Back to Welcome to Star Trek Realm of the Gods
Season 4 Episode 1
Imitari vs Orions Part 2
At the start of the episode a recap is given of the previous episodes events. Then we switch to scenes where the Imitari are confronting the ascended mythbuster. In this episode the ascended mythbuster has to explain himself to his fellow Imitari and the Ancient slavers are addressing both versions of the Orions.
The Ancient slavers say to the Orion leaders that if they wanted to enslave or destroy the Orions they could do so with ease, so why haven’t they? They say that they are here to help close the time rift if the ascended mythbuster refuses to do so. The Orion leadership quickly realises that the Ancient slavers are not there to hurt them. It does not take a genius to realise that.
Once again the Orion leaders turn crisis into an opportunity and say they would like to keep the rift open and learn from their alternate selves. The Ancient slavers agree and offer to hang around to maintain the rift indefinitely, and the Orions and their former masters start talking to each other.
The Imitari take the ascended mythbuster to the USS Anracosh for a dressing down and to explain himself. He tells the truth and the crew say that he should not have wondered off alone. He says he was motivated by the fact that he has meet alternate versions of himself through his own experiments with alternate timeline travel and knows the other version of himself from the timeline on the other side of the rift. This comes as a shock to the Imitari interrogating him. The crew of the USS Anracosh isn’t surprised, nothing about the ancients surprises them. The Imitari say that they are returning him to Viridis [the Imitari home world] and he is to come clean about all his scientific endeavours that they don’t know about. Before they do that he has to help with the time rift.
The Orion negotiation team on the USS Anracosh meet the ascended mythbuster in person. The ascended mythbuster explains his actions to them and the negotiation team admits that a lot of Orions feel that as a people they need to change, getting involved with the Realm of the Gods project could be the key to that. Seeing what the ancients can do for them may make the Orions rethink their lifestyles. On the spot they agree to help with the resupply efforts. The crew of the USS Anracosh says they will contact Section 31 so the Orions and Section 31 can coordinate their resupply efforts. The two will work together with Section 31 still doing the supply runs but now using Orion as a base of operations. The USS Anracosh will arrange a meeting between the two groups so the new supply run procedures can be organised.
We switch to a scene where the Orion leaders are talking to their former masters. The Ancient slavers are filling in the gaps of their history. The Ancient slavers discovered the secrets of ascension and were invited into the Ancient races clique. They were given a choice, take the Orions with them or leave the Orions as a younger race. The Ancient slavers decided on the latter, but set up the Orions with an empire of their own consisting of their capitol [the Orion home world] and various colony worlds full of Orions already on those worlds. The Ancient slavers also left the Orions with enough technology to maintain their new empire. This was a parting gift from the Ancient slavers to their former slaves. They wanted the ex-slaves to prosper after the Ancient slavers joined the ancient races clique and made sure the Orions had the resources and technology to be successful.
Meanwhile the ascended mythbuster is defending himself against accusations from his fellow Imitari. He maintains he has been honest with them, all they have to do is check the reports he has filed. Neither the crew of the USS Anracosh or the Imitari are happy with him, but realise that they need him right now.
While the talks are going on outside things have not improved. The Orion public are still in a state of panic and the authorities are trying to quell their fears. Riots, looting and various other forms of civil unrest are overtaking the Orion home world, and it is an uphill battle to pacify the Orion public. The alternate Orions are having more success closing the temporal rift, but it is a slow process.
The alternate Orions have recalled their fleet to guard and close the rift entrance. On the Orion republic fleet we see newer Federation species working together in a mirror of what the Federation is in the non-alternate timeline. They are just as professional as Starfleet and just as savvy with technology and science and do their best to close the rift to shut out the non-alternate Ancient slavers from their timeline. Whatever other chaos is happening beyond the rift is something they also want to get away from.
As the tension builds the non-alternate Orions contact them to tell them to stop closing the rift and let it stabilise. The alternate Orions are sceptical but agree, keeping the closing efforts on standby ready to go at a second’s notice. The Ancient slavers assure the alternate Orions that they do not intend to be hostile and wish to prove they are sincere. Therefore, to fix the social unrest on the Orion Homeworld the Ancient slavers go to the world themselves and try to reason with the Orion public. All over the Orion home world the Ancient slavers start addressing crowds and regional/local governments. The Ancient slavers say the same thing they said to the Orion leadership, if they wanted to enslave the Orions or destroy them with ease they could have done so a long time ago. So why are the Orions being left as they are? More importantly the Orions practice slavery themselves, so being afraid of slavery is pure hypocrisy.
The Ancient slavers point out that it is not ancient races that should be feared, ancient race individuals are a bigger threat. The Ancient slavers point out that the rift they can see in the sky was made by one ancient, not an ancient race and was not made by the Ancient slavers. Ancient individuals are very powerful in their own right, the ancient races usually keep ancient race individuals in check, and the Orion have nothing to fear from the ancient race that used to enslave them.
The Ancient slavers also go to the USS Anracosh to borrow the ascended mythbuster. He has some technology aboard his starship that the Ancient slavers need to use in the immediate future. The ascended mythbuster has an ancient races PA system for use over a planet wide area and its orbital surroundings. using this device it is the Ancient slavers who restore order to the Orion home world and the Orion leaders address their people using a piece of ancient race technology developed by the ascended mythbuster.
The Ancient slavers, with the ascended mythbuster go to the Orion leaders and use the Ancient races PA system to address both versions of the Orion people. The Orion leaders speaks first saying that they has reached a negotiated agreement with their alternate versions of themselves and want to keep up permanent regular contact with the alternate timeline. The Ancient slavers offer to help maintain the time rift and want to set up diplomatic relations with the Orions of their timeline. Thus there is nothing to worry about, the Ancient slavers come as friends. The Ancient slavers admit that now the Realm of the Gods project is active, they intended to swing by the Orion home world and say hello anyway within a few years. The ascended mythbuster’s actions merely accelerated their plans.
Finally the ascended mythbuster speaks, he dresses down the Orions, saying that the Orions of his timeline have now seen how successful they could be if they changed their ways. He wanted these two versions of the Orions to meet to show where his timelines Orions could be if they put in the effort and cleaned up their culture. He ends his tirade with shouting the words “DO BETTER!”
The Orion leaders reluctantly agree with him and the PA machine is turned off. The various races return to their ships and the rift is stabilised to an opening big enough for starships to go through like traveling through a wormhole. The Imitari dock their ships in the ascended mythbuster’s ship and return to Viridis. Most of the Ancient slavers leave but for a diplomatic team and a science team that monitors and maintains the rift and to continue negotiating with the both alternate timeline Orions and the Orions they used to rule.
The end scene is the on the USS Anracosh as the crew contemplate the recent events on and near Orion. Orion society is about to go through a seismic shift with the possibility of vast majority of the Orion syndicate disbanding. That is something the alpha and beta quadrants will be celebrating for a long time to come. They also note that the Orions have agreed to join the efforts to resupply the USS Anracosh, so this mission has been a net gain for them. For now their current mission is over, so the final scene is the USS Anracosh leaving orbit of the Orion home world.
Season 4 Episode 2
The USS Anracoch tries using itself as a grand central station. Includes detecting criminality sub plot
The crew of the USS Anracosh experiment with creating multiple wormholes with the starship and turn the USS Anracosh into a grand central station with starships going long distances via multiple wormholes. The wormholes are temporary ones that collapse after being used because it takes much less power to make them.
The chief scientist and the chief engineer and many others are experimenting with the wormhole generators on the USS Anracosh to make a large amount of wormholes around the starship. This time these are no unforeseen consequences. Nothing goes wrong. The wormhole devices work perfectly and the crew decide that they can set up the starship as a space station and do their contact work via making wormholes where they need to go.
It goes great for a short time until the diplomatic team find that their hailing messages to the ancients they wish to meet go unanswered. This becomes a mystery and other Federation vessels are sent to see why the ancients are not answering the diplomatic messages. Once again the investigation is fruitless.
For a while everything goes well as the USS Anracosh is used by the Federation as a grand central station for very fast travel within the Federation and far beyond. Some emergency situations are even solved by using the USS Anracosh wormholes to get rescue forces quickly to the survivors of various disasters.
The consensus is that maybe the ancients have cancelled the Realm of the Gods project for unknown reasons. If that is the case then it is time to move on and chalk it up as a victory because the Federation has the USS Anracosh. Having the Federation ancients hybrid ship give the Federation a huge advantage over any other younger race government the Federation knows of. Thus the Realm of the Gods project is considered a success.
The B plot is that the loved ones of the crew of the USS Anracosh use the opportunity provided by the starship being a wormhole nexus point to visit the starship. This is where the detecting criminality sub-plot happens.
At the shuttle bay of the USS Anracosh the Security Chief meets her younger sister and her brother in law. The Security Chief gets to meet her nephew for the first time and the nephew is a toddler. Using the wormholes generated by the USS Anracosh the adults and kid return to Earth. They have an important meeting to go to. It is about their kid. They are bought before a group of people, namely a security officer, a doctor, a psychologist and a lawyer. They have some bad news to tell the couple.
Their kid has failed the mandatory psychopathy test given to all Federation kids. They have a brutal choice to make. They can leave the kid as he is and accept legal liability for their kid’s actions or they can apply a cure for his psychopathic tendencies. The horrifying choice is theirs. It is better to do the cure now rather than wait when the kid is a few years older. The older the kid gets, the harder the procedure is to do, and after puberty the cure is not an option due to how far the brain has developed by then. They legally need both parents to consent to the cure for it to be applied. The Security Chief is there for emotional support.
The cure is a surgical procedure that alters the structure of the brain and its biochemistry. It is a “one shot deal” meaning that it only needs to be done once with the usual issues that accompany any surgery. They will have to care for the kid just like any kid who has had surgery, meaning a few weeks of rest after leaving hospital. The hospital stay itself lasts under a week. There is no alteration to a person’s genetics and therefore it does not violate any Federation laws about genetically modifying a person.
The parents ask how badly the kid failed the test, the response is that he failed badly, he is a hardcore complete and utter psychopath. He will most likely have a list of atrocities to his name by the time he is thirty. The authorities offer them the surgery that will cure the kid but can’t legally compel them to give their kid the cure. The team sent to talk to the couple note that Federation prisons are full of parents who refused to apply the cure to their offspring; this is why the Federation has a prison system.
Having stated the above options, there is a political movement in the Federation and elsewhere that want to make the cure for psychopathy mandatory. There are comparisons with the modern anti-vaccination movement, but it is reversed in this episode. The mandatory cure movement is like a mirror image of the anti-vaxxers, they are people who want the psychopathy cure to be compulsory and are as militant about it as the anti-vaxxers are in the real world. The counter argument to the compulsory cure movement is that the cure reeks if mind control, which is something the Federation is against.
Returning the A plot: The crew of the USS Anracosh wonder if this will be their new assignment, managing a Federation “grand central station of interstellar travel”. They prepare for a new life and think that the ancients have abandoned them because the diplomatic team is getting nowhere with their contact missions. The crew shrugs and thinks that the Realm of the Gods project is over and gets on with their lives, but this is only for a short time until the ancients arrive in the vicinity of the USS Anracosh, and they are not happy.
The ancients are furious because the Federation is in violation of the agreement to only use for the USS Anracosh as a diplomatic starship and nothing else. They threaten to confiscate the USS Anracosh but say the Federation is welcome to reverse engineer wormhole creation technology and build a starbase that can act as a grand central station.
The Federation gets to keep the USS Anracosh but is let off with a warning. The ancients note that had the black hole manipulator been fully operational during this time they would have been more lenient with the Federation. This is a not so subtle hint that the ancients would prefer the USS Anracosh to have its black hole manipulator finished, and it is overtly stated.
The reason the ancients are so pissed off is that the ancients say that it is better to approach ancient race sites with the USS Anracosh because the ancients will react to the USS Anracosh as if it were an ancient race starship, which effectively it is. The same applies to other ancient races contact ships run by other younger race governments. Ancient races contact ships have technology onboard that “brands” them as an ancient races starship.
Many ancients will ignore a younger race starship in their territory, whereas an ancient races vessel will at least be greeted. Also the ancients see just using shuttlecraft going through wormholes as lazy. It is the Federation doing the diplomatic equivalent of “Just phoning it in with minimal effort put into the phone call”. The ancients upgraded the USS Anracosh for the purpose of contacting the ancients, if it is not going to be used for that purpose, why bother having it?
The crew of the USS Anracosh learn their lesson and find out the Ancients sent representatives to Starfleet command, who were complicit with the USS Anracosh being used as a grand central station. They also send representatives to the Federation council complaining about what they see as the misuse of the USS Anracosh.
This is another episode that does not end well, with Starfleet command, Federation politicians and the core officers of the USS Anracosh all promising the ancients that they will in future abide by the deal they made with the ancients and they will go about the Realm of the Gods project as the ancients want them to.
Returning to the B plot: As for the parents of the kid who failed the psychopathy test: They are approached by the compulsory cure movement. Much to the surprise of the parents the Security Chief sides with the compulsory cure movement. She has to confess to her sister that in recent years especially after fighting in the Dominion war she has become a Federation nationalist. Her sister understands the hell the Security Chief has been through and knows how it must be affecting her.
Seeing what the Security Chief has become makes the parents realise that if left unchecked their son could become as bigger fanatic as the Security Chief. What kind of evil could their son do in the name of an extreme cause their son may wind up following? They don’t say that to the Security Chief’s face but her behaviour is what sways the parents into applying the cure.
The parents were on the fence about the cure; they could see both sides of the argument about how doing mind control is morally wrong but also leaving their son to cause future atrocities is also morally wrong. The parents say that they are not happy at being tracked down by strangers; they approve applying the cure at the end of the episode. The last scene is of the toddler being prepped for surgery and the parents waiting outside the operating theatre. The Security Chief is there with them for moral support having no idea of the real reason the parents choose to have the cure applied to their son.
Season 4 Episode 3
Four dimensional space on the USS Anracosh
The chief engineer and the science officer working on a device they do not understand. It is one of the systems on the USS Anracosh they have yet to explore. What they have discovered about it is that it functions as the ancient race version of turbo lifts, but work on an entirely different idea of creating four dimensional gateways inside the starship, the crew just doesn’t know how the device does this.
For now the crew use the turbolifts that came with the Federation half of the starship, and those lifts extend all over the organic half of the starship. For now they have not been willing to use the four dimensional gates that the device provides because they don’t know how the device works. Today they are having a look at it and trying to learn its secrets. That said; the device appears to be Iconian wormhole technology.
The device is also for off starship transport as well, although the internal travel inside the starship and external travel like teleporting/transporters are compartmentalised. This means it is the same technology used in two separate systems. Why it is organised this way is once again a mystery.
This is a system that calls for the drone, the chief engineer and the chief science officer to all take part in its analysis. The whole department of reverse engineering ancient technology and department of starship maintenance services are also bought in to figure out the four dimensional doorway technology. This is a tough piece of technology to understand, so it’s all hands on deck.
From what the crew can gather the four dimensional gateway makes dimensional portals inside the USS Anracosh, and they can anywhere in the starship. You could create a doorway that directly links the rear tip of the ancient races enhanced warp nacelle to the bridge if you wanted to.
When the crew do some tests with the four dimensional doorway system the drone uses his ability to interact with ancient races technology. He does not think anything of it but the crew have a very different reaction. They seem shocked and disappointed that the drone has not shared with them that he has ancient race abilities that look like magic to any younger race member. The drone is equally shocked for the exactly opposite reasons.
The B plot: Note the B plot is the prosecution of the drone, and it merges with the A plot via the drone’s heroic actions.
A security team is sent and the drone is arrested and interrogated. The drone has a lot of negative feelings towards this but mainly feels betrayed by his crewmates. The drone faces off the first officer and the security chief and some rank and file crew acting as guards.
The first officer and security chief ask why the drone did not the tell them of his full abilities. They feel it is something very important they should know. The drone replies that he thinks nothing of what he can do, to him it is just like breathing. It is a normal part of his life just like being able to eat, sleep and move around. He did not think his talents are anywhere near as important as what his interrogators believe them to be.
The next thing the first officer and the chief of security ask is what is the extent of the drone’s abilities? The drone says that all his talents amount to are some passive mental abilities to interact with telepathic ancients and the power to interact with ancient races technology. He is nothing compared to many ancients who have god like abilities.
The drone adds that these abilities were given to him after the Borg rejected assimilating him and rejecting the idea of the Borg creating Borg drones rather than assimilating sentient beings. The reason is obvious: The ancients did not want to give ancient race talents to the Borg.
The drone wants to continue his defence by saying that the crew of the USS Anracosh is going to encounter ancients who make his talents look like nothing. If they can’t handle the drone’s abilities how are they going to cope with dealing with ancients as powerful as the Douwd, Organians, and the Q?
At is at this point that the interrogation evolves into a full blown inquiry/legal hearing. The drone feels betrayed and is stunned that his commanders are taking the matter so seriously. Why is he at the centre of what he feels is a witch hunt? What crime has he committed?
The drone finishes by saying if the crew want him gone he can contact the ancients and they can come and pick him up from the USS Anracosh. The officer core says they will make a decision when the enquiry is over. The drone now feels completely betrayed. The crew came to the ancients begging for help and pleading for allies and technology, and look how he, a member of the ancient races, is being treated by them. Beggars can’t be choosers.
The interrogation team of the first officer and the security chief has become a panel involving the officer core. The drone sits alone in front of them. It is like a rigged trail where the accused has been denied a lawyer and the judges are also the prosecutors. The security chief recaps the information from the short interrogation. What is a real double standard is the Zalkonian doctor, a fellow ancient, on the panel in front of him.
The drone points out the hypocrisy of having the Zalkonian doctor standing in judgement of him. The response is that they know the Zalkonian’s abilities and the limits of her abilities. The Zalkonian doctor has been in Federation territory for years. She is something they know and understand. The drone is something they don’t know or understand.
Just as the panel is about to start the prosecution the chief engineer and the science officer send a message saying that they are ready for full testing of the four dimensional doorway device. The captain orders that they proceed right now.
Because the drone isn’t there to help the science officer and the chief engineer they make a serious error with the four dimensional doorway technology when they activate it. The starship’s internals are turned inside out and it resembles an Escher picture. The chief engineer and chief science officer immediately contact the rest of the officer core to report what has happened, hoping the disaster was contained just to the engineering section. Regrettably it has not been contained.
The captain, who is at the prosecution, says that they are in the same situation. Gravity has gone berserk, floors are walls, ceilings are walls, and everything is now all over the place. It looks like reality itself is breaking down on the USS Anracosh.
The captain asks for an all areas report, but the immediate worry is that the portals are leading to outside the starship and it will lose atmosphere. The science officer and chief of engineering say they can detect no leaks and that the four dimensional doorway system has safeguards against accidentally removing the atmosphere from inside the starship, and that those safeguards are still in place.
Of much greater concern is the report from medical. Both doctors are needed in the infirmary right now. They have numerous casualties, include near fatalities and crew on their death beds if both doctors are not there to heal the wounded. Fortunately nobody is dead, but that could change at any second.
The transporter section reports that the transporters can get the doctors to the infirmary immediately, so the Zalkonian doctor goes into full unascended form and the two doctors teleport to the infirmary so they can save lives.
The only people left at the prosecution [the drone sees at as persecution] are some of the officer core and the drone, and they are in a room that looks like an Escher picture.
The drone now speaks to the officer core. He offers to fix the situation. He can do so if they trust him and get him to the engineering section, a command level console or anywhere in the organic section of the USS Anracosh that he can interface with using his ancient race abilities. He reminds them that the Zalkonian doctor can’t help them right now, she is busy dealing with the disaster in the infirmary.
There is one serious problem. Dimensional doorways are everywhere and gravity doesn’t go in one direction anymore. The only way to get the drone to where he can help is by teleportation, which is the only viable way to move around the USS Anracosh right now. However, the transporters are being overloaded by crew members getting to their posts. There is a good chance that the transporters are going to fry and leave the entire crew stranded in a four dimensional maze that was once the USS Anracosh.
The worst news the officer core receives is that casualties are increasing as more crew injure themselves because of the changes in the direction of gravity and slipping through dimensional doors and getting impact injuries. They can call for help from the Federation and the ancients, but help is something they can’t wait for. The problem has to be solved now.
The drone reiterates and says let me fix this, just trust me. The officer core realise that he is right. He is the most qualified available person on the starship who can rescue them. The captain contacts the transporter department. She says to cancel all transporter activity and teleport the drone to main engineering. They are warned that the transporters are on their last legs. Once the transporters teleport the drone they will have to be shut down to avoid catastrophic damage. The captain understands and agrees.
The drone is teleported to main engineering and then goes to a wall. Lights appear on the wall and it becomes a work station designed to be used by ancients. A chair grows from the floor and the drone begins working. During this time the chief engineer, the science officer and some of their underlings watch on as the drone uses his powers.
Strange lights come from the drone’s hands. The lights on the wall interact with the drone’s hands. A screen appears on the wall showing a schematic of the USS Anracosh, other screens appear as well showing various dimensional doors all over the starship. The drone is closing the doorways, making sure the doorways he closes have nobody near them. The chief scientist says that all crew should not go near the dimensional doors as they are being shut down. In time all the dimensional doors are gone and the ancient races interface and chair disappear.
The drone stands there and is asked to report back to the officer core “meeting” as they now call it, rather than it being a prosecution. The captain says over the PA system that they will never again use the dimensional doorways system on the USS Anracosh except for small scale experiments, and using it to the extent it is currently used on the USS Anracosh. The other good news is that there have been no fatalities in the malfunctioning of the four dimensional doorway system. Both these pieces of news are greeted with a rousing cheer from the crew.
The story ends with the officer core at the “meeting” asking the drone for forgiveness and give him a medal for saving the ship and to compensate him. They now trust him as he has proven himself. They ask him to show the full extent of his abilities and he says that in the recent disaster he just did. He says he forgives them and will stay on the USS Anracosh. The drone says they are not used to the ancients, but as time goes on they will learn and grow and the ancients are willing to wait for them to accept the ancients for who they are. If the ancients can do that he will do the same, as he is an ancient himself, albeit a young ancient in his twenties.
Season 4 Episode 4
The confession of fragging
The theme in this episode is exploring anti-mandatory reporting laws and why they are needed
The B plot: Niffy [the Melkot linked to the starship’s main computer] is asking for three leg men [one from the main shift, two from each night shift] He is sick of the fact he cannot easily run errands while sitting in the merge with the starship’s main computer chamber. He has to find crew who are not busy to do stuff for him. This inconveniences and annoys himself and the crew he asks for help. He requests that he be given a leg man from each shift as the problem is getting out of hand and he is way behind in what he wants to do beyond the chamber.
The B Plot shows operations in the merging with main computer area of the starship. It shows Niffy linked to the main computer with crew picked at random helping him with errands around the ship. This episode shows Niffy working on a new project that will take a lot of his time. This makes having a permanent staff assigned to helping Niffy a necessity.
It is revealed that Niffy has wanted to have staff to run errands for a long time, but has up until now relied on friends in the crew. This was done ad-hoc with requests for help asked for when needed. Until now there was not a good reason to ask for permanent staff. Niffy wanted to ask for staff, but had no valid reason to justify his request.
Now Niffy has a project related to scientific research work in improving computer technology. He can’t randomly ask for help when he is dedicating most of his energies to the research project. Niffy wants to be able to assign a staff errands to do when they arrive for their shift while he works on his science research project.
Niffy approaches the rest of the officer core and asks for his own department of people to do various jobs for him on a permanent basis. The officer core agree that this is a good idea and the First Officer will find crew they can reassign to work with Niffy.
To stress the point as to why Niffy wants his own department he shows the officer core what he is working on. He has discovered many new insights about computers by the fact that he is merged with the USS Anracosh’s main computer. He shows the officer core his findings and says he wants to explore where his research into computing will take him. The officer core agrees that this is worth researching and approve of Niffy’s project.
Additionally, the First Officer is the unofficial councillor/psychologist for the crew, and to that end he runs a PTSD support group on the USS Anracosh. He is a natural psychologist with a talent for psycho-analysing without having formal psychology training. [Before using a neural education device to get formal psychological qualifications].
The opening scene is of the self-help group run by the First Officer, one of the men present is close to break down as he confesses that he fragged a superior during the Dominion war. Fragging means to kill a superior officer, usually with a hand grenade or shooting them in the back. This is greeted with shock by the group, and the First Officer has to calm everyone down. Everyone wants to know why he shot his superior with a captured Jem Hadar rifle.
The guy says that he hated the way his superior threw away the lives of his underlings. The officer he fragged would send men to their deaths so he could glorify himself. The guy who fragged his superior feared he would be the next one to be sacrificed got a hold of an enemy rifle on the battlefield and made it look like a killing done in shootout.
What was problematic was that the Federation now has anti-mandatory reporting laws. It is illegal for the First Officer and those at the self-help group to report the confessing officer. The reason for anti-mandatory reporting laws is that those seeking help may not do so if they think getting help will mean jail time. This may not happen, but it is the perception of potential punishment for seeking help that made anti-mandatory reporting laws a reality.
This makes things awkward with the confessing officer. Because of neural education most of those in the self-help meeting have been this guy’s supervisor or underling at different occasions during their time on the USS Anracosh. However, they cannot discuss the confession beyond the self-help group.
This makes working with the confessor uneasy, but at the next meeting the confessor says he only fragged his superior because of what he said earlier. That being how his superior threw away his subordinates lives.
Someone at the meeting made the comparison with the way Captain Kirk, a Starfleet legend, threw away the lives of his subordinates, and would the confessor done the same to Captain Kirk if he had served underneath Captain Kirk?
The guy then says a blasphemy; He says he would have done the same to any superior who had treated his/her people as throw away items. Now those at the self-help meeting don’t know what to do. The confessor is now a heretic.
What do they do with him? He can’t be transferred because he is serving on the USS Anracosh, they can’t share what they know with the rest of the crew not in the self-help group, in accordance with regulations, the responsibility goes to one running the group, namely the First Officer. He runs the group so it is his call as to how to handle it. He cannot turn the guy in, he can’t transfer him, anti-mandatory reporting laws also have a protection from being fired clause. The First Officer and the others in the self-help group have to find a way to work with the confessor.
So the self-help group asks for all the details of the fragging. They feel the confessor will be able to cope much more with his past if he can talk about it and thus come to terms with it. He describes his crime with a flashback shown on screen. It is the height of the Dominion war and he is in a platoon. The superior he kills is in charge of the group and they are ambushed by some Jem Hadar. A shoot out breaks out and one Jem Hadar tries to flank the group. The confessor sees the Jem Hadar and shoots him, killing him instantly. Fortunately for him he had his phaser rifle on the wrong setting and the body and equipment was intact even though the Jem Hadar was dead. The confessor realises he has split from his platoon and he has a Jem Hadar weapon. Before he is seen he takes aim at his superior with a clean shot, kills his superior and then shoots his phaser rifle on the highest setting to make it look like he killed the Jem Hadar right after the Jem Hadar supposedly killed his superior. In a short time the Jem Hadar ambush was defeated by the platoon by the guy using his stray position to outflank the Jem Hadar. [end of flashback].
The confessor then admits he got a medal for outflanking the Jem Hadar and the rest of the guy’s platoon never found out the truth of him killing his superior. The First Officer refuses to kick the confessor out of the self-help group. That would look very bad to the confessor and is not actually helping him.
The First Officer decides to do one on one counselling with the confessor. There they agree that the confessor will go to the medical staff onboard and seek professional help with his problems. The self-help group is still open to him, but it would be better for him to have professional counselling and medicine for what he has done. Also [not said to the confessor] the rest of the crew who know what he has done will be a bit more relaxed knowing that the confessor is getting professional help. Still they do not like working with a heretic and would rather he be assigned somewhere else, but who else on the starship is going to take him?
During the one to one session with the confessor admits he is sensing that the others in the PTSD support group are uneasy with him. Things have changed and they are not keen to work with him in any capacity. Upon hearing this the First Officer has an inspiration. The First Officer tells the confessor the truth about his colleagues being upset at working with a heretic, but a solution is at hand. The First Officer shows his orders about finding Niffy some staff to run his errands and the like. The First Officer orders the confessor to join Niffy’s new errands department.
To make the crew who know even more at ease the First Officer announces the transfer of the confessor at the next PTSD meeting. Unlike the rest of the rank and file crew this is a job the confessor will rarely, if ever, transferred out. The confessor does not get to choose to work for Niffy, orders are orders, he is officially ordered to work for the Melkot, but he has no issue with this. He becomes one of Niffy’s leg men working with the Melkot in the main computer department and doing chores and errands for the Melkot. Seeing as the Melkot is usually stuck connected to the main computer, this works out really well, and this is what the Melkot requested.
Season 4 Episode 5
Encountering space borne ancients
The barnacles from next generation are part of the ensemble of space based races that visit the Anracosh in this episode, however the barnacles take a back seat in this episode. The crew that keep track of this sort of thing are obviously aware of the space borne ancients around the USS Anracosh, and take the very humbling end speech given by an A.I. starship seriously.
The USS Anracosh is deep within Federation territory having just done a supply run with the Section 31 flotilla that resupplies them. As they are about to depart the area when the starship’s long range scanners pick up what it describes as ancient race beings on an intercept course with the USS Anracosh.
The captain orders the USS Anracosh go to meet the ancients detected on long range scans. As the aliens get closer the crew is able to identify them. Various races can be seen, among them junior’s space barnacle creatures, the John Doe starship, various space borne creatures and the Calamarian, who were first encountered by the USS Enterprise some years ago when they were hosting a Q continuum member, namely the prankster Q.
A barnacle type creature latches on to the USS Anracosh. Normally there are procedures to rid starships of these creatures but the crew knows the creature is self aware; as the creature accesses the USS Anracosh ancient race enhanced translation device and reveals that the space barnacles have gathered other space borne ancients for them to meet. The Calamarian and some of the other space borne beings enter the USS Anracosh’s alcove designed to host ascended beings.
The Calamarian explains that it is the Calamarian that attacked Q on the Enterprise and wanted to apologise for its actions against the Enterprise and establish a dialogue between its race and the Federation because the Federation is now running a Realm of the Gods project, and has access to ancient races translation technology so the Calamarian and the Federation can finally talk to each other.
Negotiations ensue and deals are struck with the various space borne creatures, except for the barnacles who have been negotiated with before. The space barnacle reveals that many space borne creatures assume that organisations like the Federation are a terrestrial creatures only club. The crew of the USS Anracosh says that is not true, but until now they had no means of communicating meaningfully with space borne creatures. Saying so inspires the Federation representatives to ask the ancients for help in reverse engineering the ancient race enhanced translation device so it can become a standard feature on Federation starships and starbases.
It is noted that one of the space borne creatures near the USS Anracosh is a sentient starship that looks a lot like the organic half of the USS Anracosh. Scans reveal it is made of the same organic material that the organic parts of the USS Anracosh are made out of. The bridge crew hail it and it responds. The conversation between the bridge crew and the sentient starship is interesting to say the least.
The space borne ancient reveals that it was an intelligent organic form of starship before being invited into the ranks of the ancients. The species that invited its kind into the ranks of the ancients were their creators, who were a terrestrial species like the beings on the USS Anracosh. The creators would not join the ranks of the ancients without taking their A.I. creations with them. The Ancients were happy for the creators to bring their A.I.’s with them as long as the creators bought the A.I.’s up to the standards they would need to meet to be in the ranks of the ancients. Effectively sponsor them in.
The crew of the USS Anracosh realise that the organic starship is the crew of the organic starship. They are talking to a sentient space borne being, not a creature flying around in an organic starship. They ask more about its origins. It was made by a terrestrial race tens of thousands of years ago. Normally it would be an ascended being, but because it is hanging out with space borne ancients like itself it is using its original starship form.
The sentient starship goes on to answer more questions about itself and its relation to the USS Anracosh. It says that the organic half of the USS Anracosh is a brain dead version of its own species made especially for the Federation so it could have an ancient races level starship. The race of sentient starships was commissioned to make a brain dead version of its species with the ascended mythbuster having a major influence in its design. This is so the Federation could be rewarded with an ancient races level starship for being the first civilisation in countless years to start a public Realm of the Gods project. The sentient starship points out that the organic part of the USS Anracosh was never sentient to begin with and will never become sentient because it never had a brain at all. There is no brain onboard because it never existed, and it will never grow a brain.
This is greeted with revulsion by the crew of the USS Anracosh. It goes against Federation ethics to create a being, even a brain dead one, to be used as a machine. It reeks of slavery even if the slave cannot feel anything because it is not sentient. The security chief points out that the Federation should have been told the true origins of the organic half of the USS Anracosh.
The space borne ancient agrees they had the right to know and asks why the crew of the USS Anracosh is unhappy with a brain dead version of a sentient starship being the organic half of the USS Anracosh. The crew says it goes against Federation ethics and grosses them out that the organic starships would build one of their own number without a brain and turn it into half of a starship. The sentient starships say this is how they do things and it is totally acceptable in their society. They are starships, if anything they venerate their brain dead fused to half a Federation starship compatriot. It is fulfilling its function of being a starship – it is doing what its species is designed to do.
The only reason they did not have a fully functioning member of their species as half of the starship is because other ancients wanted to have the crew use the A.I. alcove and act as the starship’s A.I. as an object lesson as to what it is like to have the power of an ancient. Plenty of the sentient starship’s species would eagerly have volunteered to be half of the USS Anracosh because it is the purpose of their race to be starships.
It is a source of pride to be a functioning starship that is used by someone for the sentient starship race. The sentient starship adds that if the real reason the idea of a using a brain dead organic starship grosses them out, then that is not a good reason to be against something. Invasive surgery grosses terrestrial creatures out. Does that mean that they would never have an operation that saves their life? [Or support surgery to save a loved one’s life?]
The sentient starship asks what it is like to be on the receiving end of a more powerful culture telling them that their ways are wrong and they must adapt to a superior culture’s ways. Now they know what it is like to be a so called lesser race encountering the Federation. How does feel to receive what you dish out?
The crew of the USS Anracosh do not know how to react. The sentient starship is right, and the crew’s experience with the ancients has taught them this lesson many times over. The Realm of the Gods project has shown them what it is to be the junior partner in an encounter with the ancients. Many in the Federation would not understand that they are not the top dog, and would not be able to accept that they are not the top dog. Especially those who oppose the Realm of the Gods project because it proves the Federation is nothing compared to the ancient races clique, or in many cases nothing compared to ancient race individuals. Many in the Federation would loathe the idea that the Federation is inferior to another galactic government. How hateful would they feel about individuals like a Q, a Douwd or a Preserver? As individuals they are more powerful than the Federation.
Apart from the one glitch of finding out the USS Anracosh is half brain dead ancient the negotiations go rather well with the usual friendship treaties. If anything apart from discovering that the USS Anracosh is half brain dead ancient, the negotiations are a breeze.
While the diplomatic talks are going on the core officers are discussing what to do about their starship being a half brain dead ancient. The crew do not want to give up a vessel as powerful as the USS Anracosh. The starship was what they were looking for when they started the Realm of the Gods project. It is a way to defend the Federation from the more powerful enemies the Federation faces in modern times or in the future. This is why the project was created to begin with.
This however does not resolve the issue. What do they do now that they have discovered what the organic half of the starship really is? They do not want to give it up; they do not want to keep it because it is like slavery. The officer core is divided into three camps: Keep it – it is a way of protecting the Federation, get rid of it – it is morally wrong to use it, and we don’t know because it is a puzzle that is beyond us. But they all agree that the ancients clearly said they have no problem with it. It is well within the ethics of the ancients that using a brain dead ancient as a starship is totally acceptable. The officer core cannot find a solution as to what to do with the organic half of the USS Anracosh.
The chief diplomat contacts the officer core meeting to say that the negotiations have concluded and that the A.I. starship ancient wants to address them. The A.I. starship ancient gives an extreme apology for being able to hear their conversation and listening into it via ancient race spying technologies built into its being, but it does have a solution to their dilemma.
The A.I. starship says it is speaking on behalf of the ancient races clique and says that all of the ancients would find it a serious insult if the Federation threw the gift that is the USS Anracosh back in the faces of the ancients. The USS Anracosh is a gift from the ancients to reward the Federation for being the first in thousands of years to start a public Realm of the Gods project.
Giving the gift back to the ancients would be an insult so grave that the ancients would cancel the Realm of the Gods project with the Federation. Then their rivals and allies would be getting the advantages of contact with the ancients rather than themselves. This would result in them getting massive advantages over the Federation – this would be the opposite result of what the crew of the USS Anracosh wants.
“I think I would’ve been able to take the dressing down from someone more… regal. Flowing silk gown and everything… The A.I. starship was a bit much, for me.”
This convinces the officer core to say that they have no intention of returning the USS Anracosh to the ancients. They reiterate the ethical concerns of using a brain dead slave starship, but understand that this is not an ethical concern to the ancients. They will have to adapt to the ancient’s way of doing things if they want to get the benefits of ancient races contact.
The crew of the USS Anracosh commit one of the Federation’s blasphemies – saying that the Federation will have to adapt to someone else’s agenda instead of everyone adapting to theirs. This is greeted with jubilation by the A.I. starship and all the space borne ancients. The Federation has learned an important lesson today. The ancients say that prankster Q trying to teach the Federation humility had a purpose, this kind humility is what the Federation needs to progress into the ranks of the ancients.
With the treaties signed and Federation having learned its lesson the ancients present say their goodbyes, and say that the Federation admitting that it needs to adapt goes a long way getting in the good books with the ancients and to eventually joining the ancient races clique. The final scene is of the ancients all going off at warp speed in different directions and the USS Anracosh flying off at warp speed.
Season 4 Episode 6
Visiting a world with morbid social policies
Has Sub-plots that function as a B plot
The USS Anracosh is in a sector of space not far from the edge of the influence of the Federation. Because of where they are they have received an order from Starfleet to visit a nearby inhabited world that has recently become warp capable. This mission is a deviation from their usual activities, but they are in the right place at the right time so they are given the order to make first contact with the newly warp capable species.
All is fine as they approach the world and set up a dialog over sub-space. The locals are very interested in giving the officer core a tour of their world and specifically ask for the starship’s doctor. Knowing nothing about these people a security team will accompany the doctor and the chief diplomat. The Zalkonian doctor points out that her people have had contact with the Rumwerta as they call themselves. The Zalkonians met the Rumwerta not long before the Zalkonians ascended.
The Zalkonian doctor warns the crew that the Rumwerta have some very backward social policies. The Zalkonian doctor tells of their opinions toward the people at the bottom end of society and those who disrupt society’s harmony. She hints at what technologies the Rumwerta were trying to develop but it was the opinion of the Zalkonian high command that the Rumwerta were not advanced enough to actually invent what they wanted in terms of technology to combat their war on drugs and technology against behavioural problems.
Unfortunately the Zalkonian doctor’s information is not very good. She only knows of the Rumwerta through second hand information circulated amongst the Zalkonians. She never researched the Rumwerta and the Zalkonian database is now in the hands of ascended Zalkonians, who the doctor does not, to put it politely, get along with.
If the crew of the USS Anracosh want to do research on the people they are about to meet they will have to use the dial a deity system to contact ascended Zalkonians and ask them. The captain orders the Zalkonian doctor to lead the research on the Rumwerta while the Bajoran doctor will do the face to face meeting with them. The Zalkonian Doctor is not happy about contacting her people, but will follow orders. This becomes a sub-plot.
The Chief diplomat readies herself for the tour and asks for Ensign Ghezear to be her chief bodyguard. Two teams are being sent to the planet’s surface. One team is the diplomacy team to deal with the Rumwerta government. This team is led by the Chief diplomat. The other team is led by the Bajoran doctor; he will do the tour the Rumwerta have requested. This becomes another sub-plot.
The two teams go to the surface and part ways. The audience follows the Bajoran doctor as he is guided through various facilities by a government minister. The first place the Bajoran doctor’s team is guided through is mistaken by the team to be an insane asylum. It is anything but. The government minister explains that the people detained here have shown significant anger management issues in the past. Instead of trying to cure their anger management the authorities have enhanced their anger via altering their brain chemistry. This means they are in a state of rage from waking up to falling asleep. It is both a punishment and a reward.
The government minister explains patients are high as kites on adrenalin from their rage. If a cure is administered the patients [“victims” the Bajoran doctor does not hold back in saying] will come crashing down from their adrenaline high and beg to be returned to their permanent rage state.
The doctor tours the pretend asylum seeing patients bash their heads against padded walls and do mock violent acts in their cells. These people are out of control and it is not even their fault. Their government forced this on them and is just letting them rot in a form of prison.
The government minister goes on to add that there is no need to worry about overcrowding in the asylum, just unlock a few doors and let the patients kill each other. In a day or so some new rooms are thus available for fresh patients.
The altering of brain chemistry to create a permanent rage state is done to people who prove to be too disruptive or can’t control their temper. If someone complains too much or keeps lashing out they will be arrested and altered and sent to asylums like the one the Bajoran doctor and his team are visiting.
The Bajoran doctor keeps his mouth shut after his diplomatic faux paux of saying out loud these people suffering from having their brains altered are victims. He does not want to cause a diplomatic incident. Seeing this false asylum reminds him that he got into medicine to help people, not destroy them.
More of the sub-plot : The scene cuts to the Zalkonian doctor talking to members of her race via the dial a deity system. She is talking to people that she used to know. They are keen to talk to her and ask how life is treating her. She makes it clear she has no desire to return to her people and her place is on the USS Anracosh where she can be the starship’s chief medical officer. The Zalkonains say that they are very proud of her for what she is doing.
The Zalkonians forward her the information on the Rumwerta. They warn that it is not a lot. The Zalkonians only just made first contact before ascending. There was no follow up mission as the Zalkonians were joining the ancient races. The Zalkonians only learned so much from their single mission to the Rumwerta home world. At the time the Zalkonians intended to return, but ascension and joining the ancients got in the way.
The Zalkonian doctor thanks them for the knowledge and tries to make an excuse to end the conversation. Her fellow Zalkonians want to talk, but after a few minutes of chatter she sees that they want her to re-establish regular contact with her people. She has the brilliant idea of sharing her starship logs with them. She will have to OK it with her superiors, but that is only a formality, they should clear it no questions asked. She will have to edit out any sensitive information, but that is not even a challenge.
The Zalkonian doctor ends the conversation quite pleased with herself. She has found a way to get her people off her back. The logs should sate their need to butt in on her life. She returns to the medical bay to find an injured crewman whom she heals with her Zalkonian healing powers. She calls the First officer, who OK’s her sharing her edited logs with her fellow Zalkonians. She mentions that all in all life is good for her today to a puzzled First officer.
More of the other sub-plot: Scene cuts to the Bajoran doctor again. This time he and his entourage are being given a tour of a water works. The Bajoran doctor asks why he and his crewmen are being given a tour of a water works facility. The government minister is eager to answer and directs them to an area where some chemical is being added to the city’s water.
The government minister explains that this additive is called zarazillin. It makes illegal drugs inside a person’s body turn into very dangerous carcinogens. Literally making any recreational drug user terminally ill within six months to a year of life left. The government minister goes to say that since drug dealing crime syndicates are mostly made of drug users themselves, especially on the lower rungs of the organisation, zarazillin has the added bonus of decimating organised crime syndicates. What remains is easy pickings for law enforcement.
The government minister says this is the most powerful tool they have in fixing society’s ills. The Bajoran doctor tries to be diplomatic but finds it very hard. As a doctor this is everything he stands against, and what he picks up is that his fellow crewmen are thinking as he does. They don’t like what they see.
One of the crewman breaks ranks and asks is there any room for compassion in Rumwerta society? The government minister is eager to answer saying that their compassion goes to people willing to be part and contribute to Rumwerta society. The save resources by not having to support people who are lost causes and will never contribute or sabotage those who do contribute by being angry and disruptive. The money saved goes to helping people who will be productive. Resources go to those who need a hand up and will be a good investment as their productivity rewards the society that invested in them.
The Bajoran doctor and his entourage try their best to hide their disgust. It is obvious that the government minister is a fanatic and will never be convinced of the evil being done to the Rumwerta people. Instead the Bajoran doctor makes the excuse of contacting the other diplomatic team and asking for a progress report. There is a short reply saying that the diplomatic talks are going great. The chief diplomat says that the Rumwerta are “Federation material” and that they should be invited to join the Federation.
The Bajoran doctor wishes he was in a position to correct the chief diplomat. He says let’s not be hasty and breaks off contact. The scene switches to the chief diplomat and her team. They are sitting with the leaders of the Rumwerta home world. They are exchanging pleasantries and getting to drafting treaties leading to eventual Federation membership. Things are looking really good at the diplomatic meeting. Both the Federation delegates and the Rumwerta are very positive about the shared future with their peoples. This is a direct contrast to what the Bajoran doctor and his team have experienced of the Rumwerta.
The scene switches to an office on the USS Anracosh where the Zalkonian doctor has delivered the information about the Rumwerta in person to the diplomatic staff who remained on the starship. They agree with the Zalkonian doctor about what the Zalkonians discovered about the Rumwerta is very morbid. The Rumwerta have a society with no mercy to those who can’t cope with life.
The diplomatic staff forward their reports to their colleagues on the surface of the Rumwerta home world. On the ground the Chief diplomat asks for a break while she reviews the information sent to her from her starship. The leaders of the Rumwerta kindly agree to this request and are very happy to accommodate her.
The diplomatic team retire to another room and read the Zalkonian reports. Their happy demeanours turn to disgust as they read the reports and it dawns on them what the Rumwerta really stand for. The Chief diplomat says they should take a break and learn all there is to learn from the Zalkonian reports. Her team do so reading the documents on their tablet computers and exchanging notes about what they have read. They grow concerned and mortified at the social policies of the Rumwerta. The chief diplomat assures them that they are going to confront their hosts about their conduct towards the vulnerable in Rumwerta society.
More of the original sub plot: The scene shifts to the Bajoran doctor and his followers. This time they are at the government minister’s office overlooking a large bay area with a golden gate style bridge nearby in the background of the large office window. This time the government minister is showing them a holographic display of an ad campaign.
The ad campaign has the slogan “If you love someone let them go”. The ad shown to them is about if you know someone who is going to suicide let them kill themselves. When they see someone through the government minister’s office window throw themselves off the bridge to kill themselves, the Bajoran doctor cannot be diplomatic anymore. He confronts the government minister and repeats the question asked by his team member, that being if there is any compassion in Rumwerta society. The Doctor describes the human Hippocratic oath and its Bajoran equivalent, revealing that he was trained by Humans. The government minister says that the Rumwerta have no Hippocratic oath or anything like it. The Bajoran doctor says he is not surprised.
The Bajoran doctor states clearly that the Federation would want nothing to do with the Rumwerta beyond a token diplomatic presence. The government minister is taken aback. To him persecuting the people who can’t pull their weight is the done thing. He does not try to defend his position he just says if they believe in wasting resources on the people who will never be productive then they are fools. The minister notes that he is proud that his office overlooks the bridge and sees a suicide on that bridge several times a day. He states that the majority of people on Rumwerta celebrated the introduction of zarazillin into the water supply as a way to clear out undesirables.
The Bajoran doctor says in response that he notes that his team was never introduced to average Rumwertans. They were given tours of selected places and not given free run of the street to talk to the average person on the planet. That speaks volumes about what the Rumwertan government wants the Federation to see of their world. Before the government minister can react the Bajoran doctor decides the best course of action is to return himself and his team to the USS Anracosh. While this is happening we cut to a scene where the Chief diplomat is confronting the leaders of the Rumwerta.
It is a repeat of the Bajoran doctor’s team’s experience. The Rumwerta representatives are proud of what their society does to their downtrodden. The Chief diplomat, like the Bajoran doctor, decides the best thing for herself and her team is to explain that the Federation representative’s find the actions of the Rumwerta government disgusting, say the Federation has no interest in them, and return to the starship. The supreme leader of the Rumwerta says before they leave that he is the driving force behind the persecution of the helpless in Rumwerta society. He feels diverting resources from the no hopers to give to the potentially productive it is the right thing to do.
This angers Ghezear so much that he does a rush attack on the supreme leader and decks him. Ghezear [a Human Klingon hybrid] says to the rest of the Rumwertan leaders team that he, as the nearest thing the Klingon Empire has to a representative here, that the Klingons would be disgusted at how the Rumwerta treat the helpless and needy. Klingons would find it utterly dishonourable to hurt the vulnerable and those incapable of fending for themselves.
Before the Rumwertan leaders can react Ghezear refuses to apologise for his actions unless the leaders of Rumwerta apologise to all the Rumwertans who have had their live wrecked by their government’s social policies. This creates a diplomatic incident that the crew of the USS Anracosh refuse to resolve.
The two teams [Bajoran doctor’s and Chief diplomat’s] beam back to the USS Anracosh and report to the Captain, who is with the Zalkonian doctor, who has briefed her on the real nature of the Rumwerta government. The Captain refuses to clear up the diplomatic incident of assaulting the leader of the Rumwertans. She says to the Rumwerta government that punching out the supreme leader neatly expresses what the Federation thinks of the Rumwertan social policies. There is nothing to apologise for, and that the USS Anracosh will leave the system immediately for Federation space. If the Federation wants to follow up on the incident that is their choice, but the Federation will loathe what the Rumwertans do to their vulnerable.
The Rumwertan leaders are angry and still demand an apology, but one is not coming, even with a face to face meeting that is now happening with the Captain on the USS Anracosh. The Captain says that if such a thing happens it will be handled by her superiors, but the Federation’s position on the morbid social policies of the Rumwerta will not change. The Captain says that normally Federation people get very preachy and try to convince those they meet of the right way of doing things, but today is not that day.
This time the Rumwertan delegates get angry, but before things can escalate the captain beams them back to the Rumwerta homeworld and orders the starship to break orbit. It is time to leave and report to the Federation. She confronts Ghezear. He apologizes and is told there is nothing to apologise for. He truly expressed what the Federation, and the Klingons for that matter, think of hurting the vulnerable. To the captain he did nothing wrong, it’s the scumbags that lead the Rumwerta who should apologise. Therefore no disciplinary action will be taken.
Ghezear says that this is not the true mission of the USS Anracosh, their role is diplomacy with the ancients who can give the Federation the means to defeat powerful enemies, not wasting time with “nobody” civilizations who could never fit into the Federation. They both realise that their position is not that different to the Rumwerta government’s ideology. Both seek the successful in order for themselves to thrive. This gives them food for thought. Are they really that different to the Rumwerta? Ghezear says no, the Federation defends the helpless, the Rumwerta hurt the helpless, and is the difference between them and the Rumwerta.
Ghezear adds that the Federation is seeking help from the ancients to protect the helpless. What would the Rumwerta ask the ancients to do? The Captain smiles, she knows he is right about all that he has said and the scene switches to the USS Anracosh leaving the system.
Season 4 Episode 7
Dark Federation Episode part 1
Pure action plotline, no B plot required
In this episode we see the Terran Empire – the dark Federation of another timeline nearly pull off defeating the ancients by using the Borg as cannon fodder. The Terran Empire nearly manages to enslave some ancients and get access to ancient race technology that would make the Terran Empire unstoppable.
This shows a dark mirror version of the USS Anracosh crew with a very different mission – their USS Anracosh has been upgraded to hack the Borg, and they are doing exactly that, hacking the Borg. This ship is the USS Excalibur version of the USS Anracosh. It does not have the organic second hull. The modifications to it are all internal.
The dark federation is going to war with the ancients using the Borg as their main weapon. This is important to the plot, the dark federation of that universe had a fluke victory over some ancients and got a hold of their technology and built their USS Anracosh by themselves as a weapon to hack the Borg. In fact after the fluke victory they called it the USS Anracosh as a con job to fool that universe’s ancients into helping them and then turned on them.
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11 Main and Semi-Main Characters Dark Versions:
Chief Diplomat: The con artist who fooled the ancients into giving her ancient races technology.
Niffy [acts as ship’s A.I.]: A slave forced to be hooked up to the computer against its will. Has had his mind hacked so in moments of less clarity he has Stockholm syndrome, in clear moments he realises he is a slave in a vile position.
First officer: A sadist who likes tormenting his underlings. Like in the regular timeline he is the brains of the outfit. The captain is the captain because she has command experience that the first officer does not have.
Helmsman: The Helmsman has a real ego and relishes in his fame [infamy]. He has control of the starship and is the real power onboard. He was the mastermind who thought up conning an ancient race and found the ancient races expert who wanted to leave the ancients.
Captain: Is the Helmsman’s girlfriend and sees him as a sugar daddy, gives orders for him and in a way puppeteers him like a gold digging wife.
Neural education expert [Bajoran Doctor]: Someone who developed neural education from ancients technology and experiments with it on people without mercy – another Dr. Mengler.
Zalkonian Doctor: A slave trapped in an ancient race enhanced containment field in sick bay used for her healing powers.
Chief engineer: A mad scientist type who thinks that the ancient race technology is the key to ultimate power. Is the megalomaniac of the group.
Science officer: A thug in league with the chief engineer. He is the chief engineer’s main thug and the guy who helps him do really unethical things with ancient race technology.
Head of Security: The dark versions political officer who keeps the rank and file crew in line through psychological tactics of fear and intimidation and throws disobedient crew to the first officer for torture sessions.
Ancient races expert: A traitor to the ancients who helped the Chief diplomat con them, and thus the con job was successful, the guy is a born backstabber who would betray anyone in heartbeat
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The entire episode just chucks you right into all of this, no context, no prefix. Though we do receive narration from a kindly sounding figure that frames this as a cautionary tale akin to that of an old Grimm fable, complete with the grisly fate our protagonists meet.
We get a glimpse into the “Dark Federation” mirror universe. In this particular universe the Dark Federation has hacked the Borg of that universe to use as weapons against that universe’s ancients.
The episode starts with the USS Anracosh taking on a Borg sphere doing a scouting mission. They hack the sphere and proceed to use it to hijack the Borg’s will and use them to take on the ancient races.
The Borg initially try to attack the USS Anracosh but the hacking weapons stop them. All the Terran Empire starship suffers from is a damaged shield system that is easily fixed. The crew now arrange for the Borg sphere to send a fake signal of it being destroyed in a lucky fluke shot. The dark versions of the crew capture the pacified Borg and their vessel.
The dark versions of the crew do their jobs with no compassion for the Borg drones they are experimenting on and the Borg starship they are hacking using ancient race technology modified by the dark federation [Terran Empire].
The hacking is going to plan. The Borg sphere is under their control. They can access all the Borg systems and can gain any Borg technology they like. This by itself would be a major coup for the Terran Empire. Just having all the Borg technology would be a major improvement to the Terran forces, but why stop there? The plan is to take on the ancients and win. They learned some time ago that the ancients respect and possibly fear the Borg and have a ceasefire agreement with them. If the Borg can take on the ancients why not make them conquer the ancients on behalf on the Terran Empire?
With that in mind as part of the discussion the dark versions of the officer core plan to attack the ancients using the Borg as cannon fodder. Thus they will not risk any of the Terran Empire vessels and crews on attacking the ancients. The Borg have plans in place to assimilate ascended beings. The Terran Empire is merely making the Borg put those plans into action. Now that can be done with a flick of a switch. The hacking weapon has done its job. The scouting sphere is under the control of the USS Anracosh and is ready to send an override signal to the Borg collective that will make them go to war with the ancients.
It is noted that what the crew is doing now is the end product of a long study and action plan about learning about the Borg. This has been years in the making and today is the day the Terran Empire takes on the ancient races and wins. They will inherit ancient race technology and become unstoppable.
The party deck has been converted to a command centre. It shows the whole galaxy in the centre of the enormous room. Here all those that surround the massive hologram of the galaxy can see the movements of the Borg. The captain orders the deployment of the signal and on the hologram Borg forces are seen moving to ancient race sites on the galaxy.
At first all is going well. The lesser ancients are attacked by the Borg and are assimilated. They are the key to this plan working. Once lesser ancients are in the Borg collective their knowledge in the hands of the Borg the more powerful ancients of the galaxy can be attacked and assimilated. After that the Terran Empire changes the orders they have forced onto the Borg. The Borg will hand over all the knowledge of the ancients and help the Terran Empire understand it.
The Terran Empire will then spend a few years upgrading its fleets, weapons and other technologies up to ancient race standards and then use its newfound advantages to conquer the whole galaxy and beyond. Naturally the Terran Empire will continue and strengthen its control of the Borg and use them as cannon fodder shock troops to send in first and on missions where high casualties are expected.
The dark versions of the USS Anracosh crew watch as the war on the ancients proceeds. Ancient race sites are falling faster than expected. There is a feeling of optimism in the command room. They even consider using the Borg to take out the Terran Emperor and conquer the Terran Empire themselves. This would be the time to do it. They have control of the Borg collective and can order them to do a lightning raid on Earth. They could kill the whole Terran Empire High Command on Earth and take over. They could use Borg transwarp technology to get to Earth in an hour from their current position if they factor creating the commands, getting a Borg ship to their location, the Borg doing the raid and them travelling to Earth to replace Terran High Command.
The captain gives the order to betray the Terran emperor. A force of Borg will go to Earth, while a single vessel will pick them up and get them to Earth just as the battle that overthrows the Terran High Command is ending. This is but a small distraction from the war which is going far better than expected. The ancient races sites targeted by the Borg are falling quickly and soon it will be time to take on more powerful ancient races. If their success so far is any indication, the process of upgrading the Terran Empire fleets with ancient races technology will happen ahead of schedule.
What the dark version of the crew of the USS Anracosh does not know is that the lesser ancients have been evacuating their sites instead of defending them. This is why they are falling so fast. Nobody is defending those places and the crew have been too blinded by their success to check what is really happening. Instead they are smug and complacent when they receive word that phase two can start – that being the Borg attacking and assimilating more powerful ancient race sites and beings.
Soon the Borg take on more powerful ancients. This is where it all goes wrong. The ancients make a raid on the Borg unicomplex and discover that the Borg have been hacked. In the mood for revenge, they free a single Borg Queen and explain that the Borg collective has been hacked and is being used by the Terran Empire in a suicidal attempt to conquer the ancient races. The Borg know a war against the ancients is a war they can’t win.
If the Borg are not freed from Terran Empire control it will mean the end of the Borg at the hands of the ancients. The Borg Queen tries to reason with the ancients as a way of saving the Borg Collective. The ancients cut a deal with the Borg: Free any ancients captured by the Terran Empire. In return the ancients will stop attacking the Borg, as long as the Borg assimilates the Terran Empire.
Ending of part one:
The Borg agree to the deal, and the ancients free the Borg from the hacking. On the USS Anracosh the hacking weapon literally liquefies and nobody onboard can explain why. Then the Borg turn on the Terran Empire. The episode ends with the Borg attacking the Terran Empire and the Terran Empire fighting back against the Borg in a far more even battle than expected. This is because the Terran Empire studied the Borg and got an understanding of how Borg technology works. The Borg have trouble adapting to Terran Empire weapons and shields. The Borg then attack the USS Anracosh with overwhelming numbers in a very one sided battle favouring the Borg. The USS Anracosh manages to flee through a Borg transwarp conduit. Elsewhere the fight continues as the episode ends.