Madam Ambassador: Emeritus

A “Clipping Clue-Pons” POV CHALLENGE

Madam Ambassador: Emeritus

By Linda

Rating: G
Disclaimer: I have not made any money on this story.
Genre: POV Challenge, friendship
Summary: V’Lar’s early suspicions have proven true.
AN: Kevin’s Recruiting Mission inspired me to write this. I borrowed his invention of Vulcan names starting with a “V,” being an honorific title.

A “Clipping Clue-Pons” POV CHALLENGE

Madam Ambassador: Emeritus

By Linda

Rating: G
Disclaimer: I have not made any money on this story.
Genre: POV Challenge, friendship
Summary: V’Lar’s early suspicions have proven true.
AN: Kevin’s Recruiting Mission inspired me to write this. I borrowed his invention of Vulcan names starting with a “V,” being an honorific title.

As she added Soval’s latest personal communication to her file of their correspondence that went back way over a hundred years to their school days together, it occurred to V’Lar that their life-long friendship had been mutually beneficial. There are many times, and this he has admitted, where my logical analysis of a situation has countered his highly emotional nature and kept him from serious blunders. Not that he is blunder-prone or ineffective in his career, no; he is a highly developed tool of Vulcan off-world relations, as am I. But I disagree with his latest emotional outburst: his intention to sunder this bond between a Vulcan and a Human. I will compose a rebuttal to his illogical reaction tonight.

V’Lar, Ambassador Emeritus, or as she liked to be addressed: Professor V’Lar of the Vulcan Institute of Interplanetary Affairs, silently tread the deep carpet of her office over to the door and discretely closed it. It was her meditation hour. Perhaps if Soval would take an hour, instead of half that, for his own meditation, he would not be facing an impending cardiac problem in middle age. V’Lar’s health was holding nicely, and she had decided to end her planet-hoping days and her undercover activities while she was still able to climb Mount Seleya in heavy formal robes for the funeral rituals. The generation which came before her was dying off. She was loosing the mentors, teachers, and clan elders that she had always been able to take her most perplexing problems too. She was now the elder, the wise old one, and that mantle of responsibility rested heavily on her thin and aging shoulders.

Aging. The concept had come into sharp focus for her on the Human ship where not only was she further along in her life span, relatively, than any of the crew – she was three times the age of any of them. What to them was ancient history were childhood memories to her. And as a witness to history, they sought her out like a grandmother with tales to tell to children huddled around her chair late at night. That wild ride on the Enterprise - wild emotionally as well as tactically - had been the decision point for her: retirement from active diplomatic service. Yes, she would rather interact with Humans on a teacher-student level than a diplomat-military protector one. Affinity for the species as Soval had described it was not far off from her own view of these fascinating people. She was now the mentor with both Vulcan and Human young people staring at her with reverence in their eyes. It was both flattering and disconcerting.

She remembered the day long ago when Solik presented her with a jeweled IDIC and addressed her as Madam V’Lar instead of Assistant Ambassador T’Lar. A brief bow of his head, held a fraction of a second longer than was usually afforded her, accompanied the expensive symbol in rare Vulcan metal. The aides at his elbow repeated his bow in unison. V’Lar had lifted her chin slightly higher, unperceived by anyone but herself - to acknowledge this new respect. She had succeeded in a delicate and complex mission where diplomats senior to her had failed. It was her coming-of-age as one of Vulcan’s most revered citizens.

At this time of her name change, Soval was just entering the diplomatic service from the military service. He had done well there, where his bold confrontational style was a virtue. V’Lar had worried about his use of it in his new duties and had not been slow to point out the danger to him. In fact, she had been incredibly blunt about it, warning him that he could be his own worst enemy - especially with a personal tragedy occurring at the time of his promotion and reassignment.

He returned from his last military mission to his home in a modest neighborhood in the capital city and deposited the usual gifts for his wife on the entry table before anyone told him. He was home a day earlier than expected and wandered through the house and garden looking for his wife. A neighbor told him. His commander had been expecting him for a debrief before returning home, in order to impart the news in a personal manner. The gifts sat on the entry table in their wrappings as the enormity of his loss welled within him in the silence of an empty house. His emotions built to critical mass.

He hadn’t felt her die. He should have. He had been too centered on his work chasing a fugitive and his wife knew that. She had shielded him from her pain and quietly slipped away, leaving a loving echo in their bond. Now came the emptiness. He needed something to beat on something, to break something. V’Lar volunteered herself for the job, not wanting Soval to self-destruct by alienating a fellow diplomat in his new cadre.

She had invited him on a walking meditation into the desert where she had confronted him with own his neglect of his wife and his resultant feelings of guilt. He had shouted his pain and anger to the unmoving rock-strewn landscape and then turned his venom on her. He almost struck her. She had been ready for that, with her diplomat’s non-aggressive self-defense training…and the phaser set to stun in an open pocket of her desert trekking gear. But his rage ended in tears, tears that he would have let no one but his oldest and dearest friend witness. Vulcan tears: rare as diamonds and just as hard - as Surak said they should be in the emotion purging techniques which worked better for some people than the emotion suppression techniques. Soval was quiescent when he left for Earth several weeks after.

Earth had been a suitable posting for Soval, an assignment which V’Lar had helped to arrange. This had proven a good choice because the Humans had given as good as they got where Soval was concerned. V’Lar was surprised that Soval had not ‘picked up’ as the Humans would say, a Human mistress in all these years. Perhaps he had? No, because he would not have shown such a negative reaction to his mentee’s bonding with a Human. V’Lar was not surprised at this bonding, though. She too had been charmed by Commander Tucker in that short time on the Enterprise. He had appeared an honest, intelligent, and compassionate crewmate of T’Pol. The bonding was a logical extension of their relationship. Was this only hindsight, that she now thought she had detected a certain rapport between them - even then?

V’Lar’s thoughts drifted to Hoshi, who would have done admirably as a new mate for Soval. She would have been invaluable in his work with her linguistic skills. The discipline from her particular earth culture approached the Vulcan, as did much of the Japanese esthetic sense. And V’Lar would have requested the young linguist for her own aide if she had not been such a vital part of the Enterprise crew in its critical first years of service. With her skill and experience, Hoshi would make an outstanding addition to any Vulcan diplomatic team or to any Vulcan academic institution. Now that Starfleet had many competent crew people, V’Lar made a mental note to sound out Hoshi on a change in assignment. Vulcan had already obtained some of Earth’s best and brightest for the planet’s prestigious world of academe. There was an apt Human expression (there always was an apt Human expression) for this siphoning off of talent to the dominant society in any intercultural relationship: ‘brain drain’, which V’Lar understood was quite an old concept on Earth.

And speaking of ‘brain drain’, it was beginning to move both ways. Was this a sign that Human culture was starting to achieve a balance with Vulcan culture? There would be many Vulcans who would be tempted to retreat into isolation if they thought their culture was not the dominant one. Anyway, V’Lar wondered how her former colleague, Dr. Sivik, was doing in his new post at Harvard University. The whole family had moved to Earth, which was probably a good thing for Sivik’s idealistic and impetuous young son, in that it would give him something to compare his native Vulcan culture to.

V’Lar repressed her reminiscing and settled into a cross-legged, straight-backed posture on the large pillow facing the garden outside her office window. All would work itself out, as the Human poem on the scroll on her wall seemed to foretell. In the spirit of V’Lar’s life-long philosophy, the scroll hung next to one containing her favorite quote from Surak. This Human poem, The Desiderata, promised that the universe was unfolding as it should – which V’Lar sincerely believed was so.

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A whole mess of folks have made comments

A fascinating thought, Linda... that Soval, and not V'Lar, was the emotional one. Your description of Vulcan tears was very moving. Do I detect a bit of back story preparation in this one? I'm loooking forward to the "Young Vulcan coming of age" story that these last two POV fics seem to promise. Well done.

Thanks Distracted. I just sent in a revision of this story, hopefully it will be up soon. When I reread it, it seemed a bit fractured as I was doing computer stuff and Ojibwe language stuff at the time! That does make you think in a different mode. So your comments are very kind. And yes, I am working on the Sivik family background for a future story...

I really like this story, and I have to agree with Distracted that the decription of the Vulcan tears was very moving. You really captured that scene well and I also like the nice reversal of my preconcieved notions of Soval and V'Lar. I also like your little throw in about the brain drain and how it's starting to work both ways, a nice little description of Vulcan-Earth relations thats very realistic. Great fic!

Excellent story, Linda. Could this be the start of something "bigger"?

Firstevil, I AM toying with a story line. Just trying to feel out the characters at this time. Any suggestions are welcome. I have always wanted to work with V'Lar as a character and of course have been thoroughly infatuated with Soval from the first moment he started scolding humans. Can you see him as the Star Trek equivilant of Disney's Donald Duck? Well, maybe with more native logic... I better stop talking before I sound to weird.

Cool! I liked it, well done! :)

The ST equivilant of Donald Duck??? Thuferin' thuckatash! LOL You have such a gift for seeing Soval in a new light and I love it! Great idea of Hoshi and Soval too...perfect pairing...especially since I see Hoshi as being quite capable ot standing her ground with him and perhaps smoothing off some of those prickly edges of his. Great writing, as usual, Linda. Cleverly done and great character insights.

Yes Sharon, I can see Hoshi standing up to Soval -for sure if there is any of that mirror universe Hoshi in her! I love playing with these characters and trying to stretch them a little.

Nice addition! Yes, I can see Hoshi with Soval.

Thanks for acknowledgement. As you probably guessed, I made up the V' prefix being honorific based on V'Lar and V'Las. Almost all of the other Vulcan names I could think of started with a K, S or T sound. There was Vanik, but that doesn't use a V' prefix, so I fudged a bit. :-)

Nicely done and I like that in this one Soval's wife loved him.

Also you are right switching languages does change the perspective esspecially using English and Ojibway.

Lisa