Snippet 4e

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"You know, once you have no choice but to eat the local food, it really doesn't taste that bad."

Two of the four people around the cave fire looked up with a smile, and one of them - Kylar - shook their head. "You say that all the time, Perry."

The older man chuckled, taking a bite of what looked like the webbing on a huge wing. "Not all the time."

"Right."

The one that had looked up but not spoken - Maq - looked toward the entrance to the cave. "Sam and Korpen are late."

"They're always late."

"Not by three hours."

"Worried?" Kylar asked with a teasing smile, getting to his feet as he wiped off his hands. "I'll go look for you if you want."

Maq glared at him. "What's your problem?"

"Settle down you two, he's probably found something absolutely fascinating and got too wrapped up in it to resist staying and finding out more." Perry said, waving a hand at them. "You know how Sam is."

Maq rolled her eyes, getting to her feet. "Well I'm gonna go look. You never know with these things and these people have been too peaceful for comfort."

Kylar scoffed. "What, so that's a problem now?"

"Just saying you never know."

"Fine," Kylar said, throwing up his hands and walking over toward her. "Let's go find him. I could use some fresh air anyway."

"Be careful you two." Perry warned, picking up his wing that he had put down momentarily. "We haven't looked at lunar patterns yet - that's tomorrow."

Kylar threw him a solute as he followed Maq out of the cave.

*

"I'm really going to miss this planet."

Sam looked over at his partner with an odd look as he fumbled with his pack. Korpan was sprawled over the stone ground, staring at the stars. "It's so starry."

Sam smiled in amusement to himself as he looked in the pack. Korpan had of course been the first to find out what the culture used for intoxicants and had been raiding his own stash since. "Well you know what they say about bro'me'knel on a full moon..." he said, winking at his partner as he attempted to glare at him. "Ready for this?"

"Perry said we were going to do it tomorrow night." Korpan complained, making a face that was completely uncharacteristic of him. Normally he was the one that found the intoxicants because he was very immune to them (and therefore would not suffer from memory loss), but the intoxicants on this planet were very different and very effective on Korpan's race. Sam had already made a mental note, because Korpan could be very useful when drunk as he had found out.

"Yeah but he doesn't have the new information that you got during your little visit with Kmpgh, so we don't have time to warn him." Sam explained, putting his little device on the rock as he continued to fish in his pack.

"He's going to send Maq and Kylar."

Sam gasped. "He wouldn't be so cruel."

"Hmph."

"Did you just go, 'hmph'?"

"No."

"Wow. That was defensive."

"False."

"I'm getting a little uncomfortable, Korpan."

"Stop that, Sam."

"Really, you need to tone it down."

Korpan glared at him. "What are you doing and why are you doing it?"

Sam chuckled as he put his pack to the side. "Your race is very inquisitive, Korpan. You remind me of a funny kind of Vulcan."

Korpan rolled his eyes and lay back on the stone. "We've been over this. It's not my fault you're in love with me because I remind you of your boyfriend."

"But Korpan you're such a sweetheart, how can I resist you?" Sam asked in a high voice, looking through his instrument.

Korpan huffed. "Charm isn't everything. Ask Kylar."

Sam laughed at that, looking away from his instrument to look at his intoxicated friend. "Kylar?"

"What?" Korpan asked defensively. "He knows about these things."

"And you know this how?" Sam asked, looking very amused and greatly intrigued.

"It's not like we don't talk, Samuel."

"Well not everyone talks about charm," Sam said, still looking at him as he adjusted his instruments.

"He knows what he's talking about, obviously." Korpan said defensively. "What, you don't think he's good looking?"

Sam laughed at this. "Think? I don't think it matters what I think as much as what you think, Korpan."

Korpan glared meanly at the stars. "I knew you'd take it like that. It's in your human nature."

Sam, still highly amused, went back to his instruments. "You and Kylar...I guess I could see it."

"I don't want anything of the sort."

"You...are a...liar."

"Someone's coming."

Sam's smile immediately dropped, and he looked over at him. "From where? Who?"

Korpan raised his eyebrows lazily. "Oh I don't know Sam...who could it be?"

"Dammit Korpan," Sam hissed, looking around quickly. "We don't have time for this - who is it?"

"Oh calm down you antsy human. It's Maq and Kylar."

Sam's shoulders dropped, and he turned to glare at him. "I almost lost my readings because of you."

Korpan shrugged with a smile.

"Well if it isn't the long lost scout team sitting lazily on a rock." Maq called, her glare piercing through the little light as she and Kylar approached from below. "Sam what the hell are you doing out here so late?"

"Lunar readings." Sam called down, peering through his instruments again. "We miscalculated - we have to do it tonight."

"Without Perry?" Kylar asked in surprise, frowning as he approached. "What made you think you could do that? And...what did you do to Korpan?"

Sam glanced over at his fallen companion who was now peering intently (and rather confusedly) through an instrument of his own. Upside-down.

Maq gave him a look. "Bro'me'knel? Really?"

Sam shrugged innocently. "Couldn't tell ya. He was like that when I found him."

"And you couldn't have called in about being late? Or were you just late when you found you too?"

"Now now, Maq - give the kid a break." Kylar said, slapping Sam on the back as he passed to go toward Korpan. "I'll grab Korpan and get him back to the cave. Sam, you're going to have to wrap it up. We got a transmission and Perry wants you back like...four hours ago."

Sam looked heavenward as Maq stepped forward and started grabbing his instruments for him. "Fine. Just be careful with him though, I don't know what that stuff'll do to him."

"Me either." Kylar said, picking up the still confused Korpan as Maq stood with Sam's pack on her back. "Let's go, Maq."

Maq nodded, giving Sam another dirty look as she turned to follow them. Sam just sighed and followed them as well.

*

"Well if it isn't the prodigal sons," Perry announced, sitting by the fire with a not-so-amused look on his face as the four of them tromped in. "I have a bed for Korpan over there, Kylar. Dylan has some news for you Sam, he's out back."

Sam stopped in his tracks just outside the door and turned right around. With a quiet thanks for a nice night he sighed and started around to the "back" of the cave, which was actually just a little grove they had found near it that had the best reception on the planet. Since the planet was particularly large, they had jumped on the finding immediately and Dylan spent most of his time there.

"Hey Dyl," He said as he approached the dark haired man that was currently bent over his instruments. "What've you got for me?"

"It seems your mineral has finally been discovered," Dylan commented with something between a distracted tone and an accomplished tone coming into his voice. He held out a tiny leather sack toward Sam, not looking up from the microscope-like instrument he was using on another compound at the moment. "Take a close look at it. It's almost exactly like siminoil-diglosphyte."

Sam raised his eyebrows, vaguely impressed as he took the mineral and held it up to the vague moonlight. "No kiddin'... no wonder this place has reception like that."

"Exactly," Dylan said, looking satisfied despite the fact that he still hadn't looked up from his instrument. "And at any rate, that should give us more than enough to report on now. We should be able to head back, soon - especially if that seismic activity we picked up near the Gol'tu'tik Triangle decides to go haywire all of a sudden. I still think we're in for something volcano-like in the next few days."

Sam nodded, lowering the bag and handing it back to him. "That's the talk in the town, too. Any transmissions from Starfleet?"

"Yep. A few," Dylan said, finally looking up this time and giving him a grim smile. "Apparently we're going to need help getting safely out of orbit again. Seems our ship's being monitored by several local officials who are getting suspicious. We'll need back-up to make sure it all goes smoothly. They've sent out the Aradol to escort us out."

Sam did a double-take at the name. "The Aradol?"

"Yeah," Dylan said with a shrug. "It was the closest one in at the time. Said they'll take us back to base and then re-assign us on our ship. It's the safest way to avoid trouble with the natives. Why?"

"No reason." Sam said with a shrug, but his smile didn't leave his face as he glanced down at the ground for a moment. "Annnything else?"

"Uh - nope. That about does it," Dylan said with a shrug. "Starfleet said they might be picking us up as early as tomorrow morning. So - you know. Be ready. Make sure you've got all the samples together and the calculations that O'Boul will want. Other than that, we should be totally ready to ditch this planet. I don't know about you - but I'm tired of the taste of red sand in my meat. My teeth are probably nicely filed down half their original size at this point."

Sam laughed, patting him on the back as he turned to go. "Yeah it'll do that to ya. 'night, Dylan."

"'Night, Sam."

Sam made his way back to the cave, and when he was outside of the grove maybe the only thing that saw him whoop and punch a fist into the air was a little creature that had been following him curiously.

*

"Alta Group 5, we are ready to receive you."

Lt. Reynold spoke calmly and clearly into the communicator, putting a hand to his headset as he spoke. "Are you prepared to beam-up?"

"We are, Aradol. Eight to beam-up."

"Preparing to engage," Reynolds said, working the console in front of him. "Commander Kirk, how was the weather down on Re'pal II?" He glanced up with a slightly knowing smile at the group of officers around him, all who were waiting to greet the landing party from the planet.

"Sounds like you, sir. Beaming up," Reynold's said, casting a wink toward his group before tapping some coordinates into the console. "Engaging."

A few seconds later, a flash of light appeared on the transporter pads - and the set of eight Away-Team members appeared. All of them were still in their uniforms from the mission, and almost all of them had a fair dosage of red dust on them. This set the crew of the Aradol who were waiting for them into chuckles as they stepped forward to meet them.

"Welcome back, sir," Reynolds greeted Sam as he stepped off the pad. "It is good to see you arrived here with a scratch for once."

"For once," another voice suddenly agreed, as the commander of the ship suddenly stepped forward, his dark eyes set on Sam's face as he nodded to him. "Welcome back, Commander Kirk."

Sam's smile broadened as he smiled at Sybok and then nodded to Reynolds. "Are we set with quarters, then?"

"Of course, sir. The second half of deck G is all yours," Reynolds said with a welcoming gesture. "We are delighted to have you."

"Thank god," Dylan muttered as he walked right ahead of the rest of the group. "I'm napping now. And I'm taking my vacation days right after this one - I need to breathe in fresh air for at least the next two weeks..."

Maq shoved past without a word, and Kylar gave Sam a wide eyed look as he passed to follow her. Korpan followed with Perry behind him, giving Sam a pat on the back as he passed. Sam lagged behind just a bit, giving Sybok a side-smile as he stepped up and adjusted the pack on his back. "Join me after your shift?"

"Of course," Sybok said with a simple nod. "I would suggest refreshing yourself in the meantime, however. Your skin tone seems to have taken on a reddish hue since you came in contact with the sand of that planet."

Sam sighed in disappointment. "I totally thought you would find that attractive."

Sybok gave him a look, before turning to gesture toward the door. "To your quarters, Mr. Kirk."

Sam gave him a teasing smile before heading out the door. "See you tonight, Commander."

Sybok didn't respond, but Sam could almost feel the quirked eyebrow at his back as he walked out into the hallway and headed for the lower decks.

*

Boarding the Aradol was a welcome experience after spending over three months on a desert planet. Sam and his group were all well-fed, well-commended, and well-entertained by the crew during that evening of their stay. It was a relief to wear clean uniforms, be among a Starfleet crew - and finally - as they all said - breathe in some clean air for the first time in many weeks.

Sam had been happily loaded up on compliments, welcome-backs, and a few glasses of good alcohol by the time he retired for the evening. Lt. Farlington was the last to clap his shoulder as he finally left the Mess Hall, along with Dylan managing to catch onto his shoulder once more before he left.

"We did good, Commander," the dark-haired man smiled at him, clapping him on the back as Sam walked into the hallway. "Get a good night's sleep tonight. Sentarrus won't be much friendlier when we get there, you know."