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The Origin of the M-851 form can be traced back to a diplomatic misunderstanding between Earth and Andoria in the 22nd century:
The origin of form M-851 is clouded in rumor, false history and far too many similar incidents happening within a short period of time. The truth leads back to someone who, upon reflection, everyone should have suspected in the first place.
As anyone with even a semi-passing grade in Federation History can tell you, future Federation President Jonathan Archer (2184-2192) was never the exception to the rules, he was always the reason for them.
It should then come as no surprise to find that the very first instance of needing a quick and easy marriage annulment following a diplomatic incident was because of him.
In the early years of the coalition that would one day become the Federation, Archer made a plea for an Andorian and Tellarite to join his crew in addition to his Vulcan Representative T’Pol. Tellar Prime agreed without issue but something went very sideways with the Andorians’ agreement.
Then Commander Thy’lek Shran was an obvious pick and Archer had no disagreement with the nomination. The rest of what happened has been pieced together from officer and personal logs.
Supposedly, per Archer's log, an information packet on Andorian Spousal Regulations regarding serving on the same ship was sent to him. As neither Shran nor the Imperial Guard had mentioned Jhamel joining the crew or even being qualified to do so, Archer sent a call to Shran who offered no clarification other than the fact that Jhamel was not in fact coming with him.
Per a file recorded by the Imperial Guard Office of Officer Assignments, Archer and Shran inquired about the issue. The results of this inquiry would change how humans handled relationships with new species for centuries to come.
In a mission from their early days, per various logs of Shran and his former crew, Archer and Shran had run into each other and a conversation about favors and a knife given to replace one lost was mistaken by a newly added administrative crewman, similar to Earth's Yeoman, on Shran’s ship as an elopement. Shran’s flippant comment to file the mission report with full accuracy had then been taken by the crewman to mean include his supposed elopement.
Shran, who knew much more about human customs and that Archer was “just being an idiot” when he jokingly handed him that knife, had definitely “not meant for his supposed elopement to be included”. These direct quotes were pulled from a recorded court session regarding the issue. Said quotes led to Shran being declared in contempt of the court and removed from the room.
Eventually the case was settled as Starfleet officially adopted form M-851 to quickly separate Archer and Shran before the Commander joined the Enterprise. Archer would go on to use M-851 seven more times, five of which were with Shran before finally marrying both Shran and Jhamel, Shran’s wife, two years into his service on the Federation Council.
When filling out form M-851, it was the responsibility of the higher ranked officer to ensure all information is accurate and up to date and that all parties were properly informed:
Michael Burnham was known as a controversial figure in the 23rd Century and a hero in the 32nd. This odd little fact of time travel was exactly why M-851, a majorly outdated form, was needed centuries after it was discontinued.
Shortly before the Klingon-Federation War, Captain Georgiou and her First Officer Michael Burnham had run into an issue on a Federation protectorate world that led to a huge planet wide celebration. It was only at the end of the three days of partying that the Captain would be informed this was a marital celebration only used for royalty or important ambassadors - the underlying reason for why this information wasn't included in the cultural information packet on the planet.
It is unknown if Captain Georgiou had attempted to fill out M-851 or not but many historians agree, the reason it was never submitted was due to the war that followed leading to the death of Captain Georgiou and the arrest of Michael Burnham.
The events to follow, Georgiou's classified reappearance, Burnham's classified and unconfirmed death, Georgiou's unconfirmed death and Burnham's reappearance centuries later, would only continue to confound the issue until the marriage was filed some time in the 24th Century out of an abundance of caution since neither party could be reached for questioning.
Upon reaching the 32nd Century this information would only be discovered when Burnham filed for marriage with her future husband Cleveland Booker which would lead to the reapproval for form M-851 to be filled along with the drafting of a new form to cover any other time related administrative procedures.
It is a common misconception that not filling out M-851 would validate your marriage, in this instance M-852 should be filled out or a mark would go down in the commanding officer's record and a Sentient Being Resources investigation opened:
At some point during the early years of their careers it is known that Admiral Christopher Pike, then a Commander, and Captain Una Chin-Riley, then a Lieutenant, were married on a newly discovered planet called Gallyas.
It would be a decade or more before Gallyas would be inducted into the Federation allowing for their accidental marriage to be annulled by M-851. According to the personal logs of those present, then Captain Pike and Commander Chin-Riley, the events of their away mission immediately following Gallyas’ admittance into the Federation, would lead to the formation of a relationship.
Instead of filing M-851 or M-852, Captain Pike would file R-572 to inform SBR of their change in relationship status. This mix up would lead to a full investigation of the USS Enterprise's relationship policy as the SBR agent sent to investigate why Captain Pike failed to fill out M-851 and if Commander Chin-Riley was being coerced, would discover many, many fraternization violations.
The investigation to follow would go down in SBR history as the worst record of unrecorded fraternization ever that would lead from the command team to the lower decks and then off ship to the USS Farragut, the USS Cayuga and all the way to Starbase One.
When the dust finally settled from the major scandal, two divorces, seven ship reassignments, one arrest, four forced early retirements, one academic dishonesty charge, three reprimands, two demotions and a child would come of it.
Captain Pike and Commander Chin-Riley would at the least remain married.
M-851 could be filled out an unlimited number of times and the record holder for the most M-851 forms filed belongs to Captain Kirk who once even filed the form after he was officially married:
Forty-eight forms are tucked away in the SBR historical data files containing the name James Tiberius Kirk. Two of these forms were filed in reference to Pavel Chekov, the father of Federation President Anton Chekov (2400-2408). Six were filed to annul marriages to Montgomery Scott, the Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise who was reported missing in a transporter accident and recovered in 2369. Nyota Uhura, linguistics expert and the creator of the first fully adaptive Universal Translator, appears on nine of these forms. Thirteen of the forms include Dr. Leonard McCoy, one of the most renowned medical minds in Starfleet history and the final eighteen to be filed with then Commander Spock, the future Vulcan Ambassador to Romulus who was declared missing following the explosion of the planet's star.
This extreme abuse of the M-851 form led to a second SBR investigation of the USS Enterprise which turned up an astounding rate of Federation allies and protectorate planets forcefully marrying the crew of the USS Enterprise. Further investigation revealed all forty-eight incidents included contact with psi-positive empathic or telepathic races and that the close connections of the USS Enterprise command crew simply registered to the people as genuine love.
This blatant disregard for the respect of other species' relationship status led to a law reform for joining the Federation that dramatically lowered the accidental marriage rates among Starfleet officers.
Following this law Captain Kirk was only married thrice more, once when he officially married his husband Ambassador Spock, again during a diplomatic nightmare on Risa after which he jokingly filed M-851 officially annulling his marriage and a week later when he was forced to re-marry his husband in order to recertify their marriage. A year later he would be declared dead in 2293 with the destruction of the USS Enterprise-B.
It is still unclear why Kirk never married his senior helmsman Hikaru Sulu, later Captain of the USS Excelsior.
M-851 was only for the annulment of accidental marriages, it did not cover accidental adoptions nor has there ever been a form to cover accidental adoptions:
Jack Crusher, the son of Admiral Jean-Luc picard, is an infamous character within Starfleet history. Known as a rebellious youth, he would become a well-rounded if controversial officer under the command of Captain Seven and Commander Raffi Musiker.
This growing respect from Crusher would led to an incident involving a newly allied race of feline based ancestry that determined familial bonds through body language. Captain Seven and Commander Musiker would leave the planet married, certifying the ceremony with M-852, and the unknown newly appointed guardian of Lieutenant Jack Crusher.
This information would become clear following an away mission two years later that ended with Crusher as the only survivor and in a coma. When pulling records for next of kin, it would be found that Seven and Musiker were listed as his legal guardians while Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher were listed only as birth parents.
This change of custody would remain for the next two years of Crusher’s coma as neither the Federation nor Starfleet had a response to accidentally adopting a fully grown adult. A new law would be enacted to protect adults from harmful adoptions on planets in which they were allowed but as Crushers's adoption was not done out of malice, Seven and Musiker would be allowed to keep custody.
Upon recovery from his coma, Jack Crusher would become the first adult in Federation History to file for emancipation. The initial ruling failed to approve the emancipation due to medical reasons and judicial malpractice but was overturned when escalated to a higher court.
M-851 only applied to marriages performed on Federation soil, the planets of members, allies who sign an accord agreement and protectorates who pay the proper fees not unofficial allies or outside territories though any marriage could be backdated upon gaining membership and M-851 could be filed as needed:
The history between the Federation and the Orions is a long and tense one, leading to a tentative and unofficial allyship that would last a hundred years before Orion would officially join the Federation.
This alliance limbo resulted in many incidents of diplomatic misunderstandings and escalations but none as damaging as the accidental marriage of Lieutenant Beckett Mariner and then Lieutenant D'Vana Tendi.
Before the marriage, one of the main Orion ruling families held certain resentments towards Starfleet for employing their elder daughter. After the marriage, which was discovered due to a bride price paid for Tendi for Mariner on behalf of the royal family that conducted the marriage, those resentments turned to outright hatred leading to Orion declaring war on the Federation.
Through quick thinking and the use of a lirpa as a battering ram, Mariner, Tendi and assorted allies were able to lower tensions in an agreement that led to dual citizenship for Mariner and the promise to return home and rule following their retirement from Starfleet.
Lieutenant Mariner and Captain Tendi never divorced though whether this was due to a genuine desire to stay married or fear of political turmoil is unclear. Both would die in the line of duty before such a promise was ever fulfilled at the ages of sixty-eight and sixty-three respectively. Those who knew both women claimed this was entirely intentional.
Shaa Ki startled as her PADD chimed with an update from one of her classes. Checking it revealed a posted grade for her Federation History class. A 90/100 was the grade and when she clicked on the submission only one comment was made on her assignment. The part about Jack Crusher’s adoption was fully highlighted and clicking on the highlight revealed the comment: Relevance? -10.
Shaa Ki sighed. Her species’ tendency to overshare tangentially related information had struck again.