Chapter 20
Chief Medical Officer's Starlog - November 28th, 2160.
Sub-Commander T'Ling recording.
Lieutenant Garrison has been kept sedated since his capture, and Ensign Dehner, while cooperative, has been held in a maximum security detention cell. They, along with Doctor Heidelburg, will be taken back to Earth for trial and further study.
However, if their neurological conditions cannot be stabilised before the psilosynine is filtered out of their systems, Garrison and Dehner, as well as Lieutenant Vaughn, may not survive long.
Doctor Heidelburg believes that I may be crucial to helping them.
"A 'mind-meld'?" said Vaughn, incredulously. "That doesn't sound very… medical."
Again, he was surrounded by an entourage in the med lab. T'Ling sat across from him at the table, with Heidelburg next to her and Angie next to Vaughn, stroking his arm. Commodore North and a MACO stood in the background.
"I will not conceal the dangers, Lieutenant," said T'Ling, with a calm that Vaughn found unsettling. "I have had little practice in the procedure, and there is not time for the recommended meditations beforehand. However, Doctor Heidelburg believes it is now the only way to suppress your psionic abilities to safe levels."
"My therapeutic attempts to help you control your abilities were too little too late," said Heidelburg. "If we don't do something soon, you could suffer brain death."
Vaughn squirmed in his chair. T'Ling had explained what this 'melding' involved, and it had not filled him with confidence. From what she had described, it could be painful for both of them.
"Hey," Angie said quietly, catching his attention. She gazed into his eyes, smiling. "You trust Doctor T'Ling, don't you? And I'll be here the whole time."
He smiled back at her and nodded to T'Ling. "Okay. Let's do it."
T'Ling rose to place cortical monitors on Vaughn's temples. "Our BCPs will be observed throughout. At the first indication of any negative reaction, the meld will be terminated." She sat down and applied her own monitors. "Due to an interest in Vulcan neurology, Doctor Heidelburg is also well-versed in the procedure, and will serve as pyllora - a guide - for us both."
"Try to calm your thoughts," Heidelburg said to Vaughn. "Just like the experiments before. You may feel the urge to resist mental intrusion. Do not. That will only make it worse."
Vaughn gulped. "Right."
Heidelburg now turned to T'Ling. "You will have to relax your emotional suppression by degrees until your minds start blending."
"Understood," said T'Ling. She stared at Vaughn across the table.
Angie's hand gripped his, and that helped to slow his thundering heartbeat.
"Everyone else will need to be absolutely quiet," said Heidelburg. "Now, T'Ling, apply your fingers to the qui'lari located-"
"I am familiar with the telepathic focal points, Doctor," said T'Ling, without taking her eyes off Vaughn.
Heidelburg simply raised his hands in apology.
Vaughn flinched as T'Ling placed her icy fingers against the sides of his head.
Heidelburg spoke in a soothing tone. "As you feel your emotional control ease, you may feel a sort of psychic backwash. Let it carry you, do not withdraw from it. That is your minds intermixing.
"Just relaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx…"
Everything started to slow and blur. Then Vaughn fell off the edge of the world.
Darkness.
Light.
Silence.
Sound.
Stillness.
Movement.
This was different from the taroon-ifla T'Ling had practiced with other Vulcans.
Those, although unsettling, had been serene experiences. This was discordant. Chaotic. A rush of contradictory sensations.
Perhaps it was because she was the one initiating the meld this time. Perhaps it was because of Lieutenant Vaughn's abilities or simply because he was Human.
As she felt the ebb and flow of emotions start to even out, the mindscape started to materialise around her.
It was Hell.
There was a vast, rocky desert that reminded her of the plains of Gol, where she had undertaken part of her Kolinahr ritual, except that it was ablaze and the ground was shaking violently.
The mindscape seemed to mesh with an incongruous environment. A patchwork of lush hills and tall trees covered the nightmarish vista, also burning, as if the land had contracted an infection of greenery. A curving beach was visible in the distance before a pale blue sea.
Everything was distorted, as if seen through a warped lens.
"Doctor!"
She felt, rather than heard, Vaughn calling to her.
He approached, looking panicked. She felt this too.
"What is this?" he asked, stumbling from the quaking earth. "Where are we?"
"I believe this represents a combination of our psyches, Lieutenant," she answered.
He pointed to the greenery. "That looks like Llandudno. My home town."
As soon as he said it, T'Ling recalled barely tangible memories of a boyhood spent on that beach, and playing in the trees on summer days.
"This… may be a fusion of our memories," she said.
Vaughn now pointed to the rocky desert. "And that's Gol! How do I know that?"
He was also accessing her surface memories, she realised.
"It does not matter," she said. "You see the turbulence around us? This is likely a manifestation of the damage done to your brain."
Vaughn went wide-eyed, and T'Ling felt his fear.
"How do we undo it?"
T'Ling tried to recall what her previous pyllora had told her.
"Here you have supreme control over your mind, just as you would your physical body. You must tame it."
Thunder sounded above them and jets of flame shot out of the ground all around.
"How do I do that?" Vaughn shouted.
T'Ling could feel his panic and fear grow stronger, threatening to overwhelm them both. It had been decades since she had felt such uninhibited emotions. She needed to turn the tables - to get Vaughn to experience some of her mental discipline.
"Focus on the desert, Lieutenant," she said, raising her voice over the roar in the air. "On Gol. What do you remember of it?"
Vaughn gazed out at the desolate plain, his eyes flashing in surprise and recognition as he allowed T'Ling's mind in.
"I… I came here… You came here…" he said. "Over a hundred years ago, for the Kolinahr. You… You didn't love the man you were originally betrothed to… You wanted to purge all emotion before the marriage. You thought that would make it easier."
T'Ling fought to keep her feelings under control at the flood of memories. In this state, it was difficult. This was one of the reasons melding had been so taboo - to share oneself like this was considered incredibly personal. An invasion.
"Yes," she said, in a choked voice.
Vaughn looked at her and she instantly felt his sympathy. Neither of them needed to acknowledge it further.
"Remember what you - what I learned," she said.
She recalled as he recalled. The years-long lessons in mental discipline, how to master one's own mind. She aided his efforts with those of her own, the both of them calming their thoughts - two minds working together as one - which served to heal his troubled brain. It was a pale, limited imitation of a lifetime of Vulcan mental and emotional control, but it was sufficient.
The tempest around them started to subside, and soon the plains of Gol were returned to their usual serenity. The peaceful Llandudno countryside seemed to become brighter and greener as well.
Reality slammed back into place around Vaughn as T'Ling released his head. It felt not unlike breathing air again after being dunked underwater, but it took a moment for everything to feel normal once more. Angie's hand around his helped.
"Did it work?" asked North.
Heidelburg read from the padd linked to their cortical monitors. "Both of them are fine. Lieutenant Vaughn's BCP readings are back to baseline norms." There was almost a hint of sadness in his voice. "I'd say his abilities are gone, other than the odd prescient instinct now and then."
T'Ling, who seemed to have recovered quickly, said, "I would like to keep you under observation for a further twenty-seven hours, to ensure there are no lasting effects."
Vaughn nodded. "Of course. And… thank you, Doctor."
They shared a knowing look. Vaughn had keenly felt just how personal their melding had been for T'Ling, and would forever be grateful. He knew that she knew that, just as she knew he'd keep what he'd learned in confidence.
"You will also have to meld with Garrison and Dehner," Heidelburg said to T'Ling. "Do you think you're up to it?"
"It is necessary," T'Ling said. "They are my patients."
She and Heidelburg excused themselves to go deal with their next cases, taking Heidelburg's MACO escort with them. Vaughn and Angie smiled at each other.
North approached and put a hand comfortingly on Vaughn's shoulder. "Once Dr. T'Ling releases you, I want you to take a few days off to recover."
"Oh, thank you, sir, but that's not necessary," Vaughn protested dutifully.
"I insist, Lieutenant," said North. He smirked slightly. "Besides, after being stuck in a lab for two days, I'm sure your fiancée will be missing you."
Angie grinned. "Commodore, you read my mind."