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Season 1 Episode 1
Pilot: Rogue mission part one
The first pilot episode focuses on assembling the crew and stealing a mothballed starship.
No need for a B plot, the episode is like a heist movie
The opening scene in the pilot part 1
From the outside it looks like two couples going on a double date. A Bajoran, a Vulcan and two Humans. A male human is dating a female Vulcan and a female human is dating a Bajoran. They are all starfleet and meeting at a cafe, still nothing unusual. They ask for a private booth in the back. Nothing unusual about that, they want some privacy. Why they want privacy is revealed in the next scene.
The couples are not couples at all; they are here to discuss serious matters. They are discussing the recently ended Dominion war and its aftermath. They discuss that the Klingon Empire is effectively bankrupt and is being propped up by the Federation. The Romulans are retreating back to their Empire and are going back to business as usual. They will soon be enemies again. No other government in this region of the galaxy can match the Federation, the only two for want of a better word “local” super powers are the Romulans and the Federation, who will soon be each other’s enemies.
The conversation turns to how close the Federation was to being defeated. This raises the issue of what about other threats to the Federation? Those present discuss the other threats and what to do about them. This leads to the point of the Federations allies, and what they can do. What they can do in the face of ultra powerful enemies like the Borg is not much. The conversation turns to who else can the Federation turn to, which is nobody. Any government that has not yet been mentioned are lesser governments that are not friendly towards the Federation, such as the Breen, who sided with the Dominion in the recent Dominion war.
There is one other option, the only civilisations more powerful than the Federation that are anywhere near the Federation are the ancient races. The ancients are those millions of years technologically ahead of any of the beings the Federation usually interacts with. The keep to themselves residing on worlds, in solar systems or in deep space. When a younger race encounters them it is brief and dangerous and when the encounter is over younger races put up “no trespassing signs” around the area the ancients occupy. The younger races are wary of beings who are as to them as younger races are to bugs.
But here is the problem, the Federation faces more and more powerful enemies, soon it will face a foe it can’t defeat and nobody the Federation knows can help. The only beings that could help the Federation are the ancients, the very beings younger races run away from at high warp speed.
It is only a matter of time before the Federation faces a new ultra powerful enemy and the human male in the “double date group” suggests the unthinkable, make alliances with the ancient races.
This is greeted with utter shock by the rest of the group, who look in horror at the human male. The Federation would never swallow its pride and come to terms with the fact that there are civilisations far more powerful than themselves, what is truly horrifying to the Federation is the idea of individuals more powerful that the Federation. It totally breaks the idea of Federation exceptionalism – that the Federation is the top dog, with other galactic governments are at best secondary powers.
One of them accesses via his handheld computer a historical record of Admiral Kirk making a plea to start diplomacy with the ancients. But the civilians in from of him, who are all Federation Council politicians, refuse Kirk’s request saying it is too dangerous for the Federation. This is shown to prove the point that the Federation’s leaders would never approve of approaching the ancients and asking for an alliance.
It is the security chief who realises that the first officer is right. The only ones who can take on the Federation’s most powerful enemies and potential enemies are the ancients. This is an idea unsellable to their superiors both civilian and military. Nobody is going to endorse a mission that destroys the concept of Federation exceptionalism.
Another reason for the Federation not doing systematic diplomacy with the ancients is what if the Federation discovered that the ancients would accept any race joining their ranks, and that information was made public. What race would join the Federation or ally with it when the alternative is joining the ancient races and the applicant race soon becoming ascended super powered immortal beings?
The reason why none of the other governments of the galaxy tried systematic diplomacy with the ancients is that they are mostly dictatorships who would be terrified of provoking a hostile reaction from the ancients. They ask themselves: Are the ancients as ruthless as they are and would have no qualms about destroying them, or are they bleeding hearts who loathe their system of government and would destroy them anyway? The dictatorial governments of the galaxy don’t want to find out.
However, all those present at the conversation realise the truth, it does not matter who else would try or not try diplomacy with the ancients. It is up to those in the cafe booth to reach out to the ancients on behalf of the Federation. It is the only way to ensure the Federation is no longer threatened by enemies that could defeat it.
Doing diplomacy with the ancients means one thing, friendly contact with them has to be a rogue operation because nobody will sign off on it. Once again this is unthinkable to the starfleet officers. But it sinks in; this is what needs to be done.
The group starts planning, they will need a ship and a crew and a group of specialists to understand and engage in diplomacy with the ancients. They can use their starfleet positions to search for the experts and crew they need; they can research the mothballed starships to find one that suits their needs. This is all within the skill sets of the four officers.
The Vulcan, being the highest ranking, will research mothballed starships. The female human, a security officer, will find Dominion war buddies of the four to be rank and file crew. The male human will design the ancient races contact missions, and help the security officer. The Bajoran doctor will look for experts the mission needs.
The four set about their tasks of their rogue mission and we go through a series of scenes showing the four doing their tasks. We see the Vulcan finding a suitable starship in the mothballing shipyards. We see the male human designing the missions, we see the doctor researching resumes of various experts and others who know about the ancients. We see the human female contacting old war buddies and recruiting them, with help from the male human.
At this point we meet the core officers/main cast of the show in a series of scenes that reflect the backgrounds described in their character notes. They are recruited to the cause, sometimes by being told it is a legitimate mission rather than a rogue operation. We see the Bajoran doctor look at resumes of Wesley Crusher and Beckett Mariner detailing their biographies. The Bajoran doctor dismisses recruiting Wesley and Beckett as they have close ties to Starfleet officers who would stop at nothing to prevent a rogue mission. Put simply Wesley and Beckett are too much of a security risk.
After the vignette scenes introducing the main cast, the four regroup to find that the starship selected by the Vulcan is far bigger than what the male human was planning to use. The female Vulcan explains that their mission will be a long range mission and they need a long range craft for the distances they will be travelling in contacting the ancients. The rest reluctantly agree, and the focus becomes recruiting many more Dominion War veterans to make up the rank and file crew. The four of them start contacting more of their old comrades to make up the numbers.
Now the final act of part one of the pilot mission. It is the raid on the mothballing shipyards. The Dominion war vets are back in action and are running a commando raid taking over the shipyard and high jacking shuttles and the main starship. Shuttles will be used to fetch the experts. They can’t be part of the raiding force; they do not have the relevant skill set.
We see the commandoes take control of the main office of the mothballed starship yard’s office and the starship being stolen. Here’s a plot twist, when the commandoes tell the mothballed starship yard’s staff why they are stealing starships, the staff voluntarily help them. They are willing participants in the raid. They help to get all the commandoes onto the stolen starship; they also donate a couple of shuttles to the starship as well.
The starship flies off to a rendezvous point where a small fleet of shuttles meet them. The shuttles board the starship. We see a scene on the bridge with the core officers seen in the starting scene at the coffee shop. The Vulcan is the captain, the human male is the first officer, the Bajoran is the chief doctor and the human female is the security chief.
One of their underlings on the bridge states that all shuttles are onboard, so all the experts are onboard. The captain asks for a more comprehensive status report. Various staff give their replies. The fake IFF [identify friend or foe] codes are working; they can pass for the modern USS Excalibur, the starships systems are working optimally. Rations and various other perishables are being replicated at peak efficiency. They have everything they need to begin the mission. The captain says good work everyone, now it’s time to meet the ancients, she orders the first officer to start the diplomatic contact missions with the ancients.
The end scene is of the starship doing some manoeuvres in space leaving the mothball shipyard and heading off at warp.
End of part one of the pilot
Season 1 Episode 2
Pilot: Rogue mission part two
The second pilot episode focusses on meeting ancients in the Federation’s region that are known to be welcoming. It also focuses on ancients appearing on Earth and contacting the Federation’s leaders to say they accept the Federation’s diplomatic overtures.
This episode introduces John Doe, the ancient races expert
The episode starts with a recap of the previous episode and shifts to the crew on their stolen starship doing things like checking the systems and basic repairs. The focus shifts to the bridge. The captain orders the crew to the nearest ancient race site to approach the ancients.
This site is that of the Douwd, an individual of this race settled on a Federation colony, destroyed a race called the Husnock for destroying the colony and killing his human wife, then the Federation investigated and declared the ex-colony a no go zone.
The crew do not know if the Douwd is still there, but it is worth a try. If he is not there, then they will try the Organians after that and then proceed through a long list of ancients that live close to or inside federation territory.
Arriving at the site of the destroyed colony they go pass the no trespassing buoys near it and ignore them. They have already committed quite a few crimes, ignoring these signs is nothing to them. What they find at the colony amazes them, a bunch of ancient race technology machines and a non-corporeal being operating them. It is unclear what the machines do because they are far more advanced than anything the federation has.
The captain muses that the non-corporeal being is the Douwd. The bridge crew try hailing him to see if he has any kind of communication system. They are in luck and he answers, but his voice sounds much younger than what the reports suggested of him being an old man. He says to come and see him in person, but use a shuttle. He does not want them teleporting around the ancient race technology as it would be unsafe to do so.
The captain agrees and arranges a shuttle with an away team in it to visit the Douwd on the surface of the world. When they get to the surface they meet the Douwd, who has de-aged himself. He says he is making an ancient races teleporter to return to the Andromeda galaxy, where he came from. He also says that he has gotten over the death of his human wife and is ready to move on and that they are very lucky. Within a week he would be gone and the ancient races teleporter would be destroyed.
One of the crew asks for a copy of the blueprints of the ancient races teleporter to which the Douwd gives them a computer drive [wishing it into existence] with the blueprints on it and says that they would not understand the technology, it is far beyond what the Federation can make.
The away team [which includes the captain, the chief diplomat, the science offer, the chief engineer and two rank and file crew] explains why they have come to see him. He reacts very positively and asks who else they have contacted and who they plan to contact. The chief diplomat says he is the first and they are going to the see the Organians next. To this the Douwd gives an even more happy response. He asks them to take him to Organia and he is willing to gift them the ancient races teleporter and its support machinery if they say yes.
This is a no-brainer [an easy decision], the Douwd “magics” the equipment ready for packing saying it is powered down and can be teleported. The away team arranges for transporters to teleport the machinery to the starship and the Douwd returns to the starship with them. One of the crew says he should consider moving back to Earth. He liked living there and he could do so again. The Douwd considers this and says he wants to return to ranks of the ancients.
Arriving on board the Douwd goes to the conference room with the chief diplomat and her entourage. They talk about the ancients with the Douwd for a while as the Douwd educates them about the ancients. When the starship goes to warp the Douwd stops talking and starts concentrating. The starship goes at hyperwarp speeds and they find their starship orbiting Organia. The crew are shocked and go to red alert. The Douwd teleports himself to the bridge and apologises for his actions. After that the red alert is cancelled.
The Organians call the starship and see the Douwd on the bridge. The Organians put two and two together. They realise the Federation vessel was transported here by the Douwd. The Douwd and the bridge crew explain what they are doing here to which the Organians invite them to the surface for talks.
In a short time an away team with the same members as last time is organised. The team is teleported straight to a large conference room arranged like a traditional Earth conference room, ancients on one side, Federation personnel on the other. The Douwd takes a seat on the ancient’s side. Facing the Federation are the Douwd they transported, an Organian, a member of the Q Continuum, a Preserver, a being that looks like a Borg drone without any cybernetics and a Human, that we find out later in the series is an Imitari.
The crew is amazed; they are meeting the really powerful races of the ancients that they know about. They don’t know where to start the talks except to give their spiel about why they are doing diplomacy with the ancients.
Then there is the fact that one of the ancient races present is a Preserver. The ancient race they have so many questions for and the ancient race every younger race wants to meet. Just contacting the Preservers by themselves would be a career maker. They could write their own ticket just for that. It sinks into the away team that these are the Preservers, ancients that had a direct hand in making many of the younger races. They should be starstruck, but they have a job to do, and if they can get the Preservers to ally with the Federation, then everything they have risked would be worth it.
The ancients seem to know what the away team is thinking and respond by giving them an ancient races expert in the form of the fully organic Borg like being at the conference table. John Doe introduces himself and explains his backstory [flashbacks included]. He uses his Preserver name and his backstory is found in the character notes section.
The ancients make a condition for doing diplomacy with them: Take John Doe as a crew member, they are going to need his expertise. The crew realise this is a golden opportunity and accept. He could prove very useful in their quest to make allies of the ancients.
While the Q, John Doe, the Douwd, and the other ancients are all present the Vulcan captain has to ask why her race is not invited into the ancient races group. The answer given to her exposes a few home truths about immortality, as detailed in my musings about the ancients. Vulcans are too serious to survive as immortal beings. Without the ability to have fun immortality is a death sentence. Also the Vulcans are far too benevolent to be invited into the ancient races clique. They would create dependency situations with younger races. The Vulcan does not take this well and withdraws into herself. What happens to her is resolved in the next episode.
The crew at the negotiation table then proceed to engage in diplomacy with their hosts, who then explain that the Q is only here as a taxi service, her job was to teleport John Doe here, then she and the Douwd then take their leave by Q teleporting out of the conference room. The Preserver, Imitari and the Organian then say that they will see the Q and the Douwd again.
The remaining ancients say that the ancients refer to systematic diplomacy with the ancients is referred to as a “Realm of the Gods Project”. They will let ancients far and wide know that the Federation wants diplomacy with the ancient races community. They mention that multilateral diplomacy with ancient races is the exception not the rule with the ancients. The Federation will have to approach each ancient race separately as they are not politically affiliated with each other.
The crew get to the details of diplomatic talks with the Preserver, the Imitari and the Organian. As this happens the B plot commences. Ancients of various types appear at the Federation’s seat of power – on Earth, namely Starfleet HQ and the Federation’s council and presidential palace.
The B plot
In a short time delegates from the very powerful ancient races began appearing at Starfleet command and the Federation Senate explaining the actions of the USS Anracosh’s crew. To get the attention of the Federation’s leadership the “big guns” of the ancients go in first, such as the Organians, the Q continuum and other god like ancients the Federation knows about.
The ancients are there to say they accept the Federations diplomatic overtures. All kinds of ancients appear to the Federation leaders civil and military. At first the Admirals and Politicians think it is a prankster Q’s trick, but the other ancients try to convince the leaders that this is legitimate. The ancients talk about the rogue crew and their mission to Organia. At first the Admirals and Politicians are disgusted that a whole Starfleet crew was undertaking a rogue operation. Then it sank in what the crew had done for them, namely getting the ancients to ally with the Federation. It was a bizarre situation where USS Anracosh’s crew would have to be court martialled and jailed and be given the highest accolades the Federation at the same time.
The Federation’s leaders organise an impromptu summit with the ancient race delegates. At the summit the ancients proposed rebuilding the USS Anracosh with ancient race and modern Federation technology. The starship would be remade into a vessel designed for the sole purpose of contacting ancient races and god like beings. The price being that the ancients demanded was that it works both ways. If a member race of the ancient races clique wants to seek out the Federation it was their right to do so. This includes ancients the Federation has had bad experiences with, including the inhabitants of Talos 4, the Metrons and the Q Continuum.
If the Federation wanted a Realm of the Gods project they had to lift travel bans to ancient race sites like Talos 4 and the Guardian of Forever. It was a no brainer, the bans were lifted and at the end of the summit the Realm of the Gods Project was declared an official Starfleet mission. The ancients also demanded a full pardon for the entire crew of the USS Anracosh and whoever else aided them in their rogue operation. Once again, a no brainer, the crew of the USS Anracosh stayed with the starship to continue their work not as renegade officers but officers on an official mission. There were some who could not forgive them for doing a rogue operation and the crimes that entailed, and not just getting away with it, but being rewarded for it.
Afterwards Federation leadership makes public statements about encountering the ancients. The Federation’s leaders explain that a plethora of various types of ancients have come to Earth in order to open up dialog with the Federation. They have a message for the Federation and other governments of the galaxy: The ancients will welcome their diplomatic efforts.
During the summit the ancients say to the Federation delegates that they would be the junior partners in the Realm of the Gods Project, but that is expected given how much more powerful the ancients are compared to the younger races.
Finale:
The rogue crew are still orbiting Organia with the diplomatic team negotiating with the Preservers, Imitari, Organians, Q continuum and a few other ancients. The second round of talks is taking place on the stolen starship with the chief diplomat and her underlings and the ancients. The other high ranking rogue officers have returned to duty and are happy with their success in contacting the ancients.
The rest of the crew are celebrating their making friendly contact with the ancients, and celebrate contacting the Preservers, what a feather in their caps! This is it, mission accomplished, with the Preservers, Douwd and the Organians on their side the Federation’s future is secured. The crew don’t care what happens now. They can go to prison knowing that nothing can threaten the Federation. The Captain is about to contact Starfleet so they can turn themselves in when she gets a message from Starfleet command. The captain orders the hailing frequencies open.
Onscreen are some Ancients, high ranking Federation politicians and Starfleet admirals. The rogue crew is ordered to take their vessel to dry dock for refitting. The ancients want the rogue crew to continue their mission as an official mission and to that end the ancients are going to fill the stolen starship with ancient race technology useful to contacting the ancients. The Captain gives the orders and the starship flies to the Utopia Planetia Dockyards for retrofitting. Ancients onscreen say that this is not the end of their mission, it is just the beginning.
End of part two of the pilot
Season 1 Episode 3
Pilot: Rogue mission part three
The third pilot episode is the mission becoming an official mission
Note that the captain is in the sick bay in this episode, she has fallen into a state of shock from being told why the Vulcans are not invited into the ancient races clique.
Rebuild the USS Anracosh as the Ancient Races Contact Ship
The episode starts with a recap of the previous episodes
The second “scene” is of the USS Anracosh in its USS Excalibur form in dry dock. Various machines are all around it dismantling it and putting it together again and we see the shot go down to what are obviously not Federation machines adding organic components that are obviously not of Federation origin to the secondary hull of the USS Anracosh. Ancient race beings can be seen around the ancient race machinery rebuilding the USS Anracosh’s secondary hull. They are manning the rebuilding equipment. This story dedicated to upgrading the USS Anracosh with ancient race and Federation technology. It showcases what the ancients have given the Federation to help them in their Realm of the Gods project.
The scene switches to inside the starship. The crew are all over the place upgrading the interior of the starship. There is one difference; ancient race beings are helping them, either as advisors, doing physical work themselves or in a role reversal where the Federation crew are advising the ancients on upgrading Federation technology. We see that the interior is a true fusion of organic and inorganic technology.
It is now we are introduced to the ascended Mythbuster. He is introduced as the designer of the ancient races hull upgrades to the secondary hull of the USS Anracosh. He “tour guides” the officer core in the upgrades to the starship. Part of the tour is showing off the neural education centre provided by the ancients. He ends the tour by introduces the officers to the black hole manipulator. It is a device with god like abilities. This is the first time the audience sees the device and the reactions of the crew to the device.
The crew present reflect the various attitudes the whole crew has to the device. Everything from “this is why we started the Realm of the Gods Project” to “cut it off the starship right now”.
The ascended Mythbuster is the stand in for the ancients attitude to the black hole manipulator. They think nothing of it. There are ancients more powerful than the machine out there. Why is such an invention a big deal?
The ascended Mythbuster explains that a black hole captured in the black hole manipulator is the power source for the starship. It can however work for millennia as a ferry service for diplomats meeting the ancients because this would not strain the battery of the starship in any serious way.
What would happen if you used the black hole manipulator on the black hole at the centre of the galaxy? The ascended Mythbuster says casually and with a plain deadpan “yeah, whatever” expression that it would rip the galaxy apart, disbanding its stars to interstellar space after a slow motion cataclysm lasting hundreds of thousands of years of stars going from an orbital motion to a straight motion through space disrupted by the gravity of the stars near them. This is greeted by horror by the crew. How can this guy be so blasé about technology of this magnitude?
It is here the ascended Mythbuster tells them his hobby of making super weapons and blowing up inanimate stuff for fun. The officer core does not know how to react. The ascended Mythbuster says he is loved and hated equally by ancient race clique for his hobby of making weapons of mass destruction and testing them in uninhabited systems, and he always cleans up after himself. You would never know he had tested him super weapons after he has gone home.
The crew are lead to a conference room onboard where the ascended Mythbuster takes his leave. The other ancients in the room have a mixed reaction to him. It’s obvious that he was saying the truth. Other ancients either love him or hate him. The officer core are invited to take their seats vis a vis the ancients in a diplomatic meeting like those seen on the news. That being a long table with two sides taking a long side of the table each.
At this table the ancients reiterate the conditions of using the USS Anracosh and that the ancients are only going to give the Federation one hybrid starship. Thus the rebuilding technology is going to be taken away after the USS Anracosh is completed. Apart from that the ancients are the opposite of the Abrahamic faith God in that they want the Federation to taste the forbidden fruit of ancient race technology. They want the Federation to develop to more than what they are now, and not be stuck being “garden cherubs” in the Garden of Eden. They explain that they want the younger races to join them in the ancient races clique but the younger races have to go through the six phases [they explain what that is, as stated in my musings on the ancients] of the Realm of the Gods process in order to do this.
However, the Federation has to gather the forbidden fruit of ancient race technology from the USS Anracosh. There is plenty of ancient race technology onboard as well as the means to build more of it. It is up to the Federation to reverse engineer the USS Anracosh’s ancient races technology, with the ancients helping them if help is required. As for the question of the black hole manipulator, the ancients thought that the Federation may freak out at a machine of such abilities, so the ancients are leaving it without a black hole in it. The ancients say that it is the Federation’s choice to complete it or not.
As the negotiations continue those in the conference room learn that the upgrades to the USS Anracosh have been completed. The ancients say goodbye and good luck and a member of the Q Continuum who has taken a back seat in the talks says she is just there as the taxi service for the ancient races negotiation team. She snaps her fingers and the ancients disappear.
The rest of the ancients leave taking their rebuilding technology with them and it is time to launch the USS Anracosh. The story ends with the now hybrid starship going into the depths of space seeking out the ancients in order to make alliances and friends with them.
The B plot:
Is the reshuffling the crew ranks to incorporate the new systems and the new crew introduced in the previous episode. We see the Bajoran doctor take over the neural education centre. We see the Zalkonian doctor being promoted to chief medical officer. We see Niffy become the starship’s A.I. Niffy volunteers to be starship’s A.I. because of his physiology.
Niffy agrees to be the starship’s A.I. chip as he is not that useful on a starship designed for bipeds. All the equipment is designed for the ascended ancients or the standard two arm two leg one head body structure. Being the starship’s A.I. chip allows Niffy to do something useful onboard after the drone takes his place as the ancient races expert. The B plot showcases the neural interface that can let a crewman become the A.I. for the USS Anracosh by uniting with the starship’s computer, which by itself is not sentient.
The B plot introduces crew members, and crew sections/departments who/that have not been properly introduced in the other pilot episodes such as recurring characters that serve on the USS Anracosh. The B plot covers the various denizens on the USS Anracosh settling into their jobs and roles on the starship. In short it rounds of the introductions that need to be made in the series pilot.
We also see the captain in the sick bay having her mental breakdown. This is the captain’s existential crisis upon being told why the ancients reject the Vulcans. She becomes a Vulcan heretic after realising it is her people’s ways that are the reason the Vulcans are not invited to join the ranks of the ancients. She starts acting like a Romulan and rejects the following of logic like a religion. She starts showing her emotions and speaking her mind. She is still being in sick bay being treated at the end of the episode but the doctors say she is on the road to recovery.
End of part three of the pilot
Season 1 Episode 4
Ostracised by the Federation
This episode shows what contacting the ancient races can do and the captain’s breakdown and recovery
The officer core of the USS Anracosh meet to discuss the refit of the starship to turn it into an ancient races contact ship. They discuss the upgrades that have been recently added and how the ship now looks and is half organic.
Absent from the meeting are the captain and the two doctors. The remaining officers contact them and ask why they are not there. The Bajoran doctor says that the captain is in the USS Anracosh sick bay and in a catatonic state. They have already contact Vulcan about how to treat her. The captain is very ill and the Zalkonian’s healing powers cannot help the captain. What is happening to the captain is something psychological, and too far beyond the Zalkonian doctor’s ancient race healing abilities, or it is better to say that given the complexity of the Vulcan brain using Zalkonian healing abilities would be too risky. Therefore the USS Anracosh is docked at a star base because the captain is sick and may need to be either sent back to Vulcan on a hospital starship or put in the hospital on the starbase, which has one of the best hospitals in the Federation.
Both doctors are doing what they can to help the captain but they are both out of their depth. The captain’s only hope is what the Vulcans can do for her. Fortunately they are sent a prompt response to get her off the sedatives and other drugs they have put her on and give her psychological counselling. A flash back occurs showing the ancient telling the captain why the Vulcans are not invited into the ancient races clique.
The first officer, who is has a natural talent for psychology takes charge of the captain’s mental health. This episode shows off his skill for psychology. He sees the captain in the medical bay and talks to her. She is suffering from a form of Vulcan shock. It is like a nervous breakdown. She is obviously suffering but is able to answer the first officer’s questions.
The first officer asks what is wrong, the captain responds it was the shock of learning why the Vulcans have never been invited into the ranks of the ancients. She repeats what was said in the previous episode about Vulcans being too serious to cope with immortality and being too benevolent and thus creating dependency situations with younger races.
The first officer gives her psychological help saying he is willing to help her work through her issues. However, he is surprised that the issue she has is that the Vulcans are not in the ranks of the ancients. Why should something like that cause such a problem?
The captain explains that the Vulcans discovered through their own efforts the criteria for joining the ancients [as explained in my musings about the ancients]. It should be the case that the Vulcans got into the ancient races clique 1000 years before the Federation was formed. Until recently she never knew the reasons the ancients never issued an invitation to the Vulcans. Finding out why gave her a mental breakdown.
The first officer is still confused and asks the Vulcan to explain herself. She responds that the reasons for no invitation are so easy to fix. If the Vulcans put their minds to it [powerful amazing minds] they could alter their culture to something the ancients would welcome into their ranks. The problem is that the Vulcans as a whole won’t do that, they are very resistant to change and would not try to make themselves worthy of the ancient races clique. The issue would have to be forced on the Vulcan civilisation, and nobody is going to force them to change. The first officer acknowledges her answer.
The scene switches to the B plot
The news shows watched in the starship’s pub show that the anti-Realm of the Gods protest group knows about the captain’s mental breakdown. How do they know this? Someone has leaked information to them. It is obvious that the protest group is getting help from inside Starfleet. The security chief investigates to find that there are some in Starfleet who back the protesters.
Does this mean that the crew of the USS Anracosh has a traitor onboard? This is unthinkable given the nature of how the rank and file crew were recruited. The security chief has to find out how the information was leaked to the anti-realm of the gods protesters.
The security chief starts interviewing suspects where the USS Anracosh is docked and discovers that Starfleet hates the crew because they are a rogue crew who got rewarded for their rogue operation. Seeing doors close in front of her she switches tactics and has Section 31 agents do her interviews for her. This means that she can concentrate on a technological solution to the case. This means checking for bugs on the USS Anracosh and in the space dock. Did someone hack the communications between Starfleet and the USS Anracosh?
Checking for bugs on the starship comes up with nothing. She asks Niffy the starship’s A.I. for help and he also checks for bugs and information leaks. This rules out anyone on the USS Anracosh being responsible for giving confidential information to the anti-realm of the gods protest group. This means it is someone on base who responsible. The security chief has to rely on her Section 31 connections to find out who leaked the information. She does this discreetly as nobody on the USS Anracosh knows that she is part of Section 31.
The scene switches back to the medical bay of the USS Anracosh. The medical information about how to heal the captain has been delivered. The cures are applied. This involves injections that restore the captain’s brain chemistry to normal while she still undergoes psychological counselling, which the first officer provides.
The captain is still saying that the Vulcans are the ones who should change so they can join the ancients. She says it is no slight against the Federation or Humanity. It’s just that Vulcan could be reaching its destiny and full potential by joining the ancients. Would Humanity do any different? Given the choice of founding a Federation or becoming ascended beings that qualify as deities, what would Humans choose to do?
The first officer agrees that she has a point. Federation or ancient races, the choice is obvious. At this time the medicine kicks in and the captain starts to look better and seems to become more functional. She is more accepting of the ancients reasons and starts to rationalise the ancients point of view.
This appears to be greatly helping the captain so the first officer goes along with it. The doctors remind him that this is part of the Vulcan recovery process. Any deviation from the behaviour the captain is showing will damage her recovery, and possibly damage it permanently. The first officer takes this onboard and proceeds with caution. The captain starts to understand the ancients’ reason and agrees with them, to which the first officer offers support.
The scene switches to the security chief in her office. She receives a surprise visit from the drone, who is new to the crew. He wants to talk about his recent questioning and offers help. The help he offers floors the security chief. The drone offers to call his parents, who are Preservers and have them help her investigation into the information leak.
The Preservers are the ancients everyone wants to meet, and the crew of the USS Anracosh has met them before. The Preservers are responsible for seeding the galaxy with sentient life and are second in power only to the Q themselves. These are the ancients that could answer many questions about the history of the galaxy and the universe.
Preservers walking freely around a Federation starbase would cause pandemonium and they would have the authority to ask questions and get answers. The security chief confesses to the drone that the investigation is going nowhere because the starbase personnel will not cooperate and the officer core of the starbase is backing them up. The leak must be fixed and the security chief is having no luck in finding out how confidential medical information got into unauthorised hands – namely the anti-realm of the gods protest group. Given the bad time the security chief is having with the investigation she agrees to drone’s proposal.
The drone contacts his parents via the dial a deity device in his personal effects and asks them to come see him in person as soon as they can. The drone’s parents ask if there is a problem to which the drone says he needs them to help a friend he has made among the crew he has joined. All they have to do is go to a starbase with him and his friend. The drone’s parents, who are intrigued, agree and arrive sooner than expected via some kind of wormhole the Federation has never seen before, and they bring a bunch of Preservers with them.
The wormhole and the Preservers in ascended form appear near the starbase. This results in the pandemonium that the security chief predicted. The starbase inhabitants are amazed that the Preservers have arrived and have boarded the starbase. The security chief and the drone greet them. They walk around the base doing a meet and greet. Other crew of the USS Anracosh join them and try to sell what contact with the ancients can do for the Federation. It becomes a public relations exercise for the USS Anracosh’s mission.
The starbase’s people are amazed by the Preservers and have a lot of questions for them. Why seed the galaxy and beyond so that sentient life follows the same template? Why transfer younger races between worlds when they are in their equivalent of the Neolithic era? There are a lot more questions but they follow similar lines to what has already been stated here.
The Preservers take pressing the flesh in their stride. They are like seasoned politicians working a crowd and greeting people. Everyone wants to meet them and they want to meet everyone. The crew of the USS Anracosh follow in tow acting as spin doctors. They stress how that this is what running diplomacy with the ancients can benefit the Federation. If the crew of the USS Anracosh can summon the Preservers what else can they do? What does that mean for the Federation to be able to access beings and civilisations this powerful? Think about it.
This is not like the appearance of the ancients on Earth when the crew of the USS Anracosh started diplomacy with the ancients. When the ancients arrived on Earth they approached the dignitaries of the Federation both civilian and military. Here the ancients are in the thick of it facing common citizens and running a meet and greet with the average person. This is part of the security chief’s plan. She is hoping this display of an ancient race among the people gets the attention of the starbase’s authorities.
Without prompting one of the Preservers gives a demonstration of the power of the ancients by altering perceptions across the starbase. Colours go all weird and everything turns black and white and then the process is reversed, turning everything back to normal. This gives the reaction the security chief wants. The starbase’s security forces quickly respond to the Preserver’s stunt.
The security forces escort a few of the Preservers, the drone and the security chief to the command centre of the starbase. When the officer core sees the entourage they do not know how to react. The Preservers are the stuff of myths and legends and now they are here in person and are as real as anyone else. The Preservers cause quite a scene at the starbase’s command office. The Preservers ask questions of how the medical information from the USS Anracosh was leaked.
The base commander freaks out at the situation. These are the Preservers in his office and they are saying that they know he has hindered the security chief’s investigation behind her back. Now she has come forward with two Preservers who want to ask the same questions that he and his subordinates stonewalled her on. What does he do now? Offending the Preservers and ruining future relations with them would be a career ender to him and all of those under his command. They would be as ostracised in Starfleet as the crew of the USS Anracosh.
The commander and his underlings give in, knowing they have been beaten. They admit that they read the reports about the captain’s breakdown and leaked the information. They apologise but say they hate the fact the crew of the USS Anracosh were pardoned and rewarded for a rogue mission. This is everything Starfleet stands against and that they should get used to the idea of being pariahs. The security chief does not press charges against them. She knows they are right and it will make things awkward during the refit if the people they are working with are being prosecuted for actions they took against the crew of the starship they are upgrading. As she leaves the command centre she hails the USS Anracosh and asks how the captain is.
Back at the sick bay the captain has almost recovered and the first officer is amazed at how quickly the Vulcan has gotten back on her feet. He explains that Human psychological conditions are usually permanent. The captain reminds him that she is not human. The doctors back both of them up. They remind the captain that Humans have a different experience to Vulcans when it comes to mental health and they remind the first officer that the Vulcan brain is different to the Human brain and can do things the Human brain cannot do. This is why Vulcans can after treatment make a full recovery on mental health issues whereas humans cannot.
The captain asks if she is cleared for duty to which the doctors give their OK. She resumes her command. She is forthright with the crew for the reasons of her mental breakdown. She states that the Vulcan mind can recover where many other species cannot and that she wants to see the Vulcans join the ancients but accepts why they can’t and won’t.
However, the crew notice that she has lost her logical persona. She now acts like a Romulan. She is emotional, sometimes brash and speaks her mind. They think that maybe she is still recovering and her logical self will return. It will become obvious in following episodes that this new persona is here to stay. The captain has renounced the Vulcan way of logic. This leads to the Vulcans making her an outsider, she is still welcome but has no credibility. She does not care about being rejected.
For now it is time for the USS Anracosh to resume its mission. It’s time to contact more ancients and the episode ends with the USS Anracosh leaving the starbase and flying off at warp. We also see the Preservers leave via a wormhole just like the one they arrived in.
Season 1 Episode 5
The USS Anracosh visits ascended proto Romulans
This is the first ST – ROTG Romulan episode
The USS Anracosh goes to meet the Riharsha – an offshoot of the Romulans from the time when the Romulans left Vulcan. The Riharsha, who were originally the Debrune, split off from the Romulans and what became their new homeworld is now the heart of the neutral zone. The USS Anracosh is ordered to go to the set of co-ordinates of the Riharsha homeworld. Part of their orders includes a note that there will be a flotilla of Romulan starships arriving at the Riharsha home world to monitor the diplomatic efforts between the Federation and the Riharsha.
The Romulans are completely aware that the Riharsha exist, but it is the usual story where the younger race avoids the elder race and puts up “no trespassing signs” around the area the ancients occupy. Not long before the creation of the neutral zone the Romulans tried to make contact with the Riharsha only to find their homeworld abandoned and a message buoy left in orbit saying that the Riharsha had joined the ancient races. They treated the situation like any other ancients contact. This means they put up the no trespassing signs and sped away from the Riharsha homeworld at high warp with their tails between their legs.
The USS Anracosh arrives at the Riharsha homeworld to find that the Romulan flotilla has yet to arrive. The Riharsha have a small starship orbiting their home world, alongside the message buoy, which they are doing some maintenance on. The homeworld appears to have been abandoned. The small starship hails the USS Anracosh via its ancient race translation system. On the main view appear Vulcan/Romulan like people who are ascended beings.
They introduce themselves as the Riharsha, and proceed to tell how their people got into the ancient races clique. The Riharsha split off from the Romulans and colonised their own world to explore what their minds could do. It is just luck that the world they settled millennia ago is in the middle of the neutral zone. They received an invite to join the ancients because they experimented with what their minds could do and became very powerfully psionic over several generations with the help of genetic engineering and cybernetic implants. In time they became super powered. This gained the attention of the ancients and they invited the Riharsha to join them.
The captain was listening intently and further quizzes the Riharsha. The captain has a plan. The Riharsha are culturally Vulcan/Romulan. She can introduce them to the Vulcans as a way of showing the Vulcans that they can be part of the ancient races clique if they put in the effort. The Riharsha can guide them into the realm of the ancients. The captain asks for face to face talks and the science officer asks if the starship the Riharsha are using is the same type as that was used in the Star Trek “Sun around the Moon” episode. One of the Riharsha says yes, and that she was the one who made mental contact with Deanna Troi.
Soon the captain and the Riharsha are in face to face talks with the chief diplomat also at the negotiation table. A friendship treaty is being worked out and the Captain asks the Riharsha to send a delegation to Vulcan as part of the treaty to show the Vulcans that they too can become ascended beings. The diplomat is upset and it shows that there is some friction between the captain and the diplomat, but the Riharsha agree to make a delegation going to Vulcan part of the friendship treaty and that they must also set up a permanent embassy on Vulcan. The diplomat protests the captain’s interference but the Riharsha don’t have a problem with it.
The captain and the chief diplomat then ask why the Riharsha abandoned their homeworld. The Riharsha respond that they no longer need the resources of it because they are ascended beings, but they still come back to it now and again for sentimental reasons and to maintain the orbiting buoy.
On a side note the Chief engineer and Science officer lead a delegation to analyse the orbiting buoy. The Riharsha are happy to show them. It is a bit of a letdown, as it is only a buoy that has the message that the Riharsha once lived here with an explanation to their Romulan cousins about what happened to the Riharsha. Now that the Romulans and the Riharsha area about to make contact the buoy is being removed as it no longer serves a purpose.
The B plot:
The scene cuts to the bridge where the first officer informs the captain that the Romulan flotilla has arrived. They are hailed by the Romulan Admiral of the flotilla who states that even though the Romulans were allies in the recent Dominion war now that marriage of convenience is over and the Romulans are retreating back into their empire. They are currently not happy that a Federation vessel is in the neutral zone because it is forbidden by the Treaty of Algeron.
The USS Anracosh is standing “vis a vis” to the Romulan flag ship. What occurs next happens without warning or provocation. The Romulans break off radio contact and one of the Romulan vessels breaks formation and does a deep scan of the USS Anracosh. The bridge crew of the USS Anracosh is worried that they should prepare for the worst.
A few seconds later one of the Romulans starships flies off at high warp [so high it risks breaking its engines] towards Romulan territory. For a short time there is tense moment as the Federation waits for the Romulans to do something. That something is the Romulan Admiral hailing the USS Anracosh and Romulan flotilla in a mass hail of all starships.
His speech and expressions are an equal mix of horror and morbidity. He says his words in utter shock. He says “You have a starship of that magnitude – our sensors can’t even measure how much its raw power output is!” He goes on into a tirade that all the efforts to make a war fleet superior to everyone else was all for nothing if the Federation has the USS Anracosh. He concedes that if the Federation wanted to they could have the USS Anracosh go to the Romulus to destroy it and there is nothing the Romulans could do about it. The Admiral then points out that the USS Anracosh reads as ancient races starship at long range, and that’s what they thought it was until they dropped out of warp and realised that the USS Anracosh is ancient race Federation hybrid starship. They originally thought the USS Anracosh was a Riharsha starship.
The Captain then informs the bridge that the friendship treaty with the Riharsha has been signed and the mission is complete. The First officer says that the mission over and they have no reason not to leave. Without warning a bunch of ancient race starships enter the area. These are starships owned by the Riharshans. They hail the fleets and ask what the holdup is. The USS Anracosh hails them back saying they have finished negotiations. The Riharsha say not to leave yet, they want to talk to the Romulans and the Federation. They have a warning for the Romulans.
The Riharshans say that if the Romulans are going to complain about the Federation possessing the USS Anracosh they will drive the ancients into the arms of the Federation. They state that the USS Anracosh was modified as a reward for being the first government in the galaxy in recent times to start an “open to the public” Realm of the Gods Project. This is why ancients were very generous with the Federation. It was a reward for being first. If any other government complains too much about it the end result will be the Federation getting an armada of USS Anracosh type vessels.
The Romulan Admiral gives of vibes off utter dread and after regaining composure asks what the Realm of the Gods Project is. The Riharshans explain what it is. The Romulan Admiral says he is heading straight to Romulus to recommend that the Romulan Empire start its own Realm of the Gods Project. The story ends with the Romulan flotilla heading back to Romulus at high warp, leaving the USS Anracosh and the Riharsha starships to go about their business with the Riharshans bidding them a fond farewell.
Season 1 Episode 6
The Admiral’s episode – The confrontation with Starfleet
This episode introduces the Admiral the USS Anracosh answers to
The B plot is the chief engineer, chief scientist and many others going around the starship like kids with a new toy. They are thrilled that they have so much ancient race technology to play with. Here they introduce the black hole manipulator to the audience and discover the true power of the USS Anracosh. Other ultra powerful devices on the starship are introduced as well, with the same varied reaction from the crew as is created by the black hole manipulator. This creates conflict as they realise that the USS Anracosh is a super starship. Some of them begin to doubt if what they are doing is such a great idea and others in their number say this is mission accomplished, they have what they want. The debate about the amazing power of the USS Anracosh composes most of the B plot.
The USS Anracosh is travelling through Federation Territory and all is well, or so they think. The USS Anracosh has recently been upgraded to its ancient race starship form. A few bugs have to be worked out as they get used to the new form of their starship, but it’s nothing serious.
They fly through space in what they think of as friendly territory, all systems working as expected as the bridge and main engineering work closely to monitor the starship to see that it works well.
Long range sensors reveal an armada of Federation starships intercepting them. This is a large number of starships lead by an Admiral’s flagship, this is Admiral Havazia Kreck’s flagship. The Federation vessels are heading to them at very high warp. They receive a message from the armada to stop and wait for them.
The Captain orders the USS Anracosh to full stop and awaits the armada, the bridge crew discuss what could the Admiral and her fleet want. They will be here in a few minutes. The crew have a suspicion that it can’t be good. Why bring so much backup just to say hello?
They soon get their answers when the armada arrives. This is the entire fleet the Admiral answers to, meaning a large number of starships. In front of the USS Anracosh is a vast amount of Federation Starship’s who sit vis a vis them in what is clearly a confrontation.
The Admiral hails them. She is an Andorian, and they know who this is. She reveals that the USS Anracosh has been transferred to her command and she is not happy about it. She does not want to command a bunch of rogue officers who got rewarded by being given the most powerful starship the Federation has access to.
She gives them even more of a dressing down, saying that the biggest issue she has with them is not that they are renegades who got rewarded for the their crimes, but that they have sabotaged the Federation.
This is met with a puzzled reaction by the bridge crew. How could they have sabotaged the Federation? The Admiral is eager to give the answer.
The areas the ancients occupy are no go areas for a reason. The ancients are very dangerous to deal with. One wrong move means gaining enemies they have no defence against. That’s obvious; the crew of the USS Anracosh is learning the power of the ancients just by being on the USS Anracosh itself. This is where the A and B plots converge.
The Admiral then explains her real reason for hating the crew of the USS Anracosh. She says: If the ancients will allow any race to join them what race would want to join the Federation? The ancients can better any offer the Federation makes to a candidate race. If the ancients have an open door policy the Federation will stagnate at best or decline at worst. What if Federation members defect to the ancients? That puts the Federation in a very weak position.
The Admiral invites the crew of the USS Anracosh to speak in their defence, and they would have if not for the ancients appearing around the USS Anracosh and the armada of Federation vessels. This is a repeat of the Admiral using the armada to intimidate the crew of the USS Anracosh.
The ancients bring their own armada of powerful starships and space borne ancients, and to top it off the Q have one of their “space cages” surrounding the whole ancients/Federation armada.
A group of ancients appear on the USS Anracosh and ask to speak in their own defence rather than have the bridge crew speak on their behalf. The ancients on the bridge are just as heady a bunch as appeared on Earth when the ancients announced a rogue Starfleet crew was trying diplomacy with them. On the Bridge are a Q, a Preserver, an Organian and few others. These are the big players in the ancients community – members of the most powerful races of the ancient races clique.
The Admiral immediately asks the ancients to remove the Q “space cage” from around their fleets. The Q makes some kind of signal and the cage disappears. The Admiral orders a small percentage of her fleet to return to duty and asks the ancients to remove their fleet, the ancients comply.
The ancients ask the crew of the USS Anracosh to drop certain shielding that is designed to sabotage scans of the USS Anracosh. The ancients then ask that the Admiral and the other Federation starships still in the area to do a deep scan of the USS Anracosh. The Admiral suspects some kind of trickery, but agrees to scan the USS Anracosh to see what the scans reveal. The Admiral states that there is not much point to scanning the vessel. The Federation already has detailed files on the vessel, to which the ancients reply: “You should have read those files”.
The scans reveal something that has the Admiral break off the communications feed. The bridge crew on the USS Anracosh detect large amounts of communications radio between the numerous starships in the Admiral’s armada.
Puzzled as to what is going on, the bridge crew read some of the messages and the ancients offer to let them eavesdrop on the various Federation vessels. The captain of the USS Anracosh hesitates to take up the ancients offer; this would be a breach of regulations, but listening into open communications is not illegal. The onus is on the broadcaster of the signals to encrypt them, the bridge crew intercepting the open signals is not at fault for “reading” them. What the radio intercepts reveals are the various Captains and the Admiral discussing that the USS Anracosh is powerful enough to take down the entire Federation fleet sent to intimidate the crew of the USS Anracosh. The whole mission to punish the rogue crew was a waste of time. If the Federation fleet attacked the USS Anracosh they would have been wiped out if the crew of the USS Anracosh had desired to obliterate them.
After a few minutes of listening in to the open radio messages the Admiral hails the USS Anracosh again. The mood is still very belligerent. She acknowledges that the USS Anracosh is by itself a vessel powerful enough to take down a whole Federation fleet, and that she knows the bridge crew has been listening into the radio signals between the fleet’s starships. She says that the crew of the USS Anracosh still answer to her and nothing is going to change that. She hates the situation, but says they have to answer to someone, and answering to a civilian leader is not an option, but why not?
At this point the ancients begin speaking in their defence saying that an Admiral should know the difference between capability and intent, if she doesn’t then she is incompetent. If the ancients wanted the younger races extinct the younger races would be extinct. If the ancients want them dead why are they still alive? The Admiral can’t and won’t answer. The ancients go on to say that if the crew of the USS Anracosh wanted the fleet destroyed, the fleet would be destroyed, and they would not need the ancients help to eradicate the fleet sent to intimidate them.
The Admiral order’s the rest of her armada to return to duty, the ancients ask what is left of their fleet to leave as well as a gesture of good faith, save for one vessel. So it’s just an ancient races starship, the USS Anracosh and the Admiral’s flagship in a formation that resembles an equilateral triangle.
Not sure what to do next the Captain attempts mediation between the ancients and the Admiral. The ancients want to educate the Admiral on the nature of the Ancients and to answer her questions.
The ancients tell them the price they will have to pay in terms of suicides from becoming immortal and how they will have to change in terms of culture and thought processes. This shocked the Federation high command because it means Federation members may try to join the ancients, but this quickly turned to relief when the cost of becoming an ancient is exposed to the younger races. The ancients want the Federation to see what a younger race has to do to join the ancients if they do not qualify to get an invitation. The Federation gets an answer to the question: Can any race join the ancients? The answer is yes, but the sacrifices that must be made before and after ascension are very costly. The race decides to bite the bullet and make the changes, which is long drawn out process taking more than a generation. The ancients want the younger races to watch and learn from the process, to make them understand what it means to become an ancient, and learn the pitfalls of doing so.
After the lesson one of the ancients reveals his race is into time travel and saw what would have happened if things had gone badly. They tell the Captain and the Admiral that they can’t see what the ancients prevented from happening because they can’t see through time like some ancients can. If the ancients had not intervened in the confrontation, the risk was the Federation cancelling their Realm of the Gods project.
The finale is the reveal that the ancients reveal that they need the Realm of the Gods project to replenish the number of ancients that fall to self-destruction from not being able to cope with immortality. The Ancients need the Realm of the Gods project more than the younger races do.
Season 1 Episode 7
The Negilum seek out the USS Anracosh part 1
The first two parter episode
The USS Anracosh receives orders to make contact with the Negilum. This is an ancient race that the Federation has encountered before and has had some bad experiences with. USS Enterprise under Captain Picard encountered a psychotic Negilum who killed a member of its crew.
This is a case where the Federation has to honour its agreement with the ancients that any ancient can contact the Federation and establish diplomatic relations, this includes ancients the Federation has previously had bad encounters with, like the Talosians, Greek Gods and the Negilum.
The crew are apprehensive, the previous encounter with the Negilum nearly resulted in the USS Enterprise being destroyed and a crew member was killed. This could be a risky mission, but the ancients have promised that ancients that the Federation has had a bad time with will behave themselves. This is part of the pact made in relation to the Realm of the Gods project. What makes matters worse is the Drone saying that the Negilum have a reputation in the ancient races clique for being quick tempered.
Starfleet has provided coordinates to a rift made by the Negilum, so the USS Anracosh can enter their dimension. This does not worry the crew, the USS Anracosh can dimension hop by itself, so they will not be stranded there. Travelling to the rift the diplomatic crew prepare themselves, studying what the Federation knows of the Negilum and consulting the Drone, the ancient races expert and Niffy the Melkot, who is now ship’s AI and the previous ancient races expert.
The Federation by itself does not know much about the Negilum except for what the USS Enterprise learned in the Federation’s previous encounter with the Negilum. The Drone lets the crew know that the Negilum are a pretty standard ancient race. The discovered ascension, and how to make their own pocket universe. They created their own personal paradise in their own new universe then it all went to hell as many of them could not cope with being immortal. The drone does remind them that the Negilum the Federation previously encountered was psychotic. The creature does not represent the Negilum people as a whole.
The USS Anracosh approaches the rift and enters it. Once fully inside the rift the starship is confronted by a number of faces on the walls of the pocket dimension they have entered. These are the Negilum. They welcome the USS Anracosh and say to them that they would prefer to stay as faces in the pocket plane rather than take on a humanoid form and enter the USS Anracosh for the negotiations. However, they can accommodate the crew’s preference on the matter if need be.
The captain and the chief diplomat consult each other and disagree on how to answer. The chief diplomat wants face to face talks; she feels that she can better assess the Negilum if she has some body language to read off them. The captain is happy to let the Negilum stay where they are to keep them happy. The captain pulls rank and the Negilum stay on the edge of their pocket plane.
The diplomatic talks begin and we switch scenes to outside the rift where a small starship comes out of high warp. It also enters the rift. Onboard are the protester and members of the anti-realm of the gods protest group. They have an arrest warrant for the Negilum who killed the officer who died in the previous encounter with the Federation. The protester explains how they will confront the ancients, arrest the murderous Negilum and sour the ancients to running diplomacy with the Federation.
The protester’s following cheer as the plan revealed. Their starship enters the rift and detects on scanners the USS Anracosh and the faces of the Negilum. What they don’t realise is that the Negilum have detected them. This is their pocket plane, they are effectively in the Negilum’s backyard. The Negilum confront them and ask them to go to negotiation site. One of the protesters presents the Negilum on the screen with an arrest warrant for the murderous Negilum. The Negilum says they should go to the diplomatic talks with their grievance.
The protesters crash the diplomatic talks and make demands that the murderous Negilum be handed over to them. They present their arrest warrant. This does not go down well with the crew of the USS Anracosh. They hate that a protest group against their mission exists. The Negilum are a bit more cool about it.
The Negilum say to the crew of the USS Anracosh that they will retrieve the murderous Negilum and that they want to negotiate with the protesters directly. The diplomatic talks are postponed while the Negilum talk to the protesters. The crew of the USS Anracosh keep the communications link open and monitored by the bridge staff while the officer core meets in the captain’s ready room.
At the meeting the chief diplomat confronts the captain about undermining her work. She says they should have had the Negilum talk to them on the USS Anracosh. Again the captain tries to pull rank. The chief diplomat reacts by stating that she, like some of the officer core, were conned into thinking they were on a legitimate mission back when the Realm of the Gods project was a rogue operation.
Note: The crew who were conned into joining the USS Anracosh crew when their mission was illegal becomes the B plot of the first episode. It is resolved in the second part of the two parter.
The Zalkonain doctor, the drone, the chief engineer, the chief diplomat and the starship’s AI [The Melkot] all say they joined the crew thinking it was a legitimate mission. The Melkot talks from his office and is in the ready room in a “virtual” state. Being lied to is something the crew who thought it was a legitimate mission resent, but the drone admits that when he joined he was in a position where he really should have asked more questions, so he is partly at fault. In short the drone did not ask if it was a rogue mission and should have done some fact checking on his own.
This causes the conference to erupt. The captain and the officer core who know it was a rogue operation say that they are under no obligation to stay with the USS Anracosh. They can leave and get on with their lives. The captain does not want to kick them off the starship, they each serve a vital purpose to the mission, especially the drone.
The whole meeting degenerates into a loud argument between the crew who were conned and the crew who knew it was a rogue mission from the start. This can even be heard from the bridge and the bridge crew are wondering what is going on. The captain, trying to diffuse the situation even asks the crew who were conned to stay. She then puts in the effort to try to diffuse the situation. One of the bridge crew enters the conference and asks what the shouting is all about.
The captain says it is not the bridge crews business and asks about the talks between the Negilum and the protesters. Before the bridge officer can start his report the chief diplomat reminds the captain that they will take up their grievances some other time. This is not over. The bridge officer explains what is going on and the scene switches to the talks between the protesters and the Negilum.
The protesters are demanding the murderous Negilum face murder charges. The Negilum figure out they want a show trial to paint the ancients on a bad light and thus sabotage the Realm of the Gods movement. The Negilum confront the protesters with this information. The protesters do not exactly deny it, but still stress that their quest is for justice. The Negilum sympathise but say that the Negilum they want has gone dormant.
The Negilum have to explain what going dormant is to the protesters. The murderous Negilum has since its encounter with the USS Enterprise gone completely dysfunctional and is now in a state of being dormant, as described in the show bible notes. He has a tiny sliver of consciousness that is aware of his surroundings, but is otherwise he is halfway between comatose and catatonic.
The Negilum ask what is the point of putting the murderous Negilum in prison if he is utterly unaware of his surroundings. The protesters, still unconvinced, demand to see the murderous Negilum. The Negilum they are talking to say they will have to wait; it will take a short time to retrieve the murderous Negilum.
We return to the conference room where the bridge officer is addressing the officer core. He has finished his explanation and those in the ready room meeting return to the bridge. The chief diplomat addresses the Negilum diplomatic team and is bought up to speed about the negotiations between the protesters and the Negilum.
Right on cue the murderous Negilum appears as one of the faces on the wall of the pocket plane. His eyes are dead and obviously the creature does not react to its surroundings. The protesters try to film it and set up a protest in the vacuum of space with protest signs against the Realm of the Gods project. They use the now dysfunctional Negilum as a poster boy for their cause.
This greatly upsets the Negilum. The murderous Negilum can’t consent to being a poster boy. The Negilum set about stopping the protesters to which the protesters say the worst things they can say. They say two things that enrage one particular Negilum and the Negilum as a whole.
They say that the crew member on the USS Enterprise did not consent to being killed by the murderous Negilum and call the Negilum [who is obviously female] trying to usher the murderous Negilum away should get her fat butt out of their affairs.
This is where it all goes to crap. The Negilum called fat loses it. She is about to attack the protesters and their starship when the USS Anracosh has to intervene, with the chief diplomat and the captain stating that the Negilum are playing right into the hands of the protesters by proving the ancients are dangerous to younger races.
The show ends on a cliff hanger of Negilum about to attack both starships and the crew of the USS Anracosh getting ready to defend the protesters even though they are the enemy and to fight of the Negilum attacking both starships.
End of part one
Back to Welcome to Star Trek Realm of the Gods
Introduction to a sample Star Trek Realm of the Gods TV show