Star Trek - New Federation - An Augmented Future

by LordBod1970

This story continues from my initial story "Space Seed - A Different Reality." It makes a 10 year time jump from 2267 from when the U.S.S. Enterprise discovers the Botany Bay containing Khan and his Augment followers from 20th Century Earth. It describes the eventual assimilation of the Augments within Earth society inside the United Federation of Planets.

1. Chapter 1

An 'Augmented' Future

Disclaimer: Star Trek is not owned by me, nor do I own any of the characters that will be used in the story, unless they are my creation. Paramount and CBS own all things Star Trek.

Author's Note: This story continues from my initial story "Space Seed - A Different Reality." It makes a 10 year time jump from 2267 from when the U.S.S. Enterprise discovers the Botany Bay containing Khan and his Augment followers from 20th Century Earth. It describes the eventual assimilation of the Augments within Earth society inside the United Federation of Planets. Since the Augments are human, many of the sections of Earth that were eventually assimilated into Earth's unified government had to take hard look at the very foundations of their belief systems. In order to fully explain how this worked, this story will take another trip to the past and try to explain how fiercely independent, capitalist countries of the 20th and 21st centuries finally merged into the present 23rd century government of Earth.

Chapter 1 - Hidden Choices of the Past

Earth's history had always been of war and competition among its various civilizations. Throughout history, wars plagued mankind as a result for competition for resources and differences in ideology. As civilizations grew and advanced, conflict with other civilizations over resources and beliefs often ended up in war. Even up into the 21st century prior to the Third World War, mankind was always fighting with itself….what changed man after that war? What drove man to see his fellow man as someone to get along with instead of compete with? Did first contact with the Vulcans change mankind as a result of Cochrane's successful faster than light flight? How did Earth's nations come together to form a world government out of the ashes and chaos of World War III? Why? Did they change? What was lost in time or was it hidden?

As a result of the discovery of the Augments in 2267, Earth historians took a hard look again at some of the key decisions that led to the unification of Earth after First Contact.

First of all, ruling out the United Nations is a given. As a condition of the cease fire ending World War III between the United States, its NATO allies and the ECON (Eastern Coalition in Asia) in 2053, the United Nations was to be permanently dissolved. Each nation was to have the freedom to seek alliances or not with other nations on Earth. Seeing that numerous alliances drove the reasons for both the Eugenics war and World War III, many nations decided not to align with others for that reason alone. Now, trade continued as best as it could in the post-war world, but it struggled. Global communications, like the Internet, was still in place, but sporadic in some areas of the world. The global economy was severely depressed and a result many nations fell apart, but still some survived. The nuclear war, as it was feared, did not inflict as much damage as 20th century military planners had feared. In addition to the devastation brought on by the war, ruthless warlords sprung up in various areas of the world where civilization broke down and subjected vast population centers to barbaric conditions. With no central governments in those areas, the rule of law was non-existent. Anarchy and death seemed to take hold on Earth and threaten its population with a new dark age. Despite the impact of World War III and 63 million dead, many of the original nations existed in some form or another. The United States still existed, albeit not in its pre-war capacity and its government was still functional, but due to war damage in many parts of its country, U.S. force projection was very limited. Some European nations still existed, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain as examples, but were limited in any type of world type force projection concentrating on helping their populations and trying to recover from the war. The most devastated countries existed on the Asian continent. Vast areas of China and Siberia were devastated by numerous nuclear attacks between Russia and the Former EAU (Khan's former nation-state) of the previous Eugenics war in addition to the damage done during World War III. Vast areas of China were irradiated and cities were severely decimated. China as a major power ceased to exist as a result of both wars and went through several new forms of government. The Chinese struggled to rebuild with the aid of other Asian nations, such as Japan and Malaysia who were untouched during both wars. These nations helped bring China out of the devastation brought on as a result of the two wars. Countries like Australia and some of the Southern Hemisphere countries escaped the nuclear attacks, but suffered to a lesser degree. They were impacted by the economic vacuum that occurred when cargo ships and trade did not come from the Chinese, Americans or even Europeans.

Furthermore, the Eugenics war and World War III were separate conflicts. Each bringing about death and destruction on a worldwide scale. Some historians say that the unresolved issues following the Eugenics war set the stage for World War III. The victors (the United Nations' cabal) imposed harsh sanctions on the former countries of the EAU. Occupied areas were subjected to harsh military rule and economic penalties in the guise of rebuilding. One might say, that they were one in the same, but there was a relative short period (approximately 30 years) of peace between the two conflicts.

This all brings us back to the same question, how did a unified world government come out of the devastation of World War III? The odds were really against this actually happening very soon. Trust between nations was low. Old alliances had fallen apart, whole countries ceased to exist in their placed were radioactive wastelands and people were just trying to survive. After WW-III, the U.S. and NATO formally dissolved since its need ended when the Russian nation was no longer a threat to Western Europe. People were trying to survive, much less look to unify their planet. The luckier countries that survived the attacks struggled to get back on their feet and continued to progress and rebuild, but many years were ahead them, if not decades to go. Non-affected countries helped where they could, but it wasn't much. As a result of the cease fire, the United Nations was disbanded and cited as the primary cause for the war. With the UN disbanded, there wasn't really a world entity to guide or bring together these nations in the post-war world. Each of them was on their own, and traditional allies helped each other if they could and if requested, helped their former enemies.

So, how did all this change in a few decades from Vulcan first contact?

New Order - A Force for Change

In history, there are always hidden cabals or groups of humans that work behind the scenes to maneuver human events in support of their goal. Many of these groups were lost to memory and often were the subject of conspiracies, real or otherwise, but the one true cabal that enabled the unified world government was a group calling themselves the "New Order." They existed as a group hidden in the shadows for over two hundred years manipulating human events prior to the events that caused the First World War in 1914. This secretive cabal represented all sectors of the business and government class that had amassed unusually high levels of power to manipulate entire population centers. This cabal had representatives from every nation on Earth and worked behind the scenes to manipulate politicians and government bureaucrats in support of their goals. These individuals created sub-groups that were false fronts for them and were actually put in place to throw off investigations into their ultimate goal. Their covert and overt actions manipulated human events such as wars and economic upheavals that eventually led to the planet's unified government in 2150's. Since before the industrial revolution, these shadowy individuals molded nations and populations in support of their global agenda. Many of its founders were notable historians and academics that advocated for the suppression of human rights and establishment of government control over the entire human populations.

Their first experiment was the League of Nations after World War I, which only lasted until the beginning of World War II. The next experiment at world government was the United Nations founded after World War II which subsequently failed to prevent a third world war. So, now all of its attempts at world governance were failures….or were they?

With the return of the Augments to Earth's society, many of the secrets of this organization were laid bare. As it turned out, by the testimony by Khan and his fellow Augments, this hidden cabal's true motives were described as a leading cause of all major wars during the 20th and 21st centuries. Actual people were named and actual descendants were identified by Federation/Earth authorities. As described by the Augments, especially Khan and the revived former Vice President of the United States, these plans described overt and covert operations designed to topple governments, move financial centers, purposely cause famine and stoke border wars to create favorable conditions for them to achieve their end goal. Moreover, these plans detailed a world government where any opposition was met with destruction. As described in the numerous follow-on interviews with the Augments by Federation officials, many nations at the time were not in favor a combined world government. Especially the former United States, which was very opposed to any world government stripping it of its own sovereignty. This cabal's goal was to eventually destroy the nation since it was the biggest obstacle to its one world government goal. A world government, in the "New Order's" mindset was that all forms of economic and material production was to be controlled by a central authority. Individual rights to this cabal were meaningless and certain forms of religion were subverted in order to submit to their agenda. Money was to be distributed and controlled by this central authority.

With each successive world war, to include the Eugenics wars, the New Order gained more control over the decades. Control of the world could take decades, if not centuries and with each conflict, they brought about more and more changes to Earth's society to achieve their goal. Through proxy governments and international agencies, this New Order promised safety and security in place of war so long as population centers give up certain rights or privileges. As each war occurred, many people saw the promise of peace at any cost a desirable outcome.

The Augments were created as a deterrent to this New Order to break their control over the population and bring out true prosperity for humanity. Augmented humans' intelligence saw through the New Order's plans and attempted to wrestle control of governments from the New Order prior to the Eugenics Wars. Seeing their plans disrupted in Asia, the New Order used the proxy nations of the United Nations, primarily Russia, to attack the newly formed East Asia Union or EAU. As the New Order achieved success with the overthrow and dissolution of the EAU, it successfully knocked down another obstacle for its one world government agenda.

Once the third world war left the Earth devastated by nuclear weapons, the New Order acted quickly to solidify and concentrate its political power in what was left of European nations. The leaders of the New Order were patient and were able to coerce or manipulate the recovery efforts of those nations there by buying off or taking over former governments. They were prepared to be patient, but all that changed in 2063.

First Contact/Recovery

With the sudden appearance of the Vulcans in 2063 (in the United States to the dismay of the New Order), this event gave them impetus to move faster in this world government effort. Creating a new organization called the Earth Recovery Division (ERD) through various shell companies and using leftover government centers, this cabal projected economic recovery (with the assistance of Vulcan technology of course) initially around Europe, but eventually around the planet. The ERD acted as the peaceful benefactor by bringing security, medicine, food and water to devastated cities. The ERD put the people back to work, provided housing, medical care and fed them. It restored civilization to the war-weary population. This positive influence showcased the ERD as the shining benefactor for mankind. No longer would children die from radiation sickness. Among the technology brought by the generous Vulcans was the ability to treat radiation sickness and prevent the needless death of millions of humans. The ERD, with Vulcan's help, brought hope back to mankind...with a price. In place of the local government, one of the ERD's requirements for aid was the establishment of a local council ran by ERD-approved bureaucrats. These ERD installed 'bureaucrats' made small changes to the local governments at all levels and laid the groundwork for the eventual system that would structure a world government. As this continued for the next few decades following First Contact, the ERD was able to rebuild the planet in its own image. With carefully scripted terms and conditions, the ERD rebuilt nations to their standards. Nations accepting the help from the ERD agreed to the terms unconditionally.

In the last half of the 21st century, Earth recovered from its nuclear war as areas were cleaned up, people were healed and the industrial base was re-established, humans started to believe in a brighter future. Having seen that they weren't truly alone in the universe, it was easier for them to work together for the betterment of their planet and within the solar system. Along with this prosperity, the ERD, as per the milestones endorsed by the Vulcans, soon established the world government-like infrastructure needed. On the European, African and Asian continents, entire former countries were consolidated into working districts that were to be represented in the newly formed world parliament in Geneva, Switzerland (which had remained neutral and untouched by World War III). This parliament was able to disperse with greater authority the recovery mechanisms that helped rebuild war torn cities and infrastructure bringing entire populations the necessary humanitarian aid. Former African colonies were brought up to modern (21st century) standards of living with this aid. Humans were beginning to take back the civilization they had lost just ten years ago. This organization carefully placed the illusion of national sovereignty within its founding constitutional document, while at the same time ensuring its dominance over the planet Earth.

ERD influence was extensive throughout Europe, Asia and North Africa. These areas took quite a bit of damage due to the war and some nations actually ceased to exist in some areas. In those situations, the ERD just simply installed their own 'council' of bureaucrats at those locations. The area was still called Israel, or Egypt or Iraq, but its national identity was subordinate to the ERD due to the recovery efforts in those respective areas.. As with all recoveries, this one seemed to be slowing working. The ERD was successfully rebuilding the planet and establishing the economic base that Earth would need to continue to become a space worthy nation. Taking over key industries in former European countries, the ERD was able to restart factories, jump start farms in clean areas, and clean up radioactive wastelands. Many of the former war-ravaged areas of Earth were being cleaned up, order was being restored to cities and communities. Critical items such as food, medicine and water were getting to the many displaced humans as a result of the war. Not all nations wanted nor accepted the ERD assistance. Everything was going according to plan from the New Order's perspective, except for one problem: The United States of America.

United States of America

Being suspicious of this new ERD, the United States did not want nor accept any type of recovery assistance by them and was leery of any associations with foreign alliances. From the U.S. perspective, one of the causes of World War III was the entangled alliances that brought them into the war. The U.S. was able to negotiate unilaterally with the Vulcans for the recovery technology to be used within North America. According to the U.S stance was since the Vulcans landed in Montana, the U.S. insisted that they negotiate with the Vulcans on their own terms. The U.S. would still openly trade with any remaining countries, but would not enter into any type, defense or trade, of alliance with any other nation. It had no desire to take part in this global ERD recovery effort or take any of its assistance unconditionally. In spite of the nuclear damage done to the North American continent, Americans were just as determined to rebuild and restore their country to what it was. Yes, there was discontent and arguing from the ERD, but overall, Americans saw it for what it was...a chance to make their country better than it was prior to the war and expand their horizons not only across the continent, but into outer space. Since Zephram Cochrane had invented his warp drive, outer space opened up to not just the U.S, but all of mankind. With the new warp drive powering its new vessels, the U.S. began an aggressive effort to settle and develop the solar system. Mining companies established colonies on the moon, Mars and the moons of the gas giants. American mining companies harvested the ore and minerals out of these places and sold it to ERD companies for profit for Earth's recovery. This new golden age of space travel created whole new industries based around the exploration of outer space and helped the United States' recovery after the war

From the 2070's and into the beginnings of the 22nd century, the U.S. took the lead in establishing Earth's fledging space force. Its mission was to actively patrol and monitor the Sol System for any and all extraterrestrial threats. The U.S. expanded its space mission force and expanded its presence on the moon. The U.S. had become the de facto Earth defense force since the ERD was busy with on-planet recovery. Membership in its forces was open to all other nations, but the requirement was to become U.S. citizens. Many of the former European and Chinese population jumped at this chance to leave the war ravaged areas of their homeland.

An economically strong and independent U.S. stood in the way of finally achieving a global government. Strong feelings of nationalism kept the U.S from entering into any type of treaty with the now renamed United Earth Authority (former ERD) or UEA presented a clear obstacle to any form of global government. Due to strong nationalist feelings among the Americans, joining some world government wasn't going to happen anytime soon. U.S. citizens at the time were still just a fiercely independent and stubborn at any time in their history. The last war had shown that foreign alliances had weakened the country and drawn them into a shooting war that almost destroyed their nation. The current U.S. President was staunch proponent of going it alone into space. Since the U.S. still had the military power to control the space above them, it was able to dictate several key items prior to joining the world council. Since the recovery by the UEA had stripped most nations of their standing armies, this left the U.S. with the only standing military still in existence. The U.S. Navy along with remnants of the British Navy still patrolled the seas ensuring free trade existed among nations.

In the southern hemisphere, countries like Australia sided with the Americans in their unilateral approach to recovery and dealings with the Vulcans. They insisted that their dealings need to be on Australian terms, not through some European agency that did not support Australia's interests.

Failure of the UEA to unite the planet under one government almost caused the Vulcans to abandon their recovery efforts and leave Earth. Vulcan's were growing agitated about negotiating with various governments on Earth and were threatening to stop all assistance if a one world government was formed to coordinate future contact. This set the UEA's plans for global governance if it couldn't convince the U.S. to enter into a cooperative one-government approach towards the Vulcans. The UEA depended on the advanced technology to effect the recovery efforts it coordinated world-wide. If the U.S. decided to stake out on its own, it would undermine all the UEA efforts to date. Americans being who they are, were very suspicious of any UEA motives in their rushed attempt to establish a world government. Australia flat out walked away from the unification talks and refused any more assistance from both the UEA and Vulcans. The U.S. had done sufficiently well in its own post-war recovery and was expected to make a strong comeback without UEA assistance. The UEA was at a disadvantage and they knew it. There had to be a way to convince the proud Americans to join the rest of the planet in their one world government. As the unification talks progressed, it was becoming more and difficult to get the Americans to join any world government. From the American's perspective, it wasn't profitable nor advantageous to join the UEA. They were doing just fine on their own. Historically, Americans thrived on competition, and with the UEA as their main trading partner, as well as competitor, strengthened the ever expanding U.S. economy past pre-war levels. The New Order had a problem. It had to get the U.S. to join the world government or destroy it. The cost would be the loss of any advanced Vulcan technology in the near future and isolationism from any future contact with other advanced alien civilizations. It had to do something drastic.

Not in the History Books:

What's not in the history books, is that the New Order cabal initiated several covert actions that led to the eventual joining of the U.S. into the world council. Behind the scenes (now revealed by Khan and his Augments) plans that were long developed back in the 1990's, were executed to bring about the unification of the planet. This cabal stopped at nothing to influence, buy off and even assassinate U.S. officials that did not want to become a part of the world council. Politicians that advocated for a continued independent U.S. were targeted by smear ads that painted them as anti-future, anti-Earth and xenophobic. They were the past, the ads suggested, not the future. Many newer and younger politicians were swayed by the idea of an unified Earth and with the efforts of the cabal manipulating U.S. politics (either through bribery or convincing), finally got a majority of members in both houses of Congress that were open to the idea of becoming part of the UEA world council. These behind the scenes actions were left out of the history books and the U.S. was tremendously manipulated into taking a seat at the world council. With the U.S., the sole remaining independent superpower on Earth now a part of United Earth, it was the beginning of a new era on Earth.

In the History Books:

Through several talks and discussions without mention of the above coercive attempts by the cabal, it was presented that the social attitudes and ideas of the American public evolved to understand the need for a unified Earth. This eventually led to the U.S. taking a seat on the world council. With that being said, the U.S. came to table with specific requirements prior to joining. Its position was that nations didn't have to give up their sovereignty, but could participate equally in any world council decision. The U.S. would contribute its military, political and economic power to the Earth as long as other members of the UEA council did nothing to subvert or take away those inherit rights of American citizens. Official documentation was presented to the world population. Was officially said to the public was that through tough negotiations and perseverance, the U.S. agreed to become a temporary member of this world government with the following caveats:

- U.S. sovereignty would remain intact and the country could withdraw at any time from the world council at any time for any reason. This withdrawal action was subject to review after each new U.S. Presidential election. "Walk-away clause"

- No UEA government officials and/or bureaucrats were permitted to legally touch any U.S. citizen.

- The U.S. Constitution was not subject to revision nor modification by any world government council decision.

- UEA government would pay the U.S. a tax for them to hold a controlling seat on the world council.

- The U.S. trained and equipped any combined Earth space force with a tax from the UEA to support it. Operational control of the Earth space force remained with the U.S. with participation from other UEA nation states.

- U.S. holdings within the solar system would remain under U.S. control and or statehood

- The UEA government had to adopt a constitution based on the U.S. version and elections of all officials were subject to term limits.

- Contact with alien races required U.S. concurrence for any treaty negotiated with them.

- The UEA government world council would now be called the just the UE (United Earth)

Unification

The U.S. officially became a member of the world council on February 5, 2151 which became known as Unification Day on Earth. Many Americans were not were not happy, but in the years that followed, many of the key requirements the signing documents kept them happy as long they maintained their internal sovereignty from UE dictates. As long as it didn't affect their lives, they went on living like before the unification. From the New Order's perspective, this represented a large victory. They did not support many of the same freedoms as the U.S. guaranteed in their constitution, but were powerless to do much about it. Since the U.S. was able to procure entry on their terms, this cabal settled for the end result: An United Earth. With this success, the Vulcans were able to deal with the United Earth as a unified body with heavy U.S. influence in future deals and negotiations.

The only hold out was Australia, but was largely ignored. Australia wouldn't join the United Earth government until after the formation of the United Federation of Planets in the 2160's.

As a result of discovering this information from the data brought back on the Botany Bay and interviews of the Augments, 23rd century Earth leaders discovered that they had made tremendous errors in judgement back in the 20th and 21st century. Allowing the Augments to assimilate into Earth and largely Federation culture was an easy choice. In the 23rd century, humans now pride themselves on being flexible and open to new ideas. Making amends to the Augments didn't fix the reasons why they were exiled, but it went a long way in healing some of the hurt feelings between them and allowed both sides to start helping one another.

Side Note: Even in 23rd Century under Federation rule, many nations of the planet Earth still survive to that day, to include the United States. It still exists as a functioning federal republic internal to the United Earth government. When Earth became one of the founding members of the UFP, American experts aided the creation in the Federation Charter modeling it on U.S. Constitution and ensured that the guiding principles of federalism worked among the new founding members. Some current 23rd humans might say that they're now Federation citizens, but many still do take pride from where they come.

Author's Note: I admit this is long, but I had to detail for my benefit how the Earth became unified. It's never really known in Star Trek canon how it happened. From all appearances from the shows and movies, Earth just all of sudden woke up one day and sang kumbaya songs and peacefully locked arms as a unified planet. Everyone knows that isn't the way things happen in the real world. The scenario presented is definitely pro-American, but I'm an unashamedly pro-American and I liked the idea of the U.S. shaping future history. Many of the Federation's ideals and social values come from the U.S. and I'd like to think that the U.S. was a key player in any future Earth society.

Next Chapter: Now, onto how the Augments contributed to the shaping of a new Federation. There are endless possibilities that can happen. With that, if you have ideas on what they could contribute to Federation society, please let me know in the review section I'll try and incorporate them into the story.