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Da-Kuv t’Yoshuhlnak- The Dragon Circle

It required five years to find Professor Reynolds, identify the High Officers involved, and gather the necessary proofs to arrest them. It required those same years to upgrade the USS Adventure, giving it the first system of engine re-launching and cooling. All those years were required also for the Captain to get used to his new Admiral rank. In this same time, a child was born, called Surak, named after the father of Vulcan Logic. A significant name for a child half Vulcan and half human, but that had been suggested by the Dragons. They had grown up and were fully adults. They weren’t allowing many persons to see them, mostly Maximillian, T’Prion, little Surak and at times Peter. They were appearing to the crowd in occasion of special rituals though. In these years, Peter had collaborated a lot with the Vulcan Embassy and had been working on a secret project nobody knew much about. Maximillian and T’Prion had taken work in Vulcan Starfleet Headquarters, and had always stayed in touch with Admiral Spencer.

One day, a message from Earth came requiring their presence at the trial of the High Officers: Stanley Reynolds, Richard Perkins and all the persons involved in the attempt theft. An invitation to the first flight of the USS Adventure was attached to the message:

It felt weird for him. Indeed, Vulcan had become his only home; he had now fully embraced the culture, philosophy, way of life and was educating his son as a full Vulcan. Actually, Surak was incredibly gifted in everything and he had a very special link with the Dragons:

“It would be an occasion to show Surak his second home”, T’Prion suggested.

It was decided to bring the child and T’Prion’s mother to take care of him while Maximillian and T’Prion would have to be away.

They visited the Dragons together before leaving. Surak asked to remain in the cave alone for a while; his parents went out to wait for him. He reached them short after, his bag was heavier but nobody noticed it…

Once everything was ready, Maximillian, T’Prion, her mother and Surak were teleported on the ship that would take them to Earth. They had spoken with an Officer and they had not even bothered to get to know the name of the ship…or maybe nobody had communicated it to them. Indeed as soon as they materialized on board, their surprise was huge finding themselves in front of Admiral Spencer! The man was widely smiling. He was more round but had not changed that much in the years. He greeted with the official Vulcan salute before rushing to hug his friends. He lifted Surak:

“Exactly, I managed to anticipate its first flight and I asked to come to Vulcan to pick you”, he explained.

“As incredible as it may seem…I am! I think they got fed up with me creating trouble in the Earth Headquarters so they decided to get rid of me”, he blinked. “On a more serious note, I think they retained; I would be safer exploring unknown space rather than remaining on Earth…after all, I put down some big fishes, most of them are caught but we never know”, he added.

He led them to their quarters, he had gathered some of the objects T’Prion had left in her former cabin and had done his best to recreate the atmosphere of it:

“It is good to have you back on board First Officer T’Prion”, Admiral Spencer replied, “Even if it will be only for one flight”.

He went on with the complete visit of the upgraded ship, explaining all the modifications brought. They headed to the bridge where T’Prion recognized most of the crew who all expressed their pleasure to see her back, as well as Admiral Williams and their family. For both Surak and his grandmother, this was the very first space travel. The Vulcan lady was fascinated by what she was seeing around, but the little boy was burdened by more serious thoughts; he hadn’t left his bag at all since he had gotten on board…

Before dinner, they went back to their cabin to settle a bit more. Surak considered the place again and his eyes stopped on a painting representing Vulcan:

“We will be back home in a month, space travels are very safe”, he reassured, thinking the boy was anxious about the trip though it would be very weird for a Vulcan child.

“This is another Dragon egg!” T’Prion exclaimed “Where did you find it? Why taking it with you?” she asked with a point of reproach in her tone.

“The Dragons gave it to me, it was meant to come with us on Earth, it will disclose on New Vulcan”, he said.

It wasn’t the first time that such scenes had happened; Surak was often a mystery for his parents. They proceeded preparing for dinner and forgot about it all. They had placed the egg on the altar where the other ones had been kept a little more than five years before…

The dinner, just like the rest of the trip went on without any issue. T’Prion had recovered her job as First Officer and Maximillian was spending a lot of time with their family.

Once on Earth, they immediately headed to Maximillian’s house: it was huge, in a very quiet area.

Before the man could open the door, a young tall blond woman in her late twenties went out:

“So finally my old brother is back on Earth!” she exclaimed, rushing toward the Admiral to hug him.

Before he had a chance to say a word, she considered the rest of his family and warmly greeted them all, attempting a clumsy Vulcan salute.

“By the way, I am Susan, Maximillian’s sister”, she added, she lifted Surak:

T’Prion and her mother were watching, speechless, while Maximillian was in vain attempting to say a word.

“I cleaned up everything, I did it from time to time but when I got to know you were coming, I put more effort in it!”

“I tried to convince Mom and Dad to come but well, Mom would like to get to know your family but Dad is the usual stubborn. You know what I mean, but don’t worry I will get them to come”, she assured.

T’Prion and her mother were admiring the house: many rooms, full of paintings showing Vulcan, Mount Seleya, figures of Tal-Shaya…then they reached the library: it was huge with books and databases covering the walls, most of them were about Vulcan culture, language, science, and history:

“I can’t think of any place that contains that much different information on our people”, T’Prion commented.

“When I was forced to come back, I spent years gathering anything I could find about Vulcan. I was feeling kind of in exile on Earth, so I brought Vulcan with me or at least searched for it”, he explained.

“Your sister is holding you in great regards”, T’Prion’s mother replied.

“I am glad to hear it. I am fond of her really, but at times she is so…” he said.

“She is so human”, T’Prion continued, “well this is quite logical, and after all, it is also logical that Surak could learn about the human civilization and part of his family”.

“I wanted to see your home world too and know your family”, her mother added.

T’Prion’s mother retired to her room, while the couple and Surak headed to the place Maximillian had dedicated to Vulcan spirituality. It was a small room, very simply furnished, with an area for meditation and a small altar. Surak placed the egg on it:

“It will be safe here”, Maximillian assured, he opened a small cassette, and handed a key to Surak:

“Only this can open the door once it is closed, I had left it open when I left but now, it will be good to keep it locked when we aren’t home”, he added.

Giving such a precious object to a five year old child would have sounded like nonsense in most cases, but both Maximillian and T’Prion were convinced that the key could not be safer in any other hands.

The next day the couple’s presence was required at the Trial. They had left Surak with his grandmother in the house, surrounded by guards:

They were unsure whether the boy could call for the Dragon’s power or supernatural strength but they trusted his words.

At the Trial, the High Officers kept denying their involvement even though evidence was produced. Former Lieutenant Perkins and his men told the truth and were doing all they could to collaborate. Professor Reynolds started by denying everything too, but once the evidence appeared, he started to get angrier and angrier, declaring that he had served Starfleet for years in complete loyalty but hadn’t received the reward he was expecting for it.

During the pause of the Trial, Maximillian and T’Prion talked with some scientists from Earth and Vulcan who had witnessed about Reynolds outstanding inventions:

“This man is completely crazy”, one of them said “yet putting him in jail for the rest of his life would be such a waste”.

“This is very true”, a Vulcan scientist replied, relating some of his collaboration with Reynolds.

“Maybe if one of us could fuse their mind with him, a compromise could be found”, T’Prion suggested.

“Even because you either lock him in an empty room, or his brilliant mind will find a way to make him escape”, Maximillian added.

“That is correct Admiral”, an Officer replied, “actually Reynolds escaped a couple of times. We were lucky to catch him each time but surely one day he would escape definitely. And if he decided to run to the Romulans, this would be a real trouble for us”.

“We need to have him on our side,” the Vulcan scientist commented. “Mind meld could be a start but we need to be allowed to do it”.

T’Prion suggested that the Vulcan scientist, former colleague of Reynolds, could be chosen. The man accepted and was led to Reynolds’ cell:

“Professor”, the Vulcan scientist started, “a possibility will be offered to you, but in order to find the best agreement it is logical to fully know what you really want”. He paused; Reynolds was silent. “I was allowed and required to proceed with mind meld”.

“Well, if you prefer to be locked in a cell for the rest of your life…” the Vulcan replied.

“Mostly all is said and done professor, but Starfleet doesn’t forget your services, or your brilliant mind. So the court agrees to search for a compromise, whose first step is mind meld. You have only one possibility Professor and I won’t force you”, the Vulcan stated, waiting in silence

Reynolds considered the proposal. Most of his life had been carefully scanned by investigators, secrets revealed in front of the court…he had not much more to hide, especially to a colleague he was once held in great esteem:

The Vulcan put his right hand on the professor’s face and allowed his mind to reach Reynolds’. It was complex, imbalanced, like a computer saturated by too many data. Once the mind meld was done, the Vulcan scientist thanked Reynolds for his collaboration and assured him that they would find a satisfying compromise.

Finally it was decided to expel all the High Officers from Starfleet and send them to prison for twenty years. Former Lieutenant Perkins and his men were suspended and put into a probation period with a length of time determined by their behaviour. Professor Reynolds was sent to a special area of vigilance and allowed to work with other trustworthy scientists among which his former Vulcan colleague who had volunteered for such responsibility. The court imposed regular mind meld sessions to keep in check his intentions.

Maximillian and T’Prion came back home late, wondering why Peter had not shown during the Trial, though his presence was required. Surak and his grandmother were already in bed. The couple went to sleep as silently as possible, relieved at the thought that this past story was definitely solved.

Surak wasn’t sleeping, he was thinking. He had read something more on the walls of the Dragons’ cave and this knowledge was a burden, a responsibility, a mission, the reason of his own existence, his destiny, yet he could not understand it. He had decided to talk, to share this knowledge with his parents, with all his people because this would save millions of lives. But each time he had attempted to speak, he had felt his mind burning. He had heard the Dragon begging him to remain silent, forbidding him to talk. He had deeply thought of it and hadn’t been able to find any logic in it all. Why would the Dragon forbid him to save his own world? He invoked the Dragon and asked him to allow him to share his burden…short after, he fell asleep…

The next day was dedicated to a visit to Maximillian’s parents and a walk in the surroundings.

As soon as the Admiral rang, Susan opened the door warmly greeting her brother and his family. Her mother, a smiling woman in her sixties rushed to hug her son. She politely greeted T’Prion and her mother and knelt in front of Surak:

“How beautiful you are!” she said. “I am so happy to get to know you finally”.

Maximillian was moved by the scene, forgotten emotions were coming back to him, the feel of childhood, memories, smells from the past…home, he thought suddenly, yes, he came to the realization that as much as he was denying it, Earth was his home. T’Prion was still thinking that getting to know her husband’s family was logical but she was fully contemplating the gap between both civilizations. This is what she had chosen though and deep inside her, she knew well that those emotional human beings had much to teach her and to give, more than she could even imagine.

Maximillian’s mother led them to the living room where his father was waiting. He stared at his son for a long moment, visibly struggling to remain as cold as possible, but this couldn’t last long. He greeted T’Prion, her mother, and considered Surak:

“Welcome in my house”, he finally said, yet he didn’t directly greet his son.

Susan put a hand on her brother’s shoulder: “he will melt at some point”, she whispered.

T’Prion was very interested in this human man apparently even colder than a Vulcan, but she didn’t say a word about it.

They talked about many things, their life on Vulcan, Surak, life on Earth, plans for the following days. The evening passed very fast and soon came the departure moment. Maximillian promised his mother that there would be another visit before their return on Vulcan.

Once home, Surak asked his parents to come with him in the meditation room. He had come to a kind of agreement with the Dragon; he would not talk but show them something he had written. He took his notebook from his bag:

“On this, I copied all the ancient glyphs of the cave”, he explained, “when I went there for the last time, I was allowed in a deeper part where we had never been before, I found the end of the Da-Kuv t’Yoshuhlnak- the Dragon Circle…I copied it here too”. He handed the notebook to his parents who read together loudly first then in silence when it came to the part of the poem they had never read.

T’Prion stared at him, “Destruction can be seen in many ways. Indeed it is talking of destruction to allow a rebirthing, evolution. This is surely symbolic”.

“Nothing of this poem has been symbolic until now”, Maximillian replied, “What if this was true? It is clearly talking of the destruction of Vulcan!”

“There is no logic here, T’Prion! And I think we need to warn the Vulcan”, Maximillian stated firmly, “Even if there is only one possibility on a million for it to happen”.

“You are right”, T’Prion agreed. “We will take care of this my son”, she added, staring at Surak.

“I don’t want to betray the Dragon”, he said, fully manifesting his young age.

“He would not have allowed you to show this to us if he had not agreed”, Maximillian replied.

They put the child to sleep and left his room only once they were sure he was peacefully resting:

“Maybe the Dragon gave him his Katra because his Spirit could no longer inhabit our world”, T’Prion said.

“It makes no sense, yet it is our duty to warn our people”, T’Prion concluded.

The next day, T’Prion contacted Sarek. She couldn’t think of any other person to talk with about it. She related what Surak had shown them and made them read. There was a long silence then the Ambassador spoke:

“I have to say that I don’t know what to think of this”, he admitted. “I observed your son a lot, Peter, your husband, yourself, and I noticed that even though you clearly show signs of being inhabited by the Spirit of Vulcan, at times you are just yourself. At times Surak is only a five year old boy, intelligent, brilliant but still a child…”

“Ancient Glyphs can be interpreted in many ways. Their meaning and system is still very unclear to us”, Sarek stated.

“I will contact the Priestess, she should know and I will transfer data to the Embassy on Earth: vital information for our civilization I should have transferred time ago. What else can I do? Surely not evacuate all Vulcan for something that may never happen. Did your son mention a precise date?” he asked.

“So it would be this month…or never, I will go to Mount Seleya”, he concluded.

Minutes became hours, and hours were never passing, heavy like the burden of years. The whole family had decided to remain home. T’Prion’s mother had been invited to the Vulcan Embassy, for now they had decided it was useless to tell her anything.

“I am back from Mount Seleya, the Priestesses entered the deepest state of meditation in order to find answers; they remained very perplexed. They told me that the future seemed like dividing itself into many possibilities. They saw the destruction but they also saw its contrary. They told me they had never seen such thing before. They added that they had no idea whether it will happen or not, and when…” he paused “I have already started to transfer information and archives, we have a back-up of most archives, but I think it is logical finishing it right now. Will you turn back to Vulcan as prevised?” he asked.

“We will”, T’Prion replied, Sarek greeted them and turned back to his work

“I never see the future”, he explained “I just get like a kind of knowledge of what should be done in the present, and at times flashes, like when I first thought that we wouldn’t see Vulcan again, or when the Dragons gave me the egg meant to disclose on New Vulcan”.

“I don’t know”, he answered “I don’t know everything, neither does the Spirit”.

They decided to spend the next few days as prevised. Indeed Maximillian was willing to show his Vulcan family as much as possible of the Earth, at least the part of Earth he was raised up in. T’Prion was discovering many places she didn’t know. She was considering with great attention how human beings were living. At times she found herself excluded and perplexed:

“It is very interesting to observe human beings, I still can’t understand their behaviour. They are totally illogical most of the time. I spent 15 years on the USS Adventure but it was different, as much as I considered this crew like a family, we had missions, tasks to accomplish, no real occasions to take time to consider differences of culture”. T’Prion stated, “Now my son is half human and I realize that this part of him is still a mystery for me”.

“Human behaviour is mostly the result of their emotions indeed, or at least the mix between what they feel and what they think”, Maximillian replied.

“You know that I had never thought of that!” he replied, “well, I guess some emotions help us recognize a danger, make choices, take decisions”.

“They surely can be confusing”, Maximillian answered, “They are part of what makes the human beings dumb and great at the same time”.

“Are you suggesting that my people would be greater if we had emotions?” she asked.

“I don’t know, maybe it would be part of your evolution. Instead of suppressing emotions, finding a sense of balance”, he replied.

“Why?” he asked “Your people are awesome. I mean you are intelligent, brilliant, and full of many resources but…”

“But we are different from human beings at a physiological level. My people may appear cold to you but the truth is that we are far more sensitive than human beings, which gives us abilities such as the mind meld. But emotions for us would be overwhelming and would simply lead us to manifest the barbaric part of our nature, which you partly saw, this would be no evolution”, she paused. “We have no choice we simply took the only logical decision to preserve our race from self-destruction”.

T’Prion didn’t answer, admitting it would have sounded like a defeat for her.

The next day Maximillian was contacted by Starfleet. Vulcan had sent a request of help. Indeed the planet was undergoing an abnormal seismic activity:

“We need to go there”, Maximillian said and before T’Prion could reply, he asked to be included in the rescue mission but he received a negative reply: “Enough ships have been sent and are already on their way. I was ordered to inform all the Admirals of the event”, the communication cut.

“This is logical”, Surak intervened “We should remain here, alive, for after, this is our mission”.

Surak had reached the meditation room while Maximillian and T’Prion were waiting for any possible communication. Suddenly Surak screamed, yet it wasn’t the voice of a five year old boy, it was the heart-rending cry of the Dragon. The sound of millions of voices screaming at the same time; it was the Spirit of Vulcan watching his body disappear into the cold dark space…

Maximillian and T’Prion rushed toward the room where they found their son in meditation posture, crying:

Maximillian knelt at his side and hugged him; tears were filling his eyes too. T’Prion was standing there, cold, motionless, until Maximillian’s look crossed hers. She knelt near them and joined the hug. It was unusual for her but she could feel their pain, though she was using all her skills to deal with it and suppress it.

Once the child stopped crying, there was a sense of silence, emptiness. T’Prion got up, Maximillian imitated her still holding Surak:

They entered a deep state of meditation, and went through a kind of ritual; the Spirit of Vulcan supporting his people. They had just left the room when the comlink rang. Maximillian rushed:

“All the high Officers of Starfleet and all the Vulcan Officers are called for an emergency meeting”, was said through the comlink.

“You need to go there”, Surak said “I will remain here with my grandmother”.

“What have I done this time?” he said, joking as usual, but Maximillian didn’t laugh.

They entered the meeting room and were invited to sit down, one of the High Officers spoke:

“Something terrible has just happened”, he started. “I will go straight to the point, Vulcan has been destroyed”.

Maximillian was expecting this phrase but he couldn’t help striking the table with his fist:

“How? Why?” he exclaimed; fully manifesting his pain and rage. T’Prion’s hand grasping firmly his arm calmed him down.

“We still need to have the details of it but it seems a rogue Romulan has caused it”.

“How is it possible that a single man could do that?” Admiral Spencer intervened.

There was a long moment of silence. The human beings were visibly upset and none of the other Vulcan Officers had spoken, then one of them asked:

“They are on their way here”, the High Officer replied, “We will contact all of you as soon as they arrived”.

The High Officer had just finished talking when suddenly the Earth started to shake. Everyone got up and rushed to the windows without being able to see anything. Then it stopped just as it had started.

Maximillian and T’Prion returned home. Admiral Spencer had asked if they wanted him to come too but T’Prion had replied that it was okay. Maximillian was amazed of her coldness while he was upset, wanting to scream and punch the world.

“How would pain be useful now?” she replied, “we need to rebuild our civilization, pain would only be an obstacle”.

Maximillian knew she was right. At that moment he was almost wishing to have no emotions at all. He started thinking:

“When Surak first entered the library, he said that this was important. I know now why”, he paused, “what about making it a kind of research center about Vulcan civilization? I mean until our people can find New Vulcan of course”.

“I gathered all of this information exactly for this reason, I think, even though I was completely unaware of it”, Maximillian replied, there was another silence. “It is weird; I don’t sense anything has happened to the Dragons. They were on Vulcan, but I feel they are alive”, he said.

The bell on the door rang and Maximillian was surprised to see his parents there with Susan. He invited them to enter where his father started to talk:

“I strongly disagreed with many of your choices, my son”, he started. “I never understood your love for Vulcan but I want to be there for you in this moment of pain”, he said nothing else and hugged his son.

“I don’t know what to say”, his mother whispered, coming closer to T’Prion. “Is there any way we can help?” she added.

The Vulcan Commander had a moment of hesitation, she wasn’t expecting this visit and all of this human warmth and tenderness, she replied:

“Surely… for now we are waiting for information but they told us the survivors will be led here on Earth”.

“Well, you would say that it is logical for human beings to support your people right now, since the Vulcan helped us so much after the war”, Susan started. “Plus this is what it is to be a family”, she added, blinking at her brother.

Maximillian’s family remained there until the comlink rang: the first survivors were on Earth.

The whole family moved. Indeed Susan had proposed to go in search of more information and offer their help, while Maximillian and the Vulcan part of the family would go in search of the survivors.

As soon as they arrived, they were directly led to Sarek who had asked to meet them.

He was changed, he didn’t show any emotion, but he was looking different, older, burdened:

“I have to thank you for your warning”, he started. “It allowed me to prepare somehow, and my son came just in time to save the High Council”, he added.

“There was nothing any of you, any of us could do”, he stated, “the Dragons are safe anyway. Indeed this secret project of Peter was a huge ship, able to take the Dragons away. He told me that he had worked on it for years without even knowing the reason why it was necessary, until yesterday…”

Maximillian spoke about his idea of creating a Vulcan culture center out of his library. Sarek was pleased of it and they started to talk about ways to link it with the Vulcan Embassy.

While they were still talking, Surak went exploring the surroundings; he was searching for someone. When he finally found him, he was surprised to see that the man wasn’t alone. Coming closer, he became even more fascinated realizing that there were two of them, the same person: one younger and one older. When they parted, Surak ran after the older man, who considered him with attention:

The child asked: “So you have really identified a planet that could be a colony for Vulcan?”

“This is wonderful”, he paused, “you are doing all you can for our people”.

“It is the least I can do after having…” he said, without being able to finish his phrase.

“If you burden yourself too much, you won’t be able to help others carrying their burdens”, the child said, then he opened the bag he had with him “As strange as it can seem, this was all written”. He handled the notebook to Spock.

“Da-kuv t’Yoshuhlnak?” the man asked “It is talking about Vulcan Spirit under the form of a mythical Dragon but nothing about destruction”.

“Read the end”, Surak adviced. “It was written on the walls of the Dragons cave deep in Mount Seleya”.

“The Dragons were born again to lead our people. The Spirit is now spreading among us and even more when this egg will disclose on New Vulcan”. He showed the Dragon egg.

Surak reached his parents who were looking for him. They were still with Sarek and young Spock had joined them. He was in process of telling his father about his decision to remain a Starfleet Officer:

“I know it would sound logical for me to resign in order to help rebuilding our civilization, but to me it feels right to remain in Starfleet”, he stated.

Surak intervened: “At times the most logical thing to do is admitting our feelings, and following them”, he paused, “like when you chose to marry Spock’s mother or when my mother chose to marry my father”.

“The Spirit has chosen two half humans to manifest, two human beings and only one Vulcan”, he continued. “Vulcan people taught so much to human beings. Now it is time for them to teach much to Vulcan people, if we are willing to learn”.

“For now it is logical to focus on preserving our traditions”, Sarek replied.

“Of course, and the Spirit is here to help with it too, but it will also inspire new traditions to be created. New Vulcan is an occasion of rebirthing and evolution for our people”, the child said.

Read more from The Reboot Series and Patris Angel.

Patris Angel The Reboot Series Da-Kuv t’Yoshuhlnak- The Dragon Circle	On Site 2014.08.12
Part Two, On a scientific mission to return ancient relics to Vulcan, the crew of the USS Adventure find some things will not stay in the past.