Data, Guss, Starnel and Christoph transported into the conference room of the Enterprise. Everyone spent the next few moments looking around.
"Where are the others!" Exclaimed Christoph. Riker immediately tapped his COMM badge.
"Riker to transporter room one. Where are the others? There were meant to be nine…"
"Aye Sir, I locked onto them fine, they should be here." Replied an unknown Ensign.
"Data with me, Mr Worf, please make our guests comfortable." He turned to speak to his guests, I will find out what happened. It will be fine I'm sure, probably a minor technicality."
Picard, Beverly, Deanna, Tarya and Lyden were free-falling, directly into the ocean from around twenty meters above sea level. One by one they splashed into the icy-water. Picard was the first to surface. They weren't too far from a shore. It would be easy enough to swim to, even though the depth he was in made it difficult to swim. The current was very heavy and treading water alone was arduous. He desperately scanned the surface, looking for anyone. Suddenly, a hand grabbed his shoulder. He spun around to see Beverly, also fighting the currents.
"Jean-Luc we have to get out of here; it's freezing." He was too cold to argue, they both began swimming to shore.
They sat on the edge of the beach, catching their breath. They could see Lyden walking towards them, although he'd clearly been in the Ocean, he wasn't phased in the slightest.
"What happened Picard!?" He yelled. "What on the orb have you done?"
"We have done nothing," answered Picard. "Can we concentrate on the others first?" They all stood, staring out to sea.
"Riker to Picard," Picard breathed a sigh of relief.
"Picard here, what happened?"
"I don't know sir; we are trying to figure that out, are you okay?"
"Wet and cold, but okay number one?
"We have Guss, Starnel, Christoph and Data here. Are the others with you?" Picard's face went white.
"I have Lyden and Beverly with me, no-one else; can you scan for them?"
"Negative, we only have communications with you, we can't figure out why. There's a barrier we cannot seem to penetrate with any of our scans. Data and Geordi are working on it."
"Jean-Luc, did they fall with us?" Beverly was horrified.
"I hope not." Was all he could reply.
Doone painstakingly cut the vines that trapped Deanna's lower body. These vines were carnivorous and trapped their prey before slowly devouring them. Tarya was sharing her air with Deanna.
'I thought your world was harmonious,' asked Deanna, telepathically, trying to draw her attention away from the stings in her thighs.
'Well, unlike the creatures on the surface we didn't exactly get to introduce you, did we? In all fairness, you did land right on it, technically speaking, you attacked first. We also can't communicate with this stuff, and it can't register you due to your physiology, so it's just behaving within its nature.' She placed her lips to Deanna again, offering her more air.
Doone rose to their level and began to haul Deanna to the surface, Tarya took her other arm.
"Look, there they are?" Said Beverly as three heads bobbed above the surface.
"How is this possible?" Wondered Picard.
"I don't care," said Beverly, she'd lost her tricorder to the depths. "I just hope Deanna's okay, look they are bringing her in."
After they arrived, Beverly began inspecting Deanna's legs. "I think you'll be okay, they appear to be minor scratches. How are you feeling? How did you survive that long underwater?"
"It was Tarya, she and Doone, I think they can somehow breathe underwater, or at the very least acquire oxygen somehow."
"Well, of course they can," quipped Beverly, "and how are you?"
"Cold, but I think I'll be fine…"
"Now we are all here, can we please leave? NOW!" Shouted Lyden as he squared up to Picard. Tarya raced to their position and pushed him back with all her might.
"That is enough from you! You will back of now – do not go near anyone, do not even breath close to them, do not touch and certainly do not threaten… Do you understand?" Lyden sulked off.
"Picard to Riker…"
"Riker here."
"We have the others, we are all together, and everyone is okay."
"Thank God. We are still analysing the transporter and looking for any explanation as to what happened. At the moment it's a mystery and we cannot transport you out."
"Keep working on it Commander, we will see what we can figure out from here." Whilst he was speaking, Tarya had unveiled quite a few wardrobes from her belongings. They now stood in a neat little row long the beach.
"We need to get warm and dry," instructed Tarya, "There's clothing in here that belonged to many over the centuries, everyone should find something that fits."
"Including me?" Asked an overly timid, sheepish Lyden. She could barely look at him, but she relented quickly, refusing to be as cold hearted as he.
"Including you." She sighed, reluctantly.
"Well I must say Jean-Luc, you look ravishing. I wish we were alone right now. You look like a buccaneer, I never knew I'd find this look so attractive," she teased whilst stroking his chest.
"Hmm," he cleared his throat, "yes well, it was one of the better options, the pirate look suits you too," he added.
"I think this is a men's outfit," she smirked. "There were too many dresses and I don't think they would be very practical, some of them were extremely unpractical."
"No, indeed," he replied. "We need to figure out where we are."
"No need," replied Doone, who'd clearly been eavesdropping the entire time.
"I'm afraid we are in the north." As they were about to discuss options, Commander Riker suddenly beamed down.
"Will," Deanna said rushing into his arms to which he embraced her warmly.
"Are you okay?" His faced beamed when he saw what she was wearing.
"What's this, dress up as a pirate day?" She could sense his mind begin to wander.
"Oi!" She said whilst swiping lovingly at him.
"Ah, number one, great timing. I assume this is a good sign," hoped Picard, but Will wasn't even attempting a poker face.
"Actually, this wasn't meant to have happened. I was just inspecting the transporter and Data was examining the pattern buffers, trying to find an anomaly."
"Riker to Data."
"Data here, Commander, where are you?"
"I'm with the Captain, don't you know?"
"No sir, you just disappeared." Everyone looked to one another, puzzled and concerned.
"Data, do not let anyone else into the transporter room and certainly not onto the PADD."
"Understood. Commander, Captain are you aware that if you do not report to Starfleet by this evening, they are going to declare an incident?"
"Ahh, good point Data, I'd completely forgotten. I take it that gives us, what, maybe twelve hours?" Responded Picard.
"Five Captain, it gives you five."
"Thank you Data… Keep working on our problem. We'll be in touch soon. Oh and Data, you are now the senior officer on the ship."
"Understood Captain."
"Captain," Lyden approached, far more carefully after Tarya's earlier outburst. "We have to get out of here, away from prying eyes, we need to get out of the open."
"Why?"
"We cannot discuss this here, we have to move!" He replied. Tarya had found an outfit for Riker to change into and was returning her wardrobes to her necklace.
"I hate to admit it, but he's right Captain, we have to trust him in this."
"Trust him?" Picard responded.
"Yes." She bluntly replied.