Lore Interpretations & Clarifications

Throughout the history of Star Trek, there have been inconsistencies, retroactive corrections (retcons), and contradictions as different writers have had their own take on what is and isn't officially in Star Trek's canon. As such, when they occur, lore will be clarified and corrected here and will stand as official changes to the lore of Star Trek: Frontier.

## Politics & Policies

#### Section 31 does and does not exist

In recent years, a lot of emphasis on the shadowy actions of Section 31 has been a popular way to show how the upstanding Federation is just as dirty as the other powers such as the Romulans and Cardassians, willing to do anything and everything even if it violates the law. Because of this, a lot of show runners tend to treat Section 31 as a catch-all for anything they want that the normal crews of Starfleet can't or won't do. Violate the Prime Directive? Just another day on the job, right?

The official stance of STF is that Section 31 in fact does and does not exist simultaneously. The real Section 31 is just a front, an organization first put together to throw off the Romulans during the Earth-Romulan War when there were rumors of some organization (later known as the Tal Shiar) operating in Romulan space as a secret police, and psyops put together a cover organization to distract the Romulan intelligence community by faking a secret intelligence service within the Federation that wasn't officially sanctioned by the Federation capable of playing the same dirty and underhanded games the Romulans did.

By doing so, Starfleet Security would have Tal Shiar agents chasing ghosts or better yet making mistakes that could be exploited against them. The ruse would be carried on by having dedicated agents who acted as agents of Section 31, but their actions were completely held accountable by Starfleet. They left just enough evidence that Romulan (and later Cardassian) agents could find and believe the organization exists. This is why so many activities associated with Section 31 seem so over-the-top, to deliberately upset normal members of Starfleet.

Thus, the organization exists but only as a distraction. The real intelligence work is carried out by special operations such as MACO and through statistical analysis of data collected by starships on patrol and during skirmishes, along with information gathered by informants, merchants, and the like. Starfleet's official policy is that all divisions are held accountable by Starfleet Command and that rogue elements of Starfleet are to be detained and prosecuted in keeping with Federation law and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

## Technology

### Propulsion

#### Starships can travel with an odd-number of nacelles, including only one

Warp fields are incredibly dangerous due to the high tidal forces in such a narrow area. Starfleet's policy is to mount warp coils at the end of nacelles as a practical safety measure, and often in pairs in order to balance the forces and increase performance. However, that does not mean that warp drives must operate in a pair. Given the dangers of space, damage to warp coils is a matter of when, not if. When damage does occur, it is critical that starships need warp drive to avoid becoming stranded in deep space. When damage does occur, Starfleet procedure is to attempt to balance the active number of warp coils on either side of the vessel, even if it's only a single coil in either nacelle.

That doesn't mean, however, that balance is always possible. If a nacelle is damaged and can no longer get plasma to the coils or is otherwise damaged beyond repair or even destroyed, the other nacelle can work independently to generate a warp field, albeit weak compared to a starship's normal warp capacity. This allows the ship to maneuver and reach Federation lines, even if it may take longer than anticipated.

#### Warp Drives do not require dilithium, but do so for efficiency

The warp drive on a Federation starship (and most space faring civilizations) uses a matter/antimatter reaction to produce the high-energy plasma to create and sustain a warp field. What is misunderstood about this process is that dilithium is not technically required in the process, but is used primarily as a catalyst for more efficient mixing of the deuterium and anti-deuterium streams. When the matter and antimatter streams mix, the mutual annihilation creates high-energy gamma radiation, which then strikes excess deuterium

It should be noted that a starship can produce warp plasma in limited quantities without a warp core. The ship's auxiliary generators are capable of producing a limited amount of high-energy plasma necessary to power the warp field, and in doing so are

### Transporters & Replicators

##### Replicators mostly act as transporters if available

While the exact mechanics are never described fully on screen, STF's official policy is that starships and starbases maintain stockpiles of the most common elements and only resorts to the creation of matter from energy when required. The reasoning behind this is that converting energy into matter is an incredibly energy intense process, even with a matter/antimatter reaction powering it. Therefor, the replicator will be using these stores and replenishing as material becomes available.

For this reason, replicators can be used in reverse to process materials back into their base elements and molecules. Mining operations in Federation space use industrial replicators in reverse and can process tons of material to extract nearly 100% of desirable materials and condense the waste materials into large blocks that can then be either left on the surface of the world or transported into space. This can be especially useful during cleanup, such as a new Federation member that suffered an atomic war similar to Earth. Replicators could easily help decontaminate large volumes of soil and condense it into sealed canisters for transport into space, where it can be disposed of safely (such as into a black hole).