Temporal Cold War

[mactavish]

In Star Trek Enterprise, the Suliban Cabal serves an unknown master from the 26th century. The aliens that misled the Xindi - the Sphere Builders - were capable of observing possible timelines and assessing their probabilities from their extradimensional realm. Vosk and his allies assist the Nazis during an alternate World War II, attempting to gather the necessary materials to build a time tunnel to return to their own century. Daniels and his faction work to prevent and undo damage by the other factions from their distant future. The Tholians are clearly interested in temporal technologies as well, as indicated by their interest in the probe discovered in the second season episode "Future Tense."

Who else is involved in this Temporal Cold War? We didn't see Captain Braxton in Enterprise, but that doesn't mean that he and his Timefleet crew weren't about. Also, what about the DTI? Berlinghoff Rasmussen? The TNG aliens looking for the artifact on Risa? The Prophets and/or their adversaries? The Krenim? The Borg?

I want to use the Temporal Cold War, too, but want a better idea of who's on the field at any given time.

mactavish out.

[Owen E Oulton]

I'm running the early stages of a Temporal Cold War storyline.

* I'm using Daniels and his 31st Century faction as a hook to involve the PCs.

* I'm not using the Borg in my TCW plot - they are the focus of an entirely different plot line.

* I am looking at using the Sphere Builders at some point (they are, of course, completely unrelated to the Builders of the Dyson Sphere), and

* I am definitely using Future Guy (the shadowy Humanoid Figure who guided Silik), manipulating Section 31. Vossk is trapped in a closed time loop, so he and his faction probably won't be involved.

* The Krenim are involved in a completely seperate conflict.

* DTI is aware of the Temporal Cold War, but are neutral, confining themselves solely to defensive/reparative actions.

* Timefleet is in a similar position to DTI.

* I'm looking for an excuse to use James T. Kirk (circa mid-TOS). DTI do not like him.

* I'm thinking of adding a faction known as "Temporal Anarchists" who, for their own reasons, are attempting to disrupt the flow of time. They may include the future aliens from Risa.

* I'm not using the Prophets or the Pah-Wraiths. I have a Bajoran PC, and am saving them for something special.

A couple of pointers - Use only a few factions at first. Use Daniels - he's useful, familiar and is already established as being mysterious as all hell. "Maybe you shouldn't read that..." Add factions as you feel up to it.

[mactavish]

I think that Daniels' faction is a good one to use, but I am kind of shying away from Daniels himself; he's more of Captain Archer's future contact. However, there's nothing preventing another "agent" from Daniels' group contacting the PCs in some fashion.

I, too, like the Borg, but not for participation in the TCW. They will be part of my Series in some fashion, but not in a temporal manner. There may be contact with the Collective before it actually became the juggernaut that it is in the 24th century, but not via time travel.

I am really keen on bringing the Krenim into the thick of things, but not Annorax. Given their mastery of temporal technologies, there are certainly other ways to integrate them into the Series without involving them in the Temporal Cold War. I've often written about temporal anomalies and such, and a chroniton-charged spatial flexure could certainly dump a Krenim ship from one of Annorax's alternate timelines into the Alpha or Beta Quadrants during the 22nd century.

Like Owen, I am definitely planning to use Future Guy (the Cabal's 26th century contact) or some other member of his group, and the Suliban with him. Since the Suliban Cabal is clearly in possession of future technology, I was thinking that maybe DTI agents might occasionally act covertly to unravel their technological advantage, perhaps even using 24th or 25th century Suliban DTI agents (or possibly just surgically-altered members of other races).

DTI and Timefleet vessels and personnel stay out of the TCW for the most part, relying on Daniels and his 31st century faction to a.) intervene and correct changes themselves, and/or b.) contact DTI or Timefleet to deal with issues "locally" (so to speak).

Vossk and his faction, as Owen wrote, are trapped in a time loop separate from the standard spacetime continuum... but not necessarily forever. I'm saying that they exist in a loop that is roughly a week long (in 1945), which keeps repeating. The trick for them will be to recognize that Archer and his crew (copies of whom are also trapped in the loop) are not the area to focus on, but instead to make certain that they complete their tunnel before the Enterprise crew blows it up.

I was also thinking that maybe some Ikonians and/or a group associated with the Guardian of Forever might be involved in the TCW, even if only peripherally. The discovery that Earth was destroyed by a comet in the 12th century might leave the PC crew in a bit of a pickle, but a visit of happenstance to the Guardian of Forever (before it was discovered by Kirk and company) could allow that issue to be resolved before it ever happens (happened?).

Finally, I was thinking of introducing a race of psionic time travelers (other than the Devidians) who project themselves into other times and make subtle alterations to history. DTI agents are aware of them and use specific energy configurations (via their weapons) to drive them out and return them to the proper timeline.

mactavish out.

[Doug Burke]

* I'm thinking of adding a faction known as "Temporal Anarchists" who, for their own reasons, are attempting to disrupt the flow of time. They may include the future aliens from Risa.

How about the "Perfectionists" from LUG's "All Our Yesterdays" sourcebook (the text box on pg. 41)? They could make a good foil in such a campaign...

[mactavish]

The Perfectionists are a good group, as are the Tholians (whom I forgot in my last post). I am particularly keen on the Tholians because of their uncertain nature. They appear to be part of the normal universe, but Decipher's Mirror Universe book paints them as [possibly] straddling the normal and mirror universes.

Also, as evidenced in Enterprise, they are capable of detecting temporal radiation and clearly have an interest in anachronistic technology. Their ships are certainly a match for Earth Starfleet as well as the Suliban Cabal. This suggests to me that maybe they are multi-chronal as well as [potentially] multidimensional, much like the Bajoran Prophets, existing in various points on the timeline at once.

I absolutely love the Tholians, especially since we saw them up close and personal in Enterprise. They are unknowable, and that makes them even more terrifying. Their agenda regarding the timeline may coincide with that of humanity in some regards, and be completely opposed in others; one can never tell.

I was also thinking of including a crosstime adversary in the form of the Khan Ascendant timeline from All Our Yesterdays. I've changed some of the information slightly to better conform with Enterpise-as-canon (in terms of dates and such, as well as the fact that Proxima Centauri A is actually a human colony rather than an independent world) as well as the needs of my own Series, but the gist of it remains the same.

A slightly more technologically advanced human empire, ruled by an aged Khan and his augments, has allied with the Andorians and the Klingons, subjugated the Tellarites, conquered the Vulcans, and is at war with the Romulan Star Empire in their year 2156. One of their warships makes its way to the standard universe through some parachonic calamity and immediately becomes a thorn in the PCs paw. Though they are a ship alone, their augmented human, Andorian and Klingon crew has better weapons and defensive systems, faster warp drive, a cloaking device, and far more combat-hardened crewmen than any in our universe.

Upon discovering their plight, the imperial warship begins formulating a plan to return to their own reality, but with the goal of eventually invading our universe and conquering a second Earth (as well as the rest of "their" territory, if not more). Of course, this will take time, so they must in the meanwhile ally themselves with like-minded locals (i.e. Andorians, Klingons, Nausicaans, etc.) while keeping their real agenda secret. This will likely provide the opportunity for some alternate reality evil duplicates of some of the PCs (or other NPCs that they regularly interact with).

Y'know, while this doesn't necessarily fit in with the whole Temporal Cold War concept (unless I include future elements from the Khan Ascendant timeline...), it does provide for a unique enemy with elements of the mirror universe, but not one so tied to that reality. I think I like it a lot...

mactavish out.

[Tricky]

Well, maybe one or more factions would benefit from a more Khan-ascendant Earth, or maybe having the rogue element in your universe's timestream furthers some agenda that your characters can't see from their temporal vantage point.

For instance, they could act as a 'red herring' for your characters to chase around: their ship and weapons would no doubt carry some kind of temporal/transdimentional residue that could be mistaken for actual time travel tech. Finding the results of one of their raids before their identities are discovered, your group could believe that one of the factions has armed some new group of pawns and go off half-cocked against someone.

[Owen E Oulton]

I was also thinking that maybe some Ikonians

Hmmmm... Iconians, you say... You do realise, of course, that if you use Iconians, the PCs must wind up in Toronto in the late 1960's. Toronto's city hall building was one of the sites shown through the Iconian gate in TNG. Even 40 years after it was built, it's one futuristic looking building.

[mactavish]

What do you suppose would be a good McGuffin for a TCW Episode? We've already seen vessels used as well as the artifact from the TNG Episode with Vaash, and anachronistic personages are certainly common. The the motion picture with Soren, the temporal anomaly that they were trapped in (what was that called again?) served the same purpose.

I was thinking about using a piece of future technology (or at least a piece of technology that had the potential to cause temporal anomalies to arise) as my "thing," perhaps a Tholian tachyon engine or some such. Maybe even a set of schematics swiped from the Cabal (who had swiped it from somewhere else) detailing the specifics for constructing a temporal core [akin to Krenim technology] for a vessel capable of traversing time as well as space, or perhaps just for negating the effects of the passage of time on the vessel and those within (again, like the Krenim temporal weapon ship).

It has always been very Trek to build an Episode around an object, but how about a multi-episodic arc? That is to say, the crew learns of the item in the first Episode, follows up leads and dead ends in the next couple or three, find the "thing" in the fourth, figures it out (with or without assitance) in the fifth or sixth, has confrontations with various factions along the way (i.e. Suliban Cabal, Tholians, Daniel's group, etc.), and comes to some closure in the seventh or eighth Episode.

So here's the question: is the device's purpose important? Do I need to even decide what it is/does, or is it irrelevant? Do I (if I decide that I know what it is/does) reveal that information to the PCs? It's like an artifact from D&D, I suppose, in that they probably don't get to keep it for more than an Episode or two, but is it worth making it "real" for them or not?

mactavish out.

[spshu]

What do you suppose would be a good McGuffin for a TCW Episode? We've already seen vessels used as well as the artifact from the TNG Episode with Vaash, and anachronistic personages are certainly common. The the motion picture with Soren, the temporal anomaly that they were trapped in (what was that called again?) served the same purpose.
<SNIP>

The Temporal anomaly was called the Nexus. I don't recall what the name of the its enterance's in the physical world.

[First of Two]

* I'm looking for an excuse to use James T. Kirk (circa mid-TOS). DTI do not like him.

There's a story in SNW9 that just might...

Kirk is "picked up" just as he "dies" in "Generations." (That's an awful lot of "quotes.") Someone (Gary Seven, I think?) recruits him as an agent, gives him a newly refreshed body, and sends him on high-risk missions - and possibly through time - to "make a difference" again.

Not exactly what you're looking for perhaps, but running into Kirk when there's no way he could be where he is is a surefire way to screw with your players' heads. (Especially if Kirk gets "killed" and it's their fault!)


My time/space-lost crew would have been recruited by the Guardian of Forever - certainly a potential "player" in any time-travel scenario - to "mend" the various timelines, but that's another story.

[mactavish]

I have been thinking of a strange episode of Pinky and the Brain. The pair of mice gained control of a time machine and ended up duplicating themselves repeatedly, causing no end of problems.

Now, given the ongoing Temporal Cold War, enter Berlinghoff Rasmussen, the 22nd-century scientist that found the 26th-century time pod. Being the dufus that he is, I'm thinking perhaps his understanding of the 26th century technology is limited and/or flawed, so he accomplishes something similar, copying himself and his ship one or more times (intentionally or otherwise). Further, given that he is from the Enterprise era, he may appear in my Series before he discovered the pod (as well as after, perhaps).

He's something of a "wild card," whether an anachronism or not. He's clearly brilliant, but also unscrupulous, so his genius (and his time travel vehicle) makes him a dangerous foe. I'm thinking perhaps he has some business dealings with the Orions, the Klingons, or the Xindi in the 22nd century, possibly dealing in future technologies taken prior to his capture by Picard and company in the 24th century.

Or perhaps that's not the end of him. Perhaps a temporal fugue caused an "evil twin" (?) of Rasmussen, and that version (still in possession of a 26th century time pod) appears from time to time, filling the niche left vacant by Q in the pre-Federation days. A guy who lived through the first flight of the NX-01 Enterprise, the Xindi attack, and [presumably] the war with the Romulans who then discovered a technological edge granting him near-limitless power (or at least freedom) could definitely get into the thick of things any time and in any place.

Thoughts?

mactavish out.

[mactavish]

Nothing, eh?

The problem I'm running into is the same one that led to the Nexus in Star Trek Generations. I want to use some type of time travel, but something not seen before. I've gone the route of time travelers from the future, timespace anomalies, strange alien technologies, and so forth, but I want something new, something fresh... something that POPS!

Can you think of any other time traveling ideas that involve something other than the aforementioned concepts? I've been toying with something like Quantum Leap where travelers psychically possess hosts in other times and do their thing that way, but it's been done (though not necessarily in Star Trek).

mactavish out.

[Tobian]

Berlinghof Rasmusen could actually be a good shtick, since he has several key attributes: a) he's a consummate thief b) he is in the 24th century which has (albeit largely temperamental and experimental) temporal technology and c) will be in the care of the Federation - aka one day they will trust him hahaha!

There's no reason that with the knowledge he cobbled together from the time ship (which barelly no one else would have) and access to any kind of time technology, given enough time he could well perfect his own, and then hide in the past, because he isn't wanted then. Because he is a temporal anomaly, he's not likely to be picked up by the usual suspects, and this could be where the PC's come in... his victims!

I guess however that, given he has read history, and knows what he can exploit, ultimately the question would be: What is his agenda? Given access to time technology. what does he want to achieve? Perhaps he wants to interfere in the time war himself, maybe he wants to tweak a few things here and there, or maybe he wants to cross his own path so he can change events:

Maybe he's been there already, and he was thwarted by his own crew, and he is going back to correct his own mistakes, armed with much superior knowledge? Or maybe he wants to go back in time and kill himself! Sounds strange, but think about it. If someone cuts them self off from a previous version of themselves, they have erased their own existence, and their history, and perhaps there is equipment on the original time-ship that allows him to do that (I.e. a chroniton field, which will isolate him from the effects of time, which he can't replicate in the 24th century) - this will then prevent any of his mistakes and mean he won't be chased by temporal investigations (since he will effectively erase himself from his own past, in the 24th century). Could be interesting when the PC's try to work out what is going on, with the pair of them running round, and maybe some temporal agents, who suddenly become stranded in the 22nd century, when their time-line is erased!

[Tricky]

I always thought of what would have happened if Rasmusen had pulled it off? (brought 24th century tech to the 22nd) What would happen to the NG reality?

btw, where was the (unpiloted) Time Pod going? Back to the 22nd century or to it's creators? What's to stop some other ner'do well from doing it again? Or some other naive time pod guy from getting 'pod-jacked'? And what happened to the original pilot? I don't think he killed him, so he's just sitting around, afraid to touch anything and creating a time paradox? ("Oh no, it's August 15th! I can't go anywhere near SF HQ today; Archer will get into a fight with an Orion impersonating the Andorian delegate. Don't want to get in the way of history.")

Or is he trying to recreate his time engine? Now that could drag your characters into the TCW: The guy in the next appartment turns on his Temporal drive and suddenly half the block is in the Cretacious period!

Well, I hate to say that we've "used up" all the possible time travel methods, but it is hard to think of one, especially one that conforms to Trek reality. I mean I've seen Magic time travel (TMNT comics), mutant time travel (X-men comics), hypnotic time travel (Somewhere in Time, staring Christopher Reeves), and chemical/drug induced time travel (Time Traxx, a nearly forgoten TV show).

There was a bad Sci-Fi movie called Trancers, which involved time travel and body switching. This was pre-QL, btw. One catch: you could only 'leap' into the body of an ancestor! In the movie, the bad guy lept into a hero cop's body, the good guy into a nobody, and the hard-nosed, hard drinking commanding officer lept into a 6 year old girl!

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Time-abduction by beings in the distant past!