The Structure of the Obsidian Order

[Shada Dukal]

What do we know about the internal structure of the Obsidian Order? How many branches does it encompass, what are they called. What is the hierarchy and interplay between the divisions? Here are two examples of real secret services. Secret agencies are extremely complex structures related to and acting in coordination with other governmental bodies.

Forget about the James Bond stupidity. No lonely superheroes saving the world, just a lot of information processing and analytical work. It may not sound very glorious but it is true. In fact, Garak mocked Bashir’s infatuation with this spy cliché quite extensively.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizat ... nce_Agency

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGB

Here is what we have on Memory Beta.

http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Obsidian_Order

This is what Memory Beta says on the Cardassian Intelligence Bureau.

http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Carda ... nce_Bureau

[Shyak]

I imagine the Obsidian Order rather as a secret police than a secret service.
Although the difference is very small indeed.

It seems that the most efficient secret police was the GDR "Stasi".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi
The branches as seen under the heading "Organization" could be quite similar to the OO structure.
Personally I'm quite intrigued by the "Division of Garbage Analysis"

What do you think of Cardassian "Police"?
Investigating crime scenes, gathering forensic material and so on ...
Would it be a sub-branch of the Military or of the Order?
What kind of uniforms would they wear?
Or would it be something completely different from both?

With their love for enigma-stories, could there be something like earth's "detective novels"?

[Shada Dukal]

Well, as far as I remember Terok Nor trilogy states that the Cardassians have a regular law-enforcing force, different from the Order. I suppose the regular law enforcement is under the jurisdiction of the courts. So all common crimes must be investigated and dealt with by them. The Obsidians are likely to investigate much bigger issues and their analyses are for governmental structures only. Judging by the “Tribunal” episode, the guards who handled O’Brian wore standard armor. It is said that the Cardassians have a very good investigative system because the verdict is based on this evidence, not on the trial itself. I expect them to have meticulous forensic analysts, good labs and well-trained investigators. I guess they are something like Odo or his predecessor Thrax – chief security officers.

http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Thrax

This division may sound hilarious to you but I lived for 17 years in a real totalitarian society and if you had too many Western gadgets or clothes, this was considered “corrupting Western influence” and was frowned upon. Not that it was forbidden but if you demonstrated such things too ostensibly this could provoke some checks on your incomes or activities.

Well, police puts the emphasis on domestic affairs whereas secret service implies external operations too. But Stasi is indeed one of the best structures ever existing so we definitely have to enrich the Obsidian Order with their experience. It often assisted KGB. I find that really impressive:

“ The Stasi employed one full-time agent for every 166 East Germans. The ratios swelled when informers were factored in: counting part-time informers, the Stasi had one informer per 6.5 people. By comparison, the Gestapo employed one secret policeman per 2,000 people.”

I like their psychological harassment methods too – Zersetzung is very difficult to achieve, it is costly, and requires a lot of patience and coordination on the part of the agent because people do not lose their minds that quickly. I guess the Obsidians will like that too.

[Gazomg]

for me Cardassia was always doomed in a way due to its political set up

A detapa council , the military, the obsidian order, and then the military had their own intelligence as well, add in a police force that most of the time found everyone huilty before any trial

[Shada Dukal]

Well, Cardassia has nothing to do with any democratic practices, it is a militaristic totalitarian empire. It was meant as a monument of the post-Cold War hatred toward the totalitarian states that collapsed in 1989-1990.

Still, I like Cardassia the way it is, I really want to give Tain and Garak the best security police possible. I also want the Central Command to have a powerful adversary. And I would enjoy the dissidents being persecuted by the whole repressive state apparatus.

I want to show them my country, make them live a week in my shoes and then ask them, “Do you still want democracy and lack of state interference?” The problem is that they won’t live that long. Democracy and freedom of speech are not good for eating, the rest is jungle law. I am an old militaristic, combative bitch, I can do it, but I would love to watch Natima Lang being robbed and mugged in the street in broad daylight because there is no state and no law.

I don’t think that the Order deals with common criminality. FBI, CIA, KGB don’t do it, they take over a case only if it is considered a matter of national security. In fact, all totalitarian states display an abundance of intelligence services and counter-intelligence units run by different governmental bodies and that is the beauty of it. Analyzing the moves of the rival agencies is just as important as the immediate priorities.

The Cardassian juridical system is supposed to serve the Cardassians. The ST fans might be abhorred, but I am sure that the level of criminality is extremely low. I like that it is swift and there is no appellation, whoever decides to break the law knows the outcome in advance. The rules are postulated very clearly, play by the rules and everything is fine, the state protects you, go against the state and its laws, and you are in trouble. In such a society, you behave even if it does not come from the heart. That is good indeed because most people behave only that way. The ultimate power of State is important for Cardassia, this is what brings them together, so their law expresses that. The State is always right and arbitrates everything. Cardassia does not have the egalitarian individualism typical of contemporary societies. And the Cardassians will be lucky if they manage to keep their state and don’t lose their common goals.

How shall we name the branches within the Order? Directorate, division, unit? How many directorates do we need, and how many divisions would they have and what units will operate under them? There must be liaisons between the Detapa Council and the Central Command. According to Memory Beta, Alon Ghemor was a liaison between the Detapa Council and the Order. I guess we also need some board or committee in the Detapa Council where the activities of the Order are formally sanctioned and approved, I mean the official part of their activities, for PR purposes and to maintain some illusion of transparency.

[Shyak]

The "Division of Garbage Analysis" sounds more fascinating than hilarious to me.
Because I'm a rather pragmatic person and wondered how it was executed.
They must find a way to label the waste somehow. Otherwise it cannot be allocated in a larger block of flats.

And do you think, "Garbage Analysis" would be obsolete in the 24th century - with waste extraction systems being a kind of reversed replicator?
Hmmm, and maybe it wouldn't be wise to sit and drink from a bottle of Federation-Root-Beer in public on Cardassia?

However I fully agree with you that Cardassia was meant as a monument of the post-Cold War hatred and distrust toward the "Eastern Bloc countries". Once I have read a very interesting article about those parrallels but I can not find it now. I tried hard but it seems to be gone from the Internet

Yes, the regular law-enforcing force under jurisdiction of the courts makes perfect sense. But that would mean they don't belong to the military. So why do they wear the same uniforms? The uniforms should be a little bit different. Thrax fabric clothing was slightly reminiscent of the military uniforms - maybe it was a kind of classic police uniform? And what about the ranks - would they use a similar ranking system like the army?

The name of the Order-branches? Directorate sounds great but could be confused with the Directorate Party! Or maybe this could be a welcomed confusion, after all the Directorate is a rather conservative party - and the name could be considered as a tribute to the good old days with a strong Obsidian Order and a stronger Cardassia.

And how many directorates do we need? In any case, it should be a number which is divisible by three - according to Cardassian Aesthetics.
I will think about the different units in the next days.
This issue requires careful consideration.

The Liaisons:
Yes, two liaisons for each of the three state powers. I mean two from Central Command, two from the Detapa Council and two from the Obsidian Order, respectively one for each of the other two powers - that makes six in whole - how perceptive I am today

[Shada Dukal]

Well, when they launch an “active measures” operation they select a particular person and organize 24/7 monitoring for this person and their family. They don’t check the garbage of the whole block of flats but only the one dumped by this family. It works if you know what you are looking for – labels, receipts for goods and services, wrappings, pieces of paper with telephone numbers, pages from organizers with daily routines. Even torn to pieces, they can be restored. However, I don’t think it is applicable for 24-century Cardassia, because they don’t use paper as an information carrier and the spies or dissidents would hardly throw away a padd or an isolinear rod containing important data before destroying it completely.

I don’t think that the filmmakers paid so much attention to the guards' uniforms as we do. Cardassian-centered episodes are awfully expensive so I suppose they simply used the available uniforms.

Well, having in mind Garak’s comment on root beer, I don’t think that the Cardassians would care about this kind of drink but I suppose that the state restricts the import of foreign gadgets, beverages, foodstuffs and holodeck programs in order to keep the population away from un-patriotic temptations and to stimulate the national industry. The Cardassian scientists in “Destiny” said that the Ministry of Science provided them with foreign foodstuffs and they did not like the traditional Cardassian dishes. I guess it was considered a luxury that only distinguished citizens could enjoy. This makes for a well-developed black market and trading of services in exchange for foreign goods.

I don’t think that the average Cardassian citizen has a replicator. Replicator technology is not that available on Cardassia as it is in the Federation. I guess it is reserved for ships and space stations where delivery of real foodstuffs is impossible, or big administrative hubs such as universities and ministries. Replicators themselves consume too much energy so they can’t be that widespread. I expect them to ration water. In “Never Ending Sacrifice” it is said that having a garden or a lawn is a luxury, it means you are opulent enough to afford all the water it needs.

Yes, we definitely need more liaisons, the more, the merrier, the beauty of administrative hassle and red tape, we also need an Obsidian Committee of Ways and Means that has to coerce the Detapa Council into more funding on “special projects” whose details can’t be revealed because it is a matter of national security.

Well, directorate was suggested by Memory Beta, there was an Applied Science Directorate. What is more I guess they use Directorate as a blanket term for any major branch in the Cardassian administration. KGB was divided into directorates, CIA uses the term too. So I combined Stasi, KBG and CIA and this is the result. But we can use Branch, Administration, Department.

1. Directorate of Interior Surveillance – comlinks, subspace communications, bugging, interception, eavesdropping. Every decent Cardassian knows what “We can’t discuss it now, we will have a walk and you will tell me about it” means. It means that it can’t be discussed via the com network or in a room.

2. Directorate of Foreign Operations – interstellar espionage, infiltration missions, sabotages, kidnapping, assassinations.

3. Economic Reconnaissance and Anti-Sabotage Directorate – monitoring of strategic industrial installations, protection against economic espionage, reverse engineering, research into new technologies developed by other interstellar powers.

4. Foreign Reconnaissance Directorate – gathering data about the Federation, the Romulans, the Klingons and the smaller powers such as the Tzenkethi Coalition or the Talarian Republic. Analytical trust that feeds the other branches with information.

5. Directorate of Domestic intelligence – preparing estimates for major industrial sectors and ministries, key studies on particular scientists or researchers. Preparing estimates on M-class planets and their potential for colonization.

6. Directorate for Surveillance of non-Cardassian residents – diplomatic corps, traders, businesspeople, foreign cargo traffic.

7. Directorate for Communications Security and Personnel Protection: provides personal security for the national leadership and maintains and operates an internal secure communications system for the government. This is where the control over the Detapa Council comes from.

8. Applied Science Directorate - research laboratories for surveillance devices, poisons and drugs, medical laboratories for physical altering of covert agents, technical support, development of new infiltration techniques and equipment.

9. Propaganda and Media Control Directorate - censorship and internal security against artistic, political, and religious dissension, public screens control.

10. Counterintelligence Directorate - identifies, monitors, and analyzes the efforts of foreign intelligence entities, both national and non-national, against Cardassian government interests. I guess the Central Command runs its own operations and the Detapa Council has its own board of military and intelligence advisers, so here is where the most conflicts arise.

11. Interstellar Communications and Traffic Surveillance – overseas communications, cryptologic equipment. This must be the bone of contention between the Obsidians and the Central Command. The Central Command feels that the Obsidians are spying on their operations too.

12. Data Processing and Storage Directorate – archives, data from the Bureau of Identification, all the information that the Order has accumulated over the years, artifacts, foreign equipment, sensitive research that is not to be revealed.

Actually, these are only the main branches, they all must have subdivisions and units.

[Shyak]

I understand. So they observe and wait till someone of this particular family throws away the garbage, then the snatch it and analyse it in their labs or wherever. You are right, this cannot be applicable for Cardassia because compromising waste would simply be disintegrated.

I think too, that water must be rationed. A garden must be an absolute luxury, although Cardassian plants should be adapted to get along with few water due to evolution. I think stone-gardens with undemanding succulent plants may enjoy great popularity. On the other hand there must be sufficiently flora on the planet, otherwise it would not exist enough oxygen to guarantee a breathable atmosphere. Perhaps the oceans are covered with algae or seaweed. Algae produce a lot of oxygen.

Yes, replicators consume a lot of energy and they must get the elements for the goods from somewhere. After all: Nothing comes from nothing ...
(Although it would be a nice idea to invent a replicator technology, which might make use of some sort of "subspace molecular shift" - routed through clever placed space relais stations - to let the Schnitzel or Steak disappear from the Federation table and restock Cardassian food supplies. I would love to see Ryker's face for example when he sits down full of anticipation and his big Porterhouse Steak would be beamed away without a trace right before his eyes - a source for a lot of childish pranks - don't take me serious)

You are right about the uniforms. The filmmakers could simply not afford to make so many different types of them. Still I think they did a great job with what they had.

I think "directorate" is fine. It sounds more ... "gravely" then the others. And your 12 Directorates are perfectly devised.
Your structure covers everything like an insurmountable cobweb. And the pudgy old Tain-spider is now permitted to enjoy sitting in the middle, pulling and controlling his threads.

[Shada Dukal]

Yes, electronic devices as information carriers and recycling devices drastically change the process of evidence gathering.

Well, old replicators were a kind of protein resequencers that transformed a protein biomass into certain dishes. The 24th century replicator can produce inanimate matter out of pure energy so the process is a matter-energy conversion. The more matter you need, the more energy it takes.

I agree that Cardassian plants require less water than those on places with more moisture. They must have adapted otherwise they would not have survived the climatic changes after the cataclysm. Cardassia Prime has very big oceans so I suppose they compensate somehow for the meager land flora.

Still, leaving Riker without Schnitzel seems a pretty good idea, hardships build character. When you mentioned Riker I thought about that transporter incident so if we manage to tamper the replicators to double the orders we might get the steak and the Feds will simply wonder how come their energy consumption has doubled and will run diagnostics as hell. Finally, they will blame some innocent subspace phenomena or the matter/antimatter reactor. But they are rich, they can afford it, I am not going to shed tears over them.

Indeed, Tain and company will be happy to populate their cobweb, in fact I expect them to add more structures. However, nothing is perfect, nothing lasts forever, and entropy is always stronger than our efforts to bring order to chaos if we follow the principles of Murphy’s laws. All closed systems tend to maximize entropy, this is the second law of Thermodynamics.

1. Sanrio's Rule of Bureaucratic Funding (a.k.a. The Serve Yourself Solution): The first expenditure of new revenue made available to a bureaucratic agency will be used to expand the administration of the program rather than for the needs of the program itself.

2. Rule of Defactualization: Information deteriorates upward through bureaucracies.

3. Brien's First Law: At some time in the life cycle of virtually every organization, its ability to succeed in spite of itself runs out.