The next morning, they walked boldly together into the conference room used for the Romulan trade negotiations. Commander Diartr sat alone at a conference table which ironically was a remake of the one from the USS Rider where the Arongotu first sat down with the crew.
The Arongotu loved history. Their life spans were short, which is why four generations had died compared to Saavik having only lived her youth since her first contact with their people. History and passing it down through genetic shared memories kept their culture alive.
Diartr and his guards sprang into readiness, and Spock was certain they would have fired if not for the two Arongotu leading he and Saavik into the room.
"Commander Diartr, good news," said the negotiator for the Romulans. The fact she was a female and earned the Rider table spoke of how importantly the Arongotu considered renewing healthy trade with the Empire, and returning themselves to a neutral planet.
"Ambassador Spock and Captain Saavik have explained to me the unease between your parties. They have a solution which they assure me will prevent any further tensions. At their suggestion, we came early before our own talks continue, giving you time and this room."
Diartr checked the impulse to reach for his disruptor again at the announcement of who was the Federation Ambassador. Spock's regard for him rose once more. It took strength of will not to insist the Vulcan be given over to the Empire for his crimes. It showed the Romulan knew the bigger game he had to play. Spock counted on it.
Diartr's eyes found Saavik and stayed there.
She barely acknowledged it; she was focused on what she had to do, but Spock noted the surprising sadness that darted across the man's expression.
Next to the female, Speaker's body talk was much more rapid, showing the difference in experience.
"Excellent news, isn't it, Commander? No further tensions! But they require Commander Ajeya be present."
Diartr's eyes tightened and went from Saavik to Spock. He pulled his communicator, but he didn't call the ship.
His Arongotu negotiator snapped her pincers a little harder when she spoke. "As your female commands the ship, her agreement is necessary. You can see the Federation comes without guards and unarmed. They do not ask you to turn over your weapons, but I am certain you will agree your guards are unnecessary."
The same look from Saavik to Spock before Diartr focused on Saavik again. This time, she nodded and after a last pause, the Romulan jerked his head at his security. They didn't like it, but they obeyed orders and filed out of the room.
Only outside the door, Spock knew. Still in jeopardous proximity.
"As you do not require our further mediation for your talks, we will also wait outside. With a team of people, if we are needed," the female negotiator continued. She addressed Spock. "You agreed. This must not take time from the trade talks."
He promised her it wouldn't. Diartr finished telling the Liusaidh to have Ajeya beam down as they approached the table. Saavik, without thinking, took her old place as the Rider's first officer at the right hand of the head of the table. It put her across from Diartr.
He asked Spock, sitting at the table's head, "She said you explained the 'unease' between us. I find that hard to believe."
"She believes we are each concerned with the other profiting by having the Arongotu reduce trade in the competing contract."
"Vulcans aren't supposed to lie, Ambassador."
"So I have been told. However, I have told no lie, Commander. We have both discussed this possibility with our negotiators regarding the proposed reduction in dilithium. In actuality, the Arongotu experienced problems with their mining. They expect regular trade to resume in approximately one year."
Diartr nodded and smiled in a half-hearted way. "The reputation of your cunning proves true."
He tapped a few times on the chair arm in the silence as they waited for Ajeya, but based on that finger drumming, Spock estimated he would not be quiet for long.
"Captain Saavik."
Twenty-one seconds.
She raised her eyebrows in expectation. Diartr might have mistaken her silence; her husband did not. Last night, she had pressed against Spock in their bed, holding onto him even as she slept. Spock woke at one point to find her gone, already in her morning meditations. She stayed there until it was time to leave. He left her alone, knowing what this meeting would take from her.
Her preparations served her well, however. She sat calm and in control, but Ajeya had not arrived yet.
"I suppose you wouldn't believe anything I'd tell you." Diartr almost spat it at her. "I'd be just another Romulan telling you lies."
"If we had met a mere thirteen years ago, Commander, you would be correct." Her voice took on a small measure of softness, and Spock knew who she remembered. "However, a Centurion taught me I should no longer allow my childhood to prejudice my opinion of everyone in the Empire."
Diartr leaned across the table. His one hand played with the surface, suddenly unsure of what to say, and Spock saw how his other hand gripped the chair arm.
"We have met, indirectly." He tried to smile. "You were not born yet, so I don't expect you to remember."
The only negative sign Saavik gave was the pause before she spoke. "So you knew from the beginning of Commander Ajeya's involvement in Hellguard. We had thought otherwise."
"No! That is not what I meant. I didn't find out until maybe a year after you... you supposedly died."
"Died?"
"At birth. I -- performed the mourning rites for you."
"You -- Why would you--"
Ajeya did not hide the pregnancy from him, but she hid the full truth of it. The poor man. "Saavik."
But she didn't need Spock to tell her. "You thought I was yours," she said to Diartr.
He nodded, only once and slow. "If I had known you were alive, even after finding out the truth about everything else, it would have been different. I want you to believe that."
The scientists who arranged Saavik's conception and Ajeya herself never would have allowed it. Spock kept this thought to himself. So did Saavik. Her eyes darted around Diartr's face, and at one point, she looked away from his intense expression before sitting forward.
"Commander, I appreciate the regard you show me. I want you to believe me."
Diartr fell back in his chair. "But you think I'm lying."
"No, I do not. If I did, I would not have talked with you at all."
"Then what is it! You're not saying something!"
"Out of respect for the one who performed mourning rites for a lost child."
He rubbed his chin, watching her, measuring. "Say it."
She looked at Spock, and he wondered if Diartr understood how much she didn't want to say something to hurt him.
"The question remains, Commander, if you truly wanted me, why did you not search for me? It was a simple matter to confirm my death, once you learned about Hellguard, and you must have seen they would have done all that was possible to ensure I was born alive. It was the purpose of the project. You merely had to contact those in command on the colony, and come for me when the project was abandoned."
He opened his mouth to deny it, and stopped. His eyes widened.
"Perhaps it was not so easy to accept that Vulcan's child."
Or perhaps, Spock thought, you did not want to lose your last bit of faith in your wife. The paradox of knowing her lies and still hoping she told one minimal amount of truth.
Spock understood paradoxes. Any decent person would think the Hellguard project should never have happened, but if it hadn't, Saavik never would have been born. Spock did not want that unknown Vulcan to go through the horrors he had. But without that horror, Spock would be bereft of his wife. One of the very few people he could not live without.
Saavik was still trying to explain herself to Diartr. "Commander, no one blames you for not asking that question."
Spock saw she was wrong. Diartr blamed himself.
The whine of a transporter, boots striking the floor, the door forced to rush open, and Ajeya blasted into the room. She took in Saavik on her feet and Spock rising to his, but she really looked for Diartr. Seeing he was all right, she came into the room warily and took the seat on his left. Saavik, for some private reason, moved down one chair to sit across from her, and Spock moved to sit next to her.
Like her husband had done, Ajeya glanced at each one again. "What is this?"
Diartr answered, quiet. "I'm sure we already know the answer to that." He shifted in his chair, facing Spock and Saavik, but leaned towards Ajeya.
He has made his choice.
"Or at least partly. You must be concerned about your children, especially after what appeared to happen the other night." He looked pointedly at Ajeya.
She surprised everyone at the table by grinning, almost against her will. "Did that little one really face a le-matya during her maturity test?"
Spock didn't know what was more unexpected: the question or that she so calmly asked him. He remembered T'Pren's words about causing a distraction, and began to understand. He weighed the affection and amusement in Ajeya's expression, and decided on the truth.
"She did. A newborn. She walked around it."
Ajeya chuckled, so he told the rest. "T'Pren has learned the art of not lying by omitting to tell certain details of the truth."
The chuckle grew, and Diartr's gloom lightened. She shook her head, maybe imagining some other small girl, and Spock caught his second glimpse of the woman she had been before Hellguard.
"Why did you name her T'Pren?"
She looked at some point in the air between them, and Saavik turned away before she snapped out why Ajeya wanted to know. Spock had to answer again.
"She is named after a Vulcan woman important to Saavik. Why do you ask?"
"I thought I heard it before. It's not important."
Ajeya had been at the beginning of Hellguard's evacuation. She might have met his daughter's namesake.
She lifted her eyes so they saw she spoke honestly. "Your children are safe."
Spock already knew it, based on his and Saavik's plans, but he was still pleased to hear it.
Ajeya set eyes on Saavik. The faded spark died, and so did the glimpse of what she had been. Her face hardened, almost the same as Saavik's, but hers showed blazing emotion.
"What's the rest of it?"
Spock knew exactly what it took for Saavik to sit across from Ajeya and maintain that control. Her fingers wrapped around her chair arms and her face was carefully stone. He'd usually never asked a victim to sit across from the person who so severely wronged them, and he hadn't asked this time. He told Saavik she didn't need to come. She insisted she would not avoid the confrontation.
The surrealness, negotiating for his wife's life as if it were another trade contract.
"The rest of it, as you say, is the prevention of further attacks. This was the second --"
Diartr's head swung sharply to Ajeya.
"--and its severity intensified from the first. There cannot be a third."
Ajeya didn't smile at Saavik; she bared teeth. "Frightened?"
She only received the same set expression and it disappointed her. Saavik's preparations still served her well, especially as Ajeya did not understand her, and couldn't see what Spock did.
He had told Saavik: "Consider this detail. Ajeya does not hate you for yourself. What Ajeya hates and fears is discovery."
"This is at my insistence," Spock said. "If such a point makes any difference. More important were my actions last evening in recording your involvement in the Hellguard project. If Saavik is killed, a copy of this file will be sent to certain parties in the Empire, ending your attempts to keep it hidden."
Ajeya scoffed, although Diartr showed the first signs of concern. "The Praetor has higher priorities than coming after me for that."
"Who would you most fear losing?" he had then asked Saavik.
"You," she had replied immediately. "But Ajeya has already lost Diartr."
"Perhaps," Spock conceded. "Even if this is true, you have enemies within the Fleet and Senate who will find it of interest or so you once informed me. However, it is not these parties to which I refer."
"And who else would be as important?" he had asked.
Saavik broke her silence that began when Ajeya entered the room. "Rakkas and Ehiil."
The impact was so strong, Ajeya sat in shock for the first second, her mocking blasted away. Then her chair rocked on its legs from the force of her jerking to her feet. Diartr getting up with her and being so close made it worse.
"It cost me my husband," she had told Spock, "and might cost me my children if they learn of it..."
Discovery. Diartr divorced her when he discovered the truth, giving Rakkas and Ehiil some unknown reason so they did not abandon their mother.
The shock was gone and she lunged at the table. Saavik's hands tightened more on her chair, but she stayed in her seat.
"I will kill you both before you have the chance to get anywhere near them!"
Not hate, fear -- fighting to avoid losing the last part of her family she had.
"Our deaths will not prevent the file from being sent. Copies are in the hands of very powerful allies. You cannot stop them all."
Uhura had complained, to accompanying nods from Sulu and Chekov, "Don't give me something and tell me not to read it." But she had agreed to do as they asked, saying she already knew too much that kept her up at night.
Saavik had sent other copies, including one to her close friend, Rrelthiz. Spock had heard them talking for quite awhile about retribution.
Diartr put a hand out, stopping Ajeya. "I don't like being threatened, and I especially don't like my family threatened. Not in any way. You must have realized I'm going to make the same sort of file and put it in the hands of my allies. If anything happens to Ajeya, that file goes to Starfleet Command... saying Saavik is the one who most likely assassinated her and why."
The pause came before threatening Saavik, but he made it all the same. He must, Spock thought.
Saavik knew it too. She prepared to answer, but Ajeya shouted, "Wait!"
She was so far across the table, her face was a hand's length from Saavik. "Someone else in my Empire could kill you for things you've done, Evaste!"
Saavik's false identity when she discovered Dralath's planned attack on Narendra III. How did Ajeya discover it?
"I will not take the blame if that happens or because you cheated someone and they got their revenge. What reassurances are you giving?"
Saavik said nothing; Spock did. "Clearly, this is not blind retaliation. Allowances will be made."
From clenched teeth, Ajeya spit out, "Then I have other 'allowances'. No choosing alternative targets. I have a father, and as much as I would love to see Rakkas and Ehiil use you as so much target practice, my family is off limits. That includes Diartr."
Later on, Spock knew, he and Saavik would discuss what it was like to hear of that extended family. Grandfather, sister, brother: terms that would never be claimed, by any side.
Saavik rose to her feet. Sitting gave Ajeya the power position and she could not afford to appear weak. "As long as you understand the same holds true for Sarek, although the idea of your discovering how formidable he is would be equally interesting." She placed her hands flat on the table. "You are also forbidden from killing Spock and claiming you served his Imperial death sentence."
A spark came into Ajeya's eyes, and her lips twisted into ugly pleasure. "I admit I thought of it."
"The provision, in addition, protects any friendships. You must also agree that no allies will carry out such attacks for you."
"And if my ship must go against yours because it falls under my orders, it's not a violation."
Saavik nodded. "Otherwise, our crews are no more alternative targets than any others we have named."
Their words fired like a salvo of shots. The cunning it displayed, seeing the gambits the Romulan might use to outwit their agreement.
I have created a Cold War...
Ajeya shrugged. "I only want you."
"And I you."
Ajeya still hated it, and said nothing for so long, Spock thought she might have decided it was worth telling her children rather than let Saavik escape her forever. At last, she leaned back and her face set in decision. "As long as that's all understood, agreed."
"Agreed," Saavik echoed.
Diartr met Spock's look and held it. "The matter is settled then."
And they were better off not pushing those checked Romulan tempers further. The Arongotu came back in, and he and Saavik rose to leave. She turned her back on Ajeya who had to get one last word.
"Soft. Concocting this whole thing... Take your agreement -- you're not even worthy of my time."
With no change in expression, Saavik pivoted back and leaned over the table. She motioned Ajeya closer and whispered, too low for Spock to hear. Ajeya's head reared back and stared down the line of her nose. Another hereditary gesture Saavik had which is why she refused to do it now.
Last night, Spock had watched her fight those inheritances, the ones she knew were Ajeya's and those she imagined might be her father's, until she drove herself into a stiff position, beseeching Spock, "What may I call simply mine?"
She resolved that within herself, returning to some ease in her movements. She still would not make a gesture Ajeya made across the table from her.
She started leaving again, stopped and finally looked at Diartr. "Commander, it has been my honor."
He watched her walk out.
Spock saw him do it, which was how Ajeya caught his attention. She stood there, outmaneuvered and resenting it. Anything he said would only make it worse.
"Ambassador?" He turned back. She no longer looked beaten, but straight backed and proud like the warrior she was. "I gave my word and I will abide by it. You will never see me make another attack."
Cunning... Saavik had seen it and had whispered that she was not fooled.
Ajeya's smile was slow and feral.