Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed...

[Stradivarius]

I came up with this idea while playing the Lost Unicorn version of the Star Trek RPG a number of years ago.

Basically, when you get right down to it, the Federation is dominated by a few races. Humans, Vulcans, Trill, Betazoids, Andorians, Bolians and a few others. So, what about the other races? Some are treated really poorly (Risians are almost treated like hookers while Deltans are told to keep it in their pants or they can't be around decent races), looked down upon (The Vulcans are famous for treating other races like they are annoyances, while Humans create new and interesting ways to insult them) or even condescended to (Like the Evora from ST: Insurrection. The only reason they were allowed in the Federation at all was because the Federation needed to bolster its forces).

Let's say, just for an instant that maybe a movement starts among the less-represented races of the Federation to move out from under the benevolent but slightly species-ist leadership of the Federation. How would they grab power? Funny you should ask...

They gather followers and allies. Maybe they make a side trip to Kavis Alpha IV and make contact with Wesley's old friends, the intelligent nanites. And they start buying up whatever fragmentary bits of high technology they can get their hands on. Scrap from the Dominion war, maybe Borg cube wreckage, stuff from the Tholians, First Federation and So'na, surplus Klingon ships... They have a plan. They want to create their own Collective like the Borg.

Eventually, they're going to come to the Federation's attention. Maybe they try to convert a few people with cybernetic parts, or former Borg drones. Maybe someone drops the wrong word in a Starbase bar, and maybe a Ferengi who got suckered out of a good deal decides to rat them out.

They take a name like Assimilationists or Collectivists, or maybe that's the name someone gives them. At first, the Federation treats them like a bunch of loonies, and then they launch a ship that poses a threat to the quadrant. Maybe they try to take over the Pathfinder project, install an interplexing beacon into it and dial up the real Borg for a meeting of the minds. Or maybe they start assimilating merchant vessels that cross their path, and trash anyone that tries to stop them.

Something like that.

[Days]

This got me thinking - is it the Federation or Starfleet that's dominated by humans, Vulcans and so forth? From everything we've seen and heard stated or implied by characters, it's the latter. Someone might correct me here if I'm off the mark, but we don't really have that much canonical info on the Federation's internal workings, but it's quite evident that a big chunk of Starfleet is made up of humans. For all we know, and what I suspect, the Federation itself is exceptionally equitable, but not every race is willing or capable of contributing people to the Starfleet effort.

[Reinhart]

You definitely bring up good points, and somethng worthy of a fleets attention. As I sit in my Chief of Fleet Ops cubicle, and others can attest, I am always asking what we can do next? Where do we go from here. Now, take a look at the fleet map: we are responsible for galactic south. I do not see too many of those big-time canon worlds there. I can imagine some interesting things going on, some wild-west frontier style missions.

Maybe, when we get a story arc committee going, you two should volunteer. Great work.