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Title: More Questions Than Answers: The Call to Mourn, Part Nine
Location: Sandokhan Alpha Base
Setting: Deep within the Holy Catacombs

       L'Asaha gets up slowly from the prostration, her left leg, injured years ago at the hands of the Tureth, was giving her trouble again. She tries again and stands for a moment, unsure what to do. Just a moment ago, L'Asaha had been filled with excitement that the prophecy had been fulfilled. Now great doubt replaced those elated feelings. She curses herself for her weakness. If only she had challenged K'Arak earlier, before he had become so popular with the warriors, then she'd have the courage to do the right thing and not care what anyone else thought. She knew that her fear of confrontation was a great failing of hers and it was the reason she did not claim her rightful role among the Sandokhans as their undisputed leader. She just couldn't bring herself to denounce his excesses for fear of the schism it would cause the rebellion if their differences were brought into the open.

       "This is not your captain.  Where is he?" she demands of Dr. Laleia-Lii.

       The CMO says in a trancelike state, "He is there."

       "No, come up and see," L'Asaha says.

       CMO reaches up with great difficulty. The Moeban doctor, like all her species, is under five feet tall and struggles to jump up to the ledge.  L'Asaha assistants impatiently help her up.

       L'Asaha shines the glowing rock at the Galadonese man's face. It casts an eerie green color on his whiten face.

       "Who is this?" she demands.

       "That is the Captain," the good doctor replies, emotionlessly.
       
       "Don't lie to me," the Priestess says angrily. "This a Galadon, not a Human!" L'Asaha believes that the Moeban is either faking the induced trance of "The Call" or has somehow retained enough free will to manipulate her answers. She thinks that perhaps some facet of Moeban biology has made her response different from the other races who yielded to her before.

       "Yes, but it is the Captain," the doctor says.

       "Explain," the Sandokhan orders. The two Galadons must be new invaders in her caves. It was the only answer that made any sense to her, so she thought it had to be the truth. She had no idea how the Ankhanahkstoi worked.

       "Back on Galadon Twelve, when the Empress of All Galadon and the Captain were interrupted in the Ankhanahkstoi, an ancient Galadonese mystic healing ritual, something went wrong. He began mutating from Human to Galadon," she explains. "The mutations haven't stopped. The last use of the Ankhanahkstoi erased all my surgical and cosmetic handiwork to make him look human. This is what he looks like now with no surgical alterations. . .," her voice trails on.

       "And the woman???" the High Priestess interrupts.

       "The Empress has had bad side effects from he aborted ritual as well, but no mutations. While the Captain's body has been taking on Galadonese characteristics and his human genetic code is being overwritten like some invasive cancer, her body has been fighting the Human genetic traits that have invaded it like a flu. I don't think having the ritual happen twice to them has helped. They both seem worse for it. Now their core body temperatures have dropped to dangerous low levels. This did not happen before . . . I don't know why . . . I can't stop it. . . I can't stop any of it," she says with some hint of emotion back in her voice.

       "When was the last time that they did this?" L'Asaha asks.

       "About an hour ago," LCDR Laleia-Lii replies.

       "What happened?" the Priestess asks.

       "The Empress was trying to get the guards to fight about the prophecy. The boys believed that the 'Being in Blue' was a man and the girls believed it to be woman. She staged a flaring of the Ankhanahkstoi to show them two blue beings, both a man and a woman, to widen the rift so we could escape, but it went horribly wrong. Instead of a brief flaring of the strange energies of the Ankhanahkstoi, it turned into a full blown demonstration of the Ankhanahkstoi's mysterious healing properties. The Ankhanahkstoi interpreted the Captain's cosmetic surgery that altered him to look human as a life threatening injury and restored him to what his DNA said he was, a Galadon. The Empress screamed and took on his injuries. Her face and form, which was also surgically altered, took on his surgeries. Then as the Ankhanahkstoi began to erase evidence of both the surgeries from her face, the children came in between the two and were caught up in the Ankhanahkstoi. The end result was that Rolin, who was very close to death was complete healed, the Captain lost his surgically altered appearance, and the Empress was restored to her original features, not the surgical disguise she had assumed to the hide her true identity from the people of Sirius South. I don't know what the effects on poor little Lasara are yet," the doctor recounts.

       "You mean this is Saffira?" L'Asaha asks in disbelief.

       "Yes," the Moeban answers, flatly and emotionless again.

       "Examine the 'four dying'," she orders. "Start with the children. How are they?" she asks worriedly.

       The children are resting comfortably but are beginning to show signs of mutating into Galadons," the CMO replies.

       "Stop it!" she hisses horrified, losing her composure.

      "From what I can tell that is part of the normal process. They'll change back after the second phase is completed. Both the Hanahk, the injured party, and the Ank, the person who initiated the healing ritual, will exchange characteristics until the Ank, through the Ankhanahkstoi, takes on the injuries and biologically fights them off. Then they both return to a normal healthy state. The only problem will be if something goes wrong with the ritual as it did for the Captain the first time he was a participant," she explains.

       L'Asaha was still scared for the children, but visibly relieved. "And the Empress?" she asks.

       The doctor shifted her the tricorder from the children onto the Empress. "She has internal bleeding, infections, and flu like symptoms. She is having trouble staying in the trance. I don't think she'll make it," she says in the same emotionless voice as she used earlier.

       "What will happen if you wake her?" the priestess asks, eager to get the truth from the Empress.

       "I think it will kill her," the doctor replies.

       "And your Captain?" the religious leader asks disappointed that it was not good to wake the Empress.

       "He has not entered the trance at all," replies the CMO.

       "Then why is he sleeping?" L'Asaha asks, confused.

       "His blood stream shows evidence of taking a heavy sedative, as does the Empress," she explains

       "So that is how they escaped 'The Call,'" she thought to herself.

       "Wake him," L'Asaha orders.

       "No, from what little I know of the Ankhanahkstoi, it is too dangerous," the CMO objects, fighting to regain control of herself. She had sworn to protect life and the Captain's was very precious to her. It is a testimony to the great strength of will and deep rooted ethics of the CMO that even under the compulsion to the Call to Mourn and the profound desire it instills to be obedient in all things to the Priestess that the doctor protests.

       "But you said he has not entered the trance," the Priestess rebuts.

       "If you disturb him now he may never be able to," the doctor fears.

       "I need answers and I need them now. I can't risk the Empress or the children. Do it!" she orders.

Guest Alien Log: L'Asaha

Title: More Questions Than Answers: The Call to Mourn, Part Ten
Location: Sandokhan Alpha Base
Setting: Deep within the Holy Catacombs

       The CMO, still under complete control of "The Call to Mourn", does as ordered, even though she tries hard to fight it. She is afraid that waking the Captain will prevent him from finishing the Ankhanahkstoi correctly and kill him.

       HISS! The stimulant is quickly absorbed in his blood stream and he begins to regain consciousness.

       "When am I?" he asks dazed and confused. He tries to sit up, but is pushed back down by L'Asaha's attendants.

       One of the attendants flinches. The last time L'Asaha did this ritual was with that rat Zayin who was selling arms to both sides in the Galadon-Tureth conflict. L'Asaha retained his greedy, murderous, mammalian personality for seven days afterward. He knew that because he had to physically restrain her. He did not want to see her go through that again for another one of these warm blooded devils. In the Shreesaaath, the Opening of the Minds, the opener picks up the personality of the victim. The effects of that range according to the victims personality and can linger for even months afterward.

       "Please! I beg you. Do not do that with this alien. Who knows what type of evil, treacherous mammalian mind he has. You've just recovered from what doing the Shreesaaath with that repulsive Orion. What evil that did to you!" the attendant implores her.

       L'Asaha smiles sadly. "There is not another way. The Call part of our ritual is nearly over, I cannot use that. That would have been the safest way. But what if this incredible tale the Moeban here has told us is true? Can we risk losing the Lady in Blue? Will we render Tarrook's words and sacrifice to us moot?"

       "No, I guess you are right. We must know if they fulfill the prophecy. It is too great a risk not too do it," he sighs.

       L'Asaha exhales and steels herself up for what was certain to be a wrenching experience. "At least," she says to herself, "I'll get some answers and maybe some vital information about his ship and this Federation if he really is that Captain."

        She braces herself and tells herself that she'll get some answers.  Had Nouri succumbed before to the Call and not sedated himself in time, she would have assuredly gotten that information without any cost to herself. Now it will cost her dearly. L'Asaha feels that if she were to lose her sanity again and temporarily absorb the personality traits of this mammal she'd make her sacrifice worth it and drain every possible secret out of him.
     

Guest Alien Log: L'Asaha

Title: More Questions Than Answers: The Call to Mourn, Part Eleven
Location: Sandokhan Alpha Base
Setting: Deep within the Holy Catacombs

       "The Call to Mourn" ends.  The deaconess and the mourners continue with the next part of the mourning rituals.

       Above them, the CMO struggles hard to get control back of her mind and will. She finally breaks free of the seemingly implacable hold. She pleads with the priestess not to perform the Shreesaaath, or at least wait until the four had finished all phases of the Ankhanahkstoi.

       L'Asaha will not listen to the doctor and prepares herself.  She claps her hands and the Captain is dragged down off the ledge and pinned against the smooth white wall of the main chamber of the Holy Catacombs below.

       The Sandokhan High Priestess hops off the ledge. She approaches the Captain, with the predatory smile of a snake about to devour its prey. Seeing this, the CMO shudders.

       The attendants are very afraid of the Galadonese looking man hurting their Priestess and fasten their claws more securely around his biceps than they need to. They hold him so tightly that they bruise him and accidentally draw blood with their claws. The Captain half groans, not quite fully conscious.

       "I am L'Asaha, High Priestess of the Sandokhans. You have violated our sacred Catacombs where we entomb and enshrine our dead. Who are you and why have you done this?" she demands.

       "Captain ... Nouristao ... Kematsopoulos of the Federation starship USS Eagle . . ." he mutters groggily, trying to look up, focus and get his bearings. He takes a few more breaths, assesses the situation and begins to revive quickly.

       ". . . We are sorry. We had no choice. This was the only place we could get to in time. We meant no disrespect. We needed a place to rest and hide immediately," he continues, once more taking on the role of diplomat.

       "I do not believe him, but I must be sure. Too much is riding on this. I need to learn the truth if he is who he claims to be," she says to herself.

       Out loud she says, "I will perform the Shreesaaath, the Opening of the Minds, with you. It will be an unpleasant experience for both of us... "

       "Look closely into my eyes. As a Galadon you will not be able to resist me. You must show me the truth and answer everything I want to know," she orders.

       "No, let's talk and . . ." the Captain protests. The last thing he wanted to do was get involved in another bizarre and painful alien ritual.

       "Talk is the same as lying for many of your offworld kind. Talk will prove nothing. Look at me," she says, staring intently at him with a hypnotic look in her large yellow reptilian eyes.

       "No. Stop this!"  Nouri objects again, feeling its affect. He quickly averts his eyes, turns to look away, and clamps his eyes defiantly shut.

      The attendants change their hold on him. One forces the Captain's head back and pins it to the wall. The other forces his eyes open to look at her. The High Priestess ignores his words and approaches him again.

       The Captain uses all his specialized training to resist her. He vows to make this as difficult as possible for her if not impossible. He detaches his mind from looking at her, tries to look within himself and forms a different image in his head to try to block the real one before his eyes. He thinks of T'Nar, his wife, and their wedding picture, their time on Vulcan and their last time together before she died. His emotions and memories are very strong and supplant the High Priestess' hypnotic gaze.

       L'Asaha was not prepared for this level of resistance. It had never happened before. She quickly grows tired of fighting him and becomes more irritable. "It was bad enough I have to do this," she thinks, "but does he have to fight so. I can't keep this up." 

       She decides to try a different tactic. L'Asaha knew from ensnaring and breaking the Empress' will earlier in "The Call" that the Galadonese ruler was very protective of this man.

       "Perhaps these feelings went both ways? If so, I could use that," she speculates.

        The High Priestess continues trying in vain for a few more minutes to subdue him until she gives up. Finally, she yells at him, "Stop this or I will awake the woman. "

       "No! You'll kill her," he cries over protectively.

       "You leave me no choice," she retorts, happy her new idea to get him to submit to her is working.

Guest Alien Log: L'Asaha

Title: More Questions Than Answers: The Call to Mourn, Part Twelve
Location: Sandokhan Alpha Base
Setting: Deep within the Holy Catacombs

          "Very well," she smiles and approaches him again. She puts her claws on his shoulders and stares hypnotically down into his eyes. Her form towers over him. Her shadow engulfs him into darkness. The only light he sees is reflected in her yellow, hypnotic, reptilian eyes.

       Nouri's pupils open wider and wider and until suddenly his whole body goes rigid. He now has some idea of how a field mouse feels before being eaten live by a snake several times its size. The attendants observe his body change, showing signs of being under the chilling control of the Shreesaaath. They relax their hold on him and force a sour herb into his mouth and onto his tongue.

       "Who are you?" she demands.

       "Caa-tttinnNNourri...sstao ...Kee..mahtsso...poulo..ssSsst..arfleet Identification number 47799325-869A," he answers, slurring his words until the herb allows him to speak more clearly.

       "You lie. He was the Human we captured. You are not Human. Look at your nose, ears and eyes! You are Galadonese!" she accuses hotly. She presses him harder.

      "I am Human! " he insists adamantly, as if the raging physical changes in his body meant nothing to his identity.

       L'Asaha knows that it is still possible in the early stages of the Shreesaaath for a Galadon to lie to her. She opens his mind further to see the truth of his words.  It causes both of them more pain from the process. She pries and pries until she sees clearly this pain in him and the pain from the mutations, Dr. Pangloss' attempt to use that to kill him and failed medical struggle to keep him Human. Then she sees in his mind that was what he still believes, that he is still Human despite his mutations. So what he said is true to him. He is not lying.

       "Why are you here?"

       "To hide and rest, to finish the Ankhanahkstoi."

       L'Asaha ignores that for now. She meant the larger picture. She wants to know why is this alien on her planet.

       "Who is with you?"

       "Alara, Lasara, and Rolin."

       "Alara? Who is Alara?"

       "The woman I love."

       She tries something else, "The Empress?"

       "Yes."

       "Saffira?"

       "Yes. She has many names, many faces."

       L'Asaha muses on this for a while. When she speaks again she tries to get an answer to her earlier question.

       "What group are you with?"

       "The United Federation of Planets."

       "I mean the Galadons or the Tureth."

       "Neither."

       "Do not lie to me boy. You want..." she says digging deeper. "...You want to marry her - a Galadon! I can see that in your mind as clearly as I can see you standing here. You must take their side in the conflict," she says to lead him down the path she wanted.

       "No. I will not take sides. For peace to work, the Federation must not take sides. Neither can I as their representative."

      "What does this Federation want?"

       "Peace," he says simply.

       "What else?" She can tell he is trying to hide something. She probes further and picks up more of his personality.

       "For the Galadons and Tureth to join us as allies."

       "A future alliance? That is what he was hiding???!" she thinks to herself. This is not as nefarious as she thought.

       This continues for quite some time until L'Asaha is satisfied that what she had extracted thus far is the truth.  She desperately wants to continue the interrogation, and reap every last grain of information that could help her people but she cannot.  The pain she had felt when they began the ritual is still there, intense as ever.  Added to that the Captain had still not stopped resisting her and the force of will she is using to control him only aggravates his other injuries and her pain. She knows that if she pushes any longer or harder the damage to his mind will be irreparable.  He might survive, though not all did once this threshold was crossed, but he would survive as a mindless vegetable.  She needed him too much to risk that.  His passion for fairness and his position as arbiter made him vital to the survival of her people.  

       L'Asaha exhales and begins to withdraw from the Shreesaaath.  The withdrawal was the most horrific part of the Shreesaaath for those who initiated it.  In order to completely control her victim the High Priestess had infused herself into the Captain, so that her persona overlaid his and bent it to her will.  Now, as she tries to separate herself, it is inevitable that her own identity had warped to fit that of her victim.  The greater the disparity between personas, the greater the alteration and the longer it would take to recover.  

       The High Priestess still did not know if the prophecy was fulfilled but she knew that the alien man truly believed in peace and that is why he had come to her planet. He was here to save her world and the Galadons and Tureth from war.

       As she withdrew, part of the haunting poem came to mind:

       In the darkness, where the dead things grow
       Saving us from our self made fate
       The one with two is the gate
       To peace, Sandokhan survival and ending of hate

       As she begins to uncoil her will from his, she senses for the first time the changes in her persona brought on by the Shreesaaath.  The power of the Captain's personality traits is overwhelming.  Never had she felt such courage, strength of will and deepness of conviction. His spirit is both compelling and strangely soothing.  This alien has an unusual harmony of gentleness and strength.  She pauses, now unwilling to let go, basking in newness and revelation of it all.  She could glimpse that which the Shreesaaath had been in ancient times, before it had been perverted to a tool of torture and domination.  Once it had been a healing ritual, a consensual coupling of wills in which the participants shared each other's strengths to give comfort and support to one another in times of great need.

       The attendant who had expressed his concerns for her safety earlier becomes more frightened. The Priestess had stopped unexpectedly. "What is happening to her?" he wonders. He stares at the other attendant wondering what to do. Would they lose her again? Could they lose her forever? He had heard such tales from times gone by. He is fearful of what type of changes the Shreesaaath will impose upon his beloved Priestess. He knows that she is a good woman even though she lacked force of personality necessary to take her place as THE leader of the Sandokhans.  He looks again at her and tries to read her expression.

       The High Priestess stares oddly ahead, deep in introspection.  Finally, sadly, she decides to let go. She shuts down the connection between their minds and steps away from the Captain.

       Instantly, Nouri's body goes limp. He nearly slides to the cave floor but the attendants catch him in time. They ease him gently to the ground. He is too weak to move on his own or even talk. He stares in pain blankly up at the ceiling. Dr. Laleilalii rushes to aid him as best as she could under the circumstances. A minute later, he passes out from the ordeal.

       L'Asaha turns to speak to her attendants. The personality traits that she picked up from the Captain give her the strength to make the choice she felt was right before she even began the Shreesaaath.

       "Life, I chose life for them," she voices her decision aloud and with an authority that surprises them all.

Guest Alien Log: L'Asaha

Title: More Questions Than Answers: The Call to Mourn, Part Thirteen
Location: Sandokhan Alpha Base
Setting: Deep within the Holy Catacombs

       L'Asaha feels better than she had in a long time. Her purpose is clear and she has the courage to act on it. Her dilemma now is how and if to tell others beyond her followers of her decision.

       She decides to help the Captain and the Empress in every way possible. This means helping them enter the trance for the Ankhanahkstoi properly, providing for their needs, and letting them escape along with the two medical officers. She offers her full protection to get them out of the caves. After that they will be on there own.

        L'Asaha tells her followers what she wants to do and has her deaconess assist her. Trying to help with a trance and ritual alien to her would be difficult. She prepares herself and asks the CMO to give a low level stimulant to the Empress and the Captain to make them conscious. There is a significant risk in waking them but to get them to enter the trance properly, there is no other choice.  They have to be conscious and as focused as possible.

       She motions and the attendant moves the unconscious Captain next to sleeping Empress and puts them both in a seated position propped against he wall. The CMO gives the stimulant CO first. When he awakes, L'Asaha apologizes profusely to him and tries to explain why she harmed him and how she is going to help them and do what she can to make up for it. The Captain is skeptical but he knows something has to be done or the four of them would all die if they did not enter the trance and join with them to finish the process.

       The CMO goes next to the Empress to bring her to consciousness. The Empress awakes and screams seeing the Sandokhans. The Captain reaches out to hold her and to comfort her. They both flare blue again. He curses himself for being so stupid. He should have seen it coming. The strange blue light engulfs them both. Zahrina's bare arms pick up the bruises and slashes he got from being pinned against the wall earlier. 

       The Captain fights the woman he thinks he loves from having her take on his injuries and heal them. He does not want her to suffer any more because of him.

       Success!  His injures return and the Empress' arms are restored.
      
       L'Asaha sees all of this and in spite of the vast strength she received from the Captain, becomes scared. However, unlike other times in her past, she does not stop what she is doing and forges ahead. Also because of him, she looks forward to meeting the challenge. The High Priestess begins chanting to assist the two weakened Galadonese adults to enter the trance with the Sandokhan children.

       Then deaconess and the others join her in chanting. Only detectable to the CMO's tricorder, a faint yellow light begins to envelope the High Priestess and her followers.
      
       L'Asaha takes a deep breath and interjects herself between the two Beings in Blue.  She flares green then blue for a moment and then takes both of their hands. The Galadonese hands are oddly cold like her reptilian ones.

       This time L'Asaha gets caught up in the Ankhanahkstoi as Hanahk, the injured party. She gets a strange tingling all over her body as she shines blue. It is most intense over her bad leg. She feels the pulsating blue energy ripple through her.

       The Ankhanahkstoi further overwhelms the Empress. Zahrina unwillingly takes on the role of Ank again and begins to take on the injuries of the Priestess' leg...

       The Captain shouts, "No!" He has to protect the woman he thinks he loves from anymore suffering. She was so weak that he does not think she will live taking on any more injuries. He fights with her and whatever force that controls the Ankhanahkstoi again.

       He finally gains control and takes over the role of the Ank and takes upon himself the damage from L'Asaha injured leg. The injuries disappear from her leg and appear on his.

       L'Asaha feels her leg getting better. She moves her sari quickly to look at it. The other Sandokhans see this and gasp. Her leg is completely healed.

       When it is over the Empress, Captain, children and L'Asaha are joined in the trance together, their brain waves and other critical characteristics, all match. The Ankhanahkstoi goes on interrupted for all three phases. The Captain's leg that took on L'Asaha's infirmities by the strange energies of Ankhanahkstoi mysteriously heals itself...

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