Exceed His Grasp
by Weird Little Stories

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It was a very small ship that came through the wormhole. Bigger than Nomad, but considerably smaller than a shuttlecraft, it was only a few meters long, shaped something like the letter "W," and painted yellow and orange.

Kirk stared at the tiny image on the viewscreen and asked, "What can you tell me about it, Spock?"

Hunched over his scanners, Spock reported, "Length: 5.47 meters, propulsion: twin ion engines, armament: laser cannon." His voice tensed as he added, "It is also breaking up, undoubtedly from the stress of the wormhole transit. Sensors indicate one lifeform within, of no species known to us but roughly of a humanoid type."

Kirk hit the intercom button on the arm of his chair. "Scotty! There's a ship out there that's breaking up. Beam the inhabitant aboard, quickly!"

"Aye," Scotty replied, and as the intercom continued to transmit, everyone on the bridge heard the transporter's whine. After a moment, Scotty added, "Got him, Captain!" in a satisfied voice, then went on in a considerably more puzzled tone. "But I've never seen anything like this wee beastie. You'd better come take a look at it!"

"On my way," Kirk replied, then hit the intercom button to turn it off. He looked at the science station, collected Spock with a glance, and the two men walked briskly to the turbolift.

Kirk and Spock entered the transporter room to find a bewildered Scotty behind the transporter console and a creature like none they'd ever seen before on the transporter platform.

The creature was quite short — only 66 centimeters tall — with skin of a light sage green. His head was wrinkled and nearly hairless; the few tufts of hair he possessed were white and wispy. He had a tiny nose, a small, nearly lipless mouth, and large eyes that would have seemed cute except for the appearance of wisdom in them.

His most prominent feature was a pair of long, pointed ears that stretched out horizontally from his head and which seemed slightly prehensile, for they curled and uncurled as the creature regarded them. He was dressed in a tattered robe, and his clawed, three-fingered hands leaned on a cane. Yet in spite of the appearance of age, poverty, and infirmity, the creature had about him an air of dignity reminiscent of T'Pau. By rights, the small creature should have seemed comical, but he most definitely did not.

Kirk activated his universal translator and stepped forward. "I'm Captain James T. Kirk, and this is the starship Enterprise. We beamed you aboard because your ship was breaking up. Can you tell us who you are and how you came to be here?"

The creature stared up at Kirk. "Came through the wormhole I did." His ears sagged slightly. "Accident it was." He raised his chin, and his expression firmed. "Home I must reach, for needed I am." His ears moved back to horizontal and continued slightly upward as he spoke firmly. "Help you must."

Kirk blinked. "But you don't have a ship anymore, and we don't have any we can give you, Mr. ..."

The creature gazed steadily at him. "Yoda I am, and ship I need not."

Kirk glanced at Spock and then back to the creature. "How will you go back through the wormhole without a ship? Even a few moments in vacuum would kill you!"

Yoda shook his head. "Wormhole need I not, for the Force will I use. But karnatha must I have, my universe to reach."

"Karnatha," Kirk repeated flatly.

Spock said, "Karnatha is a rare plant whose leaves and roots have medicinal uses in species whose blood is copper-based, such as Vulcans and Rigelians. The flowers have even greater medicinal value, but since they are almost impossible to collect, the leaves and roots are more frequently used."

Yoda looked at the Vulcan with a question in his eyes, and Kirk said, "This is my first officer and science officer, Mr. Spock. He's a Vulcan, so he has that copper-based blood we were just talking about."

Spock inclined his head gravely at Yoda, giving him a far deeper incline that most people got, a mark of profound respect. Kirk looked his question at Spock, and Spock shook his head minutely.

Yoda looked the Vulcan up and down, seeming more interested in him than in the captain of the ship. "Collected karnatha have you? Collect more will you?"

Spock clasped his hands behind his back. "Among my people, karnatha is gathered only by specialists, and I am not one." He looked carefully at Yoda. "I would be interested to hear how this plant could return you to your own universe."

Yoda tapped his cane sharply against the deck. "Once karnatha have I, then answers will I give you."

Kirk opened his mouth to tell the small alien that visitors didn't give orders on HIS ship when Spock put a hand on his arm. Kirk abandoned what he was about to say and looked questioningly at Spock.

The Vulcan said, "I suggest that we allow Mr. Yoda to rest and refresh himself in our guest quarters while you and I confer."

Yoda jumped down from the transporter platform, far more agile than his appearance suggested. "My universe this is not, but in mine Master Yoda am I."

Kirk motioned to Scotty, then turned to Yoda. "Mr. Scott will show you to our guest quarters and will show you how to work the food synthesizer. Mr. Spock and I will come for you in one hour."

Yoda nodded, and the tips of his ears unfurled. "Rest and tea will I take, but for a short time only."

"One hour," Kirk repeated, and Scotty escorted the small alien out of the transporter room.

Once the doors had closed behind their visitor, Kirk turned to Spock. "All right, what is it?"

Spock said, "Master Yoda possesses a mind of great power. One or two of the masters at Gol have comparable minds, yet even among Gol's elite, the vast majority have weaker minds than his."

Kirk considered this. "What implications does that have for dealing with him?"

Spock clasped his hands behind his back. "In addition to power, I also sensed benevolence, yet behind that benevolence is an implacable will." Spock raised an amused eyebrow. "Much like yourself, Master Yoda is certain that his purpose is just and will brook no interference or delay. He will not attempt to harm us, but nor will he be denied."

Kirk smiled. "You mean he'll leave a Yoda-shaped hole between himself and whatever his goal is."

"Indeed."

"So the sooner we can send him on his way, the better for all of us."

Spock inclined his head in agreement. "Correct. And the more deference we show him, the more likely he is to understand that it is not our intention to thwart him."

Kirk gave his first officer an appraising glance. "I've heard you sass admirals when they didn't have all their ducks in a row. I've seen you steal the ship out from under the personnel of an entire starbase. And yet one two-foot-tall alien has you treating him like a king."

Spock shook his head. "You humans pay far too much attention to physical appearance. That 'two-foot-tall alien' is as powerful as a photon torpedo." He paused and fixed Kirk with an intense stare. "I suggest that you treat him as such."

Kirk smiled. "All right, I'll pretend that he's wearing an unexploded bomb strapped to his chest. Will that do?"

Spock's eyes showed his amusement. "If that is what you require to recognize the power his small stature conceals, then yes, that will do."

Kirk ordered, "Call the chief botanist to the briefing room, plus you and McCoy, and we'll figure out how to get this karnatha. I'd like to have a plan before we talk to Yoda again."

"Yet we do not know how much of the plant he requires," Spock pointed out.

Kirk sighed. "All right, get Yoda there too, then."

Kirk entered the briefing room to find Spock, McCoy, Yoda, the chief botanist, and Sulu waiting for him.

Kirk looked from Sulu to Spock, and the Vulcan said, "Although we do not have a karnatha collection specialist, we do, however, have a crew member on board who once collected a karnatha flower while he was obtaining botanical specimens."

Kirk smiled. "Sulu? Sulu collected this impossible-to-collect plant?"

Spock said, "Mr. Sulu had never seen karnatha before and was unaware of the plant's reputation. When made aware of it, he said that he must have been using something he termed 'beginner's luck.'"

Kirk chuckled, then looked at Sulu. "Think you can do it again?"

Sulu smiled. "I'll try, Captain! That's all I can promise."

Yoda intoned, "Do or do not; there is no try." He uttered this in portentous tones, as if conferring some profound wisdom upon them, and the seriousness with which he said it made the others respond to him, instead of overlooking it as they might otherwise have done.

"What bullshit!" McCoy replied.

Kirk smiled. "I agree, though I might have phrased it ... a little more politely."

Yoda crossed his small arms. "Wisdom of the jedi this is. Heed it you should!"

Yoda's insistence got under Kirk's skin, and the captain stood up and began to pace around the briefing room. He found himself orating without having really intended to.

"Trying is one of humankind's noblest activities. The poet Robert Browning is famous for saying, 'Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?' If our reach NEVER exceeds our grasp, then we aren't reaching high enough, we aren't dreaming grandly enough, we aren't taking the risks that enable us to make new discoveries, to break new ground, to find new and better ways of doing things."

Kirk whirled around and looked directly at Yoda. "Trying and failing is one of the necessary steps on the path to success. It's failing that helps us realize where we went wrong, which things won't work, and what we need to do to succeed."

Kirk smiled at his officers seated around the table. "Have you ever watched a toddler who's just learning to walk? No toddler succeeds on the first try. It's falling down that teaches them about balance, it's getting their legs tangled up that teaches them where their feet need to go, it's the missteps on the way to walking that make walking possible at all."

Kirk held out a hand, as if pleading with his listeners to understand. "If you try and succeed, then that success is the reward for trying. It's trying and failing that's truly noble, because in that trying, you've dreamed big, you've given your all, you've stretched yourself and tried to grow! And in that growth, you've paved the way for future success — your own or someone else's."

Kirk turned to Yoda. "You aren't human, so maybe things work differently for your species." His voice hardened. "But don't ever discourage my crew again. Humans and Vulcans have to try if they're to fail enough to eventually succeed at the really big and important things."

Yoda's ears curled up as he bowed his head to Kirk for the first time. "A mind of power you have not, but wisdom have you nonetheless."

Kirk smiled at Yoda, then glanced at Spock, who inclined his head to his captain in respect, even as his eyes twinkled, for reasons known only to himself.

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Author's Notes

1. At what point in the story did you know just who they'd beamed aboard? I'd love to know. ;-)

2. I like science fiction in general, not just Star Trek, but to me Star Wars is a fun little movie, whereas Star TREK is teacher, inspiration, and muse. I recently re-watched Star Wars, and when Yoda said, "Do or do not; there is no try," I thought, "Kirk would HATE that line!" And then I thought, "Oooh, there's a weird little story there. :-)"

3. I hope my own reach didn't exceed my grasp with this story, but even if I have failed, I've just had Kirk define that as noble. ;-) (Yes, they find the flower and send Yoda home. The story is really done when Kirk finishes his Kirkian oration, and sending Yoda home is understood.)

4. I mean no insult, either to Star Wars or to Yoda or to jedis. But the Kirk who lives in my head took issue with that famous line of Yoda's, and I wanted to let him have his say. :-) (It used to be only Spock who lived in my head, but Kirk has joined him. I guess he didn't want Spock to be lonely. :-D)

5. I don't own Star Trek, and I make no money from the stories I write; everything here is just fans playing in the sandbox. If anything, I think I probably have more respect for the characters than Paramount does. :-)

6. I have a chronic illness that leaves me non-functional more days than not. I will try to respond to any comments I receive; unfortunately, my good intentions are frequently thwarted by my poor health. (I do read them all with great attention, even when my health doesn't permit me to reply.)

7. Thanks for reading!

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