Chapter Text
As Spock stood gazing through the viewport of the VSS Plato, a research transport vessel of the Vulcan Science Academy, Spock went through the details of his mission in his mind, careful to think through every aspect of his task. Spock, one of the foremost xenoanthropologists Academy, had been sent to the planet Terra of the Sol system, also known as Earth, to complete ethnographic field research for the purpose of building Vulcan understanding of the intricacies and nuances of human culture. The VSA’s anthropology department had been informed by the Vulcan High Council that Earth’s human population was approaching warp capability, and its technologies were projected to reach first contact readiness within the next two to three of Earth’s indigenous time units called “decades.” Small, orbiting research parties had been observing Terra and its cultural and technological development from afar for quite some time now, but once the report from the most recent of these missions had reached Vulcan, the Council had decided that the present was an appropriate time to begin research on human culture in earnest. This way, once readiness for first contact was reported, the ambassadorship of Vulcan would be well prepared to efficiently herald humanity into the galactic community.
Spock’s fascination with the complexities of alien life and his reverence for the IDIC philosophy were what had drawn him to the field of xenoanthropology. Perhaps his intrigue with his own mother had contributed to this interest of his. Spock had had a turbulent relationship with his humanness, one upon which he had spent a great deal of time meditating, for as long as he could consciously recall. How his father had come to marry and become bonded with a human woman, Spock did not know. He had inquired once, as a child, but his parents had both declined to tell him. Redundancy and pestering were illogical; even as a young child, Spock had known that, so he had never asked again. This did not mean he had ceased to wonder. To have come into contact with a human woman had broken the Vulcan Science Fleet’s Prime Directive, and to have brought said woman home to Vulcan as a wife seemed scarcely logical. There must, therefore, have been something unique about the situation that brought his parents to meet, and there must have been something even more compelling about his mother for his father to have taken her on as a bondmate. Spock’s mother was the only sample of humanity which Spock had ever known. He had no basis for comparison, so he did not know what of himself was human nature, or what was the influence of his mother’s uniqueness, beneath his purely Vulcan-looking exterior.
When the opportunity to conduct ethnographic research on Terra had been presented to Spock, he knew that he, due to his status as Vulcan’s only half-human, was the logical choice for the mission. Yet, the speed at which Spock had accepted the invitation indicated that something beyond pure logic drew him to Earth. Perhaps this was his time to see firsthand how primitive and emotional humans were, and seeing this would finally give him the resolve to complete Kolinahr and shed himself of emotion’s undue influence on his psyche permanently. All of Vulcan’s research on humanity thus far had found human behavior and culture to be volatile and erratic, undoubtedly due to their failure to master their emotions. This mission was Spock’s opportunity to study the intricacies of human culture on a micro scale in a way that could not be accomplished from orbit.
His mission was to study human culture by becoming part of it. More specifically, Spock was to go to Earth and, for a period of 120 Terran days, live and work as a human. This would allow him to observe human culture closely, and document his findings in great detail. Though he could only gather information about the few humans and micro-scale culture with which he interacted, there was much to be learned from even a small sample of humans. If this mission was a success, the VSA would send more delegates like himself to repeat the same style of observational research in as many of Earth’s diverse cultures as was possible (and logical). Spock had been fitted with prosthetics to hide his Vulcan characteristics and make him pass as human. The VSA’s computer scientists had infiltrated the appropriate government computer systems and created a documented identity for Spock, complete with a personal history, background, living space, transportation vehicle, the bizarre postmodern human invention of “insurance,” and whatever else the VSA predicted Spock would likely need. Spock had been trained in various human languages, and he was trained most extensively in English, the language of the people of the geographic region where he was to be posted. Spock was ready.
He opened his personal access display device, which he had set upon the windowsill of the viewport, and reviewed the specifics of his task according to his mission briefing once more. Spock was to assume the identity of a human named Ronald Grayson, living in rural southern Appalachia, in the legislative region known as North Carolina of the nation called the United States. The VSA had elected to give Spock his mother’s maiden name for his surname. The logic of why the leaders of the xenoanthropology department chose such a name as “Ronald” for his given name escaped him. The name seemed archaic in relation to the trends of Western culture in Earth’s present year of 2026, as described by the Gregorian calendar, the planet’s primary means of denoting the passage of time. When he voiced his concerns, Spock had merely been assured that the name was, indeed, logical, when one examined the microculture of the region. Spock, as Ronald Grayson, would live outside city limits of the municipality of Mayberry, on a rented patch of land of moderately high elevation bordering federally-owned Forest Service land. The living quarters on the property were adequate. The residence, colloquially referred to as a “cabin,” was reported to come furnished, and had two bedrooms, a small kitchen, a bathing room, and a modest sitting area. The cabin lacked basic environmental controls. There was no internal temperature regulation unit in the house aside from a gas log fireplace and a primitive air cooling device called a “window unit,” but this was not outside the norm for the area or the socioeconomic status within which Spock’s job would place him.
The occupation which had been assigned to Spock was to be his primary means of data collection. Spock, or Ronald Grayson, rather, would begin work as a “whitewater rafting guide” on May 11, 2026, at 9:30am, as measured by the local time and date system. Employment as a raft guide in this location would allow Spock to interact with people of diverse backgrounds, races, occupations, socioeconomic statuses, and political alignments from a relatively geographically large portion of the United States, due to the region’s status as a popular vacation destination. This made the work, though outside Spock’s area of expertise, an efficient means for Spock to collect data, and therefore a logically sound selection. Spock would simply have to “learn on the job,” as the local humans put it.
The nature of the mission made upholding the Prime Directive challenging, but not impossible. The value of the knowledge to be gained outweighed the small risk of Prime Directive interference. However, because Vulcan’s collective knowledge of humanity was from a purely outside perspective, there was a significant likelihood that Spock would be ill-equipped to adapt to human culture quickly enough to not be viewed as an outsider, raising suspicion of his true identity. Out of an abundance of caution, the VSA had informed Spock that should he feel that his identity was at risk of being discovered, or that the utility of local human assistance would strengthen his disguise and therein improve the validity of Spock’s observations by a factor greater than 90%, Spock was permitted to inform precisely one human–whom Spock must first determine absolutely trustworthy via covert mind probe–of the reality of his identity and mission. The designated human ally would be dealt with logically upon the termination of Spock’s 120-day period of study. This action was not to be taken unless logic dictated it necessary. Such an act would be allowed by the Vulcan High Council as an exception to the Prime Directive, for the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the one.
As the first to conduct such a mission, Spock was uncertain about what he would be met with on the surface of the pale blue dot he watched through the viewscreen, quickly growing in size as the spacecraft approached Terra at high warp. Nonetheless, he knew he had trained for this. The Vulcan Science Academy had given him this role because they had thoroughly evaluated him and found him to be competent, a logical choice, with an acceptable probability of success. Spock did not doubt the logic of the Vulcan Science Academy. Therefore, he had no valid reason to be apprehensive.
Spock watched the stars begin to appear to move slowly, then stop, as the VSS Plato dropped out of warp and assumed standard orbit about the planet Earth. With his posture straight and his hands resting clasped together at the small of his back, Spock turned away from the viewscreen and made his way toward the transporter room. Spock needn’t spend any more time observing Earth from orbit; he would soon experience it firsthand from the surface.