THE VEDALA
A race of cat-like creatures, the Vedala are an ancient, mysterious race that the United Federation of Planets knows little about. The Vedala are extremely powerful, and one of the oldest starfaring races known. In fact, the ancient Tkon Empire makes reference to this race and their enigmatic planetoid ships.
The Vedalans travel through space using large planetoid ships. Apparently, two planetoid ships operate in Sector 2 to cover Romulan Space, two out of Sector 4 in Klingon Space, and two in Sector 1, in Federation space. One ship appears to always be in each of the three operational areas. What their purposes are remains a mystery.
Described by Starfleet Admiral Richendra O'Doyle as,"Powerful troubleshooters who seek to limit conflicts between races," the Vedala forcibly halted the Romulan-Vulcan War and promoted the Skorr race to peace (after thousands of years of continual warfare). The Vedala also have a destructive side as well: brutally intervening in the Menthar-Promellian War, the Vedalans wiped out both sides nearly 1,000 years ago. By conducting pre-emptive strikes against Menthar and Promellian fleets and their homeworlds, the Vedalans demonstrated that they would not hesitate to take swift and violent action if they saw their interests threatened. Members of this race seems to show themselves only one at a time and can also transport people across vast reaches of space.
The Vedala also appear to be very pro-Federation: they destroyed the Builders (a Borg-like organo-technic sect) who threatened to take over the early Federation in 2190. Also, in an effort to defuse rising tensions in Sector 33G (near the Skorr Empire), the Vedala assembled a highly specialized mission to recover the Soul of Alar, a holy object revered by that race. Led by Starfleet Captain James T. Kirk, the mission went ahead as planned, and the Soul of Alar was recovered, averting a devastating galactic war.
On Stardate 10017, the Federation starship USS Wellington observed strange readings from Beta Maximus, a rare hypergiant star located in Federation space. Located in Sector 272-K, an area populated with 14 Federation colonies and several alien homeworlds, Beta Maximus was entering a period of solar instability. Upon entering the system the USS Wellington observed the Vedala planetoid ship fired a massive beam of anti-particles into the heart of Beta Maximus. Then in a three-day process the Vedala planetoid fired several dozen quantum singularities into the core of the star. Beta Maximus then proceeded to implode into a large black hole, and the crew of the USS Wellington watched in awe as the Vedalan planetoid ship withdrew without communicating. Several prominent Vulcan Academy scientists have theorized that if Beta Maximus had continued it's downward spiral and supernovaed, that 2/3rds of the Federation would have been rendered uninhabitable. The Vedalans only possible goal must have been to implode the hypergiant star to stop it from its destructive course.
Strangely enough, the Vedalans are also capable of temporal manipulation and are expert terraformers. Many M-class planets in Federation space show signs of Vedalan manipulation, including the Dubhe Quaternary System (where six worlds were partially terraformed by them). The Vedalans have also perfected genetic engineering and are true masters of gene manipulation and uplift. A Federation science team in the Bylaren System observed this process when the Vedalans showed up on Stardate 21002 and began changing Bylaren III's environment. Using their abilities, the Vedalans also relieved the plasma plague on the high-population world Supreme, and the nullified the deadly Phyrox Plague in Sector 27-K.
The Vedalans disappeared around the same time as the Chodak, and some Federation philosophers have speculated that there was a conflict between the two races, a conflict which wiped out both species. But no one knows for sure.
