10 Most Mysterious Ancient Alien Civilisations In Star Trek

10. The Hur'q

In the 14th century the Klingon home world was pillaged by alien invaders from the Gamma Quadrant who came to be known as the Hur'q—a Klingon word meaning ‘outsider’. They were chased off Qo’noS by a Klingon rebellion, but not before making off with the Sword of Kahless and hiding it in their home quadrant. It remained there until it was rediscovered in the 24th century, by which point the Hur'q were nowhere to be found and thus presumed extinct.

Given the name ‘outsider’, it's sometimes assumed that the Hur'q were the first aliens that Klingons came into contact with. A number of sources outside of alpha canon (such as the manual for the video game Star Trek: Klingon Academy) state that the Klingons acquired warp drive and other technology by reverse engineering ships seized by the Hur'q during their rebellion. If true, this could explain how the Klingons got such advanced technology earlier than humanity, despite their society largely looking down on science and scientists. Canonically, we've gotten a lot of conflicting information regarding when Klingons first began trekking across the stars.

In Star Trek Online, it's eventually revealed that the Hur'q were one of the earliest servitor species of the Dominion thousands of years ago. The Founders weren't able to control them, and eventually replaced them with the Jem'Hadar.