Tholians are from the Tholian Assembly, located between the Federation and Klingon Empire. Their home world is Tholia, although there is evidence that their origins are not from that world, possibly not from this dimension. They exist in 'demon' Y-class world conditions and can only exist in M-class atmospheres with advanced environmental suits. They require temperatures of 480 Kelvin/207 Celsius. Tholia - and Tholian space - occupies a region where the 'gap' between dimensions are 'thinner'. The Defiant data from 2268 and Excelsior in 2298 confirms this. On a simple basis, Tholians don't eat, don't have sex and have no recognisable emotions. Love and hate are very difficult concepts for Tholians. Tholians are thought to be near-immortal through the transmission and recycling of their liquid crystal essence. They don't have a concept of individuality or offspring. Tholian life is described in terms of geo-biological. They have no written language and are thought to link directly with their technology, which is of the same material as the Tholians themselves. There is no Tholian border that has been agreed upon in a treaty; Tholian space is litered with spatial anomalies and this is used as a natural border with them. There are no ranks or titles in Tholian culture. 'Commander' Loskene was Loskene, the Tholian commanding the starship.

Tholians are a crystalline race and have much in common with a liquid crystal interior and a solid crystalline carapace. Twenty-five years have passed since the Defiant Incident and the detailed scans taken by the Enterprise; Over 140 years since Archer and NX-01 made first contact with the Tholians. The Vulcan High Command was reluctant to share their knowledge beyond T'pol's cryptic comment that it was unusual for the Tholians to venture out as far as they had. A 31st Century timeship had attracted them and they warned of the dangers of temporal radiation; something the Tholians had detected from as far out as their own space. This sensitivity to time and space gave them the nicknames of spiders in the web. How true it was. Starfleet sent more vessels into the region after 2268 - especially after the Taurus Reach campaign. Vessels of Archer, Magee, Cardenas, Engle, Hoover and Malachowski class were sent to the region. The logs from Dr Leonard McCoy and the Vanguard Station were used to start to build a profile on the Tholians.

After the 'misunderstanding', that Starfleet Command spoke of, Starfleet Science was given a directive to learn more about the mysterious species and their space, meanwhile Starfleet Tactical was assigned to secure what was now evidently a dangerous region of space. A Nimitz class dreadnought was sent to the region to bring stability. The Lambda and Kappa monitoring stations were also authorised in 2268 to both delineate Federation space, the near side of the natural occuring anomaly space, and to also provide a tripwire to prevent Tholian incursions. Soyuz class U.S.S. Monarch was sent to the border to monitor the Tholians, whilst Magee and Malachowski class vessels were sent to explore the anomalies of this region of space in more detail. Starfleet Science went for a mobile, flexible answer to the lost Vanguard station, with Hoover class U.S.S. Margaret Collins sent as science command ship to control and direct the various science ships in the border region. Constitution class U.S.S. Endeavour continued to be the starship in the region until the early 2270s when she was replaced by refit Constitution class U.S.S. Hood under Captain Emma Roberts. The new refit starship with heightened sensors began to find answer and new questions about the enigmatic crystalline species. Their starships were made of the same material as the Tholians themselves, both in terms of the carapace and the liquid essence inside.

Due to the Tholians lack of empathy toward organic life, that they see as very different to themselves, or lesser forms of life, the Federation Council is reluctant to encourage colonies, starbases or other large permanent facilities near the Tholian border. This is for fear of inciting an attack on the scale that destroyed Starbase 47 'Vanguard' in 2268. Vanguard was in the Taurus Reach, a region quite far from the actual Tholian border. A large starbase near the actual border is unthinkable. Starbase 171 is a science station that is similar in design to the Regula One outpost in the Beta Quadrant. This base is the home for Oberth, Magee and Okinawa class starships. The rich selection of anomalies near the Tholian border makes it irresistable to Starfleet and the Federation Science Council. Starships like the Magee class Penney, Oberth class Tereshkova, Okinawa class Sark and Pillinger class Couper can be found docked at the station for shoreleave. The flagship for the defense of the border is Nimitz class U.S.S. Jellicoe. The command starbase for the region is Starbase 84, that orbits the planet Cait and is the headquarters of the Fourth Fleet. The rich supply of dilithium worlds and other minerals has brough mining companies and colonies to the region, along with freighters for over a century. There's the biggest area of anomaly space here since the time of the Delphic Expanse - and just as dangerous and unpredictable. The laws of physics get twisted and broken in equal measure in this region. There are strict guidelines for starships operating here.

Station Psi 3

There are Vulcan ships operating in the region, including Suurok class T'selk and Gol. Starfleet has a specialist facility, Station Psi 3 that studies various scientific phenomena including: Chaos Theory, Game Theory, Free Will, Philosophy, Quantum Physics, Quantum Biology, Quantum Psychology, Systems Biology, Synthetic Biology, along with Astrobiology, Space Sciences and Subspace. It is rumoured that as well as studying the science and medical aspects of the mind, that the station studies aspects that - arguably - could be seeking answers to the question of the nature of reality and existence. Posting to this station is highly sought after. The station is linked to the Lambda series of monitoring stations that are lined along the Tholian border region, monitoring the spatial anomalies. This has sometimes drawn accusations of spying stations, which the Federation Council has diffused with transparency on the stations and their findings. As with Starbase 171, Station Psy V is visited by Magee and Oberth class vessels. Other worlds in the region include: Starbase 27, Starbase 200, Cait, Eminiar, Pacifica, Ventax, Megara, Grazer, Galen and Makus. Constellation class starships Montrose, Adventure and Investigator are amongst the explorers in this part of space. Pillinger class like the Couper can be found studying the various worlds and anomalies around here. There is a rich desert world of dilithium ores, perhaps the richest in the Federation, as well as a polar world that is the control centre for the Lambda stations.

Tholian Starship Technology

Tholians were discovered to have no set starship classes, instead each starship is 'grown' to order for the task set for it. Tholian starships have no individual names; Tholians are not sentimental like humans are. Tholian technology is like LEGO, they assemble quickly what they need. As the ships match the composition of the Tholians themselves, it is thought that the ships have a symbiotic relationship with the crew; no need for controles, consoles and the clunky technology of a Federation, Klingon or Romulan starship, the Tholians have a direct link to their ships. This gives the Tholian starships a response time and agility unmatched in the Alpha Quadrant. The starships are also found to have stealthy characteristics; sensors have a hard time scanning for them, especially long-range. This is thought to be a factor of the unique subspace displacement that these ships have. Tholians are thought to have a far richer understanding of space-time and subspace than the Federation, Klingons or Romulans have. Unusual Tholian responses to events light-years away, such as the transporter incident on the Enterprise on Stardate 4428.9 or the Praxis explosion of Stardate 9521. Closer examination of Tholian encounters in the Taurus Reach suggest that they can detect subspace displacement of starships, even when cloaked. There is also evidence that the Tholians are able to manipulate subspace and space-time. Classified reports from Captain Jonathan Archer mention the Tholians as a faction in the Temporal Cold War. There are science personnel in Starfleet who believe that, as with the Delphic Expanse, the Anomaly space across and bordering Tholian space could be a product of Tholian activity. Or it could be what attracted them to their corner of the Alpha Quadrant. Station Psi 3 was later set up to examine these possibilities.

Author's Notes:

Given Archer first encountered Tholians and the Defiant Incident put them on the radar, along with the Vanguard records. Starfleet Intelligence would want to build up a picture of Tholians and their culture. So by Hawkins' era, we'd be more enlightened. Stardate 4428 refers to the 'Mirror, Mirror' episode of the Original Series of Star Trek. As the Tholians are involved in the multiverse as well as time travel, it made sense that these crystalline creatures would be influenced by a breach in the multiverse wall.

Tholian Geo-biochemistry

For the biochemistry of the Tholian, the closest analogy was liquid crystal technology. Liquid crystals come in thermotropic, lyotropic and metallotropic forms. Thermotropic changes with temperature, lyotropic are found in nature like cell membranes, with a concentration on crystals in a solvent (water). Metallotropic work on a mixture of organic and inorganic molecules in concentration ratios that change their state. Work to confirm this was done by Starfleet Intelligence around 2309 after they were able to 'acquire' body parts from dead Tholians (via Section 31) after the Tholian battle with General Kaarg and the Klingons. The high temperatures are needed to keep their liquid crystalline body systems fluid and functioning. If they're chilled too much they'll solidify and die. Tholians have regions believed to be analogous to eyes; they don't have mouths or speak. Tholians are said to 'transmit'. This is more akin to vibrations or radio wave transmission than actual speech and there's no evidence of Tholian written word. Tholians can be found in silicon or carbon forms, perhaps analagous to the different races of humans found on Earth. Scans from more modern starships, like Excelsior, Renaissance, Constellation and Oberth classes suggest some Tholian individuals and ships have the presence of chroniton particles and matter not from our dimensional realm (see elsewhere on 5 dimensions and multiverse).

Tholian Evolution

The evolution of Tholians is the stuff of biological and developmental psychology interest. Tholia as a Y class 'Demon' planet with temperatures of 480 Kelvin / 207 Celcius, that means conventional organic biology with water doesn't work. Being comprised of crystal, both liquid and solid, means that the Tholian development is a completely different path. The natural lightning in the atmosphere reacted with simple crystalline molecules to start the process. Tholian biology developed into a combimation of radiation, magnetism and electrical charge. Studies have shown that the Tholian starships and architecture is composed of a similar material; this leads naturally to the hypothesis that Tholians interface with their technology, allowing a faster reaction time and no need for a physical console to interface with.

Tholian Psychology

Tholian perspective is very different from ours. They’re not xenophobic; we’re just very different to them. Tholians cannot relate to our organic nature easily. Tholian perspectives on ‘self’, ‘time’ and ‘territory’ are very different to ours. With the physical ‘self’ merging into the caste moot, so this informs their perspective of territory against just the universe; they’re all part of the whole. With the Tholian crystal changing states from liquid to solid, their blending into the caste moot, this means that their ‘lifespan’ is difficult to determine. Tholians essentially get re-blended into the mix and reform as new individuals; a crystalline geological equivalent of genetic recombination. To an extent, a Tholian is immortal barring death away from the caste moot. Given the transmission of radiation (including radio) from a Tholian individual, it is theorised that a Tholian can 'download' their consciousness back to Tholia or other Tholian worlds or ships. This would allow a Tholian to live beyond a fatal experience, or transmit their experiences back - the ultimate intelligence-gathering. Tholins don't trust organic life forms as they are 'simpler' forms of life; chemical reactions in bags that move, speak and make artifacts. However, Tholians don't understand the emptions that drive such organisms; it makes them unpredictable and untrustworthy.

Tholian psychology is part of the 4th year of the psychology and social sciences course at Starfleet Academy covered Tholians (amongst many other exotic forms of life). Tholian senses are very different from those of organic life. They are sight (across a wider and different spectrum to human), vibration (hearing analog and more), magnetic fields, spatial and temporal distortion. Tholian society is very different from other forms of life. There is no government or military structure, no common ground regarding leisure, work, home, genders, military academies, etc. The 'rulebook' of what constitutes civilisation is thrown out by the Tholians, which is what Hawkins likes about them. Cadet Hawkins wrote his final year thesis on Tholians: Spiders in the Web about their psychology, piecing together the logs from over a dozen starships and space stations. The recent explosion of Praxis had shown the Tholians had a 'sensitivity' to subspace disruption, adding to the earlier material from stardate 4428. Theoretically, Tholians perceive in 5 dimensions, including the multiverse and non-linear time. What to others is xenophobia and disdain from the Tholians is merely the perception of the biological and perceptual simplicity of organic life. The Tholian life-cycle includes returning back to Tholia to return to the Castemoot, decanted from their carapace in exchange for a new one. This could be the rejuvination of the Tholian individual or the creation of a clone/child from the original Tholian individual. All of this is speculation. Long-range monitoring of communications, starship movements and planetary scans can only tell so much of the story.

U.S.S. Montrose mission

The starship Montrose went to the Taurus Reach and Tholian border region to explore interactions between Klingons and Tholians. Studies of the Tholians increased dramatically in importance after the Bombay, Defiant and Vanguard incidents. Tholians see organic life as an inferior form of life to themselves. Their ships are grown, rather than constructed. They see the relationship between energy, subspace and other dimensions (e.g. time). They find understanding human emotions, reproduction, family etc. These mental constructs don't exist with the Tholians. Even the concept of a 'face' or 'eyes' with a Tholian is anthropomorphising this exotic form of life. The sense of dimensional disturbance is postulated after the Tholian reaction from the Praxis explosion. Tholian technology is thought to work with space-time; this is thought to allow Tholians to detect influences on subspace from light-years away. In theory, manipulation of subspace could allow Tholians to travel vast distances with transwarp conduits, or disrupt the warp drive and transporters of threat ships and stations. The aforementioned theoretical 'recycling' of Tholian essence, and their non-linear perception of time, means that a Tholian doesn't see our three-dimensional, linear time universe in the same way that we do. 'Death' and being superceded by our children is a concept that the almost-immortal Tholians don't get. Tholians 'reinvent' themselves to fill the needs of the time. Previous reports on the Tholians by Starfleet Intelligence have speculated about why the Tholians have never engaged in a sustained offensive. The destruction of the Bombay, Defiant and Starbase 47 Vanguard have shown that the Tholians are more than capable of fighting - and winning - against the Federation and Klingons. The fact that the Tholians seem 'uninterested' in doing so may be as their driving motivation goes towards the temporal and the multiverse, rather than the 'primitive' urge for invasion and empire that organic species can have. They have no interest in the petty politics and territorial acquisition of lesser beings.

M class planets are considered cold by Tholians. Interactions with organic life is through environmental suits, bringing a sense of disconnection and isolation to the Tholian. Equally the aesthetics and necessity of a planet having plant life for existence is an irrelevancy for Tholians; they simply don’t need nor understand it. Tholian silk is a naturally produced substance in the same way as a silkworm produces silk. It’s linked with the regenerative and maintenance aspect of Tholian biology; the silk repairs damage or injuries to the Tholian carapace. The carapace itself regenerates but at a much slower rate.

Other starships sent to the Tholian border include:

U.S.S. Monarch - Soyuz class.

U.S.S. Diana - Hermes class.

U.S.S. Hawking - Oberth class

U.S.S. Sagan - Oberth class NCC 11384.

U.S.S. Chandrasakhar - Oberth class NCC 13492.

U.S.S. Hallam - Archer class.

U.S.S. Hawkeye - Archer class.

U.S.S. Ptichka - Cardenas class

U.S.S. Margaret Collins - Hoover class.

U.S.S. Jellicoe - Nimitz class.

Author's Notes:

Tholian physiology and psychology is something I find a fascinating area to theorise about. This page is the product of that thought. I started with canon that the planet is Demon class and Tholians are crystalline, now surviving away from high temperatures except in an environmental suit. There has been speculation about a mouth on Tholians but they're crystalline and from 207 degrees Celcius. Since they are crystal, I see them acting as radio crystals, transmitting to each other. This fits in with novels like the Vanguard series that has them with a collective consciousness called the castemoot. Electrical charges, magnetism, radiation - all of this makes for a unique and very alien form of life.

Tholian space:

A region rich in minerals and Y class planets. Thought to partly be as a result of the high incidence of subspace anomalies interacting with the planets due to the subspace barriers being thinner in this region of space. The Federation has been studying this region of space from afar since the first encounter with the Tholians in the 22nd Century and the discovery of their sovereign space. The Tholians have expressed their opposition to the Federation being so close with xenophobic displays of force by their patrol vessels. Scout vessels have been seized by the Tholians and charged with espionage. The captains have protested that they were in unclaimed space but the Tholians have countered that they have recently claimed that region in a revision of their borders.

There is no declared border between the Federation and the Tholian Assembly; where the anomaly space begins in earnest, this is taken as a natural boundary between the two nations. This is a region of space with a 'thinning' of space-time (like within the Tholian Assembly). This produces anomalies not seen outside of the Delphic Expanse in Archer's time or the Maelstrom near Starbase 12. The Federation Science Council has a focus on the region, sending Magee, Archer and Oberth class starships in numbers. This region also highlights how there is no red line where the Federation runs out; it slowly fades away as you leave the Federation.

•Starbase 84 - (spacedock mushroom) Fourth Fleet headquarters over Cait. This is the main base in the region and has dreadnoughts of Nimitz (U.S.S. Jellicoe), Ascension, Komsomolsk and Ulysses classes. The regional science, diplomacy and exploration missions are co-ordinated from here.

•Starbase 35 - (watchtower class) - Local starbase for resupply and shoreleave.

•Science Station y 3. (See below).

•Lambda and Kappa Monitoring stations - mirror copies of the Delta and Epsilon stations along the Tholian border.

•K station K-14829. This is the last real command out here. An overweight, aging commodore, past their prime, fattened by inactivitity and posted far out to still feel relevant although actually a backwater world posting (Think of Major Fambrough of the outpost in Dances With Wolves). From that movie script, he had: "sad, swollen eyes. He is an army lifer passed over too many times for promotion and right now does not look like a well man" and, "Sweat has broken out all over him. His grooming is awful. His hands are trembling slightly. Something is very wrong with him." An alcoholic perhaps. The Starfleet version of Korrd on Nimbus III. A first generation Belknap class acts as flagship. There aren't dreadnoughts out this far. The frontier isn't the glamour of Pike, Kirk, Sulu or Harriman; this is the sheer graft of the frontier, setting up a crude homestead for yourself. Starships like the Excelsior or Enterprise-B only come here for the prestige of virgin territory or diplomatic functions showing the flag.

•Supply Station 6965 - local cargo ship co-ordination base. Last Federation presence. A Lieutenant Commander is in charge of this base. Grimey and functional, this orbits a gas giant with deuterium and supplies for Federation explorers and scouts. Unreplicatable parts here like warp nacelles. Lots of engineering division personnel like the the K-station. This is the first and last step into Federation space for the starships out here (officially). Plenty of opportunities for fresh new officers and seasoned veterans winding down, yet wanting to remain on the frontier. This is where the Starfleet and Federation influence finally fades away. Beyond here is unexplored space, 'thrillseekers', tomb raiders, smugglers, pirates etc. The crew of Supply Station 6965 is led by a lieutenant commander, with a mix of green newly-graduates, misfits, exiles and drifters. A rag-tag, motley crew.

•Communication station Kappa 071589. Mostly-automated Subspace Commpic Hyperchannel boosting station.

•Macy's Station - Non-Starfleet. Further out than Supply Station 6965. Visited by Klingon Raptor, Bird of Prey (2280s versions and 2151 versions like L'mak's Duj Puj can be found here), D-5 and D-6 starships as well as Starfleet scouts and science vessels. Starfleet Corps of Transport sends Ptolemy-variant tug/transports here. Okinawa class corvettes are the most common Starfleet ships.

•Old Glory station - Constructed from the remains of former Starfleet starships moored together. The commander is former Starfleet, pining for lost days of exploration.

•Phillipa's Prospect - mining dwarf planet.

•Mack's World

•Ula'El'Tumbra - Neutral world undergoing Prime Directive-led cultural repairs by Starfleet social scientists, after disasterous mission by the U.S.S. Huainan in the 2270s.

•Kolacorea - neutral world exploited by the Orion Syndicate in the region. Used as a safehaven from the Federation and Klingon fleets as well as a trading planet. Think Pirates of the Caribbean and the Port Royal.

•Bold Futura station 91. Corporate non-Starfleet station for their own scout ships. Away from UFP oversight and ahead of the competition.

•VZW-31 - Unaffiliated supply base.

•Hades 994. Super-Earth in a volcanic state with lava geysers and black basalt flows. Oberth class investigating this super-sized proto-planet.

•Eleanor's Eden - Tropical rainforest world exploited for medical potential. Small medical laboratories dot the jungles.

•Papa Lambda Foxtrot 99275 - Dwarf planet that has Tholian scout and science (?) vessel activity. Tholians are up to something, unknown what that is. Starfleet Intelligence is discreetly monitoring the activity.

•B'chel's asteroid field - independent mining operation close to the Tholian border.

Station Psi 3:

On a super-Earth sized (x15 Earth) Class H desert world near the Tholian border near the Taurus Reach, there is a subterranean science station that has been constructed by the Starfleet Corps of Engineering over a couple of decades. The station has been painstakingly built in the +2g environment around a naturally-occuring 'weakness' in space; due to the complexity of building the station around such an unknown phenomenon, this took from 2277 - 2294. This underground 'thinned' space was detected by a Hermes class scout in 2270. Several workers were lost to the unknown entity during construction, never to be seen again. The hostile gravity and atmosphere outside requires a specialist suit. The teams are both studying the phenomena in person as well as analysing why the Tholians are drawn to such phenomena. They are made up of mostly scientists and engineers along with medical division. Security presence includes the standard security division, supplemented by some Starfleet commandoes. There are about 120 personnel on the base with 27 of them social sciences,including linguistics, sociologists, biological psychologists and quantum psychologists liaising closely with biologists, exo-biologists and geologists. The Tholians are said to be aware of the manipulation of the phenomenon, but have made no matter of this and not been hostile towards the station to-date. This station is classified and the only visiting starships are transports, cargo ships and the occasional Oberth or Magee class science vessel. The station is commanded by a captain of science division. The science station studies some exotic and fringe sciences including Chaos Theory, Game Theory, Free Will, Quantum Physics, Quantum Biology, Quantum Psychology, Systems Biology, Synthetic Biology, Singularity and Subspace Physics. The teams are there to examine the phenomenon in all aspects. This has ramifications on the Tholians, their culture and mindset; the Defiant Incident of 2268; the Vanguard Files of the 2260s; the 'mirror universe' files from both Discovery and the Enterprise as well as other potential multiverse factors. There are ethical issues of the manipulation of the multiverse and potentially disasterous effects on this universe. The crew are diverse, including one of the few Aenar in Starfleet - Vheriel. The primary mission is to understand the Tholians better and the nature of their space. Spatial anomalies, like the one here, are thought to reside in the core of Tholia, keeping it molten. There are temporal effects near these anomalies - time acts 'funny'. The Tholians are aware of the activity; this is a two-way portal. A self-destruct system with a photon torpedo is installed in the station. From opening the station, it took 15 - 20 years to access the anomaly in very careful stages. It's unknown whether the anomaly 'goes' anywhere. It's like rolling an impossible-sided die: not coming up with the same roll twice over thusands or millions of throws - if ever. The station has a small number of shuttlecraft of various types and sizes. Commander Nathaniel Hawkins is assigned to this station from 2314 - 2318.

With advances in sensor technology over the 2280s and 2290s, Starfleet science vessels of the Kestrel, Phantom, Endurance, Antares and Trista have been able to stand-off further from the Tholian border and still be able to scan into Tholian space to study the subspace composition, the worlds, populations and fleet movements. Starfleet Intelligence has great interest in the Tholians, especially after the Taurus Reach and Vanguard period 2265 – 2268. With the 2292 Praxis explosion and 2309 conflict with the Klingons displaying a probable connection between the Tholians and subspace/space-time, the interest of Starfleet Intelligence and the Federation Science Council has only increased.

Tholian Politics

The Tholian Assembly is run by the Political Castemoot of the Tholian Lattice and the Ruling Conclave. The Ruling Conclave keeps alarming knowledge from the lower castes to prevent reckless action. Tholians are hermaphrodite, living crystalline minerals, with a fluid medium within. Each Tholian has a unique colour and similar properties to a race called the Shedai encountered in the late 2260s. Due to their extreme physiology, phasers on stun have a limited effect. They are quadruped with two mantis-like arms. Tholian cells have an electric charge within each cell. The hot atmosphere within their ships makes boarding impossible. Tholians communicate through chirps and have a telepathic ability with their own kind. Lifespans are thought to be short at 6 – 8 months but each generation passes on their memories and knowledge through crystal memory upload. Tholians do not need schooling and can continue the work of their predecessors seamlessly. Tholians have a networked intelligence but not a hive mind. The shared memory archive for Tholians is known as the Lattice, which contains species-specific general knowledge and history. Much of the time, Tholians are networked into the Lattice.

Described (rather simplistically) by the Federation Science Council as 'xenophobic', Tholians review their borders every 8 cycles, which has created misunderstandings as the territorial Tholians fight over their new borders (every four years). Bred for specific roles like ants, Tholians know their roles and have no concept of flexibility. Warriors are the most prominent caste; political are another caste, diplomatic caste to keep other castes and external governments peaceful. Scientists, engineers and mathematicians form another caste and finally a medical caste.

Tholian First Contact

First contact with the Tholians was in 2152 when the Tholians attempted to capture a time ship. Information from Captain Archer suggests the Tholians may have been a faction in the Temporal Cold War. The Tholians are believed to have a spacedock facility in the Vintaak system, deep in their space and another at Nukara Prime. Tholian conflicts occasionally occur along their border (one such conflict breaks out in 2353). These conflicts have been quite frequent with Tholians involved in the Klingon civil war of 2292 and again in 2309 when they were stalled by Kaarg.

One major event that was not made public knowledge was during the Tabula Rasa incident the Tholians made a prolonged and aggressive attempt to reach the systems themselves. Because the Klingon Empire lay between them and the new systems, numerous incursions happened as they tried to break through. The Klingons reacted in kind, sending a fleet against the Tholian ships to repel the invaders crossing their space. Battles continued on and off for the duration of the Tabula Rasa systems being in normal space. Once the systems disappeared again into their subspace pocket the Tholians ceased their actions immediately.

Starfleet has a concentration of Trista and other specialist sensor-mounted starships e.g. Antares, Kestrel, Endurance and Phantom classes in the region. The local Fourth Fleet mission is to use all of these starships to study the very nature of subspace. The Transwarp project from the 2260s to the late 2280s started this study, which continues in order to develop the next generation of warp drive technology. The Fourth Fleet was formed in 2269 after the loss of the Defiant, Bombay and Starbase 47 'Vanguard' in the Taurus Reach frontier region. Starfleet Headquarters realised the Tholians are as dangerous as the Romulans or Klingons. In light of this a programme of starships and starbases was drawn up for the region and the fleet formed. The primary mission was to protect the new Megaran, Grazerite and Caitian members whilst studying the Tholians and protecting the borders. Dreadnoughts were allocated to the new fleet, away from the usual Romulan, Klingon and Ferasan borders.

The spatial anomolies reported by the Defiant, Enterprise, Excelsior and other starships means Starfleet Command allocated a fleet of science vessels to the Fourth Fleet. This region of space is the most unusual and challenging since Anomoly Space dispersed in the time of Jonathan Archer. The subspace anomolies can cause sensor issues all the way up to warp field nullification.

Author's Notes:

Every region of the United Federation of Planets is different and has its own unique feel. The Interim Years also has many ships and crews in all regions. Tholian space was fleshed out by Star Trek Online and the excellent Star Trek: Vanguard series of novels. The Tholians are the most non-human species in Star Trek set along the neighbouring border to the Federation. First seen in The Tholian Web and further in Star Trek: Enterprise, STO links them to Demon planets (VOY), the Crystalline Entity (TNG), Mirror Space (TOS and DS9) and the Temporal Cold War (ENT).

The crystalline Tholians have a short lifespan (Vanguard novels) but their knowledge stays forever in the Tholian Lattice - a kind of crystalline Wi-Fi internet consciousness. They review their whole political structure and borders every 4 years. They have a different perspective on life - given their short physical lifespan 'downloaded' into a physical body, space-time - given their relationship with mirror space and other dimensions and space-time displacement - which allows them to 'sense' warp drive subspace distortion. The Klingons lost cloaked ships from this ability. Tholians use radiation as a tool and as a weapon.

The 2322 re-visiting of this enigmatic alien race from Future Tense, The Tholian Web and the Vanguard novels. The region of space has ‘thin’ boundaries between dimensions including the mirror universe. Starfleet studies the very nature of subspace here. U.S.S. Adventure page covers this. Antares class Oxford and Endurance class Barnwell are in the region too. Starbase 117 is under construction and the Mughi class Hitomi and Jupp class Osterhaus and Reeves are both assigned. NCC-2002 U.S.S. Columbia is the flagship of the fleet. Brand new U.S.S. John F Kennedy NCC-14902 has just completed her shakedown and has joined the Fourth Fleet. Brand new U.S.S. Potemkin NCC-18253 is due for shakedown for this fleet in 2313. Renaissance class U.S.S. Shakespeare, Botticelli and Palmieri are currently assigned to this region.

The Tholian species runs on being a mystery, so lots of Dr Who-style “I’ll explain later” moments. NO use of the Starfleet Battles/Starfleet Command version of the Tholians here. These are defensive, Y-class ‘Demon’ world-inhabiting crystalline creatures, whose difficulty in understanding organic life is often mistaken, or oversimplistically described, as xenophobia. Their physical lifespan is short but I surmise they get ‘downloaded’ into new bodies after being uploaded into the Lattice for a time. This lends the Tholians a truly alien slant on the concepts of life and death. Tholian space is as unusual as they are, with a high number of Y-class planets and the subspace barriers in the region are ‘thin’; perhaps the two aspects are linked. Tholians have certainly been shown to be highly interested in space-time phenomena. The ST: Star Charts book suggests there are good relations with the Tholians since the 2270s but with the Vanguard revelations of short life-spans and reviewing borders etc, I’d say that relations ‘fluctuate’.

Tholia. I’d almost like to visualise this world as Hell with a totally alien concept of cities or living regions - more like lava tube termite mounds. Perhaps their starships are 'grown' from the raw materials using alien technology unlike any we've seen before. Vanguard: Harbinger says it has three continents. Lost Era: The Sundered says it’s N class, but I disagree and say Y Class. As for diplomatic relations, I’m lost as to how the Federation could send a representative to a world hostile to all carbon life-forms. The cross-dimensional nature of Tholian existence is also something fun to consider and write. A very ‘not us’ concept of existence. We know from the Enterprise two-parter that the mirror universe Tholians used a distress signal to lure the Defiant into their dimension. The Tholians in our prime universe must also be from that dimension, perhaps coming here as a result of their experience with the Defiant? The Tholians were mentioned by Klaang in ENT: Broken Bow. Perhaps Tholians are of a composition similar to volcanic glass in appearance etc:

Volcanic glass.

ENT: In A Mirror, Darkly also featured the Tholians with an energy-dampening weapon. Something refreshingly different from the usual disruptors and torpedoes.







Tholian names

Alkene

Azrene

Corskene

Destrene

Dlyax

Eskrene

Falstrene

Hirskene

Iskel

Kasrene

Kmmta

Lanra

Larskene

Ledron

Lokara

Loskene

Lykene

Mernox

Mosrene

Narskene

Naskeel

Nethrax

Nostrene

Nreskene

Nezrene

Pozrene

Pyzstrene

Radkene

Sesrene

Tashrene

Tethor

Tezrene

Tolrene

Tozskene

Velrene

Yazkene

Yeskene

Yilskene

Yirikene



Warships

EC - Feldspar

DD - Quartz

CL - Garnet

CA - Ruby

LCA - Bloodstone

BCH - Amethyst

DN - Sapphire