Chapter 46:

[August 2023 on Sirius Alpha 3]

Similar to the way a research program started as soon as the Solar System and Tellar combined their efforts, we now started a new effort after adding the Andorians. They had a top warp speed of 3.46, and now we were going to try to increase that. Sirius Alpha 3 was chosen as a research center. All three powers stationed starships there.

While the Andorian intelligence network is very effective, it was more useful to get soft information widely known, than military secrets. Vulcan technology was well guarded, while more general information was not.

Andorian Engineering Leader Sollao started the meeting, "This is the start of our combined Warp Five Program. In Canon it was begun on Earth in the year 2119. We are going to watch the Enterprise episodes Broken Bow, Singularity, and First Flight for ideas.

Our leadership knows about the origins of the Canon, and can make certain statements, but not others. They can say that the Vulcans are not behind it. What is behind it seems unlikely to have created something to harm Andorians, but does seem to favor the long term development of Humans. The same source said that the time travel aspects of Canon will not happen, which significantly changes Canon. Canon itself was a long series of entertainment videos in a third timeline."

They watched Broken Bow. An Andorian called out, "The Vulcans really do not want the Humans to get along well with the Klingons. They are trying to fool them to allow the Klingon to die on Earth rather than be returned alive to Qo'noS."

A Tellarite answered, "Supposedly it is dishonorable for a wounded Klingon to be healed."

Another Tellarite yelled, "That is inefficient! I'm not sure I believe that."

A Human asked, "Who owns that complex? Even though the Suliban are there, I do not think it is theirs?"

An Andorian answered, "It is part of the Orion trading network."

A Human called out, "The first interesting technology I have seen is that phase-pistol."

An Andorian answered, "There is already a research project to combine our hand-held beam weapon with your phase cannon technology."

A Tellarite added, "The power source density has been a challenge. Also not having the weapon explode when dropped."

As the episode ended a Tellarite said, "There was almost nothing useful in this episode!"

A Human called out during the episode Singularity, "The black hole caused damage and knocked out all of the crew except a Vulcan, but then the radiation effect helps them to invent things. I do not think we can try to visit it to duplicate the effects."

The same Tellarite from earlier said, "Again an episode with almost nothing useful!"

An Andorian replied, "Didn't you read the screen shown at four minutes and two seconds into the episode? It said that the Human derivation of the flux paradox might be as valid as the Vulcans, that Archer's elegant mathematics might have been even more accurate than those of his mentors from Vulcan. Later he write that his parameters would demonstrate the inherent integrity of the scalar stabilization geometry.

This could be the critical clue to develop the warp 5 engine."

Watching First Flight, a Tellarite called out, "Launching spatial charges to 500 kilometers away from a small shuttlepod. This needs to be a project!"

An Andorian said thoughtfully, "If it could be launched from a shuttle, them perhaps it could be launched from one of your stealth probes. That would be more effective than blowing up the probe itself as a weapon."

At 11 minutes and 10 seconds, an Andorian called out, "Freeze screen. We should try to enhance the labels of that graph. It might have useful information."

At 13:14 the Andorian added, "You can compare the same chart when the ship is going at warp 2.1, giving context to the earlier view of the same chart."

A Tellarite observed, "How were the Vulcans almost able to shut down the Human warp 5 program? Why did Earth need their permission? Because they gave out tiny bits of information that seemed to hold them back rather than help them? Did they have some hold over the Earth government?"

A Human answered, "We never figured that out from Canon, only guesses."

Another Human added, "In that timeline Earth was more or less destroyed by atomic wars. Parts of Canon show remaining chaos after the year of first contact with Vulcans, 2063. I would guess that the Vulcans helped to rebuild the Earth and improve its standard of living, while not giving technology of military or warp applications. They kept Earth dependent on their help."

Other programs had results very quickly. The Andorians had access to a metal called Duranium that was much stronger than other materials known to the Tellarites and Solars. The next refit of the NX ships would include it as armor. Photon torpedoes used it immediately. Only a small sample was needed on each ship and it would be magically duplicated before a photon torpedo was fired. It would require much more energy to destroy a photon torpedo with this armor.

The Andorians geared up to help make NX ships, and to build a new fleet after the research would be substantially better than what they had before. There was also the start of mixed crew ships. There were many challenges with different preferences for temperature, humidity, atmosphere composition. There were different cultural standards, but those were easier to deal with since everyone on board would be in military ranks.

[Andoria in 2023]

The Andorians made contact with the Aenar on their planet. They relayed the Solar offer to see if they can teach them more magic. The Aenar said that they would accept magical visitors, and a few months later a group of magicals with traditions from Tibet, Brazil, and south-west Africa arrived.

Earth spell casters and charmed magical devices started be available on Andoria. Similar to the Tellarites, the Andorians needed to pay Earth spell casters large sums to work there.

The Aenar were able to learn some spells that would help with the standard of living on Andoria. They refused to provide any military help. Wand makers searched through Andorian materials and found that staffs made of local materials worked best with the Aenar.

Since some of the Aenar had precognition abilities, the Andorian government asked them to help the planet by providing information. They said that they would, but not when the information would possibly lead to wars.

Some enterprising Andorians opened ski resorts on Andoria. Earth skiing enthusiasts went on ski vacations there in large numbers.

The new warming charm ski clothes sold by Human magicals now had a warning when the charms were going to wear off within a day. It was considered hazardous to be outdoors in Andoria with inadequate equipment relying only on warming charms that could wear off.

Andorian ale became popular on Earth and in Solar colonies. Starfleet Medical first determined that it was suitable for human consumption. There were complaints that the researchers needed more bottles than seemed necessary to arrive at that conclusion.

[Throughout Alliance space]

The technological challenges given to the public, that started on Earth now was expanded to include the entire alliance. The Andorians argued that the specifics would make it clear exactly what the state of research was. It was agreed to add in some random topics that either had already been solved, or that were very much beyond the present knowledge to help confuse intelligence.

The Andorians had revealed that while they never broke Tellarite encryption, they had spy devices planted on their planet that intercepted some of their communications when it was being viewed after decryption. An amused Andorian told a Tellarite, "The eye and the ear is the weak point of communications. No matter how secure, it needs to be seen and heard by the recipient."

[Earlier planning meeting on Earth about a mission to Tau Ceti, Axanar, and 61 Ursael Majoris]

Hermione started, "Welcome Bynil to the planning meeting. Everyone at this meeting has knowledge of Q and Canon.

The agreement with the Vulcans assigns Alliance control over an area of space that includes Tau Ceti, Axanar, and 61 Ursael Majoris. The first two of those have civilizations that have been in contact with others. The Axanar recently became warp capable, while the Kaferians on Tau Ceti 3 regularly receive trading visitors."

Daphne said, "I think the Vulcans gave us this territory as a test to see how we would handle these two civilizations."

Khan said, "I agree. The future of our cooperation with the Vulcans will depend on our methods and results."

Bynil said, "While we are formally called the Andorian Empire, we are now part of an Alliance and agree with methods befitting an alliance rather than an empire."

We watched Enterprise, Fight or Flight.

Bynil said, "We really should try to come to an arrangement with the Denobulans, perhaps even to see if they will join the Alliance."

After a scene describing the important it was to have weapons accuracy to disable an enemy weapon instead of destroying their ship, the Tellarite Ambassador Grashnish said, "Absurd. They really care about disabling instead of destroying an enemy ship?"

Khan answered, "Different timeline, different Humans. We now believe that if one is in deadly combat one tries to remove the threat, not spare the enemy or give them a chance to strike back in unexpected ways."

At 18 minutes, Bynil said, "I am impressed. Captain Archer turning pirate!"

I answered, "No, he is trying to render assistance and to try to understand what tragedy befell that vessel."

After watching the video, Draco said, "We do not know who attacked the Axanar in that episode, nor whether they face similar attacks today. We can offer to watch over them without any quid quo pro as an initial step to recruiting them to the Alliance."

Daphne added, "They will feel obligated to help us after a while. Even if they do not, it will help our approach to other civilizations, such as the Denobulans and Vulcans."

I asked, "Who should command the fleet? I think it should be a human, with Admirals Kamath and Archer being the two choices."

The Andorian Bynil said, "I agree. Since we will be visiting places previously under the protection of the Vulcans, an Andorian commander will be looked upon with suspicion. Nor do I think a Tellarite would be ideal, since they probably would not think the Tellarites to be on a peer level of Vulcans. An Alliance led by a previously unknown civilization, the Humans, would have more credibility."

Tellarite Ambassador Grashnish said, "Two NX Human ships, one NX Tellarite ship, and one Andorian ship."

Juan added, "That is just the right balance to project. It is a fleet that shows strength without looking like an invasion fleet."

I said, "Admiral Archer brings us closer to Canon, which Q said would be to our advantage. You'll note that his appearance is identical to that of his great-grandson in Canon. I assure you that this is not typical of Human biology. Many similar examples are found in Canon. In our timeline it is only found in people who have some significance to Canon."

Tracey asked, "What about his do-gooder nature?"

Khan answered, "He knows how to follow orders. He was a soldier before Starfleet existed. In Canon he was a soldier who fought against me, but arranged a humanitarian truce without compromising his side.

In any case, we want, how do you say, a do-gooder nature for this mission. This mission will be watched by many powers, and could help the future of this Alliance."

[Late 2023 to early 2024, on Tau Ceti, Axanar, and 61 Ursael Majoris]

The Axanar were a newly warp capable civilization. They had already been visited by the Vulcans, but maintained their independence. The Axanar leader greeted the shuttle that landed on their planet. After introductions, Admiral Archer said, "The Alliance is going to protect this area of space. We will protect your planet and your ships that are in our protected space to the best of our ability.

Beyond that we offer full membership in our Alliance, with a full technology exchange, including magic."

The Axanar asked, "You do not want to harvest us for our natural chemicals we produce such as triglobulin?"

Archer answered, "It is just not the way we operate. We will protect your planet, and welcome you to join our alliance when you are ready."

The Axanar asked, "What is the price for your protection?"

Archer answered, "None. We hope in time that you would want to reciprocate and help protect others, but we will offer protection anyway."

The Axanar asked, "And what if we do not want your protection?"

Archer answered, "We would try to be as unobtrusive as possible, but to be ready in case your planet or ships in our protected space came under attack."

A trade agreement was worked out. Interaction with them needed to be while using breathing apparatus, since their atmosphere was nitrogen-methane. They accepted protection and indicated that they will consider over time joining the Alliance.

The fleet's next stop was 61 Ursael Majoris. It was shown in the Enterprise episode Strange New World. It had a favorable environment for colonization, with two difficulties: extreme storms, and a pollen that caused humans to turn hostile to each other. The first can be dealt with by having shelters, the second with antidotes.

It only took a few days for the laboratories on board the ships to come up with an antidote. Every colonist would have automatic antidote dispensers. An attempt would also be made to eradicate the source of that pollen from the planet.

The Andorians refrained from leaving any colonists on that planet saying, "If the pollen should take effect, even with precautions, I fear that the remaining suspicions between Andorians and the other members of the Alliance will be brought forth and acted upon. As for the Tellarites, I doubt you would even notice the difference, they would be suspicious and argumentative, but would resolve those suspicions through argument and not act upon them.

The next stop for the fleet was Tau Ceti. Tau Ceti 1 and 4, were good for colonization. Tau Ceti 3, was inhabited with a civilization of insects called Kaferia. The Kaferia regularly traded with other civilizations with their fruits being considered highly valuable. They didn't have their own ships, but were visited by others. The Vulcans made sure that they were not threatened.

Admiral Archer said, "We represent the Alliance of the Solar, Tellarite, and Andorian Civilizations. The Alliance is going to protect this area of space to the best of our ability. Beyond that we offer full membership in our Alliance, with a full technology exchange, including magic."

The Kaferia answered, "We do not want our trade to be restricted. For example, we trade with the Orions. What if they are or become your enemy?"

Archer answered, "We would try to arrange some sort of third party transport, without enemy ships being in our protected space. We would not prevent trade of a non-military nature to an enemy by a planet that is not an Alliance member."

The Kaferia said, "If we were in the Alliance, we would have a say as to who its enemies are?"

Archer answered, "Yes, but as one of several voices. Just to note, we are not presently in a state of hostilities with anyone."

The Kaferia said, "Send us a detailed description of the technology, magic, and other material benefits you would offer in case of alliance. We understand you would want our technology in exchange, but also describe what you would want in material terms."

Archer answered, "We will send those. As to what we would want, we would help you establish the ability to build starships, and would expect you to build them and provide crews for them, in proportion to your abilities.

While we would help you settle on planets suitable for your biology, we would also want to settle on the two other planets in your system that are well suited for our biology, planets 1 and 4."

The Kaferia said, "We will consider this carefully."