Unification - Jeri Taylor [39]
Spock moved away from him, frowning with frustration. “This is precisely what I wanted to avoid.”
Picard felt Spock’s backing off was perhaps an effort to constrain rising emotions. He sensed it was time to move from confrontation, although he was reluctant to introduce the next subject. But it had to come.
“I also have the responsibility of bearing some unhappy news.”
Spock turned back and fixed him with those penetrating eyes. “Sarek is dead,” he said.
Startled, Picard thought for a moment that the news had reached Romulus somehow, then realized that it was simply Spock’s prescience.
There was a long silence. Picard could hear others breathing, shifting position, feeling uncomfortable about the nakedness of this intimate moment. Finally, Spock gestured toward a passageway. “Walk with me, Captain Picard.”
Picard glanced at Data, letting him know it was all right to stay behind, and followed Spock out of the chamber. They walked quietly through the rough pathway and then emerged into another, smaller section, one where water oozed from the walls and dripped into unseen underground rivers. It was warm and moist there, and Picard was reminded of the vineyards of southern France just before a thunder-storm.
Spock turned and gazed at him. Whatever might be going on inside him, there was no hint of it on the surface. His voice, when he spoke, was as composed as ever. “I know of your mind meld with my father. It enabled him to complete his last mission.”
“It was an honor. He was a great man.”
“He was a great representative of the Vulcan people and of the Federation.”
Picard gave him a glance. It sounded as though Spock meant that as a qualifter, and not a compliment. But with his dry intonation, it was impossible to be sure.
Picard thought of Sarek, a feeble, trembling man with tears staining his face, unable to hold his hand in the Vulcan salute. His last words were a plea to Picard to convey to his son what he felt, but now in Spock’s presence Picard felt inadequate to the task. How to tell Spock of Sarek’s love for him? How to convey a lifetime of feelings unspoken? Yet he felt bound to try.
“I was with him before coming here,” he began. “He expressed his pride in you, his love…” The words sounded hollow in Picard’s ears, and his mind struggled to find better ones.
“Emotional disarray,” replied Spock dryly, “is a symptom of the illness from which he suffered.”
“No, the feelings were in his heart, Spock. He shared them with me. I know.”
Spock turned away and Picard knew he was uncomfortable with this emotional discussion. He would prefer to mourn Sarek’s death in his own way, some rational acknowledgment that all living beings die; Picard was making him uneasy with the message from his father.
Spock moved back to business. “Sarek would no more approve of my coming to Romulus than you do, Captain.” He began to pace the small, humid chamber, organizing his thoughts, gradually becoming caught up in his ideas, eager to communicate.
“For some time, I have been aware of a growing movement here… of people who seek to learn the ideals of the Vulcan philosophy. They have been declared enemies of the state. But there are a few in the Romulan hierarchy, like Pardek, who are sympathetic.” Spock paused and looked solemnly at Picard.
And then he said something that Picard would never, in his wildest thoughts, have imagined to have been at the heart of Spock’s clandestine journey to Romulus: “He asked me to come here now because he believes it may be time to take the first step toward reunification.”
Picard stared at him, genuinely stunned at this revelation. His mind whirled to process the ramifica-tions. “Reunification… after so many centuries… so many fundamental differences that have evolved between your peoples…”
“It would seem unlikely to succeed,” Spock agreed. “But I cannot ignore the potential rewards that a union between our worlds would bring.”
Picard took a moment to reflect. He was familiar with the history of the Vulcans and Romulans, who were once one people—a passionate, raging, violent race whose emotions