Chekov's stomach rose and fell in a peaceful rhythm. You slowly opened your (E/C) eyes, still drowsy, and relished in the sound of Pavel's heartbeat in your ear. Your head still rested on his chest and his arms da, at some point in the night, draped over your shoulders. You looked towards the tent door and your heart jumped within you in surprise.

A head was peeking in. You stared for a moment until your eyes were in focus.

It was a little Klingon boy's head; his curious light brown eyes stared jovially at you.

You didn't know whether you should have been afraid or amused at the sight. He was only a child.

You slid your hand slowly out from under the cover of yours and Chekov's blanket and waved at the boy. He grinned a hearty and sharp toothed grin and stumbled into your tent compartment.

"nuqneH." he said in an adorably small and raspy voice, waving in return.

You smiled nervously and sat up, waking Chekov as his arms slid off of you. Scooting towards the tent wall, you said "Nyota, dere's a Klingon boy in here."

Suddenly you heard someone loudly and frantically scurry out of the room next to yours, followed by a slower and much quieter scuttling.

"Eeeh...heello." Chekov greeted the Klingon boy, who had made it all the way up to you and Chekov.

Uhura burst through the tent flap, followed by a groggy looking Spock, and stared at the boy, who'd whipped around from the sudden sound; Kirk tiredly peeked his head in as well, looking just as befuddled as everyone else.

Uhura cleared her throat, walked towards you-the boy, in his fright, had grasped onto you and hidden his face on your shoulder-and kneeled, setting a kind hand on the boy's shoulder.

"nuqneH," she started in Klingon. The boy timidly turned around, sitting in your lap; you sat, feeling strangely motherly, with the child in your arms while sitting between Chekov's legs awkwardly. Pavel smiled down at the boy over your shoulder and you blushed; he was so adorable.

"nuq 'oH ponglIj'e'?" Uhura asked.

"Joh." the boy replied with a bright smile.

"His name is Joh." Uhura informed you all.

"How'd he get in here?" Kirk questioned, inching closer to Joh and you; the Captain yawned.

"nuqDaq DaDab?" Uhura continued, ignoring the Captain. Joh smiled at Kirk, who yawned again, and pointed at him saying "tlhaQ!", a jolly laugh following.

"What'd he say?" Kirk asked, confused.

"He says you're funny, Captain." she informed him, smiling.

"Oh yeah?" Kirk directed at the boy with a mock stern face.

"Joh," Nyota got the boy's attention again.

"nuqDaq DaDab?"

"pa' ngaSwI' Human jatlh wej tu'lu'." He shrugged.

"He said he can't tell humans where he's from." Uhura said.

"luj?" she continued.

"Qo'." Joh shrugged again.

"Dochmey DanoHmeH naDev yIn Hoch Heghpu' DaH." he added.

"Apparently the original species of the planet have gone extinct." she announced. Your brow furrowed.

"How long ago?" Spock asked; Joh began batting at Chekov's arm, after he draped it over your shoulder tiredly.

"ghorgh Hegh chaH?"

"couple wen."

Uhura gasped.

"What'd he say?" Kirk questioned. "He said that they died a few months ago." she said.

"The Klingons must have enacted some sort of genocide on the former population in hopes to acquire this planet as their own." Spock said thoughtfully. "Where exactly did the attack take place, Captain?" he asked, turning towards Kirk.

"Uhh…" Kirk put a hand to his head and closed his eyes. "...I remember some sort of...temple? I don't know. Chekhov?" he turned towards the young ensign.

"Eeh...I think I saw a temple as well, Keptin." Chekov answered, unsure.

"tu'lu' chIrgh naDev close to?" Uhura questioned Joh.

"HIja'! SoH laH vItlhap pa'!" Joh exclaimed, jumping out of your lap and running out of the tent, Uhura calling after him. Joh stopped and turned around, a boyish grin spreading across his interesting face.

"He says he can take us to a temple near here, Captain." Uhura said.

"Let's get our gear together and head out." Kirk decided, leaving your tent compartment.

Once everyone had left to change out of their pajamas, and the door was zipped closed, Chekov leaned away and got up, setting up a separator between the two of you before the both of you began to change clothes. Both of you were silent, while a mutual desire to peek around the meager separator itched at both of your minds; but both of you were too shy and Chekov was too much of a gentleman to adhere to his hormonal desires.

The tent was quickly compacted and the journey began once again. Chekov, reached for your hand and took it gently, drawing you nearer to him; he seemed worried and you certainly didn't mind the closeness. Joh stopped and argued with Kirk, refusing to lead the group anywhere until Uhura explained that Joh wished to sit on the Captain's shoulders instead of walking. Kirk begrudgingly complied and then the journey began.

Joh directed the team with points and untranslated exclamations and after a few hours of walking and exploring, for Joh was very easily distracted, the temple was finally within view.

Chekov stopped walking at the sight of it and his grip on your hand tightened; he looked distressed and couldn't pull his gaze from the old looking temple.

Captain Kirk stopped walking as well, looking a bit startled.

"Eet's not safe…" Pavel mumbled. You looked up at him but he didn't notice; his grip was hurting your hand but you didn't really mind.

"Not safe…" Kirk echoed.

"The sound." Chekov added with a chill. "What sound?" you asked in your confusion.

"Ensign Chekov and the Captain seem to be experiencing memories of their past exploits in the temple. We must have found the place of their attack." Spock said coolly, attempting a mind-meld with the Captain. Spock then took an involuntary step back and tilted his head in confusion, panting a little; Joh patted Kirk's head and leaned forward to look at him, upside down, with a childish intrigue.

"What's wrong?" Uhura asked worriedly. It felt as if Chekov was going to break your hand; you almost couldn't bear it.

"They're in shock." you said through gritted teeth as you tore your hand away from Pavel, who hardly noticed.

"The Captain...is experiencing great fear. I can only assume that whatever is in the temple caused him a great deal of pain." Spock said. Uhura attempted to steady him. Joh kept saying "loD boneH? loD boneH?" to the unresponsive Kirk.

You quickly threw down your pack and rummaged through it until you found your hypospray which you quickly injected into the Captain first and then Chekov. Almost at once they reacted, letting out cries of pain and annoyance.

"Aaaaaug! Don't do that!" Kirk practically hissed at you; Bones had told you many times how the Captain would react to hypo injections.

"You were in shock." you explained, proud of yourself for finally being able enough to form complete and correct sentences.

Chekov groaned and you watched him warily, making sure no side-effects had been got by him, or the Captain either for that matter; the hypo had been filled with a concentrated chamomile injection, so there shouldn't have been any side-effects. And probably for the first time in Kirk's life, there wasn't one. He was fine; and so was Pavel.

"In shock?" Pavel groaned in confusion.

"When you looked at the temple, you both stopped walking and all you could do was stare and mumble." Uhura clarified

Captain Kirk looked at the temple once more; this time he gazed at it for a moment before looking confused.

"I...don't remember anything." he said. Chekov confirmed this as well for himself.

"wItI'nISmo'!" Joh proclaimed in excitement.

"What would you have us do?" Spock asked, awaiting Kirk's answer patiently. You shoved your things back into your pack and slipped it back onto your shoulders, grabbing Chekov's hand again, which he readily accepted.

"Let's find out what's in that temple." the Captain ordered with a shrug, starting off towards the temple, only subconsciously worried about what they might find within it.

After another half of an hour of quick walking through the tall grass clearing, the team made it to the temple and stared into its blackened maw in wonder and awe.

"Stey close too mee." Chekov said in a hushed tone as everyone took a bold step into the temple's mouth and proceeded with caution; you nodded and held his arm, very afraid of what might jump out from the dark.

Joh talked, though not as much as before. Kirk assured him that there was nothing to be afraid of. From the light of the flashlights you could make out strange etchings in the sand colored walls and bizarrely shaped jewels embedded into the echo inducing floors where everyone's booted feet went clop, clip, clop.

"Captain, how far do you wish to venture?" Spock asked after a while of listening to nothing but Joh's raspy voice and the clip-clopping of everyone's footsteps.

"As far as we can go." the Captain Answered.

You all walked, and walked, and walked, until the monotony of the whole present expedition almost drove the lot of you insane.

Suddenly, flames ignited and you dropped your flashlight in surprise. Joh laughed and Chekov held you protectively against him. Light flashed and suddenly you all were aware that you'd found a room that looked fit for royalty. Gold streaks on pearl tile-like walls flowed down to the ivory floor, a ruby pedestal in the center of the room with a massive machine sitting atop it.

Chekov loosened his grip on your shoulder and relaxed. Everyone slowly took the whole scene in.

Suddenly Joh leapt from Kirk's shoulders and dashed towards the ruby pedestal, bewitched by the shiny silver metal of the machine. "HablI'! HablI'!" he called out in his enthrallment.

"Joh, come back!" Spock called uncharacteristically worriedly after the child just as he realized what the machine was. Everyone ran after the child but it was too late. Joh had made it to the machine and started to fiddle with the buttons and levers on it until a ear-splitting noise began emitted from the contraption.

Joh, very surprised by the machine, back-stepped off the pedestal to be caught by Kirk who shoved him, giving him a running start, towards the entrance; Joh ran off with tears in his eyes and his hands over his ears.

You looked around, ears in a constant ring, watching those of your team attempting to shut out the noise of the machine. Nothing could be heard over the shrill frequency and you felt your head begin to pound.

You saw Kirk trying to tend to Uhura and Spock before they all fell to their knees, covering their ears. Spock then aided the Captain and his love by giving them the Vulcan pinch, instantly causing them to pass out of their painful misery before he too drifted, straining and convulsing, into unconsciousness.

Frantically you ran towards Chekhov, who had only made it halfway to you before he'd collapsed still mouthing your name desperately. You screamed his name but even your own voice couldn't be heard over the noise; you couldn't even feel the buzz of your voice in your chest.

Blood trickled from Chekov's closing eyes and you began to panic.

Your vision was blurring and you realized that this noise must have been what was interfering with the Enterprise's equipment; Scotty wasn't going to be able to beam the lot of you up. You knew that running out of the temple to make contact with the Enterprise would take far too long.

Without another thought, you ran towards the ruby pillar, feeling blood trickle from your ears and your eyes, and began to climb as fast as you could. You sobbed with the uncontrollable pain you were receiving and just as you made it to the machine, you felt something in your ears burst and blood gush out. You screamed and fell to your hands and knees.

The pain brought back memories of the electrical fire that had killed your parents; the pain that this sound caused resembled the pain from that time in your past. Lights flashed in your mind's eye and you saw memories you never knew you had. You saw two people, that you could only assume to be your parents, but most of all you saw the agony in their faces as they tried to protect you.

It took all your strength to pull yourself up and pull the fateful lever that Joh had used to activate the machine back into its original place. The sound was gone and you fell back, the last of your strength to move gone. Off the pedestal you fell, quickly, and just before you hit the ground next to Chekov, you felt the familiar drone of the transporter beam as you and the rest of the group were beamed up.

Only a ringing in your ears could be heard by you as you remained awake and now laying on the transportation deck next to your ensign; you were not yet free of your suffering. You shook and writhed in pain, knowing full well that you were going into shock. Bones' worried face came into view but whatever he was trying to say was left unheard by you and you could only respond with gasps for air, your eyes fluttering in an attempt to expel the blood that wouldn't stop coming from them.

Bones picked you up in one scoop of his arms and ran for the Medical Bay, holding you tight.

"Hold on, kid! Hold on!" you could see him wording as he rushed. You were eerily calm by now, still unable to keep your body from convulsing, and you turned your head to look at Chekov who still lay on the transporter deck, reaching for you before his hand fell limply to the ground as unconsciousness claimed him once again. You murmured his name once more before feeling yourself being placed on a table. You looked up at Bones, the ringing beginning to fade in your aching ears, and smiled involuntarily as tears still fell, mixed in the blood. You felt light, so light; the ringing got quieter, and quieter, and quieter...