The Red King - Michael A. Martin [21]
The absence of constant interaction with either of his outworld friends, to Tuvok’s great surprise, gave him the greatest sense of loss he had ever experienced.
Tuvok had not been able to explain to his wife and children why he had chosen to return to Starfleet earlier this year; he wasn’t even certain he could explain it to himself. Perhaps it had been his nigh-mystical desert encounter with the a’kweth —the Underlier, or repository of all knowledge, from Vulcan’s most ancient myths—or perhaps it was simply a gradual accumulation of what humans sometimes called “wanderlust.” Whatever the reason, it almost seemed that a part of his very katra had gone missing while he had been home on Vulcan, and that it only rejoined him when he journeyed into space.
He had been reinstated to Starfleet as an ensign, and was given minor assignments, until an old friend asked for Tuvok to transfer to his ship; Akaar was now the first officer of the U.S.S. Wyoming , and had urged his captain to take on Tuvok as a member of his crew.
While the posting seemed a blessing at first, Tuvok soon grew to disapprove of Commander Akaar’s superior officer, the abrasive and confrontational Captain Karl Broadnax. At least Captain Sulu had allowed Tuvok to speak his mind when he found particular actions or commands to be illogical; Broadnax had practically cashiered him back out of Starfleet the first time that Tuvok had dared question one of his decisions.
Thus it was that Tuvok was “loaned” for a brief time to the U.S.S. Stargazer , under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. He might have asked to return to that ship, had not Broadnax made a particularly egregious error in judgment and allowed his temper to get the better of him in a ramshackle bar on Farius Prime. Even though complete Starfleet and civilian investigations were undertaken, no one had ever determined precisely which local underworld denizen—or which gang of lowlifes, judging from the condition of the remains—had ended the captain’s contentious existence.
After Akaar was promoted to captain of the Wyoming , he had requested that Tuvok remain aboard as his science officer. Although Tuvok knew that Akaar tried not to show any overt favoritism to his old friend—which Tuvok assumed explained why Akaar had not promoted him beyond the rank of ensign—Tuvok still felt little camaraderie with his other crewmates. Rather than dwell on their illogical and delusional jealousies, he pushed himself harder and focused his energies more than ever before on his work. He even began an exhaustive study of battle tactics and security protocols on the side.
But most of the tactical skills he had learned in the short time since coming back aboard the Wyoming were useless here, on Planetoid 437. There was nothing to defend against, other than the heat, the thirst, and the hunger. There were no animals or sentient aliens or anything living other than the imposing trees that were spiked into the cracked and otherwise barren ground.
A hot breeze pushed through the shelter, momentarily stirring Tuvok from his meditative trance and his memories. Rather than let it bring him completely out of his contemplative state, he incorporated the feeling into his mind, matching it to recollections of his second trip into the desert as a child, when he had run away from home after his pet sehlat , Wari, had been killed. Inconsolable when his parents told him that Wari did not have a katra , he had embarked on the ritual of tal’oth , making his way over the desiccated wasteland of Vulcan’s Forge, and across the jagged mountains that marked its eastern boundary.
The winds that pushed against him during that trip were just as broiling and powerful as