When the call ended, Juliette shuffled off to the console and stared at the dozen or so buttons parked around the center facing. The non-Vulcan script had returned.
Perhaps voice would be better. "Computer, translate to standard, please."
The screen remained dark.
"Computer, translate to Federation Standard." She tapped the large grating on the front that seemed to be a microphone. The computer remained dark, even as each tap made a thin line on the screen bounce.
"Initiate Pylkau, the computer doesn't respond to my voice."
"It is responding to your voice, novice."
"It does not answer my request."
"That's because," Pylkau said after some tapping on his console, "you are not speaking in a language it understands."
"But I'm speaking Vulcan, just like with the holo-projector."
"The projection system and its interfaces are separate systems, novice." He stood straight and folded in hands in front as he stared down at her with a cold curiosity. "Are you sure you are qualified to work on the projector?"
Juliette bit back a retort about unhelpful Vulcans. "What language does the computer speak?"
"FthinraKathi."
Juliette blinked as even the name of the language formed a knot in her head. "Fth-"
"Fthin-ra-Kathi, novice. Just as it is spelled."
"How do I tell the computer-"
Pylkau held up a finger. "Novice, I have done as Master Surot requested, and given you access to the computer, and the appropriate maintenance codes. I am not obligated to tutor you in old Vulcan as well."
"Is there a translator?" Juliette asked as she tried to mask her growing irritation.
"Why would I know? I know how to speak Fthinraki. Now distract me no more. It takes all my concentration just keeping these systems running."
Juliette clenched her fists as the knot in her head burned. Done. Even before she could start. Every time, Vulcan threw something new at her and kept her from her task. Perhaps the old library would have translators.
Juliette wheeled about to leave and nearly collided T'Mar.
"Say 'GildasKlokmak'," T'Mar said before Juliette could speak.
Her tongue stumbled over the word as T'Mar stared at the console expectantly. "Again. GildasKlokmak."
Juliette tried again, trying to match the lilt in T'Mar's voice.
A thin, metallic voice rattled from below the microphone on the console, "Daitli aa" Juliette stared at T'Mar wide-eyed.
"It waits for commands," T'Mar said. "Try Bangodor shatJishi'ir"
Juliette said the words slowly, but the console repeated its previous statement. "What am I saying?"
"You are asking for a list of basic commands, like a training mode, but it did not understand. Try ''Bangodor Darmitir.'"
At Juliette's words, the shapes on the console changed, and the voice spoke for a while and stopped. T'Mar's eyes were closed as she listened. "Again." On the third time, she nodded and opened her eyes. "I think I understand."
Juliette hurried for a PADD. She took notes as quickly as T'Mar translated the words, recording the way she said them, and their meanings. In a couple hours, they had almost fifty words documented.
T'Mar finished her own notes on the PADD and offered it to Juliette. "I must go. My project is to help with the eastern garden."
Juliette cradled the PADD in her gloved hands. "I am grateful for the assistance, but how-"
"My mother enjoyed studying the old Golic languages. Fthinraki is so old it is considered a dead language. She taught me some, I think, to have someone to speak it with." She glanced at the console. "It does not seem so dead now." With that, she wheeled about to leave, then stopped a moment before turning back. She looked to the floor. "I...behaved badly."
Juliette's fingers tightened on the PADD. She so much wanted to hug her and perhaps cry some, but T'Mar wouldn't understand - worse, think Juliette had snapped. Instead, she took a deep breath and struggled to keep her tone free of emotion.
"I behaved badly as well. I would like to start over."
T'Mar's brows were furrowed. "We cannot undo what has been done."
"We do not have to do it again," Juliette said.
T'Mar nodded slightly her frown easing into a line less dire. "We can. I feel we must." Only then she did look up. "Tomorrow, then?"
"Yes."
T'Mar arrived the next day and the day after. Diligent as she listened to the metallic voice from the speaker; Patient as she repeated words over and over until Juliette could match the intricate pronunciation. Some produced silence and others cryptic responses that required several minutes to decipher.
Complaining of the constant chatter, Pylkau lowered the volume on the speaker. Neither knew the command to make it louder. T'Mar struggled to hear the words and Juliette would sit breathless as T'Mar tried over and over to hear them. They lost several days trying to find the whispers that would tell them how to increase the volume. Danek surprised them both with metallic modules that clipped to their ears.
When it was allowed, they would connect the holo-projector with Betazed. Papa tried to help, but without a diagnostic, he was unable to determine how to proceed. Instead he showed them how to index and cross-index the words so the translations were not lost, and kept them going at each linguistic dead end with stories of the great scientists of Betazed, who had tried and failed - sometimes over and over - until they finally succeeded. The fact T'Mar listened attentively and didn't roll her eyes was a tribute to her fortitude.
"Perhaps," Pylkau said, "If they had not failed so many times, they would have discovered warp travel sooner. Vulcan had warp travel for three thousand years before Betazed."
Juliette started to say that she would have developed warp drive faster to get out of this desert as well, but felt Papa pinch her arm. She looked up at him, and he shrugged as if he already understood her joke, even without telepathy. A smile crept across her face, followed by a lonely ache, as she reached with her mind to find nothing.
T'Mar took a step forward toward Pylkau and said, "While the Initiate is factually accurate about the development of Vulcan technology, I fail to see his logic regarding the value of perseverance."
"That is your failure, Novice," Pylkau said, turning his back to them to resume work on a console.
"Is it not part of being an Initiate to guide and instruct we novices?"
"It is, though some refuse to learn."
"I submit to the fount of knowledge."
"Your submission is noted. I, however, have a monastery to maintain."
"Surak struggled for years to find the path of Kolinahr. Should he have given up after failing twice? Two thousand times?"
Pylkau said nothing.
"This fount seems empty. Perhaps you can tell us how is it that we, who mastered warp travel in the ninth century, cannot seem to manage to keep our hot water from ranging between scalding and tepid? Is the only thing that can gainsay Vulcan science is Vulcan science."
Papa snorted as Pylkau seemed to burrow his attention further into the console. Juliette reached back and pinched his arm.
"Your friend has a bit of a temper," he whispered into Juliette's ear.
Juliette's gaze shot up to her father as the realization gripped her. "Papa, she should not. Maybe something is wrong."
In the third week, Juliette noticed how jagged bursts of thought would escape T'Mar's serenity, and how sometimes she'd forget a word she just said. Juliette kept the PADD handy and helped with words that she had learned from T'Mar just the other day. Dark circles slowly formed under her eyes.
The second time she was late for morning meditation, dusty and her hair in disarray, Master Surot had her stay after. No amount of prodding would get T'Mar to discuss the conversation until she blurted, "Juliette Sri, if you are ever going to get along with Vulcans, I must insist you learn to respect our privacy."
Juliette watched her stride away, certain that T'Mar would not show up to the holo-projector, but show up she did, shadows under her eyes and mumbling through translations. As she worked, Juliette watched T'Mar prod at the console and with a small shake of her head, start the sequence over.
Juliette sat back and pretended to enter data into the PADD as she watched T'Mar. Meditation over the past few weeks had been about learning how to contain her senses and reduce her sensitivity. Many times it slipped, and even the quiet, disciplined presence of the Vulcans would burst into her awareness, but now, she opened her senses, to get a better sense of T'Mar.
T'Mar was calm, but her focus faded in and out. Words slipped around in her mind, and she floundered sluggishly after them. T'Mar was weary and each time she closed her eyelids, they felt heavier. The room was warm and quiet. She could close her eyes for just a second, but Juliette needed-
T'Mar looked at Juliette, and the rush of presence and attention walloped her out of the wheeled chair. The PADD skid across the floor while the chair banged loudly. Juliette sprawled on the floor, further stunned by the startlement of both Pylkau and T'Mar.
Pylkau's shook his head. "You make it increasingly difficult to get work done. Do not blame me if the showers are cold tomorrow."
"Are you alright?" T'Mar asked as she picked up the PADD.
"I-I'm fine. I'm - I fell asleep," Juliette let the words spill out of her mouth. "I'm exhausted. Perhaps we could stop early?"
"You must be tired. Your eyes are all red."
"Are they? Oh, they get that way when I'm tired."
"Of course."
Juliette was tempted to circle back to the projector and continue working after they left, but without T'Mar, she would have been stuck at the first unknown word. They came more infrequently, thanks to the dictionary they had created, but at least twice a night, there was a new word or a new application of a prefix that only T'Mar could tease through. But mostly, the dishonesty of doing so - She shuddered. T'Mar was almost as much a project as the projector, and aside from Danek, the only other Vulcan that would spend any time with her. It felt like a betrayal.
Gods, there was nothing for it, save to go back to her room and study the dictionary. She sat cross-legged, staring at the script glow and face on her screen. How did those ancient Vulcans even say some of these words?
She held the PADD in front of her like a script and with a deep breath tried, "Gilddus-"
She sighed. You almost had to leap into the words, and hope let the phonemes take care of themselves.
"GildasKlokmak"
A close whisper caused her to freeze.
Her heart pounded, and it was several moments before an ache in her chest reminded her to breathe. She reached out with her awareness and found nothing. But the voice had sounded so close.
"Hello?" she whispered, but there was no answer. No presence. No answer. In an opera, the Black House had used androids to kill their rivals. Did the Vulcans in the time of awakening use Androids?
Juliette slowly surveyed the room. The voice had definitely come from inside. The cells were all but soundproof.
"Hello?"
A light was blinking on her console. She rose to a crouch and looked around her room. Not just androids, invisible androids. As she crept forward, she reached out with her hand, just in case, but not sure what to do if she actually felt anything.
On the console, a simple prompt blinked on and off. Juliette's breath caught again. She pressed each button with a deliberate motion. After a few presses, she stepped back.
"GildasKlokmak."
The console replied with a soft whisper. "Daitli aa"
Juliette smiled. Of course.
#
Juliette was already in the garden by the time T'Mar arrived the next morning. T'Mar stopped motionless in the doorway, one glove halfway on, the other held in the crook of her arm along with a blunted digging claw. The rising sun had not yet reached the mouth of the gouge in the side of the mountain, made practical by the Vulcans with rows of golden-leafed Kasrella, legions deep green plomeek stalks, clusters of squat Gespar trees, their golden-orange fruit just starting to emerge, and lush bunches of redspice, all giving way to a small rocky grotto with a waterfall where Vulcan orchids stubbornly clung to the jagged cracks and moist shade of the wall.
"Well, come on," Juliette said, permitting herself a smile. "The plomeek is not going to weed itself."
"You are supposed to be asleep," T'Mar said.
"So are you. Perhaps, with both of us working, we will not need to wake up so early?"
T'Mar nodded vaguely, the effects of her early morning and Juliette's surprise still evident. Without saying anything further, she walked the rows of plomeek and knelt along one row. Juliette took a parallel spot in another row. Together, they clawed at the dirt and removed the stubborn shoots of weeds from between the pale green stalks.
After several minutes, T'Mar asked, "How did you-?"
"Accident. How-"
"I saw a prompt and tried. I didn't expect it to work. But I could see maps, and systems, and I just started exploring."
"How long have you explored?"
"Since last year."
"You must know this mountain better than anyone," Juliette said, hammering a clod with the back of her digging claw.
"I'm sure Initiate Pylkau knows it better. He complains about maintaining the systems, but he spends most of his time exploring like I do."
"Does he know you explore the system?"
"He suspects, but since if he tells on me, I'll tell on him."
"Tell on him? But isn't his project to maintain-"
"Yes, to maintain. Not dig, nor use programs to get to some of the locked parts of the monastery. Sometimes his exploration causes trouble in other systems. Do you remember when the lights went out during the sandstorm?"
Juliette nodded, and swept the garden with her gaze to be sure no one arrived, even though no novice was supposed to be awake for another two hours. "Pylkau caused that?"
"He introduced some kind of program. I think the monastery shut down and reset systems to destroy it. As far as I know, he has not tried since."
It was Juliette's turn to be surprised. Why would Pylkau do that? Were her kidnappers not as organized as she thought, or were there others? She was broken out of her reverie by the ring of T'Mar's digging claw rapping her own.
"Plomeek doesn't weed itself."
"Why didn't you ask me to help with your project like you were helping with mine?"
T'Mar twisted her fist around a stubborn root. "Because gardening is work, and you have to know something about plants. You just seemed concerned about your hair and silly things. I was wrong. You do not claw too close to the plomeek, and your hair is agreeable."
"Thank you. Not so new now and it's getting long, if we don't run out of zattre again-"
"You do use a lot in your morning meal. Was your plan to deplete the stock so you could volunteer?"
Juliette nodded.
"Perhaps, I could use a little extra, though you do not have to wait for us to run out of zattre."
"What do you mean?"
"There is a trail from this garden that leads to the base of the mountain. You could use that to go home after making your room appear occupied. Most Initiates only check their consoles to make sure their novices are in their rooms."
Juliette stared toward the edge of the terrace, a smile forming on her lips. "I could leave just after evening meditation."
"And come in before morning meditation. You would never have to have your hair cut like mine again."
Juliette felt a rush of shame. "I am so sorry. I really did mean it looked ugly on me-"
"I know. P'mera said that if you had intended on insulting my looks you would have said my face is too small and my ears too large."
Juliette stared. "That's horrible. I would never-"
"It is alright, she spoke the truth. My ears are 33% larger than average."
Juliette felt a sliver of resignation from T'Mar. She looked at first one ear, then the other. "They don't seem so lar-wait, you measure your ears?"
"It is a simple matter to determine the length of someone's ears by using the distance they are from an object of known length. I have calculated it for every novice. Your ears were removed to keep the samples to the size of Vulcan ears."
Juliette decided to let the matter drop. "Maybe we could spend some time looking for those secret levels."
T'Mar gouged her trowel into the soil, chipping at a stubborn bit. "I wish Syvok had said nothing about that."
"I regret bringing it up. I do not understand -"
"You do not. Please." T'Mar looked about the garden, which was empty save the two of them. "I was not up looking for secret levels. It was something I told Syvok as an excuse."
Juliette paused in digging. "But if you were not looking for secret levels, what were you looking for?"
T'Mar looked around again, then quietly resumed her work, her eyes downturned as she pushed some soil back into place. "I was looking for you."