posted
Given the level of technology during the Romulan War period, would either side have enough firepower to permanently screw up an entire planetary ecosystem? To give a rough example, the comet or asteroid strike at the end of the Cretaceous Period had, by some estimates, an explosive force of more than one hundred million megatons, and yet the after effects obviously didn't last long enough to kill off everything (after all, we're here, right?), let alone a couple of centuries. If that much of a wallop couldn't do the trick, what kind of a man-made catastrophe could? One single event wouldn't be enough, I think; you'd have to have some sort of destabilizing program operating for decades at least to do the job.
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posted
Weapons not powerful enough? What about that plasma weapon the Romulans used? Send a few bolts of that down at various points on the surface and you'll probably achieve the very same effect. In Masao's Museum timeline, the Romulans had an earlier version of their plasma cannon that was sublight and only had limited effectiveness in ship-to-ship combat (since the targets were mobile and the weapon unguided), but firing at a space station or planetary target seems like a pretty good possibility to me.
At this point, I'm not even necessarily thinking of the explosive power directly. Would simply pumping lots of plasma into the planet's atmosphere with these cannons be enough to cause lots of damage to the ecosystem?
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"To give a rough example, the comet or asteroid strike at the end of the Cretaceous Period had, by some estimates, an explosive force of more than one hundred million megatons, and yet the after effects obviously didn't last long enough to kill off everything (after all, we're here, right?), let alone a couple of centuries."
Uhm... the after effects wiped out thirty-three percent of all life on Earth. The impact fucked up the planet's biosystem for tens of thousands of years, and if that asteroid had been a kilometer or so larger, nothing would have survived (except maybe a few prokaryotes).
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
I've just taken a look a three different sources which each give three different numbers for the total amount of species wiped out at the end of the Cretaceous, which is odd. Well, wait, some of them seem to be counting by genera. But, anyway, I think the figure is a bit higher, anywhere between 50% and 75%. This site even claims 85%.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
A Romulan "warp carrier" chock full o' antimatter could have impacted the planet's magnetic pole at near relativistic speeds (hurtling out of control). That would certainly have screwed the pooch.
GC could also be extremely old or extremely young as a planet with a erratic orbit and most of it's water existing only as vapor in the air. A proto-planet if you will.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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1)Breatheable atmosphere- doesn't seem to indicate an unstable planet. Also indicates that at least plant life was probably present at some point.
2)Comfortable temperature- again, argues against unstable planet.
3)No obvious signs of life.
How about some kind of biological agent, coupled with either plasma attacks or purposeful misuse of terraforming equipment for the skies?
that should explain everything without the problems of the Romulans having to use their (then quite primitive) plasma weapons to kill everything on the planet.
-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
Or mabye the bio-filter on the transporter malfunctioned and the biosphere was wiped out by simple e coli bacteria.
As to unstable planets: this is Trek. We've seen cloaked planets, planets that shift into subspace, "rogue planets", planetoids, asteroids and hollowed out asteroid spaceships all with breathable atmosphere. (and many with funky pastel skies and giant styrofoam boulders). I think anything's possible given Trek's history.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Hmm... biological agent sounds like a pretty interesting possibility, particularly if GC was occupied by the Romulans and then abandoned.
But is it necessary to assume that the Romulans wanted to sterilize the planet right away? They could've used a plasma strike to wipe out the immediate colony, but the aftereffects of the strike would wipe out the ecosystem over the succeeding months and years, until everything was dead.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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quote: But is it necessary to assume that the Romulans wanted to sterilize the planet right away?
No, not really. But (you knew that was coming), imagine how impressive it would seem to the UE people when they reached the planet that their enemy, these mysterious Romulans that no one's ever seen, can wipe out the entire ecosystem of a planet in a matter of weeks or months (assuming the process would not be begun until UE forces were in close proximity to the system and had intel reports on the planets). It would seem fairly terrifying to me.
Incidentally I had an idea a while back for an incident in the Romulan wars that could kinda link into this. I seem to remember in the chronology at some point (I think in the entry for the DS9 episode 'Homefront') it states that it is implyed that a state of emergancy was declared on Earth during the Romulan wars. Now I know that in the SF Museum timelline the Romulan space forces don't get too near Earth but what if there was an outbrake of a new disease of varient of a disease on Earth or Mars? If there had been reports of bioweapons being used elsewhere this could be enough for a state of emergancy to be declared. The real origin of the disease could be listed as unexplained. Just an idea .
-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
Seems logical to me. But one would have to wonder what it is that can elude Federation Tech. The crews never take into account that there might be a dangerous disease on planets they make first contact with. It seems to suggest to me that they have some sort of technology, be it a bio agent or other tech that allows them to kill all harmful organisms.
But then again, that was the 22nd century.
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