Kirk hiked toward a large rocky outcropping on a rise. He wanted a view of things. The orange star was lower now. Days were long on WT5, fifty-seven hours, so they should have eleven hours of good light remaining.

Kirk's first view over the rise made his heart pound and his limbs sing. The glint of metal plate, marching. But they were marching away, converging on a spot over the horizon.

The Vulcan said, "The ship recalled them. The virus will jump to the ship unless they detect it in time, but by now it will look like native coding. So detection is unlikely. The bots optimize their coding every time they operate in the field. It is the reason for their success with such crude technology."

Kirk sat on a rock in the shade where he could see the field ahead. Again the view made his pulse race.

Spock said, "You have a medical kit."

Kirk looked down at what he carried. Pulling all the cutting straps off his shoulders gave him immediate relief.

Kirk said, "Explain to me what you let lose."

"Your hand is badly damaged."

Kirk look at the back of his hand, at the blackened bones and cords revealed in a thin line. It hurt unbelievably to try to straighten his fingers.

Spock pulled the kit over and looked through it, talking as he did so.

"The virus is simple in execution although complex in code. It is eighteen parts that network within an infected device. It finds code in the device that it likes and adapts it to its own purpose. So within minutes, the infection itself would be difficult to remove without replacing all of the device's memory."

He pulled out a can of dermaskin, set it aside, and kept digging.

Spock went on, "All devices are networked, and likely the bots are blocked from moving code to the ship at the higher function levels, but that does not mean it is blocked at the lower hardware levels. This virus uses the channels for locating power sources for recharging, for example, or those for maintenance and inventory checks, even if the device isn't explicitly designed to need them."

He gestured for Kirk to put his hand down on the rock. He seemed to be trying to avoid touching him. Cold spray went on the back of Kirk's hand. It tingled, stung, then went numb.

Spock went on, "It is better if a particular device is not explicitly designed for using these hardware channels and the channel has been neglected. That often means there is no security on it. The colonists copied older standard components with a lot of these forgotten functions on them."

He sprayed Kirk's hand again. Moved his head side to side to examine it.

Kirk said, "But it can infect the ship? What about life support?"

Spock shook the can of dermaskin. "The virus attempts to detect essential systems, but it is fuzzy in that determination, otherwise it is a vulnerability for the infection as many systems could be made to look life-essential and avoid infection."

"So it could jump to a Federation ship."

"Keep your hand still."

Kirk had gestured with it. He put it back down. Spock sprayed a neat layer of pinkish-brown over the wound.

Spock said, "Indeed. If they have made similar design mistakes, it can jump to a Federation ship. I would hope they are more thorough than that at system design."

Kirk tried to imagine the possible cascade of system failures, planet to planet.

Kirk said, "But it can't disable anything right away or the infection will be limited."

Spock packed the medkit back up. "It doesn't disable. It makes functionality erratic in statistically unpredictable ways, which is more costly over a longer time period. What you saw initially with the robots was temporary code that executed so that I had a chance of surviving and returning home. I was intending to do so."

The last glint of metal was over the horizon, still raising dust which glowed in the low angled light.

"What happened to your ship? Did you accidentally infect it?"

Kirk received an annoyed raised brow for this.

"Seemed a logical guess," Kirk said. He touched the dermaskin to test that it was dry. The wound was still numb. It looked like a mechanical slot in his flesh.

Spock said, "My family took control of the ship remotely. The only circuits I could override were those for abandoning the ship, which are not under central computer control. The only way to make it to the planet where the robots were was in the escape pod. And in order to have the right trajectory, the ship had to lose orbital attitude and velocity, which is part of the survival override to prevent the escape pod burning up on atmospheric entry. I aimed for your location because I deemed the odds of getting assistance higher than not."

He said all this with no emotion.

"You stole your dad's spaceship. Are you sure you're a Vulcan?"

"No. I stole the ship of an acquaintance of the family. My family ship has too much custom programming for my purposes."

Kirk tried to imagine knowing anyone with an interstellar spaceship growing up in Iowa. "You must be pretty well off." Kirk looked the Vulcan over. His robes had become dusty, but it only highlighted his elegant, calm demeanor. "I'm guessing that's why you don't want to tell me your name. You wanted to be in and out, no one the wiser."

"Essentially. My father has made that most difficult to achieve."

They sat in silence. Kirk wanted to make camp, wanted to phaser a shelter to feel less exposed, but he wanted to wait for the robot delivery ship to depart to avoid attracting too much attention.

His stomach growled. Kirk pulled out an energy bar, broke it in half and held half out to the stranger.

"I do not require sustenance at this time."

"I won't eat my half unless you eat yours. It's vegetarian, go on."

The Vulcan didn't move. Kirk wrapped it back up and put it away. He ignored his stomach, but it grew louder over the next half hour.

"You are as stubborn as any Vulcan." The stranger held out his hand for the bar.

Kirk smiled. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Kirk slowly relished his half of the energy bar. He could eat all seven in his bag and still be hungry.

Eventually the colony bot ship departed, two hours before the Sanchez was due back.

Kirk worked slowly at carving a shallow cave with the phaser rifle. He could pull his hand closed with only minimal pain, but not open it again. The activity calmed him immensely. The Vulcan stood beside him, watching out over the plain below with his scanner in hand.

"Did you happen to see the USS Sanchez in a wide orbit, checking the moons and the asteroid belt?" With the power adjusted just right, the phaser barely left scorch marks on the rock as it carved.

"I did not. I was distracted and avoiding detection myself."

"Understandable."

The two hours came and passed. Kirk got up and paced over the arched rock surface of the hill, straining his tired ankles doing so. The air was growing cooler. It felt refreshingly like water. Kirk would kill for a shower. He shucked off his phaser-reflective plates, set them neatly aside, hoping he'd trigger having to pick them up again right away to beam out.

"Your ship is overdue, I assume?"

"About five minutes, yes."

An hour passed.

Kirk thought about Gary, imagined him navigating the asteroid belt, heading this way. He couldn't picture him dead. No reason to with just an hour's delay.

Wolfram Thesus turned out of view and three quarters of the sky became a rusty orange.

The Vulcan said nothing. He went higher on the rise and used his scanner for a while. The sound of an impulse engine made Kirk's heart twist with homesickness. But it was just the escape pod rising up the slope. It settled between tall rocks with a grinding crunch. The Vulcan removed a few things from it and shut the lid again.

He returned with a heavy blanket and a kit.

"I did not have time to prepare gear and the pod's contents are inadequate. The family never took their ship outside our star system, and apparently saw no need to keep it stocked."

"You disabled the beacon before you landed, I assume?"

"I did. I did not want attention."

"Until we're sure our foes are gone, it should stay off."

Darkness came on. The Vulcan wrapped up in his blanket. Kirk was still warm enough given the extra padding he wore to protect from the plate straps.

Kirk divided another energy snack. He wanted to sleep and a bit of food would help a lot with that. The Vulcan took it. Kirk suspected he only pretended to eat it, but he was too tired to care. He curled up using his arm as a pillow, his communicator in his breast pocket, and fell immediately asleep.

Kirk awoke to darkness. He pushed himself to sit up. A small light came on and was placed at Kirk's feet. The events of the day returned as disjointed memories. Kirk wandered off to take care of his aching bladder. There were nine bright moons in the sky, showing an array of half to sliver based on their position in the sky. It was beautiful. And with nighttime lasting over twenty one hours, he'd have a lot of time to appreciate it.

The Vulcan appeared demonic in the low, bluish light. Kirk sat beside him, arms on his knees. "What's your name?" Kirk said.

"I continue to not wish to give it."

"It occurs to me that Vulcans and Romulans have black, dark violet, or if they are old, blue eyes. But not brown. That makes it easy to figure out your identity. Therefore it is logical that you simply tell me."

"You know quite a bit about Vulcans."

Kirk looked out at the four moons visible from where he sat. "I feel like we are headed for a three-way war. That's what the rebel colonists want. The Federation and Starfleet failed to protect Vulcan two months ago. I'm sorry about that. We really are stretched thin, for ships and personnel. But that seems a poor excuse. With the Militants operating, and I know they are a handful of Vulcans, but humans don't see it that way. That handful easily represent all of Vulcan as potentially war-like. It sets things up even better for another front. As does Vulcan arming itself for defense."

Kirk turned to watch for a reaction as he spoke. "I assume that an attack reaching Vulcan is the reason you took action."

The Vulcan nodded. He didn't react other than to grow distant.

"So I've been doing as much research on your people as I can. I feel like the only way to avoid another war starting, is to understand."

Kirk let silence in for a while before saying, "I think you might have let loose more than you realize, but I certainly understand you doing it. I'm certainly happy to be alive."

Kirk sat back, crossed his legs, ignored his complaining stomach. "Name?"

"I am called Spock."

Kirk scratched his ear. The name wasn't familiar but Kirk's memory wasn't serving him well at the moment. "Well, thank you, that's helpful."

The night stretched long. Kirk dosed, easily driven into inaction by hunger.

The local star rose, made the left hand three quarters of the sky into a globe of orange sherbet. Kirk stood and stretched. His hand felt like he tore it open again as he did so, but the dermaskin was still intact so he ignored it. He tried not to think about Gary.

"We are going to have to start thinking about longer term survival," Kirk said, staring down at his red haloed shadow. "Did you pass that survival test they give all Vulcans as children? How old are you?"

"I did pass it. And I am nineteen earth years old."

"That's like fifteen Vulcan years."

"If you prefer."

Kirk didn't prefer, but for some reason his sense of guilt preferred. "We should get moving. Water first. Then food."

Water was easy enough. The planet lacked microbes harmful to humans and Vulcans. As the morning commenced they made another shelter where it would be cooler for Kirk during the day and closer to water, down in a ravine.

Food was going to be a problem.

Spock fingering a long thorn. "These shrubs likely bear fruit but we are months out of season for it,"

"There must have been grazing animals at one time, given the thorns."

"The plant is imported. I do not have the proper database in my scanner, but it is a common plant grown for living fencing on colony worlds."

They continued surveying. Kirk checked his communicator often. It was always dead air.

Desperate for a distraction, Kirk said, "I've been trying to learn Vulcan. Do you have the patience to teach me a little?"

The local star had inexorably traversed the sky and hung fifteen degrees above the other horizon when Spock stopped and said, "It has been thirty one hours since a rest period. You are quite fatigued and require sleep."

This felt like a command and Kirk realized from the oddness of it that he'd been ordering Spock around all day.

At the thought of resting, Kirk's head grew unbearably heavy. "Maybe a nap."

He was clumsy by the time they made it to the ravine shelter. Kirk fell directly on the dirt and fell directly into sleep.

Kirk awoke to his stomach clawing at him. Spock was sitting on the far side of the shelter, watching him. Kirk rolled onto his back. The sky was orange. A long, long day had passed and still no ship. Kirk pulled his kit over, pulled out the second to last energy snack, broke it in half and held half out.

"That is illogical. I refuse to consume what you should be consuming."

Kirk wrapped it back up and put it away.

"You are a foolish human."

Kirk pushed himself up onto one elbow and with a smile said, "My my. Temper."

He might have slapped the Vulcan. His eyes went wide, then sharp for an instant, then he returned to unemotional.

Kirk combed his hair back with his fingers. "Sorry. I'm treating you like you are crew assigned to me. Hidden emotions and motivations are deadly to a mission. I prod at them without thinking about it."

"I should not have reacted thusly."

"Clearly, humans, in some way, are a sore spot for you. But not at all the way I'd expect from most aliens. And I notice you are pretty familiar with humans at a casual level. You accommodate me in lots of small ways I don't think you are aware of. That and your eyes leaves me to guess that you are not one hundred percent Vulcan."

There was a pause. "That would be correct, biologically."

"Ah, but culturally, you are one hundred and ten percent Vulcan, as befits someone who has to exceed expectations to even measure up."

Spock didn't respond.

"As a farm boy from Iowa trying to make it in a world full of West Coast, interstellarly cultured locals, I actually do understand, at least a little, what that's like. I'm not saying it's a fault of yours, just reality."

Again Spock didn't respond.

Kirk's stomach ached, his limbs were shaky. He stood and looked around at the undulating landscape, half hidden in shadows.

Spock said, "I can survey during the night-time hours while you rest."

"No. We absolutely should not separate. We only have one scanner."

"I can modify the medical scanner to locate a lifesign at a distance."

Kirk dug it out of the medkit and handed it over. "Still. Stay in range of hearing at all times."

"As you wish." Spock pried the case off the scanner in a way Kirk was certain would break it, but it popped open and the electronic guts of it unfolded in his hands as if more than ready to reveal itself to the Vulcan. "You are the hungry one."

"I am, but I'm hardly at risk of starving to death." Kirk chuckled. "I only had so many snack bars because I love snack bars."

Spock stepped back, used the scanner, stepped back farther. Then returned and handed it to Kirk, who powered it down and put it away. Spock remained standing just before him.

"I wish you would consume the energy bar," Spock said in a tone of voice Kirk had not yet heard him use. It sounded parental.

"Only if you'll eat half."

"Why?"

"Because that's the only fair way. Fair is important to me."

"But I require less. Your analysis should include that reality."

"You don't require that much less. You are simply able to ignore the discomfort. Both of us are drastically shorted on nutrients. Your nature doesn't allow for you to go completely without, indefinitely. Physics would argue otherwise."

Kirk sat back, made himself comfortable, looked up at Spock. "I'm the one arguing reality reality. You are arguing some kind of reality of the mind."

Spock's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "That is interesting. An anti-philosophic viewpoint."

"Depends on your philosopher."

Spock returned to his corner, wrapped up in his blanket, and sat cross-legged on the ground. "It is fascinating how much you challenge me."

"Do I? Well, at least I'm not boring you."

"You cannot do that. You are familiar with death and fighting with the potential to die and that is fascinating."

"I get the sense you grew up a bit over protected."

"I do not know."

"If you don't have enough observations to compare to, that implies you have an intentionally limited experience."

Spock fell thoughtful. "Your manner of speech is older than your apparent age would predict."

"I'm twenty four. Earth years, of course."

"Is your rank typical for your age?"

"Not unusual. My rank was higher before I got demoted. Lt. Commander was a little atypical at my age."

Spock tilted his head in question.

Here on this planet, after surviving, Kirk could feel none of the sting to his pride. He even laughed lightly at how free he felt. "I have a bad habit of disobeying orders I think are a bad idea."

"Understandable."

"Maybe so. But I lost my team to the bots because my team did exactly that to me. So not a good thing." Kirk repeatedly tapped his head back on the rock behind him. "In fact, I probably didn't fault them enough for it because I understood. That was a mistake."