Another question: Any speculation about the first contact and early relations between the Klingons and the Federation? According to the chronology, a disasterous first contact was made in 2218 and relations became very bad by 2223. However, both these dates are derived from backdating from episodes and could refer to the same event or more closely occurring events. Any ideas on what happened back in 2218? One idea that I've been considering is that the Feds or the Feds might have mistaken the other for the Romulans and then opened fire. However, whatever took place has been suggested as a reason that Fed first-contact protocols were changed to include covert surveillance, so suggests that the feds came unannounced or unprepared. Any ideas?

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When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum

From "The Price of Freedom" [LUG]

Klingons
-Brief History of Relations

In 2218, the U.S.S. Ranger transported a Federation diplomatic and anthropological team to a newly discovered world named Qo'noS. Preliminary probes had indicated that the inhabitants were named Klingons and, though occasionally violent, were exhausted after a lenghty war a century earlier (with the Romulans, as it transpired). Eager for oppertunities to spread peace and perhaps to gain an ally against the Romulans, the Ranger's team made immediate contact without any more observation. This was a disaster: The Klingons massacred the diplomatic team, seized the Ranger, and used its technology to catapult their violent, semifeudal empire into dominance over the entire region.

Between 2223 and 2242, Klingon expansionism met desperate Federation reinforcements to what had been an empty and unthreatening border area. Finally, Starfleet checked Klingon imperialism in the Battle of Donatu V, settling the Klingon-Federation border roughly where it is now. Tensions began increasing as both sides nearly declared an open war.

The Organians imposed an uneasy peace through the Organian Peace Treaty, effectively ending overt hostilities. The Klingons briefly entered into an alliance with the Romulans in which the Klingons may have been the dominant partner, but it collapsed before the end of the century with the Klingons gaining only cloaking device technology and no permenant advantage. In fact, imperial overstretch coupled with the disastrous explosion of the Klingon moon Praxis in 2293 caused a Klingon-Federation detente.

As for first contact with the Klingons, what might have happened is that Starfleet heard tales of a growing warlike force in the general area, kind of like early hints of the Dominion on DS9. A ship (maybe a Lancaster, Masao) was dispatched to take a preliminary survey & it encountered an outlying colony. The standard party beams down (could they beam in 2218? I think so...too lazy to check.) & WHAM!! The Klingons think "invasion force," perhaps another race like the Hur'q.

They slay the landing party, then somehow accidentally trigger the emergency beacon on one of the party's communicators. Not knowing what's happened, the chief does an immediate beam-up...of a shitload of Klingons, who swarm into the room & kill THEM. They have the now-captured chief beam up more Klingons, who then overwhelm the entire ship's crew & capture it. Before the Starfleet personnel are either killed or captured, a recorder buoy is launched, so that Starfleet takes receipt of it a few weeks (months?) later & finds out what's happened to the ship that since then has been missing. Needless to say, they're not happy & start pushing forward; this could be a good place to insert something like FASA's Four Years War--or "Four Years Conflict," perhaps. Anywhat, by then the local space might look like this:

As for Romulan-Klingon contact, tensions between the two powers might be a reason for the Romulans to divert their ships from the border with the Earth Alliance. Perhaps the Romulans were forced to keep a lot of their ships on the border with the Klingons, and as a result lost the war with Earth. A later marriage of convenience between the Romulans and Klingons based on their mutual hatred of the Federation would likely be unstable and then end in a very messy divorce.

Thanks for your input so far, guys.

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When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum

And while you're taking ideas, here's mine for the ship. I drew it up a while ago...seem to be heavily influenced by the Bonaventure from TAS, but I'm REAL fond of the basic nacelle designs, especially the "ramjet"-like design wit hthe fins.

From Kor's boasts, I got the impression that the Klingons actively drove the Hur'q out. This may mean they gained interstellar legs in the 1300s already, through the war loot of Hur'q ships and technology. At least that loot would have helped them develop interstellar technology at a later date. Ever since those days, the Klingons must have aimed at three goals: to hunt down the Hur'q if possible, to reach Borath and wait for the return of Kahless there, and to become so strong as to never again fall prey to the likes of Hur'q.

Depending on where Borath is located, the Klingons may have expanded towards Romulus and Earth, or away from them. I'd suggest Borath lies sufficiently distant from Earth/Romulus to lead the Klingons in the wrong direction for the first century or two.

The incident of 2218 may have been a partial re-enactment of the Hur'q scenario, with the Klingons mistaking a Human explorer party as pillagers similar to the Hur'q. It would be fitting irony if the Klingon-Romulan conflict had its beginnings in the opposite scenario - isolationist Romulans falling prey to Klingon expansion but then driving out these pillaging invaders.

It is also possible that the Klingons didn't have the means to go interstellar originally, but when the Earthlings arrived in 2218, the Klingons applied lessons learned from the Hur'q and aimed their whole strength and cunning at capturing a Human starship and going interstellar. After a few pilgrimages to Borath, they'd begin establishing a presence there, and constantly falling into conflict with the Earthlings and their Federation allies who lived nearby.

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"A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx

Aban's Illustration www.thespeakeasy.com/alanfore

What other ancient enemies would the Klingons have? The Hur'q were from ca 1300 AD, but when did the Klingons challenge the Breen? Worf said this was during the "Second Empire", whatever that was. It sounded like ancient history, not like a reference to the recently begun reign of the Kahless clone. If it wasn't the era of the clone Emperor, then it could have been before 2069 AD, by which date there no longer was an Emperor.
So the Klingon armada could have encountered the Romulans on its way to Breen space in the 2000s already. Since that armada disappeared without trace, though, this wouldn't count as a real first contact between the Klingon and Romulan Empires.