CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
NOTE ON GENDER: While Alnschloss K'Bentayr's species does not have genders as such, I'm using male pronouns to refer to AKB as that's what the Kelvin's crew use.
Alnschloss K'Bentayr shivered, not from fear, but from the cold. He actually felt strangely calm, as the shapes surrounded him. The running was over and he'd never much liked running. It was time for Alnschloss K'Bentayr's last stand.
"What are you waiting for?" he asked, almost laughing. He felt close to delirious, knowing that the end was here. "End this!" he growled.
The shapes rose from the ice, growing larger than they ever had before...and enveloped AKB.
FIVE HOURS EARLIER
"I know I can always trust you to be honest," said George Kirk, first officer of the U.S.S. Kelvin. "Tell me, do you think we'll find them alive?"
"Weighing up all available evidence, I would say they almost certainly perished," said AKB. "Even being as optimistic as humans insist I should be...the chances are so remote as to be virtually nil."
"Well...I did ask," said Kirk. AKB could see that his answer had still displeased his human friend in some way.
"You still believe you'll find them alive," said AKB. "Even though you know I'm right."
"I believe there's still a chance we'll find them alive," said Kirk. "And I can't give up while there's a chance."
"But if the risk to our crewmembers is much greater than the chances of finding survivors..." said AKB. He needn't have, of course. Kirk was no fool. The first officer just nodded to AKB.
"We're almost ready to land," said Ensign Yutti, the Kelvin's Deltan navigator. Despite being a navigator, Yutti was also a more than capable shuttle pilot. AKB could tell that Kirk and the other crewmembers prefered having Yutti fly the shuttle than having the Kelvin's sarcastic and moody Helmsman Johnson flying...even though as a Deltan they all found themselves sexually curious about Yutti. Even AKB felt pangs of desire towards him...but he could easily ignore them. George Kirk was more AKB's type, but the first officer loved his wife and would never consider an affair with AKB, or even with Yutti. AKB wondered if the ships's Vulcan science officer T'Poo, who was also on the shuttle, felt anything for Yutti. Rounding out their small crew was Yeoman Chang, who had made no secret of the fact that she'd had previous sexual encounters with Yutti.
"Helmets on," said Kirk. "I can already feel the cold." They were already wearing their enviromental suits. They all put their helmets on now. The suits would keep the crew warm...for a time.
"Perfect landing, if I do so say myself," said Yutti, as the shuttle touched down lightly on the ice and snow. It didn't not slide as far as AKB had feared. Yutti really did deserve praise. The crew stepped out of the shuttle onto the barren, white land. Their environmental suits had special boots, otherwise they would not be able to keep their footing. The communications systems on their helmets were patched in to each other so that they could talk.
"I can feel the cold," said Yutti. "Even with the suit on."
"Sir, I want to find the survivors as much as anyone," said Yeoman Chang. "But realistically how much time do we have before we freeze to death?" It was interesting to AKB that Chang had called the crew of the crashed merchant vessel (whose distress call the Kelvin was responding to) "survivors", as if there was no question that they were still alive. Much like Kirk's earlier comments, it was a very human thing to say.
"Scans are almost complete," said T'Poo, who had been running scans on her tricorder from the moment she'd stepped off the shuttle. "The estimates I made onboard the Kelvin were only marginally wrong. Scans show that the human crewmembers and Deltan crewmember should be able to survive for five and a half hours without having to return to the shuttle. Lieutenant K'Bentayr for perhaps slightly longer."
"And yourself?" asked Kirk. T'Poo raised an eyebrow.
"Five hours," she said. Did she feel ashmaed? Surely not. Vulcans weren't supposed to feel such things and certainly not show them anyway. Everyone knew Vulcan was an arid planet and the extreme colds on this planet would be more taxing on a Vulcan than a human or a Deltan.
"Let's get to work," said Kirk. He helped Chang lift a scanning device on a tripod out of the shuttle. The planet had unusual atmospheric properties that had made scanning from orbit incredibly problematic (and transporting to the surface impossible.) They hadn't been able to pinpoint the exact location of the crashed merchant vessel from its distress call. Communications officer Rice had also called it a miracle that the distress call had even gotten through, as atmostpheric conditions had just happened to be exactly right when the Kelvin had been flying by. AKB did not believe in miracles and knew that communcation with the Kelvin was virtually impossible now that they were on the planet's surface. They were on their own.
"There!" said Chang excitedly, after several minutes of scanning. "The distress call is still broadcasting, from just two kilometres away in that direction." She pointed over an ice ridge. Kirk looked to T'Poo.
"My scans do not show any life signs in the vicinity," said T'Poo. When they had been in orbit her scans had briefly detected something that could have been life on the planet, but no form of life they had ever encountered before. But it was impossible to tell if they scans were accurate given the unusual scanning conditions.
"We proceed, slowly," said Kirk. "We'll go around the ice ridge." They set out. Even though they knew the ice was solid and that it wouldn't crack under them, they seemed to be checking it with their feet before every step. Even AKB himself, as rational as he was, felt a sense of danger with every step. They moved around with the ice ridge to the right, T'Poo's tricorder guiding them in the right direction through the white wasteland. They walked for over a kilometre in silence.
"What was that!?" said Yutti, suddenly. He was looking to the left. AKB had not seen anything.
"What did you see, Ensign?" asked Kirk.
"It was...a rippling. In the ice," said Yutti.
"You saw something under the ice?" asked Chang, alarmed.
"No!" said Yutti. "It was the ice itself...it rippled. That's the only way I can describe it."
"You could have imagined it," said Chang. She sounded nervous.
"I'm not some Cadet on my first mission jumping at shadows," said Yutti. "I know what I saw."
"We'll go on until was have a visual on the source of the distress call," said Kirk. "But if I don't like what we see we're heading straight back to the shuttle." On they went. AKB checked the ice for further rippling. He was inclined to believe that Yutti had seen something real.
"There," said T'Poo at last, pointing at something in the ice. "The distress call is coming from that area."
"It's just more ice," said Yutti. "I don't like this, sir."
"Hang on," said Kirk. "There, under the ice. Looks like metal..." They made their way forward. There was indeed metal under the ice. Kirk wiped away some of the snow in the surrounding area. There was more metal and also...a body. Or part of one. Or perhaps part of more than one, AKB could not tell. What he could tell for certain was that the merchant vessel had been torn apart and encased in ice, along with its crew.
"They are dead, Commander," he said to Kirk. It was stating the obvious of course, but sometimes humans needed that. "And there is no hope of recovering their bodies."
"We could melt the ice with our phasers," said Chang. "Dig them out..." She did not sound convinced herself.
"I have located the source of the distress call," said T'Poo. "We should at least disable it. I believe a phaser beam should be able to melt this segment of ice and shut off the distress call."
"I'll take care of it," said AKB, aiming his phaser. Kirk looked hesitant, like he was thinking of something, but time was running out. AKB fired his phaser.
"I did not give you the order yet," said Kirk. AKB felt frustrated at Kirk's indecision. But then there came a nose. A terrible noise. Like screaming, but not like any scream of any lifeform AKB had heard before. Everyone looked up in the same direction...and saw the ice move. Shapes formed. Jagged shapes. Suddenly a segment of ice came charging towards them, fast. It again made a screeching sound.
"Should I fire, Commander?" asked AKB, urgently.
"It's alive," said Kirk. "Don't fire, but everyone MOVE." The ice turned suddenly, aiming for Chang and Yutti, as if it had picked the weakest members of the away team to attack. T'Poo dived at them both, using her Vulcan strength to push them out of the way as the ice darted by. The sharp edge of the ice sliced through the arm of her environmental suit, puncturing it. Chang and Yutti got up.
"Oh no," said Chang. "Your suit!"
"I will be okay," said T'Poo, trying to seal the puncture.
"Back to the shuttle," barked Kirk. "NOW." Then ran across the ice. Despite T'Poo's claims she was obviously feeling the effects of the cold as she dropped back behind the others. Kirk ordered the others to stop and they gathered around T'Poo.
"I have managed to seal it," said the Vulcan. "But I feel...weakened."
"I should not have fired on the ice," said AKB, realising why Kirk had been unhappy with him. "Somehow the ice itself...is alive. I should have thought of that."
"It's not something I thought of myself until I heard that scream," said Kirk. "Maybe the merchant vessel did something similar. We'll go over it all once we get out of here. T'Poo, can you walk?"
"Yes," said the Vulcan, shivering. "I believe I can." Kirk looked around.
"The attack seems to have stopped," said Kirk. "Let's move." They headed in the direction of the shuttle, circling around the ice ridge again. But then a wall of ice rose in front of them. And again there was that terrible scream.
"What if...what if it's trying to talk to us?" asked Chang.
"It just tried to kill us!" said Yutti.
"But if it thought we were attacking it, maybe it was just defending itself," said Kirk. "Our environmental suits have in-built universal translators. Mine hasn't managed to translate the screams, but it says it is possibly a form of communication and with more time it could translate..."
"We don't have more time," said AKB, sternly. "We need to get T'Poo back to the shuttle...and the rest of us only have a few hours before our suits fail. Commander, we must shoot our way through the ice wall. It's the only way."
"No," said Kirk. "Not while I still think there's a chance at communication. We'll go around. Follow me." AKB did not argue. He knew Kirk would see sense as T'Poo's condition continued to decline. They tried to go around the ice wall, but it moved in front of them.
"It's not going to let us leave," said Yutti. "Why doesn't it just attack us again."
"If you can understand me, we mean you no harm," said Kirk "But we need to return to our shuttle. Please, let us pass." The ice did not move. Kirk put out his hand and touched it. Still nothing. He pushed against it. This time the ice lowered. "To the shuttle!" he said.
But as they started moving again, as quickly as they could, more shapes appeared in the ice, jagged like the one that had attacked T'Poo. AKB pointed his phaser at them as the shapes darted around the crew. After a while the shapes formed an ice wall in front of them again, blocking their return to the ship. And all the while the ice continued to scream at them.
"Commander, there is only one course of action we can take," said AKB. "To save Yutti, Chang and T'Poo, you must allow me to draw the attention of the ice shapes with my phaser. You and the others can return to the ship."
"And leave you to be killed?" asked Kirk. "No. You are a member of my crew under my command and will not ask you to do this. I will not leave you behind. The Universal Translator shows it is making progress..."
"You are a fine Commander, and a good man," said AKB. "But your human optimism is clouding your judgement. I will remove the choice from you." Before Kirk could stop him, AKB fired his phaser into the air. The ice that was shifting around them stopp in its tracks. It all pointed its jagged edges at AKB. He stepped away from the rest of the crew. "Run," he said. He could tell Kirk wanted to go after him, but then Chang spoke.
"T'Poo is fading fast!" she said, as she and Yutti struggled to hold the Vulcan up. Kirk reluctantly went to help them. And then AKB fired his phaser into the air one more time and turned and ran. It worked as he had hoped. All of the ice ignored the rest of the crew and chased after him. It was moving alongside him, but AKB found that it could not move beyond a certain speed. He ran as fast as he could, though of course the environmental suit and the snow slowed him. That and he was starting to feel the cold. But he was outrunning the ice...for a time. He did not see a sharp incline in the white land he was running on. He slide down it and fell to the ground. He pulled himself up. It was time for Alnschloss K'Bentayr's last stand.
"What are you waiting for?" he asked, almost laughing. He felt close to delirious, knowing that the end was here. "End this!" he growled.
The shapes rose from the ice, growing larger than they ever had before...and enveloped AKB.
Everything went dark...and then it was light again. The ice was moving off of him. AKB could not understand why. Then he heard a familiar sound. A Starfleet phaser being fired. AKB looked up and saw George Kirk standing at the top of the incline, firing his phaser into the air. And then Kirk did something truly crazy. He lowered his phaser and sat it on the ground.
"We mean you no harm," he said. The ice moved over to Kirk. It was right in front of him. It screamed again...and then the screams became words.
"You spoke," said the ice. "How."
"Adevice we call the Universal Translator," said Kirk. "It allows us to understand and speak in alien languages. It just needs time to translate."
"We thought you were monsters," said the ice.
"We came here in response to a distress call," said Kirk. "From a merchant vessel that crash-landed on this planet. We found the ship destroyed."
"It attacked us," said the ice. "Their machine...their vessel. It began to melt us. It killed so many. We had to destroy it."
"The merchant ship was a hundred years less advanced than our shuttle," said AKB, speaking for the first time. "Its engines did not have the same safety functions as ours. It appears they melted part of the ice lifeform when the ship tried to take off."
"You attack us too," said the ice. "With the heat wepaon."
"The phaser," said Kirk. "That was a mistake. We did not know you were alive. We have never encountered a lifeform like you before."
"You were going to return to your vessel and melt us futher," accused the ice.
"No," said Kirk. "Our shuttle's engines would not melt you. We were just trying to leave your planet." The ice said nothing for a few moments. As if it was thinking.
"We understand," said the ice. "You are such a different and primitive form of life that you did not know we were intelligent. But you still should not have come to our planet. You are not meant to be here. You can leave, now. We will not stop you. But please never return."
"If that is what you wish," said Kirk. "But our mission is to seek out new life. If there is anyway..."
"No," said the ice, firmly. "There was once life like you on this planet, many millions of years ago. They were colder than you, but still not as cold as ice. They discovered fire. They tried to melt us. We expelled them from this planet. They were too dangerous to be here. As are you."
"We will respect your wishes," said Kirk. "But perhaps one day you will think differently."
"Perhaps," said the ice. "Transmit a message to the planet if you ever come here again. We will tell you if you were welcome or not. And one more thing. We have sensed the return of the those others. We thought them long gone, yet the ancient connection between us has stirred. They have taken to worship of a dark lord named Traxtor. Watch out for them. For they are deadly."
"We will," said Kirk. And he and AKB left.
"Commander...thank you," said AKB.
"I got the others within sight of the shuttle then came back for you," said Kirk. "As I said, we don't leave a crewmember behind."
"Still, you did not know the translator would work in time," said AKB.
"I guess human optimism paid off this time," said Kirk.
"I am...pleased that it did," said AKB. "And I apologise for the mistakes I made on this mission."
"Learn from those mistakes," said Kirk. "We all make them. You're the bravest officer I've ever served with K'Bentayr. So don't feel too bad."
AKB did not know what to say. He felt like tell Kirk that he loved him, but that was probably just the cold affecting his brain. They got back to the shuttle and found T'Poo recovering.
"Ready to take off, sir," said Yutti. Kirk nodded.
"Let's get home and sit around the fire," he said.
THE END
Alnschloss K'Bentayr shivered, not from fear, but from the cold. He actually felt strangely calm, as the shapes surrounded him. The running was over and he'd never much liked running. It was time for Alnschloss K'Bentayr's last stand.
"What are you waiting for?" he asked, almost laughing. He felt close to delirious, knowing that the end was here. "End this!" he growled.
The shapes rose from the ice, growing larger than they ever had before...and enveloped AKB.
FIVE HOURS EARLIER
"I know I can always trust you to be honest," said George Kirk, first officer of the U.S.S. Kelvin. "Tell me, do you think we'll find them alive?"
"Weighing up all available evidence, I would say they almost certainly perished," said AKB. "Even being as optimistic as humans insist I should be...the chances are so remote as to be virtually nil."
"Well...I did ask," said Kirk. AKB could see that his answer had still displeased his human friend in some way.
"You still believe you'll find them alive," said AKB. "Even though you know I'm right."
"I believe there's still a chance we'll find them alive," said Kirk. "And I can't give up while there's a chance."
"But if the risk to our crewmembers is much greater than the chances of finding survivors..." said AKB. He needn't have, of course. Kirk was no fool. The first officer just nodded to AKB.
"We're almost ready to land," said Ensign Yutti, the Kelvin's Deltan navigator. Despite being a navigator, Yutti was also a more than capable shuttle pilot. AKB could tell that Kirk and the other crewmembers prefered having Yutti fly the shuttle than having the Kelvin's sarcastic and moody Helmsman Johnson flying...even though as a Deltan they all found themselves sexually curious about Yutti. Even AKB felt pangs of desire towards him...but he could easily ignore them. George Kirk was more AKB's type, but the first officer loved his wife and would never consider an affair with AKB, or even with Yutti. AKB wondered if the ships's Vulcan science officer T'Poo, who was also on the shuttle, felt anything for Yutti. Rounding out their small crew was Yeoman Chang, who had made no secret of the fact that she'd had previous sexual encounters with Yutti.
"Helmets on," said Kirk. "I can already feel the cold." They were already wearing their enviromental suits. They all put their helmets on now. The suits would keep the crew warm...for a time.
"Perfect landing, if I do so say myself," said Yutti, as the shuttle touched down lightly on the ice and snow. It didn't not slide as far as AKB had feared. Yutti really did deserve praise. The crew stepped out of the shuttle onto the barren, white land. Their environmental suits had special boots, otherwise they would not be able to keep their footing. The communications systems on their helmets were patched in to each other so that they could talk.
"I can feel the cold," said Yutti. "Even with the suit on."
"Sir, I want to find the survivors as much as anyone," said Yeoman Chang. "But realistically how much time do we have before we freeze to death?" It was interesting to AKB that Chang had called the crew of the crashed merchant vessel (whose distress call the Kelvin was responding to) "survivors", as if there was no question that they were still alive. Much like Kirk's earlier comments, it was a very human thing to say.
"Scans are almost complete," said T'Poo, who had been running scans on her tricorder from the moment she'd stepped off the shuttle. "The estimates I made onboard the Kelvin were only marginally wrong. Scans show that the human crewmembers and Deltan crewmember should be able to survive for five and a half hours without having to return to the shuttle. Lieutenant K'Bentayr for perhaps slightly longer."
"And yourself?" asked Kirk. T'Poo raised an eyebrow.
"Five hours," she said. Did she feel ashmaed? Surely not. Vulcans weren't supposed to feel such things and certainly not show them anyway. Everyone knew Vulcan was an arid planet and the extreme colds on this planet would be more taxing on a Vulcan than a human or a Deltan.
"Let's get to work," said Kirk. He helped Chang lift a scanning device on a tripod out of the shuttle. The planet had unusual atmospheric properties that had made scanning from orbit incredibly problematic (and transporting to the surface impossible.) They hadn't been able to pinpoint the exact location of the crashed merchant vessel from its distress call. Communications officer Rice had also called it a miracle that the distress call had even gotten through, as atmostpheric conditions had just happened to be exactly right when the Kelvin had been flying by. AKB did not believe in miracles and knew that communcation with the Kelvin was virtually impossible now that they were on the planet's surface. They were on their own.
"There!" said Chang excitedly, after several minutes of scanning. "The distress call is still broadcasting, from just two kilometres away in that direction." She pointed over an ice ridge. Kirk looked to T'Poo.
"My scans do not show any life signs in the vicinity," said T'Poo. When they had been in orbit her scans had briefly detected something that could have been life on the planet, but no form of life they had ever encountered before. But it was impossible to tell if they scans were accurate given the unusual scanning conditions.
"We proceed, slowly," said Kirk. "We'll go around the ice ridge." They set out. Even though they knew the ice was solid and that it wouldn't crack under them, they seemed to be checking it with their feet before every step. Even AKB himself, as rational as he was, felt a sense of danger with every step. They moved around with the ice ridge to the right, T'Poo's tricorder guiding them in the right direction through the white wasteland. They walked for over a kilometre in silence.
"What was that!?" said Yutti, suddenly. He was looking to the left. AKB had not seen anything.
"What did you see, Ensign?" asked Kirk.
"It was...a rippling. In the ice," said Yutti.
"You saw something under the ice?" asked Chang, alarmed.
"No!" said Yutti. "It was the ice itself...it rippled. That's the only way I can describe it."
"You could have imagined it," said Chang. She sounded nervous.
"I'm not some Cadet on my first mission jumping at shadows," said Yutti. "I know what I saw."
"We'll go on until was have a visual on the source of the distress call," said Kirk. "But if I don't like what we see we're heading straight back to the shuttle." On they went. AKB checked the ice for further rippling. He was inclined to believe that Yutti had seen something real.
"There," said T'Poo at last, pointing at something in the ice. "The distress call is coming from that area."
"It's just more ice," said Yutti. "I don't like this, sir."
"Hang on," said Kirk. "There, under the ice. Looks like metal..." They made their way forward. There was indeed metal under the ice. Kirk wiped away some of the snow in the surrounding area. There was more metal and also...a body. Or part of one. Or perhaps part of more than one, AKB could not tell. What he could tell for certain was that the merchant vessel had been torn apart and encased in ice, along with its crew.
"They are dead, Commander," he said to Kirk. It was stating the obvious of course, but sometimes humans needed that. "And there is no hope of recovering their bodies."
"We could melt the ice with our phasers," said Chang. "Dig them out..." She did not sound convinced herself.
"I have located the source of the distress call," said T'Poo. "We should at least disable it. I believe a phaser beam should be able to melt this segment of ice and shut off the distress call."
"I'll take care of it," said AKB, aiming his phaser. Kirk looked hesitant, like he was thinking of something, but time was running out. AKB fired his phaser.
"I did not give you the order yet," said Kirk. AKB felt frustrated at Kirk's indecision. But then there came a nose. A terrible noise. Like screaming, but not like any scream of any lifeform AKB had heard before. Everyone looked up in the same direction...and saw the ice move. Shapes formed. Jagged shapes. Suddenly a segment of ice came charging towards them, fast. It again made a screeching sound.
"Should I fire, Commander?" asked AKB, urgently.
"It's alive," said Kirk. "Don't fire, but everyone MOVE." The ice turned suddenly, aiming for Chang and Yutti, as if it had picked the weakest members of the away team to attack. T'Poo dived at them both, using her Vulcan strength to push them out of the way as the ice darted by. The sharp edge of the ice sliced through the arm of her environmental suit, puncturing it. Chang and Yutti got up.
"Oh no," said Chang. "Your suit!"
"I will be okay," said T'Poo, trying to seal the puncture.
"Back to the shuttle," barked Kirk. "NOW." Then ran across the ice. Despite T'Poo's claims she was obviously feeling the effects of the cold as she dropped back behind the others. Kirk ordered the others to stop and they gathered around T'Poo.
"I have managed to seal it," said the Vulcan. "But I feel...weakened."
"I should not have fired on the ice," said AKB, realising why Kirk had been unhappy with him. "Somehow the ice itself...is alive. I should have thought of that."
"It's not something I thought of myself until I heard that scream," said Kirk. "Maybe the merchant vessel did something similar. We'll go over it all once we get out of here. T'Poo, can you walk?"
"Yes," said the Vulcan, shivering. "I believe I can." Kirk looked around.
"The attack seems to have stopped," said Kirk. "Let's move." They headed in the direction of the shuttle, circling around the ice ridge again. But then a wall of ice rose in front of them. And again there was that terrible scream.
"What if...what if it's trying to talk to us?" asked Chang.
"It just tried to kill us!" said Yutti.
"But if it thought we were attacking it, maybe it was just defending itself," said Kirk. "Our environmental suits have in-built universal translators. Mine hasn't managed to translate the screams, but it says it is possibly a form of communication and with more time it could translate..."
"We don't have more time," said AKB, sternly. "We need to get T'Poo back to the shuttle...and the rest of us only have a few hours before our suits fail. Commander, we must shoot our way through the ice wall. It's the only way."
"No," said Kirk. "Not while I still think there's a chance at communication. We'll go around. Follow me." AKB did not argue. He knew Kirk would see sense as T'Poo's condition continued to decline. They tried to go around the ice wall, but it moved in front of them.
"It's not going to let us leave," said Yutti. "Why doesn't it just attack us again."
"If you can understand me, we mean you no harm," said Kirk "But we need to return to our shuttle. Please, let us pass." The ice did not move. Kirk put out his hand and touched it. Still nothing. He pushed against it. This time the ice lowered. "To the shuttle!" he said.
But as they started moving again, as quickly as they could, more shapes appeared in the ice, jagged like the one that had attacked T'Poo. AKB pointed his phaser at them as the shapes darted around the crew. After a while the shapes formed an ice wall in front of them again, blocking their return to the ship. And all the while the ice continued to scream at them.
"Commander, there is only one course of action we can take," said AKB. "To save Yutti, Chang and T'Poo, you must allow me to draw the attention of the ice shapes with my phaser. You and the others can return to the ship."
"And leave you to be killed?" asked Kirk. "No. You are a member of my crew under my command and will not ask you to do this. I will not leave you behind. The Universal Translator shows it is making progress..."
"You are a fine Commander, and a good man," said AKB. "But your human optimism is clouding your judgement. I will remove the choice from you." Before Kirk could stop him, AKB fired his phaser into the air. The ice that was shifting around them stopp in its tracks. It all pointed its jagged edges at AKB. He stepped away from the rest of the crew. "Run," he said. He could tell Kirk wanted to go after him, but then Chang spoke.
"T'Poo is fading fast!" she said, as she and Yutti struggled to hold the Vulcan up. Kirk reluctantly went to help them. And then AKB fired his phaser into the air one more time and turned and ran. It worked as he had hoped. All of the ice ignored the rest of the crew and chased after him. It was moving alongside him, but AKB found that it could not move beyond a certain speed. He ran as fast as he could, though of course the environmental suit and the snow slowed him. That and he was starting to feel the cold. But he was outrunning the ice...for a time. He did not see a sharp incline in the white land he was running on. He slide down it and fell to the ground. He pulled himself up. It was time for Alnschloss K'Bentayr's last stand.
"What are you waiting for?" he asked, almost laughing. He felt close to delirious, knowing that the end was here. "End this!" he growled.
The shapes rose from the ice, growing larger than they ever had before...and enveloped AKB.
Everything went dark...and then it was light again. The ice was moving off of him. AKB could not understand why. Then he heard a familiar sound. A Starfleet phaser being fired. AKB looked up and saw George Kirk standing at the top of the incline, firing his phaser into the air. And then Kirk did something truly crazy. He lowered his phaser and sat it on the ground.
"We mean you no harm," he said. The ice moved over to Kirk. It was right in front of him. It screamed again...and then the screams became words.
"You spoke," said the ice. "How."
"Adevice we call the Universal Translator," said Kirk. "It allows us to understand and speak in alien languages. It just needs time to translate."
"We thought you were monsters," said the ice.
"We came here in response to a distress call," said Kirk. "From a merchant vessel that crash-landed on this planet. We found the ship destroyed."
"It attacked us," said the ice. "Their machine...their vessel. It began to melt us. It killed so many. We had to destroy it."
"The merchant ship was a hundred years less advanced than our shuttle," said AKB, speaking for the first time. "Its engines did not have the same safety functions as ours. It appears they melted part of the ice lifeform when the ship tried to take off."
"You attack us too," said the ice. "With the heat wepaon."
"The phaser," said Kirk. "That was a mistake. We did not know you were alive. We have never encountered a lifeform like you before."
"You were going to return to your vessel and melt us futher," accused the ice.
"No," said Kirk. "Our shuttle's engines would not melt you. We were just trying to leave your planet." The ice said nothing for a few moments. As if it was thinking.
"We understand," said the ice. "You are such a different and primitive form of life that you did not know we were intelligent. But you still should not have come to our planet. You are not meant to be here. You can leave, now. We will not stop you. But please never return."
"If that is what you wish," said Kirk. "But our mission is to seek out new life. If there is anyway..."
"No," said the ice, firmly. "There was once life like you on this planet, many millions of years ago. They were colder than you, but still not as cold as ice. They discovered fire. They tried to melt us. We expelled them from this planet. They were too dangerous to be here. As are you."
"We will respect your wishes," said Kirk. "But perhaps one day you will think differently."
"Perhaps," said the ice. "Transmit a message to the planet if you ever come here again. We will tell you if you were welcome or not. And one more thing. We have sensed the return of the those others. We thought them long gone, yet the ancient connection between us has stirred. They have taken to worship of a dark lord named Traxtor. Watch out for them. For they are deadly."
"We will," said Kirk. And he and AKB left.
"Commander...thank you," said AKB.
"I got the others within sight of the shuttle then came back for you," said Kirk. "As I said, we don't leave a crewmember behind."
"Still, you did not know the translator would work in time," said AKB.
"I guess human optimism paid off this time," said Kirk.
"I am...pleased that it did," said AKB. "And I apologise for the mistakes I made on this mission."
"Learn from those mistakes," said Kirk. "We all make them. You're the bravest officer I've ever served with K'Bentayr. So don't feel too bad."
AKB did not know what to say. He felt like tell Kirk that he loved him, but that was probably just the cold affecting his brain. They got back to the shuttle and found T'Poo recovering.
"Ready to take off, sir," said Yutti. Kirk nodded.
"Let's get home and sit around the fire," he said.
THE END
