Should the truth about Zife be revealed?

[Caleuche]

I was reading Singular Destiny the other day and one of the inter-chapters was a report from Tezwa. This reminded me that the storyline about Tezwa and Zife still has the potential to come back.

The question is should it?

I think the arming of Tezwa should come to light (it allows for Klingon grumpiness at just the wrong time), but Zifes eternally enforced vacation staying hushed up is something I'm unsure about.

On one hand it would be interesting to see how the Federation dealt with the fact that its own internal agencies had killed its own head of state. It would also be interesting to see how President Bacco handled the situation especially if the general population found out she had known for some time, but had chosen to keep it quiet (probably not looking at a second term there). Also I'm uncomfortable with the idea that the President and his Chief of Staff got whacked and no one really noticed.

On the other hand it would take the storylines back to a dire crisis state of which there has been a lot of recently. It would be nice to see the books get back to some space exploration, science and that sense of wonder.

Thoughts?

 

[JB2005]

I think "now" would be the best time to tell them.

Bacco: Martok, quick word in your ear...
Martok: Hmm?
Bacco: Yeah remember Tezwa?
Martok: Hmm?
Bacco: Well, erm, funny story, turns out it was Zife who had given them the cannons that ripped your fleet and warriors a fourth corn chute...
Martok: THIS IS AN OUTRAGE. WHERE IS ZIFE?
Bacco: 'Nother funny story, Starfleet whacked him...
Martok: Meh fair enough, so about this Typhon pact...

simple

 

[Turtletrekker]

On one hand it would be interesting to see how the Federation dealt with the fact that its own internal agencies had killed its own head of state.

Technically, Zife wasn't killed by one of the Federations "own internal agencies". Section 31 is a rogue agency with no official standing in the Federation and Starfleet.

 

[Trent Roman]

I never thought it should have been hidden in the first place, so I'm all for full disclosure. You're right, though, that the revelation that Section 31 had killed even a disgraced Federation President would create the demand for action and accoutability within the Federation, requiring a confrontation with the group.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Christopher]

Secrets are never kept forever, especially in something as big, complex, and leaky as a government. The truth about Zife will come out sooner or later. Better to reveal it in controlled circumstances than let it come out in an awkward way or at a dangerous time. I've felt all along that it was a humongous mistake to cover it up in the first place, because people are generally less willing to forgive a coverup than the initial crime. And I still don't buy the rationale that the Klingons would be insane enough to launch a war they couldn't afford against their strongest ally and source of economic support just because of some primitive space-samurai code duello. Yes, they're aggressive, but they're not mindless beasts. I'm sure their rulers have an understanding of realpolitik and economic necessity. Exposure of the truth would've damaged relations, true, but I think it was unreasonable to assume it would trigger a holocaust that would destroy both civilizations.

 

[JB2005]

^probably won't after they've just had that...although see it from the Klingon's point of view, the Feds sent one of the klingon's fleets to a planet armed with advanced Fed weaponary and blew said fleet out of the sky, wars have been started over less. Good thing the Tezwans didn't assasinate Klingon Archduke F'rAnz Fer'Dinand...

 

[Caleuche]

On one hand it would be interesting to see how the Federation dealt with the fact that its own internal agencies had killed its own head of state.

Technically, Zife wasn't killed by one of the Federations "own internal agencies". Section 31 is a rogue agency with no official standing in the Federation and Starfleet.

When Bashir asks Sloan says that Section 31 comes from within Starfleets charter and suggests he reads it. If he is telling the truth then this would make it an internal agency and technically answerable to Starfleet (though it doesn't seem to in any shape or form). Either way it employs Federation citizens, so would still be 'one of our own' who pulled the trigger/denotator/whatever.

 

[JB2005]

On one hand it would be interesting to see how the Federation dealt with the fact that its own internal agencies had killed its own head of state.

Technically, Zife wasn't killed by one of the Federations "own internal agencies". Section 31 is a rogue agency with no official standing in the Federation and Starfleet.

"Article 14 Section 31 of the original Starfleet Charter"

Also Zife wasn't head of state, he was a former head of state, having resigned minutes before...might just seem semantics but I think it's a crucial difference, technically all S31 did was murder 3 private citizens...

How about the fact the Federation's own military forced its CinC to resign?

 

[Christopher]

^probably won't after they've just had that...although see it from the Klingon's point of view, the Feds sent one of the klingon's fleets to a planet armed with advanced Fed weaponary and blew said fleet out of the sky, wars have been started over less. Good thing the Tezwans didn't assasinate Klingon Archduke F'rAnz Fer'Dinand...

Bad analogy. The war resulting from Archduke Ferdinand's assassination wasn't the result of some mindless berserker rage, but the result of an elaborate network of treaty obligations that forced most of the nations of Europe to take sides in a local dispute even though they didn't want to go to war. In this case, the treaty is between the Klingons and the UFP, and in the wake of the Dominion War, the Klingons would've been highly dependent on the Federation's economic assistance in rebuilding, creating a very strong incentive not to go to war.

True, the Klingons did break the Khitomer Accords when the UFP refused to aid their invasion of Cardassia, but this is a different situation; not only are the Klingons more dependent on UFP aid, but the pragmatic Martok's in charge rather than the power-hungry Gowron.

I agree with you about the Klingons' point of view; of course they'd be outraged. I'm not saying otherwise. I'm saying that they're not wild animals, that their political leaders presumably have enough intelligence and practicality to be able to moderate that outrage when it's in their best interests. They're not idiots, they're savvy politicians and administrators. They'd have to be in order to hold posts in the no doubt ruthlessly competitive Klingon government. So they should be capable of more than one stereotyped response to a situation. They should be smart and sane enough to see that going to war with the UFP over this would be a bad idea for them. They wouldn't knowingly immolate their whole civilization so they could enact some caricatured vengeance reflex. More likely, they'd demand some symbolic act of restitution that would satisfy the masses. Such as having Zife and his co-conspirators turned over to Klingon justice -- though that's obviously no longer an option.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The truth might come out eventually, but what's the point of hastening the process? It could only do more damage. Just let things be, I say.

Letting the truth out is certainly not going to *improve* relations with the Klingons...it could only hurt. So what's the point? I'm sure the Klingons have kept many a secret from the Federation as well.

 

[William Leisner]

*whistles innocently*

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Oh, hell. Please tell me you're not actually considering this...

 

[Rat Boy]

*whistles innocently*

Tease.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I agree with you about the Klingons' point of view; of course they'd be outraged. I'm not saying otherwise. I'm saying that they're not wild animals, that their political leaders presumably have enough intelligence and practicality to be able to moderate that outrage when it's in their best interests. They're not idiots, they're savvy politicians and administrators. They'd have to be in order to hold posts in the no doubt ruthlessly competitive Klingon government. So they should be capable of more than one stereotyped response to a situation. They should be smart and sane enough to see that going to war with the UFP over this would be a bad idea for them.

That's an awful lot of coulda, woulda, shoulda.

We've not only seen that the Klingons will break their alliance with the Federation whenever it suits them, but that they actively went to full-out WAR with the Federation on at least two occasions: Cardassia (The Way of the Warrior), and Narendra Three (Yesterday's Enterprise). And that latter episode was just because *one Federation ship vanished*!

 

[Trent Roman]

^ That wasn't because one ship vanished, though: any number of political and economic factors had been driving the Klingon Empire towards war with the Federation, and the alternate timeline represents the fulfilment of those tensions. What Garrett did at Narenda radically altered Klingon perceptions of the Federation enough to make peace possible once more. The loss of the Enterprise-C wasn't a casus belli, it was a, uh, casus pax? (That's probably the wrong declination)

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Ayelbourne]

*whistles innocently*

And just like that "Losing the Peace" takes on a new and interesting meaning.

 

[LutherSloan]

Well, we know from a future scene in the ENT-Relaunch novels that by the year 2400 Section 31 has been exposed. This has to mean that the Zife plot is public by this time, since it was an operation masterminded by S31.

 

[Trent Roman]

Well, just because 31 is exposed doesn't mean everything they did gets exposed as well. The operation probably has some kind of scorthed earth protocol to dispose of the records of what they've done (so far as they extend, since they're probably picky about what actually gets recorded), if for no other reason than to evade prosecution.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

That wasn't because one ship vanished, though: any number of political and economic factors had been driving the Klingon Empire towards war with the Federation, and the alternate timeline represents the fulfilment of those tensions.

Actually we know nothing of the sort. We still don't, not even this long after the episode was aired. We have no idea *what* the Klingon Empire was like at the time. Hell, I don't think ST VI had even existed when the episode was written.

What Garrett did at Narenda radically altered Klingon perceptions of the Federation enough to make peace possible once more. The loss of the Enterprise-C wasn't a casus belli, it was a, uh, casus pax? (That's probably the wrong declination)

I don't mean the *loss* of the Ent-C, I meant its disappearance into the future. Obviously that was what caused the war, because we all saw it. As soon as the ship came through the anomaly, the timeline changed. Therefore it must have been the Ent-C's vanishing from the timeline that made the Klingons declare war.

And I still don't like the thought of the truth about Zife getting out. I don't want the Klingons to be enemies of the Federation again. (so that's what "losing the peace" means, eh? ) They haven't even been allies for that long (since they last declared war, i.e. "Way of the Warrior"). And now that there's the Typhon Pact, the Federation needs all the allies it can get.

 

[LutherSloan]

Well, just because 31 is exposed doesn't mean everything they did gets exposed as well. The operation probably has some kind of scorthed earth protocol to dispose of the records of what they've done (so far as they extend, since they're probably picky about what actually gets recorded), if for no other reason than to evade prosecution.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

The dialogue in 'The Good That Men Do' made it seem like everything involving S31 had been brought to light since the current period (2380-81).