Chapter By Chapter> Star Trek: The Vulcan Academy Murders chapter 28

Chapter By Chapter (usually) features me reading one chapter of the selected book at a time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as a read-along book club.

I hope everything fits in one chapter because my time is limited this week, kind of like the actual murder investigation in a novel about a series of murders. I’d still like to see more integration of the character stuff and the actual plot, but we’re almost at the end of this 35 chapter book. Last time we got to see some of the extra security measures taken with Amanda as they prepare to take her out of status and the machines basically running her body while the treatment takes. So if our killer is going to find a way to attack again, this is his or her last shot.

I know I keep harping on this disconnect between the plot and the character moments, but it’s still my only issue with the book. The character interactions are great, but the whole academy murder thing kind of takes my attention away from it because that’s what I’m expecting the focus of the book to be, with the character moments providing motive, opportunity, and alibis. Take that away, and you have a really interesting examination of Vulcan versus Terran culture as a new relationship forms between members of both cultures and races. If that’s the focus Lorrah wanted, then using the murders when Remmington’s recovery with an experimental treatment would have been enough. Again, I came into this after reading the sequel, which was about a medical crisis, but it was a plot that allowed for these kind of character explorations and I’m still looking forward to re-reading The IDIC Epidemic in the future. You didn’t need the murders, but with it there we should be spending more time with the suspects and the investigation than we have thus far.

I’ve stopped asking if this is the chapter that resumes the murder plot or not because I’m always wrong. Let’s just see what happens next.

Hey, there’s a murder investigation in this novel about a murder investigation!

Kirk meets up with Spock and Sarek as they leave Amanda’s chamber. He discusses the meeting with T’Pau and that she’s off the suspect list. From there we go over the suspect list again.

• Kirk, Spock, and McCoy have no motive, or opportunity, and Spock is the only one with anything close to the required skills. They were only on there for the sake of completeness and unbiased investigating.
• T’Mir was offworld during T’Zan’s murder so she’s off the hook.
• Sarek also lacked opportunity, though from an unbiased perspective the idea of wanting to be rid of an unwanted marriage still lays there, possibly using Eleyna as an assistant, something that Kirk doesn’t want to suspect Sarek of being involved in. We’ll come back to Eleyna, but the “get back at Sarek through is wife” motive fails because she’s an excellent student. Sarek noticeably relaxes when they think they the killer and Amanda will be safe, removing any doubt from Kirk’s mind. The only Vulcan we’ve seen that could even be capable of that level of acting is Stephen from Enterprise: The First Adventure, one of our previous Chapter By Chapter novel reviews.
• Solon and Daniel would have been picked up with all the mind melds he’s been involved with lately.

Sendet really makes himself the primary suspect in the worst way possible, by attacking Daniel. Kirk has to intercede to stop what he thinks is a murder but is actually Sendet trying to break the mental marriage bonding between Daniel and T’Mir, an even more unthinkable crime. Still, between that and Sendet ranting about how outworlder marriages is an affront to Vulcan society and culture and that T’Mir should be his, it’s not a surprise that he gets accused of the murders. It’s not helped when his alibi turns out to be a lie, as he couldn’t be at the temple during a time the priests reserve for uninterrupted meditation and thus he wouldn’t be able to be there. Solon and T’Mir managed to repair her connection to Daniel, and Sendet is taken away for what is essentially a trial in his mind. If he resists, it will be assumed he’s guilty and…let’s just say if the Vulcan Death Grip were real, it would be a kinder punishment. Sendet swears that at least he isn’t responsible for T’Zan’s death, but nobody even brings up poor Remington.

However, I’m not convinced Eleyna is off the hook. Narratively this is the kind of last minute twist that would come up, but of course I’d need more than that or given how little impact the murders have been to the story, the number of remaining chapters is a bit long to end it here. Remember, we’re on 28 of 35. Kirk’s motive given was that Eleyna was being flunked, but she’s an exemplary student. She and Sarek get along well, which was part of Kirk’s worry that he found a way to get Eleyna to do the dirty work with career and education advancements as the prize…but then he almost clicks onto my reasoning: that he may offer her Sarek himself, as in the new wife.

Kirk mentions in his mind (via the narrator) hearing women on the Enterprise noting how handsome Sarek is, plus he’s rich and in high social standing as an ambassador. We know Vulcans do sometimes draw the affection of humans. Just ask Nurse Chapel. Human females are especially drawn to older Vulcan men to do their advanced lifespan meaning a later puberty date, and that human women at the Academy can be drawn to their professors, which isn’t much different from Earth colleges in our timeline. Instead of working with Sarek, she might be working against him, or rather his wife. Get rid of the rival and then be the one comforting the intended romantic target. That’s motivation we’ve seen from humans in regular murder mystery and police procedural stories set in the normal world. We (but not Kirk) also knows that she wasn’t aware of T’Zan or Remmington also being part of the human trials on the regenerative process, has a program that Sarek didn’t recognize, and was at least monitoring events at the hospital. Maybe it’s because not having actually seen her I don’t share Kirk’s attraction to Eleyna, and I still find the sudden shift from “sorry, I’m busy” to “oh, you’re doing a search for a murder, please tell me more you sexy beast” suspicious, but I’m not ready to give her up as a suspect based on what I’ve seen in the story and general narrative knowledge (should I dare call it media literacy in today’s discussion topics?).

Does that mean she did it, or that there couldn’t still be an outside party willing to take advantage of this ending of the investigation, or that Sendet will be proven guilty? We’ll just have to read through the last 7 chapters and see.