Vulcan
City of Gol
(367 AD)

S'Task stared out over the city walls at the unforgiving sands beyond. At hand to his left his old master, Surak, waited patiently for his response. S'Task considered his answer at his leisure, knowing well enough that he lacked any hope of persuading his elder.

Surely Surak had already come to believe that he'd succumbed to emotion, rather than having mastered it. Hence his coming personally to demand an accounting from his student for his recent actions.

"Master." S'Task began, at last. "I understand what I have done must seem puzzling to you. But have I not embraced all that you have taught me? And followed your teachings to the best of my ability? Even from the first days?"

"I will agree that you have, S'Task." Surak said. "Yet I find now I am unable to reconcile this with your recent decisions. You have been my most valued student, serving always as an example for any who wished to learn The Way. Indeed, as many have come to The Way by your example as by my own."

S'Task allowed himself a small smile at that. If only to affirm to his master that the rumors he'd heard about him weren't far from the truth. Still, it was gratifying that Surak at least had granted him the possibility that there was some logic behind his recent decisions.

"No, master." S'Task said. "Some have seen me as an example to follow, I will acknowledge. But you have become a near mystical personage in the mind's of our people these days. Especially after this latest incident concerning you, some weeks ago. But your followers are your own, aptly named 'followers of Surak'…even 'The Way' has become 'The Way of Surak'."

S'Task gestured behind them then, at the vast columns of men and armored vehicles massed around the city. At the military encampments within its gates. An army gathering now not for another strike against invading Orions…that war had already been won…but gathered instead against their own nation. The people these warriors had once sworn their lives to defend. The people they'd lost to Surak, conquered by an entirely new thing never before wielded as a weapon. At least not by one Vulcan people against another.

One against which no defense could hold. A weapon called "peace".

S'Task nodded pointedly at the groups of soldiers who'd gathered to watch them below. Who, rather than scattering about, forming loose, random crowds, had chosen to form ranks instead. They were soldiers, after all.

Well disciplined and well trained soldiers, who understood and appreciated the need for order.

"Even these men, these warriors…driven by emotion to do, certainly…have come to see you, not so much me." He said. "They have already heard what happened. Do you know many of them have desired strongly to kill you? But now none would dare try. They suspect your Way may be true. That the gods themselves might strike them down instead, for daring raise a hand against what must be a holy truth, considering your recent miracle."

"There was no mystical significance to the incident, S'Task." Surak said. "Or if there were, then it lay in the universe following the laws of logic that guide it. If I hold any power at all, it is logic alone. I did not die because I did not despair and chose instead to live."

S'Task snorted, again freely allowing an emotional display, however sleight, in the presence of his master…who, he then realized, continued still to say nothing at all concerning it.

"Regardless." He said. "To them it is indeed of great mystical significance. You were shot several times. Stabbed as many more times. Struck by rocks repeatedly as well, I have heard. And yet you did not die, continuing instead to preach peace, tolerance and, above all else, logic, even on your knees. As if the very universe…as if the gods themselves…spoke through you, protected and strengthened you. And here you are today, now healed and very much alive. No Vulcan would ignore such a thing, dismiss it as…mere fortunate chance, nor merely any act of Vulcan will, as you seem to expect them to."

"S'Task." Surak said. "I begin to suspect you are attempting to deviate from the subject. And yet I must doubt this, as this method could only be an attempt to appeal to pride as the means of distraction. You know I would not allow myself to be provoked in that manner and so there must be a point you are attempting to illustrate. I recommend you do so more directly and trust that I will discern it. If necessary, you may expound further afterward, should I fail to perceive."

S'Task chuckled now, even as he realized his continued attempts to provoke a response were nothing more than desperate attempts to gain some illusion of control over his master. And clearly indicative of some measure of contempt for him as well. A slightly troubling realization, but his new understanding of emotion and reason recognized the behavior, categorized it appropriately as the expression of fear that it was, and so regained control of it easily.

"Master, I seek to illustrate to you that however great and wise I might seem to some, it is only through my progress along the path that you have already forged. And so, as long as I follow your path, I can never be seen as greater than you."

"I perceive your point." Surak said. "And as you have spoken directly, then I will do so as well. I have to come here to discover if you have deviated from The Way, S'Task. And in light of this point you have established, I will ask first if it is pride that has caused you to stumble."

S'Task shook his head. "Master, I say to you that I have not stumbled. And yet I have left The Way. At least, from the path you have forged toward that unattainable perfection."

"And you believe you have found another path, S'Task?" Surak asked. "If so, then let us reason together now. Convince me your new way is superior or concede that it is not. If we both walk toward the same destination, then let us walk together."

"I wish that it could be so, master." S'Task said, regret clearly evident in his voice. "But I have seen in these green-skinned invaders from the stars a truth you have failed to see. And in it, the failure of your Way."

"Enlighten me, student." Surak said. "Can the master not learn from his student?"

"Not my master." S'Task said. "Or perhaps not this student. You believe that peace is the foundation upon which the universe lies. But I have found this to be the failure of your way. There is no peace at the foundations of the universe. There is only chaos."

"Not so, S'Task." Surak chided. "And you know this well. Together we have seen the truth of this even in the sands of…"

"Forgive my interruption, master." S'Task said. "But you would speak of Vulcan sands and Vulcan nature. You would speak, in short, of Vulcan and your observations of the universe through her harsh lens. But I have seen the universe from up there."

S'Task pointed sharply to the heavens. "There I see the universe as it is. Not from the sands of Vulcan but from the very foundation upon which even Vulcan lies. And there, in that dark space, there is chaos. And while here you can only see our people, our land and our Way, out there are other people, other ways. Do you believe that your Way can reach even the dark spaces out there and bring order from it, master?"

Surak considered a moment before speaking.

"S'Task. You have seen what our followers have accomplished." Surak said. "Even in the most violent and bloodied lands of our people, logic and peace have won out. The Way has called only a few katra out of the madness, wherever the Way is taught, but that is enough. Even one is enough. One katra calls to another, and two call to two more, and so forth. Even as the universe called to me, so it calls…"

"Our land, our people, master." S'Task said, bitterly. "But I do not speak of our land or our people. Nor our blood or our sands. I speak of the dark nothingness beyond Vulcan. The black foundation that infinite worlds rest upon. Vulcan is but one such world. And the place from whence these green-skins come, yet another. How have you not yet considered the infinity of the universe, not merely as an object through which the law of logic operates, but as the black nest of chaotic life that it is?"

"I always suspected that there were indeed other worlds beyond Vulcan, S'Task." Surak said. "And when the Orions came, logic dictated that there must be other worlds even beyond theirs. They themselves have affirmed this. But does this not illustrate the order of the universe? There is a village here, near your army. And another beyond that hill to the west. And so, beyond Vulcan are other worlds of people, out among the stars. And other worlds and villages beyond them. That is order, S'Task. A predictable order, as one would expect from an ordered, logical universe."

"And that is where you fail, master." S'Task insisted. "You continue to see all of the universe as Vulcan. All people as Vulcan people."

"And I am wise to do so." Surak said. "You yourself acknowledge the truth of this. You have called these brothers and sisters of yours beyond the stars 'people'. Though you do not know them, have never met them, you call them 'people'. If they are 'people' then they are your people as surely as all Vulcans are your people."

"My brothers and sisters in the next village do not possess weapons that melt men as easily as they melt rock." S'Task said. "Nor vessels that travel the stars as easily as men run across the sands. And perhaps there is a nation beyond this city, a Vulcan nation in the distant sands beyond here. Perhaps those Vulcans have a gun that fires faster, or more accurately, or with greater power than those that might be found in this city or in the village beyond this hill…but nothing that peace and wisdom cannot defeat in time. You have proven that time and again. No Vulcan army can stand against your Way, just as no rock on all of Vulcan can stand forever against the wind and sand. Vulcan is finite and logic is infinite."

"Then I confess I cannot perceive the failure of the Way." Surak said. "It would seem you establish the truth of it the more you speak against it."

"The people of Vulcan, even of the farthest nations, none of them possess a weapon that can defeat The Way." S'Task said, grimly. "But we know now that there are people beyond even them. Nations beyond them, on other worlds. Infinite worlds and infinite peoples…beyond Vulcan. And your Way will fail against them. It is inevitable. It cannot stand against an infinite chaos, just as the rock cannot stand against the wind and sand forever."

"S'Task…"Surak began.

"No, master." S'Task said, pointing at the encampment below. "There, that army, that vast encampment of warriors, even those that stand in awe and fear of you now, they defeated the Green Ones. And they took their weapons away from them. They have thrown down the guns that could not defeat your Way and taken up the green-skin's weapons. Can your Way defeat them now, master?"

"It can, S'Task." Surak assured. "And it will. How have you lost faith in what you have seen yourself, so many times? The Way will endure, against all chaos. Eventually. It is truth, and so, impossible to defeat."

"You have won many people with that assurance, master." S'Task said. "Even me. We are the children of the vhorani, born here on Vulcan so that we might be forged, made worthy of paradise. You say that it is through logic that we are to achieve this. But even Vulcan herself denies this claim. And the infinite chaos of the universe has confirmed your folly. And so we see, if Vulcan is the forge then we are the hammer and the universe, infinity, our anvil."

S'Task turned fully to face the army below. The crowd of witnesses that had already grown twice as large as they'd talked. Those who'd come to see the two great teachers face off. To see whether they reconciled with one another…or not.

"I think you are close to wisdom, master." S'Task said. "Our emotions are indeed our great weakness. One which our own harsh world has exploited mercilessly for many ages. And we have exploited one another all the more, turned against one another time and time again. Always to a consistently bitter and bloody end. You have rightly discerned that emotion is the exact weakness that Vulcan strives to temper within us. Even now we flail at the edge of that same precipice, only now it is not emotion that has driven us there…it is you and I that have done so."

"You need only step away, S'Task." Surak said. "Step away with me. There is truth here and the only obstacle to it is ourselves. Step away with me and we will have already overcome it."

"No, master. The obstacle here is you." S'Task said. "Reason and discipline is the Way, not peace. Peace is the unattainable perfection we seek, not the path to it. Peace is in Vorta Vor and we will not have it until we earn that place. We cannot enter there until we master ourselves. Not by driving the weakness of emotion into the core of our being, to fester and rot from within, but by bringing it into subservience. Into submission. Truly to master it."

"Logic is The Way, S'Task." Surak argued. "Logic leads us to peace. Emotion rejects…"

"No, master." S'Task said. "And again you show your failure. Reason is The Way. Reason leads us to logic. Logic describes the path to peace. Peace is the unattainable perfection. That is the truth. Our emotions are a broken tool that we must reforge, rather than bury in the sands."

Surak was silent for a time, considering his former student. And it was clear S'Task had indeed left the Way…but what path he'd chosen exactly continued to elude Surak. As what role he expected his former master to play in it.

"S'Task, why have you called me here?" Surak asked. "And surely I say you have called me. I know now that you have elected to amass this army at least partly so that I might come today and challenge you. What is it that you would have of me?"

S'Task observed his old master for a time. Long enough that Surak could see the sorrow and regret in his eyes. And that, in truth, partly as an intentional provocation, though S'Task recognized and utilized it for his own benefit now.

"Surak." S'Task said. "I had intended to call you here to persuade you of something I had decided. A plan I have since abandoned. I have been forced to reject your Way…or at least the Way as you understand it…and had intended to lead my people, and this army, away from Vulcan. There is an infinite universe out there and as much room for my people as any other. I could not accept that your people and mine should ever oppose one another. Rather, I believed that it would be better that your people be as one, without division. That my people would go away and find a new place of their own. Where we do not so readily represent opposition to you and your…'truth'."

"But I have changed my mind, Surak. Indeed, I have remembered what you taught me. There are no other people. There are no 'your people', nor 'my people'. I accept even that those among the stars are my own. Even the Green Ones are my brothers. And so I must accept that it would be illogical to leave my kin behind on Vulcan, laboring under teachings that, however close they may be to the truth, are nonetheless false. Even as I bring the Way…the true Way…to the stars."

"I see." Surak said. "So you have called me here to justify your decision to make war."

S'Task chuckled again. "Ah, no, Surak. I know well there is no such justification that you would accept. Rather, I am confident you will do what your logic dictates."

"And what is that?"

"I intend that your 'way' be driven from our people." S'Task said. "We have the technology of the Green Ones. We have taken to space easily enough, once faced with the necessity. One day we will understand their warp technology as well and travel beyond our own star. But we cannot leave our brothers behind, misguided by your mistaken teachings of pacifism. How many of these men have died to save Vulcan from the Orions? Even as you and your followers resisted only with words?"

S'Task faced his old master again, more stoically now. Now granting him at least the respect of controlling his emotions in his presence.

"Surak, I have learned that your teachings, while close to the truth, are nonetheless false. Indeed they are destructive. I cannot be persuaded to accept any peace that allows your Way to be spread further among the Vulcan people. Not now that I have come to understand what this infinite universe surrounding us truly represents. Both an infinite opportunity to grow and an infinite threat to our existence. So, tell me then, my former master, what does your Way insist you do now?"

"If it were as you say, S'Task, then you would have called me here not to reason together, but to kill me before these warriors of yours." Surak asserted.

"Indeed." S'Task said, regretfully, as he drew the Orion phaser from his belt.

Surak raised an eyebrow at the weapon, obviously not truly believing S'Task intended violence until then.

"S'Task." Surak warned. "Surely you must know that your actions, if you continue on the path you have chosen, will condemn Vulcan to yet more generations of war and murder? Even now, when the war you threaten is the only threat that we face? Vulcan can only now, for the first time in all of recorded history, truly claim peace. Perhaps by killing me before your men you might lend some perception of credibility to your philosophy…but at what terrible price?"

"I do understand what I do today, Surak." S'Task said. "I predict Vulcan will bathe in blood again for a time. Perhaps for many centuries. But my Way is strong and it will prevail. In time, when order is restored, Vulcan will be stronger than ever before. Much as you have hoped for her, in fact. United and prepared to face the trials that await us among the stars, as I now realize the gods had always intended."

Surak said nothing further, having examined the matter thoroughly. So he had already accepted the inevitable. At peace with his fate.

"And in accordance with your Way, your only option now is to die a martyr." S'Task said. "In the vain hope that your memory will preserve your teachings in the minds of the Vulcan people. So that, should my Way come to a brutal end, as you would predict, they will remember you and continue then as you have taught them."

Surak remained calm as S'Task aimed the weapon at his head.

"I regret that your death must establish the failure of your Way, Surak." S'Task said.

"My most beloved student, at this moment I regret only that I have failed you." Surak said.

S'Task hesitated for only a breath, before smiling fondly. "I do not regret your failure, my old friend. Indeed, it has brought me enlightenment and I thank you for it."

S'Task depressed the trigger of the alien weapon.

And Surak died.

When his men below responded a moment later, S'Task was filled with pride. They did not howl madly or scream with bloodlust. Rather, they simply saluted, in perfect unison, and issued a single, fierce, cheer.

"Hail S'Task!"

Heart-felt, yes. Emotional, most certainly. But entirely controlled, channeled perfectly into the hardened resolve they would need for the bloody war that lay ahead of them.

He had trained them well.

Discipline tames emotion. Emotion provides strength. Strength achieves the dictates of reason.

That was the Way of S'Task.