Chapter Two
*****
Hoshi woke as the sunlight settled over her. She was still tired, having spent
the night between dream and wakefulness. Her stomach growled as it tried to
clench on to food where there was none. Slowly, she got up and grabbed her bow
and arrow. She had wasted the majority of the daylight sleeping. She would hunt
now – for pelts for warmth and for protein for food. Hopefully she would be
able to track and kill several "rodents." Her pelts from last season
were worn and ineffectual against the freezing weather that was coming.
Her hunting ground was depleted, and she needed to branch out into the
direction she hadn't been ever since her parents had left her. Certainly, it
was safe for her to go back there now. Nobody came from the fireball and she
had assumed long ago that everyone was dead. It was time to go and find out if
they were. She could feel death nipping at her, the cold, and the hunger. It
was time to see what had happened, for her to answer the questions she had no
one to ask.
***
"Sir, I'm receiving a distress call from the fifth planet in the system,"
Ensign Collins stated, pressing the earpiece into her ear firmly as she
concentrated on the signal. "I think it's automated because so far it's
repeated two times." She paused. "It's Denobulan, sir."
Captain Archer didn't need to confer with his bridge officers for a decision.
"Travis, set a course."
"Aye, Sir," Ensign Travis Mayweather stated as he entered course corrections.
"Malcolm, assemble a team. Take Phlox with you in case there are injuries,"
Captain Archer commanded as he headed for his ready room.
Lt. Malcolm Reed nodded his acknowledgement, giving instructions to the ensign who
took over the tactical. "Sub-commander, what is the situation on the planet?"
Malcolm asked as he approached the Vulcan who was just now scanning the planet.
"Currently nineteen degrees Celsius. Vegetation. Small carnivores. Baring any
unforeseen problem, the tactical situation is low," stated Sub-commander T'Pol
in her usual dry way.
Malcolm nodded his acknowledgement of the information and walked to the lift. Surely,
this will be a cakewalk, he thought to himself, then stopped.
"Ensign Mayweather, would you like to join us?" Just the other day, Travis said
he was itching for an away mission.
"Yes sir!" Travis agreed readily.
***
Travis piloted Shuttlepod One over the canopy with ease while Malcolm scanned
for a landing site, having determined coordinates a few yards away from the
distress signal. Meanwhile, Phlox and Crewman Cutler monitored for Denobulan
life signs.
Being the
first one out of the shuttle, Malcolm gave the all clear to proceed to the
source of the distress signal. He nodded to Travis to secure the shuttle.
The slight jolt from the landing brought Phlox out of his reverie. "I've
detected no Denobulan life signs," he said, holding his scanner in front of him
as he climbed through the hatch. Cutler followed behind him with the medical
supplies.
The team walked the short way to the Denobulan racer, clearing away the limited
foliage that had encroached over the intact vessel. Cutler started as some
rodents scattered from the disturbed ruins.
Malcolm and Phlox entered the racer easily, as the hatch was still open.
"Apparently, they were planning on returning fairly soon," Malcolm surmised and
sat at the controls. "I wonder what triggered the distress signal."
"Most Denobulan vehicles are programmed to emit a distress signal after being
dormant for fifteen years, provided the crew met with an unfortunate end,"
Phlox explained as he activated the ship's logs.
The hair on the back of Malcolm's neck stood up at the mention of "unfortunate end."
"Why fifteen years? Isn't that kind of long?" asked Travis.
"Some Denobulan scientists get so wound up in their experiments, they are often
gone from their ships for that long, but this racer only supports a crew of
three and I doubt they were on a scientific mission," declared Phlox as he
punched in some clearance codes to access the logs.
"We're day three in pursuit of the witch-ling. Our employer is frustrated
with our delay retrieving their property. We never should have taken this
contract," the disembodied voice of the bounty hunter filled the cockpit.
"Day four. We are descending into the atmosphere. Previn is frustrated it has
taken this long and is talking of murdering and torturing the witch-ling's
protectors. We will put down 1.6 kilometers from their site, so they have no
warning. He's even talking about torturing the witch-ling before we deliver her
for the harvest."
"That's the last log, dated approximately fifteen years ago," Phlox looked
around and took notice of a cage in the corner of the small craft.
"I wonder what happened to the bounty hunters," chimed Liz Cutler.
Phlox pulled up a picture of a human family, a little girl with raven pigtails
smiling at the camera while the parents imitated smiles.
All three were so engrossed with the photo they started when Malcolm banged on
the open hatch. "I noticed something approximately one kilometer to the south,
possibly ruins," he said.
"Perhaps our answer lies in those ruins. Shall we?" Phlox motioned toward
Elizabeth and Travis and the hatch.
***
The kilometer long hike was made in companionable silence with the exception of
Phlox bringing Malcolm up to speed.
Malcolm was the first to approach the ruins, phase pistol and scanner poised.
Lowering his phase pistol, he motioned to the others that the area was free
from any immediate dangers.
Phlox adjusted his scanner to search for Denobulan and human remains and
received immediate results. "I am detecting two Denobulans and two Humans, the
third Denobulan is about a meter to the west. Judging by my readings, all of
them died from smoke inhalation, while the human male died from blood loss. I'm
afraid that's as detailed as the scanners are going to get. I will be able to
tell more if we collect the remains, and take them back up to sickbay and -- "
Phlox fell to the ground with a yelp as an arrow pierced his leg.
"Everybody, get behind the trunk and stay low!" Malcolm shouted as he pulled
Phlox under cover. Another arrow whizzed past his head and missed its intended
target. Flipping his communicator open, he yelled, "Enterprise, we are under
attack by an unknown assailant. Can you lock on to his coordinates?"
"Your assailant is approximately one meter north of your position and closing
in," T'Pol informed the Lieutenant as he took to ground, determined to meet his
attacker head on instead of waiting for him to find them.
The sounds of movement in the bushes caught his attention and he crouched,
ready to ambush the assailant. The sound and scent of their clumsy attacker
assailed his senses moments before he had a visual on the…woman? Malcolm was
thrown for a sliver of second by the sight, as he noticed the curves that one
could mistake as hips and breasts. His hesitation didn't last long, as she
sighted Phlox and raised her bow and arrow for the kill.
***
She was going to kill the monster first, but didn't quite know what to do with
the others that accompanied it. "Run away Hoshi-chan!" The warning her
parents drilled into her their first year on the planet played in her head like
a recording, but she stood firm and resolute that she would kill the monster
and the others for her survival. Their meat and skin alone would keep her alive
through the cold months.
She raised her bow and arrow, targeting the monster first. A flash caught her
eye, and then everything went black.
*****