Federation Power Base
- Thread starter Transk53
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the Tales of the Dominion War anthology revealed the existance of an emergency underground back-up command post for Starfleet.
there was also a bunker command post in Before Dishonour, used during a Borg attack.
stands to reason the Fed Council had back-up bases, for continuity of government if nothing else.
there was also a bunker command post in Before Dishonour, used during a Borg attack.
stands to reason the Fed Council had back-up bases, for continuity of government if nothing else.
You'd think after the Dominion Police Action, the Federation would make a point of spreading things out, so no one place getting destroyed would have a huge impact.
But, considering all the Admirals with agendas of their own, power would seem to be fairly spread out already.
But, considering all the Admirals with agendas of their own, power would seem to be fairly spread out already.
Well, if you're talking about the Federation Government, in the Novels the Power Base is in Paris, and there are suggestions that there is a secondary council chamber at San Francisco...
I don't know if there is a specific building (I don't think many governments have back-up parliaments) but I'd imagine there would be plans for the "Continuation of Government"
As for Starfleet - it's suggested in Tales of the Dominion War, that in addition to SFC and the underground bunker in San Francisco, SF has a presence in every major city on Earth (And one would imagine this would be true of cities on all planets across the Federation)
My other thought is that with Holographic Subspace Encrypted Messaging and the sheer amount of processing power Starships seem to have, it seems feasible that in an emergency, power could be incredibly de-centralised, each Admiral/Cabinet Member etc etc get on different starships and planets and scatter throughout the Federation and continue the government on holodecks...
I don't know if there is a specific building (I don't think many governments have back-up parliaments) but I'd imagine there would be plans for the "Continuation of Government"
As for Starfleet - it's suggested in Tales of the Dominion War, that in addition to SFC and the underground bunker in San Francisco, SF has a presence in every major city on Earth (And one would imagine this would be true of cities on all planets across the Federation)
My other thought is that with Holographic Subspace Encrypted Messaging and the sheer amount of processing power Starships seem to have, it seems feasible that in an emergency, power could be incredibly de-centralised, each Admiral/Cabinet Member etc etc get on different starships and planets and scatter throughout the Federation and continue the government on holodecks...
Noting also, in one volume of the old Officers' Manual, there was the 'Citadel' class starship. Basically a variant of the 'Enterprise' class - designed to function as a mobile back-up for Star Fleet HQ itself in a crisis, with special command and communications facilities.
Yeah, not 'canon'. But still a sensible idea, given how often Earth seemed to get targeted by oddball probes.
Seems reasonable to me that the concept would still exist in TNG's time, if only as a "just in case" measure. Possibly based on 'Excelsior', 'Ambassador' and/or 'Galaxy' hulls; or else on something custom-designed.
Rather than a few all-important ships, possibly a number that function as nodes (with more specialized and enhanced gear than typical starships) that can plug into the Federation's communications network at different places as required.
Certainly there are planet-based facilties of various kinds as well. But their biggest problem is immobility - either easy targets because they can't run away, or they are not necessarily where they are most needed in a given crisis.
Yeah, not 'canon'. But still a sensible idea, given how often Earth seemed to get targeted by oddball probes.
Seems reasonable to me that the concept would still exist in TNG's time, if only as a "just in case" measure. Possibly based on 'Excelsior', 'Ambassador' and/or 'Galaxy' hulls; or else on something custom-designed.
Rather than a few all-important ships, possibly a number that function as nodes (with more specialized and enhanced gear than typical starships) that can plug into the Federation's communications network at different places as required.
Certainly there are planet-based facilties of various kinds as well. But their biggest problem is immobility - either easy targets because they can't run away, or they are not necessarily where they are most needed in a given crisis.
I'd scatter the secondary facilities around the galaxy. With the primary secondary (can I say that???) on Vulcan.
As far as what is canon, in all my years involved in Star Trek I have never run across a film or episode that mentions a secondary headquarters.
Hey, Mike Okuda, can you help us out here????
As far as what is canon, in all my years involved in Star Trek I have never run across a film or episode that mentions a secondary headquarters.
Hey, Mike Okuda, can you help us out here????
Yeah, it very frequently seems to be "destroy Earth totally screws the entire UFP". Hey, I like that Earth is important but that is a bit much. Earth was an original founder of the Federation, but not the ONLY one fer cryin' out loud.
Given all the nastiness seen swimming around the Galaxy since TOS, some dispersal of critical facilties would be a sensible arrangement. Starbases would be an important part of this, given that they are C3 (Command, Control, Communications) focal points anyhow. Certain space stations and specialized ships would represent another tier of the structure. Plus most of the better-established member-worlds.
Wouldn't only be for dealing with invasions and uncommunicative alien probes either. A set-up like this would be damn useful to have in disaster-type situations in general.
Given all the nastiness seen swimming around the Galaxy since TOS, some dispersal of critical facilties would be a sensible arrangement. Starbases would be an important part of this, given that they are C3 (Command, Control, Communications) focal points anyhow. Certain space stations and specialized ships would represent another tier of the structure. Plus most of the better-established member-worlds.
Wouldn't only be for dealing with invasions and uncommunicative alien probes either. A set-up like this would be damn useful to have in disaster-type situations in general.
I guess the thing about attacks against Earth isn't whether key facilities survive or not. It's whether the attack is perceived as a success or not. If the former, the UFP is dust because everybody loses faith in it: "They couldn't even defend Earth!".
It's not as if UFP-without-Earth has all that much less to offer than UFP-with-Earth, physically speaking. But it's not as if UFP-members-without-UFP would have that much less than UFP-members-with-UFP, either, physically speaking. So if an enemy attacks and defeats Earth, it's quite practical to declare end of UFP and start defending the remaining locations without the burden of the corpse of that defunct alliance.
So it's quite important for Earth to spin every story so that the invasion was actually thwarted, regardless of the amount of damage done. Having various "beta sites" for the Council won't necessarily help much with that; holding the next Council session in the mile-deep and still-glowing pit of what used to be Paris sends a much more positive message!
Timo Saloniemi
It's not as if UFP-without-Earth has all that much less to offer than UFP-with-Earth, physically speaking. But it's not as if UFP-members-without-UFP would have that much less than UFP-members-with-UFP, either, physically speaking. So if an enemy attacks and defeats Earth, it's quite practical to declare end of UFP and start defending the remaining locations without the burden of the corpse of that defunct alliance.
So it's quite important for Earth to spin every story so that the invasion was actually thwarted, regardless of the amount of damage done. Having various "beta sites" for the Council won't necessarily help much with that; holding the next Council session in the mile-deep and still-glowing pit of what used to be Paris sends a much more positive message!
Timo Saloniemi
the Myriad Universes story "The Chimes at Midnight" depicts Earth being devastated by a Klingon attack in the wake of the Whale Probe incident and they UFP moves its HQ to Vulcan.
The universe in question is one where Kirk is killed prior to the events of TVH and so doesn't travel back to the save the whales. no whales = devastated Earth = UFP attempts to repair damage with Genesis = Klingon attack
But wouldn't SOMEONE have figured out that the Probe was calling out to Whales? Spock isn't the only brilliant Fed scientist, they were just lucky enough to figure it out first. Surely someone off-planet would think "Hey, it was calling to the oceans so filter its' message through water."
apparently not. and regardinig Spock... well... he wasn't available.
They figured it out eventually, but not as quickly as Spock. Earth would have recovered had the Federation government not been forced to flee by a Klingon invasion force.
But, yes, The Chimes at Midnight presents the Federation as setting up shop in the Vulcan capitol building (the one seen in ENT, called the Administration Tower in more recent ENT novels) after evacuating Earth, much as the U.S. Congress used to operate out of state capitols before the construction of the U.S. Capitol in Washington. And another novel, Destiny: Lost Souls, makes it clear that the Federation government maintains a continuity-of-government plan in case Earth faces an existential threat.
That was more a function of the fact that every Federation planet within range was being targeted, and that if Starfleet couldn't even defend the capital, then that meant that the entire war was doomed and it would be time to pull a Battlestar Galactica and get the hell out of dodge. The invasion in Destiny was not your standard war or asymmetrical attack; the idea was not, "If Earth is destroyed, then the Federation can no longer function as a political unit even if nothing else is touched;" the idea was, "If Earth is destroyed, then that's just the final nail in the coffin."
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