At the dawn of the 29th century, newly elected Imperator Marshall Leon invited representatives from the Xi’An Empire, the Banu Protectorate, as well as a delegation of Tevarin to attend a gala celebration on an orbital platform.

Attempts were made to invite the Vanduul.  They were not successful.

Imperator Marshall Leon quieted the massive crowd and spoke:

That’s a word that hasn’t been associated much with humanity.  We know, over those dark centuries, that we have been intolerant.  We know that we have been distrusting.  We have been cruel.  But our civilization has a saying that’s goes back thousands of years, people change.  And it’s true, people can change.  We can change because we have seen the error of our ways.  We can change because we want to.

Named after the biblical ship, we constructed this Ark as a vessel for space and time.  A place to learn about all races, those discovered and those yet undiscovered.  A place, not bound to a planet or a species, because placing it on a planet is to say it belongs to the species that inhabits it.  No, the Ark must be about all of us.  It must belong to all of us.  We offer this Ark to the universe as a place to study and a place to meet.  The Ark shall act as a political neutral zone where representatives can meet to resolve problems through discourse.

I am proud to open these doors and beg all of you to fill it with the vast and colorful history that each and every species has to offer.  Let this Ark stands as a testament and proud record of the lives that we and those before us have all lived.