As discussed a bit in discord, the main question to me is whether we intend to bring the Gorn onboard long-term. The Gorn are clearly more important to than the Dawiar, and our primary goal was to weaken the Ashalla Pact, not necessarily affiliating with the Dawiar.
However, the Gorn do come with a lot of baggage, like the Orions and (probably) Klingons. Some might just result in Gorn-related diplo tags or pp penalties of some sort, but I'm particularly worried about the reactions of major powers like the Klingons.
If we do intend to bring the Gorn into the UFP fold in the long-term, then we'd get the Dawiar for "free", just much much later. So it's a bit of a long con anyway. Even if we don't get the Gorn to eventually join the UFP, it's still important to keep them neutral.
On the other hand, we do risk angering the Dawiar UFP sympathesizers and damage Federation diplomatic trustworthiness. But I consider this risk slight and can be worked around with more diplomacy.
Plus freeing up TF Handshake against an apparently superior opposing task force is appealing. So on balance, I favor appealing to the Gorn rather than the Dawiar, with the hope that we'll get them both eventually anyway.
[X][DAWI] Establish a joint mining colony at Ruby Eyes' Folly [Your income from Ruby Eyes' Folly reduced to 20sr, Dawiar gain 20sr income]
So now it's their mining colony too. And now the Gorn, having just pledged to show their friendship to the Dawiar, are going to feel obligated to throw in some defense as well. All of a sudden taking Ruby Eye's Folly means fighting Starfleet and the Dawiar, with Gorn support.
I actually like this option not just because we can spare 15sr worth of income, but because it'll be similar to the open station at 26 Enio. It's a security risk, yes, but also an incredible long-term diplomatic in with Gorn (and the Dawiar). Plus it's further deterrence against the Ittick-ka.
[X][STO] Allow deployment to Trill space as part of a Starfleet task force. [-15pp, Task Force Option unlocked.]
This seems like the best compromise option, though of all the votes I'm most open to argument here.
I bet most players are in favor of protecting the Trill someway or the other, so "Allow no deployment" is out.
The "Allow deployment to Trill space" is clearly inferior to "Allow deployment to Trill space as part of a Starfleet task force", because we can simply send a task force that's majority STO led by a Starfleet cruiser (although it is a bit cheesy).
That leaves "Allow deployment to Trill space as part of a Starfleet task force" or "Allow deployment to Ruby Eyes' Folly" as the viable options. And the latter is poor synergy if we do share Ruby Eyes' Folly with the Dawiar/Gorn. Since it's one thing to allow Starfleet, the federal Federation fleet, to patrol Ruby Eyes' Folly; it's another to allow a member fleet to do so without Starfleet.
So I'm inclined to go with the "Allow deployment to Trill space as part of a Starfleet task force" option as well.
[X][HANDSHAKE] Accept the deal. TF Handshake will disband at start of 2322.Q3 [Gorn pleased, tag progress on 'Great Power Ambitions']
[X][REF] Establish an event-generating patrol sector for Ruby Eyes' Folly, requirement D7.
[X][DAWI] Establish a joint mining colony at Ruby Eyes' Folly [Your income from Ruby Eyes' Folly reduced to 20sr, Dawiar gain 20sr income]
[X][STO] Allow deployment to Trill space as part of a Starfleet task force. [-15pp, Task Force Option unlocked.]
BTW, the QMs just clarified in discord that staffing Ruby Eyes' Folly is required from Q2 onwards.
edit: oops, copied wrong option line, fixed
