Ok, this just came to me this morning. Hopefully the premise hasn't been done to death. I don't read much fanfic. This is also pretty much my first attempt at a writing, hehe, so any pointers would be appreciated.
SECOND CONTACT
“You've ruined us. You realize that?”
Merrin turned from the window of his office. The view of the city behind him revealed a panorama of understated elegance befitting it's place as world capital. Closer inspection revealed that elegance was now marred. Fires could be seen blazing from office towers. Piles of rubble sat where monuments should stand. The crystalline transparency of the window could not keep out the sound of distant sirens nor hide the frequent passing of anti-riot patrols.
“You and your 'Prime Directive' and you still managed to muck it up”, Merrin continued.
On the other side of Merrin's desk the Captain of the USS Resolute took a half step forward.
“Prime Coordinator Merrin, please, if you could tell us how this happened? When the USS Daystrom reported first contact with your world indications were that everything had gone smoothly”, Captain Ingersoll said.
“Oh yes! It did go smoothly. Daystrom's captain landed one of your shuttlecraft down in that very plaza not 2 days after our warp ship made it's first successful run”, Merrin said, using one of his lifting arms to point down to the plaza below.
“After the initial awkwardness of the first meeting the entire planet went into a 7 cycle period of celebration. We had finally 'matured as a species' the press proclaimed”
Merrin was pacing now as frustration that had been building for three greater cycles poured out of him.
“The Daystrom spent the entire 7 cycles here giving us details on the federation and what our future held in regards to that, finally, the Daystrom had to leave but informed us that a follow up mission would arrive in the near future – you – to formalize relations with us”.
“Yes Merrin, that sounds accurate to the report that we received, so how did things degenerate to the current situation on your planet?”, Captain Ingersoll said.
“Our sociologists noticed it first, fashion shows mimicking the uniforms of your crew, art and media using design ques from your ships, our music was suddenly infused with sound bites from your crew, after that the religious types started to question your true nature. Several of the more extreme groups commited mass suicides. Suicides in general started to rise as well”, Merrin said.
“Oh no”, was all Ingersoll could say.
“Oh yes”, Merrin continued, “the economy crashed as our high tech industry realized that everything they produced had just become obsolete, research and development just stopped. Then the conspiracy theorists started in claiming the government had known all along and that we had been in collusion with the federation. Old feelings of nationalism returned, destroying the 30 grand cycles of work I did putting this world government together. For the first time in 20 of those cycles we have had military conflict. War has returned as several member states have tried to secede from the 'deceptive machinations' of my world government”.
“This is a tragedy to be sure Coordinator, please let us help you and correct it”, Ingersoll said.
“Correct? Hmmmm, no this cannot be corrected. The fighting can be stopped and the economy will recover, but things will never be correct again. Yes, my people will survive this, and I expect go on to become good members of your federation, but what we are - what we were - is gone, only to be remembered in some museum display.”
Merrin was facing the window again, the weight of his last statement hung in the air. His shoulders were slumped. Captain Ingersoll could see now the Coordinator was not only mourning the deaths of his people that had occurred, but also the death of his culture.
“I... I begin to understand your loss, Merrin. We – the Federation – try to minimize the impact of first contact on a civilization, sometimes we fail.”
SECOND CONTACT
“You've ruined us. You realize that?”
Merrin turned from the window of his office. The view of the city behind him revealed a panorama of understated elegance befitting it's place as world capital. Closer inspection revealed that elegance was now marred. Fires could be seen blazing from office towers. Piles of rubble sat where monuments should stand. The crystalline transparency of the window could not keep out the sound of distant sirens nor hide the frequent passing of anti-riot patrols.
“You and your 'Prime Directive' and you still managed to muck it up”, Merrin continued.
On the other side of Merrin's desk the Captain of the USS Resolute took a half step forward.
“Prime Coordinator Merrin, please, if you could tell us how this happened? When the USS Daystrom reported first contact with your world indications were that everything had gone smoothly”, Captain Ingersoll said.
“Oh yes! It did go smoothly. Daystrom's captain landed one of your shuttlecraft down in that very plaza not 2 days after our warp ship made it's first successful run”, Merrin said, using one of his lifting arms to point down to the plaza below.
“After the initial awkwardness of the first meeting the entire planet went into a 7 cycle period of celebration. We had finally 'matured as a species' the press proclaimed”
Merrin was pacing now as frustration that had been building for three greater cycles poured out of him.
“The Daystrom spent the entire 7 cycles here giving us details on the federation and what our future held in regards to that, finally, the Daystrom had to leave but informed us that a follow up mission would arrive in the near future – you – to formalize relations with us”.
“Yes Merrin, that sounds accurate to the report that we received, so how did things degenerate to the current situation on your planet?”, Captain Ingersoll said.
“Our sociologists noticed it first, fashion shows mimicking the uniforms of your crew, art and media using design ques from your ships, our music was suddenly infused with sound bites from your crew, after that the religious types started to question your true nature. Several of the more extreme groups commited mass suicides. Suicides in general started to rise as well”, Merrin said.
“Oh no”, was all Ingersoll could say.
“Oh yes”, Merrin continued, “the economy crashed as our high tech industry realized that everything they produced had just become obsolete, research and development just stopped. Then the conspiracy theorists started in claiming the government had known all along and that we had been in collusion with the federation. Old feelings of nationalism returned, destroying the 30 grand cycles of work I did putting this world government together. For the first time in 20 of those cycles we have had military conflict. War has returned as several member states have tried to secede from the 'deceptive machinations' of my world government”.
“This is a tragedy to be sure Coordinator, please let us help you and correct it”, Ingersoll said.
“Correct? Hmmmm, no this cannot be corrected. The fighting can be stopped and the economy will recover, but things will never be correct again. Yes, my people will survive this, and I expect go on to become good members of your federation, but what we are - what we were - is gone, only to be remembered in some museum display.”
Merrin was facing the window again, the weight of his last statement hung in the air. His shoulders were slumped. Captain Ingersoll could see now the Coordinator was not only mourning the deaths of his people that had occurred, but also the death of his culture.
“I... I begin to understand your loss, Merrin. We – the Federation – try to minimize the impact of first contact on a civilization, sometimes we fail.”
