Two possible effects

[zvi]

I posted the below to my journal couple of days ago, and then realized the question was appropriate for this comm:

So, that whole thing where conventional Federation warp drives were tearing apart the fabric of space-time, but, it appears, some solution must have been found for the problem, since someone thought it was a idea to build Voyager, with a cruising speed above Warp 9. (The environmental impact of gasoline distortion of the fabric of space-time by conventional warp technologies was a big part of the plot of the finale of TNG.)

Does Spock Prime remember enough of the associated engineering to tell people (a) what the problem is and (b) how to fix it? Is the problem even fixable with 23rd century technology? Does the problem even exist with 23rd century technology? Will Spock Prime give advanced technology to Montgomery Scott again, or will he give Vulcan a technological advance which allows them to turn into a civilization of pirates couriers.

Then today I was reading anne_higgins' No-Win Scenario which is not particularly germane to this comm, but which mentions that the low-level species wide telepathy was putting the Vulcans into a tail-spin, and I wondered if a large number of people from a different telepathic species would be helpful or harmful.

What do y'all think of either or both ponderances?

Comments

[melannen]

I had forgotten it was canon! Although my sister and I did decide that some sort of "millions of voices crying out in terror, and suddenly silenced" thing was the only possible explanation for how Spock was supposed to witness the destruction of Vulcan from inside an ice cave.

I tend to think that the Vulcans will really pull inwards, and *away* from other cultures, whether it's logical or not; they're already pretty isolationist, sometimes irrationally so. Though being led by Spock, Sarek and T'Pau will help them reach out if anyone can, assuming they actually let Spock, Sarek and T'Pau lead them.

But yeah, losing the telepathic contact will be disorienting (on top of all the broken mating bonds...) I would bet they'd be better off avoiding other telepaths, though. Getting used to the silence surely is less disorienting than having to learn a whole new kind of noise. Although I can imagine a bunch of Betazoids pushing in and *trying* to help and making it worse.

I was actually thinking about this in terms of trying to bring Dr. Dehner and Gary Mitchell into the Epic Reboot Fixit - the human telepaths from the TOS pilot. Dr. Dehner & Spock had a couple of interesting non-conversations around Vulcans and humans and psi, I think. Though to be fair, Spock was very good at non-conversations at that point. There was at least one other human telepath Spock interacted with - in the episode with the Medusan - and there was some friction there, too, mostly around the issue of Spock being better at it. Though imagine the glory of Gary Mitchell deciding he needs to become psychic grief counselor the Vulcans...

I'm trying to remember if there are any humanoid telepaths other than Vulcans and Humans in TOS-era, and coming up blank, but I bet I'm missing something.

(What might be *really* interesting is if some of the psi-powered energy beings - Melkotians or Organians or Thasians, et al ad nauseum - decided to "help"...)

[templemarker]

I agree with all of this! I was going to say that SF would send counsellors, if anyone did, but I thought they would be largely rejected due to Vulcan's isolationist natures (which I believe will only increase tenfold as they look inward, to rebuilding their race, rather than outward, once more).

[templemarker]

Oh, and also--apparently Spock Prime was left with some kind of telescopic device so he could watch the implosion. It was in the original draft of that exposition scene, but was cut out because it was too long. But, you know, telepathic rendering of emotional turmoil works too.