E-mails

June/August

I have been trying to think of a reason to contact you but could not come up with one. Have you arrived in orbit yet?

My reply is late due to not being able to send interplanetary messages in transit. I am now in orbit of Damsen III and have been fully briefed. Tomorrow I shall make my first inspection of the ancient ship. The planet itself is in an ice age, I am only able to withstand the cold for two hours at a time so I shall collect data and samples on the planet surface and analysis it aboard the bounty. Tell me of your days and family. I wish to think of you performing your daily tasks whilst I am alone in my quarters at night.

Take care of yourself on Damsen III. It's sounds as if it weren't for your interest in the ship the conditions would be unbearable for you, I know you hate the cold. I have been cooking with my mother and visiting people from school. It is strange as I finished a year early all my classmates have only just graduated. At school nobody wanted to know me, now I get phone calls everyday from old 'friends' who want to hear all about my 'adventures' at the academy. The attention makes me uncomfortable.

I would not take unnecessary risks on Damsen III, I will remain as safe as possible. The ship holds the remains of fifty-six humanoids, it is logical to believe it was a transport it could not have sustained that number of people for more than four months. The conditions would have been poor. The markings are definitely Vulcan but no conclusions can be drawn yet.

The technology fascinates me.

I do not like to hear of your discomfort and false friends I hope for your sake it ends soon. Are you well? Tell me of the books you are reading or the places you visit.

I can imagine how eerie it must be to walk through those corridors filled with the dead, frozen in time. I know it would not affect you as it would me but still to think of all those people dying in the cold far away from home. It is admirable to find out who they were and where they came from.

I am resting up, after life at the academy everything seems sedate here. It is nice to be back in the heat.

I am reading one of the tech books from the modules on communication array maintenance and programming. I want to be prepared, languages I am confident with the other stuff is new to me.

In a few days I am going to stay with my brother for a week. It'll be nice to get to know his wife and baby Akina better.

Eerie, an appropriate word perhaps. I admit I was affected emotionally today. There was a fifty seventh passenger. In one of the quarters there was a cot, the infant could not have been more than a week old. They were Vulcan.

That's awful Spock, I was sat here tickling Akina when I read your message and I wanted to cry, to die at such a young age. Although I know you will approach this with sensitivity for the dead and scientific inquiry I am sorry you have to see these awful things. I think of you daily and I can't wait for the new year to start. Thank you for confiding in me Spock.

I am sorry what I wrote disturbed you. I think of you often during the days and during the nights I think of kissing your lips and holding you close to me. The time apart from you seems to have lasted longer than three weeks, it is illogical.

It is an honor to be involved in this expedition but I know many are finding it emotionally taxing. The evidence is beginning to point to these fifty-seven Vulcan's dying close to two thousand years ago but as they are frozen and their faces are intact the human members of the team have difficulty distancing themselves from the crash victims and concentrating on the science.

I have an agreement from the Vulcan high council that once all knowledge that can be gained has been gained then the fifty-seven will be returned and buried on Vulcan soil.

Tell me of Akina. Is she well?

Akina is beautiful, such a happy baby. She hardly ever cries and always watches me as I walk around the room. She giggled for the first time yesterday. I love her already. I'm only here for another three days, I can't bare to leave her but I know that if I don't then I can't return to the academy. When I see her again at Christmas she will be so much bigger.

Diana, my brothers wife is nice though she seems to be taking some time to warm up to me. She doesn't have any siblings so I don't think she fully understands the affection me and Peter have for each other.

I have not told Peter of my argument with Nyonda as I know he will be angry with her I don't want our argument to cause other rifts amongst my family members though I suppose they will have to know at some point.

My mother is already asking why I have cancelled the holiday we were going on together. The things she said and the way she acted still shock me, I have never seen that much hate and anger in her before but now I know that it must have been building up for a long time. I want to travel the universe, meet new people and species and be able to communicate and learn from them. With Nyonda turning out to be xenophobic it is as if she hates everything I hold important. How are we ever going to repair this damage when we both believe we are right and feel so passionately about those beliefs? I miss her Spock, I miss her as she was when we were children, not as she is now.

Nyota, I have experience with family rifts. I have not spoken to my father in six years and one week, due to my choice to join Star Fleet and to break the connections with she he had chosen to be my wife. Repair the rift between you and your Kin if possible. The longer the rift lasts the deeper the pain it causes becomes and the more difficult it will be to repair.

I am glad you find some joy in your niece.

Did I feel you in my mind last night Spock? I'm sure I felt a kind of tickle of something familiar.

I cannot see a way to repair my relationship with Nyonda, unless she changes her perspective I do not see how I could feel the same depth of friendship and affection for her as I did as a child. But I will always hope for some change in our situation and always hope that we will eventually find a way to reconcile.

You were engaged?

I am sorry to hear about your family problems Spock.

Yes Nyota I tried to open the bond between us. I did not wish to invade your privacy, I was trying to see if I could connect with you over such a distance, I was unaware that I had partially succeeded until I received your message.

I under went a preliminary bonding with a female my father had seen as suitable. The bond was always weak and never pleasant. Believe me when I say I never had any affection for her, you are the only one I have ever had any affection for. I have only met her once as a child of seven, all connections with her were severed before I left Vulcan for the academy.

I found seven record tapes in the ship ten days ago and this morning was finally able to make a device to retrieve some data, though 69% of it is too corrupt to restore. These records when added to the other evidence I have collected gives irrefutable proof that the ship is from the time of reformation. The fifty-seven crew members had been in transit for two months, they had left Vulcan refusing to adhere to the teachings of Surek and were looking for a suitable Class M planet to start a colony on. The final records suggest that the ship had suffered some malfunction and they had to make an emergency landing on the nearest planet and wait for their distress signal to be answered. I think it is right to assume their distress call was never heard.

You seem to have accomplished a lot in a short time, I feel kind of guilty that I haven't been doing anything except visiting family. It sound interesting I hope you'll tell me more about it when we see each other again.

I am back home now. Today is ten days exactly before I return to the academy, I can't wait. It's been nice to be back home and to see people again but now I'm starting to get bored.

I was just shocked to hear of you being engaged, I knew arranged marriages were common on Vulcan but I had never thought that you might be involved in one. I believe you when you say you did not have any affection for her. I am only just realizing how little of your life I know about. It doesn't matter though, I know you value your privacy and although there are many things about your past and your family I do not know I still feel that I know you.

This is the last time you will hear from me, I leave orbit in three days, it is another three days travel back to the academy. I will be waiting for you at the shuttle hanger. I greatly anticipate our reunion.I am glad you understand the circumstances of my engagement, it is not something I have mentioned before because to me it is inconsequential. Any questions that you put to me about my past will be answered truthfully. There is nothing to be gained from keeping any information from you.

The representative from the Vulcan science academy who is to replace me arrived yesterday. She is knowledgeable, logical and efficient. I believe She will continue the work I have started admirably. The bodies of the passengers will start to be removed tomorrow. I have ascertained from the ships medical records the identities of each corpse and have arranged for them to be buried in family groups in the province I believe they were from.

I wish you a safe journey back to the academy. Peace and long life Nyota. We will be together again soon.