TW: dubious science

The planet was still just as picturesque as it had been the last time, but somehow he couldn't bring himself to appreciate it. At least they were a few miles away from where his two crewmembers had died, he wasn't sure he could handle seeing the bodies and not burying them, at least.

"Alright." Jim turned to his team, making a battle plan. "Commander, you and miss Pasadili will head to the closest generator. See if you can get a proper scan of it. Me and ensign Newman will cover you from West, ensign Doon and junior lieutenant Kwan from East." he turned to the remaining member of the team and handed her his deactivated communicator. "Ensign, find a hill or a rock and watch the commander's progress. In any sign of emergency, call for immediate extraction."

Spock reached to get the first aid pack from his team member like the annoyingly perfect gentleman he was and helped her set up their compass. "Captain Kirk, it would be wise for your team and for junior lieutenant Kwan's team to stay close enough for our communicators to connect. If any of you encountered any trouble, I should be able to signal your need for extraction to ensign Luther." the vulcan turned to Jim while Erica was still busy fiddling with her electronic map.

Jim sighed slightly, raising an eyebrow, "I thought that was implied, commander." he muttered with a small shake of his head.

Spock gave a small nod and that was it.

They had no reason to waste time and so each team promptly headed it's designed way. The planet was not that different from Earth in the end, even though the base chemicals making up the environment slightly varied. While it wouldn't be wise - or safe - to breathe the air for a longer period of time, it was fresh and had enough oxygen to make the walk a pleasant one. There were also enough trees and hills to suitably cover them, should anyone be watching.

Jim made sure to stay hidden as his team continued tracking the progress of Spock's team, the vulcan popping visible from the right direction every five minutes to signal his whereabouts.

It was almost ridiculously easy and that more than anything made Jim nervous. Considering how their last visit to the planet went, smooth sailing stank of a trap.

He kept the morbid thoughts to himself, though, only advising Spock to proceed carefully when his team neared the first generator. Or so the vulcan said, because exactly at that moment Jim just couldn't get him in a clear line of sight. Damned trees.

"Stay on the spot, I'll try to establish eye-contact.." Jim muttered into his communicator, continuing forward until they came to a small hill, unfortunately covered in what looked like bramble, thorns and all.

"On two hours from your last known position should be a clearing, captain. There is a single tree in the middle of it; you should have a clear sight from there. However, you would also be fairly visible."

Jim looked around and quickly located the mentioned place, heading that way. "I'll keep to the edge of the trees, see if that'd help." he replied, pocketing the comm to concentrate on finding the easiest path. They had to go slightly uphill and just as any other unkempt part of woods, the ground was full of treacherous holes and crawling with wines. He would hate to have to call Enterprise for pick up, just because of a sprained ankle.

It took them embarrassingly long to get to that clearing, the ground slippery and all the branches low enough to grab onto were too thin not to snap. Jim spent most of those ten minutes cursing under his breath. He was a spaceship captain, he shouldn't have to spend his days struggling through a thorny bush.

"Confirmed visual, captain." Spock didn't even give him a moment to catch a breath when they finally, finally fell out of the last bush. But a good point, Jim took a quick look around and backed into a spot of high grass. Not a good enough cover if anyone was looking their way, but sufficient.

"I can see you, too. Scan the thing, commander, but be ready for hasty retreat if that gets you any unwanted attention."

From his point Jim could watch through binoculars as Spock directed Pasadili deeper into the cover of trees and knelt down, aiming his tricorder at a small device. It looked suspiciously like a tin can, aside of a thin antenna like thing emerging from it's top.

Spock let the tricorder work and circled the device slowly around, no doubt wanting to see if the energy it emitted spread evenly in all directions.

"It seems it is, indeed, one piece of a shield generator." Spock's voice translated through Jim's communicator and the captain grinned, giddy with their find. He wanted nothing more than to snatch the thing and bring it aboard to poke and prod, but until he was sure they would survive that attempt, he wasn't risking it.

"How does it work, commander?" Jim asked eagerly, even though right now they could only pose a guess. The data will be saved on Spock's tricorder and they will run it trough Enterprise mainframe before even trying to make some sense of it.

"It seems it creates a strange electromagnetic field, to the point of vibrating air-" the connection cut smoothly, not even a crackle to hint at interference. Before Jim had the time to address the cold hand squeezing his lungs and properly panic, Spock's voice was back, "-out proper equipment."

Jim took half a minute to calm down his breath while Spock obviously waited for him to say something. He got him back in the sight of his binoculars, seeing that Spock was back to crouching by the device, not done scanning it.

"You were walking around, commander?"

"Affirmative, captain." Spock answered and it was yet another proof of just how clever the vulcan was, that the answer was quickly followed by a, "Did you experience any sort of disturbance?" Jim smiled at how excited - in his own way - the vulcan sounded, no doubt as eager to figure this mystery as Jim was.

"The connection got lost for few seconds. No static, nothing. Step into the inner circle for a bit, then back out. Tell me if you hear me talk." Jim instructed, watching as Spock moved to do as told. For lack of any better idea he started slowly counting, only stopping by fiftyseven when Spock returned back to the starting point.

"Captain, the connection got cut off completely." Spock announced, voice perfectly even, but Jim wasn't fooled. The vulcan was just as giddy about this as he was.

See, things in common already. Now to decide what to actually do about it. "Commander, take a stun gun from Pasadili, I'll want you to proceed further." Jim said slowly, really trying to think of a different way. In ideal world he would have suggested they switch, but while they weren't exactly pressed by time, Jim didn't want to waste half an hour of it uselessly, either. "Not far away, certainly not out of mine and Pasadili's sight. Head towards the middle."

"Understood." Spock answered and Jim watched as he took the gun. "I will proceed with caution, captain."

"Do that, yeah. When you get behind the barier, try if you can use your tricorder to scan for lifeforms. As soon as you know if there's anyone, come right back out. No heroics, commander." Jim said firmly, chewing at his bottom lip.

This time Spock didn't acknowledge him verbally and just nodded, probably confident that Jim wouldn't dare look away from him at the moment. The joke was on him, Jim never really looked away from him, ever.

Next to Jim Newman shifted on the ground, either uncomfortable in the cold grass or just bored with the proceedings, but the man still kept a hold of his stun gun, adapted to long range by way of adding a set of optics and reprogramming the setting. "Newman, go join miss Pasadili." Jim directed, deciding that he would rather send the man tumbling down the slight hill than risk him dozing off with a finger on a trigger.

Newman saluted and down he went, but Jim didn't bother watching his progress; he had Spock to follow, equal parts impressed and proud at how easily the vulcan seemed to use every nook and croon to continue forward hidden from everyone's sight but his. And Pasadili's.

Soon, however, Jim couldn't find him in between the greens and rocks, either. He set away his binoculars and watched the whole shielded area for any sign of movement; be it Spock's.. or not.

Twenty minutes of absolutely nothing and he was starting to regret that he hadn't sent himself down there instead, leaving Newman to take care of the watch. But too late.

Twenty more minutes and in between a blink Spock was right back in the lense of his binoculars, looking all tall and.. sciency and perfectly alright, speaking quietly with Pasadili.

The comm by Jim's side crackled right as he was about to reach for it, Spock's voice coming through,

"Captain, I have scanned the whole area and there are no life forms larger than insects. From the distance I noticed a strange object in the middle; I believe it could be beneficial to approach it."

"I agree." Jim replied immediately. There was no force in the whole universe that could stop him from getting there and finally, finally figuring out what this whole thing was about. Now for the logistics..

"Newman, back up here, you'll keep watch. Pasadili, you'll stay where you are while we go deeper inside." Jim started, mulling over the second team, camped in a position mirror to his own in relation to Spock's. "Kwan, you keep watch from the other side, Doon come join us." he decided.

He waited for them to confirm their orders one by one and then Jim pocketed the comm, preparing to slide down the hill with at least some dignity left.

Slightly dirty, but in one piece, Jim joined his second in command by the generator. Spock still seemed deeply fascinated by what was basically a glorified tin can and Ensign Doon was already there, too.

"Let's go, team. Spock, you've got your compass? Great. Take us to the centre."

That legendary centre was a small paved platform nestled in between three hills. It seemed to be made from concrete, no wider than two meters in diameter. Jim was perfectly ready to be disappointed, but then Spock crouched down faster than Jim's eyes could follow, pushing away a bit of grass by the platform's edge to reveal a grey cube.

"Same material as the tin can?" Jim asked, crouching down by another one, found almost parallel to the one Spock had uncovered. Ensign Doon circled the platform and found three more, evenly spread around it.

To give him credit, Spock didn't hesitate at Jim's simile, giving a small nod as he continued scanning the cube. "It seems so, captain, yes. The waves are on a different frequency, though. I believe I should be able to connect to the broadcast."

And so this whole thing was getting more and more interesting. Jim abandoned his staring at cubes and instead observed the platform instead. It was just tiny bit above the ground, the sides were dirty with soil. The middle, however, seemed too clean for it to be a coincidence. Like an often walked trail in the middle of a dusty corridor.

"Think it might be a transporter of sorts..?" Jim cocked his head to a side, crouching down to trace the slight bumps at the edge of the concrete. Like with dirt, the middle of it was disturbingly smooth.

"Perhaps." Spock said slowly and Jim chanced a look at him, smiling fondly as he could almost see the calculations going through his Vulcan's head. "There must be an energy source underneath the concrete, however. And even so, the range would not be much longer than.. two kilometers for the transfer to be safe."

"So in between one and the next platform..?" Jim prompted. If it worked similarly to their ship's transporters, it would be risky to work with a direct line that leads through so many trees and stuff, but.. just like with the shielding technology, he fully expected to be impressed.

Spock seemed to think along the same lines, fiddling with his compass to glance the way the closest other area was. "That would be possible."

Jim grinned and straightened up in the middle of the platform, raising both eyebrows at his second in command, "Well, Mr. Spock..?" he prompted, getting the man's attention. Spock simply raised an eyebrow in an answer, even though he must have known what was Jim asking. He was just being a stubborn pain, making him say it. "Can you beam us there?"

Another moment of hesitation and then another nod, "Yes. However, I will need ten minutes."

Jim was a bit disappointed that he won't get to jump straight into the adventure, but he could survive waiting ten minutes. He gestured at Spock and returned to walking around, studying the concrete in hopes of finding anything that would suggest it could be moved. He would have liked to see the hidden energy source.

Ten minutes flew past them like nothing and Jim almost bounced back to the spot, joined by Ensign Doon and Spock himself.

"Ready, captain Kirk, Ensign Doon?" the vulcan spoke up, glancing at them with a thumb hovering above his Padd.

"Fire it, Commander!" Jim announced just for the pleasure of having Spock's displeased look turned his way and then his breath was getting squeezed out of his lungs.

It wasn't that different from getting beamed to a planet and he forced himself to continue breathing as he felt like his whole body was getting sucked through a thin straw. He could taste the static, felt like he had hair on his insides and they were all standing up from the electricity.

It all took about half a second.

First thing he noticed was Dion's panicked inhale as the man figured out exactly why wasn't it wise to hold his breath during transportation. The echo of the sound was all wrong, though.

Jim opened his eyes and instead of the expected scenery of strangely shaped trees and purplish green grass saw- yeah, grey walls, wooden crates, blinking lights. They were inside of a ship.

Part of the monolith grey wall slid to a side somehow without there being any visible movement or audible sound of machinery and in fell a group of four humanoids in full gear, fully armed, seemingly just as surprised about the three of them being there as they were.

"Ans arde hrokak, slak did hrokak shi ennar?" one of the humanoids called from inside of his helmet, his voice low and rough with slight mechanic echo and Jim didn't need to understand the language to know what they were asked to do. He dropped his switched off stun gun and raised his arms above his head.

Come yell at me.