"All right, if it's not here now, where is it?" Kirk stood in the pit, hands on his hips. He kicked at clods of charred earth. "Starships don't just get up and walk away."
"Maybe they fixed it," M'Ress suggested. "That could explain why the signal stopped, too." She sat on the edge of the gorge, her legs dangling and her tail arched.
"Not likely. They would have contacted us." McCoy walked around the right side of the site, taking it all in. "What's encouraging is what else we're not finding here; bodies." He looked over his shoulder at Chapel, on the other side. She shook her head. "Which means that whatever happened to the ship since, it's becoming even more likely that they walked away from it." He turned his gaze on Spock. "You disagree?"
"No, doctor. Your assessment of the crew's condition is quite reasonable. There's nothing here to suggest that the Ingalls was vaporized along with its crew." Spock turned to face the group. "Let's assume that you're right. The Ingalls disappeared approximately five days ago, and the distress signal began transmitting two days ago. That leaves a window of three days during which nothing was heard from them, yet somehow they managed to activate the signal in that time."
McCoy thought it over. "Mmm. I'm not sure I follow you."
Kirk put his hand on McCoy's shoulder. "I do. It's just as we surmised earlier; in order to activate the signal, at least one of them would have to be conscious somewhere near the ship, even inside, three days after the crash."
"Wherever that is," Chapel sighed. She put her hand on her tricorder.
A low rumbling sound echoed in the distance. "Well, glory be, we might actually get some rain around here." McCoy looked skyward along with the others, holding his palm out, but saw only a few white wispy clouds overhead. He shoved his hands in his pockets. "Knowing my luck, it'll probably be acid rain."
Spock scanned the sky as the rumbling continued to come unevenly. "I am not reading any atmospheric disturbances in the area." The ground beneath their feet began to shake, knocking them off balance. M'Ress cried out as she slid down the gorge wall into the dirt below. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Chapel tried to remain standing, but to no avail. They toppled over onto the ground.
"S-s-seismic, then?" Kirk asked. He lay on his stomach in the dirt, his helmet smudged with dust.
Spock stretched out an arm and reached for the strap on his tricorder, pulling it closer so he could read it. "Negat-t-tive, sir," he replied. "It seems to b-be coming f-from above g-ground, not b-below it."
"Above ground?" Kirk shouted over the noise. "Th-that doesn't make any sense." They covered their heads as chunks of rock broke free, pelting their helmets.
A large shadow loomed over them, followed by a second shorter one. Kirk spared a glance upward just as a large, chubby hand reached down and grabbed him around the waist. "Hey!" The others watched as it lifted him into the air and dropped him into a large green trousers pocket. Kirk slid down the inside to the bottom of the pocket. It quivered as he struggled around inside.
The second figure clapped its hands as the first one reached for McCoy. "Let me go!" The doctor kicked his legs, trying to free himself, but didn't succeed. He, too, was dropped in the pocket, barely missing Kirk's head on the way down. "Ooof!"
Frightened, Chapel and M'Ress tried to stand and run away, but the second one bent over and picked up the women, one in each hand. It turned around and thundered away from the pit as the first one reached for Spock. Sticking him half in and half out of the pocket, it followed the shorter figure.
