#valeris

[sirellas]

STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY (1991) dir. Nicholas Meyer

[acatnamedafteradog]

Tied tiger

By valeris for MonsterCheetah on furaffinity

[wwillywonka]

SPOCK: REGRET

[bumblingbabooshka]

Patreon Preview: Valeris [Patreon | Commissions]

[isthereintruthnobeauty1968]

some excerpts / elements of 'a question of loyalty' that i enjoyed:

the implication (i think!) that spock pays less heed to valeris' flaws because he sees in her the sort of success he could've had as a young man without the complications and setbacks associated with his mixed ancestry:

the explication that valeris' reason for being involved in the conspiracy in VI is straightforward bias against klingons specifically and... really anyone other than vulcans more generally:

saavik pulling a v familiar, daresay illogical maneuver during a crisis:

and this sad little sequence:

[cdr2002]

Mirror Universe Concepts: The Family of Spock

Sarek

A longtime rebel against the Terran Empire, Sarek was believed to have been killed when the ISS Charon bombed Harlak during the waning days of the reign of Emperor Gorgeau. That illusion provided a convenient cover to go underground and disappear from both public view and Terran Intelligence. Beginning to operate with cloak and dagger tactics against the Empire, as well as using his influence on Vulcan to help ferry or hide his fellow rebels, Sarek was instrumental in keeping the fight against the Empire’s tyranny alive into the 2260s.

Initially, Sarek was unaware that his estranged son Spock had deduced his survival years ago, but simply let the matter lie. Disapproving of Spock’s decision to join the Imperial Starfleet, a decision that Spock at the time rationalized as owing to the fact that no rebellion against the Terran Empire in galactic history had ever succeeded, Sarek did not speak to his son for years. He was needless to say, very surprised to find out that Spock had begun his own revolution and coerced a bulk of the crew of the Imperial flagship into joining it. Initially skeptical, Sarek tested Spock’s convictions via a mind meld, learning that he to had been exposed to knowledge of the alternate universe from which the benevolent variant of Michael Burnham he had previously encountered hailed.

Sarek would come to join his and Voq’s rebellion with his son’s and aid Spock in expanding his network across present and former Terran Empire territories, liberating many and repairing his relationship with his son in the process.

Amanda Grayson

Wife to rebel leader Sarek and mother to Spock, Amanda was formerly an ambassador of the Imperial Senate, tasked with conveying their will to subjugated worlds. It was on a mission to bring news of increased water reserves as a reward for loyalty to the people of Vulcan that she met and fell in love with Sarek, who elucidated to her many of the flaws of the Terran Empire. Already aware of the Empire’s penchant for cruelty, something she had made efforts to minimize when possible throughout her career, Amanda would join his rebel cause, learning many of the secrets that kept Vulcan rebellion quiet throughout the last two centuries and covertly aiding many liberation groups due to her political standing.

Ultimately, she would leave Terra when the rebel base at Harlak was discovered, leading to the seeming death of her husband. Further radicalized by this, she began to openly fight through Empire, and would be continuously hunted as a remnant of Sarek and Voq’s rebel cell. Just as Imperial Starfleet was able to catch up with her, Amanda had her death faked in a seeming transporter accident. In secret, she reunited with her husband and his continued rebellion, albeit now having taken an even shadowier form. Amanda joined Sarek in going underground, vowing to never be separated from him again, and aided in his cloak and dagger rebellion. In particular, Amanda took to the concept of fighting the Terran Empire through knowledge and literature, leaking banned works to databases on various Terran worlds, especially those of schools, and becoming a teacher to the children of rebel forces.

Eventually, the revolution would grow in strength when Amanda found herself reuniting with her son Spock, who much to her joy, had begun fighting the Terran Empire himself. Though she still thought poorly of his prior service to the Imperial Starfleet, and knew his relationship with his Fabre recoils take time to heal, this reunion of her family served as a great inspiration for Amanda. Their fight has a chance.

Sybok

A controversial figure in Vulcan society, Sybok was the son of Sarek and T’Rea, a Vulcan “Princess” who was a figurehead of the Terran Empire before Sarek convinced her to join his nascent rebellion, resulting in her ultimate death at the hands of Terran forces.

Sybok abandoned the teachings of Surak, believing that logic had tempered the Vulcan people and made them into complacent slaves of the Empire. As such, he began a rebel movement based out of the backwater planet Nimbus III, using his unique variant of Vulcan psychic ability to instill the sense of pain caused by their actions onto killers from across the Galaxy: Terran Starfleet officers, murderous criminals, and even a few Klingons and Romulans. With his “Galactic Army of Light”, Sybok believed that the Galaxy could only be cleansed of violence and evil if the perpetrators of said violence were made to understand and feel the pain they had caused and either made reparations or forfeited their lives.

By the time Spock began his own revolution, Sybok was a formidable enemy of the Empire and one of the most influential rebels among the disparate cells. Well aware of his brother’s work, Spock would contact him and bring him into the fold when he decided that the various rebel cells needed to unite in order to stand against the Terran Empire. Though estranged from his family, Sybok readily accepted. With Spock’s help, he aims to bring about galactic peace, a concept many would dismiss as a myth, but one which Sybok fully believes in.

Commander Angel

A free-spirited human pirate captain with a disdain for the stifling attitudes of Terran society: the rigid adherence to a flawed doctrine of Terran superiority and draconian loyalty to the state, and what they felt were shackling ideas of how that loyalty should be exhibited. To that end, Angel struck out on their own, acquiring a vessel, the Serene Squall, and remaking themself as an infamous pirate captain known for taking from the Terrans, the Orions, the Klingons, the Ferengi, and anyone else who they saw as imposing their will upon others, and redistributing their gains to the planets left behind by the current galactic powers. Incredibly cunning and skillful, with the Squall being a fast, if underpowered ship, Angel was able to outrun and outhink any forces who attempted to pursue them.

Being branded a criminal by any of the Empires they spit in the face of only emboldened them more, as did being marked for death by criminal networks, which Angel considered just as fascistic as most governments, in their own way. Angel greatly believes in personal freedom and aims to dismantle the systems that oppress billions across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, though their crew is mostly content with basic hit-and-runs and the occasional Robin Hood-ing, and Angel has had the means to do little else for the bulk of their career, due to their relatively small pool of resources compared to the forces they challenged. Things began to change when Angel came into contact with Vulcan outcast and revolutionary, Sybok. Over time, the two fell in love, and Angel joined Sybok’s revolutionary movement, gleefully bringing justice to butchers across the galaxy, but also studying psychology in order to help those who Sybok’s telepathic powers had caused to become remorseful over the lives they had taken. Angel finds the revolution now undertaken by Sybok’s half-brother Spock to be interesting. They believe that if Imperial Starfleet officers can change without Sybok’s assistance, it is proof that despite the propaganda of empires, no one is just one thing, including even the Terran people. In a way, Spock has begun to restore Angel’s strained faith in humanity. Perhaps their people can be more than what they are…

T’Pring

Betrothed to Spock in accordance with an ancient Vulcan ritual, T’Pring carried a great love for him that was greatly strained by his time serving in the Imperial Starfleet. An advocate for criminal reform, T’Pring had no great love for the Empire’s doctrine and felt betrayed by Spock’s servitude to its ideals. T’Pring would come to aid Vulcan rebels in secret, fearing that Spock would eventually become an enemy who she might even need to kill.

When he came to her with ideas of revolution, she was surprised, and partially relieved, though she wished Spock had come to these conclusions sooner. The damage to their love was done, but the two carried a great respect for each other nonetheless, and vowed to work in random for the freedom of a Galaxy.

Michael Burnham

Notes: Burnham and Spock are not related in the mirror universe, but I wanted to include her in this post regardless.

In agreement with the admins of Memory Alpha, I am regarding the “Terra Firma” mirror universe as an alternate timeline

Branded a traitor to the Empire for her collaboration with the upstart Gabriel Lorca to seize the Imperial throne and marked for death by Emperor Georgiou, Burnham was presumed to have been killed and dealt with by the time her prime universe counterpart was forced to impersonate her during an unplanned sojourn to the mirror universe. However, this could not be further from the truth.

Suspecting the fragility of Lorca’s plan as soon as it resulted in the official announcement of her death to justify a hunt for the man, when she could have served more usefully as an agent within Emperor Georgiou’s inner circle, Burnham parted company with Lorca at some point prior to his transposition to the prime universe, under the guise of seeking more allies for their plan. While Lorca sought revolt using those within the Imperial Starfleet who could be turned, he and Burnham had considered manipulating the enemies of the Empire. She made an attempt to rally together the Klingons and Romulans against the Terran Empire, believing treaties could be secured once she was in power, but this ultimately failed due to existing bad blood between the two races.

With the impatient Lorca dead and Burnham herself once again presumed to be such due to the destruction of the ISS Charon, she found herself a walking ghost. Though adopted by Georgiou as a daughter, Burnham’s status as a traitor left her unable to leave hiding and claim the rite of being her heir, nor was the bloodbath of the fight for Imperial control after Georgiou’s seeming death worth the risk to her.

Burnham decided to bide her time, but found she had waited too long when Imperial war hero Garth of Izar crowned himself Emperor. With the power of the throne granting Izarius access to the knowledge of her plot with Lorca, Burnham has been left with no leg to stand on in terms of challenging him, as she could not invoke her rights as the previous Emperor’s daughter.

Her Terran pride also prohibited her from bowing to the new Emperor’s rule and hoping to gain acceptance back into the Empire. Even if she allowed herself that option, there was no guarantee she would not be executed regardless, or thrown into an Agony Booth to “remind her of her oath to the Empire”. Nor did she like the idea of doing whatever Izarius might ask of her to earn her trust. She had nearly ruled the Empire alongside Lorca, and could have claimed the throne for herself if she could catch him unawares. She considered concocting a story of a secret mission from Emperor Georgiou to infiltrate Lorca’s rebellion, but who would believe that? No, there would be no return to the Terran Empire without the seizure of the Imperial throne itself. A takeover that was swift, bloody, and left her unchallenged. But to achieve that, Burnham would need allies.

Most of her co-conspirators in Lorca’s plot had died aboard the Charon, shrinking the circle even further. Perhaps she could throw her weight around onboard the ISS Shenzhou, take back her command of the ship and be its secret captain, with the Shenzhou’s current commanding officer as a face to put in front of Imperial Command as she waged a secret war against the Emperor. But that would be a risky endeavor, and just one ship would not land her an Empire. Garth had loyalty, respect. The fleet at his beckon call. Burnham had supporters, people who owed her favors, but even that wouldn’t be enough. As treasonous as the thought was to her, Burnham even considered joining a resistance cell rather than trying to position herself as the leader of one, and manipulating their goals for her own purposes from within. But she decided against that too.

Unaware of Spock’s revolution and how far it would soon grow, Burnham believed no rebellion against the Empire would ever succeed. Instead, she contacted her remaining allies in the Imperial Starfleet and enlisted their aid in helping her remain hidden, as well as promising them glory and power once she rose to the throne. Burnham tasked her supporters with keeping their eyes and ears open, looking for anything that might weaken Izarius’s powerbase and provide her an opening. For now, she would rely on an information network, wielding knowledge as power on her way to the throne.

One potential avenue that Burnham had been considering was a little secret that Georgiou had let her in on, a technology known only to the Emperor and the Admiralty. The late Doctor Stamets’ invention: The Spore Drive. The basic technology had powered the massive ISS Charon, though its initial development had been to increase the speed of Imperial vessels, rather than their firepower. One Spore Drive had been successfully installed aboard the ISS Discovery as a testbed, a carefully guarded secret. With the Discovery gone, and the ISS Glenn scuttled after a mysterious accident, Burnham would need another meand to gain access to the technology, and a ship to install it in. Should she lay claim to an operational Spore Drive, Burnham believed she would be able to destroy any ship that stood in her way, and carve her path to the throne of the Empire. As for the ship, the new Discovery-A, commissioned to honor the death of Captain Killy, would serve her purposes nicely.

Bolstering her plans would be another cunning mind and an unexpected ally: exiled Imperial captain James T. Kirk, ousted by his first officer, Spock, who had claimed him to be a madman to Imperial Command. Hunted and with a limited selection of allies himself, Kirk tuned in to rumors that Burnham lived and sought her out. She to had become curious about him, finding his story of being betrayed by the very Empire he had served so loyally to be all too familiar. With their combined tenacity and Kirk’s knowledge of another Imperial superweapon that not even Burnham had been privy to, their deadly alliance poses a serious threat to both the Empire and the revolution.

Saavik

The child of a union between a Vulcan and a Romulan who fell in love while infiltrating Imperial space, Saavik’s life was almost immediately at risk. The Terran Empire had reacted aggressively to discovering the shared heritage between the Vulcans and Romulans, hunting for any potential Romulan presence among their citizenry. Busting down doors, dragging out families to be examined. It was an invasive persecution that for many elder Vulcans, brought back memories of when the Terrans had conquered them in the late 21st century.

With the fear of being found out before them, Saavik’s parents chose her life over theirs. Her father took his own life and her mother was forced to present his body to Imperial Police in order to masquerade as a loyal citizen of the Empire who had killed a Romulan infiltrator for them. The ploy worked and the Terrans never took a second glance at her daughter.

Though taught in the Vulcan way to control her emotions, Saavik would grow up in constant fear, fear that no amount of logic could dissuade. At every moment she risked being discovered, and then her life would be over.

Saavik would develop a tendency to avoid Terrans, fearful that any one of them could report her. As if they would somehow discover that she was half Romulan just from looking at her. She was more comfortable in Vulcan company, but still felt like something of an outsider due to her inability to fully commit to Vulcan serenity.

This changed when Saavik met an Imperial Starfleet officer, Spock, who had returned home to visit his fiancé at the time. Being half-Terran, Spock could recognize many of Saavik’s struggles and offered to aid her in dealing with them. Saavik accepted and became Spock’s pupil, eventually trusting him enough to share her heritage with her.

Spock’s solution to her situation was far from what Saavik expected, and an idea to which T’Pring strongly opposed. Spock recommended to Saavik that she enlist in the Imperial Starfleet, as he had when his parents became known rebels against the Empire. He suggested that the way to survive the Terrans’ xenophobia was to embed herself in their system and make herself useful to them. To present a loyalty to the Empire that outshined any personal details.

The prospect was needless to say, nerve-wracking to Saavik. But she trusted Spock, and accepted his sponsorship to the Imperial Academy.

The setting did little to help her anxiety, but Saavik did her best to bury that under as much emotional control as she could muster. Academically brilliant and a fast learner of various combat techniques, technical operations, and regulations; Saavik excelled in the Academy. She had to, in order to survive. If she was an excellent enough Imperial officer, she would not be questioned.

Saavik’s class happened to include another Vulcan, a woman of about her age named Valeris, who had enlisted for similar reasons of assimilating as a method of survival. She even made displays of emotion here and there and acted on impulse from time to time, in order to make her Terran peers more comfortable. It was fascinating to Saavik.

Saavik quickly gravitated towards Valeris and despite some awkward early encounters, managed to befriend her. Both were in need of a fellow Vulcan to make their environment more bearable, and began to confide in one another at the end of each day. Over time, it was impossible for Saavik to deny that she had fallen in love with her, and Valeris felt much the same. Saavik introduced Valeris to Spock, and it was difficult to mask her delight when he approved.

Eventually graduating from the Imperial Academy, Saavik quickly began a command path with her field commission, hoping to rise in the ranks as a further means of protecting herself. Spock warned her that a starship captain was a major target just as much as they held power, but Saavik had gained some confidence from her training, and believed she could deal with any potential assassins. Valeris for her part offered to protect her by any means necessary.

Saavik would not see Spock for a few years, as his duties aboard the ISS Enterprise increasingly demanded his attention. When they finally reunited, it was after Spock had seemingly flown in the face of his own advice and become captain of the Enterprise.

While Saavik was initially joyful upon meeting with Spock, in her own understated way of course, she was surprised by the seeming change in attitude.

She would go on to discover that there had been a profound change in Spock. As soon as they were in private and away from any potential ears, he revealed to her his realizations about the illogic and irrationality of the Terran Empire, and the need for massive radical change in order to save Terran society from itself, and those who had been subjugated by the Empire in the process. All this from the same man who had told Saavik to fight for the Empire to survive. Saavik was confused and all but shocked, but she trusted Spock deeply, and allowed her mentor to explain himself.

To fully detail his plan, Spock offered a mind meld with Saavik. She accepted, and was shown images of the mind of one Leonard McCoy. But not the doctor aboard the ISS Enterprise… a different Leonard McCoy.

Through his eyes, Saavik bore witness to another reality. The utopia, the paradise.

The Federation.

When the mind meld terminated, Saavik understood her mentor’s goals. She was uncertain if it could truly be done, but she was willing to try. Later that night, she initiated a mind meld of her own work Valeris, and before long, her lover was on the side of the revolution as well.

Saavik is now one of Spock’s agents behind Imperial lines, supporting the revolution from within Starfleet, and waiting for the day to enter the battlefield for freedom directly. It is Spock’s wish that she and Valeris be among the first of a new generation, that will look out into the stars not to conquer, but to explore. Saavik meanwhile, dreams of living in fear no more, and of a future where a kid like her will not have to be afraid either.

[woman-of-many-fandoms]

So now that I've jumped on the Saavik bandwagon (namely how much of a daughter she is to Spock) I went back to thinking, would I still want her to be the traitor as opposed to Valeris? I decided yes. It parallels nicely to Kirk losing his son and then Spock has to lose his pseudo daughter. I know she was a fan favorite by this point but I think that would have made a bigger impact. (and would have stoped people from thinking she would be a good love interest for Spock)

[star-trek-fandom-confessions]

#457

"I loathe the theory/headcanon that T'Lyn is descended from Spock and might have human blood because of it. Not every main or supporting Vulcan character has to be related to Spock. Besides, it would be less Mary Sue-ish if T'Lyn was related to Valeris or Captain Sokel. But if she were related to Spock somehow, I think it'd be more believable if she were descended from one of Sybok's orgies and her rebellious personality came from him instead of some human ancestry."

[purple-iris]

Saavik: *citing regulation and talking back to Jim* Jim: *puzzled, but not surprised* Spock: *simply brushes it off, nearly Vulcan-beaming with joy, uses it as a way to create a coded message* Valeris: *citing regulation and talking back to Jim* Jim: *nearly insulted* Spock: *raising eyebrow, sorta annoyed* ahem-

[defconprime]

Spock’s protégés (50% is ok!)

[97b0n3s]

Very upset thinking about saavik today… “we didn’t want to keep her in the movies or she might turn into a villain-“ SILENCE. Simply do not do that to her. It just makes me sad because I felt like Spock was always trying to find a successor (hello valeris) and was always disappointed or backstabbed and I feel like at the end of the 6th movie he was like damn so I really can’t trust ANYONE but Kirk and McCoy that’s crazy.. and that makes me very very sad. saavik helped fill that void in the second and 3rd movie but she was also just an interesting character that I felt was deserving of staying. (hashtag best lesbian) she had lots to learn and was very brave and helpful and like if she wasn’t on genesis baby Spock could’ve totally died of hypothermia. She kicks ass and she just stayed on vulcan.. i just wish she was in the movies in some way like a cameo or at the end of the 6th she pops up out of nowhere.. she kicked ass.. just blabbing my apolocheese

[samthetrekkie]

for having watched this movie at least twice before (albeit several years ago), I recalled surprisingly little of the plot. and so did my dad, who had once watched this with me! I used to think this was my favorite tos movie and I think the reason was bc this movie needs the smallest tos context. like it's objectively a - not super inventive - but thrilling and interesting plot. I also only now realized how much this movie made parallels to the end of the cold war and overall had some really good dialogue, which, let's be honest, not all of tos has.

but I think the reason it's not my favorite tos movie anymore, is bc I now do have the context and for a star trek movie, it was pretty weak when it comes to the characters. and tos is especially character-driven (to the point were the same 2-3 characters are protagonists in each episode). and I find that really interesting bc I do like all of the tos crew, but I also need that kirk/spock relationship thrown into my face again and again. and there was very little of that this time (not nothing though) and each character had kind of important roles to play. I don't want to say this is the only tos movie that operated like that, but I do notice it more in this one as I used to think this was the best movie.

anyway, there were still a few things I liked about the character portrayal in this. kirk and spock seemed to have some bigger issues prior to this as kirk seemed to be pissed off and distant with spock the whole time. and you can't tell me this was just bc of the assignment with the klingons. kirk felt like spock had personally attacked him with this assignment and spock seemed really confused, probably thinking he had given kirk an interesting last mission. so in my headcanon, their seem to have separated at this point :( but later on I really enjoyed how unusually angry spock got when he found out valeris was the one responsible for getting kirk convicted and had ultimately put his life in danger. there was a certain level of guilt in there too, as spock had been the one to get them into this mission in the first place. and kirk having pretty much forgiven spock in rura penthe of all places, was really surprised to see spock's behavior and even felt bad for it, so it seems. he was not even initiating the kiss with iman's character! (also very interesting alien concept, similar to changelings, when it comes to gender.) in general he seemed almost never interested in any of the women in the movies, which I have mentioned before, but I love as it fits right into my headcanon :) but mccoy's "what is it with you" after the kiss was still amazing as it summed up the entirety of kirk's obsessive womanizing behavior in tos. generally, mccoy had the best one-liners ever in this. and he was by far not the most prejudiced one in this movie. and he was actually really nice to spock the entire time and seemed relatively tame in general. do we see a little character change caused by the last movie…? I still don't see mccoy and kirk being a thing, but mccoy and spock on the other hand…

I won't take this any further and rather conclude my tos walkthrough for good now (even though some of the characters appear in other series and movies again). I thought it was really interesting to see the changes the decades made on sci fi and to watch it with a person who actually lived through those decades.

I have to say tos really is up there now in the star trek ranking for me, maybe even above tng. (but we'll watch that next, so this view might change very soon.) spock (as played by nimoy) is certainly one of my top 3 star trek characters and I think that says a lot for a show that was written in the 60s. (the other one is seven and I have no idea who the third one is, but... we got all the autistic-coded ones up there, don't we.)

I'm so glad we have so much to go when it comes to star trek, though! even if it'll take us several years, now that I've counted it… (there is some shows and movies I will skip, though.)

[tigerexe]

i've been rotating Mr Saavik in my head since i initially saw Wrath of Khan and reading The Pandora Principle simply increased the rotation speed. such a traumagirl of all time.

i BEG you all to read the Pandora Principle if you're as disappointed in Saavik's lost potetial as i was

[nuclearbattery]

,✌️

[ds9-polycule-tales]

Always hitting that nail so perfectly it shoots out of the wood and bonks a Nazi on the head

[the-great-bob-off2024]

Round 1, Match 2

Bob Propaganda

Rapunzel: "the love of her life cut it (killing himself in the process) to save her from her kidnappers! it literally symbolises her freedom!" [x]

Valeris: "she's evil, she has a weird metal headband, and her sideburns are shaved" [x]