The High Seas,... vast,... unclaimed,... These are the voyages of the Cruiser Columbia. Her mission: - to maintain freedom of navigation, - to seek out diplomatic and humanitarian opportunities, - to boldly promote the reputation of the United States wherever we go. If that sounds like I'm plagiarizing the opening monologue of Star Trek, the Original Series, then I did it right! That's exactly what I mean to do. I openly acknowledge the inspiration, the Full extent of the role of Gene Roddenberry, the impact of William Shattner, Leonard Nimoy, Deforest Kelly, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, George Takei, Magel Barrett, Grace Lee Whitney, and on and on and on... NOTE: References below DO NOT reflect my reflect my ideology or politics. They are simply part of an examination of historical events that might reasonably lead to the creation at some point for Gene Roddenberry's Starfleet sometime in the future. High Seas is my next project, already started even though I'm not quite doe with Star Trek Too, The Tunnel, yet. This book is intended to be the ultimate prequel to the Star Trek franchise. It is not canon – I don’t have Paramount Pictures’ license, nor do I have a letter from Berman or Roddenberry authorizing me to lay a cornerstone from which the entire franchise proceeds. My intention is to depict the very first baby-step from an earth-Navy toward what - in the Star Trek universe(s) - will eventually become Starfleet. The story begins in 1995 and is mostly set in 1996, the end of the Eugenics Wars according to Spock in Star Trek: “Space Seed” (the Original Series season 1 episode 22). In actual Earth history, eugenics was a much-discussed topic since the very early 1900s. The idea of genetic selection among humans to produce idyllic progeny much as was already done with horses and dogs fascinated people the world over, especially in Europe and particularly in Germany. It is suggested that the notion of German racial superiority taking root may have contributed to German ideas of expansion motivating Kaiser Wilhelm to seize Russian territory for the benefit of the Aryan race beginning in 1914. Certainly the harsh penalties lodged against Germany after the Great War were a motivating factor for World War Two, but anyone in any doubt need only read “Das Reich” and “Mien Kampf” by Adolph Hitler to realize that eugenics, a topic that remained popular through the inter-war years, was part of the foundation upon which Hitler built the Nazi philosophy that found such popularity not just in Germany but all over the world. There were significant avid Aryan-supremacist populations (as contrasted with white supremacist) in England, France, and the United States – Hitler’s book was published in eleven languages by 1939 when WWII began. It is an easy case to make that his book was instrumental in swaying the German nation to support him and his proposed path to put Germany in what he considered its ”rightful place” as the leader among the world’s powers. The policy of purifying the Aryan nation by removing Jews, the invalid, the mentally handicapped, and any other group that might be a burden was actively pursued throughout WWII as the allies discovered when they found the concentration camps in 1945. After the war, despite the evidence presented to the world, eugenics enjoyed popularity. There were those who believed that it could be safely pursued with the enlightenment gained from the German experience. Ironic, given how these same idealists identified Germans and Germany by their race and treated them with suspicion for decades after the war because of their heritage. I have no documentation of this, but I suspect Gene Roddenberry saw this line of eugenics thought going back to the early 1900s, saw it survive WWII and reasoned that it might well lead to yet another conflict which I think he named the Eugenics Wars rather than World War Three because he didn’t want to rub that nerve so soon after WWII. Although this is more of a stretch, I think he may have seen the wars from 1870 with the Prussians and later the 1905 war between Russia and Japan and then I think he may have seen the southeast Asian wars after WWII and considered the possibility that a new econo-politically based war ideologically anchored in eugenics might spawn there. The disturbing coincidence is that in real-life Earth history, the third Taiwanese Straight Crisis occurred in 1995-6. A three-ship U.S. Navy mission to China led to an unfortunate confrontation which many credible parties thought might well precipitate WWIII. The timing and location are astonishingly accurate for a TV show that aired 28 years earlier; the Eugenics Wars of Star Trek ended then. This first baby-step taken toward Starfleet in this story is enlightenment. I have guarded enthusiasm about enlightenment because folks are prone to "adapt" legitimate ideas to their own purposes, but I believe Gene Roddenberry was sincerely trying to show what humanity could become through a process of enlightenment and it is this belief I'm subscribing to in this story. The U.S. Navy is the arm of the U.S. that is most capable of showing up anywhere in the world with enough strength to influence just about any emergent event on short notice. Therefore it is the Navy this story posits that Congress equips to act in an enlightened, idealistic way by funding construction of a ship that is not carpeted with guns and missiles, instead showcasing a strong compliment of helicopters and boats capable of performing rescue operations in extreme weather situations against extreme topography. To back this ability up, the same ship offers a large, modern medical facility, disaster relief assets, and accommodations for high level events of state, and other assets intended to promote the global community of mankind.