Prologue

The morning mist still drifted slowly across the small section on the planet. A vast green valley was dotted with mounds of dirt which jutted unnaturally from pristine flatness. The mounds had doors and windows and were surrounded by wooden fences housing various kinds of livestock. The large mountain which provided shade from the rising sun had another small building - no bigger than a single family house - built on a solitary cliff.

The colony was called New Plymouth, and rested on a planet the human settlers called Ararat, but their larger Federation called Cerebus II. It was Sunday, and the residents of the village had left to attend church on the other side of the valley. The only sign of life other than the animals in their pens was a young girl and her daemon running through the tall grass.

"The hour is growing later," said the daemon - whose current form was a hummingbird. "If mother and father get home and find we are not in bed with stomach flu. They will be cross."

The girl was clothed in a long dress with a white apron around her waist. Her hair was bright blonde with small pink flowers weaved within. She had been crouching among the tall grass in the valley attempting to find one of the colorful pink bugs which looked like a four-winged butterfly. They only came out right after dawn, and her schooling often prevented her from finding them on other days.

"Stop worrying, Simeon," the girl chided softly. "Make yourself into something smaller."

"This is as small as I will get. The word around the village is that those bugs are poison."

"Then I'll be careful," the girl said, lifting her homemade butterfly net to demonstrate.

The pair continued to creep through the grass as they got further from the village. The daemon changed to a mouse and crawled to hide underneath his parent's sprawling hair which was becoming damp from the morning dew.

"What are you frightened of?"

"I feel something, Annalise," the muffled voice said. "We should not go any further."

"What could possibly be out here that could scare you so bad?"

Before the daemon could answer, there was a screeching sound from above them. Annalise looked to the green-tinted sky and saw a large orange streak making its way toward the mountain.

She groaned. "Its just a shuttle!"

"If it is, it looks like its crashing. We're not supposed to have new people coming for two months."

When the streak finally disappeared behind the mountain, Annalise knew she had to agree with Simeon. The craft was coming far too fast. It was going to crash. She curled herself into a ball and covered her ears preparing for the explosion, but all she felt were the vibrations of a heavy object falling nearby, as well as the sound of breaking trees.

Annalise tentatively peeked out from her hiding place and saw a large dust cloud behind a large ridge. It could not have been more than a kilometer away. The smell of burning wood and ash wafted toward her and made her eyes water. There were other burning smells she could not identify, but probably came from the ship - whatever it was.

Simeon changed to a falcon and flew to the apex of the ridge to investigate. Annalise grimaced as the distance caused her chest to hurt. She silently urged her companion to not take too long.

"The ship is covered in brush. It does not look like it has any doors or anything."

Annalise received some vague pictures in the mind she shared with her daemon, and immediately was propelled by a surge in curiosity. She ran to the side of the ridge, peeking around the side to get a look at this ship for herself.

"Do you think it's like a being that lives in outer space, and doesn't need a ship or anything?"

Simeon had turned to a robin and landed on her shoulder. "I don't know, but I bet Dr. Weinburg would."

"What if no one's seen this thing before? We could be famous, like Captain Kirk! They could name it after us and everything."

"I admit, that does sound cool, but I don't think we can do that if its something aliens have made."

"Well, we had better find out what it is, then," said Annalise, her grin spreading by the second. She ignored the brambles getting stuck in her clothing as the grass became more unkempt. The forest was known to be dangerous, but Annalise figured the large object falling from the sky would be enough to scare anything dangerous away.

She heard and felt the transporter before she saw it. Materializing in front of her was a thin short woman in flowing silk robes in bright colors. Annalise might not have lived in a fashionable colony, but knew enough about fabric to recognize textures from at least three different worlds in this woman's outfit. They did nothing to compliment the dark yellow skin and long white hair. She recognized the species vaguely from catching random holo vids in school, but the race was not common enough to deserve immediate recognition. She had at least hoped to see a daemon, although they had not known any races other than her own to have them.

"Hello, young one," the woman said with a grin which spread unnaturally across her face.

Annalise was immediately wary, but habit dictated she show some manners. "Hello, and welcome to Ararat," she recited, while Simeon bristled.

"I apologize for my abrupt entrance, but we are a bit short on fuel. Are you associated with the Federation?"

"Yes."

"So there are other humans besides you?"

/That's a stupid question. Why would you be the only human?/ Simeon silently projected.

"My family is here, as are about fifty of us," Annalise said, despite her better judgement. She normally would not be so candid, but it felt like her mind was being nudged into truthfulness. It was an unfamiliar feeling, and unwelcome. "There is also a science station here where Dr. and Mrs. Weinburg live."

"A science station? That's wonderful. They can contact starships?"

"I guess," said Annalise.

"I also must ask, do you have metal working facilities, or anyplace we can bring my ship to fix it?"

"Yeah, there's a hanger built into the mountain."

/What is going on? This doesn't feel right./ Simeon said, gauging their reactions. Panic was leaking into his voice, and his parent felt the same in her rapid heart beat. She wanted badly to run away, but it was as if her feet were glued to the ground.

"You have a lovely daemon," the alien woman said, her grin spreading even wider.

"Th-thanks," Annalise said, feeling uncomfortable as she always did when an alien being was fascinated by her companion. Her parents always told her to be patient when this happened, but it was still too close. She noticed for the first time the alien hand rested on an object at her waist, although it rested far back enough that it was not totally visible. What Annalise did see looked like the hilt of a sword, much like she had seen in illustrations of Tolkien novels.

"Where is your family?" Asked the woman.

"At Sunday worship," Annalise answered obediently. "They will not be back for a couple of hours."

/Why did you tell her that?/

/I don't know, Simeon! I don't know what to do./

"Well," the alien replied. "While we're waiting, would you like to see my ship?"

She did not wait for an answer as she came over and put her hand on Annalise's shoulder. The girl cringed. She tried to fight whatever was keeping her in place, but the more she tried to move, the more the invisible force held her in place. Tears brimmed in her eyes as she felt the tingling sensation of a transporter about to take her.

In the nanosecond before the natural beauty of her home disappeared around her, the child saw the stranger begin to unsheath her sword.

Chapter 1

There was not much he could do about it, nor was there anything he could say to break the vast concentration before him. Leonard McCoy's graceful fingers slid over the head and down the neck of Leauna, his deer daemon, and in return she placed her nose on his leg. The particular ministration was her favorite, besides the light scratch behind the ear. With his other hand, the doctor fingered a sweating glass of gin and tonic, allowing the drops to whet his fingers and the knee it rested on.

At the adjacent table, his two best friends were locked in an intense game of three dimensional chess. He knew their concentration was paramount when their bodies became stiff and moved the pieces with care, as if they would burst into flame if held incorrectly. The only breaks in the stillness were the occasional whispers of "check." Even their daemons appeared tense, standing as still as stone by their parents' feet.

"I never saw what was wrong with the old kind of chess," Leauna whispered in her soft southern drawl. "You know, with the flat board and the sensible rules."

McCoy nodded in agreement, afraid any further movement of his physical body would cause the ceiling of Kirk's quarters to collapse under the weight of mental fortitude. He wondered why Kirk even went through this much effort off duty. All McCoy wanted to do after a long day was concentrate on something mind-numbing, like a trashy novel or ship gossip. The emotional and mental weight of carrying a ship's health on his shoulders was daunting enough, but these men carried so much more.

Just as McCoy felt he would snap from the silence and stillness, Jim Kirk evenly said, "checkmate." He moved his pawn to the appropriate position on the board, taking his opponent's bishop from the game. His daemon, Aesina, scampered to the table to grab the piece and put it in the captain's hand. The small brown monkey then hopped onto the shoulder of her parent, appearing to regain her normal movement.

"Is that not twice in a row?" Aesina said in the deep voice that betrayed her size. Few had the chance to hear that voice but the two men in Kirk's presence.

"You are correct, captain," his Vulcan opponent said. Spock's face remained stolid with the exception of a raised eyebrow, but his daemon gave him away. T'Ra - whose form was a Vulcan teresh-ka - ruffled her silver feathers, which signaled to Kirk his friend was getting irritated. The most visible evidence of the Vulcan's half-human physiology was perceived by much of the crew to be just as hard to read as the man himself, but his two friends knew better.

"Does that mean we can move on to something else?" McCoy asked, finally getting enough physical movement back to take a sip of his drink. "Sitting here watching the two of you play chess is not exactly the riveting theater you think it is."

"What would you suggest? Monopoly?" Kirk asked.

"I have never understood a game based on predatory capitalism," Spock contributed.

"I used to play Risk with my dad, but we never planned on taking over the world," McCoy grumbled as he took another sip.

"In other words, Spock," Leauna added. "I realize the word 'relax' isn't in the Vulcan vocabulary, but at least try to find a close approximation."

"I wasn't being serious anyway," Kirk sighed while rubbing his eyes.

McCoy could see that as a sign to stop the light bickering, but he still felt escalated emotions within him begging for some form of release. They worsened once he saw Spock appear to still as if nothing had happened, with T'Ra even more stoic. It was so frustrating to talk to Spock sometimes. He knew he probably never would have been friends with him if it were not for his strange connection with Jim, but there was a part of McCoy that still envied the bond they shared. He wished he could see in Spock what Jim Kirk saw in him, and what was in Jim that could bring the tightly held emotions out of him. While McCoy cared for Spock enough to try and make him realize his human side, he also should know a lost cause when he saw one.

He respected both of these men, and was proud to call them friends, but there was a part of him which still tightened at the sight of Spock. The only thing he could compare it to was having a political disagreement with a close family member. He knew Spock's logic was only a facade, and yet he acted like being a human was this horrible state of emotional hell. The man had a daemon for God's sake! His human side was broadcast for the world to see, so what was the point in hiding it? Like every other race they had encountered in their travels, Vulcans kept their souls, or katras, inside them.

He looked down at Leauna, whose silent, understanding eyes met him like they always had. He smiled and petted his companion.

"Are you still experiencing headaches, Captain?" Spock asked, bringing the doctor back to the present.

"It's nothing," Aesina said once Kirk straightened.

"I think I should give you another thing of painkillers, Jim," McCoy said as he finished off his drink. "You shouldn't still be hurting."

"Captain," Spock said while leaning forward. "I cannot help but think there are residual psychological effects from having your essence transferred into another. Have you engaged in your normal ritual of discussing the event with Dr. McCoy?"

"I definitely wouldn't call it a ritual," McCoy said. "I still haven't heard him utter three words about Edith Keeler."

Kirk sighed. "Considering the fact it was two years ago, I don't see the current relevance. Besides, I'm just looking forward to relaxing rather than dwelling on the past."

"All we need to accomplish is the investigation of Cerebus II and you are free to take shore leave," Spock said.

"We'll need the shore leave after dealing with those people," Leauna sighed. "A collection of modern day pilgrims who would prefer wrestling with a Romulan ridgeback than meeting with us."

"The pilgrims did not send the summons, but rather the scientific team working with them. One of them was one of my instructors at the academy, Dr. Weinburg. I'm looking forward to seeing him again."

"What exactly is he doing there, anyway?" McCoy asked.

"He's an expert on how religion shapes societies, so the development of the colony is of interest to him."

"I believe his father helped perfect Federation laws regarding religious intolerance," Spock commented. "It was a masterful piece of diplomacy."

"Well, there isn't anything religious about this trip. All they told us was that an alien spacecraft crashed on their planet and we haven't heard anything since," Kirk said.

"I can only hope the ship was bringing the settlers Thanksgiving dinner," Aesina said while giving a small laugh.

"Thanksgiving dinner?" Spock asked with a furrow of his brow.

Aesina sighed. She walked across the table to meet the Vulcan face to face. "C'mon Spock. How have you not heard of Thanksgiving?"

"I am aware of the North American tradition of Thanksgiving, Captain. I fail to see what it has to do with the current situation."

"We'll explain later," Aesina said before scampering into Kirk's shoulders. "Right now, I think it's Bones' turn to pick a game."

"I know it's not a shock that I'm not in a chess mood tonight," McCoy said as he scratched the stubble on his chin. "I'm definitely in the mood for gin rummy though."

"I don't know, Bones," Kirk said with his trademark grin. "I would have to get some high stakes in there to be persuaded."

McCoy gave a knowing smile to Leauna, who jumped on her feet with excitement. "Winner won't pay a thing while on shore leave at Starbase 22. Loser has to pay our way."

"I'm afraid I will have to abstain from this game, gentlemen," Spock said as he rose from the table.

"C'mon Spock," McCoy said as he pulled up a chair and a recorder for the points. "It's about time I taught you how to play an old fashioned card game."

"As you well know, Doctor, Vulcans do not gamble. We find it illogical to..."

"...put your fortunes in the hands of random chance, I know," McCoy said with some indignation. "Gin Rummy isn't random chance. It's a game you need strategy to win. Besides, I sat and watched you guys play chess for almost two hours. It's only fair you join us here."

"Fairness is a human concept, and it was quite illogical for you to stay if you were obtaining no stimulus from..."

"Oh forget it. Get out of here," the doctor said with a wave of his hand. The Vulcan took the advice, and with a nod of goodbye, took his leave with T'Ra perched in his shoulder.

Aesina jumped down from Kirk's shoulders and joined Leauna to step away from the table where both humans could see them, and they could not see the cards.

"You knew he wouldn't play," the monkey said as she watched Leauna lay down. She then rested on her hind legs and cuddled up to the other daemon in a touch which symbolized their close friendship. McCoy had heard from Jim that Aesina and T'Ra had done this on occasion, but he had never seen it. Such intimate acts usually only happened when two were alone.

"We hoped he would," Leauna answered as she lay her chin down to the floor.

"That damn fool Vulcan wouldn't know a friendly gesture if it bit him in the ass," McCoy sighed as he savored the familiar feeling of their daemons touching.

"You know that's not true, Bones," Kirk said as he shuffled the plastic cards with the grace of an old-time Vegas dealer. "You remember how he was after the Vians almost killed you."

"And then a week later he flips around and turns just as stone-faced as ever, pretending our relationship had never changed in the first place. It's almost like whenever he has a genuine human feeling, he runs for it like it's gonna eat him alive."

"I believe he has what he needs. He openly considers us friends, which is a big deal for him. You just have to meet him where he is rather than where you want him to be."

McCoy sighed in acknowledgment and laid down his first two hands before discarding.

"I don't think he wants to be where he is, but how am I supposed to know?"

"He gets under your skin on purpose," Aesina said as Kirk took his turn. "He admires you, and getting you riled up is his way of showing it. It just shows you care, and that you want to connect with him," Kirk added.

"You don't have to tell me I care, but it might help to tell him that."

"I'm sure he knows," Kirk said. "If it will make you feel better, we could go in for a birthday present for him on Starbase 22."

McCoy frowned. "Since when does Spock celebrate his birthday?"

"He doesn't," Aesina said. "Which is why we definitely need to find him something he can't refuse."

"Well, you'll be the one buying it if you don't start laying down some cards," McCoy said as he laid down his third pair.

The two friends continued in their game with friendly, superficial conversation for the next hour. Their laughter was apparent and their daemons occasionally played rough when one had a particularly frustrating hand. At one point, Aesina bit Leauna's ear when Kirk called rummy for the second time in the hand.

It was at about 0100 when they were finally on the hand which was likely to decide the game. It was then a churning feeling came out of nowhere and made both Kirk and McCoy stop what they were doing. Both knew the source and looked at their daemons, who suddenly became very agitated.

McCoy knew when Leauna felt dread, there was a strange presence nearby. It was not always dangerous. There were many forces in the universe which affected daemons strangely. This was to be expected with the exposed nature of the human soul. Spock once described it as like having no enamel on your teeth.

However, this feeling felt different, and McCoy could not help but feel foreboding. The deer ran up to him and put her chin in his lap while Aesina scampered to cuddle in Kirk's arms.

"What's the matter, 'Auna?" McCoy asked while scratching behind her ear.

"I don't know, but I know I don't want to feel it again."

"Me too," Aesina said as she moved to her favorite spot on Kirk's shoulder. "It was almost like a surge of energy, but one that burns. I only felt it for a second, but...I don't know."

"We've felt these kind of things before," Kirk said, although McCoy could tell the captain was not as confident.

"Yes we have," Leauna said. "But for some reason this one is strange to me, it's..."

The chirp of the intercom interrupted them, which caused the captain to take a deep breath before answering.

"Sir," the gamma shift communications officer said. "We are currently in orbit around Cerebus II. The colonists have acknowledged our signal and will be ready for us to beam down in the morning."

Kirk looked at his daemon, and then his friend. The man on the other end sounded a little more shaky than usual. "Mr. Perry, did you just now notice something...odd. Something which affected your daemon?"

There was a beat of silence on the other end before he heard an "affirmative," from the officer.

"I know I'm new to this ship," the young man continued. "They told me I should get used to Tarn reacting to certain forces, but...everyone's was affected. I can't help but think its coming from the planet."

Kirk sighed. McCoy could tell when the captain was getting the determined look in his eye - the one which led him into dangerous situations without thought for the consequences. This small diversion was looking to be more than they initially thought, but rather than chasing the captain away, it drew him like a moth to the flame.

"Headed into danger again, I guess," Leauna sighed, earning a smile from McCoy.

"Yippee ki-yay," McCoy said in a deep drawl.

"What did you hear?" Spock asked T'Ra as he gently stroked her back. The daemon was burrowed it his lap shivering, and was blocking him from hearing what had clearly disturbed her. The fear was so great, it shocked them out of a deep meditation.

"Screaming," T'Ra said in a small voice. "Loud. Piercing. Screaming. There was anguish, Spock. The deepest anguish I have ever felt. Anguish which cannot be sated." The creature's voice broke as she recalled the feeling.

Spock continued his ministrations as he considered what she said. While Vulcans were touch telepaths, T'Ra had added empathic abilities. He could not help but take on some of the fear and trembling of his soul, hoping to ease the pain she gleaned from the mysterious encounter. He was thankful this incident did not happen in front of others. For his sake, his daemon usually kept to herself and did not expose any emotionalism. He knew if the time called for it, she would express her true nature.

"Do you still hear it, Katra?"

"No. It lasted only for a moment, but I can still hear the echoes."

"Then it is over now," Spock said softly, now massaging the taresh-ka's neck. "However, it would be illogical to not remember this incident, because it seems to be different from others. We have seen much anguish in our travels, but none has affected you so. I hope for both our sakes it never happens again."

"Are you talking about hope? I thought it was...illogical," T'Ra said, attempting to straighten herself, but still enjoying her parent's ministrations.

"You realize what I mean."

"I will not protest, Spock, but I do not think we can stop it. Whatever caused the pain is still out there...and it is hungry."