To boldly go …
"It's a simple mission, Spock."
They were sitting under a tree, a nice change of pace. It was an alien tree, of course; with silver bark and rustling leaves a thousand shades of crimson. The ground, pebbly dirt and sparse, copper-coloured grass-ish something, was baked with the heat of two binary suns. It was just the two of them, Kirk and his first officer, stretched out in the welcome shade.
"I understand, Captain. I merely think it unwise to offer political favouritism at such a volatile time."
The rest of the landing party were just over the ridge behind them. Kirk could hear Bones's tricorder beeping from here. He cast a lazy eye over the two suns sinking towards a horizon ridged and jagged with incredible mountain ranges, the light going deep red with the evening and colouring the whole glorious, wild expanse. The cool of the planet's three-Earth-day night was beginning to bite the air, and he couldn't say he minded. Warmth radiated from the rock around them. Their Starfleet insignias glittered.
"Political favouritism?" he said slowly. "As I understand it, Spock, we've been asking to escort the Takarian ambassador on his return to Andoria – a routine mission. Hardly an act of war."
"You know very well, Captain, that nothing to do with Takar is simple while the succession of their monarchy remains uncertain. I am trying to give you advice." Spock leaned forward to fish a stone out of his boot.
"Give it to Starfleet Command, then."
It wasn't usual that the pair of them got a chance to just sit like this. A quick reconnaisance trip to Rho Darag III, a little uninhabited planet on the corner of Nothing and Nowhere, on which half the bridge crew had elected to tag along – a breath of fresh (scorching) air, much needed after several months without shore leave. Mission to mission to mission; ever since the events of Yorktown, it seemed the whole galaxy wanted them to be somewhere, do something, save the day …
Kirk sighed. Spock was right, of course. The USS Enterprise wasn't a ship you sent somewhere lightly. Takar was a complicated place right now – an offshoot human colony that had grown into its own three-world independant Empire, with a dying prince who couldn't confirm an heir. It was a time bomb. Kirk hadn't been able to find out if the ambassador to Andoria had any particular political alignments in the whole vicious power-struggle, but even so, the Federation sending its darling ship to escort him was … a statement. Of some kind. Kirk couldn't figure out why they'd been sent, and it was bothering him, just a nagging, persistant itch. He knew it was bothering Spock.
Kirk flipped open his communicator. "Bones, you lot done back there yet?"
"Just about, Jim. About that nice walk you promised me …" McCoy's voice was hazy over the channel, Kirk could hear laughter in the background. "This botanical team is a bunch of idiots. They've spent the whole time messing around with Chekov. I've collected all the samples myself. And Sulu's just stuck his hand in some kind of thorn bush; it's purple and twice normal size already …"
"A chance to practice your skills, Doctor," said Kirk, and cut the com with a grin. He could hear the 'Damnit, Jim, I'm a doctor not a xenobotanist!' in Bones's voice. Spock's eyes crinkled up at the corners in what stood for the Vulcan's smile.
Kirk caught his eye and reached over to clap him on the shoulder. "Don't worry so much, Spock. We'll do what Starfleet's asking, and then we'll deal with what happens next. It'll be fine."
"Yes, sir," said Spock, and cast his eyes up through the swirling vermillion leaves to the velvet sky above.
Kirk opened up a channel to the Enterprise, lurking somewhere behind that darkening expanse. "Scotty, you can bring us back now. Oh, and Bones would like you to alert medical. Seems we can't spend five minutes on another planet without some sort of accident."
"Right you are, Captain," came Scotty's voice, echoing down from so many miles above. "Ah gather it's business as usual."