Sarek's Log

Author: Gyptian

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Romance, AU

Summary: The story of how Sarek abducted an alien and fell in love with her. A 21st century AU.

Disclaimer: not mine.

Author's notes: Because the stardates in this AU series will be Vulcan-centric, they do not relate in any way to the stardates found elsewhere. Watch the log numbers: it's about a recording a day. This story grew from a prologue of a piece of fiction I'm currently outlining into an actual story. Sarek is talkative, for a Vulcan.

1: Sarek goes to Earth

Sarek, son of Stonn, personal log #1492, stardate 1073.24.

The T'Khut has sent a summary of their results directly to the High Council. Their mission was to passively observe and analyse the data humans bounce between their satellites and their planet and to establish which means of information gathering would yield relevant facts for researching their progress in consolidation of their culture.

It seems they found something of interest, that may change the upcoming mission for myself and my crew. It remains to be seen to what degree.

The most honourable elder T'Pau has ordered me to attend the next Council meeting. I will obey her, as always.

Sarek, son of Stonn, personal log #1495, stardate 1073.29.

The humans have made a crucial discovery about themselves that requires us to revise our opinion of them and rewrite our mission.

Formerly, we assumed them to be psi-null, to communicate purely by means of what they have called their "five senses", a variety of nerves that gather data about their environment, transmit it to their mind, which translates it into memory and action. No sense directly tied to the mind, such as empathy or telepathy, was ever conclusively proven to exist on Earth.

Now we have discovered texts that say they have a type of pseudo-empathy, specifically, mirror empathy. They do depend on their five senses, but what they perceive about other beings is immediately fed into a part of their nervous system that allows them to experience what another experiences, to a certain extent. They fear when another cringes. They salivate when they see someone else eat.

Their mirror empathy would mean they can facilitate empathic or telepathic contact, perhaps even a permanent link, unlike Ferengi. The High Council believes this makes humanity capable of aiding us in future repopulation projects. We are currently six billion strong, but our population will be half that within three generations. Our birth rate is low, too low.

The High Council believes this gives us sufficient time to... test genetical compatability between our races. The probability that Earth is warp-capable by that time is 87.293%. We may become allies and... mingle.

It is logical. I must admit to reluctance in translating this information into specifications for our changed mission.

T'Pau has ordered me to oversee a field test of compatibility between humans and Vulcans. She reminds me that, as ever, the House of Surak must lead the Vulcan race in whatever direction is most beneficial to them.

Sarek, son of Stonn, personal log #1508, stardate 1073.54.

I have procrastinated in defining our new mission until it was too late: T'Pau has made an unnanounced visit to my office and interrogated my staff. Two requested a day off to spend some time in deep meditation.

I explained that humans are sentient creatures. To use them as test subjects is unethical.

T'Pau pointed out the participation of Vulcans as voluntary subjects in a myriad of experiments at the Science Academy.

Three further hours of discussion has seen a revision in her order: I am to take my ship to Earth with minimal crew and two xenoanthropologists. Once there, they are to draft a profile of the type of human most likely to agree to come to a strange planet, live amongst its people, select one and bond with them.

We are to observe humans, select several individuals, beam them aboard and offer them the choice to come with us. If they say no, their memory is wiped. If they say yes, they are transported to Vulcan and given every kind of support.

In the meanwhile, we are to prevent ourselves from contaminating a pre-warp civilisation.

T'Pau has informed me I will find this a challenge worthy of a scion of Surak.

Sarek, son of Stonn, personal log #1545, stardate 1073.98.

We have arrived at Earth and, for the first time, we will delve not simply into public information streams, but into personal accounts.

This is too much like espionage, like exploitation. We are not at war with these people. They are unaware of our existence.

The only reassurance for my conscience lies in whatever measure of choice we will allow those selected to come with us.

Sarek, son of Stonn, personal log #1556, stardate 1073.129.

We have found recordings, sometimes deeply personal, freely available in their data streams. It is as if at least part of this population does not practice privacy.

Sarek, son of Stonn, personal log #1570, stardate 1073.139.

A large part of the audio-visual recordings we have collected about humans, especially about individuals, are either about past events or entirely fanciful. They call it fiction.

It is puzzling.

Written records are proving to be more reliable, so we will use that as our primary source of information. They at least clearly announce when they are fictional.

Among these fictional records, both written and audio-visual, P'rinta, our senior xeno-anthropologist has found scenarios similar to the ones we found ourselves in, in which humans are abducted by a race from a different world. Nearly all of these end badly for the humans. They call them horror, the aliens in those scenarios monsters.

I am not comfortable with the similarity between ourselves and these creatures.

P'rinta has urged us to include the assurance that we are not carnivorous as a standard part of our welcome to any humans we beam up.

Sarek, son of Stonn, personal log #1690, stardate 1073.233.

We have received a response to our initial report to the High Council. The Science Academy is also taking an active interest in our mission, though they generally have disdain for any publications of the Space Exploration and Defense Association.

They have approved our time line and the procedure we have outlined. We will begin the selection of individuals in the upcoming days. The first humans to be beamed up will be welcomed aboard in a fortnight.

T'Pau's approval of me seems to be inversely proportionate to my approval of myself. This is not beneficial to my relationship with my clan mother.