When they beamed up, Bones and Amanda were already waiting for them. Scotty stood behind the controls, still wearing Kirk's uniform. "Sarek!", Amanda exclaimed and took her husband in a fierce embrace, not caring that he became rather stiff. Kirk smiled and walked over to Bones and Scotty, Spock trailing behind him. The Commander tried not to look at his parents. "Sir! We thought you and Mister Spock had died. I'm glad that you didn't.", Scotty said, beaming joyfully. "Believe it or not, I even missed you, pointy-ear.", McCoy told Spock. "A most unfortunate display of emotion, I am sure.", Spock returned. "Now listen here…", McCoy said. Kirk turned away from his bickering friends and to Scotty. "You acclimated to your new role quite fast, I see.", Kirk joked. Scotty glanced at the yellow uniform. "Well, it is easy to explain…", he begun, but Kirk stopped him. "You can tell me later. You fooled the Vulcans quite a bit, or so I hear." Both men laughed a bit louder than necessary. "Scotty, I knew you had it in you.", he told his Chief Engineer.
Sarek and Amanda came over to them. "I need to thank you in the name of all of Vulcan.", Sarek told them. "You can tell Vulcan they are welcome. And also, this is our job.", Kirk replied, still very amused. Sarek nodded. "We'll go, then. There is a lot to do before we can return to normal.", Amanda told them. "And may I express my gratitude for granting me asylum.", she added. "Captain, may I escort my parents to the shuttle bay?", Spock asked. Kirk nodded. "Sure. But after that, you take a trip to sickbay, alright?", he said, but Spock pretended to be out of hearing range already. "What happened?", McCoy asked when they were gone. "Oh, an assortment of things. I think it's best when Spock tells you himself."
It was evening, and Kirk had changed into his sleep wear already. He sat in his office chair and thought about what happened in the last few days. Feeling the need to speak about it, he stood and crossed the room towards the shared bathroom. He knocked on Spock's door. Almost immediately, he was let inside. "I was expecting you.", Spock said and offered him one of his chairs. Spock sat down as well, adjusting his comfy meditation robe as he did so. Kirk's eyes wandered to a PADD on the desk. "What are you reading?", he wondered. "I was following the news of my home planet.", Spock said. "T'Pau has hence distanced herself from Vulcan's proposed secession, referencing a 'technical failure'.", he updated Kirk on the situation. "Also, all political captives that are associated with the incident are to be released immediately.", he added. "And the people are going to buy that?", Kirk wondered. "They will, if they hear it directly from T'Pau.", Spock replied. "And you, how are you?", Kirk asked. "Doctor McCoy has given me medicine and has taken me off duty for three days. He believes that I shall recover fully. He has also added a few expletives, do you wish to hear them as well?", Spock told him. Kirk laughed. "No, I don't think that will be necessary.", he said. He calmed down and looked at the table for a few moments.
"There is something else you wish to speak about?", Spock read his Captain. "Yes, I was thinking. Why was it so easy to trick these 'ghosts'?", he asked. Spock steepled his fingers. "I have wondered about this as well. I believe I have found a solution to it.", he said. Kirk waited for more. "As the katra, in form of an energy field, is stored in a crystal over a long period of time, parts of it is going to be lost, similar to data loss on our storage devices. What we saw was exactly this: Instable and incomplete sets of data, turning the individuals into caricatures of themselves. What lived in me for a short amount of time was not the real Zakal, but merely an inflexible voice from the past, incapable of change or truly understanding the universe as it is now. Them being so maladapted to our times was the reason we could trick them so easily.", Spock ended his explanation. Kirk nodded in appreciation. "Would you like to continue this conversation over chess, Mister Spock?", he asked. Spock smiled lightly. "I believe I do."