Unwanted Attention
Amanda and Sarek's marriage filled every tabloid and magazine in the galaxy as soon as the news was made public. All kinds of people did not hesitate to share their opinion on the matter.
Often, her fashion choices were criticized, using unflattering photos of her worst angles. Some preferred to speculate on their personalities and comment on their compatibility as a couple, overanalyzing their public appearances or making wild claims.
She spent hours and hours reading all those articles and opinions on her PADD.
It was entertaining... at first.
She had never been someone interesting enough to be the topic of conversation for another person in her close circle, let alone a lot of strangers. As the average woman she used to be, seeing her face anywhere other than her family's social media posts was somewhat of an accomplishment.
However, Amanda quickly understood how malicious and cruel public scrutiny could be. Speculations went from being crude and intrusive assumptions to misogynistic, classist or xenophobic statements. Some claimed that Sarek had only married her because she was young and malleable and that he was using her as an accessory to enhance his image as an ambassador. Others said that she was clout chasing and money hungry, or that she was obsessed with his kind.
She could tolerate the down feeling she got when she saw that many people could see her as greedy, lacking in fashion sense and naive. The worst thing had been reading an interview where someone who had known her in real life and had been nice to her, had told all kinds of lies and false stories for a bit of easy money.
Sarek was less surprised than she was by the wave of unwanted attention. Of course, he was a Vulcan and had grown up surrounded by strangers who talked about his family since childhood.
How involved some members of the public were was strange, but it wasn't all bad. Thanks to the commotion, she had found a publication that compiled some pictures of Sarek and his family that she had found adorable. Perhaps, that was the only way she could see and know a little more about where he came from, because Sarek had never mentioned his family beyond confirming their existence and the fact that they were still alive.
"I can sense your distress." Sarek's voice broke her train of thought.
Amanda turned to see him and smiled, but he noticed the concern in her eyes as she reached for his hand, while conveying peace to herself.
"I'm not used to this kind of attention. I've never heard anyone speak ill of me before, let alone publicly," Amanda admitted, starting to get upset.
She never gave any reason to be publicly berated by anyone and Mia surely knew that, but didn't care.
"Their opinion should not be a source of distress for us, ashayam," Sarek said, sending comfort through their bond.
She sighed and nodded her head. Sarek sat on the couch and moved Amanda's PADD.
"It is me," he pointed out, once the PADD screensaver revealed itself when Sarek touched it.
"I found the picture in an article," Amanda said, her cheeks deep flushed to be caught and acknowledge that it was the sort of behavior Mia had spoken about in The Terran Times. "Does it bother you?"
"No."
"How old were you in this picture?" Amanda asked.
"I was seven years old and Silek, my brother, was thirteen. This photograph was taken at the Andorian festival of winter. My father was invited by the Vulcan Ambassador to Andoria at the time, who was a close friend of his," Sarek explained, examining the photo in detail while Amanda stared in silence as she recognized subtle melancholy in his eyes, not so sure what to say next. "Ambassador's son turned out to be a V'tosh Ka'tur and my father took his expulsion from Vulcan as a warning to take special attention to his own children."
"A what?"
"V'tosh Ka'tur," Sarek corrected her. "A Vulcan who does not follow the teachings of Surak in the traditional way. Most of them have not abandoned logic, but decide to embrace emotions as humans do."
Amanda stayed silent for a brief moment.
It tormented her to think that he would return to her planet in a few hours for his work. Not because Amanda couldn't live without him, but because she was worried about his safety. She had tried to keep her emotions and worries to herself, but Sarek's upcoming departure to a planet full of dangerous extremists, who had loudly expressed how un-Vulcan Sarek was for marrying her, made it impossible to overlook.
"For how long will you be gone?" she asked.
"I will be arriving in three days," Sarek replied. "My presence is required there. The Vulcan High Council said the Ambassador will not talk with anyone else."
That was clearly an evasive reply, but Amanda decided to not ask again.
"I'll miss you."
"Something is troubling you, Amanda," he said matter-of-factly. His eyes were focused on her and she sighed. She had forgotten to conceal her emotions and dripped through their bond.
Amanda was overwhelmed by the unsolicited attention from mean strangers, but the cruel comments about her physical appearance or lack of fashion sense didn't scare her in the slightest as the reaction from people who were actually dangerous.
She had never heard of logic extremism before. After learning that they had been behind the attack on the Earth Basic Education Institute, a school for children, her fear only increased. Shortly thereafter, a building full of Vulcans had exploded in San Francisco, so going to their planet seemed like a terrible idea.
"Speak your mind, Amanda."
Amanda got up from the couch. Sarek followed her with his eyes, waiting for her to voice her concerns.
"I'm afraid, Sarek. I'm afraid for your safety," she said, not daring to even mention the extremists out loud.
"Amanda—"
"You know that I'm not being illogical," she cut him off, staring at him directly.
Both of them knew that.
Ⱄ Ⱄ Ⱄ
Sarek turned on his PADD. He was bored. After a long day inside the shuttle doing nothing at all, he was longing for entertainment.
They would reach the planet in one point five standard days and he was already sick of space.
Amanda stayed on Earth and he did not find it very logical to ask her to travel to Vulcan with him. She was distressed by the Vulcan extremists' attacks that were newly reported that she thought—for some reason—were a warning to him for marrying a human.
Assuring he had not thought about the potential response of the whole galaxy about his relationship and marriage with Amanda was a misguided assumption. Sarek had spent even more time than Amanda thinking about the matter. He had considered and successfully predicted with accuracy the public reaction, which was not exactly difficult considering the status of his people in the galaxy's eyes.
Interspecies relationships weren't exactly a novelty. Since the founding of The United Federation of Planets, the galaxy slowly became a smaller place and interplanetary interaction quickly wrapped individuals closer and closer.
As the child of an Ambassador, Sarek had travelled across the galaxy. He had been close to all kinds of individuals, cultures and different environments where he often witnessed practices, beliefs and associations between people who resembled nothing the ones in Vulcan.
Vulcans were always apart and Amanda, as well as other people he had met, pointed out the Vulcan tendency to gather among themselves and remain inaccessible to the exterior. Frequently, such a course of action was perceived as a gesture of hostility and arrogance on their behalf. As the years went by, Sarek understood why they perceived their demeanor as unfriendly.
His own relatives displayed a similar behavior to let him know that they didn't support his chosen mate. He was aware that Vulcans could be as critical as any other species. Only their manner of speaking was less passionate. They would only cut off the dishonorable family member and pretend he had never existed.
Sometimes he wondered if the Terran commotion had had something to do with it. Many of his Vulcan detractors relied on questioning his image as the representative of a people. No tabloid newspaper on Earth had ever portrayed Terran Ambassador Laurie's marriage with the same viciousness as his marriage to Amanda. The tone was quite the opposite, much more friendly and positive.
If he were more sensitive, perhaps it would have bothered him.
However, the intergalactic press' backlash was a minor nuisance, an expectable one.
Sarek found the speculations of the Terran media quite absurd. Cruel jibes, xenophobic remarks and crude speculations did not seem worthy of his attention. A columnist calling him a green goblin or accusing him of having a fetish for humans did not carry the same weight as an extremist leader devoting an entire speech to him.
He expected disagreement with his decision, but he could not say that he expected such a negative reaction. He believed that beyond the expected xenophobic comments, no one would pay attention to it. In short, he had not expected the avalanche of death threats that had rained down upon him..
When Amanda was asleep, he had spent a couple of nights reading them. In English and Vulcan, the letters all agreed that it was disgusting, a disgrace to the species and that there was something twisted about the union.
He was less vocal than Amanda, but it did cause him concern. Earth's disproportionate reaction had attracted the attention of the extremists. Before he left, an embassy employee had let him know that the spokesperson for an extremist group had come out to condemn his actions.
His words made Sarek reconsider his future along with Amanda. He questioned himself if he was willing to risk his beloved Amanda's security by retaining his position as the acting Vulcan Ambassador to Earth.
His plan to move to Vulcan had been delayed as a result of the rise of the logic extremism inside Vulcan. He had bought a house in Shi'kahr not so long after they got engaged. However, before he could even consult Amanda about the matter, his hometown was awakening, covered in hateful art towards him, calling him a traitor or a V'tosh Ka'tur enabler.
When they arrived in Vulcan—his home world—he felt not only the heat in his face, but the silent hostility of his own kind, daring him to prove he was still on their side. That he was still one of them
"Ambassador," the driver said in Vulcan, "We are due to arrive at the Galaxy Inn in three minutes."
Sarek nodded, repressing the nervousness in the pit of the stomach.
Ⱄ Ⱄ Ⱄ
"…We have allowed emotional beings to influence our way of life. Many fellow Vulcans have been directly affected by the illogical views and indulgence of emotionalism, encouraged to leave behind the traditions, customs and manners that have guided us for over five hundred years. The effort Surak made to teach us the ways of logic and emotional repression as a tool to improve society, a tool that ended wars and brought stability to our planet, is being threatened by the V'tosh Ka'tur movement.
Until today, the V'tosh Ka'tur movement was successfully removed from Vulcan and our homeland was free of the associates of this harmful cause. Nonetheless, at the beginning of the current year, the news of the bonding ceremony of the Vulcan Ambassador to Earth with a human woman reached our planet. A decision that resembles so much the illogical choices that self-acknowledged V'tosh Ka'tur—who have no place in Vulcan society—, made in the past. Vulcans who take human mates is a phenomenon that is neither new nor unusual in the times we live in. Times, where the failed experiment that is the Federation, has gained more power we ever should allow into Vulcan policy-making processes.
The corruption of traditional values and the biased logic that favors detrimental decisions is spreading rapidly among the younger generations, as we have witnessed time and time again. Ambassador Sarek is a member of one of the oldest Vulcan families directly descended from Surak, and above all, he is an active representative of our planet to the outside world.
Is this the way we agree to be represented as a species in front of the galaxy?
Is he—a Vulcan male who personally engages with emotional beings while proclaiming to follow Surak's teachings—an accurate envoy?
Is Ambassador Sarek even compromised with what it implies to be a true Vulcan? He has become too enamored of the human race. He has spent too much among them and their planet to understand what his bonding ceremony with a human implies for all Vulcans.
The V'tosh Ka'tur movement celebrated this and took it as a standard bearer to validate their erroneous interpretation of Surak's teachings… This is something we cannot longer classify as acceptable..."
Amanda paused the video.
There was a lot to unpack in that speech alone.
Her eyes remained on the speaker.
How had she never seen that man before?
According to her research, his name was Balev and he was the spokesman for an extremist group that had been on the rise for a couple of years on Vulcan. She read the title again, only to realize he had said it a few months ago.
She examined his face and his demeanor, concluding that he looked like every other Vulcan she had ever met. The fact that he resembled collected, cold and formal while spitting that hateful speech was terrifying in her eyes. She almost believed that he was somehow civilized.
She sighed and sank into the comfort of the blanket and looked up at the ceiling, remembering that Sarek was off-world.
She had stayed inside their shared house in San Francisco with the head full of unpleasant images of terrible scenarios where Sarek was killed in Vulcan by a logic extremist. She had barely slept during the past week, partially due to her inability to not dream Sarek dying in one hundred different ways and her need for more information.
She had stayed up reading and searching for information about logic extremism in every language she knew, scrolling through countless news articles, propaganda, holovideos of them speaking about topics like Vulcan nature, interspecies relationships or the Federation.
She grabbed her PADD and when she unlocked it she came across a photograph of one of the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on the children's school. Even though she was aware of the horrible act she had participated in, it gave her a strange feeling to see how young everyone involved was.
She was astonished, horrified.
Was hate logical? What about the 'infinite diversity in infinite combinations' principle?
The delivery certainly differed from other similar groups, but the hateful statements were still hateful, no matter if the speaker screamed vehemently to a hysterical audience or were recited with a matter-of-factly expression, big words to add a sense of civility to the speech and a monotone lifeless voice.
Ⱄ Ⱄ Ⱄ
Varith was again in Velekh's apartment.
He had been craving to go there for an entire week. He had even lost concentration at work thinking about Velekh's whereabouts and the horrible incident.
A week after the explosion inside that local building, he was back searching for Velekh despite T'Mirek insistence that he was okay and would be back when he was ready. Nonetheless, Varith wasn't sure about that. Not considering all the differences with his previous escapades.
"…Balev talked about Ambassador Sarek today. He casts doubt on the Ambassador's capacity to serve as a diplomat and a representative of our planet. Irrelevant to say his assessment is biased and judgmental. Nonetheless, when he has called into question the kind of representation Ambassador Sarek portrays to the galaxy, I could not prevent myself to analyze Balev's behavior, applying the same parameters. Is this the way we agree to be represented as a species in front of the galaxy? Is he, a Vulcan who openly disregards the IDIC principle, an accurate spokesman for us?"
He stopped to read.
Velekh's thoughts were beginning to go under his skin. He was just like him for a long time before adapting to Earth and leaving behind his past.
Prying through Velekh's personal diaries seemed unethical. However, it was the only place from which he could glean some sort of information.
T'Mirek didn't want to admit it, but both knew that this time was different from the other times Velekh had run away. The timing was odd and he didn't show any hint of distress. Velekh was focused on his work and doing well, so his sudden disappearance was unusual.
The loud sound of the main door opening drew his attention out of the journal.
"I thought you would be here," T'Mirek said entering the apartment with a brownish paper bag with an alien script. "Are you hungry? I bought Andorian food from a new place crossing the street."
He was cross-legged in the dusty red rug on the floor, T'Mirek was standing in the doorframe, glancing around and silently astonished by the amount of paper taped to the wall all over the room.
"What's this?" she asked, her eyes focused on everything taped to the wall and the books Varith had stacked on the table.
"I am cleaning the apartment and Cat needs to be fed," Varith replied.
T'Mirek lifted an eyebrow in disbelief, resembling more severe than usual.
She walked over to the kitchen counter and left the bag of takeout there. She opened the refrigerator and saw half-empty packages of soon-to-expire food and wilted vegetables that no one had eaten.
"Oh! Really? That's interesting because I just saw the neighbor holding Velekh's cat in the hall. Unless he had an identical one. Also, this place is dusty and Cat's bowl is empty," T'Mirek said, acerbic with her arms crossed on her chest. "What's going on, Varith?"
Varith peered at the paper on the wall and got up from the floor to speak.
"I believe that Velekh knew—"
"Varith, no," she cut him off. "Not again."
"Please listen to me. It's not like before... it's not just me being paranoid."
T'Mirek shook her head and looked him up and down as if searching for something.
Varith recognized that look of hopelessness and exhaustion. The same one she had given him so many times when he would wake up in the middle of the night and think he was still on Vulcan.
"No, I...I can't go back to when we were all scared thinking about the logic jerks all the time. I won't and you shouldn't too," she said, breathing heavily before adding, "Velekh was seeing things that were not there, okay? He told me about the logic extremists and I believed him. We were there and I sat on a bench for six hours with him, but I didn't see anything. There were none. Not even one of them."
"T'Mirek, perhaps…"
Varith closed his mouth, recognizing a mixture of distress and annoyance in her expression.
She exhaled, annoyed.
"No, this," she waved her arms, gesturing the whole room covered in paper, clippings and pictures out of context, "All of this is absolutely paranoid. You and I know pretty damn well, that this is not the way they work, Varith. They don't gather publicly on a planet full of people they can't stand. No, they just show up and do their thing."
"I—"
"Do you really think they blew up that building?" she ranted, gulping and walking to the kitchen counter, frenetically taking the food containers out of the bag. "If he was right, then that was 'their' place…Why on Earth would they bomb their own people? What is the logic in that?"
"There is none," Varith replied slowly, blinking and partially absent-minded.
"Exactly. Now, let's eat. The comments on the internet say this place is good, so we better eat it because it wasn't cheap."
She was right.
Naturally, a question emerged as a result of that assertion; If the logic extremists weren't responsible for the bombing attack on the temple, then who was? And why? The images he had seen about the attack were stuck in his head. The whole topic was troubling him more than he would like to.
They both sat at the kitchen counter eating straight from the food containers.
Varith grabbed a spoonful of a stew and noticed how dusty the place was. It caused a tight feeling in his chest to notice that Velekh had been gone long enough that his apartment was beginning to look decaying.
"Tomorrow I'll file a police report," she announced with a heavy sigh, when she turned around to handle plates from the shelf.
"What?"
She took a seat at the kitchen counter as she placed the plates.
"Velekh's not okay…mentally. We failed to help him, and I should've done something about it, both of us. He was seeing logic extremists everywhere and we did nothing," explained T'Mirek, serving more Andorian vegetable stew on her plate. "Wherever he is, he's not of sound mind."