Note: A little over a year later, a continuation for The Pygairian! (I've also gone back and made a few major revisions to the first chapter.)

However long Jim stared at the unusual craft, it appeared no less astounding. Broad, soft purple wings nearly brushed the walls of the dilapidated barn; its alien curves like no vessel he had ever seen. It looked like a thing from another world, inscrutable and unreal, strikingly out of place amidst the musk of rotting wood that creaked in the wind. In the daylight, it would have seemed absurd, but now, in the dark, it was astounding.

"You are intrigued by the starship?" Spock asked carefully.

And then there was the man in front of him, deceptively human, but with sharp slanted eyebrows, accentuating inquisitive features, and elfin pointed ears beneath his knit cap. Jim had never seen anyone like him.

Jim gave him a wry smile. "You could say that."

Spock raised his angled eyebrows and gestured toward his vessel in the suggestion of an invitation.

If this was an abduction, it was politer than any alien abduction that Jim had ever heard of or seen on the silver screen. But still, he was aware of the danger. Anyone with half a head on their shoulders could see the foolishness in accepting an invitation onto an alien ship. He would never see the ground again - if he was lucky. But Jim could hardly believe his luck.

He felt a distant pang of regret at leaving the ground behind as he answered with a grin and a wave, as though to say, "After you."

Jim saw no mechanism by which Spock enticed the door of the craft to open. He simply stepped toward it and the mouth of the vessel unfolded, a ramp landing at their feet. Jim followed him into the darkened interior. Like the door, the lights - bright red and green, emanating from no source that Jim could discern - appeared to turn on of their own accord as Jim and Spock entered.

They passed through an irregularly curved archway, into an angular chamber with rounded corners and walls that curved in around them. It was all made of the same smooth material as the exterior, but shaped into more pronounced ledges, protruding out into what looked like rails, or maybe pipes, or opaque windows, but with no knobs or dials. In fact, the whole chamber was mostly empty, bereft of the strange alien devices Jim's imagination had so readily conjured - certainly no examining table or alien probes. The only device, coming down in the center of the room, was what appeared to be a periscope, mounted on a console, but Jim could discern no means by which to operate it.

Spock stood by the arch through which they had entered, his hands folded behind his back, watching Jim as he stared at every line and surface in the ship, taking it all in, all too aware that this would probably be the only chance he had. Again, Spock gestured, for Jim to proceed, and he took it as an invitation to approach the periscope. He had not forgotten that he was the alien here, tampering with things he could not begin to understand, but if there was any danger, he could only presume that it would have struck already, and any remaining hesitation he may have had was driven away by the fascination of everything around him.

He peered into the periscope, but instead of looking out into the night, perhaps at the sky, or at least into the barn that they were theoretically still inside, instead he found incomprehensible glowing figures floating in darkness, that presumably meant something to Spock, but he couldn't imagine what.

Jim stood back upright, blinking the bright spots out of his eyes. Again, his gaze swept around the room, trying to take it all in, looking for anything he could have possibly missed. For all of its alien glamor, it was remarkably empty - his mind raced ahead, already spotting an opportunity, if only he dared take it. He turned back to Spock, still observing him with an eyebrow raised.

"So, a real starship," Jim marveled.

"Affirmative," Spock replied. Jim thought he saw the corner of his lips turn upward in bemusement.

"What brings you all the way across the galaxy? Or did you just hop over from Mars?" Jim asked with an easy smile, though his exhilaration was palpable.

"I have come approximately 16.237 lightyears from my planet Vulcan to study the inhabitants of your planet Earth."

"I'm one of your specimens, then?" Jim teased, though he had half a mind to hope that the alien wasn't too intent on studying him.

"Yes," Spock answered unflinchingly.

"I see…" Riverside was hardly the place Jim would have chosen to study if he were an alien visiting from outer space, but he could hardly complain. Deliberately, he added, "And this is where you've been staying while you carry out your research?"

Spock nodded.

"It's not what I'd call homey, but I presume it does the trick?"

"All of my needs are satisfactorily accounted for."

Jim nodded. It wasn't a thing to be done lightly, he barely knew the man - the alien - or what he was really on Earth to study, but Jim couldn't pass up a chance like this. Now that he'd had a glimpse, he couldn't let it slip away.

"If you want a closer vantage point, you're welcome to stay with me," he suggested as casually as you please.

Spock raised a questioning eyebrow. "You are offering me alternative accommodations?"

Jim nodded, his heart pounding in hopeful anticipation. He could hardly believe that it would actually work, but Spock appeared to be considering the possibility.

"Very well," Spock replied at last. "Your hospitality is most generous."

Still, when the tour was deemed complete, Jim lingered on the threshold of the ship, convinced that if he stepped through the door, it would vanish in a flash, as though it had all been nothing more than an incredible dream. His eyes flickered over to Spock, still standing beside him, watching him intently, as though Jim were the otherworldly alien - which he supposed he was, as far as Spock was concerned.

"It's not every day I get to meet someone like you," Jim remarked with a smile.

"Vulcans do not frequently travel to Earth."

"No, I suppose not. Then maybe you'd better stay awhile."

Spock inclined his head, as though to indicate that he was considering it.

Finally, when Jim could find no more excuse to linger, they stepped out, into the dilapidated barn that they had, in theory, never left.

With one last glance back at the starship, Jim got in his truck and drove home. At least the dogs were there waiting for him, doubtless wondering why he'd been away so long.

He glanced wistfully at the sky one last time before calling it a night. But beyond his wildest hopes, the starship actually had followed after him. With a pneumatic rush and a burst of bright light, it settled in his old shed, strikingly out of place amidst the tools in need of polishing and assorted odds and ends he might one day need for something.

The craft's door unfolded and out stepped the man from Vulcan, no longer disguised in ordinary clothes. He looked even more out of place than his vessel, like an elf; tall and graceful, with pointed ears and long, flowing robes.

Spock quirked an eyebrow at him and Jim realized he was staring.

Jim grinned back.

He waved Spock out of the shed and led the way into the house. The little farmhouse wasn't much, but at least it must have been more comfortable than that austere spaceship.

The dogs jumped up to greet them at the door, still barking even louder than their usual din, if it was possible. Jim hastily restrained them with a sheepish shrug for Spock.

Spock, however, seemed not to mind, eyeing them and everything else with open fascination. A strange device in his hands whirred and beeped wildly.

"Do you want anything to eat? A drink?" Jim offered, belatedly remembering his manners as the host.

Spock shook his head. "I believe I will retire to meditate, if that is acceptable."

"Of course," Jim replied, and showed him to the largest of the spare bedrooms - Jim's own childhood room. "This is where you'll be staying, if that's alright?"

Spock examined it as he had everything else. "It will suffice."

"Is there anything you want me to bring in from your starship?"

"No, thank you." Spock held up a hand in the same strange gesture he had used in greeting.

Jim considered trying to emulate it, but thought better of it. Instead he replied, "It's my pleasure. If there's anything you need, just ask."

Spock inclined his head.

Jim could tell that was his cue to leave, but he stood in the doorway a moment longer, unable to look away from Spock's inquisitive deep brown eyes. He looked almost like an ordinary man, but he had an inhuman allure that Jim could not ignore.

At last, he said, "Good night, Mr. Spock," and forced himself to turn away and return to the kitchen.

Jim fed the dogs, had a hasty cold dinner for himself, and then, with nothing else to do, he called it a night. He lay on his back in bed, staring up at the ceiling. His heart raced with the evening's excitement. It took all the willpower he had to stay in bed and not check the spare bedroom for the alien that almost certainly was not actually there.

By morning, Jim was nearly convinced that it had all been just a dream - a bit of wishful thinking. He prepared himself for disappointment as he emerged into the kitchen for his morning coffee.

To his surprise, however, the remarkably humanoid alien, still dressed in elven robes, was standing in the middle of his kitchen, examining the stove with his strange little device.

"Good morning," Jim called out, unable to keep himself from smiling if he'd wanted to. His chest seemed to inflate in elation. "How did you sleep?"

Spock immediately righted himself and turned to meet Jim's gaze. "I slept for the requisite four hours."

"Good, good," Jim said, unsure what else to say to the alien standing so calmly in his kitchen. Belatedly, he remembered why he had come into the kitchen in the first place. "I was going to make myself some coffee, do you want any?"

"You are offering me a drink?" Spock sounded uncertain.

"Yeah, it helps me wake up in the morning."

"The name does not translate into the Vulcan language, however if it is the human custom to partake in this beverage, then I will do so as well."

"Only if you want to," Jim attempted to clarify, but Spock was not to be dissuaded.

As it turned out Spock did not like coffee. He didn't say as much, instead he kept sipping at his mug, grimacing ever so slightly after each sip.

"You don't have to drink it if you don't like it," Jim said, "I won't be insulted."

"It is illogical to have preferences," Spock insisted, taking another clearly unpleasant sip.

Jim caught his wrist to keep him from drinking more. "What do you drink on Vulcan?"

Spock gave him the barest frown, but he answered, "I believe we have something analogous to the human drink of tea."

"Great, I think I have some tea somewhere." Jim got up from the kitchen table, taking Spock's mug with him before the alien could protest, and went to rummage through the cabinets for a small stash of tea bags left over from the last time his mother had visited.

He returned with a fresh mug of tea. "I'm sure it's nothing like what you're used to, but hopefully it's better than coffee."

Spock nodded in acknowledgement and accepted the tea. When he took a sip, at least he didn't grimace, and Jim counted it as a success.

They sat in silence a little longer, Jim drinking his coffee, and Spock still cautiously sipping his tea. Even without the caffeine, Jim would have been wide awake, but he took it slow.

At last, he couldn't keep silent any longer. "What's it like on your planet, Vulcan?"

Spock considered the question. "There is much less plant life. I believe it is what you would identify as a desert. Earth is much colder, with a thicker atmosphere and considerably lower gravity."

Jim leaned in and clung to his every word, as though that alone could transport him to this alien landscape, barren, as Spock had described, but no less fascinating.

"And everyone has their own starship?"

"No. My father is an ambassador." If Jim wasn't mistaken, Spock seemed somewhat displeased at the thought.

Jim had to ask, "To other planets?"

"He is the ambassador to the moon of Andoria."

"Andoira?"

"An ice moon," Spock clarified.

Jim could only marvel, "You've been everywhere."

Spock shook his head. "There is much of the galaxy that remains to be explored, and many other galaxies beyond."

Jim grinned at the thought of being free to explore it all. "Earth must seem prehistoric to you."

"Hardly prehistoric, but your technological achievements are comparatively primitive, promising as they are. From what I have observed, your development has taken a fascinatingly different trajectory."

"Why thank you, Mr. Spock."

Spock quirked an eyebrow at him. "It was not intended as a compliment, merely a statement of fact."

Jim only smiled back.

"This is an agricultural allotment?" Spock asked, redirecting the conversation toward his own curiosity.

"Yes, the old family farm," Jim said with a sigh.

"And you are tasked with maintaining it and producing corn?"

"There's no one else to look after it."

"If you require assistance..." - Spock left the offer open.

Jim waved it off. "I manage alright, but I'd be happy to put you to work if you want to see what it's like - for your studies."

"Certainly, it would be a most informative experience."

"Only if you want to," Jim insisted.

Spock, however, was not to be deterred.

"If you're sure. I may be able to find some old clothes that will fit you - you don't want to do farmwork in those nice robes."

"Thank you. It is only equitable that I provide some assistance in return for your hospitality."

"Not at all," Jim replied, but Spock was stubborn and so, after a quick breakfast, they both got to work.

After a few days of working and relaxing around the farm, talking about anything and everything, and enjoying the silences - and even playing a few games of chess, which Spock was much too good at not to have played before - Jim felt he could no longer excuse keeping Spock all to himself.

One evening, he suggested, "I'm thinking of inviting a friend of mine over for dinner. He'd like to meet you, and you'd get to see another human to study."

"That would be most satisfactory," Spock replied.

So, Jim called up Bones, and the next night he joined Jim and Spock for dinner.

"So, who's this new friend of yours you mentioned?" Bones asked warily after the requisite "how do you do's."

Jim only waved him inside. Spock had made some attempt to quietly conceal himself off to the side, preferring to stand as an observer rather than to take part in the human ritual, but he had no such luck. Bones took a moment to take in Spock's inhuman appearance, but he seemed to quickly accept it as presumably nothing more than a genetic irregularity.

"Leonard McCoy," he introduced himself. "I'm the local quack."

Spock's eyes narrowed on cue. "You acknowledge that you are a dishonest doctor?"

"It's just an expression," Bones dismissed it roughly. "You must be the mysterious stranger everyone's been going on about."

Spock acknowledged the description. "You may call me Spock."

Bones glanced over at Jim, his skepticism plain.

"And you can call old sawbones here Bones," Jim added helpfully, earning him another look from the aforementioned.

Jim waved them both into the dining room, all set for a proper sit-down meal for the first time in longer than he cared to think.

Bones's gaze wandered over the spread as they made themselves comfortable.

"Spock doesn't eat meat so I've been experimenting a little," Jim explained.

Dishes were passed around and plates filled and then they resumed talking between bites. Jim let Bones take the lead.

"It's just like Jim to befriend the only visitor we've had come through in months," he remarked. "I'm also an out-of-towner and Jim's the first person who didn't look at me like I'd grown a second head."

Spock inclined his head. "Jim has told me that the town is somewhat parochial."

"Mind you," Bones added with a glance at Jim, "he's only so eager to talk to anyone from out of town because he's fed up with the place himself."

"You'd be too," Jim put in.

Bones only shrugged and turned back to Spock. "So, what brings you to Riverside of all places? Just passing through or here to stay?"

Spock hesitated. "I do not know how long I will remain. I do not intend to overextend Jim's hospitality."

"As I've said before, you're welcome to stay as long as you like. This old farmhouse is too big for me anyway" - he turned to Bones - "and he's been a great help around the farm."

"Jim's put you to work?" Bones asked.

"It is the least that I can do to repay him," Spock replied.

"I appreciate the help, but your company is its own reward." Jim looked Spock firmly in the eye and rested his hand on Spock's arm for emphasis.

Bones coughed.

Jim held Spock's gaze for a moment longer and only then withdrew and met Bones's skeptical look.

Bones rolled his eyes before turning back to Spock. "Not here on business then, I take it?"

"No," Spock replied, "I am here to study humanity."

"A philosopher, then?"

"My interest is more practical than philosophical. I have come to Earth to study human customs."

"That's your life's mission?" Bones clarified, because he couldn't fathom the alternative meaning.

Spock raised an eyebrow at the suggestion. "Perhaps, but I am principally seeking to better understand myself."

Bones waved it off as more philosophy. "I'm a simple country doctor, I just want to understand how things are broken so I can fix them."

"Medicine is a noble pursuit."

"It runs in the family," Bones said with a shrug. "My older brother got the family practice in Georgia, so I ended up out here."

Spock nodded in understanding. "My father desired for me to become a scientist."

"Where are you coming from, again?"

"The planet Vulcan," Spock replied without blinking.

Bones did a double take, certain he hadn't heard correctly. "What was that?"

"The planet Vulcan," Spock answered again.

Jim was on the verge of laughter as he watched Bones's expression change with the realization that he hadn't misheard anything.

Bones turned on Jim. "Very funny. You don't think I'd really fall for that alien encounter story."

"Vulcans do not lie," Spock replied, as a point of pride.

"Yes, I get the joke, you can call it off now."

Jim only shrugged.

"No joke is being made," Spock insisted.

Jim could see both of their patience beginning to wear thin and took the opportunity to intervene. "After dinner, we can show you the starship out in the shed, if that's alright, Spock?"

Spock nodded in assent.

Bones gave Jim a skeptical look that unambiguously asked, "What are you up to now?" without saying a word. Probably for the best, however, he took the conversation in another direction and whenever Spock mentioned anything about alien worlds, Bones merely shot Jim a glare as though he was to blame.

After dinner and dessert and a good hour or so more of conversation, Bones turned again to the starship which had not been so much forgotten as merely put aside for the time being. With Spock's repeated permission, Jim grabbed a couple flashlights and the party moved outside, along the gravel drive through darkened fields, out to the shed. With Spock's help, he hauled the door open, and revealed, in the splotchy light of their flashlights, Spock's starship, still as alien as it was on the night Jim had first seen it landing in his neighbor's field.

"Well, I'll be," Bones declared, his drawl even more pronounced than usual.

Spock glanced at Jim in disbelief that every human apparently had the same illogical response to seeing a starship. Jim shrugged back.

"You're trying to tell me that you really did see a UFO that night, and all that about being from another planet is true?" Bones asked.

"As I have said, Vulcans do not lie," Spock retorted, but this time seemed a little less irritated and more smug.

Bones turned away from the starship to look at Spock again in a new light. "Those pointed ears of yours are real too then, and those eyebrows?"

Spock raised an eyebrow for emphasis. "Affirmative."

"So Jim abducted you rather than the other way around, is that it?"

"I do not understand your human fascination with being abducted by aliens. No abduction has occurred. Jim has generously invited me to reside in his home and has been teaching me about humanity."

"Generously," Bones retorted, not quite under his breath. "I'm surprised Jim here didn't flag you down himself."

As Spock closed back up the shed, Bones drew Jim aside.

"Of all the fool things," Bones grumbled, his voice low. "What are you playing at?"

"Just a little hospitality," Jim replied with a smile.

"Even if he isn't scouting for an invasion - which I haven't counted out yet - do you really think it's a good idea keeping him around like this?"

"No one is being kept anywhere, Doctor," Spock cut in - his hearing, as Jim had discovered, much better than an ordinary human's.

Bones glanced between them before settling back on Jim. "All I'm saying is are you sure that this is really the answer?"

Somehow, Spock never ceased to surprise Jim. The more Jim got to know him, the more he found himself forgetting that Spock was an elfin extraterrestrial, and instead thinking of him just as a remarkable man and a friend, unlike anyone Jim had ever known. But as the days stretched into weeks, he could only begin to wonder how much longer Spock would want to stay in Riverside before he concluded that he'd learned all it had to teach him and was ready to move on, just like everyone else did.

They were sitting out on the porch one evening, every so often tossing sticks for the dogs - Spock had even obligingly given it a go when one of the dogs had hopefully brought a choice stick up to him.

A lull had fallen in the conversation, and Jim found he could hold his peace no longer. With a sigh he said, "I suppose you'll have to move on eventually?"

Spock quickly righted himself, as he seemed to do whenever he was put on the spot. "I do not intend to impinge upon your hospitality indefinitely."

"No, no, stay as long as you like," Jim insisted. Then he hesitated. "When you do return to Vulcan, would I be able to impinge on your hospitality?"

Spock's eyes narrowed and he leaned in toward Jim almost imperceptibly, as though to more closely examine him. "You wish to accompany me?"

Jim gave him a sheepish grin. "In so many words, yes."

"You would not be able to return to Earth for a significant length of time, many of your years," Spock cautioned.

"I know. Bones wouldn't be too pleased about me stranding him with the dogs, but I don't have much to leave behind." Jim ruefully shook his head before turning back to Spock with something of a smile. "And I've gotten used to your company."

"You have no relations?"

"Not anymore. My dad went in one war and my brother followed him as soon as he was old enough. After that, mom moved to the city leaving me with the farm. I only see her once a year, if that."

Spock inclined his head in solemn acknowledgement, his eyes fixed not on Jim, but on the space beside him. Jim was about to make an attempt to lighten the conversation when Spock said, "My mother speaks little of her family on Earth. My father met her as part of a routine survey of the planet and when he was forced to depart, she asked to return with him to Vulcan."

"They wouldn't mind if I returned to Vulcan with you, then?" Jim asked hopefully.

"I came to Earth without authorization and would be required to face due censure, but it would not be logical to refuse you on such an account. However, I am not yet prepared to depart. I still have much to learn, and I have some desire to see the city which my mother inhabited." He hesitated. "And, I am not certain that I wish to return to Vulcan at all. They have no need for a being of anything less than perfect logic."

"You seem pretty logical to me."

"You are most kind. I find that irrespective of my original objective in coming to Earth, I would prefer to remain here - with you - for as long as you are willing to extend your hospitality." He spoke factually, but there seemed to be a certain nervousness underlying his words, highlighting their sincerity.

Jim smiled back at him. "If you'd asked me just a couple weeks ago, I would have said I wanted nothing more than to leave the Earth behind, but with you here, even the old family farm isn't so bad."

Jim reached out and Spock accepted his hand, and they spent the remainder of the warm summer evening sitting together out on the porch, watching the sun slowly dip below the horizon in a blaze of color.