Kal-i-Fee

Standing at the Kal-i-fee grounds, Patricia gave off the appearance of waiting patiently as Soryn's clan mother arrived and preliminary formalities were seen to. She was very anxious and afraid on the inside, wishing she could distance herself from this entire process. But as soon as he arrived, Soryn's eyes were there, fixed on her position. She just restrained herself from pursing her lips and folding her arms at him.

Despite her anger and disgust toward him, she still in some part of her mind gave thought to perhaps reconciling. But she looked up and around, saw her friends standing together in a cluster not too far away. And Zymak had come, as promised. She realized she was backpedaling mentally not only because she was nervous, but because some small part of her still imagined she owed her daughter a matching set of parents.

Whatever was going through her mind, just as Soryn walked toward the gong to strike it and confirm his ownership of her, Patricia's feet moved almost of their own accord and she found herself making it there before he could. She stuck her hand out quickly and shouted into the air, "Kal-i-fee!" She felt a shiver go up her spine as the look on his face turned toward her with such violence and outrage.

Before he could lunge for her, one of his family guard ran over and blocked him directly. She felt justified in her decision, then. It was not the first time her husband had looked at her with such violence. As far as she was aware, they still would not want to hurt you directly, even in the state he was in. They supposedly only wanted to hurt a potential rival! Not Soryn, apparently. No, he had a deep problem within himself. "Well good riddance to you, then," she found herself muttering under her breath.

His clan mother asked, "You protest Soryn's ownership of you as mate?"

"Yes," she said in a shaky voice.

"Who shall champion you?"

Patricia had to fight her inner tendency to back down and go with the easy choice. Some part of her insides were insisting she apologize for starting such trouble and go along with what Soryn wanted from her. But she pushed past the instinct and walked across the sands of the desert, stood directly in front of Zymak and pointed with a hand so shaky she hoped no one noticed. "Him. This is the one," she forced out the words.

"Do you protest this?" the aged clan mother asked of the agent.

"There is no protest. I shall be the one," he confirmed as he felt the angry eyes of Soryn finally shift over to him.

"Very well," said the clan mother as she had her bearers carry her backward a little.

Patricia found her legs had turned to jelly. It took all of her energy to scurry out of the way as one of the guardsmen approached Zymak and placed a sash around his waist.

"Combat shall proceed for possession of the Terran female, Patricia, mother of Soryn's child," announced the clan mother formally. Once she was settled and out of the way, she called out for the first weapon. "Bring forth the lirpa!"

Both weapons were presented by the guardsmen of Soryn's clan.

"Wish I had popcorn," Mariana whispered to Dana on one side and Maya on the other.

Amanda, standing on the other side of Maya, opened a zip-up bag she'd brought with her and pulled out a huge tin of caramel corn. "Did someone mention popcorn?" she whispered to her friends.

All three ladies looked at Amanda as if she had lost her mind. "No, you did not just pull out caramel corn," Maya exclaimed on a whisper while trying to keep a grin off of her face.

"I've decided that if everything is going to hell, I'm going to have fun on that ride whenever possible," said Amanda as she dug her hand into the mass of popcorn and pulled out a heaping handful. "Now let's do something I've always wanted to do. Sit back and watch a long-deserved beat down while eating popcorn."
The other three Terran ladies looked at one another, shrugged, and dug one hand each into the heap and began to munch as they watched.

Sarek had the urge to inform the young ladies they were being highly inappropriate. But since they were literally the only guests at this kal-i-fee, he didn't see the point of doing so. He let them eat without saying a word as they all turned their attention back to the two men now circling one another on the floor of the desert.

Patricia didn't know exactly how to feel as Zymak moved in toward Soryn and struck him relatively lightly across the shoulder with the blunt end of the lirpa. She honestly didn't want anyone to get hurt, but she wondered why Zymak was not moving in quicker to lay him out.

After awhile, watching the two combatants, she began to see a pattern developing. Soryn was in a state of madness, so of course there was no strategy on his part. But Zymak was little by little striking Soryn in seemingly noncritical areas. It was an attack designed to weaken him in the long run.

When the allotment of time was up for the lirpa, the clan mother called out for them to be taken away and the ahn woon was brought out.

Zymak took hold of the rope-like weapon, twirled it much like a lasso and let it loose to grab a hold of Soryn's right upper arm. The angry man in the throes of Pon Farr charged straight at the agent then, tired of his toying with him. Zymak seemed to anticipate that attack, though, because he simply stepped out of the way at the very last minute. As soon as Soryn hit the end of his tether, Zymak pulled hard and quick with both hands on the tether. Everyone in attendance inhaled sharply as you could see Soryn's shoulder get yanked out of place. His shoulder was definitely dislocated as Soryn went down on one knee, half howling. He was still in a state of madness, however, and pushed past the pain, stood up and barreled straight for Zymak, the ahn woon still wrapped around his arm.

The agent literally lifted one leg and kicked Soryn straight in the chest with the flat of his foot and knocked the wind out of him, putting him flat on his back, dazed. Though Soryn was a strong male, he had not spent all of his youth in the rigorous training that Zymak had. The agent went and stood over the fallen male and delivered a strange and debilitating form of nerve pinch to Soryn's chin. With a scream, the man in plak-tow was rendered unconscious.

Off to the side, Mariana's mouth dropped open. "Like for real? We didn't even put a dent in this popcorn!"

"Shit was over in 90 seconds," quipped Dana quickly as they all strained to hear what would happen next.

The clan mother even seemed halfway surprised. "You have not killed your opponent."

"Is death truly necessary?" asked Zymak, knowing it was not.

Not answering, she then asked a different question. "The woman is yours. Do you wish to take possession at this time?"

He paused before answering as he looked over at Patricia. She looked truly uncertain as she realized that Zymak was thinking of all possibilities. In this moment, she was his. Fully his. He reveled in fact for all of 30 seconds. "The woman may become mine or go free if she so wishes," he finally answered.

Patricia heaved a sigh of relief. By rights she knew the agent could have taken her that day whether she liked it or not. But he had stuck to their agreement. She looked over at the clan mother. "I will go free and take my child with me."

The older woman nodded, "You may remain within my clan since Soryn has perpetrated the worst of circumstances causing you to wish to be free of his care."

Patricia had not expected to hear that at all. "Oh!" she said, surprised. "If that's the case, I'd like T'Zan to keep her clan and her father, if that's possible."

"Once he has finished the proper training to realign his logic," the clan mother said, "I shall allow him to see his child. But not before then. And yes, she can remain with her clan in name and with you, her mother, for the time being."

Patricia read between the lines. As soon as they deemed Soryn mentally fit, they would ask her to hand her daughter over if she wasn't remarried. She wondered why the clan mother would give her advance warning. She realized then, his own clan mother had never cared for him in the least. In all the time they had been married, when had she ever seen her? Only when Soryn degenerated into a state of abuse toward her. She always assumed it was because he had married her, a Terran, that the clan mother had not come around, but perhaps that was not it, after all! Mentally floored, Patricia kept these realizations to herself. She was going to have to tread carefully now.

##

Zymak returned to V'Shar headquarters and sat down behind his desk. He was, if he used a Terran word to equate his state of mind, gutted. He could not believe he had not taken advantage of this opportunity to take the woman he had wanted for years. But some part of him knew, if he broke their agreement, she would never trust him and would never give herself to him completely. She would always be searching for a way to leave him, whether she realized it or not.

No, he would wait for Patricia to be ready for whatever happened naturally between them. And he would give her time. He had patience, that was a certainty. And he had been allowed to show his intentions in public for her that day. The news would spread and no one would dare touch or go near her. She would be protected in more way than one.

As for each of the Terran females, he had a reason to protect them all. For Patricia, it was obvious. She would someday become his fully and voluntarily. As for Maya, she had been foreseen by his clan mothers, current and past, to be vital to the future of his clan. So he would of course always protect her. Mariana and Dana were his kinswomen now via their marriages and he automatically would always keep an eye on them.

Amanda. She was the complication in all of this. She was caught between so many dangerous lines that were held back only by several tenuous threads. She had borne a son to Sarek and T'Pau saw her as something important because of her father's position in the Terran world. She was a Grayson and that was a feather in T'Pau's strange cap. But she was no kinswoman of his in any way. The only importance she held, truly, was that she was sincerely not like most Terrans he knew and Sarek had become a friend to him over time. He felt a strange sense of obligation to make certain nothing happened to Amanda Grayson.

His thoughts returned to Patricia and he still could not believe that he had allowed her to go free. He placed his head on his desk and wondered if he had, after all, made the correct decision. It did not matter, he concluded. The moment was past, the decision already made. Time would show him if his decision was correct or not.

For now, his vigilance for each of the Terran females would be the thing that kept him occupied in his spare time. For now.

##

Everyone had gotten together later on that week at Mariana and Zurel's. There would be yet another proclamation made by the council. They all had a feeling what that proclamation was, but it was mandatory for all households to view it. Literally everyone must tune in and indicate who was present at each residence to view the proclamation. It was a way, everyone knew, for them to keep tabs on who was loyal and who was not.

Everyone in Zurel's house that day was accounted for that was present. All of his servants, all of the Terran females and their husbands -excluding Sokam since he was still across-planet serving the sick- and Zymak had come that day. It was not out of the ordinary for him to be there since he was in Zurel's clan. The clan mother, T'Niye had also elected to come that day as well as Sarek. They all knew T'Pau would view it as a snub that Sarek and Amanda had chosen to view the announcement with a different clan than his own. But it no longer mattered to him. It mattered that his wife no longer felt safe anywhere near T'Pau, especially where Spock was concerned. And Maya most especially was not safe anywhere near T'Pau since the woman had gone to the trouble of attempting to rub her out of existence before she could produce an heir.

The logo of the council morphed and onscreen appeared their representative for that day. The councilwoman chosen to speak had once been a V'Tosh Ka'tur, but not anymore. Everyone who saw her face could tell she was straining to maintain control of her features. It would take some getting used to, they all knew, to not show what they were feeling. She nodded once at the screen, serious-faced. You could tell she was inches away from giving off a smile but only just held that back.

"'Greetings from the Joint Council chambers. I deliver the news that at 0500 hours this morning the last of the unpledged V'Tosh Ka'tur were delivered to the space station orbiting our world. This council declares the planet, effectively, cleansed. We trust that soon there will no longer be a need for Imperial forces to remain on our soil. We have most assuredly taken care of the primary threat. And that threat was the fact that we were not unified. Now that we are, we will proceed into the future together, a cohesive, efficient people that can further the interests of the Empire from hereon out. Live long and prosper.'"

Everyone in the room sat there, dumbfounded. "I was not aware of any 'last shipment' of such," said Zymak quizzically.

"You mean the V'Shar weren't even involved in it?" asked Mariana, surprised.

"No," he said honestly. "I am not at all aware of this."

Everyone was truly surprised and confused then.

They were all not in a festive mood after what had happened and everyone dispersed from Mariana and Zurel's quite quickly.

As everyone else made their way home, T'Niye and Zymak decided to go with Maya to discuss some things with her since they were not at all secure just yet that she was safe from some kind of deportation. She intended to return to Mariana and Zurle's for the night, but first needed to pick some things up from her home since she hadn't been there in days. Even with her security men, they did not feel secure enough to let her go on her own. So Maya and all of her security men as well as the clan mother and the V'Shar agent piled into a shuttle together to run over to her place.

They made it across town without incident. On their way out of the shuttle, they walked into the gate of her home and just as it closed behind them, stepping out of the shadows was a man none of them had ever seen. He wore a light grey cloak that halfway obscured his face as he stepped toward them. Everyone around Maya realized that this was most likely the one that had been sent to kill her. How had he gained access to her inner gate?

Her security men attempted to grab her and pulled her back toward the gate so they could get her back into the shuttle, but the stranger stretched out one hand and all of her security men dropped in place, instantly unconscious. The three remaining adults, Maya, T'Niye, Zymak, simply stood there, confused at first, knowing that whoever this was that had this kind of power could do just about anything at this point. Zymak stepped forward anyway, directly in front of her, as did T'Niye.

"You cannot have the Terran!" declared the clan mother.

The man pulled down his hood. He was no Vulcan. He appeared to be Terran himself. "Your allegiance is staggering," he said almost scathingly.

Maya was trying to walk around them both and Zymak did not understand why. He put out an arm to block her passage. "Lady Maya, do not-"

"Have you been sent to kill me?" she asked him belligerently.

His eyes locked with hers and he seemed to be drinking in the sight of her. "I have been sent for that purpose, yes."

"Why would you take a contract to kill your own child?" she asked angrily.

"You are certain?" whispered T'Niye to Maya. "This man is your father?"

"That's my father," she whispered back to her. "I don't know how I know, but I know."

"Kill you?" he asked. "I've come to take you where you belong. I've come to take you home."


A/N- Only two chapters left to this story!