The Wormhole into the Delta Quadrant has an interesting history. As the Loremaster of the F'asa sector, I will now reveal its secret.
2371. The USS Agamemnon, patrolling the Romulan Neutral zone, was ordered to investigate a reported temporal anomaly in the area close to the Obsalom system. When they got there, they discovered a portal into a tunnel, like that of a wormhole. At the same time, a beautiful young woman appeared on the bridge, boldly declaring that there was a garden planet on the other side of the wormhole, and that both the planet and the Wormhole was a gift from her to the Federation. She called herself Aylah. The wormhole looked steady on the sensors, but the Captain did not trust this enigmatic entity that just popped up on his bridge, a being fetchingly named by the crew as QT (Cutie).
He therefore sent in a shuttle with his most experienced crew, Awayteam Beta. QT tagged along, and adopted Starfleet uniform, as a cadet. The trip through the wormhole was exiting, and the sensors recorded all of the data available. QT stated that she just graduated from School in the Q-Continuum, and this wormhole and the uninhabited planet at the other end was her graduation work. She explained how she constructed the wormhole:
"All of it started when a Meteorite accelerated by gravitational waves reached light speed. It slingshot around the planet, and opened up a rift in space. I was just returning from another experiment on a nearby planet, when I saw what happened. We had just read about it in school, so I recognized it immediately as a temporary wormhole. I followed after, and we popped out right here. I took a look around, and liked what I saw, so I hunted after the meteorite, an brought it back. To get a stable wormhole, the meteorite must travel back and forth like a pendulum. That gave me an idea. I took some matter from a nearby asteroid field, and melded a string of super-elastic matter, and anchored it on the meteor. Then I went in after the meteorite, and found a dense planet to anchor it to right between the two openings, and presto, the galactic pendulum kept the wormhole stable."
The sensor did pick up an
incredibly dense planet ahead, and veered of to avoid colliding
with it, and the cable could also be found. As the passed the
planet, they noticed the meteor bouncing back, and they managed
to avoid that as well. The data collected here would later translate
into a map of navigating the wormhole. They eventually reached
the end of the winding tunnel, and popped out in orbit of a beautiful
planet.
Careful interrogation with QT established that her powers were
limited, and corresponded to the amount of adoration she got from
here followers. She also explained that her other experiment included
masquerading as a Sun Goddess to a race of underdeveloped humanoids.
That way she got power enough to create this haven for the Federation.
The Awayteam leader was not so easily persuaded, and a careful
check found evidence of a number of high tech locations among
the natural greenery of the planet. She then admitted that there
had been some colonization since she last saw the planet.
The shuttle was then hailed
by a space control center in one of the cities on the northern
continent. The shuttle requested to land, to talk to the people
in charge, and was directed to a landing pad. They were met cordially
by a race calling themselves Enabrans. They look like humans,
but has a very distinct brow-ridge. On the way in, the Enabrans
explained that this was a Market Base, a shake-and-bake colony
specialized in trade. The other two cities were similar colonies,
one from a race called Ssorans, and the last was a KessRith base.
They found out that the Lac Terra, as the planet was called, was
divided between two indigenous races, a mountain tribe, and a
lowland tribe. The lowland tribe was more civilized, and owned
most of the land, and all colonizers had bought a chunk of land
for their colonies.
QT shook her slender shoulders when confronted with that fact, and stated that when she left, she had been the Sun Goddess for the Lowland tribes for a century, and no other colonies were present. Further prodding showed that she had tampered with the local sun in her capacity as Sun Goddess, and it almost backfired and would have engulfed the planet as a red giant, had she not expended most of her pent-up power to contain it. It was about then that she noticed the meteorite, and decided to go for another experiment, ending up creating the wormhole.
The away team was asked if they liked to see some of the local customs, and agreed. They were brought to a mountain city high up in the northern continent's snow covered peaks. It was almost like a ski resort, and lots of tourists wandered the streets. As with all cities, there were places to avoid when being a tourist, and the area near the Temple was one such place. Their Enabran guide explained that the Mountain tribe was a bit less civilized, and they used blood sacrifice. Anyone near the temple, on the plaza, not being a priest was considered volunteers for the ritual to bring the Sun Goddess back to them. QT was silent, so nothing much happened, except that a shout for help was heard at night when the team was on their way back to their hotel. An Enabran Woman in fine clothes were roughed up by local yahoos in a side street. The team entered the fight, and solved the potentially hostile situation with diplomacy.
The Enabran Lady asked them for their help, which they agreed to. They discovered a plot by her brother, and helped to solve it. As a reward, they were invited to her home planet, Enabra II, a lush and beautiful planet nearby, with a large and industrious population of merchants. There they were met by her father, a Merchant Prince, and was even more put into the picture of the situation in the sector, and the various civilizations were mapped out. He also helped the Federation to buy a tract of land where the Cape Town colony was later placed.
The Awayteam reported back to the USS Agamemnon, and the Galaxy class ship entered the wormhole. The team was picked up, with all the data and a deed of land in their hands. The information was relayed back to the Beta Quadrant, and a team of engineers were assembled to build the colony. Meanwhile, the Agamemnon toured the nearby planets, and explored the sector for the first time. The colony builders arrived, and the outpost was quickly established. The Enabrans were delighted to see the Federation here, as were the Lowland tribe that got rich by selling the land. The KessRith were moderately happy, but the Ssorans was the loudest opposition to the establishment of the colony. But since the land was not theirs to sell, they could only watch as the construction took place.
The KessRith and the Ssorans were ancestral enemies, so whatever the Ssorans disliked, the KessRith liked. The Federation engineers and servicemen kept calling the planet New Terra, and was delighted that the word Lac was new in the local lingo. The planet was then renamed New Terra on the local starcharts. The Enabrans, an industrial, but weak nation military wise, studied the UFP, and found it to be a good ally in a troubled part of the sector, between the civilizations of the KessRith, the Ssorans, and the mysterious race on the other side, the Mrrshans. A coalition of planets were formed, and a number of colonized Enabran planets followed suite, forming the nucleus of what is the UFP [DQ] of today.
A Trade council was formed, to handle the paperwork according to the Enebran way of business, and the KessRith and the Ssorans were invited to sit in as well. Even a trapped Ferengi Trader joined. He had been brought to the sector by the way of another wormhole, beyond the Ssoran Hegemony. To defend the capitol of their new alliance, a spacestation was built, named Deep Space Delta, and a number of starships were detailed to service in the sector, the USS Hunter, the USS Dauntless and a few others. The USS Agamemnon had tried to contact the Mrrshans, but was met with violent force, and could only just limp back after an ambush, and consequently scrapped to provide parts for the spacestation.