On 5/12/2016 7:08 PM, Richard Aiken wrote:
> On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 11:34 AM, Phil Pugliese (via tml list)
> <xxxxxx@simplelists.com <mailto:xxxxxx@simplelists.com>> wrote:
>
>      (Someone Whose ID I
>      Accidentally Deleted Wrote): "I've always wondered
>      why (the K'kree) didn't also redouble their efforts
>      to wipe out the other 'threat' (hivers) that created
>      the first one."
>      I thought that went without saying; the
>      K'kree had ZERO desire to discover what ELSE the Hivers
>      had ready to deploy, in the event that their demands were
>      not met.
>
>     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>     Yeah, but that sounds a little too 'pat' for my taste.
>
>     Not to mention a little wimpy. Esp for a race as militant as the K'kree.
>
>
>
> K/kree are herd animals, native to wide-open plains. Everything I've read about
> them makes them sound very straightforward and direct, with little if any
> subterfuge in their deallins with each other or anyone else.
>
> The Hivers - with a society purposefully built upon hidden, indirect
> manipulation - are the complete antithesis of this.
>
> So I can easily see the K'kree - after being shown very clearly that direct
> action against the Hivers would result in an *indirect,* *unpredictable,*
> *sacrilegious* and thereby extremely terrifying response -  deciding to "let
> sleeping dogs lie" and thereafter limit themselves to expanding in the opposite
> direction.
>
	This discussion has relied too heavily on alien psychology and not enough on
military logistics and strategy.

	At the start of the war the Hiver have no effective navy. They've not needed
one. The K'kree are their first encounter with a real spacefaring race. But it's
not for the K'kree.

	The K'kree tactics are to sweep forward with the navy. Defeat in detail the
space forces, orbitally bombard the obvious military targets, and move on to the
next world. A follow-up, more civilian, force is then landed on the world to
assume administrative control. This is the ideal K'kree military strategy. Fast
moving, overwhelming force, and the enemy is crushed.

	The Hiver are both innovative and practical. They see the K'kree invasion as a
challenge to their technical (and manipulation) skills. Well, the ones that are
not in the immediate threat of being crushed underfoot. I'm quite sure the
K'kree encountered a wide range of interestingly amusing if ineffective attempts
to resist them. The motif of a gaping, sharp-toothed maw is something that
persists on the border worlds to this day.

	When the Hiver unveiled their clever manipulation of the K'kree conquered
worlds, it forced the K'kree to adjust their tactics. Instead of the sweeping
attacks across space they must perform a military conquest of each world
individually. This requires the more expensive military forces.

	It also gets the Hiver the one thing they need the most: time. The Hiver would
have come up with an simple and effective naval ship design, but they need the
time to build enough of them to stop the K'kree invasion forces. This idea of
sacrificing parts for the greater whole is completely comfortable to the Hiver.
They have the ability to regrow (slowly) parts of their on bodies. So loosing a
finger or a dozen border worlds is considered normal.

	From the K'kree perspective they have conquered or explored between 4
subsectors and a sector worth of space. They have not encounter the home world
of the Hiver, the Ithklur, nor any of the other majority races from the
Federation. This means the K'kree are not conquering a small pocket empire, but
a large, technologically advanced multi-sector federation.

	With so many things the Hiver do, the explanation offered and the truth of the
matter are vastly different. The Hiver offer their clever manipulation as the
reason for the K'kree stopping their war.

	The truth is the combination of an increasingly effective Hiver navy, the
K'kree needed an increasingly expensive logistical trail to conquer worlds, and
the Hiver offering a "Peace Treaty" on their terms. The alternative was a
conquering Hiver/Ithklur army turning the K'kree into another Hiver client.

	The local K'kree commanders probably figured taking the deal would allow them
the time to bolster their forces and restart the conquest at their leisure. What
they didn't count on was a shift of political viewpoints from home. If this was
the result of a Hiver manipulation or simple ongoing political evolution is for
you to decide (Occam's razor says the latter).

	There are two alternative histories here:

1) The Hiver demonstrate their clever manipulation. But the Hiver are neither as
clever nor as manipulative as they think. The K'kree laugh in their face and
continue their conquests. Would the K'kree over stretch their military forces
before conquering the whole of the newly founded Federation?

2) The K'kree reject the Hiver peace treaty. The upgraded Hiver navy begins
reconquer the Hiver border worlds, then advanced into K'kree space. Their sense
of parental caring toward the K'kree client races pushes them to conquer the
whole of K'kree space. And the K'kree become just another Federation member.

--
         Thomas Jones-Low
Work:	xxxxxx@softstart.com
Home:   xxxxxx@gmail.com