Posted by Gavin Burkhardt in Power Submission: Galdor-Okinos Alliance

Posted by Riley W in Power Submission: Galdor-Okinos Alliance

Posted by Gavin Burkhardt in Power Submission: Galdor-Okinos Alliance
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
THE GALDOR-OKINOS ALLIANCE
DATE: 2397 (2022)
AUTHOR: Riley W.
TYPE: Power
GOVERNMENT: Democratic Military Republic
CAPITAL: Galdor
AGE: 400+ years
TECHNOLOGY LEVEL: Warp Capable
DOMINANT SPECIES: The Galdori
DIPLOMATIC STATUS: Allied
CLASSIFICATION: Custom

OVERVIEW

Document written by Lt. Morgan Riker, GOA historical specialist at the Interplanetary Records Office.

The Galdor-Okinos Alliance (GOA), known internally as the Interstellar Alliance, was a power that existed from around 2100 to 2300, at which point they joined the United Federation of Planets. They still consider themselves to be a united group within the UFP, but are no longer a separate political entity.

The GOA consists of three homeworlds, those being Galdor, Okinos, and Kalari, and a few dozen established colonies. Their combined territory consists of fifty-three star systems, twenty of which contain one or more Minshara and/or K-Class planets and/or moons. The territory of the Alliance is located within the beta quadrant, in an area that is otherwise lacking in warp capable civilizations. Or any sapient life, for that matter.

At the time of their first encounter with Starfleet, the GOA possessed a similar technological level as the Federation, but it had been developed at a much slower rate. The Galdori were able to achieve manned warp flight almost a century before Earth, but by the time their ships encountered Federation vessels in the 2260s, they had only reached warp 5, as opposed to Starfleet’s warp 6 at the time. They have always been very cautious with their technological advancement, testing theories extensively before putting them into practice.

On Galdor, there are five sentient species. Hatriku, a reptilian-like humanoid species, Laleri, a lupine-like humanoid species, Arwan, a capran-like humanoid species, Raka, a feline-like humanoid species, and Pipini, an aquatic species with some resemblance to otters. The natives of Okinos, calling themselves Okinosians, are a fungal semi-humanoid species. The natives of Kalari, the Kalarans, are a semi-humanoid species with four arms, and a prehensile tail.

Galdor is the third planet around their G-Class star, Enrys. Okinos is the third planet around their K-Class Star, Sk’rit. Kalari is the fourth planet around their F-Class star, Marama.

 STARSHIPS AND TECHNOLOGY
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The GOA has a wide range of starships, and still maintains a small, independent fleet since their induction into the Federation. These ships are living vessels, featuring a combination of Okinosian biotech, Kalaran computers, and Galdori engineering. Non-commissioned crew live in dormitory-like areas, with about ten bunks per room. Junior Officers’ quarters have 5 bunks per room, with only senior officers having their private quarters.

Because GOA vessels are semi-living beings with minds of their own, piloting them is a special challenge. Their Academy, (the Interstellar Alliance Academy for Astronauts) chooses special individuals to become trained as ship pilots by forming a psionic connection to the vessel. The pilot acts as a conduit of the passenger’s intentions and helps the vessel coordinate movement, shields, weapons, and other important functions, while also communicating back to the passengers the ship’s needs - damaged systems, power drains, and such things. In return, many pilots develop a greater mental capacity, physical and mental stamina, and the ability to stay awake for days at a time without ill effect. Different ships have a need for different numbers of pilots, depending on the size of the vessel. The smaller shuttles may only have a single pilot in their lifetime, dying when their pilot dies or retires.

Life support functions are provided by the ship, which converts waste products and cosmic/solar radiation into energy, and energy into breathable air and heat. While most regular functions are powered by this exchange of energies, the ships’ Warp Capabilities are enabled by matter-antimatter engines, similar to the warp engines of the Federation.

The most notable ship classes of the GOA are listed below. Other ship classes exist but are similar in design or purpose to one of the listed classes.

Rorak-Class
The largest of the ships, measuring in at over 500m in length. Mostly used for scientific study and diplomatic purposes, but has varied functions depending on some more modular parts added to it. Usually has a widely varied crew, with separate sections of the vessel having corridors and quarters adapted for each species. Rorak class ships can have six to ten pilots, who work in pairs of two, in shifts that can last up to five days.
Hashem-Class
The middle road when it comes to GOA ships, the Hashem class ships are about 350m long and are mainly used for exploratoration. They usually have a mostly consolidated crew of one race or another, with smaller contingents of the other Alliance species. Hashem class ships usually have three or four pilots.
Paruk-Class
A much smaller ship class, approximately 200m in length, the Paruk class is a military vessel built for speed and stealth, but it still has a formidable weapons complement. Paruk class ships can have one or two pilots.
Dari-Class Shuttle
Support class, a shuttlecraft/runabout. Warp capable, the Dari-class vessels have the normal capacity to be independently utilised for three weeks without their parent vessel, although in an emergency they can function as a lifeboat for upwards of five months. Dari-class shuttles Have the seating capacity for up to twenty-four passengers, even including a small galley and a berth for sleeping. All shuttles have one pilot.
Saku-Class Shuttle
Smaller support class, shuttlecraft/runabout without warp capabilities. Regular use is for atmospheric entry and exit, Saku class vessels are not intended to be inhabited for more than a few hours. Emergency capabilities can extend that to a few weeks, and there is seating for up to six passengers along with two storable cots and a minimal head. All shuttles have only one pilot.

There are two other notable technological advances that have been made by the people of the GOA. The simpler of these is the Mind Chamber. Similar to the Holodeck, the MC provides a virtual experience for individuals to enjoy in their leisure time. Unlike the Holodeck, the MC is projected into the mind of the individual through psychic waves, placing them into an immersive simulation while their body sits safely in the chamber’s many seats. The MC has more comprehensive safety features and results in injuries far less than a holodeck. The Mind Chamber was developed in the early years of the GOA, before their first encounters with Starfleet.

The somewhat more complex of these technologies is the Interstellar Transporter. It is unlike regular Transporters in that it does not dematerialize then re-materialize individuals. The way it works is by sending passengers bodily into a sub-dimension, then retrieving them in a different location. Because all passengers must wear a specialised transmitter, and a platform is needed on both sides of the journey, it is more limited than Federation Transporter tech. It does have a wider range, being effective as far as subspace communication can reach. The Interstellar Alliance Transporter was in development for a very long time, only becoming a viable method of transport in the late 2200s.

 RELIGION
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The people of the GOA have strong belief in a group of deities they refer to as “The Twelve” or “The Lords of Kobol.” These gods have been worshipped almost universally amongst the three member worlds of the GOA, even since ancient history. Little is known about the true nature of the Twelve, but various eyewitness accounts have been given by Starfleet personnel confirming their existence, at the very least.

These gods are primarily sorted into three categories by the people.
En’rys, Va’al, Lu’ne, and Dra’ko, the celestial gods
Na’ne’te, Py’ro, Te’en’pe, and Et’ro, the elemental gods
Gla’si’na, Ro’an’se, Il’los, and Bri’git, the seasonal gods

Addendum, Classified to SI/S31/ARU personnel only.

The Twelve gods of the GOA are energy beings of a similar but inferior nature to the beings of the Q continuum. They can only access our Plane of Existence where their followers are present, but with the people of the GOA slowly expanding their presence through Starfleet, the Twelve are to be considered potentially dangerous. We do not know their intentions. Their followers claim their interests to be limited to the thriving of the people of the GOA.

It has been theorised that the Twelve are ascended beings, remnants of a fallen ancient civilization. The theory posits that after the fall of their civilization, they decided to prevent such a calamity from occurring again, but their influence, as previously discussed, was limited to a small group of star systems. This may explain the relative lack of sentient life in these star systems, outside of the people of three planets. The ARU is in the process of negotiating access to certain ancient ruins in the hopes of further investigating this possibility.

 CULTURE
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The people of the GOA have a culture of mutual understanding and cooperation, with a low degree of conflict amongst its member species. Their greatest values are environmental responsibility, equality amongst individuals, and identity respect. The government does its best to ensure no individual lives in poverty, although many still fall through the cracks. Child-rearing and marriage is different for every species within the Alliance.

General Cultural Trends:
The Laleri, the Lupine species, value physical strength as well as honour. They love sport and have a culture centred around games and feats of physical prowess. Family is also highly valued among their culture, and everyone in a community will partake in the rearing of any child of the community. They’re considered to be a very loud and energetic, intense species, and see physical touch as an important aspect of their culture. They deeply enjoy music and dance. Marriage tends to be between only two individuals, although rare cases exist with three or more.
The Hatriku, the reptilian species, are a strict, regimented society. They value intelligence and focus, and their most valued members are master strategists. The concept of family as we understand it is quite alien to them, as their emotional pair-bonding is disconnected from their reproductive pairings, and children are raised communally by a single unrelated individual who will simultaneously raise 5-8 children of the same age. Their culture is focused on tradition and learning, and they view physical touch as an almost taboo thing. Hatriku are also considered to be great wordsmiths and visualizers, and many of Galdor’s greatest poets and painters have been Hatriku.
The Raka (feline) and the Pipini (otter-like) species are very similar in both their culture and their physicality, being the most closely related of the sapients on Galdor, although they still have their differences. The Raka are technically minded while the Pipini are extremely artistic, but both species are very energetic and curious. Both cultures value physical touch and don’t understand personal boundaries, as cuddling and fur-grooming are both very common practices. Both cultures are built around exploration, and people of these two races love to see new places and meet new people. Both races value family, although their definition of family is less permanent than that of many people. Raka art is generally built around form and substance, woodcarving and clay sculpture being prime examples of their art. Pipini art is more free-flowing and immaterial, formed around their music and songs.
The Arwan, the goat-like species, are a culture that is focused on safety. They are a rather nervous species, but they happen to be brilliant at the sciences because they are so diligent at utilising the scientific method. Their families are multi-generational, with four or five generations living together in a sprawling complex or a large family home. They value physical intimacy, and fur-grooming is a pretty important part of that. They are very quiet and fearful people, but they are also incredible cooks with the best cuisine on Galdor. Arwan are known to be great painters and visual artists, much of the greatest film animation on Galdor comes from the Arwan people.
The Okinosians, the mycelial species, are very peaceful and almost zen. Their physical bodies last up to five decades, but because their reproductive process is essentially cloning, their memories can last for centuries. They tend to process information somewhat slowly, but the wisdom from their long lives is usually worth the wait. Almost all of their technology is based on biomechanics, much of it even being grown organically. Okinosian art tends to be very slow and ponderous, usually in the form of poetry conveyed through their emotional networks.
The Kalaran culture is one that is focused on continual change, and as such is very difficult to pin down. They are brilliant programmers and were able to develop a type of Artificial Intelligence vastly different to that of Soong-Type androids. Their AI is able to feel emotions but not to form complex thoughts. The Kalarans value new ideas and innovation over all else, but they’re also a fairly musical species. Their verbal languages are more akin to birdsong than human language, since their voice box is very similar to a bird’s syrinx. The Kalarans also have a ‘universal’ language based on patterns and colours emitted from the patch of skin on their forehead, which has controllable bioluminescence as well as octopus-like pigment control.

 BIOLOGY
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The people of the GOA have varied biology but there are a few constant traits.
The hands and feet possess only four fingers as opposed to the traditional five. It is as if their middle and ring fingers are the same finger. They also possess two hearts. One heart (the cerebral myocardium) pumps blood primarily to the brain and is much more resilient. The second, larger heart, which is called the general myocardium, is housed in about the same spot as a human heart, but is slightly lower down, and pumps blood to the extremities. It has a larger size than the cerebral myocardium. The cerebral myocardium is housed on the right side of the chest, slightly higher than the general myocardium.
The people of the GOA possess an Empathic sensory organ attached to their spine, around kidney height. It is called the Eso, and is the emotional centre of their mind. It outputs a psychic signal that can only be detected by other people with an Eso and vice versa. Because their mind and emotions work differently to other sentient species, it makes them extremely difficult for empaths to read. Telepaths can still read their surface thoughts, although it takes more effort to decipher compared to most humanoids.
On Galdor and Kalari, all the sapient species walk with a Digitigrade stance, meaning that they walk on their toes instead of on their heels like humanoids.
On Galdor, sex is not genetically determined, but determined by environmental factors. They possess 5 adult sexes, based on physiological traits. The five sexes are as follows, using as simple english as I can:
Agender - individuals with no gonads or secondary sex characteristics.
Demimale/Demifemale - individuals with secondary sex characteristics but no gonads.
Male/female - possessing gonads (and the ability to reproduce)
Each sex is approximately equal in distribution to the rest. Galdori people essentially experience two puberty events, one in their teen years and the second once they have reached middle age. Every individual is born Agender, and about 1/5 stay so while the other 4/5 go through first puberty, becoming demimale or demifemale. From there, about half stay “demi” forever while the other half go through their second puberty in order to access the ability to reproduce.
Okinosians are born from the “mother spore,” and individuals, much like worker bees, do not possess gonads or the ability to reproduce.
Kalarans have only one sex. Reproduction functions through external fertilisation, and any fertilised eggs are deposited within the abdominal pouches of both parents to incubate.

HISTORY

The people of Galdor (Enrys III) experienced their first successful test of a warp engine in Earth Year 1975 (1975 EY). Progress from there was slow but steady as they happily explored their solar system and their near space. Okinos unknowingly followed suit in 1984 EY, but didn’t do as much exploring, preferring to stay near their home system. They did send out subspace communications, releasing a particularly strong signal in 2003 EY.
Galdor began to colonise planets other than their home planet - their first successful colonies were built within their solar system. They were making breakthroughs in subspace communication, and happened to pick up on the Okinosian signal in 2004 EY. It took nearly a year for them to develop the proper technology to reply, but once the communication lines were opened, the two civilizations began to develop a Pidgin for communication, followed in successive years by more complex communications as subspace communication improved. No efforts were made to physically travel the distances between the planets - at warp 2 it was theorised that such a journey would take over five Galdori years, and neither civilisation had vessels that could sustain astronauts for such a long period of time.
In 2132 EY, Galdori technicians broke the warp 4 barrier, shortening the journey from nearly six years to just over half of one year. The plan to meet up was on. Both civilisations had transmitted fairly in-depth biological information to the other in the over a century since their first meeting, so they knew that their needs for life support were fairly similar - similar enough to not need environmental suits in the other’s atmosphere.
Two small fleets were sent out - one from each planet, and three months later, they met in the middle. There were diplomatic contingents aboard both vessels, along with many lead biologists. There was much rejoicing as people of the two planets finally met one another in person. Representatives were sent back with both teams, and the Interstellar Alliance was officialized.
Kalari developed warp in 2137 EY. A Kalaran ship first encountered a Galdori ship in 2163, as the Galdori were doing an exploratory pass in a region the Kalarans were also exploring. It was at first a somewhat fearful meeting, as the Kalarans were not expecting to encounter alien life, let alone highly advanced alien life. The Galdori were pretty friendly though, and invited their new neighbours into their little club. After years of discussion and many trade agreements, they were inducted into the IA in 2194 EY.
Together, the three civilizations developed Warp 5 in 2214 EY, through the development of a unique ship that lived and grew as it aged. New fuel would be developed that would feed the ships and provide power for life support and most other functions, while Warp Engines would be powered through Antimatter Drives.
In 2250 EY, a long-range exploration ship from the IA encountered a long-range exploration vessel from the UFP. It was a mostly positive interaction, and left the IA curious and interested in more. With this interaction, they learned just how big the galaxy was, that there were so many unknown planets out there and more aliens than they had ever been able to comprehend. It took a few decades, but they got in better contact with the UFP, who designated them as the Galdor-Okinos Alliance, and a trade and formal diplomatic contact was established in 2280.
In 2300, after half a century of knowing they weren’t entirely alone in the Galaxy, the Alliance joined the Federation. They maintained the close bond between the three civilizations, acting almost as one in matters regarding the Federation and wider interstellar politics.

Timeline:
1975: Galdor develops Warp Travel (Warp 1)
1984: Okinos develops Warp Travel (Warp 2)
1997: Galdor develops Subspace Communication
2003: Okinos develops Subspace Communication and sends out a broad-spectrum communication pattern.
Galdor receives the communication and replies - now they’re “pen-pals”.
The two civilizations eventually become allies
2132: Galdor develops Warp 4 engine and shares it with Okinos
2135: Official first contact made between Okinos and Galdor. Much celebration.
The Interstellar Alliance is formed.
2137: Kalari develops Warp Travel
2163: Kalari and Galdor exploration ships meet by chance.
2194: Kalari joins the Interstellar Alliance.
2214: IA develops Warp 5 Engine
2250: IA long-range exploration ship, mostly staffed by people from Galdor, encounters a Starfleet Ship also on a long range exploration. IA begins to be called the Galdor-Okinos Alliance by other powers in the Galaxy.
2280: Formal Diplomatic Trade and Contact are established between GOA and UFP.
2300: GOA officially joins the UFP
2305: First Laleri, Okinosian, and Hatriku officers join Starfleet
2314: First Arwan and Kalaran officers join Starfleet
2351: First Raka officer joins Starfleet
2397: First Pipini officer joins Starfleet
2400: (future) Centennial celebration of GOA participation in the Federation is planned.

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The above submission is available for public review and comment from now until July 20. Please keep all feedback constructive.

-Sam Pennington, GMDir

I love it - great job! A couple notes:

The living ship concept is really cool - reminds me of a combo of Disco tech and Chiss hyperdrive “computers” in SW. Very well done.

Thanks!! I based it partially on Moya from Farscape.

The Interstellar Transporter is a really cool idea, but I think it’s downplayed a bit too much. Yes, it requires two transporter pads and an on-person receiver, but it would allow Picard to jump over to Starfleet Academy to have a tea with the admiralty and then beam back over to the ship however many LY away, so long as the two could make subspace connection. I don’t want to use the term “OP” since I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I feel it’d be more of a Federation standard.

Overall, great job! Looking forward to encountering The Twelve over on the Levi ;)

~ Gavin B

Agreed on the IT being pretty powerful. I’m still trying to figure out a way to make it less viable for Starfleet than regular transporters, while still retaining the general vibe of a transporter that doesn’t disintegrate passengers.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I was thinking that perhaps the IT could depend on a rare mineral that can’t be made in the replicator, or its function could depend on the structure and consciousness of the living ships.

• Riley W

Yeah, I can see the issue you’re having. I definitely wouldn’t scrap the idea altogether since it’s a cool concept.

An idea (albeit a bit of an odd one) is to have it only work in certain star systems or in the presence of a certain compound. That could be related back to its development by the Alliance in its home system, where a certain atmospheric gas is present or something. Similar to your thought of it depending on living ships (which I also like).

You could also make it have a gravitational limit or something, so as to only work on small (or very large) craft. Or you could do something fun with the sub-dimension, like make it spooooky.

As you can probably tell, I’ve never designed anything before lol. But you’ve given me some inspiration that might take up a week of my life.

~ Gavin

There having been some notes given, but things seeming constructive and positive, this draft is returned for revision, and we have high hopes for the next.

-Sam