Scotty tried to stop himself from pacing around the bridge. He was Acting Captain, and that meant he should act like a captain. But it had been almost ten hours with no word from either Captain Kirk or Mr. Spock. Instead, he turned to Uhura for what felt like the fiftieth time. "Are you sure there's nothing wrong the communication instruments that's causing this?"
"Yes, sir, I'm positive," Uhura answered with a touch of impatience. "I've triple checked everything, tried to contact both the captain and Mr. Spock on every frequency. Everything's in working order. Whatever this is, it's coming from the planet."
Scotty sighed in frustration. "Well, keep trying to raise them." He knew she was right, she'd only told him the same thing every time he'd asked. He felt so helpless up here, knowing that the two senior officers were somewhere on that hell of a planet, unable to get back or even get in contact with the ship.
"This is why they tell you not to send all the senior officers off in one shuttlecraft," Doctor McCoy said from his spot behind the captain's chair. He'd hardly moved from there since the start of the crisis, only to return to sickbay every so often if someone had a problem that needed to be dealt with. Not that there had been one; any Enterprise crewmember would have had to be dying to try and get the doctor's attention with Kirk and Spock lost on that planet.
"Well, if I know the captain, he won't give up until he's exhausted every option available to him, and tried to create a few that aren't," Scotty said, forcing a note of confidence into his voice. It seemed to have some effect; the bridge crew glanced around, nodding. "And neither will we. Ensign, you said the readings appeared to be the same as an ion storm?"
"Yes, Mr. Scott," Chekov answered. "But there is no ion storm."
"Aye, but we can try and modify the communication array to compensate for it anyway," Scotty said. He knew it was something the captain would, and probably did, try, but the Enterprise's signals were so much stronger than the handheld communicators that it just might work on their end.
"It's worth a try," Uhura said.
"Good, you and Mr. Chekov, go down to the array and start those modifications. Notify me when they're finished."
"Aye, sir." She and Chekov got up and left immediately, both looking happier now that there was something going on that might actually work.
"There's no guarantee that'll work, you know," McCoy said.
"I know, Doctor," Scotty answered. "But if the instruments think it's an ion storm, maybe there's something in the interference that's similar enough to an ion storm that the same modifications will work."
McCoy nodded, "Makes sense to me. Now, will it make sense to that communication array?"
Scotty smiled, "It just might."
This desert was not at all like Earth deserts. It remained just as warm at night as it did during the day. Luckily, most Starfleet officers developed the ability to fall asleep quickly and sleep lightly, due to constant alarms and midnight duty shifts. Kirk was no exception; in spite of the heat and his own physical discomfort he fell asleep in a matter of minutes. When he awoke, it was still dark, with the edges of the mountains only starting to be visible with the first edges of sunrise. Looking around, Kirk saw that Spock was examining their water supplies, looking worried, for him at least.
"Not enough?" Kirk asked.
"There should be a sufficient amount for today and tomorrow," Spock said.
"But no more?"
"Correct," Spock said dispassionately. Kirk took his water bottle and took his two mouthfuls, determined to make it farther today than they had yesterday.
"I don't suppose you've heard from the Enterprise?"
"Negative," Spock answered. "There is no logical explanation for why this phenomenon should appear from nowhere and only affect the communicators." He looked almost irritated by the disturbance's lack of sense.
Kirk got up, "Well, for now, what caused the phenomenon is a less pressing problem than how we're going to get out of it. Since we don't know enough about the phenomenon to fix the communicators, we're better of trying to find some shelter." He pointed in the direction of the mountains and set off without a word. He knew he sounded impatient, but he couldn't afford to study this as an intellectual problem. As if to add to the point, his stomach growled loudly again.
"Jim. You need something to eat." Spock's tone was what Kirk would have called worried in someone else, his expression clearly concerned to those who knew how to read it.
Kirk waved a hand, "Thank you, Mr. Spock. I'll be fine. All the same, let's keep an eye out for any plants that might be edible." They hadn't seen any plants so far, but all their readings said that this planet was capable of supporting hardy plant life. Spock lapsed into silence, knowing better than argue with Kirk when he was determined. But as the day wore on and they seemed to cover less ground, Kirk knew his weakened condition was at least partly to blame. He pushed himself harder; they only had one more day to reach the mountains. Things had to be better there, even if it was only because there might be shelter.
As if reading his mind, Spock asked, "We should determine what we will do if the mountains don't have sources of food or water, or if the phenomenon is still in place when we reach them."
"You're right," Kirk said tiredly. It was becoming difficult to concentrate. He would have given anything for a hamburger right now. Or even one of those salads McCoy was always trying to force on him. He reached for the water, realizing as he did so that it was too close to their last water break. They wouldn't have enough left but he was so thirsty. Sighing, he resisted the urge.
Spock tactfully ignored this, saying instead, "We will most likely not be in any condition to scale the mountains when we reach them." Kirk rolled his eyes. Spock had such a gift for understatement. "However, it is possible that there is a cave system. In this environment, that is where we are most likely to find water. If we are still unable to contact the Enterprise, we should try to head underground."
"Caves sound pretty good right about now," Kirk said, squinting up toward the sun. "I don't think there's anything else we can do. It would provide shelter, maybe water. Maybe some answers to why this is happening."
Spock looked over, "You do not think this is natural?"
"Do you? There are no effects except on one of our instruments and it appeared out of nowhere. It has no features other than giving off the same readings as an ion storm. I think it's more likely to be artificial than natural," Kirk said.
"A logical conclusion," Spock answered, and Kirk nodded. "But there is no evidence that this planet was ever inhabited by anything more sophisticated than plants."
"Well, then we must be missing something," Kirk said. "Or maybe they were incredibly sophisticated plants." Spock raised an eyebrow in skepticism.
"The point is, it's more likely that this is an artificial phenomenon than that there's an invisible force that doesn't obey any of the laws of nature," Kirk finished. He quickened his pace and instantly realized it was a bad idea. He was hit with a sudden bout of dizziness and light-headedness and stumbled sideways, where Spock caught him.
"I'm fine, Spock," Kirk said quietly, starting at a more steady pace. This time, Spock's raised eyebrow clearly said no, you're not, but they couldn't afford to stop. Not when they had so much more ground to cover.
