"Has anyone heard from Scotty!?" Lieutenant Uhura called across the bridge. "I can't communicate across the ship or with the captain!"
The bridge was buzzing with activity, and the whole ship lurched and vibrated from failing engine control. Reports of ship-wide problems were delivered in person because the last functional line of communication had just failed. Doors were stuck and every elevator was now jammed. When someone pried one door open, another would close. The strange thing about it was that the ship's vital functions, like the engine output and life support, were unchanged. No damage had occurred to the ship that would cause all this, and it began as soon as the landing party left the ship. The ship was literally shaking off the crew's ability to control it. Uhura was relieved that the landing party had arrived safely on the planet and had not been killed.
With a commotion-halting screech, the bridge elevator doors opened, revealing the chief engineer armed with a pry bar. "Permission ta come on the bridge," he said sarcastically. He and the other riders quickly ran out before the doors closed behind them like a guillotine.
"Scotty!" Uhura called.
"I've been tryin' to communicate, but th' ship is uncontrollable!" he huffed. He began running to various control panels, looking for any signs of hope. "Can anyone get ahold o' the captain?"
"Negative," Sulu called, his knuckles white on the ship's stabilizer, "And we won't be able to maintain orbit for much longer! Do we have transporters?"
"I' been trapped on that elevator, but I know transporter function is still down. It's like everything on the ship rebelled against us!" Scotty called. "Everything you try just gets shut down!"
"We need to leave orbit or we could crash into the planet!" Sulu exclaimed over a new batch of talking crewmen. They had just lost control of the main viewing screen.
"Do it, Sulu!" Scotty ordered. "We'll come back when we get control!"
Sulu plugged in directions and the ship began to stop its wobble and move from the planet. Luckily they could move accurately without seeing outside. Everyone sighed at the still path, but with a sudden lurch, the ship changed its course back to the unstable orbit. Sulu, frustrated, punched more buttons, but the ship didn't move from orbit again. Sulu again grasped the stabilizer, but it had less effect than it did before.
"The engines are perfectly functional!" Scotty yelled. The ship should not have been acting this way. He ran to Sulu's panel, and they tried to type every override code they could think of.
"Scotty, look!" Sulu pointed at one of his screens.
Sulu's coordinate sphere had gone blank, and a single line of text crawled across the screen before it turned black again.
Sulu looked up at Scotty, who was flushed with confusion and anger. "Someone is controlling the ship, and it isn't us."
The text rolled across the screen again:
I will not leave without the captain!
"Then why can't ya at least fly us in a steady path!?" Scotty yelled at the screen.
"Captain's Log: Supplementary. We are stranded on the Island of Sodor. The energy of this planet appears to have enough power cause some large machines to become animated, and it could also be affecting the Enterprise. We have not been able to contact the ship since the locomotive radio incident, so we are following a lead to the potential source of the energy. We must find a way to communicate with the Enterprise as soon as possible."
"How far from the source are we, Mr. Spock?" Kirk called. The direction of the energy source had led them away from the train tracks, and the crew had been walking through a treeless field of farmland for half an hour. They should meet up with more tracks eventually, according to his map.
"Ten point three four miles, Captain," he responded. "Perhaps finding a means of ground transportation would be a more efficient use of our time."
Kirk sighed. When they did reach the tracks, it was unlikely that any train would give them a ride, especially if all the trains were like Gordon—the angry engine's name, according to Spock. The crew's reputation had to have spread across the small island by now, but it was urgent that the crew return to the Enterprise, and that meant finding some kind of transportation. "Yes, let's try, Spock," he agreed.
A railway led right to the point of energy, and riding looked more appealing than walking. There were no stars near the planet, so there shouldn't have been a sun in the sky. But there was, and its direct afternoon heat was making their walk almost unbearable. Whatever caused this illusion was very powerful because everything seemed real. All the tricks that were now so obvious to Kirk were hidden in plain sight when the crew first arrived on the planet. They really needed to get out of here.
"I see some steam coming up over that way." McCoy pointed to the top the tree line where thin wisps of vapor stood apart from the blue sky.
Spock scanned the area and said, "It is a steam engine."
The "I could have told you that!" was so evident on McCoy's face that he didn't need to say it out loud.
"We'll go ask for a ride," Kirk said with a tired grin.
"As long as it isn't that big blue engine," McCoy mumbled.
The five of them walked across the field and passed through a narrow line of trees. When they emerged, they found a small blue engine with no coaches calmly steaming and chatting with its driver. The driver was shoveling a lot of coal into the engine's firebox as it remained stationary on the rails.
"Driver, how long until I can go?" the engine called out with a child-like tone. It did not sound like the gruff blue engine at all.
The driver chuckled. "Your fire is almost hot enough, Thomas! Since it's your fireman's day off, I have to do both jobs, remember?"
The crew was still partially concealed in the shade of the trees, but Crewman Helms was standing out a little ways to get a better look at the locomotive. The sight of the animate locomotives was still an interesting sight to the crew, and no one noticed that she was blowing their cover until the train called out to her.
"Hello, there!" called the locomotive with a smile.
"Uh, captain?" Helms stammered, looking at the captain for guidance.
Kirk stood. He smoothed his suit and cast a glance at Spock for guidance. He wished they could have hidden behind the train so it wouldn't have seen them.
"Hello," Kirk called with a slight wave. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to address a train, so he stuck with a standard greeting.
The train shifted its eyebrows suggestively. "Were you playing hide and seek over there?" it joked.
Was it actually joking with them? The crew stood with blank facial expressions for a moment. Captain Kirk had conversed with aliens, and he had argued with the most ambitious machines and won. The train was too complex to be like a machine or a robot; its face transitioned seamlessly between facial expressions with no evidence of moving parts. It still had the body of a normal train, so it could not be biological either. It was a very intriguing product of this dream world, and the crew could not assume that it would behave "normally."
"Do you and your friends need a ride?" the train continued in a friendly voice.
It never stopped smiling at them, and the captain wasn't sure how he felt about that. Should he trust himself and his crew to this train, which could be the very thing keeping him and his crew from returning to the ship? Anything was possible.
"Yes, we do," Kirk replied confidently.
To boldly go, as they say.
"Driver!" the train called, causing the driver to stand upright from tending the fire. "Can we give these people a ride?"
The driver stepped out from the train and sized up the five, who had fully emerged from the tree line. "Er, sure! You look like reasonable folks, but you all might need to help shovel coal!"
Kirk let the other crewmen climb into the train first while he held Spock back for a moment.
Kirk whispered, "Spock, could we drive this thing if we had to..." He didn't finish his sentence because Spock knew what he meant. The driver may not always think of them as "reasonable folks."
"Yes. It is 99.64% more simple than piloting the Enterprise," he replied in a quiet tone.
Kirk didn't want to get rid of this driver, he thought as he shook the man's hand. Especially since the train seemed to have an attachment to him. He didn't want to test the unpredictability of this world.
"I'm Driver Stephens. It's nice to finally meet you, Kirk," the driver greeted. "I've heard about the radio problems on our line."
Kirk smiled amiably though he grimaced inside. This was another reason he didn't want to get rid of the driver; Kirk already had a reputation on Sodor. McCoy could drug the driver to knock him out for a couple of hours, but once he awoke, they would need to be off the island. "Yes. Well. Are you having any radio problems here?"
"Trying not to, sir. We only keep it on for short amounts of time so we don't get interference," he replied.
Kirk nodded and stood behind the driver as he pulled some levers. Steam began to puff through the pistons, and the wheels began to turn. "What is your engine's name, Driver?"
"This is Thomas, sir, a very useful engine. Children can't get enough of him and Percy!" He was beaming with pride. "And actually, he isn't my engine; I'm his driver!" he added with a chuckle.
What he said appeared to be a joke, and everyone laughed gently(except for Spock), but it gave fuel to the thought that trains were the ones in charge around here. At least Thomas appeared to have a more agreeable personality than Gordon.
After they had been puffing along the railroad for a few minutes, the driver handed back a shovel for coal. McCoy took it and rolled up his sleeves, claiming he had been getting bored.
Meanwhile, Kirk took out the map of Sodor and stood next to the driver. "I know you have work to do, Mr. Stephens, but would you mind taking us to this branch line?" He pointed to the place on the map that had the focused energy signature.
The driver took the map in his sooty hand and looked at the location quizzically.
"My radio scientists and I believe that this place is the source of the radio interference," Kirk added when he looked like he was going to decline.
"Where does he want to go, Driver?" Thomas asked from the front. It was surprisingly easy to hear his voice in the cabin.
"He wants to go see the Conductor's Railway," he answered the train, who subsequently whistled twice. Perhaps it was excitement. Looking back at Kirk, he sighed. "The Fat Controller doesn't like trains using that branch line after the incident with the diesel engines, but since there might be a problem, Thomas and I will take you down there." He checked the train's gauges and added, more to himself, "Maybe the diesels could have come back."
McCoy stopped shoveling for a moment and addressed the driver. "I'm a little new to rail lines, Mr. Stephens. Would you mind telling me a bit more about these diesel engines?"
Kirk nodded approvingly at McCoy for his quick wit.
"The diesels?" The driver seemed to struggle. "Well, we don't really like to talk about it—"
The train took over for him, "It was despicable! At least that's what Henry says," he added. "The Conductor used to help the Island of Sodor be full of magic from the Magic Railway. The magic helped send away those bad diesel engines, but then the Conductor disappeared! No engine knows what happened to him!"
Crewman Helms looked bemused during the whole explanation. A gasoline engine was a blessing to many societies, but not to this one, apparently.
"Yes, Thomas," the driver interjected, looking a bit nervous, "But that's also a fair bit of engine lore mixed in too. No one has seen the diesels since then, so perhaps the Conductor had no need to return. Sodor is very safe now." The driver looked back at the crew. "The point is, I'll take you to the place, but there isn't some magic railroad or evil diesel engines. Nothing is there except some old buffers and a plaque for the Conductor."
Spock met the captain's eyes, and Kirk knew they were thinking the same thing. The driver had contradicted himself when he spoke of the diesel engines, first crediting them and then discounting them entirely. And what was so bad about a diesel engine anyway? Whatever made this railway run so uniquely, it was kept a mystery from them. The crew might have to crack that mystery before they would be able to get back to the Enterprise. The train knew something though. Perhaps they could use it to their advantage. If the train was in charge, could he be tricked into forsaking his driver?
On another note, there was a Fat Controller, but now there was a Conductor. Was the Conductor above the Controller? What was the difference?
Thomas continued to chug along the line, whistling greetings to any onlookers and to other engines. Even though it was probably fake, the land was lush and green, and the cool breeze dissipated the heat from the sun on the passengers' skin.
The driver radioed to switch the track to allow the entourage onto the mysterious branch line. Soon after riding the rarely-used railway, they hissed to a stop next to some inconspicuous wooden buffers. A peaceful wishing well was nestled among the green hills. They were completely alone and deaf to the rest of the island.
"Well, here we are," the driver announced. He did not seem enthusiastic about being here, in contrast to Thomas.
"I feel fantastic, Driver!" exclaimed the train with a whistle. "All the memories here are fresh on my boiler!"
The crew hopped down from Thomas to investigate the area. Kirk stood beside Spock as he used his scanner.
"The area of interest is exactly the location of the buffers," he concluded.
McCoy was already investigating them, even touching his hand to them. "It doesn't feel any different than normal wood!" he called.
Interested, Kirk began to walk over to McCoy, but he heard a funny sound coming from the train. Thomas was watching them and smiling.
"Did you just," Kirk stepped towards the train, "laugh?"
Thomas smiled bigger. "Well everyone knows that only the conductor or an engine can go through the magic buffers. I've even been through them before!" he said.
"Go through them," Kirk said to himself, studying the train. He was mesmerized by its ability to say so much with its face and eyes. It couldn't be real, but it had to be. He broke away, "Spock!"
"Yes, Captain."
"Thomas says only an engine can," he paused, looking at the train again, "go through the buffers." Hopefully Spock understood his meaning since they had discussed this earlier.
Hopefully the crew could trust the train.
"Understood, Captain," he replied, then he called to McCoy. "Doctor! We need to ride the train again."
McCoy soon understood what they had to do. While Kirk stood in front of the engine where it could see him alone, the enterprise crew lured the driver from his station and silently anesthetized him. The security officer dragged him to a safe place behind some bushes, and Spock made sure that the cabin radio was switched off. Thomas felt the eery silence and looked at Kirk with a cross expression—he wasn't smiling anymore.
"What have you done with my driver?" he asked steadily.
"We gave him some medicine that would make him go to sleep for a few hours, and he is safely resting behind some bushes," Kirk answered honestly.
The train rolled its eyes away from him and steamed in frustration.
"We didn't hurt him, Thomas," Kirk bargained. "We need you, alone, to take us through these buffers since you've been here before. Your driver didn't seem up to the task, and we have some work to do."
Thomas looked frustrated, but also a little worried. "But the conductor isn't here anymore! What if the diesels are waiting inside for us?"
The captain frowned. What if the train was able to resist his crew from driving it. Or worse, what if it could drive itself and hurt them. "Thomas, I need you to be brave and to do this for the railway. If the diesels are back, do you want them to stay hidden or do you want to get rid of them for good?" he suggested.
Thomas seemed to consider this choice. "It would keep the railway safe," he trailed off.
"Yes," Kirk continued. It was time for a rallying speech. "My name is Captain James Kirk. I am the Controller and Conductor where I'm from. My crew and I will make sure that you, your driver, and the railway are safe."
Thomas almost looked convinced. "Alright, Captain," he gently complied. "I'll try my best." He furrowed his eyebrows. "But you aren't one of those people that tries to steal our railroad magic, are you?"
"No, of course not!" Kirk replied. He didn't have a clue what that meant anyway. "Thank you for agreeing to help us." As he began to walk to the train cabin, he realized that the doctor had been standing by and watching him for several minutes.
McCoy had his arms crossed and wore a smirk that he usually reserved for Spock. He shook his head as Kirk hopped up to the cabin. "Captain James T. Kirk: Train whisperer!"
With a flash of his teeth, the Captain of the Railway adjusted his hat and announced, "All aboard."