I do not own Star Trek, not do I make any profit. However, with all the Vulcan OC's I create, I might be able to single-handedly repopulate the species!
Complications
Kenit had released them from the "seclusion chamber." Sarek and T'Sela quickly returned to their regular quarters in the Inn. Sarele brought them tea, soup, and bread. There were several hours left until dawn. T'Mena was contacted and arrived as soon as possible. T'Mena was not moving quite so quickly these days, as She was in her eighth month of pregnancy, with five more to go.
Sarek protested T'Mena's haste as he sat on his bed for his examination.
"You need to take more care for yourself. There was no hurry. We could have waited until the morning."
T'Mena silenced him as she listened to his heart for a second and then a third time. She withdrew a small, portable scanner from her bag, and then passed it several times over Sarek's torso.
"Sarek, it could not have waited. You have a small variance in your heart rhythm that I will need to monitor. I will give you medication to even it out. You will need to spend several hours at the clinic for each of the next few days and avoid unnecessary exertion. I will apply a small monitoring device to the area above your heart which will alert me if you have any further difficulty, but it is not a substitute for testing."
"Do you suspect a valve malfunction?" Sarek had a genetic predisposition for a particular heart valve malformation that manifested itself in middle-aged Vulcans, especially males who had recently experienced Pon Farr.
"Yes, actually, I do. If that is the case, you will need to go to Terra, to San Francisco for surgery. But let us not get ahead of ourselves. It may be only a passing anomaly."
T'Mena gave Sarek a hypo-spray and then a few tablets. She handed him of a bottle of the same tablets.
"You must take two of these three times a day with food. Do not skip any doses."
T'Mena then turned her attention to T'Sela and pronounced her completely healthy.
"T'Sela, I will charge you with making sure that this stubborn male complies with my orders. I will see him in the clinic this afternoon after you both have rested." With that, T'Mena departed.
T'Sela sat on the bed next to her husband.
"My wife, it seems that our life together is to be one challenge after another."
"Sarek, I have never been one to avoid a challenge."
Trader Kethil and his Rigelian wife had lived on their small ship, earning a living selling goods to colonists on the furthest edge of the Alpha Quadrant. Kethil had no close family living on Vulcan and only very limited psi ability. He only learned of Vulcan's destruction when one of his customers expressed his condolences.
Kethil had left his home world forty-three years ago when he realized that his prospects for advancement were slim. He had been orphaned as a teenager, the son of tenant farmers. He bonded with a female in the same circumstance and they apprenticed themselves to a Rigelian trader. When Kethil's bond-mate died of a fever after childbirth, he married his employer's daughter, who helped raise the child, a baby girl. When his father-in-law died, Kethil and his wife Criesa inherited the small ship and its inventory. Criesa was actually a Vulcan-Rigelian hybrid. They had three more children together, all daughters. They were Vulcan in appearance, lacking the distinctive facial ridges and flat noses of the Rigelians. All the girls were now of marriageable age.
Kethil investigated the customer's tale of the Genocide and found it to be true. At the same time, he learned of the Elders' decree that off-world Vulcans should settle on the colony as soon as they were able. Willing to fulfill his duty to his race, Kethil turned the small ship around and headed for New Vulcan. He had no idea what lay ahead for him and his family, nor of the complications he would bring to New Shi'Kahr.
It was late morning when Sarek awoke. T'Sela had been awake for some time. She gave him tea and a breakfast of cooked grain, plus two of the pills T'Mena had left.
When he had eaten and showered, she gave him fresh clothing. She was being very thoughtful this morning. Sarek felt her worry through the bond.
"Do not trouble yourself, my wife. I am sure there is no cause for concern."
"T'Mena does not concern herself without cause. We must go to the clinic now."
"Surely it can wait until I have checked in with the Council of Elders and the Embassy."
"It can not. T'Mena charged me with seeing that you comply with her orders. As your wife and bond-mate, your welfare is my responsibility, especially if you are too stubborn to care for yourself. If you were to die, who would assume your duties?"
"Skar is quite an able assistant. Most likely, he would be chosen."
"As he is acting in your stead now, it will not harm neither of you for him to do so a bit longer."
T'Sela's logic was inescapable. Sarek could not fault it, not could he find any way to refute it. With a small sigh, he escorted his wife to the clinic.
Kethil had finally arrived on New Vulcan with his wife and four daughters. He promptly reported to the Immigration Office, as was expected of every new arrival. The Registry Clerk, Trenar, gave him a PADD loaded with forms for him to complete. He did this as quickly as possible, hoping to obtain a housing assignment for his family.
His first difficulties began when Trenar informed him that there was no record of his bonding with Criesa.
"I had no close living relatives on Vulcan at the time. How would I have done so?"
"I do not know. I merely state the facts. Also, you did not register the death of your first bond-mate."
"Again, I had no ability to do so."
"There is a problem with the registration of your current wife, as we do not have a record of her birth. Your application does not state into which House she was born."
"My wife is not Vulcan-born. She is half Rigelian."
"Your children then are three-quarters Vulcan and one-quarter Rigelian?"
"Except for my oldest daughter, who is from my first marriage."
"There is no record of the birth of any of your children in the database, either."
"As I have stated previously, I had no means to record the information."
Trenar had no idea how to process Kethil and his family, so he contacted his supervisor.
T'Mena reviewed the results for the fourth time, but her conclusion was the same. Sarek had developed a minor malformation of one of his heart valves.
T'Mena did not possess either the skills or the knowledge to do the surgery that Sarek needed. No healer currently on New Vulcan did. T'Mena knew of one Terran cardiologist who had successfully done the procedure on Vulcans with a ninety percent success rate. Her name was Dr. Paula Howard and she worked at San Francisco General Hospital. T'Mena had referred patients to her before.
T'Mena contacted Sarek and T'Sela, asking them to come in for the test results as soon as possible. The surgery was best done while the defect was still minor, before there were complications.
Svosh was the newly appointed Minister of Immigration. His governmental department had just been established three weeks prior to the arrival of Kethil and his family. There was no policy or procedure in place for dealing with those who had insufficient documentation or none at all. Most Vulcans who had taken non-Vulcan bond-mates or who had hybrid offspring had chosen to ignore the decree of the Elders. They stayed where they had settled.
Kethil had no adopted home world. He had no ties to Rigel V other than it was the planet of Criesa's birth. The only records for him in the database were of his birth and his first bonding. As far as the government of New Vulcan was concerned, Criesa and the four daughters did not even exist. This, of course, was most illogical, as all five of them were sitting in the flesh in the Immigration Office.
Svosh had no idea how to handle this issue. He would have to consult the Council of Elders. In the meantime, he assigned the family temporary quarters. Svosh was not a person who cared for complications.
Sarek had taken the news remarkably well, even for a logical Vulcan. In truth, he had expected it to happen to him at some point. Genetics worked against him, as did his high-profile, high-stress position. T'Mena made the arrangements with Dr. Howard. Sarek secured use of the Vulcan Embassy's private ship to convey him an T'Sela to Terra. He did not like to tie up government resources for his personal use, but T'Mena insisted upon it.
The real hurdle to the surgery would be securing an adequate blood supply. Current methods for blood synthesis did not favor Vulcan physiology. Small amounts of synthetic blood would not cause significant damage, but Sarek might need several liters. He had the rarest of blood types, T negative, possessed by less than five percent of the pre-Genocide population. Post-Genocide, the percentage was even lower, perhaps one in three hundred.
Kethil moved his family into the New Shi'kahr Inn. To celebrate their safe arrival on the planet and their temporary respite from bureaucracy, the trader treated them all to dinner in the cafe. They were an unusual sight for the other patrons. Young, un-bonded females were in scarce supply on New Vulcan. Yet here were four all in one place at the same time.
Kiyel and Khaln were brothers and farmers. They had immigrated with their parents from an outlying colony and had minimal education. They had been given a house and land to homestead with the typical proviso that the government would receive twenty percent of their crops for the next ten years. The young brothers were strong and able, hard workers. However, they were not high priority on the list to be assigned bond-mates.
The Council of Elders was having trouble making good on its promise to find bond-mates for "worthy candidates" without them. People with young sons were unwilling to risk their children's lives waiting for their turn to occur. Young immigrant females frequently had their choice of several males, and the girls' families sometimes received economic compensation. The government did not approve of this practice, but was powerless to stop it.
Kiyel and Khaln also ate dinner in the cafe that night. Both of the brothers possessed a fair amount of liquid assets due to the sale of their colonial holdings. Twice a week, they would dine in the cafe, on the lookout for unattached females. It seemed a logical means by which to gain an advantage over the competition.
"Look, brother! There are four, all sturdily built and aesthetically pleasing. Do we dare introduce ourselves?'
"Kiyel, that is why we have come. There is no advantage gained without boldness."
The brothers made their way to Kethil's table.
Sarek had three living close relatives who are old enough to be blood donors. However, T'Pau was not a match, her blood type was T positive. Spock had T negative blood, but it is a subgroup unique to his hybrid physiology. It might be possible to filter out the Human factors, but it would take more time than the physicians are willing to wait.
Sarek had a liter of his own blood stored up for him on New Vulcan. T'Mena will send this with him. There is another liter stored at San Francisco General. If any more is required, it will need to come from Sarek's nephew Sirin. He was a surgeon and healer living in San Francisco.
The Council of Elders decides that Kethil and his family will have to undergo DNA testing to establish their identity and relationship to deceased Vulcans. DNA samples have been routinely collected on all those born on Vulcan for over five hundred years. Lineage was very important to Vulcan culture and DNA was the best proof of it.
Kethil and his bond-mate Criesa will be required to have an official bonding ceremony before she is allowed to immigrate. Kethil was frustrated with all of the complications of the immigration process. He was also annoyed with the attitude of many Vulcans toward Rigelians. Some Vulcans considered Rigelians to be a related but inferior species. He was eager for his daughters to find bond-mates and establish families.
The two young brothers who introduced themselves at the cafe seemed unconcerned by all of these complications. The girls seemed Vulcan enough for them. Preliminary arrangements have been made to bond the two oldest girls. Nothing can be done officially until all the complications are straightened out.
T'Sela has once again packed her bags. She and Sarek will leave for Terra in the morning. Sirin has been alerted to stand by as a possible blood donor. Spock and Nyota have been notified of the upcoming surgery, but they are on a planetary survey mission. It would cause too many complications for them to travel to Terra at this time.
T'Sela is beginning to detest the word "complications."