Ok, this just came to me this morning. Hopefully the premise hasn't been done to death. I don't read much fanfic. This is also pretty much my first attempt at a writing, hehe, so any pointers would be appreciated. SECOND CONTACT “You've ruined us. You realize that?” Merrin turned from the window of his office. The view of the city behind him revealed a panorama of understated elegance befitting it's place as world capital. Closer inspection revealed that elegance was now marred. Fires could be seen blazing from office towers. Piles of rubble sat where monuments should stand. The crystalline transparency of the window could not keep out the sound of distant sirens nor hide the frequent passing of anti-riot patrols. “You and your 'Prime Directive' and you still managed to muck it up”, Merrin continued. On the other side of Merrin's desk the Captain of the USS Resolute took a half step forward. “Prime Coordinator Merrin, please, if you could tell us how this happened? When the USS Daystrom reported first contact with your world indications were that everything had gone smoothly”, Captain Ingersoll said. “Oh yes! It did go smoothly. Daystrom's captain landed one of your shuttlecraft down in that very plaza not 2 days after our warp ship made it's first successful run”, Merrin said, using one of his lifting arms to point down to the plaza below. “After the initial awkwardness of the first meeting the entire planet went into a 7 cycle period of celebration. We had finally 'matured as a species' the press proclaimed” Merrin was pacing now as frustration that had been building for three greater cycles poured out of him. “The Daystrom spent the entire 7 cycles here giving us details on the federation and what our future held in regards to that, finally, the Daystrom had to leave but informed us that a follow up mission would arrive in the near future – you – to formalize relations with us”. “Yes Merrin, that sounds accurate to the report that we received, so how did things degenerate to the current situation on your planet?”, Captain Ingersoll said. “Our sociologists noticed it first, fashion shows mimicking the uniforms of your crew, art and media using design ques from your ships, our music was suddenly infused with sound bites from your crew, after that the religious types started to question your true nature. Several of the more extreme groups commited mass suicides. Suicides in general started to rise as well”, Merrin said. “Oh no”, was all Ingersoll could say. “Oh yes”, Merrin continued, “the economy crashed as our high tech industry realized that everything they produced had just become obsolete, research and development just stopped. Then the conspiracy theorists started in claiming the government had known all along and that we had been in collusion with the federation. Old feelings of nationalism returned, destroying the 30 grand cycles of work I did putting this world government together. For the first time in 20 of those cycles we have had military conflict. War has returned as several member states have tried to secede from the 'deceptive machinations' of my world government”. “This is a tragedy to be sure Coordinator, please let us help you and correct it”, Ingersoll said. “Correct? Hmmmm, no this cannot be corrected. The fighting can be stopped and the economy will recover, but things will never be correct again. Yes, my people will survive this, and I expect go on to become good members of your federation, but what we are - what we were - is gone, only to be remembered in some museum display.” Merrin was facing the window again, the weight of his last statement hung in the air. His shoulders were slumped. Captain Ingersoll could see now the Coordinator was not only mourning the deaths of his people that had occurred, but also the death of his culture. “I... I begin to understand your loss, Merrin. We – the Federation – try to minimize the impact of first contact on a civilization, sometimes we fail.”
A very interesting idea - I like it. Don't forget to add a link to the Writing Challenge thread though, so you'll be included in the voting.
Almost makes one think that the Federation should base its decisions on OTHERS contacting THEM, not the other way around!
According to the novels, that was the Vulcan way(First Contact notwithstanding). Earth "stumbled" across a Vulcan scout in the books written prior to the movie. healthier, I think. Good job-direct and to the point.
That was really good. Although I would be interested to find out why he feels his culture is lost. I mean, fads come and go really, I'm sure that's true on other worlds.
A nice little story. Very believable, IMO. No wonder the Federation has taken to setting up duck blinds and sending disguised agents to prepare cultures for first contact.
What was that thing they said about good intentions again? I liked this. It be interesting to know when this story takes place. I'd imagine it be in the earlier days of the Federation when Starfleet was still learning how to do a first contact right. I'd like to think that they've learned from these disastrous first attempts. Well done.
Well, contact itself is enough to change a society. Even trying not to be influenced is still a form of influence. As you can tell from the brevity of the story, I didn't really worry about the details. The closest thing to establishing a time period is the name of the second contact ship, the USS Daystrom. They story itself is just a thinly disguised exposition much like you would get from the classic short stories of writers like Asimov, Niven, and Heinlein. I have a very short attention span when it comes to personal projects, so while I come up with lots of ideas for stories I very rarely ever finish anything.(I am very easily distracted --ooo! a funny commercial on tv!) When I got the idea for this, I immediately typed it out in the bare bones form you see above. I can see several ways to expand it but I just am not sure I could stick with it.
Nicely done! I always thought the Federation's first contact protocol was a bit pie-in-the-sky. You've added a healthy reality check to that meme.
An interesting story and a great idea. While there are stories about first contacts gone wrong, I think your take on it is very original. It could have been expanded a little, but that's the sort of thing that's done when a story is being polished. I can relate to your problem because I had the same one. There isn't a quick solution to it. For me, it was just to continue writing stories. My patience while working on stories has been steadily increasing. The monthly challenge is great opportunity, I think. So I hope we'll be seeing more of your writing here.