In Enterprise, Daniels, our favorite time traveler from the 31st century spoke of an alliance that would span the galaxy, with a monument built to the Federation. The way Daniels spoke, the Federation seems to no longer exist as a sovereign power and is merely a member of a much larger Union.
In STO, we see the narrative moving in that direction, in the form of the Alliance.
In another post, I hasd suggested that if the alliance is formalized into this union during the scope of the game's lifespan, that ships no longer maintain the distinctive Federation, Klingon or Romulan designs and essentially adopt their own unique aesthetic, possibly sharing design traits of two or more member-factions to symbolize the unity of diversity.
Actually, I suggested that this should happen with the Alliance, but an alliance is not necessarily a merging of diverse societies into one organization of governance, but rather a collection of sovereign societies working together for mutual advantage. The ALLIANCE members would maintain their individual characteristics, such as uniforms and ship designs. But if they were to take that next big step and sign the Galactic Union charter, in which all member societies officially become part of a single "galactic village," that would inevitably change.
So... What might a Galactic Union ship look like? Early on, I think the aesthetics will still remain close to the respective civilization's familiar designs. But the hull material and base color scheme would be shared. for all ships. If you saw the independent film "Of Gods and Men" then you will remember that all ships that belonged to Gary Mitchell's "Galactic Order" retained their physical Klingon, Romulan or Federation design, but the color schemes for them were primarily white and secondary red indicating commonality between them as members of a single organization. The only exception was
Mitchell's command ship, which was massive, and was a clever amalgamation of Romulan, Klingon and Federation design elements.
So a Galactic Union flagship would make sense to have physical characteristics of at least both Klingon and Federation design.
Of course, this discussion is strictly hypothetical. I'm just interested in people's thoughts on what form things could take going forward into this age of unity between factions.
Let's talk about it.
"There can be no meeting of the minds between two parties
if both parties are not willing to meet in the middle."
-Ambassador Samuel J. Stone
Comments
I have to agree at least within the STO timeline we should see only some mutual projects like the Khitomer-class but should still maintain their own their technologies and cultures.
That is, unless they bring up another time-travel arc, and take a player character from the future this time... lol...
CM
Have to admit I'm also perplexed with how much 'story' takes part with-in a 3 year window. Discounting the TOS/DSC Toons, the Romulan Toons start 6 months in the time-line before the 2409 FED/KDF factions begin. I think they need to do a jump forward, and at least let there have been some peace! Lol.
I present to you AFS Sheer Freaking Hubris, commanded by Capt. Grunt:
(Inspired by the following meme:)
https://youtu.be/KdOCWUgwiWs
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
I think because if they did that, it would seem like not enough happens between the years. The way they handle things is much better in my opinion.