Kirk stood on the sandy beach surveying the area around him and his team, he watched as his feet sunk underneath him, more sand, just what he needed. Although at least this time there was a lovely looking ocean, palm trees and not a hint of collapsing caves. The breeze that swept over his face and through his hair was warm and carried the scent of sweet flowers and sea salt. If all went to plan, he was considering allowing a ship wide shore leave to the planet.

"Paradise." He said to himself. Turning round he watched as Commander Spock scanned everything and anything within a hundred meter radius. Lieutenant Martinez stood close by to him looking very nervous, beads of sweat dripping down his temple. Kirk felt a pang of guilt, mainly due to the argument he had had with Devon but also because Martinez had ended up being collateral damage and was now heading up tactical on an away mission perhaps before he was completely ready. James T. Kirk didn't like feeling guilty so he quickly pushed all those thoughts to the back of his mind and walked towards Spock.

"Found anything interesting Spock?" He asked absent-mindedly.

"Interesting Captain?" Spock replied looking up to Kirk just in time to see him roll his eyes.

"Yes Spock, interesting? Never mind." Kirk turned to Martinez whose eyes were darting in every direction. "You okay Lieutenant?" He asked cautiously.

"Me? Why? I mean yes Sir? Shouldn't I be Sir? Captain." Kirk fought the urge to laugh.

"Calm yourself Lieutenant, you're doing fine. Have you done a preliminary perimeter check?" He looked at the young man earnestly, hoping he would pick up on the hint of what he was there to do. Kirk's words seemed to register and Martinez quickly nodded his head and went off to conduct the check. Watching Martinez walk down the beach, tripping on a branch and swatting away a dozen bugs Kirk had never missed the proficient, strong and experienced expertise of Devon K. Kitto so much in his life. Looking up at the sky he imagined being able to see the Enterprise with a very pissed Chief Tactical Officer stood on the Bridge looking down at him. The thought made him smile.

"Everything looks okay Sir." Martinez shouted from halfway down the beach, Kirk opened his communicator and squinted his eyes against the sunlight.

"Captain Kirk to Enterprise, come in Enterprise."

"Enterprise here." It was Kitto.

"We're all good down here Chief, what about you?" He asked slightly nervously. They hadn't spoken since their altercation on the Bridge.

"Everything is as it should be Captain, not to worry, your ship is in good hands and will be here when you're ready." There was no hint of resentment in her voice, professional as ever Kirk thought to himself. Although he couldn't think of a time he'd ever heard her use an aggressive tone (other than the other day), even when she was giving one of her personnel a dressing down her tone of voice was never antagonistic. Calm as a millpond was her approach to everything, that's what made her a great Officer. Kirk smiled to himself again, thinking that when he had witnessed her face an enemy combatant he'd never seen such a glorious warrior in all his life. He'd made a mistake not letting her be on the away mission, he'd hadn't afforded her the credit she deserved and let his personal feelings cloud his judgement. He promised himself the first thing he would do when he was back on board the Enterprise would go and apologise.

"That's good to hear Chief, we'll check in every three hours as planned. Kirk out." Closing his communicator he turned back round to Spock and Martinez. Yes, he definitely missed Kitto.


Devon sat in the command chair on the Bridge. It was strange, she'd been so blinded by personal prejudice against Kirk she hadn't realised that as a result of Kirk ordering her not to come on the away mission she would experience a first for her and be in command of the entire ship. She supposed that every cloud had a silver lining, yet she still felt very remorseful with regards to the way she had acted towards Kirk. They were to do nothing for the next nine hours while the Captain, Commander Spock and Lieutenant Martinez headed up the away team. She'd gone through the protocol, keep an eye on the crew members and keep an eye on the space around the ship. She smoothed her hands over her brunette curls which were neatly twisted into a knot at the back of her head.

"Chief!?" Devon turned to Ensign Dawn Onibala, who was manning the tactical station while she was in command.

"Yes Ensign Onibala."

"I'm detecting something on the starboard bow, I can't tell what it is Chief?" The woman looked at Kitto quizzically.

"On screen Ensign." Kitto instructed. She leant forward in the chair, trying to decipher what the speck on the screen in front of her was. "Mister Udy, what are your scans telling us?" Kitto turned to look in the direction of the science station which was currently being manned by Damion Udy, a six foot eight tall man who was so softly spoken Kitto had to crane her neck to hear him.

"It's definitely a vessel of some kind Chief, certainly not Federation." Kitto nodded at him and turned back to the screen.

"Keep an eye on it Mister Udy, Ensign Onibala raise shields forty percent, we don't know what their capabilities are but they shouldn't be able to detect such a small increase. We don't want to make them nervous. Lieutenant Uhura, are we within communication distance?" Uhura clicked away at her station.

"Yes Chief." She replied.

"Send the standard communication Lieutenant Uhura please, we'll give them a bit of space for the time being." Kitto sat and contemplated the unending number of hypothetical scenarios they might find themselves in. One of the few drawbacks of being the Chief Tactical Officer on board a starship was that a hundred and one possibilities would run through your head at any time, usually all bad. "Chief Kitto to Commander Scott." She spoke as she pressed her communication badge.

"Scotty here."

"Scotty, I want two Engineers in the transporter room, we might need to beam up the Captain and the rest of the away team at a moment's notice." She instructed.

"Aye Chief." Devon stared at the ship on the display screen, the nails on her left hand tapped on the arm of the chair. She pressed her lips together, as if she had just applied lipstick to her bottom lip and she was spreading it over the top one.

"Any response Uhura?" She asked pensively.

"No Chief, nothing yet." Devon looked at the time, it would be another hour before Kirk checked in with them.

"Chief! I'm detecting additional lifeforms on board!" Kitto spun to look at Onibala who was franticlycapturing and inputting data at her station.

"Shields up! How many?" Devon stood and walked behind the Captain's chair, grasping hold of the back with both her hands.

"At least forty Chief!" Onibala replied quickly. Devon had no time to think, quickly opening a ship wide communication, it wouldn't matter if the intruders heard her and spoke standard, they were already on board and as far as she was concerned posed an immediate catastrophic threat.

"Security alert! Intruders on board! All non-essential personnel proceed to evacuation bays, immediate lockdown on decks one through eighteen and twenty six through thirty eight. Critical system lockdown now!" Devon knew that each function had their own protocol to follow, the Bridge would be locked down, along with Engineering and life support bays. "Are the intruders on any critical decks?" Onibala checked her readings.

"Fifteen in engineering, seven on deck eight, ten are on personnel decks and eight are on Bridge level Chief." Devon knew that with the high number of intruders in Engineering they were here to disable them in some way. Plus life support was housed on deck decks were locked down which meant ten weren't going anywhere however, eight were on their way to where she stood now.

"Get as many Security teams to Engineering as you can, also send a tactical group to deck eight." She instructed Onibala.

"Aye Chief."

"What about the Captain and Commander Spock?" Uhura had got up from her station and approached Kitto, her eyes and voice full of concern.

"They're safer where they are for the moment." Devon replied, squeezing her arm in assurance. She walked to one of the large side panels at the top of the Bridge, keying in a code the wall slid forward and to one side revealing an array of weaponry. "Everybody take a phaser! Mister Udy, if you and Lieutenant Uhura wouldn't mind guarding the doors." She tossed a phaser to both Udy and Uhura who immediately went and positioned themselves at the doors ready to fire on whoever tried to come through them. Grabbing a phaser rifle Devon went and stood back in the middle of the Bridge. "Use any force necessary." She instructed. "Computer, initiate security level ten." The lights around her went dark and they were flooded in a red hue.

"Life support at sixty percent." The computerised voice informed everyone.

"They must have accessed life support." Onibala stated absently.

"They want to flush us out." Kitto murmured. "Everybody ready?" She shouted, the crew around her nodded, all of them knowing what they needed to do. A few of the crew jumped when one of the access doors shook and a loud metal clang rang out. A second later and another dint appeared on their side of the door followed by more metal laden bangs. Devon trained her sight on the entrance door and raised her rifle. "Bring it."


"Spock!" Kirk could feel the sun beating down on himand burning his nose, it hadn't been more than threehours yet and he was already bored. Nothing had happened apart from Spock finding an interesting seedand Martinez almost having a heart attack because a bird flew too close to him. "Spock! Where are you?"

"Here Captain." Kirk nearly jumped out of his skin at the voice right behind him. Turning he took a step back, Spock looked at him, his usual stoic face unchanged.

"Jesus Spock! You scared me!"

"My apologies Captain, I believe we are due to check in with the Enterprise." Spock opened his communicator, Kirk exhaled, glad that he had something to do.

"Commander Spock to Enterprise, come in Enterprise." There was no response, Spock arched an eyebrow. "Commander Spock to Enterprise, come in Enterprise." Still no response, Kirk looked at him quizzically and opened his own communicator.

"This is Captain Kirk to Enterprise, please respond." Kirk's pulse rate was increasing, all communication from an away team was monitored and replied to at all times. "Something isn't right." He said.

"Affirmative Captain." Spock replied. Kirk looked up to the blue sky as if he would be able to see what the problem was.

"What do you think has happened? Is it our equipment, is there some kind of interference?" Kirk asked, turning back to look at Spock.

"I do not know Captain. We picked up no kind of interference before we transported onto this planet Captain and our equipment is in working order. The only logical explanation as to why there is no response to our communications is that the crew are unable to Captain."

"Unable to? Why?" Kirk looked at Martinez who was completely oblivious to what was going on.

"I do not know Captain." Spock repeated.

"We need to get back now." Kirk opened his communicator but Spock stopped him.

"Captain, we cannot, somebody on board will have to pick up our communication and beam us on board. We must wait."

"Wait! Spock we don't know what's going on up there, we don't even know if they're there at all!" Kirk's voice was alarmed and his volume had increased. He had never felt more useless, he was away from his ship and there was seemingly nothing he could do to help. He looked around at the sea, palm trees and sandy beach, it no longer felt like paradise to him.


Thank you for the follows, favourites and reviews; all appreciated! I'm glad you're enjoying it, I know I am writing it! Lots of action and adventure in this one I can assure you! LLAP ;-) XOXO