I had a vague idea last night about a deal for an expanded exchange officer program... which I guess would be up the Expansionists' alley (improved relationships with affiliates and all), so might not be politically viable. Way too late to get it done now in any case, but maybe we can refine it into something useful for next year?
Maybe something like: "Direct resources in the FDS [or found a New Affiliates Recruitment Office/Hire A Bunch of Rigellian Marketing Officers] to locate strong candidates for Academy admission in Affiliates and promote service in Starfleet," with the mechanical benefit of an overall increase in Affiliate crew recruitment numbers?
FWIW I do like the Space Academy as well, if only at least because, as a Space Academy, it clearly has to
be in space.
space school
On a completely different note, if I was the Mercantalists, I'd start looking at recruiting talent in Amarkia.
Hear me out.
Looking at the map, and now with the (likely) establishment of a critical ship parts facility in the system, Amarkia has the chance to become
the major trade hub of the Federation, if not the quadrant. Eat your heart out, Rigel.
When the Orions join, I suspect we will see an additional route open up from Ferasa > Alukk > Amarkia, although the possibility exists for Alukk > Ord Grind Duk > Tellar Prime. The latter possibility would fuck with my thesis though so we're going to ignore it.
This will put the Amarkia system at the middle of raw materials flowing from Gabriel and the manufacturing powerhouses of Earth and Tellar. In addition to raw resources, goods from the Apiata and Indorians will flow through in order to fill needs in the core member worlds and Rigel, later Gaen. Finished goods and resources will flow in from the Caitian economy through Alukk. Amarkia will be close to the market-driven economy and large consumer market of the Union, and with the Aeroknights forging a bond with the Orion people, they may have access to significant talent in its robust financial sector. The possibility with critical starship infrastructure facilities it will become a major shipbuilding hub, which in turn will nudge trade routes towards it.
The joining of the Seyek and the Qloathi will probably only increase the flow along this trade route. In short, Amarkia will be the gateway from the new membership to the old, and I suspect increasing amounts of Amarki will beat their swords into IPOs on plowshare companies.
Christ that was a terrible metaphor. do we even have ipos in 2315?
We did it kids, we're going to turn the honorable warrior knight people into honorable warrior knight-
merchants. Nash will be 109 years old, waxing to her 8 adopted kids about how back in the day, Amarki used to be known as the fighty guys and are now the people you have come in with the Tellarites to unfuck your supply chain.
In short, Mercantalist Amarki President 2325
E: looking at it, if Alukk spawns a link between Ord Grind Duk AND Amarkia all this would probably apply to it as well, but that's more expected.
