In the embers of the dominion war

[Granitehewer]

Hi
There were repeated mentions in ds9 of how the founders are one yet many, and overt statements by the female founder to weyoun that odo was more important than the alpha quadrant (yeah bugger laas! lol).......anyways i was writing a fan fic for a tabletop wargame campaign and had it set beyond ds9 but there is one point that my friends and i contend so was hoping for your opinions...
So this story is set several decades after ds9 in this universe , bajor joined the ufp and after a brief detente between the rse and ufp, the rse was weakened by a series of natural disasters and within several years the ke had gained control of romulan space, barring the former romulan properties in the occupied cardassian union which the federation took in as protectorates.
I was thus going to have the frosty ufp-ke relationship we see in 'agt' tng and with a possible re-emergence of the breen as a power beyond their borders.
The point of contention is this, i wanted to leave it at that, believing that with the female founder in federation custody that the founders would stick to the gamma quadrant and as agreed allow federation colonisation and mapping of said area.However several people in my group wanted a resurrgent dominion to capitalise on the tensions and disruptions in the A and B quadrants.
Which do you prefer?
(Other suggestions was for an ex member of the obsidian order to assassinate the female founder thus paving the way for a dominion counterstrike, and another was for the klingons who are weakened from their war and subjegation of the romulans to covertly petition some sort of deal with the dominion which has been weakened through its enemies in the gamma quadrant who witnessed the dominions' defeat in the alpha quadrant decades earlier)
pete (ps if am slow in replying is due to no net at home and a prolonged liver cancer and cirrhosis scare with my mum)

[Mikey]

#1 - Sorry to hear about your mother. Hopes and prayers are with her.

#2 - I'm not really sure i see a reason (from the Founders' POV) for further aggression in the AQ/BQ. Their previous aggression was motivated, at least in part, by proactive xenophobia. The fact that they've been left alone in the GQ since the war would lead one to believe that such a motivation is no longer valid.

[Granitehewer]

but part of the mentioned peace treaty, was to allow the ufp to chart the gamma quadrant,which surely is provocative from the dominion pov?

[Mikey]

I'd hardly see it as provocative i the provisions for it were set down in writing.

[Mark]

Personally, I'd the the GQ alone for the time being. There are more than enough potential headaches in the AQ. If you need additional baddies, there are alwasy the Tholians, Gorn, Orion, or even a Ferengi civil war COULD work.

[Granitehewer]

mikey- people do change their views and attitudes so i assumed that maybe the founders now cured may feel unshackled by their obligations
mark- yeah i thought with the ferengi now introducing a central tax system and empowerment for females, that economically the ferengi are on the ascent and a potential menace

[Mark]

And ripe for a civil war with Rom and his sweeping changes. Not too hard to imagine the traditionalists taking great offense to that.

[Deepcrush]

The Dominion.
I don't see them picking a fight for anything. I never saw anything that stated the victory terms by the UFP was they and they alone get to colonize the GQ. The fact is that the Dominion returned to the GQ and the UFP was left as the sole super power of the AQ. Divided by a wormhole which can be very heavily fortified very quickly. Either side attacking the other is just a waste.

The Cardassian Union.
Them becoming protectorates under the UFP makes sense. It also adds a very large pool of combat able and minded persons to be recruited. However, I don't see why the KE would have a problem with this. It removes the problem of the CU. It adds power to a trusted Allie. It helps fortify the wormhole, the only pathway for the Dominion to attack the AQ/BQ.

The Klingon Empire.
Still under the House of Martok. I don't see him turning on the UFP. He was a MASSIVE supporter of the Alliance. If anything, the weakening of the Empire is reason for the Klingons to stay close to the UFP. It would allow them time to rebuild. However, I don't see them catching up to the UFP. Even in AGT and Endgame the KE is miles behind the UFP. The CU becoming protectorates of the UFP helps the KE. It protects their Border. Opens up the industrial might of the CU to trade with the KE.

I agree with Mark that you have plenty of other opponents in the AQ.

[Coalition]

After the Dominion War, you have just had the top 4-5 empires lose most of their fleets and take industrial and economical damage. Figure all the enemies that the Federation, Romulans, Klingons, Cardassians (and possibly the Breen) normally keep controlled see their larger neighbors are much weaker.

Slave races that normally rely upon the Klingons, Cardassians, or Romulans for protection are suddenly exposed to attack, races that wanted to rebel now have the opportunity, races that have wanted Federation systems now have a chance to grab them, etc.

The Ferengi are the only ones left with a strong military, and they can trade that military protection in exchange for critical supplies, or even ownership sof certain systems they have wanted for a long time.

Don't worry about another major war, worry about all the smaller wars that are going to break out, where there is no 'good side', and the Federastion has to decide what to do. I.e. a slave race in the Klingon Empire wants to rebel and join the Federation, but the Klingons don't want to let it go. Combine that with the planet needing resources to build, and its distance from Federation territory, and the Federation Captain has to make a decision.

[Sionnach Glic]

I can't see the Dominion launching another attack. Not out of fear that S31 would kill them off with a bio-weapon (really, that's ridiculously easy to defend against and not much of a deterrent), but simply beacuse it wouldn't be worth it. The AQ wormhole is simply too heavily defended and too great a chokepoint to try to fight through. It would simply cost too much to be worth it, particularly when there's plenty of open space in the GQ they can go off and conquer instead.

That said, I can easily see a restoration of hostilities between the two, arising out of the Dominion's desire to see their own space secure. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they decided to go back on the treaty terms and boot the AQ races out of their territory. They could easily destroy any AQ ships in the GQ and quickly fortify their end of the wormhole, making any AQ counter-attack impossible. The result would be the AQ reluctantly agreeing to a ceasefire, as no offensives can be mustered by either side.

I would actually see the various races that remained neutral during the war (Tholians, Gorn, etc) as being greater contenders now. They almost certainly would have bulked up their fleets during the war, and the weakened state of the larger nations would have left many systems and colonies undefended.
If you wanted to bring in a new enemy, I can see these previously regional powers being a good place to start. With oversized fleets, they could easily have annexed border worlds of the losing nations with little opposition, seizing control of all their assets and resources.
With an increase in resouces, territory, fleet size and their shipbuilding skills perhaps bolstered by defecting Cardassians/Breen/Vor'ta, they could become a fairly serious threat in the decades after the Dominion War.

[Deepcrush]

Where is this treaty that everyone talks about?

I would actually see the various races that remained neutral during the war (Tholians, Gorn, etc) as being greater contenders now. They almost certainly would have bulked up their fleets during the war, and the weakened state of the larger nations would have left many systems and colonies undefended.
If you wanted to bring in a new enemy, I can see these previously regional powers being a good place to start. With oversized fleets, they could easily have annexed border worlds of the losing nations with little opposition, seizing control of all their assets and resources.
With an increase in resouces, territory, fleet size and their shipbuilding skills perhaps bolstered by defecting Cardassians/Breen/Vor'ta, they could become a fairly serious threat in the decades after the Dominion War.

Agreed. While they most likely couldn't match the major powers. They are free to attack smaller weaker nations since the major powers are to busy to care. Minus the UFP, which isn't to weak... they just don't care to begin with.

Don't worry about another major war, worry about all the smaller wars that are going to break out, where there is no 'good side', and the Federastion has to decide what to do. I.e. a slave race in the Klingon Empire wants to rebel and join the Federation, but the Klingons don't want to let it go. Combine that with the planet needing resources to build, and its distance from Federation territory, and the Federation Captain has to make a decision.

I agree with the Brush Wars concern. Fact remains that the CU is out of the picture. The KE is ten kinds of messed up. The RSE is wrecked. The UFP and the Breen are the only two major powers left standing and the Breen Fleet just isn't a threat to the UFP anymore with the EDW out of action. This leaves the UFP standing alone and I don't see them going about acting as the interstellar police force.

[Granitehewer]

klingon-federation relations are precipitous at best, even in previous times of peace, many klingons have clamored for war with the federation (see the worf-kurn dialogue in redemption) and as for the klingons happy to strengthen an ally.. watch ''the chase'', the klingon captain stated that the empire would not allow a weapon to fall into the hands of an enemy or a friend, this only changed at the prospect of dealing with two galors.
as for the federations' rights to chart the gq see ''wylb 2''

[Mark]

Not to mention that while Martok is favorably inclined towards the Federation, the alliance COULD rest on his weakest breath. Some ambitious Klingon comes along, something happens to Martok, and BOOM..........alliance goes straight to hell.

Look how quickly things fell apart before as well. Gowron was also favorably inclined toward the Federation, but didn't hesitate to disolve the alliance and attack when he felt the need.

[Granitehewer]

what if the dominion finds the sword of kahless and capitalises on that?

[Deepcrush]

Klingons go on crusade against the Dominion.