Captain's Log, Stardate: 7650.57

During geological scanning of a class M planet located at the unexplored star system 5879D, we received a strange signal. As we had evidence of alien humanoid life, I sent an away team on the surface of the planet to investigate the source of the signal. The away team, led by Mr Sulu, encountered the remnants of a catastrophy: advanced humanoids have lived and died on the surface of this planet. The demise of their civilization must be the result of the last 4 decades. They sent a distress signal due a very curious situation...

"Captain, something is moving against our away team on the class M planet that we are currently surveying". Spock raised his eyes from the monitor, slight confusion written on his Vulcan features.

"What is it, Mr Spock?" Kirk was on his feet immediately, on alert.

"The creatures... those readings indicate that they are… treemonoid."

"Treemonoid?" Bones' cranky voice came from the door of the turbolift. "Are you out of your Vulcan mind Spock? Treemonoid!"

"Yes, Dr McCoy. Treemonoid is the equivalent term of humanoid for trees. The termis classified under the general umbrella term plantomonoid, which is used to describe alien forms that resemble Earth plants".

"But they move. How can trees move?" Kirk interrupted Bones before he could utter a caustic response to his first officer. He was staring at Spock's screen, peering at the readings above his shoulder."Bones, ideas?"

"How should I know? I am a Doctor, not a fucking biologist!"

"Then get me one" Kirk ordered and moved to his Captain's chair.

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"McCoy to Chang". Li Ann heard the ship's first medical officer calling her from the intercom. For a moment she panicked; did she forget her medical examination? No, she did her trimester's exam last week, it could not be about that.

Maybe they had found something wrong with her. Maybe she was sick and once she reported to sick bay she would be put on bed rest. Panic welled inside her; she was so scared of Dr. McCoy, but at least Nurse Chapel was always firm but always kind to her.

Deep breath, she answered the call. "Chang to McCoy. Sir, how can I help you?"

"Report to the bridge, immediately" the gruff voice commanded and Li Ann relaxed. She was fine, nothing wrong with her. She mentally kicked herself as she headed to the turbolift. Of course she was fine, most likely it was relevant to the yellow alert.

Which begged the question, why did they call her? Exciting!

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"Dr. Chang, are you familiar with treemonoids?" The Enterprise's Captain was serious and demanded professionalism, but for Li Ann it was always a bit of a problem. There was a slight hint of either a smirk or a scowl on Kirk's face, which made her to want to laugh.

"Yes, sir. Treemonoids are the result of intergalactic parallel evolution. They are all alien forms that have evolved similar traits and characteristics to our earth trees. They fall under the umbrella term of plantamonoid" her answer was swift and, as she hoped not with too much information. She was not sure what to make of Lt. Spock's raised eyebrow or the sour expression on Dr. McCoy.

"Thank you, Doctor. Mr Spock has already given us a description of the term..."

"Not as thorough or scientific as yours, though" Dr McCoy interrupted the Captain, in a way that it would not be tolerated in any other starship. But James T Kirk seemed not to mind.

"I merely strive to illustrate my points in a way that all minds will see the logic behind".

"Yes, thank you Mr Spock" Kirk raised his hand in acknowledgment of his first officers. "Now, Dr Chang, are you familiar with Treemonoids?"

"Not specifically. However, I have worked with intergalactic parallel evolution of Arabidae, a grass type family of plants. I am familiar with the genomics and ecology of the phenomenon in plants, just not the specific group. Sir".

"Good! Now tell me, have you encountered any of those… grasses walking?"

Li Ann was about to laugh, but the Captain's serious expression halted her. "Not that I am aware of. Sir?"

"As you know we had an away team sent to investigate the Class M planet, which we are currently orbiting. We had to beam them on board once Treemonoids started chasing them".

"Walking trees?! Like the Ents!" Li Ann could not stop herself from yellign with excitement. Treemonoids! That had evolved movement equivalent to animals! Oh, she could only start to imagine the majestic properties of their morphology and physiology! Did they have joints? Had the same regions of the genomes with animals evolved?

"Ents?"

"Like the trees in Lord of the Rings, Dr McCoy. A classic from the 20th century" Uhura was a classic fantasy reader, Li Ann was in her reading club, holding meetings every second Thursday.

"Aaa, that guy was Russian". An ensign commended from the helm.

"I am afraid you are wrong, as always, Pavel" Uhura corrected him.

"Attention!" Came Kirk's voice. "Dr Chang, I want you to meet with Mr Sulu, who led the away team and work with him to find out how those Treemonoids walk, why they chased my away team and if they are related with the destruction of the humanoid culture on the planet. I will form a new away team to investigate on sight. Please have rsecommendations ready for 1500".

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It was 1500 hours and Li Ann was still struggling with the data Mr Sulu had collected. Everyone in Starfleet was taught how to do data collection, but it was obvious why Mr Sulu was Enterprise's helmsman and not a science officer. She tried to remind herself, that even though he loved plants, he must have gotten scared and could not function in the expected high efficiency.

Still, Li Ann was grumpy.

Thankfully, Mr Spock had offered to do data mining for her and look for reports of similar incidents. Unfortunately, he had found nothing. Fortunately, he was more familiar with Mr Sulu's method of data collection and now was helping her go through his weird filling system.

"Dr. Chang, Mr Spock, Mr Sulu." Captain Kirk entered the room and took a seat across from the two of them. He folded his arms in front of him. "Report on your findings".

Mr Spock nodded to Li Ann, allowing her to give their progress report. She felt a surge of gratitude for the Vulcan; as Enterprise's first officer was his prerogative to take the lead. However, he acknowledged that he was not the expert and let her take the lead.

"We figured out that the Treemonoids are actually walking. This was not the result of a hallucinating substance that had entered the away team's systems" she paused to assess how Kirk would react to her calling his away team liars. However, it was the first logical step and Mr Spock had not disagreed in investigating the possibility.

The Captain accepted her assessment silently. He merely waved her to go on with her report.

"We found out that the Trees were moving through a construct that resembles aerial roots. They seem to use an ABA orthologue to grow them fast, to the direction they wish to move. Then, they accelerate the formation of bark through the old arial roots, which they break and the tree mass is pulled towards the remaining roots. Mr Sulu, while looking through the planet's scanning images, has found traces of above ground roots with 5 to 10cm diameter, which are 100% formed of bark tissue".

"They do not sound like they have evolved very efficiently" Kirk commented slowly.

"First of all, this is not exactly how aerial roots evolve. Moreover, we have not enough information to know, why they evolved to walking Treemonoids. With the data that we have now, we cannot be sure how they do it, let alone why".

Mr Spock nodded in agreement. "Dr Chang is right. Unfortunately we have found nothing in the archive to help with our search. However, we do not believe they are hostile".

"Very well, we will have to go to have a closer look at them, then." Kirk stood and nodded for all three of them to follow him. He did not care to give many details of his arrangemens, he simply led them to the transporter room.

There, a small team waited for them. Dr McCoy was standing at the side, grumpy as usual, but also a favorite pick of Kirk's for the away team. A science officer from the Betazoid was fidgeting with her tricorder. Once she sensed Li Ann's gaze on her she met her eyes and smiled. Li Ann recognized in the impish smile Annagret; Spock's assistant and a known devil with card games. She always won at poker.

The rest of the team were members from the first expedition on the planet; Mr Sulu and three Security officers. They looked cool and confident; unlike her, whose back was dripping in sweat and a colony of butterflies had taken residence in her belly.

Kirk got his place on the transporter. "Mr. Scott, you will have command of the Enterprise. Lt Uhura will have a constant communication channel open, even though we expect no trouble".

"Ai sir, no worries, we will be keeping an eye on you. We will pull you out of there as soon as there is a reason to do so".

The Captain nodded and offered his hand to help Li Ann to take her place on the transporter. She mumbled thanks bellow her breath, suddenly a bit too intimidated to face him. She suspected that her cheeks had just turned slightly red. As she took her place on the transporter, she noticed one of the red shirts standing at the back; his dark eyes were laughing, and he even rolled them as her blush deepened.

"Mr Scott, we are ready. Beam us down".