Star Trek and History (37 page)

Star Trek
has its own history of cartography—a futuristic extension of our own. While maps are used in every version of
Star Trek
's story line, they continue to change and develop over time. The origin of stellar cartography is somewhat murky, as is the use of early extraorbital mapping methods. Terms such as
quadrant
and
sector
are frequently used, but they are rarely explained in
Star Trek
. Moreover, these terms sometimes seem arbitrary, referring to both the four major quadrants (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta) of the galaxy and smaller regions of outer space within those quadrants.
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While various cultures within the galaxy have their own mapping methods and maps, the United Federation of Planets adopts this quadrant-mapping style by the twenty-third century (
TNG
, “The Price”).

During the early twenty-second century—an era before the Federation, described in the series
Enterprise
—United Earth is almost entirely dependent on its own maps of the galaxy. This proves to be somewhat frustrating as the crew of the
Enterprise
quickly discovers the importance of translating the mapped space of other species into terms that they can understand. When attempting to uncover the cause of a Xindi ship's destruction, for example, Captain Jonathan Archer is forced to spend “half the night” working to “figure out how [the Xindi] map coordinates” so that he can track the ship's course prior to its demise (
ENT
, “Extinction”). Having the knowledge of how other species map (or, that is, what they do
not
map) also comes in handy for the
Enterprise
, which readily exploits unmapped zones for hiding (see, for example, the region of Klach D'Kel Brakt in
ENT
, “The Augments”).

When actually projecting maps for study and exploration, the crew of the
Enterprise
(and presumably United Earth's early stellar cartographers) prefer gridded maps, both as tools of navigation (
ENT
, “The Catwalk”) and detailed topographic study (
ENT
, “The Forge”). While the issue of mapping outer space is not explicitly dealt with in the twenty-third century, it can be assumed that gridded topographic maps are still the rage, as Captain Kirk and his crew encounter similar maps throughout the galaxy (see
TOS
, “A Taste of Armageddon”) and have access to a plethora of such maps in the library of the
Enterprise
's computer (
TOS
, “The Cage”). The maps and methods used in these two time periods are largely recognizable to us as obvious futurist extensions of our contemporary understanding of cartography. Archer and Kirk make maps like we make maps—uninfluenced by radically different contexts and cultures. But this begins to change by the twenty-fourth century.

The three
Star Trek
series (
The Next Generation, Voyager
, and
Deep Space Nine
) that take place (barring any time travel) during the 2300s include much more on cartographic methods and production than their predecessors. In some ways, this seems unavoidable: borders and maps obviously matter more to the Federation as its members discover new cultures and races while colonizing and exploring outer space. Interacting with the ways these other groups map also has an impact on how the Federation draws its lines and territory. The voyages of Captain Picard's USS
Enterprise
make this clear: they are almost always mapping something. In fact, mapping becomes so important by this time period that the discipline enjoys its own lab on the ship. By 2371, this initial stellar cartography lab is expanded into a massive, interactive mapping center (see
Generations
).

Even before this expansion, though, the small cartography lab is given a great deal of priority. In one episode of
Next Generation
(“Lessons”), Captain Picard is perturbed by a series of blackouts caused by the cartography department's request for most nonessential power to be diverted to their lab. When he investigates, Picard not only discovers just how much energy it takes to “construct a mathematical model of an emerging star system” but is also smitten by one of the
Enterprise
's brilliant and attractive stellar scientists—Lt. Nella Daren. When Picard encounters her, Daren is working on her project with a kind of globe. The globe itself is smooth, solid colored, and seemingly blank, but it is encompassed within a gridded dome spattered with small, starlike lights. Presumably, this is a tool for mapping stars—a tool (perhaps the first mapmaking tool within the
Star Trek
series) so futuristic that we are fairly unfamiliar with it. Unlike the maps of
Enterprise
and
Star Trek
, the interstellar maps made in this lab seem to be produced with fairly foreign technology. While Daren is eventually transferred from the
Enterprise
, the work of her cartography lab continues, playing an important role in several
Next Generation
episodes.

Also set in the twenty-fourth century, the
Voyager
and
Deep Space Nine
series offer two different examples of cartographic extremes.
Voyager
showcases an incredibly lost ship—transported seventy thousand light-years from Federation territory—deep in unknown and unmapped space. While their quest to get back home brings them into regular contact and interaction with the Borg, the crew of the
Voyager
is also exposed to many other cultures, some of which are a great deal less technologically savvy than the Federation. Nonetheless, maps are used as a universally explanatory tool. In the episode “Natural Law,” Commander Chakotay and Seven of Nine crash a shuttle on the planet Ledos while sightseeing. They quickly encounter and befriend a race of primitive humanoids, the Ventu, with whom they communicate on several occasions through hand-drawn maps traced in the dirt. As implausible as it might be to assume that (literally) alien cultures abstractly conceptualize space in the same way humans do (especially considering the anthropological evidence suggesting that this is not even the case among all humans), these instances of improvised mapmaking indicate a continued emphasis on self-orientation and cartography within the ranks of the Federation.
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In fact, the vast majority of the
Voyager
's crew presumably took courses in stellar cartography at “the Academy” (
VOY
, “Lifesigns”). For explorers stuck in strange new space, mapmaking skills undoubtedly come in handy.

Yet even those Federation officers assigned to one place are deeply interested in their star maps, which brings us to our other cartographic extreme: mapping conflict. In 1949 John K. Wright, the International Geographical Union president on the Committee of Cartography, was inspired by the events of World War II to observe that “modern war is the most powerful of all stimulants to human mobility.”
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Such military “stimulation” usually leads to a massive increase in the production of maps. Between 1941 and 1945, for example, the U.S. military created and disseminated over five million maps—a previously unfathomable number.
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It should come as no surprise then that while the Deep Space Nine starbase rarely directly participates in exploration, its involvement with territorial conflict and war drives its interest in borders and maps.

Indeed, it is during those episodes that emphasize peace talks or war strategy that the crew most regularly relies on its maps. Seemingly, the Federation's most powerful enemy in
Deep Space Nine
, the Dominion, also uses—or at least understands—maps. During one round of peace negotiations, the Dominion offers a territorial compromise by showing its Federation counterparts maps of a disputed border “before” and “after” hostilities broke out (
DS9
, “Statistical Probabilities”). Similarly, typical stellar cartography maps are used for “strategic” purposes in several
Deep Space Nine
episodes (“A Time to Stand,” “When It Rains . . .” “The Storyteller”), as is the occasional hand-drawn map (“Rocks and Shoals”).

This should not lead us to believe that all mapping methods are the same, however. The Bajorans of the twenty-fourth century, for example, use a radically different method of cartography to map the topography of Bajor—a method seemingly difficult to translate for humans (
DS9
, “The Circle”). Nevertheless, there is clearly some common standard of stellar cartography by which, at the very least, Alpha Quadrant alliances (namely, the Federation and the Dominion) can present maps to one another.

These new maps and approaches to cartography apply only to
outer
space in
Star Trek
, however. On a planet's surface, the old “tried-and-true” technology of land surveying for building construction apparently still involves the same methods of triangulation and level measuring in the twenty-fourth century that we use today in the twenty-first century (
TNG
, “Silicon Avatar”). Besides this absence of change, we never really find out how contact with other humanoid species affects mapmaking on Earth and other M-class planets.

“Borg do not have families. They have unimatrixes.”

—Seven of Nine,
VOY,
“Someone to Watch over Me”

The most radical shift in Federation mapmaking occurs sometime between the years 2374 and 2378, while the USS
Voyager
is lost deep in the Delta Quadrant. Coming into contact with new cultures gives the
Voyager
crew a chance to share their hand-drawn-mapping techniques with less technologically advanced humanoids. On several occasions, however, the stellar cartographers aboard the
Voyager
seem to be absolutely flabbergasted by the kinds of advanced mapping producers and information they discover.

When the character Quinn, of the quasi-omniscient Q Continuum, temporarily joins the crew, Commander Chakotay is eager to assign him to the department of stellar cartography. As Captain Janeway notes, “We could shut down stellar cartography with all the knowledge he'd bring to the job” (
VOY
, “Death Wish”). By that same token, in 2372 a
Voyager
shuttle manages to reach the elusive warp ten velocity. In doing so, it theoretically reaches “infinite velocity,” and the shuttle potentially occupies “every point in the universe simultaneously.” This produces over five billion gigaquads of data, which is immediately sent to the stellar cartography department for analysis and incorporation into preexisting star charts and maps (
VOY
, “Threshold”).

These discoveries, however, pale in comparison to the introduction of Borg technology into the
Voyager
's stellar cartography department. As Julia Witwer commented, empty space has typically been the Federation's “best friend” when dealing with the Borg.
20
Until the late 2360s and early 2370s, the Federation had time to prepare for the Borg's eventual attempt to assimilate Earth simply because the Alpha and Delta Quadrants were so far apart. Having unexpectedly plunged into Borg territory, though, the
Voyager
is forced to confront them quite often. One such confrontation ends in the liberation of Seven of Nine in the year 2374. As a member of the
Voyager
crew and an ex-Borg, Seven of Nine periodically introduces innovative technological additions and changes to the ship.

One such change is made to the
Voyager
's astrometrics lab. While its function is somewhat ambiguous, the use of astrometrics throughout this series seems to suggest that it uses various sensors to measure information about stellar objects. In the
Voyager
episode “Year of Hell,” Seven of Nine and Ensign Kim “merge Starfleet and Borg ingenuity” so as to create a form of stellar cartography based on astrometrics. As Seven of Nine explains, “Astrometric sensors measure the radiative flux of up to three billion stars simultaneously. The computer then calculates our position relative to the center of the galaxy” (
VOY
, “Year of Hell”). This allows the
Voyager
to plot a new course back to the Alpha Quadrant, which ends up slicing five years off routes home that the crew had previously mapped.

When Seven of Nine demonstrates the new stellar cartographic technology, her map of the galaxy is clearly split into gridded segments. While grid maps have been used by the Federation prior to this moment (as mentioned previously), the application of the grid to entire galaxies is new and, until this moment, had only been achieved by the Borg.

The Borg have a wholly unique way of mapping, especially when compared with other species. Whereas the Cardassians, the Bajorans, the Klingons, humans, and others
name
inhabited planets, stars, and systems, the Borg simply assign quantitative spatial designations to various locations in outer space. This makes sense, though—the Borg are primarily a function.
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They have no subjectivity, no emotion, and no self-perceived history. Just as they assign various assimilated cultures a “species” label followed by a seemingly arbitrary number, Borg interstellar mapping includes only terminological markers (such as “matrix,” “grid,” and “occtant”), also followed by a number. In this way, places are made to be unique only in their relative spatial relationship to the Borg. Borg drones are also identified by spatial subdivisions, or “unimatrixes.” A unimatrix can be further divided into “trimatrixes,” “grids,” and “occtants” (
VOY
, “Drone”). Thus, a drone's identity is wrapped up in its spatiality. Seven of Nine's full Borg designation, for example, is “Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01.”