The Dark Range Platform was a space station located between the borders of the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. As neither the Federation or the Klingons wanted any claim on the station, it became a haven for criminals, smugglers, and cut-throats from across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.

In 2293, Pavel Chekov, Nyota Uhura, and a woman named Jade (actually Ariadne Drake), were sent to the station by Starfleet Intelligence to investigate the sale of Klingon military hardware by renegade Klingons. Using cover names and a convincing cover story of being renegade Starfleet officers with a grudge, Chekov and Uhura were able to arrange a meeting with Kort, a Klingon smuggler, inside one of the platforms cargo bays.

As the meeting took place, Jade betrayed Chekov and Uhura and stunned them with her phaser. After discussing obtaining information about the chalchaj'qmey with Kort, she prepared to leave. Unfortunately, for Chekov and Uhura, Jade was ordered to kill them, so they were placed in the platform's launch bay where they would either be killed by her transport's thrusters or the decompression of the bay. Fortunately, the officers were rescued by the USS Excelsior. (TOS novel: The Ashes of Eden).