ketracel white

[at Quark's]

So, this drug, Ketracel White, does it have any application /market beyond sustaining (and keeping in line) Jem' Hadar soldiers?

Asking because there's this scene in Star Trek: Insurrection where we are told the Son'a produced 'vast quantities' of the stuff.

But why?

1) If I were the Dominion, I would absolutely keep the production of this stuff in-house and never license it to other parties. It is, after all, one of the primary means to keep their soldiers in check. The scale of the Dominion is also such that they need not outsource this. Even if this would seem a good decision at the time to solve a short-term shortage of the stuff, the decision to do so could backfire dramatically in the longer run, when it means the Dominion lose the sole control over their soldiers, and another party could exert significant influence / 'bribes' on them, too.

2) The other option is that the Son'a production is not 'officially licensed' by the Dominion, but just an 'illegal' imitation of the original. But that would mean there is a market for it with other species. Or did the Son'a set up their production chain as a means to either blackmail the Dominion or possibly to tempt Jem' Hadar soldiers?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I suppose it could. Imagine if your perfectly healthy food, beverage, medicine, or ordinary chemical were someone else's addictive, illicit drug.

 

[Oddish]

Possibly if another polity had an interest in creating loyal and disposable soldiers. Maybe the Romulans would want something of that nature for themselves.

 

[mithril]

iirc in DS9 "penumbra" it's mentioned that the dominion needs to send additional ships to defend the ketricil white factory in Son'a space, so i'm guessing that they'd been making it on commission from the Dominion.

 

[at Quark's]

iirc in DS9 "penumbra" it's mentioned that the dominion needs to send additional ships to defend the ketricil white factory in Son'a space, so i'm guessing that they'd been making it on commission from the Dominion.

Oh, that is interesting. I wasn't aware of the fact this was mentioned in DS9 itself.

So it is, then. I still am not convinced that's a smart move of the Dominion. Feels a bit like the USA outsourcing a critical component of their defence system to a small country with a questionable reputation.

 

[Qonundrum]

Or could this Ketracel White be dual-purpose, like a liquid adhesive? Additionally, they could time travel to the 20th century, around 1948 or so, and sell it as glue. Granted, it's amazing how similar the Founders look opposite to other glue mascots, but it'll give the school kids something else to sniff at...

Also, is Ketracel White related to Soylent Green? Just think of where DS9 really could have gone...

 

[Oddish]

All this and Agent Orange too.

 

[mithril]

Oh, that is interesting. I wasn't aware of the fact this was mentioned in DS9 itself.

So it is, then. I still am not convinced that's a smart move of the Dominion. Feels a bit like the USA outsourcing a critical component of their defense system to a small country with a questionable reputation.

well it takes place after the federation blew up the main dominion production facility, causing a shortage. might be that the Son'A production was something the dominion did as a short term solution to the shortage.. which proved rather more permanent than they'd originally planned.

it's called a narcotic, so my guess is that when used by non-jem'hadar it's an addictive drug, though it's described as an enzyme governing metabolism in "the Abandoned". it's hard to tell if the term 'narcotic' was meant to be literal or not ('narcotic' has become a colloqual term in the USA for 'illegal drug'), but it is possible that for non jem'hadar it has some medical applications as well as side effects that can be abused. personalyl i suspect that the tubes of white include various nutrient concentrates, not just the enzyme itself, which is how they manage to avoid needing to eat.