Let’s think about an interesting thing I could do with a Substack newsletter. I have taken it upon myself for many years to try and understanding the plumbing of our national security state. How does it work at the granular level of day-to-day human and institutional protocols?

So, for example: when a CIA officer is writing a cable back to HQS, how does that cable get from the base or station to HQS? Who reads it first? Who reads it second? How are cables prioritized? Compartmentalized? Secured? Archived?

That’s one level. And then: when you’re writing a cable, how many audiences do you have? Your chief of station? Your branch chief? Mission or target analysis desks elsewhere? Do you spend time on your prose? Do you use idioms and literary devices? If so, why? Why not?

What is the function of the paperwork? What value does it serve? Is there esteem, or a special sense of pleasure, that one gets from writing a cable that will be more tightly compartmentalized than another? How does cable writing ability influence future assignments?

And then my mind wanders further. Let’s say you’re an officer in China. Your cell phone is tracked. Everyone who leaves every known US consul is tracked by humans and AI using an array of facial recognition and voice print databases. How do you possibly go “black” in China?

You can see how the mind wanders.

Now, the answers to all of these questions — all of them — are classified and many are further hidden away in compartments. I can ask these questions for curiosity’s sake, but that’s taboo. As curious as I am, I am completely aware of the extraordinarily sensitive equities that

Even the most obscure branch drain leads to. So then my imagination kicks in. And I look for a parallel universe where I can safely speculate about these matters without harming anyone.

And that inevitably brings me to my longstanding utter fascination ( @michaelchabon) with Starfleet Intelligence. Flashy Section 31 mythology is not what drives my obsession. What drives my obsession are the same things that I’m curious about in the real world.

Does Starfleet Intelligence have stations? Where are they? Are there station chiefs? What are their career paths? What’s their cover? How are intelligence priorities sorted out? What role does the Federation President play versus the Federation Security Council, or the CINC of

Starfleet? How does Starfleet Intelligence produce its products? How does it handle emergency exfiltration procedures? Is there a Starfleet SIGINT organization? Who is responsible for counter-intelligence? How are targets validated? Who deconflicts Section 31 missions?

Are there dedicated Starfleet Intelligence vessels? Do they mask their true identities? How is intelligence encrypted across subspace? How can SIGINT work without gazillions or sensors and relay stations because of, well, physics?

What does Starfleet’s counterterrorism mission entail? Is the head of Stafleet Intelligence a civilian? Is there a separate “Federation Intelligence” or “Federation Security” organization outside of Starfleet?

The @StarTrek @StarTrekOnPPlus @StarTrekRoom cannon and retcon gurus must have some of these answers, right? And if they don’t, well - as someone who has read every Star Trek book and seen every film and every episode of television, and who wants to fill in those gaps …

Even if for the purposes of drama we really don’t need all that much detail, maybe I will write a treatise in episodic, periodical newsletter form about Starfleet Intelligence. I will port over my questions about CIA and COVCOM and stuff to a fantasy world and play there.

I love writing for no one at 4am ET. My “get rich really slowly and probably never” schemes.