Pre-titles - Episode 4 Scene 1 (1st draft)

After the turn of the 21st century, after the Eugenic wars, after Khan Noonian Sing departed from Earth on the S.S. Botany Bay. Eurasia found history repeating itself with another Khan devastating the continent. Multiple countries required massive investments towards reconstruction. 

The augment tyrants made sure to wreck as much havoc and misery as they were forced out of their fiefdoms and consigned to the history books.

Khan oddly, considered “the best of tyrants”, because compared to his enhanced brothers; who engaged themselves in the countless wars and genocide, only squashed civil liberties. History books consider his reign most benevolent.

One city he admired and acted gracious towards, a jewel in his empire - Hong Kong, a city founded through conquest but importantly, built upon via mercantilism. 

For Khan, Hong Kong bestowed riches with little pressure applied. His governorship stayed light for its people who historically were passive to colonial interests. In turn the territory financed his desires.

The city itself never culturally a product of one nation, but here lay its advantage, its neutrality. Disconnected militarily from other surviving nations and opposing augments. 

Khan left the city’s vital economic services intact. The outcome being, when the Eugenic Wars ended, the city survived relatively unscathed.

Before the Asian continent could recover, humanity then hosted World War Three. A war lasting almost thirty years. What records survived, provide evidence of over 600 million people losing their lives.

Hong Kong, by this point, still seen as neutral, existed with its infrastructure intact a second time. But with no farmable land, the city couldn’t hold onto a population without outside help. Most citizens abandoned the concrete jungle in the same manner as the peoples of Machu Picchu and Gobekli Tepe did. When World War Three ended, the city remained functional as entire nations burned.

By the late 2080s, ten years after Zephram Cochrane’s first warp flight, Hong Kong held a lead towards aiding and rebuilding other cities and people’s confidence in a brighter future. 

Before attaining personal wealth fell out of favour for humanity, Hong Kong and the surrounding region accounted for over 70% of the world’s remaining financial trade. 

Then as Earth unified under a central government, bringing in sweeping reforms to repair the damage done by the two recent conflicts. One such reform eased the burden of  needing to acquire wealth. With enough banking and financial institutions already wrecked, along with monetary records. This turned into an opportunity to relieve debt burdens, erase credit histories and level out the class structures and financial inequalities that existed. 

In the United Earth’s wisdom, a universal income came into inception, this forced the acquisition of wealth as one’s purpose in life, into the background, overnight. 

But Hong Kong with its data centres and internet structures intact, found a new role - housing the entirety of Earth’s population’s entitlements. Citizens after becoming accustomed to the notion of seemingly having everything for free, took, sold or made whatever they wanted with the understanding powerful computers handled every financial transaction.

But, other world’s and alien races outside Earth and what would later become the Federation still used their forms of currency. The Earth government needed capital to trade outside the Federation. Everything financial related for the Federation also resided in Hong Kong.

The office of the Federation President is situated in Paris. San Francisco is home to Starfleet Command, her academy and the Federation Council. But the Bank of Earth and the Federation resides in a merchant city ironically founded on capitalism and the historical excesses of human power and greed.

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This will of course be subject to change (it's a draft without my helper (another human btw) or Grammarly's nemesis having seen it). It's my writing in it's rawest form. 

It's purpose is only to establish Asia (never presented in Star Trek) and allow me to make a comment on something in Star Trek that isn't really explored - how people pay for things. Anything mentioned here doesn't deviate from canon, so I could take many liberties with the source material. 

This scene is inspired by the book 'Trekonomics' by Manu Saadia.

I recommend you to read it if its something that interests you as it nicely ties in how our heroes never need to pay for drinks in Quark's or when ordering gumbo in Sisko's Creole Kitchen in New Orleans.

The concept of UBI wasn't even around 20+ years ago, so it think it's interesting to insert into the established canon how wealth became the non-driving force in human's lives prior to the inception of the Federation.

Let me know your thoughts if any. Thank you.

This first chapter is 600 words out of a word limit of 8000.