Excelsior and Khitomer
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Probably Starfleet was keeping certain ships appraised of the security-concerns for the upcoming conference (including the captain of their most powerful battleship), in case intervention became necessary. The Enteprise-A crew were most likely viewed as "compromised" at that point.
It does appear that the heroes didn't believe particularly strongly that Sulu would know. Else why ask Valeris?
OTOH, perhaps the heroes felt Sulu was "compromised"? After all, pretty much everybody else appeared to be, including people aboard Kirk's very ship. Sulu just happened to be the least bad of their alternatives after Valeris failed to provide.
Timo Saloniemi
OTOH, perhaps the heroes felt Sulu was "compromised"? After all, pretty much everybody else appeared to be, including people aboard Kirk's very ship. Sulu just happened to be the least bad of their alternatives after Valeris failed to provide.
Timo Saloniemi
Of course, it wasn't widely known because Kirk did have to ask. But it's not difficult to see why.
Surely Azetbuhr would have insisted on secrecy in addition to neutrality if the threat of assassination were her concern. At the very least, keeping the paparazzi and riffraff out would ensure that if an assassination did take place, the blame would rest squarely on the shoulders of the Feds...
Or the Romulans, but everybody trusted the Romulans. Which probably was more or less the point: it was their two-faced participation in the conspiracy that made the other two halves think they could win.
Timo Saloniemi
Surely Azetbuhr would have insisted on secrecy in addition to neutrality if the threat of assassination were her concern. At the very least, keeping the paparazzi and riffraff out would ensure that if an assassination did take place, the blame would rest squarely on the shoulders of the Feds...
Or the Romulans, but everybody trusted the Romulans. Which probably was more or less the point: it was their two-faced participation in the conspiracy that made the other two halves think they could win.
Timo Saloniemi
But that's the point. Both sides didn't trust each other. I.e. "going openly" was the only scenario that both sides could arrange without doubting the other.
Then why is the location secret, as per Chekov's words?
If the conference were open, there would probably be news. Instead, it's impossible for our heroes to find out even whether the conference has begun!
Both the UFP/Klingon political affairs and the Cartwright/Chang conspiracy seem based on the fact that the two sides can put great trust on the other side betraying them. You can do a lot with that sort of solid trust.
Timo Saloniemi
If the conference were open, there would probably be news. Instead, it's impossible for our heroes to find out even whether the conference has begun!
Both the UFP/Klingon political affairs and the Cartwright/Chang conspiracy seem based on the fact that the two sides can put great trust on the other side betraying them. You can do a lot with that sort of solid trust.
Timo Saloniemi
I always assumed Kirk transmitted that info to Sulu at some point- we didn't need to see it happen on screen.
The Enterprise was under radio silence, and just because they didn't want Kirk/Spock to know doesn't mean it wasn't widely circulated amongst other captains in the vicinity.
I wonder if Khitomer was a Romulan planet at the time? It would explain their attack on the later Klingon colony there, assuming they were the same planet.
Kirk transmitted info to Sulu? It was from Sulu that Kirk supposedly got the info.
That's not really in keeping with the wording:
Not, say, "we don't know" or "it's being kept secret from us". Exactly as it should be in light of what Azetbuhr asked.
Makes good sense. Although the Romulans were involved in the process even before a neutral site was requested, they'd probably be the go-to people to provide such a site, (dis)trusted by both sides.
There's the eternal mystery of the decorations. The building for the meeting has Romulan and UFP symbols on the outside, and no Klingon ones. The Romulan symbol is above the main doors. The interior has prominent UFP decorations and then both UFP, Klingon and Vulcan banners (plus a green sunrise banner), but no Romulan symbology. We could argue this fits perfectly with the idea that the Romulans are providing the building but formally "staying out", and that the UFP is the formal host to the event.
Timo Saloniemi
That's not really in keeping with the wording:
Not, say, "we don't know" or "it's being kept secret from us". Exactly as it should be in light of what Azetbuhr asked.
Makes good sense. Although the Romulans were involved in the process even before a neutral site was requested, they'd probably be the go-to people to provide such a site, (dis)trusted by both sides.
There's the eternal mystery of the decorations. The building for the meeting has Romulan and UFP symbols on the outside, and no Klingon ones. The Romulan symbol is above the main doors. The interior has prominent UFP decorations and then both UFP, Klingon and Vulcan banners (plus a green sunrise banner), but no Romulan symbology. We could argue this fits perfectly with the idea that the Romulans are providing the building but formally "staying out", and that the UFP is the formal host to the event.
Timo Saloniemi
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If Starfleet was keeping Excelsior appraised of the situation so that Excelsior could help, why would they have kept them so far away? They just barely made it in time to come to Enterprise's aid.
I don't think they would believe Sulu would be in on the conspiracy - Valeris did not mention him, and he had earlier given Enterprise his offer of assistance. Maybe Valeris knew that Sulu knew where the peace conference was, and Spock gleaned that from his meld with her. But that still does not explain how Sulu knew, or how Valeris would know he knew. Ay ay ay...
I've always had the theory that Cartwright and his co-conspirators within Starfleet knew that, while they maybe couldn't avoid giving the information to the fleet's most powerful ship outright (too many people in the command-structure who knew the stakes and the importance of the event), they could maybe cut orders diverting Excelsior and keeping it far enough away from the peace conference to lower the likelihood of rendering aid, knowing that a second assassination attempt was about to go down there.
Just like Leto_II sez, I'd assume it's the opposite: starship COs would have to be specifically told to stay away, and for that they would need to be told exactly where to stay away from and when. Heck, for all we know, Sulu delivered the UFP President to Khitomer (if Starfleet thought that firepower rather than secrecy gave the VIP the best protection) and then sailed away at maximum warp.
Beyond this, Sulu might have received secret orders to prepare to attack the Klingons "in case they made nasty moves at Khitomer", i.e. right when Starfleet itself assassinated the President. But I doubt Sulu would have been trusted enough (he was "one of Kirk's", after all); could not have been reassigned on short notice without arousing suspicions; and apparently was not situated well enough to be at a striking distance. Doesn't mean other starships weren't in readiness to launch a war...
Both these issues should logically speak against Sulu. His co-conspirator is trying to protect him, and he has made insincere attempts to infiltrate the hero community in a suspicious manner!
Timo Saloniemi
Indeed we know that was the case. 'Operation Retrieve' was knocked up pretty quickly. Was it effectively a first strike to knock out key Klingon assets along the border to allow Starfleet to dictate terms? Rescuing Kirk and McCoy was just an excuse to put the plan into action, and I doubt it was actually intended that either would make it back alive. Killed while attempting escape...
Also, making that work might have required the use of cloaking devices. Enter (or, rather, don't kick out) the Romulan Ambassador...
The plan of the conspirators as such was simple: kick around in the ants' nest behind the glass house with a powder keg under your armpit and wait for war to happen. It would be idiotproof as such - but there could still be backups upon backups, at least for the Romulans who probably engineered the whole thing. "Operation Retrieve" would be a hook Starfleet would love to swallow, an excuse to perform a cloaked raid at what probably was the very home system of the Klingons.
Timo Saloniemi
The plan of the conspirators as such was simple: kick around in the ants' nest behind the glass house with a powder keg under your armpit and wait for war to happen. It would be idiotproof as such - but there could still be backups upon backups, at least for the Romulans who probably engineered the whole thing. "Operation Retrieve" would be a hook Starfleet would love to swallow, an excuse to perform a cloaked raid at what probably was the very home system of the Klingons.
Timo Saloniemi
Why would they need cloaks? The Enterprise got to Rura Penthe with the use of Uhura and a set of Klingon to English dictionaries.
The impression I got was of a quick and decisive strike to Klingon territory, wiping out some bases in a massive show off strength. Kind of like the Breen attack on Earth a hundred years later.
The impression I got was of a quick and decisive strike to Klingon territory, wiping out some bases in a massive show off strength. Kind of like the Breen attack on Earth a hundred years later.
Because Kirk and McCoy would not be on Rura Penthe - they would be on the Klingon homeworld, facing judgment. If Starfleet could waltz in on that system, then where's the threat from the war?
Rura Penthe had a Matthias Rust reference built in, but it only worked because the heroes did not fly all the way to the Red Square - they just raided a gulag in the Siberian wastes.
I'd hope such a thing would require hundreds of ships in any era, not fewer than a dozen. Planetary defenses capable of handling a hundred starships are just about the only way to explain why homeworlds don't get sterilized every second Tuesday by random adversaries.
Timo Saloniemi
Encoded frequency perhaps?
