Author's note: Thanks again for reading and reviewing! Not getting notifications from FF at the moment, so sorry if I haven't gotten back to you, but it is all very much appreciated!

A little more excitement this chapter...


CHAPTER 4.

On Babel the next morning, the canteen was packed. Kirk pushed his way through the hubbub, amid which a harried Captain Ashtad did her best to redirect the delegates into some semblance of order. He parked himself at a table with Sarek, Amanda and Giotto.

"Good morning, Captain." Sarek's breakfast, an uninspiring collection of root vegetables, was untouched. "You are not eating?"

"I'll wait until things have died down."

"Very wise." Amanda's eyes didn't shift from whatever she was reading on her personal Padd. "I'm amazed they can fit so many into such a small space."

Kirk found it harder reading Amanda than Sarek sometimes and wasn't sure whether that was intended as a compliment or a backhanded insult. He decided to play it safe and change the subject.

"I spoke to Doctor McCoy last night. He's reducing Spock's medication today, so he may be able to go into a healing trance soon."

"I had thought of calling the Doctor myself." Amanda tapped her Padd. "Sarek thought it best to let Spock rest."

Giotto and Kirk shared a look but made no comment. Sarek, breakfast now fully abandoned, rose to his feet graciously.

"I must prepare for the conference. Wife?"

"I'll join you later, Sarek."

"... Very well. Captain, Lieutenant."

Sarek departed, and Amanda continued reading in stony silence.

Kirk cleared his throat. "How are the security crew from the Farragut? Anyone you know, Lieutenant?"

"Lieutenant Davies, sir. I studied with her at the Academy. She's diligent, and thorough."

"Ambassadors and delegates." Captain Ashtad's voice reverberated through some sort of loudspeaker device. "The conference will commence in approximately thirty standard minutes. Starfleet personnel will direct you to the conference hall."

The loud-comm cut out and Amanda excused herself, followed closely by Giotto. A short while later Ashtad came over, all but collapsing into one of the vacated seats.

"Two weeks and 6 days more of that and you may even rise to the rank of events manager.

"Ha ha." She looked resentfully at her breakfast, a pitiful bowl of watery porridge. "I don't know what's wrong with the replicators."

"Will you attend the conference?"

"God, no," she replied cheerily. "I'm placing a subspace wall to my wife and then, fortunately, my security Lieutenant oversees lunchtime. If you think it was busy just now, just wait until the ambassadors have actually had a chance to argue..."


Kirk had never been one for politics. Being forced to attend the conference as part of Amanda and Sarek's security detail reminded him painfully of why. Endless debates, recalling of legislature, opening statements... and this was expected to go on for three weeks. All for the sake of admitting one planet. It was a marvel the Federation had ever come into existence if it took so much to get anything done.

The plus side was that whatever personal issues Amanda and Sarek might be facing were entirely forgotten. After each opening statement they would confer in quiet voices, Amanda nodding seriously at things that Sarek said and murmuring suggestions back.


Lunch came and went and, as Ashtad has predicted, it was even more chaotic than breakfast. Ambassadors stopped to argue between themselves, even if it meant cutting the queues that Ashtad's security Lieutenant tried desperately to organise, and Kirk found himself roped into helping work the difficult replicators. Despite all his best tinkering, he couldn't get them to produce anything that could be deemed much more than just 'edible', although he made a note to mention it to Scotty when he checked in that evening.


He brought his Padd to the afternoon session. Pretending to take notes, he edited the reports Spock had been midway through the other night. That done, he read Sulu, Uhura and Scotty's status reports on the system overhauls. McCoy's report was absent, which didn't surprise Kirk, but he shot the Doctor a message anyway.

Any more attacks from wayward scanners, Doctor?

The reply came in less than a minute.

No.

Then a few seconds.

I did trip over a box of supplies though.

Another second or so.

Aren't you meant to be in a conference right now?

Kirk grinned and lowered his Padd, mindful of Sarek's disapproving side-eye. The rest of the afternoon passed in the same, slow trudge of the morning.


"I didn't expect that from the Rigellians," Amanda mused to Sarek as they left. "Do you think they've changed their mind?"

"The assassinations on the Enterprise have changed a lot of minds. Still, Ambassador Hux is a naturally capricious individual, so it would be wise to-"

"Excuse me, Captain Kirk?" a security ensign stopped them on their way out. "Captain Ashtad sent me. She requested that I take you, Ambassador Sarek and Lady Amanda to the interrogation rooms."


They met Ashtad in a small room just off the security block where Amanda's would-be assassin was being held. "We have identified Lady Amanda's attacker. His name is Nathaniel Leigh and he works for an organisation that calls themselves Purity. I understand you're already familiar with them?"

The blood drained from Amanda's face. "More familiar than I would care to be."

Sarek placed a hand on her arm in an unusually expressive gesture of reassurance. "They are an extremist group, who oppose all which they deem might threaten the so-called 'purity' of the human race. They are anti-Starfleet, anti-IDIC, and they believe alien races to be sub-human. Our relationship, being of an inter-species nature, was a target for them in the early years of our courtship."

"They are disgusting." Amanda's voice trembled with hatred. "I dread to think what they might do if they ever found out about Spock."

"Spock?" Kirk echoed, alarmed.

"It was not only my son's-" Sarek hesitated, and it was a mark of the situation's gravity that all he said next was, "-personal choices which informed our decision to keep our link to him private. Only the most trusted members of our clan have ever been aware of our connection, as we knew the danger it might pose. As a half-human half-Vulcan, Spock would be regarded with the deepest disgust by Purity."

"Might that be why Purity placed an assassin on the ship? They discovered that you're Spock's parents?"

But Ashtad shook her head. "If, like you say, Commander Spock represents all that Purity are opposed to, they would have launched an attack against him - not Lady Amanda. A human-Vulcan hybrid, and one of Starfleet's leading officers? There's no way they can be aware of his parentage, or they would have taken their shot in a heartbeat."

"Perhaps they knew I was coming out of retirement," Sarek suggested as an alternative. "That has been no secret. A key reason I decided to retire was to greater maintain our privacy."

"But then the same question - why attack your wife? Why not you?"

"He's young, isn't he?" Amanda asked. "Leigh?"

"Twenty-one," Ashtad supplied. "Grew up in a small town in Northern America on Earth. I have investigators looking into when he found Purity, or they found him."

Amanda nodded, slowly. "So, he saw me on board and wanted to prove himself. Had he succeeded, it would have made him a hero among them. A legend. He saw his chance and he took it."

Sarek watched Amanda carefully. "If there is no further information, might we retire to our quarters?"

"Of course. We'll let you know as soon as we learn anything else."

"The further Spock is from us, the less likely that anyone will draw a link to his heritage." Sarek said to Kirk as they departed. "Please impress upon him that he will be safer upon the Enterprise."

Touching though it was to see the concern Sarek showed for his son, it also revealed just how dangerous Purity were. It took a lot to worry a Vulcan.

Kirk nodded, solemn, and said, "I will, Ambassador."


"So, Mr Spock, the reduced dosage is working just fine. Drug's cleared from your system, organ function is pretty much back to normal - or normal for you anyway. In a few hours, we should be able to take you off completely and you can finally go into a healing trance. Unless you wanna try that now, of course?"

Spock had, just over an hour earlier, persuaded McCoy to allow him to assist with the Sickbay overhaul by recalibrating the monitors via a control panel that was brought to his bed. It was from this panel, now dissected into its constituent parts, that he looked up from to answer,

"As usual your medications are affecting my ability to focus deeply enough to attain a meditative state. I believe I shall have to wait."

"Tomorrow it is then."

Spock returned to his work, and McCoy smiled. Despite all his grouching that the Vulcan should be getting more rest, not tinkering with his Sickbay, it did McCoy good to see their First Officer looking closer to his usual self.

From the other room, McCoy's computer beeped the alert for an incoming call. Spock, who had just made to get out of bed, was pinned with one of McCoy's best and most doctorly stares.

"And just what do you think you're doing?"

"I am more than sufficiently recovered to participate in a call, Dr McCoy."

"I'll be the judge of that."

McCoy fancied he could feel Spock's dark glare near burning a hole into his back as he retreated into his office. He ignored the sensation and clicked the button to accept the call.

"Bones, is Spock there?"

McCoy rolled his eyes. "You know he's supposed to be resting, Jim."

"There's something both of you should hear." There was an urgent edge to Kirk's voice. "Is he awake?"

"Yeah he-" On the nearest wall, the intercom whistled. "Hold on." McCoy clicked the button to take the call. "Sickbay here."

"So who are ye?"

"That's none of your business Mr Scott."

McCoy's blood ran cold. That first voice was Scotty, but the second was unfamiliar.

"Now step aside, or I'll stun you."