The BLTS Archive - Eremite
by R.Schultz (cousindream@aol.com)

---

Disclaimer: Trekiverse belongs to Paramount and ViaBorgCom.  We will
be assimilated.  I'm playing with the Trekiverse concept, and no money
is made.  All the critters in my story are original, and this story is
mine under common-law copyright.  So chill.  Written Feb. 2001.  5850
words long.

Warning: Sex between (fictional) adult consenting men, women and
combinations thereof, occur in the context of this story.  If sex in
any of its combinations doesn't let down your forward shields, why
not toddle off somewhere else?

Posted to the Rumaire_Fuh-q_Fest, later to the ASCEM.  May be
archived, but please notify.

---

I am Saeed Bouleol, and this is my first trip to Vulcan.  I'd rather
be passing through Rumaire somewhere in Romulan space.  But I'm liable
to spend forty years of my future breaking large rocks into small
rocks if I show up on any of the Romulan worlds.  They believe in
punishing the son for the father's mistakes.

I am the eremite.

I am half-Romulan and I shall spend the festival seeking my own
truths, here, in the sere desert.

Finally, against this redstone cliff, here were the repeating carvings
alongside the cave.  Deeply carved stonework.  Either a lot of time
and effort in far historical times had been expended on those works.
Or modern machinery in times closer to now must have been invested in
doing that impressive carving.

One symbol repeated was that of either an upright or reversed Ankh
cross with the arms broken off raggedly.  They were old enough to be
getting vague in the details.  There were vines and leaves and little
flowers intermixed.  Unknown glyphs and symbols.  The flowers were
enjoying a hard enough life out here that they were smoothing out.
This must be the place.  It was a fairly shallow cave, and a spray of
repellent sent the minuscule local inhabitants searching for more
hospitable housing.

I hurried to unpack my survival fall-back.  The roll of seal unfolded
into a tube of several meters height.  Al I had to do was unroll it
after pressure-attaching one end to the cave mouth's sides.  I had to
use the unseal command on the channel box three times before I could
get it started right.  After that I rolled it to the other side and
let the top and bottom roll out and seal itself.

It was ugly as a Cardassian smile, and the sphincter iris appeared
obscene as hell, but it seemed to work.  Inside I threw my pack down,
and rolled out my survival-bag.  I unrolled the hoses and found a spot
along the seal where I could jiggle the outlets out into the stifling
desert air.  Turned it on and could feel the bare movement of air
against a palm.  I waited for a few minutes until it dripped one
single drop of water into the attached canteen.

Survival for a week was now likely.  Even for a soft civilized
creature like myself.  Not certain.  Likely.  Sleeping in my bag I
could get past the heat of day or the freeze of night.

The tiny air conditioner unit would give me another degree or two
either way.  The extractor unit inside it would give mouthfuls of
stale flat drinkable water.  I should survive.

When I got naked, I changed into fresh light underwear and a Khaftan
from one of Terra's desert groups.  Light airy weave, but protective.
I was already deeply tanned, so I should get only minimal burns.
Creme and spray for extra safety margin.

The sun was lowering, and I could knew T'Khut would soon crawl into
the sky.  When Vulcan's twin and its moon's were in line, seven
nights from now, I might be ready to find my own truths in my own
fashion.  And it would be Rumaire.

The worst heat was over by the time I returned to the exterior. Once
sun set, the numerous inhabitants of this supposedly barren wilderness
would come out to feed.  Yet another convenience of modern life was
sprayed lightly about my cave, and around what was to be my
encampment.  That should protect me from most of the desert lifeforms.
As most of the larger ones as well avoided my protectorant, that
should suffice.  One's as big as my head needed large areas to hunt.
As big as me needed dozens of square kilometers.  Danger was unlikely.

My meditations, my thinking, my seeking, all would occur at night and
some few hours of the day.  I threw my thin dull bone-white bio-sheet
over a rock which had been worked to a curved back.  I laboriously
brought my legs under my thighs and prepared to sit and think.  The
glory of Vulcan's other planet rose before me, daring me to watch it
rise.  The sun began its journey into night and I watched shadows
appear in the ruthless gravel.

I took a small pinch of my shredded mushroom and put it under my
tongue.  After my jaw and tongue was numb, I allowed myself a few
cubic centimeters of clear water.

I watched T'Khut rise.  After a time my perceptions had altered to
where I could make out its movements.  It slowly danced before my
slitted eyes, acquiring a deeper haze of color as its light overrode
the fallen sun.

Suddenly my implanted chrono irritated me into acknowledging it was
time to retreat into my cave and go to sleep.  It was hours since
sunset.  I shook the light frost off my arms and billed hood, rising
as a cripple to enter my sanctuary.

Thus was my first night.

In the morning I came out to my stone and lay down, gazing into the
sky.  The sun was up and low, and in minutes the chill was gone.  I
took more water and sat with my back against the stone.  A pinch of
the mushroom.  Then more water when it had taken effect.  Under my
lingering look I watched the universe turn to beating heat.  I sweat
for hours until my body stopped being wasteful.  My Romulan genes
being efficient.

In time my chrono irritated my bones and I again entered my cave and
sanctuary.  Almost two-thirds of a liter of water had accumulated in
the exchanger's canteen.  I took half of it and had part of it before
I laid myself down to sleep.  Last night the bag had kept me warm.
Now I lay nude inside it and let the chemical excitation in the fabric
cool my overheated flesh.  I had not needed to relieve my bowels or
bladder for two days now.

Thus was my first morning.

Again the implanted chrono I wore inside my wrist excited me awake. I
stumbled into my Khaftan, letting my mouth feed around one of the
survival bars.  I could only eat half of it, so I put it on top of my
ruck and flinched into the heat of late  afternoon.  My cave-shield
iris closed behind me and there was nothing between me and eternity
again.

More mushroom, more water, more swift passage of time as I watched
T'Khut rise into the afternoon-become-evening.  It flew up the sky and
I was surprised to find frost on my Khaftan and my chrono working on
my nerves to wake me.  I went through the iris to my night-warm sleep
bag.  My mouth was dry enough for me to spend a half cup on it.

Thus was my second night.

This time when I awoke I found myself with company.

She was slight of build, and her apologetic voice didn't sound either
Vulcan or Romulan.  She said she was tired after a long journey, and
introductions would wait for the morning.  I went back to sleep,
barely noting she reduced herself to nudity before slipping into the
bag.  its reactives would work less efficiently with a clothed
individual.  At least she seemed versed in what needed to be done.

As I dressed for morning she awoke, gradually.  She had a lantern, and
broke it open in the morning's darkness.  She was mostly human, or
apparently so.  She was very pale, but as her face was unburnt I
presumed she had protected herself with one of the good commercial
salves on the market.

She referred to herself as Sister Dee.  Or Dee if I had to.  Dee it
would be.

She was very pretty, actually.  Frail, possibly strong in the way some
lean women were.  Jet blue-black hair, a very Romulan type pretty head
of hair.  A little circle tattooed under one eye, and the Old Faith
Ankh cross about her neck.  Hers had no broken arms to it.

I knew things happened during the festival, and wondered if we were
going to be lovers.  As she lingered in her nudity, allowing me to
enjoy her, it appeared the idea was in her mind as well.  I usually
appreciated more breast on my women than her slight bumps, but as I
said before, she was pretty.  In a wan sort of way.

Loving her might be a great deal more complicated than I wanted,
making me smile inside.  My body had already changed in this place. I
had no great love of chemicals, whether in the form of old traditional
foods and drink's, or modern aids.  Yet I was no longer sure I could
erect.  Nonetheless, there were many alternatives if she wanted a bout
or two of sex.  My hands, at least, remained.  We could get by.  I
wonder if she was all human?  She had her own pocket-sized
air-condition unit, and she set it up in an opposite corner of the
cave's seal.

She put on her own Khaftan-style outfit, one eye on me all the time.
Hers were a more standard black one.  Totally impervious to the rays
of Vulcan's sun, no doubt.

Outside she found a rock of her own to lean back against.  There were
several that I could see.  Smoothed centuries ago, for seekers such as
we.  I found myself idly watching her as she began to seek her own
truths in trial by sunlight and deprivation.  She had water, then
sipped from a dark lavender bottle, before having more water.  We
watched the night end together even as we were apart.  I took my own
mushroom with water.  And saw ... eternity.  Again.

She woke me, a touch on my shoulder.  The sun was now high, and
dizzying.  Almost immediately after she touched, my chrono alarm
activated.

Thus was my second morning.

As we walked to the cave, three more pilgrims appeared by `my'
cave.  They were in green, yellow and dark brown Khaftan's.  At the
entrance they gave names and requested refuge while they sought
their own revelations.

Tras and T'Prosh, a brother and sister.  Half-breeds, like myself,
Romulan and human.  She had a probably assumed Vulcan name.  And
then there was T'Pe'Nefriti, a Vulcan seclusant.  One of the old
line, if her name was not just an affectation.  Minor nobility,
probably.  We should feel honored.

They were not the last.  As I crawled into my bag for the day a
male stuck his head in the door.  Another Vulcan, I thought, until
he smiled and leered at the succulent Vulcan as she undressed.  A
full Romulan, and I wondered what had driven him away from the
Empire?

In a short while four more air-condition exchange-units were slowly
cycling air and capturing water.  Should any one malf, we now had
alternatives.

Neither T'Prosh nor the Vulcan bothered putting on clothes within
our desert "home".

The Romulan was in his fifties, probably once a career military
officer.  Such as he were the only ones likely to have an
opportunity to defect.  They were -- not common -- but present in
Federation space.  Mostly Vulcan space.  After all, there were
fifty-four Vulcan worlds, and a few hundred new souls a year were
easily swallowed by their distant racial relatives.

His name was Katedid, which name marked him for a Lessenter.  He
had some success as a sculptor.  I'd never heard of him, but then I
was a crystalline bio-chemist.  Certainly the Empire was a boring
place for those with artistic leanings.  You created heroic
figures, glorified past military heroes and honored political
visionaries in uniforms.  Or you learnt sublimation.

He stripped like all of us, excepting he proceeded to roll on the
black-haired pale human afterward.  T'Pe'Nefriti had the far better
body and face.  Exquisite soft honey skin.  That natural sharp
hauteur and deep beauty so natural to some Vulcan women.  However
the Romulan male must know its trickier finding a Vulcan female
willing to spread her legs, than a human.

It bothered me to see his bulkier form touching Dee, the human
girl.  Evidently I unconsciously thought of her as "my" female.  It
pleased me to see her slide from him, stating with her words and
body language that she intended to do nothing at this time.  The
upsetting part was her moving her bag to lay it beside mine -- but
also alongside that of the brother, Tras.  He touched her hair as
she bagged, and she allowed it.  Time for sleep.

My alarm awoke me, jarring my nerves and bones.  I and the
sister-brother pairing were the first up.  We were dressed and out
into the morning dark before any of the others crawled out onto the
desert.

T'Khut fell and then the sun came.  T'Prosh and Tras shared my
mushroom, and they shared their water.  A bare taste of a sweet
wine lent it a delicious flavor.  I disappeared into myself once
more.  Again Dee woke me from my trance, and I labored erect and
followed the others back into `our' cave.

Thus passed my third night.

I awoke surprised, confused, far too early.  A regular chrono was
in my ruck and it confirmed my sense of not enough time having
passed.

I turned my head to see the Romulan sexing the sister, T'Prosh.
She had long black hair once she had it undone, and it was swirling
about her head as she sat on Katedid's loins.  They both shined
with Rillan grease -- it was all it could be, all things
considered.  They were beautiful together, and I admired the play
of corded muscles in the sister's legs as she rode him like an
erratic machine.  She was doing almost all the work, sitting
upright, being the vagina for his erection, being his delight.

She climaxed first, collapsing to lie prone on him.  He came then,
huffing and muttering a few Lessenter prayer-words.  For some
minutes they stirred not at all.  It was then I realized the air in
the cave was barely livable.  Hot, but it could now be lived in.
There were, after all, six of the little pocket-sized air units
working.  I had not been sure a multitude of the units could cool
the day-heat down that much.

A hand touched my hair, prompting a smile.  It caressed my face,
then my throat an shoulder.  When I turned, the fondler turned out
to be the brother, Tras.  I had expected the human girl.

Tras saw the surprise in my face, and sat back, waiting for my
reaction.  I knew it was nothing uncommon in Vulcan space, but I'd
been raised on Terra, and it -- made me pause.

Tras was handsome enough, but apart from two college encounters,
same-sex-sex was not my preference for a Rumaire encounter.

Dee saw my face, and quickly knelt along my other side.  She
indicated something to Tras, and he frowned his patience or hope or
acceptance.  Dee looked deep in my eyes, noting the concentration
there.   I kept looking down at her large nipples close to her
spare chest.  She kissed me, barely, waiting for my response.
Thrice I tried to fit my tongue in her mouth before she finally
slid her tongue-tip against mine.  After that I was lost.

We came up for breath, and she took a small plas container from
Tras' offering hand.  A few teaspoons worth of a harsh parody of
wine went down my throat.  Dee left and I allowed Tras to kiss my
shoulder.  Then Dee was back, giving me another drink from the
small dark lavender flask she held to my lips.  Tras was caressing
my chest as the wines worked on me.  Tras took a sip of Dee's
Rumaire wine, and Dee a sip of his.  In a few minutes both had my
bag front rolled down to where my stiff erection throbbed in the
still heat of the cave.

Dee bent to take me in her mouth, not much bothering with
preliminary kisses before fitting me into the back of her throat.
Her head bobbed on me, holding her breath as my penile head fit
into the tight convulsing squeeze of her throat.  Then she began to
move her body.  In a few seconds I knew she was going to bring her
groin to my enraptured face.  Then she was there.

Her hips scooted back until my mouth could burrow into the hot
wetness that was her groin.  She sat up then, rising and twisting
around to squat over me.  She teased me, wetting my nose, giggling,
holding my head away as she waved her beautiful sex at my nose.  I
inhaled the scent of her.  Then I had the taste of her as she sat
on my tongue.

After minutes I realized another mouth was on my painful erection,
but by then I was surrendered and surrounded.  I held her ass with
both hands as she metronomed on my loving face.  I think she came
twice before I had to finally surrender my sperm into the hot
wetness that was Tras' loving mouth.

It was okay, somehow.  And left me with a lot better feeling
afterward than the fervid gropes those years back.  Dee crouched
down and off my face, taking my wilting male tool in her sweet
mouth.  She finished cleaning me, loving me, being emphatically
part of this.  Tras checked my eyes carefully before lowering his
head and giving my cheek a chaste kiss.  He did not force any
issues, and I mentally thanked him for it.  I did not think this
would be repeated.

We all went out onto the desert cold.  Waiting for the sun to rise
triumphant and T'Khut to die descendent in the west.  We had all
shared some of my mushroom.  Katedid had given us all sips from his
art-carved flask.  It tasted grape, a fresh Terran wine from one of
the many worlds where it now grew.  Obviously not a Rumaire drink.
Yet there had been that tingling to the tongue.

In time Dee woke me from my haze, and we all re-entered our joint
sanctuary.  Katedid carefully squeezed a few drops of his wine into
each of our air-unit canteens.  Giving flatness a ghost of pleasant
taste.  In courtesy I squeezed a few drops of my tiny flat of
Ruollion Orangewine into all the canteens worn by my fellow
reclusants.  We were becoming a `we' instead of a `me' and a
`them'.

Thus passed my third day.

---

There were sounds, waking me, and I turned to find they were the
sister, T'Prosh, lying on her back in another state of sexual bliss.
The Vulcan girl was laying her lovely face into T'Prosh's open groin.
The sounds were inviting and obscene, wet and accompanied by groanings
by both women.  The two were incredibly sensual and beautiful
together.

I felt guilty admiring a sapphic joining, and queasy at feeling guilty
for what I had done with Tras.  Blame it on my upbringing. I would get
over it.

After some panted sighs, T'Prosh lay quiet.  T'Pe'Nefriti gave the
sister soft long oral caresses, loving's rather than sexing's.  It
appeared this Vulcan was not such a creature of logic and mysticism as
originally thought.

I was startled to see my lean human walk past me to the pair of women.
T'Pe'Nefriti rolled back onto her bag, knowing why Dee came to her.
Their bodies merged and Dee rubbed herself on the Vulcan. We all
watched as they eventually lay side by side.  Face to groin, cries and
slishing noises in the still hot hair.  T'Prosh, the sister, lay
alongside.  Indiscriminately caressing each female, laying kisses on
both, caressing each anus and head in turn.

Katedid issued a soft "Bravo!" when they were finished.  Then my alarm
urged me to rise.  It was again time to seek truth, out in the desert.

We all found places to sit, to meditate.  The sister T'Prosh and the
Vulcan sprayed a larger area with repellent before finding their own
rocks to recline against.  Far from the males.  Not to conspire or
gossip or tease.  Simply finding the comfort so many females did in
the company of like.

T'Khut fell up and aimed for the west.  I ate my pinch of mushroom. I
tasted a trace of Dee's wine in my canteen water and saluted her. She
nodded her head and worked her thin legs underneath her own thighs.

She masturbated and T'Prosh did as well.  Once she had noticed the
human's self-gratification's.  It became a dance between the two of
them, I knew.  I idly wondered if I would ever feel her hot moist sex
around my erection.  Deciding I would.  It was now time to find my --
what?  If I could.  I would know what I sought when I found it.  That
was my seeking.

Heat had gone and frost whitened my cloth.  It dusted off my Khaftan
when Katedid touched me.  It was a very good sign, I remembered.  We
were not strangers, we were not sex partners, we were not celebrants,
we were not meditationist's.  We were together and each of us wore the
air of looking out for the others.

Thus was my fourth night.

I stumbled to the cave, but stopped to face the owner of the hand on
my shoulder.  It was the Vulcan, her dark eyes almost invisible
beneath her hood.

Dee stood alongside and watched as the beautiful T'Pe'Nefriti offered
me a warm drink from her wine flask.  It was strong wine, and the
incredible strawberry taste identified it to me as a nearly-pure form
of an expensive Vulcan aphrodisiac.  Then Dee took a taste, watching
as the Vulcan also drank of her own vintage.

I was feeling different about artificial aids by then.  The three of
us gimped back to `our' cave together.  Thus was my fourth night.

All the others watched as first T'Pe'Nefriti groaned under me, then
Dee rolled and rode me.  I had been correct.  She had strength. Dee
especially liked to make squealing noises as she climaxed. Each then
lay side by side for their audience, cleaning my sperm from each other
and out of each other.  Dee's cries were louder now, and T'Pe'Nefriti
groaned audibly against Dee's wet groin.  We all allowed ourselves
greater noises now.  We were in Rumaire together.  Out here, alone.
together.  Six different, six the sameness of soul.

T'Prosh rolled her brother over -- if he was her brother -- and sat on
his stiffness.  Katedid exchanged whispers with the pair, allowing
each to touch his legs or body.

The Romulan sprayed protection on himself.  He had Rillan grease he
applied to himself as well as the brother-sister team.  He took a
stiff drink of his own flask before kneeling behind the sister,
T'Prosh.  She came as soon as he was in her bowels.  It was calming
rather than exciting.  We were all becoming a family of lovers.  I
fell asleep in my bag, knowing Dee and T'Pe'Nefriti were crawling to
their own survival-bags.

I awoke to T'Prosh handling my erection.  I looked to find Dee, seeing
that her and Katedid were already gone.  A quantity of Rillan grease
later, I was inside the sister and she was looking over her shoulder
as her brother had her in her ass.  I could feel him thrusting inside
her.  We were separated by a few thin layers of soft female flesh.  We
all came quickly.

T'Pe'Nefriti had been waiting for that.  She cleaned everyone with her
mouth.  Everyone.  Tras as well.  She cleaned T'Prosh's entire bottom,
making especially sure her anus was clean.

I felt exhausted just watching her energy.  It was a definite
advantage to be accustomed to Vulcan's deserts.  Vulcan's had
remarkable stamina, by legend.  Evidently true.

We went out into the dark, and found our stones of purgatory and
fulfillment.  Hours later T'Prosh woke me into reality in the sun's
hot morning.  We were all looking out for each other.

Thus was my fourth day.

Exquisite T'Pe'Nefriti woke me this time.  She shared her
strawberry-like wine with me and Katedid.  Then she fitted herself on
me, rising and lowering on me  to ensure my hardness.  Her mouth had
been busy on the Romulan.  The objective was achieved when she sat
back on my stiff penis, taking me into her hot and giving rear.
Katedid had her from the front.  Afterwards she cleaned us both off.
As a change of pace both of her males, Katedid and I, used her body
with our fingers until she had gloried into a few more orgasms.

Dee and T'Prosh had orally used Tras a time or two, then finished by
masturbating each other.  Time for the outside world awaiting our
stiff bodies and open minds.

We were all exhausted by the time we were leaning back against our hot
rocks.  I took my mushroom and water, as did the others.  It was a
large tin and very little dried mushroom was needed.  I actually
slept, from hot day to frigid night.

Thus passed my fifth night.

Dee and I binded our bags together, and she crawled in with me.
Comfort, holding, a little perfunctory fondling.  We slept as did the
others.  Too soon we awoke for the darkness of early morning.

Looking back the morning-turning-into-sunheat seemed not to have
occurred.  I felt I did not need the mushroom, but swallowed it
anyways.

Thus passed my fifth day.

T'Pe'Nefriti had one of the Risan dildo's, the kind that grew its own
seat in a woman's groin.  Afterwards the female was effectively a
male.  Dee looked like one, excepting her small breasts and large
nipples.  The Vulcan rode her into three or four climaxes before
fitting the sopping dildo on herself.  Dee was then the recipient of
the toy's charms.  T'Prosh and Tras went about mouthing any males that
let them.  We all let them.  We watched the females together, received
our fervid fellatio and went to sleep in our bags.

In the heat we went again to our blistering stones of repose.  Even
under my bio-blanket I could feel the heat like it was a living thing.
I had four mouthfuls of water with my mushroom.  Then, suddenly, once
again I was awoke surprised to find frost on my Khaftan.  We all
stumbled to our survival bags in the cave.

Thus passed my sixth night.

We all awoke late.  My chrono was actually hurting me by the time I
stirred.  Dee and I had slept together again.  The other males had the
females with themselves.

Despite his relationship with his sister, and the Vulcan's taste for
females, Tras and T'Pe'Nefriti seemed to have bonded during the time
of sleep.  They both giggled happily as we made ready for our next
excursion to purgatory.

I must have either slept or dropped into such a spiritual fugue that
nothing is left in my mind of my mental journey that crawled into the
heat of day.

Thus passed my sixth day.

T'Pe'Nefriti crawled into my bag, and Dee collapsed into the Vulcan's
bright yellow survival bag.  I presumed the interesting Vulcan meant
to have my body after we had regenerated with sleep. In this I was
right.

Her mouth was on me, waking me.  She was another of that delightful
breed of female who felt a male's sex organ was meant to be in her
clasping throat before it was in her clasping body.  In this case
instead.

Dee wore the Risan faux-penis and the Vulcan rode her.  After their
sexing, the two females woke me back into stiffness.  I finally felt
the hot, wet, tight confines of the exquisite Vulcan convulse around
my penis bare seconds before I had to spend inside her soft vagina.

I don't even remember getting clothed and finding my repose stone.
Only of being guided by Katedid to the cave in the darkness.  I could
feel only fierce hot needles in my feet, then loss of sensation as
they coalesced back into feeling.  Despite the agony of my feet, I
slept.  Dee was collapsed into sleep before I even made it into the
joint survival bag.

Thus passed my seventh night.

Katedid and T'Pe'Nefriti managed some laughing sex in the cold of
night.  Tras barely managed to kiss each before retreating to the
comfort of his sister's arms.  Again, as I reminded myself, if they
were indeed brother and sister.  Alike they were, but they could have
been similar first cousins.

It was in the white heat of my seventh day that -- whatever.

I was savoring a quarter mouthful of water, feeling the tingling of
aphrodisiac strawberry taste thinly enriching my flat tasting fluid.
I swallowed it, looking briefly into the white-red day sky. We all
used generous amounts of lip and face salve now.  It kept us from hurt
and scaring, but left our skin to feel pain.

There was some --   It was breathing.  Behind me.

It was not an ordinary deep breath, oh no.  It was the airs of
eternity flowing through the nose of Zeus plus.  I know from the
weight of the sound that somewhere behind me -- God breathed.

Sinuses the size of Vulcan itself, breath of a hundred M-class
planets, a room in which sat a being the size of the lesser Magellenic
Cloud, the room the size of the Andromeda Galaxy.

Or closer to me and two meters tall.  A deep washing of breath. its
portend told me I had not been mistaken.  Behind me a true giant
breathed.  Slowly.  Easily.  The faintest of sand-stirrings being his
exhalation from kilometers away.  Or hers.

I could have turned.  Looked behind myself.  Looked into the eyes I
knew were observing me.

I dared not.

Without turning my head, the rods of my eyes knew movement took place
to my extreme right.  A finger rested on the distant mountains.  Two
hundred, three hundred kilometers away.  Another. Fingers the size of
planetoids, fingers whose fingerprints would span this entire desert.
Two fingers of -- God?

I could not turn to clearly look.  To look even upon the fingers of
God would be to achieve eternal and sudden damnation.  To be shriveled
and tossed onto the impaling sticks of hell.  To hear the craws of
pain of the fallen angels for all eternity, as they and I slowly spun
in our agony.  To spend aeons feeling the impaling stick work its
slow way deeper into my gut.

I froze to death in that furnace of day time Vulcan.

Eventually the fingers left, and I knew the -- Figure/Giant/God -- was
going away from me.  I sweat profusely, my body in shock over its
transcendent trauma.  I vomited the little bit left of my water and my
ration bar.  I crouched in the baking sun until I was sure my stomach
had emptied and it was again safe to move.

It was agony making my way back to the cave by myself.  Inside I
carefully lay in my survival bag and dozed.  There would come
wakefulness, and I would manage small wets of water in my mouth. More
dazed sleep, then more water when I awoke.

The sun was setting when I could sit erect.  My search had been
rewarded.  But with what?  That would require a lot of thought.  Of
the honesty of my vision I had no doubt.  Of its meaning I had not a
clue.

I buzzed the tourist service once I could begin dressing and gathering
my gear.  It seemed my luggage was more, now, than it had been.  It
all went back into the ruck anyways.

The flitter arrived while I was still unsealing the cave-entrance
film.  He was an older Vulcan, with gray in his hair.  He made me sit
down in the warm coolness of the interior of the flitter while he
folded and re-wound the expanse of micro-plas into a meter-long tube
of green insubstantiality.  He brought my air unit back to the vehicle
and packed it in my ruck for me.

He let me swallow a few spoonful of water that had a clean taste. Then
gave me his own preference of salve for my face and lips. Judging my
condition as good, he offered to let me enjoy the desert at night,
during our ride back.  That pleased me.  I did not look back into my
deserted cave, or the bare expanse of meditation- ground.  Alone I had
arrived, and alone I left.  There was no one to kiss good-bye, no
hands to touch, or promises of reunions to make.  Nothing.  I had been
alone for a week.

He'd decided there was no emergency here.  We took the slow winding
way back, and he turned the interior lights off.  The silent comp read
the orders from the traffic grid and slowly brought us back to
civilization.  If that's what it was.

I saw a few fleeing creatures, I saw T'Khut in the sky, I saw the
now-familiar stars in the sky above.

Eventually he broke the silence, staring at my bedraggled state.

"A week is a long time out on the flats," he stated, and I agreed.

"All alone."  Curious look.  "Unless friends joined you out there, and
you searched together?"

"No," I finally admitted.  "I was alone.  No one else was there. But I
did not feel alone, and that was what was important.  I discovered out
there that I liked the company of intelligent life about me.  It gives
me anchor."

"Why then are you listed as the `Eremite'?  Does not that word mean
`hermit'?  Didn't you wish to be alone, out there, seeking your own
answers?"

"Yes.  I was alone.  No one else was there.  And I indeed found a few
of my answers.  Or ways to rephrase my questions."

"So now you understand you cannot bear to be alone.  It strikes me
that your vision has presented you with one significant personal
truth.  You WERE alone, but will not BE alone.  Is this a correct
summation?"

"Correct."  The Vulcan managed a small spare smile, pleasure now
evident in his entire bearing.

"You discovered much, then."  We flew on in silence.  I did not share
the greatness of my visions with him, but he suspected I had indeed
swallowed much more than a revelation or a week's worth of dry desert
air.

Eventually he spoke again.  "It is unfortunate you chose this week to
make your vision quest.  This was the week of Rumaire, now past. It
would have given you the chance to have seen a Vulcan society that
allowed itself to be a little less stiff and formal.  You might have
even been invited into the beds and the hearts of other truth-seekers.

"Let me assure you," he noted.  "Pon-Farr does not rule our females.
It merely guides them.  You might have found your heart's dream in
some invited bed."

"I have.  I go back now to her.  I am sure you would you think her
very beautiful.  Her female lover as well."

He said nothing, wondering in his stance.  His smile barely increased.

"Still, it is unfortunate that you missed the Rumaire."

Oh, no," I replied, "don't think that.  I enjoyed the Festival
greatly.  I had a wonderful time.  Even out there by myself, I found
much joy and even more truth.  Can one ask for more from the Rumaire?"

Many kilometers behind us the first lizard cautiously re-entered the
uninhabited cave, seeking to reclaim a home in its shelter.

---

The End