A loud echo reverberated through the shuttle as a large piece of debris hit the hull, knocking them off course.

"Do we know what that was from?" D'Vana asked as she did her best to keep her eyes on the sensors, helping to guide them through the atmosphere.

"It looked like it was from a ship that had been torn apart," Beckett replied, her fingers dancing over the controls as she sat at the helm.

"My readings are all over the place, the sensors can't really read much with all of this static interference. My best guess is that we are going to be hit a few more times. I suggest we raise the shields," D'Vana said, feeling the shuttle jolt.

"Done, don't worry, I'm sure I can get us through this," Beckett replied, trying to keep her cool.

Silence fell between them as they kept on descending toward the ground below. It felt like an eternity to D'Vana, and all she felt like she could do was trust that Beckett was as collected as she appeared.

Feeling the shuttle being thrown back, the lights flickered a few times as a console behind her sparked. "This is not good," D'Vana loudly said, looking to Beckett who was doing her best to keep them safe.

"I know, I'm working on it," Beckett replied, the console next to her also sparking as a new wave hit them as more debris hit their shields. "I've lost control of more than half of the systems!"

"It's going to be okay, if the sensors are correct and we keep falling at this rate, we should hit the solid ground in a few minutes," D'Vana replied, now also trying to keep Beckett from freaking out.

It didn't take long before they could both see the ground coming at them fast, it was covered in snow, blankets upon blankets of thick snow.

"Hold on, I'm going to do my best to land us as gracefully as I can," Beckett said, taking a deep breath in and focusing on the controls in front of her.

Holding on, D'Vana felt the thunk of the shuttle hit the snow, the inertia sending snow flying in every direction. She heard Beckett curse as the shuttle took a nose dive off the snow peak and slid down the side of whatever was underneath them.

Seeing a daunting mountain of snow in front of them, they both braced for impact as the shuttle collided with it, sending them both flying out of their seats and to the ground.

Feeling a dull thudding in the back of her head, D'Vana slowly got up off the floor of the shuttle and blinked a few times, getting her eyes to focus. She didn't know how long she was out, or what injuries she had. A few feet away Beckett laid unconscious, blood slowly trickling down the side of her face, covering some patches of what looked like dried blood.

Grabbing the medkit, she kneeled down next to Beckett and scanned her, hoping that there was nothing majorly wrong. Sighing in relief when she realised it was a mild concussion and a small laceration, she got to work and quickly stopped the bleeding, healing the wound with the dermal regenerator.

Gently shaking Beckett awake, D'Vana let out the breath she was holding when she saw Beckett's eyes start to open. "It's okay, we're alive, you're okay," she said, helping Beckett to sit up.

"My head feels like it's on fire," Beckett replied, touching her fingers lightly to her temple.

"You hit your head pretty bad, I stopped the bleeding but we don't really have the equipment to treat your concussion," D'Vana replied, her hand still supporting Beckett.

"Thanks, I guess we'll make do," Beckett replied, offering D'Vana a small smile.

Unsteadily getting to her feet, Beckett looked around and sighed. There wasn't as much damage as she thought there would have been, but it still didn't look great. The emergency lighting was on, they still had breathable air, and for the most part, the shuttle wasn't cold.

"The sensors are barely working but they are working well enough to know that we are on solid ground. The atmosphere is still charged with whatever caused us to crash and I don't think we'll be able to get a signal through until it clears up," D'Vana said, going over the readings in front of her.

"We'll just have to try and fix the communications for when that window opens, if the Cerritos is still where it was when we left, it shouldn't take them too long to get to us. I think we may have to go for a walk outside and see what damage has been done to the shuttle," Beckett suggested, looking at D'Vana.

"That's a good idea. The air is breathable but it's going to be freezing. We have coats in the rear to help protect us from the elements," D'Vana said, knowing that they couldn't stay out there for very long.

"Let's get it over with, shall we?"

"Are you sure you're up to it, I can go out by myself," D'Vana offered, looking at the trail of dried blood down the side of Beckett's face.

"I'm sure," Beckett replied, nodding her head.

Heading into the rear of the shuttle, they both donned large silver coats and boots. Grabbing their tricorders, they lowered the rear hatch and stepped out into the cold. The wind was harsh against their skin, it was like thousands of ice-cold daggers hitting them at once. Their feet sunk into the snow, and the sun was starting to set, bringing in the colder temperatures.

Beginning to look over the shuttle, Beckett whistled as her eyes landed on a massive scorch mark along the side of the shuttle. "What do you think made that?"

"I have no idea," D'Vana replied, looking at the patterning of the mark on the hull. Scanning it, she scrunched her face and bit her bottom lip, reading the output on her device.

"What's it saying?" Beckett asked, going over to D'Vana and looking at the readings.

"The tricorder has no idea what caused the damage, like no clue at all," D'Vana replied, beginning to move around the shuttle. "There's another one on this side too but it's a lot smaller."

"Trust us to get hit by something unknown and crash on an ice planet," Beckett said, kicking some snow in frustration.

"We don't have great luck, do we? I've found the panel we need and it doesn't look promising," D'Vana responded, pursing her lips together.

Rubbing her forehead as she felt pain shoot through her head, Beckett sighed and joined D'Vana on the other side of the shuttle. She was cold, she was injured, and this was the last thing she needed. Looking at the partially scorched panel, she knew that without some form of a miracle happening they wouldn't be getting communications up and running any time soon.

"Let's head back inside, neither of us needs to get hypothermia, there's no hope in fixing it." Heading inside, Beckett stopped for a moment as D'Vana gave the panel one last look before closing the hatch as she entered the shuttle.

"We are meant to return to the ship in like four hours and if we don't show up, they'll come looking for us, surely they wouldn't leave without us," Beckett said, plopping down on the seat in the rear of the shuttle and pulling her boots off.

"They won't," D'Vana agreed, sitting down opposite Beckett.

"I know my mom and I have our differences but I know she would never abandon anyone, ever," Beckett said, wincing as her head started to pound.

"She wouldn't, the captain is a really good captain, one of the best I've met," D'Vana replied, noticing the look on Beckett's face. "Are you feeling alright?" she asked, grabbing the medical tricorder and scanning Beckett to make sure she didn't miss anything.

"My head, it's just pounding," Beckett answered, feeling the warmth of D'Vana's fingers against her temple.

"Hopefully it'll stop soon. I'll look for a hypospray and something to clean your face with." Putting away the tricorder, D'Vana began to search through the shuttle, looking for something, anything, to help Beckett with the pain. D'Vana was positive that Beckett had a concussion, the medical tricorder agreed but she had a feeling Beckett didn't believe in concussions.

Kneeling down, D'Vana tried pulling the storage out from underneath the seat and sighed when she realised it was jammed. Jiggling it as best she could, she pulled it back and with a bit of effort, the drawer slid open. Inside was a half-packed medkit, still not restocked from the last away mission and an open packet of wet wipes.

Finding a mild painkiller and a hypospray inside, D'Vana loaded it and went over to Beckett. "This might help," she said, pressing it against the soft skin of Beckett's neck.

"Thanks," Beckett replied, instantly feeling a little relief as the pounding in her head began to ease. "Also, is it just me or is it getting cold in here?"

"You're right, it is getting a little cold," D'Vana replied, furrowing her eyebrows. "I'm just going to clean the blood off your face if that's okay."

"That's fine," Beckett said, sitting down in one of the seats. Feeling the warmth of D'Vana's hand against her face, Beckett leaned into the touch as the cold wet wipe cleaned the other side of her face.

"There you go, all done."

"Thanks, dude."

Heading over to the console, she pulled up the environmental controls and sighed when she realised the temperature had indeed been dropping inside of the shuttle. Playing around with the controls, she heard the shuttle protest at her as a small spark jumped out, just missing her face.

"It's a lost cause, the best we can do is grab some blankets and just wait until the Cerritos comes for us. My head hurts too much to think or move," Beckett said, looking over at the Orion.

"Is there anything more I can do to help?" D'Vana asked, sitting down across from Beckett.

"I don't think so," Beckett replied, closing her eyes as she tried to think of something to help them. "We need to think of ways of trying to conserve what heat we have."

"I'm currently diverting all spare energy into the environmental controls. We know we can breathe the air outside so I'm not too concerned about that. If we use the blankets and inflate the air mattress and put it between us and the cold floor, it could give us some time," D'Vana said, turning to Beckett who nodded her head in agreement.

"That's not a half-bad plan, help me set it up," Beckett said, wincing as she stood up and pulled the compartment open and pulled out the air mattress.

Handing it to D'Vana, she watched as the woman laid it down on the floor and set it to self-inflate.

"I'm going to pull out all the blankets we have," D'Vana said, needing to do something more than what she was currently doing.

Rifling through the compartments, she came out with four blankets and two pillows that had been vacuumed sealed.

Noticing that the bed was ready and that Beckett was looking a little worse, she opened the pillows and placed them down at the head of the mattress. Lying out two blankets on either side, she pulled her thick coat off and placed it where her feet would go, knowing that frostbite was a very real thing that could happen.

"Go lie down, you look like you need to," D'Vana said, helping Beckett onto the bed with little protest. Helping her out of her coat, she waited until Beckett was under the blankets before she laid it over the top of her.

Looking out the front of the viewscreen, D'Vana could see that the sun was setting quite fast. The only lights they had were the emergency lighting and that was just enough to see where they were going. Letting out a shaky sigh, D'Vana turned to the rear and joined Beckett on the bed, pulling her covers up high.

"My mom should be here soon," Beckett said, not wanting silence to fill the shuttle.

"When she gets here, I'm going to have a nice long hot shower," D'Vana replied, turning on her side so she could make out Beckett's face.

"Same," Beckett agreed, her head hurting too much to think of much else to say. By now Beckett was pretty sure she definitely had a concussion. The pain killers were helping but the brain fog was there and thinking and trying to remember things was getting harder and harder the colder and more tired she got. "I've always found Orions fascinating, it's just something about the way your race is that intrigues me."

"Most of the Orions I know are not good people. But there are some things I do love about being Orion," D'Vana replied, not knowing where Beckett was going with this.

"I went to Risa once and there was so much dancing, I felt like I was being sucked in whenever an Orion would look at me and beckon me over," Beckett said, yawning as she pulled the blankets higher.

"That was most likely the pheromones, sometimes they do work on the same gender but it's rare," D'Vana responded, storing that knowledge away for later.

"It was nice, maybe we could try that one day." Closing her eyes, Beckett couldn't stay awake any longer and gave in to the temptation of sleep.

Staring up at the ceiling of the shuttle, D'Vana felt a blush creep up on her face. Did Beckett just say she wanted to play with pheromones with her? D'Vana knew what it could lead to and Beckett didn't seem to be bothered by that at all.

Feeling a cold chill run through her body, D'Vana pulled her blankets up higher and hoped the Cerritos would get to them soon. Noticing Beckett shift on the mattress, D'Vana was surprised when she moved closer to her and began to snuggle into her side.

"We should share body heat," Beckett mumbled as she pressed herself against D'Vana.

Instinctively wrapping an arm around Beckett, D'Vana held her close and fixed the blankets with her free hand so there were piled on top of each other. Feeling the warmth starting to spread between their bodies, D'Vana wished it would spread quicker and keep them a little more insulated.

"You're nice and warm," Beckett said, her eyes closed as she tried to snuggle closer into D'Vana's side. "You smell pretty."

"Hopefully soon the Cerritos will come and rescue us. The sun has gone down and we should have rendezvoused with them by now so they should be on their way to finding us," D'Vana said, trying to ignore the feeling she was getting in her stomach as Beckett's warm breath danced on the sensitive skin on her neck.

"Yeah."

Beginning to feel the tug of sleep, D'Vana tried her best to stay awake. Beckett cuddled up into her side peacefully laying there didn't help. D'Vana was warm, she was being cuddled, and they had had a long day.

Lying down though had made her realise that she was sore across her ribs and her left knee had a very uncomfortable feeling in it. Once they got back to the Cerritos she would ask Doctor T'Ana to take a look at it for her.

Yawning, D'Vana could see her breath in front of her as she breathed out. The emergency lighting produced just enough light that D'Vana could see that ice crystals had already started to form on the viewscreen. She could just make out the console for the environmental controls and it was staying steady, keeping the shuttle at a wonderful zero degrees Celsius.

D'Vana could feel her eyes starting to burn. The pull of sleep was getting stronger and the warmth of Beckett was making her feel cosy. Telling herself she could close her eyes for only a minute, D'Vana drifted off to sleep with Beckett cuddled up next to her.

The bright white lights above hurt her eyes as she slowly woke up. Slightly cracking open her eyes, Beckett saw the familiar setting of sickbay. Doctor T'Ana was standing above her and her mother was next to her, a concerned look on her face.

"How are feeling, kid?" Doctor T'Ana asked, helping her to sit up.

"Like I've been hit by a truck," Beckett replied, rubbing her forehead.

"You had a concussion and a hairline fracture in your skull. It's all fixed now, though you may feel some residual effects of the concussion over the next few days but it's nothing to worry about. Unless it feels like a stabbing pain, come and see me as soon as you can," Doctor T'Ana responded, leaving Beckett alone with her mother.

"How are you really doing?" Carol asked as she gently rubbed Beckett's upper arm.

"I'm okay, Mom, just a bit shaken up. I wasn't expecting the mission to go like it did," Beckett replied, looking around trying to spot D'Vana.

"Ensign Tendi is okay, Doctor T'Ana told me she just needs to heal her broken rib and make sure her temperature stabilises. Do you remember what happened?"

"I remember going through the atmosphere of the planet, it was a bit shaky and then something hit us and knocked the shuttle off route. We got hit again and it knocked out most of our controls and we crash-landed where you found us. I think I remember something about the environmental controls being damaged and trying to stay warm but that's about it," Beckett replied, noticing she was feeling a little cold.

"Okay, I'll put that in my report and when Ensign Tendi wakes up, I'll get her story too. For now, please just rest up and use this time to recover. Doctor T'Ana is keeping you both overnight to monitor your vitals. I'll come and see you tomorrow before you get discharged," Carol responded, pulling Beckett to her and giving her a hug before she left sickbay, the doors closing behind her.

Getting up off the biobed, Beckett slowly walked around sickbay and found T'Ana tending to D'Vana.

"How is she?" Beckett asked, worried.

"She's going to be okay, a broken rib and a torn tendon in her knee. Thanks to my impeccable work all her injuries are healed. I'm just about to wake her," Doctor T'Ana replied, pressing a hypospray to D'Vana's neck.

"Doctor T, it's good to see you," D'Vana said, sitting up and looking around. "Beckett, are you okay?" D'Vana asked, her eyes falling on the other woman.

"I'm good, how are you doing?" Beckett replied, feeling relief flood her system, knowing D'Vana was okay.

"I'm good, we're alive, we couldn't get much better," D'Vana replied.

"You two almost didn't make it. When we got to the planet the shuttle was buried under a layer of snow. The environmental controls had given out and both of your body temperatures were so low it took eight hours to slowly raise them enough to wake you both. If you weren't cuddled together under a pile of blankets you probably wouldn't have made it," Doctor T'Ana said, letting them know what happened while they were unconscious.

"Oh, I didn't realise it was that bad," D'Vana replied, a look of shock on her face.

"Damn," Beckett said, unable to come up with anything better.

"You're both staying here so I can monitor you for the next twenty-four hours, get comfortable. I'll be in my office."

Moving up a little in the biobed, D'Vana patted the spot in front of her and smiled at Beckett, wanting her to join her.

Sliding onto the biobed, Beckett sat so she was facing D'Vana. Looking at the Orion's face, Beckett couldn't get over how pretty D'Vana was. Beckett remembered saying some stuff she shouldn't have voiced and she was now wondering if she knew that her feelings for her were a little more than just friends.

"So, um, we survived," Beckett said, feeling her cheeks going warm.

"Yeah, we did," D'Vana replied, pausing for a moment. "Did you mean what you said when we were on the air mattress?"

Feeling the warmth in her cheeks spread to her ears, Beckett knew that she owed D'Vana the truth. "Yeah, I did mean those things, you're very pretty, and you're great to be around and you make my days better."

"And the pheromones thing?" D'Vana asked, her heart thumping in her chest at the almost confession. She liked Beckett but she was pretty sure Beckett didn't feel the same way until now.

"Yeah, that, um, if you're into it but if you're not it's totally okay," Beckett replied, forgetting she said that. She couldn't believe she said that and it made her inwardly cringe.

"Well, we could one day if you're aware of what may happen while under the effects of pheromones, D'Vana said, feeling anxious as she looked into Beckett's eyes.

"I like the sound of that. But first, D'Vana Tendi, would you like to go on a date with me?" Beckett asked, straightening up a little, trying to hide how nervous she felt.

"Beckett Mariner, I would love to go on a date with you," D'Vana replied, smiling at Beckett.

"I'll come up with something special, it'll be a surprise," Beckett responded, the butterflies in her stomach dancing happily.

"I look forward to it," D'Vana smiled, feeling giddy at the prospect of dating Beckett Mariner.

Moving a little closer to D'Vana, Beckett gently caressed the side of D'Vana's face. "Can I kiss you?" she softly asked, wanting nothing more than to be closer to her.

"You can," D'Vana replied, her cheeks blushing dark green.

Cupping D'Vana's face, Beckett leaned in and gently pressed her lips against D'Vana's. It felt like fireworks, her lips were soft, the kiss was tender, and she felt like this was right, it was good, and it was everything she wanted.

Pulling back, Beckett rested her forehead against D'Vana's and softly smiled at her.

"Your lips are very soft."

Smiling back at Beckett, D'Vana tilted her head and kissed Beckett again, feeling her heart race as she kissed the woman she had longed to be with. Now it was a reality and she wouldn't have it any other way.