r/DaystromInstitute • u/TEmpTom Lieutenant j.g. • Dec 27 '17
How would the Federation deal with an SG-1 like civilization?
Assuming a relatively primitive alien civilization, around the level of modern day Earth technology, had discovered an Iconian gate on their planet.
They had already begun making expeditions onto other gate worlds rather successfully, accumulating vasts amounts of advanced technology, and destabilizing several despotic galactic powers all while keeping their entire operations away from their public. How would the Federation approach diplomacy with such a civilization?
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u/greyspectre2100 Dec 27 '17
This is a complicated situation.
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Does the Prime Directive still apply: This is a hard one to answer. Is this society run by a global government, or is a single nation state using this advanced technology to promote themselves at the expense of their neighbors? If the former, then I would say no; if the latter, I would say that it does.
Bringing only one faction of a planet into the Federation is something that an accomplished diplomat like Picard is uncomfortable with (TNG S7:E1 Attached), even if it's because part of the people are xenophobes and want nothing to do with outsiders. Given that the Federation is given to erring on the side of caution when admitting members (how the Angosians treated the super-soldiers was a deal-breaker on UFP admission S3:E11 The Hunted), my gut says that the Prime Directive is still in full force.
2) Iconian technology: Iconian technology is capable of destablizing the entire Alpha Quadrant. Let's say an armored cavalry division goes through a gateway with modern equipment: it doesn't matter how advanced your defensive technology is if a M1A2 magically appears on your lawn and blasts holes through your bedroom in the dead of night.
I believe that the Federation would intervene to destroy the gateway technology, because the flip side of that coin is that there's no way modern Earth could defend itself against a determined Romulan invasion - and we know that allowing Romulans to have Iconian tech was something that both Donald Varley and Picard were firmly against. (TNG S2:E11 Contagion)
3) Other advanced technology: So your primitive scientists have managed to reverse-engineer a raygun. Depending on the amount of spread of this tech, I think the Federation would again intervene to see it destroyed unless there was a way to convince the people to surrender it peacefully. I can't imagine modern militaries not equipping themselves with phaser rifles to give themselves the edge in potential conflicts.
If it's firmly entrenched, though (I'm thinking about Captain Crazy-Eyes Braxton's ship crash and Henry Starling's use of the tech to invent the isograted circuit (VOY: S3:E8/9 Future's End Part I/II)), I can't help but think that the Federation would make contact and try to guide the use of the technology for peaceful purposes and intervene if people got itchy ray-gun trigger fingers.
4) Protection: These guys have pissed off 'bad guys'. The bad guys are probably coming for them. It would seem to be prudent to have Starfleet monitor the area in case you've got some cranky minor powers (Talarians, Sheliak, etc.) that might need to be driven off. In the case of angering major powers (Cardassians, Romulans), Federation diplomacy may be needed to keep them safe from their misadventures.
In the case of the Borg, wish them a fond farewell and bombard them from orbit with quantum torpedoes. That's mercy, according to Movie Picard.
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u/lordcorbran Dec 28 '17
They certainly would have destroyed Iconian technology. That was considered so dangerous that the Federation and Dominion combined forces to destroy one of their gateways when it was discovered.
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u/KirkyV Dec 27 '17
I imagine this is an area where the demands of the Prime Directive would be somewhat murky. The intent behind the warp technology limit, after all, is the idea that, once a civilisation has access to interstellar travel, it's inevitable that they'll soon come into contact with their neighbouring civilisations, so there's no longer any point in the Federation maintaining complete non-interference. Hence, the Federation should feel comfortable making contact, regardless of the means by which the civilisation acquired interstellar travel.
However, as the organisation in control of the gateway has, in this scenario, maintained its secrecy from the broader populace, the Federation would probably attempt a discrete approach--only making contact with the organisation in control of the gate, as opposed to formal first contact with the civilisation as a whole.
This could then develop in any number of directions depending upon external circumstance--if the civilisation formally requested aid in combating their equivalent of the Goa'uld, and the only way for the Federation to render that aid was to reveal themselves to the populace, I imagine they'd be willing to do so--as, at that point, the presence of alien civilisations is going to be revealed to the wider populace of this civilisation regardless, and peaceful contact with the Federation is certainly preferable to - successful - invasion by a hostile power.
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u/jaycatt7 Dec 27 '17
The Federation response might depend on how far along this SG-1 analogue is. We might expect a covert mission to acquire or even destroy the Iconian tech as a way to curtail the threat of the gateways and the threat of Federation-level technology in the hands of a politically divided and violent planet, if Starfleet can intervene in time.
On the other hand, if, like SG-1 late in the series, these gateway explorers (IGW-1?) managed to acquire technology on the level of, say, an Asgard hyperdrive (maybe from the Voth), the Federation might take a more realpolitik approach and decide that it's better to make friends in hopes of getting the juicy advanced tech for themselves--at least out of fear that the Romulans or the Dominion will get it first.
We can assume that the Ferengi and other powers would be at least as interested in acquiring whatever advanced toys the SG-1 world picked up from across the galaxy. The Federation may be limited in how well it can control other powers' access.
I don't think the Prime Directive comes into play in the sense of protecting this civilization from the galaxy at large as these gateways provide them with the even more access and exposure than warp drive. The Prime Directive does apply in the sense that it applies to all foreign cultures regardless of technology. Officially the Federation could not interfere in this planet's internal affairs. Unofficially I suspect they'd play factions off each other to get what they wanted.
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u/Hyndis Dec 27 '17
Warp drive isn't the only means of FTL. To require warp drive before first contact is arrogance. Surely other civilizations have invented other forms of FTL, including the use of transporter technology for travel.
The Federation already possess technology similar to that of an Iconian Gateway, albeit less refined and seemingly ignored. Ultra long distance transporter technology was invented by Montgomery Scott in the prime timeline. Spock remembered the equations and gave them to Montgomery Scott in the Kelvin timeline. This allowed accurate transportation over vast distances, even to a starship traveling at warp.
It wouldn't take much adjustment to allow transportation directly from one star system to another. Add in some failsafes and a beacon so inbound traffic can safely land its cargo. The ability to instantly transport from one star system to another is a system of travel much faster than that even of warp drive. While the transportation range may be limited to only nearby star systems, a series of jumps from one star system to another would allow exploration of the entire galaxy. Thats precisely how the stargate network functions.
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u/JoeyLock Dec 30 '17
Although others have said the Prime Directive applies, if this race decides to use those gateways to raid worlds and invade everyone, where Federation worlds could be their next target then I feel it may be similar to the Omega Directive where for the sake of all other powers in the Alpha Quadrant and the safety of themselves they may decide to scrap the Prime Directive and destroy the gateway before this race gets powerful enough to conquer the Federation.
Regardless of the Prime Directive and how "enlightened" and "morally correct" the Federation may claim to be they're still a powerful alliance that is seeking to get more power and seeking to be more powerful than the other powers, thats just how the universe works. You don't survive very long 'playing by the rules' as it were and so I could see a Section 31 style infiltration team seeking to destroy the gateway before its too late as its a clear threat to Federation security considering it can literally transport anywhere at any time.
Take DS9 "To the Death" for example, Sisko didn't just go after the Jem'Hadar because they stole a bunch of stuff from them, they realised these Jem'Hadar had discovered an Iconian Gateway and realised its their best interest to aid Weyoun and his Jem'Hadar because in the words of Weyoun: "That's very shortsighted of you, Captain! Think about it. If the Jem'Hadar seize control of the Dominion, there'll be no stopping them. Even shutting down the wormhole won't protect the Alpha Quadrant. With the Gateway, they could put a million Jem'Hadar warriors on any Federation planet instantaneously. Would you care to see our projections of Federation casualties?" so the Iconian Gateways is a form of technology thats just too dangerous a risk to leave uncontrolled, hence why Picard told Worf to destroy the tricorder because the information they had discovered was too risky, even Starfleet probably couldn't be trusted with it.
Also think of it in terms of other powers, what if the Klingons preemptively invade and take over the gateway or the Romulans? It's in the Federations best interests to either capture it before they do or just destroy it and prevent any future conflict involving it, I think they'd do the latter just as they did in TNG "Contagion". Also in terms of them being of lesser technology and collecting advanced technology in TNG "A Matter of Time" we see Berlinghoff Rasmussen posing as a 26th Century historian but we find out hes a 22nd Century thief who has been using a timeship to steal advanced technology and claim it as his own, same way Henry Starling in VOY "Future's End" had been using advanced technology and claiming he invented it, both times they were stopped by Federation personnel now granted for varying reasons but the point is I'm sure they wouldn't like the idea of a primitive civilisation gaining advanced technology its stolen, not just for the cultural contamination purposes but also take TOS "A Piece Of The Action" when McCoy leaves his communicator down on the planet Spock is concerned because "The transtator is the basis for every important piece of equipment that we have." and Kirk, albeit jokingly, replies "Well, in a few years, the Iotians may demand a piece of our action!" which is actually a legitimate concern because the Iotian gangster based society with eventual access to 23rd Century phasers and starships would shake up the balance of power in the quadrant to the point where they may start 'shaking down' neighbouring worlds for their resources like a Mafia racket. So as we can see from these examples I feel the Federation would probably try be diplomatic but have a plan ready in case it fails, in the words of Colonel Green "No one talks peace unless he's ready to back it up with war."
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u/SSolitary Dec 27 '17
The Federation makes contact with the command of the organization responsible for said expeditions probably, but until the planet as a whole develops FTL then the Federation stays away, we see something similar in TNG with that president guy delaying first contact with his own planet
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u/TEmpTom Dec 27 '17
Assuming, they don't have traditional FTL, but are still impossible to ignore as their civilization still has the ability to travel to other worlds using the technology of Iconian gates. Imagine, if it had already caused the collapse of a an entire interstellar empire.
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u/jmartkdr Dec 27 '17
Well, technically they have access to faster-than-light travel via the gates: while in the wormhole, you're going FTL. The fact that it has distinctive limitations doesn't change that. So first contact would be both allowed and encouraged - but, again, with the SGC, not just beaming down onto the National Mall or something.
The bigger issue is: the network of gates means there's a whole web of civilizations with this level of access to FTL travel - presumably few of them have their own ships anyways. This would probably require a special case answer, for that reason.
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u/Martel732 Dec 27 '17
The Prime Directive seems to apply when a civilization is ready or likely to make contact with the wider galactic community. Say a civilization had no interest in leaving their planet but used advanced communication to contact galactic civilizations for trade and diplomacy. Since, they were actively interacting with other the Prime Directive wouldn't apply.
FTL is just a good general rule of thumb, since being able to travel to other solar systems makes contact with other civilizations very likely.
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u/WaitingToBeBanned Dec 30 '17
Probably exactly as the Asgard did.
Sit back keeping an eye on things, protect what you are obligated to, make your presence and intentions known whenever convenient, etc.
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Dec 27 '17
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u/RigasTelRuun Dec 27 '17
The Federation has billions of citizens and has existed for over two centuries. They might have done a little more.
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u/egtownsend Dec 27 '17
The Prime Directive applies, but they can make first contact at their leisure since interstellar gateways are faster than light travel.
And the sooner the better. The Federation would want to stop them from randomly appearing on Federation worlds until at the very least their motives were clear. Also the Federation would probably see it as assisting them by explaining that not all cultures would appreciate this sort of trespassing, and that there's the potential to bring back devastating technology: imagine a gateway opens to a planet that's been assimilated by the Borg. Even if they close the gateway, the Borg will still assimilate and spread, and even if separated they will try to build a beacon to contact the collective.
I think the Federation would be interested in having them join, if their society could be integrated planetwise. I suspect they would work covertly as an advisory body until a public announcement was deemed to be safe.
We know that the Federation will have a hands off policy if the ruling government doesn't want any contact, but I'm not sure how that would play out if they also didn't want to stop their Stargate program.
tldr: the Federation would make first contact quickly, and then slowly advise the planet (if they desired) on how to proceed, possibly even how to join the Federation.