The BLTS Archive - The Box
first in the Vulcan Shadows series
by Voile cha Krech (methioarya@comcast.net)

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Mine wife, Saya cha Krech, wilt archive

Disclaimer: Paramount/Viacom owns Trek, No money made from this and
only mine heart dost go into this story.

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The murmur of voices faded as the young Vulcan healer stepped up to
the podium to speak in defense of his recent paper on a peculiar case
history to the Vulcan Science Academy sponsored conference on Human
Psychological Studies. He looked out over the gathering of his fellows
as they quieted and felt all attention upon him. Beating down the
desire to simply turn and walk away, he knew they would never
understand or condone his methods. It was thus a futile effort to seek
understanding and acceptance. He realized that most thought of him as
someone on the fringes of insanity and most definitely corrupted by
his area of interest in Human Sexuality. There had always been talk
throughout his short career of taking his license to practice
psychiatry from him. He knew that this was probably the end of his
work at the Academy for his one friend and colleague had informed him
earlier in the month that it would not matter what he said today in
conference, the Board had already come to a decision.

With that information in mind he had prepared to journey to Earth to
begin his life again. He had failed as a member of the VSA and would
never return to Vulcan for as long as he lived.

In light of that fact he almost smiled on stage as he saw the entire
conference watching, examining him as if he were a new disease. He
began to recount the case history.

She had come to him through referral for her suicide attempt. A young
girl of 26, the daughter of a prominent Human archeologist involved in
a Vulcan dig, in search of sarcophagi carved from the very rocks
inside underground caves. She had been found inside one barely alive
after a frantic search when she had disappeared from her home. After
her physical recovery in Shi'Kaver Teaching Medical Facility General,
she was transferred to the psychiatry unit where he was assigned to
her case as the initial meld report showed that her mental condition
had psychosexual roots.

In their first session he noted she was clearly depressed. Avoiding
all attempts to talk, she simply darted her eyes about the room and
avoided direct questions. He watched her fidget and noticed that her
gaze had settled on the communications unit built into the wall. On a
fleeting thought he told her that she could use it if she wished and
instantly she went to the unit and sat in front of it, turning it on
and cueing up all varieties of obscure music from the database.

As he watched she sank into the list of songs, launching programs to
animate the musical selections she had chosen and a gradual
transformation took place over her previously tortured features.
Leaning back to watch the display of lights dancing on the monitor of
the unit she asked him to turn down the lights in the office. He
immediately hit the control at his chair to power the lights to a dark
glow all along the top of the room. The light coming from the screen
in front of her served to illuminate her features in deep reds and
oranges and then fading to blues and purples, and he watched
fascinated.

He touched the controls again and the music slowly took over the
atmosphere.  He moved to sit beside her in the second chair in front
of the screen and they both stared into the movement, listening to the
music. A hypnotic beat, the colors drawing them together.

She began telling her story.

It was her eighth summer and her parents had moved once again to a new
house by a dig they were working on. She was used to moving from place
to place, but this time something about the house was not comfortable
to her. Something did not feel right and she was afraid. To get away
she often went across her street a lot to the neighbor's house to
play. They had a little girl that was her age and she had lots of
toys, but was exceedingly selfish with them. Often they had
disagreements over the playthings and the older brother of her
playmate would come and break up the fight. He was fourteen and a dark
and serious individual who would take care of them while the parents
were away.

One day,  after breaking up a particularly vicious fight, he asked her
if she would like to come to his room to play with his old toys that
he had kept. She followed him to his room and watched him as he moved
to a toy box. It was huge and he took the lid from the box and dumped
all the toys out of it into the middle of the floor. He smiled then
and invited her to play with any of the toys she wished, so she sat
down and began to play. He sat beside her for a while watching her and
he began talking softly to her, sharing his ideas and experiences
about the different toys and playing with her. All afternoon he talked
with her, stroking her hair occasionally being gentle and she felt
safe with him. More safe than she had for many weeks and she was
happy.

Hours went by and his parents came home and he acted as if he was
doing something wrong and this disturbed her. She saw him get up and
go to the bed and take a pillow and a blanket with which he returned
and lined the empty toy box with the items and asked her to get in and
be quiet for him. She stepped into the box and he closed the lid over
her again telling her to remain quiet. She heard his parents come to
the door and him talking with them and then the sound of the door
closing again. The lid slowly came off the toy box and he peeked
inside and asked her quietly if she was all right. She replied she was
and so he smiled and reached in to stroke her hair again and gave her
some small toys to play with and also a stuffed animal to keep her
company. She felt warm and safe there and there was some light coming
through the lid that he had left slightly ajar. He moved around the
room, she could hear him, and he was always near. He left but on his
return he brought her something to eat and fed it to her from his
place outside the box, reaching in, talking softly to her all the
while.

When it came time for her to go home, he came to her and took her from
her warmth inside the box, sneaking her past his parents and outside
to the side of the house. There he told her it was time for her to go
home and that her parents would worry. He sent her off then to her
cold house.

Sometimes she would watch him from her window inside her house and he
would walk around his yard and always he would look so serious and
troubled. The darkness would return to his features and he was clearly
unhappy. But when she would come to him everyday after that first day
and he would put her inside the box and they would play their games,
he was happy. She enjoyed making him happy and it made her happy in
return. He would always talk softly to her and stroke her hair and
sometimes she would lay inside the box and he would lay on top of the
box cover and she would take her arms and legs and push up on the box
lid, trying to raise him up and off of it and they would laugh
together. And other times he would simply lie on top of the box and
she would hear him whispering to her. She could not understand what he
was saying, but she was comforted that he was there with her. He
always took care not to frighten her and always kept her safe inside
the box.

One day she came to him and he was upset. He told her they were going
to move away as his parents had finished their part of the expedition.
She had cried then and so he held her and kissed her on the forehead
gently and stroked her hair, then told her she would have to go home
now and so she did, never to return to his room or her place inside
his box.

She quieted. The lights on the monitor were a deep blue as the music
wound around them. They both sat staring at the screen and he ask the
first question.

Did she wish to go back inside the box?

She sat staring at the screen along with him and said yes.

He asked how would she like that to happen?

She said any way she could have it.

He asked if that is why she crawled inside the sarcophagi?

She said of course it was and that she had not meant for the lid to
close like it did, to lock her inside.

He held his breath for a moment and then went forwards with the
question. Would she allow him to put her inside a box?

She did not answer for a long moment and then reached to take his hand
and pleaded softly for him to do just that.

He felt something give way in him through the contact of her fingers
and felt the remembrance of the boy.

He rose from his chair and came around to stand behind her. Looking
down at her for a few long moments, knowing what he was about to do
was forbidden, he discarded everything he was taught never to do as he
reached out to stroke her hair.

She leaned back into his touch with a sigh and relaxed as his fingers
found the meld points and they connected and all was as it had been
before when she was eight and for the first time in the Vulcan's life
he was happy.

The conference was shocked into quiet horror at the admittance and
then a flurry of robes and whispers as he closed his notes and walked
from the podium out into the light of day towards his destination,
knowing she awaited him there.

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continued in the second story in the Vulcan Shadows series 'The Exchange'