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Singularity
Short for Quantum Singularity, which is a star that has collapsed in on itself, creating what we call a "black hole". Because this dying star has such huge mass, it becomes too strong for even neutrons to resist. It eventually collapses down to one incredibly dense point, called a singularity. This singularity is surrounded by an event horizon in which the gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape.

Sonic Shower
Technology installed in all crew quarters in Federation starships. These showers are used for personal hygiene and probably works by using high frequency sound waves that disintegrate the dirt and grease on the outside of the skin.

Spatial Rift
An opening between two different dimensions.

Spatial Trajector
Technology used by the Sikaris that can transport a starship or a person over 40,000 lightyears away by folding space. The technology is not compatible with federation technology.

Starfleet
Starfleet is a division within The Federation. It's in charge of space travel; first contact with new species, diplomacy between different species and worlds, researching and exploring space as well as defending Federation interests. Starfleet Headquarters and Starfleet Academy are based in San Fransisco, Earth.

Starfleet Academy
A four year training program for future starfleet officers located at Starfleet Headquarters in San Fransisco, Earth. The Academy's motto is "Ex Astris, Scientia" which means "from the stars, knowledge". You have to take a difficult entrance exam, which includes parts such as a spych-test, dynamic relationships and a hyperspace physics test. Only the brightest applicants with the highest test scores will be accepted into the academy. The cadets can during the years at the academy specialize in different fields, such as engineering, piloting, or astrophysics. Applicants from non-federation worlds need a letter of recommendation from a command-level Starfleet officer to be allowed to take the Starfleet entrance exam.

Cadet 4th class: first-year students. They all take the same elementary courses such as standard physics and mathematics.
Cadet 3rd class: second-year students. The cadets take part in field training.
Cadet 2nd class: third-year students. There's a six-week course of actual space walks.
Cadet 1st class: fourth-year students. The cadets earn the rank Ensign if they pass the final exam.

Starfleet Headquarters
Located near the Federation Council building in San Fransisco, Earth. You find the Starfleet Academy, the Astrophysics center, the medical center and The Quantum café (the officer's club) here.

Starfleet Ranks

Captain
This rank is often held by the commanding officer of a starship or a starbase. Captains wear four golden rank pips on the right side of their collar. Janeway carries the rank of captain.

Commander
Either the commanding officer of a space station or a starship or the first officer of an important starship. Commanding officers wear three golden rank pips on the right side of their collar. Chakotay carries the rank of Commander.

Lieutenant commander
Often held by officers which heads a department on a starship. Lieutenant Commanders wear two golden rank pips, and one pip with a black filled circle on top, on the right side of their collar. Tuvok started out as a lieutenant but was promoted to a Lieutenant Commander in Revulsion

Lieutenant
Sometimes held by officers which heads a department on a starship. Lieutenants wear two golden rank pips on the right side of their collar. Joe Carey is a full lieutenant. Durst, Chapman, Baxter, Ayala, Rollins and Nicoletti are all lieutenants but I'm unsure if they are full or junior grade lieutenants.

Lieutenant junior grade
Officers that often hold support positions on a starship and starbase. Can sometimes head a department and is referred to as Lieutenant. Junior grade Lieutenants wear one golden rank pip, and one pip with a black filled circle on top on the right side of their collar. Torres and Paris are both junior grade Lieutenants.

Ensign
This is the rank given to cadettes when they graduate from Starfleet Academy. A newly graduated ensign will most often join the ranks of one of the most junior officers. Ensigns, like Harry Kim, who strongly distinguish themselves during their academy years can sometimes be given posts as senior bridge officers. Ensigns wear one golden rank pip on the right side of their collar. Kim, Wildman, Vorik, Seska, Baytart, Ballard, Hogan, Ashmore, Tabor are all ensigns. Paris was briefly demoted to ensign but earned back his grade.

Non-commissioned officer/petty officer
An enlisted member of Starfleet who has not attended Starfleet Academy. They function as lower-ranking crew with authority over other enlisted crewmen. The EMH is a non-commissioned officer.

Crewman
This is the lowest enlisted rank. This rank is given to a person after having completed a training course, involving basic instructions about filling a position in starfleet. Chell, Jor, Jonas, Celes, Henley and Harren are all crewmen.

Sto-Vo-Kor
Klingon heaven. A Klingon warrior go to Sto-Vo-Kor if he or she has lived and died honorably.

Subspace
Subspace exists throughout space, outside the normal three dimensional space. Subspace allows vessels to reach warp speed and to make subspace transmissions.

Subspace Fracture
A fracture in the subspace continuum that allows subspace to enter normal space.

Supernova
An explosion of a star that causes the star to shine millions of times brighter than usual. This explosion occurs at the end of a star's lifetime when it has depleted its nuclear fuel.

Synthehol
A substitute to alcohole. As long as one have the enzyme that break down synthehol one can enjoy the beverage without experiencing the negative side effects of alcohole.

Targ
A dark brown animal from the Klingon home world resembling a boar. Klingons hunt wild Targs for sport but many Klingons also domesticate them and keep them as pets. The holo-character Moklor tells B'Elanna to eat from the heart of a sanctified Targ during the Day of Honor ritual because the heart of a wild Targ is supposed bring courage to anyone who eats it. B'Elanna owns a stuffed targ called Toby.

Tau Ceti
Janeway's father Edward drowned under the polar ice cap at Tau Ceti Prime. The Tau ceti system is situated 12 light years away from our Solar System and it's similar in size and shape.

Temporal Prime Directive
A Starfleet principle that forbids any Starfleet personnel from directly interfering with historical events. They also have to keep technology, items or knowledge that do not belong in the era they are visiting from being found. This is important to maintain the timeline and prevent history from being altered. See also the Prime Directive

Temporal Rift
A symmetrical tear in time that opens up an alternate time line.

Tetrion Particles
A field of subatomic particles that the Caretaker used to scan Voyager.

Theta Radiation
Theta Radiation comes from Anti-Matter waist. Exposure can lead to Theta-radiation poisoning. Federation starships have the technology to recycle their anti-matter waist while species like the Malon do not. They dump their toxic waist in remote parts of space.

Thorium Isotopes
A naturally occurring, slightly radioactive chemical element which is used to power Cataati ships.

Tractor Beam
A Graviton force beam used by starships for towing other vessels or retrieving objects outside the ship.

Transporter
Transporters converts objects or persons to energy, sends that energy to a specific destination, and reassembles the objects/persons back into matter. Since the transporter's energy can't penetrate deflector shields it is necessary to lower the shields to be able to use the transporter. This can be a problem during attacks when the transporters need to be used since the ship is defenceless without shields.

Transwarp
Borg ships can gain transwarp speed, which is around 20 times faster than warp theory allows. They travel through transwarp conduits by sending an encoded tachyon pulse that activates the conduit.

Transwarp Hub
There are only six transwarp hubs in the galaxy. Transwarp hubs send out high neutrino emissions and an intermittent graviton flux. A transwarp hub connects thousands of transwarp conduits to endpoints in all four quadrants of the galaxy, making the hubs a great tactical advantage to the Borg. One of these hubs existed in a Delta Quadrant nebula in Spatial Grid 986. Voyager was able to destroy the hub by firing transphasic torpedoes once they were inside transwarp conduit 9, which caused a cascade reaction. Voyager was able to stay ahead of the shock wave and exited the hub less than a light year from Earth.

Tricorder
A small hand-held device invented by Starfleet scientists. It's like a small computer with many different capabilities like scanning and recording information. It is standard equipment for crewmembers on away-mission. there are also medical tricorders and engineering tricorders that are developed especially for performing medical and engineering tasks.

United Federation of Planets
The United Federation of Planets (UFP or the federation for short) was founded in 2161. It's a union of planets led by representatives from the different member planets. Federation members agree to work together and share what ever resources they have and to follow Federation principles and goals. The Federation consists of over 100 different worlds.

Unimatrix 1
This is the center of the Borg civilization where the Borg Queen's large unicomplex and central Alcove is situated. The Borg Queen spends most of her time here but will sometimes leave unimatrix 1 to supervise assimilation of different species.

Universal Translator
A device installed in Federation Comm badges that translates different languages, using complex linguistic databases, to allow people from different species to understand each other. The device probably works by comparing brain-wave frequencies and other patterns of communication to make an accurate translation. The universal translator is sometimes unable to translate some languages because the alien's language is too complex, but the translator can be modified to understand more languages.

Vinculum
The Vinculum links the minds of all drones together, purges individual thoughts and "brings order to chaos". It's located in the core of every Borg vessel.

Vorilium
A naturally occuring mineral.

Vulcan Spice Tea
A Tea that Tuvok some times drink containing vulcan spices.

Warp Coil
Federation starships depend on warp coils to form a subspace field that the vessel travels in at warp speed. The warp coils are a part of the nacelles.

Warp Core
A reaction of Matter and Anti-Matter creates a controlled explosion within the warp core. This explosion generates enough plasma to power a starship.

Warp Core Breech
A breech occurs when containment of the controlled reaction between matter and anti-matter is lost (anti-matter can get in contact with matter). This produces enough energy to destroy the starship. Because of this possibility, starships can either initiate an emergency warp core shutdown or eject the core to prevent destruction of the ship.

Warp Drive
Propulsion system used for faster-than-light speed. Warp drive operates by creating a stable warp field around the ship. By maintaining a continuous matter-antimatter reaction, the ship can maintain this warp field indefinitely. A starship needs a warp core, a warp coil and matter/anti-matter injectors, among other things, to go to warp. Warp drive was invented by the terran scientist Zefram Cochrane in 2063.

Velocity
This game is a one-on-one sport. The two players must avoid being hit by a disk, by shooting it with a phaser; each player tries to hit the other competitor to gain points.

White Dwarf
A star that has exhausted most or all of its nuclear fuel and has collapsed to a very small size.

Wolf 359
The third closest star system to Sol. It is located 7.8 light-years away. The first major battle between the Borg and the Federation took place at Wolf 359 in 2366.

Wormhole
A shortcut between two fixed points in the universe. You can travel through vast areas of space within minutes by using a worm hole. Some wormholes have alternate exit points in the universe. A useful analogy for how a wormhole works is a two-dimensional piece of paper with a pair of dots on it. An ant wishes to go from one dot to another. It can walk from one point to another, but it would be significantly faster to fold the piece of paper and let the ant take a shortcut. A wormhole works on the same basic principle.

Y-Class Planet
Also known as Demon-class planets because of their extremely hostile atmosphere full of toxic gases and thermionic radiation. These planets cannot sustain organic life and the temperature on the surface can exceed 500 kelvin. X, Y and Z-class planets have particularly hostile environments and cannot host humanoid life.

Zimmerman, Dr
Dr Zimmerman is the Starfleet engineer who created the doctor's program, EMH Mark I. He has also created several other EMH programs at Jupiter Station.