The planet was extremely dark and so rocky that it shredded Spock's arm when he caught himself as he was ejected from the cabin. Thomas the animate locomotive was now merely a faceless steam engine run aground. The fire in the firebox had gone out almost as soon as the party exited the portal. No oxygen; no fire. The steam from his funnel turned to ice and rained down. The wreckage of the diesel engine was lost among the many other faceless diesels across the cratered surface. With a lack of atmosphere, there was no rust; Spock was unsure how long the wreckage had been here.

This was the real planet, and it was completely devoid of life. The Enterprise had somehow observed an illusion, and it could very well be trapped inside it. This created the possibility that none of it was real at all.

The human crew quickly lost consciousness once outside, including the strong-willed captain who tried to call the Enterprise one last time. The sudden cold and the partial vacuum shocked their systems, and it was doing a number on the Vulcan's body as well. Spock remained conscious longer than the humans because he was inherently hardier and practiced excellent control over his mind, but his desert-evolved body would freeze with no hope of repair faster than a human body would. Though Spock was conscious and worked to suspend his agonizing nerve impulses, he would die soon. For as long as he could stay awake, he had the duty to save his captain and crew.

Spock was almost immobilized by the cold. His legs were stiff and numb. Even if he could walk, it was logical that only an engine would be able to pass through the rock back into the tunnel. One unusual idea occurred to the Vulcan. It was a costly venture, but the chance of success was probable based on the data he had.

With the small amount of air he forced to remain in his lungs, he drew out the Conductor's whistle with his stiff frozen fingers and allowed his last breath to pass through it. Spock thought he felt something a little warm as the blackness of hypoxia and hypothermia overtook him.

—

"Spock! Wake up!" McCoy yelled, shaking Spock's shoulder, "You did it, you son of a Vulcan!"

Spock quickly regained awareness from the unwelcome physical contact and sat up. The evening sun's rays warmed him as if he had never been in deep space. Spongy soil and grass cushioned him instead of shards of rock, the planet's true surface. He noticed that his arm was not injured even though the sleeve of his suit was torn just as his skin had been. This showed that the planet's true surface was a true experience, but he wondered if the illusion masked injuries or if he was actually healed.

"Come and see, Spock!" McCoy said before he ran down the flowery meadow hill.

Spock's eyebrows perked up at the, by human standards, ideal situation he found himself. Also at the way McCoy pranced, not walked nor ran, through the flowers.

Spock stood up and followed down the hill. In the valley below, the Enterprise landing crew was conscious and healthy, and they were beside Thomas, who was poised on the rails beside the railroad buffer portal. Thomas had his face once again, and he was talking and smiling. Everyone was alive and healthy back inside the illusion.

"Spock!" Captain Kirk called, holding up the sparkling Conductor's whistle.

Spock joined him.

Kirk stared at the whistle and smiled greatly at his friend, "How did you do it, Spock? How did you know?"

Spock raised his eyebrows, "Upon observation of certain data trends and previous advice from the train," Spock hesitated, "I followed a hunch, Captain."

"A hunch?" Kirk began to laugh. "I'm proud of you!" McCoy overheard the exchange and also began to laugh. Kirk was jovial, but McCoy's laughter was more condescending. Spock chose to ignore it.

"It was my duty, Captain," Spock nodded. "I am pleased that it accomplished the majority of what I intended."

"We aren't back on the Enterprise, but we are alive to make the next move," the captain emphasized. He handed Spock the whistle before he sauntered away with McCoy to laugh about something else.

Kirk had no idea what happened, but he knew that he trusted Spock to hang onto the whistle for the rest of their journey. He remembered calling the Enterprise on his communicator after the train crash, but there wasn't a sound. It was like they were lightyears away from any civilization. Next he felt a strange warmth and they all materialized here in the valley.

"Has anyone tried to communicate with the Enterprise?" Spock asked.

"All we got was that screaming sound again. There's no use," McCoy answered.

Kirk assembled the crew closer to himself using his body language. "When we left the tunnel, was the Enterprise there, in that realm?" he asked. "Spock, you were awake longer than we were."

"It could not have been," Spock answered. "It is inside the same illusion as we are now, based on the fact that we could observe this face of the planet from the Enterprise. We have extreme interference when we try to communicate, but we do get some form of signal."

"Why would there be so much interference with it, if everything is in the same realm?" Kirk tapped his chin and walked around as he thought. "There has to be a way, here, that we can get back to it!"

"If we can't use the communicators anymore," McCoy thought out loud. "Maybe there is some kind of physical signal we could give. I remember seeing the planet from the ship; there was hardly a cloud in the sky!"

Spock moved forward. "Captain, there was a hovering aircraft that we saw shortly after beaming down."

"Yes!" Kirk replied. "Thomas!" He got the train's attention. "Does the island have an airfield?"

"Yes, close to the docks. Harold the Helicopter will probably go there soon for the night." Thomas couldn't stop himself from yawning right then. He remembered his comfortable shed and his friends. "I wonder if my driver is alright," he said to himself.

Thomas was cheerful because he was himself again, but he was mostly lost in thought. He did not like leaving the end of the Magic Railroad because he could see everything around him, but he couldn't cry out. He thought there would be another green and warm realm at the end of the tunnel, but it was cold and dark, and Thomas never wanted to return. He saw all the poor diesel engines without faces, and he wondered if they could feel the same things he could. When Kirk and his crew were talking with each other, Thomas felt very sorry for the diesels. Even though they had been unkind to Thomas and the other steam engines, he felt they did not deserve to wait in such a horrible place.

Kirk recalled that his jacket flew out of the train cabin when they crashed into the rocks, and it had his map of Sodor and phaser. He decided to ask Thomas for directions. The train looked a little glum, and his eyes were turned up in thought. "Do you know how to get to the docks from here, Thomas?"

Thomas flipped his eyes side to side, surveying the scene. "I do, but do you think my driver is awake now? Where is he?"

The security officer went to the place where they left the driver, but he was gone. He must have woken up and gone for help. Kirk hoped they hadn't gone inside the tunnel to look for Thomas. He actually felt remorse for the little blue engine.

Thomas felt sad about his lost driver and about his fight with Diesel 10. His fire would not light, and the crew began to get frustrated. If they couldn't get Thomas to move, they would be stranded here until workers came.

"If Thomas's radio still works, I could apologize and get help," Kirk suggested. "We didn't have any bad intentions after all."

Spock switched on the radio, and Kirk sighed comfortably as it hummed with static. Better the sound of controlled static than a screech.

He pressed the talk button. "Hello, this is Jim Kirk. The engine Thomas has been found. Requesting backup. Acknowledge."

He spoke so that it would not be unusual for the railway workers to hear, but the line was dead silent.

"You do have to release the button when you are finished speaking, Captain," Spock pointed out.

Spock was a dutiful first officer.

After raising his eyebrow at the Vulcan, Kirk released his finger. They listened as the low static returned. The rest of the Enterprise crew stopped trying to light Thomas's fire and listened expectantly.

Kirk pressed the button to try again. "This is Jim Kirk. Tank engine number one has been found. Requesting backup. Acknowledge."

Kirk released the button this time, and there was more low static.

"Captain?" a clear female voice asked through the speaker.

The crew was suddenly at attention. Kirk pressed the button delicately, as if he would lose the signal otherwise. "Uhura?"

"Yes, Captain!" she replied excitedly. "I guess we have communication back!"

The landing crew around Kirk cheered. "I guess we do!" Kirk replied. "Our communicators make the most terrible sounds when we turn them on, so lock onto this signal to beam us up, if you can."

"Let me put the word out, Captain. We don't exactly have ship-wide communication yet."

Kirk's eyes widened. The whole ship couldn't communicate with itself? "We'll wait," he replied.

After several hours of radio silence, the landing party was in the dark concerning the Enterprise. Even though the problem was even worse than they thought, it was such a relief to be able to communicate clearly with no loud noises or yelling. It boosted the landing party's morale.

On a whim, Kirk jumped out of the cabin and went to speak to the engine. "Thomas, you saved the day!"

Thomas hummed. "Did I, Captain?" he asked. If anything, he had gone on a strange adventure with little purpose and felt like he aged 50 years in the process. At least he would be able to tell the other engines his tale. The image of the faceless Diesel 10 in the cold chilled his boiler.

"With your radio connection, we can get the help we need and get your driver back to you," Kirk said, trying to perk up the engine. The happiness in his own voice surprised him. He was ready to go back to his ship.

"That will be good," Thomas said, imagining himself puffing along the rails again, carrying a toasty fire within. It was where a steam engine belonged. He winced to himself. If diesel engines carried a fire inside them, it was where a diesel engine belonged too. He would have to ask Sir Topham Hatt about that.

"Scotty is on the radio, Captain!" Helms called from the cabin.

Kirk excused himself and picked up the radio. "What did you do to my ship?" Kirk asked, mildly joking. On the other hand, how could things have gotten so bad under Scotty's watch?

"It's not what I did! It's what the ship did!" Scotty panted, as if he had just run laps in the gym. "Everything was out of our control for no reason and—" he began nervously whispering, "—we even have right to believe ship's a sentient bein'!"

This piqued the interest of Kirk and the others. On another day, they would have taken what he said as a metaphor, but they had seen all kinds of sentient mechanical beings today. It could explain a lot if the Enterprise had become animate.

Something was off about Scott, and it had Kirk worried. He was the best engineer Kirk knew of, saving the ship from internal and external destruction countless times. This was a man who would rather use his free time to catch up on technical journals, a man who started a bar fight with Klingons because they insulted the ship, of all things. The tone of his voice now was afraid. There could be very real danger aboard.

Kirk focused in and quietly asked, "What happened, Scotty?"

"Oh, you're going to think I'm crazy, sir, but it wrote a message to us! It said it wasn't going to leave orbit without ye! Then when we couldn' find ya for a few hours, we had to fight just to stay upright!"

Kirk shared glances with his crewmates. It reminded him of when Thomas was upset that the landing party was knocking out his driver. The Enterprise felt loyal to her captain too. "Well, I'm touched that the ship stopped you from trying to leave without us—" Kirk continued speaking over Scotty's protests that it wasn't really what he meant. "—But can we be beamed aboard now or not?"

Scotty sounded insecure. "Well, technically ye can. The machine is in workin' order," he began tentatively, "but I don't trust the ship! See, we tried transportin' things to and from the planet, but they came back inside out!"

"I knew we shouldn't have used the transporter!" McCoy grumbled from the back of the cabin.

Kirk ignored his comment. "How is there nothing wrong with the machine when it does things like that?" he replied.

"That's what I don' know!" Scotty emphasized. "It's playing games with us, trickin' us! I wouldn't bet anything on that transporter bringing you back in one piece!"

"Well can you send anyone down in a ship?" Kirk asked, beginning to feel slightly annoyed.

"We already tried, Captain." Scotty answered gravely. "It was unmanned, thank God. A wise call to send it out as just a decoy."

"What happened to it, Scotty?" Kirk urged, his knuckles white.

The engineer sighed. "The ship cut it in pieces with the phasers."

Kirk nearly dropped the microphone. With the phasers? If they couldn't control the weapons... Scotty really was afraid. Kirk was... concerned. Thomas had no way of preventing the crew from removing his driver, but the Enterprise had strong defenses and deadly weapons at its disposal. The entire crew and the entire planet was in danger if the ship could not be controlled.

Kirk realized that McCoy's hand was resting on his shoulder. He glanced up to see what he wanted, but he saw from McCoy's face that he knew how hard Jim was taking it.

"Oh," Kirk replied into the mic. It was all he could say. He was glad that it hadn't been manned—it was a wise call—but why would the ship cut it up?

"I'm surprised the ship hasn't already cut off this transmission," Scotty sighed. "We need you back on board so we can sort this whole thing out, but we can't do it safely right now."

Kirk slowly brought the microphone to his mouth. "Do what you can, Scotty."

"I'm trying, sir."

Spock gestured for the microphone and Kirk absently handed it to him. "If the ship truly wanted its captain back on board," Spock began, "it would cooperate with the transport operators so the landing party could return safely." He handed the microphone back to the captain, finished. He spoke as if he were addressing someone other than Scotty.

"I hear ya, Mr. Spock," Scotty replied. "I hope the ship will work in time." He paused. "Hey! There's som—"

The transmission abruptly turned to static, and Kirk hung up the microphone and left the cabin, alone.

The sun was tucking into the horizon, painting tangerine bands over the meadow. It would have been a beautiful sight to anyone, but not to the agitated captain of the Enterprise. Crew members could have died on his ship from its own lack of control, and he wasn't there to lead them. His own landing party almost died as well—their fate resting on a tiny whistle that Spock accidentally found. Kirk's choice put them in peril. They were stranded on an island with a steam engine that wouldn't steam, and it was going to be nighttime soon.

"Is your ship a diesel engine, sir?" Thomas hesitantly asked, breaking through the captain's mind. He almost forgot Thomas was there, but realized they were facing the sunset together.

Kirk had to chuckle a little bit at that question. "No, it's powered by something stronger than a diesel's fuel," he replied. His ship sort of fit the description of a rogue diesel. With a shudder, he recalled the diesel's lack of a driver.

"It sounds like your ship needs you. And misses you," Thomas said melancholically. "I miss my driver. And my shed. And my friends," he trailed off. "Do you think they'll wonder where I am?"

Now he felt terrible for the small engine. Thomas had given a lot of his time to help Kirk and his crew, and they had repaid him by knocking out his driver, forcing him to fight with his worst enemy, nearly killing him, and stranding him at night.

The Enterprise had also given a lot of time to Kirk and his crew, assuming it was animate like Thomas. It had taken many hits for them, protected them, enabled them. Kirk had always respected the ship, but he wondered if the ship harbored bad feelings towards himself and the crew. What would cause it to behave erratically, if it was alive now?

"Yes, Thomas," Kirk answered gently. "They'll wonder, and I bet they're looking for you right now. Probably the Fat Conductor himself!"

Thomas smiled to himself because Kirk said Conductor, not Controller. "I hope so! Sir Topham Hatt cares a lot about us engines!" With a far off look, he added, "He even cared about the diesels."

Captain Kirk swallowed uncomfortably when he remembered what the screaming voice in the coach, likely the Enterprise herself, said to him. He needed to prepare himself to address that tormented, longing voice.

"Well, thank you, Thomas," Kirk said, "for helping my crew and I today." He pursed his lips, thinking of the next words he would say, and said, "You were a very useful engine."

Thomas spun his eyes round and round in joy, as if those were magic words to him. "Oh thank you!" he exclaimed.

Kirk looked back toward the cabin. His crew probably needed his support too. Perhaps Spock had come to the same conclusion about the ship that he had. He said to Thomas, "I'm going to talk to my crew now."

As Kirk walked out of the train's eyesight, he felt something lurch inside. He was being beamed up, even though it was extremely dangerous. Looking out, he saw his crew equally shimmering. Kirk's heart began to pound into action, as he did not know what would happen once he materialized aboard.

Meanwhile Thomas noticed that it grew very silent in the cabin. "Captain?" he expectantly called after a few moments.

There was no response. But he couldn't really be left all alone in the middle of nowhere without a railway in sight, could he? People shouldn't be able to sneak away from him that easily.

"Captain!" he called again, worry evident in his voice. "Spock?"

An owl hooted as the sky turned from red to blue, and Thomas's cold boiler began to tremble.

"Oh bother."