Chapter 109

Amanda woke in a pure white room. Disorientated, she sat up, finding herself in what looked like some form of clinical area in a hospital bed. A screen above her head reported her vitals and her arm was strapped to an IV drip. Alarmed, she started to remove it.

"I would not do that if I were you," came a quiet voice in her head.

Amanda froze. Was that… real?

"That depends on your definition of reality. Perhaps yours is different from mine."

Amanda noticed that she was wearing some form of medical gown. Someone had changed her clothes! The thought made her skin crawl with unease. She tried to remember what had happened but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't connect the dots between walking towards the dome and waking up here…

"You lost consciousness – severe dehydration," the voice answered for her, sounding almost bored. "I brought you here. As I am already aware of human's incessant need to express gratitude, I ask that you don't. I merely didn't want a human corpse lying outside my door. It would have spoiled the view."

Amanda searched for her water sachet and wristwatch but they were gone.

"Your belongings will be returned to you before you leave" the voice came eerily again.

"Who are you?" asked Amanda.

"After all your training, you still can't emit a single telepathic thought? How disappointing."

Amanda shook her head in confusion.

"I don't have time for games," said Amanda firmly, trying not to appear scared. "Who are you and why did you bring me here?"

She was met with complete silence.

"Hello?" she tried again, uncertainly, wondering if she had been hallucinating the conversation up until this point.

"Are humans really this dense? I clearly set my expectations too high. Let's see how good you are at following a direct instruction: use your mind to communicate with me."

Annoyed but still quite scared, Amanda shook her head.

"You don't understand. I can't. I've never been able to do that," she said despondently.

"Try," urged the voice.

Seeing that there was nothing else she could do for the moment, Amanda reluctantly settled into a kneeling position on the bed, folded her hands in her lap and attempted to still her breathing and quieten her mind.

"You do realize that you're trying too hard, don't you?" the voice prodded at the back of her mind.

"Oh, shut up," said Amanda irritably.

Suddenly realizing what she'd done and exactly what she'd just said, her face flushed a deep beet red.

"I am so sorry. I didn't mean that…" Amanda continued but was interrupted.

"As fascinating as it is to observe your physiological reaction and experience your groveling, we're running out of time," the voice sounded almost weary.

Chastened, Amanda remained quiet.

"I hope you do realize now that you have the ability to telepathically communicate? You seem to have forgotten your one encounter with your husband. A disadvantage of having a non-eidetic memory."

Amanda's eyes widened as she remembered Taro and how he had helped her reach Sarek for the first and only time in her telepathic training. But now she was distracted.

"But who are you? I'm not supposed to be able to communicate with anyone that I am not bonded to."

"I'm a special case," said the voice. "Now I know you have a lot of questions but for now I can only ask that you listen. Consider me if you must, as a good Samaritan, as I believe you humans call it."

"But how can I trust you if I don't know you?" asked Amanda.

"Trust is not necessary and shall be earned later through the information I have to share."

"But what if the information you give me is false?" persisted Amanda.

Amanda felt a strange almost crackle across the surface of her mind which she interpreted vaguely as some form of frustration. The voice continued again but this time it was noticeably weaker.

"There is little time, human. Either you listen to me now or you can return in ignorance to your own peril. Make your choice."

Amanda sat pensive, obedient.

"Good. Let me start with your newfound telepathic ability."

The Samaritan, as Amanda had come to call it, then explained to her about how she had been telepathically proficient for some time now but that she had been mentally blocked which prevented her from being able to communicate with Sarek.

"But how come no-one has noticed this block?" Amanda asked, unable to restrain herself.

"How do you know someone didn't?" the Samaritan countered.

"Master S'Kelnek would have seen it. He's trained me for months now. How could he have missed it?"

"Indeed, how could he?" said the Samaritan sardonically.

This escaped Amanda's attention however as she remembered the events on the Vulcan space station.

"It was that pale V'Shar! He must have blocked me during that first test I had before coming to Vulcan. He must have been clever enough to hide it even from S'Kelnek," she surmised.

"If that were true," said the Samaritan, "then what was he doing in your second meeting?"

Amanda faltered and frowned. The sudden and unprovoked attack from the V'Shar had been explained to her as an agent gone rogue. He had developed an unhealthy obsession with her mind and needed to be reconditioned. As far as she knew, he was still locked up in a temple somewhere. She was sure that if Sarek had his way, he would never be let out.

"And if he had done what you say," the Samaritan continued, "would your Matriarch have been able to bond you with a Vulcan?"

Amanda's throat suddenly felt very dry. It couldn't be, could it?

"What you don't realize is that the deficiencies of your human brain are being used against you. Even now there are memories that you have that you are not considering. Don't you recall your master communicating with you at the dinner last night? Warning you of Salvik's intentions?"

Amanda shifted awkwardly in her seat. She had been so tired by that point in the evening that for some reason it hadn't caught her notice…

"Or perhaps the request he made to you for your memories when you were near exhausted and barely conscious?"

Again, Amanda had forgotten about it. She had been more concerned about helping Socran and completing her allotted tasks…

"Or even the memory you had of sharing his bed?"

"That was just a bad dream," Amanda interjected firmly as she felt her skin begin to prickle with goosebumps.

"It was not. That master of yours has been using your head as his personal playground. Experiencing your memories whilst you sleep and suppressing memories that are not of advantage to him. And it doesn't stop there," the Samaritan warned.

Amanda began to taste bile in her throat.

"Please… stop it," she asked weakly.

She wasn't sure she could follow this through to the Samaritan's intended conclusion.

"You recall the pain the V'Shar caused you on your initial meeting and how they explained to you that it was because your subconscious mind was responding to an attempt at mental intrusion? Do you not remember the numerous headaches you've had? Mysteriously around the same time as your training sessions?"

"That was just dehydration and stress," Amanda replied.

Though she felt less sure of it now than she had been.

"Can you be certain of that? And what about those gaps in your memory?"

Amanda furrowed her brow, confused at the question.

"Yes, you know you've had them. Daydreaming in your student's classes, suddenly finding yourself standing in front of his door? He's been testing and mentally conditioning you for months," the Samaritan accused.

Amanda gripped her fists tightly and shook her head.

"You're lying. It's not true. Master S'Kelnek has been kind to me. I am very fortunate to receive his tutelage," she protested.

Once she said the words, she felt the cold chill of realization descend.

"Can't you see how blind you are? You're defending him even though the acts are clear and laid out before you. Even now his conditioning has predisposed you to think well of him and never to be suspicious of his motives," the Samaritan explained.

But… Surely… No. She refused to accept it.

"You're lying. I am not that man's puppet!"

"Aren't you?," the Samaritan contested. "Then how did you get here?"

Amanda blinked for a moment. Her memory was fuzzy but through sheer willpower it slowly started to come back to her. The chill of the cold night air. Her leg muscles aching as she climbed dune after dune. Her throat parched for thirst but resolute in the need to keep going.

"It wasn't him that controlled you that time. It was me," revealed the Samaritan.

"No. It… It can't be."

Amanda struggled to reconcile the facts with her feelings. She felt lost, vulnerable, betrayed.

"So it is clear to you now. You have been groomed and grossly misused by the one that you have come to call: Master," the Samaritan conclude with ruthless relish.

"How can I know this isn't some trick," she demanded. "For all I know, you are S'Kelnek or the V'Shar messing around with my mind!"

"What benefit would that be to me? Ever since you have come here I've been polluted by the inflammatory emotions of your mind growing stronger day by day as he hones your telepathic ability which is blocked from going anywhere useful except to disturb the sensitivities of my mind," the Samaritan said bitterly.

Confused and hurt, Amanda refused to accept what she was being told until she knew exactly who this Samaritan was.

"Why should I believe you. Prove to me you're not them!"

"Why should I?" replied the Samaritan indifferently.

Standing up, Amanda looked about her to see if there was anything she could do to disturb her captor. As she walked forward and the IV drip pole moved with her, she had a rash idea…

"Prove it or you'll not only have the inconvenience of a human corpse outside your door but one inside your premises," she threatened.

The Samaritan was quiet for a moment as they slowly began to realize her intentions in that eerie omniscient way.

"You wouldn't," said the Samaritan disbelieving.

"Wouldn't I?"

To prove herself, Amanda ripped out the IV. A dark red began to dribble out of her arm onto the floor, sluggishly. She let it continue. Only allowing herself to bite her lip at the pain. It took a few minutes before finally…

"Alright, stop," the Samaritan conceded.

Grateful, Amanda grabbed some of the bedding and pushed it onto the wound, attempting to clot it. She was relieved to see that the wound was shallow. After she was certain the bleeding had slowed, she turned back her attention to finding out their identity.

"Show me," she ordered.

A small opaque window opened slowly in the opposite wall. Amanda walked over until she was right in front of it, a little unsteady on her feet as she was still dehydrated. A shielding screen lowered and Amanda gasped at what she saw.

Lying on a bed similar to her own she saw a very pale, emaciated Vulcan lying under a soft white blanket. Not only that but they were completely hairless and their skin looked almost bruised in gray and green splotches. Amanda struggled to tell what age or even sex they were. Her heart suddenly filled with compassion. What had happened?

"Spare me your pity, human. You're insufferable enough as it is."