4

The simple walk felt longer in his head. Kirk was infinitely aware of the way Spock held onto his hand, gripping tightly, as if he was afraid Kirk was going to slip away the moment they left their friends. Five steps in, the darkness enveloped them tightly, and the surroundings fell silent.

"Curious," Spock murmured.

"Yeah," Kirk agreed, "It's like something's blocking light and sound here. I swear I could hear Bones griping just a second ago."

They moved cautiously for another ten steps, until, "Captain, lights ahead."

Kirk peered ahead and had the distinct feeling that he was attempting to look through fogged glass. "I guess we are back to where we started again?"

Spock said nothing and fastened their pace, until the light hit them full in the face. The corridor appeared to be the one where they left from, and sure enough, the folded piece of paper was sitting by the wall, eerily innocent. Yet,

"Spock," Kirk whispered, unable to hold back the slight tremor in his voice, "Spock — where is everyone?"

The corridor was completely deserted, aside from the five torches left behind, the crew of the Enterprise evaporating into thin air.

"I do not know," Spock replied, and the levelness of his tone helped to calm Kirk somewhat. "I had calculated the odds of such an event happening before we left to be 2.6%."

Kirk grimaced. "And the odds of us ever seeing them again?"

"Insufficient data," Spock said. He bent down to survey the torches. "However, I find it highly illogical that the entire crew would depart without their lighting source."

"That's if they left by their own will," Kirk said, glancing around but the stone walls offered not a single clue. He was suddenly struck with an irrational fear, mixed with gratefulness, that he took up on Spock's offer and did not end up in this unlikely situation alone. "The only reason for them to leave these behind is if they were beamed out..." he trailed off, and darted his gaze towards the paper folded against the wall.

"The pattern of scattering for the torches would indicate...Captain?" Spock asked, as Kirk carefully unfolded the paper. Then, in a more worried tone, "Jim?"

Kirk swallowed. "The Starfleet insignia," he said, "the one I saw Uhura sign — it's gone."

"Gone?" Spock repeated.

"Yeah, there's this other symbol here — a triangle," Kirk said, holding up the paper. "Any ideas?"

Spock stared at the paper oddly, and Kirk frowned. "Spock?"

"That is the sign for the Vulcan Science Academy," Spock said flatly.

"What?" Kirk said sharply. "How?"

Spock opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it again. He turned his head towards where they had come from and suddenly Kirk found the iron grip back on his wrist, hot and demanding.

"Captain," Spock's voice was calm but urgent, "I do not believe this is the same corridor from which we have departed. Nor do I deem it safe."

Kirk tensed, and that was when he heard it — footsteps. Hurried and uncoordinated, looming close.

"Captain I must confess I have no desire to find out what is coming at us," Spock said hurriedly, his grip bordering painful on Kirk's wrist. "May I suggest we — "

"— RUN!"

They sprang into action just as a bloodied hand appeared from the shadows and made a grab for Spock's shoulder. The Vulcan evaded it easily, but not before the finger made a small brush against the side of his neck. A minute frown passed Spock's face, but Kirk was too busy to notice — heart thumping wildly, he snagged Spock's hand, Vulcan propriety be damned, and sprinted down the other side of the corridor, hoping they would emerge somewhere else.

It took merely ten seconds, though in his head felt like ten minutes, before they skidded into a halt and a collective burst of light assaulted their retinas again.

"My God Jim," McCoy's voice sliced through the mental fog, clear as a knife, "What happened to you? You look like you saw a ghost."

"Bones!" Kirk exclaimed, nearly overcome by relief and felt dangerously on the edge of weeping with joy. "Sulu! Uhura! Guys! I'm so happy to see you!"

Everyone stared back at him oddly. Slowly their gaze trailed downwards, to where Kirk and Spock were still holding hands, and a few eyebrows were raised. Suddenly self conscious, Kirk's finger twitched in Spock's iron grip. Spock relaxed his hand almost immediately and Kirk retracted his own, wiping it surreptitiously on his thigh, secretly envious of the fact that Vulcans did not sweat.

"Yer were gone for like, twenty seconds," Scotty said, "what could possibly have happened?"

"What possibly indeed," Kirk mumbled, feeling suddenly exhausted. "Spock?"

Spock duly recounted the events after they had left and added, "... We have been separated approximately three point six minutes."

"No more than twenty seconds, mate," Scotty reiterated. "I was lookin' at my PADD, no more than twenty seconds. Twenty five, tops."

"And a Vulcan's internal chronometer doesn't lie," Kirk offered with a tense smile.

"Fascinating," Spock murmured. "That, coupled with what we have seen in the other corridor, could indicate a possible temporal distortion in the immediate vicinity."

"Whoa whoa," McCoy held up his hand in a clear sign of frustration, "A temporal —? Nothing good's ever come out of those phrases. It practically means a free ride with no rules. Anything can happen when there's a temporal distortion, whatever that means."

"The doctor is correct," Spock said.

McCoy's eyes widened. "Don't agree with me on something this ominous," he said.

Spock narrowed his eyes by a fraction. "While your penchant for predicting the future is — "

"Guys, guys!" Kirk interjected quickly, exasperated. The rest of the crew were smiling, though, mostly at their feet, and Kirk let out a long suffering sigh. "Alright. Any bright ideas? No? Come on, what happened to the best crew in Starfleet? Huh?"

"They are stuck in a stony corridor ten feet below ground," McCoy answered sardonically.

"There is one more experiment we may attempt, Captain," Spock piped up, seemingly oblivious to McCoy's comments. "However, it would require the crew's collective effort."

Kirk exhaled slowly. "I was kinda hoping we don't have to," he said, scanning his crew. "But I suppose it's only..."

"Logical," Sulu said, grinning.

Spock's eyebrow twitched. McCoy gave a throaty groan and rubbed his forehead with the heel of his hands. "Care to enlighten us to the grand plan, Jim?"

"Right," Kirk said, putting his best command voice to use. "Temporal distortions aside, the corridor is not that long. If we spread out and stretched ourselves, we may be able to test the physically impossible loop for ourselves."

"You mean we do a conga line then hope it either breaks the loop, or the front becomes the back?"

"Essentially, yes," Kirk said. "Although the conga line has to be sideways, and we all get to hold hands. No, I'm serious."

By the time he finished, several members of the crew have begun to do as they were instructed already: Chekov and Sulu have clasped hands with Scotty and McCoy on each side, leaving Spock and Kirk at the front, and Uhura at the very back. Kirk paused.

"Er, Uhura, sure you'll be okay there?"

Uhura gave him a withering look not unlike Spock's, as if daring him to say anything. "I'm fine, Captain," she said.

"You bet she is," Scotty said, turning to stare at Kirk wide-eyed. Silently he mouthed something that appeared to be 'feisty', and Kirk decided to ignore it.

"Spock?" he said softly.

Spock inclined his head and stepped away from McCoy, but Kirk had other ideas. "I'll go first," he said, then, with a self-deprecating smile in a feeble attempt to lighten the mood, "If anything happens, don't let go, okay?"

To his surprise, Spock did not argue for the illogic of his bravado but merely nodded, grabbing onto Dr. McCoy's clothed wrist.

"Ow," McCoy hissed, "Hobgoblin's got a grip like crab claws."

Kirk snorted, then felt warm fingers intertwine with his. He looked over to see Spock's impassive face and smiled, feeling infinitely cheered up.

"Alright, guys, space out, stretch as far as you can."

The crew shuffled their feet and kicked the light torches along, soon the concentrated light broke off into small luminescent orbs, giving the corridor an even more surreal feeling. The line stretched further and further, until Kirk counted twenty steps — about the same distance when the corridor began to impossibly loop.

"Everyone okay?" Kirk raised his voice, turning to see Spock regarding him with an even expression. The sound appeared to be muffled quickly, he could only make out McCoy's voice but it was already thin. "I guess it's a game of Chinese whispers, then," he said.

Spock lifted his eyebrow slightly.

"It's basically passing information from one person to another in a line," Kirk explained. "Anyway, report."

Spock turned and relayed the information, and Kirk heard McCoy mumble something to Sulu, then it was like a stone cast into a lake, the ripple died down. A few seconds later, the mumbled noise began to grow and eventually Spock tipped his head over and said, "All normal, Captain."

"Right," Kirk said. "We move forward, then. Do not break contact, I repeat, under no circumstances are we to break contact."

"Affirmative, Captain," said Spock after relaying the orders.

Kirk led them into the darkness one step at a time, shuffling sideways awkwardly, pausing to kick the torches further. As long as the light dispelled some of the shadows, he felt relatively at ease, the feeling of safety solidified by Spock's grip and McCoy's distant grumble. Then, out of nowhere, Kirk caught a flash of something in the corner of his eye.

"Wait," Kirk said urgently, "I see something —"

He stretched out his empty hand and made a grab in the darkness, touching something soft and warm. There was an instantaneous flurry of activity behind him, and Spock said, "Captain, Lieutenant Uhura reports something —someone — is touching her other hand."

Kirk stared incredulously at his First Officer. "That'd be me," he said. "I think. How is — how is this even possible?"

Spock turned and relayed the information to McCoy, then waited. After several beats, during which Kirk dared not move a muscle, Spock said, "Lieutenant Uhura is requesting you to cease your ministrations, Captain."

"What ministrations?" Kirk asked indignantly.

"She wishes you to stop scratching her palm, as it were," Spock said calmly, peering over his shoulder.

"Scratch —" Kirk said, then suddenly retracted his hand as if burnt, "I wasn't touching her palm, I thought it was her arm — Spock! It's not me, tell her it's not me!"

Suddenly a wild force jerked Spock towards the side and Kirk nearly slipped, his heart beating against his throat. Somewhere distant (though he knew for a fact that they could not be more than several feet apart) McCoy was shouting, and Spock jerked to the side again, this time pulling Kirk along.

"Spock! What the —"

Suddenly McCoy's head poked out of the shadow and his voice boomed in an instant, "It's got Uhura! We are playing goddamn tug-o-war, Jim!"

"What?" Kirk all but hollered, "No! She'll get hurt!"

"I agree," Spock said hurriedly, "If the force of the unknown assailant is enough to affect the whole group of us, it is likely that Lieutenant Uhura will dislocate her shoulder in the next three point five seconds, or worse."

"God dammit, you don't think I know that? What do you suppose we do, let the ghost hand take her?"

Suddenly something clicked in his mind. Trust your hand. "We follow it," Kirk said breathlessly, getting louder by each syllable, "We follow it, go go go go GO!"

Awkwardly they began to run, body turned half sideways, hands gripped tightly in fear and face twisted towards the front. The torches had to be abandoned, leaving them quickly in the darkness. The awkward arrangement of limbs made them bump into each other more often than not, but the darkness seemed to be blinding and suffocating at once — he could not see anything, or hear beyond Spock's controlled breathing. A tidal wave of panic suddenly crashed into Kirk's chest, making him recoil: he was the Captain of the Enterprise, he knew how to stare down a horde of Klingons, but the bodiless, shadow of an unknown phenomena made his head spin. How was he supposed to protect his crew from something that is nothing more than a wisp of clouds?

Then, suddenly, just as unannounced as the panic wave that rolled over him, a warm, confident feeling unfolded along his arm and settled in the pit of his stomach, almost replenishing him with strength. Kirk started, then peered ahead — he could not see Spock as much as feel Spock, the alien heat radiating off his backside, the stride just a few paces in front. Instinctively, he tightened his grip on Spock's hand even more, and to his great surprise, felt the gesture returned.

"— ahead," Sulu's voice suddenly cut through the darkness, and Kirk blinked; the shadow was thinning. Their footsteps began to echo and the silence fell away to a flurry of activity, until one by one they fell out of the corridor and into a large, dimly lit underground cavern.

Kirk felt the crew skid towards a stop and a few 'ooofs' as people bumped into each other, then Uhura let out a small surprised yelp. Scotty responded by something incoherent and there was a rustle of clothes, then the sound of something dropping into water.

Kirk's eyes finally adjusted to the light and saw an underground lake in the central of the cavern, lit by the chasm above, and a steep drop into the water, the edge of which Uhura and Scotty were huddled over, panting.

"Holy —"

Chekov finished that exclaim in Russian and Kirk wholeheartedly concurred, barely getting his breath back.

"How is this possible," Sulu panted, "We were barely ten feet under the last time we checked."

"Anybody felt a downward slope when we ran?" Kirk asked, but he was looking at Spock. Among them, a Vulcan's sensitive bearings would be most reliable.

Spock shook his head minutely and gently let go of Kirk's hand. "Lieutenant Uhura," he called, "Were you able to establish visual contact with your assailant?"

"Negative, Commander," Uhura replied. "The moment I came out here he — it — disappeared, I think the rest of the trip was just inertia."

"I see," Spock said, when Kirk did not see at all.

"Give me your hand, Lieutenant," McCoy said softly, and Uhura lifted her arm obediently. Under the swath of light cast through the chasm, a handprint is clearly visible on her wrist, with red and angry claw marks all the way through her palm made evident by her struggle.

"Well shit," Scotty said. "I cannae believe that thing was real."

Uhura's eyebrow disappeared into her hairline in a very Spock way. "You thought I made it up?"

"Well, no," Scotty replied, darting his eye from the lake to her wrist, "But the arm had nothing attached to it, lass. No one told me we were meeting disembodied aliens before I beamed down, or did I miss that part of the prep speech?"

Nobody laughed. Scotty made a grimace at the feeble joke, and they shuffled apart to have a look around the cavern, trying to get better bearings. Spock was just attempting to run a tricorder scan over the rocks when Kirk's sound broke the silence:

"What is it, Sulu?"

Sulu turned; he was standing on an outstretched cliff and looking at the sky through the chasm thoughtfully. "What time is it, Captain?"

Kirk blinked in surprise, then glanced at the chronometer on his wrist. "Six o'clock ship time, why?"

"You beamed down just after lunch," Sulu said. "Which coincided with the planet's sunrise. We took readings before we came — it takes approximately thirty-three hours for the planet to do a full rotation, factoring in the axis tilt, which should leave us twenty hours before nightfall."

"Okay, and?"

Sulu wordlessly moved away from his observation point and a warm, golden hue scattered onto the cold stone floor, its light bouncing off the surface of the lake in reddish glimmers.

A sunset.