Word spread quickly in the underground city, and it wasn't even half an hour later when more people started to show up, curious about the alien visitors. While some of the shyer ones, and most of the children, didn't go further than listening at the doors, a few were bold enough to approach them directly. Some even brought objects to show the newcomers, and soon enough Neyren was examining a oddly-bound book and Kouri was scanning the chemical composition of a sheet of dyed woven cloth. Rellar glared around at the interested colonists and continued to question Dasin, after he had moved his group away from the curious crowd. Elson and Spock were deep in discussion on something involving historical records, and Jim was still listening to Prett recount the colony's history. A lot of the story was just pride in the way the colonists had to fight the land to build their tunnels, that they were thriving in spite of all the challenges, and all the lives lost to the harsh wilderness. But the Nifseln engineer didn't have the best teaching style to begin with, and half the details were going over Jim's head for sheer lack of cultural context.

He'd gotten one short call from McCoy giving his grudging approval of the Nifseln doctors. Jim wasn't one to linger on all the things that could go wrong, but they were still far from safe, and part of his attention was spent waiting for the next report, whether it be good or bad.

Eventually, the history lesson wound to a close, and he gravitated towards Spock, who had been presented with some sort of device by a Nifseln researcher who was carrying a sleeping baby wrapped in a cloth against their back. There were a few others crowded around, waiting to show off all sorts of objects and hear the reactions. Neyren caused a flutter of laughter as they tried to guess the purpose of a toy a child had brought, while Kouri talked to a tall pale-furred Nifseln about what looked like game pieces.

"What do you think?" Jim said, smiling at Spock's evident interest and the care with which he handled the mechanism.

"This is a short-range communication device that presents a message in raised characters," Spock said, running his fingers across the device's ridged buttons.

"Like a Braille phone? I imagine that'd be good in the dark."

"Most of the instruments I have observed are designed to be compatible with a lack of sight," Spock said. Jim recalled the untranslatable audio records. And noticed that a few of the Nifseln weren't making eye contact with who they were speaking to, not out of any shyness or cultural more, but because they couldn't. A high rate of blindness, possibly?

"Many of our best inventors and researchers were blind," Elson explained, "and their designs have become the standard. It is very useful for people like myself."

Jim watched as Spock asked Elson another question, and then his attention was drawn away when a child pushed a stone carving into his hands. He smiled down at the kid, and pat the braids of their mane as he'd seen some of the other Nifseln adults do. The carving was of some sort of four-legged animal, fat-bodied, with a pointed muzzle and large paws.

"Is it… a badger? A bear?" he said, turning the carving over gently in his hands as the child looked expectantly up at him and giggled at the unfamiliar names.

"A sentog!" the child laughed, grabbing the carving back and running over to show Neyren.

Jim hadn't heard anything more about the injured crewmembers, and he was wondering if he should investigate when Kynan came back into the room.

"How are they doing?" Jim asked, looking up from the newest object that had been presented to Spock for study.

"Your people are well. The treatment is simple enough, and a few have been healed completely, and for the rest the process has reached a point where they aren't in pain," Kynan said. "But it will be a while longer. We've just had some workers come in from the outer tunnels, and they need immediate attention."

"What happened?"

"It is none of your concern."

"I'm going to go see what Bones is up to," Jim said, "and see if I can figure out what these forces are. Something's strange about this." He gently pushed through the crowd and headed towards the door.

"Captain," Kouri called, "I've recorded some information on the plants that Dr. McCoy would probably be interested in."

"Sure, come with me. Keep an eye on things until I get back, Spock."

"Yes, Captain."

~o~

"So what've you learned?" Jim asked Kouri, as they followed one of the Nifseln down the dimly-lit tunnels. The doctor and his patients had been moved to the medical center some ways away.

"Elson interpreted some records for us. It turns out our scans had confused several sets of similar proteins and enzymes, which was why we didn't know how dangerous the stalks were." Xe explained the differences and some ideas for upgrades to the technology. Jim could follow most of it—he hadn't taken advanced biology classes for nothing—but some of the specifics were more complicated than anything he had studied. Well, that was why he had such a dedicated Science department.

"You should take that up with Spock when we get back," Jim said when xe finished. "He's been bugging me about updating the lab scanners for ages."

They reached the medical center, and their guide went off to get McCoy.

"And… I'm sorry about Rellar," Jim said. "I wasn't planning on having him beam down with us."

"I can deal with him, Captain." It wasn't accusatory, just an honest statement of confidence. He'd heard the same sort of thing from Spock, back during those metal trade negotiations.

"Doesn't mean you should have to."

"I've heard worse than what he's said. Even these days you still find jerks." Jim suspected xe wasn't as calm about the matter as xe was trying to appear, but it wasn't his place to push. He found himself thinking again of some of the insults thrown at Spock as well as everything Rellar had said about Kouri, and tensed a moment in anger. Nobody should be treated like that, he believed, and believed fiercely. "But most people don't make a fuss about me," Kouri went on. "My history professor—did you have Commander Yeung?"

"I remember her. Did she assign you the comparative revolutions project?"

"Yes!" xe said, smiling. "I wrote about the Vulcan Reformation and the Orion Prophets. When she talked about identity movements, she put it like this: after First Contact, when we met completely unfamiliar aliens, people stopped worrying so much about differences between humans. Once you've met people who aren't human at all, once you're open to such diverse species, the little things don't matter as much."

"Now if only everybody could see it that way. And accept other species' diversity as well, before they go around blatantly ignoring identities."

"I've met a few people like Rellar. He just can't imagine he'd ever be wrong, so he never corrects his first assumption."

"That's a problem. Reworking hypotheses is pretty basic in scientific research. How'd that asshole even get his job?" Jim glanced around theatrically, then gave a conspiratorial smile. "Of course, as the captain, I would never slander our guests."

Kouri grinned. "Yes, sir."

"You plotting something, Jim?" And there was McCoy.

"Why would anyone ever think that?" Jim said, putting on an innocent air.

"Oh, I can come up with a reason or two. You been having a nice chat with the Nifseln?"

"Kouri's got the records they found," Jim said, and xe handed McCoy a padd. He skimmed through it, frowning. "If you're going to be doing upgrades, I could use some new tech too." He looked up. "Everything else going to plan? No other disasters, murders, monsters, or general bizarre occurrences?"

"So far, everything's good. You should see Spock. A new species—this is like Christmas morning for him."

"Explains why you're so happy." Whatever that meant.

"So I've heard there was some sort of accident with the builders?"

"Accident? From what I'm hearing, it was an attack."

"What do you mean? Who are they fighting?" This was a small settlement, it couldn't be a civil war. But there wasn't anybody else on the planet.

"Two of the people they brought back were dead already, and I don't think the rest have much of a chance. They were strangled, Jim! By the trees!"

"They were attacked by the trees?" That was ridiculous, that couldn't be what what was happening.

"No, they were attacked by bunny rabbits."

"Very funny. What happened? Are you sure it wasn't just the toxin?"

"One of them was impaled. The roots must have come at those miners like a living creature. They must've chopped the roots off, because they brought the poor creatures in with them still wrapped around their necks. And everybody here's acting like it's perfectly normal."

"They kept talking about the wildlife being deadly, but I didn't think they meant it was alive!"

"The trees are native to the planet," Kouri said. "If they're able to move, and they're aggressive, then they might be defending their territory?"

"Whatever's going on, we should—" Jim began, and then he was interrupted by a Nifseln doctor calling for McCoy.

"I'm coming!" he yelled back, then said to Jim and Kouri, "You two get back and see if anything else funny is going on here. I'll send someone when I'm done here. The sooner we can get off this planet, the better."

~o~

Back in the records room, they were enthusiastically greeted by another batch of visitors, with even more items to show off. Jim got the feeling that some of the sharing was simply a joke at their expense, the Nifseln enjoying fooling these funny aliens who didn't recognize the simplest things, but he wouldn't turn down the chance to interact with a completely unknown species.

Spock had asked Elson about the trees and the deaths, but the Nifseln wouldn't tell him anything. And all Prett would talk about was how strong the colony was in the face of those challenges.

Maybe those trees were really strange, or maybe there was some animal that just looked like tree roots. There couldn't be another species on this planet. The scans—but then, the scans had also been wrong about the climate and the colony, so there was a chance there was something more sinister going on.

Jim was puzzling over a bizarre kettle-like item when he overheard Rellar say in response to something Elson had told him, "The fungus contains luminartin?"

The name was vaguely familiar to Jim, probably from one of Spock's reports he'd skimmed over before approving. Probably something rare and valuable.

He nudged Spock, who had also looked up at the name.

"A protein with many applications in organic nanoconstruction," Spock provided, his attention now also on the Zagen scientist. "It is difficult to produce artificially." And it seemed the Zagen were interested.

"All the system's labs have been requesting it," Serren said, "If we could secure a source…"

"I will investigate. Learn what else you can from him," Rellar ordered, and then, without any hesitation, called across the room to Spock, "You, send the girl over here."

So much for the idea of Rellar respecting anybody, even Spock. Kouri merely glared, and pointedly went back to the conversation xe was having with a Nifseln weaver.

"As there is no individual present of that description," Spock said, his patience evidently running thin, "I am forced to refuse."

"Don't play games with me. I have made a discovery of some worth. You would do well to send your workers to follow me."

"You would do well," Jim warned, "to respect my crewmembers and carry out your investigations with your own people." It was probably a bit of a dick move, dragging Serren and Leyna into this, but he wasn't going to put up with Rellar ordering his crew around.

"Very well, if you're going to be difficult about it. Leyna, come with me," Rellar ordered, and turned towards the tunnels. And turned back, when he realized he wasn't being followed. "Come with me!" he demanded.

"No, I'm not." Leyna stood where she was, and did not move. "I don't even know what we're doing anymore! Shouldn't we be working with the Federation scientists instead of insulting them?" She was shaking slightly but holding her ground and keeping her voice strong. "What are we here for? We're supposed to be discovering new things, we're supposed to have our assumptions proven wrong! I've been working with you for years and you've never once admitted when you're wrong, or done any work you weren't sure would prove you right. I've seen you reworking experiments to match your hypothesis, and abandoning the ones that you couldn't manipulate. And, yes, I remember when you stole my research and published it under your own name!" She looked towards Spock and Kouri. "I thought we were explorers. I came out here because I wanted to work with new people. But you," she turned back to Rellar, "won't even talk to them unless you're ordering them around, and you haven't even bothered to learn the proper address. You blame every mistake on them, even when you're the only one wrong. I'm not going to work with you anymore if you can't even listen."

Good for her, Jim thought. It's about time someone stood up to that bastard. He'd talk to Spock about offering her a position on the Enterprise.

"Now that you're finished with that ridiculous declaration," Rellar scowled, unaffected, "we have work to do. I can't afford to get so hung up on formality when there's progress to be made. And what good comes of doubting and simpering around?" He turned away. "If I've done anything wrong, it was choosing you to come on this expedition. Serren, I trust you have more sense?"

"You've seen it too!" Leyna called, but Serren stepped back, not meeting her eyes.

"I've worked too hard for this position. I'm sorry." He turned to his superior. "Yes, I'll go."

Leyna glared, accusatory, while Rellar said to Serren, "Follow me, and be quick about it. We'll have to make up for that waste of time." He led Serren towards the tunnels, and found Kynan blocking his path.

"There have been more attacks on our builders," the Nifseln said, stepping into the room as the others fell silent. "Your arrival coincided with this new onslaught, therefore we must consider you suspects."

"Suspects in what?" Jim demanded.

"Sabotaging the expansion of the colony by aiding the savages of this planet against us."