Eriecho - Star Trek Kelvin Timeline fanfiction

The Mundane World

The young Vulcan woman hustled herself into appropriate garb for her planned endeavor – old blue jeans, equally ratty sneakers, a stained Mars Culinary Institute hoodie sweatshirt that some forgotten person had donated. And then, at the last minute, she remembered to tie pads around the fronts of both knees. She took a basket and a bag and tiptoed out, making certain not to wake her adoptive father.

The outside air was nippy as two small moons began to sink out of sight and give way to a sun that was smaller than and not as bright as seen from Earth. But that was to be expected, as she was on Mars.

It was a short walk to a community garden. She nodded at her neighbors, as some of them were also stirring at the ungodly hour of 0413 AM Martian time. But only a few of them nodded back. Most of them, curt, ignored her as she made her way to her destination.

The patch was small, but it belonged to them. There was a small sign at its perimeter – H'Shema's Garden. H'Shema had been her adoptive mother, a Suliban.

One of the owners of an adjoining plot approached her. Quietly, so that others could not hear, he said, to her, "Good morning, Eriecho."

Equally softly, she responded, "Good morning, Sollastek."

There was no more conversation, for that would have made everyone else aware that the youth Sollastek dared to, in some small way, accept the ex-con Vulcans, Eriecho and her adoptive father, Saddik.

Eriecho set down her basket and bag and got on her knees. She began to work. Into the basket went anything edible. There were peas and yellow peppers. The cucumbers were not quite ready yet. Into the bag went the weeds.

Methodically, she harvested and cleared row after row. The sun was already high overhead by the time her labors brought her to where Sollastek's patch met hers.

Digging in the dirt, and pulling up weeds or clipping the harvest off with a small pair of shears, she jumped a little when she felt a hand on hers. She followed the hand to its owner – Sollastek. He looked at her. "I think you are weeding my patch."

"Oh, it is my error," she said. "I have trespassed." She hunted in her basket for something nice. She handed him a large yellow pepper. "This is the fine I need to pay you for my trespassing."

He had carrots and eggplants in his own basket. He found her a good specimen of each and placed them into her basket. "You do not owe me," she said.

"This is, it is a small payment for you permitting me to touch your hand," he whispered.

"My hands are dirty," she whispered back.

"Will you take the communal evening meal with me?"

He was how much younger than her? Ten years? Fifteen? "Saddik and I will dine with you for the communal meal," she said, "if you are all right with being seen with us."

Sollastek stood up in the dim Martian sunlight and noticed their neighbors around, Vulcans who had survived the destruction of their home world and were forced to live on the charity and good graces of humans. Some of the Vulcans were whispering about the ex-cons. Saddik had been up for a while. He walked over. "Have you finished your gardening?" he asked Eriecho.

"I have," she replied. She, too, got up. She looked at Sollastek, realizing that it had to have been difficult and a kind of conflict for him, wanting to be accepted by their community but wanting to socialize with her and Saddik. There were so few Vulcans left after Nero's heinous, genocidal crime. And being shunned was hard. She and Saddik knew that much first-hand.

Sollastek looked them squarely in the eye. He said, loudly enough for the neighbors to hear, "Eriecho keeps such a good garden. May I dine with you tonight, so that I may learn your secrets?"

Saddik looked at Eriecho, figuring it was her decision to make. "Yes," she said, "I will tell you my secrets."