Jo was sitting in the middle of a large room illuminated by blue mushrooms and pink bulbs that shimmered. She had retraced her steps, believing this area would provide enough space for safe teleportation.
Spock had found her. She could feel him pulling towards her, and his sole objective was to reach her. She turned her head at a flash of light on her left. Unfortunately, it was just a flash. Had she dreamed it, or had she really seen a boot? After three days in this damned cave, she was quite capable of hallucinating.
She sighed as Puf tried to use the break to clean her suit again. Jo tapped the ant on the head, and she reluctantly moved, finding her mistress far from clean enough. Suddenly she knew he was coming. He was rushing towards her, already within reach. A glowing form shimmered where she had seen the flash. She stood up, hardly daring to believe it. That wonderful bastard had tracked her down... Damn! That Vulcan was a real Prince Charming!
Spock materialized a foot above the ground and landed without difficulty.
He paused and faced her, staring intently. She wanted to jump into his arms but restrained herself because he looked so serious.
'You found me! ... I can't believe it!' she said, relieved beyond measure.
Spock removed his mask, let it fall to the ground, and the bond between them pulsed intensely, bordering on painful.
'Is it normal for the bond to be crazy like this? Because it's pretty intense,' she added, thinking that he looked remarkably crazy himself, staring at her with his wide eyes, hypnotized.
That's when Jo realized that the Vulcan was far from a Prince Charming. Scared both by his predatory look and the furious energy emanating from him, she cautiously stepped back.
'Commander?' she said, fearfully.
Spock moved towards his partner, who felt increasingly uneasy. As if to prove her right, he grabbed the front of her suit and tore it from top to bottom in one swift motion.
' What the fuck are you doing!' she yelled.
Ignoring her protests, Spock seized her forcefully, while two figures appeared in a shimmering light nearby.
'Look! Your buddies are coming!' she said, hoping to divert his attention.
Uninterested, he didn't even glance over and with a mad look, tried to pull down her red outfit by yanking it over her shoulders. What the hell! Was he really going to bang her right here?
'Shit! This is not the place, you dirty bastard!' Jo yelled, pushing him away with all her strength.
Kirk and McCoy appeared a few meters away from the Vulcan. McCoy landed gracefully, but Kirk, unfortunately, materialized in the middle of a rock. Stuck up to his waist, he was surrounded by fluorescent blue mushrooms, forming a sort of festive pedestal.
'JIM!' yelled Bones when he saw him in such a bad position.
He rushed to him and pulled him abruptly.
'I'm stuck!' croaked Jim, feeling like the doctor was determined to break him in half."
"McCoy removed his mask and looked at him with intense concern, but his attention was immediately drawn to a cry of distress. In the glow of the mushrooms and pink bulbs, Spock had Jo pinned against the rock wall and was trying to remove her partially torn suit. Not believing what they were seeing, the two friends remained utterly stunned.
'Spock! Let her go!' Jim ordered sternly.
He removed his mask.
'SPOCK! Let her go!' he repeated.
The Vulcan didn't seem to hear him or, at least, deliberately ignored him.
'Bones! Do something!' Jim shouted, trying in vain to free himself from his rock block.
Like someone abruptly awakened, McCoy rushed to his friend, pulling him back forcefully, hoping to free his poor partner. It was like trying to move an aircraft. While holding Jo with one arm, the Vulcan turned and glared at him with a wild look.
'For God's sake, stop!' McCoy yelled, scandalized. 'You're acting like a beast!'
'SPOCK! Release Stone immediately,' Jim tried again.
The Vulcan ignored them. These males had no rights over his female. He turned back to the terrified Terran, who whimpered in fear. McCoy mustered his courage and jumped onto Spock's back, trying to hold him. He was shoved aside like a mosquito and rolled in the dust. Immediately, the Vulcan let out a low growl. A male was challenging him for his female. He released his victim and squared off, ready to attack. Realizing the danger he was in, the doctor stood up, holding his hands out in front of him.
'Spock, get a grip,' Bones urged in a worried voice. 'It's me, Leonard.'
Unfortunately, the Vulcan's madness, driven into a frenzy by his overwhelming need to reclaim his lost mate, had escalated beyond all reason. As desperate as he was crazed, he had finally seized his prize, and anyone who dared stand in his way would deeply regret it. Deprived of the strict, ritualized Vulcan framework, Spock was left at the mercy of his raw, primal mating instincts—anything but civilized. There was a good reason his people had established a strong taboo around this phenomenon. In fact, had his marriage to T'Pring been celebrated seven years earlier, he would have immediately mated with her in front of everyone. Even if he had been more in control of himself at that moment, he would not have thought twice about the indecency of the act. Naturally, aside from the humans present, everyone would have expected the ceremony to conclude this way, as it was the tradition.
Realizing the danger Bones was in, Jim hesitated for a moment to stun Spock with his phaser while Jo hurriedly climbed onto Pouf's back to escape from the overpowering urges of this scumbag. Unfortunately, she didn't know how to direct her and randomly tapped the head of the poor ant, who, not understanding anything, began climbing the rock wall.
Spock glanced up, realizing his mate was slipping away. Panicked, she was at least five meters off the ground, clinging to Pouf like a baby monkey clings to its mother. She was either going to fall or worse, break her neck. But she didn't have to worry for long as Spock reached her height in just three leaps.
'Damn it.'
Skillfully gripping the porous rocks, he grabbed her by the waist and tore her from her ant. At this height, she clung to him even though she had no desire to. Seeing things going south, Puf turned around, drooling dope to calm everyone down. Unfortunately, his attempt had little success as Spock, ignoring her, brought his female back to the ground in a single smooth bound.
'I didn't know he could do that,' Leonard said, impressed.
'Neither did I,' said Kirk, equally impressed.
'Jim! Look!' McCoy said, raising his phaser.
In the chiaroscuro of the blue and pink mushroom light, a battalion of soldier ants was advancing in the west tunnel, clacking their mandibles. Kirk suddenly paled, recognizing the same monsters that had wreaked havoc in the cave he had visited.
As Jim and Bones stared in awe at the giant monsters approaching them, The Vulcan managed to tear off his female's clothing with a loud ripping sound. He received a punch to the face for his trouble, and as the suit fell to the ground like a rag, Jo had a moment of gratitude for her coverall liner still offered her some protection.
She had hit him with all her strength, but he hadn't even flinched. She realized she wouldn't be able to push him away, that the game was up, and there was no escape. She backed against the rock, coming to terms with the idea. She was going to be done for. Nothing was more certain. She looked for Puf to get a dose before heading to the slaughterhouse, but she spotted her loyal dealer on the wall, much too far away. Frightened, she barely struggled when Spock suddenly grabbed her by the collar of her shirt. He held her still with one arm while the other began to pull down her pants with a fixed, soulless, and terrifyingly chilling look.
"Spock!" McCoy shouted, struck by a sudden inspiration. "Look who's coming to take your female!"
It was probably the only thing that could distract the Vulcan from his plans, and he turned around just as, about fifty meters ahead of them, the battalion of soldiers came rushing in. Seeing that he wouldn't achieve his goals before throwing these monsters out of his way, Spock let Jo go and rushed forward without any caution.
Of course, the warriors had no more malicious intent than to keep these stray sheep under watch until the workers could take charge of them, but Spock was in a much less peaceful mood. He hurled himself at the innocent ants with a wild cry that echoed off the rocks. He grabbed the mandibles of the first one within reach and threw it with all his might. The poor beast was tossed into the air, spinning like a pancake. Spock, watching intently, caught it in mid-air by its hind legs and, using its momentum, flung it at its comrades. The soldiers immediately began to scatter in all directions.
Jo approached the captain and the doctor, all three watching the scene in amazement.
"Goddamn it …," muttered the mechanic.
The other two nodded in agreement, watching Spock hurl the poor warrior into the crowd of its colleagues, knocking them around like ragdolls.
"You know, seven years ago, I almost won against him," Jim said, a sudden surge of pride swelling in his chest.
Jo gave him an incredulous look.
"But he killed me, of course," he admitted humbly amidst the mushrooms.
"I'd say he spared you," Bones said, staring at the battle with astonishment.
Spock had started to knock out ants with powerful blows to their heads. The ground was soon littered with KO'd warriors, and the two men suddenly understood how much the Vulcan had held back from crushing his captain during the Kon-ut-kal-if-fee. In the middle of the titanic fight, Spock seemed to remember he was armed and pulled out his phaser. He began shooting at the monsters, causing much more damage than with his fists.
That was the last straw. This humanoid was acting like an enemy, so he was an enemy, and like all enemies, his fate was to be eliminated. The soldiers, having reached their limit, suddenly changed their strategy. They stood on their legs, their threatening mandibles spreading wide, ready to bite. However, it was not so easy to dismantle the pumped-up Vulcan. A few soldiers managed to tear pieces of his uniform, but the blows immediately rained down on the skilled warriors. Green blood began to flow from the countless cuts that the berserk Vulcan could not avoid.
"But... but why are they attacking him?" Jo asked, baffled, especially since she had defended herself without the ants retaliating.
Caught off guard by the scene, it didn't even cross her mind that the creatures had quickly figured out her sparks posed no real threat, unlike the commander's much more effective phaser.
"We've got to act now!" Bones shouted. "Jim! They're going to kill him!"
The soldiers kept flooding in from the tunnel, their numbers seemingly endless. Spock was soon overwhelmed, and an ant managed to grab his arm. He screamed as the soldier tried to sever the appendage. There was no doubt it would have succeeded if Vulcan bones weren't so resistant. His wounds oozed more green blood onto the ground. In a desperate move, Spock grabbed the ant by the middle of its body with his other hand and used the warrior as a shield. Horrified, Jim and Bones realized that this was the last time they would see their friend.
Realizing that the commander was about to be skinned alive, Jo understood she was the Vulcan's only chance, and driven by the urgency of the situation, she ran towards the fight. She arrived just in time to see Spock lose his footing and fall to the ground, engulfed by the mass of warriors trying in vain to slice off his head. She threw herself onto him, protecting him with her body and stubbornly refusing to consider the possibility that she might also be sliced into pieces. She had become the mistress of these creatures, so they were supposed to protect her. As she had hoped, the soldiers, caught off guard by the nest smell, stopped their attack and nervously tapped the intertwined humanoids with their antennae.
Jo opened her eyes and looked at Spock, who stared back at her. The violent gleam in his eyes vanished, replaced by a disturbingly different light, accompanied by the unexpected bump she felt against her stomach. Stung by their proximity, the rhythm coursing through the link began to thunder more forcefully.
"Don't move!" she ordered him as the ants hesitated to attack.
Spock seemed to grasp the situation and fought to regain control. Unfortunately, he didn't succeed very well. He slid his hands beneath the mechanic's undershirt and tried to pull down her pants in a most ungallant manner.
"For fuck sake! Hold still, you crazy bastard!" she shouted as she quickly pulled up her pants.
She had to lower her arms to protect her ass and seeing that the enemy's head was once again accessible, a soldier hurried to pounce on Spock to relieve him of his brain. The terrifying pincers snapped shut around his head but didn't have time to complete their grim task. Puf, who was anxiously searching for his mistress, had just located her and, with all his weight, shoved his imposing colleague away.
The loyal ant hovered protectively over Jo as she struggled to control the frenzied Vulcan. She snapped her delicate mandibles in the face of the battalion, determined to protect her human. Seeing the tide shift, the soldiers turned their attention to new targets, leaving their previous prey behind.
"Jim … I think we're going to have company," McCoy said, seeing the tide of soldiers rushing towards them.
They started knocking out ants with their phasers. Worst idea ever, as they were immediately considered humanoids to be taken down. Becoming wary after enduring the wrath of the enraged Vulcan, they cautiously surrounded the two men, who immediately stood back-to-back. Discouraged, they realized that dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of soldiers surrounded them, and their chances of survival seemed relatively slim.
"Jim, it's been an honor serving under your command," Leonard said, preparing for the worst.
"We're not dead yet, Bones," Jim replied, refusing to be downhearted.
"If you say so," the doctor responded, somewhat pessimistically, as the massive, spiked pincers clicked menacingly in front of them.
Jo, struggling desperately to keep her pants up while trying to fend off the berserk Vulcan, suddenly felt herself being lifted off the ground. Finally! They were teleporting them back to the ship! Damn, it was about time! She closed her eyes to find herself on the Enterprise, in the transporter room, and see Kyle, the pretty hot guy behind the console.
The feeling ceased, and she opened her eyes. Unfortunately, it wasn't the Enterprise, it wasn't the transporter room, and it wasn't Kyle.
It was the master of the domain.
Note:
The possibility of being teleported into solid matter is mentioned a few times in TOS. For example, in The Cage:
ONE: Now, you all know the situation. We're hoping to transport down inside the Talosian community.
SPOCK: If our measurements and readings are an illusion also, one could find oneself materialised inside solid rock.
We never see such an incident occur but in TNG season 2, The Schizoid Man, it is addressed.
TROI: Ohh... I know this is crazy, but for a moment I felt like I was trapped inside that wall.
WORF: You were. For a moment.
According to TNG, it would therefore be possible to be teleported into solid matter and then exit it in the same way. We can suppose the accident would be fatal if the person can't breathe for too long; however, considering that Troi suffered no damage after being completely trapped inside a wall, it would make sense to suppose that if only the legs are stuck, the situation would be harmless.