"Final approach, ma'am," Ensign Fedorov reported from the flight deck of the shuttle Icarus. "Confirm the landing coordinates--36.73 degrees north latitude, 120.84 degrees east longitude."
"Confirmed," Jenna Wolf replied. "That's where the long-range sensors indicated carbon-based plant life." The plants had been the best news the Hornet crew had received since becoming stranded in this remote quadrant two weeks earlier. They meant fresh food, and were deemed important enough by Captain Sharpe to spare a precious shuttlecraft--and his XO--to investigate.
"Beginning re-entry sequence," Fedorov announced. Ensign Samuels, the ship's resident botanist, looked somewhat apprehensive. "Relax, Samuels. You'll do fine," Jenna reassured him.
"This is my first away mission. There's so much at risk, I just don't want to foul up," Samuels said. Fedorov, overhearing, grunted.
"You'll do just fine," Jenna repeated. "Everyone's nervous the first time."
"But what if my readings were wrong?" Samuels said nervously. "Readings on plant life from so far away are always somewhat questionable."
"The chlorophyll signature was loud and clear. And there's too much oxygen in this planet's atmosphere for there not to be some form of photosynthetic plant life! Just relax. Even if it's not what we hoped, better to know now while we have time to find alternatives."
"I suppose you're right," Samuels said.
Suddenly the shuttle rocked and bucked under severe turbulence. "There's been a volcanic eruption directly beneath us!" Fedorov announced.
Jenna rushed to the flight deck. "Increase shielding. How are our engines?"
"Offline! Aerodynamic control only!" The shuttle dropped like a rock toward the seething caldera as smoke and ash and gases roared upward. The shields held.
Jenna tapped at the controls furiously as the skies blackened around them. Samuels threw up in the back of the shuttle. Finally, she stabilized the small craft. "We're in hover mode right now. See what you can do about setting us down."
"Where?"
"Anywhere but here!" Jenna almost shouted as the sky turned pitch black. <Warning. Hull temperature increasing to 2000 degrees centigrade.>
"You don't say?" Jenna said sarcastically as she watched the shielding indicators while Fedorov struggled with the atmospheric flight controls. "I think we can abort to orbit! I've got the impulse drive back online!"
"Do it now!" Jenna said, just a split second before the pyroclastic flow from the volcano's collapsing dust plume drove the small ship into the ground...
The hermit emerged from his rude hut, at the edge of his melon field. The eruptions from the volcano he called Beelzebub had been more frequent. He was afraid that he'd have to start another encampment farther away. And that would mean replanting his fields...
He watched the towering plume of ash and gas fifty kilometers away as it stretched far into the upper atmosphere. Volcanic eruptions on the world he called Coventry were more powerful than those on Earth due to its lower gravity. The plume reached nearly into low orbit. A light dusting of ash began to precipitate out. The hermit brought out a small device he'd saved against emergencies such as these and activated it. It beeped and chirped. "Good. The gas is blowing away from here," he said to himself. He'd had only himself to say anything to for two years now. Himself and God, and he doubted very much that God was listening.
Suddenly, another signal. A signal he'd never expected to hear. "Computer, identify that signal."
<Standard Federation shuttlecraft distress signal, circa late 24th century>
Excited, the hermit brought a small viewer--handy for spotting predators--to his eyes. He located in the dust plume a small bright speck, that rapidly resolved itself into a shuttlecraft. Moving at approximately 1/8 impulse toward the ground. Quickly he rushed to where the hand computer told him the crash site would be. Even if there weren't survivors, there was likely to be salvage...
The hermit had been hiking toward the crash site for a few hours when he began coming upon the wreckage. There were a few more steps when he found a body, charred and twisted. Several paces away was another. It was obvious this one too, was dead. He sat down on his heels and sighed as she surveyed the devastated shuttle around him. But there was something else he spotted. On the ground just a few more steps away from the others there was the outline of what must have been another body. He got up and went to it. As he took a closer look, he noticed blood and quickly began scanning the area. Whoever had survived the wreck had walked away... But they were in danger from themselves. Probably in shock, he thought. Quickly he took in the area and looked for telltale signs for tracking the survivor. It only took him a moment to find another drop of blood. The survivor was leaving a trail that might mean the death of him or her. Without another thought, he took off to find this person. Within twenty minutes, he found her... And it was definitely a her... She was unconscious, face down, on the forest floor. Her brown hair was splayed around her unceremoniously, and tangled with dried leaves. He could see that she was wearing the red and black uniform of Command and he could also tell that she had many lacerations over her body. Her uniform was torn in several places. From a pouch, he pulled out a medical tricorder and scanned her. Seeing that it was okay to turn her over, he eased her onto her back. As he saw her face, he stopped and gazed into it, gently shaking his head. What was she doing here, he thought. Tenderly, he brushed a strand of hair away from her face.
He looked around, making sure that neither a volcanic flow nor the creatures he'd called Jiminy Crickets were in the area. He tapped several controls on his tricorder. "Hmm... concussion for sure, some internal bleeding, and if we don't get these cuts closed up she'll get the Black Fungus for sure!" he said as he initiated treatment for all of the above. The internal injuries and the cuts closed almost immediately. The concussion would be another matter and would bear observing.
Scavenging around the wreckage, he found two long internal struts from the shuttle. There was no fabric or other material, but the average Federation shuttlecraft from this era, he recalled, contained several hundred meters of ODN cable. He scavenged about twenty meters of material and lashed the struts together to form a travois. Carefully he picked her up, and placed her on the makeshift platform. Then he salvaged what he could from the shuttle: one functioning tricorder and parts of three others, two combadges, a phaser, and several duotronic circuit boards. The hull and superstructure he'd come for later, for use as construction material. Placing the smaller items in his bag, he picked up the travois and began to drag his patient back to his hut. The trip would take three times as long, but he had an obligation to this person, whoever she may be. And besides, after two years he was desperate for someone with more intelligence than a chimpanzee to talk to...
Five hours later, he reached his hut. The Crickets had been in the melon field again, but they'd only taken two or three melons. The hermit deliberately planted more than he needed for just this reason. The small creatures were just barely sentient, still at the hunter-gatherer stage, and planted fields were an irresistible temptation to them. The hermit wondered just how badly he'd violated the Prime Directive in his effort to survive. He started a fire against the oncoming cold of night with a flint and steel and tried to feed his patient some water from a gourd. She sputtered as she woke up.
The woman coughed as her eyes opened a bit. She felt as if there were a heavy fog in her mind. She took a deep breath and let it out as she tried to look around. As she finally looked at the man sitting beside her offering her water she realized she had no recognition of him. But her mind was still clouded. It was thinking beyond the moment.
"Who are you?" she asked softly as if trying to find her voice.
"Good morning, starshine! Coventry says hello!" the hermit laughed. "My name..." he began, struggling. It had been years since he'd been asked for or had to give his name. "My name is Cole. And you, I believe, are Jenna," he smiled behind his big, bushy beard.
Suddenly, a hint of confusion burnt into her brown eyes as she looked down to the blankets. It was as if she were deep in thought, and yet troubled. "You say my name's Jenna?" she asked again as she finally looked up at him, peircing his dark eyes with her own. "Why don't I... why don't I remember my name?" She was getting more troubled by the moment. Even a bit frightened.
"Relax," Cole said, placing his hand on her shoulder as he recognized her apprehension. "It's a miracle you're alive! That crash was pretty bad, and you've had a nasty concussion. You'll be down for the count for a few days, but you should recover more or less completely."
"But I don't remember anything..." she said. "I didn't even remember my name... I was in a crash? But why don't I remember who I am or where I'm from? Or who you are? Or do I know you...?" she asked, suddenly curious. She didn't know why, but she had a feeling they had never met before today. And yet he knew who she was...
He knew he shouldn't tell her. The Temporal Prime Directive forbade it. But he had to, for her sake. And for the mission. The mission, he thought, for the first time in years. Maybe not all at once. "You've been through too much for one day. Let's see how quickly you recover before we go trying to fix things, shall we? Suffice it to say that your name is Jenna and, if my recollection is correct, you're in Starfleet. At least, you're wearing a Starfleet uniform and were found amongst the remains of a Starfleet shuttle."
"Starfleet..." she echo. "United Federation of Planets..." She tried to pull more information from her mind, but all her succeeded in doing is giving herself a headache. "And I am assuming there were others in the shuttle besides myself," she said sadly, asking, but knowing their fate.
Cole nodded solemnly. "Yes, there were two. Neither of them made it. I'm sorry, Jenna. When the rocks cool off a bit more, I'll see what I can do about taking care of the bodies properly. At the time I was mainly concerned with getting you out before the ash got too bad," he said as he looked out the door of his hut at the first flurries of volcanic ash depositing themselves on his fields. A plaintive 'chirp' could be heard outside his door. "Oh, come in!" he said with mock exasperation. In walked (or rather hopped) a cricket-like creature, standing about 50 centimeters tall on its hind legs and brandishing a spear.
Jenna remained unphased. As long as this was Cole's territory and he had invited this species inside, she had decided that it must be alright. Though she could feel something within her ready to react if necessary. "Is this a friend of yours?" she asked as she tried to smile, but her mind was heavy with everything that she now knew or rather did not know.
"Absolutely!" he smiled. "This is Jiminy Cricket. His is the most advanced species on this planet as far as I can tell. Although 'advanced' is a relative term--on Earth he'd be equivalent to Homo erectus, maybe Homo habilis if you stretch things. His people still think fire is pretty neat stuff, and their spoken vocabulary is about 50 or so words, most of which you and I couldn't possibly pronounce. I think they might be telepathic, but I'm not sure. When I crashed here about two years ago they saved my life. They showed me what could and couldn't be eaten, and I protected them from the Big Nasties that like to snack on them from time to time. With the exception of pinching a few melons and beans from my fields," he said as he shot the creature a glare upon spotting the melon drippings on its carapace, "we get along just fine. I worried for a while about screwing them up in terms of the Prime Directive, but they're likely to have long forgotten about me in a few million years when they're ready to start planting their own crops."
As Jenna looked at Jiminy, it was as if he sensed something in her. Suddenly, her mind was pierced with what she could only describe as a high pitched whine. Immediately, her hands flew to her ears and her heartbeat went up. "Stop! I don't understand!" she cried. She turned her eyes to Cole. "Make him stop!" Her head felt like it was going to explode.
"What are you doing to her?" Cole demanded of his visitor. The Cricket squealed, then ran outside the hut, away from the fire. Cole grabbed his tricorder and scanned Jenna. "Cortical activity is off the boards. I don't know if this is due to the concussion or what..."
Suddenly fatigue overtook her and her eyes grew dull with sleepiness. "I don't know what's happened to me. I don't remember it... But I can't think about it anymore. I can't think about me anymore... Not right now. I'm too tired..." Her eyelids began to droop as she couldn't fight off the headache any longer either. "I'm sorry, Cole... You've obviously waited a long time to talk to someone... But..." she sighed as her eyes began to close.
"Get some rest, Jenna. I'll be right here. Maybe when you wake up I'll have soup ready. The Big Nasties do cook up pretty good, for insects!"
"Insect soup... yum..." she replied as she drifted into an uneasy sleep.
"Yum yum," Cole said as he began heating the broth, suppressing thoughts of beef consomme celestine with mushrooms. At least I can get the mushrooms in the late Devonian, he thought. He was exhausted, particularly after the excitement of the day, but he dare not take his eyes off his patient. Another pot containing fungus tea kept him awake the whole night as he watched over Jenna. Suddenly he wished he hadn't scared off the Cricket after all. The company would have been welcome, if incomprehensible. Just what was the little guy doing anyway? he thought.
Outside the hut, two Crickets stood watch. <<Another Big One. I sense this one is a she,>> one of them thought to the other.
<<Good. No more Big Nasty attacks! Our larvae will make it through the Cold Time! And more melons!>>
<<We musn't upset them. Their magic is powerful. The new Big One came from the sky with thunder!>>
The other Cricket chirped with awe. <<Incredible. I've heard stories-->>
<<That knowledge is forbidden! Speak no more of it!>>
<<I'll say no more.>>