"Vulcan-"
"His name is S'chn T'gai Spock.
You will address him formally
he is my yaS wa'DIch and so
give him respect accordingly."
"QoS, HoD Kirk.
yaS wa'DIch Spock, will you not speak
of all you've seen- the loss of Vulcan
your captain's life, the 'aj Marcus
and rot of Federation Starfleet."
"ghobe'. I cannot."
"Not to us, not in this place?"
"I will speak on his behalf
if you'll accept my words for his space."
"Speak, HoD Kirk. I accept your words."
"We went on mission, Spock and I
down to a planet covered with flies-"
"The planet itself supported a variety of life forms
it was not monospecific as the captain implies."
"You want to tell this, or should I?"
"Please continue, Captain. I apologize."
"The region we beamed to
had an unusually high density of flies."
Jim looked at Spock
Spock looked away, nodded.
"There were eggs and larva everywhere
it got under our suits and into our hair
we could barely hear through all the buzzing
our sensor scans were useless, fuzzy
everyone beamed up in quarantine
the ship reeked with hexachlorophene
from all the decontam procedures.
That's not the point. The point is that
these fly-like creatures
can mass together in a cloud
the black cloud then takes on the features
of your blood relations gone to ground
We don't know how they manage this
we don't know how they read the shape
the worst thing is that their speech is
endless formless indiscriminate
ruthless buzzing like a scream
their black mouths crawling and their eyes
hollow as they walk towards you
collapsing to another sight
I saw my father recreated
I saw my mother's hair in black
I saw people I didn't know were related
clouds shifting, shivering to diffract
I was affected by the flies
because it's fucking freaky shit
imagine seeing anyone
reanimated as a maggot pit
But Spock-
You asked to hear about his planet
I'm going to tell you through his dead
Spock's entire house was decimated
only he, his father, T'Pau still stand
He's never told me of his house
its ancient place, its lineage
but that day I saw for myself
the multitude lost, the ghastly visage
some five hundred Vulcans encircling
all related distantly
their faces flickering, shifting with flies
their silent roar overwhelming
elders, children, brothers, wives
and in the middle of the crowd
Amanda Grayson, his mother's guise
formed, dissolved, reformed, enshroud
as if the cloud took sick pleasure
in replaying her moment of death
over, and over in desperate measure
Spock tried to make contact
he tried to touch them with his hands
use his skills as telepath
to gain insight and understand
but every time he went to touch
they dispersed like coal-dust windblown sand
when he stepped back, they would reform
the tricorders gave nothing grand
just a massive mass of crawling flies
arranged in weird shaped swarming bands.
You say we're speaking to your dead
I understand why you call them this
but you have not spoken to the dead
who can't reply, just scream and hiss
who are embodied in a swarm
a mindless mass of meaningless
ghosts you thought you'd never see
who stare and reach for you to flinch.
It took that mission for me to know
I have no fucking idea what a lost planet means
the dead there represented blood
not friends, not the life of their desert cities,
their native plants are all extinct
their animals, insects, bacteria, birds
their temples and their libraries
their legacy exploring worlds
Can you imagine losing more
than face, honor, and dignity?
Can you imagine loss so huge
it encompasses everything you've seen?
tlhIngan's paralyzed, that is true
but it's not lost to singularity
Death is the only absolute
everything else, we've got space to breathe.
That's why I say
you give respect
to someone who is still living
exploring space to seek, protect
new life forms
new life
new anything.
He's the one
who kept me
from starting war here
a year ago
He's the one
you have to thank
for trusting
I know where to go.
I'm here to build
to start again
to find a common ground to stand
if death must be that common ground
I'll tread softly
for my friend."