Chapter 69:

The combined fleet started out. The goals of the fleet were to show the flag of the Alliance, to let minor powers know that there is an alternative to the lawless atmosphere under the influence of the Orion Syndicate. The fleet would never say anything as silly as "We come in peace" which was commonly said in canon. Our goal was to show that the Alliance was a strong and rising group that welcomed new members, to establish peace through mutual defense and simple rules on how civilizations treat each other.

Starfleet would also never use the motto, "To boldly go where no man has gone before." We knew full well that everywhere around us had other civilizations that had already been there. Even though we were Earth based, we didn't have that provincialism that canon Starfleet had, we already had several distinct sentient species as part of Starfleet. The other part of the canon motto, "to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations" was still relevant, but it had a purpose, to bring about a peaceful region of space, using force if needed.

The first visit of the fleet was to Keto-Enol, which was a trading planet. They didn't reach the territorial extent they did in canon 2152. In the Enterprise episode "Canamar" they had a harsh legal system, arresting and imprisoning various ships passing through their space on arbitrary charges. At the start of 2022 they only controlled their own system and were only building a very few warp capable ships with imported components purchased from the Orions.

Viewing canon, the fleet crew couldn't believe how in the other timeline they had sent a shuttle craft to make first contact with the Enolians, without a starship nearby. The shuttle craft was then captured by Enolian law enforcement which didn't even check out their story of having just been to a diplomatic mission with their own government, and accused them of smuggling. In the Enolian legal system being arrested always results in being convicted. In our timeline, instead five huge starships would arrive to make first contact. The starships weren't nearly as powerful as their size would suggest, but unless they had a very good scanner they wouldn't be able to know that.

We established radio contact and then sent a shuttle to the surface. We sent our message of wanting a lawful region of space without piracy and they agreed with those goals. Trade relations with Andoria and the rest of the alliance were setup, but the Enolians emphasized that they would trade with all, and not exclusively with the Alliance. We didn't make any further requests, waiting until we had a better position relative to the Orions.

The next stop was Tamaal, which had a trading post, but was not warp capable. We established trading relations and gave the same message about our goals for the region, but adding the message of mutual defense. Our message was that we would only make a formal offer once we have demonstrated the ability to defeat Orions.

Next we headed for Verex, which had an Orion trading post. This is where we set our trap for the Orions. While a ship could be magically hidden, a warp field could not be, at least until we could invent or acquire the Romulan cloaking device. Even impulse travel could not be hidden, only a ship using no engines could be hidden by magic. However, we researched expanding a warp bubble to cover several ships. The fleet could still travel at warp speeds, which in this case would be warp 2.1.

In the cargo hold we had a small warp capable ship. It was fitted with some trade cargo. We magically hid all five starships. The Orions would pick up an unusual warp signature, but not be able to tell that there were other ships than one cargo vessel.

An Orion ship approached and said, "Unknown ship. Disengage your warp drive and deactivate your weapons."

The magically hidden starships launched many torpedoes calibrated to take down their shields, but not to cause much additional damage. Then a torpedo with a concentrated modified immobulus, or stasis, charm was sent to the mechanism of the self destruct system, and a swarm of stasis charm torpedoes sent to effect every crew member. Another was aimed directly at the radio transmitter. If the crew were disabled first, the ship would self destruct unless a coded message was received to not self destruct.

The ship was quickly towed aboard a Starship, which then headed back towards Andorian space. The course zig-zagged, and avoided stars. There were attempts to intercept the fleet, but not with a large enough fleet to try to engage. The Orion Syndicate didn't have a conventional fleet, instead they had many raider ships. They didn't know what happened to the first ship and didn't want to risk being outgunned. Still they were much faster, so a gathering fleet was gaining on our fleet.

This original mission was now ended with this unexpected success. En-route, the captured ship was investigated and the nine captured crew members were magically interrogated.

The fleet sent brief encoded subspace messages to home at periodic intervals.

Another fleet was quickly assembled to meet the fleet returning home and then add to its numbers for the return trip. We asked for help from the Vulcans as part of our war with Orion, to send their own fleet to meet our fleet on its way home. This was the first time we asked for any military help from Vulcan.

By the time Orion could vector a decent sized fleet to get within range to attack our fleet, the Vulcan fleet arrived and the Orions left. Afterward the Andorian fleet arrived.

We scanned the magnetic constrictor in the plasma conduits and its alignment with the dilithium crystal structure. The antimatter handling was looked at in detail. Also the plasma injector. These were just the first areas scanned. Each broadcast back home included the data found so far. This was considered important in case the Orions did find a way to destroy the fleet before it arrived back home.

The visit to Nausicaa would have to wait. They do not have their own warp engines, but traded with Orion, and had purchased ships from them. The Nausicaans now, and in canon in the 2150's were pirates. They were also hired by Orions as elite soldiers. They, along with the Orions, were always a nuisance, although not serious enemies to Starfleet. From canon, we did not think that the Nausicaans or the Orions could ever be allies or members of the Federation. As a Picard I had a personal family reason to dislike the Nausicaans.

The information sent en-route already helped the Starfleet research center trying to improve warp engines. That center also had Tellarites, Andorians, and Ions working there, and all results were sent to all Alliance governments except for the Vulcans. There was other useful technology.

The Orion computers were a very different design than other known ones.

Their hand beam weapons were looked at for ideas. Much more useful than the beam type was the power source of their hand held beam weapons, which were far superior to Alliance mobile power sources.

The ship also had a transporter.

The ship's hull used a superior material.

In 2023 there was again a halt to ship building, while a massive research project was underway. There was a schedule to refit all existing ships when the research results were stable. The assumption in the schedule was that it would be one year of research and development needed.

While the fleet had been underway, Andoria and Starfleet agreed to jointly settle Berengaria Prime. It was a planet with no sentient life, but did contain its own form of dragons. Starfleet brought dragon handlers. Potential human colonists were made aware of Andorian culture and the ones who went there liked the adventure of being on a planet of dragons, and who were compatible with Andorian culture.

The planet would also get a magic school for additional Aenar children who showed general magical ability and also for human magical students.

We had an Alliance meeting with the Vulcans. The rest of us were going to proceed with our Federation plans with or without the Vulcans.

Our intelligence showed that the Vulcans actually blamed themselves for the recent situation, underestimating the determination of the Alliance to obtain more advanced technology, which Vulcan could have given them, although perhaps some bits of captured Orion technology were better than that of Vulcan. Other parts of the captured technology was not the state of the art of the Orions, so the Alliance would probably engage on more raids on Orion for technology. Also, Vulcan was aware that the rest of the Alliance would go off on their own, and that they were at a crossroads of history, to join the Federation or part ways with them, with no more delay to choose which path.

Starfleet Chief Quahog started the meeting, "We would first express our deep gratitude to Vulcan for providing a fleet to protect our returning fleet. The technology gained from the captured Orion ship is incredible. We were prepared to only get data from the ship before the fleet might be destroyed, but Vulcan ensured that sacrifice was not necessary.

We would now like to discuss what we as an alliance will do next.

We would propose a full integration of our different civilizations into a Federation. Each maintains their autonomy, while cooperating fully in technology, in trade, in defense, in foreign policy. Each planet can gain as they want for the whole, and can keep their traditions as they want.

The area of space around us contains many threats, many empires, many pirates, many predators. A strong Federation can protect the vulnerable planets, and also the strong ones. Our combined technology, combined ability to research, combined efficiency in construction, combined fleets can protect all of us far better than even the strongest of us could do on their own.

If instead we remained stagnant, and left other planets to their fates amongst the empires and syndicates, what would happen in the future? Empire would build, gaining resources, and technology, until they would set their sights on us. Wanting peace does not achieve peace. Limited and necessary application of force can provide peace in a way that pacifism cannot."

Andorian leader Shukar answered, "We fully agree with Starfleet Chief Quahog. We have already seen the benefits of our Alliance, and look for a better future with our friends. We see the Vulcans as friends who we can learn from, cooperate with, help, and build a peaceful future with."

The leader of the Vulcan High Council Shanak, answered, "It is logical to combine our resources in common endeavor. We accept in principle, and refer to negotiators to determine the details. We want to ensure that our aims will be for peace, and not one that gets used to military victories as a way of life."

Four months of difficult negotiations followed. Even the name was debated. Some wanted the United Federation of Planets. Others said that limited the idea to that of planets, when there was already a Starfleet colony on a sun, and others lived on asteroids. It was decided to simply call it "The Federation", but it had different names for different levels of participation.

All members were required to contribute to common defense, but in case of extreme ideological restrictions could provide assistance that is non-military.

We agreed to several levels of membership in the Federation. The existing Starfleet organization was split into two. Starfleet was now research and development, education, fleets and their operations. The part of Starfleet that handled assistance to civilians were now called the Federation. The level that provided assistance, such as Basic Living Centers, and required some limited sentient rights, was full Federation membership. The Andorians and Tellarites joined this part. This level was called the United Federation.

Another level was full integration of military with Starfleet, but not Federation rule. That was the level that Vulcan had and called Federation Alliance membership.

Each planet or civilization would be assigned a budget in a new currency called credits, to be paid to Starfleet. They would build ships, engage in R&D, and crew their ships. That way, each civilization could have ships under their control, even though normally following Starfleet orders. Some would prefer to work with their own civilization on ships, others would have mixed crews.

The credits sent to Starfleet were based on the size of the economy of each political unit. There was a ruling council with every government having a representative. Various committees also had a representative. The number of votes that each representative had was the number of credits sent to Starfleet. There would be committees, including ones that could make rapid decisions.

Those in the United Federation, had full membership and had additional funding that they spent for the civilian aspect of the Federation. Andoria could start to contribute magical help. Every contribution and receipt of assistance was assigned a number of credits.

Vulcan insisted on some for sentient rights for the Federation Alliance, but accepted that as a baseline all practices presently in the four powers would be accepted. The Orion system of slavery would not be accepted. However, it was also agreed that there would be an associate membership on different levels to help with gaining new areas of space. One level would have no internal requirements, but would limit some of the economic benefits. It would be called Federation Alliance Associate. Another level for those that absolutely will not agree to mutual defense, will be protectorates with also more limits on benefits and be called Federation Protectorate.

The Federation at all levels included rights for visitors to other planets against arbitrary prosecution.

The name for the governing part of Starfleet in the Solar System could not be United Earth, as it was in canon, since it already encompasses many planets. It was instead called Sol and included the Ions.

Vega 9 and Berengaria were part of the United Federation as were all other places with Humans, Tellarites, Andorians, Aenar, and Ions. The Kerfaria joined the Federation Alliance, but not the United Federation, but said that they might reconsider later.

April 8th 2023 was Federation day, when the formal agreements were signed. A couple of months before that Vulcan released all their technology and joined in analyzing Orion technology. At our various research centers including Vulcan, Tellar, Andoria, Earth and the Solar system, we tried to incorporate the technologies. The goal was to have a useful set of designs for the start of 2024.

The transporter reverse engineering was taking time. There were some experiments, but there was a lot of research and development for it to be useful even for cargo.

Their disruptor was superior to our equivalent to phasers, and we were going to adapt their design to our ships.

Their computer technology didn't seem to be that much better to change our basis, since our technology could operate in the vicinity of magic, while theirs could not.

Their structural armor was better, and we adapted that.

We were reverse engineering their universal translator and expected to have that adapted soon. For now it took training in a new language, and couldn't just pick it up by hearing a few words as we saw in canon. The Orion translator was in a within the ear tiny device that changed the sound being heard to that of ones preferred language. There was also a part that intercepted nerves going to the various vocal muscles and changed the speech in one's preferred language to that of the language the translator was set to.

For warp engines, we reached warp 6.15. We knew the Orions could reach warp 7.1, but this was the best we could do so far, even with Vulcan technology. The Orion ship captured wasn't one of their best ships. The research groups thought that they might get past warp 7 within a few years. Our advantage however, was that we could cruise at our top speed, while most civilizations had to worry about wearing out components. Magic had its advantages.

The Vulcan warp design was regarded as more efficient, but not as robust during rough maneuvering or in adverse environments. Starfleet decided not to use that design, but to stay with warp nacelles, just as in canon.

The integration with Vulcan technology was still underway, but it was decided to have a design fully tested for the start of 2024, and start building it. The plan was to continue to improve ships, but to do so on a three year cycle, and then refit every ship again. Any approved designs of components that could be field upgraded would be made available as soon as possible. Others that could be quickly added would done when a ship visited a Starbase.