Return to Chapter 07
Star Trek Chapter 08
Hours later, Cooper's Revenge entered warp, en route to Sirus to deliver her cargo. She was now registered as a Theseallonian "Armed Merchant," due to a couple of counterfeit Klingon disruptors. Meanwhile, Enterprise headed back toward Earth at warp 8 to drop off the Admiral before continuing on to Vulcan with Mr. Spock where he'd resume his duties as Military Attache. Two days later, Kirk and his best friend, Leonard McCoy, sat down on Kirk's balcony overlooking San Francisco Bay.
"So, what was this 'secret mission' you were on Jim," Bones asked as he accepted a beer.
"Not really mine," Kirk replied as he sat down. "I was just getting it set up."
He took a swig. "Turns out, one of the passengers on that transport from Gupper 4, the one initially reported as destroyed, well, was Spock's little girl."
"You got to be kidding me!" McCoy said in astonishment.
"Imagine if the Cardassian's figure out who they've got."
"So you're sending someone in after her?"
"Yeah," Kirk put his beer down. "An old friend of ours-and you're not going to approve-Justin Cooper."
McCoy leaned back in his chair. "Why him?"
"Right profile, right ship, after we arranged for it to get a Romulan cloak. His parents were killed by the Cardassians in the first wave-he's got an ax to grind. Also, if he's caught, the Cardassian's will never suspect a cashiered Star Fleet Petty Officer for being an operative."
"I've met her twice," McCoy said. "Smart little girl."
"Yeah, she's even played around here once or twice, when she was a toddler."
"How'd she end up on that transport?"
"Janis was sending her to her grandparents for a visit on Gupper."
"Poor little girl," Bones said with a thoughtful look. "She must be, what, about ten?"
"Yeah."
McCoy looked out across the bay at the lights of Marin County. Then he looked back at Kirk. "You know," he said, "you and Spock might not have planned this as well as you think."
"How so?"
"She's a Human-Vulcan hybrid."
"Well, yeah, one quarter Vulcan," Kirk replied.
"Vulcan children, especially girls, go through a period of Pon Farr when they first start what, in humans, is called puberty. For them, it's at about twenty years but I can't help but wonder with a human girl...they actually start maturing around her age.."
"Really? And, you think that she might have some of the...psychological..." Kirk said, putting his beer down.
"Yeah," McCoy continued, "on Vulcan, when young women start this they're shipped off to what we might call a Convent for a couple of months-sort of a right of passage from adolescence to adulthood. Vulcans are really adults before they become sexually mature, not the other way around like humans. They're in the...company...of a bunch of nuns and high priestesses'. I guess the Vulcan equivalent to the old Christian tradition of Confirmation mixed in with summer bible school and sex ed."
"Sex ed?"
"That's what they used to call 'sexual education' in the schools, back when America and the Anglo nations were recovering from Victorianism. Teaching youngsters, usually kids in their early teens, about reproduction 'cause their parents were either too embarrassed or too stupid to be honest with them."
"Early teens? That's kind of late." Kirk said before taking a swig of his beer.
"Strange to think-they used to keep basic biology a secret."
"Some pretty obscure history there Bones," Kirk commented.
"Uh huh," McCoy nodded. "Of course, the Vulcans'd make Queen Victoria look like a nymphomaniac."
"Yeah, never understood why they're so up tight," Kirk replied. "So they ship their girls off to a convent where they learn to munch muff, huh?"
"Also, keeps them away from Vulcan teenage boys," McCoy said with a smile.
"Cooper's no teenager," Kirk replied, picking up his beer.
McCoy smiled with a twinkle in his eye. "Guess you've never read too deeply into Cooper's psyc profile."
"No."
"He's a latent pedophile."
Kirk was silent for a minute. "Fuck," he muttered. Then he looked up. "Well, I guess we'll have to hope she hasn't picked up too much Pon Farr from her dad."
He took a drink. "Has he ever, you know, acted on it?"
"Not before coming to Star Fleet," McCoy responded. "If I remember, he did admit to...using some sex androids and I'd be interested in seeing any holodeck programs he might have come up with."
"Well, they should only be together on that ship for a couple of days," Kirk said, then drained his bottle. "Want another?"
"Sure," McCoy said. "Going to tell her father?"
"No," Kirk responded, "not much can be done now."
A minute later he returned with two more bottles.
"This is an especially good batch," McCoy said after taking a swig.
"Yeah," Kirk responded, looking through the brown glass at a light inside his apartment. "I used a Klingon hops-they've become real good brewers since we gave them beer."
Bones took another sip. "I detect something different though."
"I used some wheat mixed in with the barley-in fact a descendent of the quadrotriticale we had a hand in getting to Sherman's Planet back in '68."
"Hmm," McCoy said looking at the bottle. "Still, it'll be interesting to see how a ten year old human girl reacts when she's hit with Vulcan adult...cravings..."
"Bones, this really isn't a joking matter. She's going to be a very confused little girl," Kirk said.
"Probably not for long with a guy like Cooper around," McCoy responded with a sardonic smile.
"Do you really think he'll...take advantage of the situation?"
"Well," Bones responded, then took a swig, "he may not have a choice, depending on how strong her Vulcan genes come out."
"Are you serious?"
"Vulcan woman have been known to kill men who wouldn't..."
Kirk took another pull on his beer. "Well," he said with a smile, "maybe Cooper was just the right guy to send."
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