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- somewhere
When was back when, when we had 8 teams active? Do you think there is anything more we can do to make the walls of text less intimidating?
To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)
- Thread starter OneirosTheWriter
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- 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?
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- USA
I think once the lockin activates it will get better since we will have fewer teams to move about.
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- somewhere
Do you feel you don't need to see the teams that stay put (and therefore their projects not needing to be considered as possible choices for the remaining teams) to evaluate a plan properly? And is it ok if any long term reasoning for assigning teams in that particular way becomes basically intractable for anyone who didn't write the plan?
I guess no chance of deep understanding is an acceptable price to pay for easier surface understanding for most people, if deep understanding is far too much work anyway. Those plans are going to be hell to write up in the first place though...
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aledeth
The Flesh is Weak
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Briefvoice 2309 Research Plan
I value the response rolls more.
Side note on both plans: dancing around with the Warp Core teams is the kind of min-maxing that we should be avoiding. I don't care that there's a mechanical benefit to doing it like that, it's adding extra complexity to things and we're going to be locked out from doing things like that in the near future anyway. I don't feel like squeezing out the last bits of efficiency from a system that's going to ban such moves soon is in the spirit of things.
I value the response rolls more.
Side note on both plans: dancing around with the Warp Core teams is the kind of min-maxing that we should be avoiding. I don't care that there's a mechanical benefit to doing it like that, it's adding extra complexity to things and we're going to be locked out from doing things like that in the near future anyway. I don't feel like squeezing out the last bits of efficiency from a system that's going to ban such moves soon is in the spirit of things.
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The plans were written up a few days ago, before that topic even came up. It's not really practical to wait with that until after the vote is opened, even now.
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- Mid-Atlantic
I don't vote on research any more. It's too complicated- I'd basically be rubberstamping someone else's plan because of how much I trust them, and I don't feel like doing that.
My selecting, for example, Potemkin, Hood, and Yorktown, is because those are three ships we know were in fact Constitution-class starships in the TOS era. And they had pretty good careers by the standards of NPC mook ships in a Star Trek series.
I've repeatedly thought about and sometimes suggested Republic as a name. Kongo not so much because it never actually shows up, she's "Lady Not Appearing In This Film." Jupiter and Foch are apparently from expanded universe type stuff, which doesn't actually bother me, but I didn't go digging through it.
I mean heck, most of the Connies whose names we know from the original series, we know because something terrible happened to them in a TOS episode, to establish that the danger was so bad that Kirk's ship could suffer the same fate! Just off the top of my head that includes Constellation, Defiant, and Intrepid, and probably others. All three of those ships suffered the total loss of their crews, and Defiant got abducted by aliens to boot.
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Having our policies change rapidly would probably be a bad thing- disruptive, if nothing else. You don't want your people operating on quickly-changing rules of engagement if you can avoid it.
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Yaaay!
Agreed. I actually volunteered to keep track of overflow FOR him if there's any way I could reduce his workload on that issue.
I've been trying to pick from the names of Connies that actually appeared in TOS and that it's clear were Constitutions. This is because, especially with those first four ships we're getting a discount on, we are reusing a considerable amount of parts from the old (unusable) Constitution-As.
My selecting, for example, Potemkin, Hood, and Yorktown, is because those are three ships we know were in fact Constitution-class starships in the TOS era. And they had pretty good careers by the standards of NPC mook ships in a Star Trek series.
I've repeatedly thought about and sometimes suggested Republic as a name. Kongo not so much because it never actually shows up, she's "Lady Not Appearing In This Film." Jupiter and Foch are apparently from expanded universe type stuff, which doesn't actually bother me, but I didn't go digging through it.
We've named a lot of ships after ships that suffered an accident. Titanic is unusual because the first time the name was used, the ship met a disaster on the first voyage.
I mean heck, most of the Connies whose names we know from the original series, we know because something terrible happened to them in a TOS episode, to establish that the danger was so bad that Kirk's ship could suffer the same fate! Just off the top of my head that includes Constellation, Defiant, and Intrepid, and probably others. All three of those ships suffered the total loss of their crews, and Defiant got abducted by aliens to boot.
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Which is fine, because the policies we already agreed on provide us with a solid basis for beating the tar out of the Orion Syndicate. We don't need another ten influence points worth of policies.
I, for one, voted for a series of policies I would be perfectly happy to see in play for a long time. We MIGHT at some later time need a specific anti-piracy act, we MIGHT need to reshuffle our policies, but it's really not a problem if we're in this for the long haul.
Having our policies change rapidly would probably be a bad thing- disruptive, if nothing else. You don't want your people operating on quickly-changing rules of engagement if you can avoid it.
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...Did you just slip a Garfield reference into a Star Trek story?
Yaaay!
...Wow.
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- ?
I'm not sure. Fewer teams is part of it, if only because comparing/following plans was easier.
But also tech tree itself seemed less... overwhelming? I'm primarily a mobile user. When I open a single spoiler and get a faceful of 25 tabs that take all of my screen without even opening them, the first, second and third reaction is "Ahahaha nope." And that's just one kind of tech. I don't think I'm misremembering when I say that things were easier to take in.
Another thing is, it seems like mechanics are constantly changing. That's not encouraging (my) participation, either.
*shrugs*
Sorry it's not very helpful.
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- Mid-Atlantic
IF we could get things down to where only 5-10 teams were being reassigned at once, AND IF we had overflow so there wasn't a mechanical need to worry about a given team being "too good" for a given research project...
Then things would be manageable. That's what it was like in the opening phase of the quest.
Because we'd just say "okay, we have six teams available right now, the others are all busy, what do we assign them to?" And once in a while someone would shout "no, no, we can't assign the Random Junior Varsity Programming Team to this 750-point Invent Data tech, we have to wait for the Daystrom Institute to be ready, tell the JV team to go do something else!"
It would be on the same general level of complexity as the decisions we routinely make in plan votes and so on.
Instead, it's something like an order of magnitude more complex, because there are like twenty teams, it seems as though everything is up in the air every turn AND there are all these ultra-long-term ramifications to worry about...
The whole thing is just plain beyond human span of control, unless the human in question devotes exhaustive statistical analysis to the issue.
Then things would be manageable. That's what it was like in the opening phase of the quest.
Because we'd just say "okay, we have six teams available right now, the others are all busy, what do we assign them to?" And once in a while someone would shout "no, no, we can't assign the Random Junior Varsity Programming Team to this 750-point Invent Data tech, we have to wait for the Daystrom Institute to be ready, tell the JV team to go do something else!"
It would be on the same general level of complexity as the decisions we routinely make in plan votes and so on.
Instead, it's something like an order of magnitude more complex, because there are like twenty teams, it seems as though everything is up in the air every turn AND there are all these ultra-long-term ramifications to worry about...
The whole thing is just plain beyond human span of control, unless the human in question devotes exhaustive statistical analysis to the issue.
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AKuz
Been Better
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- A Rising Tide of Horrors
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- She/Her
I did indeed! I don't know where it came from, but it's there!
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- Anchorage, Alaska
Still think it's too soon to try and do another over haul of the research system. After we've had a year or to working with it and seeing how overflow works, then I'd be more open to changing the system again.
But doing it right now only makes the whole thing more confusing, instead of less. I'm not even sure overflow works the way you think it does!
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As an example of how difficult long term planning with locking is, I have just spent over an hour plotting out just the timeline for computing, and because isolinear computing needs to be started relatively soon and bottle-necks most of tier 4 that means plotting things out until production isolinear lands and we can start 2330s Mainframe Systems. With clever ordering of projects it's surprisingly possible to eliminate quite a lot of the uncertainty about when a project is completed, but even so I can't quite make the availability of production isolinear line up with a Daystrom project finishing... It would be so much easier if we could use Daystorm for a filler project for two years or swap it over to Isolinear some time during the project. I suppose a year off is not TOO bad...
Daystorm: 2320s Mainframe Systems 2309 - 2311 (100%) [skill-up], 2330s Colony Cores 2312 - 2315 (100%), Automated Ship Systems 2316-2320 (100%) [skill-up], 2320s Ship Computer Cores 2321 - 2324 (100%), 2330s Automated Ship Systems 2325-2328 (100%) [skill-up], 2330s Subsystems 2329-2331 (100%), 2330s Mainframe Systems 2332 -
SFSA or a new team: 2320s Research Centers some time before 2330
Generic Team 1: 2310s Shipboard Computing 2309 (100%), -> Sensors [swap with Team 4 so both get 2 specializations instead of just 1]
Generic Team 4: Primitive Isolinear Computers 2310-2322 (100%) [graduation, skill-up], Production Isolinear Computers 2323 - 2330 (100%) [skill-up, skill-up]
(If you switch for example Automated Ship Systems and 2320s Ship Computer Cores that creates uncertainty about the duration for both).
For projects not in the critical path and not needed to pad time there is thankfully significant leeway, so deciding when to do 2320s Research Centers and successors can be done on the spot.
Daystorm: 2320s Mainframe Systems 2309 - 2311 (100%) [skill-up], 2330s Colony Cores 2312 - 2315 (100%), Automated Ship Systems 2316-2320 (100%) [skill-up], 2320s Ship Computer Cores 2321 - 2324 (100%), 2330s Automated Ship Systems 2325-2328 (100%) [skill-up], 2330s Subsystems 2329-2331 (100%), 2330s Mainframe Systems 2332 -
SFSA or a new team: 2320s Research Centers some time before 2330
Generic Team 1: 2310s Shipboard Computing 2309 (100%), -> Sensors [swap with Team 4 so both get 2 specializations instead of just 1]
Generic Team 4: Primitive Isolinear Computers 2310-2322 (100%) [graduation, skill-up], Production Isolinear Computers 2323 - 2330 (100%) [skill-up, skill-up]
(If you switch for example Automated Ship Systems and 2320s Ship Computer Cores that creates uncertainty about the duration for both).
For projects not in the critical path and not needed to pad time there is thankfully significant leeway, so deciding when to do 2320s Research Centers and successors can be done on the spot.
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As someone whose games of Dungeons and Dragons often turn into Logistics and Legions, even as a player, thank you for working these timelines and critical paths out.
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- Central Standard Time
Huh. My current one is Murder and Mayhem, which is a refreshing change.
Forgothrax
Not Going Gently
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Honestly? Drop inspiration and average it into progress per turn, do overflow in a way that will reduce complexity, and call it good.
@Ato it is worth remembering that theses are supposed to – in some sense – be the ship they are named for. My problem with Defiant is that she was thrown to the Mirror Universe, and thus unavailable. Similarly, Valiant was canonically destroyed. I like both names, but they shouldn't be flight I choices. I prefer names with a decent history to them, so I'd like to avoid ships famous for Mutinying – like Potemkin, or blowing up – like Hood.
My goals when choosing names so was one has a generic reusable name (Republic), one has a clearly earth name that isn't specific to any earth culture (Jupiter), and two belong to non-anglo-american cultures (Kongo and Foch). Of these, I'm least attached to Foch, since it has the least canon backing, but finding a continental name with a positive history wasn't trivial. If someone has a better idea, then I'm all ears. For instance, if someone can show that Potemkin would no longer be notable for mutinying, then it would fit well here. I was avoiding anglo-american names here because we actually already have quite a few. Looking here, I count Constellation, Constitution, Courageous, Enterprise, Intrepid, Kearsarge, Lion, and Stalwart as names with history in the British or American Navies. While many of these are good and somewhat generic names that makes sense, others aren't. In particular, Lion and Kearsarge are really most notable for their performance as warships; nobody is going to name a spaceship after just a mountain in Vermont in a fleet our size.
You guys know we don't actually get to vote on ship names other than Excelsiors, right?
In fact, typically we don't even find out names until they show up in a log. It's fine to express preferences and maybe the QM will see an idea they like, but there's little point in debating it. In particular, @Simon_Jester if you've suggesting non-human Excelsior names for some kind of "deal" where ConnieBs get human names, well, none of us in the thread have the power to hold up the other end of that bargain, sorry. Apply pleas to the QM.
For the record, I'm in agreement with giving the Connie-Bs old school human ship names.
In fact, typically we don't even find out names until they show up in a log. It's fine to express preferences and maybe the QM will see an idea they like, but there's little point in debating it. In particular, @Simon_Jester if you've suggesting non-human Excelsior names for some kind of "deal" where ConnieBs get human names, well, none of us in the thread have the power to hold up the other end of that bargain, sorry. Apply pleas to the QM.
For the record, I'm in agreement with giving the Connie-Bs old school human ship names.
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This might actually be a good idea. The inspiration bonuses matter in terms of which sub-field techs get discovered a year sooner or later- but that itself doesn't matter very much, unless it's something like biophage research where every subfield grants substantial bonuses and we're trying to develop all of them in a hurry.
For the gradual chug-chug-chug of our incrementally advancing technology across the board, the inspiration bonuses are beneath the resolution limit of a useful simulation. It'd be like trying to keep track of the performance of the department heads aboard all our ships- theoretically possible, but the amount of interest it adds to the game would be totally offset by the amount of work involved.
In Starfleet service, both Potemkin and Hood have honorable names. The sailors aboard Potemkin had good justification for their mutiny, besides- Starfleet might reasonably view their actions as justified, and it might even reassure a few pacifists that we don't worship military hierarchy.
Firstly, the Potemkin mutiny is widely viewed as a justified revolt against the bureaucratic tyranny and oppression of Czarist Russia. To the Communists they were heroes; even outside the Soviet Union they are generally seen sympathetically.
Secondly, the USS Potemkin served honorably through the mid-23rd century in Starfleet, participating in the M-5 wargames, performing scientific and medical operations, and being slated for a special operations mission to bust Kirk and McCoy out of Rura Penthe in '93.
And that's just in the canon TV shows and movies.
So if anyone hears "Potemkin" and thinks "mutiny," they'll be thinking "a richly deserved mutiny." And they probably won't be thinking that anyway.
They're also legacy construction, and it's very much accurate to portray 23rd century Starfleet vessels as having overwhelmingly Terran names. See my earlier comments about human-named ships.
Plus, the dominant language of United Earth is very obviously English; the Anglophone influence in choice of ship names is unsurprising.
I do anticipate that the QM is likely to be influenced by our opinions if there is consensus; ship names are the sort of issue where that seems likely. I will formally contact him soon.
You will note that I didn't really discuss the issue until someone else started talking about it...
AKuz
Been Better
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- A Rising Tide of Horrors
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- She/Her
If you take seriously the "UFP is Communist" theory, then their is double reason see Potempkin as a hero ship!
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- Mid-Atlantic
They almost certainly aren't actual communists, but they look like communists to people who are unable to imagine an economy that isn't based on solving the problem of allocating the scarce, privately owned capital of an elite minority.
Conversely, I don't think the Feddies self-identify as communists, among other things because that's not a political tradition for 3/4 of the founding members. But they may well view communist movements a lot more sympathetically than we do today. Just as we tend to view peasants who revolted against 17th century monarchs a lot more sympathetically than a bunch of 17th century nobles did.
Even if we don't actually agree with the opinions of those rebels, we respect that they were being genuinely oppressed by a power structure that was massively rigged against them, and which we no longer have much sympathy for.
Conversely, I don't think the Feddies self-identify as communists, among other things because that's not a political tradition for 3/4 of the founding members. But they may well view communist movements a lot more sympathetically than we do today. Just as we tend to view peasants who revolted against 17th century monarchs a lot more sympathetically than a bunch of 17th century nobles did.
Even if we don't actually agree with the opinions of those rebels, we respect that they were being genuinely oppressed by a power structure that was massively rigged against them, and which we no longer have much sympathy for.
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Good morning everyone.
Vote closed, could I have a tally, please?
Vote closed, could I have a tally, please?
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Vote Tally : Sci-Fi - To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest) | Page 503 | Sufficient Velocity
##### NetTally 1.7.4
[X] Plan Training and Continued Ambassador Prep
No. of Votes: 9
[X] Briefvoice 2309 Research Plan
No. of Votes: 5
Total No. of Voters: 14
##### NetTally 1.7.4
[X] Plan Training and Continued Ambassador Prep
No. of Votes: 9
[X] Briefvoice 2309 Research Plan
No. of Votes: 5
Total No. of Voters: 14
So this wins:
Utopia Planitia Design Group: Renissance Techs
+10+2
Generic Team 1: 2310s Shipboard Computing
+1
Daystorm Institute : 2320s Mainframe
+10
40 Eridani A Shipyards : 2310s WarpCores
+6
Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems : 2310s Warp Core Safety
+8
Taves Nar Orbital Engineering: ToC Starship Frames
+4+2
Starfleet Medical Command : Basic ToC Equipment
+8
Vulcan Science Academy : 2310s Short-Range Sensors
+8+1
Generic Team 4: 2310s Long -Range Sensors
+1+1
Weapons Fabrication Division: Early ToC Weapons
+4
Andorian Academy: 2310s Deflector Shields
+6
Federation Broadcast Service : 2310s Communications
+4
Starfleet Science Academy: 2310s Message Security
+6
Tellar Prime Academy of Mineral Science : 2310s Special Resources
+6
University of Betazed: 2310s Affiliates Research
+6
Spock: 2310s Diplomacy
+10
Generic Team 3: 2310s Escort - Engineering
+1+2
Generic Team 2: 2310s Explorer - Science
+1+2
San Francisco Fleet Yards : 2310s Explorer - Engineering
+6+2
Office of Naval Architectur: Way of the Anchor
+4+3
Lt-Cdr Kuznetsova's Tiger Team: Way of the Elephant
+6+3
Admiral Lathriss : Way of the Giant
+6+3
Starfleet Tactical Command - Games & Theory Division: Cardassian Research
+4+3
Generic Team 5: Klingon Research
+1+3
EDIT:
Forgot you are quoting the winning vote in the update, here in compact form:
Generic Team 1: 2310s Shipboard Computing
Daystorm Institute : 2320s Mainframes
40 Eridani A Shipyards : 2310s WarpCores
Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems : 2310s Warp Core Safety
Taves Nar Orbital Engineering: ToC Starship Frames
Starfleet Medical Command : Basic ToC Equipment
Vulcan Science Academy : 2310s Short-Range Sensors
Generic Team 4: 2310s Long-Range Sensors
Weapons Fabrication Division: Early ToC Weapons
Federation Broadcast Service : 2310s Communications
Starfleet Science Academy: 2310s Message Security
Tellar Prime Academy of Mineral Science : 2310s Special Resources
University of Betazed: 2310s Affiliates Research
Spock: 2310s Diplomacy
Generic Team 3: 2310s Escort - Engineering
Generic Team 2: 2310s Explorer - Science
San Francisco Fleet Yards : 2310s Explorer - Engineering
Generic Team 5: Klingon Research
Daystorm Institute : 2320s Mainframes
40 Eridani A Shipyards : 2310s WarpCores
Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems : 2310s Warp Core Safety
Taves Nar Orbital Engineering: ToC Starship Frames
Starfleet Medical Command : Basic ToC Equipment
Vulcan Science Academy : 2310s Short-Range Sensors
Generic Team 4: 2310s Long-Range Sensors
Weapons Fabrication Division: Early ToC Weapons
Federation Broadcast Service : 2310s Communications
Starfleet Science Academy: 2310s Message Security
Tellar Prime Academy of Mineral Science : 2310s Special Resources
University of Betazed: 2310s Affiliates Research
Spock: 2310s Diplomacy
Generic Team 3: 2310s Escort - Engineering
Generic Team 2: 2310s Explorer - Science
San Francisco Fleet Yards : 2310s Explorer - Engineering
Generic Team 5: Klingon Research
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Omake - Romulan Reactions - AKuz
AKuz
Been Better
- Location
- A Rising Tide of Horrors
- Pronouns
- She/Her
A/N said:
Romulan Reactions
Romulus; One thousand eight hundred and thirtieth year of the Empire
SubCommander Aelia Ir-Devoras Ch'Ren of the Tal Shiar Analysis Directorate's Federation Affiliate section stands waiting in a tastefully and richly decorated foyer. She stands upright, maintaining as professional a bearing as she can as a household slave busies herself keeping the room in excellent condition.
Does she have any ambitions beyond her station? Does she feel kinship with her compatriots elsewhere in the Empire and in the galaxy? Is she aware of the Federation loudly and publicly declaring that she should be wrenched from her position and made free? Would she even care?
Slave uprisings are a problem the Romulan Empire has never concerned itself much with in recent centuries, but would closer ties to the Federation upset that state of affairs?
The Tal Shiar officer carefully adjusts the secure metal case of classified Tal Shiar documents held under her arm - the corners are starting to dig into her flesh from sitting still so long.
Another servant comes into the room, a smartly dressed woman with an air of authority despite her station, obviously the Hru'hfe for this house, and she flicks her eyes up and down the SubCommander's body, raising an eyebrow a fraction of a millimeter as Aelia wonders if her uniform is still as crisp as when she put it on ten hours ago.
The servant manager and high ranking slave bows deferentially towards Aelia in a refined manner somehow exuding superiority that sets Ch'Ren's teeth on edge, "Please, SubCommander, if you would follow me"
Ch'Ren walks behind the servant, trained eyes carefully taking in the surroundings as well. The materials and decorations are simple yet elegant, and old. Very old. The Senator's family has been Noble since the first days of the exile from Romulus and have never found themselves out of influence or wealth since.
Portraits of ancestors a dozen generations removed sit upon the walls, memories of ancient and legendary deeds hang heavy upon them, from War to Government, nothing that an Honourable Romulan can do has not gone unexcelled at by this ancient clan. If the Velals are arrogant and haughty they certainly have earned the right - no matter how how much their attitude annoys Ch'Ren or gets under her skin. Even the Velal servants seem to think they are better than her thanks to her lowly origin and a name with no legendary feats attached to it.
Aelia knows that many of these slaves and servants have been with the Velals for generations, they certainly like to brag about the loyalty they have instilled in their people.
The Hru'hfe stops in front a simple door made of aged hardwood and knocks gently upon it before she opens it, "Mistress Velal, SubCommander Ch'Ren, as you requested."
Aelia bristles. As an officer of the Tal Shiar she is at no one's beck and call except that of her superiors.
"Excellent, send her in, we are not to be disturbed." The voice is aged and arrogant, a simple request is an absolute order and Aelia finds herself entering without a moment's hesitation as the door closes behind her.
The voice belongs to this generation's Matriarch of the Velal line, Siennae Velal, a woman who had seen the war with Earth up close and personal as a young officer. A woman who centuries later spends her retirement preoccupied with the simple hobby of leading the Romulan Senate's Foreign Intelligence Committee.
"Please, sit, Ms Ch'Ren" the ancient Senator gestures with slow grace to a single seat across the table from herself.
The senator is, of course, not alone. Aelia's own superior Torvan Chaernik, the Director of the Analysis Directorate is here, sipping on clear glass of some brown liquid. Also here is Admiral Khev: hero of the Inflictor crisis and rising star of the Romulan fleet. Across from him is final member of their little triumvirate, Ael t'Rehr, a rising star in the the Romulan government, and one of the youngest Proconsuls in living memory, the post Inflictor shake ups being very good time to be clever and intelligent Noble with new ideas.
The Tal Shiar director sets down his glass, "Ms. Ch'Ren has been doing very good work at the Federation Affiliates desk and has been handling the Orion file with very insightful analysis."
Aelia is temporarily taken aback; this is more praise than everything she's ever received from the man put together. Oh. Right. If she looks good it reflects well upon him, "Thank you Sir. It is an honour to serve under you."
The ancient Senator shifts slightly in her seat, "As I am too old for the sport of mutual back patting, let me get to the point: SubCommander, are we in danger?"
"It is my analysis that we are not in danger at all by this latest Federation… crusade." she sets down her case carefully and opens it up, pulling out a thick stack of papers, handing out sheets to those seated.
"The first sheet is an annotated text of the wording of the Anti-Slavery act. As you can tell it is a finely worded piece of propaganda justifying war against the Orion Syndicate. It has nothing to do with us." Aelia smiles slightly, showing teeth. "It appears that Starfleet fears that the Syndicate is being used as a puppet by their new enemy: The Cardassians. Of course, the precipitating event is the near destruction of Courageous and the death of her Captain at the hands of the Syndicate."
Khev raises his glass is a salute, "I fought with Maryam Ajam. It is a shame that she has passed on so suddenly. May her memory be honoured by the war"
Aelia nods, as a Tal Shiar officer, she's aware of the bottle of Kalifel shipped to the Ajam family. Romulan-Federation diplomacy at this point is being led by dozens of small gestures of mutual respect on the individual level, easing the two nations slowly towards permanent detente.
"Yes, it seems that the charge towards war is one of emotion as much as it is logic or idealism" Aelia shuffles her papers, " Of course they are primary targeting an entirely different sort of slavery as well."
"Oh?" The elderly Senator clicks her nails against the wood grain of her table. "Do go on."
Aelia nods, "The Orion Union and the Orion Syndicate each use a different sort of slavery." she hands out another piece of paper with population statistics, "The Union uses a system of 'Indentured Labour' that most closely aligns with our own system. The law provides for protections: from harm, overwork, malnourishment, mistreatment, and so on." The other Romulans nod in understanding. "However these protections are often mostly on paper, and Indentured labourers, especially in industry, are often treated badly especially when seeking to maximize profits."
"How barbaric." The Velal Matriarch sniffs. "Setting aside honour for base wealth, no Velal would choose honour over wealth, if I had to choose I would maintain my honour every time." Aelia tries not to fume. Of course the Senator can casually make that claim when she has never wanted for anything in her life.
"Yes, the new government has tried to eliminate the practice as part of the accelerating push to align with Federation law, but the best they have been able to manage is lowering the self buyout price of a contract." Aelia shrugs. "Even then earning freedom is often out of reach as these wage slaves are forced to "pay" for their own amenities. Near all die in bondage"
"I repeat: Barbaric." Velal's face is shaped by disgust. "Emancipation for good service is the right of all slaves. My Hru'hfe has served this family for eighty years and has earned her own pay for twenty of those. Any truly Noble house emancipates slaves. It is only honourable."
Aelia can only agree, her own father was a freedman, and many if not most slaves are emancipated as clients of their former masters. And though master and slave remain bound together by tradition, the ties of support are mutual.
The Tal Shakir officer shuffles to another sheet of paper. "The second sort of slavery. The sort mainly indulged in by the Syndicate is full on animal slavery: a slave has no rights and a master's every whim is law. Treatment is often harsh and many are rapidly worked to death in industrial work or used as sexual toys for entire lifetime. There are no limitations of law or tradition; forced cybernetic surgery, nerve stapling, and other atrocities are common and fear is the only motivator the Syndicate feels they need."
The old Matriarch tosses her head dismissively. "And these people claim to have a culture as old and august as our own. Pathetic, even our Reman subjects are treated better than that." She takes a small sip from her glass, "Loyalty and Honour is as valuable a motivator as fear. Do you think I would trust my honour guard of Reman freedmen based on fear alone?" She shakes her head in wonder and confusion.
He younger noble, Proconsul t'Rehr, shakes her head as well. "Acting like that, it's no wonder the Federation is able to use it as an excuse so easily, no wonder they don't care as much about our own tradition."
Admiral Khev snorts in amusement, "Indeed." He picks up one of Ch'Ren's papers. "So, what are the military implications of this new zealous crusade?"
Aelia pulls out a final set of sheets to hand around, dispatching them across the table with a flourish. "Between this and their newly discovered preoccupation with these 'Cardassians' it is the opinion of our Directorate that Federation attention is being firmly moved to the 'west' and coreward. Starfleet concentrations on our border is at an all time low, even including the new starbase." Aelia smiles thinly, it is always good to see a rival distracted.
The Senator looks at the sheet in her hands with lidded eyes before turning slightly to face the man to her left. "Director. We still have assets in the Syndicate. Correct?"
"Yes Senator. We have several deep cover operatives and a large number of paid information sources." He searches his memory. "As well as a number of communication taps placed by our people. The Syndicate has always been an inexpensive way to keep eyes on the area, both knowingly and unknowingly"
"Instruct Chairman [name] that he should give the order to pull our people out."
The Tal Shiar Director blinks at the abrupt non-sequitur, "Madam?"
"They should pull out with everything they can carry, even if they have to burn their covers, they will return home. We do not need to risk increasing tensions with the Humans as we prepare for war with the Klingon brutes. We must give no excuse for the activation of the Khitomer Accord." She turns to face Admiral Khev. "Admiral, how do you feel about a visit to the new Human starbase? We have been meaning to send a diplomatic and military delegation to inspect it for treaty compliance."
The non bicentennials around the table exchange glances. They were not aware of such a plan?
"SubCommander Ch'Ren." The old woman holds the daughter of a slave with a fixed gaze. "You will of course be accompanying him." Ch'Ren has no time to stammer a reply before the Senator continues, moving her gaze to the Proconsul. "You will go as well. To represent the Senate." She fans the sheets out. "Your real diplomatic mission shall be to hand over all the information we have on the Syndicate: base locations, ship counts, informants, Orion merchant front organizations… Everything."
Ael looks down at the table as she packs away sheets of data, checking their printing numbers against her index. Would the Senate even authorize such a thing? Even a person as influential as Senator Velal cannot act unilaterally.
"The Senate will authorize this. They will listen to me," Velal says, as if she had read the Tal Shiar officer's mind. "We need the Humans as favourably inclined as we can make them in preparation for the war. We must insure that they do not enter it against us." The Senator tosses a sheet with slave population statistics across the table with surprising energy. "If we must sacrifice assets that we would likely lose anyway to do so it is worth it."
"Make yourselves ready for the journey. Tonight I will inform the proper people and tomorrow the Senate will pass this resolution."
Aelia carefully makes a final count of her sheets and closes her document case with a hard click. The old Senator must be convinced that this plan will strengthen Romulus's position. The amount of influence and favours she is talking about spending would ruinous to anyone of less august stature.
As SubCommander Ch'Ren follows her superior out the door she considers how… fascinating it will be to finally see Federation citizens in person as opposed to studying them from afar.
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