The next few days were peaceful, until Rey noticed something on her radar.
"Captain, I'm picking up several blips on my radar. Possibly asteroids."
"Alright, take us out of warp, Mister Chekov."
"Yes, Keptin."
The ship slipped out of warp and into an asteroid field. The asteroids formed a thick haze, one which was very hard to see through.
"Mister Chekov, redirect our course."
"Yes Keptin."
"Wait. I think there's something else here. A planet. Cancel that order."
Chekov shrugged. "Yes Keptin"
"Fly us in closer."
"Yes, Keptin." He smiled, realizing that he said the exact same thing four times in a row in the course of about thirty seconds.
"Captain, we're being hailed." Uhura informed him.
"On screen."
The screen showed a blue humanoid alien with a maze of white markings on his face. He had black eyes and shoulder length, unruly brown hair.
"This is Captain James T. Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise."
"Captain James T. Kirk, I am Miliki'ari'rakr, chief of the Kim'iri. You are Federation, correct?" The alien spoke with a strange accent that no one recognized. It was clear that the alien wasn't all too familiar with Standard.
"Yes, we are, Miliki'ari'rakr," Kirk said the name with some difficulty. "what do you need?"
"We made deal with Federation. They gave us ship as gift and now ship is damaged. We cannot fix ship. But you are Federation. You can fix ship. Come down, help us."
"Alright, I'll send an away team. We'll be there in about ten minutes. Enterprise out."
The image of the alien disappeared, and now space could be seen on the screen, as usual. Kirk began to gather an away team.
"Scotty, I need you for my away team. There's a federation ship down there that needs repair." Kirk could hear something going on in the background, but he wasn't quite sure what it was.
"I'm sorry sir! I canna' make it. There's-" Kirk heard something fall. "There's a problem that needs my immediate attention. You could send Lieutenant Chekov, sir!" The comm cut abruptly off, and Kirk was left to send someone a bit less experienced. He huffed.
"Well, Chekov, it looks like you're going instead. Go get ready."
"Yes, Keptin." Chekov got out of his seat and ran out of the bridge to do as the captain said. Kirk then continued, "Spock, I'll need you as well."
"Yes, Captain." Spock left the bridge in his usual collected fashion, walking with his hands fastened behind his back and that bland expression on his face.
Kirk turned on his comm. "Bones, you're needed for the away team. Get what you need; meet us at the transporter room. "
There was a moment's pause. "Yes, sir."
Kirk then addressed his bridge. "Anyone have advanced hand-to-hand combat training?"
Rey's hand flew up, a moment before Sulu's. "I do, sir."
"Alright, get what you need, then meet us at the transporter room."
"Yes, sir." Rey got up walked onto the lift.
Kirk's comm beeped. "Sir, one of my engineers, Morrison, wants to go with you. Can he, sir?" Scotty asked.
"Sure. Meet at the transporter room."
"Yes sir!"another voice responded.
Kirk then left to go to the transporter himself. When he arrived, he saw his away team in the transporter room. Chekov, Spock, Rey, Bones, and Morrison all had holsters with phasers. Spock also had a tricorder, and Bones had a small crossbody bag with a few medical supplies. Kirk then noticed that Rey had a leather strap going from her right shoulder to her left hip. He looked at the top of the strap and noticed a black metal staff.
"What's that?" he asked the lieutenant.
"This?" she said, pointing to her staff. "This is what helped me defend myself on my homeworld. I took a little course with it at the Academy as well."
"Nice," Kirk said.
He continued, now addressing the team. "Alright, everybody ready?"
"Yes, sir!" everyone said in unison.
"Then let's go."
All the members of the away team stood on a spot on the transporter. Then while everyone was getting in position, Chekov spoke to Rey, who was on the spot beside his own.
"You ever been beamed somewhere?"
"No. Have you?"
"Da. It's not zat bad, don't worry." He smiled and looked forward. She kept looking at him for a moment before looking at the floor under him with her eyes, then completely looked forward. The captain then gave the command.
"Energize."
"Yes, sir." The operator obeyed.
The rings around the transporter turned from their usual blue to red. Golden rings flew loosely around each of their forms as they gradually disappeared. Each of them saw a mixed image of the transporter room and the planet they were about to beam on to. They each had to stand completely still, until the transportation sequence started, because then they found that they couldn't move. As they beamed, they all experienced the weirdest feeling. It was like, well, like they couldn't feel a thing, until finally it was over. They could see the planet fully, and they looked around to get oriented on where they were. As they looked around, they noticed ample plant life, but no people.
"Strange, I would have expected a welcome." Kirk stated, to no one in particular.
"Captain, it is possible that it is not the Kim'iri custom to provide a welcome party for foreign life forms." Spock informed him. "They may not find it logical."
"I guess you're right. But still, something's off. I can't put my finger on it but..something is off."
"Sir, I have a bad feeling about this..." Rey trailed off.
"We better get moving. I see smoke in the distance. That's a good place to start." Kirk told them.
Everyone started walking. Bones took a step, and his foot slipped, but he caught his balance before he fell. He looked at the ground, which was slightly sparkly. He looked up at the alien sky and saw that it was morning. He took this trivial bit of information and stored it in his mind, even though he probably wouldn't need it. The group continued walking toward the smoke. As they walked Kirk abruptly stopped as he heard some sort of cry. He flipped open his communicator.
"Enterprise, beam us up." No answer. "Enterprise, come in." Still no answer. "Spock, what's wrong with my communicator?!"
"Captain, there appears to be some sort of interference with our communication system, which appears to be because of the atmosphere. We cannot expect to speak to the Enterprise."
"Great. Well, they'll fall back on plan B."
"Plan B?" Spock inquired, turning his head diagonally and raising his Vulcan eyebrow, as he usually did.
"Yeah. They'll automatically beam us up in two hours if they don't hear from us. And since they won't hear from us," he paused for a brief moment, "it'll be two hours."
Spock nodded an affirmative. He then looked up in the trees as they all heard a similar cry to that which Kirk heard. A phaser blast sailed through the air, hitting and killing Morrison. They all jumped. More bolts sailed through the air as the remaining crew pulled out their phasers. They shot at their attackers, who were perched in the trees. Some jumped down with the agility of a monkey and continued firing.
"Wha- How do they have Klingon phasers?!" Kirk demanded to no one in particular.
"It is possible that there is something they are not telling us, Captain." Spock answered.
"Obviously there's something they're not telling us, like, WHY they're shooting at us, not escorting us to the ship that's supposedly broken!" Bones practically yelled.
"I do not understand why you are restating my observation, doctor." Spock calmly stated.
"Not now, you two!" Kirk ordered, before rolling his eyes and shaking his head slightly. He then noticed Rey running toward the attackers, staff in hand. She took several of them down in one fluid, trained stroke. She took several more down, and on the last hit she yelled a sharp battle yell, then stood, breathing heavily, in a ready position. Her eyes looked behind her to see a blue alien coming up behind her. She quickly turned, nailing the alien with her staff, finishing with a second yell. Another came up behind her to see her do a back handspring to gain sufficient distance. She then threw her staff like a javelin at this one, striking him in the forehead. She then ran to her staff which had an alien nearby. She did a front handspring and hit him with her feet when she came up from the move. She got down and rolled while grabbing her staff, to dodge a phaser shot. She got up, and a phaser appeared in her hand. She shot that one. Wow. She really does know what she's doing, the captain thought.
The others continued shooting until all the attackers were down. Chekov ran to the breathless lieutenant.
"Wow, zat was amazing!" He said, excitedly.
She smiled, while still catching her breath. "Thanks. I learned- most of those gymnastic moves-at the academy." She continued panting.
"Even without the moves, zat was...zat was amazing!" He opened his mouth to say more, but the captain spoke and cut him off.
"The sun's getting low. We'd better find shelter."
"Yes, sir," the team said in unison.
They found a small cave, which they all entered. Spock left to get some firewood, because it was getting rather cold. He returned with ample firewood, then spoke while setting his wood pile down in the center of the makeshift camp.
"Captain, it is already night time. The rotational cycle of this planet must consist of very short days. As you recall, it was morning when we arrived, because Doctor McCoy slipped on the grass, as it was covered with dew. Only forty-five minutes have elapsed since we have been on this planet."
The team slept in the cave that night and in the early morning they were finally beamed up after what seemed like an eternity. When they arrived at the Enterprise, Scotty was operating the transporter. Once the team had materialized, Kirk saw Scotty and immediately spoke to him.
"Didn't you wait a little long to beam us up?"
"No, sir. It was two hours, just like you told me."
The team burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?" Scotty asked, confused.
Kirk stopped laughing, but still had a huge smile on his face. "Well, it was two days for us. The planet has a really, really short cycle."
"I can see that, sir." Scotty said, laughing a little as well.
After that ordeal, Spock spoke to the captain.
"Captain, I have done some research on the Kim'iri, and they made an agreement with the Klingons. Their planet, Kim'ir, is filled with natural resources. The Klingons wanted the resources in exchange for technology, therefore the Kim'iri gifted them with the resources because they had no need for them."
"How'd they know that we're Federation?" Kirk asked.
"The Klingons informed them of our existence and instructed them to kill us if they saw us. We are enemies, as you know."
Kirk nodded.
The rest of the day went as usual.