11.0 23rd Century / Overview (Includes Declassified Material)
An overview of the first fifteen years of the 23rd century, marked by rapid Federation expansion, the controversial admission of dilithium-rich Coridan, Dr. Daystrom's tragically flawed M-5 computer, the Treaty of Organia that established an uneasy peace with the Klingon Empire, and growing encounters with time warps and parallel universes that challenge present scientific theory.
The first fifteen years of the twenty-third century have been filled with exploration, encounters with extra-galactics, and startling evidence of time warps and parallel universes. There were starship dramas, political crises, and meetings with a large number of new lifeforms from hostile Gorns to lovable Tribbles. It appears that the Federation’s activities are growing so rapidly that a decade now contains as much significant activity as did a quarter-century before.
While this era’s Babel Conference wasn’t nearly as tumultuous as its predecessor, it too had its own high level of drama. The entry of Coridan, a dilithium-rich planet, into the Federation was the most controversial topic, and an assassination attempt and a plot to blow up a delegate-laden starship was made to stymie the election. To no avail: Coridan is now a full member of the UFP.
Dr. Daystrom, the inventor of duotronics, tried to forge another revolution in computer theory, the M-5 computer. Engrammed with human personality traits to supplement its independent-thought circuits, the M-5 proved tragically flawed, destroying several starships during a war-games exercise. The M-5 turned out to be anything but the “ultimate computer” its designer claimed it to be.
Perhaps the most important political event of the decade was the Treaty of Organia, establishing an uneasy peace between the Federation and the always-hostile Klingon Empire. Organia was thought to be a placid but backwards world that both the UFP and the Klingons were trying to bring under their sphere of influence (Klingon influence, of course, means total domination by their Empire). However, it turned out that the Organians were creatures with unimaginable psionic powers of such magnitude that their merest thought could have obliterated a starship. Faced with such unquestionable superiority, the two combating alliances agreed to galactic neutrality, a neutrality that is often tested, but not yet violated.
The meeting of new worlds and races continues at an ever-growing rate, but it is in the field of theoretical astronomy that the most startling encounters have been taking place this past decade. Federation starships have, on several occasions, entered into backwards time warps, placing them centuries or even millennia in the past. In addition, the existence of several, perhaps many, parallel universes accessible to our own through time gates or local space-time deformations, opens up a broad field of scientific speculation. There seems to be substantial limitations on the scope of our present scientific theories, and it is very possible that in the near future, another Daystrom or Einstein will come along and outline an entirely new universe-picture. Nothing short will explain the scientific enigma that has been occurring with increasing frequency. As the twenty-third century progresses, it appears that more questions are going to be raised than answered. And so we forge into the future, learning ever more, learning more and more what remains to be known.