"It hasn't happened yet, but there's a provision for it in the constitution."

"Sanctions? Lose access to any tech? Are any of the unfriendly neighbors inclined to attack newly vulnerable places?"

"It depends on why they leave. Voluntary exit by a qualifying member, no, they just downgrade membership into alliance. If they flagrantly violate a membership requirement - if they institute a caste system or practice slavery or commit war crimes or something, and they don't accept the appropriate penalties and inspections and top-level restructuring - then it'd be less friendly."

"But we're not going to cause problems if we do succeed beyond our wildest dreams and lure some members out."

"Right."

"I - appreciate that it's not likely helpful to have strangers of a different species angry on your behalf. But. If it ever does seem helpful we can definitely be very very angry on your behalf."

"The people I need to convince are Vulcans and people who, for this purpose, need to think of me as a Vulcan. This means I will probably record my impassioned speech with exactly zero passion."

"A useful skill. Are they likely to be persuaded? Is this unacceptable by Vulcan mores?

"Vulcan mores are about what is logical, in contrast to what is driven by instinct or emotion. Obviously, this approach is very susceptible to different opinions about what tradeoffs are appropriate to seek what goals, but I have a case to make, even if there will be a faction of the opinion that the continuation of the species and acknowledgment of Council authority should supersede what are after all merely my feelings about whether I should be married to a complete stranger. My argument will probably have to be mostly that the Federation would not admit a species that made a habit of this practice and Vulcan's founding membership should not logically grant it special status, and they must stop or exit; they'll choose the former if it does come to that."

"It seems also that not informing someone in advance, as a policy, only makes sense if you expect that they wouldn't give informed consent, and that the only marriages that would be undermined by changing their approach are marriages that the parties would not have so given their consent for, and that the parties being Vulcans might have logical reasons for declining which the council denies itself any chance to become informed of."

"Well, I'm a half-Vulcan only and was principally brought up on Earth. They do not assume I am impeccably logical. It's possible they're informing most people."

He pinches his forehead. "Charming. The - party Bella had to fight for you?"

"May or may not have been informed. He was not in a state to have a conversation and I did not go visit him."

"Are there other people we need to be rescuing?"

"There are very few Vulcans left, and meditating through a cycle is widely considered illogical and most will have already had opportunities to remarry or re-betroth as appropriate, and even if there are a dozen like me they will be spaced out at irregular intervals over a seven-year span. I do not think this is likely to be urgent to the point where it must be handled clumsily in order to get results sooner."

"All right."

"But I do think I will record political speeches, and that one on this subject will be among them."

"I think that's a great idea."

So she goes off and does that. The one about the prime directive is first, but the one about her attempted forcible marriage is second, once she's gauged response. (The first is delivered in standard emotional range. The latter she decides to show off her ability to drop in and out of suppression very fast.)

They all think it's a fantastic speech, though they might be a tiny bit biased.

Well, the science ethernet thinks it's pretty good too. (Although there's a large fraction of lewd remarks about pon farr, which was not previously known to most people to exist.)

Ethernets bring out the worst in people, Fëanáro says solemnly.

The Quendi are definitely lacking some cultural context here. Obviously everyone should at a minimum be immortal, not get sick, and have better eyesight? They can confirm those things are just straight pluses?

But there was that war that one time, don't they see.