"You two hear about the council?" asked Jim, they were on their way to third period which they all shared.
"Yes." said Spock.
"I haven't. What?"
"They moved it to start in three days. They didn't let anyone tell the cadets because they didn't want us getting worked up."
"Why would we get worked up?" asked Bones. "It's not like we'll see much of the delegates.
"No, we will. Some of the ambassadors will be touring the Academy."
"They will?" asked Spock.
"Yeah. I would've thought you'd know that, after all, your dad is the Vulcan ambassador." said Jim.
"Are you going to see your dad?" asked Bones.
"My father is coming to Earth for the council. He and I will most likely not see each other, and I do not want to see him."
"This is because he didn't want you to join Starfleet, isn't it?"
"I am asking politely, do not mention this subject again, I will not discuss it." Spock went into their classroom.
"He was pretty close to getting upset." said Bones.
"I noticed. Seems kind of dumb though, Vulcan is an enlightened world, like Earth. Shouldn't his father be able to respect his decision?"
"Easy for you to say, you're dad's a Starfleet officer too." commented Bones, he went into the classroom. Kirk thought about that for a moment, shrugged and went into the classroom too.
"It's all spit and polish, isn't it?" said Leonard four days later, there were tours of the Academy that day. "Everything by the book, gotta look smart for the off-worlders and all that."
"How does this thing even fasten?" asked Jim, struggling with his dress uniform. Spock walked over and did it for him."
"Thanks, Why do we even have dress uniforms? We're cadets!"
"As Leonard said, it is and attempt to appear formal and refined for the delegates."
"Yeah well, I hope they appreciate it." Jim walked to the door, "gentlemen?"
"You're gonna make this work for you, aren't ya?" said Bones.
"Yup! Let's go!" he walked out into the hall.
Spock walked to class, they were all supposed to go about their normal school day. He noticed however, that the hallway, while not silent, was quieter than normal. Christine walked up next to him.
"Good morning, Spock."
"Mr. Chapel." he said.
"The delegates aren't here yet, don't be so formal. And I will slap anyone who calls me 'Mr. Chapel' after one warning. If you must be formal, then please use 'Miss Chapel'. Consider that the warning."
"Noted. I see you do not put much into this visit."
"It's all pomp and circumstance and a waste of time." said Christine. "Why pretend this place is nicer and more orderly than it is? To attract more students? If I thought the Academy would like this, I wouldn't have applied here."
"That is logical. I agree."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Hey, Spock? Um, after school today, want to skip campus? I know there's an assembly-thing going on with the delegates who are touring the school, but no one ever said we had to go."
"I will consider it. I believe this is your classroom?"
"Yes. See you later Spock."
"Goodbye, Christine." he walked on.
"Is today over yet?" groaned Chekov at lunch.
"No, Pavel." said Sulu. "You still have two classes, then assembly."
"I get how you feel though, Pav." said Leonard. "Today's been a pain in the neck. I had to properly put together a model of the human anatomy, which wouldn't have been a big deal, if I hadn't had a Caitian looking over my shoulder the whole time."
"You had it easy, they made the juniors and seniors really work hard." said Scotty.
"Just two more classes to get through and the assembly, and then we're done." said Kirk.
Spock glanced across the table where Christine was sitting, she gave him a quick half-smile. Spock had told her he would leave campus and miss assembly later.
"I hate the Bolian delegation." said Uhura suddenly. "There were three members in their party, right? Well each and every one of them asked me whether or not I was human. Just because they all have the same colored skin doesn't mean all other species do."
The lunch bell rang. They all got up and started heading for class.
"What's next?" asked Bones.
"Philosophy and Debate, for me and Spock, I don't know what you have." said Jim
"EMS training."
"EMS?"
"Emergency Medical Situation. Like triage. It's down this hall, see you later." he walked off.
There were only twenty minutes left in class. Spock had been fortunate all day, he had not seen his father.
"Andrews, Spock." said the teacher. "I think we have time for one philosophical debate now that our discussion is done."
Both Spock and Clara Andrews stood up. "Spock and I had identical views on the subject, sir." said Andrews.
"That isn't what you're debating. You two will be talking about emotional races versus non-emotional races and the merits of emotion. Spock, I'd like you to defend the side that emotions are useful, Andrews, that they aren't."
Spock and Andrews walked to the front of the class.
"To start, I will bring up and obvious, but valid point," began Andrews. "While joy, happiness, are emotions and can have positive effects, it had been documented that emotions such as hate, greed, and anger often invoke a stronger reaction, and cause harm. Starting wars, causing murders, destroying families, and so on."
"Not always." said Spock. "Anger at someone being wronged can cause the angered person to repair the situation, and hate of an injustice can have the same effect."
"But it can also cause hasty, un-justified actions. You could se someone being assaulted and in your anger assault or even kill the original assaulter."
"I agree, but you are focusing entirely on emotions that are considered negative. There are also many positive emotions. One who is happy may wish to make others around him or herself happy, to the point of permanently repairing and injustice in one's life."
"But does one need emotion to see wrongdoings?" asked someone Spock turned around.
Oh no. Some of the delegates, and those showing them around had entered the room.
"Ambassador Sarek." said the Teacher.
"May I take your place, cadet?" asked Sarek to Andrews, Andrews went back to her seat.
"I assume you are defending the value of emotion?"
"Yes, sir." I do not want to be here.
"If I may ask you this; when is violence justified?" said the ambassador.
"Only in necessary defense. But starting violence is never justified."
"Why?"
"Because it leads to the loss of intelligent life."
"If violence is always unjustified, then how come there is so much of it throughout the galaxy? The reason for that is hatred, greed, and pride. Hatred of others, want of their resources, pride in what you consider to be your superiority. If two warring races could entirely put aside their emotional responses for merely a few hours and operate solely on logic, then many, if not all, conflicts could be avoided."
"You are incorrect." said Spock. his Father raised any eyebrow at him. "Some conflict would be avoided, but not all. there are conflicts caused by pure ignorance, and conflicts started by entirely logical and reasonable people. Up until the forming of the Federation Vulcan was nearly constantly in conflict with Andoria. Do you know the main reason for this?"
"Mostly disputes over borders."
" Surely there were several cases when both sides had valid claims to an area, would it not have been logical to let the Andorians have their way?" Spock glanced at where the delegates were, the party included the Andorian ambassador.
"Yes, I would concur." said Sarek.
"Historical records say that happened only once in dozens of disputes. Even in times of peace, Vulcan spied on Andoria. I propose the reason for that is even then, Vulcans were distrustful."
"At the time, there was reason to be distrustful."
"For what reason?" asked the Andorian ambassador. "We never attempted to take anything that was not already ours."
"If it was yours, you would have had no need to take it." said Sarek.
"Vulcan manipulated records to fit the circumstances, it's public knowledge now."
"Because we no longer do so, it was a poor decision of the leadership at the time, a leadership that no longer exists."
"Only on paper. The Vulcan attitude still remains of superiority. Despite Starfleet being a Federation operation, you still have your own Science Academy, as if you cannot deign work with other species." The Andorian was close to raising his voice
"You are letting your natural belligerency get the better of you."
"And you are letting your pride get in the way."
"Pride is an emotional state."
"Strange then how often Vulcans show it then."
"I think that perhaps you should reconsider that."
"Why? It's the truth. Vulcan spent decades suppressing humanity, manipulating records and making unjust laws against large percentages of it's population. "
"If Vulcan was oppressive, then Andoria was even more so." Sarek and the Andorian were close together and facing each other. Spock stepped between them.
"Sir," he said, talking to Sarek, "this argument it petty and based off of things that happened long ago, would it not be logical to yield?"
"He is wrong in many ways though."
"But it isn't important."
"But he is wrong."
"Then you are allowing pride to get the better of you, pride and self-righteousness. Both emotional. Spock faced the class. "I manipulated the situation to create this debate between these two ambassadors to make a point. Even an emotionally controlled races like Vulcans are still emotional, and in the end, those emotions still influence us. The answer is understanding when to allow them to influence our decisions." The bell rang. "Sirs." Spock said to the ambassadors and left.
He went outside and around the back of a building. He sat down and sighed, he could bother controlling his emotions now. What had he done? Embarrassed his father? Caused animosity between delegates? Re-started a century dead conflict? And just so he could get the better of his Father in a simple. unimportant debate in class.
If I had better control this sort of thing wouldn't happen!
"Spock?" he looked up, Christine.
"I saw you leave the building? Are you alright?"
"I am."
"What happened?"
"With the amount of gossip between student son this campus, you'll find out."
"I'd prefer to find out from you."
"Christine, let's go into town now."
"Classes aren't done yet!"
"I find that I do not care today." Christine started at Spock, and then broke into a smile.
"Then let's go." the two of them headed off.
"So," said Jim that night. "First you trounce your dad in a debate, then you skip your last class and assembly, then you leave campus with Christine? You're getting more human by the day."
"I will attempt not be offended by your statement." said Spock.
"But why didn't you just let your dad win the debate, Spock?" asked Bones.
"I was making a point to him. He wante dmy to go to the Vulcan Science Academy, I came here. My father is a public figure on Vulcan, and due to the others who witness what happened it is inevitable that eventually it will become known on Vulcan. I won a debate-which is effectively a logical arguingment -arguing against logic."
"You just porved the validity of your want to be in Starfleet to your father and made coming here a lot more desirable for Vulcans." said Bones. "Dang, Spock. You're good."
"Thank you, Leonard."
"One thing is still missing." said Jim. "What did you and Chapel do?"
"Wandered around San Fransisco for a while, then had dinner and discussed Vulcan medicla science versus Earth medical science, and then came back."
"Did you kiss her?" asked McCoy.
"No, I did not." said Spock. But I wanted to.
Wow, Looong Chapter! Anyone reading like Rise of The Guardians? Because I started a story for that too, if any of my readers over here want to read that too. Have a nice day!
