Title: Ashes

Universe: TOS (could be ATOS / ST2009 as well)

Author: T'Sia

Rating: G

Summary: Use the following phrase "…the hidden dangers of diversity..."

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek - but I own a microwave.

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Amanda Grayson

The parched sand crunches under my shoes as I walk the reddish black ground of what was once my lush garden. I kneel and pick up the remains of a burned branch, letting the ashes flow out of my hand as it dissolves under the gentle pressure.

Just one little bug, one little bug did this. Sitting hidden in the beautiful Earth Yucca tree I had imported for my birthday. Vulcans don't celebrate birthdays. But they celebrate life – if one could call it celebration. Life has to be protected.  Paradoxically, this is the reason my garden is dead now. One bug could be the death of a fierce, yet fragile desert eco system. So the plants had to be destroyed and the ground cleaned out with fire.

It hurts.

I turn around and look at the house.  Nothing has changed on the outside, but it holds the ghost of yet another thing that was destroyed today. It hides the burn marks of a broken family inside - just like the people living in it and the ones who have lived in it before.

My son is gone - to Earth. I wonder when it was that Spock noticed the little bug inside him – that idea, which would burn the relationship with his father. I smile despite my grief. Not a thing in the world could quarantine the spirit of my son, though. Kaiidth! It was unavoidable.

I rise and brush the ashes from my robes. I will have a garden again. It will take time. But I will be waiting patiently and nurture it back to life. One day my two most important men might allow themselves to be a bit like me – for once. They might overcome the hidden dangers of diversity, and allow their garden to grow back.

END