First stages.

2403.

Captain Eli Morgan sat in his chair as he stared at the image on the view screen of a whole solar system - 14 planets, 4 planets close to the sun in a ring with orbiting moons, inhabitable with atmospheres similar to Earth, the other planets were lifeless rocks.

Morgan leant back in his chair. Ever since the Dominion war, the Borg purges and the Voth war, the Federation had used up many of its resources and now needed new ones. Asteroids, comets, planets, moons - all were mined. The inhabitable planets were colonised for the rapidly expanding populations of the Federation.

Sometimes, Morgan remembered the old days, where the Federation explored the galaxies - Andromeda had been reached 6 years previously, seen many wonders. Now, exploration had largely become exploitation. It was slight.

But it was there.