Ceti Alpha V

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Ceti Alpha V
The harsh environment of Ceti Alpha V requires protective gear
Class:	Class M planet
Quadrant:	Alpha

In the science fiction universe of Star Trek, Ceti Alpha V is the fifth planet in the Ceti Alpha star system, consisting of a Class M, or Earth-like environment.

It was settled in the year 2268 by the legendary ruler Khan Noonien Singh and his small group of fellow genetically engineered supermen who were in their search for a new existence away from Earth, as they flee punishment and defeat following their loss of the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s.

The system was surveyed as safe by U.S.S. Enterprise just prior to Khan's settlement. The ship's captain, James T. Kirk, exiled Khan and his people there after they attempted to steal his ship. The attempted coup and resulting settlement on Ceti Alpha V are detailed in the original Star Trek series episode "Space Seed" (see detailed synopsis here).

Unbeknownst to Kirk, the planet was infested with a deadly parasitic bug-like creature that Khan named the Ceti eel. The eel lays young in the ear canal of a human victim, and the worm burrows into the brain, which slowly destroys the victim's mind. The eel killed many of Khan's people, including Khan's wife Marla McGivers, who was once a member of the Enterprise's crew.

To make things worse for Khan's people, the nearby planet of Ceti Alpha VI exploded six months after their arrival, and the shock shifted Ceti Alpha V's orbit, and made the planet nearly uninhabitable.

Khan spent 15 years on the hellish world until Ceti Alpha V was mistakenly visited by the U.S.S. Reliant. The Reliant's crew believed it to be Ceti Alpha VI and a potential test site for the Genesis Device. Khan manages to hijack the Reliant and then seeks to avenge his 15 years of hell out on Captain Kirk.

Khan's people's experience, from the end of "Space Seed" to the Terrell/Chekov beamdown in "The Wrath of Khan", is non-canonically chronicled in the 2006 novel, "To Reign In Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh".

In addition, years before any of this occurred, Captain Jonathan Archer of the starship Enterprise (NX-01) and Vulcan T'Pol lived here in an alternate future in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Twilight". Due to temporal parasites, Archer had become unable to form new memories. Eventually, the parasites were eliminated from time and this future never took place. This settlement was said to house the last remaining humans in the galaxy; consequently, even if they had been able to fight off the Xindi, they would have still suffered from the explosion of Ceti Alpha VI, which in the "real" time-line had caused Khan and his followers significant trouble. Additionally, it can be assumed that Khan and the other "supermen" would have still been on the Botany Bay sleeper ship, since Kirk's Enterprise would not have existed to be able to find them.