Chapter Two: I don't feel dead...

Jordon stared at the red being. The ghosts! He felt like running off into the dense plants, but he was a security guard, and he was suppose to guard and secure. He put a hand on his phaser, noticing out of the corner of his eyes that Kalinda and Jack were doing to the same, then waited for the being, or the captain, to speak.

"Who are you?" Captain Kirk asked. The beings said nothing. After several minutes, the captain began to get nervous. He tried again.

"What do you want?" Still a silence

"Are you the guardian of this place?"

"No." The voice sounded like a normal humans voice, with a hint of English in it, as though it had come from Earth. "The Guardian is up there." It pointed to the sky.

Captain Kirk looked up at the sky. "I am Captain-"

"I know who you are." boomed voice so loud that it could only belong to the Guardian. Jordon clapped his hands to his ears. It was like the sound of a great drum being beaten. He saw the others also covering their ears, especially Mr. Spock. If he thought this was loud, what was it like to Mr. Spock's sensitive Vulcan hearing?

"Who are you?" the captain asked again.

"Captain, I believe you have already asked that question, and the being made it clear that it will not, or cannot, answer the question. Therefor, it would be more productive to try asking a new question."

"Thank you, Mr. Spock." the captain said wearily. "Next time you talk could you please use a quieter voice?"

"Yes." It was still loud, but within the normal human speaking range.

"Thank you. We detected a huge energy surge, and have come here to investigate. Do you know what it is?"

"No. Now leave this place."

"Please let us..."

"NO. This is my planet, I am the Guardian. I cam here several years ago, and have claimed this place for my followers. No one else may enter."

"Just give us fifteen minutes. That should be enough time,"

The Guardian was silent for a moment. "Very well. Fifteen Standard minutes, no more."

"Thank you, Guardian." He turned to the others. "Get out your tricorders. We need to get all the information possible. Ensign Jordon, you will go to the north. Ensign Selis, to the south. Ensign Miller, to the east. I'll take the west, and Spock can gather the samples. After you have been gone ten minutes, turn around and come back to the beam-down point."

Jordon, Kalinda and Jack fanned out, going their separate ways, looking for the source of the energy.

This area is pretty boring, Jordon thought. There was nothing but barren ground, with the occasional rocks and deadwood. He kept going, getting no unusual readings. He saw a rocky hill, and started to climb, trying to get a good view of the area. He was about halfway up when he thought he saw something move. It wasn't red, which meant it wasn't the being from before. He turned around, but there was nothing there. He saw something at the edge of his vision two more times as he climbed up the hill, but each time there was nothing.

Finally, he reached the top of the hill. It was a good view, showing him all the nice grassy areas his friends and the captain got to cover, where at least they had shade from the sun beating down upon the planet. But seeing nothing, and noticing that ten minutes were up, he headed back down to go to the beam-dowm point. Jack and Kalinda were already there, arguing over the reality red figure.

"I told you they were real."

"This could occur naturally, you know."

"Yeah, but two different landing parties came before the last one, and they never saw anything like this. And there are no space anomalies around here. I checked to make sure."

"It probably a Romulan ship again."

"Doubt it. We would have seen it."

"Romulan ships can cloak."

Jack thought about this. "Well, they need to decloak to fire, right? The same has to go for projecting voices and red beings."

"So they did it on the planet."

"We would detect them."

"Well, maybe they..." Kalinda trailed off, trying to think of a comeback.

She might have had one too, but just then a prickly plant in front of her jumped forward onto her hand with lightning speed.

"What the...?" she began, but then she gave a shriek, and fell twitching onto the ground. Then she lay still.

"Just like my friend said!" Jack exclaimed, and ran over to check for a pulse. Then he shook his head. There was none. There was a rush of air, and the prickly plant jumped onto him.

"Ahhhh!" he shrieked. Jordon didn't see anything else. The blur on Jack's hand that was the prickly plant jumped to him, and he screamed at the pain burning through his hand and up his arm, toward his brain, and his vision went red. Then he twitched, and lay there. He was blind, but could still hear, and right now he heard hurried footsteps coming toward them. At least they had heard the shouts.

Captain Kirk: What happened, Mr. Spock?

Mr. Spock: I am unsure, Captain. But they are dead.

Are we? I don't feel dead.

Captain Kirk: How did they die?

Mr. Spock: I am unsure. Dr. McCoy will need to look into that.

Captain Kirk: There appear to be puncture wounds on each of their hands. Does that mean anything?

It means we were injected with something from that plant...

Mr. Spock: Probably that they were attacked by the same creature, or species of creature. However, I see nothing to suggest there was ever an animal here recently. No tracks, no broken plants, except that of where they fell, nothing.

Captain Kirk: Could it fly?

Mr. Spock: That is a possibility. There appears to be marks here, on the branches near Ensign Selis' body that suggest something jumped upon Ensign Selis. I estimate a 99.64753 chance that she was attacked first, then the thing jumped the other two.

Oh, it can jump, all right...

Captain Kirk: What about that prickly thing?

Mr. Spock: Interesting. It appears to be like the...

Captain Kirk: Watch out!

Mr. Spock: Fascinating. It appears to be able to move on it's own. I shall have to put this with the other samples.

Of course. Just the ensigns die, just like in the unwritten law.

Guardian: It is time. Leave now.

Captain Kirk: What happened?

(Pause)

Captain Kirk: Guardian? Answer me!

(Another silence, then a sigh)

Captain Kirk: Two to beam up.

Am I dead? He saw a light in front of him, as though at the end of a tunnel, and felt himself being pulled toward it. He remembered what people on Earth had said about staying away from the light, and he fought with all his strength. But he didn't need their warnings.

Because the light was red.