Homecoming - Christie Golden [23]
“I should have recognized your position,” Torres said. “Please continue.”
Logt nodded, accepting the compliment graciously. “Miral wished to immerse herself in honoring Kahless, to petition him to bring her daughter safely home. She was a supplicant, as all are supplicants, but at one point she fell into a deep dream state. She awoke having had a vision of you, B’Elanna. She did not share the details, but she was determined to honor Kahless for the vision and went on the Challenge of Spirit.”
[65] A little ashamed of her ignorance, Torres said, “I’m not familiar with that.”
“You chose a human life,” said Logt, clearly trying not to sound contemptuous but largely failing. “You might be more familiar with the human term ‘vision quest.’ ”
Torres nodded. “I do know that term,” she said. “One goes out into the wilderness and scorns food and water, seeking an altered state in order to receive a vision.”
“It is a bit more with us,” Logt said. “One pushes oneself to the limit of physical endurance. One uses ancient techniques to make weapons to slay one’s food and fend off attacks, to make clothing and find shelter. It is a true test of the Klingon spirit. To endure so for a few months bestows great honor. To last a full year in the wild, with only one’s wits and courage, is worthy of a great ceremony.”
A sinking feeling came over B’Elanna. “My mother ... she never returned, did she?”
The harsh visage softened. “No,” Logt said, quietly. “She did not.”
Torres swallowed hard. She remembered every moment of her own vision of the Barge of the Dead. She hadn’t been sure what to call it—a dream, a hallucination, an active imagination working overtime. Now she felt the first tremblings of true belief. Her mother had had a vision of connecting with her at about the same time as B’Elanna’s own experience. She knew what Chakotay would say: Mother and daughter had shared a vision. Could it be possible? Was this more than a coincidence? Torres had never thought of herself as mystical and had in fact had to bite her tongue [66] whenever Chakotay waxed eloquent about his personal spirituality. The one time she’d attempted to enter his world, she had tried to kill her animal guide. No, the ethereal realms of mystery and magic were not anywhere B’Elanna Torres had been inclined to travel.
But now. ...
She had clung to the final words spoken by her mother: In Sto-Vo-Kor ... or maybe ... when you get home. She blinked back quick tears. It would seem that Sto-Vo-Kor, after all, would be the only place she would see her mother again.
She felt Tom’s hand still warm on her shoulder. She was so grateful for him, for little Miral. Torres cleared her throat.
“I am thankful that you felt telling me my mother’s fate so important,” she said. “But I am confused. I don’t see how it’s urgent.”
“Our tradition dictates that if a seeker is deemed lost on the Challenge of Spirit, her earthly possessions are to be destroyed within a certain time after the seeker is declared lost to Sto-Vo-Kor. That time is rapidly approaching. I thought perhaps you would wish to claim what she left with us before it is hurled into the ritual fire of cleansing.”
“Oh, yes,” said Torres. She didn’t care what it was, clothing, toiletries, even the most mundane items would have meaning for her. “Yes, I would.”
“Then you need to be here in five days at the most,” said Logt.
“Five days—I can’t possibly—”
[67] “B’Elanna,” said Tom, speaking quietly into her ear, “my father can pull some strings if he needs to.”
“And His Excellency has offered to see to it that you reach Boreth in time,” said Logt, startling both Tom and B’Elanna.
“Kahless cares about what happens to my mother’s stuff?”
“He does. Miral sought an audience with him before she left on her