Disclaimer: Star Trek is the property of Paramount/Viacom. This story is the property of and is copyright (c) 1977 by Juanita Salicrup. Originally published in Stardate: Unknown #3, Gerry Downes, editor.

Conundrum

Juanita Salicrup

(Inspired by 'Zarabeth's Farewell' by Kathleen Resch in Stardate: Unknown #2)

Last night there were the strangest images

That came to haunt me while I slept,

Swirling through the darkness --

Taunting, flying close ...

And yet I could not really see.

A white stormy veiling blew softly

And there seemed to be a face ...

A face I almost knew ...

Her face?

And more --

A twisting, writhing -- as if in pain.

And then -- I thought I heard her scream ...

Was it my name I heard upon her lips?

And after --

She seemed to hold ... something small

And warm.

Just before the white veiling hid the picture from my mind's eye

I thought I saw …

A small dark head, a tiny starfish hand against her breast ...

But it is day now

And symmetric duty, and the starfield,

Border and measure my life's journey.

Clean exactitudes, fine honed steel, and the voice of the computer.

All sure. All real.

And yet --

What was it that I saw?

And why?

For Vulcans do not dream.