It wasn't there - he could have put his right hand on the Bible and swore that the space before them had been unmistakably empty just a moment before. But Kirk must have blinked for a second too long, because the only other explanation was that the building that now stood in the previously barren landscape had just appeared out of thin air. Kirk had seen some near impossible things before, things that made him question his very sanity on a regular basis, but this definitely took the cake. There was just no way it was possible. Which, of course, meant it had to be connected to Harewood.
"Guys, please tell me I'm not crazy," Kirk pleaded, gesturing to the building as he turned to face them. "That was not there a second ago, right?"
"Illogical." was the only reply, spat from the lips of an equally confused Vulcan. His eyes quickly swept the building, as though conducting a full-scale mental analysis of it's every feature. No-that was most likely exactly what he was doing.
"Not helpful!" cried Kirk, suddenly panicking, his agitated state of mind finding Spock's thorough nature nothing short of irritating. "What just happened?"
"Don't look here," Sulu muttered, his expression appearing just as confused as Kirk felt.
"Obviously the only explanation is some sort of cloaking device, which has recently been dropped." murmured Spock, looking down at his device, then back up at the large warehouse of a building.
"Oh, obviously," Kirk rolled his eyes, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"I think we have found Harewood, Captain," Spock declared, narrowing his eyes at the warehouse. It was beginning to settle in their minds - the gravity of the situation, that is. Harewood had showed up on their sensors, sure - but he had remained hidden to them for quite a while. He already had the upper hand of both a cloaking device and the warehouse. He had arrived before them, of course - no saying how much of the land he already knew. He had the tactical advantage of the area, and they were left floundering, waiting for him to reveal himself. He would begin the game, this time.
All that was left was for them to agree to play.
One time, Marcelle was striken with a bout of writer's block while writing the end of one of the Planet Party chapters. Instead of dealing with it like a normal human being, she instead composed an...um...alternate ending, shall we say. She was amused, and so here it is:
"Suddenly Kirk burst in the door and punched Harewood in the face and Spock shot him in the kneecap and then Pavel was like yaaaaaay and Bones was like you're all idiots and Uhura was like SPOCK ILY and then Sulu was like what's going on and then Nero and Khan came back from the dead and were like harewood you had oNE JOB JUST ONE and then Scotty was like well I'm Scottish in case anyone forgot (not Irish but SCOTTISH) and somewhere out there, Gene Roddenberry is facepalming in utter shame at what I have done"
It's probably not as funny as she thought it was...anyway, updates are on the way! Stay Trekkie, fandom!
-Val and Marcelle