You're a starfleet captain faced with a strange new power (RAR!)

[Zor]

In this scenario on the cusp of the Dominion War and you are a Starfleet Captain assigned to study an major anomaly on the Federation's Frontier. See there was this area of space about 250 Lightyears across where (up until recently) Warp Drives, Subspace Radios and Impulse Engines simply don't work due to some Subspace Distortion even though there had been some odd energy signatures in it. Several ships have stumbled into the Anti Warp Zone and were either lost or had to limp out on thrusters. Two years ago a ship was sent into investigate it after being refit with a highly modified Warp Drive (the product of 50 years to study and and R&D), which apparently worked allowing for comparatively low speed warp travel in the Anti Warp Zone which worked just fine but that ship was lost. Your ship has been similarly refit and you've entered the area of space to explore it and find out what happen. Things have been tricky, but you have found some clues from boeys dropped with sensor logs which leads you to a star system which was the last destination of the first starship.

As to what happened to it, that's fairly straightforward. That Star System has several rocky planets being strip mined down to the core by vast armies of robots robots and several thousand solar collector stations fairly close to the star by are each about a hundred kilometers across. Some of the solar stations are industrial centers while others supply power to a few dozen cubical stations about 50 kilometers in diameter. A steady supply of material is being moved from the strip mined planets to the solar stations and more solar stations are under construction. Then as you approach a ship comes to meat you, traveling at warp. It's 400 meters long has a long cigar shape which flares out at the front into a disc shape at it's front and it has four nacelles, but it's energy readings match a Federation Starship. Then it hails you and transmits a message, revealing what looks like a anime character who informs you that this ship is the Well Duh! class Starship Sssh! The Grownups Are Talking!. She informs you that she's the captain of the warp capable ship, that the crew of the lost ship is safely on a ring station and while they could send over a robotic avatar to your ship to meet face to face they would not recommend that you'd come over as there is nowhere on her ship that's pressurized.

See this species evolved on a world in the core of this Anti-Warp Zone, never developed warp theory beyond some preliminary stuff because they figured that it was just a false positive (which happened about 1,000 years ago). Instead they invested in cybernetics and eventually abandoned their meat, uploading themselves into computers and living in virtual worlds as immortal beings. They then built a Dyson Swarm around their sun and used antimatter propelled ships to spread to surrounding systems and building more spheres united in a loose Interstellar League. This system is on the frontier of their space and work had only begun about 30 years ago on it's shell. Each of those spherical stations contains several billion cores, each one a fully sapient beings. Habitable planets that were uninhabited became nature reserves. They found a few other more primitive species and they posted watching stations in orbit of their planets. When they developed spaceflight the Cores would make contact with them and give them the offer of becoming cores themselves. Most accept in the end, but they don't put a gun to people's heads and force them to accept. A few populations are still entirely organic and are seen in the same light as modern day people see the Amish. They developed some weapons technologies due to a long interstellar war fought a few centuries ago by a breakaway faction and the risk of facing a hostile interstellar civilization they developed some weapons tech.

The the Starfleet ship came in two years ago. The possibility of FTL capable ships was a very enticing prospect. As such when the Starfleet Ship came into investigate (they've been given special discretion in regards to the Prime Directive) they made contact with them and invited them to send a diplomatic team on board. They did so while the Avatars send to infiltrate, who hacked the Starfleet Ship and assumed control of it. It's crew was removed (but were not harmed), the databanks were poured over and the ship itself was disassembled, studied and reverse engineered. The Well Duh! class was (after a set of testbeds) their first true warp capable starship has a crew of twelve cores and about two hundred robots with the first unit being completed around six months ago. The Sssh! The Grownups Are Talking! was completed about two months ago and was the 362rd ship of her class completed in this Star System. The Well Duh! and several additional ships like her went out to other star systems and as part of her mission she'd give her blueprints to the Cores in that system as well. Production had begun in at least ten other systems. Each Well Duh class ship is on par with a federation starship in her size category in a straight up fight. In addition to the Well Duh! class, they've also begun production of the Can-O-Whoop-Ass class Carrier (each of which carries 144 Demonic Bat class Fighter Drones) and a set of constructor ships. They are currently building a specialized Well Duh! called the Heartfelt Apology with life support and "monkey controls" for the crew of the starfleet ship they'd commandeered. They express some regret for the issue, but they saw Warp Drive as a necessity for their long term survival and deems that they needed to acquire it. Given that the Federation has laws against sharing technology with races they feel to be underdeveloped they figured that it was best to have a contingency if the Federals were unwilling to share their technology.

Currently their are plans for a major expansion beyond the Anti-Warp Zone. The Cores have no interest in systems with habitable planets (and they consider the Federation, Romulans and Klingons to be quite quaint for obsessing over colonizing those worlds instead of building orbital habitation structures) but they figure that most of the star systems out there are being drastically under utilized. The League could easily turn uninhabited systems into major population centers. You are free to stay for some time (so long as you don't screw with things) and you are free to go.

You can't wipe them all out with Technobabble or weapons of the week and Starfleet has it's canon kiloton to megaton weapons yields. The Omnipotents/energy beings and suchlike will give you no hindrance, but no help.

What do you do and what would you recommend the Federation do in this scenario?

Zor

[Solauren]

Peace Treaty and Tech exchange.

They are clearly more advanced then the Federation in some areas, but lacking in others. Therefore, trade is feasible.

Possibly convince them the Dominion is a threat to them because they want to control everyone and everything.

[Joun_Lord]

No technobabble solution for a Trek Captain? I know RARs are out there but that just breaks suspension of disbelief, way too unrealistic, probably the most unrealistic RAR ever including that one with the giant floating ISIS created dinosaur that kills all of NYC while the NYPD ignores everything.

Seriously though, there would probably need to be some real hashing out between the Cores and the Federation for theft and tech contamination. The warp drive not falling into the hands of people who hadn't developed it is pretty much sacrosanct to them. The fact they tricked the Starfleet crew, stole their ship, destroyed it, and has kept the crew prisoner for two years is probably going to leave a sour taste in the mouth of some. The Federation would normally probably present their asses and give them a pass but with the increasing paranoia and war footing of the Dominion War they might be a bit paranoid and potentially hostile towards a group that has no respect for their sovereignty or more important rules.

Still the Federation would most likely try to welcome the Cores maybe with some conditions (maybe giving up their stolen warp tech and respecting others peoples stuff). That would be my personal recommendation is creating a treaty. Maybe cut them some slack if they put their insane manufacturing capability to work assisting us in our inevitable war with the Dominion.

Really I'd be worried about the other powers. Klingons would probably consider them an abomination or some shit and try to Tribble them. The Romulans would be paranoid about some new power and try to kill fuck them. The Dominion would either try to entice them into joining, a prospect that seems possible considering their goals don't really clash all that much, and if that fails send in the clones to killfuck everything. The fact their is a potentially hostile nation so close could send some AQ powers into the Dominion's arms for perceived protection.

Secrecy for now is paramount if secrecy is even possible with a group that seems so......juvenile.