Return to Valjiir Stories
“Captain, Starfleet Command is coming in on priority channel,” Uhura reported. “It’s coded urgent.”
“On audio, Lieutenant Commander,” Jim said. He was aware that Spock turned his head slightly from the Science Station.
“Captain Kirk, this is Admiral Komack. Have Commander Spock and Lieutenant Ruth Valley report to your office. The rest of this transmission is security shielded for you and the officers named.”
“Aye, sir,” Jim responded and glanced at Spock. “Let’s go. Uhura, call Miss Valley.”
“Aye sir,” Uhura murmured.
Once in the turbolift, Jim turned to his First Officer. “Something you haven’t told me, Spock?” he asked.
“No sir,” Spock returned. “I foresaw no difficulty. Apparently Fleet sees otherwise.”
Jim frowned. “Probably some minor regulation was overlooked. You know Komack.”
Spock nodded thoughtfully.
Ruth was at the office door when they stepped from the lift. Whatever concern she may have felt was unable to eclipse the joy that was still evident in her eyes. “Reporting, sir,” she said and smiled at Spock. “Problem, Boss?”
“I do not know, Miss Valley,” Spock replied.
“With luck, we’ll find out,” Jim added. He gestured both of them into his office and activated the viewer. He stated his name and rank and indicated that Spock and Ruth should do the same. The computer verified their voice codes, then the face of Admiral Komack appeared on the screen. “Go ahead, Admiral, security clearance established.”
Admiral? Ruth asked.
Komack, Spock replied.
Komack began with no preliminary. “While Starfleet Command has no objection to the marriage requested this stardate between Commander Spock Sareklrn and Lieutenant Ruth Maxwell Valley ani Ramy, the legal department of the United Federation of Planets does. Commander Spock, according to the Vulcan Council, a petition has been presented claiming that you already are married, the claim filed by one – “
“T’Pring.” Spock said the name at the same time as Komack.
“What?!” Jim burst out.
“Who!?” Ruth demanded furiously, glaring sudden, frightened betrayal at Spock.
Spock’s eyes closed. He spoke quietly to Ruth as Komack explained to Jim.
“Challenge was not lawfully completed. With Jim alive, T’Pring cannot be property. And so – “ Spock sighed deeply. “By law, we are still wed.”
“That bitch!” Ruth seethed, all her anger now directed toward T’Pring.
“She no doubt seeks restoration of her legal rights and status,” Spock said.
“That better be all she seeks.”
“She Challenged, Ruth,” Spock reassured her. “She does not want me.”
Ruth scowled and for a moment rested her head on Spock’s arm. “What can we do?”
“I must answer her petition,” Spock replied.
“On Vulcan.”
“Yes.”
“Shit, hell, damn it!”
“Yes.”
Jim couldn’t believe it. After all these years? Challenge not lawfully completed because no one died? Spock still married because no one died? T’Pring waiting all this time to lawfully petition Spock to honor his marriage contract because no one died? What kind of law was that?
He was pacing as Scotty readied the Chutzpah III for take-off. He had no desire to appear before the Vulcan Council, but it couldn’t be avoided. He’d even found someone to blame besides Ruth Valley, since it didn’t seem right to fault her on the damn-well-better-be eve of her wedding. He turned to the other person besides engineers in the hangar deck.
”Bones!” he exclaimed in exasperation.
McCoy looked up from where he stood, staring at his hands. “I know, Jim, it’s all my fault. Ruthie already told me.” He paused. “But I couldn’t very well let one of you kill the other, now could I?”
Jim sighed, scowling. “I just hope the Vulcan Council sees it that way.”
“The whole thing’s a circus anyway,” McCoy muttered.
“And guess who the clowns are, Bones.”
Ruth was following Spock around his quarters after having followed him into them. “I want to go with you!” she said.
“It would not be proper,” Spock replied.
“Why not?”
“You have no part in the proceedings.”
“No part in…!?”
“This is to decide my divorce, not our marriage.”
“But Spock…”
“No, Ruth. I will be gone only two weeks.”
Ruth threw herself down on his bed. “I can’t wait that long!” she muttered into the mattress. Spock stared down at her for a moment, then reached down to stroke her head.
“Two weeks is not an eternity,” he murmured. Purple eyes flashed up at him.
“If you get your divorce,” she pointed out.
“I do not doubt I will.”
She sat up. “Well, I do! I know how stubborn Vulcans are. Spock…” She looked up pleadingly. “If you’re so certain, why can’t we…”
Spock’s eyes smiled and his rebuke was gentle. “We are not wed.” Ruth rose to her knees, putting her arms around his waist.
“But we will be, right?”
“Yes.”
“So then…”
“Ruth, you wish to ensure a consummation, not the wedding.”
She frowned. “Yeah, so?”
He deliberately removed her arms. “No.”
She pouted and abruptly Spock kissed her.
“When I return,” he whispered, and turned, leaving the room.
The shuttle was loaded and ready. McCoy and Spock were already inside. Jim took a last look around the shuttle bay.
“Scotty, she’s yours for two weeks. Take care of her. Don’t hesitate to give her over to Mr. Sulu if you have to.”
Scott grinned. “Aye, sir.”
Jim glanced back at the shuttle. “And take care of the bride.”
The grin widened. “Aye, Captain, the groom’s already asked me. Good luck to all of you.”
At the sensors, Ruth stuck her tongue out at the departing shuttlecraft, then went back to pouting.
The port facilities at Shi-Kahr gave them permission to land. Spock had asked the captain to pilot them down. He needed a period of meditation before facing Vulcan. Much had happened since he was last home, much since he had last spoken to his father. The armed truce they had reached since the incident on the Enterprise during the diplomatic mission to Babel would surely be broken over this entanglement. That it was not his fault would not matter to Sarek – as it had never mattered. Oedipus. Hallucination. I am your son, not your extension. Spock abruptly pushed memory away. He would deal with Sarek in the present; yet, how could one ignore the years of one’s childhood – or the hurts?
“Spock,” McCoy’s voice, low and concerned, interrupted his concentration. “There’s a message for you from the Council.”
Spock rose. “Thank you, Doctor.”
“For what it’s worth… I’m sorry.”
“Understood.”
The message was brief:
Spock:
Live long and prosper.
We meet at the hour of men’ok tomorrow day.
We will hear your answer to the petition of the Lady T’Pring.
For the Council,
T’Pau
“There’s no one here to greet you,” Jim said.
“Of course not,” Spock replied. “I know the way to Dar Salaq.”
“Dar Salaq?” McCoy asked.
“My home.”
“Woman, stop your fussing,”
Amanda turned at her husband's disapproving voice. “I was only ordering his books…” she began.
“Children’s books, Amanda. He is not a child,” Sarek said.
“They are still his.”
“My wife…”
“Sarek, he hasn’t been in this room for twenty years…”
“And so should not expect things to be unchanged. Now stop your fussing.”
Amanda sighed. “Yes, Sarek.” She gave the bedspread a final pat before leaving the room.
“Amanda.”
She turned at the doorway to nod deference to T’Pau. She had never called the woman ’mother,’ and did not do so now. I hope Ruth will use that term for me, she thought wistfully.
“Is thee prepared for guests of thy son?”
“Yes, T’Pau,” she replied. She appreciated the fact that Sarek’s mother spoke Anglo-Terran to her, but her construction always made the woman sound archaic and reproving.
“The son of my son brings dishonor and discord to this house.”
“It is the Lady T’Pring who brings dishonor,” Amanda replied firmly.
The steely dark eyes bored into her. “It was the outworlders, whom thy son named as friends…”
“I am glad he has such friends,” Amanda interrupted. It startled T’Pau and the older woman blinked.
“Thee knows what T’Pring asks,” she said coldly.
Amanda bristled. “Were it my choice, T’Pau, I would give it,” she said, then nodded again and left the room to check on the dinner she was preparing for the homecoming of her son.
An hour later she accepted a proper Vulcan embrace from that son, then ignored his consternation and Sarek’s as she threw her arms around him in a proper Terran one.
“Welcome home, Spock,” she said, and he nodded. She smiled at Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy. “Captain, Doctor, how nice to see you again. My home is yours.” She looked past them, then returned a puzzled gaze to Spock. “Spock, where is Ruth?”
“The Salaq,” Spock explained as they walked along the wide, orderly pedestrian streets of Shi-Kahr, “is the only waterway on Vulcan that is not seasonal. It is The River. Its name means surviving, life-bestowing, eternal endurance. Dar Salaq means House of the River Land. In the days before Surak, the clans who controlled the river land controlled the planet. When Shi-Kahr was founded, the ancestor who built the city house wished the family to always be reminded of its origins, even though ours was a new line.”
“New, huh?” McCoy snorted. “Just how long ago did this new line start?”
Spock raised an eyebrow. “In the time of Surak, Doctor.”
“Five thousand years ago,” McCoy mused. “A regular upstart, aren’t you?”
“By Vulcan standards, yes,” Spock replied with an air of mild surprise that anyone would suggest that a line of five thousand years was not new.
“Pretty tough standards,” McCoy returned. “Do you really have a hope in hell of…”
“Bones,” Jim cautioned, “act like a guest.”
Spock gave him silent thanks.
The house was one storey, long and surrounded by carefully tended gardens. Spock felt a moment of dread as he approached the gate, and deliberately blocked it out. This was his home, his father’s and grandfather’s and…
The door opened and Amanda smiled at him. The word leapt form his mind: Mother!
And Sarek. Stern, unyielding, disapproving. The hooded eyes did not look through him as he has expected. They stared at, into him, the keen, sharply inquisitive glare he had known as a child. It was a glare that said, ‘you are my son, you will obey,’ 'to be Vulcan you must be Vulcan,’ ‘I do not expect you to fail.’
Very suddenly, a grown man, a commander in Starfleet, the First Officer of the finest ship in the Federation felt but seven years old. He stiffly raised a hand.
“Live long and prosper,” he said. The word ‘father’ would not come. Sarek returned the salute but not the words. Then Amanda embraced him, Vulcan palm-touch and a Terran hug.
“Welcome home, Spock.”
Pain always left when Mother held him.
She greeted Kirk and McCoy, then asked, “Where is Ruth?”
“It would not be proper, Mother,” Spock replied. “She has no place here. Yet.”
Sarek’s eyebrows lowered. “I require explanation, Spock,” he said. "Your actions, your failure to attend to this matter in a timely fashion, your inexplicable refusal even now to..."
Spock lowered his eyes. "It is a private matter," he said.
"Private from the Terrans who were a party to..." Sarek rejoined.
"Ambassador, I assure you..." Jim began, on top of McCoy's
"Now wait just a cotton-pickin' minute..."
“This will be discussed after dinner,” Amanda broke in firmly with a pointed glance toward her husband, and Spock thanked her with a gentle touch on her arm. She blinked in surprise, but her smile warmed him.
Dinner, while pleasant to the palate, was an uncomfortable affair, and Spock excused himself as quickly as it was proper to do so. He was most grateful when he saw Jim forestalling McCoy's attempt to join him with a quick hand on the doctor's arm.
“You embarrassed him in front of his commanding officer and his guests,” Amanda told her husband sternly. “You had no right to do that.” She stood with Sarek in the garden, sharing the sunset as they often did. This was the most comfortable part of the Vulcan day for Amanda, a mid-point between the day’s heat and the night’s chill. Tonight, however, was not the usual time of peaceful retreat.
Sarek nodded. “Agreed. It was most improper.”
“Impulsive,“ Amanda added, “unkind, undiplomatic.” She stopped short of saying ‘emotional,’ though she was angry enough to throw even that ultimate insult at her husband. She stopped it only because she knew it would do her son’s cause no good. But she was the wife of a Vulcan, and she would not allow a breach of courtesy in his home, even though it was her husband himself who had been discourteous.
“I will correct my behavior,” Sarek apologized.
“It will not be mentioned again,” she acknowledged. She became aware of Sarek’s fingers extended toward her in a more personal apology and she smiled and brought hers to them. “You expect too much,” she said softly.
“I expect no more than he is capable of.”
“Yet more than he is comfortable with.”
“Comfort is…”
“At peace with, then. Sarek, he is your son.”
“And I wish to see his potential fulfilled. Is it wrong, Amanda?” Sarek gazed down at her.
“To wish it, no,” she answered. “To refuse less, yes.” She reached up, gently touching his face with her fingertips. “You don’t often ask my opinion,” she said.
“No,” he agreed.
“Why now?”
“He is your son as well, my wife, and in matters that have to do with his Human heart, you are the expert.”
“Then you acknowledge…”
Sarek held up a hand. “I acknowledge only that he is what he is,” he said. His eyes met hers, his hand coming up to her temple. “In an hour’s time, attend me.”
She smiled. “Yes, Sarek,” she replied, then added, “Don’t be too hard on him.”
Sarek sighed, shaking his head as he left the garden. “I love you,” she whispered after him.
Sarek sought out his son alone. Spock was in his room, softly playing the lyrette and Sarek noted the precise beauty of the melody. He played well. A voice he recognized as Amanda’s influence told him to remark on it, but surely it was unnecessary. His son knew how well he played. “Spock,” he said.
The lyrette was put aside as Spock rose. “Yes – “ A hesitancy. “ – Father.” They spoke, of course, in Vulcan.
“It is after dinner,” Sarek said. “Explain..”
“I will wed Keheil Ruth ani Ramy Maxwell Valley. To do so I must satisfy T’Pring’s claim, “ Spock responded.
“Why has she a claim?” Sarek asked.
“She Challenged. I defeated her champion.”
“Your captain. He lives,” Sarek pointed out
“I killed him,” Spock returned – a little defensively, Sarek judged. “That his death was false was unknown to me.”
“Until you returned to your ship,” Sarek noted. “Why was this matter not settled then?”
Spock stiffened. “She was property,” he said. “I had no thoughts of her once I disposed of her.”
“I speak not of T’Pring, Spock,” Sarek returned, “and well you know it.”
There was a pause before Spock looked at him. “I did not wish a Vulcan marriage,” he said at last.
Sarek did not acknowledge the statement. “Arrangements could have easily been made. There are other Clans worthy of our – “
“Father, I do not wish a Vulcan marriage.”
“There would have been no restitution necessary had you contracted another before – “
“I will not wed a Vulcan!” Spock thundered.
“You will provide for this House!” Sarek thundered back.
“Yes, with Ruth!”
Sarek stared into the eyes of his son. Long moments passed. Spock’s gaze finally dropped. “I did what needed to be done,” he whispered. “I am not to blame for this. I fulfilled my duty, I burned Father.”
“And so you shall. What of your duty then?”
Sarek turned and left the room. I expect only what he could give if he but would.
She was as he remembered her; delicate, proud, beautiful. She was clothed, of course, in dark green, her hair loose, reaching to her waist, a shimmering fall of black silk. Beside her, Stonn, too, was much the same; arrogant, confident, disdainful. Would those emotions again come forth to shame him before T’Pau? Spock realized the thought was a vicious hope and quelled it immediately. His dislike of Stonn was totally illogical and would be ignored. For all her beauty, he felt no desire for T’Pring. He was aware of McCoy’s careful scrutiny for ‘his Ruthie’s’ sake, no doubt. You may report, Doctor, that I am unaffected by she who was to be my wife.
“Spock Sareklrn,” T’Pau’s voice rang out. The proceedings were in Anglo-Terran for Kirk and McCoy’s benefit, since they were intimately connected with the situation. “Petition has been made before this Council concerning thy marriage contract with the Lady T’Pring Solan’an and its discharge of five standard years ago. Challenge was at that time lawfully given and accepted and combat engaged. The Lady chose as champion the outworlder Kirk. Thee did combat with him, to the death. He stands here before us. The Lady charges fraud in the combat. How does thee answer?”
Spock took a deep breath. “T’Pau, thee was present at the combat. I ask and charge thee to answer – did thee not acknowledge a death?”
T’Pau looked deeply startled. “I did,” she replied.
“I then charge that if I committed fraud, then did thee also.” There was a silent outburst and T’Pring signaled for rebuttal. She was acknowledged.
“I charge fraud on all of Clan Xtmprosqzntwlfd,” she stated. “Persons individual do not matter.”
“How does thee answer?” T’Pau demanded of Spock.
“The point is conceded,” Spock replied. “I did not perpetuate a fraud, yet fraud was committed.”
“Thee has other than thy word for this denial?” T’Pau asked.
“Yes. The Terrans, Kirk and McCoy.”
Jim swallowed as he stepped before the Council. T’Pau eyed him suspiciously.
“Kirk, thee lives. Explain,” was all she said.
“Lady, I cannot explain except by what I was told,” Jim replied. “In the place of Challenge I was prepared to kill or die.” It was the answer Spock had said to give. “I did not kill; my last thoughts were in that place. I could only assume my death.” It sounded absurd to him, but there was a quiet murmur of respect.
“This thee swears on thy fathers?” T’Pau asked.
“On my fathers,” Jim returned, “and on my oath of loyalty as a Starfleet officer.” He’d added the last himself and there again was approval from the assemblage. He caught Spock’s nod as he stepped down.
“Coy,” [*] See note T’Pau called and McCoy winced, remembering her insistence that the ‘Mc’ was a title. He stepped forward, feeling the flush around his neck.
“Ma’am,” he said, and cleared his throat.
“It was thee who gave Kirk an injection at the time of Challenge,” T’Pau said. “Did thee intend fraud?”
“Well…” McCoy coughed. “Not exactly, ma’am. I thought…”
“Did thee know thy action would simulate death for Kirk?” she interrupted.
“Yes, ma’am, but…”
“Did thee do this with intent to stop combat?”
“Yes…”
“Was Spock aware of thy action?”
“Now ma’am, you know yourself he wasn’t ‘aware’ of anything. He was in pon farr after all!”
Every Vulcan face looked mortally stricken, the silence a horrified, deeply shamed din. Spock was slightly greener than usual, Jim an embarrassed red. McCoy snorted.
“Well, he was, and aware of nothing else.”
It took T’Pau several seconds to recover before she spoke again. When she did, her voice was even sterner than before. “Thee are the source of the fraud,” she stated.
McCoy gave up. “If you want to call it that, yes, ma’am; but Vulcans are supposed to revere life and my action prevented a useless death.” It was a second shock and McCoy grunted a “think on that!” in satisfaction.
“Spock,” T’Pau commanded and Spock gave McCoy a mild glare as the doctor moved back. “At the Time, thee pledged the behavior of these outworlders with thy life. Thee has seen thy friend Coy committed a fraud. Thy life is forfeit if the Lady T’Pring calls for it. How say thee?”
Spock took a deep breath. “As I pledged,” he replied, “so I say.” The next move, he thought to T’Pring, is yours.
“The dishonor done me is great,” the cold Vulcan beauty replied. “I would have restitution. I am Vulcan; the shedding of blood for vengeance does not concern me.” Though Spock had been certain of her words, he nevertheless began to breathe more easily. “Return of my rights and status I will have,” T’Pring continued, “and as proof, the westernmost dar-an of Dar Salaq.”
Amid the resultant gasp of incredulity rose Sarek’s voice. “Denied!”
“Kroyan!” T’Pau called out, then turned her hard gaze to T’Pring. “Woman, thee does know this Council has never awarded land from one Clan to another.”
“Yes, T’Pau,” T’Pring replied. “Yet never has a marriage contract been so frauded.”
“And never one so selfishly used!” Amanda burst out.
“Kroyan!” T’Pau called again. “Lady, keep thy tongue! Spock, how does thee answer?”
Spock glanced at Sarek. “I cannot say yes or no to such an award. I am not master of Dar Salaq.”
"Sarek Sepaklrn, how does thee answer?” T’Pau said.
Sarek stared at Spock. “No land will I release,” he said. T’Pau turned again to T’Pring.
“What is thy claim, woman?”
“I have made it,” T’Pring stated.
“It has been refused.”
“I make again!”
“What say thee, Spock?”
Spock sighed deeply. “Time I claim, T’Pau, for a counteroffer to be formed.”
T’Pau stood. “So be it. One hour.”
T’Pring and Stonn were smiling.
Jim Kirk sat and watched in wonder. He had never seen Spock pace before. He knew the matter was serious, that everyone involved was deeply disturbed except for Spock’s bitch of an ex-wife, he thought disdainfully. What he couldn’t understand was why. It was McCoy, though, who asked the question he had planned to.
“Spock, what’s this all about?”
Spock stopped and turned to them, seeming to have just noticed their presence in the small antechamber of the Council’s Great Hall. “Land,” he replied curtly and began to turn away.
“You mean that’s all she wants? A little land?”
Spock’s face was cold. “What she asks is barbarous.”
“But if it’ll get her…”
“It cannot be done,” Spock broke in.
“Why?” Jim wondered.
Spock abruptly sat in the chair opposite him and steepled his fingers. He looked over them at Jim and McCoy. “Until five thousand years ago,” he began quietly, “Clans fought and died for possession of land. Surak brought peace, and with it a stabilizing of Clan property. For the first time in history, legal borders existed – and still exist. Land does not change hands. It is not bartered, cannot be. What is the Clan’s is the Clan’s.”
“You’re not being objective about this,” McCoy put in dryly. “Nobody’s going to fight over a few acres in this day and age.”
“And a man will not kill to gain a wife, will he, Doctor?” Spock asked pointedly.
“Not in civilized places, no,” McCoy answered, half to himself.
“Shut up, Bones,” Jim suggested.
“Civilization, on any world, is a fragile thing,” Spock murmured.
“Are you saying that the exchange of land could break Vulcan culture?” Jim asked.
“It means a blood feud,” Spock replied. “We will not again provoke such emotions. Ever.”
“Then you’ll die?”
Spock sighed. “I sincerely hope not. I must offer to marry T’Pring.”
“What?!” McCoy burst out. “What about Ruth!?”
“I must satisfy T’Pring or I cannot wed Ruth,” Spock explained.
“So you offer…” McCoy spluttered. “That’s utter nonsense!”
“Yes, but it is that or my life.”
“As is proper,” Sarek’s voice said tersely. Spock turned, rising from his chair as his father entered the small room. “Land I will not give.”
“But you’ll sacrifice your son,” McCoy muttered.
“Bones!” Jim hissed. Sarek stared at McCoy.
“Be thankful, Doctor, that my son pledged his life and not yours.” McCoy fell silent and Sarek turned to Spock. “You will fulfill your contract, Spock.”
“I will offer, Father.” There was silence for a moment, then Sarek nodded curtly. Jim stared after him as he pivoted and left.
“He expected an argument, didn’t he?”
“Yes,” Spock said.
“I still don’t understand why he didn’t get one,” McCoy mumbled. “How do you expect to marry T’Pring and still be able to…”
Spock had walked past them and out of the door. Jim looked at McCoy. “Give it up, Bones. He finds logic in it whether or not we understand it. We have to trust to that.”
Amanda grasped her son’s arm when he showed no inclination toward stopping as he walked past her back to the Council Chamber.
“Sarek will insist you marry T’Pring,” she said. He gazed down at her and she realized how tall he was.
“Yes,” he said, and she could detected no reluctance. “It is honorable to fulfill the contract.”
And how Vulcan. “Spock, you can’t.”
His eyes were hooded. So like his father… “Mother, I must offer.”
She felt tears in her eyes, the same tears she held back when he had embraced Vulcan so many years ago. “When you were little,” she said, “you asked me if you would know love.” She searched his face. “I so hoped… Spock, you don’t love T’Pring, you do love Ruth. Please, for once in your life let emotion lead you!”
“Mother,” he began gently.
“It’s not Vulcan, it’s not logical, but your father married me and…”
“I do not intend to wed T’Pring.”
Amanda blinked, swallowing her words, staring at the soft smile in her son’s eyes.
“Consider, Mother,” he said. “She did not want me. She Challenged, she chose Jim to further insult me. She made statement that she wanted Stonn, that Stonn returned the desire. If she weds me, she will not, as she claimed, have my name and my lands and Stonn. Would not you and Father and Grandmother see to it?”
Amanda began to smile.
“No, she will reject my offer. And then, having refused an honorable counter proposal, she will be bound to accept the Council’s settlement.” Spock took her hand. “I know love, Mother, and I will not easily forsake it.”
She cried then, and Spock held her as she used to hold him. “I love you, Spock.”
“And I you, Mother.”
“Spock Sareklrn, state thy offer.”
Spock turned from T’Pau to face T’Pring. His voice was low, but strong and unwavering. “T’Pring, parted from me and never parted, never and always touching and touched; we meet at the appointed place.”
The gasp was, of course, silent but for Stonn’s hoarse, “Et’ta!” Spock did not deign to acknowledge him. His eyes stayed on T’Pring.
She colored slowly, a lovely olive, Spock noted with mild amusement. He saw the battle in her eyes and felt her anger and discomfort. All was silent for several long moments. Stonn bore it badly, barely controlled at the thought of a loss where he had seen only gain. Finally, with an obvious effort and in a strained voice, T’Pring gave her answer.
“I refuse.”
McCoy burst out laughing. Jim at least tried to hide his surprised approval. T’Pau called for silence and Spock noted the realization of what he had done come into Sarek’s eyes.
“T’Pring, thee has refused a lawful proposal for settlement of thy claim. Thee are bound now to accept this Council’s decision.” T’Pau’s eyes turned to Spock. “Thee are charged a sum of restitution to be decided between thy father and the Lady T’Pring’s Clan. T’Pring Solan’an is given full rights and status as the bondless daughter of Solan Sananlrn. Thee, Spock Sareklrn are freed of the contract thy father procured. The Council has spoken.”
McCoy and Jim were saying their farewells to Amanda. All was prepared for the journey back to the Enterprise. Sarek had negotiated a settlement, the equivalent of twenty-five thousand credits, and Spock had arranged for payment of the sum. He was making a last inspection of the shuttle when he heard the hatch closing. He looked up. Sarek stood in front of the door.
“Yes, Father?” Spock asked.
“What you did was not honorable,” Sarek intoned.
Spock felt his hands clenching and consciously relaxed. “What I did was all honor,” he replied slowly. Sarek’s face was stern.
“You knew she would refuse.”
“Yes.”
“You offered her nothing.”
“I saved the land.”
“You had no intention of fulfilling the contract.”
Spock took a deep breath. “No, Father, I did not. But had she accepted I would have been bound to do so. I spoke before the Council. It was the course logic dictated.”
“It was a course of deceit. Logic would have led you to redress the fraud and fulfill your duty.”
“The fraud was redressed, as the Council...”
“You gambled, Spock, on the whims of…”
Spock stiffened. “I gambled, Father,” he returned, unyielding, “with no one’s life but mine and no one’s fate but mine and that of my chosen mate. I have dishonored neither my name, my Clan, my lands, nor you. I spoke freely, T’Pring refused freely. I did all you required and I have secured my freedom to marry where I will – “ he paused, “ – as you did, my Father. If you believe Mother dishonors us, then say I have.”
Sarek stared in disconcerted silence. Spock watched him. For long moments there was thickening tension between them – and Spock refused to lower his eyes. “Respect I give you, Father, and deference, but I am a man and I own my honor,” he said softly.
Sarek sighed and abruptly the tension ebbed. “Very well,” he said. “I suppose you must be your mother’s son as well as mine.” He slowly raised his hand. “Peace and long life to you, Spock,” he intoned, and after a pause, “and to she who will be your wife.”
Spock, careful not to show his surprise, inclined his head in acknowledgement of the capitulation. “Live long, Father, and prosper.”
The hatch opened and Jim and McCoy stepped in. Sarek turned. “Farewell, Captain, Doctor.”
“Goodbye, Ambassador,” Jim said.
“Oh, Spock, your mother said to wait a minute,” McCoy broke in cheerfully. Spock and Sarek raised identical eyebrows. “She said she had something for you.”
“Indeed?” Spock murmured. He followed Sarek out of the shuttle as Amanda approached with a huge, bulky package.
“For you – and Ruth,” she said.
Sarek frowned. Spock knelt to receive the package, then said, “Thank you, Mother.”
She smiled. “Use it.”
“Amanda,” Sarek cautioned.
“I want grandchildren,” she insisted.
“What’s that?” McCoy asked.
“A wedding gift, Doctor,” Spock replied.
“What is it?”
“A rug.”
“A rug?”
“Yes. A rug.”
“Amanda, to present Spock with the pon-san before his bonding is highly distasteful.”
“He didn’t think so.”
“My wife, you know it is to be used at the Time to bind the link of…”
“I know, Sarek. I want grandchildren.”
“You are illogical.”
“Yes.” A pause. “You still don’t approve of him.”
“No. But he no longer needs my approval, does he, my wife?”
[*] NOTE: In an original script for the ST:TOS episode Amok Time, there was an exchange between McCoy and T'Pau regarding this idea; that since 'Mc' is a patronymic, and patronymics are not a planetary universal of Terran names, she considered it an unecessary title. This story was originally written before episodes were available on any kind of electronic media, and well before the inception of the Internet and access to official sites. We worked from a draft that was available to us at the time. I apologize for any confusion. ~ Cher Return to story