whistle brought Spock back to the here and now abruptly enough to let him hear that he had spoken the word aloud and in Standard.
Fascinating! he thought, affixing this datum to the rest of the mystery he pondered even as he rose from his meditative posture to attend to the matter at hand.
“Scott to Captain…Scott to Captain…” resounded with unnecessary loudness in the utter darkness of his cabin. Interesting how Scotty never addressed him by name on the intership. For both of them there was only one true captain of Enterprise . Spock pressed the intercom toggle.
“Spock here.”
“I dinna wake ye, did I?” Scott’s voice was edged with its usual breathless anxiety. “I am sorry, but ye asked to be informed—”
“I was not sleeping, Mr. Scott. And, as I requested, you are personally reminding me of the Red Alert drill scheduled for 0601, so as not to breach security by letting the cadets know.”
“Aye. And I wouldna have bothered ye this early, only there’s a glitch in the readout on the intermix feed chamber, and before ye go taking her into evasives I’d like to take down to sublight for a wee bit and see can I get the bugs out.”
“A reasonable request, Mr. Scott. How much of a ‘wee bit’ will you require?”
“No more than half an hour, Mr. Spock.”
“Very well. Reschedule drill for 0631, and inform me when your exterminating operation is complete.”
“When my— what? ” It took Scott a moment to get the joke. “Oh, aye, I’ll do that. Scott out.”
Alone, Spock pondered.
Alone . Why had he spoken the word aloud? From the meditative depth he had engaged, the need to speak aloud signified a matter of grave seriousness. And why, out of all the languages he knew, had he spoken it in Standard?
There existed in Modern Vulcan alone some seven different words to describe varying states of solitude, excluding telepathic words unspoken, from “alone-not-alone” to “alone by circumstance” through “alone by need,” each of which incorporated some seven further concepts from Ancient Vulcan including “alone by temperament” through “alone by outcastness,” which in turn incorporated the “nonperson” modes. An etymological study of the concept through a single one of his languages…
But there was such a thing as being too thorough, and in the wrong direction. Spock cleared his thoughts and began again.
Solitude possesses many dimensions, the High Master T’sai had thought to him. Consider .
She had been preparing him for first Kohl , where solitude and the listening to one’s own soul were All. In the end, it had been Spock who instructed her. Perhaps few knew firsthand as many variations on aloneness as he. Now, alone by his own choosing, he considered.
He began from the beginning as was logical, with the solitariness of the halfbreed child, alone by social outcastness, alone in the universe as the first of his kind. From such a beginning had he studied the alien solitudes he had encountered in his travels. From the loneliness of machine bereft of purpose and man bereft of memory to the loneliness of woman exiled in a world of ice, none knew as Spock did the degrees and dimensions of what it was like to be alone.
It was the one whose greatest fear it was to be alone that Spock considered last, for he knew this one so well. All he’d asked for was a tall ship and a star to steer her by, and the company of kindred souls in the adventure that was his life. Having surrendered both ship and adventure, Jim Kirk was nothing if not alone.
“ Jim! ”
This, too, Spock spoke aloud. Whatever it was that beset his meditations had its origins with Jim Kirk. But what was it? And who was the female whose voice insisted “You cannot do it alone”? What strange siren-metaphor out of Earth’s mythology threatened his captain and his friend, and what could be done?
Were he human and by nature impulsive, Spock might almost have attempted to contact Earth. From this
Fascinating! he thought, affixing this datum to the rest of the mystery he pondered even as he rose from his meditative posture to attend to the matter at hand.
“Scott to Captain…Scott to Captain…” resounded with unnecessary loudness in the utter darkness of his cabin. Interesting how Scotty never addressed him by name on the intership. For both of them there was only one true captain of Enterprise . Spock pressed the intercom toggle.
“Spock here.”
“I dinna wake ye, did I?” Scott’s voice was edged with its usual breathless anxiety. “I am sorry, but ye asked to be informed—”
“I was not sleeping, Mr. Scott. And, as I requested, you are personally reminding me of the Red Alert drill scheduled for 0601, so as not to breach security by letting the cadets know.”
“Aye. And I wouldna have bothered ye this early, only there’s a glitch in the readout on the intermix feed chamber, and before ye go taking her into evasives I’d like to take down to sublight for a wee bit and see can I get the bugs out.”
“A reasonable request, Mr. Scott. How much of a ‘wee bit’ will you require?”
“No more than half an hour, Mr. Spock.”
“Very well. Reschedule drill for 0631, and inform me when your exterminating operation is complete.”
“When my— what? ” It took Scott a moment to get the joke. “Oh, aye, I’ll do that. Scott out.”
Alone, Spock pondered.
Alone . Why had he spoken the word aloud? From the meditative depth he had engaged, the need to speak aloud signified a matter of grave seriousness. And why, out of all the languages he knew, had he spoken it in Standard?
There existed in Modern Vulcan alone some seven different words to describe varying states of solitude, excluding telepathic words unspoken, from “alone-not-alone” to “alone by circumstance” through “alone by need,” each of which incorporated some seven further concepts from Ancient Vulcan including “alone by temperament” through “alone by outcastness,” which in turn incorporated the “nonperson” modes. An etymological study of the concept through a single one of his languages…
But there was such a thing as being too thorough, and in the wrong direction. Spock cleared his thoughts and began again.
Solitude possesses many dimensions, the High Master T’sai had thought to him. Consider .
She had been preparing him for first Kohl , where solitude and the listening to one’s own soul were All. In the end, it had been Spock who instructed her. Perhaps few knew firsthand as many variations on aloneness as he. Now, alone by his own choosing, he considered.
He began from the beginning as was logical, with the solitariness of the halfbreed child, alone by social outcastness, alone in the universe as the first of his kind. From such a beginning had he studied the alien solitudes he had encountered in his travels. From the loneliness of machine bereft of purpose and man bereft of memory to the loneliness of woman exiled in a world of ice, none knew as Spock did the degrees and dimensions of what it was like to be alone.
It was the one whose greatest fear it was to be alone that Spock considered last, for he knew this one so well. All he’d asked for was a tall ship and a star to steer her by, and the company of kindred souls in the adventure that was his life. Having surrendered both ship and adventure, Jim Kirk was nothing if not alone.
“ Jim! ”
This, too, Spock spoke aloud. Whatever it was that beset his meditations had its origins with Jim Kirk. But what was it? And who was the female whose voice insisted “You cannot do it alone”? What strange siren-metaphor out of Earth’s mythology threatened his captain and his friend, and what could be done?
Were he human and by nature impulsive, Spock might almost have attempted to contact Earth. From this
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