Series seeds

[Michael Barratt]

Title: Star Trek: Gamma Station
Era: Post-DS9
Setting: Starbase

After the Dominion signed a peace treaty with the Federation, Romulans and Klingons, they returned to the Gamma Quadrant. Odo returned to the link in order to cure their people and to explain the solids to them in hopes of making a peace between the two types of lifeforms.

As scattered rebellions, collaborating government overthrows, and completely destabalized conditions begin in the Gamma Quadrant, Odo puts forth an idea for the Dominion: a station, much like the one at DS9, for similar purposes: Diplomatic, unity of various life forms, etc.

Basically: PCs and NPCs would be the various leaders (many of them new ones put into place by the overthrowing of the previous collaborating governments). The Changeling played by Salome Jens would also be present on the station: further, Odo's influence would make a call to the Federation, Klingons and Romulans to bring a representative aboard as well.

(Ghosty's input, and a great idea is that the Romulans decline, and the Tal'Shiar is behind the uprisings, rebellions, and destabalization, in hopes of expanding the Romulan Empire into the Gamma Quadrant).

Sessions would deal with the completion of starbase construction, various factions, diplomatic nightmares, and perhaps a Federation Starship attached to the station as a "relief" effort vessel, something like a smaller medical/science craft...

The Doc

[Captain Zymmer]

Glad to have inspired my man

Certainly it is a solid idea you have presented and could spawn a long term series.

Where would you take it, based on a 7 season run.

Season by season what would be your story arc?

[Michael Barratt]

Originally posted by Captain Zymmer
Glad to have inspired my man

Certainly it is a solid idea you have presented and could spawn a long term series.

Where would you take it, based on a 7 season run.

Season by season what would be your story arc?

Hrm. Okay. 7 Seasons, eh?

Season 1 would be quite similar to the DS9 1st Season, with a story arc leading up to realizing that there is a force behind all of the various insurrections/rebellions on all these Dominion Worlds, with some sort of "leader" figure finally unveiling themselves at the end of the season - perhaps an NPC Science Officer pretending to be a Vulcan who is in fact a Tal'Shiar Romulan, when the station is under attack by rebels...

Season 1 would also be a long series of individual race/culture episodes: catching up and curing the Teplans, meeting with the Dosi, etc etc. The starship would be heading out often for missions of mercy and aid. Have the crew get captured once or twiceby rebellion efforts people who pass on information (by accident or discovery) about the greater conspiracy at work here...

Season 2 would begin where it left off: the unmasking of the baddie, the retreat of the SF forces into their ship, and finding themselves on the wrong side of the wormhole, where their station is now the occupied territory of the badguys.

Working with the Founders, those worlds still loyal to the New Dominion, and remarkably grumpy Jem'Hadar (who have been told non-lethal force as much as possible), the SF Crew have to retake the station - through subterfuge and smarter tactics and the like. The cumulation of the season might be the reoccupation of the station, and the resumption of communication with the Alpha Quadrant, letting the Alpha Quadrant know that the Rommies were behind the black out and the barracading of the Wormhole on the Gamma side.

Season 3 would be back to more of the 'Fixing the mistakes' and relief efforts, and the second shot at a Gamma Quadrant Dominion Council. Keep the grumbling annoyed Jem'Hadar in the background as a minor continuance, and let them feel they've managed to accomplish a whole lot in this season, with an emphasis on character growth and interaction with the various cultures (and maybe some interesting culture clashes of philosophy).

Then end the season with a couple of episodes where caravans of relief efforts, merchants, and the like are being attacked, but most often medical shipments/medical supplies. Confusion reigns, and at the end of the season, the SF Ship comes up face to face with the leaders of this mercenary band: the Jem'Hadar, who have finally got enough medical equipment to make their own white. Have a Jem'Hadar who the crew have met a few times take the foreground here, and quote Klingon literature: "The Klingon mythology is this: once there were Gods, and the Klingons did not like them, and so they slew them." A meaningful pause, and the dragging in of a Founder, which he shoots dead, "We borrow a page from the Klingons. Our Gods have us leashed, and we will no longer wear them." He then orders the crew sent back to their ship with a warning to never come back to "their space."

Season 4: the beginnings of the war between the Founders and the Jem'Hadar. Some of the factions who allied with the Tal'Shiar underground ally with the Jem'Hadar (especially the more warrior-like races). Many episodes where the attempts of the SF Crew and the Gamma Station clash with the Jem'Hadar and their ever expanding borders. Jem'Hadar culture would also be evolving, with a bent toward early Klingon as a model in many ways.

For a finale, a summit of Fed/Klingon Diplomats come to the Gamma Station and meet with the Founders, who are coming under attack by the Jem'Hadar now. After a long meeting, the Federation and the Klingons come forth with their decision: Sorry, we simply don't have the resources, nor the ability, to help you out here with what is, basically, an internal matter of your culture. Gamma Station will remain, and the Federation will remain with medical/relief support as their mandate, but they're not entering the Founder/Jem'Hadar civil war.

Season 5: The Founders are getting hit, hard, and the New Dominion fleets aren't doing well for it. THe various ND Aligned races are starting to figure the Jem'Hadar are unstoppable - especially when ungoverned by the Founders, and many start to pull out of the fight, offering peace with the Jem'Hadar, who accept these terms: it seems to be a religious war for them: they want to kill their gods and earn their freedom from their tyranny. Vorta come centre stage here, begging the Federation for some middle-ground solution...

...which may come in the hands of the Federation and some of the Jem'Hadar who are still loyal to the Dominion. They do not wish to harm their former Gods, but to free themselves from their control. THe impossible mission Bashir tried - and failed - Cure them of the White. If the Founders willingly handed over a way to stop the Jem'Hadar from being addicted to White, it would be a grand enough gesture to stop the hostility (maybe). The Founders, however, are cut off from communication with the Gamma Station now, their lines broken, by the new "Jem'Hadar Sector of Space." Only the Female Shapeshifter who went to the Alpha Quadrant is with the Gamma Station, and the technology to cure the Jem'Hadar would only be present on her homeworld/somewhere behind the Jem'Hadar lines. She requests this of the SF Crew, a trip there, and under the notion of medical/relief, the station commander blurs the 'don't get involved' rules and agrees. The ship launches.

Season 6: The long dark ride into the enemy space. I'd be tempted to play up the isolation of the crew on the ship by damaging it badly, and early, and leaving most of the crew stranded on a planet the Jem'Hadar don't bother with and having to use something like the Captain's Yacht to continue the rest of their journey. Those left behind can use the shuttles or attempt to repair their ship to get back to the Gamma Station. The ship episodes would be with the Yacht, (and maybe "trading up" to a larger ship they barter/trade/win/board on the way to the Founder homeworld.) The final episode of the Ship half of this season would be getting to the Founder Homeworld and seeing that it has been badly battered, and the Founders are preparing for some pretty heavy retaliation.

Gamma Station episodes would see the Jem'Hadar coming and demanding control of the station, given that the Federation Ship did a no-no and was "destroyed" for its attempts. The Federation/Klingons attempt a peaceful resolution to this, and the Jem'Hadar barely agree. THey rule the station, with SF/Klingon "advisors." The crew watch as the Jem'Hadar basically try to run roughshod over the painstaking treaties and political handiwork of the past five years, and threaten the New Dominion with dissolution. The finale of the station bound episodes in this season would be hearing from the Jem'Hadar that the Founders have been lying about their protestations of peace: they have a huge force of ships in orbit of their planet, which they used to wipe out the main offensive force of the Jem'Hadar. The Jem'Hadar are more angry than ever.

Season 7: Here would be the real tension season, the search for the cure for the White addiction, the battle of the mysterious Founder-ships against the Jem'Hadar, ships which no one but Founders ever get to see the inside. The Station SF and Klingon staff are ordered recalled, and our crew heroes on the Founder Homeworld are the only ones who might have a chance of ending this war before it results in mutual annihialation.

Major revelations being that the "White" the Jem'Hadar have learned to make on their own is somewhat flawed and not quite as effective as regular White (meaning they're slowly going a little nuts anyway). Another revelation being that the "ships" of the Founders are actually small groups of Founders shapeshifting in tandem, forming a sort of mini-link, and as one functioning as a starship inside a genetically constructed "shell." And of course, the eventual unlocking of the "white" addiction (something the Founders never really bothered to solve, since it wasn't part of the plan to ever cure the Jem'Hadar), and the big ol' offer of the cure to the Jem'Hadar in exchange for the end of hostilities.

Ending the 7 seasons with the station somewhat back where it started: making peace in the Gamma Quadrant, fixing the mistakes of the Dominion, and making ties between the various cultures in order to get the New Dominion into shape...



That's the top of my head folks... Many more details required.

The Doc

[Captain Zymmer]

WOW!

Ask and yea shall receive!

Excellent!

Gonna reread this more carefully when I get home.

Bravo!

[Highway Hoss]

Very well done, Michael! This series could easily tie in to the post-WYLB continuity. This is definitely an idea that deserves further development.
BTY, what kind of ships will you attach to the station (beside runabouts)?

[ghosty]

Originally posted by Highway Hoss
Very well done, Michael! This series could easily tie in to the post-WYLB continuity. This is definitely an idea that deserves further development.
BTY, what kind of ships will you attach to the station (beside runabouts)?

Personally I'd attach a small "gunboat" type ship like a Defiant or Saber...fast and mobile light ship much like DS9. Although some of the capital ships deployed to DS9 could be sent to the Gamma Quadrant as part of the wormhole's defence force. Probably an Akira with its fighter group for extended patrol missions.

[Michael Barratt]

Originally posted by Highway Hoss
Very well done, Michael! This series could easily tie in to the post-WYLB continuity. This is definitely an idea that deserves further development.
BTY, what kind of ships will you attach to the station (beside runabouts)?

Something rather small, but capable of functioning with some shuttles and a Captain's Yacht on board. Something aimed more at relief efforts and medical aid than combat, so maybe a Niagara or a Zodiac (both maybe a bit too large), or a Deneva class (perfect for its adaptability), or a Medditeranean (refitted), or maybe an Intrepid class (which would be a bit cliche once they hit the "stuck on the wrong side of the wormhole" part). Nothing heavy-gunned, as this is a ship of peace/diplomacy (symbolically not armed to the teeth, again why I put the Niagara and the Zodiac on the list).



The Doc

[Captain Zymmer]

In that case why not take an old Miranda, refitted after the war and basically being put out to pasture?

Also something along the lines of a Talon Class, backed up by Runabouts and maybe a Delta Flyer.

[ghosty]

Originally posted by Michael Barratt


Something rather small, but capable of functioning with some shuttles and a Captain's Yacht on board. Something aimed more at relief efforts and medical aid than combat, so maybe a Niagara or a Zodiac (both maybe a bit too large), or a Deneva class (perfect for its adaptability), or a Medditeranean (refitted), or maybe an Intrepid class (which would be a bit cliche once they hit the "stuck on the wrong side of the wormhole" part). Nothing heavy-gunned, as this is a ship of peace/diplomacy (symbolically not armed to the teeth, again why I put the Niagara and the Zodiac on the list).



The Doc

True but you need some teeth as well. Remember this is an allied station and the Klingons will have something to say about it and if they had their way, a squadron of Klingon ships would be parked at the station itching for a fight...no to protect the Alpha Quadrant .

When you think about it, you may need a big ship in the scale of a Galaxy to overawe the opposition. THe best way to keep the peace is to show that you are able to enforce but tempered with restraint which is a Federation specialty so a Galaxy might be ideal but since you don't want anything too big, I guess an Ambassador or Nebula might be better, they're primarily explorers first, combat vessels second. Or dare I suggest going with an old but reliable Excelsior...

[Michael Barratt]

Originally posted by ghosty


True but you need some teeth as well. Remember this is an allied station and the Klingons will have something to say about it and if they had their way, a squadron of Klingon ships would be parked at the station itching for a fight...no to protect the Alpha Quadrant .

When you think about it, you may need a big ship in the scale of a Galaxy to overawe the opposition. THe best way to keep the peace is to show that you are able to enforce but tempered with restraint which is a Federation specialty so a Galaxy might be ideal but since you don't want anything too big, I guess an Ambassador or Nebula might be better, they're primarily explorers first, combat vessels second. Or dare I suggest going with an old but reliable Excelsior...

Hrm. I definitely want the Captain's Yacht as a functional plot device, so I'm thinking either Nebula or Niagara. The Niagara has enough teeth to be decent enough, and was specifically designed with diplomacy in mind, so I'm going with her.

The Klingons, of course, might just assign a small wing of lighter vessels for defense of the station. Maybe that would be a good story arc: the Klingon "wing" of ships protecting the Niagara ship as it limps back to the Gamma Station and the small crew on the Captain's Yacht keep going forward - with a jury-rigged cloaking device "on loan" from one of the Klingon Captains, who tore it out of a Klingon bird of prey that was too damaged to salvage...

Also, while flippin' through my Trek Mag, I thought that Barclay would make a good "tie in" character to begin this particular series: coming to the Gamma Quadrant to set up very long-range communication devices in the station, as the Dominion com-nets aren't quite as good as those created by the Pathfinder Project.

Hrm. Ideas like popcorn burst from their husks in my skull. It makes a rattling sound that is not unpleasant.

The Doc

[Michael Barratt]

Title: Hippocratic Oath
Era: Any around TNG or later
Setting: Olympic Class starship, the USS Hippocrates

Similar to Perrryyy's M*A*S*H idea, with a medical ship just behind the battle lines, this would be the similar set up during times of peace. Inspired from the latest Enterprise episode, it occurred to me that a mission not to seek out what is new, but to heal what is wounded, might be a phenomenal role-playing experience (and also give the doctor characters a little more to do).

Coming to the aid of Federation Aligned and neutral/unaligned worlds would be the mainstay, but a sincerely interesting story arc or two would be relief efforts inside Cardassian or Romulan space...

"Do No Harm," and the various urges to help, grant aid, or cure the incurable would make for some heartwrenching stories...

The Doc

[Perrryyy]

Kinda St. Elsewhere/E.R?

Cool

[Robbert Raets]

Scrubs in Space!

[Michael Barratt]

Originally posted by Robbert Raets
Scrubs in Space!

Yuk Yuk.

Those gawdawful orange full-body uglies..?

The Doc

[Michael Barratt]

The MiniPedia at the end of the 2nd Mass Market edition of the "Starfleet Corps of Engineers" books lists the USS Musgrave as a Saber-Class ship.

An SCE Series set on the Musgrave would be a real treat, especially given the crew of 40, with a total of only 15 capacity for "guests" and the like. I like the notion of a "tough little ship" for the SCE, maneuverable and somewhat well armed...

ANYway, just thought I'd drop that on this thread, before going off and gleefully rubbing my hands together at the thought of crewing the ship...

The Doc