A Journey of the Mind, part 1

DISCLAIMER: *looks around* Nope, still don't own it. If you want to borrow Dani, just ask.

Author's note: The first part of this chapter has nothing to do with the title, but the latter half does. All words in italics are translated in brackets afterword set up [translation, language]. And, yes, I got the idea of his guides from "A Christmas Carol," I hope you all enjoy it. Don't forget to review, plus there's a new poll in my profile, please be sure to vote. On with the show!!

J.

Commander Spock found himself enjoying Auggie's company, despite an instinctive dislike of the man. He hadn't tried to strike up a conversation until they were several hundred feet away from Lt. Delavert's quarters. Even then, until they had reached Augustine's guest quarters, the conversation was mostly light. They discussed meditation techniques, comparing Vulcan techniques with the Cherokee versions.

Spock willingly accepted Auggie's invitation to continue the conversation when they arrived. Once inside, Auggie took a cigarette from his jacket pocket, put it in his mouth and lit it. "Now, why don't you tell me what's really bothering you, Commander Spock?" He smiled when the other man flustered and started to deny that there was anything wrong. "I'm used to figuring out when people are having problems that they don't know how to begin talking about. Anything that's said here is privileged communication, so it's not like it's going to become public knowledge."

And so, Spock began to tell Auggie what he could of his problem. He explained about pon farr, and told him of the woman whose face he couldn't see. He told him of the weeks of meditation to try and find her identity. Through it all, Auggie sat, and smoked, and listened.

"So, let me see if I have this right, Spock. You blacked out somewhere between getting out of this woman's bed and getting back into your own, and it took the previous three days with it? Have you tried any sort of meditation aids?" Auggie asked, sitting forward, both boots on the floor, face in hands and elbows on knees.

"I have used an asenoi," Spock replied. At the other man's confused look, he clarified, "A Vulcan meditation firepot."

Auggie stood up and got half a dozen jars from his backpack. "I'm going to mix you something that should help." He put some small, red dried chunks into a stone mortar and began crushing them with the pestle. After a few minutes, he added a two-and-a-half inch green disk to the bowl of the mortar. When he was satisfied with the consistency of the powder, he poured it into an empty jar. A large pinch of red flakes went into it next, then it was put into the mixture. Finally, he added a brown powder to the jar, sealed it, and shook it until they were mixed.

He handed the jar to Spock. "Mix this, all of it, with six ounces of very hot water. Let it steep while you get your meditation area set up, then drink the whole thing. Make sure you get every bit of it, don't leave any dregs in the bottom of the cup. This should help you to focus your meditation on your mystery woman"

"Thank you, Augustine," Spock said as he took the jar. He shook it a bit as he held it up to the light, trying to discern what the various components were.

"Call me Auggie. Augustine sounds like a monk, and I'm just about as far from it a minister can be," he reached out to shake the hand of the man who had nearly shattered his first wife. "And the potion is like a hot dog, you're much better off not knowing what's in it."

The next few days were hectic for Spock, as his father arrived with the Vulcan delegation. He was accompanied by T'Pau, T'Pring, a male Vulcan named Stonn, and much to everyone's surprise, Spock Prime. There was little time to speak to any of the delegates, though, as the negotiations had begun almost as soon as they had settled in. They seemed to be almost to a settlement when they finally took a full day's rest, one day before the costume party was to be held.

Dani was preparing for her release from confinement by getting her costume when her door chimed. "Enter," she called without looking up from the belt she was repairing. Seconds later, she mentally reminded herself to always check who it was BEFORE opening the door.

The concoction was sweet, spicy, and bitter all at the same time. He drank every last drop, and all the dregs, then sat down to meditate. There was a difference almost immediately. Mist swirled about his feet as he realized he was no longer sitting in his meditation nook. Three figures stood in the fog, a tall dark-haired woman stood on the left, a child in the center, and… It couldn't be, logically, but his mother stood on the right, dressed exactly the same as the day she and Vulcan died.

"Don't be alarmed, Spock," his mother said. "You are looking for help, and in this place betwixt and between, the three of us have come to aid you."

The child in the middle was a young girl with copper skin and straight black hair pulled into a pair of braids behind pointed ears. "It's true, sa-mekh [father, Vulcan], we are here to help you find u-tsi [ (my) mother, Cherokee]." She swung Amanda's hand, "Grammy is going to show you the recent past and the present. A-li-si [maternal grandmother, Cherokee] will show you the far past of your interaction with u-tsi," she began to swing the other woman's hand, "and I get to show you some of the future. I am not allowed to show you all of it. It's not completely written yet."

"I will be taking you on the first leg of your journey, beloved of my daughter. I am called Meliora," the tall woman on the left said. She knelt to embrace the child. "Do not worry, v-gi-li-si [my daughter's child, Cherokee, pronounced uh-gee-lee-see], I will take good care of your father." Then she reached and took Spock's hand.

"We will see you shortly, Spock," his mother said as she and the child faded.

When the mists cleared, the two of them were standing on the grounds of the Starfleet Academy. There were thousands of people milling around in cadet-issue red uniforms. The two of them, Meliora and Spock, were ignored completely. "We are in memory, Spock, so we will not be seen, heard, or felt even if…" about that time, a young woman with light brown hair ran right through him, trying to catch up with a black-haired cadet in front of them.

"Hey, half-breed, wait up!" she yelled. Spock flinched almost undetectably at the insult, even as he realized that he vaguely recognized the voice. That woman was on the Enterprise, he was sure of it.

The black-haired cadet turned around, smiling as she kept walking backwards. This woman he recognized. It was Lieutenant Delavert! "Hurry your backside up, witch. I've got places to be, but I wanted to swing by and say hello to an old friend," she said, "and I won't have time to see him if I'm waiting for you. So move it or lose it, Tanya."

"That's Tanya Gillespie, another lieutenant in Engineering on the Enterprise," his guide said, pointing to the pale brunette. "She and my tsi-la [flower, Cherokee] have been friends since they were both still in diapers."

"Fine, fine. Go chase your Hephaestus. I'll see you in Warp Dynamics," Tanya hollered as she waved Danica on.

Meliora led him by the hand to follow Lieutenant Delavert. They entered a building he recognized, where his office had been when he was teaching at the academy. In fact, they were going right to his office apparently. "This is the first time my little girl got her heart broken," she said, a slight chill in her voice for the first time.

Danica came to a screeching halt just around the corner from his office. Voices could be heard from around the corner. He stepped closer, until he was standing right next to her, and looked.

He saw himself in the doorway of his office, escorting Nyota out of it. She was still in her cadet-reds. She stopped just outside the office, turned and said, "Thank you, Professor." Then, she placed a hand on the back of his neck and guided his head down so that they could share a deep kiss.

Next to him, Danica held her breath. She turned back around the corner. Her eyes had started to tear up, but she didn't let any of them fall until she had gotten about one hundred feet down the hall. Then she slid to the floor, the tears beginning to fall, a fist to her mouth to stifle the sobs. He knelt next to her and wished he could interact with her. It was a foreign sensation, this deep level of empathy.

After a few minutes, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She got to her feet. Grabbing her PADD from the top of her book bag, she called Tanya and asked her to meet her in her quarters after class, and to please get the homework for her. Then she stopped at the on-campus grocery store and bought two boxes of dark auburn dye.

The mists blurred, and Meliora looked at him. "She was hiding to avoid being hurt. There were other times that the two of you were in close proximity, several over the course of her time at the academy. I do not have the time to show you more, it is time to show you to your mother, and then the child."

"You have called her child, and the child of your daughter, but you have not revealed her name. Why is that?" he asked her.

She laughed, a clear rich sound that was reflected in Dani's voice over a decade later. "Young Spock, think for a moment. My daughter has only been pregnant about a month, and is still waiting to see if you will claim the child or not. I haven't revealed the child's name because neither Danica nor you have given her a name. Once one of you have given her a name, it will be her name."

Next time: parts two and three of Spock's rather interesting meditation. Be sure to vote in the new poll in my profile. It directly influences an upcoming chapter, and will be up for exactly one week. And, of course,