3

"Oh my god, are we there yet."

"Captain," Spock admonished softly.

Kirk threw up his hands in defeat. "I know, I know, crew morale — " he cast a glance at the crew dredging just as tiredly in front of him and lowered his voice. "Come on, Spock, we've been walking for hours. There are not even a turn, for godsakes. I was hoping for a little more excitement than this, you know."

"I find your lack of enthusiasm for non threatening situations worrying," Spock replied, though he appeared half amused.

"Ergh," Kirk said, "I could use a couple of Klingons just now. We are getting nowhere like this."

Spock made no comment but strode up to Dr. McCoy instead. "Doctor," he said, "Is your tricorder functional?"

"Everything except the compass," McCoy replied. "Still spinning like a madman."

"I see," Spock said. "Mr. Chekov."

Chekov snapped his head around. "Aye, sir?"

"Before you beamed down, were you able to take a preliminary scan of the surrounding area?"

"Aye sir, a brief scan of ze nearby terrain. Nothing but mountains, sir."

"May I see it on your PADD?"

Kirk poked his head over Spock's shoulder, nudging him slightly as they kept up their pace, while his First Officer zoomed in on the display with his long fingers. "There," Spock said at last.

"A chasm," Sulu observed upside down as he walked backwards. "A thin one."

"Affirmative."

"But —" Kirk glanced at Spock, finding confirmation in his mental calculations, "We've been walking for hours in that direction, we should have come to it by now, if there is a chasm in the terrain."

"Could we be walking under it?" McCoy asked, joining in as well.

"Nyet," Chekov replied. "Ze contours, zey dip low, ze chasm may be thin but it is wery deep."

"Holy shit," Scotty exclaimed, making them jump.

Kirk whipped up expecting Scotty to announce some discovery they had missed on the PADD, only to see the engineer stare at the floor in blatant disbelief.

"I —" Scotty lifted his head and Kirk noticed the engineer's face was alarmingly pale, "I think we are going in circles, Captain."

"How?" Kirk demanded, "The corridor is straight as a line. We haven't turned even once."

"It is possible to go around in a circular fashion if the corridor has a slight shift of angle, too slight for humans to perceive," Spock said. "Although — "

"No, no no no, look," Scotty shook his head and picked up something from the floor. To their collective astonishment, it was a sweet wrapper.

"I uh, I was hungry, alright?" Scotty said, a flush oddly noticeable after the paleness that had taken his features. "These sweetie things from Wrigley III, they are power boosters, alright? I — anyway, I stuffed one and threw the wrapper away, not five minutes ago — and look!" he waved the wrapper almost frantically. "It's appeared again!"

Everyone stared at the innocuous wrapper, absolutely at a loss for words.

"Fascinating," Spock said at last. "Mr. Scott, you should restrain from littering the planet, since any otherworldly items could potentially interfere with the Prime Directive."

"Spock!" Kirk exclaimed, "He's just told us — that — and you are lecturing him on littering? Seriously?"

Spock gave Kirk a withering look and McCoy snorted, effectively diffusing some of the tension. Stepping unconsciously closer to his First Officer, Kirk rubbed the bridge of his nose and willed for the uneasy feeling to go away. "So we are going in circles?"

"Negative," Spock said. "Even if there is a slight shift in angle so that the passage will eventually complete a large circle, it would not lead Mr. Scott back to where he was five minutes ago without our notice."

"So how do you explain this?" Kirk glanced around and met worried looks from his crew, "Any ideas?"

"I propose we repeat the experiment," Spock said calmly. "If we can replicate these exact circumstances, we might be able to study its process."

"Logical," Kirk said with a faint smile. "Alright, guys, empty your pockets and offer up your little trinkets, we are gonna dump them on the floor and hope we lose them."

Wordlessly Uhura fished out a notebook (a luxury pleasure only the linguistics department enjoyed) in her backpack and tore off a piece of paper, before signing it and giving it to Kirk.

"Okay, this works better," Kirk said, grinning. He carefully folded the paper and popped it up against the wall, before scanning the area and making sure that nothing could interfere with it. "On we go, then."

Sulu and McCoy led the party while Kirk and Spock lingered behind, and they came to an abrupt stop not twenty paces later.

"Why —" Kirk began, and audibly inhaled when he saw the same piece of paper popped against the wall. "Scotty! I thought you said you didn't see the wrapper for a full five minutes?"

"Aye sir," Scotty replied, looking anxious, "But I wasn't looking out for it, sir, it could've just slipped my attention and we could've walked past it many a times before I noticed it."

Kirk squatted down and carefully unfolded the paper, sure enough, in the centre of the paper was a roughly drawn sign of Starfleet. "Well shit," he breathed.

"Captain," Spock began.

Kirk eyed the darkness in front of him and had a sudden, strange thought: why couldn't their light penetrate further than a few paces? Starfleet issued torches were supposed to be military grade, enough to light up empty spaces stretching thousands of meters. He took a torch and stepped once, twice, until a dim shadow began to shimmer between him and the rest of the crew.

"Beware of the shadow," Kirk breathed, remembering, then suddenly gripped by an irrational fear. " I — "

A strong grip suddenly landed on his arm and Kirk yelped, the sound coming out more like a squeak in his surprise. He was pulled back into the light and Spock was staring at him, gaze intense.

"Jim," Spock said, unrelenting on his grip, almost painful, "It is not advisable for you to separate from the rest of the landing party."

Kirk blinked and looked around, each of his crew staring at him with a strange look of surreal paleness on their face, accentuated by the artificial light. "Yeah," he said, and found his throat suddenly dry, "Yeah — but we need to investigate this, Spock — what happens if some of us walks ahead and others stayed where they are?"

"I'm not sure I wanna find out," McCoy said, though his voice was lacking his usual gruff.

"It is a logical step in our next experiment," Spock replied, eyes darting towards the darkness that seemed to envelope them. "However, I insist that I go along with you, Captain."

Kirk blinked and suddenly felt the cloud of fear lift from his chest. "Of course, Spock."

"Now wait just a goddamn minute," McCoy began, and it almost was a relief to hear the doctor grumble again though Kirk would never admit it, "What happens if you disappear, hmm? We'd be left here without one Captain and First Officer. I say we stick together."

"Bones, if we don't try this, we'd be stuck here forever." Kirk skirted a glance to Sulu, who was looking grim. "Sulu, you are acting Captain while Spock and I are gone. If we don't return, devote all your time and energy on fixing the communicator and beam the hell outta here the moment you can. That's an order. Okay?"

"Aye, sir."

"At least let me come with you, dammit!"

"Bones —"

"The passage is too narrow for three people to walk side by side," Spock interjected. "If we do not walk side by side, the experiment may be compromised. There is no good reason for you to simply walk behind us, Dr. McCoy, only an increase of unnecessary risk."

McCoy's nostrils flared and Kirk hurriedly stepped in. "Bones, he's got a point." he patted his good friend on the shoulder and squeezed reassuringly. "Chances are, we'll be back in twenty steps, so just wait here, kay?"

McCoy grumbled something under his breath and Kirk gave his shoulder a last good pat. He left to stand with Spock and peered into the thinning darkness just in front of their torches, dimly aware of the heat radiating off the Vulcan's body.

"Captain," Spock began lowly, "It is preferable if we could establish a form of physical contact throughout our journey, in event of separation."

"What?" Kirk asked absentmindedly, as the shadow began to shimmer behind them and the voices of his crew grew thin. Then, "Oh, of course." He glanced at Spock, suddenly feeling nervous. "You uh, you want to hold on to my wrist?"

"A mutual rapport would be preferable in case one of us is incapacitated," Spock stated calmly.

"Right," Kirk said, wondering if he was translating Spock correctly. "So, uh —"

He held out a hand tentatively and was gratified to see Spock take it, fingers wrapped tightly around his in a strictly professional manner. There was probably no professional way to hold hands with your First Officer, but somehow Spock pulled it off. Kirk fought to quell the irrational disappointment and took another step forward into the darkness, hand clasped tightly with his first officer, leaving his crew behind.

A/N: So if you read any Chinese grave-robber stories you can see where some of the plot devices came from, but this is Star Trek, kay, every trope goes -g-