Chapter VII - Until it's all too much

As he entered the room, Kirk was taken by the feeling that something was very wrong. The air of his friends would be more consistent with an intervention than with anything else.

"Amanda said you wanted to talk to me."

He knew what they wanted, knew from the moment he entered the room. Actually, he was surprised that this hadn't happened before, he knew that none of them could bear to be in Vulcan. The most impressive perhaps was that Scotty was still repairing the ship, with excruciating slowness. No one could say that the engineer wasn't loyal. He sat in a chair farthest from then, from where he could look at all four.

"I don't know how to say this, so I'll just say it." Scotty said "We want to return to Earth when the ship is ready.".

Kirk shook his head in agreement. He always knew it would happen. All they did was postpone the inevitable.

"If you want, my offer still stands. I can take all the blame before Starfleet."

Before he even finished the sentence, everyone started talking at once, with an indignant speech. Kirk raised his hands in surrender. "All right, all right. I get it. If all of you want to go to a penal colony, who am I to stop you? "

The air got even heavier. Nobody knew what to say or do. Nothing could change the fact that they were abandoning their former captain and giving up on Spock.

"Jim... Uhura began, trying to find a way to comfort the admiral.

"Just do me a favor." he said interrupting Uhura. "Take Bones back with you. He wouldn't forgive us if we left him here, and if he is staying in stasis forever, his daughter deserves to see him again."

There was nothing more to be said, the decision had already been made. They would leave, and he would remain there.

White Star of Night is a Vulcan flower also found in Romulus. It has special pollination feature, and when pollinated with other species can become deadly. For this reason it's also known as Death Star.

G'teth is a type of Vulcan bush that produces berries.

Favinit is a type of edible Vulcan orchid used to make butter favinit, it has a spicy odor.

Kal'ta is a Vulcan plant with violet colored leaves edged with incandescent blue.

Vulcan flu is a variant of the influenza virus that affects Vulcans and rarely humans. However, the reaction of human to the disease is a severe one.