Chapter 51: Fal Tor Pan
Vulcan.
A desert world, limited in material resources, yet limitless in the intellectual and philosophical achievements of its inhabitants.
"Home, eh, Lieutenant?" Kirk asked.
"I beg your pardon, Admiral?" Saavik said.
Kirk nodded toward the viewport. "Vulcan."
"Vulcan is not my home, sir. I have never been here before."
"Oh," he said, taken aback. "I would have thought you would at least have visited it."
"I have never been invited to Vulcan, sir."
"The planet Vulcan is in hailing distance, Admiral," Sulu said.
"Thank you, Sulu. Dawn send a message to Ambassador Sarek. Tell him we're coming in."
"Vulcan orbital control," Dawn said. "This is T'Lekus of Vulcan on approach for Mount Seleya. Patch me in to Ambassador Sarek."
"This is Commander Uhura. Permission is granted to land on the plain at the foot of Mount Seleya. Ambassador Sarek is ready." She paused. Her voice close to breaking, she said, "Welcome. Oh, welcome back."
"It's good to hear your voice too, Nyota," said Dawn.
The Bird of Prey shivered as its wings spread into flying configuration.
"Captain Sulu," Kirk said, "you're on manual."
Sulu nodded. "It's been a while, sir." He had not landed a ship of this size without gravity propulsion since his student days. And, of course, he had never landed a craft of this design. "Here we go. Retro thrusters!"
The ship replied, responding like a dream. The dust of the plain at the foot of Mount Seleya billowed up around it as it settled to the ground.
The ramp hissed out and lowered itself to the ground. Spock's friends carried his litter out into the scarlet dusk of Vulcan.
At the foot of the ramp, Kirk stopped short and looked out amazed. The plain led to the temple.
To either side of the long steep path, Vulcans stood watching and waiting, curious and silent. Here and there a torch flared against the dim light.
"My gods . . ." Kirk whispered.
"Much is at stake," Dawn said. "What they are going to attempt has not been done for longer than I've been alive."
Uhura appeared before them. Kirk embraced her with his free arm.
Uhura's eyes were bright with tears. "Sarek is waiting," she said. She slipped in between Kirk and Sulu and helped carry the stretcher up the long path to the crest of the hill, where the temple loomed dark and mysterious.
The enormous crowd of people watched somberly and in utter silence.
A young child let go her father's hand. She walked with great dignity to Spock's side, and followed for a few paces. She looked down into his face, saluted him, and whispered, "Live long and prosper, Spock." Then she slipped away and vanished into the crowd again.
Sarek waited on the steps of the temple, accompanied by several dignitaries and by six members of the priesthood. The tall, stately women watched with utter impassivity.
Finally, Sarek strode forward to meet them. He gazed at Spock. He reached down and placed his long, graceful hands against the sides of Spock's face.
Sarek said nothing. He took one pace backward and nodded to the members of the priesthood.
They moved between Kirk and his friends so easily, so gently, and with such assurance that they hardly seemed to be displacing them. The women took Spock in their hands and carried him away. Sarek, Buffy and Dawn followed.
Kirk hurried after them. He passed between massive stone pillars and stopped at the edge of a circular, slightly dished platform. An altar rose at its far side. T'Lar, the leader of the Vulcan priesthood, waited in stately silence as her subordinates brought Spock to her. They began a low chant that penetrated to the bones.
Sarek paused and faced Kirk. "This is where you must wait."
Unwillingly, Kirk obeyed as he watched Sarek, Buffy and Dawn face the altar as Spock's body sank gently to the age-smoothed granite and lay motionless as stone.
"Sarek," T'Lar said. Her voice, barely a whisper, carried to them sharp and clear. "Sarek, child of Skon, child of Solkar. The body of your child breathes still. What is your wish?"
"I ask for fal tor pan," Sarek said. "The refusion."
"What you seek has not been done since ages past. It has succeeded only in legend. Your request is not Iogical."
"Forgive me, T'Lar," Sarek said. "My logic falters . . . where my son is concerned."
T'Lar looked beyond Sarek, Buffy and Dawn to Kirk, and the rest of the Enterprise crew. She looked Kirk straight in the eye. Her gaze, as sharp as a weapon, touched him, then granted him mercy. She turned her attention to McCoy.
"Who is the keeper of the katra?" The question, clearly, lay in ritual; she knew the answer to what she asked.
Sarek nodded at McCoy.
McCoy stared straight ahead, fixed by the power of T'Lar's eyes. "I am," he said hesitantly. "McCoy . . . Leonard H." He took a long breath of the rarefied air of Vulcan. "Son of David and Eleanora . . ."
"McCoy, son of David, son of Eleanora . . ." T'Lar said. "Since thou art human, and without knowledge of our philosophy, we cannot expect thee to understand fully what Sarek has requested. The circumstances are extraordinary. Spock's body lives. With thine approval, we will use all our powers to return to his body that which thou possess. But, McCoy . . ."
T'Lar let the silence surround them and press down against them. "You must now be warned," she said, speaking with complete formality. "The danger to you is as grave as the danger to Spock. You must make the choice."
"I choose the danger," McCoy said. Under his breath, to Kirk, he muttered, "Helluva time to ask."
"Bring him forward!" T'Lar said.
Buffy and Dawn on either side of McCoy followed Sarek across the long empty platform and stopped before the altar.
Kirk watched knowing why Buffy and Dawn were allowed past the point he now stood. To the people of this planet they were Vulcan, even if they weren't biologically of the Vulcan race. It had been that way for over a hundred years.
A bolt of heat lightning shattered the silence.
McCoy let Sarek draw him forward away from Buffy and Dawn to the altar. Abruptly he stood all alone. Spock lay before him, and T'Lar stood above them both. The powerful voice of the Vulcan leader echoed around him. "All that can be done, shall be done, though it take full turn of the Vulcan sun."
T'Lar stroked her fingers along his temple.
Her touch was like fire, and he gasped. An alien consciousness stirred deep within his mind.
Terror-stricken, he struggled against it. The voice he heard was wordless and silent, yet so loud he feared it would strike him deaf. He could not see, and he feared he had been blinded as well.
"Yes! Strive, fight! Employ the power of shine alien emotions! Wrest back thy life!"
Thunder pounded at him, and he screamed.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Dawn and Buffy could feel Kirk's exhaustion. He like they had spent the long cold Vulcan night waiting.
A gong rang.
T'Lar appeared first. She lay supine in a sedan chair carried by the dignitaries who had waited silently all night long. The Vulcans bearing her toward the dawn passed Buffy and Dawn without acknowledging their presence.
That didn't mean that Buffy and Dawn didn't acknowledge T'Lar. They held their hands up in Vulcan salute. "Live long and prosper, T'Lar," they said.
McCoy stepped wearily into the sunlight that pierced the shadows behind the altar. Though Sarek supported him, the doctor was moving under his own power. The members of the priesthood, tall and serene in their long-hooded cloaks, followed behind.
At the end of the procession, a single figure, robed in stark white, moved past the altar. The hood was so deep, the robe so brilliantly white, that the thick scarlet light of dawn obscured the being's features rather than illuminating them.
Buffy and Dawn smiled in recognition as they turned and followed the procession.
As the procession crossed the platform, Sarek broke off from the group and brought McCoy to join his friends. Sulu moved forward to help support him.
"Leonard," Jim said.
"It's all right..." McCoy said. Weariness faded his voice to a whisper. "I'm all right, Jim."
Sulu drew McCoy's arm across his shoulders and supported most of his weight. McCoy managed a smile, a grip of his hand on Sulu's upper arm, as he accepted the aid gratefully.
The white-robed figure that walked just ahead of Buffy and Dawn walked past without a glance or hesitation.
Saavik started toward the figure, but Jim grabbed her arm. He could not stop her if she chose to break free, but she halted at his touch.
"What about . . . Spock?" Jim said to Sarek as Buffy and Dawn joined them.
"I am not sure," Sarek said. "Only time will answer." He turned his head toward the robed figure, then back to Jim. "Kirk, T'Lekus, T'Lin. I thank you. What you have done is…"
"What we did, we had to do," Dawn admitted.
"But at what cost? Your ship." The lines around his eyes deepened. "Kirk's son..."
"If we hadn't tried, the cost would have been our souls," said Kirk.
Sarek nodded. He turned and walked silently away.
"Live long and prosper, Sarek," said Buffy and Dawn as they again held up their hands in the Vulcan salute.
Sarek turned back to Buffy and Dawn as he held up his own hand in the Vulcan salute. "Live long and prosper, T'Lekus, T'Lin." He then turned back, heading for the procession.
Suddenly the figure slowly turned. One of the members of the procession heard or sensed his motion and reached back, but Sarek stayed her hand.
The sun shone incandescently through the fabric of the white hood, from behind, casting the face into deep shadow. He hesitated, then walked slowly toward Jim Kirk and his friends.
He stopped, reached up, drew the hood back from his face, and let it fall to his shoulders.
The pain had left Spock's face, the pain, and the horrible emptiness, his deep gaze questioned Jim gently and wordlessly. An intent intelligence, impatient with uncertainty, lit his eyes. He glanced from Jim to Buffy to Dawn and then to each of his other shipmates in turn Sulu, Uhura, McCoy, Chekov, Scott; and finally, Saavik. It seemed that he reached the brink of recognition with each of them, but could not quite cross the boundary.
Spock returned his gaze to Jim, Buffy and Dawn. The hot wind of Vulcan wailed over the desert with a keening cry.
"I know you . . ." His voice rasped across the words. "Do I not?"
"Yes," Kirk said. "And we, you."
"My father says you three have been my friends. You came back for me."
"You would have done the same for us," Buffy said.
"Why would you do this?" Spock asked.
"Because the needs of the one outweighed the needs of the many," answered Kirk.
Spock stared at them, still without real recognition. He turned away again and took a few uncertain steps toward his father, toward the other Vulcans.
A few paces away, Spock paused. He looked up into the deep sky. "I have been . . ." he said. "... and always shall be ... your friend..."
"Yes," Dawn whispered. "Yes, Spock."
Spock half turned. "The ship," he said. "Out of danger...?"
"You saved the ship, Spock. You saved us all! Don't you remember?" asked Kirk.
Spock said nothing for a moment. He cocked his head, as if listening to some far-away inner voice. He arched his eyebrow and slowly faced Buffy, Dawn and Kirk. "Jim, Buffy, Dawn," he said softly. "Your names are Jim, Buffy and Dawn."
"Yes," said Dawn. "But you call me and Buffy by our Vulcan names…"
"T'Lekus and T'Lin," said Spock.
"Yes," Dawn said.
Spock nodded once, briefly, as if acknowledging to himself that he had found the proper path.
He glanced at McCoy, and then at the others.
Suddenly all his old shipmates clustered around him, laughing and crying at the same time. None of them knew for certain an instant of what the future would bring, but each knew that for now, for this moment, everything was all right.