Chapter 49:

[Near the Delphic Expanse, June 2025]

Acting Captain Renée Picard of the NX class starship ACS Shango briefed her crew. ACS stood for Alliance of Civilizations Ship. She said, "We are counting on the honesty of the Orions for this Trellium-D being legitimate. I'll play the video of the purchase agreement. Solar Trade Director Dmitrievna met with Orion Sol Trade Leader Tizan."

[Flashback]

The original Orion negotiator, Joziz, went on to his next first contact mission. Another Orion, Tizan remained on Sol to be the chief trade delegate to the Alliance.

Dmitrievna "We want to buy some small amounts of Trellium-D."

Tizan answered, "Tell me what you want it for first."

Dmitrievna answered, "We will duplicate it and use it as shielding in the Delphic Expanse."

Tizan said, "We will trade. Give us the enchanted devices that you would be using to create the shields."

Dmitrievna said, "That is very valuable. Exchange far more useful materials than that and some in usable quantities."

Tizan said, "Agreed, we'll go over the list and quantities."

Dmitrievna said, "We are counting on this. When you turn over the Trellium-D, only do so knowing the reputation of Orion is on the line. There will be no excuses accepted if it isn't the true material that shields."

Tizan said, "Understood. We of course cannot guarantee the usefulness of the duplicated material. We will sell you enough to coat two NX ships plus samples for others. The duplication and instant application device is valuable enough for us to do this."

Dmitrievna said, "Valuable enough for the Orion Syndicate to ensure that no Alliance ships or species can be enslaved or pirated."

Tizan answered, "We can come to an agreement with an annual donation of magical devices."

Dmitrievna said, "I'll get this agreement ratified."

[Flashback Planning meeting to discuss the Orions]

I started, "Mutually advantageous arrangements. Usually I prefer to do that from a stronger position, but it can also work from a weaker position.

Our goal is for our Alliance to eventually be far stronger than the Orions, and from now until then, for both sides to feel that working together provides advantages."

Daphne answered, "We must beware that while getting magical devices is helpful to them now, they will continue to want spell casters working for them. They do not have a notion of honor that would say that if they have an agreement then they must hold to it.

If they do gain spell casters, including possibly eventually through genetic engineering, they might no longer find that it is necessary for us to be treated as trading partners and might instead consider outright threats and raids."

Draco said, "This agreement is essentially us paying them protection money, or in English history, Dane-geld. The saying is that once you pay Dane-geld you cannot stop."

[Near the Delphic Expanse, June 2025]

Renée continued, "We have the full permanent coating. If our mission is successful, we will repeat it with another NX ship with a duplicated coating. From Canon, there will be ways to find more Trellium-D in the Expanse and also ways to synthesize it.

We also have the subspace scanners looking for small anomalies which we would then route around. The helm station has a visual readout from those sensors. Helm needs to be alert even when at full stop.

These two precautions, plus the shields against the effects of Trellium-D on the crew, should stop what affected those Klingon and Vulcan ships in Canon. While Humans, Tellarites, Andorians, and Denobulans are not as sensitive to that type of radiation as Vulcans, I do not want to chance it. We also do not know how it might affect our Ions on board."

The Ions responded on the intercom, "There is no test except to test. We volunteered to be on this mission."

The viewscreen showed pink thermobaric clouds.

Renée ordered, "Viewscreen section 2 sphere view with subspace anomalies projected" and then "Point Two Impulse to the expanse."

During the next six hours, telemetry was sent to the fleet, and the familiar hum of sounds made it clear that communications were being sent and received.

The Operations Chief repeatedly said, "Intake manifolds magical purging and filtering at acceptable levels." Based on Canon they made preparations to what affected the Enterprise in the episode, The Expanse.

When they got to clear space again, Renée ordered, "I'm taking helm. First Officer take over while I'm concentrating on helm. Full impulse."

After all reports were nominal. Renée said, "Warp 3", "Dodging anomaly", "Continuing". That was repeated many times. "That one was a close, with another anomaly just behind it.", "Continuing.", "Turning around." "Returning to thermobaric border." "0.2 impulse.", "Outside the expanse, full stop." "Tasuku, resume Helm, I'm resuming as Captain."

Renée opened an encrypted channel and said, "Admiral Kamath, we are ready to swap ships."

"Admiral Kamath announced, ACS Pelican Crew report to the ACS Shango."

All of the crew of the ACS Pelican reported the to the transport center. At its center was a specially designed vanishing cabinet. A line of 10 clear boxes, each large enough to hold a person plus some luggage was on a rail. Each box would pause 15 seconds with its door open. If the doorway was clear it would shut its door. Either way it moved to the next position. When the box was in front of the vanishing cabinet, it, with its door closed, would be moved onto the cabinet. The cabinet was sealed and then transported to the receiving cabinet. The clear boxes were magically created at start of the line.

At the other end of the transport there was a receiving cabinet, also made of clear materials. It would remove a box after each transport, which would then be unloaded. Eventually the boxes would dissipate. The other end could be a nearby ship, or a small structure built on a planet.

There was research into Star Trek transporters, but this magical method was reliable, and there wasn't much urgency to replace it, except for the advantage of faster than light transport, since transporters use subspace. Also when first arriving at a planet, drones or a shuttlecraft were needed to bring and setup the transport station.

Acting Captain Renée Picard formally took over the ACS Pelican and ordered. "Activate Trellium-D device."

A crew member reported, "Shield in place, test is nominal. Renewal cycle 49.6 seconds."

The Orion trade leader had tested duplicated Trellium-D and said that it should be sufficiently intact for at least that amount of time. They didn't want their reputation to suffer if what they sold didn't work.

While Trellium-D was a shield, it was also hazardous. Exposure caused a sort of insanity to Vulcans. The other species didn't want to be exposed to something so dangerous to a species similar to them, so proper shielding to protect against Trellium-D was part of the procedure.

The same sequence was followed, with many close calls with the subspace anomalies. In the Canon Enterprise episode, The Expanse, an anomaly passed through the ship without causing major issues. However everyone remembered how the Klingons referred to in Canon had become physically reversed due to one of the anomalies that they ran into.

With the testing done, everyone went back to their own ships, and the combined fleet headed home with a diplomatic stop on the way.

Renée Picard sent her report. She acknowledged that it took piloting skill to dodge the anomalies. Her recommendation was sensors that could detect them at longer range and using a Nomad intelligence system to override piloting of all vessels in the Expanse, to dodge anomalies and to plot a way through the anomalies. Her report also indicated that in Canon there is the Orassin distortion field that should be much worse than what they went through and the automatic piloting would need to handle that density of anomalies.

The telemetry from the mission, including how Renée dodged the anomalies would be helpful in training the artificial intelligence to do the same automatically.

The rest of the report indicated that shielding worked. No ill effects found in the crew, including the Ions. The duplicated Trellium-D worked sufficiently well. The magical clearing of intake manifolds worked well, and she recommended that they be added to ships in all areas of space, in case they ran into something similar to the thermobaric cloud at the border of the Expanse.

The fleet later visited Pyrithia. The only useful knowledge from Canon about it was that at some point it joined the Federation. It was 46 light years from Sol. After greetings, the Pyrithians said, "We would welcome trade with the Alliance."

Admiral Kamath said, "As soon as we can more credibly defend this area we would like to invite you to the Alliance. There would need to be a higher warp speed, but we can start to exchange some technology as we work towards membership of Pyrithia."

[On Earth, July 2025]

Khan sent a subspace message to Renée Picard, "Congratulations Captain Renée Picard, on the success of your mission. Yes, that is your new official rank. After Pyrithia, your ship and Kamath's fleet will return to Jupiter orbit for the refits you mentioned and other advances that we will have made by that time.

After that you will be be trained to lead a fleet to the Expanse, when we are ready to conduct missions there."

The Alliance was preparing for a conference with the Vulcans to be held in the Presidio in San Francisco.

Saark of Vulcan started the conference. His title was complex with council this, committee that. We had concluded that there wasn't one person who could decide things for Vulcan, but that he was more than a spokes-vulcan presenting ideas not his own.

Saark said after the initial opening statements, "Vulcan finds it illogical, your apparent trust in the Orions and distrust in Vulcans. Would you please explain your logic, and see if we can find a way to rectify this state of affairs."

I spoke next. Khan and I agreed that we would use a classic strategy. I start somewhat hostile, and then Khan would could be more agreeable if there were Vulcan concessions that dealt with my concerns.

I said, "To put it simply, we understand the Orions. We can expect that as long as our interactions are mutually beneficial they will continue in that way. They do not want more from us than to profit from us.

It is Vulcan intentions that are more difficult to understand. We base this on Canon. Before you state that there is no evidence for Canon, can you actually say that the way Vulcans were presented in Canon does not seem realistic?"

Saark replied, "There are too many unknown variable for me to conclude whether Vulcan interactions with Earth shown in Canon are realistic. Before you start analyzing what Vulcan intentions in Canon might have been, I will present my conclusions with an 89.2% chance of accuracy, assuming the accuracy of Canon.

In that timeline, Humans were recovering from a war that was destructive on a scale similar to what the Vulcans themselves faced in the distant past. Our goal was likely to help guide Humans to a more logical future, and not just have the same warlike emotions lead them to fighting others after venturing into space.

Yes, it would have seemed frustrating from a Human perspective to see Vulcan try to delay Human movement beyond a small area that was considered safe by the knowledge Vulcan had at the time. A period of several Human generations, under Vulcan guidance would have allowed the possibility of Humans instead joining peacefully with our neighbors.

You will also note in Canon that Vulcan avoided a war with Andoria, despite many provocations. While having no influence there, we had hoped that they would see over time that Vulcans only wanted peaceful interactions with them.

You will likely point out a secret Romulan takeover of Vulcan shown in Canon. We have taken steps to make sure that this takeover will no longer be possible. So, this outcome should no longer be a motivating factor in suspicion over future Vulcan actions."

Khan said, "Saark, I welcome your explanations. There are just a few things I would like to clarify.

While I admire your vision of group of civilizations led by Vulcan using logic, it is not our vision.

We believe in the power of Alliance. While an empire needs to conquer and then force the conquered to work for the empire, it is a waste of resources. An alliance combines the strengths of its members for mutual security and also for mutual advancement. We each have access to the technology and even the cultural strengths of all of its members.

We further believe that a fast developing alliance will give us the strength to handle increasingly more challenging civilizations. From Canon we know that the Klingons, Romulans, Gorn, Xindi, Tholians will be difficult. Eventually the Borg will be the true test of the long term survival of any civilization that is not the Borg. We do not believe that your slow peaceful approach will lead to long term survival."

Saark answered, "I understand the logic of your statements. I further understand that the earlier Vulcan plan of carefully guiding new warp capable civilizations has been rendered moot by the existence of this Alliance. It has been only 7 years since Humans achieved warp travel. Clearly events happened much more quickly than we thought possible or advisable. Nevertheless those events cannot be reversed."

Khan answered, "Then join us! With Vulcan technology the Alliance will be much stronger. With magic taught to Vulcans, Vulcan will be much stronger.

Vulcan knowledge and logic will be helpful in deciding Alliance strategies. Possibilities of peaceful relations with Romulans would be helped by Vulcan being part of the Alliance.

In Canon Vulcan joined with the members of the Alliance. Yes, we were all different, having been in a different timeline, but the similarities are enough to indicate that it is possible for such a group to thrive."

Saark answered, "We will conduct careful discussions on Vulcan on how to respond."

I said, "There is an additional part of Canon that we would discuss sharing with you, not in exchange for anything, but to determine if it should be done.

I'll preface that the release of this information in Canon resulted in a change in your culture, to become more attuned to the original teachings of Surak. The alliance with Earth, Andoria, and Tellar, developed soon after this information, and Vulcan ended its control over Earth. Vulcans became more logical and also more willing to use their magical abilities, which were in the category that we would call mind arts."

Saark asked, "Can you say more about what the nature of this information is?"

I answered, "Information about how to find the katra of Surak and a device containing his teachings.

I'll also preface that in Canon the Romulan agent tried to destroy the device. If we were to release this information, we would do so as a broadcast to Vulcan. Not as a secret for the governing council to use or not. Not as something that might be destroyed, locked away, or only released in pieces as it might support certain aims.

We would give it to Vulcan, not Vulcan's government."

Saark answered, "And this is another areas that our council needs to carefully decide before replying."

Khan said, "There is an additional point I would like to make, again from Canon. It was not only that the Romulans took over your council, it was that they were obeyed. While it is usually preferable that the chain of command follows orders, there should be some sort of fail safe to prevent this sort of occurrence. The orders that were followed would have seemed contrary to Vulcan philosophy."

The overall flow of discussion derailed our plan for me to be hostile and Khan to be more agreeable, but we got our points across.