At this juncture, I feel a need to re-iterate some statements made prior to this point in the thread. We will approach this subject based on:
Conditions for Discussion;
A: Star Trek exists in an alternate continuum which diverged from our own around 1968 at the very latest and possibly as early as 1930.
B: No effort will be made to make the original source materials (TOS/TAS/TWOK in order of priority) conform or otherwise support the contentions of materials produced during and after 1987. The arguments for or against this decision have been well-documented in other threads and discussions. "First In, Last Out" rules apply here.
Further reinforced with this provision;
1968
(Point of Departure between times and events in our timeline and Star Trek. From this point on, all data and events presented here are the subject of an alternate timeline and are not open to interpretation against events which may transpire in our own continuum).
The McKinley Rocket Base Incident- USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), conducting historical research by order of the United Federation of Planets Star Fleet, intercepts an interstellar transport conducting Agent 147 “Gary Seven” to Earth. His original task was to sabotage the launch of a suborbital nuclear weapons platform by the United States of America in of itself a response to other nations having already launched similar platforms. At this time, the substantiating logic behind such launches was to maintain the balance of power and mutually-assured destruction in the event of a nuclear weapons exchange by any number of nations. Inadvertently, the Enterprise officers involved delayed Seven's operations as they were hesitant to commit to his assurances on the vital success of this operation. The device is launched and falls to Earth a short time later, but Enterprise officers had prevented Seven from completing the disarming process and the vehicle proceeded to landfall “hot” and armed. At a altitude of 104 miles, the vehicles was successfully detonated, and in the process gained the immediate attention of the entire globe. This incident galvanizes global concerns about the direction of the 'space race' of the time; whether humanity was racing to space for the benefit of all, or for the sake of ensuring hastened destruction in a nuclear exchange.
(Assignment Earth (TOS))
Ladies and gentlemen, I have nothing but the greatest respect for all opinions, viewpoints and commentary expressed here thus far, but I feel I must re-iterate the above talking points to make a few things clear. I have every respect for Star Trek in all of its various incarnations and instances, but my conditions for this thread are quite clear. I am seeking an open-source discussion on the Eugenics Wars and the twentieth-century in general from the perspective of the conditions stated above. I am composing a historical narrative of a fictional event which clearly did not occur in our own continuum nor is likely to occur in any near-future, and I have chosen to narrow the scope of relevant sources to the items listed above. I would implore you all at this point to re-consider those items and curb the need, want or desire to digress the purpose of this thread into never-ending arguments about what is canon and what is not. An endless array of topics have been forwarded in this forum and more often then not, the very same quibbles over canon bog down and stifle any discourse on the subject (and terms for discussing them). With all due respect, this forum is widely known elsewhere for its worrisome arguments over canon, and quite honestly, none of us have time to waste on the semantics of that anymore. If you can work with me here in adhering to my terms stated above, I would appreciate it. Thank you all.
That being said, let us return to the subject at hand.
If we are to consider the means by which Khan and his brethren were exiled from Earth, it is necessary to consider how he was able to achieve it. In 1996, Khan and 96 of his eugenically-bred and genetically altered brethren chose the exile of the deep black aboard the most-advanced spacecraft of his day: the Douglas-Yakovlev DY-100 (Savannah Class) Botany Bay. The vessel was equipped with the most advanced avionics, on-board artificial intelligence (In actuality, the first of its kind to be utilized aboard Human spacecraft), power generation and storage systems. It was also equipped with 100 advanced cryonic stasis cells (which were believed to be necessary for any cost-effective space explorations beyond the orbit of Mars). Virtually nothing is known about the intended course for the vessel (though the on-board memory banks did appear to have been tampered with or outright sabotaged) but whatever it may have been, the vessel was found adrift in the Mutara by USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) in the 2260s.
The following is a work in progress on the very agencies which made the exile and flight from Sol possible.
United Earth Space Probe Agency
The events surrounding Terran year nineteen-hundred and sixty-eight were somber indeed. Before the terrified senses of the world, an aborted orbital insertion of a United States nuclear weapons platform and subsequent explosion and debris dispersal gripped a world already braced for the prospect of nuclear war. The platform delivery vehicle exploded 104 miles in the upper atmosphere with debris of varying dimensions raining down upon Earth in undisclosed regions of the planet. Following a short briefing on the matter, representatives of the United States military were unable to disclose how the vehicle was aborted or by whom. The resulting shock of this near-miss was palpable and there were many eyes to bear witness. Something had to be done.
On 22 December 1968, an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council was convened to "calmly and collectively discuss the matter at hand." The overlying mood of the Council was fairly heated from the moment opening statements began however. The intent of the outcome seemingly clear: The UN Security Council would vote on a measure to censure the US, USSR and China for willfully breaking the terms of the Nuclear Test Ban treaty of 1962 and the Outer Space Initiative conducted just one year earlier and signed in good faith. Also in question would be the effectiveness of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs which was all but hamstrung with a lack of means to conduct oversight of all orbital and outer space operations undertaken by member nations. The growing threat of nuclear annihilation framed it all. It was now clear that a united national front had to speak in the cause of eliminating the proliferation of nuclear weapons for the future of humankind. The expected accusations from all sides were vividly lobbied, as the United States accused the USSR of being the first to extend the threat of annihilation into space, with China entering the fray as "the only option available in an increasingly-impulsive global environment." The usual claims of the "sovereignty of nations" was also heard and in abundance from those nations who had yet to stake a claim in the nuclear race and from those nations who were forced to choose a side in what seemed to be an inevitable race of doom. The day of 22 December 1968 would be remembered as the most verbally-heated day of debate the collective world had seen yet.
At the end of the day, no censorship was authorized for the culpable nations, however the expansion of oversight powers into the interests of global space exploration and the applications associated with it would be mandated. Security Council resolutions called for a restructuring of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs. Resolutions called for the establishment of the United Earth Space Probe Agency. The very name of this new agency promoted a renewed prospect of hope for a unified planet Earth and the promise of exploring outer space. UESPA would incorporate within its committee a liaison from each nation's space agency. Where no such national space agency existed, UESPA would establish Resource and Information Office branches freely accessible to all governing officials and citizens alike. The UESPA resolution also called for the access of national outer space affairs to be opened to commercial interests. It was hoped that adding this new sector of interest in orbital operations and beyond would increase accountability and transparency within the international community and ultimately unify the push into space beyond Earth's orbit.
As the nation of India was not a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council due to its independence from Great Britain not being achieved until 15 August 1947, the resolutions and mandates agreed upon this day could not be considered "non-binding but inevitably relevant" to its national interests present and future. As India was considered a natural gateway to virtually one-quarter of Earth, the lack of pressure on this rapidly-growing nation would come to haunt the United Nations after 1992 and the beginning of the last world war on Earth.
