ABOVE: An artist’s rendition of Starfleet’s greatest vessels.
CHAPTER V
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THE NEW ERA
2290-2311
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“Only Nixon could go to China.”
—Ancient Vulcan proverb
By the end of the twenty-third century, the Federation and the Klingon Empire were on a road to eventual mutual destruction. The hostilities between the two had never been sufficiently resolved, so they stayed on either side of the Neutral Zone waiting for a sign from the other that war would be a necessity. With tensions this high, there was plenty of opportunity for misunderstanding.
THE GENESIS CRISIS
In the mid-2280s, a mother-and-son scientific team, Drs. Carol and David Marcus, made an incredible breakthrough in genetic engineering. In laboratory experiments they succeeded in reconfiguring inanimate matter on the subatomic level to create life-generating matter of equal mass.
“They can create worlds,” Federation President Hiram Roth said in a closed session of the Federation Council. “This could solve so many problems regarding living space and food supply, we have to support it.” The Federation Council approved the granting of facilities and resources to take their experiments to completion. The Marcuses developed and constructed the Genesis Device, which could theoretically transform a dead planet into a living one. The Federation starship Reliant was detailed to help them find a suitable planet to conduct their experiment. What Reliant found instead was a lost piece of history that would send the Galaxy to the precipice of war.
THE RETURN OF KHAN
In 2267, the Enterprise discovered a DY-100 ship from the twentieth century. On board were seventy-two genetic supermen and -women in suspended animation, including the dictator Khan Noonien Singh, who had escaped capture and prosecution following the Eugenics Wars by launching themselves into space.
Rather than imprisoning them, Captain Kirk gave them a second chance by marooning them on Ceti Alpha V, a remote, barren world, to build their own society. “Here were these incredibly intelligent, resourceful men and women,” Kirk said to his biographer, “and it seemed like a huge waste to lock them up for the rest of their lives.” Kirk would regret his decision.
ABOVE: The DY-100 ship christened S.S. Botany Bay by the genetic supermen who stole it in 1996.
Fifteen years later, Reliant inadvertently came upon Khan and his followers. The group seized the ship, killed the captain, and stole the Genesis Device. It was up to a now-Admiral Kirk to defeat him. “It was a monstrous error,” Kirk said. “They were killers, murderers on a global scale, they didn’t deserve my mercy and I paid—the Reliant’s crew paid—a terrible price for my hubris.”
ABOVE: Khan Noonien Singh, as he appeared after fifteen years stranded on Ceti Alpha V.
Though Khan was eventually killed, innocent lives were lost on both Enterprise and Reliant, and Kirk was unable to stop him from detonating the device. The process of the detonation transformed the planetary nebula Mutara into a Class-M world, which the Federation named the “Genesis Planet.”
The ramifications of the Federations ability to create a planet were felt throughout the quadrant, sparking a great controversy. If the Genesis Device were to be used on a planet where life already existed, the existing life would be wiped out. Khan’s involvement with the Genesis Planet made a natural connection to the dangers of genetic engineering.
Concerned members of the Council had the same questions cautious Earthlings had had in the twentieth century: had the Federation moved too quickly into an area that was ethically dubious? “It was politically explosive,” Hiram Roth said in an interview with this author. “Politicians had perverted the very noble goals of this project.”
The Andorian and Tellarite ambassadors to the Council, who had been reticent to approve funding the Genesis Project, felt their fears had been justified and lobbied hard to abandon the project. “It was a political quagmire,” Roth said, “and the only way out was to walk away from it. It was a loss to the Federation.”
But it was too late to entirely put the genie back in the bottle: the Klingons and the Romulans were both extremely concerned when they learned of the existence of the device. They assumed the Federation had developed it as a weapon—one that they would now always have in their arsenal. The Romulans took a restrained approach. For the first time, the Romulan government opened full diplomatic relations with the Federation, sending an ambassador to the Council, which the Federation welcomed. However, Romulan Ambassador Nanclus’s job wasn’t diplomacy; he was to use his position to run a spy network and gather as much information as he could on what the Federation plans were.
The Klingons were less circumspect. Their ambassador, Kamarag, in a session of the Federation Council, openly accused the Federation of planning an attack on the Klingon Homeworld.
“Kamarag was worried about the annihilation of his people,” Hiram Roth said, “and frankly, I could understand why he wasn’t buying our explanation that this was a science experiment. It didn’t sound believable.”
At home, the Klingons began gearing up for war, pulling ships from all corners of the Empire and bringing them to the Neutral Zone. Admiral Lance Cartwright, commander-in-chief of Starfleet Command, reconfigured Starfleet forces to counter the Klingon “wall of ships” with an even greater number of ships and stations in the hope that the Klingons would think twice about crossing into Federation territory.
As Hiram Roth’s term came to an end, he saw his chances to bring a lasting peace fade. “War is not inevitable,” he said in one of his final speeches to the Council. “We must commit ourselves to at least attempting a lasting peace.”
ABOVE: Federation President Hiram Roth and Trill Representative to the Federation Council Curzon Dax.
THE KORVAT TALKS
Roth had come up through the Federation diplomatic corps, and had served as ambassador to Trill in the 2260s, when it was a relatively new member of the Federation.
“The Trill have a uniquely peaceful culture,” Roth said. “They keep to themselves about many things, but it does not ever seem to get in the way of a thriving diplomatic relationship.”
When Roth became president, he naturally developed a close relationship with the Trill ambassador to the Federation Council, a young man named Curzon Dax. Though Curzon was only in his twenties, Roth often found himself seeking the young man’s counsel, especially on the problems with the Klingons. “He seemed to me,” Roth said, “to have wisdom beyond his years.”
In 2289, the last year of his term as president, Roth approached the Klingon ambassador for one more chance at negotiations. Kamarag went to his government, which agreed to receive a Federation delegation on the Korvat colony. Despite his youth, Roth sent Dax to lead the talks. Representing the Klingon Empire were two of its generals, Kang and Koloth, and a junior member of the High Council, Gorkon. Though Gorkon would later play a large role in Klingon politics, in these peace talks Kang and Koloth took center stage.
According to Dax’s report to the Council, Kang, Koloth, and Gorkon were initially aghast at the stripling sitting across from them. “I could see it in their faces that they saw a child,” Dax wrote in a personal account of the meeting. “Interesting thing about Klingons: they won’t accept someone if they’re too young or too old.” Dax dismissed their insults and suggested they get started.
“Kang began a long diatribe on the Federations crime against the Klingon Empire. I wasn’t sure how long it was going to go on. He was only up to [the battle of] Donatu [V] when I decided I had enough.” Curzon Dax got up from the table, turned his back on Kang, and left the room.
“I knew this would provoke a reaction,” Dax wrote, “but I was frankly unprepared.” Kang was furious. He leapt over the table and chased Dax out into the hallway. Kang tackled him to the floor, holding a blade to the young man’s throat.
Witnesses to the event said Kang growled, “Is this how the Federation seeks to make a treaty?”
Dart looked him in the eye and said, in colorful language, that the negotiations would begin once Kang was finished releasing gas from his mouth. Koloth, who had followed Kang into the hallway, broke out in laughter, and Kang did the same. They returned to the bargaining table, and it was the beginning of a long-lasting relationship between the three men, one that would eventually pay great dividends to the Federation.
But the talks would have no immediate effect on the current conflict. “I learned later that before the talks even began the Klingon High Council had decided that war was the only option they wanted to pursue,” recounted Roth.
Hiram Roth would leave his position as president without achieving peace. In the wake of the Genesis Device revelation, the leader of the Klingon military, General Chang—a formidable, experienced, and devious officer—convinced the High Council to greatly expand ship and weapon production and let no mediation undermine this.
Chang’s plan was for a decisive first strike against the Federation, meaning a sharp increase in military manufacturing. The plan put an even greater strain on a Klingon economy already buckling under a huge military budget. And as much of ship production was centered on Qo’noS, this also put a strain on Praxis—the Klingon moon that was the chief energy production facility.
PRAXIS
Centuries before, when the Klingons first went into space, Praxis had been considered a gift from the Klingon gods. It was the first world visited by Klingon warriors and was miraculously found to have a rich mineral supply. Within fifty years, Klingons had set up an energy production facility to make use of the moon’s vast supplies of pergium, topaline, and uranium. It was projected then that these elements would permanently fulfill the needs of the residents of Qo’noS—and it did for generations.
In time, however, advances in technology required a greater strain on the energy production and rather than developing alternative sources of energy, the Klingons continued to mine Praxis unceasingly. Eventually, the moon became an unstable shell, which led to instability in its core—and, in 2293, its eventual destruction when one of the moon’s quantum reactors overloaded.
“I was assistant communications officer on Praxis,” a Klingon named Kenk reported to the High Council. “I had just come on shift when the explosion occurred.”
Kenk was from a family long known in the galaxy—his great—granduncle was Klaang, whose dishonorable return home by Jonathan Archer had earned his and his family’s banishment to the moon station. Like his forebears, Kenk had the mundane job of routing communication traffic between the moon and the receiving stations on Qo’noS.
“My work is very routine,” Kenk said. “When the explosion occurred, I assumed we were under attack.”
Surrounded by wreckage and flame, burned and bleeding, “I crawled to the communication console to send out a warning.” He did not know his actions that day would counter those of his ancestor over a hundred years before. He was taking the first step toward a permanent peace in the Galaxy.
The explosion from Praxis created a massive subspace shockwave that hit the U.S.S. Excelsior, returning from patrol in Beta Quadrant. When the ship’s captain reported back to Starfleet on the destruction of Praxis, Starfleet and the Federation quickly realized that this would have a long-term devastating effect on Klingon society, and they did their best to project the outcome of the disaster.
Despite the widespread nature of the Klingon Empire, it was still highly centralized around Qo’noS. Ships were built in its orbital facilities, the government operated on the planet, and most of the Klingon population lived there. Without their moon transmitting energy, and with the intense amounts of delta rays now seeping into their atmosphere, the Federation estimated that the Klingons had no more than 50 years of survival on their planet.
Meanwhile, on Qo’noS, there was a struggle for power following Praxis’s destruction. Despite the fact that Klingons had been over-taxing Praxis for generations, members of the High Council, with the help of General Chang, placed the blame at the feet of the current Chancellor B’rak. A Council member, Gorkon, challenged his leadership in open council and as is Klingon tradition, they fought. B’rak was killed. However, despite his adherence to the traditional Klingon method for taking power, Gorkon had a reputation for thoughtfulness and introspection unusual in a Klingon. It was now his job to solve the problem that had allowed him to become chancellor.
In the wake of the moon’s explosion and the power shift on Qo’noS, the question as to how to proceed was brought before a secret session of the Federation Council. Recently released records of the meeting indicate disagreement among the members. Many had been victim to the Klingons’ aggression. But Hirain Roth’s successor as president, Ra-ghoratreii, prevailed on them that this was an opportunity for peace.
Ra-ghoratreii was an Efrosian, whose people had once been under the rule of the Klingon Empire, and successfully rebelled. The Klingons were reeling, he told the Council, and in order to save themselves they might be willing to make a lasting peace. The establishment of Gorkon as leader of the High Council had further cemented Ra-ghoratreii’s belief that this was the time to broker peace with the Klingons. And as an Efrosian, Ra-ghoratreii spoke from a unique position; if he was willing to forgive, then so should the rest of the Council. The Federation Council voted unanimously to initiate a new peace treaty with the Klingons.
Recordings of the Council proceedings indicate that although Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan agreed with the president, he also said they needed to proceed cautiously.
“My husband is an experienced diplomat,” his wife, Amanda (a Human), wrote in Love and Logic, her memoirs of the period. “He knew that to go to the Klingons first would make the Federation appear too weak, yet the Klingons were too proud to come to the Federation.” He had to find an unofficial way to reach out and begin a dialogue with the Klingons that allowed the Federation to retain the upper hand but not so humiliate the Klingons that they would rather die than negotiate.
“When he told me he had suggested our son,” Amanda wrote, “I was very proud. And also very frightened.”
SPOCK
Sarek and Amanda’s son was Spock. For many years, Spock had served aboard the Enterprise, first as science officer to Captain Christopher Pike, then as first officer to Captain James Kirk, then briefly as Enterprise’s captain himself. During that long period of starship service, he played an important role in bringing many worlds into the Federation: Eminiar VII, Zeon and Ekos, Beta III, Melkotia, as well as making first contact with dozens of others. As a member of Starfleet, he had already led an unofficial career as an “ambassador without portfolio.” Sarek knew his son’s background, and surmised that if the Federation used him to start a dialogue with the Klingons, it would serve the purpose of an official making an unofficial gesture—it gave the Federation cover.
ABOVE: This letter is in Sarek’s handwriting, written on a Vulcan substance similar in feel to paper but made out of the silk of a Vulcan arachnid. The words reveal noting, but the action of it being handwritten and hand-delivered in the twenty-third century was a secret message from father to son that this matter was of the utmost importance. The inclusion of the regards of Spock’s Human mother speaks to the depth of feeling Sarek had for his wife, Amanda. Vulcans would never do something so illogical.
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LETTER FROM SAREK TO SPOCK
TRANSLATED FROM THE VULCAN
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Spock,
I request you travel to the Vulcan Embassy in San Francisco so that I may speak to you about current diplomatic affairs.
Your mother requested that I send you word of her love. I understand this seems illogical, as it is apparent you are already quite clear on her emotions concerning you, but she insisted.
Sarek
* * *
Sarek contacted Spock and educated him both on the plan and what he knew of the Klingon government. The new chancellor, Gorkon, was a warrior like all their leaders (he walked with the bone of a krencha,
a large Klingon reptile that he himself had killed), but he had been the only High Council member at the negotiations at the Korvat colony. The fact that Gorkon had taken that risk in his past was their one glimmer of possibility.
“Sarek then told Spock that he would have to reach out to Gorkon on his own,” Amanda wrote. “He couldn’t risk going through diplomatic channels. This seemed next to impossible. How would a Starfleet officer directly communicate with the chancellor of the Klingon High Council? It’s a testimony to my son’s logic—and creativity—that he found a way.”
The route that Spock took to get to Gorkon was circuitous, but, in the end, quite logical. Spock knew that no one could know of his mission and that included anyone who helped him get in touch with Gorkon. Spock also knew that Curzon Dax had earned the trust of several Klingons. But Spock had never met Curzon Dax——nor would he—and he couldn’t expect Dax to help him without explanation. So Spock went to retired Federation President Hiram Roth, who knew both Dax and Spock well. Roth trusted him, and when Spock said he needed Dax to get him in touch with Gorkon, but didn’t give a reason, Roth didn’t ask why. (The full story behind Spock and Roth’s relationship is explored in the short history Whales Weep Not by Dr. Gillian Taylor.)
ABOVE: James T. Kirk and his science officer Spock.
ABOVE: A Klingon leader had never been given safe passage through Federation space, and Spock felt it necessary to give Gorkon some assurance besides his word that would guarantee his safety. Taking his lead from his father, Spock, using his intermediaries Curzon Dax and Kang, arranged to send Gorkon a handwritten invitation from the Federation president. Ra-ghoratreii wrote the letter in English because he didn’t speak Klingon, and since his people, the Efrosians, had rebelled from Klingon oppression, writing in his native language might have been seen as an insult.
Star Trek Federation: The First 150 Years Page 13
