Station Salem-One question

[lord Martiya]

Just a little question about this misteryous space station: is anything known about it, apart that suffered a sneak attack at the start of a war? I mean, known for sure: most fans say it was destroyed by the Romulans at the start of the Earth-Romulan War, but as far I know it's fanon...

[Crazedwraith]

I'd never even heard of it.

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Station_Salem-One

Certainly there's nothing in canon. And it doesn't even rate an article on Memory Beta. So the books haven't clarified it either.

[Baffalo]

Just a little question about this misteryous space station: is anything known about it, apart that suffered a sneak attack at the start of a war? I mean, known for sure: most fans say it was destroyed by the Romulans at the start of the Earth-Romulan War, but as far I know it's fanon...

It's a throwaway line trying to compare it to American history, but there are a few things we can assume just by the clues given.

1) It's a Federation station (the name Salem),
2) It's a major disaster for the Federation in that it was attacked and possibly destroyed,

Now, of the two shows (TOS and TNG), we only knew of two races with access to cloaking technology, the Romulans and Klingons. From the information available on Memory Alpha, I'm going to go with the assumption that Station Salem One was an Earth Outpost along the Romulan Neutral zone that was destroyed in 2266 when a rogue Romulan Bird of Prey crossed the Neutral Zone. (TOS: Balance of Terror).

[Uraniun235]

Just a little question about this misteryous space station: is anything known about it, apart that suffered a sneak attack at the start of a war? I mean, known for sure: most fans say it was destroyed by the Romulans at the start of the Earth-Romulan War, but as far I know it's fanon...

Sometimes a throwaway line of dialogue is just a throwaway line of dialogue.

[lord Martiya]

Now, of the two shows (TOS and TNG), we only knew of two races with access to cloaking technology, the Romulans and Klingons. From the information available on Memory Alpha, I'm going to go with the assumption that Station Salem One was an Earth Outpost along the Romulan Neutral zone that was destroyed in 2266 when a rogue Romulan Bird of Prey crossed the Neutral Zone. (TOS: Balance of Terror).

It also says the attack was the bloody start of a war, and no war started after that incursion. Plus, whoever did the attack could have used different means. Like coming in peace with no apparent weapon and then nuking the station, or attacking from a nebula, approaching the station under some kind of non-cloack camuflage, or just coming there and hitting it with whatever they had as their way to make them known. Hell, for what we know it could have been a station in Earth orbit destroyed by a Kzinti invasion fleet as their way to say hello and scare the Terran nations into submission, before being nuked into oblivion by the remaining WWIII missiles. That's why I asked: Salem-One is the name of an Earth or Federation station victim of a sneak attack that started a war, and I was trying to know what bases has the fandom idea making it the start of the Earth-Romulan War.


On the Kzinti part, I can see how it could have happened...
Telepath: They're desperate, and see the stars and that Stationsalemone as their hope for the future.
Admiral: Good. Destroy the station, then open a channel.
*Station Salem-One is destroyed.*
Admiral: People of Earth, we are the Kzinti. You are now our subjects!
Telepath: My lord, they're really pissed, and have launched a thousand of nukes on us.
Admiral: What's a nuk-
*The Kzinti find out what a nuke is.*