What would have happened on Earth after a Dominion victory, if the Dominion didn't eradicated it?
- Thread starter Unimatrix Q
- Start date
...That ought to have been one of the predictable things, with all the parameters on Romulan behavior readily available in history books, so that they could be dropped into these fancy Hari Seldon equations and the events of "In the Pale Moonlight" would emerge from the other end at the accuracy of five decimal points and with all of Sisko's exact lines of self-deprecation.
If the equations were good for defining world history for thousands of years ahead, including actions of populations after the loss of government and policy, they should have had the old empires down pat at the very least. But of course Bashir is at least mildly surprised by the Romulan decision, so presumably whatever altered the course of history and invalidated the original predictions happened before the Romulans joined...
Might still be just about anything. S31 infected Odo and the Link more than a year before the prediction was made, but this would be knowledge unavaliable to the Jack Pack. Between the prediction and the Romulan move, Sisko got rattled rather supernaturally by "Far Beyond the Stars", possibly affecting his decisionmaking in "In the Pale Moonlight" - but the rest of the adventures in that slot were mundane, their effects theoretically predictable by any psychohistorian worth the title. The Ferengi humiliating the Dominion and capturing a bonus Vorta; Dukat escaping; our heroes humiliating the Dominion and capturing a bunch of Jem'Hadar; a Dominion assassination plot with the Orion Syndicate foiled; all regular events involving known players... If the equations couldn't take those, they really weren't worth anything in the end.
Timo Saloniemi
In other words, Earth would have been a lot like Bajor under Cardassian rule.
Guess that depends on how much leeway the Founders would have given the Cardassians. But somehow i doubt they would have let the Cardies have any planet to govern at all, in case the Dominion won the war. They would be lucky if they didn't get exterminated or get infected by a genetically tailored disease like the Teplans, for their attempt genocide against the Founders.
^I wouldn't even be surprised had it turned out the Founders were using the Cardassians only as a tool, and would have disposed of them after victory was complete. I think so because of the "promise" made earlier by the female Founder to Garak when he asked for survivors:
They may have promised Cardassians all kind of goodies after the victory, but:
so apparently those kind of promises to solids don't mean anything to the Founders... it seems the only solids they really trust are the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar, if at that.
They may have promised Cardassians all kind of goodies after the victory, but:
so apparently those kind of promises to solids don't mean anything to the Founders... it seems the only solids they really trust are the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar, if at that.
I don't think the Dominion would have given much leeway to the Cardassians either. But I just thought that description of what Earth may be like under Cardassian rule is pretty much how they treated the Bajorans.
Then again, Cardassia wanted things out of Bajor (even if not out of Bajorans). Earth would have nothing to offer that we know of: it's never been a source of precious ores or anything, and in any case, it would be out in the sticks rather than next to Cardassia Prime.
So a different type of rule might be prudent. With nothing for a labor force to work on, the locals could simply be slaughtered to make room for Cardassians (who seem to thrive in Class M environments, and might Cardassiform Earth if that were more to their liking). Or then deported the way Bajorans initially were, with Cardassia having full faith in this action diluting possible human resistance, just like the diaspora Bajorans never gave Cardassia any known trouble even when those left on Bajor were a nuisance. One way or another, Cardassia would just make sure no human was left standing on Earth. The Union could still hold the emptied planet as the shiniest jewel in their crown if the prestige (and utter humiliation of a former foe) was what mattered the most.
With lots of former possessions to reclaim, the Cardassians might choose different showpiece planets, though, and instead turn Earth into an example of what happens to those who oppose the Union. They could borrow assorted instruments of maximally cruel genocide from their new masters for the purpose, and the Dominion quite possibly would be happy to comply, sitting back and enjoying the divide-and-conquer effect of letting one of their subjects give comeuppance to another.
Timo Saloniemi
So a different type of rule might be prudent. With nothing for a labor force to work on, the locals could simply be slaughtered to make room for Cardassians (who seem to thrive in Class M environments, and might Cardassiform Earth if that were more to their liking). Or then deported the way Bajorans initially were, with Cardassia having full faith in this action diluting possible human resistance, just like the diaspora Bajorans never gave Cardassia any known trouble even when those left on Bajor were a nuisance. One way or another, Cardassia would just make sure no human was left standing on Earth. The Union could still hold the emptied planet as the shiniest jewel in their crown if the prestige (and utter humiliation of a former foe) was what mattered the most.
With lots of former possessions to reclaim, the Cardassians might choose different showpiece planets, though, and instead turn Earth into an example of what happens to those who oppose the Union. They could borrow assorted instruments of maximally cruel genocide from their new masters for the purpose, and the Dominion quite possibly would be happy to comply, sitting back and enjoying the divide-and-conquer effect of letting one of their subjects give comeuppance to another.
Timo Saloniemi
The Dominion is a totalitarian society (if you can call it that) bent upon bringing all "Solids" under its control, so they can not harm the Founders because as the "Female" Changeling told Odo in "The Search Part II: "Because what you can control... can't hurt you." The Founders' only goal was to either control or eliminate anything which could harm them. They had no other concern. As they showed during the Dominion Cold War from the 3rd to end of the 5th season, they preferred to weaken and destabilize their enemy from within; ie. scaring the Cardassians and Romulans off by crippling their intelligence agencies, kidnapping Martok and replacing him, instigating the Klingon-Cardassian War and then Klingon-Federation War, bombing a conference on Earth and ramping up paranoia of a Dominion invasion. Psychological warfare was as important.
But when it came time for war, they were anything but merciful as we all know. I think an occupation of Earth would have been brutal. Remember that a superficial attack by the Breen that was quickly repulsed by Starfleet, still caused massive damage to Starfleet H.Q. and considerable loss of life. When the Romulan-Cardassian fleet bombarded the Founders' evacuated planet, 30% of the planetary crust was destroyed on the opening volley. The Founders may not have cared about the methods that were used but they wouldn't have just said: "Oh well, we've conquered the planet, all's well that end's well." The Founders themselves, probably wouldn't have cared very much as long as the population was kept in line. According to the writers (Robert Hewitt Wolfe), the whole purpose of the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar were "The 'carrot' and the 'stick'. The carrot being the Vorta, who would come to your planet and say, 'Hey, you're nice people, here's some M-16s and some popcorn, and whatever else you want baby, alcohol, fire-water? All you have to do is sign this little contract and we'll make you cool.' Then there's the Jem'Hadar. So the Vorta say, 'Oh, you don't want to play ball? Then meet these guys. They're gonna kick your asses.'" The Federation had already shown to the Dominion that they were not going to play ball because their culture was based on freedom and self-determination, there wouldn't be any negotiation. When the Cardassians turned against them, in a matter of days, 800 million Cardassians were killed; 2 million in Lakarian City. The Federation had been the leading adversaries of the Dominion in the Alpha Quadrant for 4 years. I imagine the Occupation, especially with the Cardassians as partners, would have been wholly brutal and bloody. In the "Dominion War" novels, Sam Lavelle and Taurik (from "Lower Decks") had been captured and along with thousands of other prisoners of war, were building an artificial wormhole to bypass the Bajoran wormhole. I imagine that the Dominion would have numerous "projects" that like to keep the conquered peoples occupied.
But when it came time for war, they were anything but merciful as we all know. I think an occupation of Earth would have been brutal. Remember that a superficial attack by the Breen that was quickly repulsed by Starfleet, still caused massive damage to Starfleet H.Q. and considerable loss of life. When the Romulan-Cardassian fleet bombarded the Founders' evacuated planet, 30% of the planetary crust was destroyed on the opening volley. The Founders may not have cared about the methods that were used but they wouldn't have just said: "Oh well, we've conquered the planet, all's well that end's well." The Founders themselves, probably wouldn't have cared very much as long as the population was kept in line. According to the writers (Robert Hewitt Wolfe), the whole purpose of the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar were "The 'carrot' and the 'stick'. The carrot being the Vorta, who would come to your planet and say, 'Hey, you're nice people, here's some M-16s and some popcorn, and whatever else you want baby, alcohol, fire-water? All you have to do is sign this little contract and we'll make you cool.' Then there's the Jem'Hadar. So the Vorta say, 'Oh, you don't want to play ball? Then meet these guys. They're gonna kick your asses.'" The Federation had already shown to the Dominion that they were not going to play ball because their culture was based on freedom and self-determination, there wouldn't be any negotiation. When the Cardassians turned against them, in a matter of days, 800 million Cardassians were killed; 2 million in Lakarian City. The Federation had been the leading adversaries of the Dominion in the Alpha Quadrant for 4 years. I imagine the Occupation, especially with the Cardassians as partners, would have been wholly brutal and bloody. In the "Dominion War" novels, Sam Lavelle and Taurik (from "Lower Decks") had been captured and along with thousands of other prisoners of war, were building an artificial wormhole to bypass the Bajoran wormhole. I imagine that the Dominion would have numerous "projects" that like to keep the conquered peoples occupied.
Yup. Exactly.
Starships would still be allowed to explore, but required to have Jem’Hadar security on board.
Or the Dominion gave the humans a genetic disease
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