[Harmony]
The dune buggy was a handy vehicle. Its tread made short work of any dips or twists in terrain, and it threw up an awesome cloud of stony dust in its wake. The interior of the vehicle was scarred and a bit dirty from hard use, but the engine purred as sweetly as a newborn kitten.
"She brought a tlanda," Strov ventured once during the ride. "And named it."
"Later," T'Vak said. "My son is hurt."
And that was the end of that.
The ranch appeared below them. There was a prefabricated style modular house, very modest and without art. The facilities for the animals were a bit more primitive: all open air and very clean and well lit, but despite their modern construction materials they looked as if they belonged to a bygone era. There was a barn, a stable, with troughs and more dotted around the landscape. There was very little to see except for open badlands with a few buildings clinging to a hill.
The dune buggy roared down the hill as if it had been born to do so. They arrived at the main house and T'Vak was the first to exit.
"Herd's coming in soon," Strov said. "And if I am going to tend to the injured we'll be a hand short."
"I'll tend to them," T'Vak replied smoothly. "With Chief Reyes's help. Thank you, brother."
S'Trel was able to walk on his own to the house, green blood congealing on his jaw. The other two Vulcans carried Mahak into the house.
The interior of the home was a bit less foreboding than the ranch outside. It even had a quaint, down home decorating touch, but with a Vulcan flair. Of art and knickknacks it had very little, but there was a traditional Vulcan meditation and prayer shrine in the corner, the fanciest item the family owned. Everything else was strictly utilitarian, strictly for efficiency: replicator, dining area, and bathroom, all of it immaculately clean but showing its age. There was a second story to the place where the family apparently slept.
"S'Trel, you will wait." T'Vak said in a tone that brooked no argument.
The medical suppplies, as they were, consisted of a standard issue medkit and a woven cloth bag full of more antiquated instruments. Mahak found himself stretched on on the guest cot, a rack as hard and unforgiving as any he'd slept on in Starfleet.
There were rumblings outside, and Strov stuck his head out of the door. He announced that the herd and the ranch hands were returning and that he'd join them later.
"Chief Reyes, would you kindly assist me?" T'Vak asked, taking instruments out of her frontier style doctor's bag and snapping open the kit.
