Run the race as though you mean to win
Jan. 20th, 2013 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blue_print_captainEvery Starfleet officer has, in their own heads at least, a tiered set of horrors. The things they'd least like to face.
Raiders are generally low. The horrors they commit are still horrible and the people they kill still dead, but that is the end of it. Raiders do not take planets.
The Klingons, having gone from cold war to peace to cold and hot wars again, take planets. But the Federation had won that war before and would do it again. Maybe even bring them into the Federation as more than an ally this time. Forge a union rather than just a peace.
The same went for the Romulans, for all that it was not a formal war between the shattered remnants and the Federation but a more subtle struggle of raiding and diplomatic maneuverings. That and blame for a failure to avert a natural disaster, but even Ambassador Spock had to run out of options once in a while.
No it was the more exotic threats. The Borg. The Dominion. The Undine.
Takers. Replacers. Subverters.
Unmaking at a fundamental level.
It was part of why he went into engineering. Part of why he shipped aid and answered distress calls and taught.
If you built enough - fast enough, good enough - they couldn't tear it all down. Not before someone else could build more. Civilization was a relay race after all. Not that he was done running yet, but a few more runners never hurt.
Raiders are generally low. The horrors they commit are still horrible and the people they kill still dead, but that is the end of it. Raiders do not take planets.
The Klingons, having gone from cold war to peace to cold and hot wars again, take planets. But the Federation had won that war before and would do it again. Maybe even bring them into the Federation as more than an ally this time. Forge a union rather than just a peace.
The same went for the Romulans, for all that it was not a formal war between the shattered remnants and the Federation but a more subtle struggle of raiding and diplomatic maneuverings. That and blame for a failure to avert a natural disaster, but even Ambassador Spock had to run out of options once in a while.
No it was the more exotic threats. The Borg. The Dominion. The Undine.
Takers. Replacers. Subverters.
Unmaking at a fundamental level.
It was part of why he went into engineering. Part of why he shipped aid and answered distress calls and taught.
If you built enough - fast enough, good enough - they couldn't tear it all down. Not before someone else could build more. Civilization was a relay race after all. Not that he was done running yet, but a few more runners never hurt.
