Levicity AKA Planet of the Dead
Part 1
"Captain, we will be arriving at Levicity in approximately ten minutes."
Sulu turned in his chair to face the Captain, who was lounging relaxed in his own chair. At Sulu's notice he sat up straighter and smiled lazily.
"Thank you, Sulu."
Jim grasped the arms of the chair, pulling himself completely up right. It proved to be more of a challenge than he had originally anticipated. He had been sitting there for so long now, that it was difficult to tell shirt material apart from plastic. Finally up and out of the cave-like atmosphere of the Captain's chair (it really was a large chair, even for him), Jim made his way towards the turbo lift, tugging his shirt into a more comfortable position as he moved. "You have the con, Spock." Jim managed to see the slight nod Spock sent him before the turbo lift doors slid shut.
When the doors reopened, the hallway led him to the transporter room where Scotty and two science ensigns were waiting for him. Scotty greeted him with an overly enthusiastic grin, while the ensigns stood professionally stoical on the pads.
"We're ready to beam down when you are, Captain." Scotty gushed with an unnatural amount of joy in his voice. Jim made a metal note to find out what Scotty actually did down in engineering to make him so happy, but quickly decided against it when he realised the undoubtedly scarring images that would occur from that. Best never think of it again, he thought.
A communicator and a phaser sat on top on the console Scotty was sitting behind. The ensigns were already geared up so these were obviously his. Jim quickly belted them around his waist, letting them rest comfortably on his hips, and then stepped on to the pads next to ensigns McCrae and Williams. They were waiting in place for a couple of seconds when Sulu's voice sounded in the room.
"Bridge to Captain Kirk, we are now orbiting planet Levicity. Repeat, we are now orbiting planet Levicity; feel free to start exploring."
Jim stood a little taller, set his shoulders back, and motioned to Scotty with a tilt of his head.
"Energize, Mr Scott."
"Aye, Captain."
---
Jim was surprised by the grass that materialised under his boots. He didn't quite know what he expected. He had been told that this planet was structurally very similar to Earth and grass was relatively common on Earth, but he, for some reason, envisioned this planet as a desolate wasteland. Dry dirt and dust was meant to settle under his feet, not green healthy looking vegetation.
The surprise was swiftly replaced by mouth gaping shock when he took in his surroundings. He had seen pictures of Earth from around the 21st century, and couldn't help but be wowed by their simplicity. It was nothing like how it looked today; buildings were sharp and rectangular, all made of harsh lines and angles; unlike now where everything was sleek and curved. The scene before him greatly resembled the pictures he had seen, but the main difference being that everything was deserted here. Instead of being over populated like the pictures implied, there was an obvious lack of life. The buildings high enough to scrape the sky were left lonely with no one circling their foundations. The street surrounding them were bare of people, but did have abandoned vehicles dotting them.
Everything was still, like the world had just paused. Doors were left open in peoples wake; cars waited at intersections for a change of lights that would never come; windows, though slightly dusted, still showed living rooms of empty homes. If the wind hadn't been disturbing the hair on his head, Jim would have sworn he was just looking at pictures again.
McCrae whistled loudly to Jim left. He stood with his hands on hips staring at the vast emptiness. It was a whistle to show surprise, like McCrae was impressed by the view, and Jim couldn't blame him. It was an unusual sight to say the least. Jim stepped forward. The two ensigns followed wordlessly, keeping close just in case.
The grass continued for a while, slowly behind covered by pavement until grey was all Jim could see. Weeds had overrun the place while things had been deserted. Seeing the vividly coloured signs of life slowly take over the city unsettled Jim to some extent. Where was everyone? Were they still alive? If not, what had killed them? If the plants could survive then why couldn't the people? How could it spread to everyone? They had scanned for life but the results had been scattered. Some times there were crowds of people gathering in an area, and other times the scan ended with nothing. What had happened here?
Walking through the empty streets was disconcerting. Jim kept expecting the world to suddenly un-pause and for people to spill out of the buildings. Cars would spring back to life and carry on as if they had never stopped, and people would chatter and weave around everyone else to get where they are going. Despite the emptiness, Jim still walked on the pavement, not liking the uneasy feeling he got when he followed the roads. He didn't want the cars to barrel into him when they returned to life.
McCrae and Williams seemed to be having fewer problems with the situation. They stayed close to each other and Jim like they had been trained to do, but kept dipping away to get a better look through windows and down alleyways. The itchy feeling in the back of Jim's head, warning him not to let his guard down, stopped him from joining them.
They explored for a few hours, keeping to the main streets. The scenery didn't change, for the most part. During the third hour, the ground had been littered with blank sheets of paper. The area had been turned white by the amount, and the wind barely ruffled them or turned them away. Jim looked around for the cause and found it when he spotted a broken window on one of the high floor of the tall buildings. Some sheets continued to float down, but the stream had slowed considerably. Williams made a motion to go check out the building; Jim frowned slightly and shook his head in answer. All the lower floors were ransacked and messy, the place had already been cleaned out; no one would hide in there, especially that high up.
It wasn't long before the sun began to set. They had been here longer than Jim realised, and the sudden dimming in light caught him unaware. As there was no one here to power the electricity anymore, the darkness was hard to outrun. In the day time, the buildings were so tall that they were walking in the shade most of the time, and now the light from the stars couldn't reach the street either.
Jim stopped them when he was finding it hard to see his own feet. He explained that it would be futile to search for people when he could barely find himself. McCrae and Williams agreed and McCrae contacted the Enterprise to tell them they were ready to beam up.
---
"Levicity, according to the scans, is structured very closely to Earth, though it is held back in its technology placing it around the early 21st century in Earth's timeline." Spock recited the words on the PDA in a monotone voice. "Though Earth was greatly more populated, during that time, than Levicity seems to be now."
Kirk backed up what Spock way saying by recalling what he had seen on the planet. All of the bridge crew and McCoy were crowded around the briefing room, just to hear what was going on at the planet they had stopped on.
"The entire place was empty. There was obviously life there before, but now there's nothing. Everything has just been abandoned and left to rot." Jim tried to copy Spock's indifferent tone, but found it difficult as the experience had left him feeling very uneasy about the planet, and he couldn't quite talk about it as if it was nothing. "Whoever was there left in a hurry."
No one around the room spoke. Most of them were trying to picture a world where they were the only living breathing entity. The thought was slightly chilling, and Jim hated that he had had the opportunity to witness it first hand. McCoy was the first person to break the silence. His work exhausted voice was gravely and sounded strangely loud in the small room.
"Well, I guess the upside is that there were less people for you to accidentally piss off. It's quite nice to have a landing party come back without me needing to perform emergency surgery."
Jim grinned at the scowl Bones directed at him. Leave it to Bones to bring his spirits back up with an unheeded insult. He always knew exactly what to say. Jim hadn't realised he was frowning as he thought about his time on the planets surface, but Bones had. Bones' scowl disappeared when Jim grinned at him, like it felt its job was done and it could retreat until it was needed to make Jim stop worrying again.
"Yeah, well it's not over yet. Give it a few more trips. Maybe I can charm the trees into telling me what happened down there?" Jim leaned forward and tilted his head, as though he was offering the idea to Bones.
"Then you'll come back covered in leaves, complaining about bruises and saying the plants turned on you." Jim's charms didn't seem to be softening Bones, who crossed his arms with a sigh.
"I don't know. I doubt the trees will be able to resist me."
"You're not nearly as irresistible as you think you are, Jim." Bones met Jim's head tilt with his own, carrying on the playful banter they had managed to construct out of no where in front of the rest of the crew.
"Is that right, Doctor McCoy?"
Bones' infamous scowl wasn't just used to keep Jim from worrying too much; it was also used to convey irritation, though it was slightly less effective towards Jim in that form. Instead of grinning, Jim smirked at him. Bones opened his mouth to put Jim back in his place as the supposed Captain, not some horny teenager, that was Chekov's role, when someone else spoke.
"Captain, can we please get back to the matter at hand?"
Jim at least had the decency to send Uhura a sheepish smile as an apology. She did nothing but look exasperated at her Captain like she usually did when Jim seemed to forget he was responsible for an entire ship.
"Yes, as I was saying before Doctor McCoy derailed my thoughts," Bones scoffed at this point and the scowl was back at full force. "We will continue to explore the planet. Hopefully we can find out what happened there."
"Captain, if I may, I would like to accompany the landing party tomorrow. I think it would be best to get more accurate readings if we are going to stay."
Jim nodded at Spock.
"That's probably a good idea. There was something that just wasn't right down there. It would put me at ease if we at least knew what it was."
Everyone else took that time to nod in agreement. Jim pushed his chair back and got to his feet, clapping his together when he was finished.
"Well, I guess that's it."
The bridge crew returned back to their duties, but McCoy waited just outside the doors for Jim who was running the plan by Spock again. He stood leaning against the wall, one leg bent, arms crossed. Jim wasn't surprised to see him, so he kept walking. Spock went the other way so it was just him and McCoy in the hallway. At first Jim tried to ignore him, but the silence wasn't right for them.
"It's your fault we got in trouble with Uhura."
Bones chuckled humourlessly, shooting Jim a sceptical look; one which Jim readily mirrored.
"My fault?! I'm the one she likes. It was clearly your fault. You and your incessant need to flirt non-stop. Do you think you'll just drop dead one day because you haven't flirted in over 24 hours?"
"I won't drop dead because you'll save me like you always do." Jim was smug as he said this. It was something that Bones couldn't overlook.
"Yeah, well maybe I'll think twice about it next time. When you come back saying the trees are trying to kill you, I'll just look the other way."
"You wouldn't let me die. Who would you bitch at then?"
They had reached the sickbay by now, and the doors whooshed open as they neared.
"I suppose you have a point."
"Damn right, I do."
