Chapter 79:

At the end of 2027, the Federation Alliance planned what to do next. The decision was to send out a few fleets in different directions to add systems, but not to deliberately confront the Xindi or the Klingons. The consensus was that it was time to build up the economy and technology of the Federation. That there was enough war for now, and that there were no pressing security concerns, and it will be a while before serious threats would reach the Federation. However, if the Federation were to expand significantly it would reach areas under the control of actual threats such as the Borg and Dominion.

In a way the Klingons and Xindi should be insulted that the Federation did not consider either as long term threats. Neither showed an ability to be first in research, and technology provided the ability to win interstellar wars, more than martial spirit. In comparison in canon, the Romulans and also the subgroup of the Remans, would come up with deployed technologies beyond that of the Federation.

There were, however many nearby areas that were previously considered insecure due to the proximity of the Romulan Star Empire, which were now open for colonization. One of the planets, Yadalla 1, which in canon was within Federation space, contained Romulan ruins. It was announced that this planet was going to be set aside for Romulans who wanted to relocate from any of the existing Romulan inhabited planets.

In canon, there was a planet called New Brooklyn 9. Following precedent, this was set aside for a colony based on the cultures of Brooklyn New York.

Sauria was being watched, with the native life being close to developing warp technology. They were a reptilian humanoid. As soon as they would show warp capability they would be invited to join the Federation.

More of the Federation Alliance joined the United Federation, which merged economies and provided for basic living support for all. Vulcan, Denobula, Devron, and many others were now part of it.

The genetic engineering project to add magic now had underway long enough to see accidental magic occurring at a similar rate by age as seen by magicals on Earth who later show full magical abilities. There were now a large number of non-magical parents of many species who decided to have magical children. Magical schools were being prepared throughout the Federation for the expected number of students in future years.

The starships that were rushed into combat were now being rotated back to shipyards to complete their 2027 upgrades. Many of those upgrades were for crew comfort, such as holodecks, better food production on board ships, improved flexibility of artificial gravity to better accommodate those from planets of different gravity levels, quicker changes of atmospheric conditions so those used to different temperature, humidity, air pressure, and air composition, can be comfortable. One species preferred a constant breeze from sea water, instead of the almost still air that the humans were used to, others preferred more air circulation from plants.

Our ships were large and could accommodate different atmosphere zones. However, they didn't want the crews to be divided by species, so this design cycle included ways to accommodate different conditions in close proximity to each other, and rapidly changing as crew members moved around the ship.

The next round of research was being aimed for 2032 upgrades, a five year cycle, instead of the previous three year cycle. We were hoping for some technical breakthroughs with the Remans researching, existing Romulan technology being added, and Devronians contributions including their magical research and some previously unknown materials.

The long term planning for research would be for the Federation to be able to defend against very advanced invaders, including the known ones of the Borg and the Dominion. Another category to defend against, was advanced mind control and shape shifting abilities. Another was the type of super powered life forms and devices that occasionally wrecked havoc in canon, especially in the Original Series. Another was a type of advanced artificial life form that the Romulans knew about and were afraid of. Apparently they could be called upon by artificial life, and were seen in Star Trek Picard.

Another area of research was how to stop a supernova. The Federation said that they would try to prevent the one that occurred in canon in the Romulan system, and they were going to devote considerable efforts to do so. Different approaches were being looked at, including changing the star to prevent it, to shielding from a supernova. There were also some approaches being researched to look at the nature of energy and how it can be transformed, reflected, turned to matter, etc. Both technology and magical methods were being looked at.

Trade on Starbases was mostly conducted in Federation Credits, which were kept in Federation online accounts, accessible anywhere in the Federation. Traders outside the Federation usually wanted something they could carry out with them, and usually bought trade goods that would valuable at their next destinations. Some traders preferred physical tokens that cannot be duplicated. Gold pressed latinum was a standard in use in the region due to latinum being rare and not able to be duplicated with technology. The gold was just a packaging medium, and not especially valuable.

Federation magical researchers tried to see if they could duplicate it. Federation Alliance Headquarters was clear that any successful research would be immediately shared with all who traded at Starbases, so that they wouldn't be fooled by counterfeit latinum. The results of the research was to only create short lived duplicates. Everyone arriving at Starbases were notified and were shown ways to detect duplicated latinum.

Societies joining the United Federation looked at the experience of the existing members. The availability of basic living for free could cause the collapse of economies and caste systems. Most planets found only a small percentage of their population that was able to work chose to only receive basic living. However a significant percentage would only engage in part-time work in order to supplement basic living with some luxuries.

Most societies found an increased percentage of the population engaging in creative pursuits. A larger percentage also engaged in entrepreneurship since there was limited risk if their business would fail. Magic was only starting to make a significant impact on most planets. It was clear that by the 2040's there would be many magicals on most planets. Until then, the demand for magicals were far more than the supply. Besides the constant need to enchant objects, and magical healers, there was a huge demand for magical teachers for the new magical populations appearing throughout the Federation.

Devron was building their economy based upon magical teaching and the export of rare minerals. They projected that within 30 years they would no longer have an advantage in magical teaching, so they were looking to diversify towards tourism and conference centers. They found that many tourists were not looking for luxury, but looking for unique experiences. They also were combining magical healing with spa type vacations, and conference centers with magical assistance such as determining truth or possibly allowing seers to comment on plans being considered, for a large fee. The Federation Alliance wanted them to limit public seeing to prevent sensitive information from becoming public. The specifics were under negotiation.

The planet Risa took the opposite approach and made their entire economy based on luxury tourism and hedonistic experiences. The Orions took another approach and featured gambling and experiences illegal in the Federation.

Many in the United Federation did not like the effect of free basic living on their societies. Many of them moved to colonies, some of whom had charters requiring work from its residents. There were other colonies that had charters limiting technology that would be in use. These were fairly popular among humans who had free basic living for almost 20 years. Many young adults wanted to experience adversity and the need for their work to succeed in order have enough, having never known such conditions on Earth. Most colonies based on this philosophy included advanced medical care and emergency supplies. They accepted having a safety net, but wanted to succeed without needing to use their safety net.

Knowing it would exist in canon, I was seeing if the Bringloid group would set out from Ireland. They would need a different destination, since the canon one was too close to the Klingons, and we had no short term plans to deal with the Klingons. Actually I was wondering how in canon their colony escaped, the notice of the Klingons. At a later time, well after that colony and the nearby high tech colony of Mariposa were founded, that region did become recognized as Federation space, although those two colonies were still unknown to the Federation until 2365. In canon those two colonies were launched in 2123 with a ship commanded by a Captain Walter Granger, and most of the high tech colonists had the last name Granger.

I mentioned it to Hermione Granger-Potter, who said, "They might be my cousin's descendants. I remember what you said a long time ago that in this timeline there are usually not coincidences."

I answered, "I am still trying to figure out how Steven Spurrier, who helped establish the California wine reputation in 1976, looks exactly like Severus Snape and has his same initials."

Hermione answered, "Maybe there was a movie you never saw that had the same actor as the one who played Snape portraying that person? There is also the aspect that wine making and potion making have skill overlaps, and it could have been someone related to the Snape family, which were his non-magical relatives. Xenophilius never figured out Stubby Boardman, looking just like Sirius Black and having the same initials either."

I said, "Well, if Walter Granger is going to be your relative, you should let him know that his ship crashes on a planet with only some survivors."

Hermione said, "I'll pass that along to every male Granger who could have a descendant in 2123 that I know of."

I said, "Could be earlier. A lot of the events in canon we have done earlier than canon."

After the situation with Romulans settled down, the Picard family was finally able to assemble at Starbase Sol and together visit Ektotis and Xalia's daughter Eravna who was born on May 12th 2027. They had Eravna learning how to get around in zero-g before learning to walk or even to crawl.

Renée and Rojor's wedding was set for February 8th, 2028 on Devron 2. It was going to be well attended both by Federation leadership and Romulan leadership. The Devronians offered to provide an extremely secure and luxurious environment.

Renée was going to leave Starfleet before their wedding. She was going to work at Federation Alliance strategic planning department, and would also work with Section 31. Rojor was going to be the representative of Romulus in the Federation Alliance. While high profile meetings would still occur in San Francisco and Marin county, much of the day to day operations were based at Starbase Sol, which had quicker access for short term visitors.