Alternate timeline

Don’t Keep it to Yourself, Share it!
Gul Khold
Moderately Bad
Posts: 66
Joined: Sun May 17, 2015 9:33 pm

Alternate timeline

Postby Gul Khold » Sat Aug 15, 2015 12:02 am

I have been thinking... There's already an stabilished alternate timeline where the Cardassian Union is better off than the main universe's (not by much, considering it is by being allied with Klingons).

But I wonder how you guys imagine it would be some timeline where the Cardassian Union somehow beat the Federation in their conflict, by one way or another, and also kept Bajor? Sure, they would not be able to occupy the Federation, but I mean beat them the way the Klingons and Feds ended up in a situation where they really did not try to keep up a war because it would be too costly and neither would win.

How would be such reality? What should have been done to achieve it? What would happen to the Alpha Quadrant once the Dominion showed up?

User avatar
Shada Dukal
Sheer Evil
Posts: 512
Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 9:58 am

Re: Alternate timeline

Postby Shada Dukal » Sat Aug 15, 2015 12:33 pm

Frankly, never been fan of mirror universes, alternate timelines or temporal Cold Wars. Not in this show. There are shows where time travelling looks very plausible and it is well integrated in the plot but not in this case.

In this sense, I have never liked the Klingon-Cardassian alliance. I quite like Klingons and I adore Cardassians and I just don’t like either of the races losing its idiosyncrasy. Both are warlike species but still their ethos and motivation are completely different.

Cardassia can’t defeat the Federation openly, not in this timeline at least, and it is not necessary indeed. The Federation simply had to learn to give Cardassia a wide berth and stay away from its colonial projects. In fact, the Cardassians managed to teach them this lesson during the Border Wars. The Border Wars did not jeopardize the Federation but they practically hampered all their affiliation plans in the Alpha quadrant. The Federation had to send too many ships to the Cardassian-Federation border, ships that could be used in other campaigns and the conflict made all planets that the Federation wrenched from Cardassia useless and a potential target for new attacks. Having in mind Setlik III, I don’t think that they will bring more settlers unless they allot a ship to guard each colony which would be too costly. The Dominion war, though unfavorable for Cardassia, also taught the Feds a valuable lesson – never to underestimate a smaller but grittier opponent with nothing to lose. This was the first time when they fought for their very survival, not the usual flexing of muscles around the Romulan and Klingon Borders.

The Cardassian Union has been making sacrifices for centuries, Cardassians are used to hardships but Starfleet personnel lost more, they lost their faith in the unbeatable Federation, they realized that they are not invincible and that the space is indeed full of Dominions so the further they go, the more likely they are to encounter a new powerful adversary.

Bajor was the price for ending the Border Wars, the Federation wanted it as a foothold, it has a strategic location and makes a good starting point for potential campaigns in all adjacent sectors, not to mention the discovery of the wormhole.

I guess, if the Cardassian Union had started negotiations with the Federation earlier, before the wars drained it, it could have kept Bajor but it would have had fewer Border colonies. Not a great loss considering they were infested with Maquis anyway. In fact, everything the Union gained from Bajor went for the war effort so the civilian population experienced shortages and scarcity and this in turn gave rise to the dissident movement and led to a civilian Detapa Council. Had they been able to divert more resources to the civilian population, the Detapa Council would have remained military dominated and it would have never voted the withdrawal from Bajor.
I am the Lizard King, I can do anything!
Jim Morrison


Return to “Star Trek Art, Fun and Rumors”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests