"Hand me that tricorder," Uhura said to Chekov from inside the Jeffries tube. He handed her the instrument and stepped back as she took new readings of the now modified communications array. Jumping down from the Jeffries tube, she grinned and reminded herself to thank the advisor who had suggested she supplement her linguistics specialty with some basic engineering and computer programming courses. Most communications officers concentrated on the linguistics aspect of the job, only knowing what they needed to work the console. Uhura's increased knowledge of how the communications systems worked and how to fix them if necessary had been why she'd gotten this posting on the Enterprise. Someday, it would be why she would get promotions and better assignments. And today, it might mean the difference between life and death for Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.

Going over the intercom on the wall, she called the bridge. "I made the modifications you asked for. I had to reroute power through the auxiliary life support systems but it should boost the signal enough to make it through the interference."

"If the interference is enough like an ion storm, that is," Chekov said.

"Don't be such a pessimist!" Uhura said as they headed back to the bridge.

Chekov sighed, "On this ship? The only way to be right about anything is to insist that things will go wrong."

Uhura fell silent, because by and large it was true. The Enterprise did have extraordinarily bad luck compared to the other starships. But the Enterprise also had a captain who hadn't failed yet to get himself and his ship out of each and every unbelievable situation they found themselves in. She held on to that, but couldn't help imagining the worst. What if this was the time it didn't work? What if they did manage to break through the interference but it was too late? Uhura found she had trouble even picturing this. The Enterprise without either Kirk or Spock. Kirk not finding his way out of some impossible scenario. She pushed the thoughts out of her head once she reached the bridge.

"Enterprise to Captain Kirk. Enterprise to Captain Kirk."

No answer. Uhura calmly tried contacting the captain on every other frequency. Then she repeated the process trying Mr. Spock's communicator. No luck. What happened?

"I don't know what happened," she said in frustration to Scotty. "That should have worked."

Scotty shook his head. He hadn't really expected it to work but he'd still held out some hope. "It is working, Lieutenant. It's just that even though it reads like an ion storm, it's not an ion storm, so the signal still can't go through. Now we just need to figure out what will get through whatever that is down there." At least they'd figured out it wasn't anything like an ion storm, however similar the readings were.

Everyone fell silent, thinking it over. Finally, Chekov looked up. "If we modify the deflector dish to send out the same microwaves we use to study solar storms, we might be able to determine the extent of the interference. Maybe even where it originates."

"Now that may just work!" Scotty cried. "Chekov, with me. Lt. Uhura, keep trying to raise them. Sulu, you have the bridge."

"Aye, sir," Sulu and Uhura said at the same time.


Spock was still trying to contact the Enterprise every five miles, with no results. Kirk knew the importance of keeping a set routine, otherwise he would have told Spock to stop until they had evidence that something in their situation was about to change. But without these periodic breaks, they would be living one long stretch of endless heat and exhaustion. It served as a useful way to determine how far they walked each day. The mountains were already much closer than when they had started out. The sight made Kirk even more determined to push onward. They were so close he could almost taste it. At least, if his mouth wasn't so dry. On the bright side, the hunger pangs had stopped, if only because his body realized it was useless. He was shutting down, he could feel it.

Kirk looked at the last mouthful of water in his canteen and sighed, giving in. They only had a couple of more hours of daylight left before they would have to stop. Spock watched him and then handed over his own canteen without a word.

"No," Kirk held up a hand, refusing it. "I'm not taking that."

Spock cut him off with uncharacteristic brusqueness. "Jim, it is logical. You require more hydration than I do. It would serve no purpose for you to dehydrate further."

Kirk allowed himself a smile, "Is this a 'you need this more than I do' moment?"

Spock's expression grew quizzical. "I agree with the logic of the sentiment."

"Well, thank you," Kirk said, accepting the water. "At least we're only a few hours away from the mountains."

"Yes, approximately twenty-six miles away," Spock answered. Kirk sighed, stumbling backwards slightly. He hadn't realized it was still so far. He noticed after a few moments that Spock was keeping a hand on his arm to steady him.

"I'm all right, Spock," Kirk said, waving off the helping hand.

Spock's eyebrow went up, "No, you are not. Your reaction time is down 56%, you are frequently unable to remain standing, and your speed has decreased by 40%. All these are symptoms of extreme dehydration."

Suddenly annoyed, Kirk turned away and started heading for the mountains again. "Thank you for your diagnosis. I'll be sure to tell Doctor McCoy you're doing his job now in addition to yours,
he snapped. Spock followed him without a word. This is exactly what he's talking about, a little voice in Kirk's head said. Irritability was a symptom of dehydration too and he sighed. "I'm sorry, Spock. You're right, I'm not fine. Neither are you."

"Apologies are unnecessary, Captain," Spock said.

"Yes, they are," Kirk said. "When humans make mistakes, they want to atone for them. Make sure that the person they offended knows they made a mistake and are sorry for it."

"As I said, illogical," Spock answered.

"You know, Spock, you're so big on following rules and traditions, did it ever occur to you that maybe humans have some rules and traditions that are different from yours they might want to follow? Like apologizing when they do something wrong to someone?" Kirk let his anger flare up again, even though the small, rational part of his brain knew that he wasn't really angry with Spock, but with this interference and this planet and this entire mission that had turned out so wrong. He knew he should apologize again but if Spock didn't want it then he wouldn't get it.

You're acting like a child, the rational Kirk in his mind said. He ignored it, stomping forward. Spock, as always, followed without complaint, giving Kirk an odd mix of guilt and irrational anger. It'd be so much easier if Spock simply fought back, the way he did with McCoy. Usually the captain and first officer were such a seamless team that arguments were almost unheard of between them, but when they did happen, Kirk always found himself reacting like this. Angry that he couldn't get a reaction out of Spock, then guilty for being so angry with someone who wouldn't fight back. Kirk let the angry thoughts occupy his mind for a while until he noticed the sky acting weird. It was spinning, turning fuzzy.

"Spock, is the sky spinning or-" Kirk felt the ground come up to meet him halfway through his sentence and realized the sky wasn't spinning, he was losing his hold on reality. Trying to pull himself back to consciousness, the last thing he heard was Spock's voice, sounding on the verge of almost panicked, for a Vulcan.

"Captain? Jim!"