Chapter 10 - The Question Can Be More Dangerous

Sunap slipped through the door a mere second before the designated time to depart for dinner. Sarek looked up at him, locked his gaze on him.

"I am just precisely on time, Uncle."

"Yes, you are. I wish to speak to you."

Sunap appeared chastened and resigned just before he appeared perfectly unemotional.

"Do you have something you wish to tell me?" Sarek said. After a pause, he added, "Or ask me?"

The reply was quiet. "Perhaps."

"Wouldn't it be logical do simply ask said question? That way you can plan based on the reply."

"I do not understand."

"Is it not the case that you wish to ask me if you can spend a month of your educational year with me on a colony world so that you might expand your knowledge of Federation peoples?"

Sunap stared. "May I ask that question?"

"You may always ask any question you like. You must always also be ready to cope with the response you get, and any downside from the simple act of having asked."

"May I do as you said, just now?"

"I will think about it."

Sunap nodded and after a moment said, "Since we are asking questions, may I ask another?"

"Do I not encourage questions?"

"Not precisely, Uncle."

"Ask."

"How did you know I wished to ask that question?"

"Logic can be tied to perspective. That is not something taught formally, but I think you will find it true as you get older. I took a seventeen year old earth woman from Boston back to Vulcan to be my wife. It was logical for me to expect your question."

Sunap didn't react at all, but he also didn't move.

"Any other questions?"

Sunap's reply was too hurried. "I have many questions."

"Would you like to try another one?"

Sunap thought for a while.

"I feel I should chose carefully," he said by way of explanation for the delay.

"If you judge you must."

"I am curious about cousin Spock. But there are too many questions to select from."

"Perhaps you should ask them of him in any case."

"I have one for you, but I must accept the consequences of asking."

"Once you accept the consequences it would be logical to ask."

Sunap said, "What I wish to know is, why was there such a time when you did not speak to each other if you are so similar to each other? I cannot see how that would be logical."

"The answer to that will require some time and thought to put it in terms that will make sense to you."

"So the answer is not strictly logical?"

"Your mother warned me you could be devilish. I was wondering when I would see it. But to your question, I can say that I have observed that sometimes the most similar beings can clash the most discordantly. Whereas those that are different but complementary may experience better harmony. But that is only part of the explanation in this case. But I have a question for you."

Sunap stood taller.

"Why did you request my guidance for this year of your education? I do not often get selected."

"You are considered the most difficult, but I wanted the opportunity your influence offered."

Sarek waited for more.

Sunap set his face and went on, "If I could convince you of something, you are one of the few with the power to give it to me. Hence why I asked about Spock, I believe it would be useful to understand how he lost your influence."

"I see."

"But I have many more questions. I do not understand how cousin Spock functions around so many humans."

"You should speak to him regarding that. Or perhaps more effectively speak to the human he works with the most, the captain."

Sunap became dismissive. "I will speak to Spock."

"Since you do not wish to speak to the captain, I insist you do so. If you wish to compare what he says to what Spock says, you may find that even more illuminating."

"And if I do not wish to speak to the human captain?"

"I was not asking your preferences, you will note."

"I do not understand him. And it is irritating to attempt to."

"All the more reason. We dock tomorrow, but I will use that power of mine you covet so much to arrange a meeting before then. You will see Doba frequently during the summit, you can spare an hour."

Sunap's face showed no expression. "Yes, Uncle."

"I expected you would be on time," Kirk said. "Come in."

"I will not utilize too much of your hour," Sunap said as he entered Kirk's quarters. He turned around once, head level, taking in the room.

"The ship is relatively quiet right now." Kirk gave him a grin of camaraderie. "But I expect you want to get back to someone else."

Sunap's face went flatter, which Kirk knew meant he had crossed a line.

"But you have questions, I am told," Kirk said.

Sunap was studying the 3 dimensional chess board, which was two moves into a new game. He turned to Kirk.

"I do not understand how cousin Spock has tolerated so many years in this place."

"You should probably ask him that. As far as I can tell, he gets along pretty well."

Sunap shook his head faintly, moved on to look at the shelf with books on it. "But to be among humans so much of every day. He is superior to you in all ways, yet beneath you. How is that?"

"That one I can answer," Kirk said. "The short answer is, Spock doesn't want the position I have."

"That is fortunate for you, then." Sunap pronounced this, then turned back to the objects on the shelf.

Kirk was beginning to feel disregarded.

"It's certainly true that Spock has a much larger command of facts and can work complex figures in his head. He's stronger, can go months without sleep, has more acute senses, plus an extra sense I lack. But none of that makes someone a leader."

If Sunap had been human, Kirk would have suspected him of half-listening, but Sunap could one-percent listen and still follow just fine.

"Leadership and creative problem solving are the critical skills of my position. The other things certainly don't hurt, but they can't make up the difference."

"I see." This came out distantly.

Kirk began to be wonder if he was being baited, rather than Sunap being this inexpert about human interaction. Or maybe he really was that full of himself.

Sunap moved back to the chess board. "You must like this game if it is so prominent in your room."

"I love that game," Kirk said, deliberately pulling out the L word.

"I have other questions. Uncle says I must prepare for the fallout of having asked a question at all." He finally turned to Kirk.

"There's no fallout for questions here. Not getting an answer is the worst that can happen."

"You will not inform Uncle of the questions?"

Kirk resisted crossing his arms. "No."

"Uncle says I should place myself in another's position to understand them."

"Wise."

"If I were cousin Spock you would be making me miserable."

Kirk almost laughed, but reined it in. "How so?"

"You are amused at my expense. That is an insult."

"There is a kind of amusement that comes from surprise, not mockery."

"Is there?"

Kirk put on his most sober expression. "Yes. But do go on."

"Simply being commanded by a human would be enough. But, there are other things." He looked at the chess board again in a posture of someone who wanted to move one of the pieces.

Kirk said, "Well, I know Spock better than you do. And can safely say, he's not miserable."

"You are not a telepath. How do you presume to know this to such a degree to justify such an expression of certainty?"

Kirk crossed his arms. "Part of that leadership instinct."

Sunap indicated the chess board. "Have you played this game with cousin Spock?"

"All the time."

"How can you love a game if you lose all the time?"

Kirk laughed.

Sunap's control showed a crack in the form of a slightly raised voice and drawn together brows. "I do not understand you. You have been given this powerful ship as your own by the Federation. You command massive weapons of death without flinching at the horror of it. You command my cousin, yet everyone, including uncle seems accepting of this. Even Spock accepts it, even with your ignorant human ways."

Sunap calmed as if someone had thrown a switch, although his eyes were actively seeking out Kirk's reaction.

"I didn't hear a question in that," Kirk said.

The switch threw back the other way. "Why doesn't anyone stop you?"

Kirk laughed again. "I've had an admiral on my ship stopping me from doing pretty much everything for the last month."

"Everything is amusing to you." This was spoken with cold calm. "My cousin is a legend, and I wanted to understand his situation. But I understand even less after speaking with you."

"I'm not trying to be confounding. I think our worlds are just that far apart that you can't accept the answers."

"My uncle seems to respect you. This I do not understand either. He should defend Spock."

"Defend him against what?"

Sunap stared. "Many things." He lifted his chin accusingly. "You eat meat in front of him."

"It is organically synthesized. No animals were involved."

"Nevertheless, it is abhorrent."

"Spock's never complained."

"You order him about as if he were inferior to you."

"We covered that one. "

"You touch him as if he were mind numb."

Kirk didn't reply to this one.

Sunap went on, "He has so little power. Why does he not complain?"

The door chimed. Kirk paused a full three seconds, lost in thought, before pushing the door release.

Spock entered crisply, hands behind his back.

"Sarek mentioned he had arranged a meeting." Spock gave Sunap a stern look as he faced him.

"We're having a little Q and A," Kirk said with easy-going charm. "Some of his questions would be better answered by you." Kirk stepped aside from the chess board. "Sunap, why don't you ask Spock the question you just asked me about playing chess."

Sunap looked between them, then pulled himself straighter. "I asked the captain why it would please him to play chess if he loses all the time."

When Spock appeared confused, Kirk said, "I mentioned that you and I play often. So, naturally . . . "

"I see." Spock turned to his cousin. "The captain wins thirty one point one percent of the time, and draws twenty six percent of the time."

"Playing against you? But uncle says you are good at chess."

Spock's brows went up and he enunciated clearly. "I am."

"Then your data are not possible."

Kirk grinned. "That sums up how our entire conversation has gone."

Sunap said, "Yes, he is always amused by my questions. It is most aggravating."

Kirk and Spock shared a look, which Sunap interrupted with a strangely unemotional voice. "But I wish to understand this."

Spock turned to him. "You wish to know how I can lose at chess to a mere human?"

Kirk could hear the fake derision in Spock's voice. Sunap didn't seem to catch it.

Sunap said, "To this human. Any human. You have a far superior intellect for precisely this task."

Spock studied the board. "Once one attempts to look ahead more than a handful of moves, the number of possible combinations rapidly approaches incalculable, even for a Vulcan mind. One must dispose of large numbers of potential moves as useless in order to evaluate the remaining ones for the best strategy." As he spoke he moved the bishop up a level and over one square. "The captain manages to find efficacious moves in that gray area that I have disposed of and therefore do not see coming."

Spock turned back to Sunap. "The human mind is capable of far more unbridled creativity. And raw computing power is something that can be built. One does not need to possess it natively to have access to it. Tools and the productive organization of individuals are a great equalizer over the raw intellect of individuals."

Spock turned to Kirk, seeming to be seeking a final verdict.

Kirk smiled faintly and nodded.