The bridge of the USS Enterprise was littered with bodies. They were strewn about amongst the debris and overturned panels from various consoles while sparks continued to light up the dim atmosphere in the room. It was silent except for the sound of a pop here and there; the outer frame moaned in pain a little as well, but the humans and aliens that inhabited the ship remained lifeless. It was only after several minutes did a stir below some panels disquiet the bridge.

Skylar pushed a slab of panel from off of her, groaning audibly as she did so. She felt Scotty stir beside her. Opening her eyes, she beheld the thrashed state of the bridge and could only imagine what the rest of the ship looked like – if it even still existed. Her body felt bruised. She wanted to lay amongst the debris again; she could feel an intense pressure in her head as though she were in for the biggest migrane of her life. But Skylar could not stop to assess her own damage. That was not her duty.

Her hands felt along the floor for Scotty. Feeling a warm piece of fabric nearby, her hand came to rest around a wrist and the wrist began to move. Scotty emerged from under the damage on all fours. He was bleeding down the side of his head.

"Scotty," Skylar said quietly as she bent close to him, her hand now on his back, "are you okay?"

"No," he said simply, rolling to the side onto his bottom. He looked up at her. "I could really use a drink right now."

A smile crept across each of their faces. It didn't last. Scotty looked around. Skylar followed his lead. "You reckon …?" he started, but stopped.

Skylar mustered all of the power she had inside of her and pulled herself to her feet. Scotty crawled toward where Sulu's boots were exposed through the debris. He began to shake Sulu's ankle, causing a stir in him as though he were waking up from a nap. Next to Sulu, Chekov sat up abruptly. His youthful face was dotted in blood but, like Scotty's, the damage wasn't bad.

"Ya ma yo," he muttered. His hands instantly went to his ribs were he bent over in pain.

Skylar bent over Bones. He was on his stomach, his arms sprawled out over his head. Her hand fell to his back. "Bones? Bones, are you okay?"

A low rumble sounded in Bones' throat.

"What?" Skylar asked.

"Dammit," he said.

Skylar managed to smirk and moved on toward Jim, who had traveled a ways from his chair. Uhura was next to him and had already sat herself up, her hand on her head.

"Skylar, are you okay?" Uhura asked.

Skylar nodded. "You?"

It was Uhura's turn to nod. "This is worse than that night at the club, back at the Academy." She reached out for Skylar.

"And I'm sure it will feel worse in the morning." Jim rolled over as Skylar assisted Uhura up. Both girls looked down at him as he laid on his back. He was bruised along his jaw line and his shirt was torn down his side. Blood stained the jagged edges of the yellow cloth.

"You'd know from personal experience, Captain?" Uhura asked as he reached out. Both girls helped him up.

Jim looked around, his jaw falling open. "Holy …" he stated quietly. "How did we even …?"

"Survive?" Bones interjected, walking over to them slowly with his hand on his back. "It's a miracle, that's what it is."

"I'd peg pretty good piloting," Chekov offered from where he, Sulu and Scotty sat before the helm console.

Bones rolled his eyes. "Is everyone who's conscious here okay?"

The group nodded collectively, despite the blood, bruising and apparent pain they all displayed.

"Good. That's makes five less patients I get to deal with," Bones stated. "Where's Amelia?" he asked, looking around.

"Takashi?" Jim said. "And Spock –" he glanced at Skylar, who was now looking around. "Where are they?"

Skylar immediately went Spock's station but did not find either of them there. Jim followed her and they both turned toward the viewing screen where Spock and Amelia had flown amidst the wreck. It was almost as though they were sleeping the way they were positioned – practically the way Spock and Skylar slept next to each other. Spock was on his back and Amelia was nestled into his side, her head on his chest and her arm strewn over her rib cage. Green blood dotted areas of Spock's blue shirt with a hint of red here and there from the wounds Amelia had down her arm. Neither of them moved.

"Spock," Jim hissed, and he and Skylar both rushed toward the couple. Bones came up from behind at a slower pace. He crouched down beside them as Skylar meekly placed her hand on Amelia's arm, positioning the scanner that he had hanging against his hip over Amelia and Spock.

"How the hell this stayed on me during that crash, I'll never know," he muttered while he began to gather readings.

"Bones, are they …?" Jim looked at him.

"Dead, Jim?"

Jim hesitated. "Yes."

Bones shook his head. "Thank God for Spock. He seemed to have broken her fall." Jim and Skylar exchanged looks. "He's conscious, just gathering his thoughts I assume. Vulcans do things like that when they injure themselves. He's focusing on repairing anything that is wrong. We can leave him."

"And Lt. Takashi?" Jim asked, almost sarcastically.

Bones appeared scandalized by this. "Are you serious, Jim? She's unconscious."

Jim began to lightly tap in Amelia's arm. Bones smacked it away. "What are you doing?" Bones questioned. "You can't wake up an unconscious person like that. What if her arm is broken? You could further in –"

"Bones, wake her up and then help us in assisting the rest of the crew," Jim ordered, standing.

"Thank God you're the captain and not the doctor," Bones muttered while he began to assist Amelia.

Skylar watched Jim walk towards other personnel that were rising, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov joining him. She leaned into Bones, who started snapping over Amelia's peaceful face. "Bones," she said softly, "is Spock really going to be okay?"

"Yeah, he will. In his own time, of course." Bones shook his head at Spock. "Rebellious green blooded hobgoblin."

Skylar stood, giving Spock and Amelia one final look and then she turned toward the bridge. A few people were being roused. However, it was apparent that there were plenty who were not moving – if they would ever move again at all. A few ensigns in red shirts near the turbo lift were contorted as they smashed up against the railing. A couple of personnel laid across panels and against the computer consoles lifelessly. Skylar touched her belt and found her communicator. She held it up to her lips.

"This is Lt. Pike, all security personnel, role call."

Within moments, both McCoy and Skylar had managed to make contact with a few of their staff. The casualties were considerably high from their reports but within a half an hour the Enterprise, though belly down in earth, was alive again as crew members hustled about donning battle wound scars and injuries from the crash as they began to take their stations again. McCoy and his team worked on their patients with their makeshift equipment while Skylar and her crewmen searched for survivors amongst the wreckage; Uhura worked alongside Sulu and Chekov to revive the helm and establish contact with anything outside of the Enterprise's frame; Scotty and his team were hard at work trying to resuscitate the ship's energy.

Jim assisted in helping locate his crewmembers – dead and alive. A wave of fear washed over him as minutes turned into an hour of no response from the ship. He alerted every engineer that he came across that the main priority for them was repairing the ship, that everything else would be handled. He tried to keep the morale up by maintaining a positive attitude with every crewman he passed, by lending a hand to anyone who needed it; but the more he traveled through his ship, the more work he saw needed to be done. There was a greater consistency of death to living; he could see it on the faces of those who passed by him, despite their attempts to remain strong. Everyone had lost someone. He'd lost crewmen and was horribly concerned that he had lost his ship, too.

He and Scotty were on their communicators the most. Every five minutes or so Jim called for an update. And every five minutes or so, Scotty had to deliver the bad news that the ship was unresponsive. As the second hour passed with no change in predicament and no revival of Spock yet, Jim called Skylar.

"Yes, Captain?"

"I didn't think we'd have to do this, but I'm going to need a landing party. We're going to need to set some perimeters. I need to be certain nothing is going to cause us further harm, as vulnerable as we are now."

"Right, Captain. I'll assemble a party then."

"Once assembled, let me know and give me a count before you head out. Kirk out." Jim closed the lid of his communicator with the flick of his wrist. He ran his free hand through his hair, sighing heavily. Within seconds of this, a familiar voice sounded over his communicator. Jim's heart skipped a beat with hope.

"Spock to Captain Kirk, come in please."

"This is Kirk. Spock, you're alive!"

"A logical conclusion, Captain, seeing as how I am communicating with you currently."

Jim beamed. "You ready to help me figure out how make the Enterprise fully operational again?"

"Entirely, Captain. However, I will require the assistance of Lt. Amelia Takashi."

"Then you'll need to seek out Bones. Kirk out."

:::::

Skylar nearly raced into Amelia as she walked with Bones around the corridor. "Amelia, you're alive!" she said, stopping before them both. She smiled in relief.

"She has that spirit, unlike many others around here," McCoy stated. "If you excuse me ladies, I need to continue my task at hand before I completely collapse into my own coma." His hand left the small of Amelia's back as he briskly walked past Skylar and began barking at some medical staff that were assisting another injured crewman.

Skylar eyed Amelia. The color crept into Amelia's cheeks vibrantly. "You know, if you keep this up, you're going to give us red shirted crewmen a bad name."

Amelia shrugged and then twitched in pain, her hand gently touching her shoulder. "Spock saved me," she said. "He shielded me right as we crashed."

Skylar maintained an even expression. "I'm glad." The evenness faltered as Commander Spock rounded the corner and stopped before the girls.

"I was told I would find you here, Lt. Takashi," Spock stated, his hands behind his back. "I require your assistance on the bridge. It is imperative that we figure out how to get the Enterprise's central computer system back online so as to centralize focus on what the ship requires to be repaired in order to get us back into orbit." As Amelia responded with a "Yes, Commander," and a nod, Spock's eyes drifted to Skylar as she pulled out a phaser. "Lt. I presume you are taking a landing party out onto the planet's surface?"

"You presume correctly, Commander," Skylar said. Looking to Amelia, she said, "I'll see you later, Amelia." Before she walked around him, Skylar quickly added, "Thanks for saving her life."

Spock did not follow Skylar's trail as she passed him. Instead, his eyes lingered at the spot where she had stood during their interaction before he straightened up and led Amelia towards the bridge.

:::::

With the Captain's orders and blessing, Skylar and her crew of eleven men and women walked down the hanger ramp toward the planet's surface. They wore protective gear on their heads that circulated oxygen, despite Spock's reference to the planet being M-class; Skylar saw fit to be careful. She had never set foot onto a planet with such a lack of knowledge of where she was leading her crew. In fact, this was the first time she'd ever stepped onto a planet. With the power down on the ship, the transporter room was unavailable to beam anything anywhere. So, she and her crew were forced to walk.

The surface was very resembling of Earth, her home planet. The ground was covered in grass and patches of dirt and rock. There were plenty of surrounding trees in their immediate radius. A thick fog made it impossible to see anything beyond the circumference of the Enterprise. As Skylar looked out into the white space beyond her that engulfed the third tree in the clearing, a sense of claustrophobia seized her. They were completely blind beyond the Enterprise. She looked around at the rest of her team. She saw the fear in their eyes – fear of the unknown. Yet despite this, she knew that the people that surrounded her would do their jobs regardless. All of them would follow her into the unknown. And so, with a deep breath and a motion of her hand, the twelve-man landing party began to spread out around the ship. Skylar commanded a full search around the ship to ensure the perimeter was safe for a team of engineers to venture out and assess the damage. During the process, a man tripped over an overturned trunk that had been uprooted from the crash, rupturing his oxygen helmet. Thankfully, this accident ensured Skylar that the helmets would not be needed – the planet's air was suitable for breathing. Within the hour, the land party had given the Captain an all clear and Scotty and his own team made their way out to the perimeter around the Enterprise. Jim followed, joining Skylar who stood by a tree stump staring off into the fog.

"Enjoying the scenery, Lt.?"

Skylar jumped slightly. She punched Jim in the shoulder as he stopped next to her. "I've got a bad feeling, Jim," she stated honestly. "I don't like this fog bank. It really makes us vulnerable."

"It's hard to believe we could be at that level. It's like a nightmare."

Skylar nodded.

"Spock and Amelia are making some progress though. There's a chance we may be online relatively soon."

"Soon? How soon is soon?"

Jim shrugged. "There wasn't a definite answer."

Skylar eyed him. "From Spock? He must have hit his head harder than Bones thought."

Jim gazed out at the fog. "I'm sorry things happened this way, Skylar. We should have been landing on Lambda 5 by now, with drinks in our hands and beautiful women welcoming us at the visitor center."

"Yeah, even I'd settle for that right about now," Skylar mused, crossing her arms over her chest.

Amelia's voice sounded from Jim's communicator. "Captain, this is Lt. Takashi."

Hopeful, Jim seized the communicator from his belt. Skylar watched him anxiously. "This is Kirk."

"Captain, Commander Spock has an estimation of about thirty minutes until the reserve power is back online. We are programming the last bit of code lines into the computer as we speak."

"Excellent, Takashi. Best news of the day. Make sure you alert Scotty immediately, no one will be quite as pleased as he, though the competition is high."

"Will do, Captain. Takashi out."

Jim shut the lid of the communicator and gave Skylar a small smile. "When Amelia is done, I'm going to send her out here with you to collect readings with a tricorder. I don't care to explore too much, Pike. I just want to make sure nothing harms anyone on the ship."

Skylar nodded. "I agree. But if there is something out there," Skylar paused and her eyes drifted out towards the fog, her hand slipping over the holster on her thigh where her phaser hung, "it'll have to go through me."

:::::

Amelia grabbed a tricorder and slung it over her head as the dim lighting of the helm began to grow brighter. Bones approached her as Sulu also slung a tricorder over his head.

"My medical systems are back online," Bones commented, looking around. Spock was at his station as the blue light of his scanner blinked on. Chekov was already tapping away on the helm's computer system. Uhura had restored her ear piece back in her ear.

"It's the reserves," Sulu explained.

"But I'm still blocked on all frequencies," Uhura added bleakly. "I can't find any open channels."

Spock stood from his scanner. "It is this planet. The readings indicate that there is some kind of transmitter prohibiting communications between interplanetary connections. However, whatever is blocking Uhura's frequencies has also managed to block out any thorough readings on the planet's surface."

Amelia added in Spock's direction, "Which must also function as the planet's cloaking device. There has to be something channeling it, like a master computer."

"Always a damn computer," Bones muttered, placing his hands behind his back. "So I'm assuming if there's a computer forbidding us to be located or to send out any type of SOS, there has to be life forms behind it."

"Not necessarily, Doctor," Spock replied, looking down into his scanner. "However, logic would suggest that something had to have created the system. There is a significant possibly that whatever did does in fact still remain, and could be holding us here in aggression or by ignorance. Concordantly, the force of the explosion of the supernovae that destroyed the dwarf planets in this area could have caused a malfunction in this planet's communications system."

Amelia crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't know, Spock. The block seems more likely to be hostile."

"I don't understand how anything could have survived that supernovae," Bones remarked, his eyes wide in bafflement. "I mean, the other planets were destroyed … how did this one manage to escape that?"

"That is the remaining question," Spock said. "If there are inhabitants on this planet, shielding us from the rest of the galaxy, it is imperative that we find a way to intercept their system." He grabbed his tricorder from the top of his station console.

Bones' hands dropped his sides. He eyed Amelia. "You guys can't possibly be going out into that fog."

"We have to," Amelia replied. "We have to collect as many readings as possible."

"Who knows what the devil you'll pick up," Bones interjected firmly. "We can't trust our devices right now, for all we know, whatever's out there could be feeding us incorrect readings. It's suicide."

"We are caught in a web as of now, Doctor. We have no other option but to make an attempt to break free." Spock placed the strap of the tricorder over his head, Bones eying him closely.

"The hard you wiggle, the more tangled you get," Bones spat. He followed the party towards the back of the ship into the docking bay. Coming up behind Amelia, he whispered, "I really don't like this idea."

"Dr. McCoy, it's the only option we have," she quietly replied, watching him as he joined her at her side. They both began to descend the ramp onto the planet's surface.

"As much as I'm aware of the fact that certain crewmen are required by their job description to perform a ludicrous task, I'm well aware your place is on the bridge helping Uhura and Chekov restore maximum power on the ship." They both stepped onto the grass, a cool breeze instantly alarming their skin. Bones took Amelia's arm. The Lt. looked up at him as he stared down into her brown eyes, his own blue eyes swimming in concern. "Amelia, I really don't like this."

In any other instance, Amelia would have been weak in the knees. Their predicament had robbed her of that opportunity to feel that vulnerable. It angered her. "Leonard," she said softly, trying to find the right words. There were a million things she could have said, but nothing could find its way past her lips. Instead, she lifted her hand to his face and brushed her palm over his rugged, stubbled cheek. Painfully, she released herself from him and joined the rest of the party as they headed toward the edge of the fog where Skylar and Jim stood.

Skylar turned to greet them all with a nod. "Alright, guys, we need to do this fast. The sun will be setting soon, if you haven't noticed the impending darkness that has been creeping in through the fog. We don't need extensive readings – all I care about is making sure nothing is within this area that will cause further damage to the ship."

"If I may, Lt."

Skylar lifted an eyebrow at Spock, her lips pursed.

"I have noted on my scanner that a system is blocking our frequencies. Repairing the ship will be useless if we do not discover the corruptive system and dismantle its hold on the Enterprise."

Skylar smacked her lips. "That's all fine, Mr. Spock. However, your current responsibility is to scan for anything harmful in the fog."

Spock remained even in his expression. "It would be efficient to establish the origin of that system at –"

"Dammit, Spock," Skylar interjected heatedly, her hands forming fists, "For once can you listen to –"

Jim stepped in between them both. "Quite, both of you. This is no time for argument." He looked to Skylar. "Lt. Pike, I want you, Sulu, Ensign Harvey and I to scan the perimeter as you have planned." He diverted his attention to Spock. "Mr. Spock, you, Amelia and Ensign Chan will also scan the fog as well as figure out where we can locate this system that has our ship. I want full reports from all of you consistently. And I want all of you to work together and look out for each other. We are all walking into the unknown here, people. We need to come back together and solve this as a crew. Is that understood by both parties?"

Bones approached quietly as the group affirmed their understanding to the captain.

"How is everything medically, Doctor?" Jim asked of him as he pulled out his communicator.

"The death toll is significantly high, Jim," Bones replied, displeased. "Everything else injury-wise is now under control." They shared a moment of quiet, just staring at each other. Finally, Jim broke the silence.

"I want you to standby, Bones. Grab a few of your medics that you can spare, just in case."

Bones gritted his teeth. "Just in case, huh?"

Jim ignored this as Bones turned away on his own communicator. Holding his communicator before his mouth, Jim said into it, "Come in, Mr. Scott."

"Scotty here, Captain. Levels are returning slowly but surely."

"Glad to hear it. Myself and a landing party are going to ensure nothing out there in the fog is going to interrupt your work. You have the con."

"Aye, Captain."

"Kirk out." Jim turned back to the group. "Alright, people. Show time."

Bones closed the lid of his communicator and watched the party slowly slip into the fog beyond his vision. The last that he saw was the red of Amelia's skirted Starfleet uniform as it – and she – dissolved into nothingness.