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To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)

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To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest) Starfleet Ship Design Bureau, Refit ("To Boldly Go...")
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The possible way I see the timeline being as is this;

-Denobulans start species wide augmentation project. The Federation are a bit wary of this, but they dont feel like interfering in the internal matters of an affliate species.
-After the project is well under way with several iterations of changes already implmented, senior Denobulan scientists begin to become concerned over possible flaws in the design.
-A faction forms that wants to slow or even halt the project to look over their data and formulate a better plan.
-Opposing them is a faction that wants to go full speed ahead and damn the consequences.
-The Federation a bit relieved at this development politiclaly supports the Bio-Purists aginst the Radical Advancers.
-Tensions on Denobula begin to escalate and politics become more divided, some have stopped getting the latest gene updates, whislt others have radically accelerated their own programs.
Federation support allows the Purists to control the government, to the disgust of the Advancers.
-During the prelude to the Four Years War, the Klingons support the Advancer majority in a coup agaisnt the Purists minority government. This is either the direct spark of the conflict, or part of the rapidly deteriorating tensions that lead to it.
-The Four Years War happens, Denobula is on the front lines, but by the end of hostilities remains in Klingon control.
-In the peace deal the Federaton gets a clause that implements a plebiscite on Denobula so that population can choose its own course. The option to become a Protectrate Klingon Empire wins by a large margin.
- Some of the remaining Purist population emigrates to the Federation, but they are bascially an insiginficant minority for the purposes of our the quest. (Maybe a couple hundred million or so)
-During the Federation Klingon cold war the suspected flaws in the Denobulan Augmentation become very apparent and birth rates are begining to crash.
-The Klingons make some half hearted attempts to solve the problem, but don't really have the resources to devote to it. They do manage to gain valuble research data for their own augmentation studies however.
-By 2300 the Augmented Denobulans are a declining minority on their own Homeworld. The Purist ones are an exile community in the great melting pot of the Federation.
 
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For the Steering Committee... I wonder if we could get an Intel Report on the relationships of the Gretarians and the Ashalla Pact. I have a half-formed idea I've been ruminating on about making a deal with someone (Hawks? Expansionist?) to get the Gretarians to agree to Affiliate with us, while we prepare by building prefab Outpost and Starbase components. When the official announcement comes up, we rush in the defensive structures so by the time the Pact can react, there's 10-15C of stations in orbit and a small fleet. It might be expensive, but a pair of Outposts is C12 H18 L18.

The feasibility of that would require that our intel people judge that the Cardassians won't pull in the Pact if the Sydraxians decide to attack over that.It would be risky, but if we think the Pact won't go all-in on it, it might be a good way to pull some resources away from the Sydraxians as well as potentially destroy some of their fleet if they go off the chain about this. Still would wait until the Renny Wave was out of the yards to do it, but it would require at least a year from the 2315 Snakepit to even set up.
 
Simon_Jester said:
I was talking about the Solarians too. My point is that the Solarian League is literally being compromised by a huge secret conspiracy that is actively trying to destroy them. And which has (among other assets) highly effective blackmail tools, enough connections to nudge the people they have blackmail dirt on into top-ranking offices, and straight-up mind control in the form of magic nanites that can hijack your body and compel you to eat a bullet against your will or do something similarly insane.

So basically, the Solarians are ludicrously stupid, far too stupid to make good antagonists in a novel. But they at least have some semblance of an excuse for being that stupid. In that for all their wealth and power, they are in the final stages of being destroyed by a parasitic internal conspiracy. Expecting them to have a coherent strategy is like expecting a terminal cancer patient to put up a noticeable fight in a boxing match; it's at least conceivable, but it's not the way to bet.

Whereas I don't think ThoughtMaster believes that the Cardassians and Sydraxians are being secretly manipulated by bluegill parasites out to destroy their civilizations or anything. He seems to honestly think they're that stupid and incapable of even trying to protect their own interests.

So that is even worse than what Weber did, in a way. Weber (for idiotic reasons) wanted to turn the Solarians into puny weaklings, but at least he came up with some kind of reason for them to be that weak and stupid. ThoughtMaster isn't even trying; he actually believes that his enemies will behave like moronic caricatures, blindly adhering to treaty provisions convenient to us but inconvenient to them, while we subvert the treaty in obvious, conspicuous ways that are also convenient to us.
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I honestly expect that they are doing the same to us. They try to hoodwink us, and we try to do the same to them. Treaties are built on trust, and to be perfectly honest, I don't trust the Cardassian government not to try to use loopholes in the treaty.
 
Could work. I say wait until Ainsworth can take out a few more of their ships before we put it into motion.

The best possible outcome is that the one-two punch of losing their fleet in Gabriel and then their Gretaran clients convinces the Sydraxians that the Federation is too near and powerful to fight, and the Cardassians too distant and cynical to help them. We then covertly let it be brought to their knowledge that the Federation will trouble them no longer provided they renounce the Ashalla Pact and cease attacking us.
 
Leila Hann said:
Could work. I say wait until Ainsworth can take out a few more of their ships before we put it into motion.

The best possible outcome is that the one-two punch of losing their fleet in Gabriel and then their Gretaran clients convinces the Sydraxians that the Federation is too near and powerful to fight, and the Cardassians too distant and cynical to help them. We then covertly let it be brought to their knowledge that the Federation will trouble them no longer provided they renounce the Ashalla Pact and cease attacking us.
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When we get repeated warnings from our intelligence service that the Sydraxians are on a massive shipbuilding spree at near wartime mobilization, "peacefully give up because the Federation is too near and powerful to fight" is not where I think their heads are.
 
Briefvoice said:
When we get repeated warnings from our intelligence service that the Sydraxians are on a massive shipbuilding spree at near wartime mobilization, "peacefully give up because the Federation is too near and powerful to fight" is not where I think their heads are.
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That's why we need to cripple their fleet and take away their clients. They think that fighting us will get them somewhere. We must convince them that this is not the case.
 
Leila Hann said:
That's why we need to cripple their fleet and take away their clients. They think that fighting us will get them somewhere. We must convince them that this is not the case.
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The other side of the coin is that by the time we manage to do so, they can convince the Cardassians that together they are strong enough, and if they don't do something now the Cardassians themselves will be in the same position 10 years from then.
 
Ato said:
- Some of the remaining Purist population emigrates to the Federation, but they are bascially an insiginficant minority for the purposes of our the quest. (Maybe a couple hundred million or so)

[...]
-By 2300 the Augmented Denobulans are a declining minority on their own Homeworld. The Purist ones are an exile community in the great melting pot of the Federation.
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Maybe they most settled on/near Rigel? We know from Terra Prime the Rigelians were no slouches in the genetic engineering department either.
 
I just assume that the Denebulons were lost to the games playability compression, and don't question it. Coming up with crazy theories is I feel, less than helpful for the thread.
 
So in about a year of the Gabriel Border Zone free-for-all, we've had:
1. One major battle
2. One skirmish involving only 2 ships
3. One offered major battle where 1 side chose to flee rather than contest.

It does really hearken back to the old age-of-sail sort of naval war, where oceans are vast and it takes a lot of time to assemble and supply an armada. What I'm wondering is, what is the actual end game? When is the Gabriel conflict 'over' and how do you tell?

I suspect that at a certain point all sides will have spaces protected by Outposts and Starbases that are too strong to take without an unreasonable cost in ships. Then and only then might we have another meeting to acknowledge 'facts on the ground' and draw political lines of control to match those drawn in military force. How long that would take, I'm not sure. Could be four or five years, or a series of decisive battles could end it sooner.
 
Briefvoice said:
So in about a year of the Gabriel Border Zone free-for-all, we've had:
1. One major battle
2. One skirmish involving only 2 ships
3. One offered major battle where 1 side chose to flee rather than contest.

It does really hearken back to the old age-of-sail sort of naval war, where oceans are vast and it takes a lot of time to assemble and supply an armada. What I'm wondering is, what is the actual end game? When is the Gabriel conflict 'over' and how do you tell?

I suspect that at a certain point all sides will have spaces protected by Outposts and Starbases that are too strong to take without an unreasonable cost in ships. Then and only then might we have another meeting to acknowledge 'facts on the ground' and draw political lines of control to match those drawn in military force. How long that would take, I'm not sure. Could be four or five years, or a series of decisive battles could end it sooner.
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I like your optimism. It could also be that, after one side thought it had built up enough (won't be the Feds), there is a massive war.
 
Briefvoice said:
So in about a year of the Gabriel Border Zone free-for-all, we've had:
1. One major battle
2. One skirmish involving only 2 ships
3. One offered major battle where 1 side chose to flee rather than contest.

It does really hearken back to the old age-of-sail sort of naval war, where oceans are vast and it takes a lot of time to assemble and supply an armada. What I'm wondering is, what is the actual end game? When is the Gabriel conflict 'over' and how do you tell?

I suspect that at a certain point all sides will have spaces protected by Outposts and Starbases that are too strong to take without an unreasonable cost in ships. Then and only then might we have another meeting to acknowledge 'facts on the ground' and draw political lines of control to match those drawn in military force. How long that would take, I'm not sure. Could be four or five years, or a series of decisive battles could end it sooner.
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Yeah, probably this. The Gabriel War continues until there is no territory in the expanse left unclaimed and neither side thinks they can take any more by force.
 
Leila Hann said:
Yeah, probably this. The Gabriel War continues until there is no territory in the expanse left unclaimed and neither side thinks they can take any more by force.
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Which, given the fleet size and number of outposts and other installations we'd need to secure it sans decisive battle, would probably make it one of the most heavily militarized areas in the Federation, if not the (known) galaxy.
 
MTB said:
I like your optimism. It could also be that, after one side thought it had built up enough (won't be the Feds), there is a massive war.
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I'm staking my money here. I suspect that at a certain point someone will realize they are losing the GBZ war, and consequently find the Ashalla Pact too limiting for their interests. (I'm looking at the Sydraxians here). They break the Ashalla Pact, and then it's war.

The question, I think, is whether that will cause a dissolution of the treaty entirely, or the rest will leave the one to hang.
 
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Captain's Log - 2314.Q2.M1
  • Threadmarks
    • Captain's Log, USS Atuin, Stardate 25448.6 - Captain Vol Chad

    A Betazoid research team exploring the deep caverns of Apogee III has issued a distress call, after a tectonic shift appears to have sealed part of their expedition team behind millions of tons of rock. We are heading there at Warp 12, doing our best to get there before time runs out and the researchers run out of air.

    -

    Captain's Log, USS Sarek, Stardate 25449.1 - Captain Straak

    A tremendous energy field surrounds the planet Orsinia IV. It is a noxious Class N planet, highly toxic to almost all known forms of life. However, with the correct hazardous environment suits, plus cooling systems, it is possible for personnel to explore the planet surface, as long as shelter is taken during the three hundred kilometer an hour storm fronts, that strike every few days. With this in mind, I will lead a small team of my best geologists to investigate a particularly interesting interaction between the planetary energy field and quartz-dilithium assemblies.

    -

    Captain's Log, USS Atuin, Stardate 25449.5

    This is going to be tricky. I have a graduate of the Academy of Material Sciences aboard, which should help find a way through this mess. I'm also looking through the logs of my forerunners in the Explorer Corps, who have been in similar scenarios. I'm positive we can get these researchers out.

    Unfortunately, the tectonic activity has made the surrounding rock brittle. Energy, even an annular confinement beam, passing through it, may cause it to collapse. We are endeavouring to find a way to keep it stable as we bore through the rock.

    -

    Captain's Log, USS Thirishar, Stardate 25449.7

    While the diplomats continue to work their magic on the rebellious pseudoscience cult, we are helping free up a Caldonian cruiser for their operations by taking over part of their survey sweep. We'll split resources found with the Caldonians, while they tend to their wayward flock.

    As it turns out, the next item on their agenda, one Orn'qat, a world first scouted by the Klingons, had a substantial deposit of duranium in one of the moons. It will be difficult to establish a mine here, that's for certin, but the Caldonians might be able to make it work. Despite that, there's several hundred thousand ton of ore that can be accessed close to the surface of the planetoid, and we have marked it for easy extraction by freighters.

    [Gain +30br]

    -

    Captain's Log, USS Sarek, Stardate 25449.9

    A small obstacle.

    An energy storm of tremendous size has arisen unexpectedly, and we are currently trapped without shelter. We will have to convert the shuttle into a makeshift refuge. Lieutenant P'Ashar, the pilot and member of the Sarek's engineering crew, is attempting a jury-rig a plasma coil shunt from the shuttle warp core assembly directly into its structural integrity fields. It will be interesting to see what quality of experimental warp core engineer the Lieutenant is as we wait out the storm.

    -

    Captain's Log, USS Atuin, Stardate 25450.5

    A low-energy emission from the main deflector dish has enforced stronger molecular bonding in the rock as a remote phaser drilling crew created the necessary side passage to rescue the Betazoid researchers. With the ability of our Councillor, who has become reacquainted with an old friend on the research team, to keep in touch with the trapped researchers, we have been able to make this run much more smoothly.

    [Gain +15sr]

    -

    Captain's Log, USS Sarek, Stardate 25451.4

    The storm nearly extinguished the ability of the shuttle's coolant systems to keep up with the high-degree of warp core activity. However, we have successfully outlasted the storm, with the five of us sharing the safety of the shuttlecraft. When the rescue team arrived with another shuttle to retrieve us, we discovered that the forces of the energy storm had converted the surface layer of much of the shuttle generating a considerable store of tri-beryllium laminate, used in minute quantities as a key deflector dish material.

    [Gain +20sr]

    -


    Explorer Corps Mission Control Loop, Stardate 25452.4

    [EC Telemetry Officer Lieutenant Sojak] Director, Telemetry, I have silent tracks for USS Courageous.

    [EC Mission Control Director Captain Watanabe Shoichi] Telemetry, Director, say again, please.

    [EC TO Lt Sojak] I have silent tracks for USS Courageous.

    [EC MCD Capt Watanabe Shoichi] Copy that. How long?

    [EC TO Lt Sojak] Ten minutes interruption. No quiet running tags on the last packet. Mid-stream drop.

    [EC MCD Capt Watanabe Shoichi] Okay. ... Okay. Analysis, Director.

    [EC Mission Data Analyst Lieutenant Commander Pariai Aetoor] Director, Analysis, copy.

    [EC MCD Capt Watanabe Shoichi] Analysis, clear your plate. New tasking.

    [EC MDA Lt-Cdr Pariai Aetoor] Copy that.

    [EC MCD Capt Watanabe Shoichi] Give me everything you can find out about the last data packet from Courageous.

    [EC MDA Lt-Cdr Pariai Aetoor] Copy that.

    [EC TO Lt Sojak] Director, Telemetry. Now at fifteen minutes silent track.

    [EC MCD Capt Watanabe Shoichi] Okay. Thank you, Telemetry. Comms, Director, alert the Ops Room. Analysis, Director. What have you found?

    [EC MDA Lt-Cdr Pariai Aetoor] Director, Analysis, ambiguous. Strong signs of unusual solar activity in the last packet. High energy readings. Definite anomalous situation.

    [EC MCD Capt Watanabe Shoichi] Thank you, Analysis. Okay. Start looking for a clearer picture of what was happening.

    [EC MDA Lt-Cdr Pariai Aetoor] Copy that.

    [EC TO Lt Sojak] Director, Telemetry. Twenty minutes silent track.

    [EC MCD Capt Watanabe Shoichi] Okay. ... Lock the doors. Chief, lock the doors.

    -
     
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    • I don't understand have we lost the Courageous?

    That would suck ass since it was only recently repaired I believe.
     
    KnightDisciple said:
    I'm not sure what "lock the doors" means here but I don't think I like it...
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    It's what NASA says every time they loose a mission.

    'Lock the doors' - words that marked loss of hope for shuttle

    Finally, Mr Cain says the phrase that marked the lack of hope: "Lock the doors." This meant nobody could leave mission control until they had stored the data in their computers, finished reports and written accounts of what they saw, heard and did.
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