Disclaimer: Don't Own. Don't Profit.
Special Thanks to Beta Notes from the Classroom. Check out her story "Once and Future" in my faves.
Fascinating Things...
Novasch's body trembled on the bench and his hands clenched in his lap. Although he was not at the meeting with his bond-mate T'Quilloc, he saw the table crack in front of her.
He was denied admittance to the meeting. He was a Vulcan, but a full telepath, unlike his mate. Every entrance to the Starfleet conference auditorium was guarded by cold machines that scanned for full telepathic powers such as his. Machines could not be influenced even by Gray Guardsmen. He could not reach her. He could not protect her. Nor could he read the thoughts and intentions of those around her. His perceptions were limited to her perceptions. And as a touch telepath, T'Quilloc's perceptions of her surroundings were limited to what she could see, hear, taste and touch.
His nostrils flared. T'Quilloc felt his distress through the bond. Though she was not a full telepath the link between bond-mates was special. She could always feel his emotional state and read his thoughts unless he purposely shielded them
Now she spoke into his mind. Do not be concerned, k'diwa, I am safe. See? They lead Golarth away even now.
Novasch could see, but still his body trembled.
Where are you, k'diwa? T'Quilloc asked in his mind. It is cold, I feel wind the wind on you, but perhaps that slight warmth on your face is the sun?
She was seeking to calm him, as she always did. Novasch couldn't show her a picture of where he was; he was two months away from his last cataract surgery. It had been a busy two months, and now his eyes were covered by gray mist once again and he could not see. Blindness was an occupational hazard.
I am .375 kilometers from your location, on the Starfleet campus. Novasch answered. That was too far. One of the rules of his occupation, and the only consolation, was that he was never to be separated from his bond-mate. She was his eyes and half his heart.
T'Quilloc felt his sorrow and anxiety. We are not separated. .375 kilometers is not so far. But how did you get there without me, k'idwa?
I was able to navigate from our rooms by memory. And then I borrowed the eyes of a seagull.
Ahhh...later when the meeting ends you will share that memory with me. T'Quilloc said. Novasch felt his anger dissipating, overwhelmed by her happiness at anticipating that event.
"Novasch?"
His name was spoken out loud. He restrained his natural instinct to reach out and identify the speaker telepathically. Instead he turned his head in the direction of the voice. "Lieutenant Commander Patrick O'Hara?"
"Yeah, it's me." Novasch heard the Lieutenant Commander's footsteps approach the bench.
"T'Quilloc's at the talks on the Neutral Zone disappearances and they locked you out, didn't they?" said Patrick.
"The topic of the meeting is secret and -"
"Yeah, whatever, anyone with two neurons can put two and two together. I'm not divulging anything I've learned confidentially, by the way. I'm just voicing my supposition," Patrick said.
Taking a deep breath the human said, "You don't look so good."
Novasch tilted his head. He usually liked dealing with Patrick, but restraining his telepathy was always uncomfortable.
"Toshi and I have something that will cheer you up!" said Patrick, his voice increasing in tempo. "A gadget we're going to run through Starfleet's brand new quantum scanner. You were a computer science teacher...before...you like gadgets, don't you?"
Novasch did, in fact, like gadgets, and anything associated with Patrick and Toshi was bound to be fascinating.
Go with him, T'Quilloc spoke into his mind. Go with him. Go for both of us.
"You can, you know, relax, and use my eyes," said Patrick.
At the word relax all hesitation in Novasch vanished. Patrick knew what that word meant to Novasch. He gently narrowed the bond with his mate so her thoughts of the meeting would not reach Patrick, and then he let his mind slip into the human's. Through Patrick's eyes he saw his shoulders straighten. It was such a relief to not have to block himself.
"It's not a problem," said Patrick. "Toshi always said anyone can read exactly what I'm thinking on my face anyway."
Novasch felt acceptance and sadness. Patrick knew exactly what he was and what he did -
A vision of mangled Vulcan and Human bodies flashed past Novasch's eyes.
"Sorry, bad memories, Novasch," Patrick said. "I've been in the field. I know what the other side does...nothing you could do...come on, you deserve a break. And I think you'll love this."
Novasch nudged a little and saw an image of a silver sphere in a delicate brown palm of someone he'd seen in another's mind. In a half-Vulcan's mind.
"Hey, no peeking, Novasch! This is going to be a surprise," said Patrick taking his arm and pulling him gently upward.
The physical contact wasn't strictly necessary, but the human seemed to do it automatically. Novasch touched upon a memory in Patrick's mind. Ahhh...Physical guidance was provided to blind humans. Of course. Perfectly logical.
And then Patrick began to sing, "One hundred bottles of beer on the wall, one hundred bottles of beer. Take one down, pass it around, ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall."
Novasch blinked as Patrick led him down the path towards the subspace science building. Patrick was trying to keep him from discovering what the gadget was by singing an inane drinking song. If Vulcans could laugh, Novasch might have. He would not probe any more, simply out of respect for Patrick's inventiveness.
"Thought you'd like that," said Patrick. The human licked his lips and began to sing again. "Ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-eight bottles of beer..."
x x x x
"Novasch!" said Toshi. He shuffled quickly through the lab smiling and bowing. "It is so good to see you! Relax, relax, relax."
At those words Novasch slipped into Toshi's mind too. Novasch liked Patrick. But Toshi, his wife Yumi, Novasch and T'Quilloc were friends. Like Patrick, Toshi knew what Novasch did. Unlike Patrick, Toshi did not acknowledge it. He pushed it from his mind. Novasch was flooded with memories of T'Quilloc and himself drunk on hot chocolate in an onsen with Toshi and Yumi on a snowy night in the Sierra Nevadas. And then there was another image: Novasch linking the minds of Toshi and Yumi to their infant daughter Yuki. Joy radiated from Toshi at the memory. "She thought of her mother," said Toshi.
"Infants always think of their primary caregiver," said Novasch. It seemed to be true across species.
T'Quilloc and he were not allowed to have children yet. They'd lived the experience of parenthood through Yumi and Toshi.
"I remember feeling liked chopped liver when my kids were babies," said Patrick.
Novasch marveled at the expression. Humans were so fascinating. He forgot to block the sensation of fascination. Patrick and Toshi broke out in giggles, which caused the seratonin receptors in Novasch's mind to temporarily overflow.
"Novasch," said Toshi good naturedly. "Please don't hit us with your fascination!"
"It strips of us of our masculinity when you make us giggle," said Patrick wiping an eye. "Come on, Toshi, I promised Novasch we'd let him see the sphere!"
"Ahhh...the sphere," said Toshi hurrying to a large cylindrical device and pressing an access code he didn't bother to hide. "That is fascinating."
"It belongs to Cadet Nyota Uhura, does it not?" said Novasch.
"Awww..." said Patrick. "You got her name and everything!"
"No," Novasch said feeling Patrick's disappointment. "Your method of distraction was successful. I recognized her face and remembered her name from an encounter with Lieutenant Commander Spock. She is...somewhat like his bond-mate, is she not?"
Novasch felt Patrick and Toshi take sudden intakes of breath. Novasch froze, embarrassed. He'd committed a blunder and made his associates uncomfortable.
Patrick went and quickly closed the door to lab.
"We don't talk about that," said Toshi.
Novasch tilted his head confused.
"Their relationship is legit now," said Patrick. "He's off in the Fleet."
"But when it started...the timing was inconvenient," said Toshi. "There were problems."
Jumbled memories, and feelings of anger washed through both Toshi and Patrick. They liked Spock. He was their friend; they'd tried to protect him from someone. Novasch could probe, but he didn't. Instead he said, "I will not speak of it either."
Both men relaxed. Nodding, Toshi reached into the cylinder access portal and pulled out the silver globe Novasch had seen earlier. Cradling it in his hand as though it were something very fragile - though Novasch could feel it was not - Toshi looked up at him and smiled.
"Gives me butterflies in my stomach just looking at it," said Patrick.
Novasch tilted his head. Both of the two human scientists had feelings in their stomachs akin to the fluttering of butterflies. He barely managed to restrain his fascination.
Patrick almost laughed. He looked at Novasch and raised a hand in mock warning. Novasch found the familiarity delightful.
"She wouldn't let us near it until we got access to the quantum scanner," Patrick said.
"Before we got the scanner we were going to take it apart," said Toshi.
Patrick shook his head sadly in incomprehension. "It has sentimental value to her."
"This is the only time we could get the scanner for unofficial purposes," said Toshi. "She's on spring break right now, visiting her family in Africa. She really wanted to be here."
A few thoughts unrelated to the sphere buzzed through Toshi and Patrick's minds like unruly bees. She'll graduate soon. She'll be able to join the fleet…maybe even get the same posting as Spock.
Novasch did not comment. It was typical of humans to be easily distracted.
Patrick's focus returned first. "We promised to show her all the data, and promised if we could get a paper out of this piece of junk we'd let her in on it, too."
"Piece of junk?" said Novasch confused by the human's expression.
"Oh," said Toshi. "It is a holographic device. It plays a Romulan version of the epic poem the T'Kai Lamana Ita."
"The technology is amazing," said Patrick. "But the acting and production values -"
"Leave something to be desired," said Toshi before Patrick could finish with a less polite description.
"Begin," said Toshi in Romulan. The sphere floated up from his hands and expanded. Triangles with pictures and text hovered around it in mid air. Toshi touched one of the triangles and a scene began to play in three dimensions. The actors had a strange, not terribly appealing, style. Their motions seemed highly over dramatic. In the background a curtain fell off a window.
"I don't believe that was supposed to happen," said Patrick.
Novasch nodded. The hover ability was interesting, but he happened to know the Vulcan Science Academy had similar devices. Still it would be interesting to see how this differed from the Vulcan technology.
"There is something else this can do," said Toshi. "Miss Uhura just discovered it."
"Come alive!" Patrick said in Romulan.
Suddenly the actors expanded to life size. One actress stood directly in front of Novasch.
"Hurry, touch her, Novasch, before the power drains out!" said Patrick.
Novasch put a finger towards the actress's shoulder, expecting it to pass through the hologram. Instead he felt skin, soft, pliant and as hot as his own. Novasch restrained a gasp of surprise. There was nothing like this at the Vulcan Science Academy.
The image flickered, disappeared and the sphere dropped into Toshi's waiting hands.
"It seems to have a weak battery," he said. "Miss Uhura discovered it does recharge with exposure to sun light."
"Where did this come from?" said Novasch trying to remain calm.
Patrick shrugged. "It's weird; she said her brother picked it up off an asteroid or something."
"The publishing date is..." Toshi tilted his head, "very odd. According to the notes, this drama was created twenty years in the future..."
"Although when we tested the circuitry, it registered as one-hundred and five years old," said Patrick.
"If someone from the future came back to our time," said Toshi, "and this was already old to them, that could explain the strange production date and scanner date."
"Or our original scanners are getting fried by something inside the thing. We'll find out soon enough," said Patrick. "These quantum scanners tell everything. We'll be able to create a duplicate that's indistinguishable from the original when we're done."
Novasch's mind was whirling. If this could be a device from the future. A Romulan device from the future...
He took a deep breath to calm himself.
"Yes! Omoshiroi desu ne," said Toshi feeling his mood but not fully comprehending it.
"Hai," said Novasch in Toshi's native language. "Omoshiroi...What does Miss Nyota Uhura's brother do?"
Patrick chuckled. "She won't tell us. Just jokes that he is a pirate."
Blocking the rising urgency he felt, Novasch filled Patrick and Toshi's minds with innocent curiosity. "Where in Africa is her family from?" he asked.
"Outside of Nairobi," said Toshi poking at the sphere as though it were a small animal.
Novasch gazed through Patrick and Toshi's eyes at the extinguished sphere. "Fascinating."
A/N:
Yes! Spock will be an instructor back at the Academy by the end of this! (Much to his chagrin!) Next chapter is Nyota, do not fear…well, except that Novasch may be after her now. She is going to see her Spock in this story. Unlike the Vulcan.
Two chapters w/o Spock or Nyota - if that doesn't get me in trouble nothing will. Anyone still reading? If so, please leave a review! They encourage me to keep going.
