The Eyes of the Beholders - A. C. Crispin [8]
As the two children grew, they saw each other occasionally, but, aside from the tenuous, easily ignored mental bonding they shared, she knew little of the boy she would one day marry in the Koon-ut kal-if-fee. Sukat was simply part of the distant future, far removed from her day-to-day existence.
From her earliest days Selar had wanted to be a healer. Saving lives and relieving suffering seemed to her to be the noblest of life missions. She studied hard, proving to be an exceptional student, even for a Vulcan. When she was seventeen, she was accepted by a good school and began her medical studies.
Within a year, Sukat also began courses at her school. She saw him frequently, for they shared a number of classes and lab periods, and they ate either the noon meal or the evening one together nearly every day. For the first time, Selar grew to know her betrothed …
… and found that she did not like Sukat. The thought of spending fifteen or sixteen decades as his wife was intolerable.
Their natures were simply not compatible. Selar had a lively curiosity about other species, including humans, and an appreciation for the differences between cultures. Xenobiology fascinated her. She respected and adhered to the tenets of IDIC, the Vulcan credo that urged reverence for Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.
Sukat, on the other hand, regarded beings who were not Vulcans as automatically inferior, intellectually, physically, and ethically. In many instances he was correct in his belief, Selar acknowledged, but that did not rescue him from being what humans hundreds of years ago would have called a bigot.
Selar wanted to see faraway planets and the wonders between the stars, while Sukat regarded travel as an infrequent but sometimes necessary unpleasantness.
The only trait they shared was their ambition. Selar envisioned herself as a leader in her field someday, and so did Sukat. But Selar had a slight edge as a student, and, once both began their residencies, she achieved higher praise from her mentors. Sukat reacted to his wife-to-be’s success as if she had deliberately set out to make him look bad by comparison. He never, by word or deed, revealed that this was how he felt, but Selar knew.
During the final year of their betrothal, Sukat confided to his intended his desire for a large family and that he felt delays in childbearing in order to further the wife’s career were ill advised. After all, he pointed out, it was much more logical for females to pursue their careers once children were grown to the age of independence, rather than have to interrupt them at a crucial point for the increased responsibility of child rearing.
Selar did not agree. It seemed to her that it would be preferable for her to establish a foothold in her own career first, then for both parents to share in the child-rearing responsibilities. But she did not voice her opinion. By now she knew without asking how Sukat reacted to people who did not agree with him.
Ultimately, as their final graduation to the title of “Healer” loomed ahead, and with it their scheduled wedding, Selar knew that she could not go through with the marriage.
Dispassionately, she informed her family of her decision. They were as disappointed as she had foreseen. Her marriage to Sukat was eminently logical, they reminded her. They were a perfect match in every way—socially, educationally, genetically. Selar was told that she was being foolish—all her work with those humans must have contaminated her.
The young Vulcan was obdurate, however. She would not marry Sukat. She went to his family and told