AN: Here's Chapter Three. Included below are glimpses of the "morning after", Jim gets protective of Lillian, and an extended visit to the Vulcan colony-world of Metra 7. There be some bonding goodness and an appearance by T'Pring. Forgive any bashing, I've never liked her. And no, Spock has not gone into pon farr in this story, at least not at the time of the kal-if-fee trials on Metra 7.
Chapter Three
Jim Kirk was enjoying a rather quiet morning, a rarity on a ship the size of the Enterprise with so many people under his command and in his realm of personal responsibility. At any given time there were over a dozen small things needing attention: transmissions picked up by his communications officer, a problem down in Engineering, a deep-space anomaly two light-years away from them that was wreaking havoc on nearby systems; and then his First Officer. Spock was a puzzle, and even though Solkon was a useful insight, he couldn't help but wonder how his Vulcan officer worked sometimes. For instance, he had terminated his relationship with Lieutenant Uhura shortly after their return last time, citing a number of incompatible differences between them, and yet not a few weeks later the bloody Vulcan was spending more time in Engineering than Scotty. No one was quite sure what he was doing down there, he never volunteered anything useful, and he knew better than to set someone to spy on him. His thoughts were interrupted by Sulu, his able-handed pilot, trying to get his attention.
"Captain!" the frustration in the man's voice told Jim he'd been trying for quite some time. He perked up.
"Sorry, what's that, Sulu?"
"Sir, Commander Spock has returned to the bridge, sir." Sulu pointed and he turned in his chair. Whatever he'd been ready to say, something smart probably, was lost when he saw that Spock did not come back alone. He had Solkon and Lillian Pike with him. It wasn't unusual for Solkon to wander the Enterprise at whim, exploring what had once been home to him, noting subtle differences no one else would notice, and he had become rather used to the elderly Vulcan making himself at home on the bridge, where he would stand and stare out at space for hours on end. It made the crew uncomfortable, but it made Jim happy to see him there. Sometimes, if Spock was off the bridge, Solkon would sit at the science station, which had once been his post. But Lillian almost never set foot on the bridge, for anything. Her duties kept her down in Engineering, though he heard from her several times a day as she relayed messages for Scotty, and he rarely saw her in person save in the mess when the crew gathered for mealtimes, or if he passed her in the corridors on a prowl. At the moment, he cared neither for Spock nor Solkon. Lillian looked horrible, as if she'd seen a fight. There were bruises on her face, and the collar of her under-shirt barely hid the finger-shaped bruises on her neck.
"Lillian!" he sprang from his chair and darted across the deck, careful not to hold her too tightly on account of the bruises that designed her upper arms. As he looked his civilian Engineer and secondary resident miracle worker over carefully, he thought of something. He turned his head and looked at Leonard McCoy, his oft-cynical CMO, and narrowed his eyes. McCoy hadn't been quite himself this morning, he was a good bit quieter than usual. Something was going on, and they were keeping it away from him. He didn't like secrets.
"You four, Ready Room, now." He released Lillian, and crossed the bridge. They followed and the minute the doors closed, he sat down and looked at the four of them as they assembled on the other side of the desk, "Okay, what's going on? Lillian never comes up here, hell I see more of you three than I see of her! Spock, what are you doing in Engineering? You've been going down for three months now and even Scotty's beginning to wonder what you're up to! You're down there more than he is!" There were no answers forthcoming, so he kept talking, "And Bones, you're not right either. What's wrong with you?" He looked from First Officer to CMO and realized with a start that they both looked guilty. Why on earth would they have anything to be guilty about? Steepling his fingers, he looked at Solkon, "Do you know anything about this?"
"No, Captain."
"No, Captain." He repeated the response and felt the tiniest bit of frustration, "Dammit, would it kill any of you to give me a straight answer?"
"I-it's Ensign Tucker, Captain." Lillian stammered.
"Pardon?"
"Ensign Tucker, sir. He works in Engineering."
"What's he got to do with this?" nothing was making sense. Suddenly, something clicked and he looked at Lillian, "Wait a minute, wait a bloody damn minute. Lillian, where did you get those bruises? Those are fresh." Jim got up and went around the desk to Lillian, who flinched as he reached out to touch her. Now red flags were going up and alarms were ringing all over in his head. He had suffered physical abuse as a child, instances which still haunted him to this day, he knew the signs of someone who had been abused pretty well. That was thanks to McCoy, who had dragged him through a memory-recall of things he really didn't want to remember but over the course of his life had ended up shaping him into the man he was today.
"Go easy on her, Jim." McCoy warned. He ignored his CMO and studied one of the bruises on Lillian's left arm.
"Lillian, did Ensign Tucker hurt you? Did he ever force you?"
"Jim! What did I-"
"Can it, Bones." He snapped, "You don't have to say anything, Lillian, nod or shake your head. I made Admiral Pike a promise, and it looks like I've done a pretty shabby job of keeping it." Lillian looked up at him, green eyes wide. Oh yeah, she'd been forced. He knew the Ensign responsible, too. Kid had nearly lost his career in a trial that had gotten a buddy of his dismissed on sexual-assault charges stemming from what sounded like a pretty violent bar-fight in Riverside. Amos Tucker had gotten lucky, he got off with a slap on the hand and demerits for behavior unbefitting a Cadet of Starfleet Academy. Bastard was lucky he hadn't gotten the boot, sounded like he deserved it. The civilian responsible for the charges had been slapped with a year-long sentence at SFP on Alcatraz Island back in San Francisco. That civilian was Lillian, he'd gotten a chance to read her records before Admiral Pike had them sealed.
"I'm sorry." Lillian murmured, looking fully expectant of some fashion of reprimand. He clenched his hands into fists behind his back.
"Spock, how far are we from the nearest starbase?"
"Approximately two days, six hours, forty-five minutes, and thirty seconds, sir."
"Starbase 117, I assume." He turned away from them, "Fine. Inform Mr. Sulu of the course-change, we're making a short detour."
"Yes, sir."
"Oh, and Spock?"
"Yes, Captain?"
"Inform Mr. Scott that I'm removing Lillian Pike from Main Engineering."
"Yes, sir."
"She'll be posted on the bridge from now on. Speak to Lieutenant Bower, I want Ensign Tucker removed from duty and locked in the brig right away."
"Yes, sir."
"That's all. You're dismissed." He waited until they were gone. Solkon stayed behind, of course.
"You handled that rather well."
"Well?" he snorted, "I'd better not see Ensign Tucker before we reach Starbase 117 or there won't be anything left of him."
"You always were rather fond of Lillian Pike, and very protective of her."
"Why?"
"You grew up together." Solkon said it so calmly, so matter-of-factly, Jim couldn't doubt him. Obviously a great deal had changed with Nero's interference. Once he was less likely to strangle someone, Jim returned to the bridge and waited.
After being transferred out of Main Engineering, which Mr. Scott was really quite open to, Lillian found herself posted on the bridge as secondary communications officer. She got along well with Nyota Uhura, the senior communications officer, and felt far more at ease because she was so far away from Tucker and Main Engineering. After a brief stop-over at Starbase 117, where they bid farewell to Amos Tucker after a court-martial that ensured he would never set foot on a starship again as long as he lived, it was back on course for the colony world of Metra 7 to drop off Solkon. He had orchestrated the settlement of the Vulcan refugees on Metra 7 from Earth, and now he was joining them.
The Captain sent Lillian and Spock along as Solkon's honor-guard, giving them a shuttle for the purpose. They were met on the surface by a welcoming committee built up mainly of the surviving Vulcan Council and Ambassador Sarek, of whom Lillian had heard much but had yet to meet. She noticed the woman standing off to one side with the Vulcan Ambassador and looked at Spock, who held the controls with her.
"Who is that?"
"T'Veia, she was a friend of my mother's. She was a Healer."
"Oh." She didn't miss the tension in Spock's voice. What had Solkon told her about marriage rights? They set down and debarked. Solkon, after a few words to Sarek and T'Veia, joined the rest of the Council and left Lillian and Spock to pay their respects to the Ambassador and his new wife. There was a degree of coolness between father and son, as was to be expected as Spock had been very close to his mother, but Lillian found T'Veia to be rather pleasant company. She and Spock were invited to stay as guests of Sarek for as long as they were in the system, and after a call back to the Enterprise, they were released from shipboard duty for the duration of their stay.
Lillian and Spock ended up staying on Metra 7 for almost a month, during that time nurturing a mutual friendship. While they were with the colonists, Lillian learned that Spock had been promised in marriage to a Vulcan female named T'Pring and upon learning that she had survived the Vulcan genocide, felt a sort of weird despair. Solkon had told her that once married, the couple remained on the homeworld for a full year. T'Pring declared that she preferred to marry elsewhere, and Spock offered to release her from their agreement, in essence divorcing her, but T'Pring refused. She favored the koon-ut-kal-if-fee, the Vulcan rite in which a challenger for marriage engaged the bonded male in a fight to the death. T'Pring's challenger was a tall, handsome Vulcan by the name of Solek, who towered over Spock by a good foot in height. Vulcan pride forbade Spock reject the challenge, and the date of the engagement was set. Lillian called back to the Enterprise with the bad news and asked Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy to be present for Spock. She couldn't do this alone.
The day of the kal-if-fee engagement dawned, and Lillian tried again to tell Spock that he did not have to do this.
"If I do not, I will be branded a coward." He said calmly, though he couldn't keep the tremor out of his voice. He was afraid of this, he was afraid that he might somehow loose the fight. But Doctor McCoy had a solution and after requesting permission from the ceremonial administrator, T'Pau, he gave Spock a seemingly innocent injection. He wouldn't tell them what it was, only that he thought it might help their cause. So, they stood witness to an ancient ritual that would end in the death of one combatant. By nature a stronger race, Lillian couldn't help but notice that Solek was much stronger than Spock.
"What did you give him?" she whispered frantically to Doctor McCoy as they watched Solek take Spock to his knees.
"A neuroparalyzer. It'll start working in a minute here."
"Fake his death?" she didn't know if that made her feel any better or not. McCoy shrugged. She paid more attention to Spock after that, but she had to admit that when he went down and didn't get up again, it looked pretty convincing. A gong was struck and the match was over. T'Pring was released from her arranged marriage to Spock as a result of his apparent death, and as Lillian knelt by Spock's still figure, she glared up at the other girl, "I sure hope you're happy now, T'Pring."
"Why would I be happy?"
"You got what you wanted, didn't you?" she spat, "Spock is dead because you wouldn't take his offer to let you go! You had to have this instead!" She glared at T'Pring, "Did you really hate him so much you wanted to see him die, T'Pring?"
"Lillian, come." Sarek rested one hand on her shoulder, "There are arrangements to be made. T'Pring, you are free to go now with Solek and Stonn, I'd highly suggest you do so." Lillian allowed Sarek to help her up, refusing to look at T'Pring as they followed behind the litter on which Spock had been laid and which was now carried by the captain, Doctor McCoy, Lieutenant Uhura, Lieutenant Sulu, and Lieutenant Chekov.
"You know he's not dead."
"She doesn't, and she looked a little too pleased to see him go down like that." Lillian hugged herself, "I hope you'll forgive me a little bitterness, Ambassador."
"I imagine if I had no knowledge of Doctor McCoy's intervention, I would feel very much as you do." Sarek looked at her side-long as they followed the litter-bearers, "You have become very close to my son."
"He...saved me once." She swallowed thickly, "I owe him so much." They followed the litter-bearers in silence as they returned Spock to Sarek's home, returning to the Enterprise from there, and waited for Spock to regain consciousness.