Can tribbles be used as a 'terrorist' weapon

mr friendly guy · Post by **mr friendly guy** » 2005-01-02 12:40am

I have had previous discussions where Trekkies thought tribbles could be used as a weapon as they are likely to cause ecological disasters when they reproduce at the rates they do and take up vast natural resources.

Is it plausible, say for plots sake have a Marqui smuggle some onto Cardassian colonies and let them reproduce. Will it be a mere annoyance or actually force the Cardassians to devote lots of resources to deal with?

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-01-02 01:00am

Evacuate and fire one orbital shot. Order all civilians to kill any tribbles that they may find. The end.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2005-01-02 01:36am

somehow i don't think they'd count as a terrorist weapon unless you happen to be a klingon.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2005-01-02 02:01am

Praxis wrote:Evacuate and fire one orbital shot. Order all civilians to kill any tribbles that they may find. The end.

Maybe not. If even a single tribble survives, it can reproduce. And don't tell me that there was food lying around all over the Enterprise for tribbles to eat. Tribbles can reproduce with very little, and if you have a tribble in your house you might find a hundred tribbles when you come home a few days later and a thousand tribbles in the whole colony a little afterward. You can't blow up your own colony. You don't "order" civilians to do anything, they aren't military, many may not, and what happens to all the decomposing tribble bodies?

Brian

CDS · Post by **CDS** » 2005-01-02 02:52am

They must've removed them from the Enterprise somehow...

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2005-01-02 09:12am

CDS wrote:They must've removed them from the Enterprise somehow...

They beamed them into the Klingon ships engine room. Kirk had previously ordered Spock to get them off the ship, even if it took every man they had.

CDS · Post by **CDS** » 2005-01-02 09:21am

Ah yes, my memory failed me there.

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2005-01-02 10:19am

So get a Hideki-class ship,(or whatever crappy small patrol ship your civilisation uses) and beam all the tribbles into space. I'm sure that transporters are slightly more effective than they were a century ago.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-01-02 02:23pm

brianeyci wrote:
Praxis wrote:Evacuate and fire one orbital shot. Order all civilians to kill any tribbles that they may find. The end.
Maybe not. If even a single tribble survives, it can reproduce. And don't tell me that there was food lying around all over the Enterprise for tribbles to eat. Tribbles can reproduce with very little, and if you have a tribble in your house you might find a hundred tribbles when you come home a few days later and a thousand tribbles in the whole colony a little afterward. You can't blow up your own colony. You don't "order" civilians to do anything, they aren't military, many may not, and what happens to all the decomposing tribble bodies?

Brian

Actually, there was.

The tribles were reproducing mainly in the space station, which was LOADED WITH GRAIN. They completely filled out the storage compartment and ate it all, too.

Plus they were mostly hanging out in the food replicators.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2005-01-02 04:01pm

brianeyci wrote:You don't "order" civilians to do anything, they aren't military, many may not, and what happens to all the decomposing tribble bodies?

Actually, when the authorities declare martial law, civilians can be ordered to do anything.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2005-01-02 06:54pm

Tribbles are a quite useless weapon. Even if you wanted to destroy your enemies food supply, a huge quantity of rats and rabbits, which are capable of actually moving significant distances under their own power and escaping mobs of people beating them to death with shovels, would be more effective.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-01-02 09:25pm

brianeyci wrote:what happens to all the decomposing tribble bodies?

It's called NDF.