Everyone got inside the train, and Spock and the security officer quickly figured out how to drive the locomotive. With a few alterations to the track, the crew was ready to approach the buffers. Thomas whistled expectantly.
"Are you ready, Thomas?" Kirk asked.
"Yes, sir!" he replied. He might not have completely trusted the captain, but he was looking forward to seeing the Magic Railroad again. Unless there were diesels.
Captain Kirk was ready, but he wasn't sure what he was ready for. If the buffers were some kind of portal, it would be completely different on the other side.
"We'll enter nice and slowly," Kirk said, putting his hand on a wall of the cabin, as if he were securing the train's good will. "Nice and slowly," he repeated for Spock.
He nodded and eased the brakes off. They slowly puffed forward. Thomas was wide-eyed with anticipation.
Everyone in the cabin was stiff and silent and held onto something for support. Kirk and McCoy looked out the two holes in the cabin to see ahead of them. Spock tightly held the brake lever. If the buffers were solid after all, the train would derail and crash into the hills. It was very surreal. If the crew died on the planet, would they actually be dead?
"Here we go!" Thomas quivered, closing his eyes as his front tapped where the buffers should have been.
The crew expected to feel a lurch and crash, but there was nothing except for a flurry of tiny golden lights. Even though they had seen wonderful things across the galaxy, the sight of the railway ahead of them left the crew in awe.
"We made it!" Thomas called in triumph, and everyone cheered. The sound came out as narrow since their eyes were so wide.
"Stop the train," Kirk told Spock, who promptly applied the brakes.
Thomas babbled on about how the railway hadn't changed a bit, but the captain gingerly stepped out of the cabin and took in the view, not quite trusting the strange ground. "What is this place?" he whispered.
It was a dim railway tunnel netted with ivy on the sides and ceiling. It glowed a yellowish green color through the foliage. The light softly fluctuated like a candle. The single rail itself looked gold, and Kirk noticed that flecks of golden light sprinkled out from Thomas's wheels at the slightest movement. The air was thick, like it would absorb every sound, and the crew walked over the polished stones by the railway without the smallest echo. The tunnel was tall and wide and could hold much larger engines than Thomas, but it was lonely. It wasn't hostile to the new sounds of life coming from its first visitors in years.
McCoy called out, "Jim, according to my readings, the Enterprise doesn't exist! There's no signal at all!"
Startled, Kirk took out his communicator. There wasn't even static. He thought they would be getting past the interference by coming here, but now they were completely lost. As interesting as this place was, they needed to leave. He walked in front of the train. "Thomas, is there a way to get out of this tunnel?"
"Of course! We can go the way we came, but there's also another side."
"What is on the other side?"
A large smile broke across the train's face, but he quickly tempered it. "Oh, it's a very strange place! It isn't nearly as magical as Sodor!" Thomas looked lost in fond memories, so Kirk found his science officer, who was kneeling on the ground examining something.
"What is the risk of following this tunnel to the other end, Spock?"
Spock stood up, holding a small golden object he picked up from the ground. He furrowed his eyebrows. "Since this tunnel was a kind of portal, it is likely that the other side is an exit from this realm, as Thomas said. However, I cannot calculate if we will be able to communicate with the Enterprise or what the next realm will be."
"It's a risk, but if there is less of this magic, we probably stand a better chance."
McCoy ambled over to the captain, clutching his tricorder. "I don't like this tunnel, Jim," he muttered. "There are lifeforms down that way, besides the plants on the wall."
"I don't like it either, Bones," Kirk replied, "But if we have any hope of returning to the ship, this is probably it."
As Kirk and McCoy were talking, Spock walked to the front of the locomotive.
The train greeted him. "I didn't catch your name, sir! I'm Thomas," he offered.
"My name is Spock." He held up the golden object he found on the ground. "Do you know what this is?"
Thomas gasped, and his face looked profound. "That's the Conductor's magic whistle! He must have dropped it. He needs it to be able to ride this railway!"
Spock examined it closely, locating the small mouthpiece and removing some dirt. "One can use this whistle to travel? How?"
Thomas was greatly concerned that the Conductor had stopped visiting because he had lost his whistle, but Thomas tried to help the very serious man. He imagined the Conductor using the whistle for a second. "I don't know how he did it, but I know the Conductor could appear out of nowhere. Maybe he thought of where he wanted to go and blew on it!"
"Fascinating," Spock mumbled. Spock did not believe in magic as the train did, but the whistle seemed to be the center of the energy in this tunnel; his scanner led him right to it. It was a stronger signal than the wooden buffers had been. He heard the captain assembling the crew, so he carefully placed the whistle in his pocket for later analysis.
"We're going to go see what's at the end of this tunnel," the captain rallied. "McCoy picked up some life forms aside from plants, so have your phasers ready and set to stun."
The crew got inside the train cabin and prepared Thomas for movement. The tunnel was slightly curved and about two miles long from what the sensors could tell. Thomas puffed along at a comfortable speed so the crew had plenty of time to look around.
Thomas liked how smooth and quiet the rails were under his wheels, almost satiny. The magic dust fluttered against his sides, and he did not want the tunnel ride to go by very quickly. He thought and whispered to himself about all the kind people, and the Conductor, and Lady, the golden engine. This had been her railway, but she had disappeared too. The diesel engines were so rotten that they probably took her and the Conductor!
Farther down the tunnel, the candle-like glow faded somewhat, causing the delicate ivy to look like thorny vines or gnarled hands. Thomas had to turn on his light, and he began muttering things to himself about the diesels.
The things he said set the crew on edge though they didn't know why. Surely they didn't believe that a diesel engine as evil as what Thomas described would join them at any moment! All the same, the tracks ahead of them seemed to shift in and out of focus, and they felt that Thomas's rail noise wasn't the only clatter on the tracks.
On a segment of straight track, they began to see a suspicious glow that grew from around the next gentle curve.
"Someone is on my track! Take me back!" Thomas yelled.
The security officer hurriedly began to apply the brakes.
"It has a combustion engine signature, Captain," Spock announced.
Kirk involuntarily shuddered. That couldn't be McCoy's life-form, could it?
"Oh, it's a diesel!" Thomas yelled. He applied his brakes as hard as he could, and he finally stopped moving.
There was still the sound of a locomotive moving on the track, and it was very big.
A deep mechanical laugher echoed through the muffled tunnel, seemingly in response to Thomas's call. Within the minute, a monstrous pale face appeared from the shadows, and a rusty hydraulic claw, high above the olive green frame, menacingly creaked open. A sneer was etched into the diesel's rectangular face, and its oil black eyes haughtily surveyed the diesel's next target.
The glinting engine purred up to Thomas. "Well, Thomas!" it rumbled, "It's been a long time hasn't it?"
Thomas shot a jet of blistering steam into the diesel's face, surprising the crew and making the diesel sputter and cough. "You were supposed to leave Sodor for good, Diesel Ten!" Thomas spat. "You were sent away in disgrace!"
"In case you haven't noticed, Tea Kettle, I'm not in Sodor!"
As the trains began to argue, Captain Kirk left Thomas's cabin and walked beside the tracks to investigate the diesel. It had no driver in its cabin. He didn't know exactly why steam engines didn't like diesel engines, but this diesel was probably the one that gave them all a bad name. He seemed very cunning.
Diesel 10 saw Kirk approaching and snapped his squeaky toothed claw at him. "What do you think you're doing?" he growled.
Kirk was a little taken aback at the aggression. He assumed the diesel would be indifferent to humans. "Where is your driver?" Kirk asked with authority.
"Never needed one! We diesels don't need people to coddle us like these inefficient steam engines!"
Thomas shot more steam at the diesel's face, drawing his attention away from the captain.
If the engine was distracted enough, Kirk would be able to climb into its cabin and possibly find a way to disable it. It didn't look like it would agree to move out of the way, and its sharp claw could be a danger to Thomas.
Kirk began to run at the engine cabin, but Diesel 10 saw what he was doing and intercepted him with his claw. The swat threw Kirk backward, and he tumbled in the dirt and stones. His hat was lost and his suit jacket was soiled, so he shed it and ran at the diesel again, who had his claw clamped on Thomas's smokestack by then.
The diesel wouldn't have tried to protect itself if it had no weakness, so Kirk was sure that there was a way to disable it in the cabin. He managed to grasp the locked (of course!) cabin door before Diesel 10 released Thomas and grabbed at Kirk again. He was able to wrap his legs around the claw arm and ride it out while the diesel tried to throw him off.
"Let go of Pinchy!" he yelled as Kirk held on for dear life. It was a brazen move, and not the most well thought out.
The whole crew had jumped out of Thomas ready to take action when the diesel first threw the captain, but they regretted leaving. Thomas released his own brakes and rammed his buffers into the diesel. ("Steam engines weak? Rubbish! I'll show you!") Kirk was almost thrown off by the solid lurch, but he regained his grip lower on the claw's arm and began to crawl down the rusty metal to where the arm connected to the diesel's roof. Diesel 10 was too preoccupied with returning Thomas's steamy blows with a few of his own to notice the captain crawling over him like a bug.
Kirk regretted removing his jacket earlier because his phaser was in it. He resorted to hanging from the grab bars on the engine's roof and kicking the window pane over the door. His dress shoes were not as effective as his uniform boots would have been, and the diesel noticed what he was trying to do. With a quick swipe, Kirk soared to the ground, and the air rushed out of him. A rusty point on the claw snagged on the shoulder of the captain's dress shirt, and tore a ribbon of fabric all the way down his side.
"Are you out of your mind, Jim!?" McCoy exclaimed, helping him up from the ground. "You can't fight a machine!"
"Is it really a machine, or just an illusion?" Kirk challenged. He brushed some dirt off his pants, not bothering with the shirt. "Fire phasers at that claw," he ordered.
The Enterprise crew began firing at Diesel 10, and his eyes widened in fear when the hydraulics of his claw busted. It was useless!
"No! Please don't make me go back there!" He tried to negotiate with the attackers while fleeing backwards, and he was eventually out of sight. Kirk couldn't help but think the engine was actually alive inside. Maybe that was why he didn't have a driver.
When the crew got back inside Thomas, he sternly puffed forward on the rails, and they continued the journey to the end of the tunnel without saying much. Thomas's smokestack was marked with red rust, but he was otherwise unharmed. He was glad Diesel 10 wasn't able to hurt anyone, but he was a little concerned about the strange beams of light that broke Diesel's claw. It must have been unfriendly magic.
"Captain, we are approaching the end of the tunnel," Spock announced.
"Slow us down," said Kirk. He looked out the side window and saw something that looked like a black wall. The diesel was not there, so he must have passed through.
"Ten meters," Spock announced.
"Hold your breath," McCoy remarked.
McCoy was correct.
As soon as they began passing through the tunnel, the air rushed from their lungs and ears. It was a horrible sensation! There were no golden sparkles, only more blackness ahead.
And it was so, so cold.
"Beam us up, Enterprise!" was the last phrase that Kirk could reserve for his communicator, but the Enterprise was not there to hear, nor did his voice make a sound.
They exited the tunnel with a great crash as Thomas ran aground and toppled over. The railway had disappeared, revealing razor-sharp rock shards, and Diesel 10's faceless remains rested in shredded ruins in the distance.
Spock alone, as he was stronger than a human, was conscious to note the true face of the planet that the Enterprise had discovered: A dark, cold, uninhabitable space rock.