New Earth - the Quake Moon and early surveys?

[Cadet49]

I read this series of books a while ago, but my memory of them is a bit hazy:

1. Did the novels ever explain why the initial surveys of the Belle Terre system never detected the instability of the "Quake Moon"? Wagon Train stated that there had been some early surveys of the area before the colonists made the journey there...

In the novels, it sounds to me like the Kauld had been visiting the region of Belle Terre long before the Federation ever arrived in the region - they were certainly more indigenous to the region than the Federation was - Why was the Belle Terre colony so vital that Starfleet was willing to go to war with the indigenous alien populations of the region, rather than just relocating the colony? I can't remember if this was ever explained in the novel series? Was it to prevent the Klingons from annexing the region?

Thanks!

 

[Timo]

1) We saw at least one early survey being kidnapped by players who had an interest in keeping the nature of the Quake Moon secret. We may speculate that they used other, less drastic measures to mislead other surveys. But on p.70, Councilman Tanner emphasizes that the region has not been properly scouted - he appears to think that the "ship or two, freelance" that have been doing the scouting will be too little to ensure the safety of the colony. But he further explains that the colonists specifically wanted an unscouted location for their new home, as a less than rational gesture to emphasize their independence.

2) Starfleet didn't appear to be willing to go to war as such - Starfleet's main concern was keeping the colonists happy with whatever insanity they happened to be engaged in, purely for reasons of domestic politics. That is, it would have looked bad if they completely abandoned the colonists (even though they themselves wanted that), so they sent Kirk and the Enterprise to accompany them in a half-measure, and then sent Lake and the Peleliu to relieve Kirk.

Lake was the one who personally wanted to use bellicose tactics to sort out the troubles. And Kirk had to use some force of his own to get Lake out of the pit he had dug for himself.

After the discovery of the magic olivium, Starfleet no doubt developed something of an interest in the region, but they had already committed to leaving the Pardonnet bunch to play their survivalist game wherever they pleased. Relocating the colony would never have been an option: first there was no threat, so retreat would have been politically unpalatable, and then there was a threat but also a local resource, so retreat would again have been politically unpalatable.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Cadet49]

1) We saw at least one early survey being kidnapped by players who had an interest in keeping the nature of the Quake Moon secret. We may speculate that they used other, less drastic measures to mislead other surveys. But on p.70, Councilman Tanner emphasizes that the region has not been properly scouted - he appears to think that the "ship or two, freelance" that have been doing the scouting will be too little to ensure the safety of the colony. But he further explains that the colonists specifically wanted an unscouted location for their new home, as a less than rational gesture to emphasize their independence.

2) Starfleet didn't appear to be willing to go to war as such - Starfleet's main concern was keeping the colonists happy with whatever insanity they happened to be engaged in, purely for reasons of domestic politics. That is, it would have looked bad if they completely abandoned the colonists (even though they themselves wanted that), so they sent Kirk and the Enterprise to accompany them in a half-measure, and then sent Lake and the Peleliu to relieve Kirk.

Lake was the one who personally wanted to use bellicose tactics to sort out the troubles. And Kirk had to use some force of his own to get Lake out of the pit he had dug for himself.

After the discovery of the magic olivium, Starfleet no doubt developed something of an interest in the region, but they had already committed to leaving the Pardonnet bunch to play their survivalist game wherever they pleased. Relocating the colony would never have been an option: first there was no threat, so retreat would have been politically unpalatable, and then there was a threat but also a local resource, so retreat would again have been politically unpalatable.

Timo Saloniemi

Thanks for the reply. I still don't understand, though, why Kirk and Starfleet seemed completely unwilling to negotiate with the Kauld, who seemed to have a legitimate previous claim and need for the area, especially considering the environmental disaster that was occurring on the Kauld homeworld. The Federation had not properly surveyed the area properly. When I read this book years ago, I remember finding the Federation's attitude quite imperialistic: like Empires of the 19th century, they were moving in and taking a region, with force, regardless of the needs or desires of the indigenous populations that already lived there. I was quite surprised by this attitude, because in TOS, Captain Kirk was always a strong advocate of individual freedoms - indeed, in Arena, when the Federation learned that the Cestus 3 colony might have been placed accidentally in Gorn space, McCoy admitted, "Maybe we're in the wrong", and Kirk realized that the Gorn might have attacked because they thought they were protecting themselves. Why did the Federation not listen to the Kauld claims to Belle Terre?

 

[bullethead]

Thanks for the reply. I still don't understand, though, why Kirk and Starfleet seemed completely unwilling to negotiate with the Kauld, who seemed to have a legitimate previous claim and need for the area, especially considering the environmental disaster that was occurring on the Kauld homeworld. The Federation had not properly surveyed the area properly. When I read this book years ago, I remember finding the Federation's attitude quite imperialistic: like Empires of the 19th century, they were moving in and taking a region, with force, regardless of the needs or desires of the indigenous populations that already lived there. I was quite surprised by this attitude, because in TOS, Captain Kirk was always a strong advocate of individual freedoms - indeed, in Arena, when the Federation learned that the Cestus 3 colony might have been placed accidentally in Gorn space, McCoy admitted, "Maybe we're in the wrong", and Kirk realized that the Gorn might have attacked because they thought they were protecting themselves. Why did the Federation not listen to the Kauld claims to Belle Terre?

The impression I got was that Starfleet/the Federation considered the Kauld attack on the colony fleet towards the end of Wagon Train to the Stars to be a declaration of war and that by the time they actually reached Belle Terre, the Kauld had abandoned their base.

By the way, the Kauld didn't have an environmental problem, they just put all their soldiers in one place and accidentally irradiated them with radiation from matter/antimatter reactors. The Blood had the environmental problems, since they had storms and earthquakes all the time.

 

[Timo]

I still don't understand, though, why Kirk and Starfleet seemed completely unwilling to negotiate with the Kauld[..] I remember finding the Federation's attitude quite imperialistic

Well, Diane Carey wants to write her characters in such a fashion: aliens are just evil scum best phasered out of existence, while Kirk can do no wrong and would become effeminate if giving in to alien demands.

This leaves the readers in an unenviable position of trying to interpret Kirk as something else than a fascist-imperialistic conqueror unsure about his sexuality, despite what is written.

The impression I got was that Starfleet/the Federation considered the Kauld attack on the colony fleet towards the end of Wagon Train to the Stars to be a declaration of war and that by the time they actually reached Belle Terre, the Kauld had abandoned their base.

The Kauld also supposedly pursued the war path very actively all the time, giving Starfleet no real opportunity to offer truce let alone peaceful negotiations. Lake's ship was blasted to bits and all but 80 of his crew killed before he even reached the operational area; the Federation would have been negotiating from a serious position of weakness, but OTOH was apparently fighting from a position of some strength (because the Kauld wanted to hurt Belle Terre but not the rest of the system, and thus perhaps held back somewhat, plus were weaker than they appeared). Kirk would soon have concluded that defense was the best offense there.

I mean, how could he have opened negotiations when he couldn't leave the Belle Terre system and couldn't command the colonists to depart? He really had to wait for the Kauld to take the initiative.

...It would have been fun if the McCoy/Scotty expedition from Flaming Arrow had stumbled on an opportunity to do diplomacy with the Kauld, rather than just interfere with their latest plans of annihilation.

Timo Saloniemi