The trail up the mountain was well worn and its slope gentle, so gentle in fact that after several hours Spock was still only six hundred feet above the spot where he had landed on this planet. Where a human might have felt frustration at that realisation, Spock calmly accepted it and stoically carried on. Eventually, he came to a part of the trail that gave a good view of the valley below, and judged this to be the optimum place for a break. He sat down on a rock, took the water bottle from his backpack, and leaned forward to study the scene spread out before him. His shuttlecraft was visible on a stretch of dry land on the far side of the valley, near a small village, but most of the valley floor was taken up by paddy fields in which the natives were working away, growing the local equivalent of rice.
Though not given to making such aesthetic judgments himself, Spock knew that others considered the Aragonians an attractive people. Standard humanoid in size and shape but with pale blue skin and silver hair, they had golden eyes the same shape as those of cats, with irises to match. Despite being a gentle species, they also had long, tough, claw-like nails capable of ripping a man to shreds.
Taking a swig of refreshingly cold water from his bottle, Spock wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his sleeve. The air thinned more quickly at altitude on this planet than on most inhabited worlds and even his Vulcan lungs were having to labor to keep him supplied with enough oxygen.
After the precise number of minutes he had calculated would constitute an adequate amount of rest, Spock returned the water bottle to his backpack, got to his feet, and set off again. Another half an hour should get him to his destination. He did not like being away from the Enterprise for too long and so would not dawdle any longer than was necessary.
Aragon IV was a backwater world far from major trade routes and of no strategic importance. Its people were still in their agricultural age, which meant its mineral resources were so far largely unexploited, not that there was anything particularly exciting in those resources. No xenite, or dilithium, or other rare or exotic substances that the technologically advanced races of the galaxy might fight over to obtain. What it did have were its seers.
Spock had travelled to Aragon IV specifically to see the High Seer, who dwelled in a cave high on this mountain in a rural area far from the main towns and cities . Beaming directly into the cave would have saved a lot of time, but unfortunately something about the planet's unusually strong magnetic field made getting a transporter lock on any location on its surface virtually impossible.
When Spock finally reached the cave that was his destination, the High Seer was waiting for him.
"Greetings, Spock of Vulcan," he said, his back to Spock.
Spock knew for a certainty his entrance had been a silent one, yet the other man knew he was there.
"Greetings High Seer," Spock replied, glancing around the cave. It was as he remembered it from his last visit, highly detailed statuary carved into the living rock, and fine carpets adorning a floor that been worked to be perfectly level. The cave was maybe ten yards wide, five high, and fifty deep, the rear lost in shadow. A small brazier was burning some variety of aromatic wood which filled the space with smells Spock found oddly reminiscent of spring in the region of Vulcan where he grew up.
The High Seer turned to face Spock. He was middle aged, with a crescent moon birthmark on his right cheek, and radiated both intelligence and serenity. Far from affecting any sort of ceremonial robes, he was dressed in a simple shirt and breeches, sandals on his feet.
"You came," he said. "We knew you would, of course, but I am pleased nevertheless."
"I am honoring the agreement we made that I would return here when I became captain of the Enterprise," replied Spock. "I have now done so."
"Good, good. Be seated, I'll pour us both tea, and then we can talk."
Soon after, when both men were sipping cups of the thick, dark local tea, the High Seer continued.
"When you first came to Aragon IV, you had a question you wanted answered. You remember the question, of course?"
"Naturally. Certain then recent events had led me to re-evaluate my position on not seeking command of the Enterprise. I wished to know how I could depose James Kirk without killing him. Since advancement on the Enterprise requires assassinating those above you, the task presented me with a conundrum. I asked you what path I must take to assure the outcome I required."
"And we told you that you were already on it, that we had set in motion events years earlier that would let you accomplish what you wanted, and that when the moment came you would know it. It did, and you now know who the agent of your opportunity was."
"Janice Lester," said Spock.
"Janice Lester," agreed the High Seer. "She was an angry, bitter young woman with a burning desire to be a starship captain. When she came to Aragon IV, she was told that the path to what she desired led through xenoarchaeology. It was not the only path but, of those available to her, we chose the one that fulfilled not only her aims but also ours. We can only work with those we can directly affect, people who come into our orbit. She was the first to come our way who had a future path that intersected those of James Kirk and yourself."
"I now understand why you encourage pilgrims," said Spock, realisation dawning, "it gives you access to the wider universe."
"Just so. We've made sure word of our abilities has reached other worlds, so that truth-seekers will come here. We are careful to be impressive but not too impressive when demonstrating our abilities so that they go away satisfied but we do not attract unwelcome attention from the Empire."
"I understand," said Spock. "As a backwater planet of little strategic value you will avoid the Empire's attention so long as there are no uprisings here, but your abilities would make the Empire unbeatable - if they knew of them."
"Which is why they never must."
"Yet my first visit here was the result of a statistical analysis I did which suggested a higher rate of success in your predictions than could be accounted for by mere chance. So while you may have wished to control how impressive your abilities appeared when demonstrating them to pilgrims I contend that you were in fact not careful enough."
"Or we might have calibrated how impressive to be to a very fine degree," said the High Seer, "to a degree, in fact, that would pique the curiosity of a certain Vulcan but no one else. You are the only one who has made that analysis, after all."
Spock found the implications of this deeply unsettling.
"Are you suggesting," he said, "that your ability to see multiple future timelines enables you to direct outcomes to that fine a degree?"
"I am. When we can control all the variables that is exactly what we can do. Yet in another sense we have no real power at all. We can tell someone the correct path to take to achieve a particular goal, but we cannot force them to take that path."
"I see. Fascinating."
"We foresaw you coming to us that first time when we looked at all Janice Lester's possible futures, and so we set her on a path that not only met her needs but also yours. And ours, of course."
"Then you do have your own agenda, as I suspected."
"Naturally, but that agenda is nothing less than the protection of our universe. The more we followed the possible timelines of ever more people, the more of them we found them converging on a terrible future, one we were determined to prevent if we could."
"What was the nature of this future?"
"That was the problem. It was big, and it was terrifying... and we couldn't get a firm fix on it. This had never happened to us before. It made no sense. While the exact nature of the threat remained vague we could follow timelines backwards from the event to determine the identities of those with the best chance of preventing that future from coming to pass. One of those individuals was you, Spock, and the path you had to follow led through the captaincy of the Enterprise. We were prevented from seeing why, but we knew that it was so. Then, last year, something happened, and everything changed. The odds of that future coming to pass increased dramatically, it became almost a certainty. And we suddenly knew what that future was."
"Do you know what happened?"
"Yes, a wall between universes was breached, and a door opened that has let that future in."
"The four who crossed into our universe from that of the Federation," said Spock, stroking his beard. "Can it really be that bad?"
"Two universes are now threatened instead of one, so yes. Our brothers on the Aragon IV in that other universe also saw a terrible potential future ahead, the one that contact between our universes has made almost inevitable, and they too were taking what steps they could to avert it. The breach created contact between us. They and we are now of one mind in most things, and I can speak for all. Before the breach, our brothers could see the James Kirk of their universe would be crucial in what was to come, just as they could see that at the time he would be needed most, three decades hence, he would also have apparently died. This was true in every version of his timeline they explored. It was an immutable event, one of those things that all his pathways led to. I believe another word for such immutable events is 'fate'. There was only one way to preserve James Kirk; his fate would have to be given to another, to the same person who took the place of our James Kirk."
"Janice Lester," said Spock.
"Janice Lester, yes. As in our universe, she was an angry, bitter young woman with a burning desire to be a starship captain. She arrived on Aragon IV on the same day in both universes, and in both universes she was told that the path to what she desired led through xenoarchaeology. In our universe she followed that path as a tomb raider, a criminal, in the other she studied for a doctorate and became an official archaeologist; in both she eventually became Captain James T. Kirk."
"If I am understanding you correctly, the reason Miss Lester was put on the path she was in the other universe was in order for her to assume the fate of that universe's Jim Kirk, whereas in this one it was so that I could kill the captain and assume command of the Enterprise, yet in both universes she ended up swapping bodies with him. Strange that two such different agendas should be served by the same outcome."
"Not really," said the High Seer. "To a surprising degree, things that happen to people in one universe tend to mirror those that happen to them in the other, and we don't really understand why. For example, in our universe Janice Lester knows she's really Jim Kirk but can't tell anyone, while in the other she could tell people, but doesn't know. And in both universes she ends up as the sexual partner of Arthur Coleman. In the other one she is even currently pregnant by him."
"Except that Coleman's mind is in the body of Nyota Uhura in this universe."
"Right, the correspondences are not exact, but given that Miss Uhura has been body-swapped in our universe there's a high likelihood that will also be her fate in the other one. Here, she died and her body survived, so I wouldn't be surprised if in the other one she survives but her body dies."
"So you do not know with any certainty."
"Not yet, no. If it happens it will be some years from now, and neither our brothers or ourselves have yet encountered a timeline strand that crosses with that event. Our abilities may be formidable, but we are not omniscient. Even so, I can tell that what we are capable of disturbs you."
"It does. Your abilities appear far beyond what is natural. Are you in fact the mystics others claim you to be?"
"There's no such thing, Mr Spock, though we've done nothing to discourage the label. We find it a useful idea to hide behind, but there's nothing supernatural about what we do. Our rituals and ceremonies are there partially as camouflage, it's true, and they're popular with those few tourists we get, but their main purpose is to help us focus our minds when we open them to the infinite futures radiating out from the present. When we set someone on a particular path we're collapsing all those possible futures for that person into a single future, a concept I believe you might be familiar with from what you call quantum mechanics."
Spock nodded silently.
"Even me living in this cave is a matter of physics. It just happens to be the spot on our planet where it's easiest for one with my abilities to see all the timelines we know and how they intertwine to a degree few others can match."
"You claimed that with the breaching of the wall between universes you now know the nature of the dire threat facing both universes."
"We do. Prior to the breach, the fate of the Empire was known to us. It would eventually collapse as all empires do, and three hundred years from now it would be gone. That is no longer the case. The breach changed everything. Now, if nothing is done, the Empire could go on forever. You are our best hope of preventing that. Unfortunately, there's also something that now appears in every potential future we can see. It's an immutable event, and there's nothing anyone can do to prevent it."
"What is that event.?"
"War between the Empire and the Federation."
"""""""""
When Spock had left and was out of hearing range, the High Seer sighed and said:
"You can come out now."
A tall, bearded figure emerged from the shadows at the rear of the cave.
"Two universes?" it said. "If our efforts come to nothing it will affect many more than that. The Empire will keep on expanding into universe after universe, a monstrous cancer metastasizing across the multiverse."
"There was nothing to be gained by telling Spock more than he needed to know, and much that might be jeopardised."
"Perhaps, but Spock is very sharp. With that mind of his it's possible he might spot something we've missed."
"Possible, but extremely unlikely. We made our judgment to limit what we told him after having followed all the future timelines that radiate out from his present."
"Knowing him as well as I do I'd still put my money on Spock, but this is your show, High Seer, so we'll do things your way."
"Very wise, Sybok. After all, there are things that even a brother may not know.
"If you say so, but I can see you have something else on your mind. What is it, old friend?"
"It's our Janice Lester," he said. "Now that Kirk is her and in a much less powerful position, we had expected that this would reduce Kirk's effect on what is to come. Instead, the timelines that converge on her do not come together making her future unknowable. It doesn't happen often, but it has here - she's become a wild card."
"Well then," said Sybok, stroking his beard, "I may just have to do something about that..."
The End
Note:
Characters in this interlude are referring to events related in the following sequence of tales.
1. Turnabout Intruder - part 2
2. The Second Life of Janice Lester
3. Spock's Brain - Before and After
4. Mirror Universe Turnabout
The interlude itself is to let you know that these are all connected and, yes, they are a part of something larger.