An Alternative History Lesson

2267-10

This event seemed pivotal in forming then first officer Spock's mind upon the reforms he would later initiate.

2286-11-10

The Terrans were worried by this larger enemy and had made "peace" overtures to the new alliance. The three ships met to set up the foundations for a treaty, but in the midst of the negotiations, Kosnett acted on his real orders and commenced attacking the other two vessels, whose commanders were aboard the Kongo (all along the borders at this point, a further offensive was launched, which had a large portion of the Empire's fleet assigned to it, the numbers were soon to prove overwhelming). The idea was to destroy moral by public humiliation of these two great heroes who would be presented in chains to the Gorn and Romulans - needless to say, immediate escape was tried at which Sss'lee sacrificed himself to allow the escape of the others in the diplomatic party who managed to beam back to the heavily damaged "Right is Might" and the two ships made a fighting withdrawal. Sss'lee's First Officer and Security chief, Commander Sss'ryte assumed command of his vessel.

For years beforehand, house s'Lhaihthra hand been on the sharp end of political maneuverings within the Romulan Star Empire, and Dhivael's mother's sister, Ael (yes, this is the one from the book "My Enemy, My Ally" et al.) had been forcibly made renegade due to disagreements with government policy, and had been receiving covert help from the crew of "Stormbird" and had established a ship yard/base in a system beyond the far borders of the Empire in inter-arm space, in orbit about the planet they named Tr'Id. The idea of this was that it was a place for those dissidents within the empire to abscond to (this is an analagous to the earlier stage of Spock's movement on Romulus in the regular universe) and whose activities were assisted by a sympathetic faction within the Tal'shiar, who looked to the greater good of the Empire and did not agree with the ruling houses in the senate.

Realising the futility of the war, they gathered and retreated what forces they could to the what would become the capital of the Free Worlds, Tr'Id, an area that was unknown to the Romulans as a whole, and to just about everyone else. Two of the three Gorn Patriarchs and their personal fleets retreated to the Free Worlds, whilst the First Homeworld Patriarch used the Terrans' ignorance of Gorn political setup to 'hold the fort'. When the Terrans approached the Homeworlds, to their surprise the Gorn surrendered, citing that resistance was futile, and it was better to live in partial slavery, than to die as a race. The Romulans, in their normal manner chose to resist unto death (apart from the dissidents who'd been contacted who retreated with what forces they could). The Free Worlders formed a resistance movement with Romulan operatives assuming Vulcan aliases and making the Empire's occupation as difficult as possible on their newly founded colonies on former Romulan worlds, and a similar series of resistance cells were set up amongst the Gorn, though Gorn actions were normally less severe given that they were still inhabiting their worlds.

Seizing the advantage, the Klingon Empire advanced against their blood enemies, the Romulan Empire and annexed huge tracts for themselves. Again, the Romulans choose death before dishonour and resisted to the best of their abilities, but this dual-pronged, if uncoordinated attack leads to the decimation of the Star Empire.

2393-08-31

The tone of the Terran Empire changed - resistance did not, for they were still inhabiting the Gorn and Romulan worlds. This caused a second schism amongst the Vulcans. Those who supported Spock's ideals, and those who did not want to throw away what had been achieved. This caused splits along house lines as before, and those who did not support Spock started to find allies who would support their desired form of government. Border conflicts between the Terrans and the newly formed Cardassian/Klingon Alliance did not diminish, and it was to the Alliance that they turned - it would be a slow process but they would undermine from within, over what would be the next thirty years. The Terrans proceeded to a much more humanitarian form of Government which pleased the civilian's, but not so much the military; their crews were becoming less and less motivated - the fight was going out of them.

2311-05-06

2312-04-01

Gorn resistance continued, but they now had a handy scape-goat upon which to unburden their actions- the Terran resistance that would blossom into the Maquis with Sisko's actions at Terak Nor in 2370.

2370

At this time, there was a minor shift in Free Worlds attitudes; the Terrans had changed sufficiently in character that they could no longer be treated as the enemy, but they would be a useful tool if not an ally. Operatives from the Free World (which was now starting to accumulate some Orion, Ferengi and Terran (amongst others) refugees who had strayed too far) started to assimilate themselves into the Maquis cells, and in cooperation with their operatives in the Alliance command structure, Maquis activities began increasing, with a similar increase in token arrests of those unimportant to the greater scheme, who would often be liberated before their executions.

2370