To be fair, we probably CAN afford to draw down the fleet in the GBZ a little, and pull a few
Mirandas and cruisers to thicken the garrisons of key sectors that only have two ships (like Rigel and Ferasa). The Cardassians probably can't just casually roll over our whole force once we take into account the member world fleets present.
It's a good thing bridge literally controls almost all major functions of the ship in one room then, isn't it?
...That does not remotely address my point.
Pheromonal communication cannot say "warp factor six" as opposed to "seven." It cannot say "turn left" instead of "turn right." It cannot say "evacuate decks three and four, specifically" or "emergency power to the forward phaser banks" or any of a variety of other
highly specific life-or-death commands that need to be given
precisely without risk of misunderstanding.
Importantly, pheromonal cues cannot easily say "I'm very stressed out right now, but my judgment tells me that we should refrain from doing anything rash" or "I'm afraid of dying if we do this, but we have to do it anyway."
Moreover, if it is standard practice for Apiata crews to rely on pheromonal cues as a main channel of communication for critical information during combat, then anything that interferes with their ability to sniff the air their commanding officer is sweating into will cause problems. Like being in Main Engineering
because you need to report on the status of ongoing repairs, something that cannot be done by sitting on the bridge- someone has to be back there actually doing the repairs!
Yes, ants and bees rely heavily on pheromones. So do a lot of other animals. This is because ants and bees are
very stupid creatures, and even the most complicated things they do are extremely simple (and often poorly coordinated) compared to the things intelligent tool-using creatures aboard a starship have to do.
Dogs can communicate a lot to other dogs by peeing on trees. That's not because peeing on trees would be an efficient form of communication for the Gretarians in a time-critical situation.
I don't really see the gain in it for the Romulans.
Done right, it might cost the Romulans virtually nothing: it pisses off aliens they don't care about, and they have to send some Tal Shiar agents to help out with a few select assassinations and things. And it gains them a significant advantage- more reason for the Federation to value continued good relations with the Romulans!
Think about it. If the Klingons get mad, the consequences are mostly confined to a single area of the Federation. If the Romulans get mad at the moment, again, single area of the Federation. But if the Cardassians get mad? We've got trouble hitting us from three directions at once, and that's been one of the main reasons we're so worried about the Cardassians. The Romulans may want that advantage for themselves. Especially since
unlike the Cardassians they've already adopted a stance of negotiating and being 'good neighbors' with us.
I suspect that virtually all 'good neighbor' relations among Romulans involve both parties having very good reasons NOT to want the other party as an enemy. It just seems a natural fit for Romulan culture. So no wonder they want 'insurance policies' to make sure that we continue to not want the Romulans as enemies.
However we deal with these nomads, it's going to be a very morally gray area. Unless they don't do raiding and theft and piracy and all that stuff, in that case, let them go through the UFP, no issue with that at all.
The most UFP-ey way to do this would be to closely escort the nomads' fleets through our space while watching them closely and assigning them specific systems as rest stops along the way, I think.
Let's NOT use them as weapons against anyone else, though.
