DISCLAIMER: For some reason the edit function keeps cutting off my detailed disclaimer, so I don't own Trek and it don't own me.

STAR TREK:

THE HEIRS OF PROTEUS

By Darrin Colbourne

Gwendolyn Flores woke from a fitful sleep to find herself alone in the shelter. Isabel Montoya's cot was empty. The covers were undone, but Flores wondered if her friend had gotten any sleep at all. They had both been up late the previous night organizing the extra supplies and the Landers sent down by Captain Pike before the Enterprise left the Ceres system, so Flores would have expected her friend to be just as tired as she had been, but she supposed worry over Independence had kept her awake.

Flores got up, slipped on her uniform pants and undershirt and took a step out of the shelter. She found Montoya after a few seconds of looking around the camp. The Science Officer was sitting on a small rise at the southern edge of the encampment. It was a good place to watch the sunrise, but Montoya's body language showed that she had more on her mind than seeing Ceres come up over the horizon.

Flores hiked over to the rise and sat down beside Montoya. "Hey," she said, "did you get any sleep at all last night?"

Montoya didn't say anything. She just continued to sit with her arms around her knees and staring off into space.

Flores took a moment to examine Montoya's face. It looked like she'd been crying. Flores moved closer and put her hand on Montoya's arm. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Montoya simply handed Flores the datapad she'd been holding. Flores hadn't noticed it before then. She took it and began reading the text message being displayed. "That came early this morning," Montoya said. "It's a copy of the report the captain sent back to Earth."

Flores's face fell as she read. "Lost with all hands?"

Montoya nodded. "Everyone aboard Independence was killed, and one of Enterprise's transports was destroyed during the search. No survivors. Pike sent me a separate message saying they'd stay in Menos Corva to investigate what happened and to assist in recovery of the crews' bodies."

Flores just stared at Montoya for a moment, then she rested the 'pad carefully on the ground, then she matched Montoya's pose. "What do you want to do?"

Montoya turned to her. "What do you mean?"

"We have to have some kind of memorial service. I know we don't have much to work with here, but we should do something…"

Montoya thought about it for a moment, then turned back to the horizon. "I'm sure Starfleet will take care of that for them."

"Well, of course they'll do something more formal, but we…"

"I'm not even sure I want to tell anyone else what happened."

Flores was stunned. "Belle, we have to tell the others…"

"No we don't. It's the military, isn't it? Everything is on a need-to-know basis. I don't think this is something the others need to know."

"I…don't think that's exactly how that works."

"Well, that's how it will work for now." Montoya grabbed the datapad and abruptly stood up. "The best way to honor the memory of Ai Mizuki and the others is to continue the work we're out here to do, and we can do that without the others knowing about Independence."

"Sure we can, but should we?"

"Better the others think there's hope for Independence than to have them try to work while in mourning. It's a morale thing. An officer has to keep up her subordinates' morale, doesn't she?"

"Oh, that's just so much bullsh--!"

"It's my decision, Wendy! We won't tell anyone else for now. Enterprise will be back for us soon. We can tell them when we're ready to leave." With that she turned to leave.

Flores watched Montoya as she walked back toward the camp, stunned at her friend's transformation. She had never known Montoya to be so cold. What has being on this mission done to you, Belle? she thought.

She was still thinking about it an hour or so later when she and Montoya were getting ready to explore the cave she had discovered. They were standing by the transport with its flight crew, Lieutenant (j.g.) Arabella Girardi and Ensign Mira Kryczyk, the commander of the Lander squad, Sergeant Daniel Rice, and Ben Goren. Flores had her own datapad out and was giving everyone a briefing on the cave. "It's huge. The entrance alone is about as wide as the Hangar Deck, but the really interesting thing is the way the native life forms react to it. We've catalogued at least seven different species of bird and dozens of different species of land animals that are native to this region, but all of them seem to be terrified of whatever's inside the cave. I've yet to see one animal go into it, and nothing has come out of it since we started observing it."

"There's gotta be some kind of predator in there," Sgt. Rice said.

"But what kind? And why doesn't it make any noise? And if it doesn't come out to hunt and none of the other animals are brave enough to venture inside, how does it eat?"

"Maybe there's an animal that goes in that we can't see," Goren said, "like a burrowing rodent that enters from underground inside the cave. Rodent pops out of its hole and its dinnertime."

"That'd make it kind of a stupid rodent, wouldn't it?" Lt. Girardi said.

"Not necessarily stupid," Flores said. "Maybe just desperate. There might be something else in the cave that the rodent needs, like a source of water or a smaller prey animal that lives symbiotically with the main predator. The point is we'll never know without taking a look inside ourselves, and doing that presents a few problems. There's no way to get to it on foot. The cave rests at the top of a rocky outcropping with sheer sides. The quickest and easiest way to get to it is by aircraft."

"I guess that's where we come in," Ens. Kryczyk said.

"That's right," Montoya said. "We'll fly up to the mouth of the cave and use instruments to try and get a look at what's inside, then if that doesn't work we'll go in."

"You sure that's a good idea, Commander?" Rice said. "If everything else on this planet is afraid of what's in there…"

Montoya sighed. "We don't know that everything on the planet is afraid of it."

"No, Sir, but we do know a whole bunch of things are, and I think it would be prudent for us to respect that and act accordingly."

"He's got a point, Belle," Flores said.

Montoya turned to her. "Do you want to know what's in there or not?"

"Of course I do, but I don't want to die finding out."

"No one is going to die! You said yourself the cave is as big as the hangar deck, so if we can't see anything we can just fly into it and make closer observations from inside the transport."

Girardi raised her hand. "Um, Sir, precision-flying a Workhorse inside a cave is not something I've trained to do."

"You fly it into and out of the ship all the time."

"Yes, Sir, with help from the ship's landing guidance system, and the flight deck is a lot more regularly shaped than a cave would be. This is bound to be more difficult. Even if we can nose into the entrance, there's likely to be parts of the cave that we can't get into."

"So we won't go into those parts."

"What if what you're looking for lives in those parts?" Rice said.

"Sergeant, I expect that the noise of the transport's engines will draw the predator out long before we even have to think about going into the cave."

Rice raised his hands. "Hey, you're the scientist! I'm not arguing with you. I'm just saying that on the off chance you're wrong there's a more prudent way to go about tracking the thing down. If we have to go in on foot, why don't you let me and a couple of my boys do it?"

Montoya shook her head. "No! That won't be necessary."

"Wait a minute, Isabel," Goren said, "that's not a bad idea."

She glared at him. "I'm not trying to hunt the creature down! I just want to see it!"

"Might as well do it safely, Commander," Rice said, keeping his tone as even as possible. "The way you're planning to do it right now, with you and both the lieutenants going in with no back up, it puts the local chain of command seriously at risk. I really think you're better off sending someone more expendable…"

The last word set Montoya off. "Dammit, no one is expendable! I will not take any course of action that's based on the assumption that I'm more valuable than someone else! Not while I have the last word! Is that clear?"

Rice straightened up and looked her in the eye. "Yes, Sir! As crystal, Sir!"

Montoya glared at him, then huffed, "I'm going to that cave, Sergeant! This is my survey and I'll conduct it the way I see fit! If you're so worried about the chain of command, then fine. Wendy and Ben will stay here." Flores was about to protest then, but Montoya beat her to the punch. "Just this first time, Wendy. Once I get a look at what's in there I'll leave it up to you to do an extensive study of it. It's just so that the three of us are not all there at once, okay?"

Flores didn't look placated at all, but she managed a reluctant nod.

Rice still had reservations. "Sir, how about taking one of my guys with you…just in case?"

Montoya sighed. "Do you want to come, Sergeant?"

Rice shrugged and smiled. "It's a nice day…and I got nothing better to do."

Montoya threw up her hands. "Fine. Great. They'll stay, we'll go, everybody's happy, right? Let's go."

Goren and Flores watched as the flight crew, Montoya and Rice boarded the transport and took off. When they were airborne, Goren turned to Flores and said, "What's wrong with the Boss this morning?"

Flores grimaced as she watched the transport recede in the distance. "I wish I could tell you," she muttered.