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.”
Nevasa - Part II
2400
[Sas-a-Shar, Vulcan]
She was leaning against the rock face, oblivious to the chill of the desert night. Even though she refused to admit to any physical exhaustion, Sovar knew she was grateful for the rest. However, she also needed to eat. The young Vulcan selected an ob’taree with additional vitamins from his pack and gave her an inquiring look. Without opening her eyes, she sighed “No, don’t tell me. Cookies again.”
Of course he knew by now that this was a rather good natured complaint and took it as such. He waited patiently for 2.53 minutes until she opened her eyes “If I don’t take it, you’re just going to sit here until the galaxy implodes, won’t you?”
“That would be most illogical, if not to say improbable” he answered levelly.
“Still, would be an interesting scientific experiment. Now don’t look at me in that tone of voice and give it here.” He opted for not inquiring about the meaning of her last sentence - in fact, he had a fairly good idea anyways.
“Shaya tonat” Sakarra took the thing she silently called ‘Vulcan energy cookies’ from her cousin and watched him unfold the blankets. Amazing things, thin and light as silk but they could rival a down jacket when it came to keeping you warm. Funny, she hadn’t realized how cold she was until now. She had been too busy enjoying the clean, fragrant air and counting the parts of her body that were complaining about being pushed to their limits and then some.
But in an odd way, this place had grown on her. There was something to be said about the simplicity of surviving in one of the most inhospitable environments this planet had to offer. You either found water or you didn’t. You either were able to walk on or you weren’t. You either had food or became a Le-Matya’s dinner.
No need and no time to worry about much else, really. Boundaries between life and death were quite fluent here, and either way it didn’t seem to matter.
Sitting on a tiny plateau overlooking Vulcan’s Forge, Sakarra felt more at peace with herself than she had been in a long time. She inhaled deeply one more time and started nibbling on her cookie.
Sovar carefully draped a blanket over his young relative and then proceeded to select an ob’taree for himself. She had done well this far, despite those in the family who had voiced doubts about the wisdom of Sovar’s decision to take her here. But he had presented his arguments logically and in the end T’Leia herself had determined that Sovar should proceed. Perfectly logical, since the matriarch had been the one entrusting him with Sakarra’s training in the first place.
He remembered that initial conversation well. T’Leia had made it clear that this young one was going to be different but that he was the logical choice to teach her what she needed to know to be accepted into the Institute of Defensive Arts. Of course he had to concede that as a guest instructor at the Institute he knew what was expected and was uniquely qualified to evaluate her abilities and enhance her skills. The matron had also pointed out that they were close in years, shared the same fifth foremother and could both be considered somewhat unconventional. Sovar had pointedly refrained from disagreeing with that latter assessment and set out to do T’Leia’s bidding.
As expected, it had been a difficult beginning. But T’Sora’s daughter had managed to surprise him in more than one way. Although she was still rather undisciplined and ruled by emotion (by now she had cursed him and called him names in a variety of languages, the most colorful being Andorian and Terran dialects), she had never backed down or refused a challenge.
In fact, he had come to believe she had indeed potential once she would allow herself to let go of all the destructive anger and hurt.
And should she one day succeed in combining her Betazoid intuition and adaptability with Vulcan perseverance and quick thinking, she might become an opponent to be reckoned with.
Sovar was determined to see her reach that goal - no longer because he had been asked to, but because … well, because he wanted to.
Smiling inwardly, the young Vulcan admitted to himself he had grown rather fond of this one. She most certainly could try anyone’s patience, but there was something refreshing about many of her idiosyncrasies.
In those rare moments when her mind was at peace, one could even sense her most endearing qualities and Sovar found himself watching the still figure outlined against the stars, wrapped in a blanket, completely absorbed by the sheer beauty of her surroundings.
A distinctive sound interrupted his ponderings and to his satisfaction he noted that she had heard it, too.
“Sehlat” he murmured
“Yes, what?”
For 2.2 seconds they looked at each other, confused.
“Never mind. I thought they rarely come this far into the Forge. And they don’t like to climb anyways.”
Sovar shook his head and reached for the Lirpa “You are correct. However, this one does not seem to care for such generalizations.”
They could see the shadowy figure of the large animal now as it attempted to scramble up to the plateau, snorting with displeasure. Actually, it was making quite an uncharacteristic amount of noise and it was unusually big…
“Warya!” Sakarra exclaimed and jumped up to greet her furry friend.
“You stubborn old…” the Sehlat growled happily and increased his efforts to clamber up the slope, succeeding only in creating a minor rock slide.
“Wait, wait, you big fluffy goofball. I’ll help you.”
Sovar raised a brow although in this darkness neither Sakarra nor Warya were likely to see it - nor would they probably care - and joined his young relative in pushing the large animal up to their makeshift camp.
“Come on, move your big behind. I thought Sa’mekh’al told you to stay home, how did you find us anyways?”
“Rrrrrrr. Wrooooow.”
“Right. Should have known.”
Sovar wondered if those two actually did understand one another - Sehlat were unusually perceptive and with a half-Betazoid anything was possible- and just how the elderly Warya had managed to locate them in this vast desert. Of course he had heard stories, too, but had never quite experienced something like this himself.
“They have their own version of k’war’ma’khon, Sovar.” she answered his unspoken question and them chuckled quietly “It was written all over your face. But don’t worry, I doubt anyone else would have noticed.”
Well, that would most certainly explain a few things. Fascinating.
The Sehlat seemed happy now, having found the biped cubs unharmed and well, although he himself looked somewhat disheveled. If it weren’t for his size and the way he now stretched out next to the bipeds, making it clear he expected to be scratched behind the ears for his troubles, one might have mistaken him for one of his wild cousins.
Well, not really. Sovar doubted that any wild Sehlat would ever purr like this nor roll over on its back to give someone access to pet the softer belly fur while happily waving four giant paws in the air. It was in fact a quite comical sight. In the safety of the desert night, the young Vulcan smiled.
“I saw that!” she had snuggled up to the content Sehlat, draping the blanket over both of them, and he could sense the laughter bubbling inside her.
“Sovar of Vulcan, advocate of all things reasonable and moderate, has officially committed a major fauxpas. Smiling when you think no one can see? For shame!”
If he didn’t know better, Sovar could have sworn even the Sehlat was snickering at him.
“Come on, he’s not only fluffy but warm. And he’s really quite fond of you.” Sakarra had obviously decided to drop the matter although to his surprise, her good humored mocking had not bothered him in the least. The young Vulcan joined his two friends ‘And friends they are indeed. Although I cannot say when I first thought of her that way…’ and immediately he felt the warmth radiating off both of them. Of all the ways to spend a night in the Forge, this was maybe one of the rather unusual one’s but definitely among the more pleasant.
“Rrrrrrroowwwffff”
“Oh, really? Well, if it makes you happy…”
This time Sovar thought he knew what the Sehlat wanted, and indeed, only a few seconds later Sakarra’s rich, vibrant soprano rose into the clear night.
He made a mental note to add ‘billabong’, ’jumbuck’ and ’waltzing’ to the list of words he needed to look up. And he would definitely have to find out who this “Matilda” was.