Ephyre is situated on one of the few habitable areas of Merope IV. Most of the planet is arid desert, with scattered areas of lush forest surrounding it's lakes. Ephyre has grown up out of one of these such areas.
Ephyre covers an area of approximately 137 square kilometers. The Ephyre Forest is shaped rather irregularly, providing seclusion and privacy for those who want it. It's many arms forming promontaries, reaching into one of the seven large inland lakes which constitute Meropes main habitable areas.
The forested areas and lakes all fall within 7 degrees either side of the equator. Beyond this the desert begins.. with vast rocky plains, huge white silicon sand pans, and little to no vegation, nor shelter.

The polar incline ranges from 32.8 degrees at apogee to 21.5 degrees at perigee, leading to some minor extremes of temperature during the winter seasons, and mild, if shorter summers. The 11.3 degree differential also gives rise to, as yet not fully researched, planetquakes, during the summer and winter Equinox periods. the orbital period of Merope IV approximates 14 months, or 427 days, 12 hours. Day length is longer than on Terra, 26 hours 19 minutes in summer and 29 hours 32 minutes during winter. Its closest planetary partner is Merope III, located 5 degrees off the orbital plain in an almost circular orbit, 168 million kilometers closer to the Merope star.

The Merope star is a binary, consisting of a blue-white giant and a yellow dwarf star known as Merope-alpha. The two orbit in very close companionship, some 40 million kilometres apart, Merope-alpha spinning at a furious rate, of one rotation every 19 minutes, and orbits it's giant partner every 6 hours 40 minutes. Both stars share plasmatic material, thereby maintaining a constant state of fusion in the smaller companion.
This binary companionship brings a special meaning to twilight on Merope IV, as it waxes & wanes over a four hour period before total darkness falls.
Nights on Merope IV are often quite cold, temperatures dropping to minus 30 degrees celsius in the Southern Desert, minus 22 degrees in the Northern Desert. Equatorial temperatures are much more bearable overall, extending from 37 degrees at summers height to minus 6 degrees in the depths of winter. Rain has never been recorded on Merope IV.

It is postulated that for the immense subterranean oceans to have formed, Merope IV must, at some stage, have been a totally frozen world, warmed following the capture of Merope-alpha in the early stages of the systems development.
The Ephyre Colony is newly established, having been setup by Federation Engineers as a set of six joined temporary shelters on a high bluff overlooking one of the seven inland lakes bordering the southern edge of the the equatorial grasslands. Since colonisation, several more permanent structures have been erected, as the new residents have begun to build their new world.

In late 2398 a device was discovered on Ephyre's northern boundary, just on the edge of a forested area. The device has come to be known as 'The Gate' amongst the local residents, but there are other groups who refer to it variously as the Window, or the StarGate.
The Gate stands on a tessellated pavement of some sort of previously unknown rock-like compound. This substance appears to act like an enourmous solar collector, somehow being converted by The Gate, and powering it. The Gate is activated by pressing certain combinations of panels on a 'dialler' mechanism, situated beside The Gate. As the panels are pressed the outer rim of The Gate rotates, locking chevrons located at the 'corners' into position. As the final panel is pressed and the rim rotates into it's final position, the last chevron locks, and the area within The Gate appears to become liquid, rushing out with great force, before settling back into a shimmering vertical surface, looking like a liquid, filling the centre of The Gate.
When a brave soul steps into the liquid face of The Gate a wormhole effect is brought into effect beyond The Gate, transporting the traveller immense distances across space, to emerge from a similar device on another planet.
Due to the solar powered nature of The Gate functionality ceases once the sun sets. For this reason the Ephyre Gate is somewhat unique, due to the twin suns. The setting of one of the suns causes a period of lesser light, but as there is not real night, The Gate continues to funtion. Some of the initial exploratory journeys did prove to be quite dangerous, when encountering Gates that actually did shut down at night. In these instances however, The Gate did broadcast warnings that Shutdown was imminent. As night is an unknown quantity on these unexplored worlds, travellers must be aware of this, and watch the sun at their destination with a careful eye.