Chapter One: The Talk

Torvan's ancestral home was on the outskirts of the city and Onyxi was more than grateful when they finally arrived. Why the Vulcan kept on attempting to make conversation with her was a total mystery. He was oblivious to her distaste with him. As they wound through the halls of the complex it was no different.

"I understand you are esteemed in the field of bioengineering, do you find pleasure in your work?"

Onyxi was beginning to think that she had gotten the chattiest Vulcan of all time. Weren't they supposed to dislike small talk? "Yes, I love being able contribute to society on a practical and emotional level."

"Fascinating." Torvan responded as he entered the code to open her bedroom door.

"What is it that you do for a living?" She quipped as she set her luggage remote down on her bedside table.

"I am a professor of astrophysics at the local university. If you like, you could come to one of my lectures sometime." Torvan sensed hostility from Onyxi but decided to acknowledge it would be unwise.

"I'm sure that would be…highly enlightening." Onyxi ground out, wondering when he was leaving her room. Her worst fears were confirmed when he pushed the close button on the door and sat in one of her chairs. "Are you sure it's uh, appropriate for you to be alone in this room with me?"

Torvan cocked his head, considering her question. It was true that it could be construed as improper, but he found it illogical to worry about how others construed things. "There is nothing inappropriate about our behavior, therefore there is nothing inappropriate about our being alone together."

"Right." She said wryly, sitting on the bed, as far away from him as possible. To her annoyance he picked up his chair and set it no more than three feet from where she was sitting. Weird curly haired Vulcan that noticed way too many things about her anatomy…

"Before I allow you to rest there is an important matter I must discuss with you."

Onyxi thought she could foresee where this conversation was going. "I'm listening."

"All the Terran females that have been sent to aid Vulcan are required to become bond mates with their hosts and produce offspring for the purpose of preserving our species and culture—

He was about to continue but Onyxi cut him off.

Onyxi smirked; she knew it. "I know."

"You had already concluded from observing the situation that this was the case. That is very perceptive of you."

Onyxi was thrown off balance, she wasn't sure what she had expected his reaction to be, but this wasn't it. "It wasn't that hard to figure out."

"As we are both fully aware of the circumstances, I suggest that we are bonded as soon as possible. I would like to mention though it is irrelevant, that you are an improvement from my originally intended mate. I do not find her aesthetically pleasing, I am glad that I shall experience my first pon farr with you."

Onyxi was working on something really bitchy to say when he mentioned a 'pon farr', what the heck was that? "Pon farr? What's a pon farr?"

"Pon farr is a change that mature Vulcan males undergo every seven years, causing them to lose control of their emotions, they become emotional and irrational and overcome with the desire to mate. If we do not mate during pon farr, we die." Torvan found these matters surprisingly easy to discuss although they were generally considered taboo; somehow speaking of things that were not supposed to be spoken of was quite satisfying. How illogical.

Whoa, Onyxi thought, that is intense. Vulcans were creepier than she had originally thought. "You have not experienced pon farr before?"

"No, but my healer told me I will within a year."

"How old were you again?"

"I am 63.5 years old."

Onyxi couldn't resist, she had to ask. "Are you a… virgin?"

Torvan did not recognize the word. "I do not know. I am unfamiliar with the word 'virgin'. Could you give me the definition?"

Onyxi bit her tongue, she had meant to use this information to humiliate him but it appeared that she had dug her own grave. It was her that was feeling humiliated. "Um, uh, well…a virgin is…a virgin is someone who, uh, has never um…mated before."

Torvan blinked. What was the significance of such a question? Vulcans almost never engage in sexual intercourse till they are married; it would be odd if he was not a 'virgin'. "In that case yes, I am a virgin. Are you concerned that my sexual prowess will be lacking?" He leaned closer to her, he was curious as to whether this was the cause of her irritation.

The nerve of this guy, Onyxi thought. Here I'm practically going to be raped and he thinks I'm worried that he won't be good in the sack. Un-freakin-believable. "No, I expect your sexual prowess to be lacking. Not that I could ever enjoy screwing someone like you anyway, I would rather be a sex-slave to a Tellarite." She said icily. The injustice of this whole thing was beginning to wear away what was left of her civility.

Torvan straightened up again, taken aback by her sentiments. He could not think of what would make him repulsive; this female must be naturally disagreeable. He could not completely bury a surge of anger and jealousy that pulsed through him like electricity. "We will be bonded tomorrow. If engaging in sexual acts with me is so revolting to you, I have a friend that is an expert in artificial insemination so you will never have to cope with my inexperience. I expect that you have probably had so many sexual partners that the prospect of mating with me seems mundane." He rose from his chair trying to relax, as his nostrils flared in indignation. "I'm sure that I will be able to procure another to aid me during pon farr as apparently, fidelity is of little importance to your kind." He left her chambers without looking back and immediately retired to his room to meditate before he punched hole in the wall, or in that horrid person…

Onyxi stared at her door with her mouth hanging open for a moment. Her instinctual response was to feel sorry that she had hurt his feelings and was almost to the door to find him and apologize, but remembering that she was being forced into all of this, she stopped her hand before it reached the door opening mechanism. His facial expression had not changed during his tirade but his fury had been perceptible in the dangerous glimmer in his light brown eyes, the subtle clenching of his strong jaw and the fractionally harsher quality his voice had taken on. She started changing into her pajamas, hating the Vulcans for doing this to them, doing this to her. She missed her job, missed her boyfriend, but most of all she missed a time and place when no one would have considered her as an object to put a price on. On earth she had been respected, here she was just a baby factory.