Thursday, October 23, 2008

Captain's Log USS Guadalcanal Stardate 1008.24

Captain's Log
USS Guadalcanal
Stardate 1008.24

We arrived at the Ocampan homeworld to find a massive Kazon warship in orbit, peacefully, with the USS Exeter alongside. Without standing down from red alert, we contacted the Exeter. According to Captain Reggie Farrell, Ambassador Khan was on the surface meeting with the Kazon Ogla First Maje Jabin. Negotiations had reached a turning point, as the ambassador had reported. Apparently, a primary dispute that the Kazon had maintained with Captain Janeway on the Voyager was the unwillingness the captain had shown to share even the most rudimentary technology in exchange for local assistance. The Kazon regarded this as unfair and insulting, and made any hope for peace between them impossible. They were just as willing to discuss a non-aggression agreement when Ambassador Khan mentioned the possibility of sharing rudimentary protein resequencer technology. The fact that the Exeter does not have a protein resequencer, nor the capability to fabricate one is the reason that the Guadalcanal was summoned. We use a resequencer in our advanced xenobiology labs. With this resequencer, the Kazon will be able to convert base matter to edible food and potable water without being able to easily adapt the technology into transporter technology. In the judgement of the Federation Council, that represents humanitarian aid without an unacceptable risk of cultural contamination.

I understand this, and I don't really have a problem helping the Kazon, especially if it opens diplomatic channels. It has often been the case that humanitarian aid (or a lack thereof) has often forged political alliances for good or evil. There have been numerous instances of hostile powers dispensing aid to poverty-stricken areas as a means of gaining control of the populace, and with the races of the alpha and beta quadrants moving into the delta quadrant, one of them is certain to begin to exploit the Kazon in this manner. We've just gotten to them first, and we'll take advantage of that to forge an alliance. The only disquiet I feel about the whole thing is that the Kazon are tough and innovative. Their ships are formidable without the benefit of our technology. So we will be aiding at least one sect of a fragmented society with a history of hostility and ruthlessness, for the simple reason that we want to beat everyone else to it. That's fine if it works out well, but potentially disastrous if it doesn't. In any case, I'll beam down with an engineering team and a dozen protein resequencers to show to the Kazon.


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