Kirk was running various thoughts through his head, only staying alert enough to make sure McCoy didn't relax so much that his head went underwater. The area was perfectly quiet until the Elder returned and informed them that their meal would be ready shortly. The attendants filed in silently behind him.
Spock exited his soak immediately, moving over to where a basin of far softer water was waiting. The attendants again washed him and examined his cuts again before leaving him to dress and moving over to McCoy. Kirk was highly tempted to shoo them off, but kept his grumbling to himself even when it seemed obvious that the women were contrasting the differences between a human male and a Vulcan one. He finally did shoo them off when they started to help dress McCoy instead of leaving him to dress himself as they had done with Spock. McCoy was openly amused as he watched the women exit.
"Feeling a touch possessive today, Jim?"
Not bothering to answer that beyond a dirty look, Kirk helped McCoy finish getting dressed. With the Elder waiting at the entrance, McCoy didn't tease any further. Once he was ready, they followed Elder Davuk to a shuttle. McCoy wasn't thrilled about having to use one, but options were limited so he kept quiet about it. At least Kirk tended to be a good distraction on short flights.
The flight was even shorter than expected, just a few minutes long before they reached the central area of the Vulcan colony. Elder Davuk gestured to the area - which, like the arena, was designed to look far older than it was.
"On behalf of T'Pau and the Council, I welcome you to Kal'ta. The kal'ta plant was the first of our home planet's vegetation to thrive here, so T'Pau considered that resilience was worthy of naming our first new city in its honor."
McCoy was taking everything in as he nodded.
"Lot worse ways to pick a name. Is that the medical center to our left?"
"It is. I believe T'Pau has made arrangements for you to be escorted there after your meal if that is acceptable to you."
"Sounds perfectly acceptable to me."
How acceptable it was to Kirk seemed to be a different matter as he shifted and placed his hand on McCoy in an obviously possessive manner, leaving McCoy to muse that he could end up having an interesting evening once they got back to the ship.
Once the shuttle landed, they were escorted directly to the hall where T'Pau was waiting. To their surprise, the members of the Vulcan council were all present as well - including Spock's father. McCoy managed to refrain from showing his amusement at the reaction of the Council when he was granted the seat of honor to T'Pau's right while Spock was given the seat to her left. Kirk was, thankfully, seated beside McCoy.
The meal went well enough except for one incident when one of the Council took offense to McCoy calling T'Pau by Ko'mekh-il. That was dealt with by T'Pau herself.
"We were the one who both taught that name to Leonard and gave him permission to use grandmother in reference to our person. If there are objections, they will be directed toward us and not toward our guests."
That answered one question for Kirk. He'd been wondering why everyone had seemed so stunned at the arena when McCoy had called her that. As for the rest of the meal, some of the Council members gave the occasional look toward McCoy, but the conversation never veered away from strict politeness again.
After the dinner was officially over, T'Pau motioned for Elder Davuk to approach her.
"It is our wish that thou escort Leonard to the medical center and inform them of our wishes. We have some matters to attend to first, but will join thee there."
The Elder requested that McCoy follow him, but was not really surprised to find that both Kirk and Spock planned to accompany him as well. At T'Pau nod of assent, he led the three out of the hall. They were no more than clear of the doorway when the arguments erupted from Stonn's kin demanding blood for his death to others disputing McCoy's right to T'Pring. Somehow, T'Pau's voice cut through all of the clamor.
"Silence! Stonn dishonored his house, our house and thy house as well, Vorik. Thy daughter, Selar, was bonded to Stonn."
"She was, T'Pau, but, as you know, she did not survive the loss of our homeworld."
"Be that as it may, Stonn broke his vow to thy daughter before her death. We pulled the truth from T'Pring's mind."
Vorik stood, voice icy as he spoke.
"I withdraw any objections I may have voiced. I ask for your pardon, T'Pau."
"Granted. And you, Starn? For the insult to himself and his house, Spock could have demanded far more in the way of reparations from thy house than blood."
Starn rose slowly, speaking with care.
"If it is as you say, T'Pau, I revoke my right for blood."
Frost could have formed from the chill in T'Pau's tone.
"If? Dost thou doubt our word, Starn?"
"No, never, T'Pau. I beg pardon for my careless words."
The frost congealed into pure ice.
"An Elder so compromised that he forgets himself is an Elder that should pass the mantle of his position on the Council to his heir. We shall not expect to see thee in our presence again."
After that pronouncement, Davuk didn't delay any longer and took the trio to the medical center. McCoy showed a great deal of interest in the facilities, nodding in approval after inspecting the artificial womb. Then he turned to the head Vulcan healer.
"Everything looks ready. I'd like to perform the surgery as soon as possible."
The healer was taken aback, his eyes automatically seeking Davuk, but McCoy pulled his attention back to him.
"Healer Senvar, the woman is my property and I am a surgeon. As such, I only want my hands on her."
"But you do not know the Vulcan body, Doctor McCoy."
"Everything about a Vulcan body? No, but I do know the basics. I would appreciate yourself or one of the other healers assisting me, but I will perform the surgery myself."
Senvar clearly had his doubts, but consented to stand by to assist before sending for T'Pring. As soon as she saw McCoy standing by the table and smiling, T'Pring began fighting to free herself from her guards. The doctor enjoyed the struggle for a couple of minutes before turning to Spock.
"Spock? Mind giving a hand here?"
"Of course not, Doctor."
Meeting McCoy's eyes and understanding what he wanted, Spock moved over to T'Pring, subduing her easily with a nerve pinch before picking her up and depositing her on the operating table. No regard was given for her modesty as McCoy efficiently sliced her clothing away and dumped the remains into a recycler. Her body was then firmly strapped down before McCoy gave a smile to Spock.
"Time for you and Jim to leave the room. I'm sure there's an observation area if you don't want to miss anything."
Neither man commented as they left the operating theatre, but Kirk immediately looked for the observation window. He never missed a chance to watch McCoy at work. When it became apparent that McCoy didn't plan to use any drugs to keep T'Pring unconscious, Senvar questioned that decision. McCoy merely smiled.
"The important one here is the infant. Drugs might compromise it, so she doesn't get any until the child is out. Now, do you have a stasis tube?"
The question was not expected, but Senvar answered automatically.
"We do, but there is not one present here."
"We're going to need one. Not a large one, mind you. A small one will do."
As Senvar sent for one of the stasis unit, McCoy hummed an upbeat little tune to himself as he went around the table and further tightened all of the straps. He had little doubt that she would come to sometime during the procedure and he didn't want her squirming around.
Once the stasis unit was in place, McCoy asked Senvar to activate the sterilization field and began. There was no hesitation in his movements and Spock was again amazed at the amount of knowledge that had either retained or stolen from the records or Doctor McCoy's father. The fetus, which from Spock's own biology lessons appeared to be roughly a third of the way through its development, was quickly transferred into the artificial womb. Both McCoy and Senvar fussed over that and made sure the fetus was healthy, ignoring sounds of pain coming from T'Pring.
Once assured that the fetus was thriving in its new environment, McCoy made his way back to the table. Now he allowed the drugs to be given to her that would keep her unconscious for the remainder of what he planned to do.
"This is where I need a little direction, Healer Senvar. Where are the ovaries located in a Vulcan woman?"
Now understanding the need for the stasis tube, Senvar directed McCoy's actions and assisted in the harvesting of the unfertilized eggs. Once they were safely in stasis, McCoy finished cleaning up T'Pring, readying her for being moved to recover. As he moved to clean himself up next, McCoy nodded toward the tube.
"A present for T'Pau. I'm certain that your geneticists will be able to figure the best way to make use of those for rebuilding your race. I won't clutter your beds with her for long. I'll be ready to have her beamed aboard the Enterprise no later than tomorrow."
Moving back to the artificial womb, McCoy nodded to it.
"You need to look into making a whole lot more of these if you folks are serious about rebuilding your race. Lot of your women are older. If that means what it means for most other races, fertility goes way down or ends altogether past a certain age. Your people done much with DNA extraction?"
"Some. However it has not been a widely chosen field and we lost many researchers when our planet died."
Gesturing toward the stasis tube, McCoy's attention stayed on the womb's mechanism.
"Might be a good time to look at it from another angle. Take some healthy eggs, extract the DNA you don't want from it, insert the DNA of one of the women from among your Elders? That would give you a lot bigger gene pool to work with, wouldn't it? I've done DNA extraction work myself in the line of research, so I'd be glad to show some of your folks some of the finer points of how it's done. The work takes a delicate touch and patience, but I'm sure you have a few folks with those traits."
Senvar clasped his hands behind him as he took a stance so like Spock that McCoy had to stop himself from chuckling. The Healer wouldn't understand and might take insult.
"Doctor McCoy, as I am sure you are aware, Vulcans are tolerated in the Empire, but hardly esteemed. Such aid as we have received since the destruction of our world is likely more of a show put on for the benefit of the other Imperial worlds than any true desire to aid our people."
To Senvar's surprise, McCoy didn't bother to deny that.
"Oh, I have little doubt. The Emperor is well-known to be Terran-centric in his leanings."
"Then why would the Emperor offer us assistance in building our numbers?"
"Actually, Healer Senvar? I don't recall mentioning the Emperor once."
Pausing, McCoy looked through the observation window and met Kirk's gaze. Kirk gave a side glance to Spock, then gave McCoy a firm nod. Smile forming, McCoy turned his attention back to Senvar.
"You see, my captain and I have found that Vulcans can make damn good allies. Why would we let your people die out if we can help prevent it? Got a few other ideas for broadening your gene pool even further as well, but first things first. Maximize what you already have."
Giving a nod, Senvar moved to pick the stasis tube up.
"I will bring your gift and your offer before the Elders and the Council of Healers."
After Senvar exited the operating theatre, McCoy finally let out that chuckle he'd been holding back.
"Yeah, you do that. I think you'll find that extinction isn't an option so far as T'Pau is concerned."
Humming to himself again, McCoy left the room to rejoin Kirk and Spock. Spock was studying McCoy very intently as he approached.
"Exactly what did you mean by increasing the gene pool, Doctor?"
"Just that. Get in some unrelated, or at least distantly related, DNA to give the Vulcan population the best chance of healthy increase."
"And exactly how would you propose that unrelated genes be found? Surviving Vulcans from ships and other settlements have been brought here for that purpose already."
Leaning his back against the observation window, McCoy pulled out a hypospray and examined it while speaking.
"Tell me, Spock - eliminate things like philosophy, traditions and the like. Then tell me if there's really any biological differences between Vulcans and Romulans other than a few superficial features?"
The Vulcan's eyes grew dark again.
"You would have us merge with the Romulans?"
Matching scowl for scowl, McCoy snapped back.
"Get past the cultural crap, Spock. You don't have to bring any adult Romulans into the equation at all. They have slaves of their own kind. Slaves have babies. If a Romulan kid has a little surgery to alter any visible features before they're old enough to know any different and they're raised as a Vulcan? Who could tell they weren't a Vulcan to start with? But his or her genes would be fresh to mix and strengthen the group as a whole."
The voice for the doorway caught them all unaware.
"Leonard is correct. We must do what we can to preserve our race. A child of similar bloodlines raised with our heritage will become one of us."
To T'Pau's amusement, all three men made a slight bow to her, but each did so in his own fashion, the most deferential being from Spock and the least from Kirk. She moved to McCoy and positioned the tips of her long fingers in the position that Kirk could now see where the traditional ones for a mind meld though she spoke aloud.
"We accept and will make use of your gift to our people. But thy Emperor will not love thee should he learn of this."
McCoy's smile was not one that conveyed any humor. T'Pau frowned slightly as she took in his thoughts, then turned her head to study Kirk very closely. Her expression cleared and Kirk could have sworn she was highly amused. She then turned toward Spock, speaking formally as she withdrew from McCoy and formed the Vulcan salute with her left hand.
"Thy allies have been chosen wisely. Thou may still walk a path denied to many of thy generation. Let the blessings of thy mixed heritage lead thee to carve new worlds for the Empire. Live long and conquer, Spock."
Returning the salute with his right hand, Spock replied with equal formality.
"Rule long and prosper, T'Pau."
Turning back to Kirk, T'Pau shocked Kirk to the point of speechless as she gave him the Imperial salute. It was well-known that during her visit to Earth, she had refrained from giving that salute to the Emperor himself in the throne room. He returned the salute as if to an equal and she gave a nod of approval. It seemed that they had reached an accord without a word being spoken that could have been overheard and relayed back to the Imperial throne.
"We ask thy leave for Leonard to stay with us until tomorrow so that he may impart the knowledge our scientists need to make full use of his gift. He and his property could then return to thy ship together."
"Granted, so long as it is only one day. Unfortunately, we cannot remain in orbit here longer than that."
"Agreed. We thank thee for all that has been done for us by virtue of the presence of the Enterprise here. Fare thee well, James T. Kirk. May the blood of thy enemies flow."
"We thank you for your hospitality, T'Pau. Bones, we'll pick you up tomorrow. Kirk to Enterprise. Two to beam up."
McCoy was silent until the two men disappeared in the swirls of light, then turned and gave a small bow to T'Pau.
"Time is short. Shall we begin?"