2388

2388 Timeline: The Ruins and the Summit

May 2388 — Mining the Ruins

• Three years after the artificial supernova, the Romulan Star Empire returns to the ruined Romulus system under heavy Tal’Shiar security.
• Romulan mining platforms begin harvesting rare isotopes, metals, and gravimetric anomalies left behind by the destruction of Romulus and Remus.
• The resources are vital for rebuilding the Romulan fleet, stabilising New Romulus, and strengthening defences against future Dominion retaliation.
• Sela supports the operation through Tal’Shiar channels, ensuring the project remains hidden from Dominion intelligence and rival Romulan factions.
• Reman survivors are divided over the operation, with some seeing it as grave-robbing and others, including factions around Shinzon, viewing the ruins as a source of power that should not belong solely to Romulus.
• Lantern-linked observers quietly monitor the mining project, suspecting the Romulans may be recovering more than raw materials from the debris field.
• By the end of May, the Romulus system has become both a graveyard and a strategic prize, protected by cloaked warbirds and haunted by every lie that created it.

October 2388 — Shadows of the Past

• A diplomatic summit is convened on Tellar Prime to discuss limited trade corridors, prisoner exchanges, and reconstruction access between Dominion-held worlds and neutral powers.
• Representatives from the Dominion, Romulan Star Empire, Klingon factions, Ferengi interests, and minor independent worlds attend under heavy DPI and Jem’Hadar surveillance.
• The Dominion presents the summit as proof that order has returned, but most attendees treat it as a battlefield with better furniture.
• Fenris Ranger envoys and Lantern-linked intermediaries push for local autonomy, refugee protections, and limits on Dominion reprisals.
• Tellarite delegates use the summit to remind the quadrant that Tellar never formally surrendered, infuriating Dominion officials.
• The conference collapses after accusations of Dominion war crimes, Romulan deception, Klingon raids, and Lantern interference dominate the proceedings.
• By the end of October, the summit has failed publicly, but private backchannels between resistance groups, neutral powers, and defectors grow stronger in its wake.