The Romulan War_ Beneath the Raptor's Wing (Book 1) - Michael A. Martin [42]
“And that is one of the traits that will save Vulcan from its own inertia,” she said with an emphatic nod. “Should the human species survive the next several years, that is.”
“I do not understand,” Soval said. He was beginning to wonder when a gift for bizarre non sequiturs had become a prerequisite to attaining the lofty post of planetary administrator.
“You pointed out yourself that the humans possess relatively short life spans,” she said, speaking in a manner that he had always associated with that of a patient and methodical teacher. “The obverse of this, of course, is the much lengthier Vulcan life span, which is not an unalloyed advantage. Whether we wish to face it or not, our longevity has freighted Vulcan society with a strong tendency toward what a human sociologist once described as ‘social ossification.’”
Although he had nothing but respect for the authority of her office, Soval was beginning to tire of being lectured by one so young.
“Attanasio Ewan Hodgkin,” he said, taking care to avoid correcting T’Pau’s misperception that Doctor Hodgkin—a biologist by training— had been anything more than a dilettante in the sociological disciplines. Despite Hodgkin’s obvious brilliance, Soval considered him somewhat presumptuous for attempting to apply his so-called “law of parallel planetary development,” formulated during his studies of Loracus Prime’s insect life, to the “soft” sciences of anthropology, history, and sociology that were relevant to the galaxy’s countless and varied sapient races.
“I have read the paper to which you are referring, Administrator. Hodgkin coined the term ‘social ossification’ to describe the tendency of individual Vulcans to stay in the same career positions for lengthy periods, sometimes extending to centuries.”
“He correlated the phenomenon with a predilection for extreme rigidity of opinion among Vulcans,” T’Pau said. “A rigidity that has manifested itself in countless deleterious, if subtle, ways in our society.”
Soval hadn’t been entirely persuaded when he’d first read the paper, and he remained just as unconvinced now. “I must admit to finding Hodgkin’s core idea intriguing. I noticed, however, that his assertions were notably lacking in specific examples.”
She nodded, conceding the point. “Perhaps. But events much more recent than Doctor Hodgkin’s paper are replete with such examples. Among these I could list the Vulcan Science Academy’s continued obduracy in admitting to the possibility of time travel—even when presented with conclusive positive evidence supporting the phenomenon’s existence. Or the shameful acts of illegal spying my predecessor’s reactionary government committed against the Andorians at P’Jem. Administrator V’Las and his functionaries evidently learned nothing from the P’Jem blunder, since they later tried to provoke a needless, bloody war against Andoria. And they almost certainly would have succeeded in doing just that had a group of ‘illogical’ humans not intervened to resolve the situation in favor of peace.”
It had not escaped Soval’s notice that Captain Jonathan Archer, or at least members of his crew, deserved the le-matya’s share of the credit for the positive resolutions to the crises T’Pau cited. In fact, he had come to believe, in no small part because of his association with Archer during recent years, that the highly energetic human species more than compensated for whatever it lacked in individual longevity with ambition and inquisitiveness. Despite their naïveté, immaturity, impetuousness, and myriad other failings, it was clear to Soval that a great destiny awaited them—a destiny from which Vulcan’s more advanced but less dynamic civilization could benefit only by doing at least whatever was minimally required to nurture it.
“With respect, Administrator,” he said, “you have merely constructed