Zor
More of a Zor than You
In this scenario some time in the TNG era the Enterprise is doing a survey mission of a system which contains an M-class planet that had been found and surveyed by Starfleet two years earlier. Said planet has a native species of sapiants that are at a neolithic to medieval level of development the last time they checked with numerous Feudal Kingdoms, Theocracies, some Empires, a few Republics and a few clans and tribes. As they pass by they find a strange warp signature and come in to investigate. Said signature belongs to a strange ship which was orbiting said planet. It is about 350 meters long, cylindrical, of an unknown configuration and scans reveal no life signs and that it's interior is not even pressurized. There are also some energy signatures on one of the planet's moons. As they approach this strange ship hails the Enterprise. It gives them a set of questions in digital form about their civilization their system of government, their social values and political stances. Data answers them and then the ship's AI responds by saying that the Federation exhibits 74% compatibility and that it offers heartfelt greetings on behalf of it's creators. A civilization from a cluster of Star Systems 20,000 Lightyears from Sol. Like the Federation it is keen on exploration. Unlike the Federation it goes about it in a different way. Instead of building manned exploration ships, it builds Von Neumann Probes.
Each probe is fully automated with a central computer and a "crew" of limited AI robots under it's control. In addition to the usual shields, phaser banks and torpedo tubes found on most federation ships (which it is on par with in it's size category) it contains within it a set of ore processors and industrial machinery which allows it to mine asteroids and comets for raw materials and build factory space stations which serve as communications hubs and produce fuel, spare parts, ammunition and additional probes. One of said stations was situated about 21 light-years away. Each probe can set up a Factory Station in six months, which can produce a new probe every six months. This probe had come across this planet about thirteen months earlier in a general survey and has been here since overseeing operations on the planet. When asked on details, it provides a detailed report which is confirmed by sensor readings.
Basically the drone spent a month sending down probes investigating the native populations and cultures before stepping in. The first thing it did was nuke the capital cities of the Theocracies and combat drones to level their temples and holy sites. Afterwards they sent down instructor units to some of the Republics which gave them new technologies (most notably muskets) and gave them scientific information and blueprints. Other drones offer medical aide to the sick in the Republic as well as in Kingdoms and disseminates medical textbooks which explain germ theory and denounce the notion of hereditary hierarchy as a valid system of government. They also sent drones to some of the more primitive societies giving them writing, the wheel, ironworking and domestic animals and crops (screened for diseases). As it stood the Republics, armed with rifled muskets, rockets and cannons and producing new products more efficiently were on the rise politically and economically. When famine strikes, the drones drop care packages of emergency rations from the sky.
When asked why they were doing this, the Probe explained that this is for the benefit of this species for it to quickly rise out of non technological barbarism and that it is only moral to (for example) give societies the means to prevent one in three infants from dying before age 3. It also prevents "dangerous memetic atavisms" such as theocracy or feudal warrior cultures from surviving into the space age where they can threaten the peace of the galaxy and at which point they can be remarkably difficult to rectify. It then asks for the locations of more planets populated by primitive sapients for uplifting.
This probe is rather set in it's ways, as are the thousands of counterparts made from the same template and the less common 700 meter long Battleship variant that any factory station can retool itself to make
How would Starfleet respond to such a development?
Zor
Each probe is fully automated with a central computer and a "crew" of limited AI robots under it's control. In addition to the usual shields, phaser banks and torpedo tubes found on most federation ships (which it is on par with in it's size category) it contains within it a set of ore processors and industrial machinery which allows it to mine asteroids and comets for raw materials and build factory space stations which serve as communications hubs and produce fuel, spare parts, ammunition and additional probes. One of said stations was situated about 21 light-years away. Each probe can set up a Factory Station in six months, which can produce a new probe every six months. This probe had come across this planet about thirteen months earlier in a general survey and has been here since overseeing operations on the planet. When asked on details, it provides a detailed report which is confirmed by sensor readings.
Basically the drone spent a month sending down probes investigating the native populations and cultures before stepping in. The first thing it did was nuke the capital cities of the Theocracies and combat drones to level their temples and holy sites. Afterwards they sent down instructor units to some of the Republics which gave them new technologies (most notably muskets) and gave them scientific information and blueprints. Other drones offer medical aide to the sick in the Republic as well as in Kingdoms and disseminates medical textbooks which explain germ theory and denounce the notion of hereditary hierarchy as a valid system of government. They also sent drones to some of the more primitive societies giving them writing, the wheel, ironworking and domestic animals and crops (screened for diseases). As it stood the Republics, armed with rifled muskets, rockets and cannons and producing new products more efficiently were on the rise politically and economically. When famine strikes, the drones drop care packages of emergency rations from the sky.
When asked why they were doing this, the Probe explained that this is for the benefit of this species for it to quickly rise out of non technological barbarism and that it is only moral to (for example) give societies the means to prevent one in three infants from dying before age 3. It also prevents "dangerous memetic atavisms" such as theocracy or feudal warrior cultures from surviving into the space age where they can threaten the peace of the galaxy and at which point they can be remarkably difficult to rectify. It then asks for the locations of more planets populated by primitive sapients for uplifting.
This probe is rather set in it's ways, as are the thousands of counterparts made from the same template and the less common 700 meter long Battleship variant that any factory station can retool itself to make
How would Starfleet respond to such a development?
Zor
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