The minutes dragged slowly and painfully, like nails digging into skin, carving their way torturously down flesh.
Uhura sat blankly at her station, staring out of the hull window and focusing on the rushing blue sparkle of warp speed.
"Okay; away team lets get kitted up." The Captain announced, and Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu and a few other personnel swiftly got to their feet to follow him.
The Lieutenant removed her earpiece and joined them. She faced a troubled Kirk.
"Ah, Uhura, uh..." Kirk began, shuffling nervously, "Look, don't take this the wrong way," he said with caution, she slowly raised an eyebrow, "But I don't think you should come down to Erebus with us. I don't want to risk you getting hurt or re-opening old wounds."
"What wounds?" She asked and Kirk glanced down at her pristine leg before brushing off her comment,
"That's not the point," he said quickly, "It could be dangerous, Erebus is a dense jungle planet so who knows what could be down there."
Uhura could barely believe her ears. She would not be cast aside and deemed unfit from one accident! She'd man her own damn shuttle and go by herself if she had too. Besides, Kirk wasn't exactly one to talk; he couldn't go anywhere without getting beaten to shit.
"Then we'd best be on our toes." She remarked and followed the others off the bridge before he could protest.
With the Enterprise in place above Erebus, the team stood patiently on the transporter pad waiting to be beamed to the surface.
Spock eyed her suspiciously. She ignored his stare, until he spoke out.
"Is it wise for you to be coming on the mission?" He echoed Kirks previous words in a more logical phrasing. "Considering the injury you sustained previously off planet?"
"I'm fine Spock. And I'm going." She snapped, not dignifying his questioning by facing him.
Kirk watched them awkwardly, noticing the atmosphere, as he stepped onto the platform,
"Right, 'live or die' hey, Scotty." The Captain smirked.
"Haha, very funny, stealing my material." Scotty muttered jokingly. An engineering personnel interrupted,
"Beaming you down in 5, 4, 3, 2,"
Energy encircled them and soon their mechanical surroundings fizzed out and were replaced by the dense, thick jungle of Erebus.
It was later in the day on the planet, and the climate was humid, but still felt significantly cooler than Rhea. It was a different kind of heat; less musty and heavy and more sticky and sweat-inducing.
The plant life was phenomenal, Uhura had never seen leaves and trees so big, and had never felt so small because of nature. It was as if they were miniature.
Spock busily processed information of the planet on a scanner device.
"There are 4,568 complex life-forms inhabiting this planet." The device informed them.
"Well this should be fun." McCoy drawled and rolled his eyes, "Y'know I hope your right about Khan." He jabbed the Captain in the arm,
"You've broken your own record, Bones!" The Captain retorted sarcastically, "We've been here less than five seconds and you already hate it." He smiled smugly at him, getting another eye roll and a sigh from the Doctor.
"Captain," Spock began, "The device shows that approximately 4,560 of the life forms are native to the planet; leaving eight that are not."
"Great! Breaking it down already." Kirk said, "Single them out, and we'll go looking for them."
The device found that the 8 non-native life forms were focused to the north and the north-east.
After a long walk toward the north, they split into groups; Kirk, McCoy and Spock in one, and Uhura, Scotty, Sulu and a few other personnel in another.
Uhura and her group headed to the north-east, slicing their way through dense jungle undergrowth and quietly avoiding the eye contact of inhabiting animals.
"We should be standing right on top of something..." Scotty mused. He frowned at the device in his hand and turned on the spot, looking about for signs of life.
"Let's split up a bit." Uhura said, "Just in the surrounding area to search; meet back here in five minutes."
The crew nodded and headed off in various directions through the foliage.
Uhura thought as she walked, not allowing herself to get her hopes up. Kirk had a hunch about Khans life, and while his reasoning was believable, there was still the very real possibility of them finding Khan dead, or not finding him at all.
She stopped a moment at the thought, and leant on a nearby tree to steady herself.
As she regained her balance, she looked about, and something caught her eye. Something in the distance was catching the setting sun and glinting in her eyes.
She approached it, finding it to be a small shard of metal that had lodged itself into a tree trunk.
She carefully pulled at it and managed to wiggle it free. On closer inspection, she could see the edge of some grey paint, similar to the style that had been on the side of the craft Scotty and Kirk returned to the Enterprise in.
Clutching the metal, she turned about. He must have landed around here. Landed badly.
Fear filled her as the likely-hood of his survival suddenly looked very bleak.
She walked further and began to find more shrapnel and pieces of craft. Stopping, she sent out a signal from her device to all of the others, telling them of her location and tracking her so they could regroup.
The chunks of craft got larger and soon enough, Uhura found the pod. She paused, looking warily at it before proceeding any further. There was no sign of Khan anywhere and the craft didn't look so much like it had crash landed; more like it had been ripped apart by something.
Her heart sank.
The sound of approaching footsteps caught her attention and restarted her heart. She looked about searching for the direction of the noise.
Suddenly, Kirk and the others swiftly appeared from the foliage around her, stilling her quaking mind.
"Jesus." McCoy stared at the wreckage. "There is no way he would have survived, Jim."
"There are still a few life signs in this area." Kirk said, determined, "Everyone look around."
The sun was gradually setting, and dusk was enclosing around them.
Uhura switched on her light source to aid her search. That's when she noticed. A piece of material was tied to a branch in front of her.
Quickly, she freed it from the wood, feeling the material to be that of Starfleet uniform.
"Khan?" She said loudly, and then felt a little self-conscious, almost as if she were being watched.
A tree stood ahead of her. It's roots were large and above the ground, standing like walls in the earth.
Darkness fell between them, sheltering and shutting out the light from the jungle floor, casting huge shadows, yet there was something else sat in amongst the darkness.
She tip-toed forward, free hand hovering over her weapon and the other gripping her torch, as she closed in and the light illuminated a familiar figure.
Uhura caught her breath in a gasp as she stared through pooling tears.
Khan sat slumped against the roots base, one arm sprawled along the floor at his side and the other laying across his stomach.
He was a defeated shell of his former self, and Uhura wasn't sure he was even alive.
Courage filling her, she rushed forward and dropped to her knees beside him.
"Khan?" She whispered, a shaky hand reaching out to touch his face.
Groggily, he shifted his head slightly and his eyes flickered open. They were pale and bloodshot, all the spark and intensity lost from them.
His eyes found hers and she frantically studied his look. He was weak and distressed; it was the kind of look that exposes a person of their innermost feelings.
"You're going to be fine, okay?" She sniffed and carefully got to her feet, "I'm getting the others."
Setting her device tracker back on, she ran out into the early darkness of the new night to find the others, and was soon greeted by McCoy and Sulu.
"He's down here!" She called out and they swiftly got to him and the others eventually followed.
A deafening screech suddenly ripped through the air. Everyone froze.
Kirk looked about them, before gesturing to Sulu, Uhura and Spock to follow him to investigate.
Weapons ready, they crept over the jungle floor, peering through the blackness as they went.
Suddenly, fire illuminated numerous pieces of foliage ahead of them. Uhura held her breath as the owner of the blaze came into view.
A gigantic creature stood across the jungle before them. It could only be likened to some kind of reptile, but fire-breathing, and with about twelve eyes, and claws the size of the Enterprise.
"Run run run!" Kirk yelled to them and without hesitation, they complied.
"Kirk to Enterprise!" He shouted into his device, "We found Khan! And some kind of monster! Get us out now!"
They made it back to the others with the creature closing in on them.
With the Enterprise not responding, they gathered in form around McCoy who was analysing Khan in order to protect them.
They open fired on the beast and it wailed in pain, but did not fall.
Feeling sure she was facing certain death, Uhura braced herself but began to see light and energy.
In a flash she was back aboard the Enterprise, flushed and panting. Spock, Sulu and Scotty were with her.
"Where are the others!?" She demanded as she stepped of the platform and strode toward the transporter crewman, who were frantically pressing buttons and reading screens.
"We can't lock on! Everyone clear the pad!" A crewman said.
She stood with the others, waiting. Anxiously staring at the transporter and longing for the buzz of energy.
The comms in the background bleeped negatively, red lights flashed through the room and the seconds ticked passed, as McCoy, Kirk and Khan failed to appear.