The Pon T'Keshtan

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:

As Sa'aat performed the Katau Fa'ark, Kirk and McCoy monitored Spock and those in his suite from a station in the Medical Bay. Half the screen showed Spock's vital signs, while the other showed live video of his room from several different angles. The Vulcans had turned off the lights and had snuffed out the meditation lamp - for which McCoy had expressed gratitude - but Kirk could make out Nyota, Sa'aat and, more vaguely, Sarek, gathered around the biobed. Gilgreni also attended, but was relegated to standing in the hallway beside the closed door. Kirk had glimpsed him earlier, his eyes closed and his face serene in meditation.

Scotty beeped in, letting the captain know the Haulat had situated itself near the Shuttle Bay's ceiling and now glowed with self-generated yellow-green energy pulses. "On the readouts, the pulses are made of mostly theta waves, but they're modulating at a cycle I've never seen before, and, well, theta waves don't usually glow, Captain."(1)

"Is there any danger to the crew?" Kirk asked.

"I cannae tell, but..." Scotty answered. "The theta wave levels are relatively low, and I dinnea see any indication that the glowing effect has any debilitating attributes."

"Bones?"

"Theta waves are pretty benign, Jim. Of course, if there's a sudden flash like we experienced when Spock went through the shriv t'kae, there's no telling what might occur."

The captain mulled this over for a few seconds and said, "Better safe than sorry." He tapped some touch-screen buttons on the monitor, activating the intraship communications system. "All stations, this is the captain," he said calmly.

Crewmembers stopped mid-step and mid-action throughout the ship to listen to the broadcast. "Doctor McCoy and Mister Scott have informed me we may experience another anomalous psionic discharge over the next several hours, so, as a precaution, I'm putting the ship on Yellow Alert. All hands to alert readiness; non-essential personnel maintain general quarters until further notice. Kirk, out."(2)

"You know, the crew has pretty much figured out the psionic discharges are coming from Spock," McCoy muttered after Kirk closed the channel.

"Yeah, but my alerts go right into the log; and I don't want Spock's name showing up in relationship to the discharges unless it's absolutely necessary."

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When Nyota stepped into Spock's mind, she was immediately slammed to one side by a blast of cyclonic energy, as if she had entered through the side of a tornado. In the distance, the disturbance looked threadbare, as its effect lessened and dispersed along its edges. However, in her location, all Nyota heard was high-pitched shrieking, while whirling layers of fog and static interspersed with distorted, filmy images bombarded her. Occasionally, lightning struck the layers, creating small, sizzling black spots that withered into ugly puckers and smelled like burnt flesh.

Sa'aat appeared, positioned like a cement beam before her, in an area where the cyclonic effect, while less intense, still caused his long hair to stream horizontally from his head. Nyota considered moving toward him, but looking down, discovered nothing onto which to place her feet. As the turbulence continued to beat against her, she shouted, "Oh my God, what is this?"

"The remnants of the shriv t'kae," Sa'aat said, but his lips didn't move. He spoke into her mind. ".- And the damage T'Pau left after she initiated the kashek fo-dan."

"Spock's nightmare about the maelstrom -!"

"Yes, in part."

"I thought you came in here earlier to alleviate this!"

"I did. It took nearly half a day to quell the effect to this point. It was far worse before. Had you stepped in earlier, your mind would have been reduced to irreparable shreds."

Sa'aat extended his arm out through the roiling mass to hand her something. Nyota reached for it, but it took all her strength to fight the wind, to keep her own outstretched arm steady enough to latch onto the thing. She pulled a looped end of a rope manufactured from a thick material made of a webbed mesh of dark green filaments to her. Her mind flashed to her biology courses at the Academy and the images of brain cells and synapses under a microscope. "What is it?" she yelled in Sa'aat's direction.

"I can hear you," he said quietly, again without moving his lips. "You need not scream. Use your mind."

"I'm not as good at that as you are, you ice-blooded S.O.B.!" her mind said, and then she added aloud, "Oops! Sorry about the 'S.O.B.' part!"

"Internal censoring comes with practice," Sa'aat advised.

"Oh? What are you censoring right now?"

Sa'aat ignored her question. "Do not take anything you see here in the literal sense. What you observe is an amalgamation of imagery from Spock's pneuma and cerebral processes, your thought processes and perceptions, and mine. There is no oxygen, no up or down, no gravity. In this place, everything is perception, 'seeming' only, not reality in a three-dimensional sense."

"Including this?" Nyota asked, indicating the rope. She could see and feel it; it certainly seemed three-dimensional to her.

"It is a suggestion. Think of it as a mental tether. Hold it as a reminder, so we do not become separated. If you become lost in here, I may not be able to find you."

Nyota slipped the loop over her hand and tightened it against her wrist. Sa'aat pulled the tether, drawing her through the storm. Away from the edge of Spock's consciousness, the winds were less severe, and the noise less bothersome. Nyota looked up, then down - even though Sa'aat had said no such reference points existed here - and saw they were suspended in the eye of a storm.

Sa'aat slipped his arm around Nyota's waist, and before she could object, he said, "Brace yourself," and they began to fall.

She screamed all the way down.

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McCoy and Kirk could hear everything Nyota said aloud. When she screamed, Kirk jumped up and rushed to Spock's room. "Wait!" McCoy called after him. "Jim! Don't disturb them!"

The captain skidded to a halt at the door, where Gilgreni blocked his way. He tried to calculate his chances of winning a battle with the Vulcan over the door controls.

"You cannot enter. If you break Sa'aat's concentration, they will all be lost," Gilgreni told him in all seriousness.

"McCoy?" The captain yelled over his shoulder.

"Her vitals are fine, Jim," McCoy called back. "Something just scared her. She's okay!"

"You must not intrude," Gilgreni put his hand over the door's control panel.

Kirk clenched his fists, frowning and then reluctantly returned to McCoy.

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"Oomph!" Nyota grunted when the free-fall abruptly ended. They were suspended, buoyant over a dank landscape. It felt like they were in water, although neither of them was wet, and for a moment Nyota struggled to breathe. Sa'aat sank beneath her, tugging her down after him by the tether at her wrist. He put his hands to her waist again from behind, and set her feet on the damp ground.

The environment was not what she had expected from Spock. He was a desert creature who enjoyed botany and spoke often of green places and sandy places with equal fondness and veneration. She had half-expected his mind to reflect that; but here, everything was cast in cadaverous grey and was humid, drab and overcast. The land and sky blended, making it impossible to tell if there was a horizon; and nothing seemed completely formed. Under her feet, the earth felt soft, like wet clay; a kind of pale grey-green matter she couldn't readily identify.

"What is this place?" Nyota asked.

"Cinerea," Sa'aat uttered, more to himself than to her.(3)

She turned to him and was stunned by his appearance. Sa'aat was now a carved piece of polished, living crystal with a translucent peach-colored core; his sharp angles and flat facets reflected everything around them. His heart beat like a blob of pinkish orange mercury in his side. "This is a part of Spock's unconscious; a primordial component of his brain," his mind told her, and when it spoke an iridescent node of light at Sa'aat's forehead convulsed, and congealed, and flexed inside the crystalline-peach stone. "It resides ever in a primitive and unformed state, allowing for contact without preconception or judgment. It links us all to the k'war'ma'khon."

He pointed upwards, and Nyota looked above them. The sky, if it was the sky, oozed with thousands of large drops of an oily fluid that clung to the surface of the upper atmosphere, but didn't fall. As far as Nyota could tell, inside each drop a Vulcan floated, adults and children, males and females, each made from the same icy-pink crystal as Sa'aat. She thought she recognized S'Risha and Sarek, Gilgreni and even little Tasmeen, the mute Vulcan girl they had rescued with the Fonn Vuhlkansu from New Vulcan.(4) The drop holding Sarek trembled, dislodged from the sky and fell to the ground at Nyota's feet. There, the drop and the liquid image of Sarek inside it, sat on the surface of the ground before being slowly absorbed.

"Sarek now joins us - on a surface level," Sa'aat explained.

"That's amazing." Nyota looked at him again, and blinked. In several of Sa'aat's facets, she thought she could now see her reflection. The woman moved when she moved, lifted a hand when she lifted a hand, turned when she turned, but shone all over with long beams of colored light: red at her feet, orange at her groin, yellow at her core. From her heart, pale green light radiated; from her throat, light blue; and from the top of her head burst a beacon of pure white energy.(5) Surrounding her, but not inhibiting the light, was a clear bubble. "Is that... me?"

"It is a perception of you," Sa'aat said.

"Your perception, or Spock's?"

"An amalgamation."

"Well, thank you, I think. I look very... radiant, if I do say so myself. You look like a crystal with a translucent light-copper core to me."

"An apt description, perhaps," Sa'aat conceded. "Vulcans are creatures of stellar material, rendered by heat and compression, with a basis in native polycrystalline yar-tukh."(6)

"In this place you're also transparent. Is that because Spock can see through your stony façade?" Long crystalline hackles on the back of Sa'aat's neck bristled; he didn't appreciate her assessment, but he did not answer. "And copper is malleable, " Nyota went on. "But that doesn't seem to describe you. Perhaps it's a reference to your more ductile qualities, your ability to endure force without breaking?"

"Or perhaps it indicates you do not know me as Spock knows me," Sa'aat said, turning to walk away from her. He couldn't get far ahead, however, as they were tethered together; and when Nyota refused to move, he was forced to stop and turned to face her again. "You are dilatory," he said.

"No. More like stubborn."

"The end result is the same; you generate delay."

"An apt description, perhaps," she mimicked him. "Sa'aat, talk to me. Help me to know you better."

"Toward what purpose?"

"So we can help Spock."

"I thought that was what we were doing. I am here for Spock. I brought you here for Spock. We labor in tandem to find him and bring him out of himself. What else needs to be said?"

"I don't know," Nyota admitted. "Maybe nothing. It's just - You're so closed-off all the time. I never know what you're thinking, what you're up to, what you might be hiding from me. I need more from you; more assurances, more information, more trust."

"Do my actions not speak clearly enough for you, Nyota Uhura? Must I placate you with words and promises?"

"I guess not," Nyota said; and when Sa'aat started walking again, she followed him.

For a long while, she tried to imagine how Spock viewed this man - what Spock saw in him that allowed him to trust him so much - until she realized that in this place, she was seeing Sa'aat as Spock saw him. What she could see in this place was all amalgamation, as Sa'aat had told her, made up of mental images generated by herself, Sa'aat and Spock... so, the crystal image of Sa'aat was how Spock saw him, at least to some degree.

Nyota stopped again, and when the tether ran out Sa'aat turned to face her. For the first time, she looked at him from Spock's point of view. Against the backdrop of a Vulcan society dedicated to the tenets of stoicism, logic and science, Sa'aat was a bright anomaly; a man of many facets, who stood out among the other Vulcans, just as he stood out in this drab mindscape. To Spock, Sa'aat was pure and crystal-clear, with a Vulcan core and a malleable heart, able to speak without speaking, willing to go where others would not; oddly brave, adventurous and cocksure. Sa'aat was consolidated and substantial; something that looked like ice but was born of fire; a gleaming gem, unique, eclectic, unparalleled, precious...

As realization filled her mind with an understanding and appreciation for Sa'aat she had never experienced before, silent tears spilled down Nyota's illuminated cheeks.

Sa'aat cocked his head. "What is it?" he asked without speaking.

"I'm sorry," Nyota said when she was more composed. "I didn't understand."

They continued forward.


After a short distance, Sa'aat said, "Apologies are unnecessary. I did not see you for what you were to him either, until he showed me, in this place." He glanced at his feet. "I admit the truth was difficult for me." Sa'aat then looked across his shoulder and met her eyes. "He loves you very much, in a way he will never love me. You are the source of his inner harmony; the thing that makes him feel whole and connected. It is sometimes difficult, when faced with a truth, to accept it gracefully when you would much rather reject it."

"Yes, it was like that for me, too... You know, I may have his heart, Sa'aat, but you have his mind and a special place in his history and memory. You're all the powerful things about Vulcans he aspires to and admires, and he loves you for that. You were his friend when he had no friends; and he'll never forget that, no matter what the mind storms do to him."

"It is easy to be the magnanimous one, when you are the victor."

"No, it isn't," Nyota confessed. "The ugly, Human part of me sometimes wants to rub your face in my relationship with Spock, but I know he would never approve of that behavior, so I seek to be better than my baser self."

"Spock does have that effect on people."

"Yeah. And I'm not the only victor here. Spock loves us both; just in different ways."

"I can capitulate to the facts of that statement."

"Imagine that, you just almost agreed with me on something."

"We make progress – despite ourselves."

"Yeah, look at us," Nyota smiled.

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In his quarters, Dr. Surrey had hunkered down on the floor next to Pa'shu when the Yellow Alert sounded throughout the ship. Earlier that morning, the sehlat had seemed agitated; panting and engaging in what looked like "nesting activity" to him: pulling pillows and blankets toward her body, then clawing at them to spread them out around her. She had also spent a lot of time grooming herself throughout the day, and now her belly was engorged.

He'd looked up all the available information on sehlats in the library computer, and believed her behaviors heralded the birth of her cubs. Preparing for that possibility, Surrey had boosted the heat in his rooms, dimmed the lights, and had water, towels, and a small medical kit on hand in case he needed them. He didn't know what he was supposed to do with the items, but having them ready made him feel more prepared.

"I guess I'm in Yellow Alert mode myself, eh, Pa'shu?" he said with a slight smile.

Pa'shu, remembering to use her inside voice, responded with a slow, low roar.

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In a dark space on its black island, the Shadow creature stood tall, thin and commanding. Layers of smoky, gauzy blackness lifted and curled slowly around it, reaching in every direction, as far as the mind's eye could see or imagine. To Nyota, it looked like a black hole with a man at its center. The creature even exuded a kind of gravimetric force that bent the atmosphere in around it.

"In Human psychology it is sometimes called the Shadow," Sa'aat explained. "In Vulcan psychology, the creature is The Duv. Potausu t'ek'vel mu'gelik heh bai'elkhrul-fam."(7)


"It's kind of frightening -"

"It can be. Such creatures are usually very powerful; they can contain the energy of generations of thought, and experiences, emotions and remembrances..."

"Generations worth? Like, past-life stuff?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes."

Piles of ornate boxes and bulbous bottles made from pale, frosty-green sea-glass (8), all intricately carved with Vulcan symbols, some so ancient Nyota couldn't translate them, surrounded the being's bare feet. The bulb-end of some of the bottles was crushed, and many boxes lay lidless and empty. Nyota picked up one of the broken bottles and charcoal dust and sparkling black sand poured from it. "Some of its possessions have been destroyed."

"Obliterated in the shriv t'kae," Sa'aat said.

"These are Spock's lost memories? The damaged parts of his brain?"

Sa'aat nodded. "Among other things."

"How can we tell what's missing?"

"We cannot. Only The Duv knows what it stores, and what is released or taken from it."

Nyota replaced the bottle at the being's feet, and then looked up into its faceless face. "Can you tell me what's been shattered?"

"Awek," (9) the creature answered, its voice permeating everything. Nyota sensed the concussive sound against her skin and through the center of her bones. "Wow, I felt that more than heard it," she said to Sa'aat.

"The voice of The Duv is always thus. You feel it in your body."

"A 'gut reaction' -"

"Something like that, yes."

"I didn't think Vulcans had 'gut reactions'. Isn't that more an emotional, Human thing?"

"Quite the contrary. The Vulcan 'gut' can be quite accurate. However, it is rarely employed, as most Vulcans think things through and consider all options and contingencies before coming to a conclusion or making a decision. It is only when an answer is evasive, or when a decision is patently erroneous that The Duv speaks."

"When The Duv does speak, do all Vulcans listen to it?"

"Do all Humans?" Sa'aat countered. "Of course not. I have no doubt T'Pau's Duv spoke to her repeatedly, and she ignored every vowel and syllable from it."

At the mention of T'Pau's name, the environment trembled, and ground near The Duv's feet opened like a mouth and vomited up a large sea-glass box the size of a casket. It sat at an odd angle, propped up against some of the smaller boxes and bottles, its lid ajar. Something inside it seemed to move. Sa'aat looked at Nyota, and then the box, before stepping toward it.

"Oh, I don't think that's a good idea," Nyota cautioned.

"Whatever it is, if it is here, it is under the control of The Duv and is therefore rendered powerless."

"Yeah, well, my Duv is telling me that thing looks like a coffin, and that we shouldn't go poking around inside of it."

"Perhaps, your Duv is less accurate than mine." Sa'aat was leaning in to catch a glimpse of what was in the box when the lid burst off and slammed into the Shadow being's side. The Duv was unmoving, but inside the box, an angry, screaming whirlwind thrashed into the box's sides, scraping long thin gashes into its glassy surface. The sound, like fingernails on a chalkboard, was excruciating to Sa'aat's sensitive ears, and he put his hands up to protect them. Not knowing what else to do, Nyota yanked hard on the tether, pulling Sa'aat backward so unexpectedly he fell to the ground, blinking in astonishment.

The whirlwind dissipated, rising into a slender funnel that lost its momentum against The Duv's gravity, and collapsed into a rain of softly swirling ash and black sand. The horrible sound vanished with it. When it was quiet again, Nyota helped Sa'aat up, saying, "You were saying something about my gut?"

"My assessment may have been premature."

"No kidding."

Sa'aat regained his bearings, and cautiously stepped toward The Duv and the now open box beside it. Nyota walked behind him, clutching the tether. The closer they got to The Duv, the more they felt the creature's gravitational field. It wasn't strong enough to pull them into it, but in order to avoid being dragged off their feet, they had to buttress themselves with their legs and bend their bodies at a slight angle away from it.

When they were close enough, they craned their necks to see if anything remained in the box. At first, they saw nothing but sand and ashes, and the wind-etched scribblings along the box's inner walls. Sa'aat took another tentative step closer, and, bracing himself against the side of the box, reached inside. He stepped back and showed Nyota a figurine with puzzlement on his face. "Do you recognize this artifact?" he asked.

Grimehilde.

"I think I remember seeing it in Dr. Surrey's office," Nyota touched the figurine lightly with a fingertip. "I think she's supposed to be an evil queen or something."

"And Spock's mind has relegated her to The Duv..."

"What does that mean?"

"It means she symbolizes something Spock is repressing or denying. He's given her to his Shadow to keep for him."

"If she's upsetting, why didn't his mind just... destroy her? Why send her here?"

"The mind cannot eliminate memories without physically annihilating the parts of the brain that hold them. So, when memories are linked to trauma or discomfort, and the bearer does not want the brain to be injured by their destruction, the mind represses them. That is part of the function of The Duv, it is the Keeper of All Things -"

"- Dark and Unattained."

"Yes." Sa'aat set the figurine back into the box.

"This might be a good sign, right? It means Spock's mind is working to heal itself, to set aside the trauma, without causing any more damage to the brain itself."

"It does seem promising, yes."

"So, where is he? How do we reach him?"

The Duv turned its elongated head toward her. "Kanok-wilat heh rai shi, nam-tor Spahk,"(10) it said with its inside-rattling, all-permeating voice.

"Well, that was wonderfully cryptic," Nyota said, putting a hand against her stomach to quell the resonance of The Duv's voice there. She looked to Sa'aat. "How are we supposed to find him, if he's everywhere and nowhere?"

"How have we managed to come this far?"

"I don't know; I'm just following you."

"Try to think of the mind as an aquifer," Sa'aat suggested, "Pools of experience and emotion and thought connected by the matrix and matter of the brain. In the spaces between the pools, where the linkages are, there are currents and eddies. Step into one pool, and the current will eventually take you to the next."

"So the primordial part of the brain where we entered, and this environment where The Duv is, are pools. We've been following the current between them."

"Precisely."

"Why don't we just skip all the pools and go right to where Spock is?"

"Because he is everywhere -"

"- And nowhere. Yeah. Thanks for the clarification."

"Are you always so impatient and unaccepting?" Sa'aat asked, and rather than his voice carrying the confrontational and acerbic tone he might have used with her before they entered Spock's mind, it now held a tone of quiet inquiry - and a little humor, Nyota suspected. He was teasing her; making an effort to be civil and friendly, which seemed both astonishing and somehow comforting. She smiled a bit as she answered him with equal amity, "I don't like riddles. I like it when things are made clear; when things are explained to me."

"And you cannot accept there are some things in the Universe which cannot be explained, but must simply be experienced?"

"I can accept that. Sure," she said. "I just don't like it."

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After a short break to ensure the nightshift bridge crew had settled in, and to check for any new communiqués from Starfleet and the other ships, Captain Kirk returned to McCoy in the Medical Bay.

"All quiet on the Western front?" McCoy asked. (11)

Kirk handed McCoy a cup of hot coffee, black, no sugar, and settled onto the stool beside him, in front of the monitor. McCoy had been there on duty for over four hours now, and Kirk was sure he needed some kind of fortification. The doctor would have probably preferred bourbon, but coffee was going to have to suffice for now. In answer to McCoy's question, the captain said, "Tomorrow is shaping up to be a very busy day. The Martin James, Laurant Despins, and Merton will rendezvous with the Enterprise around oh-nine-hundred. The Oc'c is about three hours behind them, and the Greezia, which had to stop at Jagusch-McGillis to pick up some personnel vacationing there, is bringing up the rear. If they had told us they had people down there, we could have picked them up ourselves, but... oh well. The Fonn Vuhlkansu delegation will transport to the Enterprise from the Laurant Despins once we're within range. There will be nine or ten of them, I think. I've already got Yeoman Rand setting up quarters for them."

"Dr. M'Benga's medical seminars are slated for tomorrow, too."

"Yeah, so, like I said: tomorrow is going to be very busy." Kirk sipped his own coffee and gestured to the monitor. "Any change?"

McCoy shook his head. " This has got to be the most boring televideo show ever."

"Well, let's be thankful for small favors."

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After traveling through a labyrinth of different environments filled with myriad beings, watchful eyes, living echoes, electrical displays, ancient libraries, shrines, ruins, and impossibly intricate machinery, Nyota and Sa'aat came upon a landscape where cliff-faces curled up from the bedrock like spirals of thick, pale-green rind. The cliffs, decorated with long stalactites filled with tiny lights, bordered a crowned path, higher in the center than on the sides, that seemed to lead ever upward. Trudging up the incline, Nyota noticed that the higher they went, the more illuminated, explicit, and ornate the landscape became.

Eventually, the cliffs gave way to a circular setting of tall monoliths, a sort of Vulcan Stonehenge constructed from material that looked like aventurine(12), carved with thousands of symbols from Ancient Vulcan to Golic Vulcan, and even incorporating some modern Media Script,(13) mostly in reference to ships or smaller star-vessels. The Enterprise was mentioned, written as: σ(Yσ2]2ƒ?σ.

The tops of the stones, distorted by perspective, and impossibly narrow, converged toward some unseen distant point in a sky made of huge convex lenses filled with luminous jewels. Some of the jewels winked and sparkled while others remained permanently lit. Nyota put her fingertips on the closest monolith, feeling the engravings, reading and translating what she could. After a few seconds, she said, "My God... It's Spock's history, isn't it?"

"Yes," Sa'aat agreed. "Or more precisely, it is the history of the planet Vulcan from the perspective of one lineage; going back umpteen generations to before the time of Surak."

"Wow. If only there was some way to get all of this recorded. Think of how much we could learn about your homeworld; how much history the Vulcan people could regain!"

"It is recorded," Sa'aat said frankly. "It is all here, accessible to anyone who has the skill to enter and to read it."

"But are there many Vulcans left who can do that?"

"No. Only a handful of Adepts scattered throughout the galaxy in the monasteries."

"Adepts like you."

"Yes, like me."

"Maybe that should be your new calling. Maybe you could coordinate with the other Adepts, go into the minds of the surviving Vulcans, and retrieve the history your people lost when your homeworld was destroyed."

"A lofty concept." Sa'aat seemed bemused by the idea. "Given my own history and preferences, however, I doubt many Adepts would agree to work with me in any fashion."

"Well, I didn't think very much of you when we first met, but, here I am, working with you. So, it's not completely hopeless. Perceptions can change."

"Perhaps," Sa'aat conceded. He stepped away from the stone to get a better view of their surroundings. In the center of the monolithic circle, there was a broad courtyard set on a shallow incline. The courtyard's floor was made of interlocking, grayish-green starburst-shaped stones, giving it a cobbled look. At the far end, another smaller structure of aventurine stood, but, although the path and the view were unobstructed, it was too distant to see clearly. Sa'aat started toward it, and Nyota fell in step behind him, still translating some of the history inscribed on the stones as they went along.

"This says Spock's forefather was the first to translate the teachings of Surak into English," she said. "That was Skon, right?"

"Yes. S'chn T'gai Skon, father of Sarek and Silak, son of Solkar."

"Solkar? That name is familiar, too. Wait, wasn't he one of the First Contact Vulcans who met with Zefram Cochrane in 2063?"(14)

"Yes."

"I didn't realize that Spock's family's history was so rich."

"His people stem from one of the oldest clans on Vulcan. From before the time of The Father of All We Became, Spock's people were philosophers and mystics, seers and kings; his heritage is a noble one. It is no wonder so many females were eager to partake in his plak-tau. Spock's Vulcan blood is sovereign. In another time, his children would have been princes."

"That's why the Vulcans were so upset when Sarek took a Human mate... It wasn't just bigotry against Humans, but because they were also worried about preserving an historical bloodline."

"Yes. Before the birth of Sybok and Spock, Sarek was the only surviving male of his bloodline."

"What happened to Silak?"

"As far as we can tell, Silak had no offspring, and nothing was spoken or written about him while Skon lived. Silak was something of a nonconformist, and shunned by his father."

"So that's where Spock get's his more rebellious tendencies, huh? Can't blame that entirely on his Human mother, now, can you?"

"Perhaps not. Although Amanda was quite indulgent with him."

"You got to see them a lot when Spock was younger, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"I envy you that. I only met Amanda a couple of times when I was at the Academy. She and Sarek would occasionally visit Spock or attend Federation dinners, and he was always so formal during those times. I would have loved to have seen him when they were at home, in more comfortable surroundings. You'll have to tell me about that sometime."

Sa'aat turned toward Nyota and tilted his head forward in a Vulcan gesture of implied acquiescence. He returned his gaze ahead and stopped walking.

He had halted so abruptly that Nyota was a step or two in front of him before she realized he wasn't moving anymore. She stepped back to his side and followed the line of his eye. She could now see up the remainder of the incline; and at the end of the courtyard was a large freeform fountain or artesian well with clear water surging from its center; a constant gush that roared, hissed and sparkled. Even at their distance, she could hear the white noise generated by the water.

And seated on the edge of the well was Spock.

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(1) Theta waves: in Humans, theta waves are energy wave generated by the brain during dreaming and meditation. They generally cycle at 4 to 7 waves per second. Theta waves are also thought to be connected to creativity, out of body experiences, and ESP experiences. According to "Brain Activity During Meditation" at : "...A person who is driving on a freeway, and discovers that they can't recall the last five miles, is often in a theta state - induced by the process of freeway driving... It is a state where tasks become so automatic that you can mentally disengage from them. The ideation that can take place during the theta state is often free flow and occurs without censorship or guilt. It is typically a very positive mental state." (2) Yellow Alert: According to the Memory-Alpha site, "A yellow alert or condition yellow is the second highest alert signal status on Starfleet vessels, one stage below red alert. It designates a ship-wide state of increased preparedness for possible crisis situations. In this status, a ship's defense fields are energized, and/or the deflector shields are brought to full power, however the weapons systems remain off-line." Author's note: I wanted something a little stronger than a "general quarters" order here, so I went with the Yellow Alert.

(3) Cinerea: The gray matter of the brain and other parts of nervous system.

(4) Tasmeen: in my previous story "The Ek'tevan Prerogative", Tasmeen was an 8-year-old orphan who had been adopted by the Fonn Vuhlkansu. She assisted Sa'aat in the rescue of Spock from New Vulcan by creating a diversion that allowed Spock and the others to be beamed off the planet surface. She had lost her family, classmates, and pet sehlat when Vulcan was destroyed, and was stricken mute by the trauma. Tasmeen hasn't spoken for almost 2 years.


(5) Colors: Anyone who's done work with Reiki, yoga, or other forms of healing and focusing meditation will recognize these as the colors of the different chakras (energy centers) in the body; although sometimes the chakra at the top of the head is depicted as violet rather than white.

(6) Copper: This is based, in part, on Trek canon. In its natural form, Vulcan copper, like Earth copper, has a pinkish-orange hue, and at extreme heat, before the melting point, it radiates a peach-colored luster. The green tint in the Vulcans' copper-based blood is caused by oxidation. The word "yar-tukh" is Vulcan for "copper ore".

(7) The Duv. Potausu t'ek'vel mu'gelik heh bai'elkhrul-fam.: Translated from the Vulcan the word "duv" means "shadow", and " Potausu t'ek'vel mu'gelik heh bai'elkhrul-fam," means "Keeper of all things dark and unattained."

(8) Sea-glass: glass found along beaches that has been tumbled and made smooth by the waves, giving the glass a frosted appearance. According to Wikipedia: "... The most common colors of sea glass are kelly green, brown, and clear. These colors come from bottles used by companies that sell beer, juices, and soft drinks. The clear or white glass comes from clear plates and glasses, windshields, windows, and assorted other sources... Authentic sea and beach glass is becoming harder and harder to find for a variety of reasons: there are more people searching for it; glass items have been replaced by plastics; and littering is discouraged." Author's note: I chose sea-glass because, according to Jungian psychology, the subconscious or unconscious mind is often represented by water (oceans, lakes, seas, rivers, middens, etc), and I wanted to depict the things kept by the Duv as things that were religated to "containers" in the mind that had been rolled around in the subconscious or unconscious for so long that they took on a sea-glass-like look.

(9) Awek: according to the VLD, this is the Vulcan word for "private", or "secluded from the sight, presence, or intrusion of others; of or confined to the individual; personal"

(10) Kanok-wilat heh rai shi, nam-tor Spahk: from the Vulcan this translate as "Spock is everywhere and nowhere." (Or more literally, "Every place and no place, is Spock.")


(11) All Quiet on the Western Front: a reference to the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. Used as a colloquialism, the phrase "all quiet on the Western front" refers to a lack of action; nothing major happening.

(12) Aventurine: SiO2, it's a kind of quartz that can range in color from its natural pale silver-green to a chemically/organically altered peach. According to various sources like "Stones Alive" by Twintreess, "The Illustrated Dictionary of Healing Crystals" by Eason, and the gemstone glossary at , "Legends say that it is an all-purpose healer, used to reduce stress, develop confidence, imagination and improve prosperity...Many believe that aventurine has the capacity to calm a troubled spirit and bring about inner peace..." I thought this would be the perfect kind of stone, then, for the druids' circle in Spock's mind.(13) Vulcan Languages: from the Introduction to Vulcan Linguistics at Star Trek Geekipedia: "...We've taken all Vulcan words we could find in writing or in speech and recreated a complete grammar and dictionary of what Gene Roddenberry called ld Vulcan in his novelization of ST:TMP, but which we gave the general name Golic Vulcan, because Old Vulcan is too easy to confuse with the Ancient Vulcan root language. Golic Vulcan is actually comprised of two very close languages - Traditional Golic Vulcan (the formal language of Surak and continuing planet-wide language of ceremony) and Modern Golic Vulcan (a less formal and contemporary version of the same language which is used as a regional and clan dialect)." Media Script is a form of written Vulcan that uses letters and symbols from the Federation Standard keyboard. It was devised in order to facilitate ship-to-ship communication and identification between Vulcan and Federation ships (the Vulcans adopted the Federation symbols so the Federation didn't have to refit its equipment with additional Vulcan symbols to accommodate the Vulcan language). Media Script is only used for this purpose, and is has not been adopted by the Vulcans in their personal correspondence or Vulcan-specific texts.(14) Spock's family history: This information is based on the data on Skon, Sarek, Silak, Sybok, and Solkar as presented on the Memory-Alpha and Memory-Beta sites on-line. According to the Memory-Beta site, "...In the mid 21st century, Solkar was the Captain of the survey ship T'Plana-Hath. On April 5th, 2063 the T'Plana-Hath was passing through the Sol system when it discovered a human warp signature. Following procedure, Solkar had the T'Plana-Hath proceed to Earth to investigate the warp signature, and landed at the settlement in Montana where the Phoenix was launched from. Solkar was the first to exit the T'Plana-Hath, and met the creator of the warp-ship, Zefram Cochrane. This marked the official first contact between humans and Vulcans. (TNG movie: Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek CCG)..." Author's note: The other history alluded to (about Spock's lineage before the time of Surak) isn't in Trek canon.