8: Government and Political Thinking

All reports here are based on supplied documents so if they are inaccurate it is due to all relevant information not being released by the Vanguard.

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The United Federation of Planets [UFP]:

The over-riding philosophy of the Federation is based around the Vulcan concept of IDIC: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Or as Humans would say, the total is greater than the sum of its parts.

The Federation was formed around 300 years ago after the Romulan War by four races; The Humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites.

Since then it has grown to encompass over 1000 worlds and colonies and boasts a post-war fleet numbering in the thousands with ships ranging in size from frigates up to what they class as explorers; however, we would feel that such ships would better qualify as heavy cruisers, if not pocket-dreadnoughts. This is based on scaling up the firepower of the Vanguard to the listed size of their Sovereign-class explorers.

Somehow, the fact that their largest vessels bare the same name as Saren's super-dreadnought is both worrying, and morbidly humorous.

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The fact that from a meagre beginning of four home worlds and less than a hundred combined colonies the UFP now boasts over 150 member species rates it as one of the most impressive growths ever heard of.

The fact that so many species could come together in a common system for the 'greater good' is both inspiring and frightening.

Unlike the Council which only allows select races to join, any race that achieves FTL and agrees to a common set of principals – which none of our races, even Humanity, would be able to enact without major social-political change – is allowed membership with the UFP.

That so many would join such a group is incredible, as is the sheer number of races we are talking about as the UFP is confined to an area, roughly circular in nature, that is all centred around the first four races home worlds for a distance of 500 light-years. This is roughly the area currently occupied by the Systems Alliance within the Local Cluster Primary Relay network.

The Federation is ruled by a President who is elected every ten years, with a Council composed of 1 senator from each planet, then a further senator for each further 1 billion citizens. This seems to be to prevent the founding races from gaining an overwhelming foothold on the UFP since most home-worlds number into the billions while most colonies are considerably less than that.

Indeed, the last time the President or First Speaker of the Council was from one of the four founding members was nearly a hundred years ago.

This is also different from the Council, as the races on the Council are clearly the leaders of the Citadel races and have setup the system to ensure that they stay that way.

The regulations of the UFP are restrictive in many regards, with rules to limit many activities and technologies that differ highly from Council decrees. In particular, – in an almost weird double reversal – the UFP have no laws against AIs or their creation [See attached file of one Commander Data and the earlier mention of the Vanguard's EMH], while being almost totally against the usage of genetic manipulation.

This interested me and after reading about one Khan Noonien Singh I can understand why the UFP in general, and Humans in particular, were so opposed to genetic modifications.

Also, after reading about these so-called 'Augments' I suspect that Captain MacLeod has some ancestry that was Augmented. The chance of him actually being augmented given to the time that has passed is remote, but a sample of his DNA would make for an interesting comparison to both other Starfleet Humans and members of the Systems Alliance.

The UFP would seem to be an easy target for their numerous aggressive neighbours, but somehow they have not only survived but seem to have grown to become the strongest of their local races.

Indeed, the fact that the UFP is allied with the 'Klingon Empire' is testament to that. From what I was able to discern, the Klingons would be a good parallel to the Krogan, though with much shorter lifespans. In essence, it would have been as though the Council invited the Krogan to join after the Rachni wars.

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Starfleet:

Starfleet is the closest that the Federation has to a military, but it would be better described as a peacekeeping force which also encompasses exploration, intelligence and research under one massive – and possibly unwieldy – authority.

Starfleet fleet numbers are mentioned as being in the thousands – Captain MacLeod states to Sovereign/Saren that they have 10,000 vessels which would outnumber the Salarian fleets ship for ship. We believe that this number may have been pre-Dominion War and bravado by the then Commander to concern Saren.

I would also add that it might include small 1 or 2 people scout-ships as well as larger shuttlecraft. However, even if only half of those ships were frigate sized or larger, they would still be of roughly equal numbers to the Systems Alliance, but all armed better than any known dreadnought.

Whatever their current numbers, Starfleet is not a military, and given to what has been made available regarding the Dominion War and the Borg, we suspect that for a long time they weren't even much of a peacekeeping force.

Now however, we postulate that they are far more likely to simply shoot first.

With Captain MacLeod being both the former security chief and having served as an insurgent during the occupation of Betazed, I suspect that he is even less likely to try to talk his way to a diplomatic solution; a fact I'm sure the Council must be well aware of for their future dealings with him.

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General Orders:

Starfleet is guided by an extensive list of General Orders (GO). The most dominant, and one that could be considered almost holy, is GO1, or 'The Prime Directive':

"As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Starfleet personnel may interfere with the normal and healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes introducing superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely. Starfleet personnel may not violate this Prime Directive, even to save their lives and/or their ship, unless they are acting to right an earlier violation or an accidental contamination of said culture. This directive takes precedence over any and all other considerations, and carries with it the highest moral obligation."

This Directive has 48 sub-clauses concerning its application.

After reviewing in detail, we believe that Commander MacLeod has broken the 'letter of the law' seven times while still being adhering to the 'spirit of the law'. [Assisting the Morning Star, greeting the Council coming to the Citadel, trading for QEDs, the Batarian Incident, Virmire, entering the Battle of the Citadel and assuming command of the clean-up operations after the battle]

I would also add going to Omega as another breaking of GO1. Captain MacLeod has obviously chosen to reinterpret GO1 given to the nature of where he and his vessel currently are, but the parts concerning allowing us access to their technologies are obviously not up for debate as the Council's early attempts at technology trading have shown.

Also of interest are General Orders 24 and 31.

GO24:

"If a commanding officer deems that an individual or group of individuals pose a threat to Starfleet personnel or Federation civilians, he may take any action deemed necessary (including the use of force) to secure the safety of those threatened."

This GO contains the possibility to allow a Starfleet Captain the authority to actively cull fleets, cities, and even potentially whole planets if he or she determines the threat to be grave enough.

We highly doubt however, that other Starfleet officers would be comfortable with such action. Also, we suspect that the Captain in question would be required to explain his or her actions clearly to a review board to avoid the risk of court-martial or imprisonment.

I agree with my team's finding, but feel I should point out that MacLeod is both Captain and Command, therefore the only person he has to justify any potential uses of the order to are himself and his crew.

I have a silent suspicion that the Captain would invoke this GO, in its most extreme form, is we try to acquire any of their technology without their consent, thought I hope I am wrong in this assessment; for our sakes and not his.

GO31:

"The conditions and specifications of the Prime Directive shall henceforth apply to all sentient lifeforms discovered, whether they are of natural or artificial origin.

This means that the Geth, if able to display signs of sentience, by Federation/Starfleet standards, would be considered a race in their own right and be treated equally to any race inside or out of Council space.

However, given to the previous Geth's actions with regards to the Vanguard, we do not consider this outcome it be probable any-time in the future.

I agree with my team that this order is troubling, not just regarding the Geth but for any rogue VI that achieves sentience, however I worry that Captain MacLeod may try and negotiate some kind of settlement with the Geth.

While very combat-capable, the Captain has already shown a willingness to talk first, and as such, may try to find some kind of common ground with the Geth.

This could cause serious problems for the Council concerning the Geth, and the Quarian Issue and as such I believe that we need to be involved in any discussion between the Vanguard and the Geth.

These GOs help to predict a pattern for how the crew will behave while also allowing us to manoeuvring them to suit our purposes.

As I mentioned above, we must be careful expecting them to blindly follow these directives, as Captain MacLeod – and by extension his crew – have shown a willingness to do what is 'right', even if it means 'bending' a GO to do it.

Not mentioned by my staff, but one which I found perplexing was a 'Temporal Prime Directive'. As to what this is exactly I do not know, but it would seem to imply that the UFP or Starfleet know how to engage in time-travel.

While this sounds like an idea from fiction, until the Vanguard appeared so too was the idea of the multiverse.

To quote an ancient Human; "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

As of now, I do not want to even consider what they could do with time-travel technology, as quite frankly the possibilities scare me beyond words.

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There are many other observations that could be made regarding the UFP and Starfleet, but given that we are only dealing with a single ship, I have placed them in a separate report [1FDS45GSG-B] which you are free to read at your own leisure.

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