Then Comes Spock, 7/15
Title: Then Comes Spock: Basic Biology
Author: teaoli
Characters: McCoy, Spock, Uhura, Ambassador Spock, Sarek, OFC, Enterprise ensemble
Summary: The Enterprise has completed its first mission & its senior crew have settled into their roles. Unusual circumstances send Spock and Uhura to the Vulcan colony. Sequel to Don’t Lose Your Compass, which is also available somewhere on lj and might even eventually make it to my journal.
( Read Hybridogenesis )
( Read Clarity )
( Read Business as Usual )
( Read First Comes Love )
( Read Down to the Bones )
( Read Tea and Sympathetic Natures )
“I take it back. Maybe I don’t have a reasonable understanding of basic biology,” Nyota Uhura said sadly. Her whole body seemed to slump down in her seat. “Tell me I don’t understand, Bones. If I’m correctly processing what you just said, then this situation should be impossible for more reasons than I realized. None of this should be happening, and my husband has every reason to be worried about going to the colony. Tell me I’ve got it wrong.”
She was huddled in one of the guest chairs in front of his desk. He watched as she rearranged her body, seeking a comfortable position - which he was pretty sure she wouldn’t find. Not in that chair. Not with her four and half month old belly changing her center of gravity and forcing her to change the way she carried herself.
There were times when McCoy would have tried to cheer up her with some down-home talk or by tossing out one of his typically cranky admonishments to “stop beating the cat before she knew if the milk was spilt.” Orneriness had built half his reputation; letting her see beneath it had earned him her love.
There were times when turning it on was guaranteed to make her smile. This wasn’t one of those times.
He picked up the PADD he’d been quoting from and moved from behind his desk. Sometimes it was a good idea to be in hugging distance when you had to give a pregnant lady bad news. Especially if the pregnant lady in question was one of your closest friends.
“I’m afraid you understood me perfectly, darlin’,” he said evenly, his alert eyes scanning her person for any signs of increased distress as he perched on a corner of the desk. “None of this should be happening. And Spock isn’t crazy to think that maybe the Vulcans have something up their sleeves this time.”
She stood up abruptly, the added baby weight making her movements less fluid than they had once been, but somehow not detracting from her grace.
“It doesn’t make sense!” she hissed, struggling to keep her voice from rising on the tides of her emotions. “That’s not the Vulcan way! They’re supposed to be honest, Len. They’d take the logical route, yes, but they would be honest about it. Wouldn’t they?”
McCoy, now certain that the time for that hug had arrived, wrapped his arms around the woman standing before him, the PADD still in one hand.
“Sug’,” he murmured in her ear, “we’ve never seen them desperate before. We don’t know what they’d be willing to do, if it meant saving their people. That’s what’s been riding your hobgoblin.”
He gave her a little squeeze, then ran a hand down her hair before pulling back to look at her, once again.
“That, and he’s running scared that, if they succeed, it’ll tear the two of you- .” He glanced down and aimed a rueful grin at the round ball that was her tummy. “The four of you apart.”
She reached up to place a hand on each of his cheeks. Her dark, intense eyes held his.
“Never gonna happen, Bones,” she told him. Then, smiling just a little, she got on tiptoe to kiss his forehead.
“And you’re going to help me make sure of it,” she said, dropping back down onto feet clad in sensibly low-heeled boots and taking the PADD from him.
McCoy sighed as he walked her to the door of his office.
“Now why did I have a feelin’ you were gonna say that?” he asked as the doors slid open.
“Go easy on this one, oaky?” Uhura pulled Spock’s head down for a lingering kiss before allowing him to leave their quarters. “You’ve only got a handful more if she doesn’t work out.”
In preparation for their imminent three-month leave on Vulcan Beta, both she and he had taken on extra observational shifts to facilitate deciding who would be their primary replacements. Not everyone was suited to working the extended bridge shifts. Tonight, Spock was observing - testing out, really - one of his potential choices.
Once the doors closed behind her husband, Uhura curled up on the sofa in their quarters with the PADD McCoy had given to her earlier.
“It wasn’t easy getting this, Nyota,” he’d told her before she left sickbay. “It’s still considered classified information. Vulcans don’t let go of their secrets easily.”
“That doesn’t make sense, either,” she had protested. “Not now. If they had more eyes and hands and minds at their disposal, things might go so much more quickly. Sometimes I can’t believe how stubborn- No, that’s just the hormones speaking. I can believe it. I can even understand it. But right now, I can’t accept it.”
She’d promised to read the information her friend had taken such pains to acquire. In the morning, she’d have to return the PADD, and the data it contained, to the doctor.
A Simplified Understanding of Reproducing Vulcans:
From Germ Cell Differentiation in the Production Sex Cells in the Vulcan Male and the Vulcan Female to the Gestational Processes
As in most humanoids species, spermatogenesis, the process of gametogenesis in males, is the process by which male gonocytes, termed spermatogonia, mature into gametes or spermatozoa. While the process differs somewhat among species, there are many instances during the three stages of spermatogenesis in which all known species are aligned:
Primordial germ cells, located in gonadal ridge of late-stage embryos, are the progenitors to gametes in both male and female embryos across all known species. Known as spermatogonia in males, these are most simply described as the primitive reproductive cells. The changes in these cells as they mature comprise the process.
After undergoing up to five stages of differentiation and mitotic division, the diploid spermatogonia develop into primary spermatocytes through a meiotic division in a process called spermatocytogenesis, .
During spermatidogenesis, the secondary spermocytes enter a second meiotic division, forming spermatids.
During spermiogenesis, the final stage of spermatogenesis, haploid spermatids become spermatozoa.
The order of this process does not vary in most known humanoid species.
The report hadn’t even gotten to the pertinent data and already Uhura felt her head starting to ache.
Simplified my ass! she thought as she slogged through the dense scientific lingo. Though for the most part she was relearning biological processes she’d first learned in primary school, she searched for an answer to the mystery that was her daughters. Nothing, so far, was pertinent to her quest.
She understood that during prophase One of meiosis, homologous pairs of chromosomes met and often recombined to ensure genetic variation. It followed that if Spock had somehow avoided this process, it was entirely possible that he might produce sperm containing only Vulcan genetic material.
It was entirely within the realm of possibility, though seemingly unlikely, as the report said Vulcan spermatogenesis though slightly different from that in humans, usually included this process. Still, if the girls were truly half-Vulcan, it had to have happened.
Except.
“Except, if that happened,” she spoke aloud, “how could we be expecting daughters?”
She paged back down to the section on sex determination in Vulcans. It didn’t exactly follow the XY/XX model of humans.
This time, she read far more closely, even taking carefully detailed notes as she went along. In the end, though, she had to concede defeat. There were no more answers for her here than she’d gotten in McCoy’s office.
She’d switched off the PADD and gotten up to make a pot of herbal tea when a new thought occurred to her.
Briskly, she walked over the comm unit and contacted the doctor.
When his sleepy face flashed on the screen, she brandished the PADD for him to see.
“Bones,” she said, agitation coating her words, “if this thing is right, my daughters can’t exist. If this thing right, Spock shouldn’t exist either!”
McCoy faced sank from tired to miserable.
“Damn it,” he said. “I guess I shoulda known you’d figure that one out.”
Next chapter...
Author: teaoli
Characters: McCoy, Spock, Uhura, Ambassador Spock, Sarek, OFC, Enterprise ensemble
Summary: The Enterprise has completed its first mission & its senior crew have settled into their roles. Unusual circumstances send Spock and Uhura to the Vulcan colony. Sequel to Don’t Lose Your Compass, which is also available somewhere on lj and might even eventually make it to my journal.
( Read Hybridogenesis )
( Read Clarity )
( Read Business as Usual )
( Read First Comes Love )
( Read Down to the Bones )
( Read Tea and Sympathetic Natures )
“I take it back. Maybe I don’t have a reasonable understanding of basic biology,” Nyota Uhura said sadly. Her whole body seemed to slump down in her seat. “Tell me I don’t understand, Bones. If I’m correctly processing what you just said, then this situation should be impossible for more reasons than I realized. None of this should be happening, and my husband has every reason to be worried about going to the colony. Tell me I’ve got it wrong.”
She was huddled in one of the guest chairs in front of his desk. He watched as she rearranged her body, seeking a comfortable position - which he was pretty sure she wouldn’t find. Not in that chair. Not with her four and half month old belly changing her center of gravity and forcing her to change the way she carried herself.
There were times when McCoy would have tried to cheer up her with some down-home talk or by tossing out one of his typically cranky admonishments to “stop beating the cat before she knew if the milk was spilt.” Orneriness had built half his reputation; letting her see beneath it had earned him her love.
There were times when turning it on was guaranteed to make her smile. This wasn’t one of those times.
He picked up the PADD he’d been quoting from and moved from behind his desk. Sometimes it was a good idea to be in hugging distance when you had to give a pregnant lady bad news. Especially if the pregnant lady in question was one of your closest friends.
“I’m afraid you understood me perfectly, darlin’,” he said evenly, his alert eyes scanning her person for any signs of increased distress as he perched on a corner of the desk. “None of this should be happening. And Spock isn’t crazy to think that maybe the Vulcans have something up their sleeves this time.”
She stood up abruptly, the added baby weight making her movements less fluid than they had once been, but somehow not detracting from her grace.
“It doesn’t make sense!” she hissed, struggling to keep her voice from rising on the tides of her emotions. “That’s not the Vulcan way! They’re supposed to be honest, Len. They’d take the logical route, yes, but they would be honest about it. Wouldn’t they?”
McCoy, now certain that the time for that hug had arrived, wrapped his arms around the woman standing before him, the PADD still in one hand.
“Sug’,” he murmured in her ear, “we’ve never seen them desperate before. We don’t know what they’d be willing to do, if it meant saving their people. That’s what’s been riding your hobgoblin.”
He gave her a little squeeze, then ran a hand down her hair before pulling back to look at her, once again.
“That, and he’s running scared that, if they succeed, it’ll tear the two of you- .” He glanced down and aimed a rueful grin at the round ball that was her tummy. “The four of you apart.”
She reached up to place a hand on each of his cheeks. Her dark, intense eyes held his.
“Never gonna happen, Bones,” she told him. Then, smiling just a little, she got on tiptoe to kiss his forehead.
“And you’re going to help me make sure of it,” she said, dropping back down onto feet clad in sensibly low-heeled boots and taking the PADD from him.
McCoy sighed as he walked her to the door of his office.
“Now why did I have a feelin’ you were gonna say that?” he asked as the doors slid open.
“Go easy on this one, oaky?” Uhura pulled Spock’s head down for a lingering kiss before allowing him to leave their quarters. “You’ve only got a handful more if she doesn’t work out.”
In preparation for their imminent three-month leave on Vulcan Beta, both she and he had taken on extra observational shifts to facilitate deciding who would be their primary replacements. Not everyone was suited to working the extended bridge shifts. Tonight, Spock was observing - testing out, really - one of his potential choices.
Once the doors closed behind her husband, Uhura curled up on the sofa in their quarters with the PADD McCoy had given to her earlier.
“It wasn’t easy getting this, Nyota,” he’d told her before she left sickbay. “It’s still considered classified information. Vulcans don’t let go of their secrets easily.”
“That doesn’t make sense, either,” she had protested. “Not now. If they had more eyes and hands and minds at their disposal, things might go so much more quickly. Sometimes I can’t believe how stubborn- No, that’s just the hormones speaking. I can believe it. I can even understand it. But right now, I can’t accept it.”
She’d promised to read the information her friend had taken such pains to acquire. In the morning, she’d have to return the PADD, and the data it contained, to the doctor.
A Simplified Understanding of Reproducing Vulcans:
From Germ Cell Differentiation in the Production Sex Cells in the Vulcan Male and the Vulcan Female to the Gestational Processes
As in most humanoids species, spermatogenesis, the process of gametogenesis in males, is the process by which male gonocytes, termed spermatogonia, mature into gametes or spermatozoa. While the process differs somewhat among species, there are many instances during the three stages of spermatogenesis in which all known species are aligned:
Primordial germ cells, located in gonadal ridge of late-stage embryos, are the progenitors to gametes in both male and female embryos across all known species. Known as spermatogonia in males, these are most simply described as the primitive reproductive cells. The changes in these cells as they mature comprise the process.
After undergoing up to five stages of differentiation and mitotic division, the diploid spermatogonia develop into primary spermatocytes through a meiotic division in a process called spermatocytogenesis, .
During spermatidogenesis, the secondary spermocytes enter a second meiotic division, forming spermatids.
During spermiogenesis, the final stage of spermatogenesis, haploid spermatids become spermatozoa.
The order of this process does not vary in most known humanoid species.
The report hadn’t even gotten to the pertinent data and already Uhura felt her head starting to ache.
Simplified my ass! she thought as she slogged through the dense scientific lingo. Though for the most part she was relearning biological processes she’d first learned in primary school, she searched for an answer to the mystery that was her daughters. Nothing, so far, was pertinent to her quest.
She understood that during prophase One of meiosis, homologous pairs of chromosomes met and often recombined to ensure genetic variation. It followed that if Spock had somehow avoided this process, it was entirely possible that he might produce sperm containing only Vulcan genetic material.
It was entirely within the realm of possibility, though seemingly unlikely, as the report said Vulcan spermatogenesis though slightly different from that in humans, usually included this process. Still, if the girls were truly half-Vulcan, it had to have happened.
Except.
“Except, if that happened,” she spoke aloud, “how could we be expecting daughters?”
She paged back down to the section on sex determination in Vulcans. It didn’t exactly follow the XY/XX model of humans.
This time, she read far more closely, even taking carefully detailed notes as she went along. In the end, though, she had to concede defeat. There were no more answers for her here than she’d gotten in McCoy’s office.
She’d switched off the PADD and gotten up to make a pot of herbal tea when a new thought occurred to her.
Briskly, she walked over the comm unit and contacted the doctor.
When his sleepy face flashed on the screen, she brandished the PADD for him to see.
“Bones,” she said, agitation coating her words, “if this thing is right, my daughters can’t exist. If this thing right, Spock shouldn’t exist either!”
McCoy faced sank from tired to miserable.
“Damn it,” he said. “I guess I shoulda known you’d figure that one out.”
Next chapter...