Title: After the Rescue

Part: NEW 73/73

Author: Karmen Ghia, karmen_ghia@yahoo.com

Series: TOS

Romance Code: S/Mc and then some.

Rating: NC-17

Appendices: http://members.tripod.com/karmen_ghia/atrappendices.html

See part one for disclaimers, etc.

Spock ignored the door buzzer in his cell like room at the Star Fleet hostel. In a few hours he would leave for Vulcan and he wished to spend them meditating.

The buzzer sounded again. He wondered if it were Jim, that he'd changed his mind. No, their last conversation had been as formal as all the ones since they'd left Hobie's workshop on Vulcan. It was useless to think anything had changed.

The door swished open and McCoy entered.

Spock sighed in his mind and looked up at the doctor.

"Sorry, Spock, I used the override," McCoy said. "May I sit down?"

"If you wish, Doctor."

"I do, thank you," McCoy sat. "You weren't going to say good-bye, were you?"

"I concluded all the necessary interactions to resign my commission, Doctor, it was not necessary to speak to you again."

"Spock, I love you, dammit, don't leave me." McCoy hadn't known he was going to say that until he heard it come out of his mouth. Having done so, he decided to go with it. "Please, stay with me. We'll make something work, here or ... or Vulcan or somewhere."

"No. I intend to remove myself from the chaos of emotion, Doctor. I have made my decision."

"Because you got hurt?" McCoy blurted. "People get hurt everyday, Spock, we're made to recover and go on."

"I was misguided to think I could find solace in others, Doctor. It was illogical and I have recovered and intend to go on. To Vulcan."

"I could join you," McCoy ventured.

"No, you could not. I will enter Gol. You cannot follow."

McCoy looked into the Vulcan's empty black eyes and found no arguments to move him with. He sat across from his former lover for a while longer before wishing him well, live long and prosper and leaving.

McCoy never discussed his sorrow over losing Spock with anyone. With whom could he discuss it anyway? Eventually he tumbled back into bed with Kirk now and then and that made him feel a little better.

'In the long run,' he told himself, 'it's better this way. We really were unsuited to each other. In the long run it would have ended in tears.'

He did not consider that in the long run, we are all dead. It's only the now and near future that we can concern ourselves with. But that was too painful, so McCoy stayed in the long run. In time he only thought about Spock once a day or so, then once a week or so, then a few times a month, until he had to remind himself that the one being he loved with his whole heart had simply walked away from him and not looked back. And then he was okay and life went on.

* * *

"What play?" Maja asked.

"_As you Like it_!" Jir enthused. "I'm playing Rosalind. My hair is perfect for it!"

"What's Stonet playing?" Ling asked.

"Nothing. He's managing the company. He's very good at it. Very organized, good with numbers, logistics, et cetera you know."

"How long do you think he'll enjoy that?" Maja wanted to know.

"Until it's time for me to come back and take the Vulcan Bar again," Jir said. "Then I'll enjoy my law practice here for five years and after that we'll go back to the company for five years."

"Five years on Vulcan; five years off it," Ling mused. "Not a bad solution."

"We thought so, little sister," Jir said. "What are your plans?"

"Qhoshi and the house have already returned to Dhrgestera," Ling said. "Laninin, Ro and Ko are staying here to go to school. They're happy here and they'll get good educations. Stez and I are going to let SaK get a little bigger and then we'll move back to Dhrgestera in a few months."

"And you, Maja?" Jir asked.

"I told you."

"Tell me again."

"Master Whilla, Pzchaz and Dhec and their studios have already left for Zhaharnisha," Maja said. "I'll join them in a while. They have some rebuilding to do so no need for me to rush out there."

"Do Tien and Hraja miss Farro very much?" Ling asked.

"Yes, very much," Maja told him.

"Couldn't he have stayed?" Jir asked.

"Farro? He wants to be a Master bronze sculptor. He can't attain that without Master Dhec and the Commune so he went with him." Maja said. "He'll come visit Tien and Hraja or they'll go visit him, Tien at least, depending on where he is in the Empire. Are you taking your brats with you, Jir?" Maja asked his Noli. "Or are you leaving them to go to school with Hobie's children?"

"I'm taking them with me," Jir said. "They're just too cute to leave behind. And they really like Stonet."

"He's made himself very agreeable to them, I will say," Ling observed.

"Like Sarek to Polmira," Jir said and regretted it.

"Aye," Maja said. Nobody mentioned Spock. "It's good for them to be with you, Jir, even if you have spoiled them a little."

"And I intend to spoil them some more!" Jir enthused.

"Then, Godspeed."

"Godspeed."

* * *

Spock returned to Vulcan and did not visit his parents. He made his farewell to them in a terse comm message. He walked straight out of the terminal to find the landcar he had rented to take him to Gol. Somehow, he wasn't surprised that he wasn't surprised to find Maja Talljet sitting on the hood of it. It seemed normal, perhaps even appropriate for him to be there. Also, it was simply a fact and merely one to be curious about.

"Maja," Spock inclined his head slightly. "What are you doing on my car?"

"I thought I'd keep you company on the drive to Gol," Maja said.

"How did you know it would be this car?"

"Second sight, Spock," Maja lied, he had dug Spock's space and terrain arrangements out of Ling's computer base. "Hemzjit." He rolled off the hood and opened the passenger door.

"I would prefer to be alone, Maja."

"Humor me, Vulcan. Get in."

They rode in silence out of the city and into the desert.

"So," Maja said at length. "Your goal is Gol, eh?"

Spock did not answer. They drove on in silence a while longer.

"What did Amanda say?" Maja asked.

"About what, Maja?"

"About Gol." Maja rolled his eyes.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

Spock debated elaborating on his response and decided not to. "Nothing."

"Did you tell her when she was awake?"

"I sent her a comm message," Spock admitted.

Maja let his head roll on the seat. He was evolved enough to realize how Amanda must feel and he hated it. He hadn't much solidarity with Amanda but if one of his own brats ever... "You're really a piece of work, Spock," Maja snapped. "Amanda goes to all the trouble of birthing and raising you and you don't even tell her you're committing suicide in person."

"I am not committing suicide."

"Will any of us ever see you again?"

"No."

"Same thing," Maja assured him. "Just less messy."

Spock did not bother to answer this and they rode on in silence.

The bump on the horizon that was Gol grew closer.

"Look, Spock," Maja plunged in. "Here's the deal. If you give up this Gol nonsense I'll chuck the Commune and we'll go have some fun. Okay?"

Spock was silent and remained focused on the road before him.

"Look, Spock," Maja continued. "I wish I had some unassailable logical arguments for you but I don't. I do have some second sight and I foresee that this Gol thing is not going to work out for you. How not, I dunno, but not. Really, not." He inhaled cheerfully. "So why don't you just come with me and we'll have some fun?"

Spock was silent and remained focused on the road before him.

"We won't see anybody from the old life," Maja began again, feeling like a traitor to everyone, especially Tien, 'hochofedra.' "We can even take on assumed names."

Spock was silent and remained focused on the road before him. The bump of Gol on the horizon loomed closer.

Maja saw it too. "Spock! Okay, I was WRONG, I should have told you about Tien, I was an asshole! And stupid because I've just figured out I can't live without you. Can't you find it somewhere in your fucking VulCheq soul to give me another chance? You never know, I might blow it again and you can still shut yourself up in Gol!"

It was the custom for postulants to walk the last three kilometers to the gates of Gol. Therefore, the road to Gol ended three kilometers from the cliffs. Spock brought the car to a halt and looked at Maja.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why should I go with you, Maja?"

"Because I love you and I need you and want to make you happy." Maja sighed. "That's all I've got for you, Spock, it's all I've ever had."

Spock got out of the car. "It is insufficient." He walked away.

Maja got out of the car and ran after him. "Spock! Don't leave me! Where will I go? What will I do?" He clutched at Spock's sleeve.

Spock turned. "Frankly, Maja, it would be illogical for me to have any interest in that whatsoever," he said and continued on his way.

Maja stood stunned for a moment and then stomped back to the car and sat on the hood. He watched Spock continue on his way to Gol.

'He'll turn around and come back in ten more steps,' he thought smugly. A little later: 'He'll turn around and come back in just ten more steps.' And then later still: 'He'll turn around and look back in ten steps." And then: 'He'll turn and at least look back when he gets to the gate.' Spock disappeared into Gol, without looking back. Without even looking sideways. 'I'll just sit here until he comes out,' Maja decided.

Maja Talljet, also known as Master Ghet of the Most Holy Church of the Klingon Empire and sometimes called St. Gozine, sat on the hood of a rented Vulcan landcar through the night and until sunset of the next day when hunger and thirst and something as simple as good sense caused him to just fucking get in the car, drive it back to Shirkar and go on with his life in spite of SpockDeVulCheq and his fucking Gol.

* * *

"He said 'Frankly, Maja, it would be illogical for me to have any interest in that whatsoever'?" Sarek asked over breakfast in his apartment on the Strand.

"Yes," Maja sighed. "And that was that. Hochofedra," he added, shrugging.

"And what now, Maja?"

"I will return to the Commune."

"I thought you were staying with me."

"I was but, but something larger has reached my consciousness. It was in a dream I had about the Empire and the Federation," Maja said majestically. "In this dream T'Pau and the Hierophant were dancing again. Dancing and dancing and there was nothing but peace and harmony and good food and lots of it for everyone, everywhere, amen, hallelujah." Maja looked into Sarek's deadpan face and knew that deep deep deep inside the Vulcan was laughing hysterically at him. "What?"

"Are you serious?" Sarek asked.

"No, of course not," Maja admitted. "All right, here's half of the unvarnished truth. I'm going back to the Empire, the Hierophant and the Commune, in that order, because I'm power crazed and I love it, and I'd be mad to leave it at this point. Even for you, Sait."

"But not for Spock?"

"Oh, I woulda worked that out. He would have eventually learned to enjoy Commune life or we might have lived somewhere close enough to the Empire to keep my hand in." Maja waved away whatever unknown, now unrealizable, difficulties might have arisen.

"And you're not making me the same offer," Sarek stated.

"That's the second half of the unvarnished truth," Maja further admitted. "You see, I owe Amanda one. She did right by Hraja on Romulus and it would be wrong of me to forget that."

Sarek remained silent but kept his attention fixed on Maja.

"And," Maja continued, "she's really happy with you and god knows how few have gotten any joy out of this story so I'd really be a beast not to let her keep it."

Sarek remained silent but kept his attention fixed on Maja.

"And you're happy, too, in your own funny little Vulcan way," Maja said.

"Amanda is less exhausting than you," Sarek admitted. "I am enjoying her again."

"Aaaand," Maja said meaningfully. "How much longer is she really going to last?"

"Maja. Really."

"No. Really?"

"Twenty, thirty more years," Sarek said.

"So I'll see you in twenty, thirty more years," Maja smiled. "And we'll have a hundred or so to make up for lost time."

"I hope I'll be up to it, my Maja," Sarek said dryly.

"Exercise, good food and clean living."

"Sage advice, MageCheq."

"See ya, Sait."

Epilogue

Eventually, it all worked out for the best. Spock came back from Gol, Kirk had seen the light and they were bonded on Vulcan again, this time properly. Spock and McCoy even made peace, albeit rather strangely, through Spock's katra, and then again after Kirk's transition, they turned to each other.

Exactly a year after Amanda died, Maja showed up at Sarek's at dinnertime. The next day, while Maja visited the Sas and T'Paga, the perfect woman, Sarek packed up his life on Vulcan. He'd always wanted to see more of the galaxy and the Commune could always use somebody else good at math. It took some work but Maja and Sarek remade the link between them and Sarek the Vulcan spent the rest of his long life in the joys of Patois and Maja Talljet. Maja's second sight kicked in and he got Sarek back to Vulcan in time to leave his body there. When the healers came for Sarek's katra, Maja made his farewells and was gone. He left a note for Spock that he would see him 'later.'

Leonard McCoy lived a long time for a Terran and when he transitioned he was more than ready to do so. Spock spent some time grieving and trying to distract himself with hobbies like reunifying the Vulcans and the Romulans ('absurd' was all Hobie had to say about it) and the occasional fling with the occasional Vulcan woman. At Sarek's funeral Spock was not surprised that he was not surprised to get a note from Maja saying that if he was looking for him he could be found at the Sas. The note did not say when. Some time went by and Spock found himself on Vulcan for diplomatic business. He did not visit the Sa mansion. More time went by and Spock found himself on Vulcan for diplomatic business again. He decided to drive by the Sa mansion but not go in. More time went by, Spock was yet again on Vulcan for diplomatic business and went to the Sa mansion where he was told that Maja was not on Vulcan. He was even offered a cup of tea, which he declined. He walked out of the mansion to find Maja and his luggage, both of which had just arrived on Vulcan, sitting on the hood of his rented landcar. "Why are you so fucking stubborn, VulCheq?" was all Maja wanted to know. They moved into Spock's family home in Western Shirkar and split their time between the Commune and the Federation. They never married and certainly never bonded but managed to have a good time in spite of, or perhaps because of, this.

Polmira was profoundly shaken by Tien's sorrow over Kalzat's death and removed himself from Prince Strig's company for a time. Strig's Vulcan patience and gentleness won him back eventually and they were bonded when they'd both finished at the Institute. Strig in Federation history and Polmira in theoretical Aeromechanics. The Magidrian blood was too thin so neither he nor any of the JetCheqs ever flipped and had children.

Farro became a Klingon Master and found he didn't have to talk as much because fewer beings contradicted him. He settled down with a female architect and had eight children with her. He eventually became one of the heads of the Gozshedrefreingin Commune.

Hraja spent the rest of life in the Federation, working in stone or wood. He was very much in demand for monuments as he had Master Ghet's eye for majesty in even the puniest subject. He married a geophysicist he met at a limestone quarry.

Tien stayed with Master Khat until a place could be found for him with the new painting master in the Gozshedrefreingin Commune. Tien eventually became a Master Painter and was one of the few beings that Farro could count on to contradict him on a regular basis. After many years of grieving for Kalzat, Tien found himself in love with and loved by a RomCheq terrain designer named JivrinVhir and they managed to be happy and productive for the rest of their long lives.

Master Khat also spent the rest of his life in the Federation and even occasionally coaxed Master Ghet there to work on projects with him.

The Hierophant Kroldt wielded power in the Klingon Empire until the day he died. His last act on his deathbed was to emancipate the members of the Gozshedrefreingin Commune and declare the Commune a parish with all the attendant rights and protections of such. He outlived Amanda by a few years.

Malira governed the Tossarian empire as easily as she breathed. Power was food, drink, love, religion, art, solace and a balm to her soul. She was happy in her element until the day she died peacefully in her sleep.

Ling Talljet and Stez manipulated the Talljet fortunes through rough and smooth. They also had a wonderful time raising their three boys, none of whom showed the slightest interest in finance. They all went into science and graduated from the Vulcan Institute with honors.

Qhoshi ran Talljet Inc. until she retired to a convent on her home planet of Yzreinia where she could meditate on the wonders of the universe in peace.

Ro and Ko took over the operation of Talljet Inc. after Qhoshi retired. Their Vulcan educations served them well in the intergalactic business milieu.

Laninin never left the Sa mansion. He kept SaBrzia company until the old Vulcan died and then simply stayed on. He's still there, silently sightlessly remembering the future and dreaming of the past.

Jir Talljet and Stonet made the five years on Vulcan and five years off work until Stonet grew so old that Jir decided they would both be more comfortable on Vulcan full time. Their children grew up and all went off to see the galaxy with their uncle Hobie.

Khatanya remained as blase as a Klingon can be until he died when his ship was ambushed by Rom pirates in the far reaches of Klingon space.

KzostGhet lived a long and happy life with SaVoren until he died peacefully in that Vulcan's arms.

SaVoren, after seeing Kzost's remains decently disposed of, shut himself up in a room and almost died of dehydration before Maja showed up to take him back to Vulcan with him. Voren spent the rest of his life in the Sa mansion enjoying the intricacies of the ancient Borillian texts that were so enthralling to a generation of Sas. His contribution to their understanding was vast.

Hobie Talljet returned to the Tossarian Autonomous Zone and convinced, one way or another, all the recalcitrant planets to come back to the fold. They did and the Tossarians enjoyed a long and profitable era. Hobie went back to building starships and exploring spaces he'd never been in. Eventually he found he couldn't take his ideas on propulsion any further and turned it all over to his JirCheq nephews, who built the Talljet Ltd. shipyard into an empire in its own right. One day, Hobie sent a note to all his brothers announcing that he was going to Magidrian and didn't expect to return so if they wanted to see him one last time they better look sharp and come to Povarb before the end of the year. They did, the entire family did, even Spock, and wished him godspeed. He was never seen or heard from again.

Several years later, long after Stonet's death, Jir made the same announcement from Vulcan. He was also never seen or heard from again.

Spock had as much, if not more, fun than Maja had promised him on the way to Gol. He spent quite a bit of time getting to know Tien and Farro in the Commune and Hraja in the Federation. He was welcomed by everyone and he felt at home everywhere. He grew old in the warm glow of Maja's love and felt something very close to regret when it was time to leave him. "Hochofedra," Maja shrugged. "Did you really want to stay in this bag of blood and bone forever?" He withdrew to allow the healers to complete Spock's Vulcan life in the Vulcan fashion.

Maja spent many more years making art and wandering around, visiting various members of his family and friends. At last he went to visit Ling and sent out an announcement that it they wanted to see him, etc. And a few days after the huge convergence of family and Majaphiles on Dhrgestera, he went off in a Talljet Inc. ship for Magidrian. The captain got him as close a possible and sent him off in a small ship for the rest of the journey. It was impossible to get close to Magidrian as it was now surrounded by its own Sargasso space. Maja, however, was unaffected by it. He did what he did all his life and let his instinct guide him to his landing. He left his ship and found a nice warm rock to sit on until whatever happened happened. He dozed off and woke to find a Mage standing over him.

/welcome/

"So, is this where it ends?" Maja sat up.

/no, this is merely where it goes on from/

Maja thought about that for a moment: "Is zat so?"

The Mage nodded.

"Then, hochofedra." Maja shrugged and got to his feet to follow his guide.

* * * * * * * * *

end of part 73

This story also lives at http://members.tripod.com/karmen_ghia/

Appendices: http://members.tripod.com/karmen_ghia/atrappendices.html

Request: If I cited something from one of your stories or someone you know, please let me know via email at karmen_ghia@yahoo.com or karmen_ghia@hotmail.com or leave me a note on the guestbook at http://www.oocities.org/Paris/Tower/2547/ Please be specific on the who and the what because I plan to thank all the sources for this (aside from those in my head) but I've read so much slash, fanfic, erotica, and other that it's all just a big melange and I can't remember most of who wrote what or where it came from. It is very possible that I unwittingly have referred to an event or a character from someone else's work and I would very much like to thank them for writing something so terrific that it penetrated so deeply into my subconscious that not even I realized it was there. Until you let me know. So please, help me out if you are so inclined. Thanks.