Up in the hills, a creature with a shard of self-awareness struggled to find out . . . something . . . something that was missing. He felt there was something missing but could not recall what it was. The struggle manifested in the body, bending and stretching in discomfort. He had lost contact with his surface layer. The brain was stuck, trapped in its own stem. It was limited to the most basic impulses and instincts. The whole skin felt numb, and he tore off his clothes without recognising what they were. Flat on his back, he rubbed his unfeeling flesh against the ground to try and connect his surface with his core. He looked up at the darkening sky with uncomprehending eyes, where the stars were small dots of light that he tried to catch with his hand. A moth flew by, and he smashed this sudden enemy flat against a tree trunk. He looked bewildered at the powdery remains in his palm. Now there were voices, faint and far away. He stood up and turned his ears to listen.
"I don't like this. I don't like this one single little bit. Walking through unknown territory at nightfall in a flock of only three? We're going to get eaten. It's gonna happen. Yep. I can't believe you were mean enough to order me to do this." Lily-Lee was talking in a low voice while licking the edge of some serrated leaves.
"We'll get back to the shuttle as soon as we find Spock, but not before."
"Yes, Captain. He left some skin residue on the leaves here."
"So we're on the right track. I wonder how far he ran. Wait . . . did you hear something?"
A rustle in the bushes, and Spock jumped down from the slope above and startled them. All that was heard was an 'Eeeep' from Lily-Lee and she was off, running back towards the shuttle, zigzagging like a rabbit. McCoy went after her. Kirk intended to stay and talk to Spock, but his plans were thwarted when Spock caught sight of the fleeing blue specks and chased after them.
Running through a dense forest after dark is no easy thing. Lily-Lee had the advantage of experience, and ducked under branches with ease, back-tracking her own path without hesitation. McCoy got caught on everything and wasn't sure of the direction. To avoid getting lost, he had to stop and take out the tricorder to determine his position. It also gave him a chance to catch his breath.
Spock crashed through anything, not feeling the scratches from broken twigs and thorns on his numb skin, and not thinking clearly enough to consider his well-being. He only felt the chase in itself. There was no purpose to it but to run. Run faster. He would fight or kill whatever he caught.
As Lily-Lee came to the glen where the shuttle was parked, she met the glitter of twenty pairs of eyes turning towards her. The marsupials had come down from the canopy and were climbing all over the shuttle. Not wanting to head right into a flock of unknown animals, Lily-Lee made a sharp turn left and disappeared in the vegetation. After her came Spock, but his instincts were not those of a prey animal. He charged into the flock and grabbed as many limbs as he could get hold of. The flock had been silent but were now shrieking in panic as Spock tossed them in every direction.
Kirk came running and saw Spock in the light from the shuttle door, attacked by shrieking animals that was clinging to his naked back and legs. Sweaty and short of breath, Kirk rushed to help him, but stepped on a jellyfish that was popping its last bubble and crashed down through the open door. He lay still where he fell, feet sticking out over the shuttle steps. Spock saw him and howled, ridding himself of the last clingers. Silence returned as the flock retreated up in the trees.
