Alpha Quadrant Message Transmissions

[Joy 0]

Subject : Alpha Quadrant Message Transmissions

From : Ambassador Joy Five

To : Admiral Day, Captain Corizon

Classification : Secret

Precedence : Priority

 

 

I have recently returned from a visit to one of Ambassador Semil's ships. His second attempt to contact the Dominion Alpha Quadrant was technically successful. The pre-recorded messages to Starfleet and Council were received. While the technical aspects were sound, politically there may be problems.

 

The operator on the Alpha side knew Semil personally, but his mission brief was to keep the existence and location of the inter-quadrant communications link secret. He was not pleased to see a 'human' (myself) present. He was not pleased to be told to forward information from Gamma Quad to the Federation. Both Semil and myself gave brief reports on how much the political situation of Gamma Quadrant had changed. Semil invoked the full authority of the Founders -- not, mind you, the Hundred -- in urging that the messages be forwarded. As the link shut down, the operator did not promise to forward, but rather promised to review protocols. I am doubtful that he will find a protocol suggesting he serve as a communications conduit for Starfleet.

 

Unless a very massive power source can be provided, the Dominion link to Alpha Quad is now expended. The faster, further and higher data rate a subspace signal is pushed, the greater the energy demand. The Dominion link was nigh on real time. We were able to communicate comfortably, audio and visual, with no appreciable communications lag. The power required to do this is absurd. Ambassador Semil spoke of storing a major part of a planetary power grid for a decade in order to sustain less than an hour of communications.

 

If the Federation ever undertakes a similar project, I would recommend a lower bandwidth and greater transmissions delay so that a lesser power source might be required. I would also recommend better thought out security protocols. The Alpha Quad operator did not respond to the first message as he could not authenticate. Thus, years worth of energy hoarding was wasted. If the operator decides not to forward the messages, arguably the entire project development costs might be wasted.

 

I likely ought not to be pleased that it is not only the Federation that is capable of large scale fiasco.

 

In short, the messages are away, but we should not assume the messages have been received.

 

 

Ambassador Joy Five