Work on the Leonov was progressing at juggernaut pace and Julia Pemberton felt somewhat gratified much of this was credited to the excellence of her engineering crew and the aid provided by Ezra’s security team. While the crew of the Leonov had been lending their assistance to the repair efforts as well, Julia found that their skills were quite lacking in the maintenance of the ship and most of the time, they had to be shown precisely what needed to be done. Despite this, Julia had no heart to refuse their assistance, particularly when they were so eager to provide it. However, she had to admit to wondering how they could have been so lacking in basic engineering skills and could understand why no repair efforts had been conducted prior to the arrival of the Maverick. No doubt, the engineer’s death had a great deal to do with their being marooned here indefinitely.

Most of the work up to this point had been conducted inside the Leonov in the form of re-routing circuits and replacing whole conduits when the power surge during the cosmic storm burnt out much of the circuitry around the engine core. However, with her engineering team focusing their attention on solving that particular hurdle, Julia decided she would examine the outer hull and take stock of just how bad the breaches were. While she had seen most of the damage when they first arrived on the planetoid, she had yet to make a closer inspection to gauge how much duranium they would need to seal the punctures.

It was a task she could handle on her own. Ezra’s security team was mending minor rips in the hull aware the major work would require her supervision. Julia emerged from the ship, still wearing her enviro-suit after Nathan had expressed his desire they continue wearing the protection, especially in the open atmosphere. Since so much about the planetoid was a mystery, the possibility of harmful contamination might still exist. Julia hated wearing these suits, feeling her body protest by producing tiny beads of sweat beneath her clothes, even though the temperature within the suit was supposed to be comfortable.

Stepping out of the ship, she took note of the repairs being conducted by the Maverick crew and started skimming the edge of the large ship, aware her tricorder was next to useless and her inspection would have to be done the old-fashioned way. She did not mind making a visual inspection of the terrain, after all, she was an engineer and spotting minor defects or major ones like this in the flow of the hull was her job. Besides, she did not mind escaping the claustrophobic confines of the Leonov for a while. She could not imagine how the survivors could stand being trapped inside that place for so long. Glancing up at the sky, she could see the faint glimmer of the Maverick in the sky and felt a pang of longing for the ship.

The Maverick was her first command as chief engineer and as so many engineers before her had said at varying junctures in history – there was nothing like being the Chief Engineer of a starship. She knew that Captain Larabee could have had anyone as Chief Engineer for a ship like the Maverick, since she was probably the most advanced galaxy class starship in the fleet, save for the Sovereign class Enterprise, but he picked her. Julia knew it was motivated by her actions during the most recent Borg attack on Earth, on the engineering deck of the Rutherford. As far as Julia was concerned, she had done nothing extraordinary. The Chief Engineer had died when Engineering was hit, with important decisions being needed to be made and at the time she seemed the only one who could do it.

The reward had been the Maverick and as far as Julia was concerned, no prize could have been sweeter.

She loved the ship. She had studied every written specification about the galaxy class ships before even coming on board the Maverick and even then, the texts, the specifications, and manuals were nothing like the reality of actually being on board. Julia was extremely protective about the Maverick and hoped things were not going to hell while she was down here.

Don’t be ridiculous, she told herself.

Lieutenant Chanu was handling things fine in her absence. Her assistant chief engineer was a very capable officer and she knew that she was only complaining because she missed being on the floor of her Engineering Deck. She supposed the nice wide corridors and luxury of a starship was much more comfortable than the surroundings she had found herself in the past day or two. Perhaps when the Leonov’s crew returned to the Maverick to take their medical exams, she would tag along just to see how things were going on in Engineering without her.

Walking along the hull of the Leonov, she took stock of all the damage and found nothing out of the ordinary. The breaches in the hull seemed to be consistent with the kinds of damage inflicted by a violent cosmic storm. She could see the fused edges of metal where the heat had melted it and the bubbles under the finish were consistent with radiation bombardment. The tears were quite extensive and it was fortunate the ship held together as well as they did. While the DY500 ships were quite sturdy, Julia knew they had several design flaws in their structural integrity and were prone to collapsing if faced with enough stress.

She paused a moment and looked out into the landscape which reminded her very much of the lunar surface of Earth’s moon. It felt rather disconcerting to know that in this environment, there was air and gravity where everything about this planetoid should have indicated an airless vacuum. In the distance, there were the edges of mountains and craggy hills, covered with grey dust protrusions of rocks and pebbles across the plains. Glancing at her tricorder, she wondered if infra-red would function on the device and immediately began making the adjustments offering that kind of scanning ability. It was hard to work on such fine equipment when her hands were trapped inside these cumbersome gloves.

Suddenly, a flash of light illuminated the screen with a powerful glare as Julia inadvertently short-circuited the tricorder in her attempt to adjust its inner workings.

"Damn!" She swore angrily as her vision was flooded with bright light and she dropped the tricorder on the ground. The helmet around her head made it impossible to rub her eyes and dispel the temporarily overload to her optical sense. Blinking several times, she tried to focus her vision when suddenly, the oddest thing happened.

In the distance, she saw what looked like another ship.

It appeared on the horizon for only an instant but it was enough to imprint itself on her mind. Julia blinked again to take a better look but when she did, the vessel was gone. For a moment, she simply kept staring at the empty space of land where a ship had been a moment ago and battled with herself at whether it had been real or merely such illusion created by the flash blindness she had received from the tricorder.

Julia was not a person who dismissed things lightly and staring at the horizon at where she had seen the ship a few seconds ago, she knew she was not imagining things. The ship had no quality of illusion or the obscurity that came with a hallucination. What she had seen came with definitive lines and form, she could tell instantly it was a light cruiser, probably Ferengi in origin with a damaged port nacelle. A hallucination did not have that kind of detail and Julia who relied upon what she saw explicitly, knew she was not imagining things.

Still, a hint of doubt remained she could not shake and as she leaned over to pick up her tricorder, wondered if she was not being a little intractable in her belief at what she had seen was real. After all, whatever that had been out there was certainly gone now and the mind was prone to playing tricks on a person on occasion. Dusting off the tricorder that had been the cause of her hallucination, whatever, Julia wondered whether that trip to the Maverick should not wait. Perhaps a visit to Nathan might be warranted.

Glancing up at the Maverick once again, she saw the arrival of another runabout from the great ship in the sky. The vessel was descending steadily, its landing point not too far from where she was, Julia abandoned her inspection for the moment in order to greet the new arrival. She could not imagine who else it could be unless it was Nathan coming down here to drag the Leonov’s crew to the Maverick for their medical examination having grown tired of waiting for them to come of their own volition.

Tucking the damaged tricorder back into the utility belt of her enviro-suit, Julia started across the plain towards the runabout preparing to land.

******

It did not take Julia long to reach the spot selected by the runabout Midkiff as its landing site. It was only less than a hundred yards from where the Perlman had set down and Julia lingered a good distance away as the vessel made its landing on the planetoid. Once the small craft had touched the ground, Julia began walking towards it as its pilot went through the motions of shutting down systems within. By the time she arrived at the main hatch, it had already slid open of its own accord and its lone occupant made its emergence.

Julia could not tell it was Ezra because of the enviro-suit he was wearing until he greeted her with that usual suave voice so capable of taking her somewhere horrendous for a first date. Okay, so she was not quite ready to forgive him yet.

"Lieutenant Pemberton," Ezra said with a smile, glad to see her. Part of the reason he was so insistent on coming down to the planetoid was that he could not stand the thought of her being here when there could be trouble brewing in every single mystery about the place. While his concern was for all his crew mates, Ezra could not deny he was singularly worried about her in a more personal level. "I knew you could not stay mad at me indefinitely. Was it a woman’s intuition that told you the love of your life was coming?"

Julia rolled her eyes and turned away at that statement. "Love of my life, give me a break. I was making an inspection of the outer hull."

"I will take that as a no." Ezra frowned and strode forward to catch up with her.

"I would," she gave him a look behind the glass of her visor. "What are you doing down here?"

"Just keeping an eye on things." He replied, having no wish to make any accusations until he was certain he was right about his suspicions. "The captain is feeling a little trepidation about our lack of information on this charming oasis in space, not to mention the odd behavior of our castaways."

"Yeah," Julia had to agree they were a little odd. "I can see what he means. For a bunch of lifers on a space ship, they haven’t got the faintest idea how anything works. As far as I can see, a lot of the internal damage to the ship could have been taken care of before we turned up. Albeit there’s no engineer about to make the repairs needed for the hull but if I were stuck on this rock for all this time, I’d try to make the place a little more comfortable."

Ezra listened closely and had to agree with her on that point. "I think it is also their determination not to come on board the Maverick for their medical evaluations that has the Captain somewhat concerned."

"You think something is going on don’t you?" She guessed, taking note of the thoughtful expression in those sea colored eyes.

"Have I become an open book to you Lieutenant?" He said with a little smile.

Julia knew he was flirting with her and she could not say she minded it even though she was still rather annoyed at his selection of a place for their first date. Still, she could not deny despite that disastrous outing, she was still extremely attracted to him and that damn smile which made it very hard to stay mad at him. "Don’t flatter yourself."

"It is me or are you more agitated than normal?" Ezra suddenly asked, taking note the cheerful personality  he had come to love….no he was not admitting that yet, care for, was a little surlier than usual. Julia’s demeanor was always that of the optimistic. The cynic in Ezra found it absolutely endearing which was why he felt so much for her and on occasion felt responsible for ensuring her view of life was not altered by any unpleasantness taking place around her.

"Don’t tell me I’m becoming an open book to you." She frowned, clearly disturbed if the lines of annoyance in her face were anything to go by.

"One I would loved to spend a life time pouring over every single treatise and word." He said gallantly and more or less anticipated the look of sarcasm that crossed her lovely face.

"Oh please…" She grumbled and then declaring after a moment. "Its nothing."

However, Ezra knew her far more intimately than she suspected and could see it was not just that. Whatever was on her mind preyed on her thoughts and the security officer in him started to express an interest in her problem as well. "Julia," he said firmly in a voice she knew to be one he used when speaking to subordinate officers which she was, despite their feelings towards each other. "I am interested."

"Okay," she sighed, hoping he did not think she was imagining things just as she suspected of herself. "I thought I saw something in the distance."

Ezra looked at her, all semblance of playful mischief vanishing, replaced instead by the persona of one of the best security officers in the fleet and a trained investigator that had no peer in the sector. "What pray tell did you think you saw?"

"Well its probably nothing," she shrugged. "I shorted out the tricorder and got a bit of flash blindness in the eyes. For a few seconds I was seeing spots and colors and as I was trying to shake it off, I thought I saw a ship on the plains about a five hundred to a thousand yards from where I was standing."

"A ship?" Ezra’s voice became hard. "What kind of ship?"

The intensity of his voice clearly indicated he did not believe she was imagining things and Julia was quick to respond, hearing his confidence in what she had seen. "If I did not know better, it was Ferengi but it was there one second, gone the other."

Ezra did not believe in chance and he certainly did not believe it was her imagination at work. When they had first arrived in this location and observed the Leonov from orbit, the ship appeared to be in a state of severe dilapidation. The notion of salvageable had been problematic at best and yet upon landing on the planetoid and seeing the ship with their own eyes, they found the damage was nowhere as considerable as they were led to believe. However, for all of them, there was a moment when they were not entirely sure what they had seen had not somehow changed.

Now Julia was seeing ships that seemed to appear and disappear in a blink of an eye. It was too much of a coincidence for Ezra to dismiss. "Show me where you saw this ship."

"Ezra," Julia protested. "It’s not there now."

"I would have though you would like to know for certain what you had seen." He returned, waiting in expectation for her to obey his request.

"I do!" She exclaimed. "But it’s gone now."

"Well perhaps, it might choose to reappear if we go for a closer look." Ezra retorted. "Lead the way Lieutenant."

******

Thanks to the strange radiation emanating from the planetoid, there was no way Ezra could report to Buck what they were attempting to do. Although this was hardly a prudent course of action, the security officer was convinced Julia had inadvertently stumbled upon something of importance capable of making headway into explaining the mystery of the planetoid and the Leonov. Ezra had made a career of being able to judge a situation and all his instincts told them it was vital they learnt the truth before it was too late

It did not take them very long to cover the distance to where Julia had seen the ship even though the journey would have been made so much simpler if they were not forced to wear the cumbersome environmental suits. However, Nathan had insisted upon it even though the suits had yet to reveal the evidence of any danger after they were put through the decontamination process on the Maverick. As the Leonov became more distant in the horizon, Ezra could not feeling a sudden chill run down his spine. There was something about this whole situation that upset his usual cool equilibrium and the security officer did not at all like how it felt.

"This is roughly it." Julia announced when they finally reached the general location of where she had seen her phantom ship. "I told you," she regarded the empty plain around them. "Whatever it was it’s gone now."

Ezra kicked a pebble at his feet and thought deeply for a few seconds saying nothing as he considered their next move. "What exactly were you doing when you saw the ship?"

"I was trying to jury rig the tricorder." Julia answered in a measured voice realising what he wanted by wishing her to describe in detail the events leading to the discovery of that mysterious ship. "I was thinking maybe I could get the tricorder to scan in infra-red since nothing else seems to work." She hated the fact that she had not managed to accomplish the task because it would have been interesting to see if it was possible.

"And?" Ezra prompted her along.

"I short circuited the thing. It's these damn gloves," Julia complained. "I couldn’t get the dexterity I needed and I got a bit of flash blindness following the surge. You know how it is when you’re stare at something that’s too bright."

"And that is when you saw your mysterious ship." Ezra remarked, considering her words and coming quickly to the conclusion what needed to be done for them to see it again. After a moment, he looked up at Julia who was waiting in anticipation of a response.

"Can you do it again?"

"What?" She looked at him in question.

"Can you recreate those flashes." He repeated himself. "I believe whatever happened in the wake of that overload allowed you to see something I believe is still here, possibly concealed."

"That’s a stretch…." Julia remarked but saw  he was deadly serious and found herself drawn to what he was saying. It was possible if somewhat unlikely.

"But can you do it?"

"Yes," she nodded and then glanced at the phaser hanging from the belt of his enviro-suit. "In fact, if you give me your phaser I can do a little better than that."

"Do proceed," he said handing her the weapon without hesitation.

Julia immediately set to work on the phaser and explained what she intended as she conducted her modifications. "I should be able to manipulate the phaser frequency to widen its spectrum to provide the flash we need. I wouldn’t advise using it too many times though, its still a phaser energy spectrum I’m manipulating, so our optical nerves won’t be able to tolerate more than too or three flashes before damage sets in."

"Understood." Ezra nodded. He had no desire to harm his eyesight in any shape or form but he was determined to prove his theory about what Julia had seen was correct. He was certain they were on the verge of a momentous discovery and he was willing to risk a little discomfort to learn the truth, if that was what was awaiting them.

In a few minutes she completed what needed doing and beckoned him next to her, so they could both experience the flash at the same time. Julia aimed the weapon at the ground and took a deep breath.

"You ready?" She asked preparing to fire.

"As I will ever be." Ezra answered without any hesitation in his voice and as cool as ever. She admired his ability to maintain that facade of maddening calm and wondered if it was just the job or the fact he was such a skilled gambler, accustomed to hiding his emotions from his opponents.

"Here’s goes." She replied and fired the phaser. The flash of illuminated the world before them in blinding white glare, robbing them of all vision. Instinctively, they blinked in order to protect their eyes from the overload to their optical nerves. However, the effect lasted no more than a second before they finally recovered their senses enough to notice their surroundings.

What they saw was beyond Ezra’s expectations.

Even thought the image before them lasted no more than a second in the short expanse of time it took for their eyes to recover from the brilliant glare of a minute ago, they knew this time it was no illusion. Neither of them could speak as they stared at what lay before them and continued to stare even after their eyes had adjusted themselves once again and robbed them of the added perception.

Ezra had thought they would see one ship. He was wrong.

There were literally hundreds of them, covering the landscape in the narrow margin of time that now seemed like an eternity once they were allowed to see it. In those brief seconds, Ezra spotted the Ferengi cruiser that Julia had sighted earlier. There were also a number of older freighters in a similar state of dilapidation, an Andorian trading ship, a Tholian fighter and even a Vorta Class Klingon Bird of Prey.

"Oh my god." Julia gasped and blinked hard, hoping she could make her eyes see it again, not that it was really required. What had been before them was burned into her memory now.

"I trust you saw that." Ezra wearing his best poker face because he did not want to show her what he had seen had shaken him a little. It was like a graveyard of ships and Ezra had the worst feeling that the Maverick might share that same fate if they did not report what they had seen here.

"I saw it." She nodded. "What the hell is going on?"

"I do not know," Ezra confessed. "However, I do believe it is in our best interests to depart immediately and let the others know what we have found."

"No argument from me." Julia replied as they started towards the Leonov. "Some of those ships are looked like they have been here for years."

"I would not be surprised." Ezra retorted when suddenly, the ground beneath them heaved violently. The tremor was so fierce Ezra could feel it to his bones and caught Julia when the violence almost knocked her off her feet. Both of them struggled to remain standing and saw the earth beneath their feet, literally tearing itself apart. Out of nowhere, a giant fissure appeared in the ground and started running towards them.

"Come on!" Ezra shouted, grabbing her arm as they began running to escape the calamity coming at them.

They both ran as fast as they could to avoid being swallowed into the earth as the fissure pursued them, almost as if what was happening was not a natural phenomenon but rather a directed attack. The enviro-suits made it difficult to gain any speed and Ezra knew they did not have the speed to escape it. If they were going to survive this, they would have to make a jump for it.

"Take my arm!" He ordered and glanced over his shoulder long enough to know they would only have one chance at this.

Julia nodded and felt herself being dragged along as Ezra jumped to the side of the fissure, trying to place themselves in a parallel position instead of being in front of it. The security chief made it to safety but Julia felt air beneath her legs and her entire body weight dragging her into the depths as she lost her footing.

"Julia!" Ezra screamed when he realized she had not quite cleared the edge he did. Without thinking, he lashed out and grabbed her arm, holding on for dear life as her weight pulled him towards the edge before he managed to stop himself from joining her, suspended over the edge of the abyss. Julia dangled precariously in the air, with only his arm to keep her from free falling into the deep crevasse that had opened up beneath the fissure. The split in the earth had halted but the ground was still trembling.

"Hold on!" He ordered as he fumbled for his utility belt and produced the tether line that was an absolute safety precaution when space walking on the outer hull. Aiming the sharp point carefully, he fired the tether into the ground and secured himself as he started to pull her up from over the craggy edge of the rock. The bottom of the crevasse was so dark he had no idea how far she would fall if he did not manage to hold on, thus giving him further incentive to strengthen his grip.

She stared at him wide eyed with fear, forcing herself not to look down, grinding her teeth as she clung to the life line that was his arm. After what seemed an eternity, Ezra finally pulled her up over the top and Julia collapsed alongside him, breathing just as hard from fear as he was from the exertion. Uncaring about how unprofessional it might be, she embraced him tight and clung to him for a few minutes, allowing her terror to bleed away by the security of his arms around her.

"That was too close." She panted when her heart had stopped pounding long enough to let her speak.

Ezra tried not to show he was affected by her closeness because they were far from being out of trouble just yet and this was hardly the time for him to be overcome by his feelings for her.

"And too coincidental." Ezra remarked, clearing his throat as he stood up and offered her his hand. Julia took it gratefully as he helped her to her feet. "We need to get back to the ship."

"If it will let us." Julia declared as the earth shuddered even more violently than before.

"We will no doubt make a most determined effort," he stated boldly when suddenly an explosion of sound filled their ears with a tremendous roar. The shockwave of noise swept them both off their feet and this time nothing was going to soften the impact of their landing. It felt like they were caught in the eye of a tremendous storm and as they struggled to upright again, Ezra heard another sound through the roaring in his ears. It was like the grinding of stone or the movement of something extremely large.

"Julia!" Ezra grabbed the engineer and held on to her, determined they not get separated while caught in the grip of whatever was happening around them. However, he need not have worried, for just as suddenly as the gale force winds and powerful roar had erupted, it stopped and everything was dead quiet once more.

"What the hell is going on!" Julia swore as she looked up from the crook of his arm.

"I think this more than just a coincidence." Ezra mused, somewhat dazed as his eyes looked upward at something over her shoulder. Julia turned around and gasped inside her helmet.

Standing before them on what should have been a stretch of flat plain leading back to the Leonov and the runabout, was a mountain.

It was difficult to take stock of time when one was in space. Without that most basic measurement of linear time, being sunrise and sunset, hours could go by before one would start to wonder if the day was actually progressing or where they trapped in amber. On the planetoid where the Leonov found itself stranded, it was particularly prolific even though it remained in orbit around a planet. It hung there in place, not even conducting its own revolution in the cycle universal for every stellar body that was known to exist in the vastness of space. The planetoid was a contradiction by every science they knew and yet it existed, its mystery deepening like the vintage of a fine wine.

Although Commander Buck Wilmington’s reports to the Maverick indicated everything transpiring on the Leonov was going according to schedule, he was by no means allowing himself to believe his own propaganda. Much of his words were to assure Chris the situation was nominal because his captain could be rather an alarmist especially when it came to the safety of his crew. Not that Buck was similarly complacent about the welfare of his people either. He was just as fanatical about keeping them alive as Chris but just did not show it as much.

He knew there was something odd going on with the crew of the Leonov even though for the moment, they had not made any move that could be considered suspicious other than their adamant refusal to go on board the Maverick to undergo their medical evaluations. Buck also noticed for a space-faring crew planet bound for almost a year, they did not seem terribly eager to get off the rock that had been their prison during that time. There were other little things, like their lack of skill in conducting even the most basic repairs to the ship’s system that raised his suspicion a little. Buck had known a few private ship captains and knew they expected their personnel to be extremely skilled and multi-faceted.

He also noticed Julia’s engineering team had to show them how to conduct work on their own ship and while he said nothing, Buck was keeping them under a close vigil because something about all this did not feel right. While he was supervising the repairs to the bridge, his constant companion had been the young girl named Aislynn who was as curious as any sixteen-year old who had never been beyond the planet of her birth. However, Buck had the feeling she was staying with him not merely because he was interesting to listen to but for a more clandestine purpose.

Despite the ulterior motives, he did recognize she had some deeper feeling for him that went beyond surveillance. He could see the way her eyes sparkled when she listened to him speak and each word was swallowed eagerly, like a tasty morsel from a meal she could not get enough. She wanted to hear about the planets he had visited, whether space was really as vast as it was reputed to be and how she wanted to see its beauty. Yet despite this, she was just as reluctant as the others to return to the Maverick to pay a call to sickbay.

Buck could not say he minded her adulation since the attention of women, wanted or unwanted was something he was very accustomed to dealing with in his life. As far as he was concerned, she was still a child and was to be treated as such even though when she grew to adulthood, he had no doubt she would be a stunning beauty. However, Buck had no intention of taking advantage of her youthful naiveté and said nothing to encourage her, even though he did not mind satisfying her curiosity about the outside world.

Buck spent most of his time on the bridge, repairing the damaged sensor grid since it appeared none of the senior staff of the Leonov could do it themselves. Kelisan claimed it was the job of the Chief Engineer to deal with such things and with the lack of skilled workers out there, he had to be satisfied with finding personnel who could perform their individual tasks and not the work of an engineering crew as well.

The Starfleet Away Team had been accustomed to dining together during their tenure on the Leonov mostly because it gave them a chance to appraise each other on the progress of the work being conducted on the older ship. While they invited the Leonov’s crew to join them, the offer was usually declined because Kelisan claimed his people were used to unusual eating habits following their lengthy incarceration. Apparently, their way of coping with the boredom was to abandon the concept of any routine and this included traditional meal times. Buck supposed it was not that surprising after all long-term isolation had a strange effect on people and Kelisan’s crew was probably trying to adjust to being around others again.

He assumed for the moment.

They gathered in the main cargo deck and broke out their ration packs. Buck observed the empty cargo hold had been modified to accommodate livestock. There were no signs of the animals confined within the area and Buck did not like to imagine what would have happened to those creatures once the Leonov’s food supplies had started to dwindle. With the Federation subsisting on a protein transformed by food replicators into the meal of choice, most humans no longer ate meat. However, Buck supposed when one was hungry enough, it was understandable they would be abandoned particular prejudice.

JD was the last to enter the cargo hold. The youth seemed a little troubled which always gave Buck reason for concern because JD’s was his specific responsibility and Buck could not deny feeling a little more for the boy than simple concern as his commanding officer. JD was a bright kid and he was eager to learn.  Buck also had a feeling he was viewed by the young ensign as something of a paternal figure, a role he never called onto play but felt singularly honored to be considered a such.

"Something up?" He asked as JD picked up one of the ration packs and sat down on a crate next to him. However, Buck noticed JD was making no mood to tear into the meal even though previous experience told the first officer JD had something of a voracious appetite and anything that could occupy his mind to such an extent, must have been important.

"Have you seen Lieutenant Pemberton around?"

Now Buck thought about it, he had not seen her in a few hours. "No, I haven’t." Tendrils of unease ran up his spine as he tried to remember when was the last time he sighted the titian-haired Chief Engineer.

"She said something about inspecting the large breaches on the hull but that was a couple of hours ago," JD commented, trying not to let his lack of experience make him a worry wort but he could not help it. He worked with the lady closely the last few days and he was accustomed to her checking in with him since they were working so closely with the repairs. The sudden silence from her, especially since their area of confinement was so small, worried him.

"Have you checked outside?" Buck asked, hating it more than ever the strange dampening field around the planet did not allow them to use their com badges. "Maybe she took a little longer than usual. You know what engineers are like when they get stuck into something." However, even as he said that he knew it was not true. He had given every member of the Away Team strict instructions about communication protocols because of the peculiarities of this planetoid and the answers about it they did not have.

"I checked outside," JD answered being as thorough as possible before he brought the subject up with Buck. Even though he had a close personal relationship with Buck Wilmington, the man was still the first officer and expected him to behave accordingly, their friendship aside. "She’s not out there. I also walked to the runabout, just in case she might have had to go back there, but she wasn’t there either and it looks like someone else came down from the Maverick, the Midkiff is there next to the Perlman."

"Someone else?" Buck looked at him. "Who?" Buck asked since the Captain said nothing to him about sending someone else down when they had been speaking to each other during his scheduled report. However, he was aware Chris had a lot of reservations about the planetoid and it would not be that much of surprise if Chris sent someone else down to join the Away mission if it were warranted.

"I don’t know," JD answered. "They weren’t there either."

"Well, this is damn strange," Buck grumbled and regarded the rest of the Away Team. "Anyone been in contact with Lieutenant Pemberton?"

The collection of muted expressions and shaking heads confirmed Buck’s worst suspicion and that bad feeling started to swell in his chest with increasing intensity.

"I don’t like this Buck," JD said quietly when it was discovered no one had seen their chief engineer in several hours. "This ain’t like her."

"It isn’t," Buck frowned in agreement and then added. "And I’m with you about not liking anything about this either."

******

Following the discovery that Julia Pemberton was missing as well as the officer or officers who came down on the runabout Midkiff, Buck promptly organized a search party to begin scouring the area for the missing members of the Away Team. As anticipated, the crew of Leonov was eager to aid them in their search but Buck decided for reasons he could not define just yet,  it was best they remained in the ship. Giving the excuse the repairs needed to continue and leaving a few token engineering officers behind to complete the facade, Buck and the rest of the Away Team fanned out from the Leonov and began their search.

He and JD made their way to the runabout, deciding to conduct an aerial search of the terrain to cover more ground. He did not want to alert Chris to the situation just yet, not until they were certain their concerns were not alarmist. However, Buck was more or less certain Julia was missing through no fault of her own. If there was one thing he had learned about their chief engineer, the woman was too much of a professional to simply go wandering off when there was so much about this planetoid they did not know.

"Why didn’t you want Kelisan to help us?" JD asked as they quickly crossed the space between the Leonov and the runabout.

"Someone needs to stay behind and keep an eye on things in case Julia comes back," Buck replied, not about to cast aspersions on the Leonov when there was no proof of their complicity in the lady’s disappearance.

"Who do you think came down?" He inquired as they sighted the second runabout in the distance.

"Well, the security code will tell me who was on board," Buck replied with every intention of ascertaining the identity of the new arrival. "My money’s on Ezra though."

"You think so?" JD asked, not as certain. "He’s got enough security people down here, why would the Captain send him down personally?"

"Because Ezra, apart from being the sneakiest son of a gun when it comes to card playing is also the most astute investigator I have ever had the pleasure of working with. If the man gets a scent of trouble, he’ll hang onto it like a bulldog to a steak. I know he’s been a little antsy about what’s happening here so he probably wanted to come down and keep an eye on things himself."

"So they could be together." JD pointed out.

"They could," Buck nodded in agreement as they reached the runabout, Midkiff. "However if I find out Ezra was here and they both went off somewhere without checking in then he’s going to be helping Julia clean the warp core with a toothbrush for the next week." The first officer said unimpressed if the duo had met up and taken off somewhere on their own without letting anyone know, particularly if they got in trouble because of it.

JD swallowed, hoping Ezra had a very good reason for their absence but could not imagine their actions to be a deliberate oversight. Ezra was the most measured person he knew and was confident the security chief would not have taken off without a very good reason. Upon arriving at the roundabout, they activated the locking mechanism and the runabout’s main hatch slid open awaiting their entrance. The locking mechanism on the roundabout was accessible only if the personal code of a Starfleet officer was keyed into its access panel. The verification process was a safety measure that prevented hostiles from taking command of a choice piece of Starfleet equipment.

Upon entering the small vessel, Buck immediately called up the last personnel code to be entered and was unsurprised that it was indeed Ezra who had brought the Midkiff to the planetoid. Despite his earlier words to JD about Ezra being negligent, in truth Buck did not believe it for a second and knew Ezra was much too smart to behave so recklessly especially if he was already suspicious.

"Okay," Buck said after a moment’s consideration. "We can’t assume they’re together even if it is the most likely possibility."

"If they aren’t together, then what do you think happened to them?" JD asked, not liking the concept of either Julia or Ezra coming to any harm.

He liked Julia who happened to be one of the few people on the ship who did not treat him like a kid, with Vin Tanner being another and Casey who really did not really count when he thought about it at great depth. Julia took the time to listen to his ideas when he expressed them and had singled out his opinions during the course of the repair work needed carrying out on the Leonov. She made him feel as if he was every bit as talented as those lecturers at the Academy claimed, even though JD was not quite ready to believe anyone of them yet.

"In this place, who knows?" Buck grumbled until he noticed the concern in JD’s eyes and realized the kid was still too green to be able to properly handle the notion death was apart of life on board a starship and wondered what it was like to feel that young. In either case, there was no reason for JD to be faced with the darker realities of a being a career fleet officer just yet. He could stand to be given some time to grow the calluses they all did with experience.

"JD," Buck said gently. "I’m sure if they’re all right. I haven’t seen anything yet that has been able to get the better of either Ezra Standish or Julia Pemberton. I’ll bet by the time you and I done scouring the place for them, they’ll probably be back at the Leonov wondering what all the fuss was about." The first office gave the younger man a smile of confidence hoping that would be enough.

JD brightened a little, aware Buck was trying to make him feel better and was not so ungrateful he would allow the effort to go unrewarded. Besides, Buck could be right.

"Sure Buck." He nodded.

"Now close the hatch," Buck instructed, gesturing to the main hatch of the roundabout as he nestled himself into the pilot’s seat and prepared the vessel for launch.

One way or another, they were going to find Julia and Ezra, even if they had to turn over every rock on this asteroid.

******

Unfortunately, after a few hours of circumnavigating the asteroid from the air, the two Starfleet officers were rewarded with little that could be considered successful. It did not help they had to make most of their search through visual confirmation since the sensors on board the runabout were useless with the dampening field that seemed to emanate from the surface of the half-world. While JD was certain he saw nothing as he peered out the window of the runabout as it skimmed the surface, Buck knew it was easy to miss things at the speeds they were traveling. No matter how thoroughly he had attempted to search, Buck could not omit the possibility they could have flown right over their missing comrades without the slightest clue. He only hoped the terrestrial search parties had better luck.

Upon returning to the Leonov, Buck found no such evidence and the security team who scoured the area as far as they could, discovered no sign of either the security chief or their engineer. Despite himself, Buck knew Julia and Ezra could not have gone far unless an outside force carried them away. Since no one had seen anything to indicate that, he had to assume however they might have become lost in the barren wilderness beyond the Leonov, they had reached that point on their own steam.

Kelisan somberly informed him after his return to the Leonov it was possible that Julia and Ezra could have fallen prey to the treacherous ravines or gullies littering the surface of the asteroid. A number of his own crew had fallen into newly formed fissures or some other hazard newly created by the unstable planetoid. Buck found it exceedingly difficult to believe the Tellerite made no mention of such dangers prior to this moment. He began to get the impression Kelisan was almost trying to produce an excuse for the disappearance of his people and that deepened his disbelief even more.

As the time drew closer to the appointed hour of his next scheduled report to the Maverick, Buck decided he no choice but to tell the captain they were missing two crewmen, aware of how Chris was going to react. Not that Buck feared his response or anything. It was just Chris had a tendency to take it extremely hard whenever they lost an officer, no matter how much the circumstances were beyond his control.

He had been this way ever since Sarah and Adam had died.

Still, Chris was his Captain and Buck was his First Officer. The Captain needed to be appraised of the situation and it was Buck’s duty to tell him. Like a man about to face a firing squad, Buck returned to the runabout in order to take the small vessel into orbit and contact the Maverick. Sometimes, a firing squad was preferable to telling Chris Larabee it was possible they might not have only lost two valuable officers but also too good friends.

******

Captain Chris Larabee said nothing as he listened to Buck’s report, feeling the tension run through his chest as he heard the words and allowed it to seep into his consciousness. Vin Tanner and Alexandra Styles did not make comment as the words echoed through the bridge following the report of the disappearance of Ezra Standish and Julia Pemberton, further worsened by the fact their attempts to locate the duo were more or less useless. Buck tried to sound hopeful but the first officer knew just as everyone else on the bridge was perfectly aware without their scanning equipment, that hope was fleeting.

In the scale of the things, the planetoid was barely the size of the moon but when conducting a search without the use of multiphasic scanners, it might as well have been the size of the universe.

Chris listened to everything Buck said, letting the words seep into his mind as he made his decision. From the very onset, the mystery around the planetoid bothered him and now it appeared there was good reason for his concerns because his people were missing and there wasn’t a damn thing they could do about it other than scour the place on foot. Chris almost wished they had a few bloodhounds to do the job since they were faced with a search on the most primitive level.

"They couldn’t have gone far." Buck continued to say, trying to reassure Chris as much as he was trying to reassure himself. The stony expression on the Captain’s face did not do much to boost his confidence in the success of his ability to assuage the concerns of his commanding officer. "They’re on foot so we’ll find them."

Chris nodded as he came to a decision he had yet to impart on Buck or the rest of his bridge crew. It was the decision he should have made at the start of all this. Instead, he had taken a gamble on a worthless wreck of a ship when it was clear there was some force at work on the planetoid beyond their understanding and by the looks of it, beyond their control. He released the breath he had been holding when all the opinions were made and all the reports were given.

"Buck," he looked up as his fingers relaxed from where they had been digging into the arms of his command chair. "I want you to go back to the Leonov and abandon the plans to salvage her."

"But Chris..."

"I mean it, Commander," Chris said with just enough intensity in his voice to tell Buck not to argue with him on this point. "I want the Engineering team and the crew of Leonov on the Maverick within the hour. The security team will remain behind to continue the search but I want everyone else off that planetoid immediately."

"Captain," Buck cleared his throat, "I don’t think that survivors of the Leonov will agree to leave the ship behind."

"I don’t really care if they do or not." Chris continued. His voice remained neutral but it hardened even more if such a thing was possible. The bridge had gone deathly silent with no one daring to breathe too loudly for sake of intruding on the debate presently taking place between the Captain and the first officer. "They are leaving if I have to sent the entire security complement on board the Maverick to remove them physically. Explain to them Commander this is not subject to negotiation. I won’t risk anyone else down there. Do we understand each other?"

Buck nodded slowly and all expression bled out of his face. "Aye Captain."

Chris had no wish to speak so harshly to Buck but he had no intention of letting this situation continue. He should not have risked his people on that unknown in the first place and he was not making the same mistake twice. No ship was worth the price of his crew or the lives of civilians, no matter how stubborn they were.

"Buck," Chris’ voice softened just so that his old friend understood the order was made from a Captain to his first officer, with no personal feelings involved. "You know I’m right."

"Yeah I do," Buck said with a sigh, begrudgingly forced to admit it was the wisest course of action. If he were the man in charge, he would be making the same decision himself. In some ways, he was grateful that he was not. "We’ll be back on the Maverick within the hour."

"Good," Chris offered his first officer a smile as their communication channel was closed but somehow, he knew it was not going to be that simple.

A sixth sense told him that their troubles with the Leonov were just beginning.

As anticipated, the crew of the Leonov was not at all happy to leave their ship behind hearing the latest orders from Chris Larabee following the disappearance of Julia Pemberton and Ezra Standish. Kelisan, in particular, was particularly vocal about the order to abandon the vessel. While Buck could appreciate the man’s passion as well as loyalty in salvaging his ship, it incensed the first officer the man could be so single-minded about an inanimate object when the lives of his crew might be endangered with what was taking place on board the planetoid.

"But you said you would be salvaging her." Kelisan barked, the full heat of his Tellerite origins surfacing in his face as he argued his point vehemently.

"Yes we did," Buck replied, reminding himself to maintain his calm despite the obstinate behavior of these people and their ludicrous attachment to a ship when the possibility of their existence being in danger by their prolonged determination to remain on board. "However, you must admit the circumstances have changed."

JD who was standing close by could see the first officer was very close to losing his temper with the Tellerite and was using extreme control to rein in his anger. Surrounding them, the crew of the Leonov was witnessing the debate taking place between Buck and their captain with open hostility to the idea of departing the planetoid evident on their faces. Just like Buck, JD was just as confused by their determination to stay. It was not as if they were abandoning the Leonov forever, they were merely leaving for the moment until it could be adequately determined what it was that had taken their crew members.

"You do not know the circumstances have changed in the way you have foreseen." The Tellerite accused. "Am I not to understand that Chief Engineer Pemberton and Security Chief have some kind of shipboard romance between them?"

Considering their last date, hardly. Buck thought to himself inwardly but bristled visibly at that being brought up. "Yes, they do." He answered in a cool, measured voice reminding himself losing his temper would avail him nothing.

"Then is it not possible they could be off somewhere together?" The man looked at him, daring him to say otherwise.

The ripple of outrage did not confine itself to just Buck Wilmington, the engineering crew who had packed up their tools and were waiting to depart were similarly disgruntled by such aspersions being cast on their very professional Chief Engineer. Not to mention the dark expressions being given off by Ezra’s equally loyal security team who knew their commanding officer well enough to know he would never indulge in such irresponsible behavior and took exception to the Tellerite accusing him of such.

"Starfleet officers do not ‘go off’ somewhere while they’re on Away Missions. Personally, I find your tone offensive, Sir."

"He didn’t mean it, Buck." Aislynn who had been watching the exchange with just as much scrutiny as everyone else, immediately piped up, seeing that Buck was not at all impressed by Kelisan’s accusation.

"Stay out of this child!" Kelisan shouted at the girl and she shrank back in fear, giving Buck another reason to add to his growing dislike of the man’s behavior from his actions to date.

"Don’t take it out on her." Buck defended the young woman automatically. "You are out of line and she’s smart enough to know it. "My people do not go wandering about and if they are not here now, its because something has kept them from returning to this ship. Now everything about this planetoid doesn't make sense. We can't scan it, we can’t explain how it does any of the things that it does but its here and now its taken two of my officers. The captain feels no one else should remain on the surface while we are at a loss to explain what has happened to them. His orders are not made lightly and are certainly not up for debate. I am telling you Mr. Kelisan we are leaving, I am not asking."

"You can’t take us off this place if we do not wish to go." Kelisan retorted, his manner posturing itself in readiness for defiance.

"Under normal circumstances, you would be correct " Buck conceded, almost at the end of his patience at just how more time he was going to waste with the man on this point. "However, as you are all citizens of the Federation, Starfleet has the jurisdiction to remove you from a location if we feel that your lives are being endangered so I’m afraid that you don’t really have a choice in the matter."

"You would not dare!" The man fairly hissed in outrage.

"I have can have a dozen security officers down here in a minute who will say otherwise," Buck replied just as hotly. He was in no mood to waste time arguing this matter anymore when this should have been a moot point. While Buck would prefer not to waste the time of the security team whose efforts would be more usefully employed continuing the search for Ezra and Julia, he would be willing to get those dozen officers down to the planetoid just to make his point.

"So you would drag us off against our wills?" One of the Leonov’s crew exclaimed with pure dislike in her face as she glared at Buck.

"In a minute," Buck replied. "We are not abandoning your ship under any circumstances but we are simply taking the precaution of moving everyone the Maverick until we find out what’s going on. This is as much for your safety as it is for our ability to search for our missing crew without dividing our resources and guarding you at the same time."

"We do not need guardians!" Kelisan barked. "We have taken care of ourselves for the last year without Starfleet’s help."

"Yes but I am assuming," Buck turned a high powered gaze at him, watching the man’s reaction at his next words. "I am assuming none of your people have gone missing like this during that time or is there something Mr. Kelisan you're not telling us?"

Kelisan felt silent abruptly and at that moment, Buck knew whatever was happening on the planetoid was unknown to the Tellerite. Until this moment, the first officer had his suspicions about the intentions of the Leonov’s crew but Kelisan’s reaction of a few seconds ago finally confirmed it. While Buck was not prepared to take the man to task at this immediate moment, he was however on guard about how much the Leonov’s crew should be involved with the rescue operations and more or less agreed completely with Chris’ desire to get them on board the Maverick immediately.

"Of course not…" Kelisan swallowed, trying to cover himself. "I merely stated we do not need to be guarded by your people."

"Of course," Buck replied, giving JD a look that told the young ensign he did not believe for a minute the excuse the man had just tried to give him. "I will expect you and your people, ready within the hour to begin transportation back to the Maverick. Am I understood?"

The Tellerite bristled at having to take orders from the Starfleet officer but Buck had given him no choice. For him to continue refusing to transport to the starship would indicate he and his people had something to hide. "Yes," he replied, determined to save face, however. "But just you know when we return to the nearest Starbase, I intend launching a formal protest against you and your Captain for your conduct in this matter, Commander."

The Starfleet personnel present were not at all impressed by the threat made to their captain and their first officer but being professionals, remained silent, allowing Buck Wilmington to handle the situation for himself.

"That is your prerogative Mr. Kelisan," Buck said coolly, not at all intimidated by the threat. As far as he was concerned, Kelisan was trying to save face in front of his people and made the remark for that effort alone, even if it was more or less an empty threat. Their reasons for rescuing these people who were almost out of rations and supplies from this rock was an act of mercy, not of kidnapping. "However, until that happens, I suggest you make ready to leave."

Kelisan gave him a hateful glare and made a loud snorting noise with his porcine appendage before turning on his heels and storming away, the rest of the Leonov’s crew going with him as they walked off the main deck. JD watched them go and did not approach Buck who was staring at the civilians as they left.

"I didn’t think they were gonna put up that much of a fight."

"I didn’t either," Buck confessed. "But it proves something though."

"What?" JD looked at him.

"That they know what’s going on." The first officer replied, not meeting the ensign’s gaze as he spoke. "Whatever is going on this planetoid, they know all about it."

******

As Buck issued new orders to the security team in their search for Julia and Ezra, JD busied himself with helping out with the final preparations by the engineering team to depart the ship. As the technicians gathered their tools and collected any equipment they might have brought down from the Maverick to aid with the repairs to the Leonov, JD concentrated his efforts on the bridge where he and Buck had been attempting to reconstruct the destroyed sensor array as per Julia’s instructions. The crew of the Leonov was nowhere to be seen and JD assumed they were gathering their belongings reluctantly in order to leave the ship.

Most of the bridge systems were functioning after the last two days of repair and JD found himself idling through the log entries, ship manifests and other data stored in the computer core. Much of the information on record dealt mostly with the destinations and port of calls for the Leonov in the six months prior to their unceremonious arrival here. The Leonov dealt mostly with the Lysian home world, ferrying everything from rare spices to seed grain like quadratriticale and even to breeding livestock.

In fact, according to the ship’s manifest, the Leonov had been delivering animals to Lysia for the establishment of some kind of zoo when the Borg attacked. In the ship’s efforts to escape the Collective, it was inadvertently caught in the cosmic storm that saw it being marooned here. The animals that should have been transported to Lysia remained in the cargo hold and JD ruminated on that information for a moment. When they had seen the cargo hold, they wondered what happened to the livestock in the process of transport.

Initially, they had assumed the creatures had been killed during the contamination by Berthold rays however, the cargo hold sustained no damage. It stood out in JD’s memory because it was one of the few places that did not sustain damage on the ship which was something of a standout in itself. JD supposed the Leonov’s crew could have mercifully destroyed the animals if they had made it to the planetoid alive,  to conserve their meager supplies since eating them was impossible and some were definitely not meant for that purpose. Among the collection was a Selurian minx cat, an exotic animal that used to be hunted for its pelt. JD hated to think such a lovely animal would have been destroyed.

He would have liked to have asked Kelisan about what happened to the live cargo but at the moment the atmosphere with the forced departure of the crew from the Leonovmade that ill-advised. Still, he wondered how absurd it must have been to have all that live cargo when so many of the crew died. It must have been a double blow to Kelisan and his companions. While JD shared Buck’s belief Kelisan was hiding something about the planetoid, JD could not bring himself to think the man would engineer the death of almost 240 members of his own crew.

"Hey JD," Ensign Antonia Starke, a youthful member of the engineering team just as new to the Maverick and deep space assignments as he was, called to him as she made her way past the open doors of the bridge.

"Hey Antonia," JD greeted the pretty blond. "You getting the last of the equipment in Engineering?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "Low man on the rung gets to do all the dirty work."

"I know what you mean," he laughed. "It ain’t all that much different from the bridge." It was nice to talk to someone his own age and understood what it was like to struggle for acceptance around much more seasoned officers.

"At least you’re where the action is." She pointed out and JD could not argue with her on that point. It was not bad being around such heady company when that company included the Captain, the First Officer, and every command ranking officer on board the Maverick.

"Okay, you got me." He conceded defeat. "You need a hand?" He was aware some of the equipment could be quite heavy.

"No, I should be okay, thanks though." She said gratefully at the offer. "Well, I’ll see you top side when I’m done." She flashed him a smile before continuing on her way down the corridor towards the engineering deck.

"Take care," JD called out as she disappeared down the corridor, pondering for seconds why he had said that before brushing it aside completely.

This place was getting to him.

******

JD was so cute, Antonia Starke thought as she continued down the corridor through the length of the Leonov. If it was not for the fact he was already dating Yeoman Wells, Antonia would not have mind asking him out. However, it was not in her vocabulary to infringe upon territory spoken for already, no matter how delicious his boyish smile was or how tempting the need to brush away that unruly strand of hair always falling over his face. Antonia turned down the metal stairs leading into the engineering deck and descended deeper into the dimly lit bowels of the ship.

Despite herself, she could not say she minded getting out of this old wreck. There was something about its gritty insides and its surfaces of dull grey that made her skin crawl. Antonia, who preferred the well-illuminated cleanliness of a starship, could see little reason to salvage this rather dilapidated and obsolete piece of spaceship. However, she supposed the Leonov meant something to the crew since they appeared so reluctant to leave it and wondered what it was about this rusty bucket of bolts that drew so much affection.

As she stepped onto the engineering deck, she felt a slight chill as she heard her footsteps clanging against the metal deck and suddenly became aware of how quiet it was. When she was with the others, the ominous feeling of the place had not been so apparent. However, now that she was alone, the shadows seemed to loom larger than before and she felt her heart quickening in a fear a little. She knew she was being a little ridiculous but Antonia could not help it. Forcing away the slight flutter suddenly appearing in her stomach, she looked to the heart of the engineering deck was the warp core was situated and made her way there.

Most of the work undertaken by the Maverick’s engineering crew was focused on this particular area and the last of the equipment was stored in one place for easy collection when they were ready to depart. Reaching the equipment, she quickly knelt down and began collecting everything she was able to carry, trying to ignore the slight trembling that developed in her hands as she wrapped her fingers around the tools and packed them away in their appropriate cases.

Behind her, the silence was just as permeating and Antonia told herself again for the hundredth time she was being utterly ridiculous. This was a spaceship. It had no more ability to harm her than the tool she was holding in her hand. Besides, there was no one on this rock, they had established that fairly early on.

But Lieutenant Pemberton and Commander Standish were still missing.

Her inner voice made that statement, much to her chagrin, since Antonia was doing her level best not to encourage the train of thought her mind was suddenly embarking upon. There was nothing to fear and she was a Starfleet officer for goodness sake!

Suddenly, she heard a voice behind her and immediately, stood upright and swung around. Her heightened senses were playing havoc with her fears more than they should. However, upon turning around she found herself face to face with the Leonov’s navigator, Janice Auel.

"I’m sorry if I startled you," Janice smiled at the younger woman. "I just came to get a few things."

"That’s all right," Antonia let out a sigh of relief, feeling a little silly for letting her fears get the better of her. "I was starting to think my mind was playing tricks on me." The young woman confessed to the navigator who merely offered her another enigmatic smile.

Before she produced a phaser and fired.

******

By the time JD emerged from the Leonov, the last of the security teams searching for Julia and Ezra had returned. Judging by the somber expression on Buck’s face as the young ensign went to join his commanding officer, JD guessed they had not uncovered any trace of their missing crewmen. No one wanted to think the worst but it was becoming increasingly harder to not think that way when there was no evidence to disprove it. There was not the slightest trace of either Ezra or Julia anyway, not even tracks that might have given the others some idea of which direction they may have headed before they became lost to the others.

"No luck?" JD asked Buck as he went joined the first officer who was the edge of the group, staring into the horizon of the dead world, trying to see something past the craggy ridges and barren landscape for some idea of what might have happened to his friends.

"No," Buck shook his head. "The search parties have looked everywhere and turned up nothing."

"You know," JD sighed heavily, feeling the loss constrict his chest with the possible loss of his comrades and then forced away from the emotion because he refused to give up on them just yet. "Don’t you think it’s kind of weird that we haven’t found anything?"

Buck looked at him, something in his words sparking interest immediately. "What do you mean?"

"Well," JD was grasping at straws but the idea has just arisen in his head and he wondered if it might not have some merit worth mentioning. "Even if something bad had happened to them and I’m not saying that it has but even if it did, we should find something."

The kid had a point. There was no evidence of anything to show what might have happened to them, not even a footprint in the dirt. While this atmosphere had breathable air, there was no wind or any kind of weather that would allow tracks to degrade. Buck had no idea what he had stumbled onto but he was certain it was important.

"You got a point kid."

"I don’t know if it means anything." JD shrugged, not willing to take credit too soon when it was merely idle speculation, not anything important.

"Every little bit helps." He said with a smile, not above giving the kid his due even if the mood was less than cheery. "Keep making your observations. Enough of them might give us an idea of what’s going on."

"Thanks," JD said trying not to seem embarrassed but he was a little whenever Buck complimented him, even though inwardly he was a proud as hell whenever he pleased Buck. Letting his gaze sweep across the group that was preparing to leave, he noticed not all of the engineering crew was present even though the survivors of the Leonov was gathered reluctantly together, taking stock of their belongings.

"You sent some of the crew ahead?" JD asked.

"Yeah," Buck nodded. "I want to get the engineering crew out of here first on the Midkiff and we can take the civilians up on the Perlman." The first officer glanced at Kelisan and his people who did not at all look happy at the prospect of leaving. "The security team will stay behind, make another sweep of the place."

"And if they don’t find Ezra and Julia?" JD asked, not particularly desiring an answer but he was hoping Buck might have one that did not broke an unhappy outcome.

Buck let out a deep sigh. "Then we have to come up with another plan." He said with every indication he would tear this planetoid apart with his bare hands if it was what was required to find Julia and Ezra.

JD looked around and saw that Ensign Starke was not among the members of the engineering crew still with the main group. "Did Antonia go with the others?"

"You mean Ensign Starke?" Buck asked, trying to place a name to a face and remembered a petite blond who seemed to have a little thing for JD until Casey had come into the picture.

"Yeah," JD nodded, "I saw her in the Leonov when I was finishing up on the bridge. Didn’t she come back?"

"No," Buck replied, his brow furrowing because he knew he had not counted her among the number of the engineering technicians sent to the Midkiff. "Hey, anyone see Ensign Starke around?"

It was soon verified they had not.

However, if JD thought things were bad with the apparent disappearance of Ensign Starke, then arrival of the engineering crew who had been sent to the runabout Midkiff and by that extension back to the Maverick were soon to shed a new definition on the word trouble.

"What is it?" Buck demanded upon reaching the returning group. "I gave strict orders for you to return to the ship."

"I know Sir," a rather confused lieutenant struggled to explain. "But there’s a problem."

"A problem?" Buck did not at all like the sound of this. "What sort of problem?"

"The runabouts Sir," the younger man stammered as JD cast a brief glimpse at Kelisan and his people and noticed they were unsurprised by the sudden turn of events. If anything, they even appeared somewhat smug about it.

"What about the runabouts?" Buck asked, starting to feel something terribly ominous about to run into them with the speed of a comet.

"They’re gone."

"Gone?" JD exclaimed. "How could runabouts just disappear?"

"It wasn’t that they weren’t there," the lieutenant struggled to explain. "It was just we couldn’t find where we left them."

The situation was worsening.

Chris Larabee sat at his command chair saying nothing but both Alexandra Styles and Vin Tanner knew exactly where the Captain’s mind was placed at this moment. The Away Team was one hour overdue from its scheduled return from the planetoid’s surface and as far as Chris Larabee was concerned, it was an hour too long. Thanks to the dampening field surrounding the spacial body, there was no way to ascertain what was causing the delay and with each lingering moment of silence, the Captain was becoming further unsettled. Every member of the bridge crew was all too familiar with Buck’s professionalism and knew he would not allow such an extended period of silence to lapse without contacting the ship unless there was something being terribly wrong.

"Chris, maybe someone ought to go down there," Mary suggested when the silence on the bridge had become so thick tension it could be sliced with a knife. The backup crew who had taken the stations normally occupied by Ezra Standish and JD Dunne did not alleviate the pressure building on the bridge and seemed to worsen it in fact, by reminding everyone else of their missing crewmen.

"No one goes down there," Chris stated not looking at her.

More than anything, Chris wanted to go down to the surface and find out what was going on or himself but he could not because it would be irresponsible when they had no idea of what was waiting for them on the planetoid. Dispatching another Away Team would simply be adding numbers to those already missing and he was risking no other personnel on the unknown until they had more answers. As much as he wanted to find out what was happening down there for personal reasons, he could not in good conscience commit himself to a course of action that could endanger more lives on the Maverick.

Although Mary had no reason to be on the bridge, she found herself drawn here when she heard the Away Team had not returned to the Maverick as scheduled. She knew Chris had a number of reservations about the rescue attempt being undertaken on the planetoid and this latest development would bother him greatly. She hoped her presence on the bridge would offer some measure of comfort to him, even though she knew perfectly well it was not the most professional of reasons to be around him. Still, no matter how she might try to maintain her professionalism around him, she could not deny that she cared about the Captain.

"But if we’re expecting trouble...” She started to say.

"Do I have to repeat myself, Lieutenant?" He looked at her sharply, making no attempt to hide he did not wish to discuss the subject any further.

Mary felt her cheeks burn red with embarrassment at his harsh rebuke and turned away from him, the hurt in her eyes apparent not only to him but to everyone else on the bridge.

"No Sir," she said softly.

Chris winced inwardly and felt immediately awful for lashing out at her when the only reason he knew she had come on the bridge was in an effort to make her feel better. With everything else he had on his mind at the moment, Chris did not have time to deal with salving her feelings and made a note to take it up with her at a later time. Standing up suddenly from his chair and facing his crew, Chris cleared his throat and responded. "Maintain open hailing frequencies for another hour. I’ll be in my ready room until then."

Without saying another word, he strode off the bridge and into the confines of his private office, making no apologies and meeting no one’s gaze as he did so. An awkward silence followed his abrupt departure and no one said anything for a few seconds. When someone did finally speak, it was surprisingly enough Vin Tanner.

"Mary, I’m sure he didn’t mean nothing by that." Vin looked at her, feeling the need to explain Chris’s harsh actions. The Captain’s reaction must have surely stung especially when it was clear how they both felt about each other personally. As the Captain’s best friend, Vin knew Chris’s feelings for Mary would surely have the Captain berating himself inwardly by now, and did not want to make his burden any worse by having her be mad at him as well. Besides, he wanted to make some sort of conciliatory gesture towards the protocol officer considering his deplorable behavior the last time they faced each other.

"I know, "Mary sighed still sore from Chris’s manner but not entirely unforgiving when she was aware of the pressures he was facing. Besides, she thought with a little smile, if she knew her Captain as well as she did, she was probably due for a private apology later on. "I probably shouldn’t have pushed the point."

"He feels helpless not being able to do anything with Buck and the others down there and you know how hard the captain takes it when any of the crew is in danger," Vin explained gently.

Yes, Mary had to concede Vin was right about that and she had been prodding a bear with a sore foot by asking the question she did. Chris took it very hard when crewmen were lost and often saw it as some failing of his command ability or advice that led to the death. As much as he ought to be accustomed to it by now, Chris was not someone who could easily stomach the loss of those under his command. She supposed no Captain ever really overcame that paaspectf the job, but in Chris’s case, it seemed to be particularly prolific. No doubt if she spoke to Josiah about it, the counselor would probably tell her it had much to do with the loss of Sarah and Adam Larabee.

"Is there nothing we can do to find out what’s happened to them?" She asked Vin but directed her question to Alex as well. Buck, Ezra, Julia, and JD were just as important to her as they were to Chris. It was easy to form such deep friendships in such a short time on being on board the Maverick. Mary was surprised at how easy it had been to consider the Maverick home. Even though the crew had served together for no more than six weeks, the bonds forged during that time seemed as if they had been strengthened over a greater period than just mere weeks.

"I’ve tried everything," Alex declared with no short amount of exasperation in her voice as she responded from her station. Ever since they had put in orbit around this mysterious planetoid,  Alex had spent every waking moment working on the problem of uncovering its secrets. Yet after all that expenditure of effort, she was nowhere close to finding an answer than she was when they had first arrived in the system. "Every piece of scanning equipment we have on the bridge won’t penetrate that field. I can’t even tell you what kind of energy it is, let alone how it’s being generated."

Alex strayed from the science station and leaned over the railing separating the workstations from the command chair before adding further. "There are times when I think I can almost recognize the energy pattern but then I lose it and nothing I’ve got in our database seems to match. I’ve tried using the library computer, the historical archives, every log entry of any Federation ship that has recorded for spacial phenomenon hoping to match it but I’m coming up with absolutely nothing at all. Whatever is causing it is unknown to Federation science."

"I’m sure you’re doing your best," Mary said trying to sound as encouraging as possible, being aware of just how dedicated Alex could be and by the looks of it, the science officer did not cope well with failure or mysteries for that matter. Although Alex was rather detached and only seemed to have a close relationship with the Officer of the Con, Mary could tell the concern she felt for everyone on the surface of that strange planetoid was real.

Mary had no doubt that Alex cared for them deeply; she just had trouble expressing it.

"I don’t know whether my best is enough." Alex frowned, folding her arms and looking most chagrined, hating the fact it was taking so long for her to figure this point. "At this point, we don’t even know how long this asteroid has been in this system. Our records of this area are patchy. Stellar probes carried out the cartography twenty years ago so there was little chance to make a detailed analysis. We’re the first Federation ship out this far."

"Too bad there ain’t anyone around on the planets to tell us if this asteroid’s been here for long," Vin remarked as he returned his attention to the controls and made a brief adjustment to the orbital path the Maverick was taking around the asteroid. He wished he could help but astrophysics was not his expertise, it was Alex’s and if she could not figure a solution to their problem, then it was highly unlikely that he was going to do it by fluke.

"Oh hell!" Alex exclaimed, turning sharply to Vin following his statement.

"What?" Mary stared at her.

"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" The science officer smacked herself on the forehead, garnering rather astonished responses from both Vin and Mary and the rest of the bridge crew as she hurried back to her console screen, the light of revelation on her face. She let out another exasperated groan, unable to believe she could have been so unbelievably short-sighted.

"The planets!" Alex swore loudly. "I forgot to take into considering the planets during my investigation! I’ve been so busy trying to pound my head against the brick wall that has been that stupid asteroid  I forgot to check maybe there’s something in the rest of the system that could explain what’s happening here."

"It’s an understandable oversight," Mary replied, exchanging a glance with Vin since neither of them had considered that possibility themselves and could hardly blame Alex for making the same mistake. It was certainly not the monumental error Alex thought and did not for one minute believe that her self-recrimination was justified.

"No, it’s not," Alex explained, grateful they had made the effort to try and make her feel better even though she still felt monumentally stupid. "These are M Class planets which means there ought to be life forms and a whole plethora of possibilities. When we entered the system, we traced the distress beacon to the Leonov. Since we assumed if there were life forms here, they would be at a pre-warp stage of development, otherwise they would have detected us and attempted to make contact."

"Which means the Prime Directive would forbid us to interfere with them," Mary concluded, very well aware of that since she was the protocol officer. The Prime Directive was something she was very well versed in.

"But that doesn’t mean they might not still know something about the asteroid." Vin guessed where Alex was going with this. "Even if they don’t know what it is exactly, they might have noticed it in the sky. Unless the culture is absolutely primitive, they might have charted astronomical phenomenon. We might be able to get the information without having to break the Prime Directive. It’s been done before."

"Exactly." Alex grinned; feeling something subconsciously click in her mind that this was the clue they needed to get past this point in their search. Perhaps now, they would be on the right track to solve this thing and be in a position to help the Away Team if the reason for their delay in returning to the Maverick was because they were in trouble.

"Shall we tell the Captain?" Mary said eagerly, wishing to bring Chris some measure of good news since he needed badly to hear something positive.

"Not yet," Vin advised. "Not until we know there’s something to tell him about. At this moment, all we got is possibilities, nothing definitive."

"Vin’s right," Alex agreed with him, not wishing to raise any false hopes as her fingers began flying across her console in her efforts to scan the planets in the system. "There are four M Class planets capable of supporting life in this system, so it would not be unreasonable to assume at least one of them has specialized lifeforms."

As Vin and Mary waited for Alex to complete her scans of the system, the protocol officer turned her attention to Vin. Ever since their exchange of a few days ago, neither had spoken about the incident and with the current situation on the Maverick so tense, the opportunity had yet to arise. Mary did not want Vin to abandon the idea of trying to learn Vulcan mental disciplines to avoid unintentionally melding with people he made physical contact with. She remembered what Josiah had said about her being his only link to Vulcan and there were important questions about himself he needed to ask someone who would not revile him for being different. She knew the helmsman was extremely distressed by his inadvertent melds and while he hid it well, Mary sensed he was doing so only because it was inappropriate to show weakness while on duty.

"Vin, I know we did not get off to a very good start with those lessons..." Mary started to say.

"No that was my fault," Vin interrupted quickly, glad she had brought the subject up because it had been preying on his mind. He behaved badly and did not want her apologizing when it was his temper causing the problem in the first place. "I shouldn’t have expected to get it right first time out."

"Perhaps," Mary nodded in agreement of his assessment of how things transpired, but she was not about to absolve herself of all responsibility either. "However, I could have been a better teacher at the same time. I kept thinking I was teaching a Vulcan when I should have remembered I was teaching a human."

Vin did not say anything but he supposed she was not far wrong in her claim. Everything about him was human, the manner in which he was raised, his feelings, his habits, even his perception of the world. He knew he learned faster than humans and while he could not do complex computations in his head, he could make a course correction faster than anyone on the ship without the use of automation. However, everything else about him was human and Vin found he did not mind so much.

"I guess it’s easy to make the mistake," Vin said with a smile. "It’s the ears."

Mary let out a short laugh. "Well," she met his gaze with her eyes dancing in genuine affection for this young man. "If you would care to let me have another crack at it, I think we should try again. This time, it will be a lot easier."

"I hope so," Vin confessed, remembering with shame what he had done to Alex and instinctively glanced in her direction, feeling a surge of warmth through his body for the science officer who was presently focused on solving the problem with the Leonov. "I got mad after what happened and I hurt Alex." Vin met her gaze, speaking so softly it was almost a whisper. "I don’t ever want to do that again."

Mary nodded in understanding, more aware of the helmsman’s feelings for Alex than even he would have guessed. "You won’t," she assured him, mostly because he needed to hear it. "I promise you we will get this thing under control."

Vin was about to respond when suddenly, Alex’s voice made an exclamation that shattered the intimacy of the moment. He held Mary’s gaze just a little longer before they both turned to the science officer who was looking rather confused at the readings on her console screen.

"This is damn odd," Alex repeated herself, her brow furrowing in puzzlement at this newest chapter in the saga that was becoming their mission to rescue the Leonov and its crew.

"What is it?" Mary asked, burning with curiosity.

"I am detecting abundant life forms, especially in the second planet. The usual kind of flora one would associate with a largely undeveloped world." She remarked, as her fingers continued to punch instructions into her console as if trying to gain better clarification of what she was seeing before her because what was displayed made no sense.

"Nothing strange about that," Vin commented, wanting to get more information from Alex about what she found so unusual. Like Mary, he was similarly curious. Actually more in fact, because he was a Vulcan and there was nothing more genetically ingrained in the race than the need to have their questions answered. Of course, had anyone pointed this out to Vin, he would have been the first to deny it.

"Except there are cities on the planet."

"Cities?" Mary exclaimed, her eyes widened. "I thought you said the planet was undeveloped."

"It is." She replied meeting their eyes. "According to my readings. There is evidence of cities but there are no traces of the people who might have built them. Not just the people but there is no evidence of any form of animal life."

"That is strange." Vin agreed, trying to imagine how that could be. It was universally known where there was vegetation there was usually animal life to accompany it. It was a cycle in the web of life and ecology proven over hundreds of worlds. "Could it be a plague may have wiped them out?"

"I’ve never seen one so indiscriminate enough to completely wipe out every living thing," Mary remarked. "I mean, viruses are adaptive but not that adaptive."

"It could be one we haven’t seen yet." Vin pointed out. "It’s a big galaxy out there."

"Yes," Alex nodded. Anything was possible she supposed but her ruminations ceased when she saw new readings flashed on her screen and was given another piece of the puzzle by which to re-evaluate her hypothesis. "However, there aren't many viruses capable of spreading itself out across space to infect the other planets in the system as well."

Mary turned to her sharply, "are you saying the other planets are devoid of animal life too?" The scope of the problem was starting to become staggering and she considered the enormity of what Alex was saying. It was not millions of creatures that were gone but possibly billions.

"Whatever it is that killed everything in this system, sentient or not, has a preference for animal tissue only. The natural vegetation is intact but nothing else is alive. Not birds, a reptile, even an insect. Everything is gone." Alex answered and then came to the only possible conclusion she could with the facts she had been presented.

"Unless it is a virus and I don’t think it is," she paused as she came to grips with what she was thinking, before continuing again. "There is something out here killing animal life in any shape or form."

"And yet somehow, the crew of the Leonov managed to survive just fine Why is that?" Vin asked suspiciously, voicing the unspoken thought of everyone on the bridge.

"I don’t know," Alex replied having no answer as she let out a deep breath and met Mary’s gaze. "But now, it’s time to tell the Captain."

The irony was not lost on Ezra Standish when he stared at the formation before himself and Julia Pemberton. He prodded it with his finger as he stood at its gargantuan base, as if only touch would make what he was seeing before him real. There was a moment after its surprise appearance when both he and Julia were unable to believe what they were standing before was at all real and not just another illusionary effect of this strange planetoid. However, as Ezra felt the coarse strength of stone beneath his fingertip, there could be no doubt  the formation, though impossible in every way, was indeed steeped in enough reality to be a very large obstacle.

The length of the formation made it impossible for them to go around it and the despite the fact he loathed mountain climbing in any shape of form, the craggy surface provided just enough hand holds and footholds in the notches of rock for it to be climbable. While Ezra did not relish making the attempt, he soon realized  they had no choice but try if they were going to reach the rest of the Away Team and reveal what they discovered here.

"Though I am utterly loathed to say this," Ezra remarked, still staring at the mountain, watching its jagged peak stab at the dark velvet sky. "I believe our only course is to climb this monument. It would simply take too much time to circumnavigate it. "

"Oh I was afraid you were going to say that." Julia let out a deep sigh, about as impressed by the prospect as he. Apart of her was still somewhat stunned at the situation they now found themselves in. The bizarre was a fact of life in Starfleet but she had never at any point, expected to see a mountain simply uproot itself from the earthen depths to present itself before them in a matter of seconds.

"Believe me, I am no more looking forward to this then you are." Ezra frowned, sharing her sentiments exactly. Was it only a few days ago, he was wondering how anyone would put themselves though the torture of mountain climbing simply for the recreation enjoyment of it?  No doubt the Captain and Mr Tanner were going to find this a source of great amusement, if he ever returned to the Maverick to tell them.

"However, it appears unless we get back to warn the others what we have found here, I fear the same fate will befall the Maverick.".

"I hear you." She nodded, arguing no more with that sober reminder. "However, we can’t climb these things in these suits. I can barely walk upright on these things let alone try to go hiking." She pointed out. It was troublesome enough attempting to walk with the enviro-suits without attempting the strenuous and somewhat dangerous effort of climbing the formation as well.

"I agree." Ezra nodded in agreement with her about the suits. While he disliked taking the risk of discarding them, she was right about their success in scaling the mountain wearing them. The manual dexterity required for such an undertaking would be extreme enough without them attempting to do so wearing suits that could very well cost them their lives with one slipped footing. "I pray Doctor Jackson was exaggerating about contagion," he remarked as he started to undo the fastenings holding his helmet to the rest of his suit.

"I think contagion is the least of our problems," Julia began doing the same, feeling some measure of consolation in being able to be rid of these cumbersome suits. "Notice everything seemed to go haywire after we saw those ship? First the fissures and then the sudden appearance of this thing?"

"I missed nothing dear." Ezra replied, painfully aware of that fact himself. He was convinced now what they were dealing with was an entity capable of manipulating its environment, having somehow taken refuge on this planetoid and conformed it to its own ends. An entity that was somehow drawing ships here and marooning them on its surface. The question concerning Ezra most of all following what they had seen, was not the crashed ships but rather their crew. If they had survived as the crew of Leonov had survived, where were they now?

"I have been keeping a vigil on everything since we began our orbit of this planetoid."

"What do you think happened to all those ships?" Julia asked as she continued the process of escaping the suit. "From the brief glimpse I managed to get of them, I think they crash-landed on the surface or made a very rough landing." The image of that ship graveyard left an indelible mark upon her and suddenly, a chill formed in her bones that would not dissipate, not until they and the Maverick were away from this place.

"I would not be surprised if we were to learn a little of both took place." Ezra ventured a guess, taking a deep breath of the planetoid’s atmosphere and finding it no different than breathing the air inside his suit. Just as well, on top of having to climb the mountain, he did not want to worry about choking to death either. "I believe  if we do not return to the Maverick, we will be acquiring a first-hand experience of what takes place each time a ship comes into this locality."

"Is that what happened to the Leonov you think?" Julia asked as tossed the last of the envirosuit away in a heap.

"More than likely." He answered as he stepped closer to the face of the mountain and let his eyes skim its base in order to ascertain which would be the best way to begin their ascent. The base was smooth but further along the mountain, the slope was gradual enough for a human to scale it.

"Then why would Kelisan lie to like that?" She replied sidling up next to him as he surveyed the terrain before them and began heading to the most likely place to begin their climb. "You would think he’d want to get off this rock, not fight us tooth and nail the way they have been since we got here."

"I have something of an idea even though I despise even considering it. However, there seems to be no other logical explanation." Ezra frowned inwardly before he turned around and met her gaze.

"And that is?" She looked at him, waiting in anticipation of what he had come up with regarding the puzzling events they had witnessed today. Ezra had one of the most logical minds she knew and any hypothesis he reached would be sound and worth betting on. With a smile, she thought to herself that was probably the highest compliment she could pay the man and decided to keep it to herself, lest it went straight to his head.

He was cocky enough as it was.

"Perhaps he and Leonov are the bait." He revealed finally. "If you consider it, what perfect way is there than to lure another ship to this planetoid under the ruse of a distress beacon? Look at how quickly we answered the call."

"That’s true," Julia admitted begrudgingly because he was right. The Maverick and her crew had been so eager to come to the rescue and so elated at the notion of finding survivors on the planetoid no one had ever stop to consider that the Leonov’s crew might not be what they seemed. "We found exactly what we wanted to find, survivors who had managed to endure despite the impossibility of it and accomplishing it with great dignity."

"Precisely."

"But Ezra," she spoke a moment later, having considered the possibility of Kelisan’s complicity. "Some of those ships have been there a long time, far longer than the Leonov has been on this planetoid. He couldn’t have lured all those ships down."

"No," the security chief had to concede that point. "However, I do believe there is something about the Leonov’s crew that is not quite as it seems. They seem particularly adverse to allowing a medical scan and the only explanation I can perceive for such vehemence to our requests is that an examination by Doctor Jackson may uncover something we are not meant to know."

"I did notice that," Julia agreed. "And they’re not very smart either, at least not what I would expect from a veteran group of spacers. They did not even know how to run simple diagnostics on their main computer core, I mean I know engineers are supposed to take care of things on a ship but you think Kelisan would be more selective."

"I believe there is quite a bit about Mr. Kelisan that remains a mystery," Ezra remarked, finding the place to begin their climb before turning to Julia. "However, it is a question left for another time. We have larger concerns ahead of us." He knotted his hands together in order to give her a leg up.

"Was that a joke?" Julia gave him a look.

"Absolutely not." He replied with a straight face and glance upward. "Do you think you are able to make it to that slope there?" He gestured to narrow ledge of rock that would allow them to skim against the wall to a slope further up the hill, to continue their crossing with a little more ease.

"I should be able to." Julia nodded and secured her foot in his locked palms as she looked at the place he wanted her to reach before giving him a little smile.  "But I’m telling you, your choice of how we spend our dates has got to improve."

******

But Captain!"

"Whining is not going change things, Commander." Chris Larabee looked at Alexandra Styles with a stern, yet annoyingly patient eye as she tried once again to convince him sending her to the planetoid was the correct course of action. Unfortunately, it was perception Chris did not share despite the revelation she had made regarding the other planets in the system. If anything, Alex’s discovery had proved more instrumental in convincing him, it was unwise to risk any more of his crew by attempting an ill-fated rescue mission, when they had no idea still, what they were facing.

"But Captain," Alex continued to persist and Chris had learned by now it was one of the aspects of her personality that made her such a good officer as well as an unmitigated pain in the ass. "If we don’t get them out of there and soon. Whatever the hell it is that’s sucking the life out of all life forms in this system is going to reach them."

"Don’t you think I know that Commander?" He met her gaze sharply. "I am not happy leaving my oldest friend down there, but I don’t have a choice. Somehow, the Leonov managed to survive for six months without this...whatever it is killing them, I have to assume the same goes for the Away Team."

Alex frowned, hating the situation as it stood because she knew he was right. They had a piece of the puzzle but not a complete picture and there was still no guarantee  Alex would not become similarly mired in the same trouble Buck Wilmington and the rest of the Away Team found themselves.

"I’m sorry Sir," she apologized, aware that her stubbornness could be considered insubordination by a less understanding commander.

Chris Larabee was a good captain because he allowed his crew to voice their opinions and not browbeat them with notions of propriety when such opinions needed to be spoken, no matter how unpleasant it may be to him personally. "The more I learn about what’s happening in this system, the more I think I need to be there to see for myself why that planetoid is doing what it does. By every science we know, that planetoid should not exist the way it has. It should not have an atmosphere and it should have been pulled in by the gravitational field of the planet."

"Understood," Chris replied, accepting her apology and making everyone on the bridge feel generally better now that the tension had passed. While they were still worried about their fellow crewmen, at least the command staff was keeping a cool head. "But we are not leaving our people behind." He said not only to Alex but also to everyone else present.

"Chris," Vin asked now that things had settled between the captain and the science officer. As much as Vin sometimes wanted to intercede on Alex’s behalf, he had told himself if he was to maintain a relationship with both, he would have to know when to pull back. The previous argument between the duo certainly qualified as one of those times. "If we can’t go down there and we ain’t leaving them on the planetoid, what do we do?"

Chris let out a deep sigh and shook his head. "I don’t know yet." He answered truthfully, seeing no reason to lie. "It may be that we simply need to get more specialized scanning equipment as Alex suggests."

Chris was about to answer when Doctor Nathan Jackson made his arrival on the bridge. Chris swiveled in his command chair to face Nathan who wore an expression of concern on his features. Although it was not required for him to be on the bridge, Chris knew Nathan sometimes visited just for the conversation, or in this case to check on their progress at retrieving the Away Team from the planetoid. Nathan was never very good sitting in Sick Bay, twiddling his thumbs while he waited for news of his friends. Coming to the bridge was his way of feeling apart of the effort to retrieve them and Chris would begrudge him that.

"Do something for your Nathan?" Chris asked even though he knew why Nathan was present.

"Just wondering how it was going," Nathan replied as he left the turbo lift and stepped further into the bridge. "Have we heard anything yet?"

"Not a word," Mary answered glumly before anyone else could.

"So what are we going to do?" Nathan asked, looking at Chris. The captain was starting to feel more than just a little persecuted and wished he had an answer for them but could only concede he was just as helpless as the rest of the crew in effecting a suitable rescue of the Away Team. "We can’t just leave them down there." The doctor declared passionately and Chris sighed wondering if the man knew just how many times that question had been put to him already.

"We’re doing everything that we can but at the moment, we don’t have much to go on. The only way for us to get visual confirmation of anything is to go down there. I’m not prepared to risk any more people by letting them get into the same difficulty Buck and the others are in."

"I can understand that," Nathan nodded even though he did not like it. As a doctor, he knew it was necessary to amputate to protect the whole body and while he was certain Chris’s present stance meant nothing that extreme for the Away Team, Nathan could appreciate the reasoning behind his actions. He wandered next to Alexandra Styles, feeling just as helpless as she probably did when suddenly he noticed what was on the console of her workstation.

"Any reason why you’re studying ECG waves Commander?" He asked somewhat confused why Alex would be expending her time indulging in such things when more important matters required her attention.

Alex turned to him sharply. "What?"

"You’re studying ECG readings," he repeated himself, pointing to the strange zigzagging of lines on the screen of her workstation.

Alex looked at him blankly and it was at this point Nathan realized he had the undivided attention of everyone on the bridge. They were staring at him with their eyes wide and waiting for him to explain himself. "What? Why are you looking at me? My fly is undone again?" He attempted to joke but no one laughed.

"Nathan," Alex asked slowly, not daring to breathe when she spoke, ignoring his less than stellar turn at comedy. "To me, that is the radiating energy signature from that planetoid. What do you call it?"

"An electrocardiogram reading." Nathan answered as if it ought to be plain to everyone and then decided he could not blame them of course. ECG’s had not been used in almost two hundred years old and only a physician would recognize them for what they were. "It was used in the late 20th until the end of the 21st century to detect heart defects. The method was abandoned with the invention of multi-phasic sensors in medical technology."

"Oh my God..." Alex started to realize.

"Jesus Christ," Chris exclaimed as she nodded slowly at him. "It’s not a planetoid or an asteroid, it’s goddamn life form!"

"How is that possible?" Mary asked horrified. "How could that planetoid be alive?"

"What we see is a planetoid." Alex started to explain, everything becoming apparent with that one discovery. "We’ve been so involved with the idea of that being a spacial body, we never cross referenced it with a medical database."

"That’s why we can’t figure out how it can hold an atmosphere and maintain its orbit," Vin caught on just as quickly. "It’s probably something that was born in space."

"Are you saying that Buck and the Away Team are on a space alien the size of a small moon?" Nathan looked at the faces around him and saw the answer in their eyes.

"It's not impossible," Chris said quickly. "James Kirk’s Enterprise and Enterprise D reported such creatures in existence. You have the crystalline entity that wiped entire colonies by draining life force without ever touching the surface of the planets they were on. Kirk recorded the Enterprise encountering a creature that was basically a giant amoeba in space drawing life force out of passing ships. I think the entire crew of the original Intrepid was lost to the thing. There are precedents in nature for such life forms. We know it is possible. I think this one draws life force as well, but only from animal tissue."

"That would explain why the vegetation of all the planets is still thriving," Mary replied, remembering what Alex had told her earlier. "It killed all the animal life on one planet and then simply moved on until it exhausted the supply throughout the entire system."

"Captain," Alex had been busily pondering the issue ever since they made this shattering discovery and her mind had more theories to offer in the face of what they now knew. "I think you are right about this creature needing life force but I also believe this one is capable of manipulating matter into whatever shape it desires. This too we have encountered before. When we established treaties at Farpoint, it was reported that a creature capable of altering its shape to look like a ship was sighted at the planet. It was capable of generating enough energy to simulate phaser blasts."

"And speaking of phasers," Vin added, remembering what he had read about Ezra’s report when the security chief had returned to the Maverick after his first encounter with the Leonov and the planetoid. "Ezra mentioned something about testing his phaser to make sure they weren’t affected by the dampening field by firing at the ground. The planetoid destabilized just for a moment."

"Like it was hurt." Nathan guessed accurately.

"Which means we can hurt it," Chris said feeling extremely pleased that after long last, they had a working theory. "That’s why it looks like a planetoid. It probably allowed the Leonov to land on it and maintained the illusion in order to draw others to it."

"As bait." Alex agreed grimly. "A distress beacon would be a good way to ensure that happening."

"This would all have to hinge on the Leonov cooperating with it," Mary spoke up because this was the part she did not understand. "I mean what could this thing possibly offer Kelisan and his people to keep them from telling us the truth and blasting out of there?"

"I don’t know," Chris answered. "But now that we know what we’re up against, Nathan, Alex, I want you both to work together to find a way to break through the dampening field. We need to pinpoint the exact location of the Away Team in order to beam them to ship before I authorize phaser bombardment."

"Captain." Mary looked at him in shock. "That is a life form out there. It may simply be feeding like any creature might do so in its survival. I agree we should do whatever we can to get out people back but is it really necessary to start shooting at it?"

"Mary," Chris met her gaze in a gentle tone, understanding what she was saying and in truth, he did not wish to take that course of action unless given no other choice. "I have to do what is best for my crew and if a light phaser spread will convince it to let our people go, I have to take that chance. The alternative is to let everybody still on that thing, die."

This will not do.

Ezra Standish thought several times as he grabbed another handhold and pulled himself up against the face of the mountain they were attempting to scale. He could feel the hard, irregular surface of rock scraping at his skin and felt a singularly chagrined he was forced to indulge in this labor. They had been at it for several hours now, climbing the walls of the formation like arachnids without the benefits of their skill. Their progress was slow but they made it to the slope as intended and then continued on foot for some time before they reaching another steep obstruction that needed to be climbed in order to pass.

The formation was not very high, little more than 1500 meters but the trek across it was not easy when they were faced with high walls, passable only by climbing. Although both of them were physically fit enough for the task, neither had much experience in mountain climbing. Added to that concern, of course, was the fact this mountain had suddenly appeared out of thin air and might possibly vanish into the same, with them still on it. Ezra did not like dealing with unknowns, except when he was playing cards and even then, he had some measure of control over the situation.

It would not be so bad of course if his partner in misery was anyone but the titian-haired beauty who ran supreme in Engineering. Ezra’s feelings for Julia Pemberton were deep and he knew when emotions filtered into rational thought, a man was compromised the way he was now. He did not want his strong affections for the woman to cloud his judgment on what was the correct course of action. In truth, he wanted to spare her the hell of trying to cross this great obstacle but Security Chief Standish knew there was no other way. They had to get back to Buck and the others before it was too late.

Julia had stopped moving and immediately brought Ezra’s thoughts to a halt.

"Is something the matter?" he asked as he stopped climbing, his body pressed hard against the surface of the rock, with only a slim protrusion of stone to keep him from plunging down.

"No," Julia replied, breathing hard as she felt the burning pain on her palms as she kept her tight grip on the notch in the wall that was just large enough for her to grasp. "I’m just taking a breather."

She looked up, squinting even though there was no sun to be felt on this asteroid to warrant it but doing so mostly out of some strange instinct on her body’s part. They were almost to the top and she hoped the journey down would not be as laborious as the effort so far. She swallowed thickly, yearning for a drink of water desperately but the enviro-suits had not come with such provisions.  Even if they did, the suits were now at the foot of the mountain, where they had abandoned it to begin this journey. In any case, to satiate her thirst even if she did miraculously possess a canister of water, would require her using her hands and the moment she let go, she would fall.

"We are almost to the top." Ezra declared, trying to sound encouraging even though he was just as exhausted and tired as she was. He could see the sweat forming on her face and the dampness on her grey singlet. She had discarded the turtleneck earlier and her Starfleet tunic was tied around her waist. He himself had done away with his own tunic but kept the turtleneck on.

"I know," she nodded, looking down at him with a little smile. "I’m just a little winded that’s all."

"Who is not?" Ezra sighed, letting his gaze sweep over the terrain before them. As he looked on the plains where they had discovered the alien ship graveyard, he wondered how else was this entity able to control their perception and knew to defeat the life form, they had to find it. He wondered if Buck and the others had suddenly noticed a mountain in the horizon where there had been none before. Probably not, Ezra realized or else Buck would be here already to investigate.

"Okay," she said after a moment and felt ready to continue. "I’m good to get going."

With that, she pulled herself upwards once more, her fingers searching for yet another handhold and finding one that seemed even narrower than the others but had little choice but to try. She ignored the abrasive pain as she dragged herself over the rough stone, grunting as she felt her muscles ache and more sweat forming on her brow. The peak of the mountain seemed a thousand miles away even though in truth, she knew they would be upon it in less than an hour. It was the fact that some of the slopes were almost at 90 degrees angles that made it so arduous.

"I gotta say one thing for you Ezra," Julia spoke with a strained voice, trying to take her mind off the last leg of their journey with a little discussion. "You sure know how to show a lady a good time."

She did not even have to see his face to know that he was frowning.

"Are you ever going to let me forget our unfortunate first date?" Ezra asked with a slight groan engendered by more than just the strenuous activity they were indulging at the moment.

"Let me think," she paused a moment, pretending to consider her answer before replying less than a second later. "No."

"Lieutenant Pemberton," he sighed as he grabbed the jutting rock where her foot had been a second ago. "Why do I possess this sneaking suspicion that you are thoroughly enjoying my discomfort?"

"Because I am." She looked down long enough to flash him a dazzling smile. "Can I ask you something," she responded when she turned her attention to what she was doing. "What on earth made you think I would enjoy a place like that?"

"Well, I had brought that particular program with me when I had arrived on the Maverick. I won it from a Rigellian dealer who promised me that it was an authentic representation of a luxury resort in Earth’s 20th century. With a name like Caesar’s Palace, one assumed the program would mean a place of Roman style opulence, not a garish caricature of the same with live animals in attendance."

"Good call," she teased and heaved herself upwards again, feeling her exhilaration rising as she saw the jagged edge which signaled the end of their long climb. "Next time, if you don’t mind, I’ll pick the place."

"Next time?" Ezra looked up sharply, even though she was not facing him.

"Of course," Julia answered a little distractedly, concentrating her attention on reaching the top with renewed vigor. None of them were looking down now, not when they were so close to their goal. "I had always planned to go with you on a second date Commander." There was just enough of a lilt in her voice for him to be aware she was flirting with him.

"Why I am honored," Ezra said with a hint of sarcasm. "So everything until this point was just an exercise in my torture?"

"Oh no," Julia gazed down and gave him a sweet smile. "Everything until now has just been mental punishment, torture comes later."

"And what do you have in mind?" He asked, increasing his pace to keep up with her. The prospect of reaching the end of their lengthy climb had also instilled in him a desire to move faster.

Julia stared upwards again and said with a little smile that he could not see. "Now that would be telling, wouldn’t it? Trust me, you’ll be surprised."

******

What do you mean you can’t find it?" Commander Buck Wilmington demanded, following the report by the spokesman for the engineering crew he had sent back to the Maverick.

"I don’t know Sir," the lieutenant shifted nervously in his stance, unable to articulate the words that would make what he had said sound remotely understandable. "We headed in the direction of the runabouts and thought we were going the right way but we weren’t."

"How so?" Buck looked at him quizzically, starting to realize the man was genuinely perplexed like the rest of them.

"Well it looked as if we were going the right way but when we got to where the runabouts should have been, it appeared as if we had gone somewhere else because the terrain looked different. We spread out and continued searching, just in case it was close by but it was not."

"Yet you managed to find your back," Buck observed quietly, suddenly aware the fault did not lie with his people or any sense of lost direction. Is this what had happened to Ezra and Julia? They were wandering out there somewhere, unable to return to the Leonov or the runabouts because they had lost their way as well?

"Yes Sir," the lieutenant nodded. "As soon as we turned back, everything became familiar again."

Buck nodded; understanding now better than he ever did before. He looked at the group and then asked another question. "Is Ensign Starke with you?"

"No," the younger man shook his head. "Last we saw of Antonia, she was with the other team."

Buck took a deep breath and turned on his heels. Kelisan and his people were starting back towards the ship. Obviously, nothing that transpired was of any surprise to the man and Buck’s suspicion Kelisan knew more than he was telling was more or less confirmed. Striding across the gravel ground, drawing JD behind him who until this point had been asking around to see if anyone knew the whereabouts of Antonia Starke, Buck grabbed Kelisan by the shoulder and spun the Tellerite around to face him.

"All right, you win," Buck said harshly, his voice a loud hiss as he spoke. "We aren’t going anywhere. You want to tell me what’s going on here?"

"Going on?" Kelisan looked at the Starfleet officer with an expression of smug satisfaction. "Nothing is going on. Your terrible sense of navigation has nothing to do with us."

"Nothing to do with you?" Buck returned smoothly but the contempt in his voice was clear. "You have been playing me and my crew for fools ever since we arrived here. Now my people are starting to go missing so I’m through being nice." Without taking his eyes off Kelisan, Buck called out. "Lieutenant Katovit!"

The assistant security chief immediately stepped forward. Like the rest of security, the lieutenant had been searching the plains for Ezra Standish and Julia Pemberton without much success and had returned to the rendezvous point a short time ago. "Yes, Sir?"

"I want you to hold Mr. Kelisan and his crew here," Buck ordered firmly, keeping his eyes fixed on Kelisan and his people. "If they attempt to leave this place, shoot them."

"Yes Sir," the Lieutenant answered with an expression on his face that revealed he held no mixed feelings about that order. Ezra Standish had earned his loyalty as his superior officer and if this Tellerite had anything to do with the man’s disappearance, his security team would take great exception to that.

"We won’t go any here," Kelisan said with a smile, not all perturbed by Buck’s extreme response to the threat the Starfleet officer perceived them to be. "We shall remain here as you will remain here."

The confidence in which he said that did more to unnerve Buck than anything else that happened so far. What secret knowledge did he have that made him so sure of that fact? Buck did not intend to find out.

"Everyone else, stay here." He shouted the order to the rest of the Maverick’s crew lingering out in the open. To tell the honest truth, Buck was happier that they were not in the Leonov since he suspected there was something about the ship that was not all it seemed. However, as he was soon starting to learn, this entire place had the consistency of smoke.

"Come on JD," Buck ordered as he strode purposefully towards the Leonov.

"Where are we going, Buck?" The young ensign asked, starting to get unnerved by everything taking place.

"We’re going to the Leonov," he answered firmly, even though it was fairly obvious it was the only place they could go since the runabouts had either disappeared or their minds were being tampered with to keep them from reaching the small ships.

"We’re going to tear the place apart until we find Ensign Starke."

******

It did not take them long to reach the Leonov and somehow Buck was not surprised they managed to find the ship while the runabouts remained lost to them. Whatever was taking place on this planetoid, it seemed to find its focus around this ship and its crew. Buck had suspected there was something odd from the day he had arrived but he had given the Leonov and its crew the benefit of the doubt because the Starfleet officers had wanted so much to find survivors in their rescue operation. Perhaps the desire for hope had blinded them from the truth. He knew he was certainly guilty of that fact.

They entered the empty corridors of the Leonov and suddenly, alone inside the ship with its grimy walls and dark lighting, the place did not look like a hallowed place of a refuge but rather sinister and eerie. Buck noticed JD was keeping his hand close to his phaser, prepared to shoot at the first thing that made the wrong move. He could see the fear in the youth’s eyes despite JD’s best efforts to contain it within himself.

"You okay?" Buck asked as they proceeded down the narrow corridor, heading towards the engineering deck.

"Yeah," JD nodded. "I think so." He answered after a moment, meeting his commanding officer’s gaze.

"Good," Buck offered him a little smile, knowing this was a lot to take when one had no experience under one’s belt to handle the bizarre. It took officers years to fully appreciate the universe was a place of terror as well as wonder. "Just keep your eyes open and notice everything."

"Why are they lying to us, Buck?" JD asked as they reached the metal stairs that led into the depths of the ship. "We’re here to help them and they treating us like the enemy."

Buck could not answer that question well enough to give JD a satisfactory response. The kid was looking to him because he was the veteran of the two and yet in all his experience, Buck had never come across the peculiarities taking place on this asteroid since they had arrived here.

"I don’t know JD," he confessed. "They want to stay here really bad and I’m starting to think it’s not just because of the ship. The ship is the excuse. There’s something more at work here."

"Something they’d be willing to kill for?" JD spoke up, wondering if such a fate had befallen Ezra, Julia and now Antonia too.

"Nothing would surprise me right about now." Buck retorted. "I have a feeling if we could get a damn tricorder to work, we’d have an answer in a minute."

JD seemed to agree. It seemed terribly convenient none of their scanning equipment seemed to work as if that was part of the effort to keep the secret, just like their adamant refusal to go to the Maverick for a medical diagnostic. By now, there could be no denying the complicity of the Leonov’s crew in what was taking place on this planetoid. The question now seemed to be, however, how deeply were they involved?

They continued down the metal stairs, making quiet steps as they descended into the engineering deck when suddenly, what appeared like an animal growling rumbled through the hall and bathed them in its booming sound. For a moment, both men looked at each other, certain of they heard but not quite able to believe it. They held position for a moment, waiting to see if it would repeat itself. Seconds stretched into minutes and then it was heard again, only this time, it was followed by a guttural scream that ended as abruptly as it had begun.

"Move!" Buck ordered just before he started racing down the steps. JD followed him closely, their footsteps echoing loudly throughout the ship as their progress was charted by the clanging sound of their feet against the metal deck. Buck jumped the last few steps and landed heavily on the metal surface, his phaser already drawn as they entered the engineering deck. Like the rest of the ship, it was dimly lit and full of shadows only heightened his awareness the presence of danger was saturating the air.

When he came to a stop, Buck held his position for a brief moment, taking the time to listen carefully to the sounds generated throughout the deck or rather were not. He was certain of what he had heard, no matter how improbable and he slowly took a step forward, careful his movements remained stealthy. JD did the same. The younger man followed his lead, his phaser drawn as well but Buck could see the beads of sweat running down his skin.

They penetrated deeper into the engineering deck, hearing that same growl after a few seconds. It was not just a growl but something that made his skin crawl upon hearing it. It sounded like guzzling and tearing of something wet. The possibilities began to loom ominously in his mind at what it could be, the nearer Buck and JD approached its epicenter. The sounds of movement were clear now, with no effort made to hide it and the voice that had cried out in terror for a brief instance was no more.

They rounded the corner into the center of engineering and what they saw was enough to take them completely by surprise.

Antonia Starke was dead.

Considering what was presently happening to her corpse, Buck was somewhat glad of this fact. JD’s eyes widened and he had to turn away or else he would have become sick there and then. The creature who had committed this act of homicide stared at them with yellow eyes and opened its mouth full of inch long white teeth to utter an ear-piercing roar that was full of challenge, daring them to come and take the body from it. Striped with a fine pelt of yellow and black, the size of it was enough to give both men reason to pause. On its hind legs, it could easily match Buck for height and its muscles were thick and powerful, indicating that one swipe from its paw could most likely gut one of them.

"My God..." JD exclaimed, starting to feel sick as he watched the tiger feed on the dead body of Ensign Starke.

In a better state of mind to act, Buck stepped forward, uncaring of what it was; knowing only no one ought to be defiled that way. His movement prompted the creature to leave its kill and it immediately lunged at him. Buck dropped to his knees as the creature sailed over him and JD had to jump out of the way to keep the animal and its considerable bulk from landing right on top of him. Considering the reputed power known to exist in those jaws, JD decided he rather not be on the receiving end of the animal’s bite.

Fortunately, the tiger did not seem interested in remaining and took the opportunity while both men got to their feet to continue up the stairs. It moved with the slick and grace of a feline known throughout Earth’s history as one of its most fearsome predators. The creature bounded up the stairs without making a sound as the soft pads of its feet moved quietly against the deck. JD picked himself up and saw Buck approaching Antonia instead of going after the creature.

The young woman’s blood covered the immediate vicinity and as Buck leaned over to examine her, he saw the killing wound had been to her neck, or what was left of it. The tiger’s bite had more or less ripped away all her flesh right down to the vertebrae, he could see torn muscles, severed veins and the like, oozing blood as surely as the warmth in her body was bleeding away. She had not been dead long, that much Buck could tell because when he touched the skin of her bloodied cheek, he could feel the fading heat of her body.

"Buck what we saw," JD stammered as he turned away from the scene, unable to look any more. "It was real wasn’t it?"

"Yeah," Buck nodded grimly. He stood up slowly, pained that there was nothing he could do for the young woman and angered that she had met her end in such a grisly way. "We saw a tiger."

"I thought the animals were all dead." JD swallowed, trying not to remember he had only talked to Antonia a short time ago, that in all likelihood, he was the last person to see her alive.

"Apparently not," Buck said as he studied the paw prints on the floor, left behind by the animal when it fled because it had stepped in Antonia’s blood in its hasty departure. "Come on, we better find that thing before it kills someone else."

JD nodded and followed Buck who was moving up the steps, his eyes searching for signs of the creature’s tracks, going back up the way they had come in the first place.

"I read the manifest," JD said in an effort to occupy his mind with thoughts other than that of Antonia’s horrible death. "They were moving exotic animals to some zoo in Lysia just before they crashed."

"I want to know why the hell they didn’t say nothing about it," Buck growled angrily, wondering why it was a secret. He was furious they had kept the creature’s existence away from him when an engineering crew, not to mention a security team had been wandering around the place with no idea that something like that was lurking in the darkness. The terrible fate inflicted on Antonia Starke seemed inevitable in the face of that piece of non-disclosure. "That thing could have killed all of us."

"It killed one of us, that’s enough." JD declared, feeling his stomach churn with unease after what he had witnessed. He prayed that this was not the fate that had befallen Julia and Ezra.

"You’re right," Buck apologized as they emerged on the main deck once more, the bloody footprints having led them back into the corridor they had taken prior to their gruesome discovery. "Kelisan and his people have kept enough secrets from us, I’m getting really tired of their lies. I’m almost ready to leave them down here to rot since they seemed to want us in the same boat with them."

Buck followed the footprints down the corridor and the creature seemed to be heading towards the crew quarters occupied by the Leonov’s survivors. For a moment, Buck had this absurd idea the tiger might be someone’s pet but no animal after a taste of human flesh could ever be domesticated by one. Suddenly the paw prints came to a stop outside a set of doors and went no further. Buck looked at JD quizzically, unable to understand where the creature had disappeared to. Only the control panel on the wall could activate the door and unless the tiger had developed some advanced form of intelligence he was unaware of, Buck could not see how he would have passed this point.

As he and JD looked around the hallway outside the entrance for any more prints as to give some clue where the creature had disappeared to, the door slid open. The Leonov’s navigator, Janice stepped out of the room and paused at the sight of them outside her quarters.

"What are you doing?" She demanded as she saw the two men staring at her bewildered.

"There’s some kind of wild animal roaming around this place," Buck replied without hesitation.

"Wild animal?" Janice looked at him as if he were mad. "I haven’t seen anything."

"The paws prints go to your door." The first officer declared. His patience with every member of the Leonov had exhausted itself long ago. "Unless the damn thing sprouted wings and flew off, someone had to let it into your room."

"You’re free to search it if you like," she said coldly, unafraid to hide her disdain at his inference.

"I will," Buck brushed past her and activated the door panel. When the doors had slid open, he stepped inside, not waiting to be invited.

Inside the room, there was no sign of any life, human or otherwise. The tiger, like Ezra and Julia, had vanished.

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