Heresy 12

Valikra waited until the sound of the Andorian's footsteps had quite died away before she said, "There is more, is there not?"

"I beg your pardon, High Admiral?" said Stiak.

"There is more. An Andorian is not sensitive to these things, but I can feel it." She leaned forward, her eyes intent on Stiak. "Listen to me. I am looking for something, and I think - I think - I may now have found it."
  
Stiak looked back at her, steadily, unemotionally. "What are you looking for, High Admiral?"

"A symbol - something to rally around. Something we both can rally around - Vulcan and Romulan alike. Do you not see? This Bresar united Vulcan before the Sundering. When we were all one people. We can be one people again, this proves it. This proves it."

"The records tell, no doubt, a fascinating story -" T'Nir began.

"But the records are not the whole of the story," Valikra interrupted. She did not look at T'Nir - her attention was wholly on Stiak. "I can feel that it is not. Do you deny it?"

Stiak hesitated. He took a deep breath. "No," he said, "I cannot, in honesty, deny it."

He reached into his clothing. "The last tremor opened another chamber," he said. "I did not record what I did in there... it was a tiny, tiny room, empty save for one thing." He took out a cube of crystal, yellow and carved with a multitude of facets, that seemed to flicker with a light of its own.

"A katric ark," Valikra breathed.

"Yes," said Stiak. "I have touched it, I know.... It contains the katra of Bresar himself."

There was a dreadful hunger in Valikra's eyes. "I did not know it," she said, "but that is... precisely what I have been searching for. Let us discuss this further."