quote: A. Objectively critique one of the other participants’ answers to part (E) of the previous question. Point out any strengths or weaknesses in their strategy, and feel free to examine the underlying political or philosophical assumptions of that strategy.
Snay, I like the stand you are taking. However, I'm not sure it's strictly kosher to ransom the Navilli crew like that and offer their ship to the T'g'nari not least because you may inadvertantly give the Navilli's potential new enemy a good look at their technology and sensitive data. Neither are our allies formally or in any sort of alience with us. It is their own dispute, so while a short sharp shock from the Fed might help, if it goes wrong you may have seriously destabilised the whole system.
Fabrux, your stance is strictly neutral, which has advantages and disadvantages. As a positve you do not embroil yourself in a situation that is none of your business. However doing nothing might also destabilise the system by starting a war and this might be a moment for big stick diplomacy.
quote: B. The Nillavi crisis is addressed when a large relief convoy arrives from the Federation core. They bring whatever supplies and equipment you’ve proposed, and are the first of several (smaller) convoys that will be en route on a regular basis until the Nillavi get back on their feet.
The first convoy has its own escort (two New Orleans-class frigates), but Starfleet has ordered you to redeploy your fleet to protect future convoys. The ships will be entering the sector from the “eastern” border, near system Z436. Although the Nillavi will contribute to the escort, they can only spare two of their patrol cruisers, and they’d prefer to keep them as close to their own territory as possible. Describe how you will reassign your ships to protect this new shipping route.
The Frederickson (Excelsior) can relieve the Shelbyville (Springfield) patrolling the North as the Tzenketi are pretty quiet at the moment, and the automated sensors around Oasis are working fine now. Shelbyville and the Minerva (Mirranda) can take up escort duties.
quote: C. It’s time to start picking up the pieces. Following the recent confrontations, two of the largest nation-states on Qorn have decided to form an alliance with the T’g’nari. Although the T’g’nari aren’t exactly turning into expansionists, they’re not very happy with the Federation or the Nillavi, and see this alliance as a necessary evil. Two T’g’nari warships are sent to patrol in the Qorn system, and a handful of trade ships are seen traveling the route between the two planets. React to this shift in the political landscape, and describe how you will redeploy your fleet, if necessary.
Bentonville (Execlior) will take up position patroling the space between Qorn and Senec. The Rutledge (New Orleans) will continue to patrol between Senec and T'g'nari space. This will allow me to monitor for any potential trouble from either race, but also means that I am buffering the convoys and the Qorn-T'g'nar aliance. We cannot interfere with them but I think we should keep an eye on them.
I strongly advise that the Senec should not trade with the Qorn, a stance my patrol ships will enforce if agreed to. The Qorn obviously want to become players in the sector and good for them. However they are a pre-warp species, albeit with warp ships, having not developed it themselves. We should take an approach similar to that of Vulcan towards Earth in the 22nd Century. We can guide them, but they have to do it for themselves (although if the T'g'nar advance them there isn't a thing we can do about, but at least we have a moral high ground I suppose).
quote: D. Your research team studying the proto-saurians on Oasis files their report. The species in question is not sentient, and though their evolution definitely seems to be taking them in that direction, it’ll likely take a few million years. Though the decision is not up to you, your report will likely influence the decision makers. Do you believe this qualifies Oasis for Prime Directive protection? If so, outline a plan to “de-colonize” the planet. Assume that the report has not yet been made public, and that it may not be popular with all the settlers. If you don’t believe the Prime Directive applies, explain why not.
These saurians are at the same level as lesser apes (or possibly great apes), but not proto-humans. Thus, they can not be considered a civilisation as we define it. I don't think that the Prime Directive can be applied here.
But, the proto-sentiant lizard-ape people have a right to evolve naturally as if we had never been on their world (and it is their world first). I therefore propose that the saurians become a protected species and that their natural ranges be declared reserves, meaning the species will be allowed to go about it's way without any direct contact from us.
The colony can continue, and provided that it does not encroach on their ranges, there should be no problems. Any settlement that is in the reserves will have to be relocated and the settlers will be suitably compensated. Futher surveys should be sent out to further explore the wide diversity of life on Oasis and see if there are any further saurian-type species, possibly even more advanced than these ones.
The Navilli colonies will have to agree to this, and I propose that as Oasis was settled first by the Federation, the world is considered a Federation world. Thus, the refugees will have to live by Federation laws. Their rights etc have to be weighed against the rights of the indigenous species, so I suggest a fast-track system to grant those refugees that want it Federation citizenship to further strengthen our ties to them and the Navilli as a whole, and to protect the saurians.
It is possible that the saurians might even become a revenue source from tourists, going on 'duck blind' safaris, but that is a matter for the Oasis government to decide.
quote: E. It’s time to move on. Starfleet has decided to send you on to a new sector, and to replace you with a fresh Admiral to continue your work. As your last duty in this sector, you are to brief the new guy about what you’ve done. Read over your responses to all the previous questions. Define what Starfleet’s priorities should be in this sector, and your recommendations to your replacement as to what he or she should concentrate on.
I wish my relief well and suggest that the priority be to monitor the situation between Qorn-T'g'nar closely and do all that can be done to prevent war between them and the Navilli. The Tzenkethi situation is tense, but I anticipate it will not spread this far south. That said, they should keep their guard up just in case. We havn't had much chance to do any exploring in this sector, but the Moore is ready to find out what's in that nebula and the flora and fauna on Oasis are continually turning up new surprises, so don't neglect the science.
Lastly, I feel that the aid we are giving to the Navilli is the start of a fruitfull relationship between then and the Federation and might go a long way to rehabilitating the rift between them and the Senec. This can only be for the good of the system and should be encouraged. The Navilli may well wish to ally themselves formally to the Federation, or even join in the near future, so there is something to look forward to.
Final Thoughts
Thanks MM, I really enjoyed that and it certainly made me scratch my head a times. I must admit, I was bit sloppy on the fleet arrangements etc. and I could have been a bit quicker with my responses, so appologies to the other players.
I kind of liked the way it just sort of happened, rather than having an agenda here. It might have been nice to have expanded on the earlier scenarios, or fed the players ones into the game, but overall I don't think that play was adversely affected, and it made it much harder to guess what was coming next.
It would be a pitty if we don't do another.
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
[q]Snay, I like the stand you are taking. However, I'm not sure it's strictly kosher to ransom the Navilli crew like that and offer their ship to the T'g'nari not least because you may inadvertantly give the Navilli's potential new enemy a good look at their technology and sensitive data. Neither are our allies formally or in any sort of alience with us. It is their own dispute, so while a short sharp shock from the Fed might help, if it goes wrong you may have seriously destabilised the whole system.[/q]
I don't think I'm ransoming the Navalli crew - I am willing to have a Federation starship provide assistance by evacuating the crew from a heavily damaged Navalli starship that is going to be overtaken and probably attacked by T'G'Nari warships.
In my opinion, were I to evacuate the Navalli crew and scuttle their ship; or tow the Navalli ship, I would almost certainly push the T'G'Nari to open hostility with the Federation. The goal, then, is to defuse the situation by allowing both sides a victory: for the T'G'Nari, the victory is the capture of a Navalli starship, which the Navalli government may be able to reacquire through diplomatic negotiation; for the Navalli, the victory is the safety of their crew.
Certainly the acquisition of the Navalli vessel by the T'G'Nari may be regrettable, however, if the situation is looked at with the Federation factor removed, the simple reality is that the T'G'Nari would intercept their opponent before additional Navalli vessels could respond. There are four reasonable outcomes. 1.) The T'G'Nari might destroy the Navalli vessel with the loss of all or most of that ship's crew. 2.) the Navalli might scuttle their own ship. 3.) the T'G'Nari might board and capture the Navalli ship. 4.) the Navalli might be able to outfight and destroy the T'G'Nari attack force (I consider this to be the least likely scenario).
Therefore, as the acquisition of the Navalli ship by the T'G'Nari is already a very strong likelihood, the case can be made that the course of conduct I have ordered will not actually affect the outcome of what would otherwise be the result of the internal affairs of two sovereign governments.
However - if the T'G'Nari force were able to intercept the Navalli ship, the resulting fight would likely kick off a rapidly moving scenario of events which would result in open hostilities between the T'G'Nari and the Navalli, and I would not be certain that the T'G'Nari would not view the Federation as aligned with the Navalli.
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
Don't get me wrong Snay, your approach is a clever one and very much in the spirit of the game.
In fact, this being a Trek scenario, it would probably be what would happen. I just anticipate you'd get a flea in your ear from your senior officer (before he pats you on the back and says well done).
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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I treated this scenario as something of a trial run; my last venture into writing for YTA! was almost 9 years ago, and I wanted to be a lot less derivative this time around.
As some of you seemed to suspect, I definitely was making a lot of it up as I went along; I wasn't entirely sure how things were going to develop, and I wanted to leave a lot of flexibility of responses for the players. It's tough to balance a defined plot with the likelihood that some players will do something completely different!
(I also have had some lousy luck in the last few weeks; I've been distracted with finding a home for an abandoned cat, and the search is not going well.)
So yeah, if I do another scenario, I'll try to make a more cohesive plot. Either that, or I've got this other idea that is a bit different in scope but very much in the YTA! genre.
In the scenario itself, I wanted to experiment with differences on some of the common Trek plotlines. Obviously, the Prime Directive was the theme; when you think about the grand scheme of time, it's a crazy coincidence that so many races develop warp drive or are at a 20th-century equivalent status all at the same time. So I really appreciated reading the various approaches to the situation!
The Tzenkethi weren't going to be a complete red herring, but there was never going to be a major combat aspect of this scenario. If the Nillavi became a bigger threat (before I got the idea about the natural disaster), they may have ended up becoming co-belligerents with the Tzenkethi.
I'm going to take a break for a month or two, but I suspect there will probably be another scenario...
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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