Chapter 25 - Stern Vulcan.....The Avatar Of Chaos had taken up on the planet of Order. The place where animal passions had been cast out now had an unwanted guest in a creature worse by far than animal or man at their lowest. Never in living memory had this stern world been successfully invaded.
Until then.
Beneath one foot lay all of the great fortress of Gol, and its environs.
Side by side ran hordes of sehlats and lematayas, their genetic enmity now forgotten amidst truly blind panic.
The Forge was now mostly glass, burned to mirror by a stray breath as the beast touched down.
King Ghidorah, the Ancient Destroyer, had landed on Vulcan. Barely sentient or cunningly evil, the monster knew exactly where to strike first. Its eyes blazing green, the Death Head searched the landscape, picking up a ridiculous amount of detail relative to its size as it went.
It was a small house, the unostentatious main home of the public representative of Vulcan's most noble house. It was also the place where two shattered young people learned to trust again. Where they had nearly killed each other. Where they had fallen in love, and where they had first made love. It was the place a human woman of considerable inner strength had tried and failed to save a planet from its own insular mania. It was where a diplomat gave up his dignity to have one last chance to save his family.
The home of Ambassador Sarek and Lady Amanda was destroyed by the same amount of energy once used to destroy the USS Constitution. An example of overkill and of the beast's massive contempt for its mortal enemies, The Rock.
Now, the next stage began. Ghidorah began its favorite phase, the drinking in of the panic his mere presence would cause. Usually, this was a deep, deep well. This day, though, it was dry.
All across Vulcan, there was no panic. For Vulcans had decided that Ghidorah was only a myth. They had positively, absolutely, and completely convinced themselves of that. The Ancient Destroyer's rampage was being ignored.
This, Ghidorah decided, would have to change. Firing its Mecha-red beam into the atmosphere, it converted half the nitrogen in the planet's atmosphere to oxygen. The gold beam then fired from King Head, and caused that oxygen to become excited. Combining with the hydrogen produced by these and other reactions, Ghidorah produced an event almost unheard of on Vulcan, except for brief, brief periods of no more than minutes.
Clouds began to form, and those clouds quickly agitated into the fiercest storms the arid world had seen in aeons.
All over Vulcan, it was raining, and raining heavily. And this was not to be ignored.
Sharp eyes made for hideously bright sunlight saw their denial fall away, as a steaming, giant apparition appeared before their eyes. And so another event unprecedented took place.
Vulcans began to scream, and it was not at all a pleasant sound to hear, unless one happened to be Ghidorah. Pleased that it had the desired panic, the monster raised its wings, so to bombard the planet from above. But as it went to do so, two metallic figures streaked forward, and cut off its wings. Ghidorah fell with a roaring crash.
As it regenerated, the creature looked up and saw the two metallic figures. Great Mech Suits, each about 500 meters in height. Vulcan symbols were emblazoned on their torsos, meaning 'Dignity' and 'Compassion'. Each wielded mammoth cutting tools.
The battle for Vulcan had begun.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Aboard the Enterprise, the Bridge bristled with returning personnel, including the newlyweds. The mood, however, was anything but festive. For despite its best efforts, the finest crew in the galaxy had failed, and King Ghidorah had landed on Vulcan itself. Beside himself with rage, Captain Kirk shouted orders to his new bride.
"Uhura - raise any and all authority figures! Tell them to get the hell off the planet! If they don't believe that they're about to be annihilated by an actual, honest-to-Creator demon, then tell them that Kruge survived Qo'noS and has fired the Sol-destabilizing element trilithium into the 40 Eridani Star."
Shaken by how comfortable the main Nav/Helm console felt under their hands, two once and hopefully future Captains chatted while attempting to chart the best orbit possible in this grim situation.
"Hikaru - vhat ees this trilithium? I have never heard of it."
Despite the darkness that was upon them, Sulu quipped.
"From the same people that brought you Corbomite, Pavel."
But then Colonel Worf at Tactical reminded Sulu of a critical fact.
"Because of an error made by spies in service of the Empire, Captain Sulu - Corbomite was real."
Chekov responded.
"Colonel - let's hope that was not the beginning of a trend. Ve need no more superweapons, in this war. Two minus two, vhen all is done, vill fill my quota nicely."
Though no longer Comm Officer, Uhura still worked that station, in a far more powerful capacity.
"I repeat! As Secretary Of State, I am acting under the authority of the Chief Executive, and telling you that you are under orders to evacuate Vulcan. The planet -"
Not knowing whether her possible audience believed in Ghidorah yet, wife borrowed a page from husband, and got extremely creative.
"Due to a bio-hazard of unknown origin, the planet Vulcan is rapidly being rendered uninhabitable for bipedal carbon-based life forms. Within hours, it will go from Class M to... Demon Class."
Uhura took a nod from her new daughter-in-law as approval. Saavik shrugged, as well. "In many respects, that is the truth."
Kirk issued some startling orders.
"Mister Worf, you have complete control over all weapons. Sulu, Chekov, I need you to put as much of your manual expertise to work as possible. We may have to skirt the planet's exosphere, and I need lever-pullers, not button-pushers."
Sulu obeyed, but not without question. "Captain - Pavel and I can still handle our share of the weapons banks, as well."
Jim looked pensive.
"Hikaru - could you fire upon the Great Opera House at Hrithf?"
There were no more questions, after that. Worf would fire upon whatever he was told, if the main target was Ghidorah. But Vulcan had been home to three of their shipmates, and a fourth fallen one. It was a place of welcome, and of that beautiful, memorable day when Jim and Peter were finally reunited. Firing upon it would require someone with no attachments to any target except the monster.
With that done, Kirk struck upon an idea.
"Peter, Saavik. You can move planetary masses. Move Ghidorah off of Vulcan, as far as you can. He's not planetary in size."
"Yet," Jim's son quickly added in. "But he will rapidly reach fourteen megameters, if we don't stop him here."
Doctor McCoy counted every second that he was not called to Sickbay as a blessing, especially now. But he ignored his desire to not analyze this situation, in this case.
"The Earth itself is fourteen megameters, or just about. What happens after he reaches that size?"
Saavik spoke a single word.
"Armageddon."
Spock broke the silence that followed.
"Jim - advise against moving Ghidorah away. His mass is not yet that of a planet, but it is easily that of a small moon. To pull him away suddenly could tear Vulcan apart as quickly as anything else."
Kirk hoped that the Fabrini aboard Yonada had begun pulling away Vulcan's children, as planned. Because the words "deteriorating Situation" were rapidly becoming a rose-colored euphemism.
McCoy headed for the turbolift.
"Jim, why don't we beam people directly from Vulcan's hospitals? I have the room in Sickbay."
Spock also shot down this notion, although with no relish at all. "Doctor - a study of King Ghidorah's attacks would reveal what sensors already have. The beast targets certain facilities first and foremost. Facilities like hospitals."
Leonard shook his head, and prayed that his long-distance wife, Natira, was safe aboard Yonada.
"First rule of a thug. Target the sick and helpless. Considering his age, Ghidorah probably created that rule."
Uhura managed to contact one leader - but it wasn't a Vulcan. It was Natira McCoy herself. Leonard smiled. "Honey ,please tell me you're all right."
Her lovely face looked grim.
"Leonard, we began to transport the children, and those we got out are responding well to Mister Spock's Surakian Meditation program. It is helping them to break through their parents' denial of the situation."
Saavik looked at Spock, and was impressed that he obviously was fighting the very thing that kept them apart for decades, and had caused her so much pain. Spock nodded at the screen.
"The pain caused by a parent's denial is one type I have recently come to better understand, Lady Natira."
Jim kept the conversation on track.
"Nat, you spoke of those you were able to get out. What about the others?"
"James, it is a disaster. Half the children are being dispersed by the Ancient Destroyer's gravity storms, as we take them. Some - only parts of them make it. Still others are being killed by their parents, to spare them further suffering."
A quick look at sensors shook even Spock's outer calm. "Captain, flash flooding has taken out the Tnavit Turnway. It is entirely under water. It had been full of those headed for spaceport, I believe."
Kirk felt his stomach turn. One of the two mightiest worlds in the Federation was being destroyed at a hideously rapid pace.
"Spock, much of Vulcan is at least very arid, if not desert. I've heard those called 'the Thirsty Sands' on countless occasions."
"Jim, even a sponge can only absorb so much water. Think. Those paths, structures - our entire culture was built around erosion caused by sand, not water. Imagine if the Crystal Cathedrals of Aeris VII were to be taken to Polex VIII, which is quite quake-prone. Or the reverse, having the Polexian Sediment Houses, so built for shifting, ended up on Aeris' static plains? To be Vulcan is to accept in all things the absence of abundant water."
Kirk looked at the screen, and his gut started to churn again. "Spock - didn't you take me spelunking to a series of superheated caves, that, in theory, run all the way down to the planet's outer core?"
Spock sat down, at that. That he did not cry was a miracle, even to him. For it would have been forgivable upon hearing that his planet was now irrevocably doomed. But he did not cry. It was not his way.
"Lady Natira. I suggest you depart. There will be no more children arriving from Vulcan."
Onscreen, Natira nodded, cast a longing look at the husband whose retirement she had been expecting that year, and prepared to break the transmission. But then, the screen rocked. Saavik shook her head.
"From the ground, Ghidorah is bombarding Yonada. He does not wish the children to escape."
Looking lost, Peter muttered a name. Jim looked at him. "Peter? Who is Kal-El?"
The young champion looked a little older, just then.
"Dad, he was somebody that Ghidorah hunted down in a very sadly similar circumstance. Had he lived, this would have been his kind of job. Permission to protect Yonada, sir?"
"Go. Both of you. Get them out of here."
Teleporting out, the two missed Scotty's message. "Captain? Why have we not entered the atmosphere yet?"
"Scotty? Are you saying that this ship has 'Bumblebee' Drive? I thought you were joking. Full atmospheric maneuvering?"
"Aye. Only like the Bumblebee, dinna ask me how it works."
"Who cares? Sulu, Chekov take us in, best survivable speed. I'd say we have a dainty dish to serve before the King! Like about 100 quantum torpedoes."
Never dreaming that they'd ever willingly enter a planet's lower atmosphere, the USS Enterprise-Omega made to join the battle for Vulcan - for however long there was one.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
To describe Vulcan as a desert world was to be highly inaccurate. Besides the often limited definition of deserts as true wastelands, Vulcan was home to many diverse life-forms, from the eternally battling sehlats and lematayas to the sky-riders, transparent and breathtaking.
To describe Vulcan as an arid, dry world, though, was not highly inaccurate. As Qo'noS had evolved with a lack of plant life, so had Vulcan evolved with a lack of abundant water. Such had always been the case.
Until now.
Cloud cover was at 100%. Great valleys that were once oceans were now oceans again. Half the planet's nitrogen had been transformed into oxygen, and combined to change an arid world into a drowning world.
"This cannot be."
That phrase had been repeated an incredible 1,729 times by the lead tenor of the Vulcan Opera, as he floated atop the now-mobile Great Opera House. Stones meant to block sand storms proved little help against trillions of tons of buoyant water. Any structure with an adobe-like base was in even wore condition.
Beneath the water were the Vulcans. So many of them had not even tried to escape. Others had tried, but found that logic was no substitute for experience. They did not know how to swim.
An absolutely obscene site lay at the traffic wall by the Great Turnway. The cooled tunnels now formed a great barrier reef. The coral was not coral - it was people. Waves of them slammed one into the other, compacting flesh and blood, and the waters above gave a good accounting of the First Plague Of Egypt, as told in many Terran Holy Books. There was a sea of eyeballs, all popped out by the pressure below. Other body parts soon followed. Explosive decompression was resulting from too much of the wrong kind of oxygen.
Another fate awaited those in the highest places, like mountains and quake-secured buildings. Many were blinded beyond their innate ability to recover, for no one had ever told them about how light reflects off large bodies of water - the information simply didn't seem relevant. Many of these unfortunate souls hurled themselves off their high perches. Their thoughts were almost uniform.
"I am a Vulcan. There Is No Pain. If this is so, then I am not screaming."
"I am not blind. My physiology has many compensating factors to prevent this."
"There are no massive bodies of water on most parts of Vulcan. There are no floods."
"Never In Living Memory has Vulcan been invaded. We have never been conquered."
"The Ancient Destroyer is only a myth."
The water struck the bodies hard. Somewhere, much of this new water was finding a series of caves - caves that led to the planet's molten core. It would be soon, the fall of Stern Vulcan.
But before that could happen, two metallic giants would make King Ghidorah know the pain.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The three heads of the beast arose from steaming seas that should not have been there. The stench of death intermixed with a humidity level that most Vulcans could not even contemplate. The very few that were still alive would not be so very long. Nor would their world survive them by much. Vulcan's life and dignity had both been robbed from it.
Its life could not be restored. But its dignity would be avenged.
The gigantic mech suits sailed the new oceans like gleaming comets. Their mammoth swords gleamed in the last light that 40 Eridani would ever cast on the planet. Their attacks were all force, and contained not a whit of energy useful to Ghidorah.
The pale white Mech slammed at its counterpart head on the monster. For reasons the beast could not possibly have understood, its machinery- disrupting red beam had no effect on its attackers. The Mecha-head was sliced clean repeatedly, and diced to pieces on five separate occasions. The drain was not unnoticed by the Ancient Destroyer.
The gold head rose up with a roar, and fired not one but two continuous gravity waves at the two relatively miniscule mechs. But neither one raised the shield it was carrying. For the gravity beams had no more effect than the red beam. Indeed, the red mech only reflected it back. Two of the creature's great molars broke straight off, and were caught in tractor beams.
If the red mech's pilot was rejoicing, they didn't do so long. From out of the surreal waters came Ghidorah's bipolar tail, smashing the red mech into the sea floor that had once been Vulcan's Forge. But if the gravity from the beams had not done it in, then Ghidorah's bulk stood no chance of doing so. Red Mech was merely waiting.
The white mech was constantly reopening cuts and wounds, almost faster than the monster could heal them. In one arm was an energy-lirpa. In the other, a gigantic Gatling-type gun, firing sonics in the form of bullets. The force they hit with easily negated any use the monster made of their energies. Finally, King Ghidorah could bear no more. Snake-like, the gold head darted towards the Mech, which fell back for hundreds of miles.
A better strategist would have sensed a trap. The Ancient Destroyer had never been big on strategy, though. To its mind, one foe was held fast while the other was about to be devoured. But when the gold head had reached even its maximum upward extension, an order went between the two mechs.
"Fire."
Twin lassoes of almost-pure neutronium fired out from the twin mechs. Easily piercing even Ghidorah's thick skin, they found their common point. Pulling together, the rising mechs tore the entire mouth off the gold head. Requiring a significant amount of regeneration now, Ghidorah could not even shriek in agony.
It readied the Death Head to fire, for revenge and in its defense. But as the dead eyes began to glow, and the head to undulate, the mechs rose on either side of the Death Head. Having broken the mouth and jaw down, they fired the teeth of the gold head into the sensitive eyes of The Death Head. This time, Ghidorah could and did cry out. It sounded very much like a bratty child who was being disciplined for the very first time.
The mechs then followed up the favor by firing explosives into the wounded eyes. Inside Ghidorah's skull, the eyes that once glowed now burned and melted. It was already beginning to regenerate when 10 successive quantum torpedoes slammed into the dead eye sockets.
The USS Enterprise had arrived, and its Captain was a man impressed with results.
"Spock - Nyta's busy finding a spaceport for Yonada. See if you can contact those mech-suits' pilots."
Chekov shook his head.
"Those two are amazingly smart fighters. They're doing as much damage as the whole Klingon fleet."
While Ghidorah temporarily retreated, and Spock made efforts to contact the Mechs, Sulu nodded at the screen.
"Whoever they are - they've got the touch."
Scotty disagreed.
"More like they must be touched - in the head! To face such a foe with two altered terraforming suits strikes me as madness!"
Spock felt a chill.
"Jim, I have the two pilots. They are - known to us."
He raised them onscreen. The white mech's pilot nodded, and raised his hand in Vulcan salute. So did the red mech's pilot, though she added a wave hello.
"Live long and prosper, Spock."
Spock found himself able to give only the most basic of greetings, so great was his shock at whom he addressed.
"Live Long And Prosper, Father. Peace And Long Life, Mother."
After decades of watching their children suffer, Sarek and Amanda had taken up the battle against Ghidorah. The monster would only ever face two fiercer opponents.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Appearing inside Yonada, Peter and Saavik were greeted by a weary Princess Natira McCoy. She marveled at how much the two resembled her dear Leonard's best friends.
"Greetings to they who are The Rock. I noticed the bombardment has stopped. Is the Beast destroyed?"
Peter turned, his eyes glowing.
"Sadly, Lady Natira, that cannot happen just yet. But our power is proof against his, for now. You'll be safe while we're here."
Saavik asked a question she dreaded the answer to. "Lady Natira, how many Vulcans were you able to beam aboard?"
The priestess royal seemed to take certain tragedies as personally as her husband.
"Only 10,000. A combination of the disaster and your people's refusal to cooperate made our task almost insuperably difficult. And there is more."
Natira showed them a huge chamber, where cots and blankets had been set up for many of Vulcan's children. They sat motionless, still, and looked lost.
Saavik felt her heart go into her throat. The thought of being surrounded by that many Vulcan children absolutely terrified the victim of a planetary cold shoulder.
Perhaps sensing his wife's reticence, Peter stopped and urged her forward. "Saavik-kam. These are not the ones who tormented you. They are parentless, houseless things, as you were. They need you. And in order to help them, I need you. Please, at long last let go of your fear."
She was not budging, just yet. "And have you, husband, ever let go of your anger towards Sam and Aurelan? The anger that so blinds you, you said nothing of it during our visit to the City?"
Peter was also not budging.
"My hypocrisy shames me, but it does not excuse your own. If you do not face those past monsters, then we are dead when we face Ghidorah at Megiddo. Saavik-kam, wife, be my Rock once more."
In his eyes, Saavik had always sworn, she could find the secret of life itself. She went to move, and this time hesitated but did not stop.
"You children of Vulcan. You have lost much. But retained within you is the very best of all that we accomplished, as a people. The Path Of C'Thia..."
Saavik could immediately tell that her stirring words were in fact stirring nothing at all.
"Husband. Am I correct in my remembrance of Vulcan Law? The law that states that no one who has served in the diplomatic corps may assume high office til better than a year has passed?"
Peter sensed her path. He smiled at the light in his life, at last beginning to fully shine on her own.
"You are correct, my wife. In order to fully detach them from Non-Vulcan interests, the diplomats are given a year away. Both Spock, our father's Thy'la, and Sri Sarek have yet to pass a full year as such. The succession thus passes to the next in the line of Surak's eldest son. In short, you are Head Of House, That House Of Houses. You are Sra Sra."
The irony hit the young champion with an impact rivaling the giant monster her grandparents were fighting below on Vulcan. She calmly raised an eyebrow, despite all this.
"I am - T'Pau."
The prophecy had been fulfilled. Stern Vulcan had turned out the neediest heart, and would soon be no more. Now, that neediest heart, the little girl named Saavik who had been rejected so mightily, had become, in the words of her adoptive father James, "all of Vulcan in one package". the irony was not lost on either side of The Rock. Nor was the sound of soft tears, coming from the one child who was not motionless. Taking her Vulcan reaffirmation back past full circle, Saavik leaned down beside her.
"Why do you cry?"
"My - my father is among the wounded, but I may not see him. We are told not to enter the hospital."
Saavik picked the little one up.
"Tell me your name."
"I am called - T'Yeka."
"T'Yeka - we will take you to your father."
Grateful that Healers - and relatives, she now realized - T'Nia and Soreth were among those recovered, Saavik took the child around, til she pointed at a man with a bandaged face.
"Sri Soorai - Qual Se Tu?"
Soorai let a smile broader than he would normally allow to take over what was left of his steam-burned face.
"It is I. T'Yeka, my little heart - they told me that you were dead."
It was doubtful that even a master of Gol would chastise a child, at a moment like that, for hugging the one she loved best.
"I was - until just now."
As her sedated father rested, T'Yeka turned to her benefactor.
"Madam, forgive me. I have been rude not to ask your name, as well. What is it?"
On the Bridge Of the Enterprise was a man who would have been secretly overjoyed to hear the words that came next.
"I am Saavik, Daughter Of Spock."
The little one's eyes went wide. This moment would stay with her all her days. She bowed, and curtsied.
"Oh, Your Majesty! You Are The Rock."
As she withdrew, Saavik looked at her Peter.
"This is why, as my mind varied so much on these matters, that you said nothing. You trusted me to make the right choice."
He extended out two fingers, and she did the same, meeting his.
"We are, Saavik - what we are. Now how about the rest of those children?"
"Ghidorah is combated in many ways, Peter. Physically - and through these small victories, over despair."
But back in the main chamber, all the children save for T'Yeka spoke with one, booming voice.
"we are the Jtharh. The voice that speaks under Vulcan. send my children back. there is no threat to vulcan. ghidorah does not exist. we say there is no threat. we are vulcan. we are its alpha. we are its omega."
Closing his eyes and moving his opened hand slowly forward through empty air in front of him, Peter dispelled the Jtharh, once and for all.
"No. You're History."
And as the accumulated emotions began to awaken the unprepared children, Saavik received a tug from T'Yeka.
"Eminence - you are most fortunate to have him. He is as handsome as I'd heard."
Saavik agreed, of course.
"On occasion, little one, he has his uses."
But Peter was sweating. Sundering and dispersing something as powerful as the Jtharh was bound to have consequences.
"Something is happening, back on the surface. And I don't mean Ghidorah."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Kirk helped a staggering Spock recover from the side effects of Peter's actions against the Jtharh.
"More water, Spock?"
"No, Jim. I have steeled myself for the many consequences of what we face here this day. But your son cleanly broke a force and a power that was never meant to be broken, and certainly not cleanly. Clearly, his power is growing as quickly as Ghidorah's. Or should I say that their power is growing? Jim - she has owned me her father again. I do not know what this will come to mean, but I am gratified."
Captain Kirk nodded at his oldest and dearest friend.
"Let the bad pass with the good, Spock. Let that much be found, when we're losing so much else."
Sulu and Chekov were continuing to scan for vanished Ghidorah. Worf was keeping weapons charged and at the ready. M-5 had the Herculean task of keeping Enterprise-Omega's systems at peak efficiency. Secretary Of State Uhura reported good news at last.
"Mister President - Alpha Centauri will take Yonada, provided that we can get it away from Ghidorah. They have no working ports, at present. But Yonada will be permitted to orbit."
Kirk nodded at his new bride, every bit as efficient as she had always been, and capable of handling any task. Probably including his job.
"Good work, Madame Secretary. Spock, was that Jtharh Vulcan's blind reason or its hidden emotions?"
"Neither, Captain. The Jtharh is reason, but it is reason that knows not of itself. It is, in effect, the sleep of reason."
Kirk looked out at the endless oceans of the doomed world.
"The sleep of reason... brings forth monsters."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
A force beyond most reckoning was being destroyed. But it was not going quietly.
"by fire and by water, we are betrayed and slain. So do we gain vengeance."
From the very waters, two new creatures formed.
"Our b'aar - our dying breaths rise to oppose the one who all the deceivers say is here."
The first creature looked like a bulldog bred with a crocodile. It breathed fire, could burrow, and had a curved horn that came out from its nose.
The second creature had a long body, could lower temperatures to absolute zero, possessed a spined dorsal along its horizontal form, and had a horn that came straight from its nose.
"you are the B'aar-A'gon and the B'aar-U'gon, fire and ice together. if the deceivers speak truly somehow, find and destroy the old one."
Able to see through cloaks, both BaarAgon and BaarUgon knew where to find their quarry. Whether they could defeat him was another question.
Its eyes had not yet stopped burning. The mighty Death Head had been wounded by Ghidorah's own substance. In short, the eyes were probably never going to grow back. Its otherwise perfect cloak was compromised by the beast's shrieking.
In this, two of the destructive creature's newly-evolved foes found him even more quickly than their enhanced senses would have allowed. They were the embodiment of Vulcan's lost Jtharh, the planet's unreasoning undervoice. They were the fire that kept back the truth, and the ice that kept things from moving at anything but the very slowest pace. They were the B'aar A'gon, and the B'aar U'gon. They were the embodiments of ignorance and laziness. The worst aspects of Vulcan had formed monsters to fight a monster that its people died denying existed.
C'Thia, IDIC, and even Kaidith had all been corrupted, as foretold in the Book Of Surak. A girl rejected by Vulcan now stood in rulership with her human husband over both Romulans and Vulcans. And if either Romulus or Vulcan had been in existence, then, the fulfillment of Unification would have demanded a massive celebration. Understandably, no such event was planned. The Vulcan of 5000 years ago had been victorious over the forces of reason and logic. The spear of metaphor now stuck through the heart of the entire planet. Surak had attempted to supplant fear of the unknown and fear of one's neighbor for fear of rampant emotion and its consequences. But those that followed him had often ignored the words rampant, unguarded, and uncontrolled, and simply preached a fear of all emotion.
Those two tiny fears now approached the Great Fear of the cosmos.
The supreme irony was that Vulcan emotions were truly more primal and violent than most other bipedals. But where a brace was called for, Vulcans had taken to using a tourniquet. The flow of blood would no longer be cut off, though, and the diseased, dry limb had fallen away. As had the planet.
The BaarAgon and BaarUgon began their attack in the oddest way possible. They chewed on Ghidorah's immense tails. And yet they were neither feeding off the beast nor trying to truly harm him as yet. Their objective would soon be revealed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Onboard the Enterprise, Kirk and Spock listened intently as Sarek explained his and Amanda's actions, via Commlink from the Mech Suits still skirting the surface of dying Vulcan's recently-created oceans.
"Once I knew that Ghidorah would arrive, I knew also that Vulcan itself was doomed. Once I made my own effort to unlock and change the Jtharh, I knew as well that a great many of our people would be lost. Too many. I raged openly at this fact."
Spock nodded. "Your illness, Father?"
"No, my son. That was quite under control, at the time I describe. But to have my own people remove me as Federation Ambassador, because of news they did not wish to hear, told me that T'Pring and her Order had won. Not only would Vulcan's life end, but it would lose its dignity to this savage denial. My world's dignity I place above my own. So I had worker-drones craft these terraforming suits from the products of several companies, and kept them hidden. This was all done at an expense that now no longer matters."
Amanda now spoke, in a voice made robust by having tasted of real battle.
"I watched as the Order corrupted my wonderful stepson. As my baby told me of how he was used, and taunted by someone he should have grown up playing with. I saw a little girl who was afraid to go outside. I saw a little boy refuse to be touched by anyone except that same little girl. This monster is responsible for it all. Jim, you are like a son to us, just as your own son is. So your family is our family. And since Brianna and Aurelan were people with tremendous problems, then I alone am the matriarch. As such, I am doing what any good mother would, given the chance. I am beating the tar out of the rapist and thug that has been stalking my family."
Sarek nodded.
"James - we are not beaming up to you, just yet. This thing is done when Vulcan is done. Not before."
As the transmission broke off, Kirk wondered something out loud.
"Could this day - possibly get any more chaotic?"
Sulu stared at his board.
"Captain, twenty-one shuttles are launching, heading towards the planet's surface. Including Shuttle X. It's been massively remodified. I think it's packing as much firepower as the old refitted Enterprise."
Chekov checked the readings.
"Most shuttles are drones, but Shuttle X is piloted by one human male in his mid thirties. Sir - it's Commander Decker!"
Jim considered his former First Officer's moodiness, particularly since the tragic concurrent losses of Commanders Ilia and Xon. He then recalled words Will Decker had spoken to Peter, what now seemed like untold ages ago.
"'I am my father's son' - my God. He's...."
Kirk turned to Worf, who knew as much about human battles as he did Klingon ones.
"Colonel, based on Shuttle X's approach vector, what would you guess its overall attack pattern to be?"
The warrior was quick to respond.
"There can be no mistake, sir. The use of fuel and power to draw Ghidorah out is indicative of the desperate attack pattern known as Divine Wind."
Sulu gave the unnecessary translation.
"Kame Kasi."
Jim felt his stomach drop.
"I - am - my father's son! Matt, talk him out of this, if you can hear me. Do for your boy what I couldn't do for mine."
But aboard Shuttle X, this prayer would have an odd answer. Will pointed at the now-battling monsters.
"Hopefully, one of those two whatevers gets his Death-Mouth open nice and wide. How's my piloting, sir?"
The ghostly image of Commodore Matt Decker smiled at his boy.
"You're making me proud, son. Do what you have to do. Make that thing pay."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Onboard the now-escaped Yonadan spaceworld, some hugs were exchanged as The Rock said goodbye, each in their own way.
"Peter, when this thing is done, I will ask that you and your wife be the guests of honor at a true state dinner. I ask now, because I've a feeling you will be asked to a great many."
"Thank you, Natira. But if I may - why aren't you and Doctor McCoy together more often?"
She smiled.
"Many marriages would fail if left to our varied and intense schedules. But our union is predicated upon our many, many responsibilities. We are what we are. Priestess Royal. Chief Medical Officer. We allow that ours is a long-distance love. But it is no lesser for that. I charge you with the task of keeping my Leonard safe, Peter."
Peter thought about what playing bodyguard to McCoy would entail.
"I'd rather fight the big monster."
Saavik hugged young T'Yeka, who had agreed to take on an awesome burden.
"Then you will follow my father Spock's teachings? Some may call them controversial."
The little one shook her head.
"That embrace makes me no less Vulcan. Nor will these new words of wisdom. Live Long And Prosper, Sra Sra Saavik."
"Live Long And Prosper, Teacher T'Yeka."
As the world took to warp and the Kirks teleported back to the Enterprise, T'Yeka spoke Spock's words to the frightened Vulcan children. Hers was a sacred responsibility. She would prove as worthy as the one who appointed her.
"Emotions are not poisonous snakes, which will bite you, no matter how well you constrict them. Rather, they are our own arms and legs. They may be used as fists and kickers, or as writers and movers. The hand may be balled, or it may be opened. We fear the unthinking fist that we took no care to prevent forming. But we need not fear thinking upon the fist. For if we do, then we shall still form that fist, but tell ourselves that we are not. We control our emotions because we wish to. Just as humans, and so many others do. We are a stern race. We are what we are. But we need not live in fear. And we must never belittle those who do not choose a path of control. For the spear we cast at them is in us as well. No wound heals when it is not acknowledged. We do not punch, and we do not kick. Because that is wrong. That is reality - and that is the truth."
A world died slowly. But with it went an old fear born of ignorance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Aboard the Enterprise, two sets of able hands kept the ship from being tossed like a twig in Vulcan's stormy atmosphere.
The hands of a true warrior held sway over hundreds of weapons banks, including the new, impossibly powerful quantum torpedoes.
A Vulcan hid his sharp disappointment over his late people's ignorance. He had awoken from his. Why, at last, could they not awaken from theirs? Why had all his planning only been able to save 10,000, and most of them children?
The sharp mind of the greatest Commander in Starship history was scanning the battlefield, looking for any advantage that could be wrested from the prevailing chaos.
In Sickbay, a Doctor sat alone, knowing full well his station would soon be flooded with casualties. He was in no hurry to do his good work. He was one officer who minded missing battle not at all, and he would loudly tell you just that.
A Scotsman always underestimated for his brilliance chatted with the M5 Computer, giving it those rare pieces of information it did not already possess.
The First Lady and Secretary of State for the Emergency Interim Galactic Authority was working her old console, but this time she was giving more orders than she was relaying. For Commander Upenda Nyota Uhura-Kirk, this fact felt damned good, despite how it came about. Her new husband had delegated to exactly the right person. But no one needed to tell him this.
Two forces of pure light appeared aboard the Bridge. They would soon learn the identity of the mech-pilots, and act upon this fact in their own way. They were The Rock.
Below, the people both heroes had called parents prepared their altered terraforming mech-suits for all-out battle. For them, this fight was quite personal.
Two monsters darted out of the water, having finished chewing on the tails of a huge, gigantic third. The third had lost two of its eyes forever, and wailed in well-deserved pain.
In Shuttle X, a young man named Decker chatted with his dead father's ghost while preparing to fight walking Armageddon using Genesis. Twenty other shuttles followed his lead, all drones at his whim.
Planet Vulcan had one hour left to live.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
BaarUgon froze the seas around King Ghidorah, leaving only the frenzied heads above the surface. The rapid currents that Ghidorah itself had created now carried it along as BaarUgon's rainbow beam continued to refreeze the boiling waters.
BaarAgon's attack was even fiercer. Taking the tail-fragments that it and its brother had chewed off Ghidorah, it began a fiery attack as the horn on its nose glowed orange. Contained within the fire were ashen remnants of the tail-fragments. Since Ghidorah was vulnerable to his own substance, the effect of the fire mixing with the hard, fire-resistant fragments, was like molten lava. It was all unloaded on the now-vulnerable Death Head.
Now, Sarek and Amanda in their great Mechs joined the attack. Bonded for six decades, their thoughts and actions were as one.
"Sarek - is it time?"
"Indeed, Wife. Let us now truly Bond."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
In the Enterprise's new Tavern, Guinan, now free of her Borg implants, took pleasure in keeping the children happy and filled with ice cream sodas. Staring at the live feed from Vulcan, she saw the two mechs moving in an odd tandem.
"Now what are those two up to?"
Among the oldest of the younger children, Demora Sulu sighed.
"Guinan - don't you know anything about Mech Suits? It's obvious what they're going to do."
The other children seemed to share in Demora's secret knowledge. But aboard the Bridge, a secret told to Peter Kirk had him comforted not at all.
"Are those two out of their minds? Amanda's in her 80's! Sarek is dying. They can't just go doing -"
Captain Kirk cut his son off.
"What they've watched you and Saavik do for six years, Peter?"
The young Champion fell silent. The man who was the fulcrum of this crisis' possible resolution hated feeling useless. But his was a very specific task, and its time was not yet. He allowed the worry to pass between him and his wife, who felt an odd pride at what her grandparents were doing - especially now that she knew they were her grandparents.
"Peter-Kam, they will be fine. Sri and Sra will return to us, and witness the birth of our child, their Sru-Cham. You must have faith."
He took her hand.
"In them? Always. But at the first sign of trouble, I'm going in. Have you prepared Sophie, yet?"
"Sophia - thinks that she is prepared. But while she may protect our treasure, she could not hope to survive the next phase. Our timing must be nothing less than flawless."
"Then it will be."
"Peter - come here."
At Spock's summons, his son-in-law looked at some readings. He nodded.
"An excellent idea, Sri Spock. The Cochrane Ravine on T'Khut will make a great recovery point."
He corrected his best friend's son.
"Peter, Sarek is Sri. I will be Sri, only when I have earned it."
Peter smiled, despite everything.
"Okay - Pop."
Spock winced a bit, but found this acceptable. After all, given his multiple levels of familial relation to the young man, 'Pop' was perhaps the best compromise he could hope for.
Captain Kirk struck upon an idea.
"Mister Sulu, Mister Chekov - activate tractor beams at various points around the ship. Invert beams to repulse settings. Your call as to how high the power, the length of the beams, and their placement."
Not only were the two Starfleet professionals glad for something extra to do, but they knew it was their Captain's way of saying that he was cognizant of their feelings. The transfer of the weapons' banks control to Worf had been a blow to their egos, necessary though it had been. Additionally, the idea showed their old friend was in rare form.
"Several tractor beams along the wessel's underbelly should keep us from striking these new oceans."
"I say Ghidorah tries to take out our nacelles. Several short beams should provide some nice back-up."
"Hikaru - a spike configuration right above the Bridge?"
"Good one, Pavel, but make it a pyramiding spike."
The ship had shields. Awesome, powerful shields. But shields could fail, especially when the foe was so unrelenting. Hard gravity beams from the gold head would find the great starship every so often. When that happened, no one thought of the Enterprise as invulnerable.
"Captain, this is M5. I'm having trouble finding just the right balance for gravimetric and atmospheric pressures. This ship is too big, and Vulcan's externals are varying like no atmosphere should. We have to pull back to a higher orbit."
A second call came.
"Jim, Sickbay is flooded. I have over 100 patients. Extreme Nausea, appendicitis - Saavik, do you feel any pressure on the baby?"
"No, Doctor. But with our physiology, it is doubtful that I speak for others in the crew."
Kirk reluctantly gave the order.
"Helm, pull us back to the ozonosphere. Or - to where the ozonosphere used to be. Burn off the cloud cover with a wide beam phaser barrage. This planet has enough water."
Even though they could directly target Ghidorah from almost any point, to the Captain this maneuver still felt too much like a retreat.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Below, the Mechs' wild dance was done. Tesseract technology, enabling something to be larger on the inside than it seemed on the outside, was activated. The two mechs merged into one three-kilometer Robot. A new symbol graced its torso. C'Thia. Reality-Truth. Logic. Sarek's plan was reaching its fruition.
"Commence Anti-Epidermal activities."
From the bleeding eyes of the Death-Head, the Mech's great lirpa sliced off large segments of the grayish skin. It then used that skin a flay, with which to peel off yet more skin. The skeleton of the Death Head was beginning to appear.
The Mecha-Head was being quick-melted by BaarAgon, again and again. The King Head was a frozen, golden statue as the swooping BaarUgon simply never stopped.
Will Decker needed no strategy book to tell him where to strike next.
"Drone-shuttles! Ten on the tails! Ten on the wings! Keep this thing unmoving."
Above, Enterprise continued a bombardment so precise, a single talon-tip could be clipped by a single phaser beam. The ship knew no damage from the returned fire, when it came.
The Ancient Destroyer should have been doomed by this alliance. But as Ghidorah on some level knew, alliances fall apart, given enough time. It had merely to wait.
By turns, the great Mech Suit was skinning Ghidorah's Gray Death Head Alive - or dead, if one believed the rumors. Its builder, Sarek, had played it very smart indeed. For years, Peter Kirk had mind-melded with his mentor to fight off the effects of the illness caused by the overlong presence of the katras of Sarek's fallen parents. From the young telepath, Sarek had gained strength - and something more.
As a stunned Amanda found out when Sarek unveiled the altered terraforming giants, her husband and Thy'la was the thirdmost authority on the nature and being of King Ghidorah. By applying simple logic, he negated every advantage his parents' killer had.
The Red Mecha-Head beam, already weakened, would have had no effect on the twin mechs, even at full strength. The red beam had meant to totally disrupt one vital system on a machine. So Sarek had the beam envelop the entire mech, causing only a minor disruption all over, which was compensated for as it happened.
The Gold King Gravity Beam was allowed to do its work. But theorizing that the Giga-G beam required direction, Sarek's fields threw off that direction, often times by as little as a meter. It was all they needed. The gravity beams, without proper direction, boomeranged through bent time and space and struck Ghidorah back again, sometimes before he fired. The creature's anti-chronitons helped it not at all then.
These shields freed the duo to strike at their true target, the fetid, rotting thing that had erased so many with its merest touch. The Death Head would be King Ghidorah's price of passage through Vulcan. They hoped.
"Sarek, rate of epidermal generation down to 23%. But he can regain his full rate in minutes, if we let up."
"Then, my patient wife, I suggest that we do not let up. Not that I feel any real desire to do so."
The planner and teacher had at last struck out on behalf of his planet and family. The hearth-keeper and caregiver was feeling the exhilarating thrill of battle for the first time. She wondered why she had let the children have all the fun.
It scared them, but they were both truly together, and their growing family was nearby, waiting for them. All seemed as good as the disaster would allow.
"Attempting marrow extraction. I am drawing directly from the rear vertebrae. Amanda. Try and push his epidermal regeneration rate down below 10%. We need to allow Enterprise's quantum torpedoes as unprotected a target as possible."
The process by which Amanda was educated on this machine's use had hidden costs. She could no longer remember poor Sybok's face, or her history with the hateful T'Pring. But when she had found out Saavik was pregnant, these and other life-memories became small sacrifices. Her baby's baby was having a baby, and by a young man she could have loved no better if he were her own. And she remembered one thing more.
"Above all else, King Ghidorah must be destroyed!"
And by guiding a piece of severed skin through the Death Head, Amanda Grayson of the late Planet Vulcan cut the beast's regeneration down to 5%. Sarek nodded, his smile a great deal less subtle than usual.
"We will fight the enemy. We will fight Ghidorah."
For a brief moment, the dignity and logic of a people who had fallen into fear and avarice was regained.
Then the bombardment began.
"Husband, what...?"
Sarek felt his composure fall away. His illness roared back with a vengeance. His control over his emotions was now no better than that of an average Vulcan child.
"The BaarAgon and BaarUgon - they attack us?! US?!"
Indeed, the circling behemoths had ceased their attack on Ghidorah and now assaulted their allies.
"Sarek - the BaarUgon is freezing us so quickly, the repair circuits can't keep up. We don't have long."
Sarek looked lost.
"The Scorpion. Its tale is told on a thousand worlds, in a thousand thousand ways. But the story is always the same. No matter the danger to itself, it must bite you. It knows no other way."
Will Decker aboard Shuttle X had troubles of his own. The BaarAgon's fire and nose beam were making hash of his drone shuttle fleet.
"You pieces of -"
With all twenty drone shuttles down, Decker found that Ghidorah would soon be mobile once again. He further found this to be an unacceptable option.
"Ambassador, this is Commander Decker, aboard Shuttle X. Does your Mech have transporter capability?"
Sarek threw off his funk.
"It does, Commander. Do you propose that we evacuate?"
"No, Sir! I propose that we put our attackers back the way they came. What does fire and ice make?"
The creatures were darting between impaling Ghidorah with their horns and further betraying their allies.
But now, blue beams enveloped them. They were large, but sometimes size simply doesn't matter.
"Commander, our circuits are having trouble with the strain. Can yours compensate without destructing?"
Decker lied. With his own bondmate Ilia dead, he had no intention of transporting back.
"Yes, Lady Amanda. Crossing beams - NOW!"
Shrieking, the twin terrors reemerged - as one terror. The final will of the hateful, unreasoning Jtharh had been defeated. The BaarUAgon dissolved back into water, twin horns and all. It was not missed. But it had done its damage. For though its interference, Ghidorah was once again free, if not whole.
The Death Head now truly looked it. It was merely a skeleton, though still capable of building up its green beam. The news only got worse.
"Sarek - epidermal regeneration rate at 1%. As soon as he leaves Vulcan, all our work will begin to be undone."
Sarek did not yell. But his words lacked no volume for this.
"This shall not be permitted. Wife, prepare the suit for auto-destruct. I will not permit this to continue. We act...."
"Ambassador - look out! He's charged his beam. He's..."
The great green light obliterated the suit in one stroke. For its great vulnerability had been the head that was its main target. Decker stared out, dumbstruck.
"They're - they're -"
Peter Kirk's voice came over the CommLink.
"They're safe aboard the Enterprise, Commander."
On either side of The Rock were the people who gave him his life back. But his hands and neck were burned in the hasty emergency teleport. Kirk looked pridefully at his son. Spock breathed in, unsure of whether he should call his son-in-law his brother instead. But for now, the people three vital crewmembers called Mother and Father had been rescued from the fire. McCoy was quickly called to the Bridge. Peter's wounds were healing, but slowly. He sat down on the floor, and looked at Sarek.
"When it comes to King Death, Sri - I'm a sore loser. I couldn't let the bastard win again."
But all Sarek could do was stare in awe at his pregnant granddaughter.
"Saavik-kam, will you guide your old Srini to his quarters? I think that I need rest."
"I will - Grandfather."
As Amanda began to go, Spock called out.
"Mother!"
"Spock?"
He rose. As the Enterprise's ceaseless barrage went on, Spock looked at Amanda.
"The time for half-statements and unspoken words is done. I shall never be as you are, Amanda Grayson. But I wish something to be said."
Suddenly, the demon and the battle fell away, as Spock's words rocked the firmament of a Vulcan that no longer was.
"Mother - I Love You."
He had never said these words before, and would likely never say them again. Uhura cursed herself for not hitting record. But yet the words had been said. Wrested from Spock's very soul, they were perhaps even painful for him. So Amanda smiled, kissed her son's cheek, and gave him back his dignity.
"To state the obvious and the redundant, Spock-Kam - is not logical. But it is welcomed."
Sarek was perhaps feeling his weariness a bit too much.
"I take note of the fact that you have never been obvious or redundant with me, my son."
Spock nodded.
"I will perhaps exercise such indiscretions later, in private, Father."
Saavik could be back on the Bridge at a moment's notice, so the Captain permitted her departure. Happily, for that one moment, neither she nor the recovering Peter were needed. Kirk barked out an order over the Commlink.
"Will, get back up here. Vulcan is done. We need to clear the field, so we can at least hit that thing with all banks."
"No, Sir. You see, Jim - you are with your family. It's past time I joined mine."
Kirk's heart sank. He thought perhaps the recovery of Sarek and Amanda would shake Decker's funk loose. Clearly, it had not. Outside, the beast began to rise and fly away. Decker quickly ensconced Shuttle X on the exposed vertebrae of the skinless Death Head. Once they were in space, Will Decker activated his secret weapon. Sulu saw the unmistakable energy readings on sensors.
"Sir, Epidermal Rate up to 15%. And Will - My God, Will -"
Chekov confirmed what they all knew.
"He - he has activated Genesis."
On Shuttle X, Will Decker held a phaser to himself and began, oddly enough, to sing. It was a kitschy song which the sophisticated Deltan beauty had of course fallen as deeply in love with as she had with Decker himself. It spoke of better times, she said.
"Kiss today goodbye; And point me towards tomorrow; I did what I had to do; Can't regret - won't forget - what I did for Love..."
He pulled the trigger, to make sure his DNA was not in this mixture.
"What I did for - Love."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Just outside of Vulcan's former sector, Genesis activated. Ghidorah's agony was fittingly beyond description. The Ancient Destroyer would never be the same.
M-5 gave the word.
"He's gone, Captain. My guess is he exposed himself to some manner of radiation, to frustrate a transport lock."
Peter stood up, and leaned on the side of his father's chair.
"Will did not die in vain, Dad. The monster is hurting. I can't tell you what the end result will be, except that Decker proved himself your First Officer. Because he did what you always do. He took a hopeless situation and turned it into a fighting chance."
Jim glared.
"Peter, both sides of a family have been wiped away, by different sides of the same damned war. So don't you stand there, all secret knowledge and power, and tell me not to mourn."
Jim then grabbed his boy's hand.
"If I didn't know you were tough enough to take it - I'd never say things like that. Mister Sulu, you have the Conn."
Chekov looked at the screen.
"Perhaps Decker should have realized how activating Genesis limited our ability to follow Ghidorah."
As the Kirks departed, Sulu took the center seat, and shook his head.
"Why, Pavel? We know where he's headed. It's really the only major world left. But we won't let him have it."
"Nyet. Of course not. Do we now attempt to find the Ancient Destroyer again?"
"No. We go to the rendezvous point. Where 300 other ships will meet with us for a last stand like nobody's business. Ghidorah is headed for Sector 001 like the bat out of hell he is. So we'll play it smart. Keep him away from Earth. Mister Chekov, you have the coordinates?"
"Course plotted and laid in. Estimate with current warp limitations - 1 month until ve reach battlezone. What is the name of that star again?"
Sulu thought of his daughter, and news he now felt he must give.
"Wolf 359."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Out in space, a great frozen mass that used to be Stern Vulcan now resided in T'Khut's Cochrane Ravine. As the 40 Eridani star melted it, a little at a time, the last gift of Spock was revealed. He had asked his daughter and son-in-law to move it to the Ravine.
For one day soon, if the God Of Sha Ka Ree were willing, T'Khut would have a breathable atmosphere. And Stern Vulcan could live once again.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
FIRST FEDERATION VESSEL FESARIUS
Balok looked out over beautiful Berengaria Four.
"Forgive me, you wondrous world. But our science must now corrupt your beauty for the good of all that live. This place will yield up living weapons with which to battle the one whose size mocks our great ships."
The gentle creatures would soon be no more. Gentleness itself was under siege.
The worst lay ahead.