The Fate of Valakia
First constructed by the Valakians (with the assistance of a Ferengi merchant) in 2192, the Mentes-class prototype was dispatched with the finest crew the dying world could muster. The commander and his Valakian officers, with the assistance of several Menk crewmen, left the Valakian system in search of some remedy for their planetwide malady.
Primitive in comparison to the vessels of other contemporary spacefaring powers, the Mentes-class was equipped with a base model warp engine courtesy of their Ferengi trading partners. The He3 fusion reactor – the schematics for which were also purchased from the Ferengi – provided sufficient power for the engines and other essential ship functions, but didn’t leave too much extra to spare. The particle beam weapons represented the cutting edge of Valakian-produced technology, but they were barely adequate when compared to the pulsed phase cannons of Starfleet or the disruptors fielded by the Klingons (among others).
With the bulk of their ships’ designs purchased from the Ferengi, the Valakians themselves were still learning how to operate and maintain them. Given the critical nature of their mission, however, it was decided that on-the-job training was preferable to waiting for the crew to succumb to the affliction.
Fortunately, the medications synthesized and shared by Phlox (2151) had been refined and were in wide use among the Valakian population. Not only did these improved drugs address the symptoms of the illness, but also forestalled its onset and slowed its progress (though all Valakians were still likely to eventually fall ill and die from it).
In 2194, after two years in space, the crew of the Mentes-class prototype encountered an automated space station (“Dead Stop”) which, in exchange for 40 deciliters of liquid trellium D (acquired earlier from a Xindi-Arboreal merchant), not only repaired damage their ship sustained in an asteroid field, but cured the entire Valakian crew of their genetic ailment! Despite repeated inquiries, the station’s artificial intelligence was unwilling to provide a cure that the Valakians could take back to their homeworld.
To make matters worse, three of the Menk crewmen were killed in a mysterious chemical spill while aboard their ship during the repairs, so the ship left the station with a notable gap in their crew. There was little they could do, however, so they simply departed and resumed their mission.
Their next encounter was with an ancient bioplasmic organism that identified itself as Bevvox (“Think Tank”). In exchange for passage back to Valakia aboard their vessel – and for the Valakians’ assistance in constructing a warp-capable vessel based on his specifications – Bevvox, during the two year voyage back to the Valakian system, designed a piece of medical equipment which, when properly calibrated and fueled with a variety of heavy metals, liquefied noble gases, and biological materials extracted from several Valakian-native (including the Menk), could rapidly interrupt and reverse the Valakian genetic degradation, eradicating it completely in a matter of hours.
When the Valakian crew returned with Bevvox in 2197, over 500 million more had succumbed. The Valakian population, which had once, at its apex, exceeded four billion souls, dropped to just under a billion; the drugs were no longer effective in treating the symptoms or slowing the progress of the disease. However, within weeks the first of the devices was operating in the capital city; thousands were cured in the first quarter. By year’s end every hospital and medical center had at least one machine, and Valakians were rapidly receiving the cure. The Menk, eager to aid their Valakian benefactors, selflessly donated the fluids that fueled their life-saving machines.
Valakian engineers and technicians, using Bevvox’s ship designs, built him a massive [Size 6] starship in orbit. Fitted with technologies far beyond their understanding, Bevvox’s vessel departed Valakian space in 2198. Though they never encountered him again, Valakians to this day hail him as their peoples’ savior.
By 2199, over 90% of the surviving populace had received the cure; those remaining were either too far gone to be saved or opted to forego treatment in protest over the Menk’s collective suffering to save the Valakians.
Further, by the dawn of the 23rd century, the Valakian Ministry of Menk Affairs determined that the Menk should no longer be kept in preserves; it was time for them to be relocated off planet. Using their new fleet of warp-capable ships, the Valakians began an active campaign of transferring the Menk population in totem to an M-class planet roughly three light years from the Valakian system. The Ministry constructed villages across the planet, providing the Menk with all that they could think of to help them survive and thrive on an alien world. They even sent Valakian coordinators, who would spend the next several years helping the Menk become active participants in their own survival. The end goal was to conclude all contact between Valakia and the new Menk homeworld by 2205.
Valakia, which had been a Federation protectorate, eschewed this designation in favor of securing full membership. Unfortunately, the commercial acquisition of warp technology (rather than it being developed locally), combined with what many in the Federation viewed as the long-term, systematic abuse and forced evacuation of the Menk, meant than membership in the UFP was unlikely in the foreseeable future (if ever).
After being [what they considered] abandoned, first by Earth Starfleet and then by the United Federation of Planets, the Valakians summarily ended all official contact. They instead made overtures, through their Ferengi contacts, to a relative newcomer on the galactic stage: an interstellar society known as the Cardassian Union.
Representatives of the Cardassian government, the Detapa Council, appeared eager to meet with the Valakians and establish friendly relations…
mactavish out.
Our country's past progress has been the result, not of the mass mind applying average intelligence to the problems of the day, but of the brilliance and dedication of wise individuals who applied their wisdom to advance the freedom and the material well-being of all of our people.
-Conscience of a Conservative, Barry Goldwater
Reply With Quote