Harkoum

**Harkoum** was a marginally-Class M desert planet in the Geliod system, Almatha sector. A Cardassian colony was founded on there in the mid-to-late 22nd century. It had a harsh climate, with little vegetation or surface water.

The planet's lack of indigenous sentient life made it ideal for large-scale industrial operations, and Harkoum quickly became one of the Cardassian Union's biggest producers of raw minerals and refined alloys, including duranium. (*DS9* novel: *Warpath*)

## History

For just over a hundred years, strip mines, munitions plants and other industries thrived on Harkoum. But by the turn of the 24th century, the planet's resources had been expended and most manufacturing, mining and refinery operations ceased.

Though most of the industry and government infrastructure was gone, many of the colonists chose to remain, and the planet developed a reputation as being "almost as lawless as Chalna," and where money, ships and women came easily, talk was cheap, and so were people's lives. With no constabulary, people looked out for themselves, and vigilantism was its own law.

Once the industrial presence was scaled back, Harkoum's harsh climate and distance from the Cardassians' core systems made it an ideal location to house maximum security detention facilities. Both the Central Command and the Obsidian Order operated prisons there. One such facility was the Grennokar Detention Center, near the planet's equator. The prison guards and staffs mostly left the planets' remaining colonists and visitors to their own devices.

No official prison records were kept, however, and prisoners sent to Harkoum had a tendency to just "disappear." Harkoum was a convenient place for the Cardassian government to dispose of dissidents and foreign operatives. Prisoners who weren't executed en route or on arrival were used as slave labor. Others were used for scientific, medical and weapons experimentation, or simply to refine the Cardassians' methods of torture.

Even after the disbanding of the Obsidian Order, its survivors denied that the Order had ever operated any facilities, of any kind, on Harkoum. Following the Dominion War, Harkoum was officially "decommissioned," but no prisoners were ever released, or even acknowledged to exist. Starfleet Intelligence sources inside the former Cardassian government reported rumors of mass executions in some of Harkoum's prisons, while others facilities were simply abandoned by their staffs, and their prisoners left to starve.

By 2377, a few starports remained on the planet's surface, near the last operational mines and refineries. Among these included the towns of Iljar and Katulu, on the edge of the great southern desert.

## Environment

The dust-covered surface of Harkoum was mustard-colored and sulfurous. Its equatorial regions were arid, the earth cracked, with deep, crooked gouges all that remained of riverbeds that had long run dry. With these features and deep purple storm clouds, the planet had a decidedly "bruised" appearance from orbit.

Streaks of blue-green lighting flickered between cloud layers that did little to obscure the harsh light of the twin suns. Storms were frequent and intense, but the acid rain, dark gray and heavy with metallic elements, did not cool the blistering heat, relieve the oppressive humidity, or quench the parched surface of the nearly-barren world.

From the surface, dawn would appear as silver-ivory light piercing the clouds, as the binary suns rose in unison, so close together they could be mistaken for a single star.

The colony's settlements were mostly active at night, and the inhabitants rarely ventured out before twilight or earlier in the day. When they did, most wore polarized goggles or other eye-gear to mitigate the "merciless daylight." (*DS9* novel: *Warpath*)

## Locations

Grennokar Detention Center • Gula River • Iljar • Katulu
## External links

* Harkoum article at ***Memory Beta***, the non-canon *Star Trek* wiki.