((ADDENDUM: I changed the last name of the CMO of the space station to Rasul. I don't normally do that, never have before, but in this case I had a good enough reason to do it.

I … hate … chapter headings. With a fervour. A line from Britten's A Hymn to the Virgin, for lack of anything else. It makes sense. Sort of. Or so I say.))

Leonard tilted his chair back, leaning against the wall. 'Anyone have any idea when this thing works again?' Spock shrugged. Until their break they had been working together, but frankly, it had been mostly Spock working. Leonard was bad at this STC business at the best of times, never mind now the pointless test had turned into something very real.

'Whenever Commander Melczuk finds someone to dispatch for the tower to perform the necessary repairs.' Leonard snorted.

'Not in a while then.'

'Why?' He sighed, cursing his quick tongue. He lowered his voice to a whisper.

'Well, I guess you'll hear anyway, so I might as well tell you. T'Kray's in engineering now, telling her that she's under arrest.' Spock nodded.

'The signature clearing the transporter for usage?'

'Yeah.' One of the men at the consoles raised his voice above the usual quiet speech, and Leonard looked over. Suddenly the man sprang to his feet.

'No, no, don't do that!' Spock was there a second later, taking over communications.

'Morales to Connington. Do you read us?' He waited, frowning at the monitor. 'Morales to Verdi. Please respond.' After a few moments he shook his head. 'I do not believe that they receive us.'

'And I do not believe they're in control,' Leonard added breathlessly, watching the progress of the two ships on the monitor with increasing dread. 'Oh my God, Spock.'

'I cannot help them, Leonard.' He swallowed past the lump in his throat as the two vessels slowly drifted towards each other and the station. He braced himself for the moment of collision, but was still knocked to the floor.

'Spock? Are you good?'

'I am all right.' He scrambled back to his feet and found Spock picking himself up. A trickle of green ran down his forehead, and he wiped it away with something close to impatience. It took less than ten seconds for the intercom to signal.

'Tower, report.'

'Spock here, Commodore. Only minor injuries, as far as I can see. We lost contact with the ships, and they lost control, it appears.'

'I won't ask how because I don't have the bloody time. But I'll ask eventually. I've set up a signal forbidding all ships from approaching at all. Not that I think those can be received. Send McCoy to sickbay. Engineering's one big wreck, I don't even know if anyone's alive there, never mind on those vessels.' Slowly, the words made their way into Leonard's head.

'No,' he whispered, looking at Spock. The Vulcan had his eyes closed for a moment, when he looked at him his voice was rough.

'Jim appears to be unconscious, but he is alive. I cannot ask him about T'Kray.'

'I've got to … I've got to go there and …'

'Wait. Spock to Commodore Bligh, please come in.'

'Bligh here.'

'Is it possible to enter engineering?'

'Not right now, we're working on it and I'll send people in. You can help there, if you wish. It's not like you can do much in the tower right now. Bligh out.'

'Spock, we can't just stand by and wait.'

'No, indeed. You have to go to sickbay and …'

'I'm going in there, I'm not leaving them!' Spock took a step closer to him, his expression tired.

'I apologise in advance Doctor, but there is no time for arguing.' The Vulcan placed his hand on his shoulder and the world went black.

ϡ

Jim blinked, trying to ignore the much too bright light. For a moment he wondered why he had woken up, then he understood it was the rather loud voice right next to him, thick with its ever-present dialect. 'No! You just don't do this kind of thing! What if you'd accidentally knocked me out longer? Some of these people might have died in that time. Jim might have! I could have helped.' The response was calm, maybe with a minute hint at exasperation.

'You have helped where you are best, Leonard. I could not have replaced you here, nor you me in engineering. You do not have my strength. It would have taken you much longer to carry people out of immediate danger.'

'You could have talked to me, man!'

'I tried. You were not listening.'

'Now I'll tell you something, you son of a … an ambassador …'

'I have a feeling that is not what you were going to say.' Jim heard the slight anger, but he knew Bones well enough to bet he wasn't going to stop.

'Prove me wrong,' the doctor said coldly.

'I could, Doctor, don't make me.'

'Spock!' T'Kray's voice cut the air like a knife. Against his will, Jim opened his eyes and looked over at McCoy and Spock, facing each other. The former was sheet white, and Jim was ready to bet his right hand he hadn't been before. T'Kray was approaching quickly, one finger pointed at Spock. A rush of rapid Vulcan streamed from her, the tone very unamused. 'Ish-veh watosh heh rim dorli. Nah-uh vi ish-veh.' Spock looked at T'Kray for less than a second before turning back to the Doctor, who shook himself visibly and for once seemed to decide for de-escalation.

'Yes, Spock, you could. But I know you wouldn't. Still, what a thing to say.'

'Doctor, I …'

'Save it.' Bones turned to walk away, shaking his head.

'Leonard.' He froze and turned very slowly. 'I apologise. I should not have said this at all, and certainly not to you.' The doctor swallowed.

'I'm going to forgive you eventually, but right now I can't look at you.' Spock prepared himself to reply when his eyes strayed to Jim.

'Jim!' He was at his side a moment later. 'Do not move. You have a concussion.'

'And a headache that doesn't get better from people yelling.' Bones, his anger forgotten, was on the other side of the bed and groaned.

'Oh, I'm so sorry. I just … He nerve-pinched me and had me carried in as if I were one of my own patients.' He lowered his voice. 'It wasn't entirely unjustified, if I think about it, but still.' Jim looked for T'Kray and found her where she had been, still ready to breathe fire.

'What did she say to you, Spock?' The Vulcan chanced a glance at the psychologist glaring at his back.

'That what I said was vile and dishonourable. That I should think about who I was talking to. She was right, of course.' Jim gave them both a frown.

'Don't fight. You were past that, but recently you started getting at each others' throats like at the very beginning.' Bones smiled vaguely.

'It never really changed.'

'It did. It became closer to banter than actual fighting.'

'Perhaps it is time you tested you own blood again, Leonard. And perhaps mine as well.' For a second Bones looked like he was going to explode, then he deflated visibly.

'Perhaps, Spock? Definitely I should think. But not now. Sorry, Jim, can't sit here and hold your hand. I've lingered too long already.'

'Can I be of assistance, Doctor?' Spock's conscience nagging him was clear in his voice and his eyes, and Bones smiled.

'Yes, Spock, you can. But take a bit of time, will you? At the moment we've got it under control.' Jim watched him go, then turned to Spock.

'What … Spock, what happened?' The Vulcan cast about for a chair, found one, and sat down next to Jim.

'The tower lost contact with two approaching ships. The ships, it seems, lost control and collided very close to the space station. The damages were mainly in the engineering section, a part of which had to be sealed off. T'Kray and Melczuk were already far enough away to be unharmed. You hit your head on a flat surface. Minor injuries were reported from almost all stations.'

'Great. I'm not in pain, though, so can I leave?'

'The doctor gave you a hypospray, but he never said that you could return to your quarters. I have been able to bring you something that might distract you.' Jim sat up slowly and watched Spock produce one of the nara capsules from the drawer of his bedside table. 'I handed the other one to Leonard. He will ask Commander Melczuk if she has any idea what unlocks them.'

'You think she placed them there?' Spock replied with a very un-Vulcan shrug.

'I do not know.'

ϡ

Leonard took a moment to lean back in his chair and close his eyes. What a way to spend a day. The injuries they could treat were minor, most of them. The more severe cases had been taken by Rasul, and it reminded him how much he missed being his own master. Not that he liked horrible injuries in the lower abdomen, but he had to fight the urge to check if the surgery had been done right. The CMO, however, would certainly not appreciate this. He knew he wouldn't have.

What got to him were the people they hadn't been able to bring to the sickbay, those trapped in the part of engineering that was now sealed and no one could enter. They were dead already, likely had been at once, but still, it hurt at him on a primal level.

Spock had just bandaged someone with an abrasion and handed the patient over to T'Kray, and Leonard shook the thought off. 'Come here, Spock,' he said softly. A human wouldn't have heard him, and he wanted to give the Vulcan a chance to pretend that he hadn't noticed either. For a moment he seemed to hesitate, then he approached at a swift pace. 'Now everything's buzzing around us and we actually have nothing that needs our immediate attention, we can take and test those blood samples.' When no objection came, he took that for an agreement.

'I really have dishonoured myself,' Spock said instead. McCoy tilted his head.

'We'll talk about this when I've got the …' The computer beeped, and Leonard looked intently at the screen. He sighed. 'I, for one, am not all right. Now you.' It took three seconds before he knew that Spock was neither. 'You're affected, too. Quite strongly, in fact. Who'd have thought it could happen?'

'I have a thyroid, Doctor.'

'You don't say. I just thought for once your green blood would protect you. Well, I'll alter the medication a bit for you, so you don't complain about stomach aches again. Nothing we can't handle. And it does change how I look at that conversation out there.' He smiled. 'Don't be too hard on yourself. With your permission I'll tell T'Kray where this came from. I don't want her thinking about you like that.' Spock nodded curtly.

'Permission granted. Thank you, Leonard.'

ϡ

Spock had headed over to the science department once it was clear he could be of no more use in sickbay. He was half glad to leave the place behind. Guilt was coursing through him, and he was as unable to quench it as he had been unable to keep the threat to McCoy from getting out of his mouth. Even to think of such a thing was abominable, never mind uttering it. He knew that Leonard was struggling to allow the mental closeness T'Kray needed, and he hoped his words had not damaged what success he had had so far. 'Spock?' He had entered the greenhouse, he realised, so lost in thought that he just stood there now.

'Doctor McCoy will give you a full report of the casualties this evening, Commodore. Has anything been found about the trees?' Bligh shrugged.

'Ask Kresar, he's working on it. I'm still trying to find out what to do about the problems in Engineering.'

'Of course.' He found the Caitian at the trees, a tricorder in his left hand, ears drooping, and his hackles raised – literally. 'Kresar?' The Caitian let out a sound between a growl and a sigh.

'They're dying. They aren't getting enough nourishment.' Spock thought for a second before he headed back to Bligh.

'Commodore, is there anything you require from me at this time?' Bligh looked at the Vulcan and smiled.

'I know you did a lot today. Go and rest, Lieutenant.' He nodded.

'Thank you.' Except resting was not what he intended. Instead, he borrowed a tricorder from sickbay and returned to the planet. He knew the properties of the soil they used in the greenhouse. Apparently it was not what the trees that came from human life required. His readings from the soil on the planet, however, were not very different. Once he was on the surface, Spock's curiosity got the better of him. He wondered if the four trees they had found were the only ones. He ventured into the forest, cautious and alert. He could imagine what Leonard would tell him when he learned he was here alone, but he doubted that whatever had transformed the humans could transform him, too. This was not something that had anything to do with the thyroid.

For one moment Spock contemplated if McCoy's thought that this was a curse was correct. For all his knowledge, there was no way to turn a human into a plant or the other way round. But even if such a thing as a curse were possible, there had to be someone who spoke the curse, and no-one here or on the station had such powers.

First, Spock's search remained without a result. Then he took a good look at the tricorder settings. He had copied the ones he had memorised from McCoy's tricorder when they had first found the trees. Now, he changed them, set the tricorder up for a less detailed search – and was pointed towards the other side of the water. Intrigued, he followed the directions of the instrument.

Spock was not entirely certain what he had expected, but certainly not this. There were countless small shrubs – from the size of daisies to some reaching to his ankles – with that furry bark. It seemed they had started to appear on the bank of the pond, spreading from there in a semi-circle. Spock knelt and ran his fingers over the surface of a larger shrub and felt thoughts. Not those of a human, something much more primitive, a ghost of a forgotten dream of running, scouring, eating, sleeping. 'Fascinating.' Changing the tricorder settings again, Spock detected a skeletal pattern in the shrubs, like that of a human had been found in the trees. There were a couple small animal species on this planet, and apparently they were very prone to be affected by whatever this was. They, however, did not die of it. He tapped his combadge. 'Spock to Morales. Request a gardening trowel beamed down to my location.'

'Acknowledged.' He didn't have to wait long. Careful not to break any roots – who knew what they were in the unlikely event that it was possible to transform the plants back? – he took six of the shrubs, samples of what seemed to come from different species of animals, of course. Spock did not like experimenting on plants that were actually animals. But given the choice between them and the two humans, there was only one way to act. Also, it seemed that these smaller shrubs thrived while the large trees withered. The soil was no different here. It had to be something else, and he was determined to find out. But before he started working on that, he reminded himself, he had to report back to Leonard and take whatever the man was going to give him. He could not let himself slip the way he had before.

((I realise that Spock doesn't use contractions – except, he does. In This Side of Paradise and All Our Yesterdays, both cases where he's not entirely himself. In the latter case he's even talking to McCoy when he does.))