Back to Rachel's Home PageWhile the Enterprise is on its way to a diplomatic mission, Spock begins to act strangely, having violent emotional outbursts. He locks himself in his cabin to avoid others, and gets very angry at Nurse Chapel when she brings him a bowl of Vulcan plomeek soup. Eventually Kirk demands an explanation of him, but Spock insists it is a private Vulcan matter, and requests immediate shore leave on Vulcan. This surprises Kirk, for Spock has never once requested shore leave in all the years he's known him.
The Enterprise is unable to divert to Vulcan immediately, but Kirk promises Spock they will go to Vulcan as soon as possible after the diplomatic mission is completed. However, when Kirk checks in with the bridge, he finds that Spock has order a course change to Vulcan. Spock insists he does not recall doing so, but admits it is possible that he did. McCoy examines Spock and finds that his body is burning itself out, and he will die in 7 or 8 days if they can't find a way to stop it.
Eventually, Spock tells Kirk the reason for his strange behavior. It is a thing no outworlder may know, pon farr, the time of mating. Once every seven years, Vulcan males go through pon farr, in which they have the uncontrollable urge to return to Vulcan to mate. It is the price for their controlled nonemotion. The ship resumes course for Vulcan, defying StarFleet orders and abandoning the diplomatic mission.
Upon arrival at Vulcan, Spock receives a transmission from T'Pring, his betrothed. At age 7, they were joined, more than a betrothal, but less than a marriage. Kirk and McCoy accompany Spock to the surface for the wedding ceremony.
The wedding party arrives presently, lead by T'Pau, leader of Spock's clan, once described as "all of Vulcan in one package", and the only person ever to turn down a seat on the Federation Council. But before the wedding can proceed as planned, T'Pring chooses kun-ut-kalifee. Spock must fight a champion of her choosing to win her, and she will become the property of the victor. But instead of choosing Stonn, whom she loves, she chooses Kirk. Kirk accepts the challenge, not realizing it is a fight to the death.
Kirk tries to reason with Spock, but he is deep in the plak tow, the blood fever, and he does not hear. Fighting begins with the an-woon, a staff with a weight at one end and a blade at the other. The fight does not go well for Kirk, who is unaccustomed to the higher gravity and heat and thinner atmosphere of Vulcan. The an-woon comes to a draw when both weapons are broken, and McCoy is allowed to give Kirk a tri-ox injection before the next round begins. The fight continues with lirpa, weighted belts that can entangle limbs or strangle an opponent. Spock suceeds in strangling Kirk, and when the contest ends, T'Pau calls Kroykah!, meaning stop. Kirk is dead, and McCoy takes the body back to the ship while Spock, now free of the plak tow, concludes his business on the planet.
Spock confronts T'Pring to determine why she challenged. She is in love with Stonn, but rather than risk him in a challenge, she chose Kirk. Kirk would not want a Vulcan wife if he won, and if Spock won, he would not want a wife who had dared to challenge, so either way she would be released and free to be with Stonn. Spock compliments her logic, but warns her that she may find that having is not so pleasurable a thing as wanting. As he prepares to return to the ship, T'Pau gives him the standard greeting of "Live long, and Prosper." He responds, "I shall do neither. I have killed my captain, and my friend."
However, McCoy has one more surprise in store for Spock. He returns to the ship and reports to sickbay to find a living, breathing Captain Kirk and has a distinctly emotional reaction (although he firmly denies it to McCoy). It seems McCoy slipped Kirk a nerve paralyzer, not a tri-ox compound, to simulate death. But it worked, and everything is back to normal, for now at least.
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Rachel M. Thurston
surak@infinet.com