"Snap out of it, Doe!"

"...What?"

"I said, snap out of it, Doe. Wake the fuck up!" Sandy's sweet motherly face contorts to a scowl as she yells at you. Baby Alessa starts to cry in her arms. Horrified, you watch helplessly as she tosses the baby aside and lunges for you. Your body feels completely paralyzed. Opening your mouth, you try to scream but nothing comes out. She grabs you by the arms and shakes you violently.

"Come on John, you bastard! WAKE THE FUCK UP!"

In an instant, the entire scene changes. Alessa, the Captain, The Doctor, Spock, and the botanists all vanish. The only person there besides you is Sandy, still shaking you and yelling in your face while you lie on the ground.

"Okay, Okay! I'm awake! Geez, can you just back up off me for a minute?" you say as you finally find your voice. Suddenly free from paralysis, you push her off of you and sit up. Your head is pounding. Disoriented, you try to stand up and immediately lose your balance. She catches you and props you up by wrapping your arm around her shoulders and her arm around your waist.

"Easy now, Big Boy. Take a minute and get your bearings. You caught a face full of spores and passed out. Then the plants... well... let's just say they got a little too friendly. Good thing I found this cave, or else we wouldn't be having this conversation right now."

"Spores? But what about the Captain and... and Alessa...?" you ask groggily. Even as you say the baby's name, your spore-induced memory of her has already begun to fade like waking from a fever dream.

"Who's Alessa? Anyway, we should be safe here. See? No soil for the roots to move through. Just solid rock." Seeing you're steady enough on your feet now, Sandy lets go of you and points to the rough black floor of the cave. It definitely looks solid enough. Then you notice her leg. A pattern of deep cuts and scrapes spirals all the way up her leg, and her inner thighs are smeared with some sort of pale yellow goo. A brief half-remembered image of her getting ravaged by a phallus-shaped flower flashes through your mind, but that was only a spore-dream... right?

"Sandy, what happened to your leg? Are you okay?" Your eyes travel up her bruised skin and tattered uniform until you look into her eyes. They're red and puffy, and her cheeks are smeared with dirt. She turns her face away and sniffles.

"I... I'm alive, and that's what matters." She says after a long pause. "The others... well, they weren't so lucky." Her arms wrap around her midsection as she talks. Her words take a moment to sink in. Your stomach drops.

"You mean... the botanists, they're...?"

"Dead?" She shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know, to be honest. I heard them scream, and I heard them moan, and then they stopped making sounds altogether. I tried to get to them, but..." Her words trail off as if the sentence is too painful for her to finish.

"I don't even remember how I got away. I just... one minute I was trying to get this dick-blossom off me, and the next thing I know I'm dragging your **** ass in here. You're welcome, by the way... you know, for saving your life and all."

That hadn't even registered to you yet, and you feel guilty for not realizing it sooner. Sandy Dixon, the insufferably annoying pain-in-your-ass trickster who's always having a laugh at your expense, just saved your life.

"Sandy, I... Thank you." You want to say more, but you're at a loss for words. She turns to you and looks up with tear-filled eyes. She moves to you and wraps her arms around your waist, hugging you tightly. Not sure what else to do, you wrap your arms around her shoulders comfortingly. Her face burrows against your chest. You can feel her tears soak into your uniform tunic as she sobs quietly. Her body starts to relax as you stroke her hair reflexively. After several moments, her tears stop and she looks up at you again.

"Don't mention it," she says with a smile. You've never seen her smile at you like that before. Unlike her usual impish grin, this smile is warm, genuine, and ****. It only lasts for a moment though, and you both share an awkward moment before letting go and taking a step back from each other.

"Now, let's get out of here, Doe."

"Right," you agree as you pull out your communicator and try to flip it open with a flick of your wrist. After failing twice, you decide to open it with your fingers instead.

"That was smooth," Sandy says mockingly.

Ignoring her, you try to hail the ship.

"Crewman Doe to Enterprise. Crewman Doe to Enterprise. Come in Enterprise."

Nothing.

You adjust the dial and try again.

"Crewman Doe to Enterprise. Crewman Doe to Enterprise. Come in Enterprise."

Still nothing.

"It's gotta be this damn cave. It probably has some weird minerals that block the comm signal or something like that."

"Is that your 'logical scientific analysis'?" Sandy says while pointing her fingers up behind her ears.

"Do you have a better explanation?" you snap back at her perhaps a bit more harshly than you intended.

"Well... no, you're probably right about the mineral thing. Sorry."

Great, now you feel like an asshole for snapping at the woman who saved your life.

"It's okay, really. Let's get out of this cave so we call for a beam-out."

"No way! Do you want to get plant-****?! I'm staying right here, thank-you-very-much."

"Well, we can't just stay here forever," you try to reason with her, but she isn't budging.

"You can go if you want, but I'd rather die here than be flower-fucked to **** out there."

You're running out of patience with her. You know you need to get out of this cave to contact the ship, but you don't want to just abandon Sandy. It's time to make a decision.