Author's note: I'm still working on the last chapter of Object of Study. But this sort of just popped out and demanded to be written.
Summary: After Journey to Babel, Sarek happens upon his son's medical records, listing all the injuries he has received during his time in Starfleet. It leads to a tense confrontation with Kirk about loyalty, trust, and who should be allowed to wield power.
Truth to Power - chapter 1
...First, second, third degree burns. Broken legs, broken clavicle. Methodically broken fingers. Arrow wounds. Knife wounds… Disruptor burns on torso, arms, back…
A part of McCoy was outraged that he'd just been thrown out of his own office. He should go back in there, tell a few truths to power.
Another part was desperately relieved to be anywhere but inside that room, with that man.
The Ambassador had only said You will leave me, but as McCoy had begun to protest, to reach toward the computer terminal to turn it off, he had raised his gaze and it had bored into the doctor like a laser beam. It was a gaze that accepted nothing but compliance, a gaze that was infinitely controlled, and yet had woken such a sense of dread in the Human that he could feel his throat constrict.
Sarek of Vulcan was known throughout the Federation, and beyond, for his unconditional integrity and dedication. Unlike many other ambassadors, whose main skill was being likeable and friendly, it did not matter if you liked the Vulcan. You were certain that Sarek would not bluff, had no personal agenda, was eminently unbribable. That gaze had brought rooms of enraged combatants to silence, and swayed Council sessions. You would trust Sarek, because anything else seemed unthinkable under that gaze. And right then, McCoy had trusted that his choices had been to either get out immediately or have his neck broken.
He leaned heavily on the door for a moment, as the implications of what the Vulcan Ambassador was doing, was seeing, fully registered on his mind. Then he shook himself, and felt the effect of the Ambassador's displeasure (fury? anguish? Am I projecting emotions on him, treating him like a Human parent?) diminish somewhat with time and distance.
He went in search of Kirk.
The captain had recovered from his knife wound, and had been discharged only an hour before, mainly because Spock was having a bad reaction to the medicine and McCoy thought that the fretting was not helping Jim's recovery. The captain had immediately been set upon by crewmembers wielding datapads full of the red tape that, as sure as antimatter, seemed to drive any Federation starship. With both the captain and first officer in sickbay, the stuff had seemed to reproduce faster than tribbles. Kirk had made it out in the corridor and halfway to the turbolift before capitulating and retreating into a nearby briefing room. He'd built a little wall of the pads on the table in front of him, and was hunched behind it with a cold cup of coffee in his hand. When the doctor entered, he received a weak smile of relief, that then immediately turned to concern.
"How's…"
"He's not doing any worse. It's just an allergy to the blood medication, we've got it covered."
But McCoy's voice was harsh and Kirk's eyes narrowed.
"Then why are you coming in here looking like you have a death notice for me?"
McCoy hesitated, and then decided that there simply was no good way broach the subject.
"Yeah. I've screwed up." When he grew silent, Kirk gave him a concerned look and a go on -gesture.
"What's going on, Bones?"
"It's Sarek. I told him about Spock's allergic reaction to the blood stimulation drug, how it was difficult for me to decipher some medical reports from his childhood that mentioned something related. Those Vulcan reports are very detailed, but the medical information is interwoven with all these weird terms about telepathic responses: they don't see the reason to differentiate you know…"
"Bones... You're digressing. What's the matter with the Ambassador?" Kirk's voice was filled with tired frustration. They had managed to get their many diplomatic passengers to within a single day from the upcoming conclave at Babel and what would by all accounts be a historic event in Federation history. So far the journey had included a murdered diplomat; a captured spy; Ambassador Sarek's heart attack, subsequent surgery and dramatic blood transfusion from his son; and Kirk getting stabbed and nearly dying. As the patients in sickbay got better under McCoy's care, Kirk had started to hope that things would, just for once, get a bit easier. It was nice to have the luxury of focusing on fuel consumption problems. Pleasant, even.
"Sarek offered to help. He can move around now, and I thought being confined to his biobed was making him restless. I saw no harm in it, he has the same eidetic memory as Spock, I'm sure he could quote his son's entire medical history at the drop of a dime. I left him at the computer in my study."
"I don't see the problem Bones... Sarek doing something to help his son, I'd think you'd be ecstatic." The estrangement between Spock and his father had been palpable. Sarek had not approved Spock's of entry into Starfleet, all those years ago, and had given his son an ultimatum. Sarek did not bluff. Neither did Spock, and the result of those two uncompromising forces colliding had led to Spock leaving Vulcan and not speaking to his father for 17 years.
McCoy looked anguished. "I forgot about his access rights, Jim. He's the Vulcan ambassador to the Federation, for heaven's sake! I came back, I swear I was only gone for a minute, and I didn't even recognize the interface anymore. It's all text and numbers now, Vulcan symbols scrolling incredibly fast. But I did figure out that he was looking at Spock's medical history of the last few years."
"That... I don't know Bones, it seems legitimate...?"
"Yeah. And how would your mother react if she saw your medical records, Jim? The full ones, no censorship, no classified restrictions."
The question brought Kirk up short. He blinked. Then he sighed and leaned back.
"How's he reacting?"
"Well, he threw me out. As in, he told me "you will leave" and gave me a look that made me feel like a... I didn't start breathing again until I was at the other end of sickbay. Jim, I've seen Spock angry. I mean, really angry, the kind where he's all rigid, and his eyes become dark pools that make others want to run away or kneel down. It was like that, except, more. Look, he's Spock's father. I can't begin to think what I'd do if I saw lists of injuries like Spock's had the last few years on a report on Joanna. In fact, I won't ever have to think about it, because any doctor worth his tricorder would never let me see those records, being her father. And there's a damn good reason for that."
"Bones, Sarek's a Vulcan. A very Vulcan Vulcan. Maybe you're projecting…"
Bones shook his head. Talking to Kirk, getting more distance form that gaze, was clearing his mind. "Don't try that hobby psychologist stuff on me, Jim. I know what I'm talking about. He's a parent, he gave his son an ultimatum, and saw him take off to starfleet. And now he's looking at a list of damage and injury that's a direct result of that. The kind of lists that we keep from the public for a damn good reason. And Vulcan or not, I bet you anything that Sarek is thinking that if it wasn't for things that he did or didn't do in the past, his son wouldn't be out here at the risk of painful death every other week.
Author's note: And now... time for some confrontation. We can't hide from the Vulcan Ambassador forever. :) Please leave a review!