A/N At first I thought of this as a light-hearted humorous fantasy story, to amuse myself and hopefully the readers. And rated it K+ (not for little kids, because dear Doctor can't say anything about anything without swearing, you know... and I sort of understand him in that :))).

But then I changed my mind, as I scribbled drafts and verified some info and received messages from the noosphere... some phrases and images just come in and you've got to fit them in and work it out. I thought further about the plot development and about those "trials of character" I mention in the annotation. And about the fantasy genre in general. There is always evil out there, and it wants things its way, and it wants all that you have, it just can't leave anyone alone. And the Evil often likes to come under the guise of Good too... This is true for our modern real world too, by the way, but here we have a fan fiction story about Star Trek TOS. Which is a much better world than our modern one, but we still have to keep some things real. And we must respect the canon! Remember, we fanfiction writers don't own this world and its characters - that means we must respect the way the original creators made them. And if I was asked to define in only one word why I love that series (even if I am not "old school"), that word will be - friendship. The friendship that can stand against all evil.

So, now, as this thing grows, there will be some fight scenes, some graphic injury and trauma scenes, and some erotica too (tasteful natural one - no porn and no slash!). If we touch upon myths and legends - how can we do without all that? Especially if we write "fantasy in space". Those things rate it T. Which will probably increase the views too :))). The humor doesn't go anywhere by the way, it comes naturally where Spock&Bones duo is involved. Wait for the "Tree Interludes" to come, you might like them. But no slash, remember. Heroes in legends just don't do that.

But what is more important than rating - are your comments on this story, either reviews or PMs. It will be a long one, so watch it develop and help it grow - writing comments is much easier for you than writing a full-length story is for the author. I was told that "fandom is so supportive" many times. Are those rumours right?

.

.

Prologue – in which the Three climb a tree

.

Captain Kirk, First Officer Spock and Chief Medical Officer McCoy were climbing a tree. Why were they climbing a tree? (1)

Because it was there, obviously. If the tree had not been there, they wouldn't have been climbing it in the first place. This was logical.

However, the other parts and premises of this adventure were quite far from logic and rationality and modern scientific approach. And in some ways, even from common sense. So that, the further the climb stretched, the further it began to trouble the mind of not only First Officer Spock, known for his staunch adherence to logical principles and rationality, but also of his two companions. Who, quite in the nature of humans, were already getting tired of the endless tedious climb, repetitive movements, heavy loads and their destination seemingly not even getting closer. If that destination existed at all and wasn't all just fantasy and superstition. They were absolutely not sure, and Commander Spock was openly skeptical. Add to this the peculiar physical conditions of the place and the absolute uncertainty whether they would find what they were looking for in the end. They had set out for the lack of a better plan and were already regretting it deep inside.

In fact, both Kirk and McCoy were already wondering if they were simply being foolhardy idiots. But none would care to admit it aloud to their Vulcan companion, of course. Anyway, Spock's possible smug satisfaction of "I told you so" would now be the least of the possible dangers of this mad venture. And anyway, at this point he probably would be the one to drag them all forward. Because at this point there was already little difference – to go down or to go on up, the distance seemed the same. So they might just as well continue going up, from the logical point of view.

Also because (although Spock didn't care to admit it aloud to his human companions), the Vulcan was actually enjoying the trip, the fresh air, the physical activity and the way he very soon found himself in the leading position of their small group of climbers.

The climbing expedition was Captain Kirk's idea (of course!), and at the field briefing Commander Spock was at first the one most opposed to it. But they needed skilled climbers - there were some on the ship beside Sulu and Chekov who volunteered at once, but then it was also highly desirable to have a telepath in the party, in case they actually met those supernatural creatures the colonists talked about, and someone with linguistic skills too, and engineering skills too, to hold up all means of communication. (Uhura wanted to go, claiming at the briefing that she was pretty good at climbing at the Academy and also unarguably good at Chinese and dozens of other languages. But Jim announced: "No ladies in the expedition! Sorry ladies! If the colonists' tales are even a bit true, then we can't risk the female crewmembers!" And Scotty had to mind the conn if Sulu went too, and they couldn't remember any skilled climbers from the Engineering Department on the spot. That left Spock).

Also Spock had never approved of Jim's infatuation with extreme sports anyway and preferred to keep an eye on him when Jim was in that mood, and then also the Doctor stepped up and volunteered like he had nothing better to do - and therefore Spock had no choice but to join in that mad affair. Making it clear to everyone that he disapproved but he had to ensure the safety of the mission and the communications. (The doctor gave him a knowing ironic smile and Jim announced solemnly: "I know I can always rely on you, Mr. Spock!", and both ignored Spock's death glare. The pouting Uhura then promptly engaged him into a side talk about psycholinguistics and how universal translators often malfunctioned or failed to grasp things like metaphors. "Maybe you can grasp the metaphors telepathically, Mr. Spock?" she said, looking at him rather doubtfully).

Several hours into the climb though, and Spock's initial unwillingness and suppressed irritation gave way to the pleasure of much-welcome physical exertion (climbing skills require regular practice!) and the pleasure of really aesthetically pleasing views that opened more and more the higher they ascended. There was also really interesting animal and insect life on that tree.

And also, quite predictably (though Spock refrained from telling Jim that as it could have insulted him) Jim's enthusiastic rush forward at the head of the party quite soon (on the second day, four hours twenty seven minutes eighteen seconds from the second-morning forward start, to be exact) resulted in a fall. Spock caught him by the wrist as Jim came tumbling past him, and tactfully suggested taking more care of the safety precautions as he lowered Jim carefully on the nearest branch below. By taking more care Spock meant not only Jim, but himself too. Rubbing his wrist and grumbling frustratedly: "You sprained it... but thanks", Jim finally saw the light of reason and let Spock lead the party and take care of said precautions, meaning safety ropes and the choice of the safest climbing path. The safest path is chosen on cold head, not in the rash surge of enthusiasm.

Responsibilty for the whole party was just as stimulating to Spock as the exertion and sights. So he decided to be in the moment and enjoy the process, and let the hypothetical destination (or lack thereof) reveal itself in due time.

All this was fine enough, but then… Last but not the least - they could hardly turn back now, because it meant losing face not only in sporting terms. Because at this point of the climb their rescue party, instead of finding the lost people it initially set out to look for, had itself lost half of its members. One of those, Ensign Chekov, had been personally sent by Spock on a big lunch halt to look around, scout the place and gather scientific data, and then didn't return – and now Spock felt responsible. The Captain and CMO felt responsible too. Especially because the other two party members didn't have even that excuse for wandering astray out of sight and disappearing. They simply had done so. And as long as there was any hope to find them…

.

But wait, how can anyone wander astray out of sight on a tree?

Depends on the perspective, like so many things in life.

Suppose the tree in question is so high that the hugest of the Earth sequoias will look like a bonsai beside it. Suppose it is higher even than any climbing rock in the Yosemite National Park and possibly even higher than Everest. Add the ample trunk girth to support that height, the mighty roots winding off into the soil like monstrous anacondas, the mighty ragged bark splinters covering the immense trunk that themselves look like rocks, the mighty wide-spread branches each as wide as a road and only looking narrow because they are miles away from the ground, leaves bigger than king-size bedspreads and the tree-top invisible because it is always hidden in clouds, so that no one even knows the exact height of that tree…

Except in fairy-tales, such giant trees also perfectly legitimately exist on primal oxygen-rich planets with low gravity.

.

The low gravity (about a third of the Earth's gravity) was currently one of the very few consolations for Dr. McCoy. Who had never been interested in climbing, unlike Kirk and Spock, and who had even grown up at a respectable distance from the mountains. His childhood tree-climbing experience definitely didn't count on this blasted tree-Everest. Neither did his present physical fitness condition that was beginning to really trouble him...

"I'm a doctor, not a Spiderman!" panted McCoy for the hundredth time, grudgingly accepting Kirk's hand to get heaved upwards over a particularly weird-shaped huge strip of bark.

Imagine strips of bark like on an old pine tree, but purple and rock-hard and huge. One such strip of bark, if properly carved with hard-alloy tools, could well make a decent large fisherman's boat from Hemingway's books. "The Old Man and the Tree", aha, thank you very much. I'll write memoirs if I survive this… "

But Dr. McCoy was stubborn and not scared of any stupid trees, even of the way-too-overgrown ones. And there was no sea around anyway, to carve boats for. And who else could he blame but himself for getting in this mess? Back on the ground he was all no-nonsense, beating down his friends' worries with a tone that brooked no objections:

"I'll go too! They may need a doctor!"

Now he was having second thoughts about maybe better having sent someone from the younger medical staff after all…

"And that green-blooded hobgoblin doesn't look even a little bit tired! No freakin' care, as usual!"

McCoy glared up enviously at Spock. The Vulcan, who had indeed grown up in the mountains and was used to scaling them up and down in double Earth's gravity, was now having a field day. A fifth field day in a row, to be exact – that's how long the climb lasted already. Even with all his initial arguments against the illogicality of this whole mission, it looked like Spock didn't mind some fresh-air exercises after all. Presently he was almost effortlessly now sliding, now jumping along the trunk far above both the captain and the doctor, only occasionally stopping to adjust his gear and to look down. Were Spock a human and less serious, it occurred to the doctor, he'd probably be hopping around like a monkey, whistling and laughing at his clumsy comrades who panted heavily below. But then, if Spock were a human, he wouldn't be used to the double gravity of planet Vulcan that made this place's gravity a total piece of peach-cake for him… Or whatever unpalatable cookies those Vulcans preferred to munch instead of good honest cake.

Sure, Spock was too serious for a monkey (or even for a human), but the ease with which his lanky figure moved from one giant strip of bark to another, from one huge branch to another, suggested of an animal grace. Maybe it reminded the tired and envious doctor of a big grasshopper… And Spock was cunningly using the occasional gusts of wind to haul himself up too, just like a locust, while both Kirk and McCoy had to hug the huge bark-strips and cling for dear life until those gusts of wind passed. The higher they were getting, the stronger the wind became, and this was getting from irritating to downright dangerous…

Or maybe Spock looked like a very thin and tailless but very determined squirrel or chipmunk.

"And I'll call him a chipmunk if he starts chipping again about how useless it all is!" grumbled the doctor under his breath. "Like we all don't know already!"

"Bones?" called Kirk anxiously from a several-meter-wide branch above where he reached a safe perch and was now resting and watching McCoy struggle.

"Fine here, Jim!" the doctor called back. "But toss me that extra rope and then pull it hard when I give a shout-out, okay?"

Thankfully (or otherwise?) all three of them were very stubborn. And low gravity, multiplied by the three-fold pigheadedness, can bring you a long way…

The doctor hugged the blasted bark again, to secure himself from the wind while Jim was fiddling with the ropes. He stood waiting and turning his head from Jim to Spock and back.

The khaki coloring of Spock's mountaineer outfit made him look closer to a grasshopper after all, the doctor decided. Or maybe like a gecko - one of those who always ran over ceilings, walls and roofs and basically anywhere, and who didn't give a damn about gravity. Or about how humans felt about it.

To be fair, Spock had taken it upon himself to hammer carabiners into the rock-like surface of the tree-bark along his way and to thread ropes into them to provide a safety net for said humans. And the doctor had to admit those ropes came in very handy…

"Squirrel suits Jim better", he decided when he finally flung himself down on the wide branch beside Jim and started getting his breath at least partly back. But to be honest, closer to the end of the fifth day of their epic ascent Captain James T. Kirk began to look like a rather tired and disheveled squirrel…

The doctor was not very enthusiastic about his own role in that alpine menagerie either:

"An old dog, that's who I am… Just an old dog that just can't be taught new tricks…"

Aloud he said to Kirk:

"How about calling it a day, Jim? The sun is quite damn low already, from what I can see through these overgrown leaves".

"You're probably right, Bones", replied Kirk wearily, stretching his back. "Somehow I hate the thought of any more climbing for today".

"Well, tell it to your First Officer. He thinks we are on a pleasure stroll", snorted McCoy, pointing with his chin up to where Spock was barely visible several branches above and moving unwaveringly forward.

Jim and Bones looked at each other, then:

"SPOOOOCK!" they bellowed in unison, making a flock of small exotic colorful birds flutter up with terrified noises.

.

.

The giant tree was just as densely populated as a giant sky-scraper somewhere in good old Frisco. Even more populated, because the tree itself was alive too. And higher than the highest sky-scraper any Earth architect could dream of. Standing tall and proud it was, with its head high in the clouds, alone on the top of a steep conical hill covered with pink-flowered bushes, amid a vast lilac-blue grass plain, with similar one-tree-hills around.

Each giant tree was a world in its own.

And the sheer numbers of living creatures it housed would put the mythical Tree of Life to shame. All kinds of creatures: birds – from tiny feathered jewels to paraglider-winged eagle-like predators; insects – from tiny black ants to magnificent two-hand-sized blue butterflies; rodents – from tiny mice-like creatures to giant squirrels. Small primates were occasionally noticed too, but they kept distance from the Earth intruders. The doctor could only hope that there were no King Kongs here to fill in the "giant" part of the primate range. And of course there were vines and flowers of different colors among the giant purple leaves.

The Tree was a home to all this luscious, gorgeous life. And since five days ago – a temporary shelter to five humans and one half-Vulcan. And maybe – just maybe – still an abiding place to those several dozens of humans who had vanished through the months from the Cirrus Purpureus Federation colony, too. And also – very hypothetically – to those mythical creatures that no one had really seen, but in which the governor of the colony firmly believed. Those creatures were the primary suspects of the disappearing cases. Strange as it may seem.

The Enterprise officers came here not to enjoy the pretty sights or indulge in sports. They came to investigate. So far they were only succeeding in pretty sights and sports… Which stopped being fun after the expedition party of six started climbing the giant tree nearest to the colony – and Chekov, Sulu and their guide from the colony all vanished too. Just vanished, they didn't fall down – the communicators still worked occasionally in spite of atmospheric interference and the strange field the tree inself created, and the colonists below didn't report finding any bodies under the tree. No hovercraft could get close to the giant trees too – so anyone being taken away by a hovercraft was impossible. The only way to look was up. And to hope that the disappeared ones were somehow still alive and not eaten up there, or worse.

Only Kirk, Spock and McCoy remained to find that out. They couldn't risk any more of the Enterprise crew going up the tree, and colonists (save a handful of trained scouts) simply never went up those trees.

"Hopeful" was Dr. McCoy's role specialization, "skeptical" was Spock's – as usual. Kirk was free to support any of them or remain neutral. One thing was clear: nobody got left behind, and they had to retrieve their crewmembers, dead or alive.

Now, in the nightfall of the fifth day, after a supper of cold field rations and a rather weary argument about their further prospects, the three of them curled under thermal blankets in the creeping night chill. Unconsciously shuffling closer together.

Dozing off to the rustle of purple leaves that were bigger that any state flag, Dr. McCoy for an uncounted time in his life wondered just how the hell the Enterprise crew always managed to arrive at the weirdest possible places and to get themselves in the weirdest possible mess…

.

To be continued

.

.

.

(1) Why were they climbing a tree? - An allusion to the film "Star Trek V - The Final Frontier", or rather to its trailer. "Captain Kirk is climbing a mountain... Why is he climbing a mountain? Because it's there". How can you not parody it a little? :) Also Kirk's fall from the Yosemite rock in that film was most likely not the first one in his life - that's exactly why Spock was watching him closely there. And the Doctor was watching too, though from the distance. Kirk probably fell from quite a variety of mountains and trees in his adventurous life.