Nevasa
2400 [Sas-a-Shar (The Forge), Vulcan]
“What is Kiri-kin-tha's First Law of Metaphysics?”
“Oh, come now, Sovar.”
The tall, lithe Vulcan in the white desert suit simply gave her one of his ‘looks’ and Sakarra sighed inwardly “Nothing unreal exists.”
He nodded. “Elaborate.”
“Huh?”
She didn’t know what was more annoying, the sand which seemed to have a tendency to get everywhere - from your hair to your water supply - or her travel companion. And for that matter, she had no idea what had prompted him to drag her into this place either. Utter desolation wouldn’t even begin to describe it. The desert outside Shi’Kahr was lush by comparison.
They had been traversing this wasteland of rocks and sand for the past two days and nights, resting only during the hottest hours of the day and the coldest of the night, and still Sakarra failed to see the point of this exercise. Then of course there was the absolutely lovely fact that no technology would work here and, oh, while there was literally no food or water, there were indeed predators around. Wild Sehlat, although rare, and of course Le-Matya. The only reason Sakarra still carried her grandmother’s Lirpa strapped across her back instead of having tossed the bulky thing over the next rock, was that she didn’t like the idea of becoming lunch.
And as if all that wasn’t irritating enough, Sovar insisted on making what qualified as “small talk” among Vulcans - light conversation regarding the sciences, philosophy and, as of today, metaphysics.
“I am interested in your interpretation of this statement, Sakarra-kam.”
“Oh…” she looked at the rocks around them, the searing sun and the dark haired Vulcan walking beside her. She felt the weight of the Lirpa and the water bag. All real enough, although she wished some of it was not. Alright, most of it.
“I don’t know, Sovar. I mean, how do you define ‘unreal’ in the first place? If I see a mirage of a giant bucket with peach ice cream right now, that doesn’t make the bucket real but the mirage would be in a way. At least to me. You could tie your brain into knots thinking about stuff like that.”
She looked towards the next batch of rocks which looked exactly like the dozens of others they had walked past and wondered if they’d been walking in circles. “What do they eat, anyways? Except us, I mean?”
Now it was Sovar’s turn to be puzzled “They?”
“Well, a Le-Matya is rather big and I doubt they find rocks palatable. So how do they survive?”
This demonstration of erratic thought earned the young woman another ‘look’, but Sovar seemed inclined to humor her “Their species evolved on this planet. As did ours, I might add.”
He scanned the hills and seemed to be listening for something, although for the life of her Sakarra could not figure what that might be, and then suddenly changed direction. “It may be just as well you asked that question.” He stopped and the young woman who had already been thrown off track by the sharp turn almost bumped into him.
“Sovar…” she sighed and was about to point out that he shouldn’t be the one lecturing her about being unpredictable, when he held up his hand and studied her unhappy face.
“We have an opportunity to refill our water supplies. Proceed.”
“Proceed?” he had to be joking. He wanted her to find water? Here? Talk about mirages… still, she looked around. Rocks. Sand. Sun. More rocks.
“No” he slowly shook his head “You are not perceiving reality with all your senses”
“Four Deities help me, Sovar, if you don’t stop going all metaphysical on me…”
She almost jumped when he interrupted her by stepping close and raising his hand next to her face. “Will you allow me?”
The young woman hesitated for a second but then nodded slowly. As annoying as Sovar could be, he’d never given her reason not to trust him. And logically ‘oh, here I go’ he must think there’d be some point to all of this or else he wouldn’t go to such lengths to look after his erratic, undisciplined .. she inhaled sharply when his fingertips found the meld points … confused but funny and right now rather bedraggled looking… WAIT a minute.
Through the sudden sensation of vertigo she felt his steady presence ‘focus not on me but your senses’
Right. Senses. Which ONE?
‘All of them’
Who said Vulcans have no sense of humor? How could you focus on all of them at the same… ah. Fascinating.
She blinked. It was the same desert alright, but something had changed. Shifted, somehow. The air was no longer just hot and dry but filled with subtle scents, the colors were no longer a mere blur under the bright sun …
“Oh, goodness”
‘Focus’
Someone was laughing silently, and someone was mentally bouncing up and down with excitement, but who was doing what, Sakarra couldn’t tell.
Her noses ‘this is SO weird. I’ll never get used to it.’ alerted her to something. Something important. Water. Underground spring, right over there. How could she not have sensed it earlier?
“I’ll be damned.”
The presence that had been lingering at the edges of her mind withdrew slowly, and despite the fact that Sakarra was really busy dealing with all the information flooding her senses right now, she felt a pang of disappointment, like a child who just lost a favorite toy.
She blinked again and looked at Sovar who was watching her intently. His face was as expressionless as ever but something had changed there, too. She might have known. Should have known. Damn the whole lot of them. Us. Whatever.
“I’m going to get a headache.”
He still didn’t move a muscle but she could have sworn she heard him chuckle. “Then I suggest you find that spring. Cool water is an efficient remedy for any number of ailments.”
“Sovar, it’s covered with rocks. How do you suggest we get to it? It’s not like we can just phaser those damn things away and…”
He raised a brow, looked at his hands, then hers.
“Right. Remind me to NEVER go walkabout with you again. Ever.”
They moved towards what Sakarra now recognized as a small mountain, so deeply buried in sand and rubble that only the peak was visible, and the young Vulcan studied the reddish stone before selecting a rather large rock, apparently at random, although Sakarra now knew better.
“Walkabout?”
She clambered up on the other side and helped him to pry the darned thing loose. It thundered down the slope, taking some smaller rocks right along with it, and now all there was between them and water were some pebbles and sand. The young woman flopped down and started digging. One of these days she’d figure out how he did it. All of it.
And then, just to get even, she would drag him through the jungles on Betazed. If he didn’t end up in a mud pit or got eaten by a fogcat she would drown him under the Janaran falls.
“Something my daddy used to call our little field trips. If we ever make it back to civilization, you can look it up.”
“Indeed.”