Chapter 56:

The embassies on Vulcan and Earth were expanded. All transport to Vulcan was on Vulcan ships, since it was a few weeks away, depending their cruising speed, while almost 2 years each way for Earth ships.

We learned a lot of intelligence about how Earth was regarded on Vulcan. Personally, Luna was an extremely controversial figure on Vulcan. Her detailed publishing of the teachings of Surak were destabilizing to their society. Much of Vulcan tradition from the last 17 centuries depended on their interpretations of fragmentary knowledge of Surak. Luna's information changed that knowledge and could potentially move their culture to what was seen in Star Trek Original Series. Many Vulcans chose to not believe her. For those that did believe her, it grated on their sensibilities that an off-worlder would be favored with this link to Surak. It didn't help that she refused to say how the link with Surak came to be.

Our security team told Luna, "We know how you think. Do not plan on a trip to Vulcan. You have seen in canon how dangerous it could be for you with different factions on Vulcan, not all pacifist, and not all Vulcan, considering you a problem."

She instead, for now, starting giving video lectures, in the modern Vulcan language for distribution on Vulcan. The videos also had English subtitles. She decided not to skew the teachings towards directions favorable to Earth, that it would cause a loss of trust in what she said, if she were to do that.

Surak's katra was so far not found. The only information we had was that it was probably in a cave on Vulcan. We told them that there was another artifact called the Kir'Shara hidden in the area they call the Forge. It would have a very detailed compendium of Surak's teachings. Luna did not have the information that Surak had about how to find it. That information wasn't relevant to what he taught her. We told them what we knew about the illusions and traps in the Forge area, at least in another timeline and 140 years later, and what the door to the Kir'Shara room looked like.

We also cautioned the Vulcans that in a different timeline, in the future, Romulan agents had infiltrated their government and led them to warlike actions. Luna spoke to Ambassador Sorek, "During a conflict in the nation called Wizarding Britain we also faced people with hidden loyalties working within the government, as well as those under magical mind control. You have the abilities to prevent this, with your magical mind arts, but are reluctant to use your abilities. However, you probably could use technology to determine who is Romulan, if not by biology, then by family history. Rather than singling out suspects, you could make it routine that people in positions of responsibility be checked for specific things, such as being a Romulan or being under mind control. It is important that the investigations not go further and look into disloyalty to present leadership, or minor criminal behavior, and ignore any such evidence that they do discover."

Starfleet Intelligence, another new Directorate, learned that besides the debate about the future of the ruling philosophies of Vulcan, there was considerable debate about Earth. Despite what Sorek had been saying to interviewers, the Vulcans were worried about the growing strength of Earth, and also its militancy. Earth appeared to be always ready for war, even if technologically behind. Earth also appeared to have an imperative to claim territory, which could lead to conflict in the future.

The debate about Earth included our stated goal of an area-wide Federation. It did seem a desirable outcome to Vulcan. However they doubted it would be possible, with various mutually hostile civilizations. They also wondered if we would still desire this, instead of an empire, when and if we surpassed our neighbors in technology and strength. Fortunately, Vulcan culture didn't support the idea of a preventative war to stop rising potential rivals. The consensus on Vulcan was to take actions consistent with a future Federation.

It also initially puzzled the Vulcans that Earth was very free with information, even knowing that the Vulcans did not reciprocate. However they did reciprocate, deciding that generosity was a form of trade that needed to be repaid. In other words, while some cultures negotiate exchanges of goods, others use a system of gifts, with neither gift giver wanting to be seen as giving a lesser gift. They concluded that Earth, or at least its outward facing culture, which is Starfleet, is part of that category.

With a larger embassy staff, Vulcans tried to learn about every magical, non-magical, and magical being society. They also tried to learn how Earth changed in the past. One description of Earth history showed,

Approximately 70 years ago wars of conquest occurred throughout the planet. Large areas of Earth were still ruled as colonies as recently as 50 years ago. Only within the last 20 years has the current culture of peace, autonomy, and consensus appeared. Even with the shorter lifespans of non-magical humans, most decision makers of today were adults during a time when Earth was organized much differently.

On Earth, the response to the Vulcans was quite different. Many Vulcan themed restaurants were opened. We passed to the Vulcans requests for various samples of their plants, along with instructions on how to grow them. Music services added several varieties of Vulcan music. Some people started dressing in Vulcan clothes. We discouraged people who wanted to modify their ears to look like Vulcans, or to engage in Vulcan ceremonies, saying that the Vulcans might regard those as being disrespectful, and it might harm relations.

While we told the Vulcans much about the Enterprise episodes involving Surak's spirit, called a katra, we didn't show them my recollection of the episodes. Those episodes showed actual armed conflict between Vulcans and an Earth ship. We didn't want them to see that such an outcome was possible, even if it was caused by a Romulan agent in charge of the Vulcan government. Those episodes showed that their entire command structure would follow the orders to open fire on an Earth ship, no matter how illogical those orders were.

We had a strategy meeting. Quahog said, "We have some tricks up our sleeve, with magic and I think with tactics, but we are way behind in technology."

I said, "Do we even know how to counter the use of a transporter beam as a weapon? Or very strong shields? Or tactical use of being able to travel at warp 7?"

Morozov said, "We punch above our weight, but must gain mass, speed, power."

Lu Jian, director of Starfleet China said, "The public does not support a state of emergency at this time. As far as they think, we pulled together and are now exactly where we had wanted to be, and it is time to celebrate by eating Vulcan food. While we now have a budget, basic research is not really constrained. The researchers are motivated and the costs of research are not extraordinary. I think we should concentrate on that instead of building too much with the technology of today. Also, if we cannot get more technology out of the Vulcans, maybe the Tellarites and others we will meet will be more willing."

Quahog said, "We should stay within the 15 light year limit until we can handle what we saw from season 1 of Star Trek Enterprise, excluding any time travel related technologies."

The Tellarite ship arrived on January 12th 2013. Starfleet sort of took over Travis Air Force Base, and made it Earth's spaceport for shuttlecraft. Five Tellarites walked off the shuttle and were directed to a building. We set the temperature very high in the building.

"After that cold air outside, it is a shock to be warm again. You should have a heated walkway that goes to the shuttle door."

Severus Snake answered, "I am sure that even those with delicate standards, can withstand such hardships."

Grashnish Skes, chief Tellarite envoy said, "Hardly delicate, just like to make our environment comfortable, unlike you who subject themselves to weather."

Snape said, "I was quite looking forward to learning how we could improve our world, using your superior notions of comfort."

Grashnish laughed and said, "You are okay for a monochromatic example of your people."

After many hours of meeting, Snape concluded an agreement to supply them with magical devices and get their technology, which wasn't at the level of Vulcans but still included areas Earth hadn't reached yet.

After that, they still were meeting and Grashnish asked, "If you are such a great potions master, why do they have you being a diplomat? Did you poison somebody?"

Snape said, "Never unintentionally. You can be my test subject."

That started a series of discussions, where Snape described the effects of potions on various non-human species on Earth, and also on Vulcans. They agreed to Tellarite volunteers being given tiny amounts of potions to test their safety and effectiveness, until developing a potions protocol for them.

Grashnish said, "I want you to come to Tellar and be the ambassodor. You setup a potions lab there and make potions for us there."

Snape said, "Contrary to the altruistic and pleasant demeanor that I am sure you perceive in me, I am quite selfish. If I were to brew potions for you, I would expect much more wealth than I would acquire were I to resume doing so as part of my business on Earth. Doubly so, if I invent new potions for Tellarites."

Grashnish said, "Of course, and I expect you'll fool your own government to pay you extra to be our ambassodor on top of what we pay for your potions. Have you always been criminally inclined?"

Snape said, "I have been a criminal, a spy, a teacher, a potions businessman, and now a diplomat. Does that present a problem for you?"

Grashnish, "No, a criminal who calls himself a criminal is better to deal with than a smiling man with a hidden knife."

Starfleet directed some of its budget to supplying the items the Tellarites wanted, and pushed its R&D to assimilate the new technologies they sent. We finally had working artificial gravity and technology based inertial dampers. Ships would have a magical backup, using our previous inertial dampers.

We also could now reach warp 2.9 which is 24 times the speed of light. We could now reach Vulcan in eight months. We got a supply of Dilithium Crystals from the Tellarites, while supplying them with a continuing flow of what they called substandard duplicates. The main research effort to use them was finding a way to replace them before they fail, without needing to shut down the warp core. The latest method was to have three warp cores, of which one would be offline, except during emergencies. The one offline would have its Dilithium Crystal duplicates replaced, then put online, while the next was taken offline once the previous one reached full power.

Another technology we got was better shield technology. Even though the Tellarites did not have transporters, they knew of them and assured us that their shields could block transporters.

We gave them our latest research on sending fairly high bandwidth data over subspace. We even got them linked up to our internet. We sold them computers and routers and bought in exchange all sorts of products from their world.

Throughout Earth, Tellarite style restaurants were started, but with meats considered acceptable by human standards. The staff would be deliberately argumentative to their customers. The Tellarite themselves who visited the restaurants were unimpressed. "If I wanted Tellarite food, I'd go to Tellar." "Despite much effort, it is poor quality." "Your staff doesn't even know how to argue. Are they stupid?"