Chapter 57: Step-By-Step
October 2414
Step 1: Travel Plans
A carefully performed slingshot around a meticulously selected star? Crude but effective, if slightly inaccurate. Pulsed Tachyons? Too unstable. Chroniton flux reaction? Too small a scale for a whole fleet.
Controlled chronometric particle emission: the only known method by which to accurately place an entire fleet of ships at exactly the right place at exactly the right moment. Unfortunately, only one species has been known to posses the technology to do that safely.
Getting our hands on Borg transwarp coils won’t be easy.
Step 2: Save The World
When the Hobus Star went supernova it ruptured subspace, allowing the destructive effects to travel far beyond the usual limits of such an event. It was eventually contained by a red matter singularity, but not before Romulus was devastated.
Accelerating the delivery of the red matter device could work, absorbing the supernova’s energy sooner, thereby preventing it from reaching Romulus. But that would require relying on a number of factors, including the interference of Ambassador Spock. Not a good idea.
Altering subspace to prevent the supernova from expanding beyond its own system might work, but there would be no way to be sure until that moment. Far too risky.
Destroying the star ourselves, but in a controlled manner – now that has promise
Step 3: Kill D’Kera, Save the Galaxy
Simply preventing the destruction of Romulus is not enough. The true challenge will be to acquire a position of sufficient power to influence the course of galactic events. Revealing Undine infiltrators will do no good, unless the source is believed and able to provide proof.
D’Kera, herself, was the key. At the time of Hobus, D’Kera Mandukar was a well-respected Commander in the Star Navy. D’Kera would need to take her own place. She would eliminate her past-self and resume her life, from that moment, in order to direct events as required. With her knowledge, and the support brought with her from the future, she would have little trouble installing herself in a position of immense power.
Even beyond all the deaths on Romulus and Remus, and the lives saved in the Federation/Klingon war, the Star Empire would have nearly twenty years to prepare itself - and the galaxy - for the return of the Iconians.