A/N: The Protoype Vulcan, now revised and edited, and three chapters longer! Hope you enjoy!

Ion storms are not the worst kind of spatial phenomena. Annoying as all get-out, McCoy affirmed when his computer's power flickered for the third time, but not dangerous.

So far the Enterprise was weathering the storm with grace. Power fluctuated, the new ensigns got space sick, and the showers in the gym were malfunctioning, but overall everything was going okay.

Kirk took a stack of reports from one of the newer yeomen; the crewman looked green enough to match Spock, but he was still steady on his feet. Kirk signed the top PADD and let the yeoman go on his way. Did Vulcans get space sick?

Spock felt the captain's inquiring gaze and turned around. "Sir?"

Kirk smiled. "Never mind," he said, and focused on his stack of paperwork. A second later, Spock's voice made him look up again.

"Captain," the Vulcan said, "internal sensors are reading a power surge in Transporter Room 2."

Before Kirk could ask a question, the comm beeped. "Transporter Room 2 to Bridge. Kyle here. Captain, I'm reading a biosign in the transporter's pattern buffer."

Kirk blinked. "How is that possible?" he demanded.

"No idea, sir," Kyle responded. "No one's used it in the last ten hours." A few beeps and alarms filtered through the comm and he panicked. "Captain, I'm losing the pattern."

Kirk made a split-second decision. "Energize, Mr. Kyle," he ordered. He pushed another button on the arm of his chair. "Security to Transporter Room 2. Spock, you're with me. Lt. Uhura, tell Bones to meet us there."

The three of them reached the transporter room at the same time as security. They went in, redshirts in the lead, and found Chief Kyle attempting to placate a Vulcan (Vulcan!?) woman.

The woman saw them enter, saw the guards with their phasers drawn, and instinctively leaped for Kyle, grabbing his arm behind him and using him as a shield. Other than that she made no move to harm him. She spoke to them in some sort of dialect the universal translator didn't quite get, the emotions of fear and surprise obvious on her face.

Okay, Kirk told himself. Emotional, violent, not translating. She wasn't a Vulcan. Maybe a Romulan?

Kirk looked at Spock and raised an eyebrow. The Vulcan mirrored the movement. Kirk stepped forward, gesturing the security officers to put their phasers down. "My name is James T. Kirk," he said calmly. "You're on the Federation starship Enterprise. We mean you no harm."

She spoke again in her strange dialect, directing her remarks to Spock.

"It's an ancient Vulcan dialect, captain," Spock said calmly, "native to Shi'Kahr area. It has not been spoken since Global Unification."

"Fascinating," Kirk drawled. "Can you get her to calm down?"

Spock stepped forward and said in the appropriate dialect, "We mean you no harm. Release the man and give us your identity."

She squinted at him from behind Kyle's shoulder. "You know these aliens?" she asked.

"Yes. They are my companions." Spock held up a hand in the ta'al. "I offer you my name. I am S'chn T'gai Spock. Live long and prosper."

She released Kyle and stepped back as if the touch burned. She stared at Spock for a few long seconds in a daze and then returned the salute. "Peace and long life," she intoned, but the way she said it sounded like she was making a vow. She put her hand down. "I am S'alea of Shi'Kahr, disciple of Surak. Forgive my lack of 'cthia." She gave them a slight smile. "It is not everyday a being is magically transported to another place."

If Spock were human, his eyes would have fallen out of his head and his jaw would be scraping the ground. As it was, his eyebrows nearly hit his hairline. "Fascinating," he finally said.

Kirk and McCoy exchanged a worried glance. Spock. Speechless? "What's she saying?" Kirk asked.

Spock tore his attention away from S'alea and focused on his captain. "I believe she has been transported from the past, captain. She claims to be a disciple of Surak. No one has needed to identify themselves as such since the Reformation."

"But," McCoy spluttered unintelligibly for a moment before his brain kicked in, "but she smiled!"

"If she is from a time before all Vulcan accepted Surak's teachings, then none of his disciples would have perfect control over their emotions," Spock pointed out. He looked at S'alea and asked her in the old dialect, "What year is it?"

She answered him, her eyebrows raising.

Spock turned back to the captain. "Eight years, six months, and three days before the Reformation, to be precise."

Kirk shook his head. "That is, wow." He took a deep breath. "Well, it seems like we now have a guest. Spock, can you explain the situation to her? And have Linguistics get her a universal translator."

"And I want to give her a physical, stat," McCoy added. "See if all her organs are in place after she's been scrambled halfway across the quadrant." For once, he made no jibe of 'not that they're in the right places to begin with.'

Spock informed S'alea of their course of action and she nodded her agreement. "Come with me," he told her.

"Your quarters?" Kirk asked.

"That is the logical place," Spock replied. "The environment will provide a much-needed anchor."

The two Vulcans left for Linguistics and then Spock's quarters, S'alea trailing Spock like a bewildered shadow.

Kirk went to the bridge to get Chekov on this newest phenomenon, and McCoy went to sickbay to prep for a Vulcan patient.

-/\-

The environmental controls in officer's cabins are capable of great range. The controls in Spock's quarters are set to Vulcan standard, in both gravity and heat. As soon as they entered the hot, dry, and reddish glow of Spock's quarters, Spock sensed S'alea's tension level drop by 13.2 percent. This, at least, was familiar to her.

Her eyes slid over the firepot in the corner, the tea set, the holopics, and fastened on the sword on the wall. "A S'harien?" she said, eyes going with with awe.

"Yes."

"You must be wealthy indeed to own such a treasure," S'alea said, unable to stop staring at the finest craftsmanship to ever leave the planet Vulcan.

This was the segue he needed. "It is a family heirloom," Spock told her. "My family has had it for generations."

That caught her attention. She turned, openly frowning. "How-" She stopped, composed herself, and raised one delicate eyebrow. "Who are you?"

"I am Spock, son of Sarek, of the House of-" a slight beat "-Surak."

S'alea locked her gaze with his, the struggle for control evident in her eyes. She managed to force her emotional struggles down and give him a nod. "Please, elaborate."

"This will take some time," he warned her. "I ask you to keep an open mind." Spock gestured for her to take a seat at the desk and went to the two replicator. "Two glasses of water." He waited for them to materialize before handing her one.

She accepted the water with a bow and took a sip of water, signifying that she was in no hurry. She raised an eyebrow at him expectantly.

Spock sat down across from her and started to explain. Where she was, when she was, who they were, and what had happened on Vulcan since she had been... misplaced. As for why and how, he had no answers as of yet. When he finished his long semi-lecure, he fell silent and waited for the emotional fallout.

S'alea simply stared at him, waves of incredulity pouring off of her. Her brow furrowed almost painfully as she absorbed the information. "Almost incredible," she finally said. "I would say incredible, but as I am on a spaceship and I have in fact seen aliens, I do give it credence." She shook her head. "Amazing."

Spock had no answer to that.

"So," S'alea said, after a long moment. "There is a House of Surak. He would be completely horrified that someone renamed our house after him."

"Our house?" Spock asked.

"We are cousins, he and I. Our mothers are sisters." S'alea raised an eyebrow. "And you are of his House."

"Yes."

She smiled at him, a tiny quirk of the lips. "You look like him. Same eyes."

Spock took this comment with a raised eyebrow. His classmates had once called his eyes 'too human'. He didn't know what this meant for either his own heritage or history's perception of Surak. He squashed the tiny flash of pleasure that S'alea's words brought him and focused on her.

S'alea looked up from studying the starmap on his desk. "I am thankful we have overcome our fear of the Other enough to take a place in this, this Federation of Planets." She grinned ruefully. "After the bombing of the I'shka conclave, we were wondering if any Vulcan would survive the decade, let alone the century." She sighed. "S'task is thinking, no, was thinking..." She broke off at the look in Spock's eyes. "You recognize the name? What happened to him? Did his proposal go through? They left?"

Spock felt like sighing himself. "The Romulans." Well, he said 'Rihannsu', but same thing.

"The who?"

He began to explain.

By the time he finished, S'alea's eyes were wide with shock. "They have truly lost themselves," she said, staring through the walls as if she could see the faraway planet and all its troubles. "S'task..." She bowed her head.

Spock could only give her sympathetic silence.

-/\-

When Spock finally appeared in Sickbay with S'alea in tow, McCoy greeted them with a characteristic grumble. "You look shell-shocked. What's Spock been telling you?"

S'alea waited for the UT to spit out the translation and replied back, "The fate of the Sundered."

McCoy blinked. "The who?"

"Romulans," Spock supplied.

McCoy snorted. "Romulans. Enough to ruin anybody's day." He patted the biobed and waited for S'alea to sit down before he started scanning her. "Hm. Radiation poisoning?" he muttered, as results began to filter across the screen.

"It is difficult to find a Vulcan who does not have radiation poisoning," S'alea told him.

"This was, of course, before the ion cleansing of the atmosphere twenty years later," Spock added, to keep McCoy from going after him with a tricorder.

"Uh-huh." McCoy prepped a hypo and gave her a shot. "This'll get rid of it. Don't eat tuna and stay out of laser tanks. Other than that, you're ridiculously healthy."

"Thank you, doctor." S'alea stood up and looked at Spock.

"I will show you to your quarters," he said. "This way." He took the opportunity to show her the decks in between.

"This vessel is extensive," she commented.

"Indeed. There are currently four hundred and thirty crew, though we are capable of over six hundred thirty. It is the Fleet's first ship of this class."

S'alea nodded. "And are there other Vulcans?"

"Not on this ship," Spock said, deciding to wait until later to explain about the Intrepid.

She gave him a raised eyebrow. "One would think that living among such, ah, undisciplined minds would be difficult." A polite way of asking 'why in the worlds?!'

"I am half-human," Spock said, interested to see how she reacted. He steeled himself for verbal abuse.

All he got was honest surprise, and then to his surprise, admiration. "It is a remarkable achievement for our people, to overcome their xenophobia," she said. "Your mother?"

"Is on Vulcan, with my father," he said.

She nodded slowly. "Surak will, would, be pleased indeed to know that his own family has progressed this far."

Spock didn't know exactly what to make of that so he keyed open the doors to her quarters and said, "I hope these will be adequate to your needs."

She looked around at the bedroom and small work area and nodded. "They are."

"You can adjust environmental controls to your specifications using the computer," Spock said, nodding to the computer. "If you need any assistance you may contact myself or Dr. McCoy."

She nodded. "Thank you."

He bowed his head. "I am merely performing courtesy to a guest," he said.

"I know," she said. "Thank you, anyway."

He understood the sentiment. "You are welcome," he said. He turned away and heard the doors slide shut behind him.

-/\-

Spock returned to the bridge and met the captain's expectant gaze. "Captain?"

"How's our newest guest?"

"She is taking the situation with admirable calm."

Kirk nodded slowly. "She's kind of, emotional," he ventured.

"S'alea is from the time of Surak. The shift to logic and complete control of emotions has not yet happened. From the culture's point of view, Surak and his disciples, although they are many, are still considered fanatics of a sort."

"I see."

Spock turned to his science station to consult with Mr. Chekov on the power surge before the incident. They descended quickly into technobabble and left the bridge. "Have Mr. Scott meet us at Science Lab 4," was Spock's last instruction, before the doors closed.

Kirk turned back to his PADD with a grin. Once they figured it out, he had a feeling this would turn the scientific community on its head.

-/\-

"Captain Kirk, please report to Science Lab 4. Captain Kirk to Science Lab 4."

The captain put down his sandwich and took a last sip of coffee. He dumped the tray in the recycler and went to the wall comm. "Kirk here. On my way down."

Spock answered the hail. "Captain, if you could pelase collect S'alea as well."

"Understood. Kirk out." The captain nodded at a passing crewman and went to guest quarters. He pressed the door chime.

The door opened. "Enter."

Kirk stepped in, careful to step over the gravity shelf. S'alea's quarters were like Spock's: dry, hot, and heavier gravity. It wouldn't do to trip.

S'alea sat on the floor, staring at the flame of a flickering candle. She looked up. "Captain."

"Mr. Spock has something to tell us," Kirk said. "If you'll come with me?" He resisted the urge to offer her a hand up from the floor.

She stood and extinguished the candle in one smooth motion, proving that Vulcans do in fact inherit their grace.

-/\-

Science Lab 4 was a hive of activity. Spock, Scotty, and Chekov were still speaking at high speed, interrupting each other with abandon. A handful of other scientists and engineers clustered at the other side of the room, neck deep in scans of the surrounding area.

"Mr. Spock," Kirk said. "What do we got?"

"We have found evidence of a miniature wormhole generated by the ion storm. We believe it prematurely dissipated as the Enterprise's warp shell passed through it, thus causing the transporter to pick up S'alea's signature before she was fully materialized.

Kirk stared at the readings for a few seconds, trying to wrap his head around it. "That's incredible," he finally said, shocked. "Can you tell if it would happen again?"

"The odds are 1 in 971,574,978 that a miniature wormhole would appear on an inhabited planet, scoop up a sentient being, and transfer it to the other side without dissolving said sentient. The odds are even higher, near impossible, that we would be in the right place at the right time for the wormhole to interact with our transporter buffer without incident." Spock's expression was the perfect deadpan as he added, "However, this being the Enterprise, the impossible does in fact happen. If it will happen again... that I could not speculate, sir."

Kirk laughed. "Understandable," he agreed, grateful that the Enterprise did seem to collect impossible scenarios. If they hadn't been here, S'alea would have died alone, in space, or quietly had her molecules scattered across the quadrant. "So there's no way of reversing the process, then," he said, just to make sure.

"No, captain," Spock said, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Is there any way to return me to my time through other means?" S'alea asked.

Scotty shifted uneasily. "Aye. We could use the slingshot method and take ye back to your time, lass, but, well..."

Chekov took up the end of the sentence. "But we've already found your profile on the Vulcan database," he said. "You were reported missing and presumed deceased. You never returned to your time."

S'alea acknowledged this with a bow of her head. "I see." She looked up, her expression resigned. "I did not expect otherwise."

Kirk frowned in silent sympathy. "I grieve with thee," he offered in quiet Vulcan.

She nodded in acknowledgement. "Excuse me," she said, and left the science lab.

The Star Fleet officers exchanged a glance. "Is she going to be okay, Spock?" Kirk asked.

"I do not believe she will do herself or anyone else harm," Spock replied.

"But is she going to be okay?" Kirk pressed.

"I do not know." Spock looked discomfited. "I do not know if an early disciple of Surak will be able to overcome the emotional response inherent in this situation. I will, as you say, keep an eye on her."

-/\-

S'alea: daughter of Taren of the House of Surak. Computer programmer 1st Class, Weapons Technician 2nd Rank, Student of Logic at the Vulcan Science Academy (within the top fifth percentile), third disciple of Surak, following S'task and Jarok. Disappeared on the 15th day of the third month, presumed assassinated by the Yvek Faction. Age at time of death: 31 years.

"A distinguished record," Spock observed.

S'alea snorted. "More like an obituary. I'm surprised they let the Yvek take the glory for killing one of us."

"You were a weapons technician?" Spock asked.

"Yes. For my uncle, of course."

Surak's father, former general and weapons developer. Spock nodded. "Logical."

S'alea quirked an eyebrow at him. "Indeed. Until Surak."

"Why did you follow him?"

"I saw that we could not continue as we were, and Surak offered another option." Her lips tilted up in a tiny grin. "When he first wandered out into the desert, we thought him lost. He came back and it turns out that we were the ones who were lost." She looked up at Spock. "I am no longer a fanatic for believing in arie'mnu. I no longer need to go and wage peace. What am I going to do now?"

"You will be welcome on Vulcan," Spock assured her. "All of Vulcan will want to know of your experiences, your eyewitness accounts of Surak and his teachings. Our people lost much of our history in those tumultous times and your knowledge will prove invaluable. With your academic credentials, you will find a position anywhere you wish. And, as you are a cousin of mine, you will have a place to belong." He quirked an eyebrow at her teasingly. "The House of Surak has over eight thousand members. We will find you a place with us."

She looked back at all her open research tabs and sighed. "I cannot believe it took his death to unite the planet. He always knew it would come down to it, though. Somehow, he knew..."

"I grieve with thee," Spock murmured.

S'alea accepted the words with a nod. "Now, cousin," she said, standing up, "where on this ship can a being acquire food? I have not eaten for 6,241 years and 91 days."

From behind them, McCoy snickered. "I like this one," he told Spock, giving S'alea a genial smile. "She knows how to make jokes."

"A joke, Doctor?" S'alea asked, raising an innocent eyebrow. "I was simply stating a fact."

"Uh-huh," McCoy drawled. "And pigs have grown wings since last time I checked." He walked away, whistling tunelessly.

S'alea glanced at Spock.

"There is no explanation for Doctor McCoy," Spock said. "Or, in fact, any human."

"Fascinating," S'alea murmured.