"If she's actually got magic powers, why's she old, sick, and blind?" McCoy grumbled as he and Vida trekked up the small mountain to the hut on top. The air felt thinner and even the brush only went so far up.

The Enterprise had stopped in to a jungle planet they'd liberated from a mechanical dictator a few years prior. The people, orange skinned with white hair, seemed to have formed a self-governing system. This thrilled the social scientists aboard. Botanists took samples of the newly developed agricultural methods. Vida and McCoy volunteered to assess the health of the people, Vida of course focused on population growth. In that sense, the people were doing well. This growth and development did mean, however, that they were experiencing problems of aging for the first time. McCoy gave instructions on elderly care, staring begrudgingly at his coworker who happily weighed infants.

"Well well well, we have a winner." Vida smiled, openly for once, and bounced a rather plump baby on her knee. "I bet he's taller than average too." She'd gathered a circle of women with small children so that she could take measurements and ask questions.

Spock noticed this-noticed her. He'd never seen her with children before. While he anticipated this was a common occurrence in her field, he felt strange. In one sense, it reminded him that in a little over a year, he would be expected to produce offspring of his own...WITH HER. In another sense, she looked quite natural, standing with a little one sitting on her hip. She made no attempt at hiding the joy she experienced, and was able to provoke smiles and delighted squeals from the child. When he approached and opened his mouth to comment, she cut him off.

"Oh good! This is Commander Spock. Spock, take him for a minute." She thrust the child forward into Spock's arms so that her hands were free to grab the measuring tape. He caught the baby under its arms and stared at it curiously. The baby was unbothered by him, busy sucking chubby fingers with content. "Big boy!" Vivian cooed as she finished her measurement.

The baby reached for Spock's sleeve, darkening the light blue color with a layer of saliva. He was filled with a mixture of curiosity, disgust, and affection, which he knew to be a biologically ingrained reaction meant to continue a species. He wondered...before she took the child back to his mother, he entered the mind, briefly. There weren't so much verbalized thoughts as feelings- contentment, peace, perhaps boredom. Pictures flashed of a bright sky, a warm bundle of blankets, a mother's breast- hungry. His mouth twitched in amusement, concern about hunger and breasts were the kind of thoughts he expected floated around his captain's head.

Later, McCoy and Vida made their trek up the mountain at the request of the villagers who hung on to superstitions. They had an elder who supposedly spoke of the future, and recently mentioned that she would be journeying to the spirit realm soon. When they arrived, and began to assess the old woman, they reached a similar conclusion. Mana, in earth years, was likely in her nineties. Her bones and veins were prominent under her wrinkled skin. Her eyes were clouded and white.

Her round hut had a dirt floor with some mats laid about for sitting. She sat in something akin to a throne in the center of the room. Her voice rattled and strained. "He is out of place."

"Who?" Vivian attempted to be patient with the senile lady. McCoy was polite, but took her lack of sight as an opportunity to roll his eyes and make faces at his partner.

He mouthed silently, "She's crazy."

"He needs to leave you."

Vivian raised an eyebrow, "You prefer to be attended only by women?"

She nodded.

Vivian waved at McCoy who shrugged and exited, "Alright, pleasure meeting you ma'am. I'll be right outside, Viv."

When he excited the room, a breeze picked up outside.

"Death comes at its appointed time...people...planets...destruction of the old...the birth of the new..." She rambled.

"Miss Mana, are you feeling alright?" Vivian moved over her body with a medical tricorder.

With a deep breath, she continued, "The new planet grows...growing pains...slow growth...help is needed."

"To which planet are you referring?"

"You're Vulcan." She croaked, her white eyes seeming to glow. The room got darker.

Vivian stood and took a step back. "How do you know that?"

"A wave crests..." The old lady wheezed, "A new beginning is on the horizon." Her vitals prompted the tricorder to sound various lights and soft alarms. "YOU are the key."

Confused, and alarmed, Vida's eyes search the patient's. In the whiteness, images emerged: her mother's house on the hill crumbled in a cloud of red dust, Vulcan twisted into a black hole, a flag was placed in new land. "He is out of place. Your purpose is beyond." Her voice warped until it sounded like multiple voices. Somehow the wind appeared inside, whipping Vivian's hair, circling the space like a cyclone. "Fate rests in your hands," She gasped. The images continued to flash: her lab, a cryogenic room full of hovering embryos under blue lights, a garden-with her, in a sheer pink robe she'd only worn once in a dream-with a man in similar dress but blue, settling his forehead on the top of her head-moving downward- her gut is unmistakably round, a crowd of Vulcans cheering in front of the new capital, her again in a diplomatic robe on a throne somewhere with glowing white eyes.

The light from the eyes pulsed almost into lightening. Vivian stumbled backward with a thud and a gasp.

"Vivian?!" Leonard forced himself back through the doorway, yelling into the whooshing winds. He squinted in the light, "The hell?!" He dove to his colleague to help her up, but the moment he touched her arm, more light crackled across the room, flinging him in the opposite direction.

"Leo!"

"CHOOSE WISELY," The voices boomed, "WRATH OR GLORY," the sounds turned into a chorus of coughs. As suddenly as it had appeared, the wind, the darkness, and the glowing eyes disappeared. The coughing continued.

"Miss Mana!" Vivian crawled forward, back to the throne.

"Mother of the new world." It was one voice, a whisper this time, followed by a shallow exhale, and the forward slumping of the skeletal figure in the chair.

The readings beeped a flatline. Mana was dead.

Leonard sat up, shaking clarity back into his head. "Viv!" He rushed to his feet and across the floor. His hands caught her under her arms and drug her upright.

Stunned, Vivian was pulled to her feet. Her jaw stayed open, and her eyes were fixed on the dead woman.

"What the hell happened?" He held her by her arms and tried to read her face. Her head still hadn't turned to him when he pulled her into his chest. "You're okay." He kissed the top of her head, "Let's get you out of here, okay?"

Vivian swallowed and nodded. Her eyes finally broke their trance...but didn't meet his either.

"Spock!" Kirk grabbed his friend's arms and pulled him to his feet. The science officer was going to return to the ship when his vision blurred suddenly, causing him to trip over a vine and land on his hands and knees. His head whirled with a series of images. His ears boomed with a crackling set of otherworldly voices. "Hey Spock! What's happening?" His shook him by his shoulders, "Buddy, can you hear me?"

"Mother of the new world," A breath, almost too small to be a whisper, came from him.

"What'd you say?"

Spock blinked hard, his vision returning to him. He saw Kirk in his face and suddenly became aware of his hands gripping his shoulders. He began to catch his breath, "Where's Dr. Vida?"