The scene into which Tw'eak materialized was unlike anything she'd ever beheld before. The landscape was a swirling blur of shockingly bright pastel colours, and so were the various mycelial growths. The spores that floated on the breeze shone like embers, while the land and even the water felt like a high-contrast variation on reality, almost like a young child might have painted the landscape using the loudest and shiniest of colours. Yet it gave Tw'eak a sense of pervasive calmness, the subtle humidity and balanced temperature, and the sweetness of the air...

In front of her, Bianca activated a mobile emitter, and a deep-eyed blonde human male holographic officer in an ancient dark-blue uniform materialized in front of the away team. Joining Tw'eak, Bianca, Ralani and Yett was Lieutenant Commander Paul Stamets of the starship Discovery. He took a quick look around, satisfied, before he said, "Welcome to the mycelial network."

"Quite a view," Tw'eak observed, as Ralani unholstered her phaser pistol.

"Alright," Stamets said to the group, "we don't have a lot of time. Between her weapon and whatever tech she's put in here, J'Ula's done a LOT of damage. We need to put a stop to it before it gets too far gone."

"Lead the way."

Stamets looked at Yett's tricorder. "Let's head towards those Klingon energy signatures. Seems like a good place to start."

Tw'eak noticed her personal shield fluctuating as - "Ow. Something is... stinging me. What is it?"

"That would be the jahSepp," Stamets observed. "They're a sentient, spore-based colony lifeform. My records indicate they act to decompose any material that's alien to the mycelial network. Like you, for example."

"I'm getting stung, too," Yett noted. "Just noticed it."

"Adjust your personal shields to this setting." Stamets sent out a flash signal and the shielding matrices of the away team adjusted automatically. "That should protect you from their... nibbling."

Tw'eak looked around at herself for a moment, watching her shields modulate to the new frequency, before giving a nod. "Can't say I like the idea of being ...nibbled. But the altered frequency is working for me. Everyone else?" Tw'eak took a quick look around, to a consensus of nodding heads. "Then let's go."

The away team moved forwards towards the Klingon energy signature, scanning with eyes, tricorders and antennae (where available). "Whatever's happening with that Mo'Kai tech hasn't spread here," Stamets observed. "Not yet, anyway."

"That's a good sign," Bianca surmised.

"Take some samples from healthy spore clusters," Stamets instructed Yett and Bianca. "We'll need them for comparison studies later."

"Good idea," Bianca replied. She handed some of the sample containment units she had clipped to her tricorder belt to Yett. "Try to get some from different spots so we have more of a baseline."

"Sure," Yett replied.

Tw'eak strode forward to the upper edge of one of the islands in the Network's stream. Stamets stepped up next to her. "You really can't appreciate this place until you see it for yourself."

"You've been here before?"

"Yes, before. I... I lost someone here, someone very special to me. For a time, anyway. It's... complicated."

Tw'eak nodded. "This is all very complicated. When I woke up this morning, I had no idea this place even existed. And now, here we are, trying to save it - and my home, as well. And the consequences..."

"They're serious. If the Network is damaged beyond repair, it could end all life, everywhere."

Bianca and Yett returned to the group. "We're ready."

"Admiral!" Ralani called out.

Tw'eak looked up to where Ralani's phaser was pointing. Coming towards the away team was another human figure in an ancient Starfleet uniform identical to Stamets'. This figure was different - female, but walking in a shambling fashion, as if unfamiliar with doing so. And then there was the electromagnetic signal Tw'eak's antennae could read - far more energized than a typical human... possibly due to time spent here? It wasn't clear as to why.

"Hold your fire," Stamets directed. "I'm pretty sure she comes in peace."

Ralani's eyes didn't leave Tw'eak, and the admiral gave her a disarming nod. "We'll try it his way, Lieutenant. But be ready."

"Outsiders!" the new arrival said, raising her hands. "I am of the jahSepp - we are people of this realm." She closed her hands together before her. "We have met people of your realm before. Many of them have traveled here." She gestured towards the distance. "Others from your realm have sent things that are hurting us! You must make this stop!"

"You're human," Tw'eak observed. "Here. How is this possible?"

"I created this form to give the jahSepp voice, to communicate with you. Based on the memories of many who have been here, Patel is compassionate, idealistic. Someone who protects." She held up a hand. "Someone like the jahSepp."

"Someone you knew?" Tw'eak asked Stamets.

"You are dressed alike," Bianca noted.

"Not someone I knew well," Stamets replied, "but yes. This is - looks like Lieutenant Amna Patel. We knew each other. Not well."

"We waste time. Strange devices have been brought here." Patel stepped up to the blooms to her left and gestured towards them. "They make the fungus sick. They are making the yeel tree bloom!"

"Yeel tree?" Bianca asked.

"It's bad news," Stamets responded. "The jahSepp aren't fond of it, and with good reason - its bark is toxic to them."

"How did this happen?" Tw'eak asked.

Patel gestured upwards. "There was a tear... in the sky. A device came through - from your realm! It gives off strange light and heat at all times. This is what brings the sickness, and the poison. We know it."

She stepped away, and Tw'eak moved to follow, but then Patel turned back. "The device is deeper in the forest. I will take you to it, but you must stop it. You must."

"We'll do what we can," Tw'eak replied.

"Let's get moving," Stamets said. "Watch for visible signs of fungal corruption and yeel tree growth. The more of it we see, the closer we'll be to the problem."

Tw'eak and the away team followed Patel, who stood upon a piece of ground illuminated by a strong quantity of spores beneath. "We can use this to move quickly." She drew a wide circle with her arms beneath her. "It will let us travel through the Network, to another part of the realm."

"Certainly, but first I'd like to know-"

There was a loud sound of rushing wind, then a burst of light, and Tw'eak found herself aloft, lifting heavenward in a rapid movement. She attempted to sense with her antennae, but they were... not there? She was still herself, intact, but she couldn't move her arms or feel her legs. Was this some kind of teleportation used by the jahSepp? Or perhaps she was being drawn onwards as though in some kind of mycelial tractor beam? It wasn't at all clear - and she felt herself twirl, being brought back to the ground again before she could fully perceive how far she'd gone, or indeed where she had been previously standing a moment before.

"Interesting," was all the holographic Stamets had to say. Ralani said even less. She turned away and fell to her knees, vomiting. Bianca took out a medical kit to tend to her.

"You okay, Lieutenant?" Tw'eak asked.

Ralani looked up from the ground. "I'm just gonna... sit for a minute." But her eyes caught sight of something that nearly brought her to her feet despite her condition. "Admiral-"

Lieutenant Commander Yett stepped forward and knelt beside what appeared to be a small glistening rock. But it wasn't a rock at all - it raised itself and turned, skittering off to a safer distance. The eight-legged creature wasn't much larger than a dog, but it was unlike anything Tw'eak had seen before. It had massive claws for its size, and its limbs were plump, segmented with small plates and spikes. It looked up at Tw'eak, its round, glistening mouth probing outwards in the away team's direction, and it seemed to react to the presence of her antennae by twitching its own, though its antennae were considerably longer in proportion than the ones on Tw'eak's head. A quick look beyond revealed dozens of these creatures, their shimmering shells now obvious to her eyes.

"This must be a tardigrade birthing ground," Stamets explained. "Try not to scare the little ones, okay? I don't think we'd survive an encounter with an angry adult tardigrade, let alone several."

"Tardigrades?" Bianca stepped next to Yett. "Aren't those usually microscopic?"

"Evidently, not here," Yett replied.

"And these are - they're just babies?" Tw'eak asked. Patel nodded in assent.

Bianca had her tricorder out before she realized it, and she turned to Stamets. "Can we examine them? They don't react to tricorders, do they?"

"A couple scans couldn't hurt," Tw'eak suggested.

"The liquid sources here may tell us more about them as well," Stamets added, indicating a spot in the growth ahead where a reflective pool of fluid was flanked on all sides by tiny tardigrades. "Tardigrades can put themselves into a dessicated state to survive without water, but they still need it to remain active and grow. Take a sample from the center of the pool. That should provide useful information."

Bianca gave Tw'eak a glance. "Didn't expect to need a change of boots."

"That's all part of the service," Tw'eak joked. "Time to get your feet wet."

Bianca stepped into the shimmering, iridescent pool and drew a sample into a vial. She then attached the vial to her tricorder.

"Hm," Stamets remarked, his holo-emitter data-linked to the tricorder. "The fluid sample shows a high level of nucleotides and proteins. It serves not only as a liquid source for the local flora, but also a nutrient carrier. These proteins include compounds associated with the formation of neurotransmission... and memory."

"So it's like a nervous system for the mycelial network?" Bianca considered.

"It's possible that the liquid carries information in the form of protein compounds, and that specific fungi may release chemicals into the fluid that allow for widespread communication."

Bianca stood up and walked over to Tw'eak. "This is such a fascinating place."

Stamets took a look over as Yett scanned another tardigrade. "Interesting," he said again. "Even baby tardigrades are incredibly tough."

"The tardigrades are of the realm," Patel remarked, her hands gesturing to the young tardigrades munching happily beneath the limbs of the mycelial growth. "They live in harmony with the forest."

"These readings could be very helpful to us here," Stamets acknowledged. "Understanding this ecosystem may be the key to healing it."

Patel indicated another of the glowing panels on the ground. "You going to be okay?" Tw'eak asked Ralani, who was struggling to keep up. "We've got to keep moving."

"I've been through worse," Ralani replied.

"EV suit training?"

"How'd you guess?"

Tw'eak pointed to her antennae. "We're not built for zero-G."

"Or for... whatever that was." Ralani looked down at a glowing space ahead, indicating another transport awaited. "And is about to be all over again."

"We'll let you stand in front," Tw'eak replied, then added, "Kidding. We're ready when you are."

"Then let's go," Ralani sighed.