What do you think is the optimum WatchKeeping/WatchStanding schedule for StarFleet?

[Kamen Rider Blade]

IMO, unless you've got billions and billions of starships, there's no way any government can adequately defend itself.

In my 26th Century Head Canon, StarFleet will have expanded to have ~1 Billion StarShips in Operation using a standardized Fleet Template of various sized Fleet Ships to fill up the numerous standardized Fleets. But even then that'll give me only ~ 1 Million Fleets of ~ 1036 StarShips per Fleet (Vast majority are on the "Small-ish" size).

Even then, with my ODFERP (Optimized Dynamic Fleet Engagement & Response Plan) Scheduling based off of similar US Navy scheduling for it's massive fleet:

Every Fleet / StarShip will be on 24 Month Deployment Cycles.
- 24 month Deployment cycles for entire Ships/Fleets
- Flexibility in which part of the phase a Ship/Fleet is in based on real world conditions & circumstances
Operational Phases:
- Maintenance and/or Repairs: 01-08 months
- Ship ShakeDown / Crew Training: 04-08 months
- Travel time & Deployment @: 08-19 months

Because of that schedule, only about 1/3 -> 80% of the entire Fleet can be deployed at any given time in a "Best Case" Scenario. There will be various months where a ship will be in Port/SpaceDock for Maintenance/Repairs, the new crew will need to go through a Ship ShakeDown / Crew Training, then there's the various travel times to and from along with the Deployment at the actual planned locations.

Given how vast the Universe is, you can't expect everybody to teleport back via Spore Drive unless it's of the utmost importance and if they receive the signal to come home and help.

Space is simply too big and too three-dimensional, and even if you got a big enough net, there are still places where an enemy can slip through. At best, you can defend this sector or that sector when you see an enemy coming that way, but unless you have an almost infinite number of Warp 10 starships at your disposal, you will always have a certain level of vulnerability than can (and often will) be exploited. And I don't think that's a problem only for the Federation...

I concur, most people who look at the maps only see the "Thin Disk" section of the map.
Our Milky Way Galaxy and probably most Galaxies are largely Spherical in nature.

Yes the majority of stars will probably exist along the Thin Disk, but there will be plenty of Stars Above and below the Thin Disk layers.

You have an entire Thick Disk to worry about for other StarSystems.

And don't forget that Star Systems can exist in the Galactic Halo as well, just fewer of them for a given volume of space.

Most of every Star System's defense will probably be at the Star System level.

In my Head Canon, there will be two major zones in every Star System where you will create a Spherical Defensive Network.

1) A Outter Spherical Network of losely seperated Satellite Defense Turrets seperated by maybe 1° degree across a circle along the surface of a sphere, right before the edge of the HelioSheath. By my estimates, if you create a Spherical network, that amounts to 64,442 Turret Emplacements. Each Turret can carry 2 Dozen Battery Powered Attack Drones which amounts to a network total of ~ 1,546,608 Attack Drones to keep unwanted enemies out of your Star System.

The enemy intruder should encounter more drones than what Kirk did in Star Trek Beyond when he faced the Altamid Swarm.

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But the battles won't be close range, but be largely long range.

2) A Inner Spherical Network of Defense Turrets that are closer together and sit on the inner edge of the Termination Shock.
The Orbital Defense Platforms will use standard Beam Weaponry and be similar in concept to the Cardassian Orbital Weapons Platform, but with updated StarFleet tech of the 26th Century using a standard Beam attack range of ~3 Light-Seconds before standard Energy Attenuation kicks in. That's the extent of my EMBC (Electro-Magnetic Beam Collimator) range to hold the beams together before traditional Beam Attenuation goes into play the beams naturally spread apart.
Each Part of the Defense Grid will have OverLapping Fire coverage from Multiple Satellite Defense Turrets, so the moment you try to pass through the network, you'll be hit from multiple sides by multiple beams.

Anybody that is using FTL, there will be specialized torpedoes designed to bring you out of FTL if you don't voluntarily do so on your own accord, and it will be a rough transition to normal space if you don't agree to follow the Automated Defense Perimeters warnings to exit FTL and submit to inspection and scanning.

At each Planetary Level, there will be a multi level / layer planetary Shield and Orbital Defense Platforms floating around each Planet.

My standard setup for a M-Class planet like Earth is a 16 Layer Planetary Shield with 16 Layers of ODP's (Orbital Defense Platforms).

You should encounter far stiffer opposition to Planetary Entry than this:

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But with a Multi-Layer Planetary Shield that shoots back (16 Layers all at different altitudes above ground seperated by at least 1000 km's each, for the outter 10 layer's).

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There will be 12x Shield Gates for each layer for standard Planetary Traffic to allow smaller vessels to fly in. Similar in Concept to the Planetary Shield Gate that was at Scarif in Star Wars.
Larger Vessels will need to stay in Planetary Orbit and be only allowed to beam down once authorization is given for a Beam In/Out window.

Maybe why there might be an emphasis on diplomacy within Starfleet is to defuse potential conflicts before they escalate to the point where phasers and photon torpedoes are flying. Although the Federation has had its share of armed conflicts and has had more than a few bloody noses, it's possible that a great deal more conflicts have been avoided through diplomacy and negotiation.

I mean, if it wasn't for James T. Kirk, imagine how many angry alien women would be attacking the Federation right now...

Diplomacy is great, but remember "Trust, but verify". I'd obviously rather not fight, but I'd also prefer not gettin conquered in a worst case scenario.

Every Member Star System of the UFP needs to be upgraded to be "Ready" in a worst case scenario.

Look at how many Star Systems fell so easily during the Dominion War because they "Weren't ready" or their defense systems were out of date.

So having all Member Star Systems with significant populations or Industry be "Ready" is a good thing IMO.

Now you’re talkin’ my language! I completely agree. The average person does not fully comprehend just how vast and three-dimensional space is. Most people are too comfortable with thinking only in two dimensions. All printed Star Trek maps are two-dimensional, and all Star Trek starship combat games (board games or video games) are two-dimensional. A few non-Star Trek video games are what we call two-and-a-half-dimensional in that they represent height and depth as if in an atmosphere. Almost every representation of starships and fleets of starships you see on TV is two-dimensional. Even the largest fleets are all carefully organized with a ceiling and a floor with all ships oriented the same in relation to the imaginary ceiling and floor, at least up to the end of Voyager. Even the designs of the ships themselves all betray two-dimensional thinking, as if they were designed to fly in an atmosphere rather than space. It is a science fiction culture of two dimensions! Where space is just a highway, new worlds are just other cities, and starships are automobiles!

I concur on the 2D-ness, but that's the easiest way of portraying things sadly.

Space is treated like the vast Oceans, and new Worlds are similar to unexplored Island/Continents & StarShips are just Maritime Ships sailing through the vastness of space.

There is absolutely no way to force a claim to the vastness of space. Even the space between ours and the nearest solar system spans a distance of 10 hours at Warp 9! The very idea of claiming huge chunks of empty space is ludicrous.

And UFP and other Nation States will do so anyways with local patrols to enforce their territorial claims =D.

But, a galaxy that is divided politically would very definitely lay claim to population centers, planetary resources, solar systems (if possible) and trade routes and other places within the space. Starships could be used to fortify those positions and patrol those routes. It seems, however, that the growth and expansion of the Federation has always outpaced its ability to militarily defend itself.

More like the UFP never put much effort into local Defense at the Star System & Planetary levels.

As a consequence of the vastness of space, you could lay claim to as much of it as you wanted, but most of it would always be blacked out and unknown as far as any real time analysis.

That's why you have a Large Network of Long Range Sensors that can see out into the vastness of space and update everybody as to what is going on.

 

[Dumbbell]

In my 26th Century Head Canon, StarFleet will have expanded to have ~1 Billion StarShips in Operation

A 26th Century Federation that has expanded to such an extent that it has a Starfleet with 1,000,000,000 starships in operation… is impressive.

So, let’s say with your schedule we would have about 580,000,000 ships deployed, 250,000,000 ships in avg. 6 mo. training/shakedown/reserve, and 170,000,000 ships in avg. 4 mo. maintenance, during a 24 month cycle.

So, for maintenance we will need—thinking old-school here—18 ships per facility, we would need 9,500,000 maintenance facilities.

At 350 member worlds, that would be an average of 2,850,000 ships and 27,000 maintenance facilities per member world. We would also need enough crew for 1,000,000,000 ships in operation. At an average of 50 persons per ship, we need 50,000,000,000 persons. That means we would need 2,850,000 captains and 143,000,000 other persons on average from each member world.

Your belief is that a 50/50 balance is in order, for Military Readiness / Scientific Explorer. We might have to double the figures above unless we plan to send science ships to battle.

Either way, it is a lot of ships and infrastructure dedicated to defense.

The enemy intruder should encounter more drones than what Kirk did in Star Trek Beyond when he faced the Altamid Swarm.

In Kirk’s case, the swarm was the intruder. If, however, you plan to make a defense with a swarm, it should be prepared to deal with an equal or superior threat, which is where your fleet schedule and travel times come in.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

A 26th Century Federation that has expanded to such an extent that it has a Starfleet with 1,000,000,000 starships in operation… is impressive.

It's been 122 years since the end of ST: Nemesis till the beginning of my 26th Century.
Post Dominion War, there's no reduction or limits in children that people can have because we aren't resource limited via modern day finances/resource production or in giving birth to children and raising them. Grand Parents are largely involved with the raising of Children as are the parents of every generation. Everybody is also genetically engineered to live longer on average.

Genetic Engineering is finally allowed, but regulated so that certain traits or attributes are not allowed to be inserted/tuned in the genome (e.g. more/extra Aggression, more/extra Arrogance, etc). Basically those regulations are there to prevent another relapse of Khan Noonien Singh and the Eugenics War. It took alot of debate in the UFP council, especially since Denobula joined the UFP and they have a long successful history of Genetic Engineering without issue. Also Julian Bashir is a prime example of successful Genetic Engineering without creating another Khan Noonien Singh.

Numerous major powers have joined the Federation such as the Denobulans, Antarans, Klingons, Cardassians, Romulans, Ferengi, Xindi, Ithenites, Voth, Krenim, Vidiians, Kobali, and Kelemane.

Many of those races have their Military Equivalents integrated into StarFleet.

Some Imperialists/Colonizers/Conquers/War Mongering factions of Klingons / Romulans who didn't want to merge with the UFP left in a Large Exodus of a sizeable chunk of their respective populations, after the vast majority of their people had a cultural revolution occur in both empires. The vast majority of people wanted peace and to join the UFP. This caused a schism in both the Klingons & Romulans where it was similar to the original Romulans who seperated from the Vulcans long time ago.

But this time the reasoning for the split was completely different and the UFP was blamed because of their Democratic & Peaceful ways poisoned the minds of too many Klingon/Romulan citizenry. This turned the majority of citizenry against their Authoritarian / Oligarchial / War Mongering / Colonizing LeaderShip with their endless thirst for conquest, expansion, & pointless wars to gain territory & resources.

The vast majority of Klingon/Romulan citizenry were largely tired of the old ways. The schism forced out those who preferred the old ways to leave to form their own little Kingdom far far away onto the Eastward sides of the Milky Way map on the Thin Disc layer. Close to the Beta/Delta Quadrant Border. Those who left, joined and formed an alliance with a new power called the "Hegemonic Coalition" where each of the old Klingon Royal Houses and many of the Romulan Senate Upper Class & Political Elite were able to create their own new "Fiefdoms/Mini Kingdoms" in various Star Systems and get "Recognized" as a new Allied Stellar Nation State under a new powerful Coalition that shared "Similar Values".

So, let’s say with your schedule we would have about 580,000,000 ships deployed, 250,000,000 ships in avg. 6 mo. training/shakedown/reserve, and 170,000,000 ships in avg. 4 mo. maintenance, during a 24 month cycle.

So, for maintenance we will need—thinking old-school here—18 ships per facility, we would need 9,500,000 maintenance facilities.

Sounds about right, I have alot of Standardized Mass Produced StarBases with Vast Internal Garage space for the majority of my ships.

At 350 member worlds, that would be an average of 2,850,000 ships and 27,000 maintenance facilities per member world. We would also need enough crew for 1,000,000,000 ships in operation. At an average of 50 persons per ship, we need 50,000,000,000 persons. That means we would need 2,850,000 captains and 143,000,000 other persons on average from each member world.

- 2373 has ≥ 150 Members & spread over 8,000 ly <ST: First Contact>
- By the start of the 26th Century, my UFP has 224 Members spread over a FAR larger area than 8,000 ly³
- By the start of my 26th Century, my UFP has 9,007,199,254,740,992 Federation citizens ~= 9 Quadrillion Federation citizens are currently within the UFP at the start of ST:IF.
- That makes the UFP a KS=1.5 level society; Affiliates & Protectorates aren’t part of the population count!
- This averages out to about 40,210,710,958,666 ~= 40.210 Trillion Citizens per Member Species
- Most M-Class Type & Earth Sized planets has their Planetary Population Hard capped to 1 Trillion (1,000,000,000,000) for Ecological, Strategic, Managerial, Social, and numerous other reasons; so a constant expansion outwards was happening with society rebuilding itself onto newer planets.

- There has been a bunch of Re-Orgs to the Exploratory/Military arm of the UFP due to the various integrations of new UFP Members and seperation of responsibilities into new sibling branches along with various historical & political reasons for seperation of powers along with new responsibilities:
- At this point in time, StarFleet is the Stellar-Naval Branch of UIFIS (UFP InterStellar Forces Integrated Services), they are the Lynch-Pin / Most important piece of UIFIS given their reach, history, origins, and primary operational domain.
- Other branchs of the Military like "Soldiers for Boots on the Ground", "Aviators for operating various Small Craft", Logistics, Intelligence Gathering, Coast Guard equivalent, Joint Special Forces, etc have all been created and taken care of in seperate branches that are part of a inter-operating Services with Specialized Domains.
- All services functions as one large Joint Operation, one set of Ranks (No Enlisted / Officer divide). - Everybody now Cadet goes through UIFIS Academy and fans out to individual Academies like StarFleet Academy as they figure out what they want to become in their initial Primary Job Options (Crew Member on a StarShip/Base, Soldier, Aviator, Support, etc).

- About 90,071,992,547,410 ~= 90.071 Trillion UIFIS Officers in total combined with Active duty, Cadets, Non-StarFleet branches, etc; basically everybody which is about 1% of the total population of the UFP

- About 68.04 Trillion UIFIS Officers are Reservists who spend the majority of their remaining life working part time in StarFleet after having spent a lengthy Full Time Career in StarFleet (20-30 years on average). The benefits package after a long length service in UIFIS is "Great". Especially for those who remain on Reserve Duty.

Your belief is that a 50/50 balance is in order, for Military Readiness / Scientific Explorer. We might have to double the figures above unless we plan to send science ships to battle.

Either way, it is a lot of ships and infrastructure dedicated to defense.

I have the #'s given how big I want my UIFIS (UFP InterStellar Forces Integrated Services) to become.

In Kirk’s case, the swarm was the intruder. If, however, you plan to make a defense with a swarm, it should be prepared to deal with an equal or superior threat, which is where your fleet schedule and travel times come in.

There's that, and I have ALOT of StarBases Pre-Stationed at EVERY Single Lagrange Points for every Star System's: Star-Planet & Planet-Moon Lagrange Points.

Let's just say that every Planet, Moon, & Star within a Star System will be "Amply defended".

You're not getting in with a fight, you're not leaving easily either.

To all the non UFP Guests, please follow the rules & regulations when passing through UFP territory and everything will be fine. Enjoy your stay.

 

[Dumbbell]

A couple of things might come up…

First, I see your Federation as amazing! However, I also see that its military must escalate. The reason for the escalation is for the Federation to defend itself, a noble reason. Nevertheless, it is still a military escalation. As a result, the Federation will see its enemies escalating to match or better the Federation’s escalation. Conversely, the Federation must escalate in order to match or better the escalation of its enemies.

It is an armaments race that the earlier Federation tried to avoid as much as possible while still maintaining superiority.

Second, the Federation will have two kinds of enemies. First, it will have enemies that are more powerful than it; second, it will have enemies that are as powerful or less powerful.

Even a less powerful enemy could be a more powerful threat if it adopts a 100 percent military ship complement policy compared to the Federation’s 50 percent military and 50 percent science policy. Furthermore, enemies that are less powerful are more desperate and will make use of devastating weapons, such as Omega warheads or some other A-bomb equivalent in order to rule or ruin.

Enemies that are more powerful that the Federation may not need to use Omega warheads but may reserve the ability to do so whenever they choose, posing a continuous threat that would be best met with peace and perhaps even de-escalation rather than escalation.

So, all infrastructure may be amply represented, but there really is no such thing as “amply defended.” It is all relative.

Taking a lesson from the Federation’s history… We see that the Federation as it was before the Dominion War was very small and weak by comparison to your impressive 26th Century Federation. However, it was just what was needed at the time and in the circumstances it found itself. Escalating similarly back then would have had a null effect because when one empire escalates, they must all escalate! But, surprise! Along came a new threat: the Dominion. The Federation was not prepared for that, nor could it be, for if it had been, the Dominion would have escalated accordingly and simply sprung the same surprise but at an escalated level just as equally dangerous to the Federation. The Federation could not prepare for the unknown threat until after it became known. Then it had to readjust its strategies and tactics in efforts to cope with a superior threat.

This desire for preparedness as a lesson learned from its own history seems to be the motivation behind your 26th Century Federation. I hope that the powers that be learn the right lesson. For, I tell you, there are enemies of your 26th Century Federation escalating accordingly...

Out there.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

A couple of things might come up…

First, I see your Federation as amazing! However, I also see that its military must escalate. The reason for the escalation is for the Federation to defend itself, a noble reason. Nevertheless, it is still a military escalation. As a result, the Federation will see its enemies escalating to match or better the Federation’s escalation. Conversely, the Federation must escalate in order to match or better the escalation of its enemies.

The UFP of my time will do what it can, as needed. They're working Smart & Hard to solve the any technological gap or lack of capabilities.

It is an armaments race that the earlier Federation tried to avoid as much as possible while still maintaining superiority.

Even without a direct enemy at any given time, the UFP and StarFleet will always be researching & improving it's tech.

Just like the US has DARPA, the UFP has it's own equivalents.

Second, the Federation will have two kinds of enemies. First, it will have enemies that are more powerful than it; second, it will have enemies that are as powerful or less powerful.

Even a less powerful enemy could be a more powerful threat if it adopts a 100 percent military ship complement policy compared to the Federation’s 50 percent military and 50 percent science policy. Furthermore, enemies that are less powerful are more desperate and will make use of devastating weapons, such as Omega warheads or some other A-bomb equivalent in order to rule or ruin.

If you're stupid enough to mess with Omega Molecules, then the UFP will come in and stop you. Janeway did it, every Captain in StarFleet is compelled to do it.

Enemies that are more powerful that the Federation may not need to use Omega warheads but may reserve the ability to do so whenever they choose, posing a continuous threat that would be best met with peace and perhaps even de-escalation rather than escalation.

We'll deal with the Omega Molecule situation when the time comes.

So, all infrastructure may be amply represented, but there really is no such thing as “amply defended.” It is all relative.

I concur, it is relative. But compared to what we saw in the 24th century, there was practically Zero Static Defense layers in most Star Systems. You can literally waltz in unchecked with minimal resistance.

I'm just adding the equivalent of a multi-layer Stellar Castle & Moat along with active check points, guards, and multi-layer defensive fortifications.

In my 26th century, the average UFP Citizen owns a AstroMobile like we own cars today, they can literally fly out of the Atmosphere of their planet and go to any UFP Planet that they want and take TransWarp Highways / Freeways to where ever they want.

If they wanted, they can also take individual Warp Ferry Rings to go exploring / spelunking.

All AstroMobiles are Mini Fusion or Battery powered, so no citizens are allowed to own / operate any advanced reactors without getting trained or certified in it's opertion.

Mini Fusion reactors are considered the most basic of reactors that the average citizen trains and gets certifications for.

My fortifying every Star System is the least I can do given how StarFleet lost ALOT of credibility in the eyes of it's citizenry when the Breen/Dominion attacked StarFleet HQ during the war. Especially given the losses that UFP encountered and the countless territory lost and occupation by the Dominion.

Look at Star Trek Picard, a random Planet in the old Romulan Ex-Neutral Zone has a Planetary Shield, just one layer and it was enough to ward of your basic raiders / space pirates, I'm sure the Planetary Shield is ALOT tougher than we give it credit for considering a Space Fighter crashed into it without issue, and it's stated to be a OLD design. It's no where near the latest defensive designs.

Taking a lesson from the Federation’s history… We see that the Federation as it was before the Dominion War was very small and weak by comparison to your impressive 26th Century Federation. However, it was just what was needed at the time and in the circumstances it found itself. Escalating similarly back then would have had a null effect because when one empire escalates, they must all escalate! But, surprise! Along came a new threat: the Dominion. The Federation was not prepared for that, nor could it be, for if it had been, the Dominion would have escalated accordingly and simply sprung the same surprise but at an escalated level just as equally dangerous to the Federation. The Federation could not prepare for the unknown threat until after it became known. Then it had to readjust its strategies and tactics in efforts to cope with a superior threat.

The UFP of the 24th century was a by product of stagnation and having largely defeated or made peace with the Klingons and Romulans in the 23rd Century. So there was a large era of over confidence and stagnation. Where the Doves in the StarFleet Admiralty and the UFP council took over. It's thanks to "Q" that things began to shake up. If Picard didn't encounter the Borg thanks to Q, then all of Humanity and probably the UFP / Alpha Quadrant would've been doomed if the "First Encounter" with the Borg was when they showed up at Earth's door step and nobody knew who they were.

Because of that encounter, UFP and humanity started to prep and get ready. By the time the Dominion came about, StarFleet was already ramping up new weapons, new StarShips, etc.

The reason the UFP survived was partially thanks to Q, Picard, Will Riker, Benjamin Sisko.

Each one of those people had a key pivotal event/role that helped save the UFP.

Same with Janeway and her actions at the end of Voyager.

In my timeline even Michael Burnham will play a key pivotal role in guranteeing the UFP / StarFleet survives long into the future (> 40,000 years into the future), far better than what she got to see in the 32nd century. She fixes key mistakes like "The Burn" and prevents many for from happening, helping course correct and guide the UFP / StarFleet due to Time Travel Shenanigans.

This desire for preparedness as a lesson learned from its own history seems to be the motivation behind your 26th Century Federation. I hope that the powers that be learn the right lesson. For, I tell you, there are enemies of your 26th Century Federation escalating accordingly...

Out there.

It's better to be prepared and not to need it then to not be prepared and encounter a situation where you're caught un prepared.

Look how many StarFleet officers died during the Dominion War. A more prepared UFP / StarFleet would've minimized the casualties on our side.

Just look at the Cardassians during the Dominion War.
At least 7 million Cardassian soldiers are dead, 800 million Cardassian civilians killed by Dominion.

That's just on one side.

The UFP & StarFleet took heavy losses as well.

That bitter pill needs to be learned from.

The Cardassians learned that their Authoritarian Military Leaders weren't doing what's best for the Cardassian people. In the end, they decided to join the UFP to follow a different way of living.

 

[Dumbbell]

If you're stupid enough to mess with Omega Molecules, then the UFP will come in and stop you. Janeway did it, every Captain in StarFleet is compelled to do it.

It's not about if someone is stupid enough to use it.

It's about if someone is stupid enough to wage war against an enemy who has it.

The Federation apparently does not have it because they choose not to have it. That is an example of de-escalation that works in the Federation's favor...

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

It's not about if someone is stupid enough to use it.

It's about if someone is stupid enough to wage war against an enemy who has it.

The Federation apparently does not have it because they choose not to have it. That is an example of de-escalation that works in the Federation's favor...

The UFP is not about to reveal the existence of the "Omega Particle" to anybody in the public sphere; so if they find out somebody else has it, they'll go to all lengths to destroy the information and hide it's existence from the greater public.

I'm sure Section 31 is under a similar directive.

So if an enemy is going to use the "Omega Particle", then they'll find ways to subtly infiltrate and sabotage or destroy the info.

 

[Dumbbell]

I can see why the UFP would want to take that stand against Omega technology.

Realistically, though, the secret is out.

Who learned about it?

Well, the Borg Collective learned about it, and they learned about it starting around 2145 by assimilating no less than 2 relatively primitive species with that knowledge, and at least 11 other species also with that knowledge.

Even Federation cosmologists theorized the existence of Omega.

About 100 years later, the Federation learned the facts about it. After an accident that destabilized a manufactured molecule, they tried to restrict free knowledge about it. Still, every captain learned about the Omega Directive and detection of Omega molecules.

About another 100 years later, a civilization in the Delta Quadrant actually made some 200,000,000 molecules, and Captain Janeway learned about it and she felt that she had to tell her crew. Seven-of-Nine already knew about it. Apparently, every drone freed from the Collective knows about it. That includes Hugh and a number of children. By accident an entire Borg cube severed from the Collective; survivors formed the Cooperative with the mission to free more Borg drones. Another 50 years later, Hugh continued that work with an army of drones and a Borg cube controlled by the Romulan Free State.

Apparently, at least one unruly “child” in the Q-Continuum knows about it, even tempting a Federation captain to disobey orders and try to use it as a weapon.

So, we have relatively primitive species scattered throughout the galaxy learning about it as early as 2145; we have Federation cosmologists theorizing its existence—which won’t stop in a free society; we have tens-of-thousands of Federation captains—active and retired over hundreds of years—with some knowledge about it; we have liberated Borg drones, including children, that already know about it; and we can be sure that the Romulan Free State working with the Federation knows about it; not to mention the Q who tempted someone to weaponized it.

There is no chance in subspace that this is a great secret anymore!

And certainly not by the 26th Century with 1,000,000,000 Federation captains!

Yeah, Omega’s a thing.

The UFP is not about to reveal the existence of the "Omega Particle" to anybody in the public sphere; so if they find out somebody else has it, they'll go to all lengths to destroy the information and hide it's existence from the greater public.

I'm sure Section 31 is under a similar directive.

So if an enemy is going to use the "Omega Particle", then they'll find ways to subtly infiltrate and sabotage or destroy the info.

I can see why the Federation would not want to make the science of the Omega molecule public. Suppressing knowledge, however efficient, is a harmful way to control a population. It could spell trouble for your Federation when its population learns the truth.

Section 31 no doubt has its own Omega Directive, as you said. I would even go so far as to say that Section 31 not only knows all about Omega molecules but has already perfected the technology weaponizing it. If their competitors have weaponized Omega, then we can be sure that Section 31 has Omega weapons on standby, especially if Section 31 has expanded to still operate effectively by the 26th Century.

Section 31 might try to find ways to sabotage enemy efforts to learn about and manufacture Omega, but there is no guarantee of success, rather great risk of the opposite. Furthermore, both enemies and friends to the Federation would naturally explore their theories about Omega and their desires to harness its power. Any and all espionage and sabotage risks destabilizing relationships, and when Omega is the catalyst, it could spell very big trouble.

I like your new Federation, but it looks like a powder keg with a lit fuse to me! That would be a great story, actually.