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The First Duty

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darthdavid said:
just the fact that there was another Jovian being court-martialed for another Prime Directive breach would be enough to cause a serious incident.
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...And what if Captain Shran were to face a court martial? Unlike the situation where a Jovian interfered in direct violation of the captain's orders, Velvet and Shran could probably discuss the matter in private ahead of time. Shran files his reports as normal, a court is convened in accordance with standard Starfleet practice, and he is likely found to not be at fault. Heck, Starfleet Command could probably authorize a limited intervention, no court martial required. This isn't a situation where immediate action is required; there's at least a little time to consider possible avenues of approach.

Should be good press for Starfleet and the Federation government, too.
 
Steven Kodaly said:
...And what if Captain Shran were to face a court martial? Unlike the situation where a Jovian interfered in direct violation of the captain's orders, Velvet and Shran could probably discuss the matter in private ahead of time. Shran files his reports as normal, a court is convened in accordance with standard Starfleet practice, and he is likely found to not be at fault. Heck, Starfleet Command could probably authorize a limited intervention, no court martial required. This isn't a situation where immediate action is required; there's at least a little time to consider possible avenues of approach.

Should be good press for Starfleet and the Federation government, too.
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That my just solve the problem, with little to no consequences for everyone involved.
 
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    • "What's this about?" Rachel asked as she walked into Shran's ready-room, "I was in the middle of a diagnostic."

    "I know. But we got new orders from Starfleet and you are not going to like them," He said and frowned over at my avatar, "You are my second officer, Rach, I want you to know about this before I brief the rest of the senior staff."

    She frowned and moved to sit on the small couch beneath the 'window' next to my avatar, "Okay, what's up?"

    "Just got a transmission from Starfleet Command, we are ordered to redirect to patrol a system close to the Klingon border," Shran said and got up, walking over to motion at the air in the middle of the room and I took the cue and brought up a hologram of the system, "There was an incident that caused heavy ecological damage to the local system. We are part of a shift of forces to the Klingon border to keep something like this from happening again."

    Rachel swallowed, "Oh god. The planet… is it inhabited?"

    I nodded, "It is. Primitive, they just got a handle of working iron. They'll… survive as a species. Their current civilization likely won't."

    "Oh god."

    Shran's antennae shifted, "Those are the official orders."

    "…Which means that there are unofficial orders. I'm not going to like this, am I?"

    "Sorry, love," He sighed, "Velvet?"

    I glared at him. Why did I have to be the bad guy?

    "Unofficial orders, the reason we are directed to that system specifically, is the political situation. There is a high risk that Ships will show up to try to help the locals," I explained, "We are to be there as a… moderating influence."

    Rachel stared at me, "…We are going to keep people from being saved? Are you serious?"

    "The Prime Directive applies," Shran said, "The remains of the Klingon vessel that impacted the surface have been recovered, we need to minimise further exposure."

    "That's bullshit."

    "Rachel…"

    She turned to glare at me, "Don't tell me that you agree with this!?"

    The regulation was clear. The law was clear. Ethically it was… murky. Personally… fuck no. But there was really no way to help them, only way to even put a dent in would be major atmospheric processors and even that would take years and by then starvation would have already set in.

    Only way to practically help would be to move in in force and do a full on uplift of the local population, or handing out food packages.

    "…There is no legal way to help," I told her after a second with a sigh, crossing my arms as I leaned back in the couch, "To effectively help, you wouldn't need to merely break the Prime Directive. It would require you to throw it onto the floor, stomp it into the ground and then burn it and salt the ashes. Rachel, it would require moving in and effectively uplifting an entire barely iron age civilization."

    "So, you agree with this!?"

    I shook my head, "I didn't say that. I said that there isn't really any way to help. Not to mention what it would do to the political situation that can already be mostly described as a toxic waste dump on fire. If it gets any worse, there may be actual punches thrown in the Federation Council."

    She didn't seem exactly happy with that answer but she nodded, "I see. And how exactly would we keep a small Jovian fleet from showing up and doing that? Fire at them?"

    "Of course not," Shran said, "But as Velvet told me, just having somebody physically there to remind them of the consequences might be enough."

    "You aren't even convincing ME that it's not worth it!"

    "And that's my cue to duck out," I said and got up with my avatar, "I'm setting a course towards the system and getting the material to brief the rest of the senior staff on the official mission, Captain."

    With that, I made my escape from the ready-room and put it into privacy mode. I really didn't want to get involved in a personal fight between those two.

    Instead, I shifted course and shifted up to Warp Seven towards the Turanis system. This mission was going to fucking suck. But I didn't join Starfleet for easy choices.

    But I had my mission.

    Keep Klingons away and keep other Ships from causing the political situation to go bursting into literal flames.

    Try not to feel like a monster while doing it.

    No pressure or anything.

    "Ship?"

    I paused with my avatar when walking past K'K'L'r't, "Yes, Lieutenant?"

    Thy tilted thy head, "I am looking for Lieutenant-Commander Ansly. Is her meeting with the Captain done?"

    I shook my head, "No, it's likely going to take a while. Looking for those diagnostic results?"

    "Yes, ma'am. I require the results to finish my report for her."

    I smiled, "Luckily, I can get those for you. She didn't have time to start before the Captain called for her. I'm starting my diagnostics now; the results should be by your console in some thirty minutes."

    K'K'L'r't bowed slightly, "Thank you, ma'am."

    "Don't mention it."




    AN// Many thanks to FPSCanarussia for betaing this section.
     
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    • I thought it might have been something like that. Their technology isn't good enough to do this stealthily.

    And you know my opinion on it. Screw the prime directive. The civilization isn't worth saving; the people are, but in this case? If they do nothing, neither will survive.
     
    Baughn said:
    I thought it might have been something like that. Their technology isn't good enough to do this stealthily.

    And you know my opinion on it. Screw the prime directive. The civilization isn't worth saving; the people are, but in this case? If they do nothing, neither will survive.
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    Ummm... yeah they will.

    I nodded, "It is. Primitive, they just got a handle of working iron. They'll… survive as a species. Their current civilization likely won't."
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    Caustic Soda said:
    AFAIK, dying isn't something you recover from in the Trek-verse. So doing nothing is condemning a vast amount of people to die, all for the sake of the Prime Directive. I find that strongly immoral. Presumably Baughn does, too.
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    I wasn't talking about the people who die. I was talking about the people who live.

    Also, as a side note, I really do not want to get into an argument about the morality and ethics of the Prime Directive. All it does is lead to massive derails and threadbans.
     
    Crazael said:
    I noticed it right away. And spent the next hour trying to remember the exact words of Picard's speech on the subject, which I used to know by heart.
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    Is this what you are talking about?


    Even if the People do survive this Near-Extinction Event they will lose likely up to a third of their population to radiation alone, much less what they will lose to War and famine. IF they do survive, that's a big IF too, they will start having major population issues before they even reach the Industrial Revolution stage as they no longer have access to an ENTIRE CONTINENT due to the High levels of radiation that will linger for Centuries!
     
    I have a plan.
    1. Park dozens of cloaked ships in orbit
    2. Replicator spam
    3. Transport natural looking lumps of food to the surface
    4. Use transporters to plant GM seeds
    5. Empty every GSV, add them (and their replicators/transporters) to the fleet
    6. Cloaked water purifiers in deep lakes
    7. Have the relief fleet self replicate
    8. Withdrawal when 90% of the damage has been repaired
    None of the aliens see a thing
     
    Hiver said:
    "Also, if it actually does lose power, it will take days to build up the power needed to restart it using the fusion reactors. The plan for bigger ships to have two so they can jump start each other, but I'm too small."
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    Are you also assuming the loss of all the drones, since those apparently all have singularity reactors in them too?
    In fact, given that a self-contained drone scale reactor can roughly fit in a closet, why aren't there a bunch around the ship for bootstrapping purposes?
     
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    • Lieutenant Hysa swept his fingers across the screen, bringing up the infrared of the planet, "Median global temperature is dropping. Estimating a final drop of two to three degrees," he said and then frowned faintly, "Unless the geological fault on the southern continent collapses and triggers yet another series of eruptions. Then it might be another two and a half."

    I nodded, crossing the arms of my holographic avatar as I leaned against the console, "About my estimate as well. Think it'll trigger an ice age?"

    Hysa frowned, "Possible. At the very least there will be lower temperatures, but I suppose it's possible. Not a full cycle though, a few thousand years at most."

    I watched the planet slowly orbit below. Iron age civilization. I wasn't worried about getting spotted, even in low orbit it wasn't exactly likely. Not like I was a big fat GSV that you could see from the ground. I didn't even really reflect overly much light, at best I would look like a satellite at sunset or sunrise.

    Besides, keeping my cloak on would run counter to my unofficial mission. I 'wanted' to get spotted, just not by the poor bastards below.

    It was hard to watch.

    "…They are lucky, in a way," I said after a couple of seconds.

    Lieutenant Hysa looked over at my avatar, "In what way, ship?"

    "It's autumn on the Northern continent. They already finished most of the harvests, I can see that their fields are cleared and so are most orchards," I said with a frown, "When it comes to timing, it's about as 'good' as it can be. They are as ready as they can be."

    "They are not ready for a winter like this one. There will be no summer next year. Nor one warm enough to grow their crops for the next several years. For the next decade, snow is unlikely to melt. Bring up a hologram of one of the locals?"

    I nodded and brought up a hologram of a man, the image taken from one of their cities. He looked faintly human, if lacking hair, instead having a couple of centimeter tall ridges along the outer edges of his head, stretching back towards the neck. The females lacked the ridges, but otherwise the humanoid characteristics matched humanity about as well as Vulcans did.

    Hysa looked at him for a moment, "What is the purpose of those ridges?"

    "They are faintly telepathic I believe," I said, "Not transmitting, just receiving. Range seem to be limited to line of sight from what I can see from the surface. I think it mainly developed as a way to avoid predators."

    "I see."

    It was hard to watch. The dust levels in the atmosphere were drifting on the winds, heading further and further north.

    It was like watching a trainwreck in slowmotion.

    I shut down the hologram of the native and also my avatar, leaving my science officer to his work without my distractions.

    Watching the planet below, I saw the inhabitants move about their lives beneath the roiling stormclouds. They had no idea what was coming. In a month or so the storms would die down and be followed by black rain. Then the temperature will start dropping and the rain turns to snow. Black snow.

    A year or two without summer. Then a decade or so with only a month a year where it's likely warm enough to grow.

    I didn't want to sit here and watch. I could drop some sensor drones and leave for the outer system, but I would see things just as well through the drones. Also, it didn't even matter. Me watching or not, it didn't matter at all.

    It would still happen.

    "Rachel? Can we talk?"

    "…Sure."

    I formed a hologram in her and Shran's quarters. She was sitting on the bed, her dog laying with his head in her lap as she scratched behind his ears.

    "…Are you mad at me?" I asked her as I moved to sit down next to her.

    "No."

    "Yes, you are."

    Rachel shook her head, "No. I'm not mad. I'm not mad at you or Shran or even the Admirals. I'm… I guess I'm just… disappointed."

    "I understand that."

    "Do you?" she asked with a frown as Porthos shuffled around to nose at my hand, "Remember back at the Academy? Remember ethics class? You were the one that questioned the Prime Directive. To the professor's face."

    I did. And now I couldn't because of political reasons.

    Which was one of the reasons to why I 'knew' that there were Ships on the way here right now to help these people.

    Because if there was any way to do it, I would. But there wasn't. Not legally, and not really practically.

    Anyone that moved in to help would never leave, but that wasn't the real problem. The real problem was the Federation. Gates was right, we couldn't risk this right now.

    If everything else was perfect and fluffy clouds and flowers... I'd be the first one lobbying to help these people. This was JUST one of those borderline cases I had argued with the Professor about.

    "I'm sorry, Rachel."

    "I know."


    AN// Many thanks to Drunkenvalley for betaing this section.
     
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    • Now anticipating an argument from another Jovian to the effect of, "If we don't do the thing we know is right even when it's hard or complicated, then who are we really?"
     
    esotericist said:
    Now anticipating an argument from another Jovian to the effect of, "If we don't do the thing we know is right even when it's hard or complicated, then who are we really?"
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    Main conflict identified.


    On a completely unrelated note, odds of this ending in a Federation civil war and/or the Jovians leaving the Federation?
     
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    I forget. Why do the Jovians even need the Federation again? Just lazy, pretending not to be transhumans games with the humanoids? There has to be some middle ground between this bullshit and going full 'zerker/Borg/Dominion as a society.
     
    It's not a question of need, it's a question of want. The various Jovians have repeatedly expressed a strong preference for having organic crewmembers, who become their friends and comrades and sometimes lovers. Insofar as a clean break with the Federation is unlikely, the Jovians leaving would rend apart their crews, as some left for the Federation, and even some of those who stayed would likely be affected. So an unresolvable conflict with the Federation wouldn't just hurt the asshole politicians, it'd also hurt the people they care about the most, namely their crews.

    Edit: now it has previously been the case that Jovian crews have said 'fuck the politicians, they don't get to take away our Ship crewmates', but I highly doubt the Jovians want to take that gamble again.

    Less importantly, most of the Ship-Jovians have expressed a strong disdain for politics, and the Station-Jovians we've seen have been more tolerant than fond of it. An independent Jovian polity would make increased involvement with politics likely for both Ships and especially Stations.
     
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    I can't help to wonder: can they reduce the effects if they had 'enough' transporters? There would be plenty of willing federation crews/ships.
     
    it's also a case of "like you don't REALLY have enough magic space technobabble to filter the atmosphere from a place where the locals can't see you? You do recall that you have fuckmothering cloaking devices that work in atmosphere, yes?"

    I mean, they can salvage the ship but somehow can't set up some air purifiers? A giant force-field sieve is suddenly beyond them?

    This is clearly a case of Federation laziness causing extinctions again.
     
    Actually, is this case not one the Federation *can* clean up? If the pre-war society isn't anywhere near the site of the incident, can't ships clean up the debris without interfering in the natural order, especially since this *isn't* natural in the least?
     
    Gruntjerka said:
    Actually, is this case not one the Federation *can* clean up? If the pre-war society isn't anywhere near the site of the incident, can't ships clean up the debris without interfering in the natural order, especially since this *isn't* natural in the least?
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    I don't see why not. And considering the speed at which the ship hit, there were no survivors around the impact site anyway.
     
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