The Early Years

Five years prior to the start of the Dominion War, the Asurans, until then a neutral and independent society located within Federation space, petitioned for Federation membership. As part of their application they invited the Federation to construct a Starbase in their system, something they had refused the Federation only a few years before. A highly advanced sociological and technological society, the Asurans were an ideal candidate for Federation membership; a possibility they had resisted for many years.

One of the challenges that the Asurans faced was the location of their world, only a short distance from the Romulan Neutral Zone. Romulan incursions into Federation and Asuran territory began to increase, greatly distressing the Asurans, who had refined a variety of sensor technologies to be able to detect Romulan violations of their territory, even while cloaked. This was something the Romulans were unaware of, but something that the Federation suspected, and was part of the reason for the attempts to establish a base in Asuran space.

With their security and culture at stake, the Asurans sought Federation membership, and the advantages that come with it, mainly collective security. Although initially surprised by the about face, the Federation moved quickly in response to both the petition and invitation. Within a year, under heavy guard, Starfleet's Corps of Engineering began construction of a Stardock-class starbase above a heavy planet outlier, Nāmaka, far away from Asura III, the home world.

The Asurans, being a non-hostile species, kept to their homeworld, and attempted no colonization on the other worlds of their star system. Within two years the new starbase was completed and was designated Starbase 182.

For two decades, SB182 lived up to her name nicely. She served as a vanguard against the Romulans in the tense period prior to the Dominion War, and then found herself a way point as the Romulans became allies of the Federation and the Klingons along the way.

In the years following the war, with Starfleet personnel stretched thin, control of 109 was given to the Federation Civilian Defense Authority. The importance of the base declined, and the number of personnel, including civilians, shrank well below 90,000. As a period of detente has reemerged, the base is once again under Starfleet control, re-designated Starbase 109. In the three years since ownership returned to Starfleet, the population has grown to over 60,000 Starfleet personnel, and 160,000 civilians. Full capacity for both has not been reached.