Fic: Consort, Chapter 9

Kirk's laugh was bitter. "'Destiny.' What a sad crock of shit."

The old man at the door, apparently unperturbed at Kirk's profanity, bowed to them politely as they stepped out of the temple into the cooling air of evening and began the walk back to Soval's home. Dust rose in small clouds around Kirk's quick, impatient steps.

"Look, no offense intended, again. But I'm the last person in the universe who would believe in destiny. Spock is probably the second-to-last person. We know it's all random, all the shit in the universe." His voice tightened. "One of me has a father, another one doesn't, one of him has a mother and the other one doesn't, one of you has a home planet and the other one doesn't, and it's all because of one dude with an insane vendetta fucking up the timeline. Shit happens. There's no such thing as destiny."

"This other, the one you called his 'older self.'"

Kirk forced himself to slow, matching Soval's more sedate stride. "Yeah?"

"Was he t'hy'la? With the other version of yourself?"

He froze in mid-step

What?

and saw the red dust of the street before them fade into pale ice, felt the air chill from cool to to frigid and the sweat on his face freeze into tiny sharp crystals, and he turned to watch as the gentle eyes of one old Vulcan shifted to become those of another.

Ha no way this is Spock what the fuck what a joke just some crazy old guy whoa get your hand away from me hey

What...

It is Jim my Jim

Oh such joy

I am...?

He staggered as the world returned with a jolt and closed his eyes against the memory.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think he was. I think they were."

"You see, do you not?" Soval resumed his unhurried pace, Kirk falling in beside him. "You speak of occurrences, chronological events. I agree that those are not fixed and that the future is therefore unknowable. But I do not speak of events. I speak of the congruence of souls, yours and his. Whatever situation you find yourselves in, you would still be destined for each other. If you were born years or light-years apart, each of you would move so as to find the other."

"So...that means we had no choice?"

"We believe that t'hy'la find each other across the distance of their birth circumstances. If they do not, of course they may choose to bond with others. But once they do find each other, the old bonds must dissolve. The link of the t'hy'la is inescapable."

"Are you saying there's no free will? I can't just choose to leave, to break the bond and move on? Because I gotta tell you, that kind of sucks for me."

It was Soval's turn to pause in mid-stride. "Break the bond? Why would you wish to do so? To be t'hy'la is to experience the highest form of companionship in our society, superior to all bonds. To be t'hy'la is to find true fulfillment in every facet of physical and spiritual life. Why would you wish to abandon such a connection?"

Kirk shrugged, his pace quickening again. "I'm not saying I want to abandon it now, just that I'm not counting on it lasting. I don't do long-term relationships."

"But you are already joined. You have always been joined. You need each other."

Kirk turned to find Soval well behind him, stopped in the middle of the street, his lined face reflecting all the confusion it was capable of. "Look," he said as he doubled back toward where the Vulcan stood, barely visible in the last of the fading daylight. "You don't know me. I don't need anyone. That's just not who I am."

Soval regarded him intently for a moment, then nodded. "You may think you do not need anyone. But you are wrong. You have merely been waiting for the one you need. You did not know that there has always been someone waiting for you."

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