The Fire and the Rose

by David R. George III

  Now, as Spock arrived back on the planet from an observational mission to the dawn of Orion’s civilization, he saw the rest of the Enterprise landing party, as well as a pair of historians from the research station. Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Bates stood with their backs to the Guardian, having just preceded Spock in their return from the past. Dr. McCoy, who had remained in the present, stood facing the time vortex alongside the two annalists. Dr. Grey, a human female, had a streak of orange through the top of her black hair. Dr. Aleek-Om, a tall, gold-colored Aurelian male, had two arms and two legs and stood upright, like a humanoid, but also possessed a beak and two large wings sprouting from his shoulder blades.

  As Spock stepped forward between the captain and the lieutenant, he saw Dr. McCoy raise a hand and point in his direction. A look of surprise dressed the doctor’s face. “Who’s he, Jim?” McCoy asked.

  Captain Kirk lifted his hands to his hips, and Spock couldn’t tell whether the doctor’s comment had amused or annoyed him. “What do you mean, ‘who’s he?’” the captain said. “You know Mister Spock.”

  “’Fraid I don’t, Jim,” McCoy said. The question could have been an example of the doctor’s sometimes ill-considered wit, but it still drew Spock’s concern. Before he could say anything, though, the captain opened his communicator and contacted the ship, simply ignoring what he must have judged a joke on McCoy’s part.

  “Kirk to Enterprise,” he said.

  “Enterprise,” replied Lieutenant Commander Scott.

  “Prepare to transport four back to the ship,” the captain said, and then he moved away from the time vortex and the historians. Spock, McCoy, and Bates followed him over to a small cache of equipment that had been sent down from the research station. Kirk retrieved the three life-support belts that the Enterprise landing party had carried with them from the ship for possible use on the trip into Orion’s past. An examination of their destination through the Guardian, though, had shown that the belts would not be necessary.

  McCoy collected his medical tricorder from among the equipment, wrapping its strap about his torso. When Bates handed back Spock’s own tricorder, which he’d given to the lieutenant when they’d been on ancient Orion, he also slung the device across his shoulder. The captain then handed one of the life-support belts to Spock and one to McCoy, keeping the third for himself. When Kirk distractedly circled his around his waist, the other two did the same. Spock thought that the captain’s obvious preoccupation might indicate his own apprehension about what Dr. McCoy had said.

  As Kirk gave the order for transport, Spock seemed to recall, though he could not be sure, that the landing party had beamed down to the planet with four life-support belts, not just three. Taking into account Dr. McCoy’s comments, Spock began to consider more seriously the notion that he, Captain Kirk, and Lieutenant Bates might have inadvertently altered the past, and thus the present. Too late to say anything, he waited while the metallic shimmer of dematerialization formed before his eyes, then vanished as he re-formed aboard the Enterprise.

  While the landing party descended from the platform, Spock spied another expression of surprise, this one worn by Lieutenant Commander Scott. “Captain, I was expecting it to be one of the historians with you,” the engineer said from where he worked the transporter console. “But a Vulcan?”

  “Explain yourself, Mister Scott,” Kirk snapped, a clear indication to Spock that the captain also suspected that something had gone wrong.

  “Sir?” Scott said.

  “I don’t know what’s going on,” Captain Kirk said as the doors of the transporter room parted, “but the first officer of this ship will be treated with respect.”

  From the corridor, an Andorian had entered, clad in a blue Starfleet uniform that bore the rank braid of a commander—although Spock knew that no Andorians currently served aboard the Enterprise. “Captain, I assure you,” the unknown officer said, “no one has ever treated me otherwise.” The implication of his response seemed clear.

  “Who are you?” Kirk asked.

  “Well, I thought sure you’d know Thelin by now, Jim,” said Dr. McCoy. “He’s been your first officer for five years.”

  Although the doctor had spoken casually, Spock no longer doubted the sincerity of all the comments that McCoy had made, and he said as much. The captain concurred. “Bones, Scotty,” he said, “I’m asking you seriously: do you or do you not know Spock?”

  “Honestly,” McCoy replied, “I don’t know him.”

  “I’ve never seen him before in my life,” Scott said.

  “And none of us have ever met Commander Thelin,” Kirk said. He peered at Spock and then over at Bates, who nodded his agreement.

  “Clearly something happened while we were down on the planet,” Spock said.

  “Yes,” the captain said. He paced over to the transporter console and reached across it, opening an intercom circuit. “Kirk to bridge.”

  “Bridge, this is Sulu,” came the immediate reply. The captain glanced over at Spock, obviously taking note that Lieutenant Sulu remained fourth in command aboard the Enterprise. Thus far, the only change seemed to be with respect to the ship’s first officer.

  “Sulu,” the captain said, “as quickly as you can, I want you to conduct a survey of the crew. Ask if anyone aboard has ever heard of a ship’s officer named Spock.”

  “Spock?” Sulu asked, and then he spelled the name.

  “That’s correct,” Kirk said. “Contact me as soon as you have the results.”

  “Aye, sir,” Sulu said.

  The captain signed off and closed the intercom channel. Looking around at the officers present, he said, “Bones, Scotty, I don’t want you discussing this with anybody.” After both men acknowledged the order, Kirk said, “Mister Spock, Mister Bates, Commander Thelin, come with me.”

  The captain led the group to a briefing room, where they assembled around a conference table. An idea occurred to Spock, and he asked if he could review the crew manifest. When the captain agreed, Spock handed off his tricorder to Lieutenant Bates, then sat down at the end of the table, in front of the computer interface located there. Across from him, he saw Commander Thelin’s antennae move in a way he interpreted as consternation. Spock quickly keyed in a control sequence and brought up a display of crew files. As he quickly began browsing through them, Thelin spoke up.

  “Am I to understand, Captain,” he asked, “that you believe that you do not know who I am?”

  “That’s correct,” Kirk said. “Earlier, Commander Spock, Doctor McCoy, Lieutenant Bates, and myself beamed down to the planet. Except for the doctor, we all took part in an observational mission to Orion’s past.”

  “And at that time,” Thelin wanted to know, “you believed that Commander Spock was the first officer aboard the Enterprise?”

  “He was the first officer,” the captain said. “I mean no disrespect, Commander, but there was no Thelin—there were no Andorians at all—among the crew.”

  “I take no slight from your comment, Captain,” Thelin said. “But my recollection is that you, Doctor McCoy, and Lieutenant Bates transported down to the planet. I have not left the ship.” After a moment, Thelin said, “Captain, with your permission, I would like to ask the records officer to check if there is a Commander Spock presently serving elsewhere in Starfleet.”

  “Yes, that’s a good idea,” Kirk said. “Also have him check on Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan, as well as the ambassador’s family.”

  “Yes, sir,” Thelin said. Continuing to read through the list of the crew, Spock heard a click as the Andorian opened an intercom channel. “Commander Thelin to Lieutenant Erikson.” The records officer—the same individual Spock knew, or had known, to be in the position—responded, and Thelin told him of the research they needed done.

  After Thelin had closed the channel, the captain asked, “I don’t remember you, Commander, but you remember me?”

  “Yes, very well,” Thelin said. “You have been my commanding officer
for several years.” He hesitated, but then added, “We have also become friends.”

  “I’m… sorry,” Kirk said, his voice growing quiet. “I truly do not know you.”

  “The situation is what it is, Captain,” Thelin said. “Do you believe, then, that you caused a change to the timeline when you traveled back through the vortex?”

  “That would seem to be the obvious conclusion,” Kirk said.

  “Indeed it would,” Spock said as he finished scanning the crew manifest. “But the alteration appears strangely contained. I recognize every name in the ship’s complement—all but that of Commander Thelin.”

  “But how can we have done anything thousands of years ago on Orion that would have resulted only in substituting one first officer of the Enterprise for another?” Kirk asked.

  “It may be that other, more significant changes have been wrought,” Spock said. “Changes that are not immediately apparent to us aboard the ship. I suggest that we have the computer compare the tricorder readings we took in Orion’s past with the recordings of the same time period made earlier through the Guardian. In that way, it may be possible to detect the point of divergence.”

  The captain nodded. “Mister Bates,” he said.

  “Yes, sir,” the lieutenant said, activating the tricorder that Spock had just given him. On that device, they had recorded events on historical Orion both directly and through the time vortex. Spock exchanged seats with Bates, allowing the young officer access to the computer interface.

  “Spock,” the captain said, “if your absence from the Enterprise is the only difference in this timeline, have you any theories that might account for so limited an alteration?”

  “There is nothing in theory or in practice that would suggest—” Spock began, but he stopped when he heard the up-and-down call of the intercom signal.

  “Sulu to Captain Kirk.”

  The captain toggled open a circuit. “Kirk here. What have you got, Mister Sulu?”

  “We’ve contacted everybody aboard the ship,” Sulu said. “Nobody has ever heard of an officer on the Enterprise named Spock.”

  “Thank you, Mister Sulu,” the captain said. “Kirk out.” He closed the channel with a touch. “Well, then,” he said.

  Silence descended in the room, broken only by the intermittent clicks and chirps of the computer interface and the tricorder. Spock perceived a high level of anxiety in Commander Thelin and a great tension in Captain Kirk. He wondered if the current situation evoked uncomfortable memories for Jim, memories of what had happened during the events surrounding their discovery of the Guardian of Forever.

  After a few minutes, Lieutenant Bates looked up from the computer interface, the tricorder held out before him. “Nothing,” he said, frustration evident in his voice. “I can’t find one thing we did when we were in the vortex that could possibly have affected the future.”

  “But something was changed,” the captain said.

  Spock agreed with that, but something troubled him. Even if the timeline had been altered beyond the Enterprise, the single change aboard the ship seemed wildly unlikely. “It seems, Captain,” he said, “I am the only one affected. The mission, the ship, the crew—except for myself—remain the same.”

  “But I know who you are and no one else aboard does,” Kirk said, clearly trying to make sense of the situation. “While we were in Orion’s past, the time revision that took place here didn’t affect me.” Again, the intercom whistle sounded, and again, the captain opened a channel. “Kirk here.”

  The image of Lieutenant Erikson appeared on the multisided display in the center of the table. “Sir,” he said, “we’ve checked the Starfleet records Commander Thelin asked for.”

  “Your findings?” Kirk said.

  “There is no Vulcan named Spock serving with Starfleet in any capacity,” Erikson reported.

  “Did you also research the Vulcan family history requested?” Thelin asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Erikson said. “I can relay that to your screen.” The lieutenant’s image vanished from the monitor, replaced a moment later by that of Spock’s father. “Sarek of Vulcan, ambassador to seventeen Federation planets in the past thirty years.”

  Spock knew well the record of his father’s service. “That is not correct,” he said.

  “It is in this case,” Kirk noted.

  “I wish to ask a question,” Spock said. “What of Sarek’s family, his wife and son?” There seemed to be no need to mention Sybok, Spock’s half brother.

  Once more, the image on the display changed. This time, a picture of Spock’s mother appeared, though one clearly recorded some time ago. “Amanda, wife of Sarek, born on Earth as Amanda Grayson,” Erikson said. “The couple separated after the death of their son.”

  Their son, Spock repeated to himself, and again he thought of Sybok, though Sybok had not been born to Amanda.

  “The wife was killed in a shuttle accident at Luna Port on her way home to Earth,” Erikson continued.

  At once, Spock felt a terrible shock, though outwardly he controlled his reaction. He barely heard Erikson say that Sarek had not remarried. Though illogical, the impulse to scream rose within Spock, but instead, he merely closed his eyes. “My mother,” he said softly. He struggled to push aside his torment and managed to do so by concentrating on the dilemma they faced. “The son,” he said. “What was his name and age when he died?”

  “Spock,” Erikson said. “Age seven.”

  In the briefing room, all eyes turned to the Vulcan.

  “Thank you, Mister Erikson,” the captain said, and he switched off the intercom. The likeness of Spock’s mother disappeared from the display. “Mister Spock, how?” Kirk asked. “How could our presence on Orion so long ago cause your death as a boy?”

  “I do not know,” Spock said. “While it may seem implausible, the chaotic nature of the flow of time may have made it possible.”

  “Still,” the captain said, “it just seems incredibly unlikely that an alteration we caused in the timeline thousands of years ago would end up specifically affecting you like this.”

  “Yes,” Spock said, and then a possibility suddenly occurred to him. “Perhaps we should examine this situation from another perspective. Could it somehow have been my absence from this timeline that caused the change?”

  “I’m not sure I understand that,” Thelin said.

  “I’m not sure I do either,” Kirk added.

  “I’m suggesting that we did not alter the timeline when we went back in time,” Spock said, “but that it was altered while we were back in time.”

  “The historians?” the captain asked.

  Spock nodded. “Possibly.”

  The captain pushed back from the table and stood from his chair. “Mister Spock, we’re transporting back down,” he said. “Let’s talk to Doctor Grey and Doctor Aleek-Om.”

  As Spock rose, so too did Thelin. “Captain, as the first officer of the Enterprise in this timeline, I request that you permit me to accompany you.”

  “Very well, Commander,” Kirk said. “Mister Bates, recheck the tricorder readings of Orion and the Guardian. This time, be alert for anything even remotely related to the planet Vulcan.”

  “Yes, sir,” Bates said, and he turned at once back to the computer interface.

  Spock returned with Captain Kirk and Thelin to the transporter room, and the trio immediately beamed back down to the planet. There, the two historians stood before the Guardian, though the time portal appeared inactive at the moment. “Doctor Grey,” the captain called as he strode over to her. Spock and Thelin followed.

  “Captain Kirk,” Grey said, looking up from the tricorder she held.

  “Doctor,” the captain said, “we believe that an alteration has occurred in the timeline.”

  “Mister Spock?” Grey asked, peering from the captain and over at the Vulcan.

  “Yes,” Kirk said. “I know that you don’t recall this, but Commander Spock traveled back in time with me a
nd Lieutenant Bates. When we returned, though, nobody here knew him.”

  “Since you beamed back up to the Enterprise,” Grey said, “we’ve been examining our recordings to see if we could determine the cause of what happened.”

  “You have?” Kirk asked.

  “When we saw an unexpected traveler return through the time vortex,” Dr. Aleek-Om said, “we understood that something had gone awry.”

  “Of course,” the captain said. “Have you found anything?”

  “Not yet,” Grey said.

  “We’ve examined our own tricorder readings, but we haven’t pinpointed anything that we changed on Orion,” Kirk said. “If we didn’t change anything while we were in the time vortex, someone else must have. Was the Guardian in use while we were gone?”

  “Yes, but it was nothing unusual,” Grey said. “We were scanning recent Vulcan history.”

  “What time period?” Spock asked, suspecting that the span would include his death as a boy in this timeline.

  “Twenty to thirty Vulcan years past,” Grey said, confirming Spock’s notion.

  “Was there any notation on the death of Ambassador Sarek’s son?” the captain asked.

  Aleek-Om consulted his own tricorder. “Yes,” he said at last. “The boy is recorded as dying during the maturity test.”

  “The kahs-wan,” Spock said, recalling that he had been seven years old when he’d undergone the ritual. “A survival test traditional for young males.”

  “The date was—” Aleek-Om started, but Spock interrupted him.

  “The twentieth day of Tasmeen.”

  “How do you know this?” Thelin asked.

  “That was the day my cousin saved my life in the desert when I was attacked by a wild animal,” Spock said. A template of what must have caused the alteration in the timeline began forming in his mind.

  “This cousin,” the captain said. “What was his name?”