Size of the Dominion

Bryan Moore · Post by **Bryan Moore** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 6:18 pm

Do we know just how much of the Gamma Quadrant the Dominion controls, or if any of it spills over into the outlying reaches of the Delta or Alpha Quadrants?

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:12 pm

Not that I know of. But given that they apparently kept a fleet of four thousand plus ships sitting at their end of the Dominion wormhole after Sisko mined it, for a period of weeks to months, and given that everybody talked about re-opening the wormhole as if it would mean the instant end of any hope of victory... I would go with "Big. Really Big."

At a pure guess... ten times the size of the Federation.

Bryan Moore · Post by **Bryan Moore** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:34 pm

Meaning one way or another, they'll be a problem some time down the road. Wild. I'd love to see them drift into the Delta and take on the Borg.

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:38 pm

I tend to think the Borg would wipe the floor with them.

And didn't the Odo link at the end of the Dominion war pretty much convince the Founders that the Federation were good guys they didn't need to worry about?

DBS · Post by **DBS** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:49 pm

Yes, I think that the end of DS9 opened the door to the possibility of a more positive relationship with the Dominion in the future. There might be a problem in the future when the Federation and Dominion share a border

, but otherwise the Borg are the next big challenge in the Dominion's future.

Though I think that given the size of the Dominion, the Borg would need a BIG invasion fleet to succeed. Perhaps the would decide that assimilating them would not be worth the cost (at least not yet...)

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:57 pm

Have the Dominion and the borg encountered each other yet? Or do we know?

DBS · Post by **DBS** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:00 pm

Not to my knowledge, at least. They have probably heard of each other by now, though. Certainly the Dominion would have some intel from when the captured the Defiant (which was specifically built with Borg-fighting in mind), and the Borg would get info on the Dominion from any Federation ship they assimilated

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:08 pm

Good point.
Hmm... possible borg expansion towards the Gamma quadrant coming soon? That would be interesting, borg V Dominion. Didn't the borg get seriously weakened at the VOY finale though?

Bryan Moore · Post by **Bryan Moore** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:13 pm

Borg assimilation of Jem'Hadar may be more of a pain than its worth, what with their need of Ketracel White and all. And you can't assimilate a changeling.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:31 pm

Good point, the only race its worth (or even possible of) assimilating might be the Vor'ta. (sp?)

I Am Spartacus · Post by **I Am Spartacus** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 2:14 am

They only assimilate species that offer a biological and technological distinctiveness that they don't possess. Dominion phase polaron cannon seem to be relatively distinct, and as such they might want to assimilate the Jem'Hadar for those. Other than that, the Dominion seems to possess standard Trek technology, so I can't see the Borg being all that interested in Dominion tech. The Borg don't desire territorial expansion, it's just that it's necessary in order to assimilate distinctive species.

But the founders are unlike anything we've ever seen in Trek. Was Martia in ST:UDC a founder? Anyways, the founders biological distinctiveness would attract Borg attention, easily.

They might, somewhere down the line, try to assimilate some of the founders. They tried to assimilate species 8472 even though they were incapable of doing so, and they tried to stabilize Omega particles even though they couldn't in the end. The Borg will not evaluate chances of success when trying to do something: if they see something they want, they try to take it. Thus a war would ensue, which the Borg would win militarily, and after failing to assimilate the founders they would probably just wipe the founders' homeworld of all life.

So, such a war would end with the extinction of the founders, and the eradication of the Dominion, with no real gain for the Borg. The Federation should be actively trying to cause a war between the two!

As an aside, given how close they came in First Contact with only one cube, why not send two the next time around? Three, four, or even six would be easily doable for the borg.

DBS · Post by **DBS** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 3:33 am

One does wonder why they only send one at a time, ever!

Then again, part of the ST:FC ploy was that they send one cube so that the humans think they'd won (and then blink out of existence...)

Maybe next time they'd try a proper invasion?

BTW, does anyone know the actual, canonical status of the Borg as of the end of VOY?

Post by **Teaos** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 4:21 am

I tend to think of them as the size of of the Federation, Kilingons, Romulans and the other power put together plus some. All those powers together had a hard time fighting part of the Dominion.

But then I imagin the Dominion is very heavily built up.

I mean the average Federation planet would be lucky to get to a Billion people on it unless it's a home world.

I imagin the Dominion may hold a lot of teritory under it's sway and huge huge resorces but not really a lot of people.

They have shown the ability to build soilders and fleets at a HUGE rate.

They can react to a threat very fast but don't keep a standing fleet more than they need. Up untill they meet the federation I imagin they were rather peaceful. They are so big no one would want ot mess with them thus they had peace.

Foxbat · Post by **Foxbat** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 4:48 am

Assuming the Borg find something distinctive enough to assimilate, I would think the assimilation of the Jem'Hadar to not be too difficult, using technology to get around or replace the Ketrecel dependency. Once they get a transwarp hub up and running that spills out into the Gamma Quadrant, I think the tide would turn on the Dominion pretty quick.

Post by **Teaos** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 5:00 am

I think I would actually be a really good fight.

The Dominion like the Borg have the ability to have vast numbers at their command and replace losses very fast. Also it appears that the borg don't attack on mass so the dominion should be able to repel them rather well. They wouldn't win and take teritory but they wouldn't lose.