Chapter 24
I am scared
So afraid to show I care.
Will you think me weak,
If I tremble when I speak?
I am falling like a leaf,
Falling like a star,
Falling where you are.
Catch me don't let me drop,
Care for me don't ever stop.
o0o
He opened his eyes, blinked and blinked again. The room, at first just a pale grey blur, slowly came into focus. He found the light extraordinarily intense. It made his eyes water and his head hurt. At the back of his mind, there existed a subtle sense of dislocation, a vague confusion. Then he realised that, after so many weeks of failing vision followed by complete darkness, he could actually see again.
Chapter 23:
Say you'll share with me
One love, one lifetime.
Say the word and I will
Follow you.
Share each day with me
Each night, each morning
That's all I ask of you.
o0o
McCoy the first to rouse opened burning eyes to find himself slumped across Spock's prone form where they both lay on the damp soil beside the air car. His aching bones creaked as he dragged himself up, not ready to wake, and ran a trembling hand through his hair. Mist twisted and coiled around them but could not hide the huge, white arachnid that squatted only a few feet away, death on eight legs, its poison sacs bulging with venom. McCoy's heart lurched, a spas
Chapter 22:
I felt the Earth move in my hands,
Like the trembling heart of a captive bird,
That was there at my command my love
That was there at my command ..
o0o
Spokhq, you are for me
The hauntingly familiar voice echoed through his mind, emanating from within his aching skull, a psionic lure, powerful and compelling.
Spokhq, s'kahri ansohn t'sarekhq, do not resist. Be one with me
Disorientated, Spock opened his eyes as McCoy gently shook his shoulder for the third time.
"C'mon, Spock. Wakey, wakey. We've arrived."
He revived slowly, finding it difficult to tear himself away from Tel Shimaan's captivating influ
Chapter 21:
There are hills and mountains between us.
Always something to get over.
You can windsurf into my life
Take me up on a carpet ride
But you'd better make it soon.
o0o
A low-slung black limousine sat purring on its ramp as they exited from the hotel, a statuesque Dha'kaht'chun woman lounging against the door, waiting to hand it over. She grinned down at McCoy as he gazed up, uttering a friendly greeting.
"Meer'tchal, ser Doktuur Makhqoi. Commanduur Spokhq."
Deftly, she helped Spock climb into the rear of the aircar, tucked a throw about his legs and secured the safety webbing about him before re-fastening the canopy. He sett
Chapter 20:
You can reach me on an aeroplane
You can reach me with your mind
You can jump on a speeding coach
Cross the border on a band of hope
I don't care how you get here .
Just get here.
o0o
"The symptoms are quite incontrovertible."
The Chief Surgeon drew up a chair, his blue eyes sharply appraising. Forearms on knees, his fingers clasped together, he studied Spock closely, unable to disregard the obvious signs of deterioration on the Vulcan's pallid features. Spock's expression was remote. He looked worn out, used up. "Agreed, but it's your brain and not your eyes that's refusing to see."
Spock concentrated for a moment
Chapter 19:
Desperado,
Why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences,
Open the gate.
It may be raining but there is
A rainbow about you.
Let somebody love you before it's too late.
Spock stirred weakly, opening his eyes on the darkness of his ruined vision, the dream of Wraith's haunted, mist-wreathed, forest stealing away from him, fading into obscurity even as he tried to hold onto it. He retained only the fleeting awareness that the experience had been joyful, euphoric, and he desperately wanted it again in place of the ugly reality he faced once more.
Cold, forlorn, and immeasurably weary he reached up an unsteady
Chapter 18:
All I want is freedom
A world with no more night
With you always beside me
To hold me and to hide me .
It was a siren song, soft and alluring. It spoke to the need in him, his isolation and loneliness. With ruthless disregard, Tel Shimaan peeled back the camouflage of impassiveness, stripped away his carefully constructed equanimity, to reveal the hunger, the hidden yearning of his Human half that wanted to love and be loved. She exposed the secret craving, his desire to unveil his innermost self without the fear of rejection. Tenderly, beguilingly, she promised him devotion and acceptance, affinity and joining. She knew
Chapter 17:
Just when I thought I'd never grow old
You gave me the reason to try.
Just when my body felt broken and bruised
Nothing could ease all the pain
Just when my whole world was falling apart
You put me together again.
The mist coiled about him. Thick grey swathes, pearled with iridescent dew, billowed at knee height. Isolated tendrils reached idly upwards to touch him lightly on the back of the hand. They played games with his fingers, stroking his palm with the sensuous touch of gossamer. Muted light streamed down through the ghostly trees and softly illuminated the ethereal foliage, limning each pale leaf with silver. Somewhe
Chapter 16:
I don't understand it,
For you it's a breeze,
Little by little
You've brought me to my knees.
o0o
For the rest of the short journey, McCoy restrained his sarcasm to the minimum and allowed Spock to take the lead, giving him space to reflect in peace. "Have you been paying attention, Spock? Know where we are?"
They had just ventured out of an elevator that had dropped to their present location like a stone. The elevator ride might have disorientated him, no doubt the doctor's intention; however, Spock had taken meticulous care to concentrate on the almost subliminal sounds of the lift as it passed each floor on the way down.
Chapter 15 :
Don't you know I can't take it?
I'm not going to make it
I call your name but you're not there
I don't weep at night
I call your name.
o0o
They walked the corridors of Castle Cloud in a silence, broken only when they passed some area or other that McCoy identified.
"This is the holographic theatre. Ryhanen apparently has a horde of virtual reality programmers writing interactive scenarios. Once through the doors, you can do anything or go anywhere, visit a coral reef on Earth, explore the subterranean caverns on New Paris, even climb Vulcan's Langon Mountain range, though why anyone, apart from a Vulcan, should want to is