McCoy is a baby-daddy. Forget for a moment that Scotty totally beasted his temporary command of the ship and outed a Klingon decoy. Try to ignore Chekov again sporting my 4th grade haircut. McCoy is a baby-daddy! Sort of.
Pregnant with the recently-deceased leader’s child, the life of Eleen (Newmar) is forfeit to appease the new leader. Their culture dictates men take responsibility for everything on this planet (includes baby-making which gave further fodder for McCoy’s usual snarkiness).
What’s interesting is her behavior. She had to know what she was doing. She was lying to herself when she said she didn’t want the child. She was securing her child’s future aligning ‘physically’ with McCoy.
Sonnet 19
How dark and wild and hard the world
when sweetest dreams weigh down the heart
and to the pyre would you be hurled
to satisfy some poor upstart.
It need not be as dire as this;
just once could be a mother’s kiss,
and suddenly the firmament
would open wide with kind dissent
that worlds anew may be your birth.
Most beautiful for being small
and yet encompassing our all,
to live is always trying worth
for those endowed with purpose great
as guardian of a child’s fate.
Starfleet Academy Course Recommendation: Pregnancy & Its Various Cultural Nuances with Special Considerations for Maternally Manifested Loopholes (presented by Leonard James Akaar)