The crew finished packing in a half an hour and boarded their assigned shuttles. Kelly along with Spock, Chekov, Uhura, Havarii,a young female ensign named O'Connor and an engineering lieutenant Smith were all in one shuttle.

They had been in flight for almost half an hour. Under normal circumstances the journey to the planet would have only taken a few minutes at most, but the anomaly tended to distort sensor readings making navigation incredibly hard , forcing the shuttle's pilot to go at only a fraction of normal speed. Also, the Enterprise couldn't move any closer to the planet due to the anomaly's effect.

Kelly was just finishing the last words to a letter to her father. The letter was hard to write as all the letters had been over the past few years, especially the ones she sent never expecting a reply. After her mother had died, her father had fallen into a long depression, for years she had to take care of everything. She had no choice but to grow up fast.

Almost four and a half years ago, she had come in one night and announced that she was applying for Starfleet Academy. The announcement had woken her father out of the blank daze he spent most of his time in and he had spent the better part of two days trying to dissuade her from leaving. After seeing her mind wouldn't be changed, he had coldly announced that if she left she was to never speak to him again. Kelly had been firm in her decision and had left that night. Shortly thereafter she was accepted into the academy. She had tried writing her father but had for years never received a reply. She didn't entirely blame her father. She knew that he had been heart broken when her mother Clara had died and was afraid of losing her too. After the Narada incident he had sent her a frantic e-message begging for forgiveness. Kelly had reread it repeatedly over the course of a day before she finally replied. Her and her father's relationship still wasn't mended and probably never would be but it was a start.

Kelly heard a soft murmur off to her side and looked at Chekov he had fallen asleep. She thought about waking him. They wouldn't arrive at the planet for several minutes more, but he really wasn't supposed to be asleep in-flight. He wouldn't have been prepared if something happened and would probably get in trouble if anybody saw him. She couldn't bring herself to wake him, His face was quiet and calm, and he looked almost peaceful. And it was dim in the cabin interior, he wasn't very noticeable. She would let him sleep a little longer than she would wake him up.

She looked out the window at the anomaly which twisted and turned outside the window. It was the colour of an aurora borealis; The waves of light and energy were incredibly beautiful and potentially deadly. She thought remembering how the anomaly had hauled a small planetary system and the Enterprise along with it.

She turned as she felt someone scratch her hand, it was Chekov. She gasped sharply as he gripped her hand tightly the fingernails biting into her. He held it so tightly she feared he might break it. His face was tense, he moved restlessly, and then quieted for a moment. He said something that sounded like "Liska!" then he started moving again, this time he twitched and jerked. Abruptly he let go of her hand and now he was talking aloud. The words quiet but audible "Don't I can" He strained against his harness, "Let me go!" he said louder. Kelly reached over and gently shook his shoulder "Chekov?" she said. She knew if she didn't wake him soon, the entire shuttle would know whatever or whoever he was dreaming about. She shook his shoulder harder this time and said "Chekov?"

Spock was coming up the aisle towards them. Kelly ,finally managed to wake Chekov up. His hand came up to grip her arm in an iron tight grip. He stared at her blankly for a moment, then let go noticing the back of her hand which has small scratches trickling blood. "Did I do that?" he said quietly.

Kelly turned her hands over so the cuts weren't visible and have opened her mouth to lie when, her denial was cut off by "Mr. Chekov, you're supposed to be awake we will reach the atmosphere of T'karis in about four minutes, with planet fall approximately 7.8 minutes later ." Spock continued "If you are asleep you will not be adequately prepared."

"It's my fault sir, I didn't wake him and—" Kelly began.

Spock glanced at her and said "it's not your responsibility to wake Mr. Chekov, his sleep patterns are his own affair, he should be able to keep himself awake" He turned back to Chekov and said "do you understand Mr. Chekov?"

Chekov looked chastened and guilty as he said "aye, sir."

Spock nodded curtly and turned away.

Kelly watched him go, feeling very irritated. It wasn't that he had singled them out. Spock used his cold logical manner on everyone especially: "impressionable" junior subordinates, but he still irritated her to death. She turned back to Chekov, rubbing the cuts on her hand as they stung painfully.

"I'm sorry I didn't wake you" Kelly said quietly

"Eet's not you job, Mr. Spock's right" Chekov said glancing at her.

"Are you okay Chekov, It look like you were having a really—" Kelly trailed off as his face turned red and she saw a mixture of intense anger and embarrassment flash across.

"I'm fine okay. I don't vant to talk about eet" he turned away from her and stared out the window. She left him alone she recognized the mood from the other times she had awoken him. He would awaken furious, whether at her or somebody else she didn't know. She only knew that it was best to leave him alone.

She wasn't afraid of him. He had never laid a hand on her and the few times he had actually yelled at her he had apologized profusely afterwards. But she had seen him many times, his jaw tight, his fist clenching and unclenching as he restrained himself. She would say something and he would walk away or hit the wall so hard sometimes his hand would have spilt skin and be bleeding. She stayed out of his way when he was like that, not for her own sake but for his. She knew a lot of his past and she knew that to him if he ever laid a hand on her he would have become what he worst feared. Kelly knew that if that happened Chekov wouldn't forgive himself.

Next update as promised. I'll be posting another chapter before the night is over. After this story is finished I'm probably going to repost each chapter and fix any gramarical erors and punctuation issues that I'm missing now. The last chapter I post will have the next chapter update date.