Cantrell: The Early Years, Part Four

The Incident, a Cantrell: The Early Years, Part Four Update

 

T’Lar straightened in her chair, alerted.  Monitoring the Secret Test, she felt a disturbance along the relay.  Easing out of her meditative state, she picked up the hammer from the nearby table and struck a single note on the miniature gong standing in the corner.  A temple maiden was quick to respond, entering the chamber.  “How may I serve thee?” she asked with a respectful bow.

“I need an assessment of the situation. Bring the Candidate and her governess directly to me, I must know what has happened to create such a stir.” T’Lar said, her impassive features shrouded in the shadows of predawn.  “Speak to no one in passing.”

 

“I hear and I obey,” the maiden uttered and again, with a bowing of her head, left the small chamber.  

T’Lar rose from her seat, let out a breath and stood at the window gazing out.  Colorful fingers of light streaked the awakening sky and somewhere in the distance a T’ay’at’ma glided across the barren desert expanse, silhouetted against the jagged mountain range in the distance.  Another sandstorm was brewing.  Every time we have dealings with the human girl . . . “So,” she said aloud, “it has happened.”

Signs abounded this morning and, in the days, leading up to this moment.  Yet, she remained unmoved.  Since the time of the Enlightenment, it fell to the Clerics to erect that careful balance between Logic and Vulcan Mysticism. The reading of such Signs took diligence and care.  She dare not give them more sway than warranted. 

 

Closing her eyes again, the High Priestess let her thoughts drift outward, reconnecting with the minds that formed the Corridor.  Continuing her observations, T’Lar sensed the rumblings among the participants comprising the metaphysical chain.  Others had felt the same commotion and were unwisely drawing conclusions in the matter.  This would not do.  

 

=/\=

 

The heavy wooden door scraped against the rock flooring.   Jarring her concentration, Brianna Cantrell didn’t look up.  She sensed the presence of others in the room, refusing to respond.  To do so would mean breaking away from him, something she didn’t want to do.  So close, so close, who art thee?

“Come, child, it is time,” T'Pran said. 

 

In another moment she felt a hand on her shoulder.  Her attention was shattered and in that nanosecond she could feel the tendrils of his mind pulling away from hers.  No!   Panicking, Brianna cried out as the probing abruptly ceased,  “Wait!  No, wait.  Don’t go!”

She continued to reach for him but by the time she renewed her focus, it was too late.  The tenuous link had been shattered, and he was gone.  She had lost all contact with him. She glanced about her, confused, her eyes briefly meeting those of the temple maiden.  “Wh-what, who?” 

The maiden at once leaned over, reaching for the sides of Brianna’s face to initiate the mindmeld, her long hair falling over her shoulders with the movement. 

 

Brianna shrugged her off, pulling back.  She began to reach for him again, but all that was left was an emptiness; a bitter, unassuaged loneliness she had never understood before, coupled with an overpowering longing to be One with him again."Who are thee?  Where are thee? She pondered, knowing all too well there was no time to seek him out, to reestablish contact, nor any guarantee she could find him again if she had the time.  He was gone.  Hot tears stabbed at her eyes. 

 

“Alone.  So alone,” she whispered, straining around the lump in her throat.

 

“What is it, child?  Where have you been?”  T'Pran gently asked, from her position by the door.  She ventured a few steps forward, but it was not her place to interfere.  The acolyte T’Lar had sent would do the assessment.

 

Brianna stared at the wispy remnant of incense wafting up from the lava rock.  Taking in the dregs of its sweet, woody perfume, she grappled for self-control, overflowing with the memory of an encounter too intense to ignore. 

 

“For a moment I was with . . .  he . . .” she stammered.  Words were a hopeless commodity, she decided, particularly when mixed with guilt for having so arrogantly forsaken the Discipline. What had possessed her to Wander like that, on her testing day, too? she lamented.  Secretly, she was delighted to learn she still claimed the ability — and not just in her sleep, but it showed she still had much to learn.  Was she even ready for today’s test? Or was she already in the midst of it?She glanced at T’Pran, then back at the temple maiden who stood solemnly observing.  She could feel T’Pran’s questions, knew her former nurse was scrutinizing her with a highly trained eye.  It was the acolyte she had to fear, however.  At once T’Lar’s assistant put her fingertips to the side of Brianna’s face, this time insisting on the mind probe.  “Give me thy thoughts,” she said.  Brianna was powerless, nodding her assent as the woman gently probed her psyche. Is this where I’m supposed to shield my thoughts?

The mind-link was brief.  To Brianna’s shame the encounter was still so prevalent in her thoughts she couldn’t conceal it.  She steeled herself against chastisement, but none came, which left her puzzled.  The woman broke off the mindmeld and stood up.  “Kiftiri!”  she murmured, barely able to disguise her sense of awe as she gazed at Brianna. 

 

“Child?”  T’Pran prompted, drawing nearer to the girl.  She glanced at Brianna, then at the temple maiden and back at her charge.  “Where have you been?” 

 

“It is done.  Follow me,” the acolyte ordered, recovering her non-emotional state, cutting off any further discussion before she left the room.