The Far Future of the Federation. My take.

This was written as a reply to a YouTube comment poster about his idea of post-DS9/Voyager Federation a hundred or years into the future. With some inspiration from STO & some books.

I like the Federation-in-decline premise.

I'd go as far as have the Federation having become old, stale, and corrupt. The large territory having become decentralised, has just some successful clusters, such as Vulcan, Bajor, several newly-inducted worlds that had just recently attained warp capabilities, and maybe even Betazed — sort of like a bunch of core believers of Fedeartion ideals.

They are held back from driving the correct Federation agenda by a corrupt and lying populist (either from Earth or some other world), who's being secretly blackmailed by the Klingon Empire (in cahoots with Orions) to do their bidding.

That populist Federation leader has an ideologically stupid, ardent, and vicious base. Sometimes even literally.

The balance of power has somewhat shifted somewhat towards the new entrants, but their full potential is as of yet unrealized. The worlds that border and fear the Klingon Empire, also form clusters that adhere to the core Federation ideals.

Starfleet itself would be underfunded, undermanned, outstretched, and constantly vilified by Anti-Federation cynics truly believing the disinformation that's half-secretly fed by the Klingon Empire. So these are, like, anti-Federationists.

Some of Starfleet has simply devolved into paid high-class mercenaries, who are typically sourced from the Sol system. Each person is individually a good one, but as a collective, they are unable to make correct value judgements, which can often end in disaster.

Cardassia and New Romulus:
One is a thriving democracy, yet under-resourced, but survives on trade and Cardassian workmanship; for example, by selling versatile Cardassian-made ships and reserach vessels to other peoples. Some of that is in Star Trek: Online.

New Romulus remains rich, but is in disarray, with a continually fledgling democracy, and an uncertain future. Resource distribution is inflexible because of trade links that are continually disrupted by the Klingons. Internally, the Romulans would be unable to make up their mind as to whether they should side with the Federation or the Klingons.

The Klingons have resurged after the Dominion War, and have become a constant and serious threat long after the reformist Martok was deposed; the Klingon Empire has also bitten chunks out of the former Romulan Star Empire (no Neutral Zone any longer), and are maybe even feeding the Tal'Shiar of the yore to keep influencing Romulan worlds.

At the same time, Starfleet are held back by the mostly-corrupt Federation bureaucracy from properly helping the new Romulan nation. Some in the Federation governing bodies are non-corrupt, but difficult to get access to.

Romulans as primary characters?
I'd love Denise Crosby to return as Sela, who is the embattled Captain or Commander of an older and battle-scarred Romulan D'deridex-class Warbird.

I'm fond of both Denise Crosby and Sela. I'd see Sela as a flawed character, who during the course of a series is in the process of slowly reforming to become a better Romulan and a better Human.

Sela wants the New Romulan nation to thrive, but she's correctly disillusioned about the Federation, and constant Klingon attacks make it difficult for the Romulans to have reliable trade links.

Note, that Romulan Warbirds are powered by an artificial singularity for warp speed, and if the Warbird's warp core destabilizes, it will risk imploding the ship.

New Romulan ships (Valdore-type), are well-resourced, self-sufficent, and designed to protect the Romulan Nation, but are few and far between, and always busy repelling the Klingons.

In that storyline, the warp core of Sela's Warbird is fine (for story purposes), but the rest of the ship is in complete tatters, undermanned, and often unable to properly fight on its own because of insufficient repairs.

Each resolution to a battle is dependent on ingenuous and jury-rigged engineering devised on the spot with some science. (A good science officer is needed.) And each such solution works only once and sometimes even by chance.

The crew of Sela's Warbird consists of people from different races and backgrounds; some are even refugees from the Federation — either disillusioned in its corruption, or even exiled.

Bajor and Vulcan
Many non-Federation peoples feel unwelcome in parts of the Federation, and choose to live on those worlds that have remained welcoming, Federation or otherwise.

For example, Bajor and Vulcan on their own are really strong Federation members, but internally, their cultures suffer a little because of a large number of refugees that they have decided to take in. Some integrate well, and some not so well.

This minor shift in the balance of power in the Federation means, that new entrants would prefer to trade with Bajor and Vulcan and Betazed; but Earth, Andoria, and Tellar engage in predatory competition. Oftentimes, many worlds and governments avoid the founding/early Federation members, and strive to engage trade with non-corrupt and newer member worlds.

Bajor is a major alternative producer and refitter of Starfleet vessels. Much of the production of new vessels consists of Ambassador-class ships and runabouts. The former now form the backbone of Starfleet. Ambassador-class ships are not particularly advanced, but do their job admirably. (Previously, it was the Excelsior- and Miranda-class ships that formed the backbone of Starfleet.)

Bajor is also home to the well-regarded college of the Starfleet Academy, the graduates of which form some of the better Starfleet crews.

On the other hand, the Earth-based Starfleet Academy has gained a horrible reputation for suffering from bad tutors, bad students, and abuse of cadets. The graduates are given some of the best ships — Defiant-class escorts/attack ships, Sovereign-class heavy cruisers, and Intrepids for smaller missions (of mercy, or otherwise) — but the terrible culture from the Earth-based Academy often travels along and persists in these crews. Any scandal is swept under the rug, but the whole situation keeps festering, and is in danger of overflowing.

Prometheus-class starships have become the most powerful vessels in the fleet, are now constructed on Vulcan, and mostly manned by Vulcans and Betazoids. These are like elite ships and crews, and for good reason are feared by enemies and respected by friends in the Starfleet and beyond; ships from Sol system typically avoid contact with these in order to avoid some scandal from cropping up that would further damage the reputation of Starfleet and the Federation. Prometheus-class ships are also fitted with cloaking devices.

Thing is, that it's become impossible for Federation member worlds to rely entirely on Starfleet, because each ship is a hit and a miss in peacably resolving issues. Or even such simple things as cargo transport. For the uninitiated, it's often impossible to tell, which ship has a 'good' crew or captain, and which does not.

Incidentally, both the Bajoran Starfleet College and its corresponding Vulcan academy are closely keeping tabs on those ships with 'bad' crews.

Thus, many otherwise well-meaning member worlds don't ask Starfleet for help, or would rather circumvent Starfleet by contacting a 'good' planet individually.

A number of worlds have secretly formed parallel structures to avoid Starfleet ships with bad crews. Some in the Starfleet brass have silently recognised this, but are often unable to effect real change. They understand, that if this keeps going for a long time, then a civil war might be possible.

Of course, some of those bad ship crews try to self-heal and reform (having recognised how bad they are), but since their reputation keeps accompanying them, then getting good assignments is an increasingly hard job; they're not even trusted with transporting cheap cargo. This, of course, has a very demoralising effect, so they hide in some nebula, and sit in a funk, sulking. Rather sad.

Some ships are trying to be good, but have simply given up on being in the good graces of better member worlds — this means no quality shore leave, no refits, and all manner of resources must be self-sourced. Returning to Starfleet HQ is dangerous, because the whole crew might be reassigned to some worse ship, and the previous ship might then be manned with uppity Academy graduates itching to look for trouble (think Red Squad, but worse).

Back to Sela's Warbird.
With the new Romulan Nation and the Federation formally allied and under threat from Klingons, Nausicaans, and Yridian information brokers everywhere, all Romulan starships are allowed to roam through Federation space on the condition, that they do not cloak.

Some Federation member worlds prefer to use Romulan ships for cargo and transport, because they are more reliable in terms of personnel, if sometimes in a shabby state because of disrepair.

Crew morale there is mixed, and vascillates between horribly low and unbelievably high, as running the ship is dependent on a number of smart, yet flawed crewmembers of different ranks, and who through one another's personal relationships actually form the glue of the ship depite what their different formal statuses would have been in the old Star Empire.

So, there's friction between each crewmember naturally striving to gain more status, but often choosing to forgo the classic Romulan honor and fame (aka status) in order to keep the ship going.

With older Romulans, nostalgia for the Romulan Star Empire is rife, while younger Romulans were born into a new situation and idealistically look up towards the Federation for salvation; not necessarily knowing or acknowledging, that much of the Federation is petty and corrupt, with an authoritarian and impossible-to-control Section 31 that's lost its initial purpose and running the game almost in the open already.

So, lots of Klingon political refugees/asylees, and Romulan refugees fleeing from Klingon attacks to good Federation worlds (often a hit and miss). There is some minor strife to be had when peoples of different cultures meet, but mostly, the refugee Klingons and Romulans are peaceful and even cooperating. Some Federation worlds are welcoming the refugees with arms wide open, while others have become isolated and insular.

I really don't know, where Earth would stand in this. Maybe each country on Earth is also like now, wherein some would be welcoming and able to absorb a large population, and some would be welcoming in spirit, but unable to house large populations of offworlders in order to protect their language, culture, identity, and small numbers. Other Earth countries have enough space, but are too insular and/or corrupt, being the primary sources of corrupt Starfleet officers.

It's as of yet unknown, how it came to be, that bad education and a lot of corrupt culture has seeped into Earth. This continuing mystery is secretly being investigated by the outstretched Starfleet Security and a few enterprising captains.

The Dominion have reformed a little to allow some of their subjugated worlds ostensibly more freedom, but is otherwise staying put, and watching the Alpha-Beta Quadrant issues from the sidelines. The Great Link has dispersed in order to avoid major disaster when all Changelings would be congregated in one place as the Great Link.

I actually think, that the new species that the commentermentioned, is really a Federation-inspired alliance that formed in the Delta Quadrant after USS Voyager's trips there.

The hope of the new ship that would go out to survey that new species/alliance, is to join with that alliance to reform the Federation into the power that it once was.