Persistent, Niggling Questions

[Nate the Great]

So I'm watching a review of "The Pegasus" again and the following occurs to me...


PNQ: Even if the Federation doesn't believe in cloaking devices, what about all the other galactic powers?


I mean, surely the Ferengi could've bought or stole cloaking tech by now. The Obsidian Order could've stolen cloaking tech by now (they had an embassy on Romulus, after all). The Breen, the Orion Syndicate, the list goes on and on.


Gene's admonition that Starfleet doesn't sneak around is idealistic but not realistic.



I wish that they had introduced more restrictions on cloaking devices than just "no shields or weapons". The most obvious one that I can think of is "no cloaks while at warp."



Second is "cloaks are so energy-intensive that you can only use it for X minutes." Or to follow up on STVI, say that ships under cloak must be specifically modified to contain all impulse and thruster exhaust until the ship drops cloak. After X minutes the tanks are full and you need to decloak to vent before you can cloak again.


Third is some sort of technobabble to say that cloaking devices put out some form of radiation that Klingons and Romulans can handle just fine, but is cumulatively toxic for all other races. Perhaps when the Romulans gave the tech to the Klingons in the first place they also shared the needed genetic modifications. This would be a good place to explain the Romulan forehead ridges.