Chapter By Chapter> Star Trek: The Vulcan Academy Murders chapter 31

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.

The last five chapters to go. Last time Kirk’s date…didn’t go well. The question is was he left to die or is his date getting help?

As an article writer it’s always the last few chapters I have issues with. I don’t want to spoil anything for someone who just showed up, I already talked about any related subjects to death, and I don’t know what to talk about next. So I’m just going to jump into this, even though it makes the homepage post look a bit weak. Hopefully if you’re here you’ve already come this far, but if you’re new, this is a good book and worth checking out and reading along. I’m hoping that sometime I’ll pick a book people have read and want to discuss a chapter at a time with me, but for now, let’s see what’s happening at Sendet’s trial.

Once again we get to see a mind meld from the inside, much as we did when trying to rescue Sorel from his ended bonding with T’Zan. This time it’s the “Verification” of Sendet that he didn’t kill T’Zan and Remington. While trying to understand his position we learn that he is a follower of T’Vet, a faction that didn’t give up violence completely. Again, canonicity of a novel is debatable, but we do see that Vulcans accept this as an alternate religion of sorts and doesn’t necessary negate Surak’s quest for logic, just maybe not the pure logic we usually expect. T’Vet followers are even on the Vulcan council. However, What Sendet and his small circle are seeking is a form of revolution, to return to the old ways. T’Pau later talks about sending this group to start their own colony to live their lives as they see fit without disrupting Vulcan society. Or you could send them to the Romulans. By now the Romulan origin had been confirmed as being Vulcans who left to form their own society.

Once again Lorrah plays with lore, which again is of questionable canonicity. While exploring Sendet’s hate for offworlders, which leads to learning about his being part of the followers of T’Vet and his issues with his father, we see Sendet’s Kas-wan. For those of you out of the loop (or working for Secret Hideout), the Kas-Wan is a survival challenge for young Vulcans. Get from point A to point B. If you survive without help you have proven your manhood or something. During Sendet’s he attempts a short cut and the short version is that it doesn’t go well for him, as he ends up on his back bleeding. It’s Spock, despite Sendet’s hatred of half-breeds, who is the only one to play Good Samaritan (more fitting if you know the full origin of the name) and comes to his aid. Putting a living being’s life above a test that can be retaken, Spock ends up passing while two boys who refused to help failed, and Sendet would end up passing on his second attempt.

This interesting means in Lorrah’s splinter timeline that Spock has taken the Kas-Wan twice, once unofficially to prove himself to his father in the episode “Yesteryear” and the time mentioned here, where being a good person was more important than a test that can be retaken without consequence beyond retaking the test. And thus he never actually saw the end of the challenge. At least this time he saved a life instead of losing a beloved pet.

We get a good look into Sendet’s mind and why he thinks the way he does, but we also get evidence that he isn’t the killer, as Daniel realizes. Who is? Really, there’s only one suspect left and Kirk got left behind in the desert by her. The next four chapters will tell us if I’m right.