“Spock! Come here! Hurry!” Kirk stood in the middle of a vast, glittering cathedral of a cavern, his arms thrown out from his sides and his head tipped back in ecstatic joy. For a mad instant, Spock thought that his captain was caught in a transporter beam: everything around him glittered, just as if he were being beamed away somewhere. But then the Vulcan realized that the shimmering light was coming from far above them, its source a shaft in the lofty ceiling of the chamber. Dazzling light from Merinus VI’s sun poured through this opening; the beam struck a cascade of water that poured, white and alive, from the top of the cavern all the way to its floor and ended in a frothing dark pool. Reflection was everywhere: from the cascade, from the pool, from the sparkling walls of the cavern itself, much of which were encrusted with layer upon layer of hexagonal lavender crystals. Kirk slowly lowered his arms and smiled at Spock. “Beautiful,” he said. “Beautiful,” agreed Spock, quietly, seeing nothing but Jim.