Jim sighed as soon as he felt his feet materialize against the ground. The weight he had carried on his chest for days now was starting to lessen with every step they took towards Harewood. Finally, he was here to meet his adversary and regain his crew. Today would be the day that it would come to an end; he would not leave without his ensign.
When he regained full feeling in his body, he blinked hard and shook off the ghost feeling of energizing. Before he could even register his surroundings, he was running on autopilot and pulling out his scanner. They had appeared to land on a planet with an atmosphere similar to that of Earth's. The ground was a smooth, hard-packed surface of grey sand. There were no trees on the horizon, nor any bodies of water or signs of living life. Though it could harbor a human being on oxygen, this planet was obviously not designed for sustaining human life (one needed more to live on than oxygen alone, you see). That made it perfect for the use of Starfleet; no one would need the land to live on, so it was free for the taking to warehouse Augments.
The scanner let out a small beep, and Kirk looked down to the device in his palm. It was silently whirring away as it searched through specific parameters: human life, signs of danger, any Starfleet bases nearby, or anything else it may have been possible to encounter. Aware of a presence over his shoulder, Jim shifted his eyes from the screen to catch Spock practically climbing his back to catch a glimpse of the machine. Spock had always been the best with navigational systems, aside from their ensign - it was common for him to be in charge of the scanner during missions. Hardly contiaining an eyeroll, Kirk handed the device over, not missing the soft sigh of relief.
"You were holding it upside down, Captain." The Vulcan mentioned, slightly perturbed.
"Was not." Jim shot back, automatically on the defensive. He hated when Spock corrected him on something. It was often that Jim needed him to explain this or that, but when the help wasn't asked for, he felt reprimanded. It was mainly due to his superiority complex; he couldn't help being frustrated when proven wrong.
"You were." Spock replied, pointed brows furrowing as he glared down at the screen. It was beeping erratically now, detecting something important. "However, to argue over the proper handling of the device would be illogical. We must focus on the mission at hand, or any chance of success is futile." He reasoned, long fingers tapping at the buttons on the handheld. It became silent, much to Kirk's relief, but the frustration across his brow did not smooth away.
Aware that something was amiss, Jim and Sulu both leaned in, looking at the screen. It was a standard handheld global positioning device; a black screen with latitude and longitude lines came in as a normality. The red dot in the middle of the screen presented them with a virtual "you are here" sign. The blinking orange dot in the upper right hand corner, however, was unusual - and concerning.
Tapping a few buttons on the screen, Spock managed to open up a 3D rendering of the planet. The handheld whirred as the small projection unit attempted to keep the image open as long as possible. The Vulcan stared intently at the small sphere made of lights and pixels, turned his head as he attempted to get a better view.
"We are here..." he murmured slowly, musing to himself aloud. Jim recognized this "thinking voice" of his, and knew it was best not to interrupt. Spock must have been on the verge of something. "And this, here, is an indication of high levels of beryllium." He pointed to the orange light, which was blinking in a nearby radius, in the same lower hemisphere they were occupying. On instinct, Jim whipped around, squinting his eyes in a feeble attempt to better his vision. From where they were standing, there was no sign of anything that could be a large amount of beryllium, but then, he was very ill-versed in the ways of chemistry.
"What exactly is beryllium?" Jim found himself wondering aloud, brows creased in confusion. There weren't that many chemistry classes offered from the Academy that he remembered. After all, he wasn't a science officer. That was what people like Spock were for, to busy themselves with the finer points of the subject that nobody else could bother to be interested in.
"It's an alloy, Captain," Spock answered, not even glancing up from the scanner. He began to walk forward in even paces, watching the red dot as it moved their projected map. The first few steps took him farther from the orange point. He changed directions, stalking towards the south this time. Then he pivoted, trying to set himself on some imaginary course.
"And an alloy is..?" Jim raised his eyebrows as he jogged to catch up with Spock, Sulu at his heels.
"It's a metal. Beryllium is a key element used in constructing ships such as Enterprise, specifically in the hull around the generators."
"So do we just have to look for something metal, then?" Sulu questioned, clearly trying his best to gather something useful from Spock's information.
"I like the way you think, Sulu," Kirk said with a chuckle, lightly nudging the lieutenant for his efforts.
"More than simply metals, Mr. Sulu," Spock murmured, still too distracted by trying to find the right path to even glance up. "We are looking for a ship - Harewood's in particular."
"You'd think that would be something we'd spot right off the bat..." Kirk murmured, feeling the sensation of worry he'd thought had been fading beginning to return again. The scanner told them that they were close, but their surroundings claimed otherwise. The puzzle was no closer to being solved, and Kirk wasn't sure how much more of this cat-and-mouse game he could handle.
"Not like he'd make it that simple," Sulu scoffed, his head swiveling around the area, clearly looking for anything that would help them.
"No one would make it that simple," mused Spock, watching as they slowly began to approach the red dot. "Starfleet would want to make it difficult to find the Augments, for obvious reasons." He squinted at the projection, footsteps faltering as they continued onward, clouds of dust in their wake. "We should be able to see it by now..." he murmured, yet again trapped in his thinking mode. The dot appeared to be only a few yard away on the map, but it seemed that for miles around them, there was nothing. Just grey dust, flat ground, the occasional rock - as far as the eye could see. No Starfleet mandated buildings, no aircrafts or signs of Harewood - no signs of anything. It was maddeningly desolate.
Until, all at once, it wasn't.
Author's Note: Hey guys! We are SO sorry it's been forever since we've updated. We hope we didn't loose all of our much-appreciated followers. I know this is a short chapter, but we'll be posting 1 or 2 more tonight to tide you over. The Planet Party chapters will be in many different sections, due to the change of point of view. Thank you for being patient. We love you!
-Val and Marcelle