Part Six

She had hoped staring at the wide expanse of stars beyond the plexi-glassed window of Four Corners would make her problems with Vin Tanner seem insignificant and perhaps provide her with a solution to how she might proceed with her next lesson. Unfortunately, while the view was rather breathtaking, offering an amazing picture of the yellow sun in the distance against the backdrop of myriad stars, no answer was forthcoming and she wondered if the task of teaching Vin all things Vulcan was beyond her. Mary Travis hated admitting defeat in anything but she was playing with a very fragile psyche that had enough trouble dealing with his Vulcan heritage without her pointing it out to him with every faux pas she made in his presence.

Following the ugly scene in his quarters, Mary had no choice but to leave the room, scolding herself repeatedly at how she could have made such a statement to him about being a real Vulcan. As if he was not enough of a pariah among the Vulcans on the ship, without her having to set him apart even further. She was mortified by her insensitivity and wished she could make it up to him. Mary was aware that it had taken quite a bit for Vin to approach her for help. Despite the fact that she wanted more than anything to believe that Vin could be readily accepted by other Vulcans, Mary knew that it was untrue. He was a throwback to a past they had abandoned centuries before and his embrace of the emotions they denied themselves was more than they could tolerate.

Letting out a deep breath as she stirred her cup of chamomile tea for the umpteenth time, Mary was starting to enjoy being among humans again. While Vulcan tradition was very secure at times, she had to confess missing the unpredictability of human behavior. Even though she missed Syan greatly, she could not deny that being on the Maverick had given her life the boost it sorely needed following his death. Of course the restoration of her humanity had much to do with the master of this vessel who at the moment was the black hole at which she stared fascinated but was unprepared to let herself journey into.

She cared for Captain Chris Larabee a great deal and he cared for her that much was undeniable to anyone who saw them together. She felt a connection to him that was far stronger than anything she had felt for Syan and that inspired her guilt somewhat. Syan had been her husband and the father of her child and yet she felt more of an emotional bond to Chris then she had ever felt in the eight years of marriage to him. When she was around Chris, the mercurial after effects of living in a world of passionless logic seemed to melt away and the heat of all too human desires would waft through her mind with his heady scent.

Mary’s affection for Chris had been heightened by the fact that he was willing to wait for her to come to him, aware that Syan was too fresh in her heart to supplant, no matter how deeply she might feel for him. They had a comfortable relationship that was edging towards something far more intimate but he was not pushing. At this time, they existed in that limbo between friendship and love. Whenever there were social functions, she was always at his arm and he was a frequent visitor to her quarters to share dinner with William and herself. Then there were their weekly chess games where they would sit across each other, secretly studying every sparkle in each other’s eyes.

Part of the reason she had been so determined to help Vin had to do with Chris as well. It had been a project undertaken in part for him. Despite the fact that Buck Wilmington was Chris’ oldest friend and his first officer, she knew like as the rest of the ship that it was the helmsman who was the captain’s best friend. Chris kept his professional relationship with Vin Tanner quite separate from his personal one and during their off duty hours, they spent much time together, usually on the holo-deck or engaging in some other dangerous pursuit that would see them risking life and limb whenever they went on shore leave. What effected Vin would ultimately effect Chris and this made Mary more determined to assist the Vulcan.

"You seem like a woman with a problem." A voice interrupted her ruminations and she cast her gaze upward into the kind face of Counselor Josiah Sanchez.

Mary immediately broke into a smile and responded without any hint that he was intruding. "I am." She confessed.

Mary knew Josiah Sanchez by reputation even before she arrived on the Maverick and met the famous psychiatrist in person. Josiah had more or less wrote the book on inter-species relations for the last twenty years with expertise in human-Klingon relations which was still being used as the text book of choice at Starfleet Academy. On a personal level, he was perfectly suited for what he did and had a soft, calming voice that could salve even the most troubled soul.

While Mary had yet to find any reason to consult him professionally, she did like talking to him and found that he often had an interesting insight to whatever difficulty usually occupied her mind. From what Vin had told her, it was Josiah who had sent the Vulcan to see her and Mary wondered whether or not he had erred in that advice since she seemed to do nothing for Vin except inspire his anger.

"Join me?" Mary asked and motioned to the empty seat across her.

"You seem to have the best seat in the house," Josiah remarked, indicating the view before her as nestled himself comfortably on the seat with a cup of coffee in hand.

"I was hoping it would offer me a little insight." Mary confessed.

"I take it things are not progressing well with Vin." Josiah ventured a guess.

Mary straightened up and gave him a look. "I thought it was your wife who was the Betazoid telepath."

Josiah grinned and nodded. "She was. I’m just naturally gifted." He joked.

Mary chuckled softly before her expression changed into something a little more somber. "I messed up Josiah." She sighed. "I was trying so hard to show him that he could be Vulcan that I forgot the whole point of the exercise."

"It happens," Josiah replied with no reproach in his voice. "It’s not easy dealing with Vin. There are times when he seems very at ease with who he is and then there are other moments when something crops up that he is not prepared to face and shakes that security to the core."

"Are we speaking from personal experience?" Mary looked at him with raised brow as she sipped her tea and found the aroma of chamomile almost as soothing as Josiah’s presence.

"Every person is different." Josiah stated, unprepared to reveal any more about his sessions with Vin that necessary, beyond telling her what she needed to know. "Vin has spent a lot of time alone. He lost his parents when he was five year old. That’s extremely young for a Vulcan. He was fostered temporarily while Federation authorities attempted to trace his family through the Vulcan registry only that ship developed engine troubles on route to Federation space and was ultimately marooned on an undeveloped M-Class planet for almost twelve years. Vin spent the last two of those years alone because his foster parents did not survive harsh environment. Being Vulcan and at his age, he was stronger and more capable of surviving the terrain but that’s left him socially undeveloped. He knows how he feels about things and he’s come to accept that even though he’s Vulcan, he’ll never be accepted by them."

"That’s a hard pill to swallow." Mary confessed. "Most people couldn’t."

"Vin manages because he has friends and because he refuses to let any situation get the better of him. When he’s upset, he withdraws and deals with it on his own but anger is not something he has a great deal of experience with. When you suppress the hurt for as long as he has, it becomes extremely difficult to cope with when the suppression fails."

"And its worse when his Vulcan abilities just overtake him because he has no experience with it and there is no Vulcan about to help him." Mary nodded in understanding. "Except me."

"Except you." Josiah declared. "You are the closest thing to being someone he can approach about all his questions. At this point, we are not even sure about how old he is so pon farr could come about any time and he won’t have the slightest clue what will happen to him."

"That is worrying," Mary pointed out. As the wife of a Vulcan, she was perfectly aware of what pon farr was and how dangerous it would be for Vin. "Normally Vulcans would be bonded to a mate at a young age to prepare for that time but if it happens to Vin and there is no mate prepared for him, it could be exceedingly bad."

"Deadly if I am not mistaken." Josiah added.

"You’re trying to make him comfortable enough with me to bring up pon farr and anything else like this, aren’t you?" Mary guessed, having played negotiator enough times to have a little bit of insight herself.

Josiah eased into his seat and shrugged. "Guilty."

"You are wasted in psychiatry. You should be in espionage" Mary retorted with a smile. "But I thought Alex would be more appropriate. They have a closer relationship."

"They do," Josiah agreed. "But no one has the insight you do into Vulcan traditions and the dynamics of his relationship with Alex is completely different. I think we both know why."

"Yes we do," Mary nodded. "Okay, I am willing to help him in any way I can I just don’t know whether I won’t do him more harm. Our first session today was disastrous. I kept trying to teach him things that even Vulcan children should know."

"I understand what you were trying to do Mary," he interrupted gently. "However, you have to remember that to him Vulcan is the reason his ears aren’t like any body else’s and that’s all the connection he has to it. For most of his life, he’s been raised human. He thinks like a human being and he sure as hell feels like one."

And suddenly Mary understood. "I’ve been a fool." She declared as the light of understanding flooded her eyes.

"I wouldn’t put it that way," Josiah replied warmly, pleased that she could finally see a way to helping Vin.

"I would." Mary frowned. "I of all people should have known that that way to teach him was not to teach him like a Vulcan but like a human. Like how I was taught!"

"I won’t argue with you there." Josiah agreed. "Your husband taught you quite a bit about shields and mental disciplines even though he knew you did not have the slightest bit of understanding but you managed."

"And if I can manage without no ability at all," Mary started beaming. "Then Vin, who has the natural ability, should be able to handle it with no problems."

"Lieutenant Travis," Josiah grinned. "You’re a natural."

Mary rolled her eyes. "Let’s just reserve judgment and see if he stays for the whole lesson this time."

************

Despite the fact that the repairs were going smoothly on the Leonov down on the planetoid below, Chris was begrudgingly forced to admit with Ezra Standish and Alexandra Styles that there was something unsettling about the whole situation. While he could not for the life of him pin point why he felt ill at ease with the fact that there were survivors to rescue despite the small number, he knew that much of it had to do with the planetoid being an impossibility in every sense. As Alex had taken opportunity to remind him on numerous occasions, nothing about the small asteroid presently held in place beyond the orbit of the planet in the distance adhered to the laws of physic as they knew.

There should be no atmosphere on the surface and yet there was. While cosmic storms were known to happen, Chris had never heard of one being severe enough to wipe a crew of almost 250 people and yet it must have happened because the evidence of it was right before them. The more they learned about the Leonov, the more questions it seemed to pose.

"How long until Buck has to make his report Ezra." Chris asked as he studied the contents of the data pad that required his signature. Yeoman Casey Wells was waiting patiently for him to complete the inanities of bureaucracy that not even a starship Captain could escape while occasionally glancing at the communication and navigation station that was usually occupied by Ensign Dunne. The young Bajoran was trying to hide her interest but just about everyone on the ship knew that the duo was seeing each other in a very tentative romance.

"According to his last scheduled communications with us, approximately one hour." Ezra answered.

"Have we been given any indication on how long these repairs are going to continue Alex?" Chris asked his third officer who had occupied her time on the bridge with attempts to penetrate the cloak that kept them from scanning the planetoid with any definitive readings. Chris knew that Alex liked it even less than he did that they could not breach the mystery that the Leonov and the planetoid had hidden itself behind.

"According to Julia, another two days." Alex looked up long enough to respond. "The outer hull took a severe beating and the engineering crew is attempting to seal all the punctures."

"Perhaps it would be prudent if we just removed the survivors and return for the Leonov at a later date." Ezra suggested further.

"With more specialized scanning equipment." Alex said under her breath.

Chris saw Vin turn around and both men offered each other a knowing smile before Chris remarked. "You two are breath of optimism aren’t you?"

"I just don’t like anything I can’t understand." Alex retorted in her defense, aware that the Captain and his helmsman did not share her suspicion about the planetoid as deeply as she and Ezra did.

"Well everything about this planetoid must qualify then." Chris drawled, conceding that much.

"Of course," Alex gently added. "It you let me down there, I’m sure I could sort things out in a minute."

Chris swiveled about in his chair and met her innocent expression with one of his own that told her that he was perfectly aware of what she was attempting to do and was not falling for it for a minute. "I don’t think so, Commander. I need you here in case the crap hits the fan." Chris replied and faced front again.

"That was charmingly put Sir." Ezra said with a frown.

"In the meantime," Chris changed the subject for something a lighter topic. "Maybe you show us how you kicked Vin’s ass in the holo-deck."

Vin let out a visible groan and looked at his captain. "Does everyone know about that?" He asked and saw Alex’s attempt to stifle a smile.

"He claims he let me win." Alex flashed Vin a teasing smirk which he returned with one of his own, laced with annoyance.

"I am the captain Vin," Chris chuckled, enjoying the helmsman discomfiture immensely and almost wished he had been present to see Alex and Vin battling it out on the holo-deck with a pair of bathlets. "When one of my officers hobbles into sick bay with a number of injuries, the chief of staff usually lets me know."

"Nathan has a big mouth." Vin grumbled.

"Actually," Ezra cleared his throat and looked at Alex. "If you two should wish to consider a rematch in the near future, I would appreciate it if you were to let me know. I am certain that there are individuals on board who would be quite curious to see which of you emerges the victor."

"For the uninformed," Chris spoke up. "That means he wants to lay bets on the outcome."

"I guessed." Alex gave the security chief a look.

Ezra offered her a grin, showing no signs of repentance at the Captain revealing his true intentions. "Well there’s just so little to occupy our time here, I thought I might boost morale a little…."

"Forget it." Vin said firmly. "I’ve just lost my dignity, I don’t need to help anyone else lose their money as well."

"Chicken." Alex said playfully indulging a side of herself she rarely displayed to anyone except the helmsman and engendered a small ripple of laughter throughout the bridge.

Vin looked over his shoulder at the science officer and remarked sarcastically. "I’m gonna make you pay for that next time and it just so happens I did let you win." He made that statement with a smug smile so she would not know if he was joking or not and would suffer the question until she had an answer. Well, who said she was the only one who could play this game of gentle ribbing.

"I’m sure you did." Chris said with a perfectly straight face.

"Thanks a lot Chris," Vin retorted. "I’ll remember that when you’re dangling off the side of a mountain and need a hand up."

"I have no idea how you two can find that recreational," Ezra shook his head, unable to imagine how climbing mountains and indulging in all kinds of dangerous activities could be considered as fun. Leisure sports were one could end up with broken limbs or worse seemed more trouble than it was worth. "I think I rather prefer Mr. Wilmington’s latest holo-deck simulation of the Old West."

"You mean the one where you guys are cowboys?" Alex asked, wondering if there could be anything more indicative of human males than the need to play cowboys and Indians.

"I am not a cowboy." Chris looked over his shoulder from his command chair and gave her a somewhat pointed glare. "The correct term in gunslinger."

"You like it cause you’re a smooth talking gambler." Vin retorted.

"And tell me you do not love being the wild and woolly tracker?" Ezra returned just as sarcastically.

"What about you captain?" Alex asked, having heard of the program but had no desire to participate. A woman being trapped in the 18^th century seemed like a most unpleasant place to be. "What part do you play?"

"Oh the captain plays the mysterious man in black." Casey offered, allowing herself to be heard since she had something to contribute in the way of this conversation.

"You’ve taken part in this Casey?" Alex asked somewhat surprised that the young Bajoran would partake of an adventure and a time period so alien from her own.

"Yeah," Casey grinned. "I’m the plucky and capable tomboy who hangs around town sometime."

"Perhaps you ought to join us." Ezra suggested, thinking Alex would look absolutely delicious in the costume of the period and for that matter, so would Julia. Ezra reminded himself to bring up the subject with the lady when he saw her again. In either case, the rough and tumble simulation of the Old West could not possibly be as offensive to her as the infamous Caesar’s Palace.

"Not on your life." She replied. "I can’t stand getting into all those corsets and petticoats. Not to mention, standing by and looking pretty while you men save the day."

"It’s not that sexist." Chris defended the simulation even though he could not deny that it was not entirely friendly towards the ladies but that was the sentiments of the day. He could hardly be blamed for playing the program in its proper historical context. "Besides, I think you’d be right at home looking pretty." Chris gave her with mischievous schoolboy grin, knowing that she would just hate the concept of being clad in lengthy skirts and confining hairstyles.

The science officer rolled her eyes, giving them all that familiar expression that said clearly that she was washing her hands of them.

**********

An hour later, Buck Wilmington made his schedule report to the Maverick. Chris was glad to see his first office well and once again bristled in annoyance at the technical difficulties that required Buck to be in orbit before he could inform them was happening on the surface of the planetoid. For most part, Buck seemed to be quite relaxed on the view screen and his report was somewhat non eventful if anything.

"Julia tell us that the repairs will take another two days." Chris stated as he looked at Buck on the large screen in front of the bridge.

"That’s right," Buck nodded. "Most of the circuitry in their engine core was fried when the ship was caught in the storm. Julia’s got the engineering crew working round the clock to repair what they can and replace the rest. By the way Ezra, your security team is doing a great job helping out with getting the hull breaches sealed."

"I’m glad they’re of some help." Ezra answered automatically. However, there was enough tension in his voice to reveal to those paying attention that he was not happy that his security team was so focused on aiding the repairs of the Leonov that they had forgotten why he had left them down there in the first place. Ezra had wanted them on the planetoid for the specific purpose of keeping an eye on things not merely to act as extra hands for the repair work being undertaken.

"Captain," Alex spoke up while Buck was present. "Doctor Jackson has made another request that we start sending some of the survivors up to the Maverick for medical evaluation."

It was not an unreasonable request as far as Chris was concerned and one which the captain felt should have been taken care of immediately. "Buck," Chris regarded his first officer on the screen. "Nathan wants to have a look at the survivors and give them an examination. Tell them that we want them to come aboard the Maverick."

"They’re pretty reluctant to leave the Leonov Chris," Buck explained since this request from the doctor was nothing new. "Now that it looks like that we might be able to salvage her, they’re determined to help as much as they can with the Leonov."

"That’s very commendable," Chris said broking no more delay in this matter since he had heard enough excuses already. "But this is not a request. I want those people seeing Nathan soon."

"Aye Sir," Buck nodded, understanding completely. "I’ll relay it to them and get them ready to come aboard for our next supply run."

"Alright, talk to you in at your next schedule report." Chris concluded, gesturing to Ezra behind him to terminate the signal since they had discussed everything that was needed for the moment

After seconds paused after Ezra had cut communications, when he looked at Chris and remarked. "Captain is it me, or are those people somewhat reluctant to leave that planetoid considering they had been trapped there for all this time."

"Yes," Chris nodded in agreement, finding that just as suspicious as his security officer and it was starting to increasingly bother him more than he liked to admit that his people were down there with individuals they could not scan to verify if they were who they seemed. Their reluctance to see Nathan made that possibility all the more prolific.

"It isn’t you." Chris replied, still staring at the screen even though there was nothing further to see.

"Request permission to go down there Sir." Ezra asked again because that bad feeling that was so often right was pressing up against his spine with particular insistence.

This time, Chris had no objections. Not at all. "Granted Commander," he ordered. "Get down there and find out what’s going on."

Part Seven

Work on the Leonov was progressing at juggernaut pace and Julia Pemberton felt somewhat gratified that 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 wondering how they could have been so lacking in basic engineering skills and could well 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 surge of power during the cosmic storm had 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 had first arrived on the planetoid, she had yet to make a closer inspection and needed to do in order to gauge how much duranium they would need to seal the punctures.

It was a task that she could handle on her own. Ezra’s security team was mending minor rips in the hull aware that the major work would require her supervision. Julia emerged from the ship, still wearing her enviro-suit after Nathan had expressed his desire that they continue wearing the protection especially in the open atmosphere, since so much about the planetoid was a mystery and the possibility of harmful contamination might still exist. Julia hated wearing these suits, feeling her body react in 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 that 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 had picked her. Julia knew that reason 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 dead when Engineering had been 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, was nothing like the reality of actually being on board. Julia was extremely protective about the Maverick and hoped that things were not going to hell while she was down here.

Don’t be ridiculous, she told herself.

Lieutenant Chano 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 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 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 that were consistent with radiation bombardment. The tears were quite extensive and it was fortunate that the ship had 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 that offered 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 instance 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 thing. 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 that 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 that she was not imagining things.

Still, a hint of doubt remained that 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 that 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 of the tricorder that had been the cause of her hallucination, whatever, Julia wondered whether that trip to the Maverick should not wait. Perhaps a trip 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 and 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 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 in the sky 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 Pearlman 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 that was capable of taking her to somewhere horrendous for a first date in the same breath. Okay, she was not quite ready to forgive him yet.

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

"Just keeping an eye on things." He replied, having no wish to make any accusations until he was certain what 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 that 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." He added.

"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 that 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." She growled.

"It is me or are you more agitated than normal?" Ezra suddenly asked, taking note that the cheerful personality that 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 that absolutely endearing which was why he felt so much for her and on occasion tended to feel responsible for ensuring that 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 that it was not just that. Whatever was on her mind was preying 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 that he did not believe that 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 that it was her imagination at work here. 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 had been led to believe. However, for all of them, there had been a moment when they were not entirely sure that 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 that 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 chose 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 that 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 that Julia had inadvertently stumbled upon something of great importance that might make some headway into explaining what was answer 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 that 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 had not been 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 that 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 retorted, regarding 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 did you do before you saw the ship?" He questioned when he finally reached a conclusion.

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

"And?" Ezra prompted her along.

"I short circuited the thing," she grumbled. "Its these damn gloves," Julia complained. "I couldn’t get the dexterity I needed but 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 of 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?" He asked.

"What?" She looked at him in question.

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

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

"But can you do it?" Ezra asked again.

"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 ministrations. "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 eye sight in any shape or form but he was determined to prove that 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 for them.

In a few minutes she had 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 that he was such a skilled gambler who was 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 that robbed 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 and finally they 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 that 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 that narrow margin of time that seemed like an eternity now that they had been allowed to see it. In the brief seconds it took for the images to be seen by the two Starfleet officers, Ezra had spotted the Ferengi cruiser that Julia had sighted earlier. There were also a number of older freighters in 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 that image 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 that 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 that Ezra could feel it to his bones and caught Julia as 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 earth as the fissure lay inches behind 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 that 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 that 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 that she had not quite cleared the edge that 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 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 and thus gave 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 along side of 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 feeling of his secure arms around her.

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

Ezra tried not to show that 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 that 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 where she had buried her face in 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.

Part Eight

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 that was 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 that 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 that the situation was nominal because his captain could be rather 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 that 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 had also noticed that 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 because Buck knew a few private ship captains, was knew that they expected their personnel to be extremely skilled and multi-faceted.

He also noticed that 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 about any sixteen year old who had never been beyond the planet of the earth. However, Buck had the feeling that she was staying with him not merely because he was interesting to listen to but he had the oddest inclination that her reasons for remaining at his side had a more clandestine purpose.

Despite the ulterior motives, he did recognize that 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 sick bay.

Buck could not say he minded her adulation since the attentions of women, wanted or unwanted was something he had become 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 that 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 had spent most of his time on the bridge, repairing the damaged sensor grid since it appeared that none of the senior staff of the Leonov could do it themselves. Kelisan had claimed that 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 that his people were used to unusual easting 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 that 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 that the empty cargo hold had been modified to accommodate livestock. There was no signs of the animals that had been 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 that was transformed by food replicators into the meal of choice, most humans no longer ate meat. However, Buck supposed that when one was hungry enough, it was understandable that they would be abandoning that 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 and Buck had a feeling that he was viewed by the young ensign as something of a paternal figure, a role he had 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 that JD had something of a voracious appetite and anything that could occupy his mind to that extent, must have been important.

"Have you seen Lieutenant Pemberton around?" JD asked.

Now that 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 had 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 had worked with the lady closely the last few days and he had become 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 that 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 Pearlman."

"Someone else?" Buck looked at him. "Who?" Buck asked, since the Captain had 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 that 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?" He addressed the others.

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 that 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 had come 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, that it was best that they remained in the ship. Giving the excuse that 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 that their concerns were not alarmist. However, Buck was more or less certain that Julia was missing through no fault of her own. If there was one thing he had learnt 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 identify 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 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 that 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 tooth brush 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 gotten in trouble because of it.

JD swallowed, hoping that 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 that 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 when it was learnt 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 that Ezra was much too smart to behave 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 the 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 great depth. Julia had taken the time to listen to his ideas when he expressed them and had singled out his opinions during the course of the repair work that 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 that the kid was still too green to be able to properly handle the notion that 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 that Buck was trying to make him feel better and was not so ungrateful that 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 as successful. It did not help that they had to make most of their search through visual confirmation since the sensors on board the runabout was useless with the dampening field that seemed to emanate from the surface of the half world. While JD was certain he had seen 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 that they could have flown right over their missing comrades without the slightest clue. He only hoped that the terrestrial search parties had better luck.

Upon returning to the Leonov, Buck found no such evidence and the security team who had scoured the area as far as they could had discovered no sign of either the security chief or their engineer. Despite himself, Buck knew that Julia and Ezra could not have gone far unless an outside force had carried them away. Since no one had seen anything to indicate that, he had to assume that 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 that it was possible that Julia and Ezra could have fallen prey to the treacherous ravines or gullies that seemed to litter 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, the man had replied and Buck found it exceedingly difficult to believe the Tellerite when no mention of such dangers had been made prior to this moment. Buck began to get the impression that 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 had no choice but to tell the captain that they were missing two crew men, aware of how Chris was going to react. Not that Buck feared his response or anything. It was just that 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 that it possible that not only might they have 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 that 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 were perfectly aware that 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 that Buck had said, letting the words seep into his mind as he made his decision. From the very onset, the mystery around the planetoid had bothered him and now it appeared that 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 that there was some force at work on the planetoid that was 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 breath too loudly for sake of intruding on the debate that was 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 that 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 that 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 was just beginning.

Part Nine

As anticipated, the crew of the Leonov was not at all happy to leave their ship behind following 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 that 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 that 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 that 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 ship board 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 that losing his temper would avail him nothing.

"Then is it not possible that 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 awaiting 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 that 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 this planetoid does not 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 that 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 that 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 which 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 says otherwise." Buck replied just as hotly. He was in no mood to waste time arguing this matter any more 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 officer 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, 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 that none of your people have gone missing like this during that time or is there something Mr. Kelisan that you are not telling us?"

Kelisan felt silent abruptly and at that moment, Buck knew that 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 him. 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 that we do not need to be guarded by your people."

"Of course." Buck replied, giving JD a look that told the young ensign that 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 that he and his people had something to hide. "Yes," he replied, determined to save face however. "But just you know that 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 though 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." He remarked.

"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 own belonging 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 had 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 had wondered what had happened to the livestock that had been in the process of transported.

Initially, they had assumed that the creatures had been killed during the contamination by Berthold rays however, the cargo hold had 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 stand out in itself. JD supposed that the Leonov’s crew could have mercifully destroyed the animals if they had made it to the planetoid alive in order to conserve their meager supplies since eating them was impossible as 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 that live cargo but at the moment the atmosphere with the forced departure of the crew from the Leonov made that somewhat an ill advised action. Still, he wondered how absurd it must have been to have all that live cargo when so many of the crew had died. It must have been a double blow to Kelisan and his companions. While JD shared Buck’s belief that Kelisan was hiding something about the planetoid, JD could not bring himself to think that 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 past the open doors of the bridge.

"Hey Antonia," JD greeted. "You getting the last of the equipment in Engineering?" He asked as he regarded the pretty blond.

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

"I know what you mean," he chuckled. "It ain’t all that much different from the bridge." He admitted. It was nice to talk to someone who was just his age and knew 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 asked, aware that some of that 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.

The place must be getting to him, he decided.

**********

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 that 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 that boyish smile was and how tempting the need to brush away that unruly strand of hair that always seemed to be falling over his face. Antonia turned down the metal stairs that led 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 into trying to salvage this rather dilapidated and obsolete piece of space ship. 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 quite it was. When she had been 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 that suddenly appeared in her stomach, she looked to the heart of the engineering deck were the warp core was situated and made her way there.

Most of the work undertaken by the Maverick’s engineering crew had been focused on this particular area and the last of the equipment had been compiled in one place for easy collection when they were ready to depart. Reaching the equipment, she quickly knelt down and began collecting everything that she was able to carry, trying to ignore the slight trembling that had 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 that she was being utterly ridiculous. This was a space ship. It had no more ability to harm her than the tool she was holding in her hand at this instance. 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, she stood upright and swung around. Her heightened senses playing more havoc with her fears 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 that 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 had headed before they had become 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 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." Buck commented.

"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 that cheery. "Keep making your observations." He instructed. "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 that 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 Pearlman." 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 that 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 that he would tear this planetoid apart with his bare hands if that 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?" He inquired.

"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." He explained. "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 he had sent to the Midkiff. "Hey, anyone see Ensign Starke around?" He asked those present.

It was soon verified that they had not.

However, if JD had 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 that they were unsurprised by the sudden turn of events. If anything they even appeared somewhat smug about it.

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

"They’re gone." The lieutenant finally answered.

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

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

Part Ten

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, that was an hour too long. Thanks to the dampening field surrounding the spacial body, there was no way to ascertain what had caused the delay and with each lingering moment of silence, the captain was becoming further unsettled. Every member of the bridge crew were all too familiar with Buck’s professionalism and knew that 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 the tension could be sliced with a knife. The back up 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 would endanger more lives on the Maverick.

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

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

"Do I have to repeat myself Lieutenant?" He looked at her sharply, making no attempt to hide that 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 that way 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’ 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’ 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 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 had faced each other.

"I know, "Mary sighed still sore from Chris’ manner but not entirely unforgiving when 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 that Vin was right about that and she had been prodding a bear with a sore foot by asking the question that she did. Chris took it very hard when crew men were lost and he often saw it as some failing of his command ability or his advice that had 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 particular aspect of the job but in Chris’ 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 how easy it had been to consider the Maverick home. Even though the crew of the Maverick had served together for no more than six weeks, the bonds that had been 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 trying to decipher its secrets, Alex had spent every waking moment working on the problem of uncovering its secrets. Yet after all that expenditure of effort, she was nowhere closer 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 that separated 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 concerned 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 that 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 that I forget to check that 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 that Alex thought and did not for one minute believe that her self-recrimination was justified.

"No it’s not," Alex explained, grateful however that 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 that 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 versed with.

"But that don’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." He pointed out

"Exactly." Alex grinned; feeling something that subconsciously clicked in her mind that this was the clue that 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 that 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 that at least one of them has speciaspecialized forms."

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 in the face of his problems of unintentionally melding with people he made physical contact with. She remembered what Josiah had said about her being his only link to Vulcan and that there were important questions about himself he needed to ask someone who would not revile him for being different. She knew that the tracker was extremely distressed by his inadvertent melds and while he hid it well, Mary had a sense that 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 that she had brought the subject up because it had been preying on his mind. He had behaved badly and he did not want her apologizing when it was his temper that had caused the problem in the first place. "I shouldn’t have expected to get it right first time out." He confessed.

"Perhaps," Mary nodded in agreement of his assessment of how things had transpired, however, she was not about to absolve herself of all guilt either. "However, I could have been a better teacher at the same time." She said with a faint smile. "I kept thinking that I was teaching a Vulcan when I should have remembered that 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 learnt 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 that 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 that 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 did not make 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." She announced.

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

"It is." She replied meeting their gazes. "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 that was proven over hundreds of worlds. "Could it be a plague may wiped them out?" He ventured a guess

"I’ve never seen one that is indiscriminate enough to completely wipe out every living thing." Mary retorted. "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 she was given another piece of the puzzle for which to re-evaluate the overall hypothesis. "However, there are not many viruses that could spread itself out through 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 all 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 with the facts that 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 that kills animal life in any shape or form."

"And yet somehow, the crew of the Leonov managed to survive just fine." Vin declared. "Why is that?" The Vulcan’s asked suspiciously, voicing the unspoken thoughts 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, its time to tell the Captain."

PART ELEVEN

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