Author's Note:
Greetings and salutations everyone and here is another chapter for you all. Spock has been largely missing from my last couple of chapters so all you Spock fans will be pleased to know that this chapter is just for him and Pavel. Thank you everyone for your continued support and I hope you like the chapter.
I do not own Star Trek
Spark of Life
Spock was finding the Enterprise's current mission quite interesting.
They were studying a new Class M planet with a well developed ecology and all the varied terrain of Earth such as rainforest, tundra, desert, grass plains and many other forms of ecosystem. The oxygen content of the atmosphere was slightly higher than Earth's but not dangerously so meaning that many humanoid species felt invigorated by the air, unfortunately that also meant that a certain young ensign had even more energy than usual making him a bit more difficult to manage.
Pavel was on Spock's away team as a part of his learning about the different departments of the ship and, and Spock will admit this was largely conjecture on his part, to relive some of the boy's 'cabin fever' as Doctor McCoy called it. Currently Spock was keeping a sharp eye on the ensign (an entirely logical action due to the boy's youth and inexperience and not because Spock was worried something would happen to him) as Chekov was conducting a study of one of the native birds which was perched in a tree nearby apparently unconcerned by the excited youth waving a tricorder in its face. The bird itself was about a foot high with a interesting red/gold colouring that reminded Spock of flames, it had a straight beak which was gold coloured and a pair of almost soft amber eyes which watched Chekov with what almost looked like amusement. It had long thin tail feathers like a peacock but which all tapered to a sharp point resulting a tail that was about a foot long and came to an elegant point at the end. Spock had heard some of the biologists in his team mention that this particular animal was in their mind quite beautiful and there had been several envious glances sent Chekov's way as he studied it.
This bird had seemed to be one of the more docile creatures they were studying so Spock had let Chekov study it (again logical because of the ensign's inexperience and not because Spock didn't want to risk the boy getting hurt) and the bird was entirely unbothered by a hyperactive teenager bouncing around it. Chekov had finished his scan and moved on to get some pictures of the creature and if Spock didn't know better (and he most certainly did) he would have said that the bird was posing as its picture was being taken. Satisfied that the boy was handling is duties well, Spock turned his attention to the puzzle of the local trees. His scans indicated that the trees had an exceptionally rapid period of growth at the start of their lifespan but he could find nothing in the soil or surrounding area that could allow such rapid growth. Furthermore there was minute traces of what appeared to be ash in the soil but there was nowhere for it to come from.
He was pulled from his thoughts by a call from Chekov, "Mr Spock, somesing ees happening!"
Alerted by the boy's slightly scared tone of voice Spock whipped his head in the ensign's direction. At first he couldn't see anything wrong other than the bird that Chekov was studying was now on the ground and he looked closer. The bird was a few feet from Chekov and was huddled on the ground and Spock quickly scanned it with his tricorder. The scanned showed a rapid build up of some sort of gas within the creature's body and Spock was about to find out how this was happening when there was a sudden flash of fire and in a blink of an eye there was now a pile of ash where there was once a beautiful bird.
Chekov stared at the pile, his eyes wide with shock, for a couple of minutes before he snapped his gaze to Spock, "Commander I…I don't know vat happened! I vas just scanning eet …an…and zen eet flew to ze ground and…zis happened!" Chekov looked again at the ash pile and suddenly sniffed, "Eets all my fault but I didn't vant somesing like zis to happen."
Spock made his way over to the boy who now had tears on his face, "Mr Chekov, there is no need to blame yourself. There is no possible way your studies could have caused this; it is far more likely to be the result of the natural life cycle of these creatures." As he was talking Spock had unconsciously placed a hand on Pavel's shoulder and the touch seemed to calm the boy down a bit. They both looked back to what was left of the bird and they suddenly saw something move in the ash, a small green shoot broke through the top and continued to grow rapidly like it was sped up on a film. Pavel watched in amazement as Spock quickly started to scan again with his tricorder, the older man raised his eyebrow at the machine's readings, "Fascinating." He spoke to the boy beside him, "It appears that the seeds of the local trees lie just below the surface of the soil. It seems that when the bird you were studying died the heat it released was absorbed by a seed, that seed then began to feed off the high energy content of the ash left behind allowing it to grow rapidly meaning that it will be reach a greater level of maturity more quickly than it would have normally."
Pavel nodded still watching the tree grow before him, "So when ze bird dies it gives life to the tree."
"Indeed Mr Chekov."
Pavel smiled, "Eet dies and sparks ze flame of life for another."
Spock looked at the boy, "That is a poetic way of saying it but your description is valid."
Pavel looked up at him and grinned, "I sink ve should call ze bird a phoenix." before turning back to the shoot which was rapidly becoming a sapling. Spock considered what Pavel had said before nodding and then he also turned his gaze back to the new tree. As he watched the thought strangely occurred to him that he was a part of what was going to become a treasured memory of the boy standing beside him and he felt privileged to do so.
Spock's arm was once again placed around Pavel's shoulders as they continued to watch a new life grow from the ashes of the life of a pheonix.
PS-I hoped you liked that little fluffy moment between Pavel and uncle Spock and please let me know what you thought.