It was early Friday evening, and Mr. Spock was in a quandary. Mating time was upon him; he had his most urgent need ever to find a mate, and it wasn't just a matter of being horny. Every seven years, all Vulcanian males experiences pon farr, a powerful biological drive which demands that they mate or die. Finding a female was not a problem, because he had already chosen one. His quandary resulted over his lack of certainty that she was willing, because the things Elizabeth Foster, the young Earth woman, said and did were confusing in the extreme to his strong sense of logic.
She flirted with him, smiling and batting her eyelashes and twirling her long, dark brown hair but, when he responded to her apparent invitations, she gaily pushed him away. The beautiful and puzzling young lady wasn't strong enough to actually deter him, but Spock hated to employ the tactics that were once widely used by his remote ancestors.
On Earth, such tactics are sometimes referred to as the "Caveman technique" or similar euphemism, unless they were referred to by their correct name, which is "Date rape." They were rarely used any more on Vulcan, but they did still have some degree of acceptance among traditionalists. Spock considered the possibility of carrying the young woman off to a place he knew of and mating with her there, whether she liked it or not. The more he thought and the more he felt frustrated by all the mixed signals he was getting from the enchanting Elizabeth, the more he considered doing just that.
"Why can't she just be logical," he asked himself, but he had no answer.
Elizabeth was not actually part of the crew, but was a member of a cultural exchange between Earth and Vulcan. Spock was the executive officer of The Enterprise and, since the captain was not aboard, he was in charge. They were docked at the principal spaceport on his home planet, a city he knew quite well, and he was aware of several places he could easily and safely take the young lady if he chose to hark back to the ways of his ancestors.
She was standing in front of a communications console, although not actually using it, when he approached. She turned partly toward him, smiled, thrust out her highly attractive chest and twirled her hair while greeting him in a very affectionate way. He returned her greeting and reached out to take her in his arms as her actions and demeanor and the expression on her face seemed to be asking him to do, but Elizabeth just giggled and pushed his hands away.
"Oh, my, Spocky. What a flirt you are," she trilled, arching an eyebrow as she smiled even more charmingly and continued running her fingers through her hair and moving her shoulders in such a way that her larger breasts swayed under her tunic.
He couldn't take any more. One skillful hand reached out and applied the famous Spock pinch, and the beautiful young woman crumpled, to be caught in his arms. He was committed by that move to a course of action he would have preferred to avoid, but the die had been cast. Glancing around to see if anybody might have observed him, he held her limp form against his chest and carried her along the deserted passageways of the ship to where his private groundcar was parked. She was still unconscious when he strapped her into a front seat, got inside and started driving toward a place he knew well.
In a remote area, just a few kilometers outside the city was a property owned by his family and formerly mined. There were no more of the valuable minerals that had been taken from the ground, but the small cabin used by the operator of the robotic equipment was still there and available for his use. It was quite sparsely furnished, but would be adequate for the rather short period of time he expected to spend there with the woman who would be his mate. She was just starting to become conscious when he drove into the shed and closed the door. By the time he had taken her into the cabin, placed her on the bed with her head nestled in a pillow and tied ropes with slip knots to each corner, Elizabeth was fully awake, although confused.
"Where am I?" she asked in the time honored tradition.
"You're quite safe, My Dear. You're at a place that has been in my family for many generations."
"Why have you brought me here?" Abruptly, she realized she had just been abducted. "How dare you!" she blurted. "Take me back to the ship!"
Spock was committed to mating with the young woman, whether she liked it or not, and he had no intention of taking her anywhere until he had done so. At the same time, the process would be much easier and more enjoyable if she just cooperated, as had been the custom among females on Vulcan when such abductions were the norm.
"You are in no danger from me," he assured her. "I just want to mate with you."
As a student of Vulcanian culture, Elizabeth was aware of the old customs on Vulcan, but she was amazed that any of the men on the planet would still use them, especially an educated and responsible man such as the executive officer of The Enterprise. She was also rather flattered that he had chosen her. The flirtations with Spock had been quite pleasant but, when she realized his intentions, she started to think of him as being much more than just somebody to tease.
Whatever her thoughts along that line might have been, Elizabeth Foster was too independent a woman to put up with such violations of her free will. "You'll do nothing of the kind," she retorted. "Now, take me back to the ship so I can report you. You'll be up on charges before the Federation for what you've done to me already. Don't make it any worse by keeping me here any longer."
Spock, of course, would do no such thing. Even though he feared he had badly misinterpreted the mixed signals she had given him over the last few weeks, he was committed to mating with the beautiful young woman who was lying on the bed, because it was almost certain he would not have time to find another female, either human or Vulcanian, before the deadly syndrome took hold.
