find new life and new civilisations, it is also morally driven not to contaminate a culture with ideas, waste products or technology. Non-interference in the natural order of things is paramount to Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets. Starfleet Command also liases with the non-Starfleet space-faring races that dwell in the area covered by Starfleet in order to discover new information and learn more about the universe and its contents. Starfleet Command has many briefing rooms where the various Captains and Admirals can discuss policies, deliberate on current situations and plan the next moves.

Starfleet Command is well served by airtrams, shuttlecraft and transporters, enabling all personnel rapid access to and from the Starfleet Headquarters to any number of Federation destinations including: the Presidential residence in Paris, the Starbase 1 facility orbiting Earth and the San Francisco Orbital Yards. Starfleet is ideally located for it's purpose and a day trip to the centre of operations of the Starfleet is rarely enough and a repeat visit, often in the form of enrolling into the Starfleet, is quite common. Enjoy your visit.



Author's Notes:

This is my interpretation of Starfleet Command/Starfleet Headquarters - the command centre for Starfleet Operations across all Federation space and beyond. Starfleet needs to have a chain of command that actually WORKS over the distances involved. Too often in Star Trek, for story reasons, the starship is out of range of Starfleet Command. Now okay, you might not get a signal back to Earth but we do have triple-figure number of Starbases operational. SOMEONE will generally be in contact as a sounding board. With Starfleet's primary mission being peaceful exploration and scientific discovery, we need to have an oversight and ethical element that helps decide if we SHOULD contact that life or nation, or whether an experiment should be done. I'm not talking about second-guessing, but it's also important to make the right call when deciding to make first contact, or wheter to walk away. Those elderly flag officers that Star Trek generally depicts as either insane, war-mongering or incompetant are actually the elders who've already been out there and done the job. Their WISDOM and EXPERIENCE should be pivotal in guiding starship captains and starbase commanders in making the big calls.

Like NASA mission control or the equivalent in the European Space Agency, Russian Space Agency or British military Joint Forces Command at Northwood, Starfleet Headquarters needs live feed for EVERYTHING they command or are responsible for. Thiswill act as a web for co-ordinating the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge and to formulate diplomatic or defensive initiatives as required. I wanted this to be the handover form the old guard to the new - not the unrealistic holding on of the old favourites well past retirement. Hikaru Sulu steps down as the Commander-in-Chief, Starfleet as depicted in the Federation: the first 150 years. He is succeeded by Irina Khmelnova, a Russian from the Karakalpakistan region of Uzbekistan, near the (by this era) renewed Aral Sea. This is about renewing Starfleet, like Star Trek, as an organisation primarily for peaceful exploration of space and scientific discoveries. Observing as non-participants until the appropriate time - whenever and if ever that is.

Star Trek needs to stop making other people act incompetant or antagonistically to make the hero crew look good. Starfleet, like NASA, ESA etc. all act as a TEAM. Starfleet Headquarters is just part of this and should be used as part of the story.