History Of Yesterday's Enterprise

[Liz Not Beth]

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[Ineti]

I'm thinking the Federation got pasted following the loss of the Enterprise-D, resulting in Federation starships to break off on their own and make the best of it, fighting hit and run and just trying to stay alive. The Klingons take over the Alpha Quadrant, and get run over by the Borg, fighting honorably to the end.

Totally different universe.

[Lancer]

If you leave out the Borg this could end up a lot like the DS9-era Mirror Universe, different history similar results. In which case the Romulans might take the role of the mirror Cardassians as allies and/or reluctant underlings of the Klingons.
Maybe some of those Romulans want to overthrow the Klingons and form a temporary aliance with the surviving remnants of Starfleet, all the while plotting to rule everyone, once the Klingons are out of the way.

As an aside: This game of yours Liz, is it going to feature any giant fish?

[Owen E Oulton]

Well, it's implied in the episode that the war began because the Klingons saw a Federation ship cut and run rather than helping - they had no way of knowing it was temporally transported.

As for afterwards, take a cue from one of the ships in Parallels, where Riker is captain and the universe has gone to hell in a handbasket. No more Federation, scattered ships fighting a running battle to survive, et cetera...

[wolfe]

for the timeline not to collapse you'd need the destruction of the E-C before it goes back into the rift..

for the borg to come rolling through you may need 'ol Q to have sent the alternate E-D to the delta Quad as well.
then the borg would show up again, just before before the federation falls, but if i recall the klingon empire isnt too close to the route the cube took(unless you change it for your game).
then you could do your own version of wolf 359, but it would be a combined force of klingon and federation..where a treaty or cease fire is signed,but without the E-D to stop the cube this time I guess it would be up to your players(if your game takes place then)..or a rebuilt E-D captained by ol picard himself if you deem him surviving-thus keeping locutus..

[ghosty]

Yesterday's Enterprise is my favourite all time episode of Trek so I've experimented with it in my game from time to time.

The way I explained the altered timeline to the players was that after the failure of the Enterprise-C to save Narenda III, the Klingons declared war on the Federation considering cowards and oathbreakers. Although some Klingons tried to counsel peace, including the legendary Admiral Kang, the High Council chose war.

With the outbreak of total war, all exploration missions were placed on hold. Ships under construction (like the Galaxy-class) were converted to warships and ships were withdrawn from the line for refit into warships.

The war raged on for 20 odd years and few of the events depicted in ST:TNG season 1 - 3 occured, inculding the classic Q Who which exposed the Alpha/Beta quadrant to the Borg which left the Borg unaware of the Federation for the moment.

Q on the other hand did take an interest in the ongoing conflict only because it satisfied his theory that mankind were barbaric and warlike so he did not feel he needed to test humanity as they were proving him correct by their destructive war with the Klingons.

By the time of the events of Yesterday's Enterprise, the Federation was loosing. Under pressure from three spearheads led by the Klingons' best warriors, Generals Martok, Gowron and the new firebrand Worf.

During this period, the Romulans were rubbing their hands with glee at the war they had provoked and sat back to watch as their two greatest foes destroyed themselves. All this while the Romulans instead of turning insular, began a programme of aggressive expansion, with more exploratory missions to find planets which could fuel their war machine as they prepared to strike once the Federation and the Klingons had beaten each other into submission.

In my world, the Enterprise D is destroyed but not before wiping out a Klingon battlegroup. The only survivour is Data (or rather his head) which is picked up by the USS Saratoga under the command of Captain Benjamin Sisko.

The war goes badly for the Federation after the loss of its best ship and soon the Klingons conquer Andor, Tellar, Alpha Centauri and after a daring assault led by General Worf, Terra falls. The remnants of Starfleet falls back to Vulcan and prepare for a desparate last stand.

By chance, the Klingon Chancellor Kempec who was the driving force behind the war dies in a freak accident. The High Council is spilt as the various leaders vye for power. The fleets in the Federation hold in place as Gowron, Martok and Worf return to Q'Onos to put their hats in the ring against the powerful Duras clan.

The breathing room given by the lull in the Klingon offensive allows the Federation to make overtures to the Cardassians and Romulans hoping to find allies in their war. The Romulans refuse knowing that no matter who wins, the winner would be too weak to fight them. The Cardassians are more cagy, they give some aid but nothing significant but enough to keep the Federation hoping for an alliance whilst the Cardassians occupied worlds near their border and intensified their occupation of Bajor.

That's where the story ends for me.

I didn't bring the Borg in solely because the chain of events which brought them into the Alpha Quadrant did not occur. Q didn't make contact with Picard during the Enterprise's first mission because there was no need to. Q's purpose as I see it was to test humanity but if htey proven themselves to be barbaric, there was no need for him to do so. Hence no encounters with Picard, no challenges for Picard to prove humanity's worth and hence no encounter with the Borg. Eventually someone would stumble onto the Borg, but just not yet.

[Liz Not Beth]

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[Sheliak Bob]

The Borg might still make an appearance, based on the events from the episode "Neutral Zone". It is established that the Borg were scooping up outposts along both sides of the Neutral Zone for analysis. I suspect that Q, in "Q Who" wasn't actually trying to scare or humble Picard & company. He gave them a sneak peek at the Borg, who were going to be coming anyway. Without that preview, the Federation would have been completely unprepared for the Borg when they came. (Still didn't help all THAT much.)
So, in the alternate timeline, my best guess is that the Romulans wouldn't have found out that the Federation wasn't responsible for the missing outposts until some border skirmishing took place. (The D, pulled out of the frontlines against the Klingons, eventually drives one or more Romulan warbird back across the Neutral Zone.) The Romulans are suitably impressed and decide not to risk war with the more belligerent than usual Federation.
No one suspects a thing about the Borg until they show up. That would be years later than happened in standard TNG timeline, though, since they wouldn't have had their tantalizing taste of the D to encourage them to assimilate Earth. When they do come, it might well be "in force". Bad news.

I can see the Romulans standing back, waiting for the warring parties to collapse before striking. Without their first war against the Federation, though, the Cardassians might well make an alliance with the on the ropes Federation to forestall a Klingon victory. The Klingon-Cardassian war becomes a "second front" in the ongoing struggle.
If the Klingon succession becomes a contested Civil War, count on Romulan and Federation offensives trying to take advantage of the distraction.

[Antonsb214]

As much as I liked Yesterday's Enterprise. the idea of a prolonged 20 year all out war is hard to figure. The Federation always seemed to have the edge in resources. There seemed to be a 10 year lead up to the all out war, the Ent-C vanished near Narenda III 30 years before, so there must have been a breakdown in relations, the Khitomer Accords didn't hold and then there is a war for 20 years. DS9 showed us what just two years of war did, 20 years should leave everyone ripe for the picking by the Romulans. Where are the Organians during all of this, didn't they imply that if the major powers tried to go to war they would prevent it? Maybe there are other differences in that timeline, maybe it's the worst case scenario timeline.

[Siroth]

There have been several good points here, mostly that the Borg would arrive later and be known only to the Romulans and the whole Klingon thing about Worf and what would become of the Duras family.

Try this on for size.

The Federation falls, conquered by the Klingons. In the end the Federation council is forced to accept defeat, but a number of Starships refuse to accept the order. They run to the edge of the Federation, vowing to keep up the fight. They are then pursued by the Klingons and the remnants of the Federation that are forced into submission lest their lack of cooperation causing punishment among the general population.

The former so noble Starfleet officers form their own new terrorist-like organization called 'The Maquis'. To fight off the growing Klingon empire, they ally themselves with another aggressive power who is beginning to see that the Klingons will become a bigger and bigger problem - the Cardassians. Skirmishes begin on the borders of the Federation in the Alpha Quadrant, but no actual war yet because the Cardassians only fight by helping the Maquis, and they hide themselves in an inhospitable area of space known as 'The Badlands'.

Meanwhile the Romulans have gleefully been watching all their enemies destroy each other. And they are waiting patiently... Once the Klingons and Cardassians have fought it out, they will make their. However, they have a problem with assaults on their outlying colonies near the Federation, but they assume it's just these 'Maquis' terrorists or else some troublesome Klingons. After all, the Klingons never liked Romulans, and the Romulans are willing to look the other way and let a few civilians go to waste for now since it's not yet time to move against the Klingons...

Suddenly, however, they discover that the colonies were not attacked by anyone they assumed. It was a completely unknown race of cyborgs called the Borg, and suddenly they pour into Romulan space without mercy! The Romulans hope to contain the situation, fearing that their enemies might take advantage of their momentary weakness, so they shut up about it as they fight the Borg. The fight does not go well, though...

About this time a Maquis ship discovers a stable Wormhole in the Bajoran system. This causes a lot of trouble as both the Maquis, the Cardassians, and the local Bajorans conquered by the Cardassians see the potential in this. When the Klingons also find out about it, the Cardassians suspect the Maquis told them about it, which causes tension between them...

Meanwhile the Borg are pouring into Romulan space - they are everywhere! The Romulans can no longer contain them and they begin finding their way into former Federation space, now controlled by the Klingons. The Klingons are shocked but move to attack. Their ships are utterly wiped out or assimilated by the Borg, however, and they are as powerless to stop the Borg as the Romulans were [remember, it was the inguinuity of the Federation and the 'man on the inside' who stopped the Borg - neither of which is available to the Romulans or Klingons]. The Borg conquer more and more Romulan and Klingon space, and thereby Federation space.

However, the Cardassians haven't wasted time. Fearing the Borg they have been looking into this new wormhole they've found, just in case they can't stop the Borg and need to flee, in which case they intend to take a good deal of their population with them, then destroy the wormhole behind them. From the other side of the wormhole, however, another force has been observing them... They are called the Dominion, and they have decided they don't like all the chaos of the Alpha Quadrant. In a swift move they move through the wormhole and secure the system, thereby freeing the Bajoran people. The Bajorans become part of the Dominion. The Dominion then launch a huge war against the Borg!

Different or what? We can't really change the Borg, but having the Dominion be the saviors of the Alpha Quadrant is a really nasty twist, I think

[SIR SIG]

Come to think about it, the alternate timeline could develop into the DS9 mirror universe with only a minor amount of prodding.

All you would have to do is tie up a few loose ends with the TOS information.

Anyway, who's to say the E-D in this ep wasn't the a 'reformed' Terran alliance battleship. They did after all call her a battleship

[Dan Gurden]

I am intrigued that the Cardassians keep showing up as the good guys, as Allies of the Maquis or of Starfleet... And aftre all this is an alternate universe, so anything can happen... But it has been bugging me that the Cardassians at the point things alter... Are about to become the most aggressive they were in the Primary universe, with the assault on Setlik III, and the Federation/Cardassian war... Because the 2350-2360 period was one where the Cardassians were definatly the bad guys...

Now if they considered the Federation weak in the Primary universe, this is likely to be doubly so in one where the Klingon/Federation alliance doesn't exist... Let alone a Klingon/Federation war...

I envision a deep incursion into Fedreation territory, claiming it as Cardassian Space. Encroaching forward bit by little bit, and eventually forcing the Federation to fight a war on two fronts... This would pretty much ensure the Federations defeat, but have far less chance of weakening either the Klingons or Cardassians... Two major powers, just that little bit behind the Federation Technologically, but strong and warlike...

Now would this force the Romulans to join... If they were faced with being left with 2 strong warlike powers picking over the remains of the Fedreation???

[Liz Not Beth]

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[Antonsb214]

I suppose that military tech would advance considerably in this period. So maybe the Sovereign, Defiant, Akira, Sabre/Saber, Norway, Steamrunner and Prometheus class ships come out in the nick of time and smash the Klingons.

[wolfe]

problem with having those vessels deploy earlier is that if the federation doesnt encounter the borg then they have no reason to develop those systems to counter the borg....but then war is the mother of necessity...and boy did she have ugly children..