Chapter 7 - Don't Get Mad, Get Even
Spock opened the door to the laboratory and found Lily-Lee typing at the desk. She looked over her shoulder to see who it was and then resumed writing. She spoke without looking at him, choosing to stare at the screen instead.
"I owe you an apology."
"That is unexpected, as I came here with the intention of offering one myself."
"Really?" She tried to turn the swivel chair around but her feet didn't reach the floor so the dramatic effect was lost. "For what?"
"For entering your mind. A telepathic ability is not something to be taken lightly and on my home planet Vulcan there are rules both against doing so without permission and doing so for personal gain. In addition, it obviously caused you discomfort."
"I see."
"So I offer you an apology and ask for your forgiveness. May I say, also, that you have a very . . . compact mind."
"Compact?"
"I think that word is the best description."
"Hm. Well, you don't get to go through an evolutionary process that shrinks your brain from 1600 grams to 800 grams without cutting some extra bonus features."
"I assure you that nothing of importance appear to have been lost."
"Well, one thing sure has. Which brings me to my apology." She took a deep breath and looked up at Spock's unmoving face. "I'm sorry I put my clumsy feet down in between Kirk and yourself. I didn't understand – I still don't understand – the scope of your feelings."
"Vulcans do not have "feelings".
"Well, whatever it is that you have. It was new to me. My people, we . . . just have sex, you know? It's wonderful and fun, innovative and productive, but it's not a bonding process. We're not monogamous, we're migratory. When we go, we kiss the male goodbye and say "see you someday" and that's it. This love is more . . . like . . . the only thing we have like that is the mother-to-oldest-daughter relation. That can last a long time, up to thirty years if you're lucky. But that's something you're born into and can take for granted."
"Aha."
"I thought . . . how can I explain this . . . like I saw a thin sheet of ice on the footpath. I jumped on it to break the ice, just for fun, but instead of a puddle it turned out to be a sinkhole. Got in over my head."
"Due to your tendency to use metaphors based on natural phenomena, I find I can usually understand what you mean."
"Sooo, I forgive you, and you forgive me?"
"Certainly."
"I still have to apologise to the captain, though. I'll do it when I give him this report."
"What are you writing?"
"Chemical composition report on the new planet. The captain said it has to be ready before tomorrow, and I've been working seven hours and it's only half done. I'll have to keep at it all night."
"Captain Kirk said that?"
"Yes."
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
"What, a mineral, a category, or what? We only visited a place with calciferous ground, but I saw there must be other types because they used imported stone on some buildings."
"This was not a new planet, this was the old earth. We already have all the information we need on the chemical composition of earth." Spock walked up to her screen and pulled up the files describing earth, Baltic region, Visby. Lily-Lee just sat and stared with her mouth open.
"But I don't . . . why did he . . . he even made it an order . . . he . . ."
"Hm." Spock was very clearly smiling with half his mouth.
"Oh, I'm going to KILL HIM."
"I suggest you look at the bright side."
"I still have to write this, because he ordered me. WHAT bright side?"
"You no longer owe him an apology."
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THE END