Voyager Series Redo

[Anwar]

Hello there, I've posted this twice before on the VOY forum itself but I did another version recently that I decided to put up here. It IS a fanfic, so it's better off here anyways:

Introduction

The basic pilot idea is the same, with the Caretaker dragging VOY and the Maquis ship away from the Alpha Quadrant. However the premiere would be the season finale. We’d be introduced to various characters that have already formed rivalries, friendships and romances amongst themselves; Established characters already well into their stories.

The Caretaker himself was the one who brought VOY to the Array with his own powers boosted by the Array, when he died so did all hope of going home but he left the automated Array to continue to defend the Ocampa from the Kazon.

VOY is fighting one of the massive Kazon Carrier ships engaged in an all-out attack to keep VOY from leaving the Periphery/Wasteland and making it to The Central Core. The Carriers usually don't fight even though they're the best armed Kazon vessels because they have families, children and other non-combatants living on them (they serve as mobile “Homeworlds” to define Kazon space) but they thought there was no other choice but to use its heavy weaponry.

Voyager has it badly damaged, and Janeway is faced with a choice:

-Destroy it even though she knows there's more non-combatant Kazon on it than combatants

OR

- Just running away.

Tuvok tells her that if they don't destroy it, it'll transmit their coordinates and likely they'll face all the Kazon in the area in a swarm attack before they leave the Periphery/Wasteland, and they can't survive with the damage they've taken. So Janeway gives the order to destroy the ship.

Janeway leaves for her quarters to retire for the night. Chakotay stops by her quarters to tell her that she's gained more respect from the Maquis and proven to be at least a capable captain to the last of her detractors in the Fleet crew. With entry to the more stable Central Core things seem to be getting better.

The last scene would of her making a log entry of how "today I got lucky, I destroyed an Key enemy vessel and did major damage to the Kazons’ pretense of an Empire...I probably killed a lot of Kazon who weren't soldiers...families…children...and I've been congratulated for it. Maybe I'll get luckier, next time I could destroy more ships and kill more people..." with her trailing off after that.

As she falls asleep the entire scene would flashback with a caption reading “One year ago” with Lt Cmdr Janeway, recently promoted science officer of the Starship Voyager waking up to begin her tour of duty on her new assignment. Thus the second episode onwards would be the beginning of a season long flashback to explain how things got to the point they were in the first episode.


Series Bible

- Voyager is an 35 year old Ambassador-Class Heavy Cruiser. This means there's a larger crew, so more people to kill off without severely hampering the ship and it can stand up in a fight longer against Kazon raiders and Vidiian Cruisers. Its’ weapons, shields and general equipment are outdated compared to Starfleet's present ships. However despite this, it is still a Heavy Cruiser with the capacity to make its own torpedoes and shuttlecraft. It’s fully capable of sustaining itself in battle even against multiple opponents, and if necessary could serve as the mobile command center for a war.

- The original XO would be killed off when VOY is pulled to the Ocampa Homeworld, while the original Captain is then killed off battling the Kazon at the Ocampa Homeworld. Being the 3rd in command Science Officer, Janeway is left as the default Captain according to Starfleet Chain of Command.

- The tension with the Maquis would be over who should run the ship, as Janeway isn't an experienced Command officer. Chakotay on the other hand was a real Command Officer of the Fleet beforehand and has serious command experience which he utilized to his success as Maquis leader. I’d rather that the other crew be Romulans, but I’m not trying to deviate TOO much than I already have.

- They wouldn't be in the Delta Quadrant, in fact it would be a mystery for a while as to where exactly they are. It annoyed me how in the show they knew exactly where they were in the DQ relative to Earth, so now they'd have no idea. This would also justify them visiting alien worlds and learning new stuff, it would fit into the plotline of gathering information about where they are so they can find a way home and also keep up the "Boldy going where no one has gone before" theme. Plus this means we can keep around alien races VOY encounters and have more time to flesh them out. The reasoning for why VOY can't tell where they are is that most of the stars in that region of space were blocked from Federation view by intervening nebulae, gases and other stars, so they wouldn't have ready fixes in star-mapping. That happens in real life, you know. We simply don't know what the other side of our galaxy looks likes. We don't know what the stellar regions look like behind nebulae like the Horsehead and Orion Nebulae. (Thank you Rastamon)

-The region of space the Caretaker and Ocampa were located is on the edge of "mapped space" according to Neelix, and is considered an empty periphery.wasteland by the major powers of the area of space they're in. This is where the first season would take place, and the later seasons would return to, with them crossing all these wasteland/periphery areas to get to the major regions in hopes of finding more clues or help as to where they are and what they can do about it.

Also, in several systems they pass and worlds they encounter when doing repairs or scavenging, they find evidence that there was once major life in the Periphery, inhabited worlds, and that something happened to ravage the planets, destroy entire star systems, and generally trash the place.


- The first season flashback (which is the entire season) would deal with the two crews having to learn to co-exist, with things extremely tense because Janeway is so inexperienced as a command officer Chakotay comes off as more assertive and showing more command qualities than her. But Janeway would earn her keep and respect by using her scientific knowlege and analytical mind to help their survival, like rigging a way for them to use the Nebula matter as fuel by making a fuel converter with B'Ellana, or harvesting water from comets, etc. She'd also begin using her scientific analytical skills more for tactical uses as well as survivalist science. They'd also have to deal with Cullah's attacks, as Voyager is the most advanced ship without a major power as a backer his groups have encountered. Voyager’s technology would easily propel the Kazon Piracy into the Empire Cullah wants them to be. A second reason would be hinted at, that they want VOY so they can curry favor with the “League”, which is explored further in Season 2.

- On the worlds they do find with markets and stuff, they all use a currency based system/barter system so Voyager has to trade for money, and some of the crew even take jobs for money, and the Ship itself could do work as a courier due to their neutrality, or investigate missing vessels (a way of meeting the Vidiians) for money. This wouldn’t be a huge issue though, simply a background matter. Also, VOY wouldn’t be afraid to use its’ replicators to circumvent the system by stockpiling replicable items that are of good value to the merchants.

I have more written on the villains and the characters themselves, but I'll wait to see if anyone is interested in reading more.

And if you have any feedback, I'm all for it.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I really enjoyed your first two versions and will check this out and give my thoughts later...feel free to post more if you have it Anwar.

 

[Anwar]

Villains

- The Kazon encountered as enemies, Maje Cullah’s Sect, would be a powerful group of Space Pirates. The Kazon as a whole are Nomads in the Periphery/Wasteland who no longer have a homeworld, since about 150 years ago it was destroyed by the Trabe. The Trabe had used the Kazon as their servants and slave soldiers, teaching them some of their most basic technology. Eventually they overthrew the Trabe and killed them all (except for a few scattered small groups), seizing their fleet for themselves. But they still are learning just how it all works without any real help or remaining Trabe infrastructure. Cullah’s Pirates are basically the space equivalent of Lord Humoungus’ Raiders from “The Road Warrior”. Cullah has decided that his Sect will be the new Order to the Periphery/Wasteland and be more than scavengers/pirates. They go to inhabited worlds and strike protection rackets with the natives: Tribute (which can range from monthly to bi-annually to yearly depending on the quality of the world) and the Kazon will “protect” them. As it turns out they’re honest about this and WILL come to the aid of a Contracted world. After all, you can’t let others have what is yours can you? The tribute can be resources or people (for use as slaves/soldiers/sold off as slaves to others), and in the cases of advanced worlds like Talaxian colonies whom the Haakonians couldn’t outright conquer (the ravages of their war with the Talaxians left them only with numbers to occupy Talax itself but not the other Talaxian worlds) the Kazon have conquered them using them as supply depots or repair bases while stealing Talaxian tech for themselves.

- Essentially, the Kazon Piracy is a Pirate Clan that wants to become a Kingdom. But the other Kazon encountered are quite different: some have settled worlds as their own colonies to rebuild their old cultures and live in peace, others have become mercenaries who will do whatever you want for the right price (perhaps stories of VOY hiring the Kazon to protect them from the Kazon), some have become legitimate businessmen, etc.


- None of the species in the Wasteland/Periphery can track VOY’s Warp Drive since Warp isn’t their method of FTL, so if VOY warped away fast enough that the enemy couldn’t sustain a pursuit velocity they wouldn’t eventually just track their warp emissions. They’d just warp away without possibility of tracking. If I had gone ahead and made the second crew Romulans, I’d just have them install their cloak on VOY as the “can’t be tracked” plot point but in this version I just say that these species aren’t familiar with Warp Drive and don’t know how to track it.

- The Vidiians are from the Central Core with their space having long been quarantined to prevent the Phage from spreading to the other advanced races. They don't want to attract the others in the Core into a “Sterilization Action” so they don't openly attack and harvest them, preying on whomever they encounter in the Periphery. They are the most advanced force in the Periphery but to keep their activities low-key and under the radar of the other greater powers in the Central Core they maintain unguarded secret bases and have only a few ships out at one time under radio silence. This will be to explain why there aren’t big Collection fleets out at once and why they don’t contact one another to gain reinforcements. Not all species are compatible with the Vidiian biology to explain why they don’t harvest primitive lifeforms, and by “luck” all the species on VOY are compatible.

 

[Anwar]

Characters

- Kathryn Janeway is the bridge science officer, to fit with her more "scientist" characterization. She’d be played by someone in her early 30s, not a seasoned captain in her 40s. Only recently promoted to the rank of Lt Cmdr and newly transferred to Voyager, she finds herself the defacto Captain after the Captain and XO are killed off. Old friend of Tuvok whom she sees as a Mentor figure, she finds Chakotay offering his experience as a Command officer to her. Whether she will rely on him (possibly too much) or choose her own way will be her arc for S1, as she’ll be contending with hostile but primitive pirates and an area that offers none of the comforts of the Federation but is in dire need of them.

- Tuvok, there was nothing particularly wrong with his characterization, in fact Tim Russ is IMO the best guy to play a Vulcan since Nimoy himself. DS9 proved that Vulcans could be interesting beyond the people who badmouth humans - one episode featured a Vulcan arms dealer. Where's the logic in that? Well, where's the logic in a Vulcan secret agent? Remember, Tuvok had infiltrated the Maquis. That was an interesting idea that was never developed fully IMHO - aside from one scene in the pilot, they didn't often show the Maquis as distrusting or disliking Tuvok. This would of course be remedied, but what of Tuvok himself?

I figure in order for a Vulcan to become a deep-cover agent, and a security officer, he would have to have decided at some point in his life that "the end justifies the means" is logical. Thus, he would often propose solutions to problems faced by Voyager, especially those involving encounters with the species of the Wasteland, which might sound shocking to Janeway or the others. Remember, he's not just Starfleet - he's Starfleet Intelligence. I think of him as the sort of person that Sloane would've recruited, had he not wound up stranded in the Delta Quadrant. He would be cold, distant, but not in that semi-amusing "haha its funny because he doesn't get the joke because he has no emotions" way, but rather in a creepy, almost disturbing way. This wouldn't exactly endear him to the other crewmembers, Maquis OR Starfleet. But he would still be Janeway’s closest friend (though this might change) among the crew and her main Fleet advisor. He would try to maintain a secret network in the crew to keep an eye on malcontent Fleeters and Maquis.


- Chakotay would be a more morally complex character whose "gray" sense of right and wrong often clashes with Janeway's black-and-white thinking. Furthermore, he would be more a "man of the people" stateman leader of the Maquis, who leads because he's the most respected and "honorable" (their version of honor involves "a large count of spoonheads killed", though) member of the Maquis, not the other way around. This would contrast with Janeway' command style, which is dependent upon the chain of command, being very military in structure and practice.

But rather than be immediate adversaries, I'd actually have Chakotay have no problem with Janeway as a person as he can see how a Science Officer becoming the Captain would stress a person. Plus he's ex-fleet himself so I'd think out of all the Maquis he would be the first to realize the necessity of working together to survive, and as such he would face insubordination and distrust from some of his own for being a "sell-out" much like the more open-voiced Fleeters would voice their concerns about a "lab rat" like Janeway being their Leader. Thus the conflict would be Chakotay and Janeway against their own groups as much as Fleet and Maquis conflicts. A teacher-student relationship that has its ups and downs (such as Chakotay sometimes assuming command when Janeway’s methods are less than 100% successful in bad situations, she being reduced to HIS XO when she finds him better at overall command while her analytical skills are well-suited to managing crew shifts, etc, until she realizes she IS the Captain and not him). Actor chosen to play Chakotay could still be Beltran if he agrees to not be such a B*tch on-set, otherwise someone in his early 50s, race irrelevant.

Tom Paris would be Nick Locarno (that was a money and royalties issue, because they really did want him to be Locarno), explaining that he joined the Maquis to pay off his bar bills (which were to fight his depression over being expelled from the Academy) and to fly in space again. Good pilot and overall soldier, is unique in that he is the ultimate outcast among both crews and despised by members of both, although Janeway has no problems herself with him and Tuvok’s main issues are with his reliability and not his characters. Chakotay is distrustful of him and perfectly willing to dismiss his abilities but grudgingly accepts him on missions with the Maquis since Paris saved his life in the opening story so he’ll at least have him around. Paris will either earn the respect of the others through his actions or he’ll just learn to not let it get to him and take his job seriously despite this shunning because damn it he’s still an ace pilot and he won’t let his reputation ruin the only thing left in his life that matters.

Neelix is an older guy, Talaxian middle-age, a soldier who refused to accept the surrent in the Talax-Haakonian war and used his skills to survive as a merchant and mercenary along with other Talaxiand soldiers he keeps in touch with, although he found himself trapped as a scrap dealer on the edge of the periphery until Voyager came along. Now he sees this not only as a chance to get out of the Periphery and closer to the Central Core without attracting the Kazon while getting his network back together and gain support for the Talaxian rebels. His knowledge of the stolen Talaxian tech used by the Kazon makes him a valuable asset beyond being a guide and negotiator (as well as a powerful soldier armed to the tooth with weaponry and skills). Perhaps Ron Perlman would be his actor.

- Torres, Kim, Neelix and Kes would all be recurring characters. Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, Paris and the Doctor would be the core cast.

- Explore just how a species as short-lived as the Ocampa actually develop. Kes would be introduced as a little girl, but for every human year she’d go through major aging: Season One Kes is a 10-year old, S2 Kes is a 15 year old, S3 Kes is 18 years old and S4 Kes onwards would be a 20-something (by now her powers have emerged and she stays at this age) so 4 actresses for Kes all in all. Mentally she would progress at that advanced level too in how she manages to learn things super-fast to match her lifespan, studying medicine with the Doctor in S2 and becoming VOY’s second Doctor by S4 (10 years worth of studying/training in 2 years) fully qualified and everything.

-In that episode where Torres is split into two women, one Klingon and one human, change it so that the Vidiians create two B’Ellanas out of her hybrid DNA, one human and one Klingon, instead of splitting her in two. That way we have three B’Ellanas, one human, one Klingon and the original Hybrid, to tell stories with; of course this would cost a lot of makeup and split screen techniques as well as give the actress a real workout.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I'm slowly going through this...I really like the idea that the series premier actually also serves (as will be revealed) as the series finale as well. I think that's pretty damn unique and bold.

 

[Anwar]

Season 2

The opener of S2 would have Voyager making it out of the Periphery/Wasteland, past Cullah's group of Kazon Pirates and enter the Central Core where the major powers and commerce areas/industrial hubs are. The hope being that they can find some ports to stop and do repairs and maybe find more information on where they are; there is in fact a large space station (about twice the size of Babylon 5, in a big saucer shape) that they are guided to by automated beacons that identifies itself as Guardian Prime, central command hub of the League Outer Defense Perimeter. There are several stations outlining the border between the Periphery/Wasteland and the Central Core and Guardian Prime just happens to be the HQ.


League Of Spacefaring Civilizations

The dominant power in the Central Core is the League of Spacefaring Civilizations, a multi-species group that Neelix explains was originally formed millennia ago as a military alliance for mutual defense after “the old wars” that eventually evolved into a Federation-esque group only with more of a military bent. They put less emphasis (little to none) on purely scientific or exploratory endeavors and dedicated their sciences and star forces to military applications. The only explorations or archeological missions they undertake are to uncover and seek out alien technologies for their own advantages. In fact in the first season the archeological dig sites VOY encountered in the Periphery/Wasteland turns out to have been old League dig sites.

They became so military-oriented that they eventually started ignoring the lesser wars and plights of non-League civilizations (not doing anything to help the Vidiians fight the Phage, or end the Haakonian Occupation of Talax, or stop the Kazon) so they could focus more on their own defenses in fear of the return of their “ancient enemy”. They're not bad guys or some generic space military state, but they have military bases and garrisons on practically every League world and colony; however the civilians all understand their need and are grateful for their presence. Imagine something like a successful, powerful Soviet Union where the people are grateful for all the soldiers and bases and military hardware everywhere.

Imagine the meeting from the beginning of Trek VI, only they're discussing increasing militarization and mothballing their scientific and exploration branches to increase military spending (they use a capitalist economic system, not because they don’t have replicators but because they feel that introducing them to society would affect the economy too drastically and they prefer a more controllable system).

So as long as VOY obeys their laws, they can use their ports and trade and the League may even rescue them from Space Pirates if it's in their patrol space but once VOY leaves League influence they're on their own because the League isn't interested in defeating the Kazon pirates once and for all and saving anyone in the Periphery/Wasteland.


In comparison to the Federation, the League is of smaller size (maybe 6-7,000 LY across), fewer member species, not as advanced economically (replicator technology is suppressed except in emergency military situations), military-wise they are more advanced with mostly-larger ships and stronger weaponry. They have null-bomb warheads (limited number but powerful), and their energy weapons are of two varieties: The main cannons, which take time to fully power up but unleash major energy payloads when fired, and the lowered powered-but-numerous energy turret-cannons that fire continuously (like the phasers in Wrath of Khan).

The League's best ship would be similar to the Federation Mushroom-style Starbase only as a mobile Starship which they call a "Mobile Command". So, imagine a Fed Starbase as a massive mobile starship that contains several small warships within it to store and launch in battles and then recall for repairs/transport. This would be because smaller League Warships don’t have FTL capacity on par with the larger ships so the MCs act as Fleet Carriers as well.

In general regarding League technology they're more rigid in tech development and don't have the "Jack of all Trades" style that the Federation uses. But they don't grow expendable clone armies to be sent out to die or make mass-production warships that are meant for ramming and stuff like the Dominion does either. They try to make mass-production ships that can hold up in a fight, and their military is made up of trained League citizens who volunteer for service (like a regular military).

So their ship-building skills are below the Dominion's because they try for quality AND quantity, and they're more rigid in design than the Federation. But they do have superior vessel design with more powerful weapons, hulls that are harder to breach, good military training and tactics, the larger ships tend to be mobile weapon platforms with smaller more maneuverable vessels launched from the MCs and/or escorting the other Battleships/Battle-Cruisers.

Their FTL is faster than warp, but it’s less precise and can’t be slowed down once it’s engaged (like a self-acting catapult). This is what the stronger sublight engines are for: the main FTL gets them close enough while the sublight engines get them to the precise area as fast as possible if they miss. What happens is that the larger ships have big energy sails while an energy emitter device comes out of the back of the ship; it emits an energy pulse that the sails catch and propel the ship. Once begun the FTL process can’t be stopped until they reached the pre-programmed coordinates, so while the “Starsail” is faster than Warp and sustainable for longer it’s more limited in that course corrections can’t be made. To make up for this the League’s starships have faster Impulse/Sublight engines than Alpha Quadrant vessels, but smaller League warships ONLY have the Impulse engines and not the Starsail capability that large ships do.

 

[Anwar]

Story-wise S2 would open with the crew splitting up inside Guardian Prime: Some staying to supervise repairs, some going to see what trading can be done/information can be gathered, and some crew going with Neelix to find some friends of his that aren’t part of the Talaxian Rebel Network in the Periphery/Wasteland. Here we'd run into some Talaxian ex-soldiers working as mercenaries, with their leader willing to help out as an escort because Neelix is an old friend but others in the squad would be hostile to the idea because they remember how Neelix also went AWOL and turned his back on the military effort, even though by then it was clear they were going to lose. This would lessen as time goes on when Neelix makes it clear to them that he’s been able to get the VOY crew to help him re-establish contact with other Talaxian Rebels as well as liberate a few of their Outer Colonies near the Ocampa Homeworld from the Kazon; now is the time for them to get all the support and allies they can get in the Central Core for the day they can go to Talax itself.

The VOY crew would have to do more work and stuff once in League space to earn money to pay for the ship repairs, do trading and gather information and allies once they're past the Periphery area and don't have to worry about any more Kazon or Vidiian attacks if they stopped anywhere. The first few episodes of S2 would be them on Guardian Prime doing various things while the ship gets repaired by Malon contractors (with Janeway and Chakotay having to find a way of getting it fixed without the Malon selling information about their tech to the League, as well as League spies).

The information gatherers would find information on the other Central Core powers aside from the League whom they can try to ask for help, realizing that the League might be a little too interested in their technological advantages like Warp Drive. They also can’t find a decent replacement for the utterly destroyed long-range scanners on VOY, which kept them from scanning the stars themselves earlier on, but what maps they can get show that Vulcan-related species have been to the Central Core before.

 

[Solarbaby]

As a fan fiction or published novel/comic I can see this working well. As episodic TV show I think it would be hard for the audience to accept Janeway as a captain. It was a war with TV chiefs to get a female captain don't forget, never mind some junior officer. She would need to be extremely well written and with more consistency than the real Janeway for her character to work.

This is really well thought out. I'm surprised at how much work you have put into this compared to say something like a spin off show. Is this ever going to be a real series in any medium?

 

[Anwar]

I don't know really, I thought about turning this into an independent Novel series someday (not a Trek one though). Who knows, I might pitch it to a TV Exec someday.

 

[Anwar]

It'd be revealed that the reason Cullah was so determined to get his hands on Voyager wasn't just because he wanted its tech, it was because he's been trying to apply to the League for Kazon membership and kept getting rejected because they don't offer anything worthwhile to the League's well-being. He saw that VOY's tech was revolutionary and thought of capturing it and presenting it as a gift to the League.

The first half of this season would have them having adventures on Guardian Prime and deal with the VOY crew doing more work and services to earn money to pay for the ship repairs, do trading and gather information and allies once they're past the Periphery area and don't have to worry about any more Kazon or Vidiian attacks. The ship gets repaired by Malon contractors (with Janeway and Chakotay having to find a way of getting it fixed without the Malon selling information about their tech to the League, as well as League spies).

The (female) League Admiral (a cyborg, just for the heck of it) in command of Guardian Prime (and the entire Outer Defense Perimeter) would at first just dismiss VOY as a random vessel of refugees fleeing the Periphery in a vessel they patched up from wrecks. But after some League technicians and Malon dock workers notice the difference in technology and report them she becomes somewhat curious and requests that they be observed (they don’t want to risk a diplomatic incident if these guys are affiliated with any other Central Core powers). A subplot would be how Janeway and Chakotay try to bluff their way off of Guardian Prime by claiming to be on a diplomatic mission from the Federation.

The information gatherers would find information on the other Central Core powers aside from the League whom they can try to ask for help, realizing that the League might be a little too interested in their technological advantages like Warp Drive. They also can’t find a decent replacement for the utterly destroyed long-range scanners on VOY, which kept them from scanning the stars themselves earlier on, but what maps they can get show that Vulcan-related species have been to the Central Core before. Genetic testing on Tuvok and other Vulcans in the crew also show compatibility in genetic databases of passing species.

 

[Anwar]

Information on the other species would go as thus:

Central Core

The Krenim, an Imperium ruled by various Houses cooperating; at least until recently because right now they’re apparently having some kind of internal struggle with a renegade military scientist and some new tech they’ve been working on. So for now they’re off-limits, although technologically they’re supposed to have access to some ancient ruins that catapulted their tech level with all kinds of temporal-based weapons.

The Devore, who're very anti-telepathic due to the "Old Wars" 2000 years ago which involved telepathics enemies who used their abilities to great offensive effect. Xenophobic, and armed with weapons meant specifically to kill telepathic species if needed, closed-borders but willing to speak through viewscreen embassies.

The Hierarchy and the Malon, just to add some more names and stuff in to flesh out the region. The Malon run most of the generic space corporations that do various things around the Central Core: Mining, construction, private dockyards, etc.

Think Tank here would be a private corporation that sells itself out to solve problems for other races (incurable diseases, super computer viruses, new ship or weapon designs), for extremely high fees of course. Their HQ is a station built around a Micro-Star they created which is their power source.

The Lokirrim (the guys who hate photonic life) make their appearance dealing with their robotic armies, which in this version are the robots from the “Prototype” episode. Their story being that to recover from the “Old Wars” they started using lots of robots after they got their FTL capacities back and started re-establishing their colonies on ravaged worlds or re-establishing contact with surviving colonies.

Anyways, several Lokirrim are angry at the mass-usage of AIs since it makes them too dependent, but they rely on them too much to just stop using them without weakening themselves. Some Lokirrim who are in the army (regular Lokirrim can join, but most don't because they prefer the AIs dying in their place) are somewhat hostile upon meeting VOY due to the Doctor, while others are more accepting because of all the help the AIs have done for them.

There are renegade AIs in the Central Core, modified military Robots who no longer have the programming blocks that keep them loyal. They're mainly terrorists or pirates attacking Lokkirrim shipping or bases (and maybe occasional independent ships, but not major power ones like League vessels) so they'd encounter VOY as well.

As a hint of things to come I'd reveal the main group of Lokirrim robot revolutionaries are under the leadership of the AI from the Think Tank, but it would seem Korris and the others are unaware of what it's doing.

Putting all the facts together the VOY crew come to the realization that these Old Wars are what turned the Periphery/Wasteland INTO a Wasteland in the first place and why there are archeological sites looking for remnants of advanced technology there. This “Ancient Enemy” that led to the creation of the League was apparently telepathic and their ships had the capability of destroying entire star systems.