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“Oh, Spock, it's beautiful."
Jim stopped dead on the ground as he and Spock made their way through a dusty, deserted planet with leaves growing in a floating canopy above, blocking out the sky. Spock walked behind him, head in the trees, oblivious to the world around him but somehow still completely aware.
It was a startling planet, that was for certain. Built in blocky circles of terrain and debris but covered in a jungle of green above them, stretching far and wide. The air was somehow cool, not what one would expect for being trapped between desert and plains, a light breeze rushing through rustling flora like the sound of water. Spock could feel the nature within him, creeping into his skin and bones, like he was returning from the land where he came from. It was a heady feeling, and for a moment he didn’t even recognise Jim's voice calling him, too engrossed in his surroundings.
Jim was excited, and concerned. Tones always evident in a good captain, but this was just how Jim functioned, how his mind worked in synchronicity with his body. He could be harsh, but Spock could hear the lingering fear and joy crashing together better than almost any other, and those feelings tended to be most prominent when exploring new worlds and new planets, doing when they set out to do when they applied to Starfleet.
"Spock, come look at this."
"Coming, Captain," Spock said, speeding up a little and rounding a dusty rock that scuffed his boot to find Jim. His friend was kneeling in the sandy red dirt, uniform pants stained a burnt shade of umber. Dappled blue and yellow lights fell on him as he looked down.
He didn’t glance over when Spock walked up behind him. But there was something, the way his breathing sped tangibly. "Come here. Take a look at this, please."
Spock knelt. "Jim?"
Upon the ground was a ball. It was an animal, spine ridged and twisted and curled into a little branded loop. It was no bigger than his palm, and was covered in light grey fur, too thin and soft to be hide. His first thought is that it looked like the fur of a tribble, but further inspection proved that the pattern was thicker, and the colour was off, and the fur was incredibly fine. Spock had no inkling as to what this creature was, had never seen it in a textbook or on a PADD before.
This was why they've come here, to explore, to learn about things that have never had eyes laid on them before.
Spock touched Jim's arm lightly, then gripped it with more force as Jim leaned into his touch, heels bared against the ground. He looked like an animal, crouched and bared with energy pooling in his eyes.
"I have never seen a life form of this kind before," Spock admitted after a moment, leaning forward further, not touching the ball of fluff in front of them but getting close. He couldn’t see any discernible facial features or orifices that could lend some clarity to whatever the creature was, or what it's potentially related to.
"Neither have I," replied Jim, seeming a little taken by what they've stumbled upon. "It's curious, isn't it. Could be a he, she or they... I simply can't make heads or tails of it yet."
Spock nodded. "It is breathing, so one must assume that it is alive. Allow me to take tricorder readings." Shifting, he reached for his instrument and twisted the dials until it was set, then passed it over the small ball a few times.
"Results inconclusive," he said after a moment, mildly. "I cannot find any information. The tricorder has not even been able to pick up its life signs, though I am certain they are there."
"Ah," said Jim, somewhat unhappily. It was more crestfallen than anything though, Spock knew. He braced himself against Spock again and said, "But this is still... fascinating, wouldn't you say?"
"Perhaps even more so with the lack of vital signs," Spock told him placatingly, admittedly caught in his own curiosity. "I am rather tempted to touch it."
Jim laughed a little, though it was laced with captain-ly concern. "I don't think Doctor McCoy would be very happy with that statement," he said. "He would have you for dinner. Now," he gave Spock a small smile, "me on the other hand--"
Spock raised an eyebrow. A wave of cool, brush scented air hazed over them, rustling their hair like the leaves above them. The intrepidation was clear in Jim's eyes, but it was also glorious, clear, and purposeful.
"I suggest you try," he told his partner. "I will be there if something goes amiss."
They were far away from anything that could possibly be of assistance should they fall into peril. The rest of the away team was miles away. They had been walking for nearly an hour, all in different directions and away from each other. Scotty would not be able to get a lock on them with the transporter beam. He and Jim were alone.
Jim looked up at him. His fingers crept up towards where Spock's own fingers lay on his arm, still pressing lightly. He engulfed them, fast as lightning, and his palms were sweaty, though not uncomfortably so.
"I say we give ourselves a chance to do something new," he murmured.
Spock's throat went a little dry. He realised how far away they were from all of the rest of their life, and though this was a weekly occurrence, his mouth went dry.
"Are you afraid?" Jim asked quietly, one hand poised to touch the creature's fur, the other still over Spock's fingers.
I'm always afraid when I'm with you, Spock's head echoed. He let the supremely illogical thought pass and fade away, just like his father and mother had taught him in the deserts of Vulcan where he had grown up, so very similar to the sands whereupon they crouched now.
"No," he said gently, genuinely, "but it is not a sin to be so."
Jim nodded. He reached out and made contact with the rolled up ball, ran a sturdy finger down the dip next to where it's spine rose up into a steep point.
Underneath him, it shuddered. Just slowly, just barely, but solidly. The ribs - assuming that's what they were - stretched and expanded and then caved back in again, becoming smaller and smaller. It repeated the motion with Jim's finger still just touching its back. Breathing. Inhaling. Exhaling.
"Alive," Jim confirmed. "Very, very alive."
Then the creature unfurled its head. Spock's heart rate sped, then fell quickly. He felt slightly ashamed of himself for having let it race, but that could not, at that current moment, be helped. He let it go.
"Hallelujah," Jim whispered. There were three hazel eyes staring up at them from a small, shouted face that had been shrouded in fur only moments earlier, tucked in its body like an armadillo. They shifted with every dapple of light, from green to grey to brown to reddish umber to green again.
Slowly, it stretched its small neck out and sniffed Jim's thumb with a wet, black nose about the side of his nail and jaded with patterned scales.
Jim held back a small smile. He turned to Spock, who kept an eye on the animal just in case it began showing signs of hostility. "It tickles."
"It seems friendly," Spock admitted. He pulled his hand upward from Jim's arm and rated it on his shoulder, the contact making him shiver. "I can feel it."
Curiously, Jim looked at him. "Through my contact with it? Or telepathically?"
"Through you," Spock admitted.
Jim dipped his head. "Feel all you want, my friend." Quietly he added, "I am more than happy to be your conduit, should need arise."
That almost had the power to make Spock tick a lip up. Almost.
Friend. Companion. Nature. Peace.
The creature was barely more than flora, barely more than nature itself, but that did not detract from its worth. It was nature, connected to the land they walked on. Not harmed by their presence at that moment, but simply there.
Spock didn't want to pry Jim away from the snout snuffling his fingers, but their time here was near to over, he could tell. "Jim, we must go. Leave the land in peace, and perhaps we may return one day."
Jim looked at him. He didn't want to go, and it was almost too overwhelming for Spock to bear. But he stood, and he whispered some sweet nothing toward the creature, and he said, "Alright. We should begin to walk to the search parties, see their findings." Something alighted in him, and Spock acknowledged it, filed it away in his mind. "This place is beautiful," he murmured. "I don't know why."
"It is," Spock admitted. "It very much is."
The creature began to shuffle off, though no legs were visible beneath it.
"Let's go," Jim said quietly.
They turned. Spock shifted his tricorder and dusted his clothes off. Took one last glance back. Gave pause to Jim, whose face had not lost that kind, fearful sort of magical joy, lit by the gaps of hundreds of veiny leaves.
And then said goodbye.