Orion Syndicate

Orion slave girl dances for the pleasure of Captain Christopher Pike on Talos IV.

"You are now the property of the Orion Syndicate. Break the rules and you will suffer. Follow the rules and you will suffer less."

- Orion Slaver, to newly processed slaves

The Orion Syndicate was a criminal organization created and maintained by the Orions. The Syndicate's activities included gambling, racketeering, smuggling, piracy, slave-trading, extortion, and assassination.

Operation

The Syndicate was ruthless in its tactics, and its members were extremely loyal. Entry required a substantial membership fee, and any member would take their own life before testifying against the Syndicate.
In addition, it was customary for the Syndicate to financially support any family member of a deceased associate.

In an act called "witnessing," Syndicate members would often vouch for the loyalty of any new recruit whom they brought into the organization.
This was a method of ensuring trustworthiness amongst its members, as any Syndicate member who was found to have brought in a disloyal recruit would be killed along with that recruit.

History

22nd century

An Orion slave auction on Verex III

During the 22nd century, the Orion Syndicate controlled an area of space bordering the Klingon Empire. The area of space between the two powers was a volatile and lawless region known as "the Borderland." It was in this region that a group of Augments, leftover from Earth's Eugenics Wars, attacked a Klingon Bird-of-Prey in 2154, murdering the crew and stealing the ship. In order to avoid a war with the Klingon Empire, the Enterprise, NX-01 was sent into the Borderland in an attempt to locate the Augments. While on this mission, however, Enterprise was attacked by an Orion ship called an Interceptor, and nine crewmembers were kidnapped. The crewmembers were taken to a processing station , where they were to be auctioned off as slaves. Although Captain Archer was able to rescue his crewmembers, his actions in stealing Orion "property" made him a wanted man in the Syndicate.

Later that year, an Orion named Harrad-Sar attempted to kidnap Captain Archer and deliver him to the Syndicate. It was during this incident that it was learned by the Enterprise crew that Orion females, previously thought to be little more than commodities to be bought and sold, were actually in charge of the Syndicate, controlling the males via highly potent pheromones.

23rd century

In 2268, in response to the possible admission of the planet Coridan into the Federation, the Orions engaged in a covert mission to prevent this. They wanted to preserve their piracy activities in the Coridan system, possibly due to the system being a source of dilithium. The Syndicate placed a spy among the Andorian delegation to the Conference to debate the planet's admission, and even sent a ship on a suicide mission to attack the USS Enterprise, which was transporting the various delegations to the conference. They wanted to provoke mutual suspicion and interplanetary war amongst the Federation worlds. Instead, the Syndicate's plot was uncovered, and Coridan was admitted into the Federation.

24th century

By the 24th century, the Syndicate had expanded its membership to include operatives from a variety of worlds, becoming an interstellar organized crime consortium. In 2371, it was well-known that Syndicate leaders employed telepaths to screen all potential associates.

In 2373, the Syndicate attempted to murder the Ferengi known as Quark, who was to testify against the Syndicate in a Grand Jury on Inferna Prime.

The next year, Starfleet Intelligence recruited Miles O'Brien to infiltrate the Syndicate, tasking him with discovering the identity of a leak within Starfleet. Although O'Brien managed to complete his assignment, he also discovered that the Syndicate had begun working with the Dominion in a conspiracy to destabilize the Klingon-Federation alliance. Upon learning this, O'Brien's Intelligence contact decided to warn the Klingons about an assassination plot against one of their ambassadors. This decision led to the deaths of the Syndicate members O'Brien had become acquainted with. O'Brien, however, who had become close to Syndicate member Liam Bilby, chose to disobey orders and warn his friend of the plot. However, Bilby refused to abandon the assassination attempt, even knowing that doing so would let the Syndicate know that he had brought an infiltrator into their midst, ensuring the death of his family. Bilby was subsequently killed in the operation.