It doesn't need to be symmetrical. The regions to coreward of Sol aren't in a different quadrant than the regions to rimward of it, whereas the regions to spinward ARE in a different quadrant than the regions to antispinward.
The abc/ABC letterings represent entirely different regions of space. The 123/-1-2-3 numberings represent a single axis that passes smoothly through zero.
Furthermore, there is no letter equivalent to the number zero. If there were then it would be a logical one to assign to Sol's column on the map.
It's not about the alpha-beta quadrant split on the x-axis that's special. It's that we're explicitly labeling the sectors rather than the Cartesian coordinates. Notice how the grid lines themselves are not labeled and rather that it's the area between the lines that are. For both x-axis (letters) and y-axis (numbers).
If we were labeling the grid lines for a point coordinate system, then 0 would make sense. (0,0) would refer to Sol - and exactly only Sol as it's just a point.
But we're labeling the sectors instead, and since Sol is the origin of the coordinate system, it technically is in either 4 neighboring sectors or none of them, which should be labeled as: A-1, A+1, a-1, a+1 (or whatever grid label format we end up using).
edit: Actually, if it's Sol the star that's labeled as origin, then technically Earth would be traveling through all 4 sectors in a year
Eddie Leslie thought about his old pals, Hikaru and Pavel. Many a watch they'd stood together. Sure, Hikaru'd been a few years ahead, but the three of them? Almost brothers, really.
He'd pretty well lost touch with Pavel these days. Should probably try to track the Russian down, if he could ever find the time. But everybody knew Admiral Sulu was heading Tactical, after a stint running the Explorer Corps... man practically had "PUT ME IN CHARGE OF STARFLEET NEXT" tattooed on his forehead.
What Eddie felt about that wasn't jealousy, not much of it. Sulu was sharp as a tack, everyone knew it. The kind of guy who could plot a course at high warp through a clumpy nebula with a slide rule and a pad of paper. If he was going to be the next grand panjandrum of Starfleet, more power to him. But Eddie couldn't help but remember the polywater incident, and with full measure of irony, think there but for the grace of God go I.
Storm the bridge, menace the captain, accost the communications officer, and they forgive you and you get to run Starfleet. But write ONE LOUSY POEM...
Oh well. No use crying over spilt milk. Besides, just about everybody old and humorless enough to have been offended by that little ditty at the time was either dead, retired, or Vulcan...
Which maybe explained why, with little ceremony, he'd been promoted to fill Commodore Banks' shoes. At least temporarily. Maybe permanently, if he played his cards right. Now, he didn't feel the slightest impulse to profit from Banks' accident. No, sir. Banks was a good man, and Leslie hoped he recovered.
But it was... gratifying... to have something important to do. With the work on the Renaissance-class procurement mostly in the bag, aside from the endless arguments about whether the new hull cladding was the proper shade of grey, it had been a slow season at Quality Assurance.
And flag rank was a nice prize, too, if he could keep it.
In your capacity as Chief, Warp Core Fabrication Division (acting), your first task is to personally ensure that USS COURAGEOUS's replacement warp core is installed safely and in accordance with all Starfleet procedures. Reports indicate that this is a matter of high urgency. After this task is accomplished, you are further to ensure that the Gaeni do not in any way compromise, degrade, or undermine the safety of the vessel, particularly her warp core but extending your efforts to other systems.
Signed by Vice Admiral Sousa, no less.
Well, he'd heard about the Gaeni, even over in Quality Assurance. And in a call from Thuir. Two calls from Thuir. Worth listening to, and it'd given him a lot to think about. He'd always known the man would amount to something, ever since the old days when Thuir had been fresh from the academy. An old, almost spiritual voice deep in Eddie's soul had reached out, and said to him "This, this is the Man. Cultivate him, teach him all that you know of the way of the redshirt and the goldshirt."
As he stretched out on the bed of his little cabin aboard a fast if slightly temperamental passenger transport bound for Gaeni space, he reflected that the decision was paying off.
______________________________________________
Main Engineering, USS Courageous
Mid-Senior Researcher-of-Engineering Kell-Nac Seven, of Pallas Abat Higher Technology Institute, regarded the grey-headed human in the red Starfleet jacket. This Ed-Dee-Les-Lee had presented his credentials, and was apparently Starfleet's senior representative for the installation of warp cores, here to inquire about Gaeni procedures. It was... fascinating to contemplate, really. They were already learning so much from experimenting with Courageous's antimatter lines, and now they had a ranking Federation expert!
There was an odd energy, an authority about the man, despite his obvious age and the limp in his step. He'd managed the catwalks, inspected the new warp core from every angle. Said nothing the entire time, strangely. Even when Kell-Nac asked him directly, Les-Lee had simply laughed and said "I've got a lot of practice keeping my lip buttoned, neighbor."
That stopped the Gaeni. Humans did not, after all, appear to have buttons on their lips. Had it been some sort of fad in the man's youth? The question was interesting, and by the time he was done contemplating it, Les-Lee was already gone, hissing with pain as he wriggled his way into one of the access tubes the Federation diagrams called Jeff-Rees, handling a tricorder with obsessive-compulsive precision.
Then, he slid back down, taking a moment with his eyes tightly shut and twisting in an odd posture. Some kind of meditation or exercise? Perhaps analogous to some of the methods his great-uncle Kell-Danzt Two used to overcome muscle cramps.
The Starfleet officer spoke.
"So, we shipped you the core, and you have it installed in two weeks."
"Ah, a week is approximately six hundred kiloseconds, correct? If so, then that is correct."
"You say you're done?"
"Well, clearly; the core is in place, and all our power tests so far have proved well within nominal parameters for service-readiness..."
"Nominal. Ready. Kell-Nac, I'm reading variance in the alignment on the quadrupoles for the antimatter feeds of up to a nanometer. Two thirds of the cooling pumps appear to still be in the packing grease they came in. So I have to say, on behalf of Starfleet, that I don't think you did the job at all."
Kell-Nac's hair bristled at the slight. He frowned.
"Commodore, the pumps are redundant; my staff have designed a far superior and more efficient version that will provide significantly greater power with a single unit- incidentally using the space previously occupied by your three modules. Three, I say, only one of which even operates at a time! And those lines won't go wrong, not at one nanometer tolerance nor yet at ten, as our simulations plainly demonstrate and as you must well know from your own experience..."
A sudden vicious light gleamed in Les-Lee's eyes.
"Won't go wrong... in my experience."
"Why naturally, of course-"
"Won't go wrong... in my experience? Mister Kell-Nac, do you know where I come from?"
"Earth, yes? Isn't that where humans usually come from?"
The Earthling's smile was not at all reassuring, even by the standards of species that normally considered bared teeth a friendly greeting. "Oh, Earth is where I was born, sure enough, but where I'm from, where I became a proper spacer, was under the watchful eye of James Tiberius Kirk, aboard the USS Enterprise. Because you see, neighbor, I was the Enterprise's juniormost command-track officer from '64 to '68. Do you know what that means, neighbor?"
"Hm. I've heard of the Enterprise, but..."
The old human seemed, somehow, to swell, gaining several centimeters in height and breadth. It had to be some kind of illusion of posture; human anatomy did not allow for such things. How strange. Only then did Kell-Nac realize he had been backed into a corner, as the commodore continued to speak. "It means I've got more weird tales to tell than you have time or ears to hear!"
"Yes, but I'm not sure I get your p-"
"I am one of the unlucky few in the quadrant to have experienced both the Vulcan nerve-crush and the Klingon headbutt!"
"Oh, really?" The Gaeni took a sudden interest now. "So, was that before or after the forehead thi-"
"BOTH!" Leslie roared, and began jabbing a finger at Kell-Nac's chest. A novel gesture, and a surprisingly intimidating one. The shipyard officer fell silent. "While I don't personally remember the incident, I have it on the best authority that I survived being turned into a mineral-salt cuboctahedron by evil alien overlords from Andromeda! And no, I am not making that up, I've got pictures! And that was just another week! A normal day at the office! I didn't even write home about it! I have watched, helpless, as life-draining monsters incapacitated the crew through our shields,. I have endured mind-control by means chemical, biological, and psionic. I have seen mad hijackers with powers and abilities far beyond those of normal humanoids, be they genetic, cybernetic, or supernatural, capture a vessel from the inside, monkeying with the controls and wreaking havoc on levels that can hardly be conceived- on multiple occasions!"
Leslie's head of steam was building to dangerous levels, the old human's cheeks flushed red in a display Kell-Nac hadn't realized that the Terran species was capable of.
"I have watched, while the finest ship known to Federation science and engineering was trapped helpless in the grip of alien ultratech tractors-" Leslie paused, counting on his fingers- "At least three times off the top of my head. I have seen part or all of my ship's command team abducted by mysterious yet immature gods, whisked off the bridge through deflectors and transporter-jamming- TWICE! I have- dammit, you're not even cleared to hear about that one! Correction, those tw- THREE! And a good thing you're not, too, you reckless, feckless, degenerate cross of a concussed Vulcan and a Sirian flame-donkey! Countless times, and in countless places, I have been amazed, dazed, phased, and once even raised from the clinically dead by a hypercompetent old country doctor!"
The Gaeni was surprised enough by that little tidbit that he completely forgot the insult. "Wait, you di-"
"SHUT UP! If there is any person, place, or thing that has endured a higher density of improbable, near-lethal, or inexplicable disasters, mishaps, and misfortunes than I and my comrades-in-arms aboard the USS Enterprise in as short an amount of time, I have never heard of them! And even I cannot claim to have experienced everything that can go wrong aboard a starship! So where does that leave you?"
Kell-Nac wasn't sure if humans could die from having blood vessels in their brains spontaneously overpressurize and explode, or if that was just a Gaeni thing. But he was honestly concerned that might happen to the Starfleet officer. He looked truly, deeply, angry.
The commodore glared, spittle flecking his lips with the fury of an outraged engineer. "Where does that leave you? You, who have never stared down the throat of a planet-eating cosmozoan? You, who's never been inside a hull rattled by the giant green glowing hand of one of your own myths? By the tungsten tentacles of holy Klono, if I ever, ever hear the words "won't go wrong" in your mouth again, so help me, I am going to put my fist in there to keep them company!"
The human, panting, became somewhat less red. Somewhat. He was smiling again. A less scary smile.
"...And now you will disconnect this marvelous piece of high technology, this magnificent engine that is an explorer's main reactor, and this time I will watch closely, and I will help you, and I will teach you everything the Federation knows about how to treat her right."
________________________________
DESIRED OMAKE REWARD:
-Please please please don't give Courageous a reliability penalty for having let the Gaeni touch her...
this is both why the can build ships at high performance, and why they tend to lose more ships to warp core malfunctions than anything else. Also why their world might go boom now that they've been able to look at a high end antimatter reactor.
By the way, literally every incident Commodore Leslie references is canon TOS, except the Klingon headbutts. And I know where at least one of those happened, even if we didn't see it on screen.
this is both why the can build ships at high performance, and why they tend to lose more ships to warp core malfunctions than anything else. Also why their world might go boom now that they've been able to look at a high end antimatter reactor.
yeah, but now that they got a look at one decades ahead of their own it's most likely give them ideas. Thoug given they haven't blown up their world yet it's possible they will only lose a moon.
Making a planetbuster with antimatter is stupidly hard. You'd need to get an absurd amount in one place. Yes, antimatter has the best possible energy density of any fuel or explosive (any better and you break thermodynamics) but the gravitational binding energy of a planet is huge.
Yeah, I'm very sure that Starfleet would be in complete charge of the repair process, but allow Gaeni observers. It's kinda the obvious thing to do, more so with the warp core happy fun time guys.
Yeah, I'm very sure that Starfleet would be in complete charge of the repair process, but allow Gaeni observers. It's kinda the obvious thing to do, more so with the warp core happy fun time guys.
Honestly, the whole story sort of... coalesced... around Commodore Leslie's rant. And then I needed someone for him to rant AT, and it occurred to me that if he was in charge of warp cores, who would he be ranting at if not a Gaeni... and then I needed an excuse for him to rant at a Gaeni.
yeah, but now that they got a look at one decades ahead of their own it's most likely give them ideas. Thoug given they haven't blown up their world yet it's possible they will only lose a moon.
The Gaeni already had replicators before we even met them. WE didn't have replicators before we met them. I doubt their reactor technology was that primitive.
Besides, a warp core "decades behind" the ones in the Excelsiors could be as powerful as, oh, the ones in the original Constitutions. Those were commissioned in the 2240s, remember?
Yeah, although... Leslie's spent the last forty years walking around with a limp and chronic pain from that time Spock gave him a nerve pinch while under the influence of a neural parasite. It caused some permanent damage.
And he never DID really live down being responsible for the lyrics of that drinking song.
Making a planetbuster with antimatter is stupidly hard. You'd need to get an absurd amount in one place. Yes, antimatter has the best possible energy density of any fuel or explosive (any better and you break thermodynamics) but the gravitational binding energy of a planet is huge.
One gram of anti-matter reacting with one gram of matter results in an energy release of 1.8 × 1014 Joules of energy. How much energy it takes to "bust a planet" depends upon what exactly you mean. I'll be using these three different takes:
Extinction Level Event - 5.43 × 1023 Joules
Strip the atmosphere - 3.2 × 1026 Joules
Reduce planet to gravel - 2.9 × 1031 Joules
Diving through gets masses of Anti-matter measuring:
Extinction Level Event - 3,017 Metric Tons
Strip the atmosphere - 1,777,778 Metric Tons
Reduce planet to gravel - 161,111,111,111 Metric Tons
So rendering the planet uninhabitable is doable but actually exploding the planet is laughably unrealistic.
"...to go to High Alert," you say decisively. "All leave is canceled, all non-essential yard work and refits are halted, I want every spaceworthy hull plying vacuum within a day. Instruct all non-combatant Commands to exercise all possible caution near the borders and to pull back if possible."
A pair of bright-faced Commanders rush off to convey your orders as you settle back into your seat and look up at the screen. Your eyes trace out "the Tadpole constellation", the somewhat more polite version of how Starfleet Logistics refers to the shape made by the Federation's main trade route. Looping through the four original homeworlds to form the head, with the tail spearing out from Tellar Prime to Amarkia, it is the aorta of the Federation's industry. Lose it and your shipyards grind to a halt, and political will starves as the blessed post-scarcity of the Federation comes to a screeching halt. Betazed has its own trade route to Sol, but it is considerably smaller than the backbone to Amarkia, which also carries the trade from Apinae, as well as the logistics for the CBZ fleet and outposts.
If your number one priority is protecting the homeworlds, preserving this arterial route is number two on the hit list.
"How well are we able to track this cloak?" you ask.
"We have no idea," admits Linderley. "The Syndicate couldn't track it in testing. Our sensors are far better than the Syndicate's, but as they simply picked up nothing, there isn't anything to guide our own detection efforts yet."
You glance across at Sulu, who nods reluctantly. "It is true. If this truly is the cloak used by General Chang, we were only able to trace it by using a refitted torpedo after it fired. While it was in normal operation, its protection was perfect."
"No further research was done into this cloak?" you ask, hands raised in exasperation.
"Admiral, everyone believed it was destroyed," says Sulu. "Some research was conducted in the following year, but the sensor trace of the Enterprise only ever picked up the post-firing emissions, so there was very little to test the theory against. When it became apparent that the Klingons possessed no more, research into it quickly ceased."
"Right... what do we know about this Gul Miran?" you ask afterwards, turning back to Linderley.
"Ah, less than we'd like, thus far," admits Rear Admiral Linderley. He taps away at a datapad for a while, and then clears his throat. "Gul Penelya Miran, Captain of one of the most experienced Cardassian ships, the CDF Trager. Highly motivated crew, very well-regarded commander, politically she was extremely well-connected. However, ever since their first contact with the Federation, her star has been steadily falling. There are a few credits against her name for her conduct on the frontier, and managing to not be part of the Karnack and Lorgot's failed hit on the Enterprise helped keep her star afloat. In a number of ways, a Jaldun-command is seen as more prestigious than a Kaldar, because the former are more active, less likely to be held in reserve. More opportunities to make a name for service to the state. So normally we would say that she was being handed a punishment ... but for the experimental nature of this ship. So far we don't have a full breakdown of what the ramifications here mean. We are currently working up a better intelligence profile, should have something soon."
You take a moment to wash your hand over your face and sigh. "Great. Perfect. Okay, third-parties. Anything stirring in the Beta Quadrant?"
"No, sir, all quiet on that front."
That surprises you a little. "What is the Klingon reaction to news about the cloak?" you ask, cocking your head.
Scott shifts awkwardly and you can tell already you won't like this answer. "Skepticism, Admiral."
"Say again?"
"They are skeptical of the evidence we have been able to give them," he explains. "A lot of our more 'slam-dunk' proof I've black-banded. It would reveal too much of our information-gathering efforts, as well as prove an unacceptable threat to the safety of the T'Mir's mission."
"Rear Admiral, we want this information to disseminate," you say in an exasperated tone.
"Respectfully, Admiral, there's always a cloak, or a monster, or some other danger," replies the chief spy. "But information gathering methods are not so easily replaced. I can't allow them to become compromised, I must protect the integrity of Starfleet Intelligence."
"I can have you sacked," you threaten.
Scott squares his shoulders and juts out his chin defiantly. "Not according to Starfleet Charter, Admiral. This is my call as head of Intelligence."
You slowly recline back in your chair and steeple your fingers. An entire minute of dead silence passes in the office as you stare at the officer. You quietly resolve to yourself that either Starfleet Intelligence distinguishes itself mightily in the coming days, or you will destroy this man. Contrary to his claims, you can get him out of his position; there's been a proposal sitting in your desk for several months to consider raising Starfleet Intelligence to be the next Vice Admiral role, a trick that would accomplish this neatly, and bring in some fresh blood to Starfleet Intelligence.
"Have a care, Rear Admiral Linderley," you say softly. "Many eyes will be on you during this crisis."
"Sir."
"Other third-parties. Sydraxian Hierarchy. Yrillians. Dawiar. Lecarre. What do we know?"
"Sydraxian ships were badly rebuffed at Vega station," says Scott. "Since then, United Earth suspects they're trying to get through to raid shipping. Dawiar are hunkered down still, not up to much yet. Yrillians are quiet, no movement. Lecarre we know very little about. That's the summary, I'll see to it that the full reports are sent to your staff."
"Thank you, Rear Admiral, that will be all," you say icily. The moment he is out of the room you permit yourself a sharp hiss. "That sunuvabitch!"
"He's just doing what he thinks is necessary to protect people under his command," offers Sousa. You turn and give her the evil eye.
"Okay, let's get down to the business of deployments," you say instead darkly.
[ ][ASSIGN] What ships would you like to redirect?
(These are temporary assignments for the duration of the crisis. At this alert level, it takes one week to transit the width of one sub-sector (grid square), so bear this in mind. You can direct ships to either a given subsector using its grid reference, or order them to a particular system. Member World fleets, at this stage, will conduct their own affairs.)
Yeah actually have to go with Scott on this one.... risking the T'Mir and our ability to spy on cardassians is worth more than letting the Klingons get the straight proof.
Backing Linderley there, I don't care to lose an asset deep in enemy territory. I'm a bit surprise at how she reacted to this since Intel methods is a separate thing.
My broad thoughts on the deployment issue are here. @Briefvoice has convinced me that we should not muster our forces on the rimward border (near where the Cardassian fleet is expected) in the Caitian sector, but rather do so nearby, and I believe him.
...
Also... Wow! Linderley's working out swimmingly. His counter-intelligence specialization is coming in very handy. Now we don't have Klingons who believe us because we can't won't provide them with the evidence. I'm sure that won't cost us anything significant.
[nods firmly and smiles cheerfully]
And SynchronizedWritersBlock, I respectfully disagree with you, though I liked your post for a reason.
See... This is the bed we made when we picked the counterintel guy to run the agency. We know that he's going to emphasize maintaining operational security and secrecy, because that is literally what he built his career around doing. We could have picked other people to fill his seat, and either of them might well be more willing to comply with a direct order to share intelligence information with the Klingons than Linderley is.
And one of them might well be able to provide us with better information on what the Dawiar, Lecarre, and Sydraxians are up to, because he was a diplomatic posture and people-reading expert.
But I'm sure that Linderley's bonuses to counterintel will pay off, somehow, since that bonus was several times more important than the competing bonuses. Even if a counterintel boost and a counterintel focus turns out to be utterly useless or even actively counterproductive in the context of this specific crisis that may see us blunder into war with Cardassia!
At least we'll have the consolation that the Klingons won't know how we knew a combat-cloaked ship was coming for us.
The problem is that yeah, there's a risk to the T'Mir and it will undermine Starfleet Intelligence's efforts- but what the hell happens if Starfleet can't find the cloak? They won't even be able to tell they can't find it until it's too late- after the major trade line of the Federation is raised to shit by an invisible commerce raider, or a WMD is deployed on a core world.
Scott's protecting his department's ass, which is understandable- but it's by placing a metric fuckton of Federation Citizens lives on the line and risking the economic integrity of the Federation. No shit there will always be a crisis, but you have to compromise the long term in favor of the short term to survive the crisis and that's what Scott doesn't understand.
It's easy to say withholding information from the Klingons was the right call if all the rest of Starfleet does it's job and finds the ship. But if things explode in Starfleet's face? If calling the Klingons and getting some specs on the cloak or even expertise from some of their experts in the field would have saved lives/protected the Federation than all of that, is on Scott's head and Scott's head alone because he thought he knew better than his superior officer.
He's only seeing this from the intelligence perspective, of how badly it will hurt the Starfleet Intelligence's espionage warfare in the years to come- and that's fine. But when your superior who does have to account for the bigger picture, who does actually have to resolve the issue in it's entirety disagrees with your assessment? You reevaluate, even if it leads you to the same conclusion. Scott doesn't understand that Starfleet, all of Starfleet, including his Intelligence exists to protect the Federation against crises like this, and that by refusing to compromise itself SFI is endangering the very people it's sworn to protect for the sake of operational effectiveness.
I'm with Kahurangi here in that he either needs to provide some really compelling support for his policies in the days ahead or his ass is getting politically crucified.
My broad thoughts on the deployment issue are here. @Briefvoice has convinced me that we should not muster our forces on the rimward border (near where the Cardassian fleet is expected) in the Caitian sector, but rather do so nearby, and I believe him.
...
Also... Wow! Linderley's working out swimmingly. His counter-intelligence specialization is coming in very handy. Now we don't have Klingons who believe us because we can't won't provide them with the evidence. I'm sure that won't cost us anything significant.
[nods firmly and smiles cheerfully]
And SynchronizedWritersBlock, I respectfully disagree with you, though I liked your post for a reason.
See... This is the bed we made when we picked the counterintel guy to run the agency. We know that he's going to emphasize maintaining operational security and secrecy, because that is literally what he built his career around doing. We could have picked other people to fill his seat, and either of them might well be more willing to comply with a direct order to share intelligence information with the Klingons than Linderley is.
And one of them might well be able to provide us with better information on what the Dawiar, Lecarre, and Sydraxians are up to, because he was a diplomatic posture and people-reading expert.
But I'm sure that Linderley's bonuses to counterintel will pay off, somehow, since they're several times more important than anything else. Even if they turn out to be utterly useless or even actively counterproductive in the context of this specific crisis that may see us blunder into war with Cardassia!
Ease off, all intel agencies are secret as fuck to the level of pointlessness, this is a case where it is semi justified though as it is risking an asset and the lives of the people under his command. His responsibilities and perspective are not our responsibilities and perspective. We're pissed cause he made a call that his perspective was right narrow minded sure but he's a spy not a diplomat and convincing the Klingons is firmly a diplomats job, now we need to find out how to work with that perspective to get inline with our perspective. Starfleet will never be a single mind people and this is an instance of it. For gods sake we were trying to not sack the last guy because loyalty to our now were railing against this guy for doing it for people who are low enough on the ladder to deserve the protection.
Welcome to the chain of command and inter department rivalries/different priorities I'm amazed it's taken this long to actually get a direct case of "me vs you" humanity really has advantage!
The most important thing to report on over the past few months is the follow-up investigation to the report of the unusually modified Kaldar cruiser. I believe you have already been informed that the module is of mixed Orion and Klingon architecture. The raid on Yvresse station, though coming at an unacceptable cost, was still able to provide valuable data from which to extrapolate answers from. Most notably, we have learned that this was a Klingon device acquired by the Orions, and that the Orion researchers never fully understood what they were working with. Indeed, the Orion component of the module appears to be more repairs than modifications. From initial data retrieval, it seems that they acquired the module from somewhere near the Federation-Klingon-Romulan border intersection, an area of space which is home to such worlds as FepaH-Tok, Haghat, Khitomer, and Vargart.
By using the capture Yrillian ship, Starfleet Intelligence launched a daring raid on another Orion Syndicate base to discover further information on the Orion-Klingon module currently being deployed on the Kaldar-class vessel nearing completion in Cardassian Shipyards.
What we have uncovered is extremely unsettling to the analysis teams here at Starfleet Intelligence.
The origins of the module are in the Khitomer System, where remaining debris from the experimental warbird of one Klingon General Chang remained in orbit for a few days after the momentous battle against the Excelsior and Enterprise-A. The cloaking module was recovered and over several long years of work, the Syndicate attempted to repair, refurbish, and re-develop the cloaking module. However, it appears that elements of the cloak, unbeknownst to anyone at the time, including those in the Klingon Empire, were components of Preserver technology so arcane as to effectively be Black Boxes, stymieing all attempts at duplicating the device. We do not know how far they progressed with rectifying the deficiencies in the cloak that permitted Starfleet to destroy General Chang's ship in the first place.
A year ago, Starfleet Intelligence moved to break up a Syndicate ring that we had discovered operating in the Tellar Sector, on a satellite colony of Ord Grind Duk, in the Kapluk system. While this project was held with the highest secrecy by the Syndicate, a number of associated projects were not, and our actions disrupted them all equally. With the security of the device compromised, and Starfleet Intelligence closing in, the Syndicate sold the device on to the Cardassians for an unknown payment.
The new Kaldar is believed to be named the CDF Kadak-Tor, a reference to the seminal Cardassian fictional work, 'The Never-Ending Sacrifice'. It is the analysis of Starfleet Intelligence that while the Battlecruisers are the largest ships of the fleet, they are seen more as curios than key ships. It is the Kaldar that our Andorians would call the 'tarshaan', or our Human friends would call the 'linebacker', of the fleet. The intentions of the Cardassians with regards to this ship are as yet unknown. We do, however, know thanks to signal intercepts that the officer who will undertake the shakedown cruise of the Kadak-Tor is Gul Miran, an officer who has crossed swords with Captain ka'Sharren on a number of occasions. Interestingly, our read of the situation is that Gul Miran was quite out of favour with the Cardassian Union central command at this time.
Our intel was gained from the Courageous's raid and the follow-up. The T'Mir's observation is merely what started things off. The Courageous's raid's cover is blown as blown can be, and many of the people who would be protected are already dead.
Sure, maybe they can't show the scans from the T'Mir to the Klingons. Maybe they can and it was unduly restricted. But the evidence is greater than that, and if what we have shown them isn't slam-dunk enough, it's evident to me that too much has been black-banded. If what Linderley is protecting is following the chain back to the T'Mir mission, well, the first few links in that chain do need exposed if the Klingons are to believe us.
I'm not going to harp on the counterintel choice, I just want to highlight that the lack of continuity is really hurting us here. zh'Rhashaan had a handle on the state of the frontier, and the ops to investigate the device were his brainchild. Instead of delivering dossiers or reports, I think it's likelier he might have actual insights compared to a guy who was shoved into the seat just before a crisis. I can't really blame Linderley for that, because he's had to grab ahold of something very surprising and complex, when the previous admiral had been wrestling with it for a while. To mix my metaphor a bit.
