FOUR

"I'm Captain Jonathon Archer of the Earth ship Enterprise."

The creatures were nearly as tall as Archer was. They were dressed in dirty animal skins and their hair hung well below their waists. They were filthy dirty and two of them held rocks in one hand while the third one was holding a broken tree branch. The foremost creature raised its head and howled at the group. Archer noticed a jagged scar on the right side of the creatures' face that ran from the creature's temple to its jaw.

"Captain," said T'Pol, taking Archer's arm to keep him from moving forward, "I do not believe these creatures are intelligent. They appear to be similar to the apes found on Earth."

Archer looked at the three closer. The heavy brow gave mute testimony that if they were intelligent it was little more than that of an animal. They wore no shoes and their three fingered hands had long fingernails very reminiscent of claws.

"I think you're right," said Archer. "Come on everyone. Let's get back to the shuttle pod. Everyone move very slowly. We don't want to spook them. Set phase pistols on stun. If we have to fire try to scare them instead of hurting them."

Slowly the group began to move toward the shuttle pod. They had taken only a couple of steps when the creatures moved forward a couple of steps. They raised their weapons menacingly and all three growled and howled at the group.

Trip raised his phase pistol and fired directly in front of the lead creature. The beam struck the ground directly in front of the creature. The attack startled the creatures and they all retreated several steps. But they refused to back off completely. Slowly the group made their way to the shuttle pod. It took two more shots from the phase pistols to keep the creatures at bay but eventually everyone was safely in the shuttle pod. The shuttle lifted off as the three creatures shook their weapons at it threateningly.

Travis maneuvered the shuttle pod back to the crashed ship. As they approached the ship they saw several of the Enterprise crew rummaging through the rubble of the ship. Archer decided to set down and check in with the crew before they headed out to check on another possible site for a camp for the survivors. As they started exiting the shuttle pod they could see three of the crewmen restraining a fourth who was struggling violently against them.

"What's going on?" Archer demanded as Phlox immediately went to check out the violent crewman.

"I don't know sir," reported Ensign Parker. "We were searching through the rubble as you ordered when suddenly Johnson went crazy. He keeps saying we're all in danger and they're coming to kill us."

"They?" questioned Trip. "They who?"

"That's just it, sir," said Parker. "We haven't seen anyone around. We haven't even detected any insect life. Johnson just kind of snapped."

"We have to get out of here," Johnson was shouting. "We're all going to die. There's no time left. We have to get out. Now. Before it's too late."

Phlox injected Johnson with something and the crewman immediately lost consciousness.

"He's delusional, Captain," Phlox reported. "I'll need to get him back to the ship to run some test to find out what happened. I can't find any trauma or injuries. It is quite possible it's some type of airborne pathogen. I'll need to run some test to be sure."

"Are we in danger?" Hoshi asked.

"That's hard to say, Ensign," said Phlox. "We've all been on the planet's surface longer than Crewman Johnson and none of us seems to be affected."

"Sir," said Crewman Latrelle hesitantly.

"What is it crewman?" Archer asked.

"Sir, I don't know if it's important," said Latrelle, "but just before Mike – I mean, Crewman Johnson – started acting strange I saw something. I'm not sure what it was. I only caught a glimpse of it, sir. But it was directly in front Johnson about four meters away."

"What was it you saw, crewman?" Archer asked.

"I'm not sure, sir," said Latrelle. "Like I said, I only got a glimpse of it. But it appeared to be some kind of floating cloud or something. It was filled with these flashes of different colored lights. It was only there for an instant and then it seemed to move behind one of the bulkheads and vanished. That's when Johnson began screaming and acting strange."

"Thanks, Latrelle," said Archer. "That helps." He turned to T'Pol. "Are you sure the sensors didn't detect any other life forms down here?"

"No, sir, they did not," said T'Pol. "It is possible there is some phenomena that the ships' sensors are not calibrated to detect."

"Sir," said Malcolm looking around suspiciously, "respectfully suggest that all non-essential personnel return to the ship immediately. At least until we can figure out what it is we're dealing with."

"Good idea,' said Archer. "Salvage crew will report back to the ship immediately. Go through full decon procedure and a full medical scan before being released. And have the ship do a full sensor scan of the planet and the surrounding space. Whatever is down here I want to know what it is."

"Aye, sir," said Ensign Parker. "Sir, shouldn't you and the others return to the ship as well?"

"Not right now," said Archer. "We need to find out what's going on down here."

"Captain," said T'Pol, "it is unwise to have the entire senior staff down here at the same time. We do not know how great the danger of contamination is. It would be wise to have one or two return to the ship."

"You might be right," said Archer. "Trip, there's not much you can do down here. Return to the ship and oversee the sensor scans. Travis, you go with him. Keep us informed of anything you find no matter how insignificant it might be."

"I'm going back, too, Captain," said Phlox. "Crewman Johnson needs immediate medical attention. Perhaps I can discover what caused it and determine if anyone else is in danger."

"Good idea," said Archer.

"Come on, then," said Trip. "Let's get back to the ship."

"Latrelle," said Archer. "Which direction did this sparkling cloud head when it moved off?"

"That way, sir," said Latrelle, pointing toward the ship. "It was heading in an easterly direction. I don't know how far it moved, though sir. As I said, it disappeared behind a bulkhead and I never saw it again."

"Thanks," said Archer. "Get back to the ship with the others. The rest of us will see if we can find this mysteriously cloud and figure out what we're dealing with."

"Let's go," ordered Archer. "Let's see if we can find out who – or what – is down here that we haven't been able to detect so far."