USS Seneca

This was the first of the four huge colony ships sent to Raana in the years 2230, 2231, 2233 and 2237, following the initial, much smaller colony ship USS Dorothea which had "vanished" on arrival a century earlier. The Seneca was a gargantuan ex-space-dreadnought, modified to carry 5,812 optimistic men and women selected with a wide range of academic and professional skills and from diverse socioeconomic groups - plus technological equipment suitable for starting an advanced colony.

The ship passed through the Celassi quantum gate and entered orbit around Raana about 250 years ago, from where it founded the Ikaanos colony and has remained its "brain" ever since - connecting with the surface via five shuttles.

The Seneca is now generally known as "The Mastersphere", or just "the Sphere", as, after centuries of instability and society-changing events following The Severance in which Raana lost contact with Earth, the Sphere has remained the primary source of political power on Ikaanos - thanks to its ion cannons, and safe location in orbit - but those controlling it have failed to keep up to the lofty ideals of the initial colonists.

The small group of individuals who currently call the Sphere home include The Senate who control The Republic, and The Chancellor who controls The Senate. Them and their powerful allies are collectively referred to as "The Spheremasters". Residing in the Sphere, they can still enjoy most of the luxuries that were widely available before the Severance from Earth, and which are now a distant memory or thing of legend for those on the surface of Ikaanos. Artificial gravity levels covering approximately 20 million square feet, in which the powerful elite indulge in virtual worlds, partake of unimaginable sex orgies, and experience cuisine of indescribable delights. All maintained by the still-functioning pre-Severance technology of The Seneca, plus plundering from the less fortunate surface dwellers below.