Received: from [66.218.66.96] by n27.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 18 Feb 2004 05:28:39 -0000 X-Sender: sil@sileya.net X-Apparently-To: ASCEM-S@yahoogroups.com Received: (qmail 18903 invoked from network); 18 Feb 2004 05:28:36 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.166) by m13.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 18 Feb 2004 05:28:36 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mailstore.psci.net) (63.65.184.2) by mta5.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 18 Feb 2004 05:28:35 -0000 Received: from max (as4-d39-rp-psci.psci.net [63.92.109.135]) by mailstore.psci.net (8.12.2/8.12.2) with SMTP id i1I5S9Qa013334 for ; Wed, 18 Feb 2004 00:28:09 -0500 Message-ID: <009701c3f5e0$0904e120$87c5fea9@max> To: "ASCEM-S" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 X-eGroups-Remote-IP: 63.65.184.2 From: "Sileya" X-Yahoo-Profile: sileya MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list ASCEM-S@yahoogroups.com; contact ASCEM-S-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list ASCEM-S@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 23:28:26 -0600 Subject: [ASCEM-S] NEW:"Never a Bride" 1/8 (TOS:K/S:NC-17) Reply-To: "Sileya" Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NEW: Never a Bride AUTHOR: Rae Trail CODES: TOS; K/S; NC-17 ARCHIVE:ASCEM, Allslash, Marianne, others please ask WARNINGS: Sorry, only one really explicit m/m sex scene, but if you are underage or that isn't your thing, go elsewhere. DISCLAIMER: Star Trek belongs to Paramount and Viacom, and probably other entities. This is a work of fanfiction, and no copyright infringement is intended. I make no money from this. SYNOPSIS: When the Admiralty discovers that Kirk and Spock are legally and irrevocably bonded, Nogura decides to play spin doctor, mothers get involved, and the boys get very nervous indeed! Never a Bride by Rae Trail part 1 of 8 "Oh my." Kirk re-read the message on his terminal, but the content didn't change on second viewing. He glanced over his shoulder toward Spock, who had stopped work at his soft exclamation and was watching him from his chair across the room, hands poised in the air above his padd and one eyebrow raised. "You know how we were planning to officially declare our bond and have a quiet, intimate little reception on the observation deck a few weeks from now?" Spock nodded. "I expect confirmation from my clan that they have received the Adept's written statement of our joining within the next 12 hours," he replied. Kirk cleared his throat uneasily and turned back to his screen. "Well, somebody jumped the gun, Spock. This is addressed to Captain James T. Kirk and Commander Spock, and it came through official channels. It's from Nogura." After another moment of silence, Spock gave a polite but interrogative cock of his head, and Jim shrugged. "Okay, okay. Uh... I'll cut to the chase here. Blah blah blah -- 'confirm or deny the rumour that you have established a marriage bond with each other under Vulcan Law. ' Spock, someone spilled the beans." The look on Spock's face was delightful. "Beans?" "Come on, you know exactly what I mean. Someone told command about us. Whoever it was didn't think we deserved time to test the waters, I guess, or else they're hoping to get us in deep with command, and we are squarely in front of the fan. This is frying pan to fire stuff. They've forced our hand, Spock," he went on, knowing the avalanche of metaphors, colourful aphorisms, and twisted sayings didn't really faze Spock, despite the launch of the second eyebrow. His partner only pretended ignorance of Standard's more interesting uses; the scientist in Spock had deciphered Standard years ago. "We did not expect to hide our relationship from Starfleet Command, Jim." Spock rose and crossed the room to read over Kirk's shoulder. "I know, but I wanted to be well past the Oort cloud before we let them in on it. Drop out of the limelight a bit, protect our privacy. You know, out of sight, out of mind." He tapped his fingers on the desktop and looked up sideways at Spock. "Is it possible that the leak came from Vulcan?" Spock shook his head. "Privacy laws forbid it. No Vulcan would do such a thing, regardless of their views regarding our union." Jim looked up at Spock. "Your mother isn't a Vulcan." "My mother functions under Vulcan law, however. I do not believe she would 'spill the beans'." He perused the document again and then stood back, folding his arms over his chest. "I expect that this is an example of the old saying regarding secrets in the military." "That there are none?" "Exactly." Jim chewed his lip for a moment and then gave a grunt of acceptance. "Well, there is absolutely no way we can ignore this message. Are you prepared to have our relationship put under the magnifying glass?" "I believe that my commitment to you, and yours to me, will hold up under any form of scrutiny, Jim." He paused briefly, and Jim could almost see him making the various connections, looking at the probabilities and the ramifications of their relationship being made public earlier than planned. "Your mother, however..." "Exactly," Kirk echoed. "Mom's thinks that I'm one hundred percent het, and that someday I'll give her grandchildren. Since Peter is her only other family, she's kind of counting on me. This will be a big surprise to her." He stood up and started to pace, and then stopped and threw up his hands. "Why is it that my mother's approval is so damned important to me? I'm a grown man, capable of making my own decisions!" "Obviously, as you are the captain of the Fleet flagship." Trust Spock to put things into perspective! Jim considered the taller man for a moment and then gave him a crooked smile. "Will you come with me to see her? We can compose a message to Nogura, ask him to give us a couple of days before making this public, so that we can tell her ourselves." "This smacks of the frying pan and fire scenario again, Jim." "Well, you're from Vulcan, after all. You should be able to take the heat." He crossed the room and put his hands on Spock's crossed forearms. The touch let him feel that Spock was slightly anxious, and he tried to alleviate that anxiety. "I'll do it myself, if it will make you too uncomfortable. I know how much you dislike emotional scenes. Well, with other people." Spock smiled at him, and Jim's heart twisted in his chest. He loved that he alone, of all the beings in the known universe, was allowed to see that smile. "Jim, the wedding vows of your culture include the phrase 'for better or for worse'. Whilst ungrammatical, the intention is obvious. I will share this task with you, as I will share everything else in our conjoined lives." "Thank you," he whispered, touched by the statement of support. He dropped his hands and turned back to the terminal. "I don't know why I'm worried at all, I know she'll love you. How could she not? I'll send a message to Nogura immediately. Will you proof it for me?" "I will. There is, as you would say, a bright side to this, Jim." "There is? What is it?" "Our absence from the ship will give maintenance the opportunity they have been seeking to refurbish and repaint our quarters. Once the crew is informed of our union, we can request a larger bed and have my quarters converted into office space, as we had planned." Amused, Jim swung around and sat down before the terminal again. "Commander, have I ever told you that I like the way you think?" * Admiral Nogura Heihachiro Jun had seen and heard many things in his tenure as Chief of Starfleet Operations, and in the long and colourful career that had earned him that top position, but this was an absolute first for him. Not that he didn't personally know several people in life-long relationships with beings of other species. Not that there weren't three married couples operating in the same chain of command on three ships of the line, though none in the senior positions. It was thinking of the fiery, restless, intuitive and intense personality that was Jim Kirk being bonded, actually mentally linked for life to a Vulcan, which was astonishing to him. The Admiral had met Amanda, Spock's mother, on several occasions when the missions of the diplomatic corps crossed interests with the missions of Starfleet. She seemed like a passive and introverted person, the kind of Human that would assimilate well into the quiet rigours of Vulcan society. Kirk, on the other hand, was the kind of Human that would be the proverbial bull in a china shop if forced to conform to Vulcan society. Jim was as likely to espouse the Surakian Creed of Logic and Non-Emotion along with espousing a Vulcan male, as he was to give up his career as a Starfleet officer to join the circus. Nogura had at first considered the message he had received to be a practical joke. He had to action it, of course; rumours of this sort could backfire on Fleet if they turned out to be true and Fleet appeared to be covering that truth up. Furthermore, for an anonymous message to reach him directly, undetected by the layers of bureaucracy that protected his office, meant that the sender was an insider of some sort, either of the Admiralty, Starfleet generally, or the Enterprise. So he had contacted McCoy in confidence and bluntly asked about the probability of the message being factual. McCoy had laughed out loud when Nogura questioned him. "Jim? And Spock? You've got to be kidding, no disrespect intended, Hichi," he had said. "Jim has done the horizontal tango with at least a dozen women since the mission started, even been in love once or twice, and not with anyone even close to the same gender as he is. He and Spock are inseparable friends, of course. I was surprised how close they got, considering Spock's like an iceman towards most everyone else." "But you're absolutely sure that the friendship couldn't have gone any further?" "Hichi..." McCoy had shaken his head. "Jim's Kinsey index is 4.7, you've seen the records. That means he is capable of swinging either way, but he's always preferred women. Spock, of course, can't be measured on the Kinsey scale, but his two encounters that I am aware of were with females, and in both cases he was out of his mind. You' ve seen those reports, too. Besides, Spock is Vulcan. Homosexuality is probably illogical." Nogura knew how wrong McCoy was on that front, and had told him so. "Vulcans are much more likely than Humans to prefer partners of the same sex, Leonard. Factor of 27 percent greater incidence, or something. Keep that under your hat, it's in the private Tenets, but T'Pau and I talk pretty often." "How can that be true?" McCoy had looked puzzled. "I thought sex was strictly about procreation for them. It certainly can't be fun. You read my report about that business on Vulcan last year, with T'Pring." "I did," Nogura replied, and then a thought struck him. He drew a deep breath. "Leonard, when T'Pau contacted me and got Spock off the hook for stealing the Enterprise, she intimated that it was a matter of mating or death for Spock. He is, apparently, still alive. So whom did he mate with?" "Oh, come on. Surely the battle with Jim must have burned out the fever, he was perfectly normal again afterwards." Nogura saw a hint of uncertainty in the other man's blue eyes. "At least, he seemed normal." "So he didn't mate?" "Well, uh..." McCoy had blushed and shaken his head. "No, not that I know of." "Didn't he and Jim go off on shore leave together shortly after that? They did, I remember authorizing it, at your request. You thought they both needed time to recover, as I recall, and to re-establish their trust in one another." Nogura snorted at the irony of that. "Hichi, this can't be true. Jim's my friend, he would have told me." "Would he have? What do Vulcans value almost as highly as life and logic? Privacy, Leonard. You don't have access to the Vulcan Tenets as it pertains to bonding at your level of clearance. If you had been informed, you would have been bound by the regulations you did have because of Jim's species. You would have forced Jim to take psych exams under threat of removing him from command. If you had received any indication of a change in his thinking, you would have benched him, and probably Spock, until you could have had a thorough evaluation and a second opinion. Wouldn't you?" "I would have seen that as my duty, yes!" "Friendship aside? You've bent rules for him before." McCoy blushed, but shook his head adamantly. "Bonding by non-telepathic persons must, by its very nature, change the mental landscape of those involved. Jim would have to be considered a potential threat to the ship if Spock's life became endangered." "Whereas under the laws of Vulcan regarding bonded couples, which they knew you didn't have access to, Jim and Spock are under no such obligation of disclosure before the bond is formally acknowledged by the Vulcan clan involved. Even then, they wouldn't be required to take any sort of psychic evaluation, despite your interpretation, your fundamentally correct interpretation, of the regulation for Humans. Not that I'd consider them a threat to the Enterprise even if they were both Human, but a Vulcan bond is not considered a potential danger in the same way a Human marriage can be." "What? Why not? Sauce for the goose..." "Vulcans are not geese, Doctor. They are perfectly capable of handling the requirements of command and of a private relationship, without one impacting the other. And, through a bond, the Human attains the same ability to separate church and state, as it were." He had smiled as McCoy grumbled back at him. "You sound like Spock." "I don't know if that's an insult or a compliment, but I'll take it as a compliment considering the difference in our ranks, Commander. I think I'd better go to the horse's mouth on this, Leonard. Until you hear from me, keep this close to your chest. Don't go running off to Jim's cabin and demand the truth. That's an order. This is going through proper channels." He had signed off then, and reread the short message from that had started all of this. 'I think that you should know, the Captain and the First Officer of the Enterprise are living together and may be bonded' It was possible that he was reading too much into the short communication. However, from his knowledge of Vulcans, he didn't think it possible that any Vulcan, even a hybrid like Spock, could simply be 'living together' with another in the Human sense. Spock would require a bond, or he would die. So T'Pau had said. Who would have written such a message? It was almost spiteful, and that didn't sound like any of the Enterprise crew. Perhaps a Vulcan, one who disapproved of Spock? Or even an old flame of Jim's, deciding that if she couldn't have him, he'd pay. The known galaxy must be littered with those. He had decided not to contact Fleet Security to investigate; that would start the rumour factory going at warp nine. Instead he had composed a message to Kirk and Spock, lacing it around with every title they and he had to make sure that they knew this was now official business, and then sat back to wait. It hadn't take long. The 'incoming official priority one' triplet tones startled him out of rereading the tattle-tale's message for the twentieth time. He slapped the privacy and decode pads and sat forward eagerly to see the screen. Admiral Heihachiro J. Nogura, he read, barely noticing that once again Kirk had gotten his formal name back to front. The various titles and office routing symbols followed, and then the body of the letter. He skimmed through the politeness, and finally fastened on the all important phrase: do confirm that Spock cha'Sarek of clan Surak, Shi'Kahr and I have established a Vulcan mating bond and are awaiting confirmation of our acknowledgement by clan Surak at this time. We were planning to inform you once that confirmation was in hand. Nogura sat back, absolutely stunned, and blew out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. Now that he was officially informed, he would have to make decisions about this. Was it good for Fleet or bad for Fleet? What line should he take? Who should he inform, and when, and how? After a minute he leaned back toward the screen and read the final paragraph. Heihachiro, we have a favour to ask on an unofficial level. I haven't had the opportunity to talk about this with my mother. Spock and I are planning to visit her later this week. Would you please keep this under your hat until then? I would much rather tell her in person than for her to see it on FNN. As a personal act of kindness, sir, can you wait? Also, we don't want a big fuss over this. Could he wait? Of course, and a few days was plenty of time. He could formulate a game plan that way, get his ducks in a row, figure out the best angle on this thing for the Fleet and the Federation. Would he make a fuss? Well, now, he just might. And Kirk would, for a change, have to grin and bear the consequences of his actions. End part 1 of 8 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASCEM-S/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: ASCEM-S-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ From ???@??? 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