Anything, Anywhere...Anytime

While the ground teams had been training, so had the medical support teams who would be taking in and treating the retrieved people and animals. The slingshot vehicle, the large Air Galactica cargo vessel Shaishonna, just fit inside the massive auxiliary cargo bay on the dreadnought Seleya. "If they don't see it, the Federation can't complain," Lia explained as she led the way from the bay to the bigger ship. "As far as they know, the Seleya will be on routine patrol in its usual role as a medical mercy ship for all of the Vulcan colonies with a side visit to 40 Eridani for what we'll call a religious mission. No lie, we'll drop off the ashes of some recently deceased elders who want to be near the old site. In the meantime, I'd like you all to be familiar with the facilities on board my t'hy'la Rai's ship, which is..."

"Fabulous!" Kirk had met the man. Bones hadn't. It was not possible to look at Captain Rai without wanting to laugh, which was exactly how the big k'turr Golan wanted it. Otherwise, it was unlikely he would have chosen bright lavender fatigues for his entire crew and gobs of gold braid for his own broad, and very tall, shoulders. He was the only Vulcan Kirk could recall wearing a gold earring in one of his small, elegantly pointed ears, bright against his dark skin. Bones managed to keep his reaction to a gulped-back giggle. One of Rai's outflung arms nearly bashed him as Rai lunged toward Lia. "Dyypan susse-thrai, welcome aboooooard!"

"I missed you, knvuk fehill'curak. Next time I'll aim better." What they were doing originated in the Vulcan family greeting, but degenerated into actual hand-slapping and some kind of elbow-bumping maneuver. Bones' translator was working perfectly, judging by his horrified expression and slow edging backwards. She patted the artificial womb shoulder bag Rai was carrying cross-body. "So this one is doing very well, I see. No name yet, sa'bath?"

"He hasn't said anything about it and we haven't come up with anything just yet. We're not even sure how to do his clan name, S'chn T'gai or T'Moran." Rai unzipped the side of the womb to uncover the viewing port. A curious tiny boy, the size of a human newborn but likely still several months from wanting to be on the outside, peered out. "He's just growing like a grapevine, tall and skinny as Silek, and look at you, Ta'an," Rai said to the admiral's belly. "You're growing sooooo fast! You'll be running Engineering before I know it. It's so much fun to be pregnant together."

"You know Khart'lan Kirk, but this is Dr. Leonard McCoy. Len, I believe you've figured out this is my Rai. He and my baby brother decorated this ship, so any compliments or complaints go to him. Shall we give him the tour, Rai?"

"But of course." He swept a hand toward the corridor. "The wards are this way."

Compared to the dark warship décor aboard Lia's flagship, the Seleya was all muted shades, dim lighting and peace. There was soft upbeat music in the background and art on the walls, not hard-edged traditional Vulcan art but desert flowers and abstract collages in tasteful pastels. Had he not known it was a ship, he would have assumed he was in a very well-appointed hospital meant for VIPs. "Silek picked out most of the art and I matched the colors, once we got over here to finish fixing it up," Rai said proudly. "Do you like it, Doctor?"

"I've been in a lot of hospitals," Bones said, "but I have serious envy right now. How?"

"Oh, that. Remember, part of the idea of having these great big ships was to wreck the Romulan defense budget. Cost overruns were our thing. If there was a piece of medical equipment we could use in the Empire—or smuggled across the Zone, better yet, so we could make it even more expensive—we have it. When va'Pak happened, we were twice as glad we did it. Being around pro football as long as I was before this line of work gave me an eye for what works for patients. I'm no doctor, mind you, just a big old offensive tackle, really offensive if the wrong people decide to bother mine."

"I'll try not to do that," Bones gulped.

"While we're waiting on the other end of your slingshot, we're going to make a big old patrol loop just like everything's normal and come back right as they do. Can't have the Federation asking questions, you know? You can train on any of the equipment you want, get used to working with our other senior staff and all of you finalize your plans, as much as you can before you see what comes back. Most of the Vulcan doctors we have are just back from Romulan prisons or used to be Romulans, so everybody starts fresh except Davy Wanders and T'Khai Judy. By the time we pick up all the retrievals, you'll be all set to take care of them."

"And have everything I can imagine to do it with," Bones admitted.

Two days out, the go teams separated from the medical staff aboard the Seleya. Kirk honestly thought Bones was going to cry. He looked at Spock once as if he were about to ask something and couldn't bear to. Spock gave him the faintest hint of exasperation and said "You know I will."

Nick walked by, sized up the situation and patted the doctor's shoulder. "Anybody gets after these two, they'll deal with me first, how's that?"

"He's not bad for a hobgoblin," Bones sighed, "but, you two-"

"Doctor. Behave while we are gone," Spock said. "Otherwise, you will deal with Aunt Lia."

That made it easier to walk down the hallway and board the smaller ship inside the cargo bay. As soon as they vacated the space, Captain Rai's crew would begin unfolding the panels and wiring boards that would convert the huge hold into space for rescued animals and people.

Lia had come to the smaller ship with her husband and their doctor daughter. While she was as outwardly calm as Spock, he could feel the impact letting go of all of them was having on her. "I'll do my best, Aunt Lia," he said.

She gave him a wrenched-out half-smile. "You all be careful. As I said before, we weren't nice people and we did rotten things."

The doctor bit her lip, doubtless thinking no one noticed. "I'd better get back, sa'mi, sa'kuk Sarek. Spock, take care of your human. He looks far too Vulcan for his own good right now." She came close to running down the hallway.

Sarek flicked his eyes toward the interior of the ship, and Kirk took the hint to leave the admiral to her husband. He glanced back once to see them hands clasped and heads bowed, Lhairre murmuring "Don't worry, elev."

They turned a corner and Spock looked down at his padd. "Ah. From Nyota. It still works." He paused. "The new system. It will be necessary to test it periodically."

"Of course." At one time, that many people around him taking leave of loved ones would have made him boil with jealousy just as the enforced celibacy would have nagged at him. This felt different. The sense of aloneness that had plagued him anytime he was off his ship had been pushed away by...family? He felt Spock's glance, looked up to see it with one of those tiny flickers of smile and the silent thought: you catch on slowly for a genius.

The merchant marine ship had a large cargo bay and a smaller passenger compartment with small staterooms lining a cabin and galley which were together the size of Enterprise's bridge. The teams went aboard and stowed their gear, then returned to the cabin for a final briefing from the ship's captain, who, in another magnificent act of nepotism, happened to be family as well. Kirk approved highly, having seen the kind of help the captain was in a crisis. Besides, though he had met Ru only a few months before, he had become fond of him as quickly as he had of Spock.

In his Air Galactica black, hands clasped behind his back, Captain Ruven addressed them without ceremony. "Your datasets will appear as period-correct but have full modern capability. The controls should be self-explanatory. Each team has its list of critical retrievals and locators, as well as safe beam-down and return spots. You will also find the app to verify that anyone else you find dying will have no further impact on T'Khasi. Of course, the whole object is to affect our future."

The entire gathering agreed. "Younger, childless women are the priority if the sitch does not permit full retrieval. Consent is imperative if the person is conscious. If they are not, bring them. They will be in shock when they find themselves here, but won't everyone? For our non-Vulcan volunteers, temperature, gravity and atmosphere are at surface normal on our way out so you can acclimate. Primary medics, remember their Triamox..." He went on confirming assignments. "Team Nine, Sarek, Spock and Kirk, Shanai Guards evac hospital inside D'H'Riset..." At list's end, he looked around and cracked a smile. "You got all that?"

"Not even close, but it's on my padd," John Solkar yawned pointedly.

"It should be, sa'mi. You're the one who scheduled most of it." Ru had grown up as Solkar's son, and the easy way the two of them teased made Kirk jealous in a way he couldn't tolerate in himself. He couldn't think it too loudly, because Ru was as much an empath as his biological father. "Just for that, you do the pickup speech."

Solkar put his huge voice in full Ambassador Making A Declaration mode. "The white zone is for loading and unloading only..." Mestral whacked him. "Not that kind of pickup? As your training has already taught, arrange your wounded in standard transporter platform configurations, with those you judge most critical in the first upload. Two beam-ups per team per mission are scheduled in predawn hours to minimize any chance of pre-warp contact. Imminent deaths you cannot stabilize will be case by case. Secure all potential spine injuries, no matter how minor, on backboards before transport and offer sedation to anyone conscious because I have experience with being beamed up with multiple broken bones and can assure you that it really frickin' hurts. "

"Very good, sa'mi. 'Really frickin' hurts' is a medical term, correct?" Details went on: the project had identified five hundred either in the black-tag ward of field hospitals or on the road who might be recovered on the first night. They reviewed assignments on the widely scattered field, areas to avoid and retrievals with family suitable for rescue.

Solkar reminded them that the Council had tried to ask advice from Surak's katra since he had been a slave at the battle. va'Pak had such a profound effect on him that his soul had been all but silent in the months since, saying only "I require seclusion." Since that meant a Vulcan, with or without a body, should not be left alone, the healers tried to brighten his ark with news of babies in the family and crops on newly terraformed planets. He finally said "I suppose that's pleasant enough," and began to comment, in a weary way, on some of the issues, complaining that it would take far less effort to "just fix it all with that time travel you're so fond of." The elders passed along his suggestions, the scientists decided it was worth a long-term shot and began their calculations, and for the meantime the Office of Temporal Distortion Research consulted the Guardians of Forever.

"No one in this room who goes down to the planetary surface is to be left behind, dead or alive," the mission commander repeated. "Anyone who dies or is too badly injured to be extricated must be cremated on the spot. No one can know us as modern unless they're coming up, they're alive now or there is definite historical record of their having suspected contact, as in the case of General T'Shaara. You may, in fact Surak thinks we must, render aid to known survivors, including him."

"So we'll be there because we should have been there. Verb tenses become confusing," Mestral said with all the solemnity he could manage. "We bring the last load up to the ship and then-?"

"And then the healers and aides all clear out to decon, get something to eat and most of all drink, and rest. The primary healers are going to be under heavy stress the whole time and should avoid the wards as long as possible. Curiosity about a patient's status can be fulfilled on the net. All healers, especially our full-bore empaths, remember to ground before you treat, when you return and as often as necessary while you're working. That minute it takes you may seem wasted, but we all know how critical it is."

Ru nudged Kirk with a padd carrying a vid of an unborn baby girl. "That's our Kariin, Winter. Wouldn't you know, she's a full empath." He added silently We didn't want to name her Amanda in case Spock and Nyota want the name someday, so we named her for our sister Karen who didn't make it.

I got it, and that is a beautiful idea. "The name's as pretty as she is. No Vulcan town is going to be adult-centered any more."

Ru agreed. "A whole new world, in every sense. We were in the minority because we always intended to have a big family. For most, it's an entirely new way of considering matters." He glanced across the room to Sarek, who was talking to another relative. "Kaiidth, but for one extra second to let Spock catch her before she fell. Or for leave to go and get her before."

"What harm could it do? She wasn't going to...I know, I know, people who can reproduce first, but why can't we at least ask?"

"I did. They said to wait. Easy for them. I worried about Sarek even when I thought he was my nephew and twice as much since," Ru agreed. "Amanda was likely to go first, but we hoped it would be decades yet. Kariin may be some comfort to him."

When it came to comfort, having Ru along in the desert would have been major, but he was nothing if not fertile. Besides, the ship needed her captain and their team already had a healer. The object of concern made his way across the room. "Kirk, you are prepared?"

"Ha, sa'mi. I know you are."

"Kaiidth, but that it may be so." Ah, the most Vulcan of expressions: "it is what it is, but I hope it turns out my way." Had he been human, he'd have been green around the gills and hyperventilating.

He side-eyed Sarek. "Walk with me." Experience with Spock had taught him that got an upset Vulcan talking without direct eye contact or making them stand still when they were ready to explode. "I know you can do this. I've seen you on New Vulcan. If you can perform under fire directed at you, personally, you can do anything you have to when the shooting is random."

"Not precisely. Some of our targets will require immediate aid far beyond what I have done without a qualified healer ready to intervene." Ah, there it was.

"You are a qualified healer now. Now you know why John Solkar has his bad moments." And, he thought, why Sarek didn't have this conversation with him, respected healer that he is.

"That is another concern. Kirk, my birth-son will be reluctant to do this for me. If you see me engaging in unhealthy behaviors, I request that you..." he looked for a word, "...call me on it?"

"I would ask you do the same for me. Sa'mi, we know where we've been and what we've seen and done. We need to be here and do this with him. That won't make it easy, but we're going to do it."

"Damn straight, boy." He hadn't recognized Nick (no, he's Mestral now!) for a second because he was wearing actual Vulcan clothing. "Got a real name yet?"

They all stared at one another. With all of their obsessive planning, body modding and Spock's careful mind melds to get his language up to speed, they had missed the one essential that could have fingered them in a heartbeat. What came out of Kirk's mouth was impolite, perfectly pronounced and made Mestral cackle. "Hey, you even learned that! It'll come in handy."

"Yes, Nicholas?" The deep voice from over his head was equally unmistakable, and at least he'd seen Solkar (remember, don't call him John, don't call Nick that, it's Solkar and Mestral now) in native clothing a few times. "He doesn't have a father-in-law to name him."

"Maggie's dad and I barely spoke English, but we liked each other, so we cobbled conversations together out of Serbian and Syrannite. They're close enough we could fill in by waving our hands around. 'Other name no got, Mestral?' I said 'People mine got clans but only one name got.' 'No good, no good, you need name, nickname, wait, you Nick. Ya. Nikolai. Patron saint, coal miner. Good Serb name, Nicholas George. Ya.' So I was. Wait, kid, your birthday's in spring, right? Sikar has a nice ring to it."

"It also doesn't mark him as one nation or another," John agreed. He turned that calm black gaze on Sarek. "Don't you dare apologize or pretend you aren't nervous. In your terms, the cause is more than sufficient. You. Will. Do. Well."

A Terran would have been tempted to salute at such an order. Sarek merely inclined his head slightly in thanks and turned to look at the screen. The black void where Vulcan belonged was all too clearly visible as the ship began to accelerate toward 40 Eridani.