I think the bulk of what AKuz said is really smart. Though I disagree about whether, as a matter of fact, our war aims have been achieved.
Our xenopsychologists seem to feel that the Tartresis are most closely aligned with Federation values and would make for better long term neighbors. We care for the same reason we care which new faction of the Sydraxian government takes power.
That said, I'd
settle for a Bene government and not complain... if I were reasonably confident of the Bene not playing any
quid pro quo games that blow up half the quadrant.
Okay. Guys. Lets ask ourselves a question here.
Is there any reason for us to oppose a Bene ascension besides the fact that the Romulans want it and therefore we need to be against it on principle?
Furthermore, is there anything that would stop the Romulans from just courting the Tartesis instead, if suddenly they pulled ahead?
The big reason is that the Romulans might acquire weapons so powerful that, combined with their own technology (cloaks) and greater industrial output, they could easily overpower the Klingons. While the Romulans winning the war isn't necessarily bad, the Romulans winning the war
quickly and decisively and actually getting stronger rather than weaker as a result is a very alarming prospect. Especially if the resulting RSE is armed with, say, cloaked warbirds that carry trilithium star-breaker bombs as a matter of course,
and are accustomed to use them.
However, I think our best move is what AKuz suggested- to simply broker a deal that provides for long-term power sharing between Bene and Tartresis, in a way that is to Bene's short-term advantage, thus removing the Bene
incentive to cooperate with the Romulans in ways that might endanger the quadrant as a whole.
I will oppose any attempt to turn this into a war of regime change. Doing so would destroy any pretense of moral superiority we have.
You're about half a year too late. One of the premises that came out of the diplomatic summit was that we'd be able to work with a new post-war regime.
In addition to this being totally correct...
We already changed the regime, because we just accidentally
exploded the old regime. Unless one is planning to go back in time and save the previous emperor, which to be fair is actually an option in Star Trek, we're pretty much stuck with regime change. The question isn't
if we support a regime change in Licori space. It's
how we do so.
It's way too early for any Yan-Ros to even be in Starfleet. They only became affiliates in 2313.Q3... less than two years ago! No Yan-Ros have even made it through the Academy yet.
There could be a few isolated outliers who didn't come in
through the Academy. A few.
has...
And huh, so the Romulans were/are helping the Arcadians. I wasn't expecting that considering the short time frame since their discovery and the chaotic nature of the war as well as the fact that the Romulans should be focused on their own war (plus it feels a bit clichee that a) the intrigue faction is helped by the Roms...
The Romulans may well have known about the Licori longer than we have, for one. For another, this kind of operation doesn't necessarily cost the Romulans very much, and the payoff is potentially
huge if the Bene-dominated Licori species funnels advanced technology back to Romulus.
For that matter, it could be that House Bene sought out and contacted the Romulans themselves, at some earlier point in time. Because even if somehow there was no contact between the two species before we met the Licori, they would have found out about the Romulans through
us soon enough.
The Romulans are starting to go to war with the Klingons. They aren't going to be bothering us for a long time. And it's not like we can stop them getting their hands on the Mentat making process or the device used to trigger stellar collapse, which is all they need.
If the Romulans learn how to blow up stars, their war with the Klingons might turn out to be much shorter than any of us had predicted.
Nope. Protomatter, and a boy genius. But what was discovered once can be discovered again.
Furthermore, the Romulans themselves may not know we don't have Genesis devices in reserve.
It would help to explain why 'historically,' no one TRIED to develop arsenals of planet or star-breaking WMD even though we know the technology emerged as early as the late 23rd century
