Solar Trek Episode Guide - Updated

In honor of Star Trek's 55th anniversary (yesterday), it seemed like a good time to revisit my 2019 posts on Solar Trek, a solar system confined, more hard science fiction rationalized Star Trek. Here are all the posts to date, titled with the TOS episode/setting element that inspired it.

The introductory post
The Orion Syndicate
"Return of the Archons"
"That Which Survives"
"The Cloud Minders"
"The Trouble with Tribbles"
"Tholian Web"

"The Amok Time"

"The Way to Eden"

Solar Trek: The Eden Trip

This is another post in this series that takes the "stars" out of Star Trek...

Thomas Sevrin (2219-2263) was an an expert in neurocybernetics and advocate for a rejection of physical existence for a purely digital one. Sevrin believed a technological singuarlity was swiftly approaching and only by forsaking the the limitations of human bodies and brains could "the new human"hope to continue to play a part in the coming order.

Sevrin and a group of his young followers (including the the son of a dignitary of an important colony) stole a spacecraft in an attempt to reach the Romulan Neutral Zone. A dangerous reactor malfunction would have likely been the end of them, had they not been rescued by Enterprise.

Interrogation revealed that the group hoped to reach Eden--the name for server running a simulated reality and the asteroid housing it built in the outer system in pre-Federation days. Eden was generally considered a myth of the counterculture, but Sevrin claimed to know its location.

Medical examination following their rescue revealed that Sevrin perhaps had other motives for wishing to find Eden: he was dying a neurodegenerative disease, the accidental result of some of his self-experimentation.

Ultimately, Sevrin's intelligence proved correct, at least in part. There was an ancient server. Unfortunately, the simulated reality within had long ago been corrupted. Sevrin's body died of his illness and any digital copy of his mind he hoped would live forever was also lost.

Solar Trek: The Amok Trigger

These are the voyages of the exploratory vehicle, Enterprise...

In 2262, Dr. Leonard McCoy discovered the continuation of outlawed genetic practices among certain prominent families of Mars. This was revealed when Enterprise's first officer, Commander Spock began experiencing drastic mood swings and neurologic pain. Neurochemical triggers made Spock seek to return to Mars, regardless of his orders to the contrary.

The cause of his condition was an engineered gene sequence, created in the 21st Century by Martian geneticists for the purpose of making arranged marriages among their people compulsory and binding. The small, modified human population of Mars practiced arranged marriage for purposes of genetic diversity and promotion of genes critical for survival in the partially terraformed Martian environment to come over the next century. An unidentified family member of Spock's betrothed had introduced the genetic sequence through use of a viral vector when Spock was in his teens. The reasons are unclear, but may have had to do with Spock's father's diplomatic position.

T'Pring, Spock's betrothed, was absolved of any wrongdoing in regard to the genetic manipulation, but she did instigate a trial by combat that could have resulted in the deaths of one or more Space Fleet officers in order to be free of her obligation to Spock.

Dr. McCoy was able to repair the genetic damage to Commander Spock. His efforts led to a greater understanding of historic Martian gene-engineering techniques.

Solar Trek Episode Guide

It seems like a good time for a post collating my Solar Trek (a solar system confined, more hard science fiction rationalized Star Trek). Here's what I've done so far, titled with the TOS episode/setting element that inspired it.

The introductory post
The Orion Syndicate
"Return of the Archons"
"That Which Survives"
"The Cloud Minders"
"The Trouble with Tribbles"
"Tholian Web"

Solar Trek: That Which Survives

There are the voyages of the exploratory vehicle Enterprise...

Kalanda was a small station built inside of a modified asteroid in the Main Belt. It was also a black site whose construction began in 2159, in the build up to the Romulan War, one that did not appear in extant Federation databases. It's trace heat had lead to its discovery by Enterprise over 100 years later.

When the station was entered by Enterprise's away team, they encountered a hologram of a woman later identified as Lorisa Prado, Kalanda Station's Chief of Security. The projection behaved erratically, and its appearance presaged and attempt by the still-functional automated defense systems to kill the perceived intruders.

Ultimately, Enterprise personnel made it to the central computer and discovered that Kalanda Station had been involved in bioweapon research. An accidental breach of sample containment had led to the death of the crew and placed the security systems on a century long high alert.

The Federation has promised a full investigation.

Solar Trek: The Archon's Return

source

The discovery of the long lost generation ship Archon by Enterprise in 2263 underscored to the General Assembly of United Federation of Sol why sophont AI was to be feared.

Though records of the its launch are nonexistent (either destroyed in the chaos of the third World War or lost in the rapid changes in data storage formats that followed), its design, computer systems, and the cybernetic implants among its passengers suggest Archon (ICV-189) was a generation ship launched toward Proxima Centauri b in the early 21st Century. Its habitat areas were home to several diverse communities, among them some religious minorities, including a (ironically) technology-rejecting traditionalist Christian sect.

Archon would never reach Proxima Centauri. Federation forensic teams have been unable to determine what calamity happened first: the death of a number of crew in an accident, a breakout of hostilities among the colonists, or a malfunction in the vessel's artificial intelligence. Whatever the cause, several habitat regions were lost and others became isolated, armed camps. One of the crew took radical action that restored a semblance of peace, but at a cost. Programmer Nicholas Landru put the computer in charge.

At some point, the course of Archon was changed. It re-entered history again in the Sol System, where it was intercepted by Enterprise. What they found in the only functioning habitat area was a society resembling a late nineteenth century agrarian community with the inhabitants completely unaware they were on a vessel. Despite appearances, the members of the community were extensively managed and condition by cybernetic implants controlled by ship's AI, whom they referred to as "Landru." There were dissidents among them,  individuals presumably for whom the neurochemical conditioning was inadequate, who looked to the return of the "Archons" (a distorted memory of the vessel's crew) to save them.

The Enterprise crew in the habitat

Unconcerned with cultural contamination, Captain James Kirk of Enterprise destroyed Landru. He was criticized in some academic circles, but both Space Fleet and Federation inquiries absolved the Captain and his crew of any wrongdoing.

The Archon's passengers have been resettled in a protect area so that a Federation team can slowly work on integrating them into society and undoing Landru's conditioning.

Solar Trek: Troublesome Tribbles

In 2262, Federation authorities became aware of a potentially invasive synthetic organism known as the tribble. The origin of tribbles is unknown. They contain no bio-engineering markers that betray their origins. They appeared among the wares of a trader, Cyrano Jones, on Deep Space Station K-7 (located at 10 Hygiea). All known specimens were obtained from Jones's stock or are their descendants.

Jones sold his tribbles as exotic pets, a role they were perhaps designed for, given that their mild vibration, soft purring, and warmth are considered pleasing by many. Despite their superficial mammalian characteristics, tribbles are invertebrates, perhaps derived from echinoderm genetic stock. They are, however, endothermic with a high metabolic rate and frequent parthenogenesis, leading to tribbles consuming large amounts of food. All tribbles are able to adhere to surfaces and tribble newborns small size allow them to spread virtually everywhere not environmental sealed.

The tribble infestation on K-7 consumed food stores and cultures destined for outer colonies in a surprisingly short period of time. Luckily this revealed tampering by Klingon agents that might have lead to deaths and certainly food shortages otherwise. It is ironic that tribbles seem to become agitated with proximity to genetic Klingons.

The Klingons are rumored to have engineered a tribble predator called a glomer, but local authorities are strongly cautioned against viewing a second synthetic organism as an easy solution to any tribble infestation.

Cyrano Jones with a tribble in 2262

Solar Trek: Underside of the Clouds

In the middle of the the 23rd Century, a cluster of aerostat colonies floating over 50 km above Venus were known for their achievements in the arts and sciences. What was not known until the Disrupter revolt of 2263 was that the innovation and productivity of the self-styled creative class depended on  workers who lived in relatively poor conditions in the industrial areas of the cities' underside.

 Analysis by the Medical staff of the Federation vessel, Enterprise, revealed that the chemical exposure among the workers and their families led to impaired cognitive function and, in some cases, propensity for violence. Popular theories among the upper class of the cities, particularly in the unofficial capital of Stratos, attributed these impairments to genetic rather than environmental issues. Citing safety concerns, the undersiders' movements were restricted on visits to the upper level, and they were often under surveillance by security personnel.

Pressure from the Federation after details of Enterprise's report were made public, ultimately led to increased freedom for the people of the under city and environmental clean-up.

Capt. Kirk of Enterprise observed the torture of a captured Disrupter insurgent by Stratos security forces 

Tholian Web

This is a follow-up to this post.

The Tholians are a group claiming much of the orbit of Mercury with bases on Mercury itself. The beings have offered no name nor communicated more than their willingness to defend what they view as their territory. Their Federation designation is derived from tholos, the Ancient Greek world for "dome," due to the appearance of their clustered structures observed in the rim-shadow of North Polar craters.

The Tholians came to Federation attention in 2263, due to their construction of solar energy collector arrays in the orbit of Mercury. Defiant was sent to investigate and either by accident or Tholian aggression became tangled in the semi-elastic diamondoid filaments the Tholians use to string the arrays together. Her distress call was answered by Enterprise, who was warned off by the Tholians, then attacked by what appeared to be autonomous vehicles that "spun" the filaments in an attempt to form a web around the vessel. Enterprise was able to escape before the web was completed, and Federation vessels have been advised to avoid the region since.

It is unclear if the Tholians are biological beings or robots of some sort. As individuals they appear crystalline and vaguely mantid in form. They are either able to withstand Mercurian conditions unsupported or these bodies are environmental suits. A paper from the Martian Science Academy has put forward the theory that the Tholians are actually either non-sophont or (more intriguingly) post-sophont. The paper points out that their observed movements on Mercury's surface resemble the probabilistic movement of ants. Their communications with Enterprise are not necessarily indicative of any more intelligence than the expert systems frequently used as digital assistants.

Solar Trek: The Orion Syndicate

This is an expansion of this post.

The Orion Syndicate is transnational criminal organization involved cybercrime, money laundering, piracy, drug and weapons trafficking, and the slave trade. It originated in the Orion Colonies of the Belt (a loose association of libertarian ultra-capitalists of unclear origins), but the current center of its operations, to the extent such a diffuse organization has one, is believed to be in the Jovian Trojans.

The Syndicate are perhaps most infamous for their traffic in artificial humanoids. Their "Greens" (named for their green skin-tones) came to the attention of Federation authorities in 2250. Greens are promoted as having heightened sexual appetites and intoxicating pheromones. What is not mentioned by the Syndicate is that the conditions of their accelerated growth and training often lead to violent responses and animalistic behavior.

Despite the remoteness of their base of operation, operatives and associates of the Syndicate are involved in smuggling, hijacking, and hostage taking in the high traffic regions of Earth orbit. Syndicate associated hackers are all concentrated in this region.

While the Orion Colonies are officially neutral, the Syndicate's haven is likely protected by the Klingon Empire who may employ in them cyber-espionage against the Federation.

Solar Trek: An Alternate Star Trek Setting

Bold proposal: Take the "stars" out of Star Trek. Make it a hard(ish) sci-fi alternate history setting taking place within our solar system. Yes, this would lose some of the mission statement of the voice over intro, but it would actually put it in line with Roddenberry's pitch noting similarities to Wagon Train and Horatio Hornblower (spoiler: neither series featured journeys to other worlds.). In modern high concept terms we could think of it as The Expanse meets Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

So, there would have been genetic supermen in the 90s, leading to advances in spaceflight technology unencumbered by democratic concerns. The supermen dictators would have sent out space probes, maybe even began colonies. (One of these expeditions would start the terraforming of Mars. Their colony of genetically modified individuals would centuries later provide the famous half-Martian first officer, Spock.) As the post-Eugenics War chaos ushered in World War III, some would flee the Earth to set up settlements elsewhere.

In the 23rd Century, some of these farflung colonies and societies are only now being re-contacted. Some have grown strange in isolation. Other have grown into military powers in their own right, like the bellicose totalitarian state lurking around Jupiter's moons, the Klingons, or the mysterious Romulans of the cold depths of beyond Uranus.

The solar system could be updated to modern science, or it might conform to the state of knowledge in the late 60s when Star Trek debuted. I suppose one could push in back even to the 50s science of Asimov's Lucky Starr series, if you just needed Venus with an ocean. Science fiction's knack in the era for coming up with creative ways life could be almost everywhere might prove instructive.