Chapter Text
Incredible as it may seem, there were times when Commander Spock found Starfleet Regulations to be highly unsatisfactory.
In his former role as an exemplary student of, then a distinguished professor at Starfleet Academy and in his current role as CSO and First Officer of The Enterprise, Commander Spock was honor bound to follow regulation. He had of course memorised the entire code at the earliest opportunity. His eidetic memory uniquely qualified him to advise the crew and captain of potential breaches of regulation.
Over the past 17.3 months Spock had reached the conclusion that Starfleet Regulation was ill-equipped to deal with the reality of Captain James Tiberius Kirk.
Grudgingly Spock could allow that the founders of Starfleet could not logically have been expected to anticipate the future existence of James T. Kirk and his unerring ability to encounter life-threatening situations. In practice however he found himself unsatisfied with the regulations which hampered his ability to protect his captain.
Spock chose not to identify at exactly which point since the beginning of their five year mission he had begun to consider James T Kirk as his. Instead he accepted the irrefutable logic that it was his responsibility to safeguard the safety and wellbeing of his captain.
This duty would be undeniably easier to accomplish if Captain Kirk were not so adept at discovering the proverbial needle of trouble in the haystack of the universe. The human possessed a remarkable ability to attract trouble in any situation. As a Vulcan Spock was adept at calculating all possible permutations and outcomes in any situation. In the past 17.3 months he had discovered that the presence of his Captain inevitably increased the likelihood of the most bizarre scenarios becoming reality.
The events of the previous 48 hours were a case in point.
The mission was one Jim would term a ‘milk run’ as they were merely escorting a group of Starfleet Diplomats to an outwardly peaceful planet which had responded positively to overtures from the Federation. Prior experience of such missions prompted Commander Spock to accompany his Captain to the surface, the bridge crew were on high alert and Spock was aware that Dr McCoy was somewhat pessimistically prepared for any medical emergency. Spock preferred not to dwell on the fact that the good doctor apparently kept a biobed constantly available in the expectation that it would be occupied by either the Captain or himself. Such medical protocol was unfortunately logical when one considered it had been required on 22 previous occasions.
The planet had existed in peace for several generations yet Jim had managed to beam into the midst of a presidential assassination attempt. The Enterprise landing party had quickly succeeded in preventing the attack without sustaining any casualties. Most remarkably of all, his Captain had not suffered any personal injury. The Enterprise had been invited to extend their stay to join with the impromptu festivities which had sprung up in their honor. Spock had therefore categorised the planet among the 32.4% of planets whose population was inclined to worship his Captain.
In retrospect it had been unwise to lower his guard.
But how could a half-Vulcan be expected to anticipate the possibilities of that most illogical of Terran holidays - St Valentine’s Day?