Covert team idea? Sounds like Contact/Special Circumstances ("the moral equivalent of black holes, where the rules cease to apply") from Iain M Banks' Culture novels. Check out "Use of Weapons" in particular. Special Circumstances operates with _very_ restricted tech (in order not to break cover) to change civilisations in the direction the Culture wants - by force if necessary.
Actually, the Fed/Culture similarities have been getting quite striking; both cashless communist utopias, interspecies harmony, strong sense of moral superiority etc. Except the Culture has better starships - General System Vessels forty klicks long, with names like "What Are The Civilian Applications?" and "Very Little Gravitas Indeed".
Roll on the Culture movie...
Konovalev.
Slashdot Mirror
Covert team idea? Sounds like Contact/Special Circumstances ("the moral equivalent of black holes, where the rules cease to apply") from Iain M Banks' Culture novels. Check out "Use of Weapons" in particular. Special Circumstances operates with _very_ restricted tech (in order not to break cover) to change civilisations in the direction the Culture wants - by force if necessary. Actually, the Fed/Culture similarities have been getting quite striking; both cashless communist utopias, interspecies harmony, strong sense of moral superiority etc. Except the Culture has better starships - General System Vessels forty klicks long, with names like "What Are The Civilian Applications?" and "Very Little Gravitas Indeed". Roll on the Culture movie... Konovalev.