Narrator
Spock was silently reading the planets he had to study about during the past week. Once in a while, Lany stops in in the office to ask if she had to do something but most of the time, she was just either at medbay or at the engine room.
They were both seated behind their desks, Spock fixing his PADD while Lany was waiting for him to say why he asked her to come.
"The Captain has informed me that we were going to do a research on Z'ochn." Spock finally said. "On what?"
"Z'ochn." He repeated.
She scrunched up her nose and looked at him, "Are you making that up?"
"I certainly am not." He said, cleaning up his desk. "Why haven't I heard of that before?"
He sighed and looked at her, "Because, Lieutenant, if you've heard of it before, there's no point researching about it anymore because all information are already found in computers. We are researching on this planet because it is new and unheard of yet."
"But how did you know it was called that?"
"We have a picture of the planet in our records but that was it, only the name was stated."
"Oh." Was all she could answer.
***
Jim, Spock, Lany, and Uhura were all preparing to go down, leaving the rest on the ship to wait. Lany somehow managed to convince Bones to come with them just in case there were health emergencies.
"Is it safe down there?" Lany asked the Captain, while she fixes her phaser on her belt. Kirk sighed, "Let's hope so." The answer made Lany anxious but she just shrugged it off, hoping it was safe on the planet she couldn't even pronounce. "Alright, is everyone ready to go down?" Scotty asked, preparing to beam everyone down. "Yes." Kirk said with a nod, "Take care of the ship, Sulu, and stay alert if we have emergency contacts in the enterprise." Sulu nodded at the Captain's order.
Z'ochn
Bones immediately cursed the moment he was beamed down at the planet, "I'll never get used to that." Lany laughed at his reaction, patting his back. "Let's stay close together, we're safer that way." Kirk said.
They carefully walked through the knee-length grasses, trying to make their way quicker. "Any signs of life on your tricorder, Spock?" Kirk asked, almost shouting. "Negative, captain."
The skies started to get darker as storm clouds start to cover the sky. Lany looked up from the sudden change in the air's humid, "Guys, I think it's going to rain soon, we should find somewhere to stop and make our tents first." She suggested, "I agree." Uhura said. She looked over to her right to see Kirk struggling a bit at all the things he was holding, "Here, let me help you." She offered. "I'm fine, I'm a strong man." He chuckled. "Okay, mr. Strong man, I'll help you anyway." She snorted quietly, taking a bag from Kirk, "Thanks." He grinned.
They walked through the endless field of grass, the rain heavily pouring on their heads. The grass were already past their heights like corn fields, and they could only hope nothing jumps on them since it was hard to look through the thick tall grass. "How do we know this rain's even safe?" Lany whispered to herself. They reached a plain field, almost like as if it was set up for them. "We can make our tent here for now." Bones said. "But... this is weird. This is like a set up." Lany said, "I mean look, it's still surrounded by tall grasses, why would there be a clear patch out here?"
"Captain, I'm detecting heat signatures." Spock said. A shot of anxiety spiked through Lany's system and the thunder wasn't helping at all. "Ouch!" Kirk yelped in pain when a dart suddenly came out of nowhere, hitting him on his back. He pulled it out and they all looked around them, "Is this a tranquilizer d —" Jim passed out, and Bones immediately ran to him.
A few other darts quickly flew their way to the rest of the crew, making them pass out one by one.
***
Jim groaned, touching his back. He looked around a bit before remembering what happened. "Spock! Spock, wake up! Bones! Get up!" He whispered-yell, shaking the two who were plopped down the wood floor. He looked around for Lany and Uhura but they were nowhere, making him nervous. Bones got up, stretching his arms a bit, "Where are we?" He asked, it was dark and a little hard to determine their surroundings. "I don't know." Kirk answered, trying to see better. They were still soaking wet, indicating that it hadn't been long since the incident happened. The sound of thunder and the heavy rain against the roof was deafening Kirk.
"Spock, wake up, dammit!" Bones said, slapping Spock a little. Spock gently opened his eyes, taking Bones's hand off his face, "I am awake, doctor."
"Great. Now come on, we have to find Uhura and Lany." Kirk said. "Find? Are they not in he —"
"AHH!" Bones and Kirk hollered, sliding back when they noticed a small figure crawl quickly across the room. "W-w-what was that? Who's there?" Kirk asked, stuttering. They heard footsteps from another room, getting louder and louder as it gets nearer.
"Did you scare the guests, Jobar?" The woman who looked exactly like a human, said the moment she opened the door. "We are very sorry, we don't have lights in this hut." She said. Kirk and Bones looked at each other before getting up. "The two ladies we were with, where are they?" Kirk asked.
"Oh, don't worry, they are safe. It is in our tradition never to put the women with men in the same room when sleeping if they are not married." She said. They walked out with the lady, a small torch lighting up the room a bit. "We are very sorry for shooting you with the tranquilizer guns." The man who seemed to be her partner, apologized. "Can you tell us where we are and what place this is?" Kirk asked.
"I'll wake your friends up first." She said and they all nodded. After about a few minutes, a soaking wet Uhura and Lany walks out of the room. They were all sat on the floor drinking something the woman made for them.
"Where are we?" Lany asked, drinking up, Oh wow, this is good. She thought, downing the drink. "Our planet is called Z'ochn. They said years back, this was an uninhabited planet, but people like you came here and started a new life here, making this place a new living planet."
"You're humans... This is like... another Earth." Uhura thought out loud, "Earth, yes, that was the planet the said men came from." The woman said.
"Are you all humans out here — are there any other species?" Lany asked, "For the many years our people lived here, we never searched for other life forms. We only stayed here in this land. We were prohibited to go farther as everything was unknown out there." She explained. "How many years exactly?" Spock asked, his drink untouched.
"I do not know exactly when this small civilization started but our tribe leader, Borra, should be able to answer all your questions." She said. "Is he far?"
"No. People live closely here. You should let the storm pass first." She said.
"No, thank you for your hospitality but we're leaving." Kirk said, getting up. "What?" Everyone said in unison. "Kirk, I think we should stay for now. We don't know this place." Bones said. "No, we're leaving now. We'll find somewhere to build our tent." He said. "It's dark out there, Kirk."
"Yeah, but we'll be fine." He said. Everyone just unwillingly followed Kirk and took their bags. "Thank you for the drink." Lany said, waving them a good bye. "Be careful out there, it's kinda dangerous." She said, "Here, we have a lot of tranquilizer darts, you can have some." Her husband offered, "We have our own, thank you." Kirk said.
"We didn't get your names." Lany said, "Oh, I'm Luna, this is my husband, Priel, and our son Jobar."
"Nice to meet you Luna, Priel, and Jobar. Thank you." She said. They left the hut and continued walking under the rain, stopping for a bit when they hear rustling on the bushes.
"Great, now where are we going, Captain?" Uhura sarcastically mentioned Kirk's title. "Why did we even leave? They seemed like nice people, Jim." Bones said, "Yeah, which is enough reason to be suspicious." Kirk said.
"Where do you get that kind of thinking?" Lany asked. "Let's just continue walking, please."
"My legs are still a bit numb from the tranquilizer." Lany complained. "Mine too."
Lany moved to the side to tie her shoelaces, "I'll follow, you guys, go on."
"That is not a very good idea." Spock said, stopping on his tracks. "Yeah, I just said it so everyone would stop walking but I guess only you stopped." She shrugged. She stood up and walked beside Spock.
"You're not very talkative today." Lany said, "I'd rather not make comments that the Captain will most likely disregard." He said, "I can hear you Spock." Kirk loudly said, looking back for a second. They finally stopped at a flat space, a bit far from the huts.
They placed the small device in the center and it immediately popped into a house-like tent. They all got in and placed their bags down, taking out all the equipment they brought. It was still spacious inside, enough for at least 3 more people. "You guys can change first, we'll be going out." Kirk said to Lany and Uhura.
The three guys went out, waiting outside the rain. Lany puts out another uniform, making Uhura laugh. "Did you only bring all your uniforms?" She asked while she fixed her bag. Lany looked at her confused, "Yeah, why?"
"You did not bring any casual attires?"
"I thought we were only supposed to bring our uniforms." She frowned, Uhura chuckled, opening her bag and pushing it closer to Lany. "Here, you can borrow some of mine." She said, gesturing at her open bag, "Oh no, it's fine, really."
"I insist, it's comfortable."
Lany thought for a while but gratefully took a pair of shorts and a shirt from Uhura. "Thank you." She said, after getting in on them."
"It's nothing. You look great in them."
"Aw th —"
"Are you guys done yet? It's freezing out here!" Kirk shouted from outside the tent. Lany wrapped her hair with her towel and fixed her stuffs. "Are you done?" She asked Uhura, "Yeah." She opened the door to let the guys in.
"You look different." Kirk said, eyeing Lany from head to toe. "What? O-oh. I borrowed some of Uhura's clothes." She awkwardly laughed, walking back to her bags. "You look beautiful." He said making Lany choke from her water, "Thanks?"
"Stop flirting with your Science Officer, Kirk and get dressed before you catch a cold."
Uhura laughed at Bones's statement, she was fixing their sleeping bags on the tent's floor. Lany looked to the guys' direction and saw that they were already off their tops. "You like what you're seeing?" Kirk smirked, Lany rolled her eyes, "I've seen better." She said, looking at Uhura who was chuckling.
She sat on her sleeping bag, taking her notebook out and started writing. "What are you writing?" Uhura asked, sitting beside her. "Just short notes about my everyday life out here, I promised my best friend I'd tell her everything when I get back."
Uhura smiled at Lany, "Are we safe in here by the way?" Lany asked, "The tent can camouflage so we'll be good as long as no one bumps on it." Uhura said. Lany nodded. "Let's rest for now, hopefully the rain will stop tomorrow and we can go start our research after we talk to their leader."
"I think we're not gonna find any new answers in here... this is just Earth but they're still at the Neolithic period or something." Uhura said, "Right. Whoever decided to take this uninhabited planet and bring Earthlings here must be crazy, they did not even teach them stuffs. It's like... They experimented on them." Lany said. "That's why we're going to talk to the leader. If we find out this was just the same. Then we'll go back to the Enterprise and we'll go to another part of this planet." Kirk said.
"Let's just hope... this place is safe."