((Tetrodotoxin and batrachotoxin are the poisons of puffer fish and certain poison frogs respectively. Each is used as an antidote for the other. Again: Yes, there's a reason why I say that.))


Chapter 7

May your Growth be Steady

When T'Kray unlocked the altar room, she did it with some apprehension. The ritual took a toll on the body and the mind. It was rumoured that some people had lost it, she had seen one die two minutes into the meld, and she had heard of one man going to sleep afterwards and never waking up again. But these people … she needed Spock and McCoy, and Kirk had been cheated of his chance to grow old with his friends. 'Go on in, child,' Avrinjù said behind her. Steeling herself, she obeyed.

The sight that greeted her drove the hint of anxiety from her. They sat in a triangle, their heads together. The sliver of light from the corridor caused them to look up, Kirk craning his neck to see her behind him. 'Good day to you. I hope the night wasn't too long.' Kirk beamed at her.

'There she is, the voice in the dark.' He rose and approached, one hand holding his trousers in place. McCoy grinned, watching him. 'Thank you. For … everything.' T'Kray nodded.

'You are welcome. I hope you are all well.' Kirk smiled.

'Yes, yes we are. The good doctor was wondering how this is possible.'

'He is welcome to try and find out. Avrinjù has a few words for you.' The High Priestess looked at the three men.

'Leonard. I felt your pain. I hope it has passed.' The medic pursed his lips.

'Yes. I'm good. Never mind me.' T'Kray wondered if he was being sarcastic and made a mental note to find out.

'Spock, for you the weakening of your defence is worst. I know that from T'Kray. If you require help in re-establishing your shield, do not hesitate to ask me.' McCoy and Spock had come to Kirk's side by now. The former stood with his arms folded, a natural barrier between him and the two women.

'She talks more like a Vulcan than T'Kray,' he muttered in a carrying whisper.

'Thank you, Avrinjù. I believe I will manage,' Spock said.

'James. Your friends have come a long way to save you, a journey into the unknown. Do you know what you have in them?' Kirk glanced first left and then right and crossed his legs to keep his clothes in place before putting an arm around each of his friends. T'Kray flinched inwardly, but Spock showed no reaction. Judging from the serene look on Kirk's face, if there was some transfer of emotions, at least they should be positive and unobtrusive.

'I know that, yes. And I don't know how I can ever thank you both.' McCoy growled.

'You want to thank Spock, let go of him. As for me, you could start by staying alive.'

'I welcome you to Dainam. I cannot offer you a means to leave, but T'Kray believes you can help yourselves and us. She will let you know where you are most needed. If you wish to speak to me about anything, you can always come. T'Kray knows where I can be found.' With that, the wizened woman walked away, leaving them in the room with her second in command.

'Captain, I would ask you to follow me on a patrol. You will be equipped with a weapon we have obtained. Doctor, please go to the laboratory and find out what you can. Use whatever you need, we can resupply. Spock, I found that meditation helped me after the ritual. Get your defences up.'

ϡ

'What have your friends told you, Captain?' T'Kray asked once the other two had left the Alms.

'All they know, I assume. About you, this place, some sort of disease you wanted the Doctor to work on.'

'Yes. Indeed. Have they told you about the rebellion?'

'They have.'

'I know why you sound apprehensive. But it cannot possibly be a violation of the Prime Directive to help us. This is not the natural way this planet should have developed.'

'Well. No. Where are we going?'

'First, the cellar. We'll find weapons there, and clothes for you.' The only source of light below the surface were narrow light shafts through which the early morning sun fell in. T'Kray brought the Captain to a storage room with a large wooden box in it. 'There, take what you like out of it. Meet me in front of the building.' When he emerged in close-fitting practical trousers and a long-sleeved shirt, she offered him an old-fashioned gun. 'Know how to handle these?'

'Yes. Do we need them?'

'I'll show you the surroundings, and I'd rather not do this unarmed. Follow me.'

Outside the shadow of the house, the morning sun had enough strength to make it comfortable without a jacket. T'Kray indicated the road leading south. 'There's a vineyard and beyond that, as you see, a mountain. The path is a dead end. We patrol it, but not regularly. Now we go west, until we reach this village. Here pairs patrol once a day.'

'Is that sufficient?'

'So far it has been. We look for signs of someone using the path. You see, there's nothing except for us here.' She looked at him. 'You were lucky I found you in the vineyard.'

'And lucky to have a Vulcan for a friend.'

'True. Are you aware that you are the one who called him here?' Kirk shook his head slowly.

'Not consciously. I was becoming more lucid over time, but I couldn't express myself.' That answer didn't satisfy T'Kray's interest in the connection between the minds of the two men, but for now, she decided to let the matter rest. If Kirk had wanted to elaborate, he would have. What was more, she was thankful the subject didn't require her complete attention. This way she could think of other things, make plans how to use the three men's skills best.

'You shouldn't be here at all. I'm starting to think that these rituals must be discontinued. It looks like whatever happens during them has an impact on far distant places, bringing people to life that should by rights be dead.'

'Well, I for one am glad I'm not dead. Bones, however …'

'Bones?' Kirk looked at her and grinned.

'Doctor McCoy.' T'Kray raised her eyebrows and smiled.

'Interesting.'

'Granted, he was happier this morning than last night.' Kirk's eyes twinkled. 'You've made an impression on him. You were his nightmare.' T'Kray stopped in her tracks, her wandering thoughts all crashing to the conversation now.

'I was?' Kirk shrugged.

'Spock told me he knows you, and apparently Doctor McCoy has read something of you. Meeting our personal heroes leaves an impression, and I think you're one of his, even if he'd never admit it.' Her curiosity threatened to get the better of her, but she swallowed it, directed it somewhere else.

'Incidentally, who were your and Spock's night terrors centred around?'

'Mine around him. His I don't know. Why?'

'I have observed this ritual before, but it was the first time I helped perform it. I have spoken to all those I witnessed pass through them, and as a psychologist, I am interested in what people have to say after such a vision.' She directed him off the road onto a grass path that seemed to lead into a forest. 'They always revolve around a person. Either around the memory from the vision or a figment of the mind. The person in the centre is usually trying to kill the one having the vision. And since that person is someone of importance, the experience can be traumatic if unresolved. Did all of you manage to do that?'

'McCoy and Spock did it very soon. It took me longer and I needed help, but I got there.' He smiled. 'Don't ask me to repeat the entire dream to you. I cannot remember much.'

'Good sign.' T'Kray led them back onto the path, but Kirk stopped her with a hand on her arm. 'Huh?' He put a forefinger on his lips and pointed at a bend. T'Kray nodded. She had heard the movement, but she believed she knew who was behind the sound Kirk had picked up. Still she humoured him. He wouldn't always be accompanied by a Vulcan whose hearing allowed better judgement. They approached cautiously. 'Who goes there?' she called when they were close enough to shoot without much danger of missing. 'Come out slowly with your hands in the air!'

'This is Matee! Don't shoot.' The woman who stepped out of her feeble cover was small and stocky with ashen hair. T'Kray lowered her gun.

'What were you hiding from?'

'I didn't know it was you. Can't be careful enough. I'll go back with you.'

'We're going to the transformer at the end of the path.' Matee shook her head.

'Bad idea. There's poachers in the corn fields, and they use special bullets now. Not for animals, mind you.' T'Kray watched Kirk out of the corner of her eye. If he had picked up that something was different about Matee, he didn't let it show.

'And you know that they're there how?' Matee looked at Kirk with folded arms, then at T'Kray.

'Who's that?'

'James Kirk. Answer him, he has much to learn about this place.' She smiled. 'And I think you are the perfect teacher for him and his friends.' Matee seemed to grow a few inches.

'I know that, because the poachers don't bother us. They leave us signs if they're there and shoot at anyone unable to read them. Their sign is usually a broken trap somewhere near the field they're in.'

'Do you have something for us, Matee?' The small woman smiled broadly.

'Yeah. You'll love this.'

ϡ

The music was quiet enough to be inaudible outside the laboratory and loud enough not to be distracting. Leonard exchanged one specimen holder with another and cursed under his breath. 'This isn't helping. How am I supposed to work that way?' He removed the small piece of glass from under the telescope and, resisting the urge to fling it across the room, placed it carefully in the wooden box holding numerous others.

'Who do you expect to answer that question?' Leonard jumped, then turned and glared at Spock, who had entered so quietly he hadn't heard him.

'What about the Vulcan sneaking about the place? Shouldn't you be meditating?'

'I have achieved as much as I can at this moment. You, I assume, require something that is not here.'

'I could say a tricorder, but right now I'd be happy with a scanning electron microscope. Damn it, I'm not a magician!' Spock looked at him with that eternally calm expression, his hands clasped behind his back.

'May I take a look?'

'Knock yourself out.' The obligatory eyebrow rose, but Spock swallowed the comment he undoubtedly wanted to make. The Vulcan fixed the specimen holder in the microscope again and bent over it for a full minute.

'The cells are all dead, but I cannot determine the cause.'

'That's about as far as I got, too. Thing is, ten minutes ago they weren't. I know what's doing it, but I don't know why they die. It also seems that not all kinds of tissue are affected.' He slammed a hand onto the table. 'I need to see what precisely has destroyed the cells. Then I may be able to isolate the substance that protects them.'

'Where is that substance taken from?'

'Some sort of fig they call steppefruit. In other words, a chemical cocktail in which there's probably just one single substance we need.' Hope flaring in his eyes, Leonard lowered his voice to a conspiratorial tone. 'A question. Would you be able to build me an SEM? Given they have all you need, that is. I have a vague hunch what's causing the death of the cells, but I need to verify that, and I need to see a lot more than I do. I tried fluorescence, but that'll get me only so far.'

'I know. I will ask T'Kray if she has the required materials. I do not know how long it will take me, however.' Leonard smiled.

'I don't care how long it takes. Thank you.'

'You will also need a microtome, doctor.' Leonard smiled.

'I will indeed.' He walked to the computer and silenced the music. 'I won't get any further right now. Any way I can help with the SEM?'

'If there really is nothing else you can do, you could search the computer for a construction plan for either. It will accelerate the process. We should have access to most of the historical data available to the Federation.' The Vulcan still stood like a statue, watching Leonard with an expression of scientific interest that was quite unnerving. Before he could say so, Spock continued. 'I would like to ask a question.'

'Now that can't be good. Ah, just ask.'

'If you had known what the ritual does, would it have made a difference?' A smile tugged at the corners of Leonard's mouth.

'No. And you should know that. I'm … I'm getting used to it. Being a healthy man in my prime is a good thing.'

'Your choice of background music seems to express a death wish.' Leonard blinked, then laughed.

'Spock, tell you the truth, I don't understand a word of it. I don't speak German.' Spock raised his eyebrows. 'I just chose something random of all the stuff she's got there. I must say I like her taste for music.'

'It seems agreeable. I believe something less sinister would suit you better, however.'

'Pick whatever you'd like.' He indicated the computer, and Spock spent about a minute before the screen until something swift and cheerful started playing. Leonard was certain there was the Vulcan equivalent to a joke in there, but he wasn't going to ask. With nothing else to do for the moment, since Spock was still occupying the only computer in the laboratory, he grabbed one of the fruits that were stored here and cut it in half.

'Ugh. That smells worse than T'Kray's potion. Now here's the thing. Some of the Vainal die when they eat these. Whyever they may feel compelled to do so. Others don't. Some rot alive when exposed to evicar … that's that mineral. Others don't. It seems that one excludes the other, and that each … substance or whatever counteracts the other. A bit like tetrodotoxin and batrachotoxin.' Looking at the fruit with considerable disgust, Leonard squeezed the juice into a jug. 'Given the clean condition of this so-called laboratory I may get completely nonsensical results, but I need to try a few things anyway.' He poured a good portion into a smaller jar and closed it with a lid. 'This I'll leave on a shelf. See what gravity does to it, unless mould is faster.' He looked wistfully at the rest. 'You won't believe what I'll do now.' He grabbed a bottle with a purplish liquid and poured a small amount into two glass jars. 'Want to guess what that is?'

'No, Doctor.'

'Red cabbage juice. It's the best they have. Can you believe this?' Leonard added a few drops from the jug into one of the jars. The juice changed its colour rapidly to a pale green. 'Right.' He looked at the Vulcan. 'How many alkaline fruits do you know?'

'There is the sand fig on …'

'It's rare.' He sighed. 'I'll just make a guess at what the evicar will do.' He took a pinch of a rust-coloured powder and mixed it into the second, still purple cabbage juice. Nothing happened. 'Right. Now all I have to find out is if this stuff is liposoluble or what.'

'I fear it may be or what.' Leonard blinked up at Spock and grinned.

'Yeah. Me too. Because otherwise T'Kray would have found out by now.'

'Leonard … If you introduce me to this laboratory, I shall gladly assist you. It might save time and trouble.' Leonard smiled broadly and was rewarded by an expression he knew was just this side of amused.

'Well, sure! Now look here, there's alcohol, absolute, secondary, and so forth. All labelled. Now in these closets back there …'


((The chapter heading is a line from Bach's so-called Peasant Cantata, BWV 212. The entire cantata is completely ridiculous, of course, but still. What he had on before would be BWV 25, There is no soundness in my body. I love both to pieces, but if I were in a mood for the latter, and someone would come in and turn on the former, I would very likely strangle them.))