Back to the Bassan

[Granitehewer]

Hey
Just been wargaming and trying alternate scenarios and curious as to peoples' opinions here.
If for some reason, perhaps shinzon being delayed by political intrigue or ill health, that picard had successfully traversed the bassan rift and linked up with the federation taskforce, do you think that donatra et al would hold back and observe the action hoping that shinzon would be stopped, preferably with heavy federation losses including picard, or do you think that for solidarity/vengeance/prestige, she would decloak and assist earlier?
pete

[Mikey]

Hmmm...

I think she was pretty determined to show the "new face" of Romulus, including the spirit of cooperation. In addition, I believe she still would have wanted to at least help Romulus "clean up its own mess."

Plus, I'm sure they wanted to test the Valdore/Norexan-type in anger (though that didn't work out so well in the movie...)

[Granitehewer]

she seemed highly cooperative even to the point of boom-shacka-lacka with shinzon, until he mentioned having a discussion with her about loyalty when he returned, also he scorned the woman (foolish man), but until then she seemed very compliant, and perhaps used the pariah thing as a cover?

[Deepcrush]

Shiztuuu pissed off a woman... Is there anyone here who's going to believe even an enemy fleet is going to stop her, let alone if that enemy fleet is on her side?

[kostmayer]

Hell hath no fury like a woman in command of a battleship scorned?

[Deepcrush]

Well, a pair of cruisers but still... its not a good day.

[Schrodinger's Hat]

My take? Donatra's a pragmatist. She'll do whatever she thinks will garner her the greatest advantage. Sure, the classically villainous thing to do if Picard made it across the Bassan Rift would be to let Shinzon tear into Starfleet, then finish what he started, but it's not the sensible thing. Starfleet just finished fighting a war against the Dominion, in which she'd have had many opportunities to have any illusions that the Federation is "weak" dispelled. Before that, they'd been fighting the Klingons, and they've recently suffered another Borg incursion. On the one hand, all that had to weaken their fighting forces. On the other, the Romulans weren't exempt from the beating all the Alpha Quadrant powers took in the Dominion War, and with Martok as Chancellor, relations between the Federation and the Klingons are nice and cozy again.

Bottom line, wherever the battle with Shinzon took place, and whoever else was there to participate, Donatra had no choice but to do what she did and try to pitch in. If she didn't, she'd have handed the Federation one hell of a casus belli at a time when they'd almost have to be real jumpy. Three separate forces have taken a shot at them in the past few years, and this would look like number four. Whether the fleet stopped Shinzon or not, it wouldn't matter. The head of state for the Romulan Star Empire would have just tried to kill every man, woman, and child on Earth, and would have done so personally. Starfleet would turn around from mopping up after the battle and roared across the Neutral Zone like the wrath of God, and the Klingons would have been right behind them.

Shinzon's plan was the equivalent of committing suicide on a national level, and the only way to stop this from happening was for Donatra to jump into the fight on the Federation's side. By joining in and fighting just as hard as anyone else to stop him, she robbed him of his legitimacy. She painted him as a renegade and a madman. She turned it from an act of war to an act of terrorism and set her ships - and by extension, the RSE - up as allies against him. Even if she failed and Shinzon fired the thalaron weapon on Earth before being defeated - and let's face it, without support he was on a one-way trip - she shielded the RSE from retaliation by inserting Romulan forces in amongst the heroic crews struggling to prevent that catastrophe.

So... yeah, I'm with the rest of y'all. Wherever the fight takes place, I think she jumps in.

[steamrunner]

I agree. Sets her up well to join the Praetor-of-the-Month club...