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"Snow Bound" by A. Rhea King
Rating: PG CHAPTER 1 Archer and T’Pol stood on opposite sides of the situation room console. T’Pol pointed to an area of the map on the display. “Are you sure your scans are correct?” Archer cocked his head to the side. “This planet doesn’t look like anything more than a ball of ice and snow.” “It does appear uninhabitable, Captain, but it has been terraformed. It has a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere of levels consistent with high elevations on Earth.” “A Menshara class ball of ice.” Archer shook his head. “T’Pol, I really think we can do better than this.” “Perhaps. But could we also find a frozen, habitable planet that has so many technological and biological readings?” Archer looked at her. “No one has responded to our hails, T’Pol,” he reminded her, “You know that bad gut feeling I always tell you about and you always disbelieve and I’m always right about? I’m having one right now.” “Sixty percent, Captain.” “What?” “Your ‘gut feeling’ is never more than sixty percent correct, Captain.” Archer’s eyes narrowed. “Your humor is lost on me most of the time, T’Pol.” “As are your ‘gut feelings’ on me, Captain.” Archer smiled. He looked at the screen. “Is there an ulterior reason that you do not desire to go to the surface?” T’Pol asked him. “I hate frozen wastelands like Trip hates deserts.” Archer looked back at the screen. “No one’s going to want to go with us, you know that, don’t you?” “Ensign Mayweather volunteered. He mentioned he desired to see snow again.” Archer smiled. “I don’t think there’s anything to find down there, T’Pol.” “We won’t know until we go to the surface. For all we know, it could be--” Archer walked away before she finished. “We aren’t going to find anything, T’Pol, but I’m not going to listen to you beg. That’s Trip’s job. Travis, shake a leg.” Travis left helm to join Archer on the lift. T’Pol cleared the screens before following the men. # Archer sat back in the chair, looking over the navigation controls before him. “We’re entering the planet’s atmosphere,” Travis informed them. “I’m locking in the coordinates of the largest concentration of technology readings,” T’Pol told Travis. Archer looked out the window. They were flying through thick, white clouds. “Why would anyone terraform a planet and then make it into an ice ball? That doesn’t make much sense,” Archer mused. “Perhaps the occupants are acclimated to cold temperatures,” T’Pol suggested. Archer shrugged. “Guess we’re about to find out.” Archer looked at the controls when the COM beeped and tapped it. “Archer.” “Vasue il ka rosh,” a voice said and started repeating the phrase. Archer tapped the translator, saying, “Archer to Enterprise.” “Go ahead,” Hoshi replied. “Are you picking up this hail?” “It’s not a hail, sir. It’s a broadcasted recording.” “What’s it say?” “I don’t know. There isn’t enough to translate.” “Tr--” The shuttle pod shuddering stopped him. “Captain, we just lost weapons,” Travis said. “Ho...to...er,” Hoshi’s voice said. “Hoshi, repeat.” Static filled the COM. The shuttle pod rocked. “We’ve been hit. Engines are failing,” Travis said. “Get us to the ground fast, Travis.” The clouds broke and below the snow covered land was dense with pine tree forests. Travis did his best to maneuver the shuttle pod as the engines went off line. The shuttle pod grazed the tops of trees, hit the ground and slid through the trees, taking out giant trees as it came to a jerking stop. The three sat still for a moment. “Are you two okay?” Archer asked. “Yes,” T’Pol and Travis answered. Archer looked down at the dark navigation controls. He tapped them a couple times, but the controls didn’t respond. “Have we lost power?” Archer asked Travis. Travis held up his hands. “I can’t tell. All controls are down. I have nothing.” “Nor do I,” T’Pol said. Archer stood, looking out the window at the thick forest outside. He pulled his communicator out and opened it. “Archer to Enterprise.” Archer waited for a moment. “Archer to Enterprise. Respond.” “Enterprise here,” Trip said, “What happened? We lost the shuttle pod from sensors for a few minutes. “We’re not sure, but we’ve lost power.” “Hoshi’s panel is reading an EM shield across the planet that’s matching the shuttle pod’s EM frequency. That wasn’t there when you left Enterprise, Cap’n. She says there’s also a message being transmitted from the surface. It’s different than the first one, but Hoshi says she doesn’t have enough to translate the language.” “Can you transport us out of here?” “With this shielding up, sir, we couldn’t lock onto your patterns.” “You’re saying we’re stuck here?” “Maybe you could hike to one of those areas T’Pol picked up technology readings and knock on someone’s door, Cap’n. From where I’m sitting up here there isn’t any other way to get you off the planet.” “Keep us posted if anything changes on your end. Archer out.” Archer closed his communicator and slid it in his pocket. “T’Pol, see if you can get the last trajectory readings off the computer onto a PADD. We’re going to need those. Travis and I need to check the outside of the shuttle pod and make sure it’s still flyable.” “With an EM shield up, we aren’t going to be able to power up the shuttle pod, Captain.” “If we find whoever put the shield up and can get them to lower it, we could fly out of here.” Archer walked to the back and retrieved snow gear, handing Travis a set. The two men pulled on the gear and exited the shuttle pod into knee high snow. Outside a frigid breeze blew through the trees, making the pine trees sigh in the silence. Archer looked back at the trail the falling shuttle pod had made through the trees. “If a tree falls in a forest and no one’s there to hear it, does it still make a sound?” Archer asked Travis. Travis smiled. “Don’t know, sir. Too bad we weren’t recording to find out.” Archer laughed. “I’m going around to check the other side.” Travis nodded, starting to check the shuttle pod. Archer waded through the snow to the other side of the shuttle pod and began checking for any visible damage. He was at the rear when a hand lay on his shoulder. Startled he spun, swinging his fist at the assailant. Travis jumped back. “Sorry, sir, I didn’t mean to startle you. There’s something you need to see.” Travis led Archer a couple meters into the forest, stopping beside an animal corpse. Steam rose from the corpse; an indication that whatever killed it had just done so. From the tracks in the snow, there had been several predators feeding on it. “Let’s get back in the shuttle pod,” Archer said. The two hurried back to the shuttle pod. T’Pol turned to them. “I was able to get environmental back on line and I did get the navigation data downloaded,” she told Archer. Archer pulled his gloves off, taking the PADD from her. He glanced out the window in the direction of the corpse. “Is there something wrong?” “The crash disturbed something or someone from eating. I’m just worried they’ll be back sooner or later.” Archer pulled up the navigation information, looking it over. “If we’re only a kilometer or two off course, the closest is about twenty kilometers away.” “That is a correct assumption,” T’Pol said. Archer looked back outside. “We have no idea what time of day it is, so we’ll head out at dawn. I don’t want to be caught outside in the dark here.” “Judging from that corpse, sir, being stuck outside during the day doesn’t look any safer,” Travis said. “No, but we have a better chance if we can see what’s coming.” “You’re assuming that whatever killed the creatures is not camouflaged for this environment,” T’Pol commented. “T’Pol, you’re lucky I’m still talking to you right now.” Archer turned around, looking at her. “And I told you so.” T’Pol didn’t respond to the taunt. “So unless you can offer something useful or optimistic right now, go pack the backpacks for tomorrow. That’s an order.” T’Pol hesitated before she turned and walked to the back of the shuttle pod. Archer sat down in a chair, reading at the PADD in his hand without comment. Travis looked from him to T’Pol before joining her to help pack the backpacks. |
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