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Memory Alpha
Risa cave

A cave on Risa

Dream species' homeworld cave

A cave on the Dream Alien's homeworld

Day of honor holographic cave

A holographic cave in B'Elanna Torres' Day of Honor program

"I hate caaaaaaaaaaaves!"
Beckett Mariner, 2381 ("Caves")

A cave, cavern or grotto, was a hollow passage underground, usually with an opening to the surface. They are found on planets throughout the Milky Way Galaxy.

Troglodyte was a term meaning cave-dweller. (TOS: "The Cloud Minders")

Caves could be natural or artificial. Natural caves could be formed by water or lava flows. Ice caves also existed. (TOS: "All Our Yesterdays"; TNG: "Final Mission"; ENT: "Dawn", "The Aenar") The ceilings of caves were often covered with stalactites. (TOS: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?")

Caves could make excellent hiding locations, as the rocks and ores in the walls could stop sensors from penetrating them. They also made excellent shelters from the outside environments. For example, Data, Riker, and Doctor Crusher led the colonists on Melona IV to shelter in caves to escape the destruction of the Crystalline Entity. (VOY: "Parturition", "Friendship One"; Star Trek: Insurrection; DS9: "Melora"; TNG: "Angel One", "Silicon Avatar")

They were also useful hiding places. After the Vaadwaur homeworld was bombarded from orbit in the 15th century, one battalion managed to survive in an underground cavern. (VOY: "Dragon's Teeth") The unification movement on Romulus made use of a cave as a base of operation. (TNG: "Unification II") In 2371, a cave system on Avery III hid a Vidiian base. (VOY: "Faces")

Native Americans often used caves as shelters during their vision quests. (VOY: "The Fight")

On Sigma Draconis VI, caves lead into an underground complex established before the decline of its civilization. (TOS: "Spock's Brain")

The Shore Leave Planet, while artificial, featured caves. (TAS: "Once Upon a Planet")

Mintaka III exhibited karst topography, which included sinkholes, underground rivers and caverns. (TNG: "Who Watches The Watchers")

While Spock and Leonard McCoy were trapped in a Sarpeidon ice age, they took shelter in a cave. (TOS: "All Our Yesterdays")

Terra nova cave system map

A map of the underground cave system on Terra Nova

Terra nova cave entrance

An entrance to the cave system on Terra Nova

After an asteroid hit Terra Nova in 2083, survivors fled to the planet's caves and tunnel systems and eventually adapted to underground existence. Some caves were used as gutting rooms and wells. (ENT: "Terra Nova")

The underground cave system was built on Paramount Stage 9. (Call sheets) They were subsequently used , enlarged and modified, in several further episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise such as the catacombs set in "The Andorian Incident". ("The Andorian Incident", text commentary, ENT Season 1 DVD special feature)

While exploring Archer IV in 2151, a cavern was found. This turned out to be fortunate, as a storm stranded several the Enterprise NX-01 crew members who then sought shelter there. (ENT: "Strange New World")

Xantoras featured a cave system stretching over at least fifty kilometers. At the time of the 2153 regime change, a Denobulan Science Academy team was studying the caves. (ENT: "The Breach")

While on Capella IV in 2267, Enterprise crewmembers took shelter in a cave. (TOS: "Friday's Child")

After being attacked by a mugato on Neural in 2268, James T. Kirk was treated in a cave. (TOS: "A Private Little War")

There was a cave near the Starnes Exploration Party on Triacus, which gave off strange tricorder readings implied to be associated with Gorgan. (TOS: "And the Children Shall Lead")

In 2285, it was revealed that the Starfleet Corps of Engineers had spent ten months excavating a massive cave system on Regula, while a matrix to terraform the caves needed only a day. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)

In 2351, a ten-year-old Julian Bashir and his father Richard were trapped in a cave on Invernia II by a storm. (DS9: "Melora")

In 2366, after being stranded on Galorndon Core, Geordi La Forge and Bochra were forced to find shelter in a cave. (TNG: "The Enemy")

In 2367, Jean-Luc Picard, Wesley Crusher, and Dirgo crash landed on Lambda Paz and ultimately sought shelter in a cave. (TNG: "Final Mission")

In 2373, a group of Maquis refugees had moved to Marva IV, where they lived in caves. (DS9: "For the Uniform")

In 2373, the crew of the USS Voyager encountered a large cave-dwelling creature that ate humanoids, the Hanonian land eel. (VOY: "Basics, Part II")

B'Elanna Torres' holographic program Torres 216 was set in a cave. (VOY: "Extreme Risk")

Beckett Mariner expressed an intense dislike of caves due to all of the trouble Starfleet gets into investigating them. In 2381, Mariner, Brad Boimler, Sam Rutherford and D'Vana Tendi were all trapped in a cave on Grottonus, where they relegated tales of earlier cave-ins with other crew members while being harassed by a possibly carnivorous moss, ultimately revealed, though not to them, to be a Vendorian morality test. (LD: "Caves")

Caves of note[]

Cave-dwelling lifeforms[]

Sentient[]

See also[]

External link[]

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