Vulcan or Andoria?

[apenpaap]

OK, imagine this: shortly after "Terra Prime", some guy discovers the Romulans are cousins of the Vulcans and tells everyone. This knowledge sows immense distrust in the brand new Coalition, and Andoria demands Vulcan withdraws from the Coalition. They refuse, and this leads to war between Vulcan and Andoria. Both sides are roughly equal in military power, and they both ask Tellar to join them, but the Tellarites refuse to pick a side and both Andoria and Vulcan cancel all diplomatic relations with them. Now both sides ask Earth for help. If we refuse to pick a side, both sides will cancel all diplomacy with us as they did with Tellar. What should we do?

 

[apenpaap]

IMO, Earth should join Andoria. The Vulcans have shown on multiple occasions that they think of us as not much more then a sattelite state. They have held Earth back for 90 years, didn't come to our aid during the Xindi crisis, and generally behave very arrogant toward us. Also, there is the risk of Romulan infiltration amongst them.
The Andorians OTOH seem to consider us genuine allies, have displayed nothing but trustworthiness to us (Apart from that time when they stole the prototype Xindi weapon), and came to our aid when the Xindi attacked Earth.

 

[Vulcan Princess]

Andoria was definitely a better friend to Earth than Vulcan was. I've often described the relations between Earth and Vulcan as a benign occupation. When things got difficult for Earth, it was Andoria that helped, not Vulcan. That makes me want to side with Andoria.

However, my more level-headed side thinks that joining with Tellar in staying out of it might be the prudent course of action. Earth has its own problems to deal with without getting sucked into a war between Vulcan and Andoria. Plus, if the Vulcans and Andorians weaken each other, Earth will emerge as the local power.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

None of the above. (You know someone would do that sooner or later, eh? )

Since Andoria's initial demand for Vulcan to withdraw from the Coalition is based on the (likely prejudiced) assumption that Vulcans = Romulans, I think Earth's leaders would try to negotiate a cease-fire between Andoria and Vulcan, for the good of the Coalition. It would probably involve proving or disproving the "Vulcans = Romulans" suspicions, plus pulling a Surak and getting both sides to lay down their weapons in the interests of peace.

 

[Skywalker]

Boring Star Trek humans would remain neutral and try to mediate a peace.

Real humans would side with the Andorians and beat the tar out of those green-blooded sons-of-bitches.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

^^ Hey, I'm a Phloxist. What did you expect?

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I'd say Earth should- and would- try to negotiate an end to the conflict. If not, join with Tellar and simply let the Vulcans and Andorians know "Earth and Tellar are still here. Finish your war and we'll be waiting to start this coalition up again".

 

[Alyssa]

I agree that they would either try to negotiate or just join Tellar and stay out of it.

As for joining the Andorians, although the reasons for choosing them are valid you would have to keep in mind that joining Andora in the war would mean that we would be against the Vulcans, who have spent almost a century on earth learning everything about our world, culture and most importantly our defences and thus would make a much more formidible enemy than the Andorians, given there tendancy to rush impulsively into things, a fighting style we are more familiar with as apposed to the unyeilding logic and intellectual battles offered by the Vulcans.

I think, where Earth to choose a side, they should take into consideration the idea of the lesser of two evils and weighing our chances of coming out on top which would make the Vulcans the wise choice of ally.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Archer and Soval would go to Andoria and convince Shran that the Andorian government must be convinced that Vulcans aren't Romulans. Which they then do.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Obviously we should remain neutral, let them cripple each other to the ground and then conquer their worlds.

All hail the Terran Empire!

 

[Thor Damar]

Obviously we should remain neutral, let them cripple each other to the ground and then conquer their worlds.

All hail the Terran Empire!

That would be what would happen if 'normal' humans were in the ST universe.

I would go with the Blueskins and form a more equal alliance. The Federation would, of course that a very different route....

 

[lceb]

wow, no love for Vulcans here!
We should remain neutral of course and try to help bring peace between Andoria and Vulcan, because only the Romulans would gain from this war at this point. Besides haven't the Andorians moved a step forward and don't start wars only on suspicion?

 

[iguana_tonante]

Obviously we should remain neutral, let them cripple each other to the ground and then conquer their worlds.

All hail the Terran Empire!

That would be what would happen if 'normal' humans were in the ST universe.

That's the reason for my long-standing opinion that Star Trek mirror universe is actually our universe.

 

[Mach5]

Are you guys forgetting that Vulcans were de facto Romulan puppets in this conflict? That makes them bad guys by default, doesn't it?

 

[lceb]

^Oh, how can you say that? We know that V'las was a Romulan puppet, but he was overthrown and the kir'sara was found etc...

 

[Mach5]

^Oh, how can you say that? We know that V'las was a Romulan puppet, but he was overthrown and the kir'sara was found etc...

Yes, and when that happened, the conflict ended. ()

 

[lceb]

^ But the signing of the Coalition and then the Romulan war started after these events, no? I suppose also that the hypothetical question apenpaap asks is after these events too.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Are you guys forgetting that Vulcans were de facto Romulan puppets in this conflict? That makes them bad guys by default, doesn't it?

Not from the Romulan point of view, obviously.

 

[Mach5]

Are you guys forgetting that Vulcans were de facto Romulan puppets in this conflict? That makes them bad guys by default, doesn't it?

Not from the Romulan point of view, obviously.

Obviously. But we're discussing human POV here, are we not?

 

[iguana_tonante]

Are you guys forgetting that Vulcans were de facto Romulan puppets in this conflict? That makes them bad guys by default, doesn't it?

Not from the Romulan point of view, obviously.

Obviously. But we're discussing human POV here, are we not?

Yes, but the human and Romulan points of view don't have to disagree.

Humans could have joined Romulans to overthrow Vulcan (since they allegedly kept Earth back withholding resources and technologies), and then go on conquering Andoria and some other worlds.

Since we already know that they will build the Federation together, we think of humans and Vulcans as natural allies, but at that point in time, it was not a given. Actually, I could see much more similarity between Romulan and human cultures and society than between human and Vulcans.