So I realize that there are some similarities between this story and Star Trek Beyond in that it's about a crew stranded on a strange planet after their ship got F-ed up. Similarities should end there, though - there will be no Beastie Boys in this story. Although I do love Beastie Boys. Feel free to drop a review and let me know what you think.

The shuttlecraft plunges into a thick cloud bank which blocks out the bright starlight. Heavy winds buffet the small vessel as the darkness of the storm is punctuated by lightning.

"Steady as she goes, Mr. Rylek!" Sparks calls, clutching his seat tightly as the shuttle is battered by wind. "Any sign of those probes?"

Avala replies, "Sensors are barely cutting through all the EM interference, but it looks like they decided not to follow us into the storm."

"Smart choice!" The ship lurches to starboard and the crew are tossed sideways in their seats. "Do we have enough power to make an emergency landing away from this hurricane?"

"I believe so!" Rylek shouts over the noise. "I have aligned our flight path with the wind stream, and am attempting to slingshot us out from the storm."

"Make it so!" The cabin is illuminated by a flash of lightning striking the hull.

Rylek brings the shuttle into a glide on the furious winds. His brow furrowed, he says, "Bringing us out… now."

Then he banks the ship hard, and it soars out of the edge of the hurricane over a wide green field. In the distance, white dome-shaped structures jut from the sea of green, partially covered by vegetation.

"Sensors are completely jammed!" Avala announces.

"You're going to have to eyeball this landing, Ensign!" Sparks tells Rylek as they glide over the field.

"Understood, sir! Attempting to reduce speed…" The cabin quakes as the braking thrusters fire.

Sorensen looks out a porthole. "I don't think that's solid ground! Looks like a forest canopy to me."

"Acknowledged," Rylek says through gritted teeth. "I recommend bracing yourselves…"

The shuttle cuts a swath through the canopy into a dark forest of green, mushroom-like objects. The shuttle's port wing strikes a thick trunk and is torn off, sending the ship into a rapid spin. It crashes to the ground and slides a long distance, felling a number of the plants in the process. Eventually it strikes a thick trunk and comes to a halt, knocking it partly over.

Rylek opens his eyes, and his ears adjust to the silence. He turns to Avala, and she smiles nervously, her eyes wide. Rylek nods.

"Aaauughhh…"

He turns to see Commander Sparks groaning, pinned in his collapsed seat, a shard of wrecked bulkhead impaling him near his shoulder. He touches it, then examines the blood on his hand, a glazed look on his face.

"Commander!" Rylek and Avala remove their safety harnesses and rush to Sparks' side. Sorensen is looking on in shock, while Alomar opens his medkit and activates a medical tricorder.

"Hold him in place, please," he says to Avala and Rylek. He pulls out a small phaser and adjusts the settings, then fires at the shard of duranium in Sparks' shoulder. It disintegrates, and Sparks slumps backwards.

"It's alright," Avala whispers to him. "You're going to be alright."

Sparks looks up at her. "'Tis but a flesh wound," he wheezes weakly. Sorensen chuckles in spite of herself.

"I see you're also an aficionado of the golden age of absurdist comedy," Alomar says, scanning him with a tricorder. "You may have a concussion, so it's too risky for me to sedate you. So I'm going to give you something for the pain while I treat you. Please try to stay conscious. Have you got any more Holy Grail quotes?"

"'Strange women lying in ponds distributing weapons is no basis for a system of government,'" Sparks recites as Alomar's tricorder projects a circular device onto his chest, which glows white, rapidly regenerating his cellular tissue. Then it projects a pair of nodes onto his temples. "'We demand that you bring us… a shrubbery…'" Sparks' eyes roll up into his head as the nodes glow, then disintegrate. The tricorder fires a red beam at him on a wide spread, and the blood coating his chest vanishes. The uniform mends itself.

"Ugh…" Sparks leans forward, his forehead in his palm.

"How are you feeling?" Alomar asks.

"I've got a splitting headache."

"That's not surprising. You're in fine health, but to be on the safe side, I'd suggest you get some rest."

"No time. We need to contact the captain and Pon." Avala and Rylek help him to his feet. To Rylek, "Excellent flying, Ensign."

"Sir, you were nearly killed!"

"Don't beat yourself up about it. I've been through worse." He hobbles to Sorensen's station. "What's our status?"

"Main power is offline, but the auto-repair unit is engaged. It's operating at 25% efficiency, so we won't have power for another eighteen hours or so. And the entire EM spectrum is completely clogged on this planet, so we can't use sensors or communication beyond a few meters."

"For a dead planet, they sure are sending a lot of signals. Is there any chance we can access their computer network?"

She frowns. "I wouldn't recommend that, sir. Pon's computer countermeasure worked against the probe, but I don't know how much good it would do if we tap into their central network. I think it would overwhelm our systems."

Sparks sits down. "How many tricorders do we have?"

"Four, sir. Plus Dr. Alomar's medkit."

He nods, and rotates his chair to face the crew. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not planning to spend the rest of my life here. The Iconians had gateways which allowed them to travel throughout the galaxy. If we can find one and activate it, we can get back to the Federation. Our objective right now is to find Pon and the captain, and to locate a gateway." He strokes his beard. "Tomas, Susan, I'd like you to come with me. We'll try to get our bearings and see if there's anyone on this planet. Vanda, Rylek, you stay here and oversee repairs on the ship, and see if you can get on the Iconian network. We can isolate a tricorder from our network and try to get access to the planet's computer systems. We might be able to get some information about the captain's whereabouts."

He opens a compartment and pulls out a set of phasers. As he works, Sorensen puts a hand on Rylek's shoulder. "Hey. Good work today."

He turns to the thin blond woman. "Thank you, Susan. It was a very… challenging experience. And it is unfortunate that the shuttle was so severely damaged in the landing."

"Well, we're alive; that's what matters. You should be proud."

"Pride is illogical." He looks into her grey eyes. "Please use caution when on the away mission. This planet appears to be quite hostile."

"Oh, don't worry, I will. It's kind of exciting, though. I haven't been on an away mission since I was on the Crazy Horse. You were probably a kid at the time." She smiles. "This is what it's about, though, isn't it? Exploring strange new worlds."

"Indeed."

Alomar sits next to Sparks. "I don't suppose you'll listen to me if I tell you that you should rest."

Sparks looks up. "I appreciate your concern, doctor, but we've got too much to do. We're sitting blind on this planet right now, and the captain could be in danger. I'll be alright." He stands and passes a phaser to Avala. "Hang on to this. If they realize we're alive, they may come after us, and the shuttle's probably the first place they'll look for us."

"I understand."

"And I want you to abandon the shuttle at the first sign of trouble. Without warp capability, it's not much use to us in the long run. Your safety is our priority right now."

"Yes, sir." He turns to leave, but she puts her hand on his arm. "Hey. Be careful." Glancing around to make sure no one is watching, she kisses him quickly on the lips.

He smiles. "Thanks. You too."

Sparks slings a pack over his shoulder and opens the shuttle's airlock. The doors slide aside and he steps out, followed by Sorensen and Alomar. All around them, dark trunks stem up from the ground, branching out into a thick canopy which blocks out almost all sunlight. The purple sky is visible through a trail carved by the shuttle in its descent.

Sorensen examines a tricorder, bringing it close to one of the trunks. "Colonial microvegetation," she announces.

"Mold trees," says Alomar, placing his hand against a stalk. It is soft to touch.

"There's more," Sparks says, pointing his tricorder downward. "Below the topsoil. I'm detecting solid surfaces, various metal alloys." He walks a short distance. "There's wrecked machinery buried under the ground. I think we're standing on top of some kind of landing pad, or a hangar."

Alomar raises an eyebrow and enters a command into his tricorder. "The tricorder projects, based on our previous readings of the weather patterns of this planet, this sort of soil accumulation would have required the area to be abandoned for tens of thousands of years."

"The Iconian Empire was destroyed two hundred thousand years ago. Maybe that's how long it's been abandoned," Sparks speculates.

Sorensen furrows her brow and walks among the mold stalks. "We definitely picked up surface-level cities while we were in orbit."

"Different areas of the planet could have been depopulated at different times," Alomar suggests.

"True, but that doesn't correspond with what we know about the other Iconian worlds. They were destroyed by orbital bombardment. They all died at once," Sorensen replies. "I could do a more thorough analysis if I had access to the labs on Icarus."

"We could do a lot if we still had Icarus," Sparks says gravely.

Alomar sees his expression and nods solemnly. "It's hard to believe, isn't it? She was our home. We were on a mission. And now, she's just… gone."

Sorenson looks skyward. "Pon was trying to launch the core systems when we evacuated. If she succeeded, it's possible we could restore the ship."

Alomar turns to her. "Did you see it? The ship was crushed. Into a ball."

"Well, if she ejected the matter projectors and activated the auto-repair sequence, it's possible she could actually restore the ship."

The doctor looks startled. "Restore it?"

"Well, yeah, I don't really see why not." She looks between Alomar and Sparks. "The schematics of the ship are saved in the main computer, and, I mean, the matter is all still there. In theory, the matter projectors could break it down and re-structure the ship, one piece at a time."

"I had an antique record player in my quarters. I hope it can restore that," Alomar says. "How long would that take?"

"I have no idea."

As they talk, Sparks wanders away, following his tricorder. Soon, the darkness of the canopy gives way to the fading light of the planet's setting sun. Sparks closes his tricorder and steps to the edge of a high cliff overlooking a vast sea of dark green, with massive, moss-covered pieces of starship debris jutting out of the foliage. In the distance, the sun is going down between two weathered dome-shaped structures, under a brilliant violet and green sunset. In the distance, deeper in the forest, a thin wisp of smoke emerges from a short, wide dome, and faint lights dot the low structures around it.

Sorensen and Alomar approach Sparks, gazing at the striking view. Sparks points at the low structures. "There. Do you see the lights and the smoke?" He taps a command into its tricorder, and it projects a set of binoculars over his eyes. "That's definitely artificial lights of some kind." He taps again, and the binoculars disappear. "We'll need to get closer to get a reading, but it could be signs of a functioning society."

"You think there may be living Iconians on this planet?" Alomar asks.

"I don't know about you, but I don't think this planet was hit by orbital bombardment. Something else happened here. Could have been a different kind of weapon." He gazes at the structures in the distance. "Could have just been time."

The hexagonal module containing Icarus' vital systems drifts through the silence of space, lit from all directions by the stars of the Galactic Core.

The planet hangs in space ahead of the module. A crescent of the planet is illuminated by its sun, with the rest more dimly lit by the stars. Smaller crescents in the planet's orbit reflect the sun's light.

The module's thrusters perform a micro-adjustment, and it floats toward one of the small crescents. Then its thrusters fire again, and it sits still, positioned a wary distance from the planet.

Its scanners perform a sweep of the nearby space. They focus on a small piece of metal debris nearby, a long-discarded remnant of an ancient space flight. The module's transporters activate, and the piece of debris dematerializes in a blue-white shimmer.

Thrusters fire once again, and the module sails toward a metal sphere lit by the yellow-white light of the sun. The module's matter projectors activate, and a small metal instrument materializes in a port on the module, made of repurposed matter from the debris.

Still giving the planet a wide berth, the module positions itself near the metal sphere. The planet passes between the sun and the sphere, casting the module into semi-darkness, lit only by the stars.

The module rotates, and its new instrument fires a grappling cable at the sphere, which lodges itself into an outer layer of duranium silently. Then the module's thrusters activate at full power and it continues away from the planet. The cable stretches taut behind it, and the metal sphere swings slowly in an arc behind the module, away from the planet.

The module cuts its thrusters, and the cable begins to retract as the sphere and the module rotate around each other, drifting slowly away from the planet as if in a waltz. The transporters activate and beam a first piece of duranium off of the sphere, rematerializing it as a piece of structural frame attached to the module.

Where the outer layer of the sphere was beamed away, an inner layer is visible – a twisted piece of hull plating bearing the name USS Icarus, NCC-101352.

"Good morning, Zia."

Rashid opens her eyes to a blur of white and purple light. She blinks, and her surroundings begin to come into focus. She is in an oval-shaped room approximately the size of the Icarus bridge, illuminated by three floating spheres casting light of different shades. The room is furnished by trapezoidal objects of various sizes, and she lays on a soft, flat bed. One side of the room appears to be open to a view of the dark purple sea, with the sun descending on the horizon in the distance.

A tall humanoid alien stands above her. His skin is a pale grey, nearly white, and where his hairline would be, there are five tentacles, approximately half a meter in length, tied behind his head. His black, almond-shaped eyes are large compared to his face, and he has a strong jawline. "What can I do for you today?"

Rashid sits bolt upright and looks around. "Where am I? I was doing an orbital drop… and my suit was breached…"

"You are safe now. There is no need to worry."

She looks at the alien, eyes wide. "Oh my God. Was I dead?"

The alien cocks his head to one side. "That depends on what you mean when you say 'dead.'"

She peers at him for a moment. Then, "I'm sorry. I'm Captain Zia Rashid, of the United Federation of Planets. My ship was here on a mission of exploration."

"Yes, I know. Icarus was destroyed by the orbital defence system. And I am familiar with your mission. I was created based on your cognitive data. My name is Zey-Ar, and I am here to help you."

"Created based on my cognitive data…? Are you a computer program?"

"Yes, in a sense. I am a synthetic entity. My purpose is to assist organic lifeforms. I determined that you were in danger, and I rescued you."

"Well, I appreciate that." She looks at her hands. "I certainly don't feel like I was dead."

"Death is the end of organic life. Your vital systems are functioning. You are conscious. Your organic life has not ended."

"Was I, though? If my suit was breached, I would have decompressed while burning to death…"

"Based on your cognitive data, I believe you would be happier if we do not discuss the precise details of your rescue."

She stares at Zey-Ar. "Pon. What happened to her? Did she make it?"

"Commander Pon is here. She landed on the platform unharmed, and has been very anxious to see you. But I felt that to see the commander immediately upon regaining consciousness would be overwhelming for you."

Rashid smiles in spite of herself. "Well, you might have actually been right about that. But I'd like to see her, if I can."

"Of course." He turns to the door, which slides open. An identical copy of Zey-Ar leads Pon into the room, saying, "Captain Rashid would like to speak to you."

The copy vanishes, and Pon eyes the captain from across the room. "Heyyy," she says slowly. "You feeling alright?"

Rashid sits on the edge of the bed, noticing her fully intact Starfleet uniform for the first time. "Yeah, I feel fine, actually. Mostly. It's a bit hard to describe. How are you?"

"Oh, you know. Back pain, reproductive system slowly drying up. The usual." She pulls a tricorder from her hip and scans Rashid.

She glances at the instrument. "What does it say?"

"It says you're you. Which is good."

"That is good."

Zey-Ar steps back. "Perhaps you wish to speak privately. I will leave you alone. Can I bring you anything, Zia?"

"Actually, some food would be great. I'm really hungry."

"I will bring that for you."

"Bring me something, too," Pon tells the entity.

"Yes, Pon." Zey-Ar vanishes.

Rashid stands up and looks around. "What is this place?"

"I've been wandering around it for the last seven hours. It looks like some kind of luxury estate, as near as I can tell. The technology is very advanced. It's Iconian, though, for sure."

"Did you encounter any sign of inhabitants?"

"None. I can't even tell if anyone's ever been here. But then, the systems are still functioning, and they seem to keep this place pretty clean. Someone could have been here yesterday and we might not know."

Rashid looks around. "If the technology is still operational, that means that someone must have been living here at least somewhat recently."

"Not necessarily. This platform runs entirely on solar and wind power. Renewable sources. It's conceivable that it could continue to operate indefinitely."

She narrows her eyes. "What about Zey-Ar? Did he appear to you?"

Pon's sunken eyes dart nervously around the room. "Actually, there was a different one that appeared to me when I landed. Said he was a synthetic program based on my cognitive data. And he looked like Zaal Ch'Poth."

"The Tellarite pop singer?"

"Yeah." She coughs nervously. "So… I shot him."

"What? Pon!"

"He said he was a synthetic program! And, really, do you want a creature that handsome running around which was created based on my cognitive information?"

"We're talking about potentially a sentient being…"

"Look," she says, "I don't get the sense that I actually killed it. It's like a hologram. I think I just sent the message that I wanted to be left alone, and the systems seemed happy to accommodate me."

"Alright, well, we should be careful until we have a better idea of what we're dealing with here." She looks at the door, then back to Pon. "So you're saying that Zey-Ar's appearance is based on my psychological information?"

"Yeah. And I'd say he's very good-looking, but honestly he just kind of looks mostly like a human to me. I can barely tell your males and females apart, to be honest." She furrows her brow. "But, come to think of it, he kind of reminded me of Commander Sparks a bit."

"What? No. They don't look anything alike. That's ridiculous."

"If you say so."

Rashid looks out the window at the sea. "We need to figure out how to contact the crew."

Pon nods. "Yeah. And we need to access the ship's computer. If the module got away from the singularity, it'll start rebuilding the ship, and once it does, it will come searching for us."

Rashid smiles slightly. "That's right. I remember you telling me that in the event we abandon ship, she's programmed to retrieve us at as soon as practical. But do you think she'd come after us while the orbital defences are still online?"

Pon shrugs. "I'm actually not sure what the computer will do in this situation. It might have the prangs to come try to rescue us. But I don't think I like its chances going head to head with all this advanced Iconian shit." She scowls. "Actually, on that point, we'd better be careful about how we access the computer. I don't want to expose it to Iconian technology any more than absolutely necessary, in case it finds a way to override my countermeasures and gnarf up our systems."

"Maybe we should ask Zey-Ar if there's anything we can use here to locate the crew. A sensor relay, maybe."

There is a soothing, synthesized tone, and Zey-Ar appears behind them, holding a tray of sushi and a grey, spiny tube. "I'm sorry, Zia, but I can't help you with that." He holds up the tray. "But I have prepared some food. It's based on the last thing you ate, based on our bioscans."

Rashid eyes him. "Is that sushi? And howl-fungus?"

"It is."

She steps forward. Pon puts a hand on her shoulder and whispers, "Captain, we should ask it about…"

Rashid seizes Pon's arm and interrupts her, whispering, "Listen. I don't think I have ever been as hungry in my entire life as I am right now. We eat now. We ask questions later. That's an order, Commander."

Pon releases her grip as Rashid strides towards the entity. "You even brought chopsticks! Thanks, Zey-Ar."

"Yes, sir," the Tellarite mutters.

"You know," says Avala as she tinkers with a tricorder in the cabin of the wrecked shuttle, "I think the real reason they left us here while they go off exploring the planet, is as punishment for you wrecking the shuttle."

Rylek looks up from his console and stares at her. "I had not considered that possibility. I had thought that it was logical that they would survey our surroundings, because of their scientific expertise. But I find humans difficult to read. Do you really think they are unsatisfied with my performance as pilot?"

She smirks, glancing at him. "No, Rylek, I'm just messing with you. You did great. You saved all our lives. They know that."

"Ah. I see. It is reassuring to hear that."

Her antennae continue to point towards him as she focuses on the tricorder again. "We haven't really hung out lately."

"Unfortunately not." He raises an eyebrow. "I was under the impression that you have been busy."

"Yeah. Well, you too, I guess."

They continue to work in silence, not making eye contact. Then Rylek turns to her again. After a moment, he asks, "Are you having any success in configuring the tricorder to interface with the Iconian computer network?"

"Working on it. There's something else I wanted to try first." The tricorder beeps, and she smiles. "Excellent. Let's see if this works." She taps a button. "Icarus-1 to Commander Sparks. Come in, Commander Sparks."

"Avala?" comes Sparks' voice, clipped and distorted. "Is that you? How are you contacting us?"

"Thought I'd try something well-loved by human and Andorian alike," she grins. "Old-fashioned radio."

"Nice work, Lieutenant! I'm surprised the radio frequencies aren't jammed on this planet like the rest of the EM spectrum."

"Me too! I suppose it makes sense, if you think about it. We're not on the Iconian homeworld; maybe radio was already obsolete for them when they settled this planet, and they didn't feel the need to bother with super-low-frequency EM communication."

"Good thinking! Can you extend the range and try to contact Captain Rashid?"

"I'll try. But we seem to be in a pretty desolate part of this planet. The interference might be worse in some of the more urbanized areas, if that's where they are."

"Understood. Give it a shot, but don't waste too much time on it; getting onto their network might be more helpful to us."

"Aye, sir."

"Keep me posted, Vanda. Sparks out."

They work in silence for a moment, then Avala says, "There. Their combadges should pick this up if they're in range. Once the main power's back online, I'll be able to boost the signal some more."

Rylek nods. "I do hope their landfall was successful. However, the odds that they did not survive entry into the atmosphere are troubling."

She waves her hand. "Captain Rashid is a survivor. She survived that whole temporal displacement thing. She's a tough lady. And Pon? The atmosphere probably saw her coming and got out of the way."

He cocks his head. "An amusing characterization."

Avala shakes her head. "Come on, why don't we do this from outside. You can help me access their network; staring at the auto-repair isn't going to make it go any faster. And it's getting really stuffy in here."

"As you wish, Lieutenant."

She smirks, and stands and activates the airlock. They walk outside into the cool evening and sit on the edge of the shuttle's remaining wing. They activate another tricorder and disconnect it from the shuttle's computer network.

"I find myself constantly re-assessing the events that led to Icarus' destruction," he remarks as they work, "and questioning whether there was something I could have done differently."

She puts her hand on his shoulder. "Aren't you the one who constantly told me that my insecurity was illogical during exam season? Same goes for you. We just lost the ship and you took us through a pretty rough landing. It's okay to be a bit shaken." She smiles at him. "It's going to be alright. We're Starfleet officers. We're marooned on a planet. It happens all the time. We'll find one of those gateways and get out of here."

"I find your confidence in me to be most gratifying, Vanda," he says earnestly.

Her antennae perk up. "What's that? Do you hear that?"

He listens for a moment, then points the tricorder into the clearing. "There is a subspace rift forming in that area."

"Shit." Avala stares at the clearing, illuminated by the dying light of the sun, and draws her phaser. She activates the radio-configured tricorder. "Avala to Sparks. We've got some kind of localized subspace anomaly forming near our position. I think it might be one of those gateways you were talking about."

"You should both get out of there," his voice crackles. "Take whatever equipment you can and leave the shuttle. We'll come back for it later."

"Understood." She turns to Rylek. "Grab a ration pack. I'll set the tricorder to emit a dampening field around us."

Rylek nods and disappears into the shuttle. There is an unnatural shimmering, and a pair of bluish orbs flash into being and hover amid the foliage. Avala takes cover behind the shuttle's wing, her phaser trained on them. "Rylek, let's go."

The orbs begin to float toward the shuttle. Avala calls in a loud whisper, "Shit! Rylek, watch out…"

He emerges from the airlock to see the two globes hovering before him. His eyes widen and he reaches for his phaser.

"Attention unauthorized alien," comes a synthesized voice from one of the orbs. "You have unlawfully entered Iconian territory. You will be detained and processed."

"Greet… greetings…" Rylek stammers, pointing the phaser at them with a shaking hand. "My… my name is Ensign Rylek, of the United Federation of Planets…"

A white bolt strikes Rylek, and he drops his phaser and ration pack. He staggers backwards, then is lifted into the air by an unseen force, floating limply, his eyes rolled back into his head. One of the spheres flies back into the shimmering anomaly. The other floats into the shuttle.

"Isaiah," Avala hisses into the radio unit, "Two probes just appeared, and one of them took Rylek through the gateway. But it's still open! I'm moving to engage."

As she creeps around the wing towards the rift, Sparks' voice replies, "Negative! Do not go through that gateway. We have no idea what's on the other side. Regroup with us and we'll figure out how to get Rylek back."

Keeping her phaser trained on the airlock, she runs across the twilit clearing. Sparks' voice crackles through the tricorder. "Avala! Talk to me. What's happening?"

"I can't let them take him!" she replies. "The gateway's going to close and then who knows what will happen. I know I can get him."

"Lieutenant, I am giving you a direct order! Do not go through that gateway!"

She glances at the gateway, then back at the shuttle. The sphere re-emerges and fires a bolt of energy, and she dives to one side to avoid it. "Shit. Sorry, Commander! I've got to get him back."

"Avala! Listen to me! Avala!" His shouting causes the radio signal to distort as she sprints across the clearing and dives into the rift.

TO BE CONTINUED...