Lesser Evil

T’Pry

Mount Selaya, Vulcan

2349 Old Calendar

Conducted by several robed masters under the watchful eye of T’Rukh, Vulcan’s barren co-orbital world, the internment ceremony had been befittingly solemn. Vaughn also found the entire affair to be parsimonious and efficient. T’Pry

Thanks to his long association with T’Pry

Ruriko squeezed his hand tightly throughout the brief ceremony. She looked diminished, smaller in some way. Vaughn didn’t try to restrain the tears that rolled down his cheeks as the vial that contained T’Pry

After the funeral party and the guests had dispersed, Vaughn and Ruriko walked along a flat expanse of red-and-ocher Vulcan desert, watching the sun grow huge and orange as it began to sink over the horizon. The sunset painted the sky with every color on the pallet from scarlet to salmon to deep purple.

It wasn’t until an hour after the planet had slipped into night’s embrace that Vaughn noticed that he and Ruriko were still holding hands.

Together, they looked up at the eternal stars. In his mind’s eye Vaughn saw T’Pry

Vaughn turned from the stars and looked into Ruriko’s eyes. She was watching him expectantly. Damn,Vaughn thought. It’s always the one you didn’t see that gets you.

San Francisco, Earth

2349 Calendar

Vaughn and Ruriko returned to Starfleet Headquarters for a day-long debriefing session immediately after their return from the Monac System. They had delivered Veruda’s computer worm, on target and on schedule. The countermeasure program—three years in the making, following the defection of Dr. Cren Veruda to the Federation—had entered the Cardassian grid at the Monac shipbuilding facility and had propagated itself via subspace relays before anyone detected it. As far as Starfleet’s premiere A.I. experts could determine, the artificial intelligence with which the Cardassian Union had been tying together its offensive and defensive capabilities was now completely inert.

Three years fraught with a series of difficult assignments now culminated in this balmy San Francisco Sunday afternoon. And Vaughn found himself—astonishingly—with nothing to do except stroll through the Golden Gate Park Arboretum, Ruriko at his side.

Ruriko paused to admire a rhododendron nearly as large as her head. She closed her eyes as she inhaled the flower’s fragrance. Vaughn smiled, admiring her long black hair, her delicate porcelain complexion. It was hard to believe that the first time he had met her she had been surgically altered to pass as a Cardassian torturer.

How things change.

Ruriko straightened and gazed deeply into his eyes. As though she’d read his mind, she said, “I’ve come to a decision, Elias. I’m not taking any more field assignments. At least for a while. I want to get back into nanotech research full time.”

She regarded him expectantly. Did she hope he might drop out of the field as well? It certainly would make sense; he was nearly twice her age, after all. But Vaughn wasn’t certain he knew howto quit.

“Is this about what happened to T’Pry

She nodded. “It’s sobering to get a demonstration about how vulnerable we all are. That even Vulcans aren’t immortal.”

“She knew the risks. We all do, or else we wouldn’t sign on.”

“But nobody can count on luck, Elias,” she said with a rueful smile. “Your ass-brained philosophy notwithstanding.”

He took a deep breath, sensing what was to come. “Is this about settling down? Getting married?”

Her laugh reminded him of the serene fountain that burbled quietly in the arboretum’s center. “I know you too well to ask you to do that, Elias. Besides, I didn’t say I wanted to retire permanently. I just need a few years away from the job.”

He frowned, suddenly worried that she was slipping away from him. Or vice versa. “A few years away. To do what?”

“I want to have a child,” she said, taking his hand. “With you.”

Vaughn was poleaxed. He nearly fell over.

Then he thought about it. A child. Theirchild. What an affirmation of life creating and raising a child would be. For the first time he could recall in decades, he felt tongue-tied.

“Let’s talk,” he said, even though he knew that words were no longer necessary.

Toscana, Earth

2355 Old Calendar

“How’s my birthday girl?”

“Daddy!”

The late Commander T’Pry

Little Pry

Right now, whatever he could spare of himself belonged to little Pry

An urgent hail came in on Vaughn’s combadge. He breathed a silent curse. Why didn’t I just ditch the thing?

Ruriko noticed, scowling. But he knew she understood. He stepped away from the children to answer the call.

He braced himself to tell them that he couldn’t interrupt little Pry

But the call was from Admiral Presley’s office. There was a coup brewing on the Elaysian homeworld.

But it’s Pry