Vulcan
1. The lame Roman god of fire, crafts and blacksmiths, equivalent to the Greek god Hephaestus.
2. A founding member of the United Federation of Planets in the Star Trek universe, the planet Vulcan is approximately 16 light-years from Earth, located roughly in the same region as Betazed, Andor, Tellar and Alpha Centauri. Vulcan’s government includes the titled leaders “ministers” and a Bill of Rights to protect civil liberties. Though its people have adopted a pacific way of life, the planet Vulcan does maintain its own defense fleet. Vulcan once fought a hundred-year war with the planet Romulus, though it is not specified whether this conflict was related to the original Vulcan-Romulan schism, or if it merely followed their split. An extreme isolationist movement sprang up on Vulcan, dedicated to withdrawal from the United Federation of Planets and fighting the “pollution” of Vulcan culture. Meanwhile, an underground group on Romulus worked to spread peaceful reunification between the worlds, aided by ambassador and former Starfleet officer Spock from Vulcan. The hot, dry and marginally Class M world was aware of Earth for centuries, but had no interest in contacting the primitive world until a passing Vulcan survey ship noted Zefrem Cochrane’s warp signature on April 5, 2063 (old Earth date), and became Earth’s first alien contact.
3. A native of the planet Vulcan in the Star Trek universe. Vulcans were originally a savage race, but when the population neared self-annihilation, they turned to logic as the path away from self-destructive violence, led by the legendary Vulcan philosopher Surak. (A splinter group that defied the worship of logic left the planet to found the more aggressive Romulan Star Empire and the planet Romulus.)
“Vulcan death grip”
As Vulcans utilize their hands in many forms of healing, telepathy and defense, the so-called “Vulcan death grip” was invented as a ploy in the original Star Trek episode “The Enterprise Incident.” In order to gain the absolute confidence of a Romulan commander, Capt. James T. Kirk and his Vulcan first officer Spock planned for Spock to use the fictional method to “kill” Kirk in defense of a feigned attack by his captain.
Vulcan mind-meld
A touch technique in the Star Trek universe that allows a Vulcan to merge his or her mind with the mind (or other intelligent force) of another. In a humanoid, a Vulcan’s fingers are usually placed around the temples. Hypnosis-like relaxation and a rhythmic verbal device are often useful. Some Vulcans have even been able to mind-meld with non-humanoid life, such as Spock’s melds with the silicon-based Horta of Janus VI and the merged machine-probes Nomad and V’Ger.
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