5.12 Acknowledgements: Volume 5

Author’s Comments

I’d like to start off by thanking Aridas Sofia for giving me permission to use one of his designs for this work. This would be the Tellarite space ark Gartov. He was also kind enough to give me permission to alter its backstory to better fit with this work. While I’m at it, I’d also like to thank TallGuy for the Gartov 3D model that he made for Aridas and which is reproduced here. You can find more pictures of it over at the Federation Reference Series Online website.

The Cold Peace is one of the many contributions by novelist James Blish (the Star Trek series of script adaptations by Bantam Books) from his many stories about his own sci-fi universe. Cities in Flight is probably the best place to start, although it’s rather hard to find these days.

I put the note in about the gradual demise of geon hole communications to explain its glaring absence on screen in the STAR TREK era. By that time I see it being the “ham radio” of space buffs. Kinda like Morse Code still being taught to Terran communications experts even though it’s been obsolete for centuries.

The bankruptcy of Dyson-Yoyodyne is my own contribution. It is meant to explain why the company no longer appears to be prominent in the TOS/TAS era.

The logo for Cochrane Warp Dynamics comes courtesy of Memory Beta. They had it listed as a seal for the Alpha Centauri Concordium of Planets, which contradicts that given in the Star Fleet Technical Manual. I “hijacked” the design for Cochrane’s company instead.

I changed some of the details about mankind’s first visit to Kaferia (Tau Ceti) in order to make them better fit within the Prime One timeline. The original SFC states unequivocally that it was the Bonaventure that paid humanity’s first visit to Kaferia. This visit is contradicted by Lawrence Miller’s Starfleet Tactical Database 2 blueprint set, which states that a Terran space ark was the first. I removed all references as to which ship was the first to visit Kaferia for the sake of internal consistency in this work. I did, however, slip in a picture of the Bonaventure at Kaferia as an allusion to the original account.

I also deliberately veered away from the SFC’s description of the first encounter with the Tellarites in this work. I had already established that the Tellarites had to rebuild their civilization from “long ago” after a Kzinti invasion and occupation per Volume 04. This makes unbelievable the SFC scenario, in which a lone Tellarite ship suddenly turns up on the edge of the Sol System. I borrowed some ideas and the Gartov from Aridas Sofia (with his permission) and put first contact much closer to Tellar Prime, with the space ark Gartov running afoul of Terra’s post-Kzinti war space fleet. This puts the new version of events more in tune with that given in Shane Johnson’s Worlds of the Federation. It seemed to make more sense given how the Prime One chronology was developing at this point.

Likewise I altered the account of humanity’s first encounter with the Orion colonies. It made more sense to me that a trading vessel would make first contact as opposed to an “official” survey ship. Such is always the case with new frontiers, where lone traders go into the area long before official government expeditions.

I don’t want to hear anyone say anything about, “You got the entry on Andor wrong!” or something like that. I didn’t. Remember, that business about it being a moon is in the Prime Two (Okuda) timeline. This is Prime One (modified Graham/Mandel). Back before First Contact and Enterprise came along and screwed everything up it was pretty much a given that the home star of the Andorians was Epsilon Indii. That comes from the original Star Fleet Technical Manual, thank you very much, which WAS canon at the time it was published. Enterprise is non-canon in the Prime One timeline; therefore, the good ol’ SFTM still holds sway here. I have also tried to avoid everything that was developed about the Andorians in Enterprise, although I may have missed a thing or two. Besides … it looks like whoever developed the Andorians for Enterprise spent many a drunken night reading Shane Johnson’s The Worlds of the Federation. I was even surprised to see the native planet name of Fesoan at Memory Beta, since that and their planet map are straight out of Shane’s work.

I realize some of the tech data on the ships is either missing or screwed up. I hope to go back and correct this later.

Regards,

– Richard E. Mandel

Special Thanks To

ArcBuilder, Celestra, and StarGen; Stan and Fred Goldstein; Memory Alpha; Memory Beta; Timo Saloniemi; Aridas Sofia; Wikipedia.

Visual Sources

Reimund Bertrams; Dan Carlson; Mateen Greenway; Greg Jein; Shane Johnson; MGM/UA Entertainment; Mike Okuda; Nightscape Creations; Paramount Pictures; Aridas Sofia; Rick Sternbach; The SpaceArt Archives; Tallguy.

Contact Info

Want to contribute to the Federation Spaceflight Chronology? You can find me on the FRS Online or Star Fleet Network forums. If you prefer direct contact then you can reach me at: rtrodude@yahoo.com (also available).