I think the bit about the Federation Council adjourning is perhaps a bit too drastic, we don't really see evidence of anything like that at the end of STID which takes place a year after the whole Marcus affair.
Actually I'm taking a page out of the political fallout from "Dreadnought!" and taking it up to eleven. Mainly this is because the Prime Universe "Rittenhouse Scandal" occurred in Deep Space during a time of relative peace and was presented to the public mainly in news headlines. The Black Ship Fiasco, by contrast, occurs within a year of the destruction of a major Federation world and involves a stolen Federation battleship -- one that by all accounts shouldn't even exist -- opening fire on a Federation ship and then taking out ten city blocks of a major Earth city for no apparent reason.
Imagine if three days after 9/11 Donald Rumsfeld was shot down while trying to bomb Wasington D.C. while piloting a stealth fighter that didn't officially exist. To say that "heads will roll" would be a massive understatement.
Side note:
Vaughan Rittenhouse is a Vice Admiral circa 2270-2272. So the likelihood of him being of sufficient seniority to be elevated to CinC Starfleet in 2251 is ranges from slim to none. At most he's likely a captain or maybe a rear admiral.
Yeah, I considered that. The similarities between Rittenhouse and Marcus were strong enough that I had to consider his overall agenda was being implemented twenty years early for some reason. That to me implies that Rittenhouse HIMSELF wound up getting promoted earlier in this timeline, probably due to the Kelvin Incident.
In the Primeline, I figure Rittenhouse would have been Captain through the 2230s, reaching Rear Admiral by the mid 2240s and Vice Admiral by the 2250s, in time to lead the development of the Star Empire which enters service about 15 years later. The alternate timeline sees Rear Admiral Rittenhouse being appointed to the position by an outgoing (disgruntled) President mainly as a last "fuck you" to the previous commander. That would explain why the Dreadnought project is a full twenty years ahead of schedule by the time we get to the late 2250s.
Just a stylistic comment, but you seem to use "quotes" far too much. Most if not all of those could probably be removed, and would make it look a lot more professional IMO.
Good call. I'll have a look at that tonight.
A thing to bear in mind though is that I'm considering the term "flagship" to be an unofficial designation used by media and officers to refer to a certain type of vessel, sort of like "supercarrier" or "boomer". Because no two of these ships are exactly alike, no official designation for them exists or is even possible.
