The group soon materialised on the planet and they were almost instantly taken back by how beautiful the shattered planet looked. "Would ya just look at this place?" Scotty said as he looked around, "For a planet that's been split in half, it looks like nothings even happened." Kirk stated, Lexie would have said something but she was in too much amazement to say a single word. They were stood on top of a small grassy hill, in one direction was a thick forest, in another was what appeared to be a lake of some kind. "This place is beautiful!" Chekov stated cheerfully as he knelt down to look at a tiny white and blue flower which was growing at his feet, he gently tapped it with his finger and a tiny cloud of pollen drifted from it. "It sure is Pavel." Lexie finally said as she watched what appeared to be a pair of butterflies dancing across the sapphire sky, their wings almost resembling stained glass windows.
"Right then, I guess we split up and get to exploring." Kirk said with a smile. McCoy turned to face him with a slightly worried look on his face, "You sure that's wise Jim? We don't even know what could be living on this planet." McCoy then felt an arm wrap around his shoulders. He turned his head to see Scotty smiling intensely at him, "Don't worry yourself Doc, if ya that scared I'll go off with ya." McCoy simply rolled his eyes at the Scotsman's remark. "Whatever you wanna do Scotty, we best get going." Lexie and Chekov couldn't help but chuckle as they watched the two friends wander off, "Call if you get into trouble!" Kirk yelled. "You mean 'when' we get in to trouble!" McCoy yelled back. Kirk chuckled as he shook his head lightly, "Bones really needs to lighten up a little." Lexie smiled. "You know he's right though, something is bound to happen. It always does." Kirk agreed with her, it seemed no matter where the Enterprise went trouble and danger seemed to follow.
Scotty and McCoy had just picked a direction to walk in, they didn't really have any plan. "So, have you told Lexie yet about what she said?" McCoy asked as he stepped over a tree root, Scotty knew what he was referring to. The other night the young Engineer had called Scotty dad, which had surprised him, he had told McCoy he would tell Lexie about what she had said, "Not yet, I just haven't had the time. Not to mention that the lass has been really busy." Scotty replied. But it seemed like the Doctor wasn't going to take that as an answer, "You're her commanding officer Scotty, you can just drag her to the side whenever you like." Scotty sighed as he placed his hands behind his head. "It's not as simple as that Leonard, this isn't just something you bring up in normal conversation." McCoy was about to reply when his foot sank through the ground which seemed to crumble away around him, his heart skipped a beat as he plunged down. "Scotty!" The Scotsman span round to see McCoy slowly falling, he leapt forwards and grabbed a tight hold of McCoy's wrist. "I've got ya."
Scotty yelled, but he slowly began to doubt his own statement as he felt himself being dragged down with his friend. "Or maybe not!" Scotty cried as the two of them fell through the hole which had opened up in the Earth, they landed on the hard ground below with a loud thud. "That's gonna leave a mark…" Muttered McCoy as he rubbed his lower back, he then turned to see Scotty doing the same. "You alright? Anything broken?" He asked, Scotty turned and gave him a small smile. "I'm OK, I appear to be in one piece, just a little sore. You?" "I'm fine, just a few bruises." Scotty was relieved to see that McCoy wasn't hurt, he then glanced up to see the light beaming down through the hole, they must have fallen about 30 ft, so the fact neither of them were hurt was amazing. "I think we fell into some sort of cave." Scotty stated as he slowly got to his feet, "Umm Scotty, I don't think this is just a cave." McCoy said. Scotty turned to see what his friend meant, it was then when he saw that they had landed in some sort of stone hallway. "I think you may be right Leonard." Scotty said as he helped McCoy to his feet, "Maybe we should call Jim, he'll most likely want to see this." McCoy stated as he pulled out his communicator. Scotty nodded, "Good idea."
McCoy was just about to flick open his communicator when a voice echoed around the hall, "See you two found yourselves in deep trouble?" Both Scotty and McCoy looked up to see three heads poking over the hole, all of which they recognised. "Jim? How the hell did you find us? Have you been following us?" McCoy yelled, a grin appeared on Kirk's face. "We kinda had a feeling the pair of you would get yourselves into some sort of trouble." McCoy didn't know if he should feel grateful or mad, so he just went with a bit of both. "You two aren't hurt are you?" Asked Lexie, "No we're fine lass, just a few bruises." Lexie was so happy to hear that, every time they had been off planet recently at least one person had gotten hurt in some way. "Hold on you two, we'll get you out." Kirk called, "Actually Jim, theres something down here you may want to see." McCoy replied. So instead of McCoy and Scotty getting out of the hole, Kirk and the others joined them. They had found a thick, sturdy vine to use as a rope to allow them to climb down.
Kirk went first who was then closely followed by Chekov, which left Lexie to make the descent last. Lexie had made it about half way when the vine suddenly snapped, causing her to plummet to the floor. Thankfully Scotty managed to catch her before she hit the ground, "You alright?" He asked. "I'm fine Scotty, thanks." Lexie replied sweetly which made Scotty blush ever so slightly, as he placed her back on her feet. "Well, I guess we'll have to find another way out." Laughed Kirk as he pulled out a flashlight from his pocket and flicked it on, causing the cavern to be slightly illuminated. It was then went Kirk noticed where they actually were, "Is this a hallway?" He questioned, McCoy smiled slightly as he stepped next to him. "It appears to be Jim." One by one they each flicked on their flashlights and they began to walk down the eerie hallway, as they shone their lights over the walls they saw that there were what seemed to be carvings etched into the stone.
It seemed like the hallway went on forever since the group had yet to come to its end, Scotty felt slightly on edge but couldn't quite explain it. Suddenly something shot out of the wall and whizzed past his face, Scotty felt his face slowly turn white as he stopped dead. The others span round when they heard something bang against the wall, but they weren't expecting to see what they did. Sticking out of the wall just inches in front of Scotty's face was a spear, Scotty's eyes were focused on it before he sunk to his knees. Lexie ran to his side, "Scotty you OK?" He slowly nodded. "Yeah, I just saw my life flash before my eyes. One more step and I would have been a Scottish kebab." Kirk had to stop himself from giggling, despite the seriousness of the situation the fact Scotty called himself a 'Scottish Kebab' tickled him but he was just glad he hadn't been hit by it. "Think we should all be a little more careful." Kirk stated as he watched Scotty slowly get to his feet, "You do like stating the obvious don't you Jim." McCoy replied as they continued on down the never ending hallway. Finally after what seemed like hours they entered into a large room, but it was almost completely empty.
The only things which were there, were five gigantic statues which were scattered around the room, after taking in their new surroundings they all wandered over to a different statue. Lexie looked closely at the one she had approached, it seemed to be of a human but they had wings, which confused her. Lexie then noticed a small plaque at the bottom, she knelt down and gently wiped away the dust to reveal some sort of symbol. It almost resembled that of a feather, but Lexie couldn't be too sure. Maybe it was some form of ancient language which was once spoken on the planet, or maybe it was the current language, Lexie just didn't know. "Has anyone else seen an odd symbol on the plaque of their statue?" She questioned, Scotty turned and stared closer at the plaque he had. Sure enough there was a symbol, it looked like a bolt. It soon became clear that every statue had its own symbol, the one McCoy had gone to had what looked to be a wave, Kirk's was a flame while Chekov's had some sort of small mountain. "Do you think they represent names? You know of the people these statue depict?" Kirk questioned as he stared up at his statue, Chekov nodded slowly. "It's possible Captain, but if they do then this is one strange language."
Lexie was about to speak when the whole room began to shake, "What now?!" McCoy yelled as he jumped to his feet. "Earthquake?!" Questioned Lexie as she stepped out of the way of a falling rock, "Whatever it is I don't like it! Let's get out of here!" Kirk cried and it seemed like no one had to be told twice since they all bolted back down the hall. Lexie glanced back over her shoulder to see the entrance to the room completely cave in, but it seemed that wasn't the only thing caving in. The ceiling of the hallway had started to crumble, causing huge chunks of rock to plummet down. "If I may remind you Jim, we don't really have a way out of here! Remember!" McCoy cried as he dodged a rock, "I've got a plan Bones!" Kirk replied as he pulled out his communicator and flicked it open aggressively. "Spock!" Kirk yelled into his device, "Spock here Captain, is something wrong?" "What gave you that impression Spock? Is the fact I'm screaming not enough, beam us back to the ship. Now!" Kirk replied as he jumped over a boulder which had fallen mere moments before.
"The transporter is having trouble locking on to you Captain, please try and remain still." Kirk muttered something under his breath before actually answering the Vulcan, "Can't really do that Spock! We're currently running through a collapsing tunnel!" Kirk yelled clearly he was a little annoyed with the Vulcan and he wasn't the only one. "Dam it Spock you hobgoblin, get us out of here!" McCoy roared angrily, he would much prefer to be on the Enterprise right now. Lexie had the same feeling, they soon came to the cavern they had entered from. "Spock!" Kirk yelled again. "Just a few seconds longer Captain, the transporter is locking on to you." McCoy seemed to growl, "Dam it Spock we don't have a few seconds!" Lexie, Chekov, and Scotty all had their backs turned towards each other. "I wish Mr Spock would hurry up!" Chekov called as he watched more rocks drop from above, "You ain't the only one lad." Scotty replied. Suddenly the whole ceiling collapsed, Scotty instinctively clung to Lexie to try and protect her. "SPOCK!" Kirk and McCoy yelled as they watched the rocks hurdle down towards them, before the two of them closed their eyes.