Chapter 2: The Meeting.
As the door swished open the two saw they were the first ones in. The oval table was equipped with 10 computer displays. One larger viewscreen was placed on the wall. Christ took the place 2nd from the head of the table. He excpected to be seeded next to the Captain, who'd be next to the admiral. Ezri left one seat in between him and her. She was going to say something to Christ but did not get that chance.
The door swished open and an Admiral stepped into the room. "Admiral on deck!" Christ yelled, and stood to attention. "At easy Ca.. Commander, Lt. Commander" he replied, as the admiral took up the seat at the head of the table. "Commander, would you please move one seat closer?" he asked Christ. Puzzled he complied and moved one seat. He now sat next to the Admiral... a Captains seat... Christ did not have much time to ponder that thought.
One by one the other attendees came in. Each came in with a very surprised look on their faces, and the persons present all looked equally surprised as each attendee came in. Their racial diversity was remarkable to say the least.
First a Bajorran came in. A rather large man, of about middle age, and with a Bourgondian belly. "That must be the Lt. Commander that served on the intrepid class vessel Rising Sun..." Christ thought. The vessel had been able to fight itself out of a skirmish agains 4 Galondon class vessels destroying 3 and capturing one. A tactically legendary achievement, accredited to the tactical officer of the vessel. The tactics he used were hastily made mandatory reading at Starfleet Acadamy. The chapter in the book was called Odu Tactics.
Right behind the Bajorran were two other officers coming through the door locked in intense conversation. The Leutenant from Starfleet medical stepped into the room first, followed by another Leutenant. They both looked very unfamiliar to all present.
Both were the only ones of their respective races, the Dewordians and the Peljanites to be in Starfleet. They both took a seat besides each other. They continued their conversation oblivious to their surroundings, until they noticed the admiral. "At ease Leutenants, the meeting hasn't started yet, not everyone is here yet."
Then a Betazoid came in. "Councellor Lucyanna Troi reporting as ordered sir" She staded at attention. "Take a seat councelor. We'll be starting this briefing as soon as everyones here" the admiral said.
Then the door opened one more time. This time a trio stepped in. A human, a Cardassian and a Vulcan came into the room. "Take a seat gentlemen" the Admiral cut of the Commander before he could say a word. The present officers couldn't help being amazed at the sight of the trio that came in. A human and a Vulcan together with a Cardassian, in Starfleet uniform? Amazing!
The Admiral stood up and looked all attendees in the eyes one by one. With a loud voice intended to get everyones undevided attention he then spoke.:
"So! Lets get this meeting underway shall we?!" He paused a second and then continued:"
"Ladies and Gentlemen, today your lives change!
Starfleet has reevaluated it's view on keeping the Federation safe and out of costly wars like we've seen lately. This evaluation was made because of todays political situation in the quadrant and beyond.
The Romulans, our allies during the Dominion war have retreated back across the Neutral zone, informing us the status of relations between us and them will return to pre-war status. This means that apart from the losses both we and the romulans suffered fighting the Breen/Dominion/Cardassian Alliance absolutely nothing changed between the two powers.
Intelligence also indicates that in the Romulan empire the industrie is still in wartime production, producing massive amounts of weapons. The Romulans claim they are rebuilding their fleet to prewar strength. We all know however that Romulans have deceived everyone who ever came into contact with at least once.
The Klingons may have found a new respect for us as warriors, but they shall always remain a threat to anyone they perseave as weak. This, and the by defenition unstable political situation in the Klingon empire makes it the second power Starfleet has to be prepared to face if needed.
The Federation is a very large terrirory to protect. Not only the main federation space needs protection, but also the federation territories around Deneb, Antares and Rigel deserve the same level of protection as, for example, Earth or any other federation member. The Federation needs to have a force available in those remote regions, that is equal to the size of federations space it must defend. Currently that would mean that Starfleet needs a complete autonomous Starfleet in all 4 or 5 of the regions.
Even though the Dominion in this quadrant has been defeated, we can be sure the Gamma Quadrant's Dominion forces are as powerful as ever. The founders, now having obtained a cure for their disease, will have undoubtedly maintained their absolute power over the Dominion empire.
Starfleet has to consider the view most founders have of "solids" which is not comforting I can assure you. Even though we have no direct indications or even expect the dominion to pose a threat to us anytime soon, Starfleet feels it needs to be prepared for it anyway.
The last confrontation with the Borg has cut off, as far as we know, all their shortcuts to our part of the Galaxy. This, the destruction of the queen (maybe one of many) and the infection of the hive with the pathogen by Capt. Janeway has won the last battle we had with the Borg.
This however in no way ensures us they are not as strong as ever in the Delta Quadrant, and as determined as ever to assimilate all of the Galaxy, especially sector 001... Earth! It may even be that the recent encounter has put us on the top of their to assimilate lists.
As the Delta Quadrant is very far away, Starfleet doesn't feel the Borg pose an immediate threat, but seeing the difficulty we had battling 1 or 3 Borg vessels, we have a lot of problems coming our way when the main force arrives. If and when that will happen we cannot know. We do know the Borg are very good at adapting. We need to find out, what the current condition and intent of the Borg is.
After carefull deliberation, Starfleet has decided she cannot risk it's continued existence by depending on her neighbours to fight besides her agains the threats the future may bring. It must be able to counter any threat by her own means.
Starfleet must therefore aquire a larger fleet, more powerfull offensive as well as defencive weaponary and a larger range for intelligence gathering." Starfleet now realizes it's sise causes her neighbours to look to Starfleet to enforce peace in the region. This is a responsabillity Starfleet must and will take seriously."
"To summarise:
The Borg attacks, the Dominion war, and the continued threat of being surrounded by Empires that in the past sought to conquer the Federation has made Starfleet aware that it needs to accept that in some cases brute force, or the ability to use it, is the only thing keeping the peace."
During the admirals speech the audience had listened to it in awe. The speech made I big impression on all present. The admiral looked around at each of the officers faces, and after a moment of silence he continued to speak.
"I'd like you to read an exerpt of a highly classified Starfleet engeneering document. It contains a summery of new technologies, which you will find interesting. I must remind you that highly classified means you are not allowed to discuss it even amongst yourself until further notice. I'd also like to ask you to refraim from commenting or asking questions until the end of the meeting."
As the Admiral finished his sentence the displayes started showing a document. Everyone started reading.
TECHNOLOGICAL LISTING SUMMARY FOR USSc SHAKE DESIGN
Phase cloaking and matter phasing.
Shifts atoms out of phase with the rest of the Galaxy. All atoms origionating from this Galaxy are phasing in a certain frequency. This device can shift the phase of evey atom on this ship and everything it can hit with the phase beam. This causes the atoms to become invisible to sensors, as they do not exist in a certain kind of way. This also enables the ship and everything/everyone on it to be able to move through solid matter. This matter so to speak doesn't exist either to the ship. The ship and everyone phased can see everything in normal phase through specially adapted sensors, camera's and if needed, glasses. This technology has been Covertly obtained from the Romulan Star Empire's Tall Shihar, and modified into a perfected operational technology. It will be standard on all Intellegence vessels in design
Klingon/Romulan/Jem'Hadar cloaking technology
Combining the finer points of each races approach on cloaking technology. It's resulted in a cloaking device that is undetectable by any of the forenamed races and the races that cannot detect those races. The greater advance it brought is in detection of cloaked vessels. All vessels using cloaking technology similar to the ones Starfleet has encountered to date can be detected by this device.
The Phase cloak is ofcourse the ultimate cloaking device, which might once render these kind of cloaks useless one day. It however does require an extreme amount of energy even for a ship with the sise and power as the Shake. Therefore the 'normal' cloak will be the default cloak at all times until this failes. It will always remain available if the long range sensors are undamaged, as they are tied into each other as well as with the U.A.D.S.A.
Ultra Advanced Detection Sensor Array.
The different races we have been allied with have provided us with their detection sensor technologies. We have also picked up design specifications from the races we have defeated. Those technologies have been combined by Starfleet and enhanced where possible to form the most advanced powerfull detection array ever. The range of the long range sensors and the scope of detectable information is more than 100 fold the most advanced so far. Detection of objects, anomalies, and fenomenon is unprecedented. The array is simply called UADSA in short. It requires one bridge officer to operate at maximum efficiency.
Phaser/Disruptor/fp beam Arrays.
The phasertechnologies, and disruptor technologies of all the formentioned races have been adapted and perfected into new designs for both. This vessel however is the first to be able to combine the 2 into one beam we call a phase disruptor. The beam has the properties of a phaserbeam and a disruptor beam, enhancing eachothers destructive capabilities.
The forced plasma beam arrays on the vessel are origionally of Ferengi design, and also used by the borg. Enhanced and made more accurate for the Shake they provide the overkill where needed after firing phasers/disruptors. The shields on most vessels/structures will not even bother the forced plasma beams.
Torpedoes/missles.
Along with the familiar phonton and quantum torpedoes the USS Shake has 4 flux torpedoe capable launch tubes. This technology is new, and of Starfleet design. It causes the target's atoms to go into ultra high flux, shaking themselves loose from whatever atom they are attached to. The result I think needs no further explanation.
Allthough torpedoes could be called missiles generally spoken missiles mean smaller powered projectiles. The USS Shake, being a large target needs defence agains torpedoes fired at it as well as the capability to hit smaller targets. For that purpose it has been fitted with the shake missile. The shake missile is in fact a small flux torpedoe. The torpedoe for large area's, the shake missle for smaller. The effective radius of disintergration is about 50cm. This missile is also fitted onto all other vessels carried by the Shake.