Spock awoke from a bad dream, his stomach knotted with a nameless fear. Pale light filtered through his bedroom curtains, and there were faint sounds from elsewhere in the house. Time to get up.
Making use of a calming technique, he rose, flexed his muscles, and slipped into his Brandon Hall uniform. All the girls thought he looked handsome in the khaki slacks and navy blue jacket. At fifteen, he was the youngest high school junior, but that did not seem to matter to them. Their ever-increasing interest was beginning to create difficulties.
Picking up his padd, he checked for any overnight messages. All but one text were from Brandon Hall coeds vying for his attention. The sole male was a disgruntled friend. Thanks a lot, Grayson. I thought Chelsea was my girlfriend. Turns out she only wanted to meet you.
With a sigh, Spock deleted the messages and went out to the kitchen.
"Good morning." His mother smiled from her usual seat at the table.
Spock's stepfather sat eating toast as he reviewed an online medical journal. Since Leonard had left for pre-med in Mississippi, it was now usually just the three of them.
"Good morning Mother, Father," Spock said, slipping into a chair. He looked over the cereal and fruit, but nothing appealed to him.
"Aren't you hungry?" Amanda asked with an odd note of concern that was occurring more and more frequently.
David looked up from his padd, straight at Spock. Worry lines appeared between his eyebrows. "Are you feelin' feverish, son?"
"Negative to both questions," Spock replied. "I am merely…confused."
It was an unusual admission. His parents shared a troubled glance before focusing back on him.
"Confused?" Amanda repeated. "About what, dear?"
Not sure how to proceed, Spock shifted in his seat. As a longtime member of the Brandon Hall debating team, he had never felt so short of words. Finally he said, "It is about…young females."
"Girls?" David pressed.
Spock nodded, his throat tightening. "At school, they all seem…unduly fascinated by me. I don't understand why. In high school, Leonard had various girlfriends, but he was not…pursued by large numbers of the opposite sex."
"And you are?" David questioned.
Feeling unaccountably ashamed, Spock nodded again. "I assure you, I have not encouraged them in any way. At most, I have been merely…polite."
David and Amanda looked at one another gravely. Then Amanda said to Spock, "You're a handsome young man."
"And bright," David added. "You look a little flushed. I think I better take your temperature…"
They had already "taken" his temperature twice during the week. Annoyed, Spock rose abruptly and snapped, "I tell you, I am not ill!" Seizing his padd, he headed for the air bus.
oooo
Later at school, Spock regretted his behavior and sent text messages of apology to both his parents. All went well enough until the midday break, when four girls approached him with heartfelt invitations to lunch with them. Declining their offers, he escaped into the boy's restroom.
The door burst open behind him, and there stood two angry seniors. The largest of the pair caught him by the shoulders and slammed him against the nearest wall.
"Half breed!" the boy yelled, inches from Spock's face. "Stay away from Andrea! Understand?"
With an effort, Spock restrained himself and raised his hands in a conciliatory manner. "There is no need for trouble," he said, hoping to defuse the volatile situation. "I assure you, I am scarcely acquainted with any of the female students."
"The way they swarm over you? You're probably using some Vulcan mind trick!" One intrusive finger poked Spock's left ear tip.
Spock worked at containing his outrage as he warned, "Step away from me. I do not wish to harm you."
The senior's fist lashed out. In that instant, Spock remembered red blood gushing from young Lenny McCoy's broken nose. He thought of another boy lying on the floorboards of an old general store.
Just now, his anger was strong. Might he lose control if he attempted to fight back? There was only one possible decision. Though he was accomplished in martial arts, he chose not to defend himself.
The fist impacted his face with a shock of pain.
oooo
It seemed to Spock that the voices were angry, but he could not be certain. Lying on the sofa with an ice pack pressed to his swollen cheekbone, he knew only that his parents had reordered their busy schedules and were now engaged in a lively discussion behind closed doors. Today's events had upset the peace of their home.
He was staring at the living room ceiling, reliving the violent restroom encounter, when Amanda and David reentered the room and sat nearby.
"Perhaps I should have defended myself," Spock pondered aloud, "since I am being blamed for the fight, anyway."
With a heartening display of trust, David drawled, "Tomorrow's verifier scan will prove you're sayin' the truth. But you're damn lucky that good-for-nothin' only hit you once."
"It was not a matter of cowardice," Spock informed them. "I was unsure of my self-control. I might have seriously injured him." No, not cowardice. Yet now he could feel the same nagging fear with which he had awakened. Sitting up, he looked from his mother to his stepfather and sensed that they were deeply disturbed. He could not help but ask, "Have you something else to tell me?"
A moment of uneasy silence filled the room.
"There's something we must tell you," Amanda explained, tears coming to her expressive eyes. "It…it's related to the girl trouble at school."
David cleared his throat. "Your physiology is primarily Vulcan. So you need to be aware of…of certain aspects of Vulcan sexual development."
Spock blushed green with embarrassment and dropped his gaze. Had they not already discussed what humans called "the birds and the bees"? And at school, the boys frequently explored the subject in great detail. What more was there to understand?
David continued, "There is a cyclical event that mature Vulcans experience…"
"Once every…every seven years," Amanda added, stumbling over the facts. "Normal urges…intensify greatly. Life itself is…is endangered, unless…"
Spock stared at the floor, his mind racing.
David cut in to say, "Vulcan children are betrothed when they're seven. A mind link is established, so when the time comes…the time of pon farr…the man and woman are drawn back together."
Spock was aware of the betrothal custom, but he had left Vulcan at age five. No such link had been established, which meant… Holding his voice steady, he said, "This…pon farr…was not mentioned in my study of Vulcan culture."
"It's not generally known by outworlders," Amanda gently explained.
There was no need to ask how she knew of such matters. Having been married to a Vulcan — to his biological father, Sarek — she would have intimate knowledge of their sexuality.
David spoke. "It begins with a fever. A restless feeling…and irritability…"
oooo
An hour had passed since Spock retreated to his room and attempted to settle his turbulent mind through prayerful meditation. But neither his thoughts nor his emotions would be stilled. Now he understood his parents' recent, odd concern over his body temperature and attitude. Envisioning the Vulcan male's degradation made him cling to the thread of hope offered by his stepfather, a capable physician.
"Bein' half human, you might escape the worst of it. But at the very first sign of trouble, let me know. There are drugs that just might help."
Might escape. Might help. That thread of hope was thin, indeed.
Fear breathed an icy draft down the back of his neck. Rising from his floor cushion, he went to a window and stared out at the cloudless blue sky. All his future plans centered on space exploration, on Starfleet. But in view of his physiology, would Starfleet Academy even accept him? How could he be trusted aboard a ship with female crewmembers? Would any woman — anywhere — be safe from a potential rapist?
oooOOooo