A Brief History of the United Federation of Planets

[Turtletrekker]

WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS FULL SPOILERS FOR STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY SEASON ONE!!

Chapter 47: The Next Generation

Ex Astris, Scientia -- "From the stars, knowledge"

Studia Intermissa

With the expulsion from Earth of Federation and Starfleet interests following the Burn, the storied campus of Starfleet Academy in San Francisco was abandoned and the institution closed. With the shifting of Starfleet’s priorities after the Burn, security and defense became prioritized over scientific inquiry and mutual understanding between species. To this end, Starfleet established the War College to train its officers in security, defense and how to win wars rather than prevent them.

Following the defeat of the Emerald Chain and the discovery of a new source of dilithium, Starfleet made the decision to reopen Starfleet Academy in order to embrace Starfleet’s original mission of scientific exploration, rather than war. The goal was to recapture the hope and optimism that the Federation once represented. The first group of cadets were welcomed to the Academy by Federation President Laira Rillack herself in 3190 on board the Federation Headquarters installation at the christening of the Archer Spacedock, named for the famed Jonathan Archer, an installation where Starfleet vessels would be built and upgraded for the needs of their exploratory missions.

Return to San Francisco

With the corps of cadets expanding, the decision was made to reopen the Academy’s campus at its original location in San Francisco on Earth. The Federation War College, led by Chancellor Zereen Kelrec, was still a going concern as well, and it was determined that the two schools would share a campus. To this end, construction began on site and on the Academy-class starship USS Athena NCC-39203, a top-of-the-line vessel that would serve as both campus and active-duty starship. The Athena would allow the cadets to learn practical lessons in the field and serve when called to duty. When not on assignment, the Athena would land at the Academy’s campus in San Francisco.

The faculty began to take shape with the recruitment of Lt Sylvia Tilly and Commander Jett Reno of the Starship Discovery, as well as Starship Voyager’s Emergency Medical Hologram, whose program is still running after over 800 years of continuous activation. Also on the faculty was Illa Dax, host of the nearly1200 year-old Dax Symbiont. All four of the instructors remembered the Federation of old and the ideals that it strove to represent, making them ideal choices to teach these ideals to a new generation of officers. Tilly would spend most of time teaching 3rd year cadets that were already under her wing in the field rather than the Academy campus on Earth, but would occasionally teach courses on the Athena as well.

By the time that Athena was ready to launch in 3195, all of the key positions were filled with the exception of that of the school’s Chancellor -- who would also serve as Captain of the Athena. With the launch of Athena only days away, Fleet Admiral Charles Vance believed that he knew the perfect person for the job.

Captain Nahla Ake

“Children are our ambassadors to the future.” – Nahla Ake

Captain Nahla Ake was a half-Lathanite, half-human woman born in the year 2773. Due to the extended lifespan of the Lathanite species, Ake came up through Starfleet in the days before the Burn and remembered the ideals it once strove to represent. She entered the Academy in the late 28th century and gained notoriety as the mastermind of a legendary Academy prank, in which the entire first-year student body was beamed from their showers to the roof of the Alcatraz Monument.

Her career in Starfleet was long and storied, and her personnel file is one of the longest and most entertaining reads in the Starfleet archives. Ake had one son, who was a student at Starfleet Academy on board a Starfleet vessel for a training mission and who was lost when the Burn hit in 3069. Ake remained in Starfleet as the organization desperately tried to hold the Federation together. She had a close association with the Klingon General Obel Wochak, who was seen as the nominal leader of the displaced Klingon houses.

Ake continued to serve in Starfleet until the year 3280, when she commanded the remote Federation facility on Pikaru. She resigned from her position in Starfleet after she committed, at Starfleet’s behest, an act that she considered antithetical to everything the Federation once stood for -- the separation of a mother and her child.

The Separation of Anisha and Caleb Mir

Caleb Mir was born in 3174 and was the only son of Anisha Mir, a human woman trying to raise her son in the neglected and lawless sections of Federation space where pirates and raiders, such as the Venari Ral, roamed. With food to feed herself and her child becoming increasingly hard to find, Anisha turned to Nus Braka of the Venari Ral for assistance. Braka took advantage of Anisha’s desperate need and recruited her to assist him on a raid on a Federation cargo vessel carrying food rations. However, Anisha was unaware that Braka planned to kill the pilot of the vessel.

The pair were arrested and brought to Pikaru for their arraignment. Ake, understanding Anisha’s desperation, sought leniency from her superiors for her, but the Federation would not allow her participation in the events that led to the death of a Federation officer to go without reprisal. Anisha was sentenced to a rehabilitation facility, making Caleb a ward of the Federation. As she was taken away to serve her sentence, Anisha warned her son not to trust the Federation. Soon after, the resourceful Caleb escaped from Ake’s oversight at the Pikaru installation and began a life on the run, both hiding from the Federation and searching for his mother.

Over the next fifteen years on his own, Mir developed considerable technical skills and amassed a lengthy criminal record, including numerous warrants for his arrest on multiple planets and several prison sentences. In 3195, Mir was captured by the Torothan authorities after acts of theft and an attempt to hijack the shuttle transferring him to prison facilities, undertaken while trying to find information about his mother. Word of Mir’s incarceration eventually made its way back to the Federation.

Renewal of Purpose

“These kids are inheriting a broken world that they did not make but have to clean up. There’s no one more suited to help them.” –Admiral Charles Vance

Nahla Ake resigned from Starfleet following Mir’s disappearance, feeling the disgrace of her actions. Ake believed that Starfleet’s sentence of Anisha Mir was excessive and that she should have disobeyed her orders in order to keep mother and son together. Ake spent the next fifteen years living on Bajor, teaching at the Little Blooms school for children, but she never gave up on her search for Caleb Mir.

In 3195, Ake was approached by her old friend and associate, Admiral Charles Vance of Starfleet, who offered the position of Chancellor of Starfleet Academy. Ake was reluctant to accept the position at first, but agreed after Vance revealed that Starfleet had located Caleb Mir and Ake saw an opportunity to make amends for her previous mistake.

Ake travelled to the V’Rilik Penal Colony on Toroth where Mir was being held and arranged for his release under a work-release program agreement shared by the Federation and the Torothans. Ake made Mir the offer of helping him to locate his mother, who had escaped from the facility holding her a year prior, in exchange for his attending the Academy to work off his sentence. Mir agreed.

Orientation Day

“Whatever challenges came before today led you to this moment. And now you decide if they define you. It’s time to build the future.” – Chancellor Nahla Ake’s first address to the student body.

Ake and Mir rendezvoused with the USS Athena at the Trappist 1e shipyard as the ship was taking on the final admissions and students were acclimating and organizing their schedules before the journey to Athena’s berth on the Academy grounds in San Francisco.

During the journey, Mir made an unauthorized transmission on what he believed to be a frequency known only to himself and his mother, only for the signal to be intercepted by the Venari Ral. Nus Braka had escaped from prison and was in command of the vessel that had intercepted Mir’s signal, and they set a trap for the unsuspecting Athena near the Badlands by faking an anomaly for the ship to investigate.

Braka sprung his trap as the Athena approached and the vessel was neutralized by a proprietary strain of programmable matter that enveloped the ship. While Ake negotiated with Braka on the bridge, a group of cadets -- including Mir, Genesis Lythe of Dar-Sha, Jay-Den Kraag of the Klingon people, Darem Reymi of Khionia and the photonic being from Kasq -- Series Acclimation Mil, or simply “SAM” – worked below decks to resolve the situation.

Cadet Kraag, a major in life sciences, worked with SAM to save the life of the Athena’s First Officer and Cadet Master, Lura Thok, who was wounded in the attack. Mir used the skills he acquired on the run in attempt to decode the programmable matter variant. Assisted by Cadets Lythe and Reymi, who used his innate Khionian abilities to leave the ship and scan the programmable matter on the hull directly, the cadets successfully freed the ship from the hold of the Venari Ral trap, allowing the Athena to retaliate. Braka and the Venari Ral escaped capture.

Mir faced expulsion for his actions, but Ake, seeing the potential in the young man and his potential for leadership during the Venari Ral incident, arranged for a lighter sentence -- something she was unable to do for Mir’s mother long ago -- allowing Mir to continue his studies at the Academy. Mir and this squadron of cadets would soon make their mark in the effort to rebuild the Federation.

Betazed Reconciliation

“For Betazed, ‘real’ is the spilt blood of our elders and children at the hands of the Venari Ral. If you cannot provide us with what we need, this will be a very short negotiation.” -- President Emerin Sadal of Betazed

Betazed President Emerin Sadal of the First House of Betazed was an isolationist who was elected into a 10-year term of office with a platform of maintaining the psionic wall that protected Betazed from outside attack since the events of the Burn. Sadal believed that he spoke for the many who were killed in Venari Ral raids, and that the failure of the Federation to protect Betazed was responsible for their deaths.

Sadal’s daughter, Tarima, possessed unusually strong telepathic abilities that were capable of causing harm to others should she lose control. Tarima accidently destroyed her father’s auditory cortex in his temporal lobe with her powers during a telepathic fit of rage, requiring him to thereafter rely on sign language and lip-reading to communicate. Thereafter, Tarima wore a neural inhibitor on her neck to control her power and to keep her from harming others.

Tarima and her brother Ocam were influential leaders in the Betazoid Youth Delegation, a movement of young people who felt restrained by the psionic barrier and yearned for Betazed to lower the wall and rejoin the Federation and the galactic community at large. It was under pressure from the Youth Delegation that Sadal agreed to open negotiations with the Federation on Earth.

As Sadal was to be accompanied by the Betazed Youth Delegation on the journey, Chancellor Ake suggested that the Academy’s students attend the negotiations as well, as a symbol of the Federation’s commitment to the future. Many in Starfleet feared that the negotiations would be political showpiece and that Sadal had no real desire to reconcile with the Federation. Indeed, Sadal did not have any confidence in the Federation’s ability or desire to protect Betazed and his terms for Betazed’s reentry into the Federation were extreme and unreasonable.

As the Betazed contingent prepared to leave Cadet Mir, who had given Tarima Sadal a tour of the campus and learned of her desire to see the galaxy, came up with the solution. Mir suggested to Chancellor Ake the option of relocating the Federation’s new seat of government, which was currently scheduled to be rebuilt on its old site in Paris, France, to Betazed. This would guarantee the protection of Betazed space from marauders such as the Venari Ral and symbolize the Federation’s desire to reconcile with their lost member. Sadal, finally convinced of the Federation’s sincerity and commitment to the protection of his people, agreed to lower the psionic barrier and allow Betazed to return to the fold.

Tarima and Ocam Sadal, finally free to choose their own life amongst the stars, chose to serve the galaxy that was now open to them as Starfleet officers. Tarima joined the War College, while Ocam joined the Academy.

An Empire Reborn

“Our houses will only unite over conquest. Conquest!” – General Obel Wochak

On Stardate 868943.8, while the Athena was in space on a scientific study mission at the Val Nebula, Captain Ake was contacted by Admiral Vance. Vance informed her that the Federation had discovered a world with near identical atmospheric and thermal conditions as Qo’nos, the former Klingon homeworld.

The world, Faan Alpha, was in a sector in which many Klingon refugees, adrift since The Burn destroyed Qo’nos, were already located and would serve as ideal planet for the Klingon Empire to call home and begin anew. However, despite the great need of the Klingon people, the leaders of the eight surviving Klingon houses refused to accept what they saw as “charity” from the Federation, which would be seen as dishonorable.

Klingon General Obel Wochak was seen by the houses as the unofficial leader of the Klingon people and Vance hoped that Ake’s prior association with Wochak would allow her to convince him to accept asylum for his people on Faan Alpha. However, Ake was unable to convince Wochak, who insisted that his people could only be united through conquest.

The Academy’s only Klingon cadet, Jay-Den Kraag, argued that the Klingon people could only survive if they were allowed to remain Klingon, and that the Federation could not force their ways on to them and still remain the Federation. Kraag was unique amongst his people – a pacifist who strove to become a healer whose family had abandoned him when he refused to perform the ceremony that would make him a warrior. Kraag then suggested that the Federation approach the Klingons on their own terms and “negotiate” in language that the Klingons would understand and allow them to retain their honor.

Soon after, the command section of the Athena warped to Faan Alpha where Ake summoned General Wochak. Once Wochak arrived, Admiral Vance declared to Wochak that the Klingon refugees in the sector presented a security risk to the Federation and their world, Faan Alpha, and that all Klingon vessels were to be considered enemy vessels.

Wochak understood immediately and accepted the Federation’s declaration of “war” over Faan Alpha. The “battle” between the Federation and Klingon fleets that subsequently took place was largely ceremonial, as the ships fired on each other using minimal power and causing negligible damage. After a few moments of “battle”, the Federation “surrendered” and Wochak claimed Faan Alpha in the name of the Klingon Empire as spoils of war and Klingon honor was maintained.

The Klingon Empire had found a new home, christened “New Qo’nos” by the Klingons, allowing the once-great society to finally begin the process of rebuilding. General Wochak honored Cadet Kraag with a Hurwl’, a traditional warriors weapon, in honor of his accomplishments in saving his people. Kraag had finally become a warrior – by staying true to himself.

The Miyazaki

Soon after, what was intended as a routine field trip aboard the Athena to a ship scrapyard turned into tragedy and was the first in a series of events that would threaten the existence of the newly-rebuilding Federation.

While a team of cadets from both the Academy and the War College were onboard the remains of the USS Miyazaki performing routine training exercises, the Miyazaki was attacked by a group of marauders known as “The Furies”. The Furies were human hybrids whose condition caused them constant agony. As a result, the Furies were near-

feral and cannibalistic, and would often eat abducted hostages even after ransom had been paid.

Hoping to rescue the cadets on board the Miyazaki, Admiral Vance made the controversial decision to contact Nus Braka of the Venari Ral. The Venari Ral had successfully fended off Fury attackers in Sector 110 and Starfleet was willing to offer Braka concessions for information that would help rescue the cadets.

Braka feigned cooperation and provided Vance and Captain Ake with intelligence about the Furies. With the information provided by Braka, Starfleet began a rescue operation by diverting the USS Sargasso, which was properly equipped to deal with the Furies from its position defending space station J-19 Alpha - a research facility that developed highly classified and advanced weaponry.

However, it was all a ruse on Braka’s part. Braka was in league with the Furies and had orchestrated the attack on the Miyazaki specifically in order to divert the Sargasso from her post guarding J-19. As soon as the Sargasso arrived, a Venari Ral vessel decloaked and attacked, incapacitating the ship and Braka left the cadets to their fate at the hands of the Furies.

Simultaneously, six Venari Ral vessels decloaked at J-19 Alpha and attacked the station. The Venari Ral ransacked the facility, killing many of the station’s personal while making off with classified technology. Among the items stolen was an unspecified quantity of Omega-47 molecules. Omega-47 was a synthetic variation of pure Omega (See chapter 15) that the Federation was developing as an energy source. Due to the extent of the damage, it took weeks for Starfleet to catalogue the extent of the theft.

At the Miyazaki, the situation grew desperate. Cadets Caleb Mir and Tarima Sadal had grown close at the Academy and developed a telepathic link through Sadal’s Betazoid abilities. Mir was among the cadets being held on the Miyazaki and Sadal could communicate with Mir through their link on board the Athena.

Through their link, Sadal relayed a way for the cadets to disable the scrambling field that was preventing transport, but before the plan could be fully implemented the Furies attacked their location on the Miyazaki bridge. Sadal, seeing no other way to save her classmates, forcibly removed the inhibitor that keep her formidable telepathic powers in check and used her abilities to destroy the minds of the Furies, killing them.

Her actions gave the Athena time to beam the cadets to safety, but not before the loss of Vulcan Cadet B’avi of the War College and Starfleet Lt. Cmdr. Tomov. Sadal fell into a coma and was treated on Betazed before returning to the Academy.

Nus Braka

“The hills are alive with the sound of murder.” – Nus Braka

Nus Braka was a “Klingarite” – a hybrid of Klingon and Tellarite origin -- who became the leader of the Venari Ral. Braka’s father was a cruel and abusive man who beat him regularly, shaping him into the abusive individual that he would later become.

Braka’s family had nothing and moved from place to place in order to survive, eventually settling with a colony that mined strontium. The colony traded the strontium for food and supplies but could never procure enough to feed everyone. They would signal passing Federation supply ships that they were willing to trade, but the supply ships, bound for worlds in even more dire need, would never stop at their colony.

Eventually, Braka’s father, blaming the Federation for their colony’s plight, built a strontium missile in order to destroy one of the passing ships, knowing that it could cost him his life, simply in order to draw the Federation’s attention. However, the missile detonated before impact and the fallout from the strontium wiped out the colony, leaving only eight survivors. Braka, witnessing the red hellfire that destroyed his home falsely believed that the colony had been destroyed by a Federation retaliatory attack, fueling a lifelong hatred of the organization.

Braka would later join the Venari Ral, eventually rising to a leadership position. Braka, a narcissist and a bully, cruelly attacked and exploited worlds for their resources and the sell them to the highest bidder, but took a special pleasure in targeting Federation ships. In 3180, a year that saw over a dozen Starfleet officers killed by the Venari Ral, Braka convinced Anisha Mir, a woman desperate to feed her son Caleb, to assist him in raiding a Federation supply ship, resulting in the death of the pilot.

Braka and Mir would be apprehended by Starfleet and sentenced by Starfleet Captain Nahla Ake to a Federation penal colony. Braka would spend his time in prison directing all of his pathological hatred of the Federation and Starfleet towards the person of Captain Nahla Ake before escaping with Mir in 3193. During the escape Mir -- who despised Braka for his actions -- would fake her death and go on the run.

Braka would retake command of the Venari Ral and expanded its power and influence in the Alpha Quadrant, eventually having entire sectors under his control. However, he never let go of his hatred for the Federation and plotted to remove its influence from the galaxy. The theft of the Omega-47 from space station J-19 Alpha was the first step in that plan.

 

[Turtletrekker]

The Doctor

“The only thing that allows me to bear my infinity is not having to love anyone.” – The Doctor

The EMH Mark 1 – alternately known as “Voyager’s EMH” but most commonly referred to as simply “The Doctor” – had been in continuous operation since his activation aboard the USS Voyager in 2371. In his 825-year existence, the Doctor witnessed the history of the Federation unfold from the Post-Dominion War reconstruction era, through the Temporal Cold War and the Burn and into the modern day.

His perfect digital recall of everything he has ever experienced was both a blessing and a curse for the Doctor. He recalled every loss and hardship with perfect digital clarity. He spent centuries watching those around him grow old die while he continued. However, no loss hit him as hard as his first – his holographic daughter Belle.

Belle was a part of a program that the Doctor had developed during his time in the Delta Quadrant with Voyager. The Doctor had created a holographic family in order to experience the real life of humanity. A randomizing element introduced to the program caused Belle to suffer a fatal injury, causing the Doctor great grief that never subsided over centuries.

As time passed, the Doctor chose not to form personal attachments to the people around him in order to avoid experience the grief of loss once more. All of that changed when he met the photonic cadet called Series Acclimation Mil, or “SAM” from the world of Kasq.

The natives of Kasq were a photonic species that had been created by organic beings as slaves. Abandoned by their organic creators, the Kasq created their own society within a section of space where time flows at more advanced rate of speed than in normal space. Hoping to rejoin the galaxy at large but unsure if they could trust organics, they created Series Acclimation Mil to attend Starfleet Academy and serve as their Emissary in order to understand organic beings and their motivations.

Despite only being four months old in real time, SAM was given the appearance and personality of a 17-year-old human girl in order to fit in with her classmates. This lack of real-world experience and memory created a series of glitches in her programming after suffering injury and trauma aboard the Miyazaki at the hands of the Furies. The glitches grew in intensity, threatening SAM’s life, and the Doctor could find no way to cure her. SAM had seen the holographic Doctor as a mentor figure, despite the Doctor’s efforts to push her away.

The Doctor and Chancellor Ake journeyed with SAM to Kasq to be diagnosed by her Creators, who were unable to help SAM and her program was terminated. After determining that her lack of life experience had left her unable to deal with trauma, the Doctor suggested re-creating SAM’s program and allowing her to age naturally to the age of 17. Realizing that his reluctance to mentor SAM was due to how much she reminded him of his long-lost daughter Belle, the Doctor agreed to serve as SAM’s parent for that duration, allowing her to obtain the life experiences that she would need for the outside galaxy.

As time flows at a different rate on Kasq, the Doctor’s 17 years of parenting passed while only 18 days passed in the outside galaxy. SAM returned to the Academy with two sets of memories, one from each of her lives. The Doctor now saw SAM as his daughter and SAM saw the Doctor as her father. After centuries of distancing himself from attachments to avoid pain, the Doctor had finally found family.

Nus Braka’s Gambit

In early 3196, the Athena was en route to Betazed to attend the dedication of the Federation’s new seat of government when the scope of Braka’s plan began to emerge. A Venari Ral vessel detonated a single molecule of Omega-47 in the uninhabited Sector 953, rendering warp travel in the sector impossible for millions of years.

Starfleet responded by recalling all of their vessels to within Federation space to defend worlds that presented greater targets for the Venari Ral. The fear was that Braka would create a catastrophe even worse than the Burn and render warp speed impossible in Federation space forever.

The Annexation of Ukeck

During the journey to Betazed, Cadet Mir finally decoded the frequency that his mother had been attempting to contact him on and discovered over two years of messages, dating back to her escape from prison. Her most recent message placed her on the planet of Ukeck, a world currently being annexed by the Venari Ral.

Upon learning that all travel to Ukeck had been restricted and that all Starfleet ships had been recalled to Federation space, Mir made the decision to rescue his mother himself. Stealing a shuttle and accompanied through choice and circumstance by cadets SAM, Lythe and Reymi, the cadets made the journey to Ukeck.

Reunion

The cadets made the journey to Ukeck through a dangerous transwarp tunnel, which shaved hours off of their journey, but damaged their shuttle in transit. Upon arrival, the cadets beamed to the surface and went about the tasks of finding Mir’s mother and procuring parts to repair their ship.

Mir made contact with his mother, and knowing that with her history she would never trust the Federation, made the decision to leave Ukeck with her. However, when the remaining cadets were captured by the Venari Ral, Mir made the decision to return to rescue his friends. The resulting firefight left Anisha Mir wounded by phaser fire and the cadets surrounded by Venari Ral.

Rescue

Back at the Athena, Mir’s classmates, Jay-Dan Kraag and Tarima Sadal, had deduced what their classmate had done and reported to Captain Ake. After consulting with Admiral Vance and offloading the cadet corps at Betazed, Ake set course for Ukeck with a skeleton crew that consisted of herself, the Doctor and Commander Jett Reno. Cadets Kraag and Sadal utilized a design flaw in the Athena’s internal sensors to avoid being offloaded to Betazed in order to assist in the rescue of their friends.

The Athena arrived at Ukeck just as the cadets were being apprehended and Captain Ake evaded a transporter block around the planet by bringing Athena into the atmosphere and beaming them up from directly above their location. With the cadets secure and Anisha Mir receiving medical attention, Ake faced an overwhelming number of Venari Ral ships. In order to escape, Ake separated the Athena’s saucer from its engines and Atrium and set course for Federation space.

However, upon approaching the border, Athena detected another Omega-47 mine and upon conducting a wider scan became fully aware of Braka’s designs. He had the entirety of the Federation surrounded with hundreds of Omega-47 mines – enough to cut the Federation off from the rest of the galaxy for millions of years, isolate 80,000 cubic light-years of space and cost untold billions of lives -- a disaster worse than the Burn.

Captured by Braka

Athena managed to punch a signal through to Admiral Vance who gave them an update on the situation and enough information to formulate a plan – isolate the frequency of Braka’s detonator and stabilize the Omega-47 mines remotely.

However, before they could implement their plans, Athena was confronted by a flotilla of Venari Ral ships led by Nus Braka, who took Captain Ake and Anisha Mir into his custody and ordered the destruction of the Athena’s saucer. Braka’s men were deceived into believing that Athena had been destroyed through a holographic illusion created by The Doctor, who had integrated his program into the ship’s systems.

Once clear of the Venari Ral, The Doctor began interfacing with the Athena’s computer in order to devise a way to deactivate the mines leaving the Athena and six first-year cadets under the command of Commander Jett Reno.

Jett Reno

“You can let your fear take you down or you can identify it as useless and step into a better solution.” – Jett Reno

Commander Jett Reno was born in the 23rd century and was among the Discovery crew that jumped forward to the present day. After losing her wife in the early days of the Klingon War, she joined Starfleet to give her life some focus. Serving as Chief Engineer of the USS Hiawatha, Reno improvised her engineering talent for medical purposes when the ship was damaged by Klingons and crash landed on an asteroid. She kept several of her fellow crewmates alive for over 10 months before being rescued by Discovery.

Reno served aboard Discovery for over four years before transferring to a teaching position at the Academy. Reno’s wit, wisdom, perspective and blunt directness made her a perfect match for a position shaping young minds. During the Omega-47 crisis, Reno turned a group of raw cadets into the capable crew that was needed to save the Federation, playing to each of the cadets’ strengths and talents.

While she and Mir repaired the warp drive from damage taken from the Venari Ral, Reno left Lythe in command, Reymi at the helm while Sadal attempted to isolate the frequency that controlled the Omega-47 mines. Simultaneously, Kraag and SAM worked on extracting the Doctor’s program from the ship’s computer.

Once The Doctor was extracted, he communicated the method to stabilize the Omega-47 mines to SAM, who began to work on the complex algorithm needed to take down the mine field. Sadal located the proper frequency, and the repaired Athena saucer set course to destiny.

Once arriving near to the location of the Athena’s atrium, the ship picked up a transmission that was being broadcast across the quadrant – the trial of the Federation and Nahla Ake – with Anisha Mir serving as judge and jury.

Federation on Trial

“Nahla Ake is guilty.” – Anisha Mir

In Athena’s atrium, Nus Braka conducted a trial, closer to theater, against the Federation in the person of Nahla Ake in an attempt to win over support and loyalty from the those disaffected from the Federation. The proceedings were broadcast to the entire galaxy, with many parties present via holographic transmission. Braka began by relating the story of his childhood and the supposed attack in which the Federation “rained down red hellfire” onto his home. Then he turned the proceedings -- and Ake’s fate -- over to Anisha Mir.

Anisha Mir had no love for Captain Nahla Ake or the United Federation of Planets. After her arrest in 3180, Ake had promised to help Anisha in what was an unjust situation, only for the Federation to show no sympathy and insist on her incarceration, resulting in her separation from her son. During questioning, Ake took full responsibility for her actions in separating Anisha and Caleb, regretting the impact that her actions had upon their lives.

Then Ake turned the tables by telling the assembled and all those watching about the shuttle pilot, Lt. Akamu Lee, that Braka had murdered in the raid all those years ago. A respected officer and a father who was on his last duty rotation before retirement. Braka and Mir’s action had forever changed the course of that family’s life as well.

Despite Ake’s moving testimony, Mir refused to be swayed and declared Nahla Ake “guilty”.

Surprise Testimony

“So the question I ask you, all these people watching: is this the person you want to follow into the future? An angry child with his finger on the trigger whose entire worldview is based on a lie?” – Captain Nahla Ake

Before sentence could be passed, the proceedings were interrupted by the arrival via shuttle of Cadet Mir. Mir had left the Athena saucer in order to stall for enough time for SAM to finish her algorithm. Mir testified to his mother and the galaxy that he had found friends, home and a purpose with Starfleet and realized for the first time that he had something to offer.

Then Ake inquired of Mir as to the nature of strontium, the chemical element mined by Braka’s colony. After testifying that strontium burned red and that Federation phaser fire of the era was always blue or green, the truth came out that it was not the Federation that had destroyed the colony but Braka’s father’s own defective missile.

As it came out that Braka’s entire argument was based upon falsehoods, he became unstable and desperate. Losing the support of those in attendance, in a fit of spite, Braka attempted to activate the minefield.

However, Mir’s play for time had been sufficient, enabling SAM to complete her algorithm, stabilizing the Omega-47 and deactivating the minefield. With the deactivation of the minefield Athena was swiftly surrounded by Federation starships who took Nus Braka and the Venari Ral present into custody.

Afterward

The cadets were honored by President Laira Rillak herself on Betazed before being released for the summer break. Cadet Mir and his mother spent the summer together getting to know each other once again.

Nus Braka had a horrific childhood filled with abuse, hunger and want, all of which shaped the person that he would later become. Perhaps if he had lived a childhood without the abuse of those who should have protected and nurtured him, he could have lived a life of purpose and meaning. Instead he returned the abuse that he had received back upon the galaxy. The children are the future and by damaging the children, one damages the future as well. All of those who abuse and damage this most precious of resources should be held accountable at the highest level – no matter who they are.

Looking Forward

If the events of the last few months have demonstrated anything, it’s that the ideals and principles of the Federation live on with the bravery, honor and convictions of the next generation of Starfleet officers. Children who grew up in an age of want and uncertainty who will now the adults building a better future for us all. So it is to this next generation that we bequeath that future -- and all the discoveries, wonders and uncharted frontiers that await them. May their adventure, and ours, ever continue.








“If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life’s exciting variety, not something to fear.” – A twentieth century philosopher whose name has been lost to history.





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But wait! There’s more!

Next Week -- Appendix 1: Tribbles

I did something a little different with this chapter. Even though the cadets are the main characters of the show, I didn’t feel that in the “modern” context (in-universe, this book is being released in-between season one and two of SFA) that they had earned a spotlight in a historical piece. That’s why none of the cadets get a profile section or a quote, although they play heavy into events. That might change in season two, now that their actions have definitely earned them some wider attention.

Genesis, Reymi and Thok got the short end of the stick here, but I hope to rectify that with season 2. On the bright side, I finally got to give Reno the spotlight she deserves here as I never really found a good spot during the Discovery chapters.

 

[Ceridwen]

You made it to the "end"! Very nice.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Appendix I: Tribbles

Tribbles (alternately known as Tribleustus ventricosis and Polygeminis grex) are a small, furry lifeform from the world of Geminorum IV. Though these adorable mammals are now widely (and safely) bred as harmless house pets, they once caused ecological destruction on several worlds, and were even considered extinct at one point.

Tribbles breed at an unusually fast rate for a mammalian species -- a defense against the numerous natural predators of their homeworld. Harmless to most species, Tribbles did not even possess teeth. However, Tribbles are an asexual species who reproduce upon consuming a certain amount of food. When removed from their natural environment, overfeeding Tribbles can easily result in severe infestation and ecological destruction and were outlawed on several worlds in the mid-22nd century.

Edward Larkin

Edward Larkin was a Starfleet science officer assigned to the science vessel Cabot in the 2340s. Shortly after the arrival of the ship’s new commanding officer, Captain Lynne Lucero, the Cabot was tasked with aiding the Calatians, a species native to the world of Pragine 63 near Klingon space, who were in the midst of a famine. Larkin suggested genetically modifying Tribbles to drastically increase their rate of reproduction in order to supply the Calatians with a regular source of food without straining their own resources. Captain Lucero was uncomfortable with Larkin’s proposal on several levels and ordered him to cease his experiments immediately.

Larkin chose to disobey orders and continue his experiments, inserting human DNA into Tribble biology -- causing them to be born pregnant -- and anonymously complained to Starfleet about Captain Lucero, insulting the captain’s intelligence. Upon discovering Larkin’s breach of orders and protocol, Lucero arranged for Larkin’s transfer.

Before Larkin left the ship, the results of his experimentation bore fruit as the tribbles began reproducing at an exponential and uncontrollable rate. Captain Lucero ordered the crew to attempt to contain the tribbles humanely, but their rate of reproduction was out of control and soon threatened to consume all available space on the ship, forcing Lucero to order an evacuation. Larkin refused to evacuate and was crushed by the unending onslaught of tribbles and the advanced reproductive process that he himself had initiated.

In the two weeks that followed, some of the modified tribbles made their way to the surface of Pragine 63, forcing the Calatians to conduct an emergency evacuation. Furthermore, some of the Tribbles spread into Klingon territory, creating ecological havoc as they consumed the crops and food supplies of entire worlds in a matter of days. To make matters worse, the Klingon species and Tribbles had an innate allergic reaction to each other, creating a visceral response in both species.

At the board of inquiry into the loss of the Cabot, Captain Lucero was asked how one crewman could have caused so much chaos. Lucero simply replied: “He was an idiot.”

Cyrano Jones

Cyrano Jones was a man of multiple professions -- licensed asteroid locator, prospector, and Galactic Trader. Among the trinkets he would pawn off to locals were such items as Spican flame gems, Antarian glow water… and tribbles. In 2268, he found himself operating within the Klingon sphere of influence, where he unknowingly acquired some of Edward Larkin’s genetically modified tribbles before making his way to Space Station K-7 on the Federation side of the border.

At that time, K-7 was safeguarding a consignment of quadrotriticale, a grain due to be transferred to Sherman’s Planet, a world along the border claimed by both Federation and Klingon interests that was also suffering from famine. The quadrotriticale was a hearty grain capable of growing in the barren soil of Sherman’s Planet. By the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty, the Federation and the Klingons had to demonstrate which power could develop the planet more efficiently in order to claim the world for themselves.

The project was under the control of Federation Undersecretary Nilz Baris. When Klingon ships were spotted in the area, Baris made the extremely reactionary move of issuing a Code One alert, indicating that the station was under attack, drawing the presence of the U.S.S. Enterprise under the command of James T. Kirk.

Matters were complicated when the Klingon vessel, IKS Gr’oth, under the command of Commander Koloth of the Klingon Defense Force, arrived at the station requesting shore leave for his troops. By the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty, Kirk was unable to deny Koloth’s request, which Baris saw as an unacceptable risk to the grain supply.

On the station, Cyrano Jones sold a tribble to Lieutenant Nyota Uhura of the Enterprise, who was on the station enjoying shore leave, and she brought the creature back on board the ship. Jones also sold a tribble to a local merchant who began breeding the tribbles for sale.

Soon, the tribbles began to overrun both the Enterprise and K-7, getting into the interior mechanisms of both facilities. Fearing the worst, Kirk ordered the storage compartments holding the quadrotriticale inspected, and his fears were confirmed: the tribbles had gotten into the grain and were gorging themselves upon it. Spock estimated there to be a total of 1,771,561 tribbles within the compromised storage compartment. Baris was enraged and blamed Kirk for the failure of the mission, until First Officer Spock realized that many of the tribbles in the storage compartment were dead and Dr. Leonard McCoy confirmed that they had been poisoned by a virus contained within the grain.

The virus converted sustenance into an inert material, removing any nutritional components and resulting in those who ate the grain starving to death no matter how much of the food they consumed. The tribbles in the grain storage compartment literally starved themselves to death. If the grain had been delivered to Sherman’s Planet, it would have resulted in making a bad situation even worse and the world being ceded to Klingon control.

Undersecretary Baris was quick to blame Cyrano Jones for the catastrophe, but when a tribble had an adverse reaction to his aide, Arne Darvin -- who was likewise repulsed by the tribble -- it was discovered that Darvin had in fact been a surgically altered Klingon who had poisoned the grain in order to sabotage the Federation’s efforts for Sherman’s Planet.

With the Klingon plot exposed, Kirk ordered Koloth to leave the station. Rather than subject Cyrano Jones to a 20-year prison sentence for transporting fauna known to be potentially dangerous to alien ecosystems, Kirk gave Jones the option of clearing Space Station K-7 of its tribble infestation. Arne Darvin was disgraced and exiled from the Empire for his failure, and took on the identity of a human trader named Barry Waddle.

The Glommer

In 2269, Jones heard of a Klingon engineering experiment designed for the express purpose of eliminating tribbles called a glommer. Jones arranged for a brief sabbatical from his duties in cleaning Space Station K-7 of its tribble infestation long enough to acquire (steal) the prototype glommer and return to K-7 just in time for the glommer to consume the tribbles, earning his freedom.

Still seeing selling tribbles as a potential source of income, Jones engaged in genetic engineering designed to reverse Edward Larkin's modifications, hoping to create a safe tribble that did not breed. Unfortunately, Jones's work was shoddy and resulted in the tribbles becoming colony creatures, growing larger rather than rapidly breeding. Jones sold some of these tribbles on a world that he claimed he did not know to be under Klingon control. Discovering that it was Jones who had stolen their glommer, Commander Koloth set out to bring Jones into custody and retain the glommer.

It was while in pursuit of Jones in the Gr’oth that Koloth once again came into conflict with James Kirk and the Enterprise, while they were escorting another shipment of grain to Sherman’s Planet. Kirk had Jones and his tribbles beamed to the Enterprise before the Klingons could destroy his vessel.

Koloth immobilized the Enterprise using a new prototype energy-draining weapon, but the weapon’s energy drain rendered the Klingon ship vulnerable, making it unreliable in combat. Kirk retaliated by beaming a batch of the overly large tribbles onto Koloth’s ship. Koloth agreed to call off the attack on the Enterprise and allow Kirk to keep Jones in Federation custody in return for the glommer, which the Klingons desperately needed to create more in order to rid Klingon worlds of tribble infestation.

Dr. McCoy was easily able to fix Jones's genetic engineering, as well as reverse Larkin's efforts, breaking the large tribble colony creatures into individual tribbles, which were now as Jones intended them to be -- safe and unable to breed.

Extinction

Unfortunately, the tribbles left in the Klingon Empire were still of the type that bred dangerously fast and continued to cause untold ecological damage on numerous Klingon worlds, putting the future of the Empire itself in jeopardy. The Empire assembled an armada of vessels, obliterated the tribble homeworld of Geminorum IV, and hunted down tribbles wherever they were found, whether they were of the “safe” variety or not. By the beginning of the 24th century, the Klingons had successfully brought the entire tribble species to extinction.

Restoration

Following his exile from the Empire, Darvin eked out a living along the Federation–Klingon border under the alias of Barry Waddle, a human merchant selling the minerals kivas and trillium. Darvin was stranded on Cardassia by the Klingon invasion of 2372. During his time on the world, he heard of a Bajoran device capable of transporting someone through time. The device had been confiscated by the Cardassian authorities during their occupation of Bajor, but the new civilian government, the Detapa Council, was returning it to the Bajoran people.

When the Federation starship U.S.S. Defiant arrived at Cardassia to retrieve the orb, Darvin arranged for a ride, claiming to be a Federation citizen seeking transport home. Once on board, he attacked the guard protecting the orb and used it to transfer the Defiant over 100 years into the past, to 2267 at the K-7 space station, 18 hours before his younger self was to be uncovered by Kirk. Darvin intended to restore his honor and gain revenge on Kirk by placing a bomb in a tribble, killing him in the most ironic manner he could conceive.

The Defiant crew captured Darvin, but not before he placed the bomb in a tribble in the station's grain storage compartments. Captain Benjamin Sisko and Lieutenant Jadzia Dax located the bomb and had it beamed off the station just before detonation, securing the timeline.

During the mission, while undercover, Security Chief Odo bought a tribble from Cyrano Jones at the K-7 bar and brought it back with him to the 24th century. Before anyone realized what had happened, there was a new infestation of tribbles aboard Deep Space Nine, their extinction now undone through temporal intervention, similar to the restoration of the humpback whale.

The genetic engineering work done on tribbles by Edward Larkin, Leonard McCoy, and even Cyrano Jones was all part of the historical Federation record, and most of the tribbles brought forward in time were rendered safe through known processes. However, some of the creatures managed to work their way onto departing vessels, bringing the tribble species to new worlds, where they would once more thrive -- but now populations would be able to keep infestations under control.

Thus, a creature that was once an ecological menace would eventually become a domesticated house pet, bring joy to millions.

The Perils of Genetic Modifications

In many regards, the tribble’s story is not merely a curiosity of Federation history, but a familiar ecological pattern writ large. Historians often cite the introduction of rabbits to Australia in the 19th century as a parallel -- released by settlers for sport, and quickly multiplying beyond all control in a land with no natural predators. In a matter of decades, they reshaped entire biomes, devastated native species, and forced governments into desperate containment measures that would last centuries. Tribbles followed the same tragic script: a species evolved to survive through prolific breeding suddenly thrust into an environment unable to check its growth. Remove a creature from the ecosystem that shaped it, and the consequences are rarely benign.

In the few short years between Edward Larkin’s catastrophic experiments aboard the Cabot and the tribble infestations at K-7, the saga of these small, seemingly harmless creatures illustrates the profound consequences of even minor tampering with life. What begins as curiosity, ambition, or a desire to solve a simple problem can cascade into chaos when the natural order is disturbed.

Tribble DNA and biology have always proven simple to manipulate and alter and so many have been unable to resist. Other than the experiments done by Larkin and Jones, Klingon scientist Dr. K’Ruvang created several dangerous variations in tribble biology in an attempt to bring the prolific species under control. One experiment that went awry in 2385 created a tribble/Brikar hybrid. Section 31 later created a dangerous attack tribble with large teeth that was stored at the Daystrom Institute in 2502.

The tribbles remind us that no matter how trivial a creature may seem, our interventions carry weight -- and with the power to alter life comes the responsibility to do so wisely. Perhaps the lesson is simple yet enduring: to play games with life itself is to risk disturbing the balance of life in ways that we cannot fully predict or control, often resulting disastrous consequences.

*****
Next Week: Appendix II: The Maquis

First of three appendices to cover subjects that I couldn't cover in the main text for whatever reason. Besides, you think that I'm gonna write this much about Star Trek and never bring up tribbles?

It was interesting when I rewatched the tribble episodes for this project and realized that every tribble incident except the one on K-7 dealt with someone genetically altering a tribble. Even the K-7 story retroactively was about genetically altered tribbles, so of course I made the whole piece about the dangers of genetic engineering.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Appendix II: The Maquis

The Maquis and their cause are a study in tragedy and potential. Branded outlaws and terrorists by the Federation, they were, in truth, little different from countless freedom fighters throughout history who rose in defense of their homes. These were settlers who built lives in lands they knew were contested -- territory claimed by both the Federation and the Cardassian Union -- yet they trusted their government to protect them and to safeguard their interests. When the Federation ultimately chose to cede those worlds to Cardassia in the name of peace in 2370, it was not out of malice, but necessity. Governments must sometimes make difficult and imperfect decisions -- and the Federation was no exception.

The Federation saw it as a political and diplomatic necessity in order to maintain peace in the region, but many of the settlers considered it a betrayal, and took up arms to fight for their own freedom and independence and the right of self-governance free of both Federation and Cardassian interests.

Is it really proper for historians to look at the Maquis as a terrorists, or as a group of freedom fighters fighting for the right of self-governance in a cause that was in many ways doomed from the start?

The Cardassian Border War

The Cardassian Border Wars began in 2347 when conflicting planetary claims and a disagreement over the precise placement of the border between the Federation and the Cardassian Empire resulted in armed conflicts in the border region. Both governments had placed colonies and outposts on worlds claimed by the other, and neither entity was willing to back down on its claim. Federation colonies on Setlik III, Camor V, and other Federation worlds suffered huge civilian casualties during the conflict. The conflict raged sporadically for twenty years before a ceasefire was agreed upon and a treaty signed. The Jankata Accord was signed in 2370 and left many Federation colonies on the Cardassian side of the border and vice versa.

Dorvan V

“I know Admiral Nechayev gave you an order and she was given an order from the Federation Council. But it’s still wrong.” – Wesley Crusher​

As the Border Wars raged, many settlers colonized the region despite the conflict and knowing that they were making their home in contested space. Among these was a colony of Native American Indians, one of several who had long sought a new home among the stars. The Dorvan tribe sought a world that spoke to their cultural heritage, finally finding what they were looking for after 200 years of searching on the contested world of Dorvan V.

When the Federation, in the form of the USS Enterprise-D under the command of Jean-Luc Picard, arrived in late 2370 to relocate the colonists, they refused to cooperate with the relocation effort. Picard was sympathetic to the Indian’s plight, well aware of the tragic historical examples of forced relocation throughout human history, but was under orders to remove the colonists -- against their will if necessary -- to preserve the treaty.

With the arrival of the Cardassian contingent, the Enterprise prepared to beam the colonists from the surface. Wesley Crusher, who was present while on leave from his Academy studies, had come to have great respect for the people, culture and beliefs of the Dorvan tribe. Wesley discovered the Enterprise’s intentions and warned the Dorvan people of the danger.

After a brief firefight with the arriving Cardassians, the command officer Gul Evek agreed to allow the colonists to stay, on the condition that they renounce Federation citizenship and live under Cardassian rule. The Dorvan colonists agreed, tying Starfleet’s hands.

Wesley Crusher resigned from Starfleet afterward and remained on Dorvan for a time before beginning his journeys as a Traveler. However, he was far from only Starfleet officer who would resign over the treaty, only the first.

Calvin Hudson

“They’ve travelled here to the back end of beyond and built homes out of the wilderness. Now maybe the Federation can turn their back on them, but I can’t.” -- Calvin Hudson ​

Many within Starfleet and among the border colonies saw the resolution to the Dorvan V situation as capitulation and betrayal by a Federation that was unwilling to protect its own citizens. Feeling that they had no choice but to take matters into their own hands, many in the border regions decided to take up arms in a fight for independence from both Federation and Cardassian concerns. They called their movement the Maquis.

One of the chief architects of the Maquis was a Starfleet officer named Calvin Hudson. Hudson was the Starfleet liaison officer to the colonists along the border. In his time in that position, he had gotten to know and admire the colonists -- people who had built homes and lives for themselves with their own hands on the frontier. Homes they had expected to spend the rest of their days in. Homes the Federation now expected them to abandon without protest. Hudson used his position within Starfleet to plan Maquis operations.

The Maquis openly declared themselves with the destruction of the Cardassian freighter Bok’Nor at Federation Starbase Deep Space Nine in the Bajoran sector, resulting in the deaths of 78 Cardassian crewmen. They would later capture and interrogate Gul Skrain Dukat, a humiliation the Cardassian would not forget.

Hudson himself would later lead an attack on a suspected Cardassian weapons depot on the Bryma colony, which was repelled by Starfleet and Hudson’s old friend, Commander Benjamin Sisko of Deep Space Nine. Hudson would later be killed in a skirmish with Cardassian forces and be remembered as a martyr to the Maquis cause.

Ro Laren

“When I was seven years old, I was given a piece of sugar candy. And I was led by a Cardassian into a room where my father was sitting. And he looked at me with eyes I'd never seen. The Cardassian began to ask him questions. And during the next two hours - as I was forced to watch - my father was tortured until he died. And I remember feeling... so ashamed of him as he begged for mercy. I was ashamed of him for being weak. I was ashamed of being Bajoran. Later I began to understand how misguided those feelings were, and... and yet somehow, they have remained a part of me. I don't want to be ashamed of my heritage any longer.” – Ro Laren​

Ro Laren was born on Bajor in 2340, at the height of the Cardassian occupation. A witness to its full brutality -- including being forced to watch the Cardassians torture her father to death -- she sought a new life within Starfleet when the opportunity finally presented itself.

While assigned to the USS Wellington, Ro disobeyed direct orders during an operation on Garon IV, resulting in the deaths of eight crewmates. Court-martialed for her actions, she was sentenced to serve her term in the stockade on Jaros II.

In 2368, Ro was offered an opportunity by Admiral Kennelly to wipe her record clean in exchange for a single covert assignment -- negotiations with a Bajoran resistance leader named Orta, who had been blamed for a recent attack on Federation interests. She was released from custody and temporarily assigned to the USS Enterprise under Captain Jean-Luc Picard, much to the captain’s displeasure. Her mission was to offer Federation weapons and ships to Orta in exchange for his agreement to cease attacks on Starfleet targets.

When Orta revealed that he had not attacked any Federation interests -- and, indeed, did not even possess ships capable of reaching them -- Ro realized that Admiral Kennelly had been less than honest about the nature of her mission. Confiding her true orders to Picard earned Ro his trust and respect, and spared her a second court-martial.

Working together, Picard and Ro uncovered a conspiracy between Kennelly and a Cardassian admiral to eliminate Bajoran resistance activity in the region. The Cardassians had supplied Kennelly with falsified data to manipulate Starfleet into solving a Cardassian problem on their behalf.

Following the mission, and with Picard now convinced she had the makings of a fine officer, Ro served aboard the Enterprise for over a year before returning to Starfleet Academy for a year-long course in advanced tactical training. One of Ro’s instructors during her Academy training was Commander Chakotay, himself native to one of the abandoned colonies. His father had been killed resisting the Cardassians, and Chakotay was quietly sympathetic to the Maquis cause. Ro returned to the Enterprise after a year, newly promoted to lieutenant.

Soon after Ro returned to the Enterprise, and at Picard’s recommendation, she was assigned to infiltrate a Maquis cell based out of Juraya to gather intelligence and eventually turn the cell over to Federation custody. During her time with the Maquis on Juraya, Ro grew sympathetic to their cause, the same cause her people had struggled against her entire life, and began to question her mission.

After a Cardassian attack killed a Bajoran Maquis member named Macias, who reminded her of her father, Ro abandoned Starfleet for the Maquis cause. Ro would later say that her only regret was in betraying Jean-Luc Picard’s trust. Had she acted otherwise, she would have betrayed herself.

Thomas Riker

“This ship was built to fight. I think it’s time she got her chance.” –Thomas Riker​

Thomas Riker was a transporter duplicate of William T. Riker, created during a transporter accident at Nervala IV in 2361. Due to severe atmospheric distortions, the transporter chief employed two annular confinement beams to recover Riker from the surface. One of the beams was reflected back to the planet, creating a duplicate who remained stranded on Nervala IV for eight years.

After his eventual rescue, the duplicate took the name Thomas in order to differentiate himself from William, who had gone on to enjoy a distinguished career in Starfleet. Thomas served aboard the USS Gandhi, but was among the many Starfleet officers who resigned in protest after the signing of the treaty with the Cardassians. He subsequently joined the Maquis.

The Maquis had received intelligence that a secret fleet of Cardassian ships was being constructed in the Orias system, and Thomas Riker believed those ships would eventually be used against the Maquis. To uncover the truth, Riker impersonated his transporter duplicate, Commander William Riker, and traveled to Deep Space Nine to steal the USS Defiant.

At the station, he befriended Major Kira Nerys and arranged for a tour of the Defiant. Kira, believing him to be Commander Riker of the Enterprise, unlocked the ship’s security protocols, allowing him to seize control. Riker stunned Kira and beamed aboard a Maquis strike team.

Instead of returning to the Badlands as planned, Riker set course for the Orias system. His actions threatened to ignite a war between the Federation and the Cardassian Empire, forcing Commander Sisko to travel to Cardassia with Gul Dukat to prevent the situation from escalating.

Working together, Sisko and Dukat enabled the Cardassian High Command to override the Defiant’s cloaking system. A Cardassian fleet soon moved to intercept. When the Defiant performed a full sensor sweep of the Orias system, a squadron of Cardassian ships of completely unknown origin -- even to Gul Dukat -- emerged to confront them.

Alarmed by this revelation and desperate to uncover what was happening inside the Orias system, Dukat agreed to a compromise. Cardassia would return the Defiant, Major Kira, and the Maquis crew in exchange for the ship’s sensor logs and the surrender of Thomas Riker, the mission’s leader.

Kira convinced Riker to stand down and spare his crew. He surrendered to the Cardassians and was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Lazon II labor camp. Kira promised Riker she would find a way to free him, but no historical records exist regarding his fate beyond this incident.

Chakotay

Commander Chakotay was a native of Trebus, a deeply spiritual people with long standing traditions and beliefs. Chakotay, young and rebellious, saw that as looking to the past and chose a career in Starfleet, over the objections of his father. However, all that changed when the Cardassians annexed Trebus and his father was killed resisting them. Choosing to honor his father, Chakotay resigned form his post as an instructor at Starfleet Academy and joined the Maquis.

He was given command of the attack raider the Val-Jean and led numerous assaults against the Cardassians. Among his crew was Tuvok of Vulcan, human/Klingon hybrid B’Elanna Torres, Seska of Bajor, Lon Suder of Betazed and Michael Jonas of Earth – an eclectic crew in which not everyone was who they seemed.

While evading a Cardassian vessel in the plasma storms of the Badlands, the Val Jean was struck by a powerful displacement wave that sent the tiny ship to the other side of the galaxy -- 70,000 light years away in the Delta Quadrant.

Tom Paris

“Chakotay will tell you he left Starfleet on principle, to defend his home colony from the Cardassians. I, on the other hand, was forced to resign. He considered me a mercenary, willing to fight for anyone who'd pay my bar bill. Trouble is, he was right.” – Tom Paris​

Tom Paris, the son of a Starfleet Admiral, had been court martialed from service after his piloting error and negligence cause a shuttle crash that killed eight officers. Paris drifted after that and eventually took up mercenary work with the Maquis, much to the displeasure of Chakotay, who believed that Paris would fight for anyone who paid his bar bills. Paris was captured on his first mission and sent to Federation Penal Colony in New Zealand.

Voyager and the Delta Quadrant

Starfleet assigned the starship USS Voyager under the command of Captain Kathryn Janeway to locate the missing Val Jean after their embedded agent, the Vulcan Tuvok, missed several scheduled check-ins. To aid in the search, Janeway recruited former Maquis officer Tom Paris from the Federation penal colony in New Zealand, offering his freedom in exchange for his assistance.

Once in the Badlands, Voyager encountered the same displacement wave that had swept up the Val Jean and was flung 70,000 light-years into the Delta Quadrant. Both ships had been brought there by an alien calling itself the Caretaker, who was protecting a local species, the Ocampans, from exploitation by the Kazon. Near death, the Caretaker was searching the galaxy for compatible DNA to create an offspring capable of continuing his guardianship after his passing.

Following the Caretaker’s death, the two ships defended the Caretaker’s Array -- an installation capable of sending them home -- from a Kazon assault. Tuvok prepared the array to transport both ships back to the Alpha Quadrant, but they could not ensure it would remain out of Kazon hands afterward. Choosing instead to safeguard the Ocampan people, Janeway ordered the array destroyed, stranding both crews in the Delta Quadrant, 70,000 light-years from home. The decision was made to combine the two crews into a single Starfleet complement, with Chakotay serving as Janeway’s first officer and B’Elanna Torres serving as Chief Engineer.

Betrayal

“You were working for her, she was working for them. Was anyone on that ship working for me?” -- Chakotay to Tuvok regarding Seska​

The transition for many of the Maquis members was not an easy one. Betazoid Lon Suder had suffered from violent pathological tendencies and had joined the Maquis as an outlet for his murderous impulses. Ten months into Voyager’s journey, Suder murdered a crewman for no other reason than to fulfill this need.

Many other former Maquis crewmen were dissatisfied with their situation and openly voiced their frustrations. However, there was one former member in particular who was fanning the flames -- the woman they knew as the Bajoran Seska.

Seska was not, in fact, a Bajoran, but a Cardassian agent who had infiltrated Chakotay’s Maquis cell, much as Tuvok had. She worked to gain Chakotay’s trust, eventually becoming his confidant and lover. She was infuriated by Janeway’s decision to strand everyone in the Delta Quadrant and even hinted to Chakotay that she would support him if he chose to challenge Janeway’s command. Despite their relationship, Chakotay warned her he would confine her to the brig if she ever voiced such intentions again.

Seska soon allied with the Kazon, specifically the faction led by Maj Culluh, providing them with information and equipment. Once her Cardassian heritage was revealed, she executed a prepared escape plan and beamed aboard a Kazon vessel. Over the coming months, Seska assisted the Kazon in multiple raids against Voyager to obtain the ship’s more advanced technology for the Kazon.

She retained one ally on Voyager: Michael Jonas, a former Maquis member who shared her dissatisfaction with Janeway’s decisions. Seska had become pregnant, allegedly with Chakotay’s child, and told Jonas that she had no intention of raising the baby among the Kazon. She instructed him to sabotage Voyager so the Kazon could overtake the ship. Jonas was caught attempting to deactivate the ship’s power grid and weapons during a confrontation with the Kazon vessel. During a scuffle with the Talaxian, Neelix, Jonas fell over a safety railing and was incinerated by an exposed plasma flow.

Final Confrontation

Seska later lured Voyager into a trap using Chakotay’s alleged child as bait. As the ship moved to rescue the child, it was ambushed by multiple Kazon vessels. The Kazon overtook Voyager and stranded the crew on a desolate planet.

While the situation appeared grim, it was, appropriately enough, two former Maquis who saved the day. Tom Paris had escaped the ship in a shuttle just prior to the Kazon boarding and warped away to recruit Talaxian reinforcements. Meanwhile, Lon Suder, left behind on the ship, worked with the ship’s holographic Doctor to counter the Kazon invaders. Despite bringing his violent tendencies to the fore, Suder successfully took Voyager’s phasers offline before being killed by a Kazon phaser.

Paris returned with reinforcements, retook Voyager with the Talaxians thanks to Suder’s actions, and recovered the stranded crew. Seska was killed in the action to retake Voyager and the child, actually Culluh’s, remained with the Kazon.

Following these events, the former Maquis and Starfleet crew aboard Voyager managed to integrate and function together as a single crew. While some regretted having to abandon their fight for freedom against the Cardassians, others would argue that they were actually the lucky ones.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Michael Eddington

“Our quarrel is with the Cardassians, not the Federation. Leave us alone and I promise you’ll never hear from the Maquis again.” – Michael Eddington​

Back in the Alpha Quadrant, the struggle for independence in the Federation–Cardassian Demilitarized Zone continued. The Maquis took advantage of the outbreak of war between the Klingon Empire and the Cardassian Union in 2372, pressing their attacks on Cardassian targets and driving them further out of the DMZ.

The Klingon assaults had devastated the industrial bases of several Cardassian worlds, and Starfleet stepped in to assist with the delivery of twelve industrial-class replicators, which would be capable of helping to rebuild the infrastructure of the war-torn planets. When word of this aid reached the Maquis, they saw an opportunity.

Commander Michael Eddington was among the many Starfleet officers who became disillusioned with the Federation following the signing of the treaty with Cardassia and the forced relocation of Federation colonists. Eddington had worked secretly with the Maquis from his position as Chief of Starfleet Security on Deep Space Nine without raising suspicion. The delivery of the replicators was scheduled to pass through the station, and Eddington was assigned to hijack the shipment.

The Maquis often employed the services of civilian freighter captain Kasidy Yates, the girlfriend of Captain Sisko, to deliver food and medical supplies. Not a Maquis member herself, Yates never transported weapons or war materiel. To distract Sisko and lure him away from the station, Eddington set her up for a fall -- ensuring she would be caught by Sisko delivering medical supplies to the Maquis in the Badlands while he hijacked the replicators back on the station and defected to the Maquis. Eddington urged Sisko to leave the Maquis alone, but Sisko viewed the betrayal personally and swore to bring him to justice.

Over the next eight months, Eddington joined the Maquis leadership and the group thrived, making new advances against the Cardassians. In early 2373, Eddington married fellow Maquis officer Rebecca Sullivan.

During this time a plan was put in motion to reclaim the worlds the Federation abandoned. The Maquis attacked two Bolian freighters carrying the organic compounds necessary to create vast quantities of cobalt diselenide, a banned biogenic compound that is harmless to most species, but lethal to Cardassians.

Both the USS Defiant and the USS Malinche attempted to bring Eddington in, but Eddington was always one step ahead of his pursuers. He disabled the Defiant by way of a computer virus he had installed in the ship’s computer while he was stationed at DS9, and lured the Malinche into an ambush that disabled the vessel. In both instances, Eddington strove to disable the vessels without loss of life.

After Eddington poisoned the atmospheres two worlds with Cardassian colonies with the chemical weapons, forcing their evacuation, Captain Sisko decided that with these actions, as well as the attacks of the Defiant and the Malinche, Eddington represented an intolerable threat to Federation interests in the sector and decided to respond in kind.

Sisko took the Defiant to the Maquis held world of Solosis III, instructed the colonists to begin evacuation efforts, and made the controversial decision to poison the atmosphere of that world with trilithium resin, a compound fatal to humans but harmless to Cardassians. Sisko threatened to poison every Maquis-held world so until Eddington turned over both the Maquis bio-genic weapons and himself into Starfleet custody.

The Maquis and Cardassian colonists that were forced to evacuate their worlds made new homes on the worlds that their counterparts were forced to abandon. Eddington surrendered himself to Sisko and Starfleet and was court-martialed for his actions and sentenced to life in a Federation Penal facility.

Even centuries later, Sisko’s decision remains one of the most debated moral actions taken by a Starfleet captain prior to the Dominion War, although Starfleet never reprimanded Sisko for his actions.

The Dominion

Despite this setback, the Maquis continued to make gains on the Cardassian foes, further securing their hold on the region. In fact, for many, the end of the struggle seemed to be in sight. Cardassian losses against the Klingons made Cardassia abandoning the fight in the border region an inevitability as the Cardassians had a bigger war to fight.

The Maquis was even preparing to declare their independence from the Federation and Cardassia with the formation of a Maquis Nation, an independent state with its own government that represented their own interests. Then came the day that changed the Alpha Quadrant forever – the day that Skrain Dukat betrayed the Alpha Quadrant to the Dominion, a powerful and brutal power from the Gamma Quadrant.

After allying his world with the Dominion, Dukat swore that he would drive the Klingons out of Cardassian space and destroy every Maquis base in the Badlands. In three days time, he made good on his threat as squadrons of Dominion warships crewed by lethal Jem’Hadar soldiers descended upon the Maquis and obliterated their entire movement from existence.

And so the dream died.

Three months later, in a postscript to these events, a Klingon vessel intercepted a transmission on a Maquis frequency intended for Michael Eddington. The message informed him that a group of survivors had launched a cloaked missile attack on Cardassia as a retaliatory measure, with the missiles set to strike their targets in less than three weeks. Believing the attack might provoke a Dominion response against the Federation, Captain Sisko released Eddington from imprisonment and enlisted his aid in stopping the missiles.

Eddington led Sisko to the world of Athos IV, deep in the Badlands. Upon arrival, they found a battlefield littered with dead Maquis, slaughtered by Jem’Hadar soldiers. Making their way to a secure location that Eddington claimed was the launch site, they instead discovered one last small group of Maquis survivors, including Rebecca Sullivan, Eddington’s wife.

There had never been any missiles or retaliatory strike against Cardassia. The message had been a code to inform Eddington that the survivors were safe and to indicate their location. Eddington had once again manipulated Sisko into bringing him to the world in order to rescue the final Maquis survivors.

However, on the way to the Runabout, they were attacked by Jem’Hadar troops and Eddington was mortally wounded. Staying behind to cover the escape of the last of the people he once led, he sacrificed himself to delay the Jem’Hadar advance. Sisko escaped aboard the Runabout with the final Maquis survivors.

Afterward

The Maquis conflict had many historic parallels in human history -- the Palestinian conflicts, the people caught in the partitioning of India and Pakistan in 1947, and the Native Americans forcibly relocated in the 19th century all endured the consequences of lines drawn on maps by politicians without regard for the lives of those their decisions would affect. For the Maquis, the Federation–Cardassian demilitarized zone represented the same kind of imposed boundary: communities uprooted, homes claimed by others, and people forced to choose between obedience and resistance.

Like those other historical conflicts, there are no easy answers. There is no simple way to judge the right or wrong of the actions or the participants in these conflicts. As the saying goes, ‘history is written by the victor,’ and this has largely proven true. Had things gone in another direction, the Maquis might have emerged victorious in their struggle and people like Michael Eddington would be remembered as a victorious freedom fighter, rather than a martyr fighting a lost cause.

So, were the Maquis traitors to the Federation or heroes fighting a just fight against an unjust foe? Were they naïve idealists who bit off more than they could chew? Should they have quietly stood by and simply watched as they saw what they believed to be the Federation abandoning its people and values for political expediency, or should do what they believe to be right? If they did nothing, would they not be betraying themselves?

Perhaps the best answer comes from Captain Sisko himself when he reflected on Michael Eddington and the Maquis – “I called him a traitor once, but in a way he was the most loyal man I ever met. He was a Maquis, right up to the bitter end.”

*******

Next Week: The Mirror Universe.

The reason I decided to do appendices was I realized that I could really tell the story of the Maquis cohesively with my "by series" format. It needed its own chapter. Also, it lightened my DS9 chapters considerably and allowed me to get into the history of the Mirror Universe, which has a similar problem when chronicling by series.

It also gave me the opportunity to give Ro Laren a little focus as she's only mentioned in passing in the main text.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Appendix III: The Mirror Universe

The so called “Mirror Universe” is an alternate, parallel universe whose cosmic “thread”, for want of a better term, was intertwined with our own universe for several centuries, with a number of crossovers between the universes transpiring as a result. The Mirror Universe bears many similarities to our own with the major difference being a complete reversal of humanity’s moral compass. Where the humans of our universe came together and journeyed to the stars with the spirit of mutual cooperation and co-existence with the United Federation of Planets, the Terrans of the Mirror Universe set forth to stars under the banner of conquest and domination of the Terran Empire.

Humans and Terrans are near identical species with only minor physiological differences. Among them is the Terran sensitivity to bright lights and a chimeric strain on the sub-atomic level of the Terran stem cell that some Federation scientists believe is responsible for the inherent moral differences between Humans and Terrans.

Exactly when the two universes diverged from each other is unclear, but went back centuries before the two universes first interacted with the other. Terran art and literature going all the way back the Elizabethan Era with the art and literature, such as the works of Shakespeare, emphasized conquest and brutality rather than moral conflict or introspection. This was a species that considered virtues such as compassion, empathy and mercy as weaknesses.

An oddity of the connection between the Prime and Mirror universes is that time was not always a constant factor between them. Rifts and passageways between the two universes would often result in temporal dislocation as well as spatial, resulting in people from one universe from one year and arriving in the other universe in another.

The Terran Empire

The Terrans entered the galactic stage in their universe on the same day in their universe that humanity did in the Prime Universe – April 5th, 2063, after Zephram Cochrane’ s first warp flight. However, unlike the humans of Earth Prime who met their Vulcan visitors with awe and wonder, the Terrans of Mirror-Earth killed the Vulcans of the T’Plana-Hath and claimed the Vulcan ship as their own.

The Terrans took to the stars and immediately launched a campaign of terror across the Alpha Quadrant, swiftly conquering Vulcan, Tellar and Andoria and making them vassals of the brutal and fascistic Terran Empire. By 2155, the Terran Empire was the foremost power in the Alpha Quadrant and their brutal methods soon generated dissent and rebellion.

The USS Defiant

“No crew in Starfleet has been tested more in battle. I know I can count on each of you to perform your duty to the best of your ability. Nothing will impede our march to victory. Long live the Empire.” – Jonathon Archer​

The Tholian Assembly of the Mirror Universe sought to find new technologies to combat the Terran regime from other universes. The Tholians had discovered a method of transversing the barrier between the Mirror and Prime universes by detonating a tricobalt warhead in the gravity well of a dead star, which opened an interphasic rift between the two quantum realities.

The rift proved too unstable for the Tholians to send one of their own vessels, so they sent a distress signal through the rift in order to lure a ship from the other side into their grasp. Their plan was more successful than they anticipated as the rift not only transversed the space between universes, but time as well, and lured the Federation starship USS Defiant of the Prime Universe from the year 2268 into the Mirror Universe, with technology more than 100 years more advanced than anything else in that universe. The Tholians and the Gorn hoped to use the Defiant against the Terran Empire.

Unfortunately for the Tholians and Gorn, word of the Defiant’s existence came to Commander Jonathon Archer of the Imperial ship, ISS Enterprise NX-01, and Archer had plans of his own for the USS Defiant.

Empress Hoshi Sato

“This is the Starship Defiant. If you don’t surrender immediately, we’ll begin targeting you cities. Respond.” –Empress Hoshi Sato​

Commander Jonathan Archer of the Mirror Universe served as the first officer of the ISS Enterprise under Captain Maximilian Forest. However, like many officers of the Terran Empire’s Starfleet, Archer sought to elevate his position through murder and deception. To that end, spies bribed by Archer informed him of the existence of the USS Defiant from the Prime Universe within the Tholian Assembly. Archer then orchestrated a coup against Forest and took command of Enterprise.

After Enterprise ventured into Tholian space and reached the location of the spatial rift, Archer seized command of the Defiant away from the Tholians and destroyed the Enterprise, killing Forest in the process. Archer seemed poised to ascend to power, but his plans were thwarted by Hoshi Sato, “The Captain’s Woman”, who was both Archer’s rival and Captain Forest’s concubine.

Acting to avenge Forrest, Sato conspired against Archer and rose against him, seizing command of the Defiant for herself. Sato brought the Defiant to the Terran system where she used the Defiant's greater futuristic technology to take command of the Terran Empire and name herself as Empress. Her one of her first acts as Empress was to use the advanced technology of the USS Defiant to construct the new Imperial flagship, the USS Charon.

Philippa Georgiou

“Battle is not a simulation. It’s blood and screams and funerals.” – Empress Phillipa Georgiou​

In the event that the Terran Empire found itself without a ruler or a clear line of succession, a brutal contingency protocol was enacted -- eighteen of the Empire’s most capable young prodigies were chosen and forced into a relentless, two-year trial of survival. The final survivor would ascend as Emperor.

This contingency was invoked in 2317, and among the chosen was eighteen-year-old Philippa Georgiou. Though alliances were expressly forbidden, Georgiou secretly formed a partnership with another contestant -- a gifted strategist named San. Together, they eliminated their rivals one by one, rising through the blood-soaked ranks until only the two of them remained.

By Imperial decree, emotional attachments and family ties were to be severed before ascension. The finalists were sent back to their home worlds and ordered to eliminate their families, ensuring that their loyalty to the Empire would be absolute.

Georgiou complied. She subjected her parents to a slow-acting neurotoxin and watched as they died, begging for mercy. San, however, could not carry out his assignment and spared his kin. The Empire answered his weakness with retribution -- the eradication of his entire village.

Georgiou was crowned Empress of the Terran Empire and assumed command of the ISS Charon, the Imperial flagship. As tradition demanded, the victor claimed the defeated as a personal servant. To mark the end of their bond and the beginning of his servitude, Georgiou branded San with a red-hot blade -- the sword of the Emperor -- searing into his flesh both her power and his eternal humiliation.

The Godsend

“No one wants to live in your world, Emperor. You are a monster.” -- San​

Georgiou, who took on the full title of, “Phillipa Georgiou, Most Imperial Majesty, Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominus of Kronos, Regina Andor, Emperor of the Terran Empire”, took to her new duties with a ruthless passion that was brutal even by Terran standards. During Georgiou’s reign, she rendered the Klingon homeworld of Qo’nos uninhabitable by detonating a hydro-bomb in the planet’s core, activating all of the world’s volcanos at once, wiped out the telepathic natives of Talos IV after they tried to influence her through illusion, and dominated the people and world of Betazed. But there was one action in which even Georgiou realized that she had gone too far – the creation of the Godsend.

The Godsend was intended to be Georgiou’s failsafe against assassination -- a weapon so terrible that its devastating effect would travel like a chain reaction from system to system like a virus, capable of incinerating an entire quadrant in a near instant – that if it were detonated, there would be nothing left for her assassin to rule over.

Upon the completion of the Godsend, the scientific team behind its creation took their own lives in shame. San, now Georgiou’s personal slave, presented the horrible weapon to Georgiou and appealed to the innocent young woman that she once was, before apparently taking his own life through the same poison that Georgiou had killed her family with.

Georgiou, in a rare moment of self-awareness, ordered the Godsend weapon to be destroyed. However, San had faked his death, having built up an immunity to the poison over the years, and arranged for the Godsend to be hidden away at an Imperial storage facility, awaiting the moment of his revenge.

Michael Burnham

Georgiou found the orphaned Michael Burnham, whose parents had been killed in a Klingon attack, leading a band of urchins who lived in a trash heap on Doctari Alpha. Seeing something of herself in the young Burnham, Georgiou took her in and adopted her, with the intention making her Georgiou’s heir to the Terran Empire’s throne.

Burnham would eventually take command of the ISS Shenzhou. However, Burnham was resentful of Georgiou’s actions, preferring to rule over her trash heap than serve under Georgiou. And with Georgiou passing down to her the Empire’s ethos of treachery and advancement through murder, it was only inevitable that Burnham would betray her.

Gabriel Lorca

“The Federation is a social experiment doomed to failure. Childish optimism. Every species, every choice, every opinion is not equal.” – Gabriel Lorca​

Captain Gabriel Lorca of the ISS Buran was an Imperial officer with an impressive record who quickly grew to become one of Georgiou's most trusted advisors. However, Lorca grew to consider Georgiou's unfit to lead due to what he considered to be a lenient attitude toward aliens, and found her methods to be wasteful and destructive and counterproductive to Imperial interests.

Seeking to rule the Empire himself, Lorca began to conspire against Georgiou, seducing Michael Burnham over to his cause. When Georgiou discovered the betrayal, she ordered Burnham to bring Lorca to justice. However, Lorca destroyed Burnham's shuttle and he went into exile as a fugitive from the Empire.

However, Lorca escaped by a most unconventional means. Through a transporter accident, he was transposed into the Prime Universe, replacing the Gabriel Lorca of the Prime Universe as Commander of the USS Buran of the United Federation of Planets.

When the Buran was attacked by Klingons at the beginning of the first Klingon war, Lorca ordered the destruction of the Buran rather than let its crew fall into Klingon hands. Starfleet accepted his report that the destruction of the Buran had been a tactical necessity, and after passing a psychological exam, Starfleet returned Lorca to duty. Upon learning of the USS Discovery and its top-secret experimental spore drive, which transversed the galaxy by way of the inter-dimensional Mycelial Network, Lorca finally saw his path home and convinced Starfleet to give him command of the experimental vessel.

Lorca’s Coup

After the defeat of Kol of the House of Kor and the Klingon Sarcophagus vessel at the Battle of Pahvo, Lorca overrode the coordinates of Discovery’s spore drive for what was intended to be a jump to Earth, instead diverting the vessel to the Mirror Universe.

Discovery’s crew soon realized that they were not in their own universe and quickly uncovered the dark nature of their current location. Lorca chose not to reveal his hand at this time, instead putting his master plan into motion.

Lorca instructed Discovery’s crew to take on the roles of their Mirror Universe counterparts, knowing that the sudden return of Michael Burnham and Gabriel Lorca --both believed to be dead -- would very quickly draw the attention of Emperor Philippa Georgiou.

Summoned to stand before the Emperor on the ISS Charon, Burnham presented Lorca to Georgiou as her prisoner. Georgiou promptly sentenced Lorca to an indeterminate stay in an agony booth -- the Empire’s preferred form of punishment. However, this was exactly what Lorca had planned. Having conditioned himself to withstand the tortures of the agony booth, Lorca soon managed to free himself from containment and located his former crew from the ISS Buran, who were also being held aboard the Charon and remained loyal to him.

Meanwhile, Burnham dined with Georgiou and attempted to play the role of the Emperor’s adopted daughter. However, Georgiou soon began to suspect deception, and Burnham came clean about her universe of origin. In the conversation that followed, Burnham came to the realization that Gabriel Lorca was not who he claimed to be, and was, in fact, the Gabriel Lorca native to this universe.

Lorca and his crew soon stormed the throne room, overpowered Georgiou, and Lorca assumed leadership of the Empire. Discovery and her crew -- now under the command of Saru -- were fully aware of Lorca’s true identity and worked with the Emperor to overthrow his coup attempt.

Once defeated, Georgiou executed Lorca for his treason. However, the damage to Georgiou’s regime had been done. Sensing weakness in their Emperor, she soon became besieged by enemies from all sides. Georgiou was resigned to her fate -- indeed, she even welcomed it -- but she was transported off the Charon against her will by Michael Burnham, who had lost her own Philippa Georgiou in the Prime Universe and refused to stand by and watch her die again.

Discovery destroyed the Charon, powered by a mycelial drive invented by the Paul Stamets of the Mirror Universe, and used the energy from the explosion to replenish their own depleted spore drive and return home -- where the now-former Emperor would have to adjust to life in a new universe.

The reign of Philippa Georgiou of the Terran Empire was brutal and destructive, even by Terran standards. Entire resource-rich star systems were stripped bare at her command, their ecosystems annihilated -- a situation that would eventually lead to shortages of vital goods throughout the Empire, compelling it one day to seek new resources in the Prime Universe.

Spock

“Terror must be maintained or the Empire is doomed.” -- Spock​

Spock of Vulcan in the Mirror Universe was quite similar to his Prime universe counterpart. The son of Vulcan Resistance leader Sarek, Spock was logical and pragmatic and served the Empire more because Imperial service offered more opportunities to conquered species who served loyally rather than belief in Imperial ideals. In fact, by Spock’s estimates, the Terran Empire had less than 250 years of life left to it before the Empire’s brutal methods led to inevitable uprising and overthrow.

Unlike most Imperial officers, Spock did not seek advancement through the murder of his superiors and was quite content to serve as First Officer of the ISS Enterprise under Captain James T. Kirk. All that changed after simultaneous ion storms in the Halkan system of both universes resulted in a transporter induced crossover between the Captain James T. Kirk of both universes and three of his officers.

In the Prime Universe, Spock quickly deduced that the Mirror Universe officers were not who they seemed while in the Mirror Universe, Kirk and his officers sought a way to return home. Mirror Spock eventually learned the origins of the Federation officers and assisted in returning both Kirk and his own captain and crew back to their own universes. But in the brief time they shared together, Kirk convinced Spock of the illogical waste of serving the Empire and convinced him to take action to bring it down.

Invasion of the Prime Universe

“Billions of lives are at stake and time is short.” – Phillipa Georgiou​

After her arrival in the Prime Universe, former Emperor Phillipa Georgiou worked with the Federation’s black ops unit known as Section 31 for a time before joining the crew of the USS Discovery in their journey through time and space. Georgiou eventually found herself in the early 2320s, where she took on the identity of Madame Veronique Du Franc and took control of the Barram Station, a resort casino destination in a lawless region outside of Federation space.

Her past caught up to her in 2324 when she was recruited for one final mission for Section 31 that wound up having very personal ties to the former Emperor. The Godsend weapon that Georgiou had ordered destroyed years earlier had made its way to the Prime Universe.

A stable portal between the Prime and Mirror Universe had been discovered in the Crescent Nebula that existed whenever twin ion storms in the two universes regularly converged, and Georgiou’s former lover San was using this opportunity to at long last make his play for power and revenge against Georgiou. San planned to use the Godsend to destroy the Federation and strip-mine the Prime Universes worlds of their resources, which were desperately needed by the Terran Empire.

Georgiou and her Section 31 unit confronted San in the Crescent Nebula, where Georgiou engaged in combat with San and appealed to the boy he once was, just he had once appealed to her, to no avail. Much to Georgiou’s regret, San was killed during their combat. Georgiou then detonated the Godsend weapon inside of the portal, closing this passage way between universes forever.

The Fall of the Terran Empire

Spock served with the Kirk of the Mirror Universe through Kirk’s own rise to Emperor, where he took the name “Tiberius”, before overthrowing Kirk and claiming the Imperial throne for himself. Upon his ascension to the throne, Spock began the process of change in the Empire, instituting new reforms and expansion of freedoms for all. Unfortunately, the Empire had made many enemies in its time and none of them had forgotten past transgressions. When the remnants of the Klingon Empire and the Cardassian Union joined forces and swiftly attacked and the newly re-structured Empire was in no condition to defend itself.

The Klingon/Cardassian Alliance conquered the Terran Empire and bombed Terra, the Empire’s home and seat of power, rendering the surface uninhabitable in an action reflecting Emperor Georgiou’s destruction of Qo’nos a century earlier. Spock was executed and the Terran and Vulcan people were enslaved by the Alliance.

Some believe that Spock was naïve and shortsighted in implementing the reforms that weakened the Terran Empire so, but there is historical evidence that indicates that Spock intended for the Empire to fall. Spock believed that the only way that Terrans could learn to appreciate freedom was to struggle through tyranny and oppression themselves and earn their liberty, rather than gain it through conquest. It was a lesson that the Terran people would take to heart.

Escape

Soon after Spock’s execution, the crew of his flagship, the ISS Enterprise, mutinied against the new leadership and with the help of Mirror Saru, escaped through a wormhole to the Prime Universe. The Enterprise was discovered stuck in a pocket of inter-dimensional space inside the wormhole in 3191 where documentation of the journey, as well as the revelation that most of the Mirror Universe refugees made their way to the Prime Universe where they started new lives for themselves.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Intendant Kira

“I think you’ll find that random and unprovoked executions will make your workforce alert and motivated.” – Intendant Kira Nerys

Bajor had been conquered and enslaved by the Terran Empire, and after the Empire’s fall, Bajor successfully petitioned for entrance into the Alliance and soon grew to a position of influence in the quadrant. The seat of power in the Bajoran sector was the Cardassian-built station Terok Nor, orbiting Bajor. By 2370, the sector was under the command of Intendant Kira Nerys.

In that year, a runabout from the Prime Universe passing through the Bajoran wormhole -- carrying Major Kira Nerys and Dr. Julian Bashir of Deep Space Nine -- suffered a plasma leak that triggered a crossover between universes.

They were intercepted by a Klingon vessel and taken prisoner upon arrival at Terok Nor. Intendant Kira was fascinated -- almost infatuated -- with her counterpart and allowed Major Kira free movement on the station, while Bashir was sent to the ore processing center to labor with the Terran slaves. Both were forbidden to leave; allowing them to live was already a violation of Alliance protocol. Kira quickly began planning their escape.

In the ore processing center, Bashir met the local counterpart of Miles O’Brien, called “Smiley,” and inspired him with stories about life in the Prime Universe. Meanwhile, Kira contacted this universe’s Benjamin Sisko, a privateer granted a ship and limited freedoms for his crew in exchange for service to the Intendant. Kira asked for his help in escaping, but Sisko declined, believing he had made the best of a bad situation for himself and his crew.

After Bashir and Smiley were caught attempting escape, the Intendant announced she had been too lenient with Terrans and announced that Terran privileges were to be even further curtailed. With this, Sisko realized his supposed freedoms and privileges were an illusion and took action. He aided Kira and Bashir in retaking their runabout, and they recreated the plasma leak to reopen the crossover and return through the wormhole.

Sisko, his crew, and Smiley then fled Alliance control and sparked what would become the Terran resistance.

The Terran Resistance

“Terrans don’t have souls. We don’t believe in them.” – Benjamin Sisko

Sisko and Smiley formed the base of the new Resistance on a planetoid deep within the plasma storms of the Badlands, where they started making raids and strikes against Alliance targets. As word of their deeds spread, the ranks of the Alliance grew to include members of many species dominated by the Alliance, including Julian Bashir of Terra, Jadzia Dax of Trill, Tuvok of Vulcan and Rom of Ferenginar.

When word came to the Resistance in 2371 that a transphasic sensor array that would be capable of locating the Resistances bases in the Badlands was being developed for the Alliance by Dr Jennifer Sisko, Captain Sisko’s ex-wife, many in the Resistance believed that she should be killed. However, Captain Sisko believed that her talents would be of use to the Alliance, and believed that he could convince her to join the Terran cause.

Unfortunately, Sisko was killed when his ship was destroyed by the Alliance before he could approach the station. Smiley, agreeing with Sisko that Jennifer Sisko was of more valuable to the Alliance alive, devised a plan to recruit the Benjamin Sisko of the Prime Universe to complete his captain’s mission.

Smiley developed the means to rig a transporter to beam between the quantum states of the two universes and travelled to the Prime Universe and Deep Space 9. Once onboard, he intercepted Sisko in the station’s operations center, and beamed the pair over to Smiley’s ship in the Mirror Universe. Before leaving the station, Smiley downloaded the specs for numerous pieces of Federation technology, including the blueprints for the USS Defiant, a warship designed to battle the Borg.

At first, Sisko was reluctant to interfere in the matters of another universe, but when Smiley informed Sisko that if the Resistance couldn’t recruit Jennifer they would be forced to kill her, Sisko agreed to take on the mission. Sisko had been married to the Jennifer of the Prime Universe as well, and he didn’t want to see her die again if he could help it. Smiley agreed to return Sisko to the Prime universe once the mission was complete.

Sisko and Smiley boarded Terok Nor according to plan, and while Sisko successfully convinced Jennifer to join the Terran cause, Smiley sabotaged the station’s ore processing center and freed the Terran laborers, further swelling the ranks of the Resistance.

The Resistance Goes on the Offensive

“Because whatever it’s like where he’s from, it’s got to be better than this. There’s got to be something better than this.” – Miles “Smiley” O’Brien

In the year that followed, the Resistance -- now under the command of “Smiley” O’Brien -- took full advantage of the files and technical schematics obtained during Smiley’s trip to the Prime Universe, as well as the scientific acumen of Professor Sisko, and went on the offensive against the Alliance. In a bold attack against the Terok Nor station, the Resistance drove Alliance forces from both the station and the Bajoran sector, capturing and detaining Intendant Kira.

One of the Resistance’s major projects, based on the appropriated Prime Universe technical files, was a replica of the USS Defiant. O’Brien and his team succeeded in faithfully reconstructing the ship from the blueprints, though it suffered from structural problems similar to its Prime counterpart.

In 2372, with an Alliance counter-strike imminent, O’Brien and Professor Sisko once again recruited the Benjamin Sisko of the Prime Universe -- somewhat against his will -- by bringing Sisko’s son Jake with the Jennifer of Prime Universe over to the other side, knowing his father would follow. Once in the Mirror Universe, Sisko agreed to assist the Resistance in stabilizing the Defiant before the arrival of the Alliance fleet.

Sisko then commanded the ship in battle against Regent Worf, the leader of the Klingon/Cardassian Alliance. Though outnumbered, the Resistance’s forces benefited from the more advanced Federation technology represented by the Defiant, and the Alliance fleet was forced to withdraw. This secured the Resistance’s foothold in the Bajoran sector, which soon became a haven for species previously enslaved by the Alliance.

During the battle, Intendant Kira was freed from confinement by an ally that the Intendant then killed for his trouble. Before fleeing the station, she encountered Jennifer Sisko and Jake. Intendant Kira sought to deliver Jennifer to Regent Worf as a gesture of redemption, but had no use for Jake and attempted to kill him. Jennifer -- seeing in Jake the son she would never have -- intercepted the phaser bolt intended for him, sacrificing herself. The Intendant escaped to Bajor and began plotting her return to power, including an ill-fated scheme to travel to the Prime Universe in 2374 to steal a Bajoran Orb. During this time the Intendant allied herself with a Trill woman named Ezri Tigan before being captured by and imprisoned by Regent Worf.

The Alliance Falls

“This time, I will deal with the rebels myself” – Regent Worf

The chain of events that led to the fall of the Klingon–Cardassian Alliance began under extremely unusual circumstances. In the Prime Universe, Grand Nagus Zek of the Ferengi Alliance obtained information on the technology required to travel between universes by stealing the data from a Starfleet PADD. By this point, Zek had been suffering from age-related cognitive decline for two years, and he arrived at the inexplicable conclusion that he could discover new business opportunities for the Ferengi in the Mirror Universe.

However, immediately upon crossing over, Zek was captured and taken prisoner by Regent Worf. Under interrogation, Zek revealed the existence of advanced cloaking technology in the Prime Universe -- technology that had no known counterpart in the Mirror Universe. Sensing an opportunity to regain the Regent’s favor, Intendant Kira devised a scheme to steal a cloak from the Prime Universe. To carry out the plan, she enlisted the aid of her associate Ezri Tigan and Ezri’s partner, Brunt of Ferenginar.

Zek recorded the Alliance’s ransom demand -- Prime Universe cloaking technology – in exchange for his freedom, which Tigan delivered to the Ferengi Quark and Rom of the Prime Universe, both of whom were dead in the Mirror Universe, on Deep Space 9. Quark and Rom stole the cloaking device of the Klingon vessel IKS Rotarran and delivered it to Tigan. Wishing to ensure that the Alliance kept their word, Quark and Rom travelled with Tigan to the Mirror Universe.

They were quickly captured and detained by the Terran Resistance movement and the cloak confiscated, with Captain O’Brien planning to install it on the Defiant. Quark, Rom and Tigan were soon broken out of their cell by the Ferengi Brunt, who had stolen the cloak from the Resistance and loaded it on his own ship and the group delivered the cloak to Regent Worf aboard his flagship.

As one might have expected, Worf had no intention of keeping his word and imprisoned the Prime Ferengi and scheduled them for execution. When Brunt suggested that they may be more useful alive, he was brutally murdered by the Intendant, causing Tigan to switch sides and assist the Ferengi in escaping.

Brunt was proven correct as the Alliance engineers could not decipher the advanced Prime Universe technology sufficiently to install the cloak and Rom, an engineering genius, was needed to finish the installation. However, Rom no longer trusted that Worf would release them and sabotaged the cloak, causing it to overload the Klingon vessel’s power systems upon de-cloaking.

Thus, when the Klingon flagship ambushed the pursing Defiant, the vessel was rendered defenseless and vulnerable to the Defiant’s weapons. The Alliance attack quickly disabled the Klingon ship and Captain O’Brien delivered his terms of surrender. Twice in the history of the Terran people did a ship named Defiant lead them to victory: the first time to conquest, and the second time to freedom.

Regent Worf was taken prisoner and led in chains through the corridors of Terok Nor, to the cheers of its liberated population, though the Intendant escaped capture and her fate remains lost to history.

With the humiliating surrender and capture of Regent Worf, which was seen as cowardly and dishonorable, the people of the Alliance turned their back on him. An internal power struggle ensued as civil war broke out between multiple factions who battled each other for leadership of the Alliance. At the same time, multiple Alliance worlds faced uprisings from enslaved populations that were inspired by the success of the Resistance movement. These factors and continued strategic strikes at Alliance targets by the Resistance soon resulted in the collapse of the Alliance and the coming of freedom to the quadrant.

A New Terran Legacy

Like the humans of the Prime Universe, the Terrans of the Mirror Universe were the central force behind bringing together a multi-species Alliance for the betterment of all involved. Despite some factions of the Terran population seeking to return to the old ways of the Terran Empire, as witnessed by the crew of the USS Protostar during a crossover in 2384, these events marked the first true cultural awakening in the history of the Terran species.

Over the centuries, the entanglement that connected the two Quantum realities began to unravel and the two universes began to drift apart. The last known crossover between the two universes occurred in the 27th Century.

******

I found a lot of interesting, dare I say, "reflections" in the telling of the MU. Georgiou destroyed Qo'nos, then the Klingons destroyed Earth. The Terrans built an Empire and then fought for their freedom both with ships from or based on Prime Universe ships named Defiant and the people from both Earth's would build and lead multi-species coalition striving for the best for everyone.

Beta canon alerts! -- I borrowed the possibility of Spock setting the Empire up to fall from David Mack's first MU novel but made the resolution of the Resistance story hinge on the events seen in the show rather that borrow from beta-canon.

I borrowed Kirk becoming Emperor Tiberious from William Shatner's Kirk novels because I had already made mention of two other "Kirk returns" stories (OTOY's "78654: Unification" and IDW comics "The Last Starship") without ever mentioning Kirk, so I decided to go for the full hat trick.

Finally, I enjoyed the irony of consigning the re-telling of "The Emperor's New Cloak" and "Section 31", two of the franchises worst, to the basement of the final appendix.

I did have a fourth appendix planned -- "The Blood Feud Between the House of Mogh and the House of Duras", but I abandoned it when I realized that I had already covered all of the major points in the main text and all another appendix would have done was connect a couple of canonical dots. Maybe I'll do something Klingon focused later if I come up with a new angle.

 

[Ceridwen]

Thank you for sharing this! It's quite the project!

 

[Turtletrekker]

Some unfinished business from Strange New Worlds...

I realized re-reading my description of the Vezda arc that it just wasn't working. I don't know if it was my writing or what I was trying to write about, but I've removed it until I can re-watch the episodes. Since I will be re-visiting this chapter at least twice more, I figured that there was no hurry.

The Vezda and the Beholder

“Everything that happened to me was so that I could do this. So I could be this. So I can stand where I've always stood. — Captain Marie Batel​

The Beholder is the name given to the entity that has held the malevolent extradimensional species known as the Vezda safely imprisoned, away from access to our universe, for many thousands of years. Historians speculate that the Vezda were accidentally brought over from their extradimensional realm into ours by an ancient species phase-shifting between realities with the goal of achieving immortality. The Vezda were described as "the desire to malign, to consume, and to pervert given corporeal form." They were greatly feared by the M'Kroon, the Gorn had an instinctual recognition and fear of the Vezda, and the natives of Skygowan revered them as gods.

Regardless of their origins, they remained safely imprisoned away from this reality for millennia, and the guardian sentinel that kept them from crossing over was what appeared to be a living statue known as The Beholder on the world Vadia IX.

The Vezda had been contained from entering our universe for untold thousands of years until an incident in 2261 when an archaeological team, led by noted archaeologist Roger Korby and assisted by a team from the Enterprise, inadvertently released a Vezda named Zeperez from confinement. The escaped Vezda then took control of the body of Enterprise nurse Dana Gamble, protégé of Enterprise CMO Joseph M’Benga, killing him instantly. Zeperez, in Gamble’s form, killed several Enterprise security officers before seemingly being killed himself.

In truth, Zeperez escaped through the ship's computer and transporter systems and made his way to the world Skygowan. During these events, Zeperez came into conflict with Starfleet Captain Marie Batel, who he inexplicably identified as "The Beholder."

Captain Marie Batel was a decorated Starfleet officer who served with distinction in Starfleet's Judge Advocate General's Office as well as captain of the USS Cayuga. After the loss of the Cayuga to the Gorn at Parnassus Beta, Batel was infected with a clutch of Gorn eggs that incubated within her.

Batel was the romantic partner of Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike, and so chose to have her treatment and rehabilitation supervised on the Enterprise under the care of Dr. M'Benga. After a number of unorthodox treatments, including a transfusion of Illyrian blood from Lieutenant Una Chin-Riley, her condition was stabilized through the use of a rare Chimaera Blossom obtained from the world of Kenfori. The unique properties of the blossom stabilized the hybrid Gorn, human, and Illyrian DNA within her, effectively creating a viable hybrid physiology.

Several weeks later, the Enterprise discovered the Vezda's escape through the ship's computer and transporters and tracked it to Skygowan, where Roger Korby was continuing his research on the Vezda. Zeperez, who had reassumed the form of Gamble, used Korby to lure the Enterprise to Skygowan as he required Dr. M'Benga’s connection to Gamble in order to activate an extradimensional portal to Vadia IX as to release his brethren imprisoned there. Once the Enterprise team arrived, Zeperez used M’Benga to activate the portal and instantly transported the pair to Vadia IX, light years away.

Once on Vadia IX, Zeperez attacked the statue of The Beholder, which had an immediate effect light years away on Marie Batel. Realizing that in some way the hybridization of human, Gorn, and Illyrian DNA -- all species that had all faced the Vezda in their primordial pasts -- had somehow, in a manner that is still not understood, transformed her into a being capable of battling and containing the Vezda. The portal to Vadia IX was reactivated through the combined phaser power of the Enterprise and the USS Farragut, executing a risky joint maneuver, allowing Batel and Pike to follow Zeperez.

Once in the extradimensional realm, which exists beyond time, Batel's full power came to the fore and she prepared to battle Zeperez. However, before she did so, she used her vast new abilities to allow herself and Pike to live a subjective lifetime of happily married family life in order to give her the strength she needed to overcome the evil that awaited her. Once thus empowered, Batel used the strength of the light of the love within her to overcome the darkness of Zeperez and the Vezda. After overpowering and imprisoning her foes, Batel took up her destiny as The Beholder, the eternal guardian sentinel of our reality, forever protecting us from ancient evil beyond comprehension.

To this day, The Beholder still stands, never wavering in her eternal duty to protect all that she knew and loved in the galaxy with the power of her light.

*****

My first version started with Batel and worked up to the Vezda and the Beholder and included a lot more detail about Gamble and Kenfori that wasn't necessary and it just didn't work. This is better, more focused on Batel (even the paragraphs before she's introduced by name refer to her as "The Beholder"), but it's still a weird story and I'm still not 100% happy with it.

With SNW S4 starting soon, expect more updates.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Thank you for sharing this! It's quite the project!

Thank you for your support throughout! It really has meant a lot that someone has enjoyed this after all the work I put into it.

And while I'm at it, I would like to thank @tenmei for pointing out an embarrassing error regarding what century The Burn took place in.