The previous instalments of this series explored Star Trek: Online and several other events of the period from 2379 to 2399 in the Star Trek Universe. This part continues how the novel continuity described the same timeframe.
Along with The Tezwa Affair, The Supercube Crisis and The Borg Invasion, there were several other notable events in this timeframe and in this part, we will be exploring The Typhon Pact, Project Full Circle, Romulan Intrigue, and we’ll touch base with various beloved characters to see how they weather this turbulent period in the history of the Star Trek Universe.
So without further ado, let’s fly!
The Typhon Pact
The Typhon Pact came into existence following Romulan Praetor Tal’Aura’s realization that strength could be found in unity with other like-minded powers. Its founding nations were the Romulan Star Empire, the Breen Confederacy, the Gorn Hegemony, the Tholian Assembly, the Tzenkethi Coalition, and the Holy Order of the Kinshaya, all of whom had a history of hostile relations with the Federation and/or the Klingon Empire. The Pact shared technology among themselves, most notably cloaking technology, and established a common currency.
In response, President Bacco and Chancellor Martok worked to expand the Khitomer Accords, eventually including the Ferengi Alliance, Cardassian Union, Talarian Republic, and Imperial Romulan State; the group would eventually be known as the Khitomer Alliance. A period of a cold war between the two power blocs began in early 2382.
One element of the Pact’s foreign policy in this period was the acquisition of the quantum slipstream drive from Starfleet, a fast method of propulsion brought home by Voyager in 2378 successfully deployed in the Vesta-class starships like the USS Aventine, in order to prevent the Federation from using the slipstream drive to develop a first-strike capability before they could. In 2382, Romulan and Breen agents infiltrated the Utopia Planitia Shipyards on Mars and stole the slipstream schematics, bringing them to a secret Breen facility. Julian Bashir, acting as an agent of Section 31, penetrated the facility and erased the schematics, while the Aventine engaged and destroyed a Breen slipstream prototype.
A year later, Pact agents travelled to the Gamma Quadrant to seize Dominion technology in the belief that such technology could be used to improve their slipstream designs. The plan ultimately failed, leading to the activation of a failsafe: while a Romulan warbird commanded by Tomalak jammed communications preventing their Starfleet escorts in the Gamma Quadrant, the Enterprise and the USS Robinson under Captain Benjamin Sisko, from giving notice to Deep Space Nine of the Pact’s efforts, a series of bombs would be set off on the station to cripple it. The bombs were more powerful than anticipated, however, and the station was destroyed. Commanding officer Captain Ro Laren was able to evacuate most of the station’s personnel, but over one thousand people were killed in the explosion.
Following this, the Tzenkethi tried to create a shortcut to the Gamma Quadrant by using an artificial wormhole to intercept the Bajoran Wormhole. Meanwhile, Captain Sisko took command of the USS Defiant and entered the Gamma Quadrant to investigate the possibility of an alliance between the Pact and the Dominion, encountering Odo who told him of the Pact’s previous attempted raid of a Dominion shipyard. The Pact’s plan backfired when Vedek Kira Nerys, guided by a vision from the Orb of Destiny, flew a runabout into the wormhole on a suicide run against a Romulan warbird in transit, destroying it and collapsing the Bajoran Wormhole after expelling the in-transit Defiant; the runabout was also expelled with the remains of the warbird, but Nerys’ body was never recovered.
The loss of the wormhole stranded Odo in the Alpha Quadrant for the foreseeable future. The Typhon Pact abandoned its efforts to gain slipstream technology after this, with Tal Shiar director Sela, the chief proponent of the drive project, saying that if the Federation hadn’t used slipstream as a first-strike weapon yet, they never would and that the Pact’s attempts to gain the technology had put them in greater danger of war than if they’d done nothing.
The Pact also tried to destabilize the Federation politically by taking advantage of the Andorian reproductive crisis, which had only recently been made public knowledge. The Andorians had been suffering from a steadily declining birth rate caused by complications arising from their four-sexed biology, and in October 2382 the Enterprise was sent to Andoria to chair a conference aimed at addressing the crisis. Matters were complicated by significant anti-Federation sentiment among some of the Andorian population, further exacerbated by the arrival of a Tholian ship which revealed they had been providing genetic information to the Andorians extracted from the Shedai, a race which had once enslaved the Tholians and ruled a region of space known as the Taurus Reach, which the Federation had unsuccessfully tried to colonize in the 23rd century.
The Tholians also revealed that the genetic data, referred to as the Taurus meta-genome, had been in the Federation’s possession since at least 2270 when Operation Vanguard, a Federation project studying the meta-genome led by Dr. Carol Marcus, had ended with the titular starbase destroyed by a combination of Tholian force and an escaped and enraged Shedai. Following this revelation, the Andorians held a referendum and, by a significant but not overwhelming majority, decided to withdraw from the Federation effective immediately.
Project Full Circle
All is not doom and gloom in this era. After the Borg invasion, Starfleet assembled Project Full Circle, a flotilla of slipstream-capable starships tasked with returning to the Delta Quadrant to re-establish contact with races and polities encountered by Voyager during its trip home, with particular emphasis on determining the status of the former Borg territories and any information on remaining Borg or Caeliar technology.
USS Voyager was refitted with a slipstream drive and designated as the fleet’s flagship; command of the ship was given to Captain Chakotay following his recovery from injuries sustained in the Battle of the Azure Nebula.
Soon after Full Circle’s arrival in the Delta Quadrant, the fleet encountered a rift into the Omega Continuum, a sort of counterpart to the Q Continuum containing an Omega molecule counting down to the end of the universe. The Q Continuum had been formed after a disruption of the Omega Continuum which formed Fleet Captain Afsarah Eden, and the Q’s creative energy served to counteract the destructive power of the Omega and maintain a balance, but the rift was a sign that the balance was coming undone.
To restore that balance, the Q resurrected Kathryn Janeway as, in a different timeline, she had successfully closed the rift. The fix required the sacrifice of Captain Eden as well as a young Q, since both were ‘children’ of each continuum. After the crisis with the Omega Continuum, Janeway formally rejoined Starfleet and was placed in charge of the Full Circle fleet, which continued to explore the Delta Quadrant.
Romulan Intrigue
By late 2381, with many people within the Romulan Empire near starvation due to the refusal of the two Romulan nations to trade with each other as well as damage sustained in the Borg invasion, and with popular opinion rapidly turning against her, Tal’Aura invited Donatra to Romulus to negotiate and promptly arrested her on trumped-up charges of trying to assassinate Spock of Vulcan, leader of the newly legalized reunification movement.
Tal’Aura then declared the Imperial Romulan State had been reabsorbed into the greater Empire. Donatra was found dead in her holding cell soon after, an apparent victim of suicide, although it is highly likely that her death was carried out by Imperial agents. Tal’Aura herself was found dead in her residence days later; medical examiners determined the praetor had died of natural causes, but she had in fact been murdered by a Tzenkethi agent hoping to give the Coalition a better position within the Typhon Pact.
The Romulan Continuing Committee selected Gell Kamemor as the new Praetor. Kamemor, a veteran public servant who had been ambassador to the Federation before and during the Tomed Incident and who delivered the Treaty of Algeron to the Federation Council, came to the realization earlier in her political career that the Star Empire would be best served through close cooperation with its neighbours, a sentiment that would be reflected in her policy decisions as praetor.
Most notably, this was shown in Kamemor’s efforts to establish peaceful relations with the Federation by personally informing President Bacco that the Typhon Pact’s attempts to steal the slipstream drive, and the subsequent destruction of Deep Space Nine, were the actions of rogue agents. This led to a warming of the relations between the Pact and the Khitomer Alliance by late 2383.
In the next part, we’ll explore a significant event that threatened to bring the galaxy to war, as well as the machinations of Section 31 during this era, and we’ll touch base with various beloved characters to see how they weather this tumultuous period in the history of the Star Trek Universe.
Read The Novels That Cover These Events…
The Typhon Pact & Romulan Intrigue
- Zero Sum Game by David Mack
- Seize the Fire by Michael Martin
- Rough Beasts of Empire by David R. George III
- Paths of Disharmony by Dayton Ward
- Plagues of Night by David R. George III
- Raise the Dawn by David R. George III
- Brinkmanship by Una McCormack
Project Full Circle
- Star Trek: Voyager: Full Circle by Kirsten Beyer
- Star Trek: Voyager: Unworthy by Kirsten Beyer
- Star Trek: Voyager: The Eternal Tide by Kirsten Beyer
