Kal-if-fee

The kal-if-fee (which literally translates as "challenge") is a Vulcan "passion fight" to the death, in which two Vulcan males fight for the right to mate with a certain female. During the Vulcan mating ritual known as koon-ut-kal-if-fee, a female can claim kal-if-fee if she does not want the male arranged for her at childhood. At which point, the male arranged for her must fight the female's selected mate. 

In 2154, First Officer T'Pol threatened to declare the kal-if-fee when her betrothed, Koss, informed her that he intended to go through with their prearranged marriage. Koss responded by suggesting that T'Pol's "Human friend" Trip Tucker might make a suitable challenger. T'Pol consequently married Koss without calling for the kal-if-fee. 

In 2267, the Vulcan T'Pring, betrothed to Commander Spock of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), claimed the kal-if-fee and chose Captain Kirk as her champion, all as part of a plot to evade her impending wedding to Spock and instead marry her preferred mate Stonn. 

When Vorik underwent pon farr in the Delta Quadrant in 2373 and wanted to take fellow USS Voyager crewmember B'Elanna Torres as his mate, the half-Klingon female ultimately claimed the kal-if-fee and chose to champion herself. 

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