In the last instalment, we discussed events leading up to the Hobus supernova and the subsequent destruction of the planets Romulus and Remus, and how these events affected the history of the Star Trek Universe as depicted in the game Star Trek: Online. Today, we’ll see how the Klingon Empire dealt with these changes and contributed to the general galactic tumult from 2379 to 2399, but first, let’s talk about a significant ongoing legal battle within the United Federation of Planets.
Let’s fly!…
The Fight for Photonic Rights
Within the Federation, other issues keep its citizens’ attention, including the ongoing legal fight for the rights of photonic lifeforms. In 2382, Admiral Owen Paris ordered the mobile emitter of sentient hologram and Voyager crew member the Doctor to be taken for study by Starfleet, a decision which the Doctor protests. As lawyers litigate on the Doctor’s behalf to regain use of his emitter, the Soong Foundation in 2383 begins laying the groundwork for the mass production of mobile emitters. The legal case has a minor advancement in 2389 after years of being stalled in the courts as a Federation judge rules the case can be expanded into a class-action lawsuit covering all sentient artificial lifeforms in the Federation. While this expansion may keep the case in the courts for years more, Soong Foundation lawyers believe its resolution may end the forced servitude of hundreds of holograms, mostly outdated EMH Mark I’s like the Doctor relegated to mining dilithium, and eventually allow Starfleet to confer formal rank and associated privileges to its mobile emitter equipped Emergency Command and Medical holograms.
The case is further complicated in 2390 when the Supreme Court hears arguments from holonovel publishers trying to block the lawsuit, with retired Starfleet JAG Admiral Phillipa Louvois leading and advocating that the appearance of sentience does not confer such sentience; without proof of self-awareness, the Federation Constitution does not offer holograms any protection. The Soong Foundation counters the argument by stating that without holo emitters in the chamber it cannot bring witnesses to prove holograms’ sentience since court rules do not allow for remote testimony; the Court grants a delay. In 2391 the Court ruled in Louvois’ favour and sent the Foundation’s lawsuit to a lower court to determine the legal criteria for sentience. Following this, the Soong Foundation begins a lobbying campaign to codify rights for artificial lifeforms into the Federation Constitution.
The lawsuit is finally decided in the Doctor’s favour in 2394 when the Supreme Court rules that he is indeed sentient and had the right to self-determination and to keep his mobile emitter. The Court also sets standards to determine the sentience of any artificial lifeform and ruled that any which do not meet the criteria are the property of their creators. Subsequently, the Doctor accepted a Starfleet commission at the rank of lieutenant commander and became chief medical officer at the Galor IV research facility; he also agreed to allow the Corps of Engineers to continue studying his mobile emitter during his posting, later expressing his admiration and respect for the people of Starfleet and emphasizing that his biggest desire in the legal battle was for Starfleet to respect him as an individual.
The Klingon Empire
Initially content to maintain the status quo while rebuilding their fleet, the Klingon Empire under Chancellor Martok would weather its own storms in this period. The Klingons took advantage of the instability in the Romulan Empire to retake several disputed border systems, including Khitomer, in the process of straining relations with the Federation. This action would be the first of many taken by the Klingon Empire in various attempts to restore honour and glory following years of peace.
In 2384 a Gorn ship executed an unsanctioned assault on a Klingon vessel, prompting the Empire to cease diplomatic relations with the Gorn Hegemony. By 2386, after the coronation of King Slathis, the Gorn fortified their border with the Klingons, further escalating an already tense situation. Soon after, Klingon forces attack the Gorn colony on Gila IV. The conflict continues to simmer as the galaxy’s attention falls on Romulan space following the Hobus supernova.
The Gorn conflict reignited in 2389 as the two nations fought for control of the Gamma Orionis system. King Slathis negotiated an agreement with the Nausicaans to provide ships and weapons to the war effort in exchange for asteroid mining rights and large cash payments. Even with Nausicaan reinforcements on the Gorn side, the Klingons refuse to yield and win several battles while grossly outnumbered. By 2390, in response to Nausicaan raids on Federation shipping near the borders, the Federation attempted to mediate peace talks between the Gorn and Klingons, but neither side was terribly eager to accept the help and the initial talks for a conference were dragged out. Chancellor Martok stops the process altogether when he announces the Klingons would not participate in any peace talks until Starfleet withdraws from the Klingon-Romulan border where they had been preventing the Klingon advance into Romulan space.
Starfleet Command withdrew its ships from the Romulan border in 2391, drawing the ire of many colony worlds that had depended on Starfleet protection from the Klingons. Such ire is rebuked by Admiral Taris, stating that Romulans should fight their own battles. The Starfleet ships are tasked with protecting the shipping lanes from continued Nausicaan raids. Martok makes good on his promise to come to the negotiating table, and representatives from the Klingons, Gorn, and Nausicaans meet at Deep Space K-7 with Federation diplomats to start the peace process.
Two days into the conference, an explosion seriously injures the Gorn ambassador and prompts the Klingon, Gorn, and Nausicaan delegations to make ready to leave the station; they are stopped by Starfleet security while an investigation gets underway. A Klingon tied to a group opposed to Martok’s rule was found to have been the culprit, murdered via spacing by unknown assailants. The conference subsequently breaks down and the Klingons advance further into Gorn space.
Members of the Klingon High Council advocate for the resumption of the Romulan campaign, which is shot down by Martok who pushes to concentrate on the Gorn war. Councillor J’mpok then calls together forces loyal to his house and invades the Zeta Pictoris system in Romulan space, where he is met by a fleet under Admiral Taris and forced to retreat. Although the invasion itself was a failure, J’mpok made his point clear to the Great Houses: if Martok would not lead the Empire to battle, others would. The High Council begins to splinter between those loyal to Martok and J’mpok’s supporters.
Following Taris’ victory at Zeta Pictoris, in 2391 the Romulan people proclaimed her as their new Praetor, a position she reluctantly accepted. She calls on the colonies to meet at Rator III to organize a new imperial government and build a new capital. The Romulans see this moment as a return to their former glory.
In 2392, newly elected Federation President Aennik Okeg led a new round of peace talks with the Klingons at Cestus III, though it soon became clear neither the Klingons nor the Gorn was interested in a real peace agreement. Soon after, all peace efforts collapse after the Gorn attack on the Klingon colony on Ogat. J’mpok pushes for a full invasion of the Gorn Hegemony in response while Martok stresses caution, preferring to keep the Gorn from making further inroads into Klingon space while a new fleet is constructed. J’mpok denounced Martok as a weak old man, widening the divide on the fractured High Council.
Fed up with J’mpok’s threats, Martok expels him from the High Council and orders his lands seized and his house dissolved, spurring J’mpok’s supporters into open fighting with their rivals, even on the streets of the First City. Martok, remembering the bloody civil war which followed the death of Chancellor K’mpec in 2368, decides to find a resolution to the conflict that would not cost the lives of more Klingon warriors. He meets J’mpok in the Great Hall and orders his bodyguards to bar the doors and prevent anyone from disturbing them. Two hours later, J’mpok emerges alone, declaring Martok dead and himself the new Chancellor. Drex, son of Martok, challenges J’mpok’s claim but is severely injured in the duel that followed, and J’mpok declines to take his life, realizing he may need the support of the House of Martok and its allies in the wars to come.
Chancellor J’mpok started to cement his position in the Empire in 2394 by starting negotiations in earnest with Melani D’ian, the ruthless Emerald Empress of the Orion Syndicate. Following four days of negotiations, the two sides ratified both a non-aggression pact and a mutual defence agreement. The Empire agreed to provide the Syndicate with ships and weapons in exchange for their allegiance, while Melani D’ian agreed to share information and technology with the Klingons in exchange for a planet within Klingon space which the Orions could rule as a vassal of the Empire. The Orions still living on their dying homeworld would emigrate to Ter’jas Mor by the end of 2394. The new alliance between the Klingons and the Orions put still more strain on relations with the Federation, with Starfleet committing to continue shutting down Syndicate operations within Federation space.
In 2395, a Klingon officer on shore leave was attacked by three warriors whom he assumed to be from a rival to his House of Duras. The officer, Ja’rod, son of Torg, killed two of the assailants and captured the third. Back aboard Ja’rod’s ship, the third attacker was questioned with a paintstick, at which point he morphed from a Klingon into a strange, tripedal alien which referred to itself as an Undine; later, it was discovered that this alien was from Species 8472, a designation given to them by the Borg who fought them in the Delta Quadrant. The Undine said its mission was to replace Ja’rod as part of an ongoing effort to infiltrate the governments of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.
Nausicaan forces destroyed several Klingon outposts in 2396 in a surprise attack. In response, Chancellor J’mpok dispatched the KDF Seventh Fleet to destroy the base the Nausicaans operated from, but one ship from the fleet was missing. After refusing to investigate the allegations of the captured Undine, Ja’rod, second officer of the IKS Kang, led an uprising against the captain and assumed command, sending a coded message to the homeworld before cloaking. The commander of the Seventh Fleet attempted multiple times to recall the Kang, but J’mpok himself ordered no further attempts be made.
J’mpok agreed to the third round of talks mediated by the Federation, much to the chagrin of a large block of the High Council who accused him of catering to the Federation. Soon after, however, J’mpok silenced the dissenters by declaring his house to be in alliance with the House of Duras led by Ja’rod, still commanding the “missing” IKS Kang. The alliance gave J’mpok’s house, which was comparatively weak, the support of some of the oldest and most revered Great Houses and transferred any debts to Duras to his own house while dispensing with all past rulings against Duras, returning them to legitimacy. This furthered the already polarized domestic political situation in the Empire, as now all houses were beholden to either the House of J’mpok or the House of Martok.
In 2399, Captain Ja’rod returned to Qo’noS and met with the High Council in a seven-hour secured session. There, he revealed the results of his long investigation into Undine infiltration, finding that the aliens had a large presence in the Gorn Hegemony in high places within the government. The next day, J’mpok, with the full support of the High Council, ordered a full-scale invasion of Gorn space. When asked to support the invasion and presented with data supporting Undine infiltration, the Federation Council instead condemned the invasion and demanded a Klingon withdrawal. In response, J’mpok pulled the Empire out of the Khitomer Accords, recalled all ambassadors, and expelled Federation citizens; Ambassador Worf was permitted to stay in the First City owing to his position in the House of Martok as gin’tak (advisor) to Drex.
The war continued until 2403, when Klingon and Orion forces invaded and occupied the Gorn homeworld. A week after the invasion, in a broadcast boosted by Klingon ships across Gorn space, the Gorn prime minister, head of intelligence, and several additional high ranking government officials were executed after being outed as Undine spies for all to see, justifying the Klingon campaign. King Slathis was offered self-rule by Chancellor J’mpok, provided the king swear fealty to the Empire, and Slathis agreed, accepting a non-voting seat on the High Council.
The Enterprise Crew
A discussion of this time period would be incomplete without mention of the venerable crew of the Starship Enterprise.
As previously mentioned, Jean-Luc Picard became Federation ambassador to Vulcan in 2385. He retired to his vineyard in Labarre, France in 2402. The lore of Star Trek: Online makes little mention of him after this point.
William Riker assumed command of the USS Titan in 2379 following the Shinzon incident and brought with him his wife, Deanna Troi. In STO, little is known of the Troi-Riker family beyond this, although Will does receive a promotion to Admiral sometime before 2409 and the two by then have three grandchildren.
Dr. Beverly Crusher takes command of the hospital ship USS Pasteur in 2385 and is instrumental in helping resolve several medical crises within Cardassian and Romulan space. She returned to Earth in 2402 after a promotion to Admiral and was made head of Starfleet Medical.
As mentioned, Worf remained on Qo’noS as Federation ambassador until the Klingon Empire withdrew from the Khitomer Accords in 2399. He became heavily involved in internal Klingon politics as gin’tak to Drex, the leader of the House of Martok following the chancellor’s death. He married Grilka in 2386 and had a son with her, K’Dhan, in 2388; his elder son, Alexander Rozhenko, worked for a time as a diplomat trying to make peace between the Klingons and Gorn, but by 2396 he and his son D’Vak lived on Earth where Alexander taught at Saint Petersburg State University.
Geordi LaForge took a long term leave of absence from his duties as the Enterprise’s chief engineer and began designing starships, including the Jellyfish which stopped the spread of the Hobus supernova. In 2385 he began working with the Soong Foundation studying the android B-4. By 2397, Geordi had returned to Starfleet as captain of the Starship Challenger.
In 2385, the Soong Foundation managed to reactivate the “Data matrix” inside the android B-4, which allowed all of Data’s memories and experiences as well as his personality to overwrite that of B-4. Data objected to being restored at B-4’s expense and attempted to destroy his consciousness, but B-4 sacrificed himself so that Data could live on. Data then helped the Foundation upgrade B-4’s positronic brain with new neural pathways and helped recreate the emotion chip built by Dr. Noonien Soong. Ambassador Spock likened Data’s return to his own resurrection in 2285.
As for the Sovereign-class USS Enterprise itself, the ship would undergo an extensive refit in 2385 to support new missions of exploration and discovery. Data was promoted to Captain and led the ship and crew through the refit process as well as many new missions, including relief efforts in Romulan space and an extensive survey of the McAllister C-5 Nebula, where signs of portals into an unknown dimension were discovered. These portals were later found to lead into fluidic space, home of the Undine, and Captain Data led the Enterprise on a reconnaissance mission, resulting in an incident wherein the ship was lost but the crew survived in its entirety. Data then retired from Starfleet and began working at Oxford University while trying to restore his brother, B-4.
In the next instalment, we’ll see how the novel canon differs in its depiction of this era in Trek history, and how the characters we know and love evolved differently.
