The Vault was a structural "bunker" that had been built by the United Federation of Planets. It was a huge subterranean complex located four hundred feet underground which was mostly deserted, but was actually the nerve center of Starfleet Command. This "giant brain" was self-contained and had independent life support capable of sustaining two thousand people forever, if necessary. The day to day inhabitants of this facility were machines and only a few occassional maintenance crews (though generally almost no one) went to the Vault. Banks after banks of screens were located inside the structure which monitored the deployment of Starfleet forces and watched over the security status of all sectors within the Federation. Data dumps from every starbase in the explored galaxy arrived within th