Immediately after Spock and Bones began making their way toward the exit with an unconscious captain, they heard a large number of large feet pounding their way through the hall. It took seconds for Spock to find the small, shadowed hole in the wall and shove the three of them inside, pressing as close to the back wall as possible in the hopes that the short opening and the darkness would hide them from their large captors.

His plan was successful; they didn't look down by their feet, and they didn't expect the three would have stopped so close to the jail that had held Kirk. They were not recaptured... but they might as well have been, for all the good they could do stuck in this hole.

Spock looked at Kirk, whose face was still slack and empty. He was breathing still, and fortunately the struggle was quiet. Hopefully that didn't mean his body was giving up the struggle. Hopefully they could still fix the captain.

Dr. McCoy was looking at him, but the Vulcan didn't meet the doctor's eyes. He couldn't. He didn't have a plan, and that's what McCoy would be asking for. A plan to get both of the former prisoners home before they died or became prisoners again.

Another glance at Kirk's face. Then a long, calculating silence as he listened to the sound of footsteps all around them, particularly in the direction they needed to go. There were too many of them. There were just too many of them. They needed a miracle.

A loud noise, much like an explosion, came from the opposite direction of the door. Spock tensed and held a warning hand up to Bones, who had just been about to question, loudly, what was going on. Soon the footsteps were running past them, running to the source of the commotion. Spock pulled Kirk into his arms and, as soon as the footsteps were past, he sent McCoy a look and took off. They had to make use of this distraction, with no though to what it could be. Clearly it wasn't planned.

They didn't see any sign of the creatures until they reached the door, where one stood guard. Only one. Spock was about to set Kirk down, but before he could do anything he saw McCoy flash past, faster than Spock had thought possible in his condition, and with one hand jabbed the creature at the base of the head. Instantly the creature fell, completely unconscious. He would ask the doctor about that later. Now, they needed to escape.

"Lucky guess." the doctor muttered, rubbing his hand and panting.

So he wouldn't have to ask later.

They picked up their pace, even though it seemed a struggle for McCoy, and once they cleared the door they went faster, and as far as they possibly could. They saw no one. And when they collapsed two miles away and took a chance to just breathe, they had no idea where they were, where the Enterprise was, where the rest of the ground team had gone.

Spock took his communicator out, assuming neither Kirk or McCoy still had theirs, and began speaking, informing the crew of their coordinates and their need to get Kirk out of here immediately. But when no one answered except the crackle of static, he knew it was pointless. The signal was blocked here, and there was no way for them to contact the Enterprise. Either they found the source of the block, or they prayed that someone would miraculously discover their location and beam them up.

Spock didn't believe in miracles.

"Dr. McCoy. I need to search for the source of our signal block. I am leaving you here to watch the Captain. Be sure he survives to my return."

"Spock, I don't think-"

"We don't have another choice."

A moment of silence followed Spock's words, during which the two exchanged long, hard looks. But McCoy knew that Spock was right, and eventually he turned his gaze to Kirk and nodded.

"Be fast, pointy-ear. We don't have long."

And those were the words that sent Spock off.

Everything had gone horribly wrong. Horribly horribly wrong.

Mia Carpenter had tried to tell them their bright idea wasn't so bright. They'd been waiting for Spock to return for much too long, and eventually the men decided they had to do something. While Mia had agreed, she had tried to argue that something of this scale was too dangerous.

Of course, they hadn't listened.

It had been Jacinto's idea. He'd convinced Seth that it made sense. Mia had argued that they didn't know where the captain was, it could be dangerous. But they'd already made up their minds, and of course Jac had come prepared. So the explosives that he'd for some reason brought with him were placed on the side of the cliff that housed the slaver natives, and they were huddled behind an outcropping of rocks a couple hundred feet away that was only slightly different than every other pile of rocks they'd ever seen or hid behind.

"Seth, please, we could hurt the captain or Dr. McCoy. This is crazy, just... don't let him do this. Let's find a different way, or just wait for Mr. Spock to return-"

"Mr. Spock has been gone too long. Something's wrong. The best thing we can do is give them another way out." Jacinto butted into the argument, as he was prone to do. He was a big-headed fool, a lover of attention and king of the spotlight. How he'd ever ended up in engineering instead of a position of power was a mystery.

Then again, he was a pro at convincing his superiors, like Lieutenant Seth Henley, to do whatever he wanted. And the idiot was hanging on the ensign's words like they were the most inspiring thing he'd ever heard.

Idiots.

But as she was outvoted, there was little she could do short of violence, which she refused. So she pressed her back against the rock and waited for the explosion, preparing herself for the ringing that would likely fill her ears for weeks after.

"We'll get them out safely." Henley tried to comfort her, feeling that he was the leader in this situation and should take care of his team. Just because he technically outranked her didn't make him the leader, especially not when he was letting that idiot Catlow make the decisions.

"If we don't, it's on you." There. Let him ruminate on that for a while. If he wanted to play leader, he could deal with the consequences. Not her problem.

The boys huddled against the rock, one on each side of her, and Catlow pressed the button that would ignite the explosives.

Except nothing happened.

"Aw, come on!" Jac actually seemed disappointed that he hadn't blown a hole in the side of the cliff and caused their enemy to pour upon them like fire ants. He stood and went to investigate, and when he apparently couldn't figure out what was wrong he called Seth over.

Mia sighed as Seth stood and went to help Jac attempt to figure out the problem. He'd only taken a step when the deafening roar and the force of several explosives threw Seth backwards. Mia didn't see where he landed as she held back the instinctive scream and instead hunkered down, putting her hands over her head and hoping it ended soon.

It was seconds after she deemed it safe that Mia was up. She glanced back to see if she could find Jac alive and breathing, but she didn't have much hope. He had to have been right next to it. So she turned to where Seth had been thrown and stumbled forward, feeling the effects of the blast to her ears as she struggled to keep her balance. Seth was laying a good ten feet away, but she could see his chest moving. It was rough, but it was moving. There was hope for one of them, at least.

She fell next to him, which would have to be good enough. She ignored the pain in her right knee, where she must have landed on something sharp. With a hesitant hand, she rolled Seth onto his back. His eyes opened immediately and stared at her, and a small whimper escaped his lips. Then his eyes clenched shut as he focused on breathing.

Shit.

A trail of blood was leaking from the corner of his mouth, and burns marked his cheeks and his nose. She could see his chest where the explosion had burned away his uniform, and she could already tell there was at least one rib broken, if not more. And the blood suggested internal bleeding.

She was a science officer, but not medical. She didn't know how to deal with this. If it was just a broken arm, or a blunt wound to the head, she could deal with it. That was about as far as her experience went.

She looked up at the hole in the cliff. At least they'd accomplished what they'd come to do. Perhaps at the cost of both of their lives, but it was done. And maybe... maybe at least the Captain would be safe. Maybe Spock and the doctor would get to the Enterprise with the Captain and at least the mission wouldn't be for nothing.

She hadn't realized she was crying until Seth whined quietly, feeling the salt of her tears landing on his burns. Then she hastily wiped them away with her sleeve and realized she had a communicator. Maybe they could get in contact with the Enterprise now. It was probably false hope, and she should probably give it up, but she had to try. Because the natives were probably coming and Seth was probably dying and there wasn't anything she could do about either.

With shaking hands, she reached into the pouch at her waist that held her communicator. It had been damaged sometime during their running around, but in theory that was just cosmetic damage, and the important parts would still function.

"Hello? Carpenter to the Enterprise. Can anyone hear me? Please, someone hear me. Please, Henley is wounded and Catlow... I think he's dead, and I can't protect them both. Please, please answer me. Please let this be working, please... Carpenter to Enterprise. We need to be beamed up, if you can hear me. Please-"

Suddenly the communicator flew from her hand, and her attention was drawn to the natives that were swarming from their new door. She had no doubt they were angry, even though she couldn't read their faces.

Phaser. Her phaser was still attached to her belt. She stood, stumbling as she did so, and positioned herself in front of Henley. She drew the phaser, sure to check it was set to kill, and began shooting. She didn't feel anything as some of the creatures fell to the ground, as she routinely killed them without emotion. Or at least stunned them, she couldn't be sure. But she hit them right between the eyes each and every time.

Pain in her shoulder made her drop the phaser, and more in her leg made her collapse. She struggled to get to the phaser, but knew she'd never get to it before they killed her.

She was supposed to go home. She was supposed to go meet her new nephew once this mission was over. She wasn't supposed to die here.

At the last second, she felt the strange tugging that she associated with beaming. She looked at Seth to see the familiar white energy surrounding him, and suddenly they were on the Enterprise, the cold metal beneath them a welcome relief.

"Where's Spock?" Uhura. Mia looked up at the woman who was, frankly, extremely intimidating. And she had to answer, but she really didn't want to.

"We were separated. He went into the native's home to find Kirk-" Uhura didn't say anything more, turning her back and leaving, her ponytail swishing like an angry cat's tail.

Mia let her body give in to the exhaustion she felt once Uhura was gone. The medical team would be there soon to take care of Henley. She could let go of her feeling of control now. She could ignore the deep guilt at letting one of her teammates die.

She could pretend she wouldn't be partly to blame if Spock, Bones, and Kirk never made it back.