To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)
- Thread starter OneirosTheWriter
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
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- Tags
- star trek exploration fully automated luxury gay space communism top level canon (canon) #hashtagcontent all-encompassing space amoeba cardassian boy bands cardassian magical girls darkest bureaucracy debate makes the qm cackle like palpatine hoh is an empire quest it has to be foreign infiltrators more ships ship happens singers delenda est starfleet this is not an empire quest ur waifu is collective?
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
So, they might have come to the conclusion that they were sorely outmatched in terms of ship size, which suggested some kind of significant technological edge, thus making them nervous?
Godwinson
"Well, I've got nothing."
Well, look at what Oneiros has described.
They entered the system with a trio of ships. They did not move to attack on making first contact. When hailed, they fell back to a system where reinforcements were waiting. They still did not move to attack, even when our explorer struck her shields, yet they still didn't answer, instead waiting for an ambassador to arrive.
Either they have exceedingly strict separation of military and civilian authority, and their ships are so unaccustomed to encountering friendly new species that they haven't learned to put people with the authority to make first contact on at least one of their ships flying around, or they are exceedingly cautious about making first contact properly, and wanted someone who had serious training in making first contact to be available.
Either way, they're pretty clearly not operating the way that basically any other species we've encountered has handled a first contact scenario, and there's likely a very good reason for that in their backstory. This sort of extreme divergence wouldn't spring forth from nothing, after all.
- Location
- Austin, TX
Another use of the term Commonwealth in scifi is Alan Dean Foster's humanx Commonwealth. Of course, being a single species, just the insectoid thranx would be a rather different polity.
- Location
- Austria
Waait.
40K Tau? Caste system, castes of diplomats and warriors, Unity and all, and 'Commonwealth' is decent enough name for not!Tau.
Godwinson
"Well, I've got nothing."
Commonwealth is one of the more frequent utterly generic polity names there is. Interstellar is also really generic. The name doesn't really tell very much at all, and is kinda boring. If it's not a direct expy of something else from some franchise, then whoever came up with the name utterly fails at creative naming.
From Wikipedia:
Ruh roh raggy
With a note on different techbases I'd suspect if it's an expy, it's either T'au or Systems Commonwealth. The latter would be fitting as it's another Roddenberry franchise and its ships would probably fit under 'different techbase', particularly if it includes things like ship avatars, fighter craft, and a different approach to torpedo/missile systems.
Godwinson
"Well, I've got nothing."
Come on, do you really think Oneiros would put in a power that's an expy of a Roddenberry franchise? Be serious, man.
Eh, they are said to have a similar technolgical level to the Federation which makes it pretty unlikely that they incapable of producing big ships considering that even races with a signifcantly lower can and have done so...
I really think you are making an elephant out of an molehole and certainly make far to widereaching guesses consideirng what little information we have. I for one have to say that their approach to interstellar diplomacy and first contact certainly seems to be one of the more believeable ones.
Actually though as @Godwinson said mostly what I get from 'Interstellar Commonwealth' is just a feeling of generic. No major feelings of doom or gloom, just thinking that's a name that was probably hammered out by a committee.
That being said I don't think it's too weird they had to ship in an ambassador. That suggests they don't trust ship commanders to conduct first contact, which is probably more 'realistic' but seems weird because it's in direct contravention of how the Federation operates with it's Diplomat-Captains [and also the tropes of the series]. We're have the diplomatic role of individual ships noted of late, first with the Huascar then with the Kearsage. It suggests to me this is a species with a more IRL separation between it's Defense apparatus and it's Foreign Affairs apparatus. This would be like stumbling upon a US Navy Squadron, following them back to Hawaii, and then waiting while they flew out someone from the State Department.
Or you know, Fire/Air Caste Warriors waiting for an Ethereal
Just a few pages ago Oneiros was talking about how he looks at OC species based on how they'd fit with the general Trek ~asthetic~ of rubber foreheads etc. Given the Systems Commonwealth is a barely-disguised alternate Federation, it'd actually fit right in. Almost too well really; it'd be hard to meaningfully separate them from us. Which is why I'm not really thinking it's the SC.
also we have animoo ladies
That being said I don't think it's too weird they had to ship in an ambassador. That suggests they don't trust ship commanders to conduct first contact, which is probably more 'realistic' but seems weird because it's in direct contravention of how the Federation operates with it's Diplomat-Captains [and also the tropes of the series]. We're have the diplomatic role of individual ships noted of late, first with the Huascar then with the Kearsage. It suggests to me this is a species with a more IRL separation between it's Defense apparatus and it's Foreign Affairs apparatus. This would be like stumbling upon a US Navy Squadron, following them back to Hawaii, and then waiting while they flew out someone from the State Department.
I can't tell if this is sarcasm, so apologies if I took this too seriously.
Just a few pages ago Oneiros was talking about how he looks at OC species based on how they'd fit with the general Trek ~asthetic~ of rubber foreheads etc. Given the Systems Commonwealth is a barely-disguised alternate Federation, it'd actually fit right in. Almost too well really; it'd be hard to meaningfully separate them from us. Which is why I'm not really thinking it's the SC.
also we have animoo ladies
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Godwinson
"Well, I've got nothing."
There've been "animoo ladies" in the quest?
Nervos Belli
Don't think this means you've won!
- Location
- Murica
There've been "animoo ladies" in the quest?
We did just meet a species of bunnygirls.
Godwinson
"Well, I've got nothing."
This is true!
aeqnai
Nerdy Homu
- Location
- Laniakea Supercluster
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Not to mention the Yan-Ros, who are literally the RWBY setting IN SPACE
I feel we could expand thier hat to all anime, which makes me wonder, when, we're going to get gay yan-ros figure skaters,Not to mention the Yan-Ros, who are literally the RWBY setting IN SPACE
- Location
- Austin, TX
Eh, you can make the generic claim on quite a few things. We live on a planet that almost everybody calls Earth. I can just see it now - 'You called your planet Dirt? Really?'.
aeqnai
Nerdy Homu
- Location
- Laniakea Supercluster
- Pronouns
- She/Her
For that matter, "United Federation of Planets" tells you about as much about us as "Interstellar Commonwealth" would. I'm pretty sure you could go onto a sci-fi faction name generator and have a decent chance of getting either of them.
It's possible they were unable to decipher our first contact package or initial hail. They may have interpreted it as something like "this system is ours, leave now or else", perhaps because of hostile first contacts in the past. After they realized the Courageous was in pursuit, they may have vectored in reinforcements to meet them at the edge of their space, and only were convinced of peaceful intent after Sabek did the thing with lowering shields.
It seems more like they had been burned before from hostile species than anything else, although discussions about potential separation of the military or caste systems have some merit.
e: It took 0.4 of a stardate, or 9.6 hours, for the civilian ship to arrive after the Courageous lowered shields.
It seems more like they had been burned before from hostile species than anything else, although discussions about potential separation of the military or caste systems have some merit.
e: It took 0.4 of a stardate, or 9.6 hours, for the civilian ship to arrive after the Courageous lowered shields.
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- Location
- Infraspace
Why the 'o7' salutes? I don't think I've ever seen a hand-to-forhead in prime universe Trek. (Continue to) \V/, Enterprise.
To me, what immediately comes to mind with Commonwealth + Space is Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga, but they're unlikely to be the inspiration for a... wide variety of reasons, not limited to no spacecraft (initially)! It's worth noting that there are other polities in that setting, and that the Commonwealth itself is entirely human.
Edit: aand the LLaP didn't come out. Will try to find an alternative.
To me, what immediately comes to mind with Commonwealth + Space is Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga, but they're unlikely to be the inspiration for a... wide variety of reasons, not limited to no spacecraft (initially)! It's worth noting that there are other polities in that setting, and that the Commonwealth itself is entirely human.
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I went here and got Constellations' Commonwealth on my second try. Commonwealth of Worlds on my fourth. Federal Unity of Systems on my fifth. It seems to be missing the word "Interstellar" though, which is a shame.
e: Wait, I just got an Interstellar, it's just rare.
e2: This is Captain Nash Ka'Sharren of the Federated Union of Spheres
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They could be the Commonwealth from the Commonwealth saga. But then that would imply they are a civilization of functional immortals with the same kind of ftl tech the Iconians had.
So probably not then.
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- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Derek58
Rocket Punch is Best Punch
- Location
- Getter Valhalla
And rolled!
Straak... has rocked.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
My working hypothesis is as follows.
The galaxy reached a state of technological 'levelling' under the domination of the Gorn, Orions, and other empires like them a thousand years- representing about the limit of what those societies could sustain. Higher levels of scientific development would have required data they didn't have, or a commitment to pure research they were unwilling to make, or something.
Then the H'urq showed up and pillaged everything. The established infrastructure of the existing empires was wrecked so thoroughly, and so many homeworlds and major colonies were bombed, that none of those species could make significant technological progress for many centuries. At the same time, though, this was an era without a Prime Directive, so most species that got anywhere near the atomic age were getting sucked into interstellar affairs... which meant they had to deal with the H'urq bombing and harassing and plundering them.
The species that are now dominant, with a handful of exceptions, were in the Iron Age when the H'urq showed up. This is because the H'urq weren't interested in Iron Age civilizations, probably because they were spacefaring Mongol hordes who cared only about the civilizations who had the means to pay them tribute they could actually use, e.g. dilithium crystals.
The timespan required for the then-dominant species that were deprived of the vast majority of their population and homes to recover from what the H'urq did to them, and the timespan required for then-Iron Age species to catch up and develop independent warp capability, synchronized up reasonably well, creating something like the modern galaxy.
[The outlier here is Vulcan and the Romulans, of course, who were old enough to be around when the H'urq were, but seem to have been untouched]
As to the present rapid technological boom that the Federation seems to be keeping pace with...
The Federation is an unusually dynamic culture that combines the best research talents of several different species including at least one freakishly intelligent one that seems to lack the ambition and industrial capability to be a major interstellar power in its own right. We poke spatial anomalies, we learn from the ruins not only of our own immediate predecessors in this region of space but from even more ancient aliens. This may be causing the Federation to drive a technological 'boom' that is, to say the least, unusual compared to the galactic norm of single-species militaristic polities with only limited interest in pure research and a habit of leaving random anomalies and weirdnesses the hell alone. Our neighbors may be pushing harder to keep up than they would be without us, too.
Amusingly thanks to this quest when people capitalize it as O7 I think "WE CAN'T AFFORD THAT MANY OFFICERS FOR A MEMORIAL! YOU WILL REGRET THIS!"