Pavel's mental state is like a roller coaster in the lead up to the away mission and going back to space. Anxiety doesn't take long to set in and he ends up in nervous tears for more nights in a row than he can admit to himself. Pavel thinks Sulu doesn't seem to pick up on it but he definitely does. He isn't entirely sure how to help so he tries talking to Pavel about it but it only seems to make him more nervous. Scotty seems to be the only one who can distract Pavel from the fear of re-entering space.
The shuttle craft into space makes Pavel feel sick and makes Scotty complain the whole ride. The group has been spilt into two because of the shuttle sizes and Scotty fears that at least one group will get lost. Pavel is only half listening to his rants. He feels sicks partially from the bumpy space craft but mainly from nerves. He didn't get a chance to say goodbye to Sulu in the morning and it is starting to make him feel guilty. It might be a while before he sees him again. They aren't entirely sure how long the mission will be for but Scotty predicted somewhere close to two months. Pavel pulls out his PADD and types a quick message to Sulu apologising for not being able to say goodbye. He feels guilty and starts thinking about the possibility of not coming back from Delta Vega in one piece. It's a harsh environment with a lot of ravenous creatures just waiting for young fragile ensigns who can't run fast enough.
Pavel keeps thinking about death when Scotty pokes him in the side, gesturing out the window. The earth is glowing and beautiful and for a few minutes, Pavel forgets everything that has happened and remembers exactly why he joined Starfleet in the first place. He feels alive again and Scotty sees the energy and hope in his bright blue eyes and smiles. He knows he has made the right decision in bringing Pavel along.
It takes a few hours to get to the space station and another few days to reach Delta Vega travelling at warp 2. He enjoys spending his time with Scotty and the rest of the engineering ensigns. Some of them have no idea what they're doing but some of them are absolutely hilarious. It's nice not doing anything for a few days and just playing cards and tinkering with machine parts. Pavel was going to go into engineering but something made him want to try navigating. Now not going into engineering is his biggest regret for more reason than one.
Delta Vega is 'fucking cold' according to one of the other head engineers but Pavel can only laugh rather than agree. He is well accustomed to the cold from his chilly home in Russia but Delta Vega is something altogether. They have to take precautions to avoid frostbite and the two-hour trek up to the base on the mountains is absolute hell. Pavel's legs are like jelly from not moving much in the past few days. Scotty's hilarious mumbling and complaining makes the trek a little more tolerable for the group of twenty and a few of the guys try to start singalongs. The group is mainly human and mainly male. Pavel doesn't even try to sing, his lungs are icy and sore without any more exertion than necessary.
Just before they reach the base someone trips over and ends up with a huge cut across their hand and down their wrist. The blood across the ice makes Pavel feel ill though he doesn't say anything. Scotty and the woman's friend put her arm into a sling with some fabric and walk with her carefully the rest of the way. The base is considerably warmer and pretty nice. Pavel has to share a room with two other people, one of which he assumes will be Scotty and the other guy whose only comment was 'fucking cold'.
Four days into the away mission Pavel finally gets enough connection to receive a reply back from Sulu. It's a short message just about what's going on back on earth, nothing too exciting. Pavel smiles and quickly sends back a reply, not knowing when he'll get another chance to. Scotty walks in and throws his stuff down on the bed and collapses on top of it.
"Ya know what? PE was my worst subject in high school. I joined Star Fleet to avoid any kind of physical activity. And now they want me to go for another casual stroll through the freezing mountains. I'm tellin' ya Chekov these people are mad. Completely mad."
Pavel grins as Scotty continues his story, unpacking his things as he does so. The other guy in the room has fallen asleep and Pavel wonders if Scotty has even realised. Five minutes later he concludes that this guy can sleep like the dead. Pavel doesn't bother with dinner that night regardless of how hungry he is. He just can't be bothered and falls asleep still in his clothes. Scotty gives them all the day off the next day even though Star Fleet is meant to have them on a strict schedule. The majority of people do nothing but sleep for the day and Pavel wants to do the same, but the bed gives him a weird vibe for some reason. He unpacks most of his things and checks out the base. It's a nice base, and reasonably spacious considering they're in the middle of nowhere. It's weird to think that this space on top of a mountain will be his home for a while.
Scotty works them all hard for the first week. They're up early and writing reports until the early hours of the morning. The food is pretty terrible and only gives Scotty something else to complain about. Before Scotty was on the Enterprise he has the same problem with food on Delta Vega. Starfleet reluctantly agreed to increase the food quality but Scotty remains nowhere near satisfied.
The hard days and nights don't give Pavel much time to think, and this seems to do wonders for him for the first while. He's not cured, that's for sure. Scotty has had to basically pull Pavel out of the bed once or twice, but he feels better as a whole. He messages Sulu every day, normally once at lunch time and then again before he goes to bed. Sulu reckons nothing interesting has happened while he's been gone but a few of the other guys there have heard of Jim Kirk starting a punch up along with another incident of stolen medical equipment.
McCoy tries to video call Pavel every now and again but Pavel just lets it ring out and sends him an apology message later. He knows McCoy is just going to hassle him or give him the "I told you so" speech. He doesn't know which one is worse. He asks Hikaru to vouch for him because he knows McCoy will ask if Pavel has messaged him. Pavel doesn't want to admit it but he misses Hikaru, quite a lot. Hikaru just seems to know him, it's like he knows how he's feeling before he feels it. The guys at the base camp are all nice, but they're also all very loud and Pavel needs his own space. He's found a small room near the main engineering sector where there are no people and he can just sit quietly and enjoy the gentle hums of the generators. It seems to be a small unused broom cupboard or something of the sorts. It's not much, but it servers its purpose.
Hikaru receives no messages from Pavel for a few days and it freaks him out a little because he is normally very diligent with messages and such a delayed responses have never really been a problem. McCoy doesn't receive anything from him either for a while. McCoy asks around a little and no one in the team has sent or received any messages in the past few days which is both a good and a bad thing. It means Pavel isn't just in a mood, but it also means that something could be wrong at the base.