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| - Franklin Xavier walked purposefully into the transporter room the next morning. The petty officer at the transporter console glanced up at him as Xavier approached his station. “Good morning, Commander.” “Good morning, Zeno. I'm a bit early.” Xavier rapped his fingertips on the top edge of the console. “It'll be two trips today. We've got a big group.” They both turned as the doors slid open to admit six blue-uniformed crewmembers engrossed in deep conversation. The chatter died down as Lieutenant Gerard at the front of the group spotted Xavier. “Ah, Commander. I see you're early as well.” “Of course.” Gerard smiled wryly. “Right.” Xavier raised an eyebrow, but the transporter room doors parted again before he could speak. Lyron strode inside, followed by three security officers. “Well, since we're all here now, we may as well proceed and get an early start. Lieutenants, I assume you will want to accompany me in the first group to beam down. Gerard, take two of your team and one of yours, Lyron. The others can follow in a moment.” Xavier stepped onto the transporter platform and took a position in the back.” Gerard glanced back at his group. “Triara, Oreth, you're with me.” The Risian woman and Vulcan man followed Gerard up onto the platform. Lyron eyed them before turning and nodding to the Tellarite Ensign behind her. They joined the others. “Energize,” said Xavier. They shimmered and faded out. Commander Xavier opened his eyes and was faced with an alien vista. Tall, jagged mountains loomed off to the east. They were in a valley that sloped down gently from rolling hills. The soil beneath their feet was tinted in shades of orange and brown and mineral deposits in the pebbles glinted in the sunlight. Xavier brushed a bit of dust off his sleeve and turned to Lieutenant Gerard. “Is this a suitable base camp location for you?” Gerard shielded his eyes with his hand and gazed around. “Should be okay.” He shrugged a long, cylindrical case off his shoulder and opened it. He pulled a silver metallic bundle out of the case and carried a short distance away to a flatter part of the valley. Crewman Oreth scurried forward to grasp one edge of the flexible covering of the bundle and he and Gerard rolled it out onto the ground. Gerard knelt down and punched a few commands into a panel affixed to the outer edge of the material. He and Oreth stepped back as the structure expanded and began to take shape. The sides curved smoothly around the high roof of the shelter. The smooth, shimmery surface looked out of place among the dusty, rocky surroundings. Their colleagues Song and Sh'Riss carried cases of equipment inside while Triara and Katona unpacked larger cases outside. Gerard began to set up pattern enhancers in a triangular formation a short distance from the shelter. Lyron was huddled with her security crew. “Let's get a perimeter set up. Naarvin, zh'Zareen, you scout over there to the north and east. Perez, you take the south.” A few hours later, the team was still hard at work. They had moved off toward the mountains. Sh'Riss' tail twitched with interest as she knelt on the ground gathering samples. Song and Triara were nearby, observing the output of a tricorder. Katona balanced precariously against a large rock formation as she studied a PADD. Oreth and Gerard stood atop one of the hills, conversing and making notations on a handheld computer panel. Lyron, Naarvin, zh'Zareen, and Perez still held a perimeter. Xavier strolled along the edges of the foothills and glanced up at mountain peaks above. The sound of phaser blasts rang out in the stillness of the foothills. Xavier spun around. A number of black specks appeared over the tops of the hills. As they drew closer, the figures resolved into that of humanoids, perhaps a dozen at most. Masks obscured their faces and dark fabric cloaks swirled around them as they easily scaled even the steepest of the hills. “Get back,” Xavier shouted to the science team. Gerard and Oreth clambered down from their perch and ran with the others back toward the camp. Lyron and her team surged forward and flanked Xavier. They took cover behind the rocky outcroppings that dotted the flatlands around the foothills. All five drew their weapons. “This is Commander Franklin Xavier of the Federation starship Pioneer. We are on a peaceful scientific mission—” A phaser beam connected with the ground no more than a meter ahead of his position. “Right,” he muttered. Xavier. He leaned forward and took his first shot. Their pursuers stopped in the foothills and took cover there. They traded phaser fire for what felt like an eternity. A few of his shots and those of the security officers had connected with their targets. None of the aliens' shots had, though some of them had come much too close for comfort. Xavier ducked back behind the rock and pressed his combadge. “Xavier to Lyron. Haria, I want you to take the others back to base camp and get back to the ship.” He could see Lyron's shocked scowl even from there. “I cannot do that sir. As Chief Security Officer, I am not going to leave you alone here.” “That's an order, Lieutenant! Protect the rest of the team and I'll cover you.” A phaser beam connected with the ground near their feet, barely ten centimeters from the edge of the stone outcropping they took cover behind. “Go now!” Reluctantly, Lyron signaled her security officers and fell back. As they ran away from the fight and approached the valley, her eyes met Gerard's. He motioned to his science team, crouched behind him, and they joined Lyron's group in the dash back to camp. They darted between the pattern enhancers. Lyron slapped her combadge. “Lyron to Pioneer. We need an emergency beamout now!” Almost instantly, everything around them began to fade away. Lyron could still hear phaser fire. She gazed back in the direction of Xavier and she saw a beam strike his arm. He tumbled back onto the ground. The noise stopped and a few of the aliens surged forward. They materialized back in the transporter room. Lyron leapt off the platform and lunged toward the console. “Lock on to Xavier's signal! He's in trouble.” The transporter operator nodded curtly. His fingers flew across the screen. The doors from the hallway parted and Captain Quinton jogged inside. “What's happened? Commander?” “He's still on the surface, sir. We're trying to get him back now.” Lyron let out a deep sigh. “There's somebody down there, Captain. We were ambushed by about eight to ten of them. They opened fire, caught us off guard.” “Did you recognize them? What species?” “I couldn't say. They had masks and heavy cloaks on. I could only give you a very general description.” “I'll get that from you later. How did Commander Xavier get separated?” “He and I and the security team were at the front with them. Things were getting very intense. He ordered me to fall back with the rest of the team.” Quinton scowled at the transporter operator. “Why isn't he here yet?” “I'm still trying to lock onto him, Captain. He's too far from the pattern enhancers and I'm getting a lot of interference. His signal is too patchy right now.” Lyron leaned in toward Quinton. “Sir, right before we beamed up, I saw him take a hit. Only to the arm, but I saw him fall.” Quinton inhaled sharply. “I may have him now—wait.” “What?” “He just disappeared.” “His lifesign?” “No, if he had been killed, I would have seen a fade out, fluctuations. This just blinked out. I don't even see the signal from his combadge. I don't see a trace of any of it.” “They had to have already been on the planet when we beamed down, but there were no unusual lifesigns. They must have tech that masks their own lifesigns, so maybe they used on Commander Xavier as well.” “Perhaps. We have to assume he's been taken prisoner. Zeno, keep scanning for him. If you get the chance, take it and let me know if you see anything unusual.” “Yes, sir.” Quinton turned around to look at the others huddled in the back of the transporter room. “Gerard? Anyone injured?” Tolly glanced around at the others. “No, not really, just shaken.” “Good. But go ahead and send your teams to sickbay so they can get checked out anyway. You two can go after. We don't need any more surprises today. But first, come with me.” Quinton tapped his combadge. “Senior staff to the briefing room. Yellow alert.” The others were all assembled in the briefing room by the time Captain Quinton, Lieutenant Gerard, and Lieutenant Lyron arrived several minutes later. All eyes turned to them, but no one spoke. Lyron and Gerard slipped into their seats between Dr. Powell and Lieutenant Watley. Quinton's eyes rested on Xavier's conspicuously empty seat on his right as he took his customary position at the head of the table. He let out a sigh as he gazed at his officers. “Well, I suppose there's no easy way to say this. As you all no doubt have already guessed, the away ran into some trouble on Erissa IV. They were ambushed by an as yet unidentified group who then opened fire. Most of them were able to escape and return to the Pioneer. However, Commander Xavier was hit and, we believe, captured. Lieutenant Lyron, you want to share your description?” She nodded. “Unfortunately, there isn't much to share. I'd estimate that there were about 8 to 10 of them, but things happened too quickly to get a precise count. They were disguised in cloaks and masks, so I suspect they were expecting a confrontation but wished to hide their identity. What I could see of their skin on their hands and face looked scaly and greenish brown. Height is difficult to gauge from their position. Perhaps 1.7 to 2 meters. Commander Xavier identified himself and told them we meant no harm but they didn't respond. I never heard them speak to one another. They approached from the east, from a large mountain range. I believe they may have been lying in wait near those mountains. They were using standard directed energy weapons, but I didn't recognize the design.” “Thank you,” said Quinton. “Anything to add, Gerard?” “That's about what I saw. I might've said there were a dozen, but Lyron was closer to them.” Quinton glanced around the table. “Ring any bells?” A few heads shook no and a few ideas were raised, but ultimately dismissed. “Right. After this, I'll be submitting a report to Starfleet. Then I'll do some research and see what I can come up with. If anyone gets any other ideas, bring them to me. If we can find out who they are or where they came from, it'll help us get the Commander back.” Ceri Powell spoke first. “When will we begin negotiations?” “We don't have a diplomatic team, Doctor,” Quinton replied. “We're not really equipped for first contact, much less hostage negotiation.” “Then perhaps Starfleet would send us one. Surely they're as worried as we are about this.” “Talking it over might not be a realistic option. Regardless, I have a feeling that whatever we're going to have to do, it'll have to be on our own, at least for now. These people are an unknown quantity and we don't have time to waste by waiting for Starfleet's directions here.” Lyron perked up. “I agree. All the more reason to make a decisive move now. I can get another team together and go back to extract him.” Quinton held a finger up to silence her. “I'm not going to let you go back in there, phasers blazing. You barely got out of the last firefight as it is. Simply trying to overpower them is not an option.” “But sir, we were outnumbered and caught off-guard before. I'm sure that with a bigger team and some phaser rifles we could–” “Drop it, Lieutenant,” Quinton said sternly. “It's too risky. If we surprise them, they may just decide to kill him. We don't know what their intentions are; we can't be too aggressive.” Watley leaned forward. “I doubt they'd react any better to a diplomatic ploy if they're truly as concerned about keeping themselves and their identities hidden as they seem. If we go in and start asking questions, they might just as easily decide to simply dispose of Commander Xavier to get rid of us.” Gerard grimaced beside her. “Yes, and they may just give him back to us instead and save themselves the effort of killing him. After all, they did capture him rather than just finish him off.” “Maybe, but we're talking about a fifty-fifty chance here. Too passive or too aggressive a response is going to force that choice and risk his life.” Captain Quinton thumped his fist on the table. “That's the point, isn't it? We don't have enough information to even guess what approach would be the best. And I don't like all this talk about death. Obviously the stakes are high here, but I don't want to hear any more speculation on the Commander's possible fate.” “I'm sorry, sir,” Watley and Gerard murmured in turn. “Now,” he continued with a resigned sigh, “I think we might have to do this the sneaky way. We've never seen an indication that anyone was on the planet, so the challenge is going to be finding them and thus Commander Xavier. Why wouldn't their life signs show up on our sensor scans?” “Well, the radiation wouldn't be enough to obscure lifesigns,” replied Gerard. “At the very least, we would have gotten some strange readings, but everything looked fine. It's possible some of the mineral deposits could have interfered with the sensors but considering the way Xavier's signal disappeared once those aliens got a hold of him, my guess would be that they're employing some kind of active blocking technology. It's the likeliest scenario.” Quinton nodded thoughtfully. “Then we need to figure out how to circumvent that technology. Lieutenant Valok, if we can find him, can we beam him out without the pattern enhancers?” Valok contemplated the question. “The pattern enhancers were necessary due to the number of people in the away team and the large quantity of equipment required. If we are able to locate the Commander and his signal is strong enough, it may be possible to retrieve him safely, despite the radiation interference. It is not a certainty, however.” “Then let's hope it works. Lieutenant Gerard, Lieutenant Commander Kingsley, do you think you could figure out how the aliens are concealing themselves and enhance our sensors to find them? Kingsley and Gerard exchanged a look. “Uh... it's possible, I guess,” Gerard said hesitantly. “I've got tricorder readings from when the aliens appeared, so I could compare them to the earlier readings. If they have a physical jamming device they carry with them, there might be some trace of it there. If we can manage to figure out how they do it, we can probably compensate. That's a big if, though.” Kingsley scooted forward in his seat. “I'll put my whole team on it. There's a finite number of ways they could disguise themselves without leaving a trace on our scans. We'll figure it out, but it might take a lot of tinkering to rig the sensors the right way. A lot of tinkering and a lot of power.” “Understood,” said Quinton. “Lieutenant Valok, work with them on that. I don't care what it takes. You have my permission to reroute resources from all nonessential systems to the sensors if necessary. If we can find them, we can find Commander Xavier and get him out of there.” He paused. “All right, you've got your orders. Let's get to work on this.” Kingsley, Valok, and Gerard pushed back their chairs first. They walked together out of the briefing room, already tossing ideas around together. Powell trailed after and Lyron followed close behind him, her head tilted down. Quinton stood and reached for her shoulder. As she turned around, he leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “You've done a lot to help him. Don't beat yourself up over this. We'll find him.” She nodded slowly before leaving. Quinton waved Dalton over. “Please talk to Lyron about their weapons. I need you to figure out how long he can last with the injuries he might have sustained.” “Yes, sir. It sounds like it was only on stun, but if he got a burn from it, I'd worry about infection setting in. You'll have my full report by the end of the day.” “Thank you, Doctor.” Quinton glanced up as Dalton walked on and saw Watley moving around the table. “You have a question, Lieutenant Commander?” “What will you be needing from me, sir?” “Ah yes, with Commander Xavier gone, you'll be needing to step into his shoes for however long this takes. I'll be depending on you.” “I understand.” “You've barely had time to settle into the job. I shouldn't have to ask you to do this already.” “I'm sure I can handle it, sir.” “Oh, somehow I'm not worried.” Quinton sauntered away from the table and toward the windows. He gazed out at the starfield beyond for a moment before continuing. “Whether or not we're able to get him back, people are going to be taking this hard. I know Commander Xavier was not a favorite among the crew – I can't say I blame them, he does take some getting used to – but he's still our First Officer and it's quite a shock to the system. You might want to speak with Doctor Powell about offering some support to the crew.” “I'll do that. But what about you?” “Me? I'll be all right.” “But Commander Xavier was your friend.” “Yes, he is. I appreciate your concern, but I'm going to have to face that in my own way, in my own time. Right now my main concern is supporting our rescue plans. Times like this require strong leadership and decisiveness. Are you up to that?” “I am.” Quinton smiled at her. “Go forth then, Lieutenant Commander.” “Thank you, sir.” Watley gave him a small smile and left the briefing room, finally leaving Captain Quinton alone in his thoughts. Oh, Franklin....
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