"I fail to see the reason for your apology, Lieutenant." Spock broke the silence.
"I don't think so," Lexxi countered.
All she got for a reply was a mild look of surprise, a slight raising of the Vulcan's graceful eyebrows. She continued.
"In fact, I know you do." Lexxi was riding the high of being right. "You see my reason, you're just afraid to acknowledge it. Afraid because me reason…the reason for my apology is not logical. It's purely emotional, and to acknowledge what you see would be to admit to emotion. A weakness of a sort."
Spock felt a twinge of anger, but pushed it aside, keeping his eyes steady on the dark girl sitting across the room from him.
"I'm sorry," Lexxi worked to keep her voice steady and calm, "for the disturbance in your emotional balance the song must have caused." She paused. "It was not meant for you, and you should not take it that way." Taking the disk from the computer, she tossed it casually on the desk. It slid across the smooth surface, barely stopping before falling to the floor. "You may have that." She took her eyes from his and, bowing her head, stared at her sweaty hands, her fingers entwined together.
"I know isolation, Mr. Spock. I learned at a very early age what isolation and loneliness were. I found that if I hid the pain away beneath doors and walls, I felt it less and less." Lexxi was getting sick of the sound of her own voice. Or maybe just sick in general. It was getting really hot. "Everything I know is locked safely away, never to be unwillingly seen again."
Spock finally spoke, "You have control of your mind that a Vulcan would envy."
"If they could. Envy is a human emotion."
"Quite right, Lieutenant."
"Thank you, Mr. Spock, I'm flattered." Lexxi looked up at him and back at her lap. "What you saw were only the memories of my stay on the planet's surface. I had not, as of that time, been able to…file them away…you might say. Quite painful, but it was not a fair mind meld."
"So not worry, Lieutenant," Spock replied, "I am unconcerned about that fact."
"I just thought it needed explaining."
"Understandable."
Lexxi glanced up at the chronometer. "Good god!" she exclaimed, "I'm keeping you from your duties."
Seconds later, McCoy's voice came over the intercom, "Spock! You let that girl sleep, you hear me?"
Spock pivoted and walked toward the door. "I must follow the good doctor's orders," he said, and Lexxi wondered if he was trying for humor. "Thank you, Lieutenant, for an enlightening conversation." And he was gone.
"Lexxi," Lexxi sighed to an empty room. "Computer," she called, standing in the middle of her cabin, dripping sweat, "lower temperature to freezing and raise moisture level to maximum." She sank to her knees as a wave of icy, moist air engulfed her.