The Prince

Chapter 2

How had she come to be in this place so far from her beloved home world? She gingerly stepped out from the transport and was instantly greeted by the red, angry vision of rock and ridge. Ah, Vulcan. Amanda's second sense was that of a blast of heat and the blistering glare of an alien sun beaming down on her. The sensation was suffocating. Amanda felt her body begin to fall back from the blast and she collapsed on the ground, panting for air. The heat burned in her lungs.

None of the Vulcans surrounding her seemed to notice or care about the human collapsed on the ground. No one offered to help her. After five agonizing minutes, Amanda managed to catch a breath, and slowly rose to her feet, trying to brush the red earth off her dress. It was the one Sarek had given her before he left Earth. She wanted to be perfect for him when she arrived on Vulcan. Now, looking at the red stains, she knew it was a lost cause. There was a tear in the silky material from where she landed on a rock. And the dress seemed to be crying.

Amanda began looking around. Sarek had told her there would be an escort there at the terminal to greet her. But she saw no one. And as the compound began clearing out, no one came. And suddenly, Amanda felt alone.

It quickly became obvious there was no transport. A shiver ran through her body, despite the physical temperature of the planet Amanda felt cold. For the first time in her life, Amanda Grayson, wife of the Vulcan ambassador, felt utterly and completely alone in a strange, alien place…

II

Sarek felt his wife's distress while in his office in the capital. He had been staring out of the windows of his suite, when he felt panic, not his own, grip him. She called out to him through their bond and he knew where she was. He quickly ascertained her situation and just as quickly felt the rage brewing inside him. He began centering himself, closing his eyes and casting chains on the emotion that threatened to break through. Once it was secure in its box, Sarek stepped outside his office and into the seating area. His gaze fell on the young assistant seated quietly at the computer console in the corner.

"Stossel." It was a command. Calm, yet cold. The young assistant stood to face the originator of the voice. He knew the ambassador was angry, though as a Vulcan he would hardly acknowledge such an emotion that theoretically did not exist. Looking up into the hard face of Sarek, he also realized what the emotion fear felt like.

"Yes, S'haile?" Sarek regarded him intently, ignoring the honorific the boy used. "You were sent to retrieve my wife. She has not been retrieved." It was a statement, not a question. Stossel bowed his head, eyes to the floor.

"I was told not to go osu," Stossel said meekly. Sarek's eyes narrowed, only a glimpse of what was going through his mind right then. He circled Stossel slowly, his six-foot-five frame dwarfing the smaller man.

"There is no word higher than mine!" Sarek hissed. Quickly righting himself he continued in a monotone. "You have disobeyed me. I must therefore conclude that you acted of your own accord. This insubordination has no place here…Stossel drew himself up quickly, aware of the impending threat.

"Osu" he interrupted. "Your order was overridden by counsel. T'Pau. I… had no choice but to comply," Stossel said his last few words haltingly, and then eyed the floor again.

There was tension in the room as silence clung in the air around them. There would be no apology, for that would imply offense, which was another emotion that did not theoretically exist.

Sarek studied the boy in front of him silently. Stossel had not yet mastered full control, and that was fine. He could smell the boy's trepidation. It satisfied him. He had hand-selected the boy for his current position. Fresh out of the Vulcan science academy Stossel had exhibited excellent political acumen and came from one of the lower castes…he could be shaped and molded. He was loyal. He saw how much it hurt the boy to be forced to disobey him. The young Vulcan had had no choice in the matter. This Sarek knew. He could stay.

"Dismissed." Sarek turned and headed out the door, but his presence lingered behind minutes longer. After awhile the tension in the air dissipated and Stossel was able to breathe again. He turned silently towards his console to continue work on the Talosian treatise he had been assigned.

III

Amanda sat alone in the terminal, her legs crossed under the now-ruined gown. Her head in her hands. She had been there for what felt like hours and yet no one came. Suddenly she felt a presence and quickly stood, brushing herself off with haste. She felt him before she saw him. He approached with a determine pace, not rushing, yet still urgent, long legs carrying a graceful, if not slightly imposing gait.

At that moment, with the sun setting behind him, he looked beautiful to Amanda. The heavy Vulcan robes flowed behind him elegantly skimming the ground and billowing off again. The last of a day's dying sun rays caught his dark thick curls glancing off of his head and cast a halo around him, a silhouette in the last of daylight.

She rose to greet him.

"Sarek, what happened? There was no one here." Amanda raised inquisitive eyes toward his.

"There was a miscommunication," he replied, his eyes skimming her now-ruined dress and disheveled appearance. His tone let Amanda know the subject was now closed. There was a brief pause, and in the next breath Sarek said, "Come, my wife". He gathered his wife's bags and walked to the waiting hovercraft. Amanda followed him in comfortable silence. She felt better already. His presence was soothing. But her thoughts raged, one in particular. Vulcan's don't have miscommunications. Which meant that someone left her at the terminal on purpose. She knew Sarek had made arrangements for her arrival. And she thought back to the other Vulcan's on the transport. Vulcans didn't say much, but their attitude towards her had been almost hostile. And when she collapsed, they had ignored the human struggling for air on the ground. She knew it would be difficult, but she was completely unwelcome on the planet. And it seemed all of Vulcan wanted her to know it.

IV

The sun had long since disappeared out of the sky and it was nearly dark. Amanda looked out the windows of the hovercraft as it headed north away from the terminal. Beautiful compounds began to dot the landscape once they cleared out of the city. They were beautiful homes, family compounds, Sarek had said. They were all done in earthen whites, and reds, browns, tans, the colors of Vulcan and seemed almost to blend into the harsh desert world around them. They reminded Amanda of the open floor plans of ancient Rome and Italy when man still believed in Gods.

They drove for another hour as Amanda watched the world around her turn pitch black. And as she was thrust out of her contemplative state the hover car began to slow. Amanda blinked. She saw two lights in the immediate distance growing closer. She focused her eyes. The car slowed to an almost stopped. They had arrived at a gate. On either side, two torches. The gate was massive, rising to the sky. Two walls jettisoned out in either direction for as far as Amanda's limited night vision allowed her to see. The gates opened, and the hovercraft entered into a circular drive. They were in some kind of courtyard. Amanda stepped out of the car and looked up.

Her eyes widened in amazement as she stared at what could only be described as a fortress or a castle. It seemed to blend the two. Massive stones formed its structure weather-worn from what seemed like centuries of use. It loomed large against the night sky casting the area around it into complete blackness. It was completely unlike any of the other compounds she had seen and previously thought grand. It dwarfed them in size and majesty. Suddenly, Amanda felt very, very small. Sarek motioned for her to follow him inside…

It was a combination of ancient and modern. Amanda instantly felt out of place. She saw banners, hung high from rafters towering above her head. There was a creature, cat-like and terrifying embroidered in colors of red, gold, and black. They were standing in a long hall. Sarek stopped and turned to face her in the torch-lit space. The flames flicking shadows across his face. Amanda realized at that moment that Sarek had not told her everything. She had not married an ambassador, he was something more. And as she gazed at her handsome husband, she felt another shiver. She wasn't sure she wanted to know much more.

"Welcome home Amanda," Sarek's voice, even in whisper, rumbled through the hall, echoing off the walls. Amanda saw shadows emerge from those walls slowly forming into figures. She recognized them as attendees. And in a smooth motion, that left Amanda speechless, they bowed, to the human and the Vulcan standing in the hall before stepping back…

It was quite a long while before Amanda found her voice. "Sarek, wha…" Amanda's gaze held his, questioning, nervous, wary. Sarek didn't want to be the cause of his wife's uncomfortable feelings and quickly glanced away. He felt the question forming in her head before it escaped her mouth.

"I am Sarek, son of Skonn in the House of Surak". He stood before her, hands clasped behind his back, head lowered in deference to her. "T'Pau is my mother". T'Pau. Amanda, like most Earthlings, knew the name. She was the one who introduced Vulcan to Earth. The only person to ever turn down a council seat. Every history book included her. She was almost mythical. One person had once described her as "All of Vulcan in one place".

It was what Sarek didn't say that caught her attention the most.

All of Vulcan in one place…

"Sa-te 'kru". The title felt strange on her tongue as she grappled with the truth. She realized at that moment who, or rather what, her husband was.

"Not to you. To you, I am you adun. And you, my adun'a." It was why she loved him. This man, who controlled so much, so powerful, could humble himself only before her…As he gathered her in his arms, she knew her life had only just begun.

Author's notes:

This story is/will be a combination of TOS and Star Trek 2009. Parts are Cannon, some aren't. This is just my take on the Vulcan thing. I got to thinking, after watching all the TOS episodes, that there's a lot about Vulcan that Vulcan's don't like talking about. The mystique around T'Pau in Amok time, who she is exactly in relation to Spock, Sarek's power in the federation…and why Spock leaving Vulcan caused a two-decade gap in communication between father and son. Also why Spock has a tendency to lose his temper (there are about three times Spock decks Kirk in TOS) as well as how he feels about duty, etc… So this is what I've come up with.

This story may get a little long. I'll keep writing until my arc runs out. And yes, Spock will be coming up soon. And yea, I will talk about the chattel thing more in-depth as well as well as a Pon-farr scene (may go M)

For a group that believes in "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations" Vulcan's are not the friendliest creatures in the galaxy. Smart, yet so, so cold. And even cruel.

Vulcan words taken out of the Vulcan Language Dictionary:

Adun- husband

Adun'a- wife

Sa-te 'kru- king/ most high

Osu- sir

S'haile- lord