State of the Galaxy: 2395

[DigiFluid]

I thought it might be fun for us to have a fictional thought experiment! This coming summer, 2019, will be 20 years since DS9 finished its run. We know that there's a new Picard-centric TV series in the pipe, but aside from Nemesis and a few brief glimpses in Voyager and the 2009 film, we really haven't seen the Prime universe since the end of the Dominion War.

When DS9 ended in 1998-99 TV season, the in-universe year was 2375. So I put it to you, GW Trekkies: What does the Star Trek galaxy look like now, in 2018-19 TV season, 20 years later? What events do you think have elapsed in the intervening years? What galactic powers have become dominant? Who has become subservient? Who has allied with who? Who has gone to war with who? Has galactic exploration become a priority again, or has it continued to take a backseat to 'local' affairs for the last two decades?

What do you think? Have fun with it!

[DigiFluid]

Historical refreshers to help you out and get us rolling:

2373

• The cold war between the Alpha Quadrant powers and the Dominion escalates dramatically when the Cardassian Union unexpectedly announces that their civilian government has been overthrown and the military Central Command has joined the Dominion. Dominion fleets begin flooding through the wormhole regularly
• The Maquis in the Federation/Cardassian DMZ are wiped out by the newly-arrived Dominion forces
• At the close of the year, open war erupts between the Federation-Klingon Alliance and the Dominion

2374

• Starfleet Captain Sisko fabricates evidence to deceive the Romulan Star Empire into joining the Federation-Klingon Alliance in war against the Dominion

2375

• The Dominion War comes to an end late in the year
• In the closing moments of the war, the Dominion and Cardassians turn on each other -- the Jem'Hadar engaging in genocide on Cardassia Prime to the tune of 800 million dead, and in turn, the military turning on their Dominion allies and fighting alongside the Federation Alliance
• The Dominion surrenders, and the Female Changeling tried and imprisoned for the crimes committed in the Founders' name
• The Federation, Klingon Empire, and Romulan Empire emerge victorious, but are on a war footing. Hundreds if not thousands of ships destroyed, countless millions dead

2378

• A little over two years since the end of the Dominion War
• The Borg transwarp network is crippled (to an unclear extent) by USS Voyager
• USS Voyager returns to the Alpha Quadrant via a Borg transwarp conduit, bringing with it (among other things): several wanted Maquis criminals, a de-assimilated Borg drone, transphasic torpedoes and ablative generators from an aborted version of the year 2404, a 29th-century mobile holo-emitter, and a wealth of data and intelligence about the Delta Quadrant

2379

• Four years since the end of the Dominion War
• A year and a half since the return of USS Voyager
• The Romulan military is urging the Senate to ally with the (apparently now-former) subject species, the Remans, which will make the Romulan Empire the strongest power in the quadrant
• The negotiations come to an abrupt end when the Remans, led by Shinzon--a seasoned veteran of the Dominion War--launch a coup and seize control of the Empire
• Shinzon's plan to use his new power to destroy Earth is thwarted, and Shinzon killed, leaving leadership of the Romulan Empire uncertain

2387

• 12 years since the end of the Dominion War
• 9 years since the return of USS Voyager
• 8 years since Shinzon's coup
• The Romulan Senate has been reconstituted
• Supernova of the Hobus star destroys Romulus

2395 -- NOW

• 20 years since the end of the Dominion War
• 17 years since the return of USS Voyager
• 16 years since Shinzon's coup on Romulus
• 8 years since Romulus's destruction

[mad_gater]

If this is 2395 in the altered timeline because of the Narada's incursion, and avoided the supernova as a result then maybe events will conspire to plunge the Federation into civil war by this time, sorta like what happened in Babylon 5

[Spimman]

Assuming this show is kind of a "20 years later" in the TNG Trek Universe. I'd like to see...
-Wesley as a Traveller
-All the upgrades and tech learned from Voyager placed in a new Enterprise flagship
-Sela (Tasha's daughter) making an appearance as an ally against a new common enemy. This could also follow the newly formed alliance with the Romulans or maybe even them working towards joining the Federation.

[DigiFluid]

Romulans joining the Federation? That's a thought to chew on.... If it were immediately after the war I would think that very very unlikely, but with Romulus itself destroyed and probably coming off the back of a major refugee crisis (and maybe civil war in the leadership vacuum?), it's an interesting possibility!

[Spimman]

Yeah I figure if Romulus got wiped out (assuming that timeline is current) than there could b a chance of that or an alliance similar to Klingon Empire.

[mad_gater]

I'd also be curious to see if the Federation and the Tholians ever bury the hatchet. Relations had always been rocky but I think they turned downright hostile in the 23rd century when the Federation started messing around with Shedai technology (according the Vanguard novels)

[DigiFluid]

Tholians could be interesting too. I was sitting here thinking that we'd heard about them reasonably late in the timeline but couldn't remember so I had to check Memory Alpha:

The Tholians remained sufficiently dangerous for Starfleet to develop Tholian-based battle simulations. In 2355, during one such simulation, William T. Riker used a notable strategy to calculate a sensory blind spot on a Tholian vessel. (TNG: "Peak Performance")

The Tholians continued to be a strategic concern for Starfleet well into the 2360s, when it was anticipated by Klingon special emissary K'Ehleyr that, if a Klingon Civil War were to break out in 2367, the Tholians might eventually be involved. (TNG: "Reunion")

The Tholians conducted business with Bajoran trader Razka Karn in the early 2370s. They pursued him because of unscrupulous "business" practices, so he took refuge in the Badlands. (DS9: "Indiscretion")



Several weeks later, Odo accused Nog of stealing from the Tholian ambassador on Deep Space 9 and arrested Nog and Jake Sisko for the deed. However, this was actually part of a plan Jake Sisko had formulated in an attempt to repair his friendship with Nog. Nog maintained his innocence, claiming not even to know what a Tholian looked like. (DS9: "Life Support")

At one point, the Tholian ambassador on DS9 owed the station commander, Captain Benjamin Sisko, a favor and obtained Tholian silk for him, which Sisko then gave to his girlfriend, Kassidy Yates. (DS9: "The Way of the Warrior")

The following year, a Tholian observer was killed in the bombing of the Antwerp Conference on Earth by a Dominion infiltrator. (DS9: "Homefront") Despite this, the Tholians signed a non-aggression pact with the Dominion in the following year, prior to the outbreak of the Dominion War, remaining neutral throughout the conflict. (DS9: "Call to Arms")

In 2379, Romulan Senator Tal'aura had an appointment with the Tholian ambassador to Romulus, conveniently causing her to leave the Senate chambers only moments before the assassination of the entire Senate. (Star Trek Nemesis)

To frame that in modern political terms....they sound a little bit like a "rogue state." They could be a bit of a wild card in an unstable time period.

[mad_gater]

Tholians could be interesting too. I was sitting here thinking that we'd heard about them reasonably late in the timeline but couldn't remember so I had to check Memory Alpha:




To frame that in modern political terms....they sound a little bit like a "rogue state." They could be a bit of a wild card in an unstable time period.

It's also possible that they may be a faction in the Temporal Cold War given their interest in the TARDIS-like vessel encountered in the 22nd century by the Enterprise NX-01...and the fact that the Suliban were no match for them.

[P-90_177]

Apparently the devs of Star Trek Online were pleasantly surprised by a meeting with the CBS Star Trek reps who were very eager to have their universe still coincide with the shows. Not just Discovery but all of them. Given that I most likely will expect 2395 to be similar to the lead up to the game. Probably not entirely. I wouldn't be surprised if the game is forced to make a few narrative changes themselves in some future update. But the STO future is very much like you've all described. Romulus' destruction is THE event that is the catalyst to most events there.

If you're not familiar it's otherwise very similar to what we see in All Good Things at the end of TNG. Starfleet is a bit more war weary and wary while hostilities with the Klingons have heated up.

My hope is that the focus will deal a lot with refugees and immigration from Romulan space. Remember in Star Trek VI whenthe Klingon Moon Praxis exploded. An Admiral described the resultant influx of homeless Klingons and says they would become the "trash of the galaxy". And that is essentially how the galaxy views the Romulans.

Meanwhile there was a line in the Romulan's first appearence in TNG "The Neutral Zone" where the Romulan Commander states that they had kept their distance from the Federation and their area of space because they had matters to deal with elsewhere. I like the notion that in the uncharted regions beyond Romulan space there was an enemy of theirs that now has room to move forward again and puts a renewed pressure on the Federation. This way we get the opportunity to see the interstellar politics that made TNG and DS9 so awesome but also introduce a new race that s mysterious and they know nothing about, forcing them to try and gather whatever intel they can scrounge from what is left of the Romulan empire.

[mad_gater]

Apparently the devs of Star Trek Online were pleasantly surprised by a meeting with the CBS Star Trek reps who were very eager to have their universe still coincide with the shows. Not just Discovery but all of them. Given that I most likely will expect 2395 to be similar to the lead up to the game. Probably not entirely. I wouldn't be surprised if the game is forced to make a few narrative changes themselves in some future update. But the STO future is very much like you've all described. Romulus' destruction is THE event that is the catalyst to most events there.

If you're not familiar it's otherwise very similar to what we see in All Good Things at the end of TNG. Starfleet is a bit more war weary and wary while hostilities with the Klingons have heated up.

My hope is that the focus will deal a lot with refugees and immigration from Romulan space. Remember in Star Trek VI whenthe Klingon Moon Praxis exploded. An Admiral described the resultant influx of homeless Klingons and says they would become the "trash of the galaxy". And that is essentially how the galaxy views the Romulans.

Meanwhile there was a line in the Romulan's first appearence in TNG "The Neutral Zone" where the Romulan Commander states that they had kept their distance from the Federation and their area of space because they had matters to deal with elsewhere. I like the notion that in the uncharted regions beyond Romulan space there was an enemy of theirs that now has room to move forward again and puts a renewed pressure on the Federation. This way we get the opportunity to see the interstellar politics that made TNG and DS9 so awesome but also introduce a new race that s mysterious and they know nothing about, forcing them to try and gather whatever intel they can scrounge from what is left of the Romulan empire.

Could be either the Ubarrak or Kinshaya...not much is known about either party

[DigiFluid]

Apparently the devs of Star Trek Online were pleasantly surprised by a meeting with the CBS Star Trek reps who were very eager to have their universe still coincide with the shows. Not just Discovery but all of them. Given that I most likely will expect 2395 to be similar to the lead up to the game.

I was genuinely not expecting that. I quite like the STO universe/timeline, but never for a second expected that it might be considered for future shows. Interesting....

(And I'll get to the rest of your post later )

[knowles2]

Ignoring all the nonsense of JJ Abrams universe. An ignoring the novels. An STO. A bit of a fanfic

By 2395 the Federation is nearly completely dominate of the Alpha Quadrant, Klingons and Cardassia are so close to the Federation that they are more or less consider members by the Romulans and Breens and other Alpha and Beta Squadrons powers. The Federation have several hundred vessels exploring the galaxy using Slipstream drive at any one time.

They have formal alliances with species in the delta, gamma and beta and Alpha Quadrant.

Why the Borg still exists, strategic strikes by the Federation and other species have now kept them contain largely within Borg space. Still a threat but one that is largely consider containable. A long term effort to form a anti borg alliance is being worked on by species across the galaxy, with the Federation hoping to eventually be able to deploy large force of vessels made up of multiple species to push back against the borg anytime they try to expand.

Not everything is so cosy, the Federation hasn't accepted a new member for 20 years. Corruption is said to be growing within the Federation. People resent the vast resources expended to help rebuild Cardassia and to a lesser extent Klingon, whilst major federation members world and colonies still remain battle scarred.

There have been several clashes between the dominion and federation over the years mostly contain to the gamma quadrant. Odo whereabouts are unknown and it presume his attempts to change the changelings and the dominion from the inside has largely failed. The dominion seem to have completely rebuilt it military strength and even grown it since the war. New ship designs are also being reported throughout the gamma quadrant, through it seems the size of their empire has remain largely static. An several planets once known to be affected by Dominion biological weapons has since receive a cure, whether this was from the dominion or another power is unknown. To avoid antagonising the Dominion entry into their space if forbidden, even for intelligence gathering operations.

The romulans have gone quiet again, after the reman crisis and the heavy losses they took during the dominion war, they have retreated mostly back to their borders. They have also withdrew most of their diplomatic staff from surrounding space and expelled most other races diplomats, Spock has also been expelled, along with a large numbers of his followers and supporters. Rumours of a civil war between spock allies and the senate and tal shiar remains unconfirmed. Spock have refuse to comment in public.

The Breen and seemingly unlimited supplies of ships, personnel continue to launch raids into Klingon and Federation space. Why they are contain for the most part, an their raids are quickly pushed back.

Most people think it only a matter of time before the Federation an the Klingons will be in full scale war with the Breens. The only thing stopping a large conflict at the minute is that the Breen energy dampening weapons have since been modified and improve to the point where Federation and Klingon ships are vulnerable to them again.

Rumour of them having adopted Dominion cloning and memory technology to create clones of their soldiers are being circulated.

The Klingons under Martok leadership have made substantial changes to the empire, the warrior class has been trim down, more resources have been thrown into the worker and engineers classes, leading to substantial improvements in both.

A campaign by the chancellor to promote science and medicines careers as being as equally honourable career choices for the young as being a warrior, is also paying off with improvements in all areas of Klingon life.

Martok is considered one of the best and most popular chancellors since Khaless by many.

Wolf is largely consider his second to the chancellor only throughout the Klingon space but refuses to take up a formal title. It considered by many in the Klingon government that Wolf orders are to be considered as orders coming straight from the chancellor himself. .

All major players are involved in slipstream research in attempt to replicate starfleet technology. Efforts by Starfleet intelligence has so far prevented other races from successfully developing and adopting this technology. Through the Klingons are known to have a prototype slipstream vessel, it still only capable of short periods in slipstream, similar to the first attempts to use slipstream by Voyager, it suffers hull damage each time it is use. Starfleet considers it largely a good thing for the Klingons to have slipstream technology given their strong alliance. Rumours of starfleet helping the Klingons to develop this technology has been deny.