Chapter 5

U.S.S. Enterprise, 2277.131, 0848 hours. She sat at the kitchen table and secretly fumed while the family moved around her. Selas was, to borrow a human phrase, a jerk; a stubborn and well-intentioned jerk but a jerk nonetheless. He had somehow corralled the family together and programmed a breakfast that was specifically aimed at calling attention to her lack of appetite. Now she simply stared at the cheesy omelet, French toast and fruit as they all dug in.

"T'Alora, if you are to proceed with the rest of your day in an efficient and timely manner you must partake of the food set before you. Selas replicated a large and nutritious meal for us and it should not go to waste."

"Yes, Sa-mekh." She shot her baby brother a nasty look she knew he could not see then quickly picked up a dry piece of French toast and set it on her plate. She also reached out and clasped her hands around a small red apple and tucked it into the pocket of her robes.

Two seconds later Sa-mekh's communicator sounded as Uncle Hikaru requested his presence on the Bridge. Se'tak departed a few moments later to pursue his own activities, leaving her and Selas at the table. He tucked into his omelet with gusto then, aware of the tension filling the air. Without a word she rose from her seat and deposited the food on her plate into the waste chute then made her way down the hall to the office.

T'Alora was nothing if not pragmatic, and their recent loss made her all-too-aware how precarious their position was; with Mama now gone she decided to review the rules and regulations regarding minors on-board a starship. If anything happened to Sa-mekh in the line of duty as had happened to Mama then Starfleet would be brought in to make a decision regarding her and her brothers' situation and the issue of guardianship would be raised; this made their position on-board the Enterprise much more tenuous then it had been the previous week.

Not that she and her brothers were lacking in biological family—that was not the problem. She knew that they would find welcoming homes on Earth or New Vulcan no matter what happened, if anything happened. No, the problem was that neither planet was where they wanted to be. The Enterprise was the only home they had ever known and it was where they had lived with Mama and Sa-mekh in better times. Loathe as she was to admit to such feelings, being on-board the ship made her feel happy and safe and it was where she knew she and her siblings would all want to remain should such a terrible eventuality come to pass.

To borrow one of Mama's favorite sayings, if the three of them were sent off the ship it would be the "straw that broke the camel's back"; she simply wanted to be prepared so that would never be the case.

No sooner had she sat down and turned the computer on then Sa-mekh's files came up on screen. T'Alora studied them closely and discovered that he had been secretly monitoring the investigation into Mama's death. The images from the cave where she was last seen alive puzzled her greatly; she was about to minimize them when Selas walked into the room and distracted her. He made his way straight toward her and though she was displeased with his earlier behavior she knew he had her best interests at heart and could not resist lifting him up onto her lap.

He immediately sensed her concern. "What is it?"

"I have come across files that Sa-mekh left open; they appear to be pictures from the caverns…"

Before she could even finish her sentence her brother robbed her of her sight for the second time in 24 hours without her permission. T'Alora bristled at the intrusion but said nothing as she felt Selas' interest grow. After 4.23 minutes his excitement had reached such epic proportions that had she not known better she would have thought he was Se'tak. "We must page Sa-mekh right away, and I must contact Rebecca."

She slowly blinked at the light from the screen as her sight returned and she watched him reach for the comm. with sure fingers. "Why must they be contacted, Selas?"

The comm. was pressed to his ear as he pointed directly at the screen. T'Alora stared at the three concentric circles with the three-headed bird overlooking them but could not understand her brother's meaning. "Because," he explained rather impatiently, "I believe I have discovered what Mama uncovered on the planet's surface."

"Thanks, Commander. I knew the specs on that couldn't be right but just wanted to make sure."

"I understand, Mr. Sulu; however, in the future, you should bring up such misgivings with the head of the department and not with me."

"Yes Sir…" The Lieutenant Commander did not have a chance to finish as the communicator in his pocket emitted a high pitch tone. Spock did not need to dig it out to know that he was being hailed on his family's personal emergency channel.

Before anyone had a chance to question him he was in the turbo lift with the doors closing.

Tearing down the hall to his quarters he was a blur of black and blue that only stopped upon seeing a young girl exiting from his front door. "Hi, Uncle Spock!"

The cheery greeting caught him further off-guard. "Good morning, Rebecca." He continued to stare at her with an unflinching gaze and she nervously shifted her weight from one foot to the other, scratching the back of her leg with her toe.

"Um, well, I guess I'll see you later. Bye!"

And with that he watched the youngest McCoy skip off down the hallway as Se'tak rounded the bend. "What's the matter?" his son asked breathlessly.

"I do not know." Opening the door together they entered and found Selas standing by the kitchen table with a handful of PADD's.

"Selas, what is the meaning of this? Where is your sister? Are you not aware that the emergency channel is only to be used in the event of a true emergency?"

In a rare human display his youngest son sighed. Tucking the PADDs under his arm he strode forward and reached out until he had them both by the wrist then tugged them toward the hall. "T's down here. I can explain…"

It was not long before they made it to the office doorway and he gasped as he found T'Alora staring at Nyota's autopsy report, along with half a dozen other classified files.

The previous evening he had noted the discrepancies between known facts and Doctor McCoy's official report yet he did not know what to make of them. There was no denying that the remains collected on Unohdettu were anything other then humanoid in origin—their composition suggested no other alternative. However, the mass of the ash (2.53 kg, according to Doctor McCoy's report) was indicative of a much larger person. Nyota weighed 75.8 kg as of her last physical examination, therefore her cremated remains should have weighed no more then 1.96 kg.

Spock rationalized that this inconsistency could be accounted for in at least three separate ways: that there was an increase in her mass between her last known physical examination and her death, that she had been working with a large piece of equipment at the time of her demise, or that a portion of the native Unohdettuan soil had been collected along with her remains. He personally knew the first two theories to be incorrect; he had been intimate with Nyota the morning prior to her death and knew her weight to within a tenth of a gram, and Lieutenant Burgess had been absent from the premises specifically because she had requested a piece of equipment—had she had it with her he would have been present when the device went off.

This left the theory that her remains had been returned to the ship with a significant portion of native soil. He had considered the possibility of testing this theory later on in the day but was loathe to open her urn; in fact, merely thinking about doing so made him visibly ill.

Then there was the matter of Doctor McCoy's calculations regarding the heat of the ray that incinerated his k'diwa. Subtracting twenty seconds from the amount of time that she was alone to account for the earthquake, then another twenty seconds to account for Lieutenant Burgess' exit and entrance, Spock had thirty-six seconds in which Nyota activated the device, was killed, and the apparatus was retracted.

If it were a laser of some kind—and as of yet his colleagues on the surface were still uncertain of it's existence—it had to have reached a temperature of 2233.15 Kelvin to fully incinerate her in so short a time. For such heat to have been generated a signature of some kind had to have been left in the cavern yet in the scans immediately preceding the incident no such mark was detected.

The gernadomite in the bedrock could possibly mask that amount of heat. It had so far successfully hidden the machinery that killed Nyota therefore it was still logically possible. He had not yet uncovered a solution to prove or disprove this theory.

Looking at the document again now in the light of day—and with his three children present—made his heart ache. "You will close those documents now."

"No, Sa-mekh, wait!" Selas tugged on his hand and brought him closer to the screen where the light reflected faint tear lines on T'Alora's cheeks. "I told you I could explain! I think Mama found something and might still be alive!"

At the very words he felt all the color drain out of him. Spock sank into a nearby chair and closed his eyes, steepling his hands before his face and breathing in deeply through his nose. This was the very reason why he had been quietly overseeing the investigation into Nyota's death, so as to spare the children further pain and not give them any such false hope. "It is impossible, Selas. Now close the files."

"But I can prove it!"

Spock sighed again. This was a battle he had no desire to engage in. "Selas…"

The PADDs clattered to the floor. "Why is it that no one will believe me?" he shrieked hysterically. Before Spock could make any type of move to comfort him he felt small hands upon his psi points and was yanked into a meld.

He had had no idea that Selas was such a strong touch telepath.

"There is much you do not know, Sa-mekh," Selas retorted smartly. "I may be blind but I am not incapable."

He knew he would not underestimate his son again in the future. Intrigued as to what spurred this all on Spock looked around his son's mind. It was a mechanical hive of activity with images being called up and brought back as if on a computer screen, only here they were all focused on Nyota and Unohdettu. He noted that Selas even had access to certain encrypted files he did not have clearance for. In a much calmer tone his son stated, "I have been reviewing Mama's work since she died. Rebecca has been assisting me. This morning I believe I have made a breakthrough which would alter our theory of how Mama 'passed'."

Ever since the bond snapped he had not believed such a thing was possible, yet here his son was reiterating that point for the third time in 2.16 minutes.

Selas began calling forth reports he had read and seen to support his claims. "Mama discussed her research with me almost daily, starting shortly after we received our orders and continuing each evening after she returned from the caves. She theorized based on early atmospheric tests that the previous inhabitants of Unohdettu had polluted the planet to such an extent that they either perished or fled once it was no longer hospitable. I believe that on the day she 'died' Mama discovered the source of the contagion…as well as something else.

"I think that Mama discovered that the Unohdettuans were not a single tribe but three separate people each with their own distinct culture."

Each became aware that Se'tak and T'Alora were arguing in the background. Selas slowly relinquished his hold in the meld. "Perhaps it would be best if we continued this discussion for all to hear."

He sank to the floor. The news was too incredible to be believed. Nobody wanted Mama back more than he did but Se'tak still couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Go ahead, Selas," T encouraged him. "We are listening." The PADDs his brother had been carrying had now been transferred into their hands and he found himself staring dumbfounded at a cave drawing of a red, three headed bird against a large yellow orb, it's tail feathers fanned out behind him.

"This holo was taken in what Mama designated 'The Genesis Room'; it was so called because she believed this to be the depiction of the origin story of the Unohdettuan people. Based on this and subsequent glyphs she worked under the impression that the Unohdettuans were one people…but it was the images from the final cavern that proved this conclusion to be incorrect."

"What do you know of the final cave glyphs?" Sa-mekh asked.

T'Alora turned to the computer and brought them up on-screen. "I discovered them here this morning; Selas was with me and asked to examine them. The conclusions he drew are his own."

Se'tak huffed impatiently. "What does any of this have to do with Mama being alive?"

"For starters," Selas replied smoothly, "This knowledge gives new meaning to the glyphs in adjoining rooms and therefore gives us a greater understanding of what occurred in the past. When Starfleet first discovered the trace amounts of radiation—and later the cave drawings—but no other signs of any culture they believed that the Unohdettuan people had escaped. Through this rather primitive form of communication it was confirmed that they had the wherewithal and know-how to do this; the glyphs depicted the type of machinery they could create. The resultant theory was simple: they unintentionally polluted their planet and fled."

Selas reached forward for a PADD when his brother whined, "I still don't see how this relates to Mama."

"Continue," Sa-mekh said quietly.

"The images from the caves show variances in features between each of the humanoid stick figures—discrepancies which everyone, including myself, believed to be the result of different artistic temperaments—until I saw them drawn together in the final cavern." Finding the tablet he desired he activated the screen. "I theorize that two of the tribes were more advanced then the third. I also believe that they were warring with one another and that the technology depicted in the caves were in fact weapons of mass destruction."

"You speculate that the Unohdettuans were the creators of their own destruction, making weaponry similar to that which was built on Earth 265 years ago?" Everyone sat quietly as Sa-mekh's question hung in the air.

"Yes."

"And you base this conclusion on this drawing?" Now Sa-mekh reached out and took the PADD away from Selas, no doubt scrutinizing the image of the three concentric circles supported by black clouds of smoke from the last cave room as well as the zig-zag image opposite with the people falling down toward an unknown fate. To Se'tak they didn't mean much of anything and he didn't see how the images in the adjoining rooms could have any bearing on those now before him. The conclusions his brother had reached were nothing more then the by-products of childish fancy; he wanted to see what he wanted to see, metaphorically speaking of course.

"Yes, I do." His brother held out his hand, mutely requesting the return of the PADD. He momentarily borrowed T'Alora's sight to collect the rest of the tablets and organize them before returning to his story. "The Unohdettuans began as one tribe, as depicted by the red bird here," he pointed to the yellow globe, "But they soon broke off into three separate tribes…as indicated by the different heads. See how they are together yet distinct? Much like the humans of Earth, they began life the same way but grew apart. From there the—I will refer to them as the Alpha, Beta and Gamma tribes for the sake of simplicity—the Alpha and Beta tribes flourished until they began to have competing economic interests. The Gamma tribe remained alone in it's indigenous state, most likely living in or near the very caves where these glyphs were discovered.

"It is my opinion that the fighting between the Beta and Alpha tribes escalated until one or both detonated their weapons, killing one another off and destroying the planet in the process. Those that are falling in this image," he exclaimed, taking up the PADD and pointing, "Perished. But the stouter humanoids—those that can be seen clinging to the crevices—I believe are from the Gamma tribe and I believe that they survived. It is my theory that they remain on the planet still, living underground as they have for the last two millennia."

No one said anything, and Se'tak found himself beginning to hope against hope.

"Your brother's theories are sound," Sa-mekh declared after several moments' silence. "I too have noted discrepancies in the reports surrounding your mother's death which have led me to suspect that a third party was involved, however surreptitiously." There was a certain solemnity to Sa-mekh's admission that even he couldn't ignore. "I had convinced myself that the differences between actual findings in the reports and what I knew to be true were the result of human error and my wanting a reason to find your mother alive. However, in light of Selas' work I now believe the opposite to be the case."