The Basic Difference
No sha'milar for colonists from Vulcan, Jim thought - Corn and sheep aplenty for his own.
Once again, Jim Kirk found his mind chasing after a glimpse of something profound: Another elusive metaphor that promised – threatened – to alter his perception of the way things not only were, but possibly should be.
Or not.
No time, now, for earth-shattering paradigm shifts. (Sometimes he felt he was barely holding on, as it was…)
Was he really so blind, he wondered – so willfully ignorant?
He breathed in scented air.
What, on the Enterprise – besides the ship herself - could her Captain say was strictly essential for their five-year-mission? Air, water, food? Fuel, repair equipment? Basic medical supplies?
Did that really mean that everything else was not?
And what about those early Vulcan explorers? What kind of a man could willingly choose to go out by himself, or with only one other kindred soul, into Space - for years, maybe, at a time? What would they take with them? What were the few things they would not be able to live without?
In the days before Surak, would their choices have been different?
He had only met a few Vulcans besides Spock – and the other Spock. Sarek, the few remaining Elders – He hadn't really seen them at their best. (And vice versa, of course.) What did they make of this spacious ship – teeming with life, but with room to spare - her cargo holds filled, even then, with not just necessary things, essential things, but comforts of home?
He had only seen one ship of Vulcan design. It was miniscule. He tried to imagine his own Spock journeying on that ship; working, living - alone, or with a wife. (Uhura? What would she make of that?)
Spock was right. There was no way he could imagine how different it must have been.