Kim and Riker had shifted position to the other side of the big boulder to try and keep out of the blistering sun as much as possible. For a full 360 degrees around and all the way to the too-near horizon of the small planetoid, not a single twig of plant life could be seen -- all was rocks and dirt.
And that weird smell.
Riker was sitting nearby tossing small bits of shale around, while Kim was spending her time trying to remember where she'd smelled that smell before. It probably wasn't important, but it was nagging her brain, and it gave her something to do. It turned out that waiting to be rescued was a terribly dull business.
Then it came to her! She remembered, and laughed out loud!
Riker looked up from where he'd been contemplating a particularly fascinating clump of dirt at the sound of Kim's sudden merriment. "What's so funny?"
Kim didn't answer right away. She was busy craning her neck as though she was looking for something. "I know where we are!" she said happily.
"You do? How?"
"By the smell. I've been here before. This is the home of the Smelly Jelly!" she laughed.
"The what?" Riker sounded dubious.
Kim stopped trying to find evidence of green goo and turned to face Tom. "It's a long story," she said with a smile.
"Well, we've got the time."
"Well, duh," was the sarcastic reply. "Let's see.... It all began when--" but Kim never got past that point. Her story was interrupted by a loud thunderclap from the sky above. Both she and Riker snapped their heads in the direction of the sound. There, clearly visible in the clear air was the contrail of a craft on atmospheric entry. As it descended and the air around it grew denser, the craft's vaporous tail billowed and thickened, then began to grow steadily fainter as it slowed its approach.
Instinctively, and without really being conscious of it, Kim crept closer to Tom for protection. "Who do you think it is?" she asked. "The Jem'Hadar?"
"We'll find out in a minute, one way or the other," said Riker, pointing.
Kim looked, and saw that the craft was turning. It was still too far away to tell what kind of ship it was, but whoever it was, they were heading right for them. She crouched in her place, watching.
Meanwhile, Riker had made a quick dash for the wrecked fighter again, and now he returned with his hands full. He dropped the pile in front of Kim and began sorting it out -- it was the contents of the small weapons locker. Kim reached out with her good arm and claimed one of the phasers for herself, and stuffed a few extra power packs into her flight suit's hip pockets. Riker took two phasers for himself as well as the rest of the power packs. Then, together, they positioned themselves behind the big boulder.
They didn't have to wait long. In just over a minute, the unknown craft was upon them. They remained hidden behind the rock in hopes they could catch whoever it was by surprise, but as she heard the ship's landing repulsors whine, she risked a peak around the edge of their cover.
The craft had kicked up tons of silt and debris into the air, but as it settled earthward again, the outline of the ship became reassuringly familiar. The hatch popped open on the side facing them and a lone figure stuck his head out.
"Garek!" cried Kim. Ignoring her aches and pains and broken arm, she staggered from behind her refuge and made her lop-sided way in his direction.
Garek saw her, and a big smile of relief formed on his face. He descended the short distance to the ground and closed the rest of the distance between them. When they met, he scooped her up in his arms, the arguments of the last few days momentarily forgotten, but released her when she cried out.
"What is it?"
She indicated the splint around her arm and said, "I got a little boo-boo. But that's okay. Hug me again!"
Garek did, gladly, but was sure to be careful with the arm. But then he saw Riker walking toward them. He quickly released Kim and whipped out his phaser.
"Wait Garek!" cried Kim, grabbing his phaser arm and spoiling his aim. "That's a friend."
"What do you mean, 'friend'," asked Garek, suddenly very suspicious.
"Garek, this is Thomas Riker," Kim said, introducing the stranger. At the mention of the name, Garek's eyes widened in surprise and recognition. "Lieutenant Riker, this is Garek Loran," finished Kim.
Riker stepped forward and offered his hand. "A pleasure," he said.
Garek took it. He'd been prepared for a fight and was somewhat taken aback by Riker's smooth manner. "Uh.... Likewise, Lieutenant."
Dismissing this turn of events for the moment, he turned back to Kim and got back to the business at hand. "Kim, We've got to get out of here before that beacon of yours attracts the wrong kind of customers. Explanations are going to have to wait."
"He's right," said Riker. "Let's go." With that he bounded up into the hatch of the Lambda Flier and disappeared from sight.
Garek watched him go, then threw Kim a withering, skeptical look. "I'm not going to believe a word of your explanation, am I?" he asked.
"Very likely," replied Kim. She patted him reassuringly on the shoulder, then bounded up through the hatch herself and disappeared after the mysterious man calling himself Thomas Riker.
Garek heaved a giant sigh of long-suffering and resigned himself to the improbability of the situation, then climbed back aboard the Lambda Flier and prepared to take off.
"Please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are locked in their full and upright positions," Garek said upon entering the Flier. He took his seat in the left pilot's couch while Thomas Riker eased into the right one. Kim sat at the port side workstation which was slightly elevated and behind the two pilot's couches. The repulsors of the Flier started to whine as they powered up. With a slight jostle, the craft lifted off of the ground, and headed skywards. The small motors that raised the landing skids activated as the tricycle landing system retracted the skids.
"Nice vessel Commander," Thomas said upon taking a look around the main flight cabin.
"Thank you. It's built from scratch off of data from Lieutenant Tom Paris' Delta Flier and some information "borrowed" from Starfleet R&D on their fightercraft. Garek looked over his shoulder slightly at Kim. Kim mockingly shook her finger at him. A warning klaxon reverted Garek's attention back to the helm.
"What is it?" Tom asked.
"We've got company..." A Jem'Hadar dreadnought dropped from warp. It began rapidly scanning the area, and discovered the wreckage of one of its attack vessels, and the Flier lifting out of the atmosphere and out of system. Like an angry mother animal after seeing its dead offspring, the vessel's disruptor banks charged, and fired, striking the Flier.
"Jeez," Tom said, holding onto the panel as the ship shook from a blast.
"Shields are down to eighty percent!" Kim yelled out after the blast.
"Can we fight back, or is this just a pleasure yacht?" Tom looked over at Garek.
"I'm going to make them sorry for doing that." Garek keyed in a few commands to the computer. A targeting reticule became super-imposed on the main viewscreen. A weapons systems display and shield information occupied the lower right side of the viewscreen, and enemy vessel information was displayed on the lower left. "Thomas, I want you to display structural hardpoints, along with any weapons and shield emitter locations of this craft on the screen. Kim, do what you can to hold the ship together."
Thomas' hands flew quickly over the control panel. Soon enough, small red boxes were imposed on the viewscreen, displaying the needed information. Garek locked on with the dual phaser cannons and fired. The red lances of energy sprang forward, striking the shields of the vessel. The shields spattered purplish red as the phaser energy dissipated on the shields. Thomas, thinking ahead, fired two micro quantum torpedoes. The two blue spheroids rushed ahead in tandem between the scarlet phaser beams. The first torpedo detonated against the shields while the second weaseled its way through the shielding to strike the hull. The torpedo impacted on a shield generator that protected the dorsal starboard side of the craft. A graphic to Tom's right indicated that the shields on the enemy vessel destabilized and were collapsing.
"We struck a shield emitter!" Tom, overjoyed, began to bring up information on the craft's engine systems.
The Flier rocked from another hit. "Kim, how are we doing?" Garek yelled out over the sound of a starboard display shorting out.
"We just took a direct hit to the transwarp matrix. In order for us to escape, we're going to have to knock out this guy's warp drive!" The ship rocked again. "Shields down to fifty percent!"
The new information was being displayed on the main viewscreen. "There!" Tom pointed at the display. "That's their EPS relay to the starboard engine assembly. If we can disable that, we should be able to make a getaway."
"Here goes nothing." Garek reached to his side and activated another control. The whirring of another set of small motors could be heard as the two ion cannons raised from the dorsal turret housings. Garek linked all weapons to fire simultaneously, and pulled the trigger on the flight stick. Five phaser beams, two purple lances of ionized energy, and one quantum torpedo rushed forward to converge on one part of the enemy's hull. The failing shields were no match for the combined power of the strike and gave way. The phaser beams cut into the hull plating allowing more room for the torpedo to reach its intended target. As the ion cannons struck the hull, electrical surges began creeping across that part of the hull, and porthole lights went out. The EPS relays exploded with a brilliant flash of light. The engine pylon assembly of the Jem'Hadar craft gave way, and the nacelle drifted a few hundred kilometers from the wounded vessel before exploding.
"She's venting plasma!" Tom looked out the starboard viewport of the Flier as the ship made a pass of its target.
"She's not going to be going anywhere soon. Not on one engine," Garek commented. "Let's get the hell out of here before we attract more of their friends. Kim, what kind of power do we have left?"
Kim adjusted herself in her seat uneasily. "Transwarp is down. Looks like we have Warp 8 for six or seven hours. You're going to have to do some repairs when we get back to the station."
"Right..." Garek replied, trailing off. With his left hand, Garek pushed forward on the throttle control, and the Lambda Flier went to warp.