xxx
E'Shara
"My mind to your mind..." E'Shara pronounces the ritualistic words in the silence of Sickbay. Healers Yadur and SMirak are behind her, and behind them, Lieutenant Reed and three security men. By request of E'Shara herself.
She will talk throughout the meld, giving everyone a window on what exactly is going on. The moment the telepathic energy form tries to take over, they are to fire.
Archer and Phlox have taken a step back, watch from a few feet away.
"...Our minds are joined..." She is quite used to mind-melding with those who are unconscious or raving mad. The monastery sees its fair share of both. Telepathic abilities are a godsend and a curse, as the Humans would say. One additional sense to help understand and appreciate the world around, one more vulnerability for sicknesses of all kinds. Humans only see its benefits and perceive it as a threat, fearful their inner thoughts are being divulged. But in the same way Human eyes can see others but not x-ray them, Vulcan telepathy can feel others but not their thoughts. That requires a mind-meld or … a bond.
She is once again confronted with the presence of the full mating bond between the Human and T'Pol. E'Shara is not pleased, as a healer. Do these youngsters realize what they've done? Kids! They do not understand. They think they are invincible, no matter what the species. How will the feeble Human fare in ponn far with a fully-mature Vulcan female? Initially, they will be matched but at some point... she might kill him, and that will kill her in turn. She grieves the potential loss of lives and talent.
Suddenly the energy form is around her. She sees with perfect clarity that it is using the bond as a channel, and the strength of her own telepathy to do so. Anger at the double violation threatens to suffuse her before she quickly rationalizes that it is a different kind of telepath, one not restrained by Vulcan ethics. And it would direct thoughts, not feel them; it does not interfere with the bond. Kaiidth.
She establishes contact.
xxx
The Mind-Meld
She is standing on windswept plains, looking over tall structures throwing their shadow all the way to her. She knows what they are even though she does not. "Air towers...," she says out loud, mindful of those listening in Sickbay.
She feels a push of wind against her face and turns to stare at the shimmering figure walking towards her. It is shapeless, formless, and yet she knows what it is. "You are... the geodid," she calmly states.
The form shimmers faster, "I am a geodid. There are many others like me."
Thousands of large beings are crisscrossing the sky. She mind-identifies them as geodids. The thought is quickly corrected. They are not geodids, these are... ennreps… the knowledge comes from outside and from inside. Geodids are somehow connected to ennreps, but it is not clear how.
She turns to the geodid. 'Is this your home planet?' she thought-asks. And then realizing that she needs to maintain vocal contact, she asks again out loud, "Is this your home planet?"
'It is," the other answers as she knows it would. "Isn't it beautiful?" the geodid goes on, the question like a caress against her cheek. It cares for its homeworld a great deal.
There is a fleeting vision of other structures in the distance, what looks like densely packed columnar trees. She would ask but she feels her focus is pushed somewhere else. Not surprising, the geodid is showing her his world through the filter of its own perceptions.
A cacophony of calls resounds in the sky and they both look up to where two ennreps are circling up and high, using geothermal currents to soar even higher. The geodid pulsates in a color she does not know. She looks at the air towers and she knows without knowing that the two ennreps will fight, a bloody, gruesome fight. The winner will kill the other's geodid, if it so chooses.
She can feel the thrill going through the geodid at the thought-vision. She remains stoic, careful to repress all emotions. The thought of such violent, gratuitous, death is horrifying to a Vulcan. She will need to meditate. But she is here to learn, not judge.
"Why do you want to go back?" she asks, thought-sharing the illogic of wanting to go to a place where one faces death so gruesomely. A great wave of sadness washes over the geodid and she knows that she does not understand. Perhaps is it some religious ritual? But then the geodid would say as much. The geodid turns to her, "The Realm of the Unassigned," it mind-says, its whole being yearning for it.
"The Realm of the Unassigned," she repeats. Waves of sadness wash over her. It is getting harder to maintain telepathic distance. In a therapeutic setting, this would be a signal to withdraw. But this is not a therapeutic setting, and she cannot afford to withdraw.
She hears herself talk, and yet it is not her talking. She is herself and she is the geodid and the geodid is her. A sob catches in the geodid's mind, echoes in her voice, "I need to go back to the Realm of the Unassigned...," she says in the silence of Sickbay.
xxx
Archer
Lieutenat Reed tenses. Is she being taken over by that thing? He looks at Archer who signals with a palm held horizontally that it's okay. He's seen it before, though he couldn't say if that's his or Surak's memory, how a superior melder will start talking and sounding like the meldee.
He also knows the danger that melders will lose themselves in the other's mind but there's not much risk here, the energy form is too alien. He wonders fleetingly how he knows that.
As he knows that he can now ask questions, the E'Shara/Whatever dyad will have no choice but to speak the truth.
So they're back talking about the Realm of the Unassigned. Sure, he'd like to know what that is, but that's somewhere down the list, well after what really matters to him. And to Enterprise.
"You need to let go of my First Officer," he forcefully says from where he's standing. "And my Chief Engineer," he adds. He's not sure about Trip, if that thing's got him, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Next, he'll ask it to get the hell off his ship. One thing at a time.
It is E'Shara who responds, for the geodid. "First release the stasis field."
Archer snorts in angry surprise. Like that's ever going to happen. "You do understand we can't do that," he dismisses the request with a shrug, "The stasis field is because your presence is hurting Commander T'Pol. It's killing her. You need to let her go."
"I need to reach the Realm of the Unassigned," E'Shara/It replies. Reed frowns. He's still not sure she's not been taken over.
"You need to release T'Pol first," Archer retorts, stepping to where E'Shara is, looking at Trip. He's not sure what's going on between E'Shara and the alien. He thinks about that thing as an alien. Telepathic or otherwise. "Then we can talk about taking you there," he adds.
"I will let her go when you bring me to the Realm of the Unassigned," E'Shara/It says.
Now they're at an impasse. There's a long minute of silence. Archer thinks of that thing as an alien and he's done his fair share of negotiating with aliens. And learned a few things along the way. "And your friends are lying-in-wait for us at the Realm," he sneers in reply. "How do we know you're not leading us into a trap?"
"There is no malice in the geodid's thoughts, Captain," E'Shara intervenes. Reed relaxes slightly. So that thing does not have the healer after all.
Archer frowns. Part of him is intrigued, there's the siren call of a new world to discover, but he'll be darned if he yields to blackmail. Because that's what the alien's doing, blackmailing them. E'Shara's not helping his case.
"You have to release T'Pol first or she might die along the way," Archer tries a different tack, hoping the alien can see the logic in that.
"She will not die," E'Shara/It replies. "I have seen your medical information, you can keep her alive until we reach the Realm."
Archer turns to Phlox, scowling, upset that an alien knows about their capabilities. Phlox misunderstands the Captain's scowl and nods his reassurance that this is indeed correct.
Archer narrows his eyes. "And what assurance do we have that you will release her when we get there?" he asks.
It is E'Shara's turn to speak, ""If the geodid releases T'Pol, what assurances does it have that you will bring it to the Realm of the Unassigned?"
Archer frowns again. One more time when he'd rather a Vulcan would just shut up. Just as he's about to talk about giving his word, the Vulcan elder speaks again. "The geodid has no other interest than reaching the Realm of the Unassigned," she says.
Archer thins his lips. Make that three times that he'd wish she'd just shut up.
xxx
E'Shara
E'Shara sees it. The Realm of the Unassigned. She stares in wonder. There are thousands of geodids there, possibly millions. It looks like a cavern or an air tower. She couldn't say, the geodids are making everything blurry, indistinct.
The familiar unshape of the geodid turns to her and she feels the poignancy of its desire to get back here, to the Realm of the Unassigned. But she does not know why.
The part of her that is E'Shara and not the geodid scientifically and rationally thinks this may be a physiological instinct. After all, this would not be the first species that is drawn back to familiar grounds for biological reasons. Starting with Vulcans.
She can clearly see the geodid's motivation, the adaptative mechanism that leads it to influence others and have them bring it to the Realm, learning everything it can along the way in its single-minded quest to reach the Realm. Its motivations could easily seem sinister, but they are not. She understands that it has no interest in T'Pol or anyone else other than as a means to an end, that it will be only too happy to relinquish its hold as soon as it reaches the Realm. But she cannot clearly apprehend why.
The geodid starts pulsating more quickly, mentally bringing her attention to the circular conduit reaching high up, to the ennerps lazily taking off into the sky. It is trying to explain and yet she does not understand. A key component is eluding her, and she doesn't have the creativity to intuit what it could be. It strikes her as ironic that Humans are reputed for their flexible adaptation of known constructs to integrate new experiences, but they lack the telepathic abilities necessary to communicate with the geodid. Vulcans have the telepathic ability, but lack conceptual imagination. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole, indeed.
She feels the geodid's concern about T'Pol. It was not its intent to harm the host. It is unfortunate that its species' manner of influencing others crossed paths with the exquisitely sensitive architecture of the Vulcan mind. There is hope, though. When the geodid lets go, T'Pol's physiology will rebalance itself. But first, Enterprise has to find the Realm of the Unassigned.
E'Shara has seen enough. She knows enough. She breaks contact, blinking in the newly perceived brightness of Sickbay. Finds herself staring into Captain Archer's eyes. He is not pleased, she can tell.
"So I guess that means we have to find the Realm of the Unassigned?" he growls at her.
She would expect more logic from the Captain. The geodid is in a position of numerical weakness, alone on a ship full of aliens. It is a bigger effort for it to trust that these aliens will be true to their word than for these aliens to trust the geodid will leave once it is brought to the one place it wants to reach above anything else. And the Captain must certainly have considered the damage that Enterprise could inflict on the Realm of the Unassigned if the geodid did not hold its part of the bargain. He is a fighting man, after all.
And then she perceives, in spite of the Captain's best efforts to hide it, his excitement at the opportunity to find another world. A lesser telepath couldn't tell. It is difficult to understand how Humans can project an emotional tone that is in complete contradiction with their inner resonance. She cannot help but think it would be to their best advantage to suppress their emotions and align their external and internal states.
xxx
