Proposed Mission - The Slave Minders 'The Binds that Tie' (played - April 2019)

[Mondo'li Nari]

Mission Title:The Slave Minders

NOTE:  This is more of an ethics-morality exploration than a standard mission.  There is little action in this scenario, but it could be valuable for character building and development of the setting.

Synopsis: A delegation from the Dord come to the station to establish diplomatic relations and trade with the Federation.  But the Dord are a race of slavers, who treat enslaved members of their own race (and some captured individuals) like garbage property.  Does the philosophy of infinite diversity and peaceful openness have room for such monstrous people?

Starting Point: A delegation from the Dord come to the station to establish diplomatic relations and trade with the Federation.

End Goal: The CO and Station personnel must come to terms with the dark nature of some galactic species, and decide whether they can stomach friendly relations with monstrous cultures who- despite their evil ways- approach the Federation in a friendly fashion.

Story points that must be passed?:

1) A delegation from the Dord come to the station to establish diplomatic relations and trade with the Federation.

1a) The Dord are very gregarious and polite, and they want to establish friendly diplomatic relations and trade.

1b) The Dord are also evil slaveholders who hold enslaved sentients in contempt.

1c) Their spacefaring technology largely relies on slavery, as they used enslaved telekinetics from their own species to move their ships at sublight velocities, and have a special technology that converts telekinetic energies to power their warp cores.  This allows their ships to move at up to Warp 5, and makes them incredibly nimble and able to move in strange ways  without any emissions.  But they have many hundreds of enslaved telekinetics on each of their huge Galleon government trading vessels.

1d) The Dord initially bring personal slaves with them onto the station.  But the slaves are so cowed into submission that they make no request to be freed, nor will they even confirm they are slaves.  When mistrated by their Masters and Mistresses, they will refuse to press charges, and the Dord themselves will openly laugh at such a notion that they can be charged for crimes against their 'servants.'

2) There may be security incidents as Dord are witnessed mistreating their slaves in public.  This may result in diplomatic crisis as security may take slaves away from master Dords (against their will) and try to bring the Dord Masters up on charges, only to have both the slaves and the Dord rail against it.  How do you save someone who energetically resists being saved?

3) Federation policy is one of Infinite Diversity, accepting different cultures, and not reacting with hostility.  Policy says the Feds should play nice with this newly contacted species.  But each person who interacts with the Dord must grapple with their own ethics and morals versus Federation policy.  The officers and CO may even request that the Federation not establish any kind of diplomatic relationship with the Dord, only to be told that the Federation isn't in the business of making enemies with other cultures, particularly in a new region of space where the Federation foothold is still tenuous.

4) The Dord request to set up an embassy on the station.

POSSIBILITY 1: The CO of the station accepts the placement of an embassy under pressure from superiors, and the whole station feels dirtied by the presence of such a species.  Especially now that the Dord envoys gain diplomatic status and immunities.

POSSIBILITY 2: The CO of the station pushes back against their superiors and rejects the Dord embassy.  The Dord are offended and leave in a huff, promising that if they cannot be friends, then they will be enemies. The CO's career could possibly be damaged (though they will probably not be replaced on the strength of this one incident), but there are some things the CO will simply not stand for, at any price.  The officers and crew doubtless have their own feelings about all of this.

If Possibility 2 is manifested, the story ends with a rumor passed along by the Ferengi- The Dord have signed an alliance with the New Dominion...

Departments: (To make sure everyone has something to do.)

- Flight: The Flight Officer may find the flight characteristics of the Dord ship fascinating until they learn how the Dord accomplish it.  They will also grapple with the moral and ethical dilemmas- hopefully discussing it with other members of the station staff.

- Engineering: Like the Flight Officer, Engineering will doubtless be fascinated by the Dord tech... until they find out how those engines work.  They will also grapple with the moral and ethical dilemmas- hopefully discussing it with other members of the station staff.

- Operations: They will grapple with the moral and ethical dilemmas- hopefully discussing it with other members of the station staff.

- Security and tactical:  They will probably respond to incidents involving mistreatment of slaves and attempt to free the slaves, but find they are doing so against the will of both slave and master, and creating a diplomatic incident in the process.

- Medical:  They will probably examine any confiscated slaves and conduct psychological interviews.

- Science: The Science of how the Dord operate their vessels is actually probably quite interesting.  If repugnant.  The Science officers will probably have the same discussions and moral dilemmas as everyone else in interacting with the Dord.