Chapter 15
"Captain Spock," said Donna. Her voice was wavering and she was deeply panic stricken. Spock leaned over towards the small screen on the communications consul. "Your niece..." She began. T'Sharl was assumed to be Spock's young niece. "Your niece and a young friend of hers have gone missing. We speculate they've followed the incorrect data. It is very dangerous out here. Please come at once. HURRY."
She didn't even give him the opportunity to respond. The screen suddenly went blank. For a moment Spock felt bewildered. How could his child get lost while under the supervision of the Vulcan Science Academy's greatest tutors?
It was not as if the children were let about to run around wherever they pleased. They were far to mature for those childish things. Spock got up and hurriedly went to get his coat.
The house was empty, as his father had left Vulcan. Knowing that T'Sharl was now the responsibility of Spock he had assumed that she was safe. Spock ran out of the house and took the hover car to the designated coordinates at the Th'elli Valley.
Suddenly T'Sharl heard a crunch sound beneath her feet and slipped. Terror rushed through her mind and body. The tricorder was malfunctioning. She gripped onto the remains of a root from an H'tal tree and she screamed.
Salek ran frantically. He could see nothing through the density. Where was she? Instantaneously he heard her frantic cries for help. His Vulcan mental discipline and keen sense of hearing followed her voice. There was a ledge. There had been no exit after all. They were far from safe.
The boy quickly lay down on his stomach and looked down a precipice. T'Sharl was dangling haphazardly from a root and was holding on for dear life. She struggled to pull herself up. Salek reached down trying desperately to reach her hand. He pulled a little closer trying in vain not to let himself fall into the same trap. His fingers barely reached hers.
There was a loud crack and the root snapped. Previously hidden terror flashed across the boy's eyes. T'Sharl fell and fell, and then something broke the fall. She led on a small ledge. Blood splattered her face and she remained still. She struggled for her mind rules to control the pain, but only agonising emptiness surrounded her. Red darkness swallowed her up and she began to fall deeper and deeper into nothingness.
Salek climbed down cautiously. She was nowhere to be seen. The cliff was too large to scan alone. Then he saw a twisted bundle of torn flesh and fabric on a tiny platform barely five feet across. T'Sharl appeared to be unconscious. He climbed down beside her.
"T'Sharl, T'Sharl answer me," he called desperately. She remained silent. She lay face down. He wasn't sure what to do, whether to move her or not. Finally he decided to gently ease her on her side.
Her face was smeared with green blood from a gaping wound on her head. Salek couldn't see the wounds on her body, but he watched as a puddle of blood oozed out from somewhere beneath her. He called her name repeatedly, but she could not reply.
Salek knew she wasn't dead yet. Perhaps he would have enough time to reach into her mind and safely extract her katra before it was late. He pressed his fingers down on her bloody face and felt her warm fractured skull beneath them. Gently he reached into her mind. T'Sharl struggled and struggled with all her might.
Some one was trying to access her mind. They were forcing themselves into her. Robbing her of her individuality. She fought. Salek struggled himself. He could not re-establish a proper link. She was fighting him with all her strength. He could not understand why. Whatever she thought he was doing he was only trying to save her.
T'Sharl fought in the only way she knew how. She struggled to bring herself back, back into consciousness, but she felt so weak. She opened her eyes and then screamed.
Salek pulled away. She had shocked him by her metal power. He had felt sheer terror within her dying mind and she was projecting it at him. The Vulcan boy removed his fingers and collapsed near by. He realised he wasn't strong enough to help her overcome the delirium in her mind.
Salek heard muffled voices. At first he had thought they were coming from inside his head. He wondered if he was going mad. The link with T'Sharl had mentally disabled him. All he could feel was terrible pain. It was hers. He then realised they were going to die. Up here alone in the middle of nowhere.
Then there was a voice again. It was clear and the sound was emanating from up in the air. Salek struggled to move his legs. He managed to move his throbbing head to gaze up the face of the rocky cliff. Salek suddenly gazed down on the opposite direction and it was a very long way down.
Someone was climbing down toward them. It was a physician carrying a tricorder. He was from the archaeologists group and with him was Captain Spock. They were climbing down the slope. Salek wondered why Spock of all people was here. He felt his mind haze in and out of consciousness.
"What's happened?" Said a voice. Salek opened his eyes. A human was leaning over him. He recognised her as being the leader of the archaeologists camp.
"Leave him be," said another deeper voice. The medic came over and gazed at him for a second before turning to the crippled form of T'Sharl. Spock hurriedly went to her side.
Someone else hoisted Salek to his feet. "Come on son," he said. A human man took his arm. "Let's get you up to the top."
T'Sharl opened her eyes for the last time and saw Spock's face gazing at her intently. She managed to breath out the word father. She paused for only a moment. Spock brushed his fingers toward the side of her face. She realised he was readying himself for a mind meld.
"No," she breathed. Spock frowned.
"I must, your katra."
"No." Her lips formed the words 'to late.' She closed her eyes then opened them again. "Father promise me...find mother." She choked on hot blood in her throat. "Please... she...needs you." She felt and saw darkness loom around and only heard the echo of his voice calling her name. The healer scanned her but there was nothing he could do.
Despite her protests Spock reached into her mind and felt the meaning of her words. "I will." He whispered out loud. She was correct he was too late to take her soul. He felt her mind ebb away beyond the reach of even his mental ability. Then there was nothing. He felt only terrible emptiness.
She was dead.
Spock slumped back against the wall away from her. He felt sorrow and loss. Not just for him, but for her. She had died at such a young age. He had hardly known this young girl. His daughter. From the age of six years she had been brought up among humans, but he didn't care. He had lost her as he had lost everyone else he cared about.
She will never have the chance for eternal life in the hall of ancient thought, was his first thought. Without caring about what anyone else thought he took her still warm hands into his own and pulled the blood drenched ringlets of hair off her face. He realised shredded tears were burning his cheeks.
"Spock?" Said a Vulcan doctor. "I'm sorry, but she's dead." The words were cold coming from his lips. Spock was once again facing the Kobayasi Maru test. This time in the hands of his own daughter. He realised he would have to contact Saavik again no matter what it took and he remembered what T'Sharl had said to him moments before she passed away.
The doctor stood up and crossed over towards another man coming down the cliff with a stretcher. Spock still sat crouched over T'Sharl.
"I'm sorry...," he whispered in Vulcan, "...that I didn't get here in time." He finally let go of her hand and straightened. Once again he feebly managed to establish the shield, which protected him from the terrible anguish surrounding him.
* * *
Spock sat alone in front of the computer terminal."...she is dead," he said to the recorder. Two days had past since T'Sharl's body was cremated. He had personally taken her ashes and sprinkled them in Amanda's garden. He assumed that was what she would want. The garden was a favourite place of hers.
The cassette was ready. He could not bring himself to contact Saavik personally so he had made a recording. The transparent thin yellow piece of plastic was ejected out of the machinery after the message was relayed to Saavik's ship. He took it into his hand and then placed it into a drawer then left for Amanda's garden.
Outside was pleasantly warm and flowers were in bloom. Some how it didn't reflect what he felt, instead it was bright and happy, devoid of any sombreness. He made his way to the stone bench at the rear of the garden.
For some time he sat alone under the willow, meditating and trying to put together what had happened to T'Sharl in his mind. Referring to the past was illogical. He had told himself that yet again, but it didn't do any good or help ease his current emotional disturbance.
Aboard the Lincoln Saavik sat alone in her sparse quarters. They were dimly lit and held only a few personal possessions. She had just read Spock's report from Vulcan that came through immediately from subspace onto the bridge. It had said urgent. Saavik had feared the worse.
Something inside, instinct she could have called it had told her that her daughter was in danger despite the fact that Vulcan was the least place likely to cause anyone harm. Her child was only attending a simple day out to an archaeological excavation.
She had excused herself from her station and headed down towards her quarters on deck five. Once she had stepped into the warm environment she had paged the bridge asking them to relay the personal message to her.
For some time she sat in silence feeling nothing. Nothing but shock. She opened up a communication network to contact Vulcan. She had to speak to Spock.
A young man appeared seated in front of a window, which beside it stood what could have been a Yucca plant. He wore a Starfleet issue uniform. In his ear was positioned a communications earpiece which he twiddled now and again. Shaking his head he stared at Saavik. She raised an eyebrow. Obviously she had disturbed his concentration in whatever task he was doing.
"Please put me through to Vulcan," she said in a matter of fact voice.
"Complying sir." He once again began to twiddle the earpiece. Something was wrong due to the frown on his face. "Sir, I'm unable to re-establish a link-"
"Why?" Questioned Saavik.
"Your ship is too far out. I'm barely receiving you on this frequency." She watched as he tried to alter the frequency modulator. The screen began to flicker. "I'm sorry, but your communication is breaking up at your end. Do you wish to close down?"
Saavik sighed inwardly.
"Very well. I shall try again subsequently." He nodded in compliance and the screen went dark. For a long time she just sat staring at the computer screen. The message hit her hard. Saavik rubbed her forehead. She felt the sudden need to explode with anger, but tears came instead. She needed to contact Spock even if was the last thing she did.
Saavik finally managed to pull herself marginally together, at least enough composure to contact the captain face to face. She pressed the intercom button and waited for the reply from the communications officer. Boris Anchov's cheery face filled her small screen.
"Yes sir?"
"I wish to speak with the Captain."
"Aye sir. I'll pass you though." For a matter of seconds she waited. Then her captain, Ahkar Anceir appeared. He gazed at her through the two small slits that passed for eyes.
"You wished to speak to me Commander. Is there something wrong?"
"Yes sir. I request to be relieved from the rest of my duties for today." The Kradion frowned.
"On what grounds?"
"The message I received from Vulcan sir." Saavik shifted uncomfortably. "My...my sister has been killed on an expedition."
For a long moment there was silence between them. Finally the captain spoke. "Of course Saavik. Take off as much time as you wish."
"Thank you sir." He nodded his grey floppy head and closed his eyes, the Kradion version of a smile. "If there is anything that-"
"I am fine sir," she replied quickly." He nodded.
"All right then." He paused expecting her to say something else. Since she didn't, "Anceir out." The screen went dark. Saavik pulled herself away from her desk and stood up. Now she had been granted leave what was she going to do with the time she had off?
Two long hours past. Saavik finally tried again, but yet again the starship was to far out of reach to successfully contact the planet Vulcan. Saavik felt defeat. She pulled on her uniform jacket and decided to go to the bridge anyway.
