Chapter 30: Kir'Shara

The announcement had caused a fair amount of surprise among the many clan members in the sanctuary and it had been hard to find the necessary privacy to care for Charles and hope that he would not be permanently damaged by having his mind invaded by someone else's katra. She carefully wiped his face with a wet rag. Even this late in the day the heat was oppressive for a human.

"Is he better?"

Hearing the voice of her mother, T'Pol looked up.

"Surak's katra has relinquished control of his mind to a degree. He seems to have sustained no lasting damage. Where have you been mother?"

"We were scouting the area. Troops of the High Command are advancing on our position. They will reach us in no longer than two days."

"Have the clan elders spoken to you?" T'Pol asked, not looking up from Charles face. He was currently sound asleep, exhausted from the day's event.

"I have assumed the position of Matriarch, as per their wishes."

"What will happen with T'Pau?"

"She will have to face the censure for her actions."

"She was being extremely foolish," T'Pol replied calmly. "However, I doubt we can punish her for the fact that she was thrust into a position she was not yet ready for. She should be guided and educated by a clans elder."

"Your willingness to forgive is surprising considering the seriousness of her misconduct."

"She is thirty-two mother. She is not expected to reach full maturity for another eight years. The biggest folly was burdening her with the responsibility for the entire extended clan. Have you forgotten what misdeeds I was still prone to commit at that age."

She could see her mother's eyebrow creep up ever so slightly at the memory. "Granted, deliberately trying to upset our disagreeable neighbor's equilibrium by constantly exposing him to the sight of your unclothed physique was a foolish endeavor, T'Pol, but you cannot possibly compare that to the imbalance T'Pau has brought to your burgeoning bond. You should know that such malicious interference is one of the few crimes still punishable by death."

"Our bond is much harder to upset than some believe. I do not wish to discuss the exact details, but my relationship with Charles is of much more confidence than most Vulcan unions. It would take much more than a non-authorized mind-meld to cause disruption in our tel. Instead of discussing punishment, we should be discussing how we can help T'Pau. She and T'Lara are the only remaining females in the house of Surook, and both have lost their parents at an early age. Unlike in T'Lara's case, nobody saw fit to assume the duty of being her En'ahr'at. She was not even aware she had to ask me for permission as nobody has ever taught her the proper conduct. I believe it to be more prudent if someone would correct these deficiencies in her upbringing."

She could immediately sense that she had 'struck a chord', as Charles would have described it.

"Your time among humans has changed you, T'Pol. Not too many years ago you would not have been as considerate."

She looked up to her maternal ancestor. "We can all learn from them and Vulcan would do well to start doing that sooner rather than later."

"I believe you wanted to see me because of Ensign Sato?"

"Have a seat, Phlox. Yes, I wanted to talk about Hoshi. I suppose she told you about our conversation?"

"No she didn't," the doctor said and Jon took the PADD the Denobulan offered him. "She has sent me an official release from doctor-patient confidentiality in this particular case."

"How big are Hoshi's problems really?"

"Considering that ensign Sato admits to exhibitionist tendencies, a perceived deficiency in her physique does lead to strong insecurities. I've known about her problems since the initial medical check before this ship was launched, but Ensign Sato asked me to keep the details confidential at the time. I had to honor that request as it obviously did not influence her fitness for duty."

Jon nodded. "And I take it recent events have merely aggravated the already existing problem."

"Exactly, Captain. I would not have suggested that she should request your permission if I didn't think it would have a sufficiently positive effect on ensign Sato."

"Wouldn't it be better to work on those exhibitionist tendencies?" Jon asked.

"Would you send someone into therapy because of a preference for oral gratification?" the doctor asked and Jon felt as if the room was getting hotter. He'd never been good at talking about such intimate things. "I would agree if Ensign Sato would show up for duty without clothing or would otherwise cause disruption, but that is not the case, is it?"

"How long will Hoshi be off-duty when you perform the surgery?" the captain changed the topic away from the way too many details.

"It is a minimally invasive technique. The surgery itself will take no longer than two hours and afterwards she will have to stay in sickbay for observation for twenty-four hours.

"I've always thought such procedures take much longer?"

"If I would use the human technique of using artificial implants, yes. Technically the procedure will take four weeks. I will harvest a small tissue sample from ensign Sato's bust and will grow natural tissue over a period of one months. This natural tissue will then be transplanted into her breasts using flexible tubes inserted in her armpits."

"TMI, doctor. Thank you," Jon said, feeling a little queasy. "Here's my official authorization."

He handed the pad with the document back to the doctor.

"By the way, captain. I know this is an in-joke of Commander Tucker, but once the procedure is over, it could perhaps be quite helpful for the ensign if she would really be allowed to perform a striptease in the officer's mess. It could bolster her confidence and I'm quite sure the male officers would be fairly entertained."

John shook his head once Phlox had left the ready room, sporting one of his impossible grins. There were days when he wished A.G. had gotten the job.

Trip gasped when he saw Surak. The old Vulcan's face was disfigured by open wounds and he was unsteady on his feet.

"Ah, Commander," the Vulcan struggled with a weak voice. "My appearance must be fairly disconcerting. I apologize."

"Radiation sickness?" Trip asked in disbelief.

"We're paying a heavy price for our foolishness. Logic has not won this day, but this day won't last forever. Logic is at the heart of every Vulcan. Even as the ashes fall, my people are discovering a new way. You can accomplish what Syrran could not."

"But Syrran..." he started to protest, but Surak silenced him with a weak wave of a hand, as he sunk to the ground.

"Syrran was a Vulcan, and you're human. Which means you are untouched by a culture that can no longer see its own imminent destruction. We cannot let what happened to the Vulcans of my time take place again. Find what my people have lost, Commander. Find ... the Kir'Shara."

With that final plea Surak died and the vision ended.

His eyes flew open and he looked into the worried face of T'Pol. She didn't even try to hide her concern.

"We have to find it, T'Pol."

"Find what?"

"The Kir'Shara I believe I know where it is. Help me up."

"I've located them," Hoshi reported, ignoring the sharp pain that Plox's large needle had left in her left breast. "They are no more than a hundred kilometers from the sanctuary."

"How did you find them?" the Captain asked.

"They're traveling on foot, which means they must pass many of those gallicite deposits and they have to discharge them. There must be quite a lot of those things as over the last twenty-four hours, we got a fairly accurate trail."

"How did you manage to penetrate the dampening field?"

"I didn't," she said shaking her head. "The discharges do. They must be quite strong, which means they reach the upper edge of the dampening field."

"What I don't understand is why our team didn't encounter them?" Malcolm asked.

"It's possible that Soval knows how to avoid them," offered as a theory. "Their clan's spiritual retreat is in the Forge, or they simply outran them. The discharges aren't explosive, more like a simmering fire."

"Good work, Hoshi."

She acknowledged the statement with a smile.

"Keep an eye on the VHC soldiers, if they get closer than twenty kilometers, we'll send them greetings from our torpedo launcher."

"This is it," he said and T'Pol didn't understand what Charles was referring to. He had led her through a seemingly random sequence of tunnels and they had arrived in a room that was so thickly covered in dust, it was obvious that nobody had been her in decades, if not perhaps in Centuries.

"This is what, Charles?"

"The mountain," he said, pointing through the only window. "This is were I've encountered Surak twice and over there – that's where he died. It must be here somewhere. Since he said I need to find it, means it's hidden here somewhere. Help me look for concealed openings, especially around here. I have a hunch he wanted to show me where it is, but it was too late."