Channeling a control he learned long ago, Spock focused his attention elsewhere. He read the status reports of the ship, noticing the intriguing way Chief Engineer Scott wrote his. Perhaps, he thought, a refresher course on the proper way of writing reports would be beneficial to the crew.

As he was finishing his report, Kirk walked onto the bridge.

Spock stood up. “Captain,” he greeted.

“Well, it’s good to see the ship is still in one piece,” Kirk commented, taking a seat in his chair.

The Vulcan opened his mouth to inquire if he did not trust him to take command of the Enterprise when the answer presented itself: the captain was being sarcastic. It would take him a while to get accustomed to his captain’s unique personality.

“When should we arrive at Risa?”

“Two hours, twelve minutes,” Spock answered precisely.

“Well, that should give me plenty of time to read up on the planet’s customs.” Kirk clapped his hands together. “I hear the locals there are quite friendly.”

A groan came from the side of the bridge. “Damn it, Jim,” Bones said crankily. “Can you stop thinking with your hormones for fifteen seconds?”

Spock suspected that the two of them would bicker for a while. With a curt nod, he stepped off the bridge onto the Turbolift. He punched in the mess hall level and waited to reach his destination. When the doors open, he stepped into the dining area.

With quick precision, he chose a balanced meal and made his way to a table in the far side of the room. Now that there were no reports or distracting views of the star streaked space, Spock found his thoughts drifting back to Vulcan and, more specifically, his mother.

He knew that his father, Sarek, would undoubtedly remarry and have more children. With the Vulcan population close to extinction, it was the logical thing to do. Still, no matter how many half-siblings he would have, he would be the only one of his kind, a child of two worlds as his father once called him.

Footsteps interrupted his thoughts. He looked up as Uhura approached the table. She took a seat right next to him, not across from him as most people would. But, nothing about Nyota was typical.

Spock found from his time on Starfleet that most humans found his personality to be cold and uninviting. Nyota, on the other hand, never seemed phased by his demeanor. When their relationship evolved, she never pushed him to show his attraction to her, she was completely aware of who he was.

No one, on Vulcan or Earth, had accepted him as she had.

Except his mother.

“You’re thinking about her again, aren’t you?” Nyota asked gently.

“I am unable to relinquish thoughts of her. I find that I was unprepared for her untimely death,” he admitted reluctantly. Pain and grief threatened to break through his steady wall of Vulcan logic. Though she was surrounded by two men who could never show their love for her, his mother never wavered in her devotion for them.

“Spock, you just lost your home and your mother. It’s going to take time to work through this,” she replied. “You can’t use logic when trying to process an illogical situation.”

He turned to her, meeting her gaze. “My mother never hesitated in telling me how proud she was of my accomplishments. I…regret…that I never was able to share that sentiment with her,” he forced out.

She grabbed his warn hand with her own, giving it a gentle squeeze. “She knew.”

He cocked his head to the side in confusion. “How can you be so certain?”

“Because,” she said confidently, “she was your mother. She knew what you were feeling even though he couldn’t show it. She saw past your Vulcan logic into your human heart.”

Suddenly, the conversation seemed to be more than what it seemed. For some reason, beyond logic, Spock felt like she wasn’t only speaking of his fallen mother. “Can you?” he whispered intensely. “Can you see the man I truly am inside?”

“Yes,” she said. Leaning forward, she softly kissed his lips for several seconds before pulling away. “I can.”