Post-War Dominion

[Captain2395]

There is loads of Trek literature covering the period after DS9 concluded but I'm not convinced of the picture those writers paint of the Dominion.

My question is what do you think is the most likely future for the Dominion after the war over the Alpha Quadrant and Odo's journey to his homeworld to be with the Founders?

Do they make peace with the Federation? Do they retreat to rebuild? Does their defeat change the way they conduct themselves in the Gamma Quadrant?

What can we infer from DS9 about the way the Dominion develops afterwards?

 

[Jono]

I don't know if they would need to rebuild as the forces involved were cut off from the GQ. They suffered no damage to their infrastructure and it is possible that most or all of the ships they sent through the wormhole had already been replaced, so that when their defeated forces returned they had a net gain in terms of military strength.

The only change I can see their defeat making is that if word got back to the worlds of the Dominion it might encourage dissent, so I could see them clamping down harder to maintain order in the short term. Nor is Odo going to affect much change. As far as we know he is the lone dissenting voice to imposing order on solids and given they've been doing it for 10,000 years it is hard to see them all just changing their minds. You would expect it would take a very long time to change the way the Dominion operates.

The good news for the Federation and co is that as long as the wormhole is key in supplying Dominion forces in any conflict with them, it is unlikely the Dominion would resort to open warfare against them.

 

[Timo]

A Dominion expeditionary force with zero reinforcements did come awfully close to winning the war, though. So basically all the Dominion would need to do is send an invasion fleet that is equal in size to the sum total of the convoys sent through the wormhole before its closure in "Call to Arms", and have it sail to UFP territory via conventional means. Whether it would still suffice for defeating the Feds after seven decades of transit... Well, the Dominion might figure it does, considering how they are unaccustomed to rapid change. (They'd probably be dead wrong, though.)

If the Dominion had the industrial capacity to create new convoys to be sent through the wormhole, it would have the capacity to create them to be sent via a more conventional route, too. So once the spearhead of a conventional Dominion invasion hit UFP borders, our heroes could rest assured that there would be an unending stream of reinforcements for the baddies!

I guess the only hope of the Feds is that the initial expeditionary force, up to and until "Call to Arms", was already a major commitment to the Dominion, and that while they could rebuild back home, they couldn't send significantly larger expeditions without endangering the homefront economy and stability. But we do know the Dominion is constantly expanding by conventional means ("Sanctuary"), and might be interested in jumping ahead and solving the "Alpha issue" ahead of schedule.

It's difficult to see how Odo could convince the Link to drop the "Alpha issue"... His very existence and presence would be a reminder of genocidal Alpha duplicity, and the Founders would not tolerate being outdone in the game of genocidal duplicity!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Photon]

A Dominion expeditionary force with zero reinforcements did come awfully close to winning the war, though. So basically all the Dominion would need to do is send an invasion fleet that is equal in size to the sum total of the convoys sent through the wormhole before its closure in "Call to Arms", and have it sail to UFP territory via conventional means. Whether it would still suffice for defeating the Feds after seven decades of transit... Well, the Dominion might figure it does, considering how they are unaccustomed to rapid change. (They'd probably be dead wrong, though.)

If the Dominion had the industrial capacity to create new convoys to be sent through the wormhole, it would have the capacity to create them to be sent via a more conventional route, too. So once the spearhead of a conventional Dominion invasion hit UFP borders, our heroes could rest assured that there would be an unending stream of reinforcements for the baddies!

I guess the only hope of the Feds is that the initial expeditionary force, up to and until "Call to Arms", was already a major commitment to the Dominion, and that while they could rebuild back home, they couldn't send significantly larger expeditions without endangering the homefront economy and stability. But we do know the Dominion is constantly expanding by conventional means ("Sanctuary"), and might be interested in jumping ahead and solving the "Alpha issue" ahead of schedule.

It's difficult to see how Odo could convince the Link to drop the "Alpha issue"... His very existence and presence would be a reminder of genocidal Alpha duplicity, and the Founders would not tolerate being outdone in the game of genocidal duplicity!

Timo Saloniemi

Totally agree Timo. Now, would SF answer a Dominion invasion by using Voyager's superweapons?
Yes, they were Borg-specific but if they could defend/kill a Cube they could do a number on Dominion ships