This was bad. Sulu snapped his communicator shut; his face wielded a bleak expression. Chekov shuddered at the sound. He'd overheard every word that had been said but waited for Sulu to break the news properly. The grim line of his mouth spoke volumes. "Problems?" Chekov asked looking up from the small orchid he was examining.
"The transporter has malfunctioned." Sulu said.
"What? How?"
"I believe the Enterprise was fired on by an unknown assailant. They have sustained heavy damage, including the transporter system," said Sulu. The knot at the centre of his brow deepened.
"When can we go back to the ship?" Chekov asked already knowing the answer.
"They cannot give us a time."
"But in two hours…" he said voicing both of their thoughts
"I know; we're going to be sub-zero." Sulu said voicing the fact.
"Is there anything we can do?" Chekov said glancing around the clearing. They were surrounded by dense lush foliage and tall trees. The air was humid and full of moisture. "Can we start a fire?"
"I don't know about that but we could gather as many of the big leaves as we can and try to make some form of blanket. I don't think a fire would burn in this moist air, it would smoke a lot and that won't help." Sulu said. Chekov nodded and looked around.
"Can we heat rocks with our phasers?" he asked.
"Maybe, gather some up and we can always do so if we have to."
"OK." Chekov said before conducting a more thorough search of the area. There were a lot of huge leaves littering the floor, some of them looked sturdy enough so he began dragging them into the centre of the clearing. Sulu was having similar luck on his side as well. Fido yapped and snuffed at the floor, he seemed to be watching their every move, unsure what they were doing. Every moment was critical, the sun was sinking fast and with it, the temperature began to plummet. Chekov shivered despite the warming work he was carrying out.
"Do we still have the thermosuits?" he asked as he dropped several rocks onto the ground.
"I think we do yes. They should be in the crate over there!" Sulu said. He dropped the leaf he was carrying and jogged over to it. He yanked the lid off and a brief laugh escaped him. It carried no mirth. "Yes, there are two here, well remembered." He said.
"That should help us for a little while at least." Chekov said.
"Yes, let's continue gathering leaves. We can hide under them when it becomes dark," Sulu said.
"All right." Chekov said before striding off once more. Fido followed him and danced around his feet. He seemed to want to show Chekov something. Chekov followed the fuzzy alien, who led him to a huge pile of giant leaves that he'd missed, "You're turning into a real help," he said patting the creature on the head. He then hoisted the leaves up and began pulling them towards their make shift camp site. He hoped they would be enough to fend off the worst of the cold. Somehow, he doubted it.