Ba'ku, what happens next? (Star Trek)

[FaxModem1]

At the end of Star Trek Insurrection, the So'na and the Ba'ku are trying to reunite, and their fountain of youth planet is not as secret as it was a year before. The Dominion war is wrapping up, Voyager will come home in a couple years, and the Romulan Empire will experience a coup shortly after. Does all of Starfleet and the Federation know about paradise? Is it public, or is it still a secret?

Do colony ships full of geriatrics set up shop on the planet? Do the Ba'ku villagers become the equivalent of an Amish tourist attraction?

Do they want their planet closed to Offworlders, and Starfleet has to enforce it?

Discuss.

[cilantro]

If I remember the ending of the movie right, I think that paradise was left "untouched". That movie was also about Picard and Company saving "paradise" from being sullied by not only the Federation but by whatever the bad guy was representing.

[Admiral X]

It always made more sense to me that the Ba'ku were actually the small splinter group, and that their exiles simply returned to the rest of their species.

[ScreamingDoom]

Rumors of the planet leak out despite the Federation trying to smother it (both because of the potential use of the planet and the embarrassment to the Federation Council over its handling of the whole affair), and eventually reach the ears of the Ferengi. With their lobes throbbing at the potential profit from the exploitation of such a resource, many entrepreneurs go in search of the fabled planet.

Eventually, a Damon manages to find it and decides to invest in a "health spa" on the other side of the planet from the Ba'ku -- the Ba'ku can't refuse or will be revealed as the selfish assholes they are. Shrewd that she is (she is one of the first new female Ferengi entrepreneurs and thus is hungry for profit and ambitious to prove herself), she makes no mention of the wondrous powers of the planet... officially. Unofficially, rumors spread like wildfire. The more the Health Spa denies the miraculous effects of the planet, the more vociferously the rumor mill works.

The Federation lodges a protest, but with Ba'ku permission to run the spa and themselves unwilling to admit the truth of the rumors of the nature of the planet, it falls on deaf ears. In fact, the protest backfires as it immediately leads legitimacy to the already wildfire of rumors circling about the spa. Additional businesses rise up to support the spa and its patrons. The planet becomes a more popular relaxation destination than Risa.

The spa and its ancillary industries quickly becomes one of the most profitable enterprises in the Ferengi Alliance. The Ba'ku, being greedy self-serving assholes, finally decide to rescind the Ferengi's charter. But the Ferengi are better and more practised at being greedy and self-serving, so the Ba'ku didn't read the fine print on the labyrinthine contract they signed with the Ferengi Alliance. Under the "Finders Keepers Clause", a breach of contract by the Ba'ku would result in the entirety of the planet being given to the Alliance and attempting to cancel the charter before the end date (which was indefinite) counts as a breach of contract. As far as the Ferengi are concerned, they now own the planet lock, stock, and barrel.

The Ba'ku go to the Federation for help in kicking these big-eared jerks off "their" planet, but the Federation is hesitant. They are still recovering from the Dominion War, both in terms of materiel and in terms of public support for conflict. Many Federation citizens go there and will be unhappy about the sudden clampdown. Eventually, though, the Federation reluctantly agree to help the Ba'ku and blockade the planet.

The Ferengi respond with a propaganda campaign, broadcasting the whole dirty laundry of the Federation regarding the planet to the whole of the Alpha and Delta Quadrants. After a few months of this, with the Federation Council reeling from the public backlash that reveals their smug moralism to be a lie, the Ferengi take the Federation to court: they sue for possession of the sector and the planet on the grounds that it has a large Ferengi-owned contingent and infrastructure, that the Ba'ku aren't native to it either, and that they signed a contract with full knowledge (it's hardly the Ferengi's fault if the "incredible mental discipline" if the Ba'ku failed when they saw the huge monolith of a contract). The Ferengi make sure that the whole case is covered and broadcast throughout known space. Under pressure from both internal and external forces, the Federation court succumbs to politics and agrees to honor the Ferengi's claim, but with a snide parting shot of requiring the Ferengi to find the Ba'ku a new world as a "gesture of goodwill". The Ferengi Alliance finds another, similar world (out in the boonies that has no commercial use) to relocate the Ba'ku.

A few decades later, the Ba'ku are no more, as there simply isn't enough genetic variety to maintain a stable population and maps of the region indicate a small swath of orange amid a sea of blue right where the Galactic Spa is located.

[Madner Kami]

^LOL

[FakeGeekGirl]

I'd read the hell out of the full length fanfic version of that, Screaming Doom.

[hammerofglass]

In the Activision game 'verse the So'na launched a full-scale invasion shortly after the end of Voyager, which was turned back by a Starfleet taskforce led by Worf.