The Cube

"Chekov, get down!"

Spock shouted out with uncharacteristic urgency. The ensign quickly lied down on his stomach onto the cold, concrete surface while Spock pushed himself and McCoy towards the smooth steal wall of a building the size of a small space-dock. All three of them narrowly avoided being decapitated by the shuttlecraft that had appeared out of nowhere and speeded past their heads. It was white, rectangular and completely soundless and just hovered above the ground. Chekov could feel his hair move in the stream of air as the craft flew past him, only one and a half meters above the ground.

The trio had just materialised and were still gathering their senses. They had put down their heavy rucksacks to take in their surroundings of what appeared to be a city made entirely of steal and concrete. All the roads met at right angles and disappeared in straight lines until the horizon in each direction. A few shuttlecrafts were flying just above the roads as if they guided them. The spaces between the roads were filled with gigantic square and rectangular shaped grey buildings, some of them as tall as skyscrapers. The environment appeared urban but with one striking difference to other alien cities the landing party had encountered before: there was no sign of live whatsoever, no windows or doors in the buildings, no road-marks or traffic lights on the roads and most importantly no living and breathing soul as far as the eye could see. Not even the slightest hint of any flora, fauna or organic substance. Even the bright light coming from a white sky high above them felt artificial.

Just after they had materialised, Spock had suddenly tilted his head to his right. When McCoy noticed the fast approaching shuttlecraft in the corner of his eye as well, he had instinctively reached out towards Chekov, determined to pull him towards the wall. But the ensign had been standing several meters away from them and McCoy would have not reached him in time. Alert as always, Spock had quickly alarmed Chekov to get down and pulled a protesting McCoy back towards the wall of the metal building. The shuttle then rushed past at high speed and the three of them turned their heads, watching the alien craft disappear out of sight towards the horizon.

McCoy helped Chekov up who looked slightly embarrassed and was busy putting his uniform back in order.

"You're all right, Chekov?" and with a quick look towards Spock "I would have pulled you towards the wall but Mr. Spock had other plans."

Spock raised an eyebrow but otherwise didn't react. He was back to studying the interesting readings on his tricoder.

McCoy's angry look towards Spock didn't escape Chekov. The young officer scratched his head as if he wanted to make sure his hair was still were it was supposed to be.

"Yes Doctor, I'm fine. I didn't hear zat ting coming."

"Well neither did I, but it seems Spock, with those Vulcan ears of his, did."

His eyes still fixed on the tricoder, Spock raised his eyebrow again.

"Fascinating" The CSO lifted his head to look at the horizon. The shuttle had completely disappeared from sight now.

McCoy quickly turned around to confront Spock with a stern glare. The Doctor could still feel a slight tremble in his bones. Those first moments in this strange world had certainly been something.

"Is that all you gotta say after we were nearly decapitated?"

"I was merely commenting on the fact that whoever, or whatever has steered the craft we have just encountered, didn't react to our presence."

"What did you expect; a loud, beeping horn to scare us out of the way?"

"Doctor, as I'm talking to you, I will spell out my logically attained assumptions. A 'beeping horn' would indicate a life form or a computer that was able to detect us. However, there was no sign that the craft or the force that commands it was perpetuated with our presence."

McCoy opened his mouth to protest but Spock continued speaking unfazed.

"This observation results in three possible options: One-those aircrafts are not designed to warn any life-forms on this planet because there aren't any; two- those aircrafts can detect life-forms but they are deemed unworthy of being warned; three- it was unable to detect our presence."

McCoy crossed his arms and stubbornly glared into the distance. Chekov had listened intently to his superior's assessment of the situation while undertaking readings on his own tricoder.

"Sair, I'm not certain of course, but maybe we should consider option One? I'm detecting no life forms whatsoever on zis planet. Neiter of humanoid, alien, plant or micro-biological nature."

Spock nodded, his eyes still intently reading his tricoder.

"Very well, Ensign. I confirm your readings" The Vulcan lifted his head to look directly at Chekov with dark, unemotional eyes "However, there is no need for expressing uncertainty once a logical conclusion has been drawn. According to the data we have attained so far, option One is the most likely possibility."

Chekov nodded attentively, just noticing in the corner of his eye how Dr. McCoy directed his eyes skyward, shaking his head. The young Russian sighed quietly and continued his measurements. Obviously the Doctor didn't share his own enthusiasm and gratefulness towards Mr. Spock's willingness to share his flawless insights.

Chekov's tricoder readings were spectacular as he detected no life at all on the planet, not even on the microscopic level, but only concrete, steal and other hard materials. Despite such fascinating readings, he found himself looking up from his tricoder to check what his superiors were doing. McCoy was now conducting his own readings, using both his tricoder and a bio-scanner. The Doctor stood with his back to Spock, who was focusing on a calculation on his tricoder. The CSO then turned around to face his colleagues and shared his fascination about the density of the colossal building next to them, quoting the exact number to five decimals. Chekov deemed the First Officer's finding incredible but McCoy commented the remark with a grumpy snort and another shake of the head.

"I'd rather have you comment on the 'fascinating' fact that Scotty and his men don't register on our tricoders, Spock!"

"Doctor, patience is also not one of your virtues. Ensign Chekov was right in so far that there is no life on the planet's surface. I've only just started a long distance scan of its interior."

Chekov looked from the CSO to the CMO, how they stood with their backs to one another, not favouring the other with a look. Surprised, Chekov realised that just 15 minutes into their rescue operation, he was already worried about Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy's conduct towards one another and its possible negative influence on their mission. Chekov had been immensely grateful to Captain Kirk to send him along, convinced that his CO wanted to give him the opportunity to redeem his guilt, even though he had been proven not to be responsible for the landing party's disappearance. But the Captain wouldn't be the great Commanding Officer he was, if he had not be aware of the ensign's inner turmoil. Chekov did feel guilty because he had initiated the beaming process at the time. More experience and stronger nerves would have enabled him to do another sensor scan in the few seconds he had had. He would have detected the wormhole and could have prevented the beaming. No one but himself blamed him for those shortcomings though. He was 21 and it had been his first day as a Starfleet officer. Most importantly, the beaming process had been interfered by an incredibly powerful wormhole. It really hadn't been Chekov's fault that things had gone wrong.

So far so good. But now Chekov also had the feeling that there had been another reason why Kirk teamed him up with the two senior officers.

Could it be possible? Here he was, the Enterprise's youngest crewmember, baby-sitting the 2nd and 4th highest-ranking officers on landing party duty?

McCoy's next comment did nothing to ease Chekov's mind and it only strengthened his suspicion about Captain Kirk's motivation to send him along.

The Doctor put his hands on the younger man's shoulders with a solemn look on his face.

" Don't let Spock spoil you with his logic, Chekov, there's so much more to life than..." McCoy couldn't finish his sentence as Spock pushed them into a one-meter wide, one-meter deep, rectangular cavity in the gigantic metallic building behind them. A second later, a dozen shuttlecrafts just like the previous one rushed past them. The cavity was just wide and deep enough to enable two men to face one another and Spock sheltered McCoy and Chekov with his body as he stood on the threshold. Momentarily, the Vulcan could feel the cold airflow the crafts were leaving behind at the back of his neck.

A few moments of astonished silence passed between them before Chekov was able to speak again.

"Zank you, Mr. Spock" the ensign said with a hoarse voice as he gasped for air.

"What the heck was that?" McCoy grunted, shifting from one foot to the other. He was stuck between a solid metal wall and Chekov with Spock just to his right.

Chekov looked up. The cavity wasn't very wide or deep, but it was as high as the building that was approximately measuring 150 meters in height. He looked at his feet and noticed that instead of standing on concrete ground like before, they were now standing on the same metallic surface like the walls of the building. Chekov looked at his tricoder for confirmation.

"A convey of 12 shuttle crafts has just passed us, Doctor." Spock replied to McCoy's question, never too busy to state the obvious "It was fortunate we were able to seek shelter in a cavity in this rather dense construct."

"Mr. Spock, look." Chekov pointed at their feet "We are standing on ze same metallic material ze whole building is made of."

Spock took a few more readings on his tricoder and raised his eyebrows.

'Whole is an appropriate term, Ensign, for this construct is solid metal, very similar to your Terran metal. It is not hollow inside, but solid. Therefore, it's not a building. And all its dimensions are exactly square.150x150x150 meters."

Hit by a feeling of claustrophobia, McCoy had just wanted to suggest to return to the street, when Spock's observation made him blurt out in astonishment: "This massive thing's a cube, Spock?"

"I believe I have just said..." the Vulcan didn't get to finish his sentence.

An observer on the opposite side of the street would have watched on in wonder as the space-dock sized cube suddenly descended into the ground at breath-taking speed. After only a few seconds it had disappeared completely bellow the surface. Only a human scream that had come from the cube remained above ground as it echoed between the remaining gigantic metal constructs that flanked the streets.

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A shorter chapter for a change, but the next one will follow soon. As always -reviews and comments would be wonderful. Thanks for bearing with me and the story. It's great fun writing it :)

Merry Christmas!