The townhouse was quiet. Sarek had retired early to meditate. Christine checked on her daughter who slept fitfully in one of the guest suites. Her husband was not in their room and she found herself drawn to the rooftop garden.
She found Spock, exactly as she had found him on that balmy Vulcan night twenty years ago. He was sitting cross-legged on one of the benches along the perimeter of the roof, gazing out over the city of his birth. He was wearing a loose silken evening robe that flowed sensually in the soft evening breeze.
"I should have known that you would come to me that night," he said without turning toward her. "I specifically told you not to follow me. You are unable to resist a challenge."
She moved against his back and wrapped her arms tenderly around him, burying her face in his soft hair.
"You said it to me in Vulcan," she responded. "I did not speak Vulcan, not then anyway."
"I did?" he asked, leaning back into her embrace. "As I recall, I was not thinking very clearly at the time."
"You said you didn't love me."
"I did not love you, not then, not as a human would love you."
"No, I understand that now."
"The pain as the Plak Tow neared, it was unbearable."
"But you bore it," she said stroking his hair.
"Because you came to me."
"You called me to you, across galaxies, then you sent me away."
"It seemed logical in the moment."
"Logical?"
"I was afraid."
"Afraid?"
"Afraid that every tender feeling you held for me would be crushed by the burning, afraid that I could not be the husband that you required, the husband that you deserved. Have I been that husband to you, my wife?"
"Yes husband, you are k'hat'n'dlawa, the other half of my heart and soul,"
"As are you, my wife." Gently he turned around and embraced her. "When I saw T'Pring today, I saw…. I saw everything that my life might have been. Cold, empty…" he pulled her tightly against him. "This young man, Stovan, "T'Kirk loves him?"
"Yes,"
"Should I forbid her to go to him? I trust that would speed things up considerably."
Christine punched Spock's shoulder and rolled her eyes. "Is there a way to find him?"
"As the time gets closer his mind will summon her, as it was with us. He will fight it as long as possible, but there will be a short window before he sinks into the Plak Tow when he will not be able to fight any longer."
"If we can get close enough to where he's gone, T'Kirk will be drawn to him?"
"It is the only chance."
T'Kirk awoke to the gentle touch of her mother's hand. In the soft light filtering in through the open door she could see the backlit form of her father.
"We must talk, T'Kirk," her mother said softly.
T'Kirk sat up, shaking off the haze of sleep as her mother sat down beside her. Her father, silent, remained in the doorway.
"Your father believes there may be a way to find Stovan using the link that has formed between your minds."
T'Kirk looked to her father then back to her mother. "We must go now," she said, reaching for her robe on the nightstand.
"Not yet," her mother responded. "Before we try this your father and I need to be certain you understand what is involved if we do find him. The Pon Farr is more than simply mating. It is a thread stretching from the earliest times on this planet, before the Awakening, before Surak. It is future generations demanding audience, it's the very fabric of life seeking to renew itself, to recombine and re-express itself.
It's-terrifying, yet in its own way it is also beautiful. Everything you think you know about yourself, the veneer we construct to hide ourselves from the judgement of others, it is all stripped away. For the male, the loss of control, the loss of self, brings madness."
"Madness?" T'Kirk asked, her voice trembling.
Her mother responded with a somber nod. "The physical joining itself will not be enough. There must be a mental and emotional joining as well, a complete joining of your selves. You will need to lead him back to himself before the madness claims your mind as well. If you cannot…"
"If you cannot"-her father's voice came from the doorway—"you will both be lost."
"If I do nothing we are both lost."
Her father moved hesitantly into the room. "There are times, my child, when life presents us with a fork in the path we have chosen for ourselves. We must make a choice without knowing what will lie further down either path."
"The lady or the tiger?"
He nodded gently. "In choosing one thing, by default, one sacrifices other choices, other possible paths. The choices we make have consequences we cannot foresee, like tossing a pebble into a pond, the ripples move out finding their own path.
"Sometimes one finds the lady beyond the door, sometimes one finds the tiger." He reached his arm around her and stroked her mother's cheek. "And, occasionally one finds a bit of both. This must be your choice, my daughter."
"I am decided, Father, we must proceed."
T'Pring regarded the pair of hooded figures in her front garden with suspicion, before she recognized them and reluctantly opened the heavy door.
"It is highly unusual to receive visitors at this time of the evening," she said.
"This is not a social call, T'Pring," Christine responded.
"Indeed. Then what business brings the two of you, uninvited, to this household at this hour?"
"You said Stovan went to the desert. Where in the desert?"
"He said only the desert. Why can you not understand, this is a private matter."
"What I understand,"T'Kirk said, "Is that Stovan will die if we don't find him. How can that not matter to you?"
"You do not understand, there is nothing you can do. Kaiidith."
"The wisest man I know once told me there are always possibilities," Christine said.
"There are no possibilities that can save my son, Terran."
"Spock and I believe that T'Kirk might be able to save him."
"My son will not mate with qomi."
The words had barely escaped T'Prings lips when she felt the sharp sting of Christine's hand across her face. The force sent her reeling back against the tiled wall of the entryway.
"Never, never speak like that to my daughter again, you cold hearted bitch. I will ask you again, T'Pring. Will you help us to find Stovan.?"
"I have told you the truth," T'Pring responded as she rubbed her cheek. "I do not know where he has gone."
"Dancing with the goddesses," T'Kirk said. "He said he was going to 'dance with the goddesses'."
"T'alv'lor? We have a small piece of property that belonged to Stonn's family. There are ruins there from before the time of Surak. The local legends claim they are statues of the ancient mothergods. We would go there together when Stovan was a young boy. He would always tell everyone he was going to dance with the goddesses."
"How far is it from here?" Christine asked.
"It is not far. I can tell you the way."
