T'Pau looked out the window of Sarek's office in the Fortress observing the women conversing beneath the spreading branches of a green leafed Terran tree. Saavik was engaged in conversation with T'Para and T'Amanda about the relative merits of a paper T'Amanda was publishing. A Terran, a Romulan/Vulcan hybrid and the Vulcan wife of T'Pau's Vulcan/Terran grandson stood in a green verdant garden filled with alien plants. When T'Pau had come to live here after her marriage to Silek, Eldest Son of S'chn T'gai the garden had been the original Vulcan layout from before the Awakening. Food bearing plants arranged in an efficient layout were useful in the event of a siege. On Sarek's bonding to T'Amanda, he had ordered the garden at the rear of the Fortress torn out and landscaped five rill of land with Terran plants, many of them decorative, reflecting the heritage of his new bride. Force fields kept the alien flora from spreading into the Vulcan ecosystem and dangerous wild life from entering. T'Pau had thought him gone mad. Perhaps he had, she was still dealing with the ramifications of that decision.
"Mother?" asked Sarek, from his seat in front of the desk. Her robes swished as she turned to look at him. Even with the Disciplines, Vulcans tended to be obsessive and the clan of S'chn T'gai more than most. Descended as they were from the fierce warriors who had fought their way to the top of pre-Reform Vulcan society, they were stubborn and hard headed. She had argued with Sarek but failed to get him to agree to give up the Terran woman. She had thought that the marriage would mean his death. Vulcans had married Terrans before and some of the results had been… less than ideal. Terrans could be fanciful and untrue to their spouses, with fatal results if the spouse in question was a Vulcan. It was within her power to order the woman off the planet but when logic failed, she knew force would do no better. Vulcans sometimes died rather than replace a bond mate with another. She hadn't dared risk the life of her son.
"I have received communication from Spock on this subject," she replied, reseating herself on the carved wooden chair. A luxury from the Polar forests on wood poor Vulcan. The desk, Sarek's desk, was of stone, polished to a deep red shine. The wooden drawers decorated shelves around the room, interspersed with Terran books. Modern electronics filled the space they had once occupied.
"Already?" asked Sarek with a raised brow, the first sign of surprise he'd shown since she'd arrived at his house and asked for his opinion on Dr Taylor. So, he'd know, or at least suspected Spock's interest. Spock was not an enthusiastic correspondent but his mother had insisted he write her every week when he left for Starfleet. With the correct assumption that she passed on all his news, letters to anyone else were rare. She had not made the same demand the last time he left Vulcan and she had not heard from him since, except for a verbal message passed by Sarek.
"On the subject of Dr Taylor," she amended. "It arrived before you left Earth. Dr Taylor requested that he assist her in a mind meld with the Humpback Whales. He agreed to her request but the Reldai on Earth denied him permission on medical grounds. He asked permission to undergo further training rather than have another perform the meld." She'd suspected then, the complication that was now unfolding. His subsequent communications had confirmed it.
"Did you permit it?" he asked.
"I did," she said, although perhaps the decision had been wrong. "He has asked permission to assess her suitability as a spouse."
"It is logical for a match to be made where there is an existing friendship," said Sarek. Her own first marriage had been one such. A younger daughter in her own Clan she had found the match her parents had arranged for her most agreeable. Within the bounds of marriage, they had been free to love each other with a fierce affection. Sarek, too, preferred his marriage to T'Amanda to the glimpse he had had of his life with T'Rea. She pushed the thought away. It was not relevant to the discussion.
"He has a wife," T'Pau countered, taking the opposite position. Debate was a legitimate way of sorting through arguments.
"Their bond was weak and has been severed," said Sarek. "Spock has fulfilled all the requirements to leave the marriage."
T'Pau had assumed that Spock would agree to remarry T'Para. He still needed a wife and T'Para had been an excellent choice. "It is possible the marriage will be more successful this time with no pressure to reproduce and the death of T'Para's first husband over ten years in the past," she said. Spock had not been in contact with her since he left Vulcan and judging by Sarek's report, he would not be.
"Spock's marriage will have no effect on the Clan, it is of importance to him only," said Sarek. The explosion that had killed Silek and their son during the War with Romulus had injured her severely, but she had recovered. The same bloodlines which made her a suitable match for Silek made her the perfect wife for his younger brother Skon. She had followed the logical course and married him when her husband's mother T'Vura had made the suggestion. It had not been the same, but they had had three sons together.
"She would have my position after T'Amanda," argued T'Pau. "Unless you married again and gave me a full Vulcan heir." If he lived through the shock of severing such a long standing bond, he would still be young enough to father a child and that would solve the problem. Would he take the offer and exchange Spock's choice of wife for his compliance to her choice of wife for him? His eyes slid away, focusing on a tapestry on the wall behind her. She had brought up the forbidden topic and he did not want to think about it. He would do what he willed and it would be up to her to find a solution. She had spoiled him overmuch as a child and was now paying the price.
Her attention landed on her First Attendant T'Lind, standing motionless near the door. She was a direct descendant of the younger brother of Solkar, the next in line by blood descent. The disgrace in her family line and the lack of rank from her father would not make her a popular choice but the Council would accept whomever T'Pau sealed as heir while she was still alive, especially if she wed Sarek and had a child by him. If T'Pau died first, who could tell? T'Pau had plans, of course, but the future was hard to predict.
"Horek and Selek are your grandsons, too," Sarek reminded her. They had married out of the clan and it would require negotiation to get them or their children back. They did carry the blood of Surak, but so did others.
"The reasons T'Para was chosen for him still apply. We are his elder, he should respect our decision," she countered. Sarek remained silent. Pointedly silent.
T'Pring was her greatest failure. Both she and Sarek had wanted a betrothal to another Clan as a show of support to the Council. She had bargained hard for T'Pring, using several debts owed to her to secure the match. Her father was a noted scholar from a powerful, respected clan. When his wife died and he survived, his Matriarch had honoured him by finding him a young wife who would give him further children rather than let him find his own match among his contemporaries. His death when T'Pring had still been a child had left T'Pring's upbringing in the hands of her mother. T'Pring had come to her and requested release from the betrothal so she could have her choice of husband but T'Pau had refused her, seeing no logic to the request. She had recommended further logic training to the girl's mother. T'Pring had withdrawn the request the next year and behaved in every way as a perfect Vulcan until the day Spock returned to Vulcan, vulnerable, dependant on her for his life and she had arrived for the wedding accompanied by her challenger.
T'Pring's façade of adherence to logic had deceived her. The obligations of T'Pau's rank forced her to continue with the proceedings, despite her personal involvement. Stonn was not a warrior but he had lived on Vulcan under its gravity his whole life and his mind was clear, the blood fever not fully begun. It might be enough to make a fatal difference to Spock. T'Pring must have had doubts in the other direction. Concerned about Spock's more consistent combat training and that advantage of hormone induced rage, she had called for James Kirk to be her champion.
A move T'Pau had not foreseen. She had offered tried to let the Captain decline the fight citing the fact that Vulcan laws and customs were not binding on him. When he accepted, she did not argue, she had fulfilled her obligations. T'Pau bore no malice towards James Kirk, but she had allowed it, knowing the man would die at Spock's hands because his life had less value to her than Spock's did. Vulcans tried for total logic but few achieved it. Spock would live, Stonn would not have what he desired and T'Pring would live out the rest of his life as Spock's property. T'Pring might have planned to keep seeing Stonn if Spock abandoned her on Vulcan, but T'Pau had other plans for the girl. It had been pleasing that Dr McCoy had saved Captain Kirk's life with his quick thinking. A Vulcan in the same situation would, on regaining consciousness, begin fighting. It was the reason the ceremonial guards attended the koont-un-kal-if-fee and dealt a death blow in cases of cowardice. Fleeing the fight early would not break the fever.
After the kal-if-fee, Spock had given her to Stonn. As his possession, she would have been required to serve Spock in his Time, reducing the time constraint of finding a new match and improving T'Pau's bargaining position for a new wife. Spock could legitimize her children or not as he chose. She paid a price, of course. Vulcan society had shunned T'Pring ever since the fal-tor-pan became public. She had counted on Vulcan privacy to conceal her actions, not realising that the Federation had no qualms about revealing such things for entertainment purposes. The matches she had made for her children had been much lower than their bloodlines would otherwise have dictated and her career had stagnated but it was not enough. Never enough for what she had tried to do. T'Pau didn't have many flattering things to say about T'Rea but she had performed her duties as Sarek's bond mate even after she had the marriage annulled and entered Gol. Nor had she tried to kill him. T'Pau still required extra time in meditation every time she saw T'Pring in the Hall of the Council, walking around as thought she had not tried to have Spock killed so she could indulge her carnal passions.
"As Spock's widow, you considered T'Para a daughter of the Clan," Sarek argued, breaking T'Pau's reverie. "She could still serve as your heir. The wife of my heir is a traditional choice but not the only one." It would be an insult to Spock, a reversal of the position they had spent years cultivating.
Sarek remained silent, awaiting her judgement.
"I am not convinced of the woman's suitability. I do not have sufficient information to make a judgment. It may be necessary for me to meet her. Tell no one of our conversation." Sarek nodded.