What was "The Burn" and what caused it?
- Thread starter F. King Daniel
- Start date
Vulcan is only 17 light-years from Earth. There must be some way to establish contact with our closest advanced neighbor unless the Vulcans also seceded from the Federation and went into what amounts to radio silence to separate themselves from the chaos of the Burn.
Well, then it should be really easy to determine which star it is as there are only three or four stars that are anywhere near that distance from our sun.
I can see the Vulcans doing that.
"We have to defend what we've built. The Awakening and what Surak taught us cannot be lost because of this Burn.
Terminate all subspace communications with Earth. Monitor the perimeter of our sector for incoming vessels of any kind, no matter their means of power."
Terminate all subspace communications with Earth. Monitor the perimeter of our sector for incoming vessels of any kind, no matter their means of power."
That's part of the exposition Burnham puts into her message to her absent friends at the start of the third episode. She tells she has learned from Sahil that about 700 years after S2/2258, dilithium began running out, and attempts at finding reliable substitutes failed; then came the Burn (which we know was about a century before S3/3189, thus a century after the dilithium shortage began) where all dilithium went inert and resulted in active warp cores going kaboom. She also makes it clear that the shortage and the Burn were totally separate things; the only reason she mentions both is that both contributed to the decline of the Federation.
We know this much. We don't know if all the dilithium we see is still inert, say: perhaps all dilithium is naturally inert, but it has to be "energized" when doing its job inside a warp core, and a kaboom follows if it suddenly returns to inert state in there. We also don't know how much this recrystallizing trick helps and whether the current reserves of dilithium are dwindling slowly or rapidly. Or, say, whether dilithium mining still takes place somewhere, despite the slowing down of that industry in the 30th century.
Timo Saloniemi
The third episode of the season where Burnham gives an info dump on the burn and what happened over the last 930 years that she's learned in the year she was with Booker before they found the USS Discovery.
I wonder if whoever caused the Burn, also caused the dilithium shortage. I mean i know its a bit tinfoily but i don't buy that shortly after a century after all remaining dilthium goes inert and everything goes to hell in a handbasket.
Greenpeace. Stamets brought up the harm dilithium mining does to the environment when Reno derided his mushroomy achievements. If the yields of dilithium mines are down, then the mining no doubt grows more callous, and it's time to do something about it.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
Maybe the Ferengie have hoarded burn-safe dilithium and in a few episodes they'll show up to sell it at extraordinary prices to the highest bidder!
They were probably the ones behind the burn.
Invent a problem, provide the solution exclusively.
Very Ferengi.
Invent a problem, provide the solution exclusively.
Very Ferengi.
The damaged relay station on which Sahil was (episode 1 of season 3) showed us he had 600 lys worth of short range sensors).
From enterprise series we know that earth, Vulcan, tellar and andor are fairly close to each other in galactic terms... approximately 150-200 lightyears radius.
Even with long range sensors failing on subspace relay stations, each and every ex federation member world would likely have orbital stations still with same or similar sensor capabilities and subspace communications as Sahil relay station.
That's more than enough to encompass a rather large amount of federation member worlds... Say about 12.
What if there are clusters of ex federation worlds who are still speaking to each other and have tried to maintain close ties despite the burn?
With warp travel limited, it's possible that like earth, some of these planets have deposits of dilithium... Just enough to maintain some contact with each other.
Also, wasn't there at least 2 species featured in TNG where one was addicted to the drug the other one was producing? They were very close to each other... Same star system if I'm not mistaken.... And enterprise d sort of ensured that the other species won't be addicted to the drug anymore.
Wonder what happened to those planets and whether they worked together and possibly joined the federation?
For some of the species like those, maintaining contact and visiting each other is really easy with impulse drive even.
As the case of Earth shows, though, even insystem communications may be impossible - because one or both sides refuse to listen.
The Andorians are in cahoots with the Orions and not interested in the Federation (indeed, the Emerald Chain is likely to be one of those "pocket Federations" created when the bigger organization collapsed); them being next-door neighbors to Vulcans and Earth doesn't mean they would communicate with Vulcans or Earthlings. Distance as such would only mean that isolation would be enforced all the more vehemently, since the hated Others would be close enough to try and encroach.
Timo Saloniemi
The Andorians are in cahoots with the Orions and not interested in the Federation (indeed, the Emerald Chain is likely to be one of those "pocket Federations" created when the bigger organization collapsed); them being next-door neighbors to Vulcans and Earth doesn't mean they would communicate with Vulcans or Earthlings. Distance as such would only mean that isolation would be enforced all the more vehemently, since the hated Others would be close enough to try and encroach.
Timo Saloniemi
They seem to have dropped a DS9 reference in every ep this series so far. I'm biased because I'm a big Niner but I can't help wondering if those little breadcrumbs are going somewhere. The Burn seems to fit with the "Founders Plague"- type punishments we saw on various worlds of the Gamma Quadrant before the war in the 24th century. I also suspect Grudge to be a changeling, and his name sure would fit that narrative. The Founders were humiliated at their defeat at the hands of Solids- perhaps Odo died and the survivors wanted revenge. S31 is already knee-deep in it as they were the ones who created the disease that brought The Founders to their knees. Maybe I'm nuts with this.
^^^ This actually makes sense (at least to me). I could easily see the Founders biding their time to exact their revenge on the solids of the galaxy. Not entirely sure how long their lifespans are, but the "Great Link", like Trill symbiotes, may preserve their collective memory indefinitely. For the entire Founder race, the Dominion War may have felt like it just happened yesterday. And they are just petty and vindictive enough to make it work by playing the VERY long game.
Of all DS9 references to fit the Burn, the pah wraiths are the most obvious as already mentioned elsewhere on this board.
Great, now a cat is a possible suspect/villain.
Its not a bad idea (and it would be intriguing if Grudge turned out to be a Founder) but remember that we saw Odo going back into the Link and curing it, while at the same time trying to teach the Founders that not all solids are alike and that an organisation like the Federation would not have really interfered with the Founders if there was no war in the first place.
Also, in regards to S31 using the virus to bring down the Link... sure, that could easily exert some problems, but in the end, both the founder female and all other founders were cured... so there was no other loss of changelings (sans the one Odo killed - for which he was judged - the second one who was posing as Martok - though to be fair, the Founders DID try to use sabotage like that to destabilize the Alpha Quadrant - and the third one who tried instigating a supernova of a Bajoran sun to wipe out Federation, Klingon and Romulan ships along with DS9 and ostensibly the entirety of Bajor).
Thinking about it, the Founders tried multiple times to destroy the Federation, and despite them incurring heavy losses onto Starfleet and Federation at large, the Federation STILL permitted Odo to return to the GQ and link with others to cure and teach them.
While we're on the subject... what are the chances that Grudge IS a Founder... but a friendly one who hitched a ride with Book in an attempt to discover what caused the Burn (like Michael did).
Perhaps even Odo himself.
I'd love to see Odo but Rene is gone... I suppose Odo could be recast but it might feel too soon after Rene's passing.
I know Rene died, but there's no reason to put someone else in the role of Odo.
Or, it doesn't need to be Odo... it can just be one of the Founders who set out to find out what's happened.
Lars is a viable candidate too.
