Disclaimer: Still only own Rosie.
XXXX
Before Jim could say anything else, his communicator chirped. He pulled the little machine off his belt, flipping its gold colored top open, "Kirk here."
"How's it going down there?" Rosie's voice came through the machine.
"Fine," Jim answered her, his face breaking into a smile at the sound of her voice. "Vanderberg's pretty angry at the whole situation, and doesn't seem to be very happy with us but…"
Spock moved away from Jim, closer to the one desk in the room to give him some privacy. It wouldn't do much good, he could most certainly still hear Jim from across the room, but from studying human culture, he knew the distance could make Jim feel less like the Vulcan was intruding on his conversation. He busied himself, picking up the round, purple object sitting on the desk. "Curious," he muttered to himself, turning the orb over in his hands. He ran the tricorder over the object and went about deciphering the readings. An eyebrow quirked up in intrigue. After a moment, he cut in on Jim's conversation, "Captain, may I speak to Rosie?"
"Erm…yeah, sure," Jim was surprised to say the least. He hadn't been expecting the Vulcan to cut in on is conversation, nor had he ever expected Spock to be almost polite in doing so. "Rosie, Spock wants to talk to you."
"Okay. Put him on."
Jim silently handed the communicator over to Spock. "Rosie," the Vulcan spoke into the little square machine, "I have in my hands a round, purple-colored orb. I am unsure exactly what it is. I have readings on it of course, but if I may, I wish to transmit some of the readings to you so you take a look at them for a second opinion."
"Oh yeah, sure. No problem. Just…yeah, one second," some noise of Rosie scrambling around in the background could be heard. There were a few thunks, then the sound of typing and a computer chirping. "Okay. I'm at a console. Transmit away." Spock pressed the button on the tricorder that sent the data up to the Enterprise. "I've got it. Just give me a few minutes." The communicator was silent for a few heartbeats before Rosie's voice came back, "Yeah, the data's showing it's basically just a big ball of silicon with some trace elements here and there, Spock. Is that what you thought?"
"Indeed," the Vulcan acknowledged. "It is very strange. I believe…"
"It's a silicon nodule," Vanderberg came back into the room, carrying an armful of rolled up maps. "The girl's right, that's all it is. There are millions of them down in the mines. No commercial value. Worthless. Just pretty to look at."
"But it's a geological oddity, to say the least," Spock tried, hoping to get more information.
"You aren't down here to collect rocks," Vanderberg snarled as he dumped the papers onto the desk. "Here are the maps you requested. You have my complete cooperation. Just find that damn monster. I have a quota to meet." And with that, Vanderberg stormed out of the room.
"Rosie," Jim tugged the communicator back out of Spock's hands, "maps are here. I'm going to go examine them."
"Of course. Be safe. Love you."
"I love you too," Jim told her before shutting the communicator and reattaching it to his belt. He then unrolled the maps and began analyzing them. Spock placed the orb back down on the desk and moved over towards Jim to help look at the maps. Jim sighed as he scanned over the maps. "With this amount of tunnels, it could take us forever to find it."
"Forever would imply that we never find it, Captain."
Before Jim could come up with a snide reply, Bones came back into the room. He didn't wait for Jim to tell him to start talking, "That guy, Schmitter, he didn't burn to death, Jim. Well, not in the traditional sense anyway."
"What do you mean?" Jim's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, while Spock's attention stayed fully on the maps spread out across the desk.
"Well, there were only bone and teeth fragments left of him. But the physician here agrees with me. It's more like a…chemical corrosion. Like he'd been thrown into a vat of acid."
"Dr. McCoy," Spock turned his attention to the doctor now, "would this corrosive agent be strong enough to eat through machinery?"
"Strong enough to eat through anything you can think of," the doctor grumbled.
"Captain," the Vulcan turned towards Jim, "these maps are dated as having been made just a few months ago. I believe they must be relatively accurate, if it is indeed as hard to mine here on Janus VI as they say it is. Therefore, having plotted the most recent deaths," he pointed to a few positions on the map that he'd been eyeing while Jim spoke with Bones, "and taking into account the times, this creature, whatever it is, must be moving incredibly fast."
"Right," Jim nodded his agreement. "We scanned for life when we arrived, yes?"
"Indeed, Captain. There were no signs of life forms, other than, obviously, the humans that work in the mines here, detected upon our arrival. At least, no life forms that we know of."
"We can't cover all of the tunnels on foot," Jim mused out loud, scratching his head.
"Perhaps we could force an appearance of the creature, Captain," Spock offered up. "That way…"
"Are you out of your Vulcan mind?" the doctor shouted at the pair. "Whenever this thing shows up, people die. They get burned alive! Corroded away by acid! And you think it's a good idea for force the thing out into a confrontation?!"
"Bones…" Jim had his be-reasonable-even-though-my-plans-are-insane-and- risky voice on, "there's no way we can…" But Jim's speech as cut off as emergency sirens started blaring along with the lights beginning to flash. "What the hell?"
"It appears to be some type of emergency indicator, Captain," Spock offered up.
"Yeah, I realized that, Captain Obvious," Jim shouted back over the wailing.
"I am not the Captain…" Spock started, not catching onto Jim's insult.
"Never mind!" Jim shouted again. "We need to find out what's going on!" And with that, the three men jogged out of the room to find answers.
XXXX
A/N: Okay, so background all set up. Hopefully it'll be less informational and more action-y now! As always, don't hesitate to tell me your thoughts! J