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The return of "You're The Admiral!"--Dorza Sector
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by MinutiaeMan: [QB] == Part One == Well, little surprise the Big Damn Battle didn't go well. My first officer wryly quips, "You know this is why we almost lost to the Dominion, you know. Superior numbers." I thank him for the re-enactment. As for the Semmans... I'd say I was surprised, but I've watched too many 20th century fantasy dramas to be truthful there. Anyway, I'd be quite happy to cooperate with the Semmans in making First Contact with the Zemch. It seems as if they've been doing on a local scale what the Federation tries to do for an entire quadrant. I'd ask if they'd be willing to share any knowledge about the Zemch society so we don't accidentally cause any misunderstandings. (Though I'd be willing to wager that the "incident" with the Semmans was staged to get us to back off, as a sort of test. Dunno if I can ask the Semmans that, though.) == Part Two == This obviously means that the Gorn will be shacking up permanently in the sector, which will necessitate a major increase in our local patrol squadron. Although the Zemch have achieved warp travel, they certainly won't be able to take advantage of the entire ZTZ for quite a while yet, much less have the ability to defend it. Without being privy to the exact legalese, I would remind the Federation Council of the old adage of possession being nine-tenths of the law. Therefore, we'd need to continue to defend the zone against incursions for the foreseeable future. == Part Three == I'd love to head over personally with the Zemch commander, probably hitching a ride with one of the [i]Nova[/i]s � a ship that's not too big (and imposing) but still fully capable. (And I'm sure the Semmans will want to have one of their ships along, too.) But the Zemch flight being only in-system? What difference does that make? The Vulcans were happy to pop on over the very day that Cochrane's first flight took place! Besides, the Federation seems to have expedited their policy concerning political relations during and after the Dominion War... remember the [URL=http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Evora]Evora[/URL], for example? Of course, I'd much rather that the Federation take things a bit more slowly. Certainly the Zemch society needs to gradually acclimate itself to the idea of other alien cultures out there. But we can now start to lay the foundation for a lasting relationship. == Part Four == I will personally recommend to the Federation Council that the Dorzan membership application be rejected in full. They are quite obviously not ready. I'd like to try to keep some diplomatic channels open, but that will depend on their reaction to our disapproval. Probably we'll cut off a lot of trade as well, especially embargoing the more advanced Federation technology. Certainly the rebellion was an internal affair that we weren't going to directly get involved in, but that doesn't mean we can't intensely disapprove. The Semman rescue, though greatly appreciated, won't affect the matter in the slightest as far as the Dorzans are concerned. The Dorzans wouldn't have known that the Federation citizens weren't in the colony any more! However, I will again ask the Semmans what kind of data they have on Dorzan cultural development, and also ask for their input about how to proceed with them in the future. After all, it seems like they've been at this (in this sector) longer than we have. == Part Five == My first priority in making recommendations is for future fleet strengths. Ideally, I'd love to have at least a force equivalent to the recent Gorn invasion fleet, but that's unrealistic. I'd instead want to have at least ten or twelve combat ships (everything from [i]Defiant[/i]s on up) as an in-sector patrol force, but I'd also want to ensure that Starfleet has a much beefier rapid deployment force held in reserve in the region near the Gorn Hegemony. It seems that relations with the Gorn may get testier as time goes on. Another idea would be to establish some kind of secondary starbase inside the ZTZ. This, of course, depends on the establishment of friendly relations with the Zemch. But I envision the Federation continuing its role as protector, in cooperation with the Semmans and the consent and active participation of the Zemch. Starbase 403 would be useful for this role, but it's not ideally positioned. I'd like to keep 403 as a Starfleet-only base for more military and logistics purposes, while the new station would be for diplomacy and lower-level resupply. (One main reason for this is to avoid the automatic assumption that the Zemch will become Federation members. That's obviously something we like to offer, but we can't approach that as an automatic given in any First Contact.) In other concerns, we'd need to step up our covert surveillance of the Dorzans, especially concerning their military capability. It seems that Admiral Whatshisname, my predecessor, may have been on to something after all. I'll consider relaying his message to the Semmans, as well, to see what they think of it. As to my own career opportunities, I'd be quite happy to continue in my current post, to help cultivate the Semmans and to groom the Zemch. Having some consistency in command may also act as a passive deterrent to the Gorn, as well. (I assume that my answer doesn't affect any future scenarios, of course.) == Comments == [i]"Preacher, don't the Bible have some pretty specific things to say about killing?" "Quite specific. It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps."[/i] Although I absolutely understand Shik's arguments concerning the military attitude, and share some of his reactions to certain responses myself, I feel that Starfleet and the Federation have also undergone a great change through the 2370's. Certainly that can't be used as carte blanche justification in the current scenario, since the Federation is obviously not at war and the consequences aren't nearly so dire. However, I would like to think that the Federation has learned some lessons from the war, and can apply some of those lessons to avoid from some crises becoming even bigger as a result of past practices. For example, despite the fact that my ships fired the first shots in the conflict by launching the preemptive strike against the initial expeditionary force, does that automatically make me the aggressor? For the same reason, Sisko provoked the Dominion by laying the minefield around the Bajoran wormhole... mine laying can be considered an act of war in and of itself in certain circumstances. Once it became obvious that the Gorn were not going to back down, despite my willingness to negotiate, my primary responsibilities became (1) safeguarding the ZTZ and (2) safeguarding the lives of the crews under my command. On another subject, something that's always irritated me has been the vagueness of the terms of the Prime Directive. Originally, it seemed that those rules only applied to pre-warp civilizations. And although the Federation did have strict rules of conduct for internal affairs of warp-capable societies (c.f. Klingon Civil War, 2367-68), that never seemed to fall under the umbrella of the Prime Directive. But later on, mainly in VGR, it seemed as if the Prime Directive became more of a general non-interference rule for any non-Federation culture. And that's something that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, unless you are 100% isolationist. Therefore, although I tried to take a hands-off approach with the Dorzan rebellion crisis (except with regard to the safety of the Federation citizens), I don't see how any kind of political influence leveraged could be considered a breach of the Prime Directive. Also, a more direct question... Shik, are you passing any kind of judgment on the interpretation of the ZTZ enforcement? I've never read [i]Prime Directive[/i], and I suspect most of the other participants haven't either. I don't see how sending Federation ships into the Zone for monitoring and defensive purposes isn't allowed. And if the novel did present the idea of a trusteeship zone to mean "everyone INCLUDING the Federation isn't allowed in," then that's just ridiculous. If you weren't referring to the ZTZ, then what did you mean by "intrusions into quarantined areas of space"? Overall, though, I definitely congratulate you on a quite challenging and thought-provoking scenario. I never really thought about some of the Prime Directive issues in quite the same way before, and I had to spend some time thinking about a few of my responses before I posted. Well done, sir! [/QB][/QUOTE]
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