Chapter Text
ABOUT US
Due to advancements in human technology throughout the 22nd century it has now become possible for human beings to find their perfectly compatible Soulmate™. Administered in a series of injections, technology inside the humans blood stream is used to monitor and map the psychological reactions and hormonal levels of the individual human, and then, using the Soulmate Database™, is able to find another being who is compatible.
WHO DOES THE TECHNOLOGY WORK FOR?
Several decades ago the technology was adapted to be used effectively in other federation species. Vulcans, admiring the logic behind finding a perfectly compatible partner, made it compulsory to undergo the Soulmate™ technology injections. Other species, like Orions have also made the Soulmate™ technology compulsory, and recent advancements have even allowed the chips to be administered to Gorns and other non-humanoid species, although the Soulmate™ database only partners humanoids with other humanoids, and non-humanoids with non-humanoids.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The first injection (administered aged 1-2) implants a small chip into the wearers arm that monitors them. At this age, no physical side effects are present, and the chip uses the several years of monitoring of the brain and hormonal activity to match them with another in the database.
The second injection (administered aged 7-8) creates the most physically obvious sign of the Soulmate™ technology, acting like a 21st Century mood rings to allow each side of the partnership to see the emotional state of their mate. Colours appear on the arm relating to their partner’s emotions, and have been likened in appearance to bruises or watercolour paint smudges that move and glow in relation to the intensity of the emotion, and the personality of the mate.
The final injection is given at the onset of puberty (11-12) and gives the chips the ability to glow in relation to how close the two Soulmates™ are, and to flash with sharp intensity when the two Soulmates™ first touch.
No data (including location and psychological makeup) is passed onto third parties, but can and will be shared with major crime-fighting agencies and Starfleet, only to be accessed in the event of criminal activity and a warrant.
Data may be purchased about your mate if you are over 18. A name is produced for the price of 3 million credits, and a location for 10 million credits. Under specific and desperate circumstances, for example the receiving of a terminal illness diagnosis, an independent jury may decide to reveal your Soulmates™ personal information in the hopes of allowing the Soulmates™ to meet.
PERCENTAGES AND STATISTICS
97.8% of all humans possess Soulmate™ technology, and 99.2% of all under 18s.
Soulmate™ matches have a success rate of 96.4% (defined by marriage, or another recognised long term, healthy relationship)
92% of Soulmates™ meet within their lifetimes.
COLOUR MEANINGS
The colours produced by the chips correlate to chemical levels within the blood stream. Multiple emotions may be expressed at once, with varying degrees of intensity.
Happiness- Yellow (high levels of dopamine)
Sadness- Blue (low levels of serotonin)
Confusion/curiosity- Orange
Anger- Red (high adrenaline levels)
Love/affection- Pink (high dopamine and serotonin levels)
Lust- Purple (high oestrogen/testosterone levels)
Fear- Green (high levels of testosterone and adrenaline)
Jealousy- Black
Panic/anxiety- White (high levels of adrenaline)
Boredom- Grey
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Jim Kirk was 7 when his soulmark showed up.
He was playing with Analima, a small Orion girl he had been married to for approximately 4 days. So far married life had meant a lot of sharing his animal crackers, playing house, and doodling soulmarks on each other's arms. She was much faster than him- always beating him in races- but he was much better at handstands and cartwheels: making them a perfect match.
But, although they were definitely the power couple of their grade, he was bored. Married life meant that instead of playing at being a space captain with his normal friends at lunch time he had to pretend to be a dad to Analima’s friends when they played house, and that he had to share all his favourite food.
It was exhausting.
And so, when his actual soul mark began to glow on his arm he was perfectly happy to get a nice, speedy divorce with Analima.
The soul mark was currently a series of perfectly circular yellow and orange dots, which were spinning quickly together like a troop of synchronised swimmers inside his elbow.
He and Analima spent the rest of lunch imagining what his soulmate was going to be like. Was it a girl? Or a boy? Before his recent marriage to Analima he had been the boyfriend of Toby, and before that he had had a major crush on their first grade teacher Mr. Johnson.
They decided that his soulmate was definitely happy. The dots were bright yellow- the colour most normally associated with happiness- and they were still moving fast in their small circle.
Jim thought that the perfect circles seemed… futuristic. Maybe his future partner was intelligent? He had rarely seen any marks with such pure symmetry.
His mom's soulmark was still ever since his dad had died, but you could see the large paint-stroke of pink showing love, with small splatterings of green and blue for fear and sadness. The paint stroke had shown his father’s versatility- the strokes got larger and larger the more intense he felt and quickly showed how his emotions all jumbled up into one big painting.
At least, that's what his mom told him.
The orange and yellow spots on his arm, in contrast, were completely separate. Maybe his soulmate always had many separate emotions at once?
Jim happily sipped his juice box as he showed everyone his arm, legs swinging under the blue plastic picnic table in the yard. When he told their teacher, Miss Stevens, she gave him a couple extra stickers for his star chart and let him choose the book for them to read in afternoon wind-down time.
Life was looking pretty sweet for Jim Kirk.
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Spock was in the learning pod when his arm began to glow through his dark black robe. Quickly, he rolled up his sleeve in curiosity to see the marks.
He was immediately struck by the grand and beautiful landscape of colour dancing up his forearm. The main colour was a mustard yellow, which Spock recalled as connoting happiness, but there were moving splashes of pink and orange swirling happily around his arm.
He had never seen a soulmark so messy, so unorganised. Even the mark his father had from his mother was not so vibrantly explosive with all her human emotions.
One thing was evidently clear- whoever his soulmate was did not have control over his emotive states, and so, logically, it was a small leap to assume they were not vulcan.
Most vulcans soulmarks were clear and orderly. Often they included symmetrical polygon shapes, and it was very rare to see multiple strong emotions shown at once. The polygons normally were pale and stationary, which was the complete opposite of the bright, spinning colours moving around his arm.
Slowly rolling his sleeve back down he carried on his daily tasks within the learning pod, and when he was finished he started his walk back home, where he knew his mother would be waiting with his dinner before taking him out to his weekly xenolinguistics lesson at the VSA.
When at home, he immediately rolled his sleeve up to show his mother the colours on his arms. As he watched her smile and laugh with excitement he felt his own happiness swirling up into his chest. He imagined what his soulmate would be seeing now. Would the mark have shapes, like most vulcans? He assumed his half-human status would leave the colours more vibrant and mobile than other full vulcan marks, and so he pictured yellow (he was happy after all) squares, or triangles, shifting around someone's arm.
Spock took a moment to wonder what his mate would look like. It was illogical to base his compatibility with someone based on aesthetic appearances, but it was okay, he reasoned, to wonder to which humanoid species he had been matched too.
They clearly were not vulcan, and so the only other two humanoid species that majorly participated in the soulmate technology were orions and humans. Spock found it hard to imagine a future with someone who was either, but placed his trust in the technology, and soon found his happy emotions slipping out into a smile.
He had been so worried that his hybrid nature would somehow alter his ability to find a mate, but now he had been proved wrong. Spock had a soulmate!