Night now, Perrin had been following Sarek from the President's Executive Offices with a stiff pace that came unnaturally to her. Perrin kept next to him as they navigated through a busy port just outside Paris. Though Federation ships did occasionally pass through here, it was mostly for personal spacecraft and chartered ships. She looked out to them rushing through the building, directed by holographic markers and automatic docking systems away from near crashes and from misaligning with the small landing areas scattered everywhere. With nighttime starting, the higher up ships glittered with little dots of light on their hulls to seem like runaway stars swaying over everything.

Sarek walked over to a smaller Vulcan cruiser.

"Sarek! Hey!" A shout came over from a small transport ship docked nearby from a lanky human. He waved to Sarek. Perrin tried to give no reaction to this; that would be strange as she looked now. Sarek nodded with a quick salute.

"Where's Kavik?" Asked the man, still shouting though Perrin was relieved he wasn't going to come over.

"He is on Vulcan. Suurok will be accompanying me." Sarek pointed to Perrin who attempted his earlier salute, putting down her left hand before she could do so with both. It would seem too eager, she thought. But the man was swept onto the ship after its doors finally opened, before he could continue the conversation. Perrin was relieved; she didn't make a good Vulcan.

She was also relieved that there were no other Vulcans there besides Sarek. If she kept her wig from flying off every time a new subspace field sent out distorted ripples of gravity through the port or her face from showing her nervousness from the deceptions both she and Sarek had to do, who stepped back closer to her and pulled on the front of her floor length robes, really one of Sarek's own longer tunics, she felt me could keep away suspicion.

"Keep it unwrinkled. No Vulcan would allow such a display of thoughtlessness." She looked around herself quickly and noticed the shoulders were bunched up. The fabric must have caught under one of my bra straps, Perrin thought. She grabbed the sleeves with her fingers and un-tucked it as Sarek discreetly looked her over. He gave a slight nod.

The Federation allowed her transfer to Vulcan. When Sarek had showed up she'd wondered if it was half-cocked idea. Apparently not, Perrin had thought with irony when they explained how they intended she get there. Taking a personal ship, Sarek's flown in by an aide, was logical. Disguising her as one of his Vulcan aides was troublesome were anyone observant enough to note her pink skin and unslanted eyebrows. The wig was long enough to cover the tips of her ears. Then again, she thought, Sarek had rushed them through Paris in a blacked out hovercar, and through customs with an emergency clearance that absolved any closer looks from security. But they'd warned Sarek of one final hurdle as they entered the port—contamination sweeps.

"They'll have it done it a bit sir, someone will let you know." One of the security personnel had told them. Now, they were both stuck waiting out the sweep in view of everyone. Seems more crowded when you're waiting to be spotted, Perrin thought with growing worry of just that. She choked back the feeling when she felt her palms becoming slick.

Sarek pursed his lips as he looked over everything.

"How strange." His words drifted out. Perrin asked what was wrong in the most Vulcan way she could think of; a raised eyebrow.

"I sense another seemingly Vulcan mind here, yet" he paused. "Most depart directly from the embassy." In response Perrin began to search for them too.

Not a Federation port, it was still crowded with multitudes of species that crowded through and blended together in a mass of alien features ranging from obvious to just human enough. The scope made it difficult for Perrin to digest individual people. She watched the less dense bars and empty bays where no ships were docked; mostly younger humans and couples there.

Pointed ears.

"Contamination sweep is complete. We hope you enjoyed your stay here on United Earth. J'espère que vous reviendrez." Sarek moved behind Perrin, and she quickly led into the ship.

The other Vulcan, coming out of a lounge, watched Sarek's ship move out of the port and on to Vulcan.


Beyond a small bedroom and a lounge area, Sarek's personal ship had the personal space of a shuttle. The other areas seemed to consist of the engine room taking up the back end of the ship, and the bridge, taking up the front end. Everything could be viewed as they'd entered through the airlock. Perrin ran her hand over swirled scripts embedded into the walls, running down wood-like beams arching over the interior. The script repeated all over the ship with subtle variations. She liked it; it was a decorative flourish that she was starting to realize suited Sarek. She could not help comparisons with her father who often wore jeans to work. Quickly, she skirted away the thought.

Perrin walked onto the bridge. Acknowledging her with a quick glance Sarek went back to setting a course while they still hovered in the pull of Earth's gravity. On the viewscreen she could see the same graceful script labeled alongside different constellations. Sarek highlighted one and the screen zoomed in, creating an opaque image of the systems until whatever information Sarek had imputed narrowed it down to one planet.

"I don't remember meeting any diplomats that could fly their own ships." Perrin remarked. She had been required to learn a bit; another train of memories flitted past her mind uncomfortably.

"Ambassador Taylor has that capability as he was a helmsman on the USS Pegasus." Replied Sarek, not looking up. "I know a little from what my son taught me after leaving Starfleet."

"Will we be meeting your son on Vulcan?" She asked, curious. She felt it was a rare opening to learn about something personal and she was inclined to know more about Sarek despite her father's trust in him. Don't think about him, she reminded herself.

The ship was entering warp drive; now Sarek faced her.

"I have not requested him to and he is unlikely to do so without my invitation."

"He respects you." Perrin stated, though she saw his face change and sensed that was not completely due to agreement.

"He is aware that my work is important and not to be disturbed." She watched closely Sarek's motions. His eyes were still on her but they seemed shallower to her as if he was being pulled away by a moment; he crossed his hands together. Perrin tried to get a feel for what those things meant. Maybe regret, she wondered. Over himself or over his son?

"Had my arrival confused you?" He asked. Perrin nodded.

"Your father requested that I watch you, as a favor given his current condition."

She was shocked. After everything, her father had been sent to a nothing assignment in a region of space that held no other significant Federation Activity. She couldn't think of why Sarek would have known him. She hadn't met anyone in years willing to mention her father even when they aged up her face from the child she'd been when she still knew her father. Perrin tried to keep a muted expression as Sarek went on.

"I met your father while negotiating with the Legarians. I had assumed he would be incompetent given his assignment." Sarek paused and appeared to be studying her. Perrin realized she was glaring at him.

"My father was a very skilled diplomat." She stated with an edge of anger to her voice she couldn't quite help.

"So I came to realize." He replied.

Walking around to another console he made a few adjustments that lowered the temperature.

"Is this more tolerable?" As her anger wasn't really because of him, Perrin wasn't calmed by his comment and gesture. But she kept it out of her voice.

"It has been" She didn't want to suggest anything, "a little while since anybody told me he was want to know what I was doing. Might I ask why?"

"Because he is dying Perrin. You should speak to him, while you still have time." His voice lowered as he spoke, though it was still forceful.

Perrin tried to reply but she couldn't. Memory left off for her where he became an old man. Something she knew he was now, but it still twisted her to hear it. She ran her hand through the wig and threw it off, her reddish hair falling over her face just in time to hide tears gathering in her eyes. She went from the bridge and did not hear Sarek follow her. Stepping into the small bedroom and sitting on the small bed, she stared at the words also etched into the beams outlining the width of that room. Perrin imagined they were reminders for a Vulcan to reach for the calm, reason, and logic she could not shelter behind when it came to her family.

Every drop of color touched her eyes with no depth to them. The script on the walls receded and flattened into the surface along with the rest of the objects in the room. Perrin could sense that there were things around her, but in their alien designs and purposes she couldn't anchor onto them. She fell back into an old despair she'd blocked out by living far away from it.

"We will be at Vulcan in the next hour and six minutes." Sarek's voice announced through the ship's comm system. Perrin spent that time searching for something to take her back to the present.

Eventually they arrived to Vulcan, the room lighting up as they entered its atmosphere and finally that caught Perrin's attention. She could see again.

Moving her hand to the nightstand, Perrin accidentally brushed something off. She quickly picked it up and returned it to its former spot. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; it was what she'd knocked off. The front had a plain black font contrasting a ink drawing of one of the scenes from the book. Odd, she thought. She didn't know much about it since she'd mostly read the French Classics but she was mildly familiar with it. Sarek did not seem like someone that would have a copy of it. Was it his wife's, she wondered.

Two deep breaths steadied her. She got up with another curious glance at the book.

She made her way back to the bridge; Sarek did not question her on why she'd been absent; he was back at the front most console, guiding the ship to where ever they would be landing.

Perrin saw something change in Sarek as they coasted the skyline of what looked to her like a massive city. The light was intense as the glare off the mostly glass buildings, angling the reflections upwards, into the viewports. By that light, which hid any signs of age Sarek had and darkened his hair to a sheer black where it faced away from the glare, Perrin found Sarek to be something other than the ambassador she'd been spending the past few hours with.

"You will take the tri-ox now, though I have set the ship to gradually acclimate to Vulcan's atmosphere. The process will begin when we dock." She nodded. He looks so young, Perrin thought.

And when they dropped towards the edge of the city, behind a slight hill that was out of the surreal glare of Vulcan's sun, she was still looking at him. Sarek still looked slightly different to her though the effect, visibly, had worn away. Sarek looked much older than Ambassador Sa'lak who she knew as around Sarek's age and whose hair was still very black. Perrin felt somewhat wistful wondering what had worn him down.


Sarek walked a short way to observe the surrounding dessert before calling to Perrin.

"My assistant nears." He watched a hover bike come directly towards them. Logically, it was Tiv'ak. No Vulcans visited so far into the harsh desert of the Forge where he'd landed the ship outside of undertaking the kahs-wan.

Perrin came out of the ship slowly. She went to stand by Sarek, her shoulders hunched from the increased gravity. He noted except that and except her narrowed eyes, she did not express much discomfort. And beyond her expression after mentioning her father, he had seen no displays of what she might be thinking, though it was not true stoicism. Sarek extrapolated the pleasant demeanor she often displayed most likely did more among humans to disguise her emotions than the former tactic would. I will need to visit with Reynard soon to discuss the cause of their rift, Sarek mused. Logic dictated to him that he could do little about a situation he had no information on.

Tiv'ak descended next to Perrin. He did not move to help her on. Sarek watched without moving as she went to the front of the hover bike after looking at Tiv'ak a moment, and crawled along it towards him. He leaned slightly to the side as Perrin stood up and jumped onto the back seat, slipping down and finally asking Tiv'ak if she could hold onto him for balance.

"It would only be logical." He responded.

The hoverbike flowed along the loose ground a while before climbing into the sky as dodging the rocky formations became an exercise in creativity. Perrin maintained a pleasant expression paradoxically as unreadable as any Vulcans.