Canon Facts Backstage Info  Speculation

Notes : The Karemma are one of the major economic powers of the Dominion within the Gamma Quadrant; powerful enough to be allowed a certain degree of freedom, the Karemma have traded with many non Dominion powers. Deeply concerned with profit, they saw an advantage in the marketing opportunities provided by the discovery of the Bajoran Wormhole in 2369. Fearing open trade with the Federation, the Karemma traded covertly via Ferengi intermediaries, a relationship successful despite Ferengi business practices.

This relationship brought the Federation into close contact with the trading ships of the Karemma. The most widespread design is a medium sized starship of relatively conventional design; utilizing standard warp drive technology, the Karemma ships house a small matter/antimatter reactor system in the rear section of the ship. This feeds a pair of strut mounted fixed geometry warp nacelles which provide the ships motive power.

Forward of the engineering section is a set of six relatively large cargo bays fitted to hold almost any form of merchandise; this section takes up almost the entire centre section of the ship, one third of the main hull or over 110 metres in all. Forward of the cargo section is the vessels primary hull. This section houses the navigational deflectors, a modest shield system, a small hangar deck, and the relatively spartan accommodation section.

The Karemma ships are not equipped with offensive weapons of any kind, although the cargo bays are certainly large enough to be fitted with modular weapon systems of some form if required. However, basic commercial considerations have ensured that this design will never be able to compete in the combat arena with the likes of a starship. This was emphasized in 2371, when a Karemma vessel met with the USS Defiant in order to settle a dispute over their trading agreements; the meeting was ambushed by the Dominion, who destroyed the Karemman vessel with ease.

The closing of all traffic through the wormhole in 2375 has effectively ended all contact with the Karemma, but many hundreds of these vessels were in the alpha quadrant by then and many hundreds more have been built since.