...

The atmosphere in the large parlor seemed charged with emotion. Her other crewmates stood smiling and talking in a half-circle around T'voria, who rocked back and forth excitedly on her heels. Sarek's large, silent valet stood nearby, watching.

"Oh, I'm glad to see you!"

Nyota stopped herself from hugging the Vulcan woman just in time, but T'voria didn't seem to mind. She squeaked with apparent delight, then cleared the smiled from her face and replied, "I am exceedingly pleased to see you as well and to be granted entry to the house of Sarek. I have enquired after his health and that of Spock; your friends kindly assured me that both are well. However, they are concerned about you. I am pleased that I was not too shy to accept the invitation Sarek sent me before the surgery. Distraction is sometimes useful in healing, is it not? Here are the distractions."

She pulled her full skirts closer to her, revealing a pair of little Vulcans at her sides. Two sets of dark eyes set in round faces peered up at Nyota.

"Children! I believe we can manage house arrest, now that you've brought us the gift of your good company. Hello, young folks." Nyota's eyes involuntarily filled with tears, and she blinked to keep them from spilling out and over.

"My daughter, T'seffi, and my son, S'katrenti. Both are learning to speak advanced Standard. T'seffi, please take your fingers out of your mouth and greet T'sai Uhura."

"Greetings, T'sai Uhura." The greetings came softly in accented Standard and the last half of the son's greeting was muffled as he turned his face back into his mother's skirt. Bending down on one knee to speak with the children at eye level, Nyota returned the greeting and looked up at T'voria. "Thank you so much for bringing them, and yourself. My little cousins are near their ages. Can you all stay for a little while?"

"Yes; I have planned ahead." T'voria nodded toward a cloth bag of toys and games, which had half spilled across a broad, low table. Scotty and Sulu were examining a wooden puzzle game involving interlocking parts, hidden hinges, and changing shapes.

"Mr. Sulu and Mr. Scott are interested in your puzzle," Nyota said to S'katrenti. "Perhaps you would like to tell them about it?"

Curious and distracted, the little boy wandered off and cautiously began a session of play with the crew members, conversing in a functional Standard vocabulary. McCoy easily charmed T'voria and her daughter T'seffi, who wanted to understand why his accent differed from the speech of the other humans. Leonard described Mississippi, and then began to tell the child a folktale involving a clever rabbit. Because New Vulcan had no rabbits, he led her into the courtyard, where they used sticks to draw images of rabbits in the dirt of a flowerbed.

Only Jim remained quiet, sitting off to the side.

"Are you all right, Jim?"

"Sure, Ny, I'm fine. I'm...just not used to being around kids these days, I guess."

Nyota sat beside him. "I hope that their being here doesn't make you feel homesick or sad."

"No, I'm glad they're here. We all needed a change of pace to ward off cabin fever. I just don't know much about entertaining kids, is all. They kinda scare me."

"You don't see your brother or younger cousins much?"

"Let's just say that the Kirk family puts the 'dis' in dysfunctional. My Starfleet 'work family' is easier to deal with sometimes, no matter how argumentative people get on the Enterprise. "

Without thinking, Nyota clasped Jim's hand and held it. "I'm sorry. I hope that things get better."

"Hey, maybe I'll go home next shore leave. Maybe this time, nobody will get drunk and angry, somebody will ask me how I am and actually listen to the answer, and my stepfather, Frank, won't cuss me out at the dinner table."

"Sorry that it's so bad. It sounds as though Starfleet is more hospitable. Jim, if...if things turn out well here...you could come to the United States of Africa with me and Spock when we visit my family. You'd be welcome, and people would enjoy getting to know you."

Jim smiled at her, but his eyes were sad. "I think that you really mean that."

"I do. I don't dislike you, even though our perspectives on life differ. You've got a good heart, no matter how much you try to hide it."

"That's nice of you. I don't usually deal with niceness, but maybe I should try it, huh? Thanks. I'll ask Spock about it when he wakes up." Jim raised their joined hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles. "I wouldn't dare try that if he were awake." Releasing her hand, Jim stood. "I'm gonna try to be sociable with these terrifying children."

Although not overly emotional, the Vulcan children were friendly and energetic, and quickly abandoned Vulcan social reserve to enjoy interacting with Sarek's Starfleet guests. Everyone took turns amusing the children and talking with T'voria, who Nyota suspected was starved for adult conversation. Each child recited a Vulcan poem, and Nyota sang for them.

Later the crew and children constructed a ship out of cushions and the parlor furniture; the children took turns piloting it through imaginary galaxies with Sulu and Jim's direction. Everyone disassembled the ship in order to be able to eat lunch. Scotty had worked with the kitchen staff the day before to obtain a sort of flat bread, and now he instructed the children and their mother in sandwich making. After lunch, McCoy told another story involving the mischievous rabbit while the children curled up beside T'voria and Nyota and eventually dozed off.

"Ma'am, I admire your energy level. Are these lil' cuties always like this?" McCoy wondered.

T'voria smiled at the napping children. "I must warn you, they are even livelier during the afternoon. I am grateful to all of you for entertaining them."

Nyota idly stroked T'seffi's forehead; the child lay across her lap and pressed along her side so that she could not move, but it was all right. She was feeling calm and almost happy. She gazed through the windows facing the courtyard, where Scotty, Sulu, Jim, and Sietla, Sarek's valet/bodyguard had rearranged the planters to improvise a football pitch.

T'voria's communication device beeped softly and vibrated every few minutes until she changed it to a silent setting.

"Is everything all right?" Nyota asked.

"We'll watch the kids if you want to call someone," McCoy offered. He knew that he shouldn't let himself drift into memories of watching his own sleeping daughter, but it was difficult not to.

"None of these messages are from my husband or friends." T'voria glanced at the device's screen. "These are all invitations to social events." She looked at them with a hint of a wry expression. "Yesterday's attack on Captain Kirk was witnessed by many, and they all told their friends. Somehow they must have also learned that I was invited to Sarek's house and that I am under his protection, as all of you are. One night has passed and I am suddenly popular enough to be invited to socialize with those who ignored me only last week."

"Really? I was afraid that the fashionable Vulcans would shun you for being friendly to me," Nyota admitted. "I thought that T'ober's crowd disliked me."

"T'ober's crowd had power on old Vulcan. This is New Vulcan. Even someone like me, who knows how to earn money by working with her hands, can be acceptable here. Have you checked your communicators? If you have any public channels available, I predict that you will find many messages inviting all of the Enterprise crew to parties with Vulcans from classes high and low."

"Starfleet is an egalitarian environment," McCoy said uncomfortably. "Personally, I don't like all of this 'high' and 'low' stuff. I'm used to plain dealin' with folks."

"Yes, that's how I was brought up," Nyota said. "I wouldn't treat a stranger the way T'ober and those other women treated me."

"Her family is an old and wealthy one," T'voria explained. "She is accustomed to doing as she sees fit."

Nyota shrugged. "Noble birth doesn't determine noble behavior or character."

"Who knows what New Vulcan will become? IDIC and infinite diversity include change. We Vulcans can calculate probability, but we cannot stop change. I do not fear our future; it is exciting to finally feel as though I belong in it," T'voria said.

T'seffi stirred, and blinked up at Nyota.

"Welcome back, sleepy head. Wait until you see the game the bridge crew has planned; you'll get to play football."

Both children came fully awake, and asked their mother to lead them to the bathroom. Nyota pulled Sulu aside.

"Hikaru, I need to ask you some questions about the Orion man you saw at that bar." She explained her work with the language emulator. "The most promising of all the results suggested that Thelev speaks a colloquial form of Andorian with a notable Orion accent."

Sulu shook his head. "The man I spoke to was definitely Orion. Nothing Andorian about him. Looked Orion, was described by bar staff and a patron as an Orion. As I said yesterday, he had pilot's calluses on his hands, but on a new colony like this one, many people might be trained pilots."

"Andorians don't typically use handshakes, so I can't say anything about Thelev's hands."

"I understand what you're suggesting, but man, talk about a long shot." Sulu shook his head.

"What else do we have to go on? All we know now is that the criminals hide their faces and sneak up on their victims. Politically motivated attacks usually involve some public statement afterward, right? These assaults seem personal; someone opposes the Federation, but they're not good planners. They didn't kill Gav and the woman who attacked Jim was not a trained assassin; she acted out of passion."

"You're right about that. Talk about some sloppy knife fighting." Sulu shook his head. "Strong, though, and probably not human."

"Vulcan?" Nyota asked.

Sulu's eyes widened. "Damn. I wonder if Jim got his Vulcan lady friend angry, despite what he told us; he swears it wasn't her, but sometimes he doesn't really understand women's feelings. She might be carrying a grudge."

Groaning, Nyota pressed a hand to her forehead. "Oh, no. I hope that's all she's carrying. I told him at the party not to touch Vulcan women's hands when greeting them -touch telepathy might have revealed his thoughts, revealed that he wouldn't even consider being serious with her."

"Jim and the Vulcan woman went way beyond hand touching. We were at the bar, they were flirting with each other, they left together, and she didn't seem to object to anything Jim did."

"Mutual?" she asked.

Sulu nodded.

"I wonder if there was some human-Vulcan misunderstanding."

"Not to get too personal, Ny - I don't know all that much about how you and Spock got together, but from what I observed of her flirting back, and in my personal experience, Vulcans make it obvious when they want someone." He quickly provided some details about the Vulcan man who had eyed him inside the bar and answered his questions outside the bar the following morning.

Nyota couldn't help but smile. "Hikaru, I'm not a bit surprised. Your magic hasn't faded since Saturday nights at Starfleet. I even wondered if some of those Vulcan women were going to follow you home from that party. Whatever you've got, it works on men, women, humans, Vulcans, probably Horta too."

"Flirting is all I plan to do here. Unlike Jim, I try to steer clear of potential political incidents. Hell, this isn't shore leave," he sighed. "All we've got is this Andorian-Orion theory, perhaps a spurned Vulcan. Maybe we all need to get the hell off this planet."

"I'm not leaving without Spock, and until I know that Sarek's name is clear. They're my family now, I can't abandon them. I love them."

"Hey, don't cry again, it's all right. Let's take this up later. Maybe we can ask Jim." They returned to the parlor.

"How do you call that, what he does?" asked T'voria. Seeing Nyota's confused look, she clarified. "Doctor McCoy. He makes his mouth small and makes a sound, but not singing, and now my children do it too."

"Oh! Whistle. He's taught your little ones to whistle."

"Where is Jim, anyway?" Sulu wondered.

Sietla ran into the room, frowning. "Captain Kirk, he is not here. Gone out. He did not ask me to go with him, T'sai Uhura. Sorry. We go search for him now."

...

After only five minutes on the street, Jim's tense shoulders were relaxing already. He'd just go for a short walk around the neighborhood, clear his head. Not only did he feel uneasy around children, unhappy women made him uncomfortable too. Sometimes it was impossible to know how to make them happy again. He knew how much Nyota loved Spock, but seeing her worry was almost like watching her mourn. She had played with and sung to the children, but she was different, he could see it. If she'd been his girl, he could have made her smile, even from a hospital bed. Perhaps in a hospital bed; adjustable mattresses held erotic possibilities.

A light, dry breeze stirred his hair and he sighed happily. Maybe Vulcan security forces would catch the attackers, and he could go for a camel ride, or borrow whatever passed for a motorcycle on New Vulcan.

A large, green skinned man approached him; he was too green to be a Vulcan. Jim blinked. He was familiar enough with Orion women; Nyota's roommate had provided an in-depth education. He hoped she'd forgiven him for not going along with that love stuff. They were cadets, after all, and attachments were a bad idea. Orion men, he didn't know much about. Gaila was estranged from her family and hadn't sent any vengeful brothers or cousins after him to beat him up. Why was this Orion staring at him? The recent Federation crackdown on smuggling involved mass arrests of Orion pirates, but they hadn't been abused. Anyway, he wasn't in Starfleet uniform. There was no obvious reason why this guy should look so angry.

"She didn't finish the job, but I will," snarled the man, pulling out a gleaming knife from his pocket.

"Shit!" Jim yelled, surprised. "Doesn't anybody on this planet believe in using phasers?"

Reflexively, his hand moved toward his hip.

..........................................