The Winds of Eternity, Chapter 4
Spock lay still and watched Uhura sleep. Although he hadn't stirred earlier when she pulled the covers up, he vaguely remembered her doing so. She must have decided that she'd rather sleep than deal with their recurring problem, so he didn't disturb her. Actually, he found this rather... well, perhaps enjoyable was not the word, but he was quite comfortable and did not wish to disturb their peace.
As he waited, he flexed his fingers. Curiously, they were stiff and bruised, and he even had a small gash on his right palm. He wondered what he could have done to cause this.
The door buzzed, and they both sat up quickly. Uhura clutched the sheet under her chin and looked at him with big eyes.
"Oh shit, who could that be?"
"If you wish to rise and dress, I will turn away until you are ready."
He was surprised to see her grin at him. "Well, I suppose I can at least pretend to be modest, although I would say we're beyond that now since you've probably already seen all there is to see."
He nodded. "True."
Her mouth dropped open, and she smacked his arm. "You weren't supposed to say that!"
Before he could respond, the door buzzed again, and they heard McCoy's voice. "Uhura? You okay in there? If you're worried about answering the door right now, I can tell you that I've already been down the hall to, uh, talk to Spock."
She called out. "Just a minute."
Spock was not pleased with this development, because he knew that he could not extricate himself before McCoy entered. He sighed and turned his head away so that Uhura would have at least a small degree of privacy as she dressed. He had noticed that his own garments were strewn in a path from the door to the bed.
He felt something soft land on his lap. She had gathered up his clothing and tossed it to him.
"You can look now." She stood with her hands on her hips and shook her head. "We must have been in a hurry last night."
"So it would appear. Are you aware that your nightgown is ripped?"
She looked down, an expression of horror on her face. "Oh, thanks. Give me a minute to change, and then I guess we'll have to let Dr. McCoy in."
She grabbed a new gown and dashed into the fresher while he pulled on his pants and shirt. He was relieved to see that at least his own clothing was still intact. Soon, she had returned, and she stood beside him. They exchanged glances before she turned to the door and called, "Come."
Doctor McCoy poked his head in the door as if afraid of what he might find. "Uh, good morning. May I come in?"
Spock raised an eyebrow and heard Uhura snort in exasperation before she answered.
"Well, you can come on in, or you can stand in the doorway so that anyone who walks by can see us both standing here in our pajamas."
McCoy stepped in. "I guess I don't need to ask you what happened, but I do have a different question. Spock, did you happen to lock yourself into your quarters last night?"
Now Spock knew why his hands were so sore. He held them up and examined them. "Yes, I did. I assume that you are going to tell me I forced open the door."
"Yeah. I've never seen anything like it. It's not only open, but also bent and hanging off of the track. Damn, you must have been pretty... uh, you must have wanted in here pretty badly."
Spock could not suppress a small sigh. "I do not remember, Doctor."
McCoy nodded in sympathy. "I closed it the best I could so it wouldn't be so noticeable, and if you'll hang on a minute, I'll get you a uniform. I want you both to come with me to sickbay. We'll figure this out yet."
...
McCoy turned on his scanner and set it to run the same series of tests as yesterday. He had told them that he didn't expect to find anything new, but it was as good a place to start as any. Therefore, when he waved it over Uhura, he was surprised to find that his readings had changed since yesterday.
He frowned, recalibrated his sensors, and tried again. It was definitely showing something it had not shown before. Spock caught McCoy's change in demeanor and moved closer.
"What is it, Doctor?"
Uhura looked quickly at Spock and back to McCoy. "You found something?"
McCoy chewed on his lip. "I'm not sure. Hang on a moment." He changed some settings on the diagnostic bed and bounced up and down on his toes when his suspicions were confirmed. He nodded to himself and retrieved a different piece of equipment.
She looked helplessly at Spock. "Will someone tell me what's going on?"
Spock's expression was impassive, and she could not read him. She waited nervously while he studied the readout. Finally, he lifted an eyebrow and answered her question.
"It seems that your cerebral scan has changed since yesterday."
She craned her neck to look at the display, and he pointed at two distinct patterns.
"This area represents your original brain function. This is new. It is clearly not human, although I do not recognize it. I would expect to find a similar discrepancy in my own patterns."
Too stunned to react, she could only stare at it. Was she carrying around an alien consciousness? If so, Spock must be, too. This was confirmed moments later when the doctor ran the same series of tests on Spock.
McCoy thumbed the intercom and called Captain Kirk to sickbay.
...
The four of them sat in McCoy's office around his diagnostic computer. Spock was in the process of running increasingly intricate searches in an attempt to find a match on the mysterious brain patterns, but he was rapidly running out of options.
Finally, he ended his current program and sat back in his chair.
"Captain, I am quite certain that we will not be able to solve our mystery this way. While none of my searches were successful, that is hardly conclusive, for it is notoriously difficult to identify a species merely by their brain scans. We need additional data."
"He's right, Jim," said McCoy. "Even if we found something that looked similar, it wouldn't necessarily tell us anything. We need to learn more about where these people came from."
Kirk left his seat and began pacing. Although Spock found the majority of nervous human mannerisms bothersome, Kirk's pacing was familiar and reassuring in its constancy. Also, Spock knew that Kirk often did his best thinking when on the move.
"Can we assume that these... entities, or whatever they are, came from the two people we found stranded?"
Spock nodded. "That would be a reasonable assumption. It is unfortunate that we were unable to glean any information from their computers or their habitat."
"Bones, did you record any physical data before we buried them?"
"Well, I learned that they were humanoid and of a species I didn't recognize. Unfortunately, I didn't get much on them before they died, so I don't know how their brains worked."
Kirk seated himself again and turned to Spock. "Spock, I hate to ask this, but why haven't you noticed that you're carrying around an alien consciousness in your mind? I mean, I would expect you to be the first to recognize something like that."
Spock hesitated. He had been wondering the same thing himself.
"I must confess that I have been rather unsettled since the Elarian mission. Although I have tried repeatedly, I have been unable to meditate. Indeed, I have even had difficulty concentrating while on duty. I can only speculate, but it is now my belief that my lowered mental defenses left me susceptible to such an invasion, and my inability to center my thoughts left me unable to detect it." He met Uhura's eyes. "I regret that I did not make the connection sooner."
She smiled at him reassuringly. "Spock, you were exhausted. I don't blame you, really I don't." She paused to catch her lip between her teeth. "You know, you've said that you haven't been able to reach into your own mind, but could you reach into someone else's? Mine?"
Kirk sat up straighter. "That's a great idea, Uhura. What about it, Spock?"
Spock considered. Even under the most optimal conditions, searching another's mind without an actual sharing of thoughts was invasive at best. Add to that the fact that his mental condition was uncertain, and he would surely find this draining and unpleasant. However, Uhura was his friend, and he had always known her thinking to be calm and well ordered. Also, she was clearly suffering, and he could see no other way to ease her discomfort.
"Very well. While you and the doctor may observe, Commander Uhura and I will need to be undisturbed in a quiet, dimly lit area."
McCoy left to set up an isolation room, and Kirk clapped Spock on the shoulder before he rose to follow. Spock was left alone with Uhura. He could tell that she was apprehensive.
"Nyota, trust is essential. If you feel unable to go through with this, you must say so. I cannot promise that it will be easy. In actuality, it is most likely that the experience will be quite uncomfortable. I do promise you that I will be as gentle as possible."
He frowned slightly when he noticed that tears had gathered in her eyes. "I do not understand-"
She grasped his hands with both of her own. "Oh, Spock, I trust you as much as I trust anyone in the universe. I know that you'll do everything you can to make it easy for me. I'm just a little frightened, not so much about the meld, but about everything. It's scary, but I know that we can get through this together."
"Yes, we can. You are very strong, and I may very well need to rely on your strength. I am... unsure of my own."
She tightened her grip on his hands briefly before releasing him. They sat quietly until McCoy called out that the room was ready.
...
Uhura settled herself uneasily in one of the two chairs that had been placed in the middle of the small chamber. She felt extremely self-conscious and was very aware of Kirk and McCoy sitting quietly in a dark corner of the room.
She looked up and watched Spock as he pulled the other chair close and sat across from her. He studied her for a moment then scooted even closer, so close that his knees were outside her own. She noticed that he was very careful not to touch her, and she knew that he felt just as awkward as she did.
When he closed his eyes and brought his hands together in preparation, she was glad to see that McCoy had healed the ugly bruises that were on his fingers this morning. She shivered a little, thinking about the strength contained in those gentle, elegant hands, the same hands that had touched her body so intimately the last three nights. She had never participated in a mindmeld, and she wondered what those hands would feel like on her face, now. She looked back up to see Spock watching her.
He held her gaze. Suddenly, it seemed as if the entire universe had narrowed to just his intense, dark eyes, and she caught her breath. He brought his hands up slowly, and she felt a slight tingle, almost like a small electric shock, when the fingertips of his right hand brushed against her cheek and temple. A moment later, she felt a similar sensation on the other side of her face. She could not look away.
He murmured, "My mind to your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts."
A sudden blur of… something… different, foreign, not hers… shimmered through her mind, and there he was, familiar yet alien. How could she have forgotten just how alien he was? But it was him, a stranger who was still her dear friend, unknown yet so well recognized.
He experimentally pushed a little deeper, and she felt a shiver of panic at the force of his thoughts. She could not help but struggle against him, and he pulled back. Trustme. The message flashed through her mind, as clear as if he had spoken it, and she forced herself to relax and open her mind to him.
Suddenly, the angles of the room shifted, growing sharper and subtly warped, and she found herself looking through his eyes while still looking through her own, flowing into his mind just as he flowed into hers. Somehow she knew that he had not expected this, had assumed that she would encounter the same barriers he had, but she also knew that he was pleased when she seemed to slip easily past them.
Her heart beat faster when she realized that she was one with him, truly one with him. Herbeloved. Surprise rippled vaguely along the edges of his/her mind at the unexpectedness of that thought, but it was quickly overwhelmed by a feeling that all was as it should be.
Yes, my dearest, it is I.
I had thought you gone again. Where are you?
I do not know. I am here, yet not here.
Yes, you are there yet not there. Have we stopped on our journey to join our ancestors?
I am uncertain, but I believe that we have found an oasis along the way, a shelter from the winds of inevitability.
Yes, oh yes, it is a welcome respite, but I am restless. I dawdle, yet I cannot stop.
I pause, yet I cannot rest. I can hear my parents, and my parent's parents calling me. But I do not wish to give up this realm just yet. There is more for us now, my wife.
Oh my husband, I yearn to join with you.
As do I. I dream of the fullness of your flesh, the warm refuge of your mind, the ecstasy and release I find within you.
I dream of your hardness. I want to feel you within me, your lips on my lips and your body moving within my body. I want to taste you, smell you, surround you.
Soon, my wife, soon, we will be together forever, we will be released to the winds, our souls will soar, entwined, as one, join me, join me, now.
Yes, take me, take me, hurry, now... Where are you going? Do not leave me, please, please, come back, my love, my love, no, no, no...
Abruptly, Uhura found herself sitting across from Spock again. His hands were caressing her face with the touch of a lover, and he dropped them quickly to his lap. She was confused and dazed, and she could see that Spock was bewildered as well and fighting to regain his bearings.
She squirmed in her seat, and she was shocked to recognize a familiar sensation from her nether regions. Desire curled deep in her belly and a warm arousal crept from between her legs. Her thoughts were drawn outward when Spock cleared his throat and shifted in his seat in much the same manner. She sneaked a quick look and noticed an unmistakable bulge in his crotch. Well, if she could say anything about these alien entities inhabiting their minds, they were consistent.
She brought her eyes back up before he could catch her inspecting him.
He swallowed and met her eyes. They were both breathing heavily. Gradually, she became aware that McCoy stood beside her with his hands on her arm, and Kirk was firmly holding Spock's elbow.
"What... what happened?" she stammered.
"You and Spock were so deep into the meld that we became concerned," Kirk said. "You didn't respond when we called out your names, and finally we had to shake you to get you to separate."
McCoy retrieved a chair so that he could join them.
Kirk continued. "You two scared us. It happened so quickly. One moment you were both sitting here, and the next moment you had clearly gone somewhere far away."
Spock swallowed again and licked his lips, still struggling to regain his composure. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse.
"That was a most... disconcerting experience. Except for the very earliest moments, I did not control the meld. Indeed, it was as if I had ceased to exist. I can state with certainty that the consciousness in my mind is that of the elderly man on the planet. I was touching him when he died, just as the commander was touching his wife, and evidently that is when the exchange took place. His mind is strong, but also very confused and restless. He is reaching for something more."
She chimed in. "Yes, I thought that, too. They're on their way somewhere else, and they're very unhappy."
"Did you learn enough?" asked Kirk. "I don't want you to repeat the meld."
Uhura heard the sound of McCoy's scanner. "Damn right, Jim. Look at this – the alien brain patterns are stronger than ever. If they do it again, we might lose them."
"Bones, keep running tests. I want you to monitor them constantly. Spock, you and Uhura work together on reconstructing every shred of information possible, no matter how insignificant it may seem. I can tell that you're both worn out, but you can rest later."
She glanced nervously at Spock. "Uh, Captain, some of what went through my mind was rather... intimate in nature. Remember how we've ended up together the last three nights."
Spock crossed his arms, leaned back in his chair, and raised both eyebrows, looking over her head at nothing. She had to smile at the familiar expression. She looked at Kirk and noticed that he was smiling, too.
"Sorry, but those are my orders. I'm sure you'll find a way to describe it without becoming too personal."
They all rose to begin their respective tasks.
End chapter 4