Commodore Rick Hunter was pulled inexorably deeper into the freezing depths of Blue Lake, hopelessly tangled in the rigging of his sinking fishing boat and unable to escape. His last breath of air had finally given out, and his struggles were growing feebler by the second, the life ebbing out of him like the last bubbles that had escaped his lips and were even now drifting back to the surface. Being a space man, he'd never imagined he would die by drowning.
As consciousness faded, he thought he felt himself being grabbed by unseen hands. Suddenly the weight dragging him down by the ankle was cut away, and he felt something being pressed over his face. Feebly he struggled against this new danger, but the frigid water had robbed him of every last ounce of strength. Surprisingly though, he felt dry air around his nose and mouth, and his lungs automatically sucked in huge gulps of life-giving breath.
Choking, coughing and sputtering, he heaved up the two lung-fulls of lake water he'd swallowed and gratefully breathed in air. He still felt water all around him, but at the depth to which he'd already sunk, the light was too diffuse to make out anything clearly. Dimly, he could discern the dark shape of a humanoid form floating before him, and it was this figure that held the air mask firmly over his face.
Slowly they began drifting upwards towards the light of day. Eventually, Hunter could see that his mysterious benefactor was a man wearing an old-fashioned diving suit. At even intervals during their ascent, the diver would momentarily remove the breathing mask from Hunter's face and place it over his own, taking a few deep breaths before returning it to Hunter. It was in this manner that they eventually reached the surface.
The tumult of the meteor impact had subsided, and the sunlit world of the living was once more bright and clear, as though nothing untoward had ever happened.
Releasing Hunter, the diver slid his goggles up over his forehead and pulled off his wetsuit hood, revealing a ruggedly handsome face beneath a mop of sandy-brown hair. "You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah. Thanks, stranger," replied Hunter sincerely from where he treaded water beside the diver. "You saved my life. I owe you a big one."
"Well, I certainly couldn't let a fellow outdoors enthusiast be lost to Davy Jones' Locker if there was anything I could do about it," replied the diver with an easy, lighthearted chuckle, "but I'll remember the part about you owing me a favor, don't you worry."
"Fair enough," chuckled Hunter in return. "The name's Commodore Rick Hunter, by the way," he said, lifting his right hand above the water and extending it towards the diver.
The diver took it and shook. "Commodore Hunter? The head Starfleet man? I'm honored," he proclaimed wryly. "People call me West. Nice to meet you."
"Likewise, although I wish it could have been under better circumstances."
The pleasantries aside, Hunter looked about the surface of the lake in a full three-sixty. Aside from himself and West, there was nothing in sight -- no other boats, no aircraft, not even any debris which to cling to, and he knew that the closest land was over a hundred miles to the south. "I guess we have another problem."
"Don't sweat it, Commodore," said West. "I've still got my trusty radio."
Sharra Parada and Lessa Ransome had been working in the terraced gardens of the Keep that was situated on the mountainside above Blue Lake. Both women saw the meteorite streak though the sky heading for the lake... and called to their six apprentices to ready the shuttle so that they could be ready to assist the little community below.
Once airborne, Sharra piloted the shuttle while Lessa worked the aux controls. They saw wreckage on the lake and started looking immediately for survivors and moments later Lessa was smoothly working the controls that would beam the survivor into the aft cabin. Two men, soaking wet, lay fighting for breath as the shuttle streaked away from the lake and to a safe distance away.
A striking blonde woman wrapped the two men in thermal blankets and handed them cups of steaming hot coffee. Hunter used his to warm his freezing hands. "Thanks for picking us up," he told his beautiful rescuer.
The shuttle swooped down and landed on the far side of the small community of Blue Lake. The blonde woman opened the door and stepped out and noticed that the weather was changing and a storm would be hitting as a local result of the meteorite, change was also in the air. "Gentleman, this is as far as we can take you, we must assist this community."
Lessa moved forward and joined her partner in the cockpit as both men looked around, stood, and stepped off the shulttle.
As the shuttle lifted off again, a uniformed Starfleet officer came running from the direction of town. "We just hear about your accident, Commodore!" he huffed as he skidded to a halt before Hunter. "Are you all right? You two had a pretty close call! Starfleet tracked the meteor all the way in, but we had no idea anyone was in the splashdown zone, or else we would have warned you."
"Ha ha! That's what I get for not filing a travel plan!" laughed West. Hunter kept quiet because he too had 'forgotten' to file a plan with the proper authorities. Besides, West was still talking. "But if that thing was a meteor, I'm an Aldebaran monkey!"
"What do you mean?" asked Hunter, shifting his thermal blanket to a more comfortable position on his shoulders.
"I mean that I was underwater when the thing hit, and I saw it go down. I was pretty far away, I admit, but I definitely saw it glowing an evil shade of green."
"Could have been residual heat and radiation," offered the Starfleet crewman.
"Maybe," said West skeptically, "but I doubt any meteor could change course while going down like this one did. I watched it until the green glow was out of sight, and it definitely changed direction a few times as it descended."
"Another mystery," said Hunter with a heavy sigh. He was thinking of the battle out in the asteroid belt last week between the Banshees and the terrorist Vince Kelly, and fervently hoped there was no connection between Kelly's missing escape pod and the sudden appearance of this peculiar 'meteor'. This was exactly why he'd taken the day off today and gone boating -- to escape these annoying mysteries, but it seemed there was no escape.
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