And here I was thinking that Cartwright turned state's evidence and went into the Federation Witness Protection Program, where he was relocated to New Orleans and given a new identity...
Seriously, though. I'm reminded of Gorkon's line to Kirk, "If there is to be a brave new world, our generation will have the hardest time living in it." Cartwright, depending on how long he went to prison, could find himself with a lucrative position after his release, working for neocon think tanks, looking to prepare the Federation to refight the last war, only this time with enemies that have
nothing in common with the Klingons. That's who Cartwright is -- he's the Donald Rumsfeld, the Dick Cheney, the Richard Perle, the David Addington, the John Bolton of the 23rd century. His career was made by fighting the Klingons and maintaining the cold war with them. Once that ended, the Cartwrights of Starfleet would look for a new enemy. They'd pick on someone like Cardassia, who might have been a minor little threat, but by irritating that threat, the threat became bigger than it ever should have been.
So, no, Christopher, I disagree. There is a story there. How does the Federation deal with the neocons of the early 24th-century?
