Cerise felt a fleeting wave of nausea as she and Commander Spock materialized in a small clearing on Vericula II. Based on the position of the sun it appeared to be approximately midday in this section of the planet. It was a pleasantly warm day, and the atmosphere with its higher oxygen content was invigorating. A breeze, soft as a gossamer wing swept through the large trees that surrounded them making an almost comical sound that reminded her of an audience clapping.
She turned to her companion and saw a fleeting look of pleasure soften his angular features.
"It's so lovely here." She said softly hoping to draw him into conversation.
"Indeed. Quite aesthetically pleasing." He looked off beyond the clearing to a rocky outcropping.
"Thank you…" she paused as he turned his gaze back to her, his dark brown eyes felt as if they were piercing her very soul. She cleared her throat nervously. "Thank you for bringing me here, sir."
"One does not thank logic Lieutenant. If you will boot up your scanner, I've preprogrammed the route of our survey. The probe revealed no particularly dangerous plant or animal life in this section, but it would be prudent for us to remain in relatively close proximity."
"Yes sir," she responded matching his formal register. 'Close proximity' will be fine with me Commander.
Spock went about his work systematically making then sending scans in silence, and Cerise dutifully followed his lead. The sooner they finished this tedious work, the more time they might have alone together before beam out.
The pair worked a diamond grid pattern for several hours without gleaning any data the computer deemed of use. This expedition was certainly not the romantic getaway she'd fantasized. Frustrated she advanced to the next scanpoint and set herself to make the scans. She tensed as she watched the brief red flash on the screen. Perhaps it was the tedium causing her imagination to work overtime, but she was certain that she'd seen the scanner attempting to lock onto a transmission signal, then just as quickly disengage itself. She quickly glanced in Spock's direction, but they were at the apex of the diamond and beyond visual contact.
Taking a step back she made a second scan, and this time she was certain that she hadn't imagined the anomaly. Once again there was the almost imperceptible red flash as the scanner attempted to capture the signal then nothing. She made a quick visual survey of the area and found nothing to indicate any communications device save what they'd carried down themselves. It was in all likeliness a faulty chip in her scanner, but it would have to be checked out nonetheless.
"Damn!" she grumbled as the scanner uploaded the readings. That probably killed any chance of having some free time planetside with Spock. As she's suspected, the screen directed more focused scans of the immediate area. With a frustrated sigh she tightened the grid pattern and began a series of deeper scans for communication frequencies, or computer chips signatures common to Romulan technological devices.
The computer found nothing of interest in the data she uploaded and she was about to run the final set of scans when she saw the opening in the side of the rocky outcropping. Moving closer she found it was the opening to what appeared to be a large cave. Puzzled, she flipped back to the survey map created by the initial probe. It showed the hills as solid rock: with no caves, caverns or void spaces of any kind. The geomapping probes on the Enterprise were state of the art, and it was unlikely they'd miss a cave this size.
Protocol dictated that she contact Spock, who would send for a team to check out the cave. Of course that course of action would be the final nail in the coffin of any romantic interlude on this idyllic planet. Quickly she formulated her own protocol. She'd make a quick survey of the cave herself. If she found anything that bore further investigation she'd backtrack to the cave entrance and summon assistance.
She sloughed off the heavy pack leaving it next to the cave opening then detached the lumi from her toolbelt. She set the light to high then moved through the opening. Immediately she felt subtle uncomfortable buzzing and noted that the hair on her arms was standing on end. A low grade force field? She wondered, or maybe some sort of cloaking signal? Her Fleet training told her to fall back and summon her Commander, but her curiosity combined with a rush of adrenaline got the better of her and she continued to press on, the piercing beam of her lumi cutting a path through the ominous darkness.
By all appearances the cave was a natural formation, going about seventy meters back into the hillside with no indication that anyone other than the native wildlife had been in residence. Though she was loathe to admit it, the odd sensation while entering the cave had been nothing more than fear. You really are letting your imagination run wild, she chided herself. Cerise was tempted to take a quick scan, but that could expose her failure to follow landing party protocol which would, no doubt, displease Commander Spock. Vulcans were a rule bound lot, and she didn't imagine that the Commander would find skirting Starfleet regulations an attractive trait in a potential mate.
Potential mate, she smiled at the thought of the two of them on the floor of the cave locked in a torrid embrace, his dark eyes filled with desire for her. Her thoughts dropped from his eyes to his sensuous lips then kept moving on a decidedly southern journey. Eyes on the prize, she laughed to herself. Wasting time fantasizing won't get you what you want. She needed to get back to work if she and Spock were going to have any private time before beam out.
She ran the lumi along the stone interior one last time and was about to turn back toward the faint light coming in from the distant cave opening when her light hit something that stopped her cold. Could it be? It appeared to be something carved into the smooth rock at the very back of the cave. She moved closer and confirmed it was a symbol, or perhaps alien script of some sort. Unthinking, she reached out and ran her fingertips along the contours of the intricate carving. Without warning the stone wall dissolved revealing a brightly lit room filled with banks of highly sophisticated computers and walls lined with dozens of monitors.
Panicked she turned back toward the opening of the cave, just in time to see the outline of a dark figure moving rapidly toward her in the darkness.
