Chapter 39:

Sorek said, "You have joined a new level of societal evolution. You're civilization is now going to meet others who can be unforgiving and dangerous. We can guide you to help avoid misunderstandings. We can also assist you in your research efforts, not to simply turn over technology to you but to help you learn how to learn so that you will have a solid base of technology that you will understand well."

Khan replied, "On our world, Earth, there have been numerous examples of higher technology civilizations interacting with lower technology ones. Motives varied, sometimes to enlighten the more primitive to their belief systems, sometimes to try to develop their technology to the same level, sometimes to seek out minerals and plant products found there, sometimes simply to conquer, sometimes to take over the land without concern for the survival of the earlier inhabitants. Few examples showed that these contacts were to the benefit of the lower technology society.

Therefore we must decline your most generous offer to assist us in our technological development.

That is not to say that we are opposed to trade and cooperation. We are not opposed to learning about your philosophies. It is the imposition of foreign rule as a gradual outgrowth of assistance, that we find so often repeated in our own history that we must decline."

Sorek asked, "We understand your concerns due to Earth's history. We would still like to provide assistance to your interactions with other star systems.

We will offer you, without strings as you would say, the technology to build subspace radio, along with a description of the protocols common to this area of space. Just as in your history, the radio spectrum was subdivided by international agreement, so is the subspace radio spectrum."

Khan answered, "We are very appreciative for this gift. We would also like to offer something unique from our world. We have seeds and growing instructions for each of the foods that your group ate or drank here. We also have a collection of instrumental music from Earth and a device to listen to the music and also to generate analog electrical signals that can be used to copy it."

Sorek said, "We thank you for your gifts.

There are some questions I have if you might be willing to answer them in order to help us improve our first contact protocols."

Khan answered, "We would be delighted to help."

Sorek asked, "We noticed that you added defenses to the Solar System between your years 2002 and 2010. Was it due to our ship appearing in the Solar System in 2002?"

Khan answered, "Yes. We had methods of detection in 2002 that we will not disclose today."

Sorek asked, "Did our ship interfere in your planet's natural course of development."

Khan answered, "Not to any significant extent. If certain developments occurred in a different year, it is not much of a change."

Sorek asked, "Did any other Vulcan visits effect your planet's development?"

Khan answered, "Not to our knowledge. You had said that there were other probes and even ground missions on Earth, but we have no record of these."

Those of us watching the video knew that the Vulcans were trying to see if Mestral or the other pilot survived. They must have had some suspicions in 1957, and even more so due to our apparent knowledge.

Sorek asked, "We were only aware of Humans as a sentient tool making species. While whales and dolphins and perhaps certain apes might be regarded as sentient, we would not consider them part of your civilization. May I ask what other species you are including as part of your civilization?"

Khan answered, "Several other species on Earth that were magically hidden, that is hidden in a way that would not be easily explained by known technology. The other was a sentient micro-organism on a moon. I must regretfully say that there will be no more details on these at this time.

Now I have some non-technological requests for information. We would like a history of your civilization, a description of your major philosophies, samples of your music, seeds of useful plants, and assistance in learning your main language."

Sorek answered, "Yes, all of those are acceptable and will be provided. My understanding is that you prefer our only consulate to be at this location? May I ask if we can also establish an embassy on Earth and also if you would like to establish an embassy on Vulcan?"

Khan answered, "For the reasons I mentioned earlier, for now let us make this location your only consulate to the Solar System. We will send visitors here. We will send diplomatic staff. May I ask where Vulcan is and how many diplomats you would like us to send?"

Sorek answered, "Our star is known to you as Kein and also as 40 Eridani A. It is about 16 light years from Sol. You can send any number you'd like. We plan to have between 1 and 25 here as our ships go back and forth. For now, I will remain behind while the ship returns to Vulcan.

It would be more efficient if we bring your diplomats to Vulcan since we have faster means of transport. They should be aware that Vulcan has a higher gravity level and an atmosphere deficient in oxygen by human standards. It also has a much more intense stellar light level. We will make suitable accommodations."

Khan answered, "These arrangements will be satisfactory. If you could indulge my curiosity, what are the guiding philosophies of your people?"

Jorok answered, "You would not regard this information as cultural imperialism?"

Harry Potter smiled and said, "This is the first time I have heard humor used by Vulcans. No, we are not xenophobes, and are not provincial. We strongly believe in our self-determination and ability to decide our future. If there are ideas to learn from Vulcan than we will learn eagerly. However, we will not automatically assume that your higher technology level is due to your specific ideas or history, as opposed to starting your technology journey earlier."

Jorok said, "We will give you published works. The summary is that Vulcans use logic. We are not ruled by emotions, and use techniques such as meditation that we learn from a young age to remove its effects on our behavior and thought processes.

We also believe in peace and non-violence, although we also accept the necessity to fight against aggression. We believe in infinite diversity in infinite combinations."

Khan said abruptly "I am most impressed. The last one stated actually explains my rational in limiting your influence on our planet. We are on our own path of evolution, and diversity is better accomplished by seeing where our path takes us, rather than our letting ourselves be guided to becoming more like yourselves.

How did you come to the conclusion that logic needed to be paramount and emotions needed to be suppressed?"

Sorek answered, "Vulcan had a period of nuclear war, approximately 2000 of your years ago. Emotions were causing untold destruction of our people. Surak, the founder of our philosophy convinced Vulcans to accept logic and peace and to halt these wars."

Solar System Director of Nations Joaquin said, "We had a global conflict on our planet that ended in 1945 with the use of two atomic bombs against cities. The deaths during that same conflict from non-nuclear causes were hundreds of times more than those caused by atomic bombs.

In a more recent era starting in 1991 we noticed a trend towards more nations and smaller groups having the potential of acquiring these weapons. To forestall a possible future that might have resembled Vulcan's past, we conducted a unifying effort over not just the existing nations of Earth, but also of cultures that were kept secret from the rest of the planet.

We ended any wars, safeguarded weapons of mass destruction, and improved the standard of living.

In our history, we did not find emotions as being a source of these dangers. Instead we found fairly logical governments and other organizations worried about other governments that were their adversaries finding logical reasons to potentially use nuclear weapons.

I would be interested in learning more about your philosophies, while at present I do not find your founding arguments compelling for the Solar System."

Khan said, "As you can see, we are not rejecting the introduction of new ideas and philosophies. In fact we will likely make the learning materials you send us public throughout the Solar System. It is the combination of imperial power with foreign ideas that we object to, and which has occurred many times in our own history."

Sorek said, "You make a logical argument about our IDIC, an abbreviation of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. It is a philosophy that would be consistent with your own independence. However, we tend to have a different view of stages of evolution, considering logic over emotion as being a superior stage, and our considering it logical to help you achieve that next stage of evolution, and perhaps help you avoid interstellar wars due to lack of knowledge or experience in dealing with first contact."

Khan answered, "Which is a wonderful aspect of self determination. These can be grand experiments to see the benefits of different philosophies and strategies. You might find that we can be a neighbor that you will be glad to have, because of, not despite our different attitudes.

Yes, in the short run I expect you will be annoyed at us, by stubbornly going our own way, making decisions that you wouldn't, making use of emotions that you would not. I do not expect that you'll want to adopt our ways, only that you will eventually see it as being a valid, but different path of evolution.

As to avoiding interstellar conflicts, we are guided towards safeguarding our future. We have perhaps a different view of how emotions play into this. We believe that there are universal behavioral aspects involving conflict, threat, cooperation, to be followed. That is especially true if most of the other species are hominids. Being too agreeable can be harmful, as can being too violent without cause."

Joaquin added, "In other words, we have logical reasons to be emotional and even to behave in ways that at first view appear irrational at times. We do not reject logic and we do not reject emotion."

We could tell that the Vulcans were likely thinking "Primitives!"

Harry Potter said, "I am not attempting to read your mind, but I can see what you are likely thinking. That we are primitives who will learn harsh lessons that you will need to rescue us from, and that we are naive to think that our path will not result in needing your rescue."

Khan said, "While we do not plan to apprise you of our plans, or to gain your advanced approval, if you have any specific advice to give us at any time, we would welcome you to tell us. Just do not expect us to follow that advice because you give it."

The Vulcans delivered the history and philosophy information we requested. We wanted those so we would have a reason to know those things, and they wouldn't suspect that Mestral lived and told us. Of course they didn't know about our knowledge of canon.

The books didn't mention the Romulans or the split of the Vulcan people at the time of the founding of the Romulans.

[September 2018]

Official press releases included the video of the meetings with the Vulcans, and everything the Vulcans sent.

Universities started courses on studying the Vulcan texts. As knowledge of the Vulcan language started to be known, course were also added for that.

Everything observable about the Vulcan ship and any technology that they displayed was made public, and several new technology challenges were issues to duplicate those.

A huge effort was made to understand subspace radio technology and how to miniaturize it to be used in vehicles. Another effort was to add it to photon torpedoes so that they can be re-guided while in flight.

The bandwidth of transmissions were studied and digital transmissions were started, with proper encryption. It was still not known what decryption abilities the Vulcans or others would have.

Short range subspace transmission was studied, with the goal of adding internet routers throughout the solar system to reduce the lag due to light speed. While encryption was being used, it was decided to not broadcast or have over the internet anything that would be damaging if intercepted, except when the method of encryption was one time pads which were physically brought to the receiving station.