The Enterprise finds a Fantasy World (RAR!)

[Zor]

This scenario happens at some point in the TNG period. The Enterprise D is flying about boldly going when they detect a system with an M-class Planet. Something worthy of future investigations but nothing to write home about for them in of itself. However there are four notable qualities to this planet...

1. It has some mineral deposits which prevent beaming down to the planet's surface, or beaming up.
2. They detect an object in orbit of said planet, which seems to be composed of an asteroid, an old J class freighter and some structures built into and on the asteroid from the ship. It is giving off faint power signatures even though the ship is more than two centuries old as well as some power signatures.
3. They detect a faint distress signal from the surface from a Klingon B'rel class Bird of Prey which crashed onto the planet a few months ago.
4. Some unexpected subspace thing happens, which damages the ship and forces them to enter orbit of the planet for a couple of weeks while they effect repairs. Repairs that would be accelerated considerably by some minerals located on the planet's surface, but not found in meaningful quantities or densities elsewhere in the system besides the cores of gas giants.

As they enter orbit they get a better look on the surface of the planet. They find that there are some humans on the planet in a number of small settlements. There are also find a variety of other settlements on the planet's surface which have are similar to but distinct from human. Some of which are robust and live underground. Some of which are gracile and have long pointed ears that look like exagerated versions of Vulcan ears and live in arboreal settlements. Some have elongated arms, clawed hands, heavy jaws, sharp teeth, rough thick hides, nostril slits in place of a proper nose and feline like eyes and live as small clans. Some are 4 meter tall one tonne brutes. There are also large flying reptiles derived from terran gene stock which can grow up to 15 meters long and can can expel fire from their mouths. Eventually someone notices that these are similar to the races of a genre of fiction which was popular in the 20th and 21st century that started with the works of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.

In total there are about 10,000,000 humans, 5,000,000 Orcs, 2,000,000 Dwarves, 1,000,000 Elves and 100,000 Ogres living on this planet which are divided into several states. The humans states have some cultural variation among them, most were based around medieval Europe but there are a few based on Imperial China, Feudal Japan, the caliphate era Middle East, Classical Greece and ancient Egypt. The orcs live as a mish-mash of clans fighting with themselves and non orcs frequently. The Elves control several forest realms and the Dwarves have a loose confederation of small enclaves. The Dwarves and the Elves have access to a few advanced machines camouflaged to look like mystical relics of the past which allows them to forge armor twice as strong as regular steel or produce 'silk' stronger than kevlar and similar feats. Save for the fairly primitive ogres they have a roughly 1400s level of technology save for lacking any knowledge of chemical explosives. They also have a few items like active camouflage based "cloaks of invisibility" or plasma weapons built into "staffs of destruction" which fall from the sky periodically in pods made on the orbiting station which they all hold in some spiritual reverence . When the come aboard they find a few automated factories, but also a large number of exowombs and neural programming stations. What happened was that this ship left earth in 2143 after being commissioned by a small number of romantics, arrived in orbit of this planet in 2164 and began building a world based around those ideals. Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Ogres and Dragons were genetically engineered, vat grown en masse, decanted and released in villages over the next thirty two years with false memories programmed into them.

The Klingon ship was forced to make a crash landing after hitting the same subspace turbulance that the Enterpise did and is now beyond repair. Currently they are being assailed and fought over by Elves, Orcs, Dwarves and Humans who view the Klingon Ship as a prize worth taking and the Klingons as being some tribe of mutant half orcs who happened to get there first. Several Klingons have died from wounds inflicted by Dwarvish axes, Orcish Scimitars, Elven Arrows, Human Longswords or staffs of destruction and the rest are hunkered in their ship.

What happens and what would you advise Picard to do in this situation?

Zor

[Elheru Aran]

I find it mildly difficult to believe the 'elves' 'dwarves' etc. would have forgotten so quickly where they came from, it's only been a few centuries.

That aside. This seems like a straightforward enough Prime Directive situation. The Klingons may endanger that, so removing them from the planet may be a good idea, and destroying the Bird of Prey. Otherwise, noninterference is the order of the day, and observation of this unusual human(ish) culture.

[Khaat]

Could be the "natives" were transplanted seed-stock and don't know where they came from?

As in "A Private Little War" (TOS season 2, episode 19), TNG Klingons aren't interested in the Prime Directive, either, and will have more effect on the native cultures. There was no mention made of their personal weapons being rendered inoperable. Even the (borrowed from the Kzin) "Scream and Leap" TNG Klingon attitude doesn't mean they don't also still have a commander who reasons well enough. Dunno if they could hold the wrecked ship's position with distruptor pistols and swords and bat'leth, but ducking while the natives fight it out would do them a world of good. If they wanted to return to the Empire, repairs to communication. And/or stripping the wreck of anything they need to conquer this "shoreleave world" as they wait.

"Go home, human, this world does not need your... hugs. There is glory to be won here!"

Until they discover it's a fifteenth generation LARP colony.

[Zor]

I find it mildly difficult to believe the 'elves' 'dwarves' etc. would have forgotten so quickly where they came from, it's only been a few centuries.

Well they never got that impression. Basically what happened was after decanting they were sedated and woke up in the morning with memories of their previous lives.

Zor

[Crazedwraith]

Klingons are allies in this time frame. Extract them using minimum force. I shall try to convince Picard to ignore the PD on basis of importance of Klingon alliance and rhe fact the damage is already done.

Pattern enhancers to defeat the mineral is usually possible but if not the E-D carries a lot of shuttles.

The most efficient way to suppress enemy armies would orbital phaser strikes set to stun. Possible according TOS at least.

Don't bother with the mineral: the repair time without it is not that long.

[Elheru Aran]

The most efficient way to suppress enemy armies would orbital phaser strikes set to stun. Possible according TOS at least.

Or a few torpedoes. Preferably not the mark they used in STV. Though if you just want to do a literal 'rocks fall, everybody dies' that might work...

[Crazedwraith]

The most efficient way to suppress enemy armies would orbital phaser strikes set to stun. Possible according TOS at least.

Or a few torpedoes. Preferably not the mark they used in STV. Though if you just want to do a literal 'rocks fall, everybody dies' that might work...

Torpedoes would be more efficient but more deadly.

I was advocating orbital stunning as an option Picard might go for. I doubt he'd be up for photorping the natives.

[Darth Lucifer]

I was under the impression that the Prime Directive did not apply when the culture in question was not indigenous to the planet.

This RAR also creates a moral dilemma in terms of the planetary inhabitants' entire reason for being...the orbiting station that drops magic items from the sky, the artificial exowombs which created them, their falsely implanted memories, etc. I can easily see some of Picard's crew wanting to reveal the truth to the "natives" since their entire existence is literally a fantasy world.

[The Romulan Republic]

So, random God-alien of the week was a Tolkien fan? Well, at least they have good literary taste.

Does the PD apply to a human settlement that has not yet reached warp capability? That'll effect how much they can do. Although since the Klingons are already interfering, maybe that gives them more leeway to act.

Hmm, now you've got me think of that Star Trek/Game of Thrones crossover idea I had a while back...

Edit: Gah, should have read more carefully. So this is Star Trek scenario #167, "Nut job human colonists imitate old Earth culture" with a weird cosplay twist, rather than scenario #133, "Aliens make humans their playthings"?

So again I ask: pre-warp regressed humans: does the PD apply?