The Federations Dark Mirror: The Interstellar Concordium
Ed note: Adapted from Material from Prime Directive for CODA TREK
Very little is known of the Interstellar Concordium by it’s neighbors (or anyone else), the Romulan Star Empire and the Gorn Confederation, except that they originate deep within the Beta Quadrant and appear to be a multi-species alliance much (to the Romulan’s irritation) like the Federation, but notably more pacifistic. What they do not know, in spite of the Tal Sh’iar’s best efforts, the ISC has looked upon the Alpha Quadrant with unfriendly eyes, finding the various galactic empires wanting. And it intends to do something about it.
A AUSPICIOUS BEGINNING: Formation of the Concordium
The ISC, much like the Federation in it’s early days, had it’s rough times, with the original member states fighting wars at sub-light capable ships with laser and particle cannons, as well as multi megaton themo-nuclear warheads. The conflict between the Pronhoulites (an aggressive reptilian species), and the Korlivilars (a small feliniod species) nearly turned into a war of all out annihilation and would have done so if not for the intervention of the telepathic, hive-mind like Veltressai moving in to clam both sides passions and make them consider the precipice they were about to cross (creative mental imagery from the Veltressai help drive the point home).
The Veltressai (being of a hive-like, rational, mind) had been horrified at the conflicts between the various races in the local star cluster. With space travel, resources were plentiful (harvesting gas giants for resources would take many millennia by themselves), their was space for everyone to expand peacefully and trade could be used to make the various species interdependant, and less likely to war with each other.
The Pronhoulites and the Korlivilars, after staring extinction in the face, were amenable to negotiation from the Veltressai, who were inoffensive and didn’t really seem interest in conquest, resources, or other forms of valuables. The Veltressai suggested that an interspecies coalition be formed to prevent violence and channel species tendencies into more constructive paths. After the level of destruction that both sides had leveled against each other, a treaty of Concordium was quickly signed. The Veltressai, being seen as impartial and relatively unemotional, took to leading the newly formed Interstellar Concordium, while the Korilivar acted as advanced scouts, and the Pronhoulites acted as the industrial backbone of the ISC
Peaceful expansion of the three major members throughout the local cluster came across other worlds of inhabited life, including the methane breathing Q’nabbians, and the aquatic Rovillians, but the expansion of the ISC was notably without violence. A statistical anomaly that would come to shape the ISC’s way of thinking. To the ISC, those who had managed space warp flight by in large, were seen to have gotten over the petty wars and bloodshed that had typified behavior of pre-warp civilizations. It also set the ISC up for a very nasty shock when it ran into two of the Alpha Quadrant powers, the Gorn and the Romulans.
A SAVAGE UNIVERSE: The Interstellar Concordium meets the Neighbors
In 2310, the CSV Ipatus, a scout vessel on the edge of Concordium space detected what they had thought was the usage of high-end matter-antimatter explosives in the middle of deep space near an alien solar system. This didn’t particularly surprise the ISC, as pre-deflector ISC races had used matter annihilation to remove large sections of Oort clouds to allow for navigation in and out of systems. But in an area well outside of the end of a planetary system puzzled the ISC crew and the Ipatus went into investigate on the off chance a ship was in distress and was venting antimatter into space.
What they found horrified them. Two different species judging from the sleek, bird-like designs of one side and rough, angular ingot-like on the other were firing upon each other using various versions of plasma munitions and directed energy weapons. The ISC ship withdrew in horror and the crew attempted to come to grips with what they had seen. It did not make any sense to the ISC worldview. With warp travel, resources were plentiful and could easily be shared by all. It had been assumed that any race would be quickly see the logic in this and conflict over plentiful resources, ideology, religion, or other such retrograde concerns would fall by the wayside as the species expanded out towards the stars. It never occurred to them that two species meeting each would engage in savage war. After a rather flustered report back to the ISC core worlds, The ISC quickly decided that the Gorn Confederacy and the Romulan Star Empire were suffering form some form of mass insanity.
After several cautious probes along the Romulan and Gorn borders, the ISC carefully assessed both of the empires and considered what to do as they sent forth diplomats to the Romulans and the Gorn. The Gorn, while violent and bellicose, simply wanted the ISC to respect their borders and to go away. The Romulans were treacherous, violent, and prone to duplicty and killing other species if they were irritated by them, but they knew power when they saw it and tried recruiting the ISC into an alliance verses the Gorn.
The Gorn followed suit quickly when they found out what the Romulans were up to. The ISC retreated from the borders at the suggestion and considered it’s options. The Gorn for their part, seeing that the ISC were at least not going to expand into their territory and recognized claims they had to several systems, magnanimously gave navigational information to the Concordium into the Alpha Quadrant and a listing of the major empires within the quadrant, as well as a writ of free passage through Gorn territory to contact the other empires.
The ISC was dismayed at what they found. An empire of roving, cannibalistic feliniods (The Kzinti) that would turn on their own for reasons they could not decipher at the drop of a hat. A silicate based race (The Tholians) that would attack other species in the name of ‘protecting territory’. A vicious aggressive species that made conquest a prime factor of life and enjoyed conflict (the Klingons). The only real bright spot appeared to be an organization of worlds similar to the ISC itself. Hoping for some semblance of sanity, the ISC promptly sent diplomats to the Federation. While the Federation had some hope, the fact that it tolerated warrior species and cultures within its bounds, made it just as barbarous and insane as the rest of the Alpha Quadrant. Much to the puzzlement of the Alpha Quadrant powers, the ISC withdrew from form relations and not much has been seen from them within the last decade, accept for the occasional traders and merchants across quadrant. And not particularly good merchants from many merchants point of view.
THE COMING STORM: The ISC Plans for the Alpha Quadrant
The ISC has seen enough of the Alpha Quadrant to declare the whole of it, even the Federation, insane and dangerous. A vote was held within the ISC’s Presidium on Veltress and it was decided that inelligence should be gathered on the various Alpha Quadrant powers tactical and strategic capabilites, and design a fleet of warships to crush the Alpha Quadrant powers ability to make war and keep the peace in the Galaxy. The ISC intends a War of Pacification after constructing a fleet sufficient to crush three of the Alpha Quadrant powers (it sees alliance between any of the Alpha Quadrant powers as unlikely or simply not lasting very long) and keeping all the powers under it’s heel to prevent violence.
The irony of the ISC’s plans escapes it’s various members.
more to come
A brave little theory, and actually quite coherent for a system of five or seven dimensions -- if only we lived in one.
Academician Prokhor Zakharov, "Now We Are Alone"
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