A/N: Well, I was a little disappointed when I got only two reviews for this new story. Then I checked the stats and discovered that 76 of you actually read it, I felt better. So here's chapter 2, where our trio really starts to get involved. Please read and review!
TAKEN
Morning came to the Yosemite campsite. Jim Kirk was the first to awaken, and sat up stretching his arms and yawning widely. "Spock! Bones!" he called, "Time to get up!"
McCoy only moaned and rolled over. Spock woke instantly and rose smoothly, straightening his clothes. "Good morning, Jim," he intoned with no trace of having been asleep a few moments ago. He rolled up his sleeping bag and stowed it next to his backpack. Kirk climbed out of his and did the same. He ambled over to McCoy and kicked him gently where he thought the doctor's rump should be.
"Well, good morning to you, too," the doctor mumbled sleepily. He sat up slowing, rubbing the kinks in his back. "I'm too old to sleep on the ground," he complained.
Kirk chuckled and offered his friend a hand, then pulled him up. "You say that every morning. Spock," he re-directed his gaze, "hand me the coffee pot. I'm going down to the creek to wash up." The Vulcan wordlessly removed the pot from the grate over the campfire and handed it off.
Ninety minutes later, the trio began hiking up the trail to the lake, followed by Seekers.
The Watcher grew nervous. Many questions plagued him. Would these men understand the scroll? Could they really find his daughter? Would his adversary, the one who had locked her away, allow it?
"Sir!" Hatia called.
Her master raised his weary head, "Yes."
"The triad is once again settled in their encampment.
"Excellent! Make the necessary arrangements and bring them here at once."
"As you wish, Sir."
In the tiny space ship orbiting Earth, a marble sized device began to stir in its storage compartment. It checked its programming and headed out into space. It was followed by another, and another, and another, until there were twelve of them. They formed a tight circle and descended to the planet below, zeroing in on the signal from the Seeker that observed the men. They reached the triad just as the one called McCoy returned from the woods surrounding the camp and sat on a camp stool. The circle expanded, encompassing the men. The orbs began emitting a humming sound as tiny electric currents passed from one to the next. The triad heard only birdsong before a bright flash of light engulfed them. Then they were gone.
Spock woke first, finding himself face down in the sand. Sand? For a moment, he thought he was back on Vulcan, then he opened his eyes and noticed the odd green tint to the light around him. Leonard McCoy moaned and rolled onto his back and let out a cry of pain as a zapping sound filled the air.
"What the…" the doctor swore.
Jim Kirk rose to his knees and reached out tentatively with one hand. The same noise emanated as his hand touched the invisible wall. "A force field," he concluded. He and Spock commenced to examine their prison and found they were trapped in a ten by ten foot enclosure.
"They are here, Sir."
"Good. Release them."
Abruptly the force field box disappeared and Kirk, Spock and McCoy stared at each other in confusion, then crowded together for security. McCoy spoke first. "Where are we?"
"I was wondering the same thing myself," Spock stated.
"Welcome, gentlemen."
All three started at the new voice, a deep voice of a man that barely contained the excitement he felt. They looked around and found only green light and white sand as far as the eye could see in every direction. Spock pointed up to a golf ball sized device that hovered over them.
"Who are you? Why are we here?" Admiral Kirk demanded.
"One question at a time please. Who I am is inconsequential. Why you are here is another matter. I will address that when I see you."
"Show yourself," Jim insisted.
"That I cannot do. You will have to come to me."
McCoy interrupted, "First question, where are we?"
"You are on a planet other than your own, Doctor McCoy."
Jim's eyes widened as he thought about the reality of that statement. "Admiral Kirk, your people have not yet discovered this planet, but I assure you, that is where you are." The three of them wondered how this disembodied voice knew their names.
"If you all will please turn around, you will see a castle. I await you there." They did as instructed.
"That wasn't there before. Was it?" asked Jim.
"No, it was not," Spock answered.
McCoy blinked and rubbed his eyes again. "Somebody pinch me, I think I'm dreaming."
Spock nodded his head. "Doctor, if you're dreaming, so am I. And we're having the same dream."
"Let's get moving," Kirk suggested. The other two looked at him, Spock with a cocked eyebrow, and McCoy with a you've-got-to-be-kidding look.
Jim shrugged. "Whoever he is, he obviously brought us here for a reason. We'll go see what he wants and then… well… we'll figure out what to do."
They walked toward the castle, the green sunlight beating down on them. McCoy turned to look at his companions. "How did we get here anyway? I felt some kind of vibration."
"Yeah, I felt it too," Jim concurred.
"As did I," Spock put in. "And in all my studies in astronomy, I have never heard of a green sun."
Jim sighed heavily. "All we can do is go to the castle and see what he wants."
The walk to the castle took nearly an hour. The triad stopped to take in their new surroundings. It did resemble a story-book castle, with turrets and crenellations. They paused at the bottom of the steps leading to the massive wooden doors.
"Well, let's go inside," McCoy counseled. "It's getting dark." Three pair of eyes turned skyward and realized the light was a deeper shade of green. They climbed the five steps to the massive wooden doors and entered warily. Rounding a corner they were greeted by three comfortable looking chairs. They sat down to wait for their host.
They didn't wait long. A rather short man walked into the room. He had human features with a bald head, and was dressed in a brown robe – like a monk. "Welcome, gentlemen," he said, in the same voice they had heard before. "My name is Omaru. I am pleased to see that you made it to the castle."
Kirk, as always, spoke for the group. "Now can we get down to business? Why are we here?"
"I will answer your questions in due time, Admiral Kirk. First you must have refreshment after your journey. With little flashes of green light, a tray with a steaming bowl of beans appeared in front of each champion and hovered within easy reach.
Omaru had left the triad alone and returned only when he was sure they had eaten their fill, pleased that he had replicated food he had seen them eat before. He re-entered the room, and with a snap of his fingers the trays vanished.
"Now, gentlemen," he began, "I will tell you why I brought you here. Some time ago – twenty of your years if I have figured them properly – the inhabitants of a nearby planet came and devastated this planet, leaving it virtually lifeless. The flora and fauna – did I pronounce the words correctly?" All three listeners nodded. "– The flora and fauna were left intact, but hidden, and all intelligent beings were taken away as slaves, save myself, my daughter, and a few servants, who were all in this castle at the time. Our survival angered our adversaries greatly, and soon they found a way to steal my daughter. They hid her body somewhere on this planet and left me with only her intellect. I was locked in the castle with no means of searching for her."
"What do you mean 'locked in'?" Jim interrupted. "We heard you out in the ... the desert. And when we arrived, the castle doors were wide open."
"I am not permitted to leave the castle physically," Omaru explained, "but my voice ..." he faltered, searching for the words to explain his power. "There are forces at work here you could not begin to understand." He stopped to think, then started again. "Let me introduce you to Hatia, my daughter. She is now the control center of my apparatus. Hatia?"
"Yes, Sir?" A metallic female voice answered as the golf ball sized orb they had seen outside floated into the room.
"Say 'Hello' to our champions."
"Greetings, Admiral Kirk, Captain Spock, Doctor McCoy. I am Hatia. I am responsible for finding you and bringing you here."
"Why?" three voices asked at once.
"That will be all, Hatia." Omaru turned back to his guests. "When my daughter was taken, I could not leave the castle, but several of my servants, of their own free will, went out to search for her. None returned. So I began a study of this." A roll of what appeared to be parchment materialized in his uplifted hand. "This Scroll was left me as the only key to finding my daughter and restoring my people. But I had no understanding of the language in which it is written. By combining Hatia's intellect and my abilities, I was able to explore the universe in search of beings who spoke its language. After many years, Hatia discovered your world, and your fellow beings who indeed speak the language of the scroll.
"Much time was spent following the endeavors of your people. We were quite impressed with the three of you and decided you were our best hope, so we set about to prepare for your arrival. Now it is up to the three of you: Will you help us?"
The three looked at each other. Jim asked, "May we see the Scroll?"
"Of, course, Admiral Kirk. Perhaps Captain Spock could read it aloud?" He handed the Scroll to Spock who unrolled it carefully and scanned its contents.
"It's a collection of poems," stated the Vulcan, scanning the document. "They are not complete, only fragments of poetry."
"Please read it," Omaru compelled. "Some of the words are unfamiliar to me. Perhaps I or one of the others will find some understanding as you read." Spock cleared his throat and began to read;
"'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
I stood upon the hills, when heaven's wide arch
Was glorious with the sun's returning march,
And woods were brightened, and soft gales
Went forth to kiss the sun-clad vales.
And somewhere men are laughing,
And somewhere children shout.
But there is no joy in Mudville –
Mighty Casey has struck out.
With what deep murmurs through time's silent stealth
Doth thy transparent, cool, and wat'ry wealth
Here flowing fall
And chide and call
As if his liquid, loose retinue stay'd
Ling'ring, and were of this steep place afraid;
Mock on, Mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau;
Mock on, Mock on, `tis all in vain.
You throw the sand against the wind,
And the wind blows it back again
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I chose the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.
The moun tain seems no more a soul less thing,
But rather as a shape of ancient fear,
In dark ness and the winds of Chaos born
Amid the lord less heav ens' thun der ing–
A Pres ence crouched, enor mous and aus tere,
Before whose feet the mighty waters mourn.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately Pleasure Dome decree,
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
One if by land, and, two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore shall be.
Be assured, the Dragon is not dead
But once more from the pools of peace
Shall rear his fabulous green head.
Far from the maddening crowd's ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learned to stray:
Along the cool sequestered vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their ways."
"Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink."
My Soul. I summon to the winding ancient stair;
Set all your mind upon the steep ascent,
Down from the lofty
Rocky wall
Streams the bright flood,
Then spreadeth gently
In cloudy billows
O'er the smooth rock,
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forest of the night.
All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time has many parts.
She walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies.
But when I lifted up my head
From shadows shaken on the snow
I saw Orion in the east
Burn steadily as long ago.
Where lies the land to which the ship would go?
Far, far ahead is all her seamen know.
And where the land she travels from? Away,
Far, far behind is all that they can say.
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking,
Old Euclid drew a circle
On a sandy beach long ago.
Under a spreading chestnut-tree
The village smithy stands.
And children coming home from school
Look in the open door;
Safe in their alabaster chambers
Untouched by morning and untouched by noon,
Sleep the meek members of the resurrection,
Rafters of satin and roof of stone.
I love thee to the breadth and depth and height
my soul can reach."
Kirk looked at his companions, then at their host, hoping for a glint of recognition or understanding from one of them. Omaru looked expectant, McCoy appeared confused, and Spock was deep in thought, staring at his steepled fingers, as he handed the scroll back to the little man.
"I believe it is a map," Spock stated without looking up. The others glared at him.
"A map!" exclaimed McCoy. "How did you come up with that?"
"Perhaps 'map' is the wrong word. Rather a set of instructions, or directions to reach a certain point. Several of the poems allude to landmarks, such as a road, a mountain, a wood, a river and an underground lake," he explained. I think the last section, the alabaster chamber, is the exact location of Omaru's daughter." McCoy was amazed. All he'd heard was a bunch of poem fragments, but apparently the Vulcan mind had heard a great deal more.
"Okay, so it's a map," Kirk agreed. "But where do we start and where do we go?"
"Quite simple," said Spock. "First, we have to find a sundial."
"A sundial?" asked McCoy. "You lost me. What does a sundial have to do with anything?"
"What is a sundial?" Omaru asked.
"It is right there in the first poem," explained Spock. "'Twas brillig and the slithey toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe." That's from Jabberwocky, a poem found in Lewis Carroll's story, Through the Looking-Glass."
"Oh, yeah" said Jim, "Alice in Wonderland. But how do you get sundial out of that, Spock?"
"Because of the wabe," Spock continued. "In the story, Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice that a wabe is the grassy plot around a sundial."
"Huh?," said McCoy.
"'It's call a wabe because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it, and a long way beyond it on each side,'" Spock quoted.
McCoy rolled his eyes. "Very funny, Spock."
"He's right," supplied Jim. "I read that book when I was a kid, and I remember that." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "So, we need to find a sundial."
Omaru had been standing patiently throughout this diatribe, and jumped in when the chance was given. "Perhaps it would help if I knew what a sundial was."
"Of course," started Spock. "Doctor McCoy, would you care to explain this ancient device to our host?"
McCoy grinned; at last, here was his chance to contribute. "It's an instrument that shows the passage of time by the shadow the sun casts on a pointer," he defined. "They were usually made of stone, sometimes wood, or even metal."
Omaru brightened. "I have one of those instruments in my garden, though I call it by a different name. As I remember, it is quite weathered and somewhat dilapidated."
"Can you show it to us?" asked Jim.
"No, I cannot." The little man's face fell. "As I told you before, I cannot leave the castle."
"But you can tell us where the garden is, can't you?" McCoy encouraged.
Abashed, Omaru said, "I do not remember. It has been a very long time since I have been outside these walls." The three champions looked at one another.
"Well, we'll just have to find it," declared Kirk. The others nodded.
Omaru smiled. "So you will help us. Thank you." He breathed a sigh of relief. "First, you must rest," he stated. "Let me show you to your rooms. It will be dark soon. In the morning we will look for the garden, and determine what needs to be done."
Omaru led the triad out a door on the other side of the room, then down a long corridor. They climbed a winding staircase, then followed another corridor, taking numerous turns. Finally they came to a large of suite of rooms that had been cleaned and aired in preparation for their arrival. Fresh linens had been placed on a narrow bed in each of three small rooms off one side of the main room. Against one wall stood a large, wooden wardrobe and a small desk. On another was a fireplace with a blazing fire, and a door leading to a spacious bath. The fourth wall was taken up almost entirely by windows, heavily curtained against the harsh green sunlight of day.
"I bid you good night, gentlemen," their host bowed and turned to leave them.
"Wait," Jim stopped him. "If we're going to do this, we'll need supplies, clothes, gear."
"Ah, yes. I nearly forgot," Omaru apologized. "I took the liberty of bringing everything from your campsite. You will find it all stored in that cabinet." He pointed at the massive wardrobe. McCoy opened it and found it stuffed with their gear; sleeping bags, backpacks, food, and even Spock's lyre.
"Please let me know if you require anything else, Admiral Kirk. I can supply most of the items you will need. Good night."
"Good night," Jim replied. Spock and McCoy echoed him.