From: Arachnethe2 Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 22:33:36 -0800 Disclaimer: Startrek is the property of Paramount Pictures, this is a piece of Amateur fan fiction, made for no profit. Summary: A certain Vulcan baby gets a visit in the night. English is not my native language, please forgive me my errors. My thanks belong to my editor: Greywolf the Wanderer ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Once in the Night Written by Arachnethe2 The red/golden rays of T'Khut shone through the opened window as a bright, shiny greeting for the only wakeful person in the sleeping house. They both seemed to be secret friends; Vulcan's sister planet and the two-standard-months-old baby. Like every night, T'Khut came for a visit, and the small boy responded to her dramatic appearance, waving his hands. "Ack...aghhh...ack...," said the baby, savouring the bright, red/golden veil of light, and reached with his tiny fingers, trying to touch the planet in the night sky, although the small hands grasped only the empty space. But that didn't matter. She was here, and the baby enjoyed her presence. The night wind, coming from the desert, parted the curtains for a moment and then the three persons appeared around the baby's bed. They looked like three transparent women, two of them white, the third dark, almost black. They hovered some inches above the floor, eyeing the baby, in a puzzled but curious way. "I don't know if this will work. He is not human...", the first white one said. "But his mother is," the second answered, still staring at the pointed ears and green flushed cheeks. The dark one remained silent. The baby looked at them; the skin over one black eye shifted a little, just right in place where one day a slanted eyebrow would grow. Years later he would also recognise these three as the Moiras - the daughters of Zeus, the powerful Earth goddesses of destiny, who appear at the bed of every human child to define its future. And now obeying their orders, they had travelled to this planet; god (or better, daddy Zeus) knows why this particular one, to foretell a destiny for the son of an earth woman, who once had announced that she was going to marry a certain vulcan ambassador. And then she really did it, confusing not only her own people but also the omnipotent entities on Earth, who didn't know what to think about this last task. But at last, when the woman brought a baby to the world, and the boy seemed to be pretty alive, then even daddy Zeus had realised the trouble. The conference was like a storm. The gods and goddesses had discussed for endless hours how the futures of mankind and the gods themselves might be alike, when there is suddenly a being who obviously doesn't belong to the human race, but on the other hand probably he does. Who had spoken out the key words at the cradle of his mother, and all the time they looked in the direction of the three Moiras. At last the three goddesses of human destiny grew angry and quoted back, that first in their competence is the future of humans and not that of the gods, that second, no one had ever known that Vulcan existed, when the mother was born, and third, that the child is not even living on Earth, and fourth, that the other planet has its own gods, and fifth, if the others are objecting, then they can do their job instead of them, because all of the three are due for a holiday, now more than ever. The last one was some thousand years ago. A loud thunder, which made all of them wonder if they wouldl lose their hearing, marked an end to the chaotic discussion. And then came the order that, despite the fact that the father is an alien, the mother remains the mother, speaks the human tongue, (there the daddy Zeus had some rhetoric difficulties, because not only did he have a new lover just then, but he had to get used to the new situation too -- but his dear daughters understood...) and the three Moiras should travel to Vulcan and do their duty, as if it was a common baby from Earth. And so they were here, standing around the small bed, starring at the ...ahem... 'common baby from Earth', slowly getting used to the pale olive skin, the somehow different ears and the shocking fact that the boy is looking at them, obviously thinking that the three goddesses were ordered here for his own private fun. And while both the pale women started to think of what good human attitudes they should give the baby, the dark almost black Atropos knew immediately, that this time it will be, really as always, like by a 'common baby from Earth'. She will say something, anything, at the end - the bad things are far more simple than the good ones. "You may begin," she said to her sisters Klotho and Lachesis, then went to the window and made herself more transparent, so that the red/golden rays of T'Khut framed only the dark almost black contours of her silhouette. "I still don't know," Lachesis shook her head and turned to Klotho, "perhaps you, sister...?" 'Why me?' Klotho thought uncomfortably. 'Why always me?' She looked first at Atropos, who seemed to be preoccupied with the sight of the desert at night, and then at Lachesis, who obviously still hadn't found any of the intellectual nonsense which with she had always complicated the lives of the humans, and then she sighed. OK, she would try it. 'It should not be so difficult, dammit,' she added to herself, not in the customary quiet goddess-like way. "When you grow up," she started, " your body will be tall, slender, with wide shoulders, and your movements will be graceful and elegant." She happily took a deep breath. Well it was not so bad, after all. She looked again at Atropos, then back at the baby: "And whatever illness or injury you get, you will become healthy and strong again." "Which will play a central factor in your life." Lachesis added. "Please, stay aside, when I'm doing my task, dear sister," Klotho frowned at her. "Forgive me, my dear, but this seemed to be obvious to me." 'You and your obvious central factors of whichever's life', Klotho thought in dismay and continued: "Also your mind will develop well, so you will always please your parents and your teachers in the school." And then she made herself more transparent - a sign for Lachesis to begin with her part. "But a tall body, high intelligence, and good health are not all, my son," Lachesis started her speech. 'How else', Klotho quoted in her mind. "There are also other things, which are going to form the necessary parts of your character. Where others will give up, you will still continue. Where others fail, you will succeed. You will never hesitate to step onto an unknown path, you will never stop searching for the answers to your questions and every time, you will reach your destiny, leaving the others behind." 'Didn't she get carried away a little?' Klotho grew alarmed. But Lachesis continued. "But you will never think only about yourself, instead you will always be there for help - a man of strong character, living in accord of your own mind, never lying, never stealing, never enriching himself at the expense of the others, always following the path of your own people, never leaving it. "Such a man you will be, a man for whom the rules of those people will be the only rules worth following." Klotho's eyes grew wide. Rules? What rules? They three were making the rules here, and by the way, whose people should be his? Those people or the humans? But she didn't manage to say a word, because now Atropos turned less transparent, wearing an odd smile on her lips. "You may continue, my sister", Lachesis said to her. "Did you say, that he will be better than his own people?" The dark almost black Atropos asked. "Yes, I did." Lachesis was puzzled a little. "That he will always follow their path, never leaving it? That he will live in accord of his own mind?" "Yes! Didn't you listen, dear sister?" Atropos' smile widened: "Then there is nothing I could add, the destiny can take its way." And then she turned more and more transparent again, until she disappeared. "Did you understand what she meant with that?" Lachesis wondered. "Me?" Klotho snapped back, "you should be the smart one here." And then they both disappeared, too. From one moment to another, there was only the wind coming from the night desert, gently moving the curtains in the red/golden rays of T'Khut. The baby straightened the skin over his eye, in the place where a slanted eyebrow would grow in the future, took a deep breath into his lungs and then... "UUUUUUAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" The lamp in the next room was turned on. "My god again? I have fed him just two hours ago." "Stay in bed Amanda, I will look after him." "Sarek, your day has been long and there are the negotiations in the morning." "You are still not fully recovered, wife. The healer has ordered you to rest, and because the nurse is not here tonight, it's only logical..." "God, grab the bottle and spare me your logic at 3 a.m." Sarek went out of the bedroom, the bottle of milk in his hand. He took his crying son in his arms. The ears-ripping sound changed into one of satisfied swallowing - the proof that the baby was really hungry. Silence returned to the house. The young father sat carefully into the armchair beside the baby's bed. His son still worked on the bottle. Sarek was tired, it was difficult for him keep his eyes open. Logical, that this couldn't be different, despite the method his child used every night to get his food. Vulcan children don't yell at the whole house, they always awake their parents with a sharp mental signal. But his son? On the other hand, Amanda was not a telepath. Sarek looked down at the tiny being in his arms. The boy was almost done with his milk. "My son," he murmured softly to him, " you are, human, so human, like your mother, you know that?" The baby sighed in response, sated and satisfied for some while. But Sarek's eyelids suddenly drooped down. Some more minutes passed, till Amanda couldn't stay in the bedroom anymore. This was lasting too long. Obeying her motherly instincts she stood, carefully, and went to look for her husband. Of course! She had known that it would end like this, but no, her dear Sarek -- the stubborn Vulcan -- had to do that himself... Anyway! Slowly she moved to the armchair, took the baby from Sarek's arms and put him back into his bed. "Because of you." She whispered to her son, "because of you your daddy will appear in the morning at the negotiations with rings under his eyes, and all will think that his excellency the ambassador has again spent the night in the company of the bottle." She turned back to her sleeping husband. The sight of Sarek gently snuggling to the cold glass was really priceless. Amanda went to the bedroom and returned with a sheet, which with she covered her Vulcan. He didn't even stir. Then she turned to her baby: "And you will sleep too." She ordered gently, and after a while the black eyes closed. 'My son,' she thought, amused, on the way to her bed, 'you are as stubborn as a Vulcan, like your father." At the threshold she stopped, turned back for a moment and then she sighed: Men! Some moments later the whole house slept again, bathing in the red/golden rays of T'Khut. End. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Autor's note: The inspiration for this story I have found while reading the brillant book from Czech writer Ondrej Neff: "The Queens Haven't any Legs".