Aptitude (Star Trek)

Kirk paused in the doorway to look at Spock “Is there anything we can do to get you away from here?” McCoy also stopped to listen. Spock looked down and shook his head “Where would I go?” McCoy stepped forward “Surely your mother…” he broke off as Spock’s face hardened his tone icy “My mother, Doctor, was killed by Commander Sarek when I was young.” McCoy looked shocked “Your father killed your mother!” Spock tilted his head in a questioning manner “You know Commander Sarek is my father?” Kirk responded “Yes, we’ve met them…in our world. They’re happily married”

Spock seemed to be contemplating “Married…here my mother was a slave in one of the work camps Sarek owned on Vulcan, I was a by-product of that…ownership” the word seemed distasteful as he said it “It was his right” McCoy blinked as if he couldn’t quite take it in “Why was she killed”

Spock shifted and paled slightly “It was my fault, It was reasoned that she was providing too much emotional and tactile support as such it would hinder my development into Vulcan society”

McCoy furrowed his brow and Kirk let out a sound of disbelief “he had her killed for loving you?”

Spock inclined his head, “In the end I could never be fully Vulcan as Sarek wished, it was only my aptitude for scientific research that stopped him terminating me. He decided to trade me to the Empire” There was an uncomfortable silence after this statement and Spock looked back up at them “My life could have been much worse”