Maiden Voyage

Eight

Puck placed an improvised sling over Spock's head and lightly wove his arm into the fabric. It was archaic but served its purpose. Scurrying around the table, he took his place at the table, retrieving a spoon from a pile of utensils in the middle of a makeshift assemblage in progress. Maldonado approached with two bowls.

"Dinner time!" Puck yelled.

Maldonado place one bowl in front of Puck, the other in front of Spock. He then disappeared briefly, then returned with two more bowls. Taking a spoon from the pile, he walked a bowl over to Reka. She never responded, merely snatched the bowl and started eating. Not once did she break her gaze from the monitor. Maldonado joined Spock and Puck at the table.

"You're okay, Mr. Spock. We're all still vegetarians here, except for Hawk. He's kind of taken to a more direct form of protein from animals," Maldonado offered.

Spock nodded. "Your hospitality is welcomed."

Spock took a sip of the broth, somewhat surprised with the flavor. "I find this most agreeable."

"Good, you need to get your strength back with something in your belly."

A simple meal. Respite from the tumult of nearly being consumed by a wall of energy. How satisfying a simple bowl of soup could be. The sensory cues from the thick porridge transported him back to his youth. It was termed in earth parlance as comfort food. On Vulcan, they had no corresponding term, yet here he was at the young age of twenty, finding comfort in this improvised broth.

Following the completion of his meal, Spock addressed Maldonado. He still had many things on his checklist to understand about his current situation, the wall, and the colony.

"If I may continue with my line of inquiry?" Spock broke the post-dinner silence.

Maldonado answered, "I'll answer what I can, but like I said, a lot of this is beyond my understanding."

"You mentioned that Governor Vessey and his alien friends constructed the wall? For what purpose and who are his alien friends?"

Maldonado rubbed the back of his head. He wasn't sure how much he could reveal without angering Hawk. Plus, no one had quite decided on whether Spock was friend or foe. He decided to just answer the question.

"Well, the second part of your answer is the aliens. They call themselves the Solarians. Pure energy beings. Nobody's seen them as far as I know. Shortly after we unearthed that damned stone that Vessey named Ovid, they showed up. They talked to Vessey only, instructing him how to use it as a sort of transmitter directly to their ship. He probably showed off the screen to your captain, can't stop him from talking about his precious chalkboard, but that's merely a relay. The actual stone is under the institute. Thing is, and again, this is way over my pay grade, just what I've gotten second hand, it can transfer thought as fast as the human mind, but it's also capable of being programmed."

Spock interjected, "I am assuming Starfleet does not know of this Ovid stone's existence?"

"Correct. Nor does Vessey want anyone in M-114's internal business. The information exchange received from the Solarians has been vital to everything from tech upgrades to enhance farming techniques to the wall," Maldonado added, "but then again, we also don't know how much of the tech is a bastardized model of integration of colony technological advances either. Like I said, Vessey plays things extremely close to the vest."

"I am perplexed why this first contact and subsequent technology benefit has not been shared with Starfleet Command? The colony falls under the jurisdiction of the United Federation of Planets. Governor Vessey, as an appointed representative, is bound by Code one six five, paragraph one, subparagraph three, to report all —"