[FIC] Star Trek: What We Need to See [1/8] (Kirk/Bones, R)
Title: What We Need to See [1/8]
Authors: salvaged_pride and sullacat
Artist: gadgetorious
Fanmixer: dizilla
Beta: shinychimera
Series: Star Trek XI
Characters/Pairings: Kirk/McCoy
Rating: R
Chapter Word Count: 8451 out of 42601
Summary: Jim is everything he needs to be when he's sent on a diplomatic mission to meet a potential new addition to the Federation - charming, calm, convincing - especially with his CMO at his side to back him up. But when Jim, Bones, and their security team wake up in the depths of an alien jungle and are given a mission to succeed or die, they'll need not only to survive, but come to terms with their true feelings for each other. Will it destroy their friendship or save them both? Is it enough to teach Jim and Bones what they have been blind to - that sometimes there's more than just meets the eye, and the loss of one's world can lead to another?
Main Chapter Listing | Chapter 2 >>
The Art | The Mix
No one had shot them, no one was running at them with spears. They hadn't beamed down in the middle of an ocean, they hadn't disturbed anyone's eggs. Already, this was going better than their last few away missions. All in all, the first six months on board the Enterprise had been more exciting than any of them had ever dreamed.
Having been assured that the new species they'd been asked to meet with had friendly intentions and genuine interest in joining the Federation, Spock had asked to remain on board to complete a crucial experiment. So it was Bones this time standing at Jim's side, looking typically uncomfortable but ready to meet the representatives of Tuatara. Uhura stood on his other side, an excited gleam in her eyes. Jim knew she was particularly interested about this away mission, as the new species' dialect was most unusual, a mix of vocalizations and body language. The past couple of encounters with new species had been cut short, and Uhura hadn't been able to spend as much time studying their syntax and vocabulary as she'd wanted.
But this, Jim hoped, was going to be the beginning of a long and peaceful friendship with the Tuatarans, and the Federation would get the ally it so desperately needed in this sector.
The landing party stood waiting for their hosts at the beam down coordinates, one of the few places the radiation in the highest atmosphere of the planet was thin enough to allow transport to the surface. Jim looked over at the two security personnel that accompanied them, who stood calmly on the outside of their group in a relaxed parade stance. Good guys, they'd both been with him on their last away mission and he'd been pleased with their quick thinking and actions, enough to request them both specifically for this important meeting. Darius Vickers had a wickedly sharp sense of humor he could keep well in check, a keen eye for detail, and was such a good shot that Jim had been impressed, while Adam Yamaguchi was good-natured with an easy smile that seemed to put others at ease which made him perfect for negotiations.
It wasn't either of them that Jim was worried about when it came to the mission. It was Bones who concerned him, because while Spock was calm, dignified, and somewhat ruthless in his diplomacy, Bones was... none of those things. So when Spock suggested Bones of all people take his place, Jim had to wonder if Bones was the best choice. The best damn doctor that existed, Jim couldn't deny that, but a diplomat?
Maybe it was a lingering fear after remembering Bones' idea of diplomacy - in various bars around San Francisco, pissing off medics at the infirmary on campus, and a memorable scuffle in New Mexico after a return trip from Christmas one year that led Jim to have a little discussion with his chief medical officer - a discussion about diplomatic manners, keeping his mouth shut instead of making a mumbled comment, and not touching anything he shouldn't. It was rich, coming from Jim of all people, but there was no one who knew Bones better.
"...Remember what we talked about?" Jim said with a sly grin, his voice pure sing-song tease.
"Yes, Mom," Bones answered drolly, rocking on his heels and rolling his eyes. "I'll try not to embarrass you too much."
Jim heard a rustle and turned back to see two of the Tuatarans approaching them, leaving Jim to suppress a laugh from Bones' sarcasm. Even having been prepped on what little was known of them and their culture, it was still a bit of a shock to see them in person. The female was humanoid, bipedal with two forward facing eyes, but her body had not a trace of fat to soften the outline of green-hued skin over ropey muscle and her eyes were a slanted, hypnotic gold. Jet black hair coursed down the length of her back, and the long split tunic she wore was a tight fit to her body. Her hand was settled lightly on the arm of the male beside her. It was the first time that Jim had seen an alien species, in person, where the males looked so vastly different than the females. Where the female was vaguely humanoid and walked bipedal, the male looked entirely snake-like and was one long ripple of muscle with no legs. He was entirely unclothed, bore a large curved sword over his back, and looked like he knew how to use it. At seven feet tall, the Tuatarans towered over the away party as they stopped several feet away.
The female leaned over slightly and Jim could hear her hissing softly in a whisper to the male, who listened intently, the flicker of his tongue in and out the only movement from his body. Finally he nodded and the female straightened again. Then the male spoke, a language all clicks and hisses of the tongue, and within a heartbeat the portable universal translator around Jim's neck started to do its job. It fit snugly into his left ear, wrapped around the back of his neck, and had a microphone and speaker settled on his right collar bone. It was an expensive new toy that the Enterprise got the joy of testing over the old bulky translators, and Jim highly approved.
"Be welcomed to our world," the male's voice was an even yet formal computer tone in his ear thanks to the translator. The male bowed from the waist down, drawing claws diagonally across the air in front of and towards his chest. "The light of Vioniss is an insult to Cyli's people, let us venture underground until Cyli returns." Two words hadn't translated; instead the computer had repeated the closest translation of syllables it could find in its rapidly expanding vocabulary. From the corner of his eye, Jim could see Uhura's mouth tightening, presumably her mind already attempting figure out a translation for the gap in the translator's work.
Jim repeated the bow, minus the gesture across the chest, doing his best to be respectful. "It's our pleasure to be here to speak to you on behalf of the Federation. Please, lead the way." Jim had discovered rapidly as captain that he actually could be quite diplomatic when he needed to be, and to his surprise, he even enjoyed it. His actions and words appeared to please their hosts, and the male and female turned together and started to walk back through the dappled sunlight of the jungle overhead.
Already he was starting to sweat in the jungle's extreme humidity. Jim glanced over to Bones, who seemed to be comfortable enough. Probably happy to be warm again. Southern boys. He grinned at his own mental joke, and looked to Uhura who seemed to be studying the backsides of their host with interest. She caught his look and nodded slightly. "I didn't expect so much of their language to be body language."
The comment surprised Jim, who raised his brows. "Really?"
There was a smug smile he saw curling at the edges of her lips that told him just how much Uhura liked being able to prove herself superior when it came to linguistics. "Actually, while he was talking, there was a great deal of body language. Movements in the horned ridges at the back of his jaw, the tip of his tail, and the sway of his body. It isn't the first time I've had to learn a species' body language, but I've never studied a reptilian race before."
"Think you'll be able to pick it up quick?" Jim questioned.
The tone Uhura adopted made Jim smirk. "Of course, Captain."
Jim shook his head with a small laugh, then looked around as they hit the edges of the jungle and stepped onto stone-covered ground. It seemed like some sort of marketplace or something similar, with stalls made of wood and metal lining the pathway they were walking. Yet despite what he was seeing, Jim saw not a single soul in sight beyond their small party. "First impressions?" asked Jim, in a low voice.
Vickers answered first. "I'd feel better if I saw some others. Don't like deserted areas like this."
Neither did Jim. "Agreed. Let's just keep our eyes open right now," he said with a confident smile.
"Sir, yes sir!" Yamaguchi answered in a snappy tone of voice, then laughed at his own small joke, easing a small bit of tension between them all. There was something about Yamaguchi's way, even in his laugh, that reminded Jim of his older brother every time they ended up on a mission together. Just something small, when he and Sam were young and life was still simple. It always made him feel easy around the security guard, and he had seen that attitude work well on both other crew members, guests on ship, and aliens alike.
They were being led through a beautiful city, all stone work in pyramid shapes so familiar that it took Jim's mind a minute to realize where he had seen similar architecture. It looked like an ancient South American native city, something Aztec or Olmec. They saw stepped pyramids of a stone that was almost white, though from a distance Jim couldn't tell if they were painted or the stone was naturally such a bleached color. Their hosts seemed uninterested in talking, and from the long strides he was having to take to keep up with them, Jim guessed they were in a big hurry to get underground.
Jim was working on a theory about what he was seeing when they came to the edge of a large square hole in the ground. Raised stonework kept someone from falling into the hole on three out of the four sides, while the fourth side opened to allow them to walk down a ramp. Their hosts kept walking without hesitation, going straight down and vanishing into the darkness beneath it. Jim looked back to the rest of his crew, shrugged, and kept following.
After the brilliance of the day above ground, the darkness underground seemed complete as Jim tried to blink away sun spots and let his eyes adjust. Eventually he realized there was a low level of electrical lighting leading their way, down through tunnels that much to Jim's amusement, felt almost like walking down the corridors of the Enterprise. The walls were smooth-surfaced and squared off, and the floor had the feeling of being padded beneath it, comfortable to walk on but with a rough surface, almost like the texture of concrete or fine black top. Jim wondered if the snakemen needed the rough texture to aid in how they moved.
Eventually they were led to an well-lit antechamber, a lounge of sorts filled with tall chairs and large pillows. "Please wait here for the Mother to awaken. She wishes to greet you herself." With that, the two Tuatarans turned and left the room, the door sliding closed behind them with a hiss.
The away party turned to look at each other and the room where they were waiting. Bones pulled off his translator, rubbing at his ear. "That was friendly enough," he said, a little sarcastically. "Why did they ask us here right now if their Great Mother is napping?" he asked. "We could've come down later."
"Dunno," Jim answered, beginning to examine the room more closely. "Maybe they wanted a little time to check us out."
"Captain's probably right," Yamaguchi added, looking at the strange shield on the wall etched with swirling carvings that might have been writing. "According to reports, the Federation's had minimal dealings with this species before. They're bound to be as curious about us as we are about them."
To that, Jim could only agree. In quiet voices, the away party discussed what they had seen so far and knew from the contact that had come over the communications system the previous day. They waited no longer than half an hour before a male slithered into the room and asked them to join the Mother for 'first meal'. As they followed their guide into the tunnel system again, Jim looked to Bones at his side. "Must be a nocturnal species if this is their first meal of the day," commenting somewhat matter of factly, though he was curious about how Bones felt about all this.
"Sure looks like it," Bones answered, eyes tracking as much as they could as they walked, never stopping. "Strange though, most Terran reptiles tend to stay out in the sun all day, keep themselves warm. These guys seem the opposite."
"If you've noticed, Doctor, most Terran lizards aren't seven feet tall, either," Uhura added lightly, and Jim saw that twitch of her lips again as he walked with her into the banquet room.
"Captain!" The voice was far away and fuzzy, but incessant. "Captain, wake up!" Now there was something else, hands grabbing at his shoulders. Jim's body reacted more than his mind did, reaching up and trying to grab for the nearest wrist, but his body felt uncoordinated and off, and Jim's eyes flashed open.
Yamaguchi's face hovered over his eyes, looking down on him with worry, and beyond him Jim saw a mixture of shadow and the cool pink-light of dawn or sunset. Jim waved him back and sat up, but found himself blinking as the world swam in front of his eyes. "Sir, be careful." Yamaguchi said worriedly. Jim accepted the hand on his arm that kept him steady and upright, shaking his head to try and rid the dizziness that had come up. "Doctor McCoy and Vickers are still both out cold," Yamaguchi pointed off to the side, where Jim could see the other two laying out on the jungle floor, "and Lt Uhura is missing."
Something in his chest clenched, making him freeze on hearing those words. Jim's eyes peered on the jungle around them. A thousand scenarios ran through his head about why Uhura would not be with them out here, all of them bad. Jim whispered a curse and forced himself up onto his knees, crawling over and putting a hand on Bones' shoulder, jerking the doctor's body. "Bones. Bones. Wake up!"
It took a bit of shaking for Jim to get Bones' eyes opened, Jim sighing in relief as Bones' eyes did open. Bones sat up with Jim's help, his expression filled with the same muddled mixture of worry and fear Jim was feeling. "What happened?" Bones asked, rubbing his face.
What had happened? Jim frowned as he sat back from Bones, pulling together his memories. They had been invited to the Tuataran's festival in celebration of their Goddess, held in the center of the city under the brilliant white light of the full moon. Much to his surprise and pleasure, the Tuataran people really knew how to party. There had been displays of music and fire dancing that was almost hypnotizing against the black night, a huge feast of fruits, berries, leaves, and meats that Bones declared safe for their consumption, and strange religious rites that they sat respectfully through. Jim had been given a place of honor on a stone platform along with the Mother Priestess and her male attendant, with his crew right beside him. He learned about their gods, mouth stuffed full, listening to stories and legends while he sat and ate. Cyli - the word for one of their two major deities. Cyli was female, and was either night time or the moon, Jim hadn't quite figured out which. The other had been Vioniss, which was day time or the sun.
It was late into the night when everything seemed to hit a crescendo, and another rite began. The Mother Priestess spoke - she was the only female Jim heard speak out loud instead of a whisper to one of the males - and Jim got a chance to ask what was going on in a whisper to the Mother's attendant. The male attendant told him that tonight was a night of great power, and that the truly strong would be sent on a quest. The translator had taken its sweet time in coming up with the word, as it had been doing all day long for difficult or unknown words, but despite the hiccups Jim was generally able to follow all that was being said. He had asked about the quest...
Asked about the quest. The male attendant had turned to the Mother, who had leaned over to them and offered them the chance to prove the Federation's word and honor. Of course, Jim had said yes. That was why they were there, after all. Then a dish was placed in front of them, a blue-white bowl of something that proved to be bright-sweet on the tongue like ice cream and just as cold.
After that, Jim couldn't remember a thing. Just darkness.
"We got drugged," Jim said with some anger in his voice as he came to the realization. Whatever had been in that bowl, he'd eaten without even a second thought. Drugged. Damn. The hot-cold feeling of betrayal sat heavy in his stomach and hard in his chest. "And Nyota's gone."
From the corner of his eye, he could see Yamaguchi shaking Vickers awake. Jim and Bones called out for Nyota, searching the immediate area but there was no response, just dense jungle in every direction. "Drugged, and left out here on our own." Jim looked in the direction of the Tuataran Yamaguchi pointed out. Almost on their own.
Bones looked around, patting at his side. "My medical kit," he said. "I don't have it. Do you?"
Jim looked down at his belt, fingers running along it, and quickly shook his head. "Nothing. They took everything."
"Not everything sir," Yamaguchi called out, looking from where he was kneeling beside a dizzy looking Vickers. "We also have a friend," he added, this time pointing behind them at the Tuataran male unconscious on the ground, "and this." Yamaguchi tapped his neck, where Jim could see the universal translator still wrapped around the security man's neck.
Jim felt at his own neck, but his translator had been taken. He couldn't see one on Bones or Vickers.
"Why would they take all but one of ours?" Bones seemed to have drawn the same conclusion.
It was a conclusion that made Jim go cold inside. "Because they have something to tell us, or they want us to be able talk to him," indicating the Tuataran laid out nearby. He doubted that the Tuatarans would have made such a mistake; leaving behind one translator had to be deliberate.
He heard Vickers curse quietly under his breath, and for a moment the four men just stared at each other as each of them tried to figure out what to do next.
"We know that the Enterprise can't beam us up," Jim said in a very soft voice. They had been given a very specific set of coordinates to beam down to, a natural weak spot in the thick upper-atmosphere radiation of the planet. "Not unless we get to somewhere that the transporter can lock onto us and they're actually looking for us." Jim guessed that the light filtering down through the thick foliage was the first fingers of dawn, which meant that a good few hours passed since the feast. Would the Enterprise know to be looking for them by now? Did they even have an idea that something might be wrong? Jim tried to recall when he last checked in with Spock the night before, but all he could remember was telling Spock that everything was going great, don't worry about them. Smart move, genius, Jim mentally slapped himself in the back of the head.
All of a sudden a crackling noise surrounded them, making everyone jump, and the air was filled with the sounds of the hissing, long syllables that made up the Tuataran language. Yamaguchi grabbed at the translator and turned the volume up, so that the others could hear. Find Cyli's Eye before the light of Vioniss awakens three times to shine upon your face. Prove your strength and your words. Your worth may be proven.
The message repeated three times, then faded away.
All four men stared at each other. Jim swallowed once, thinking fast. "...They want us to find something before..." He thought fast, working through the formal wording. "Vioniss awakens three times... daytime.... sunrises? Three sunrises?" Jim looked up at the sunrise staring them at the face. "Guess this is morning number one then."
"But what is Cyli's Eye?" Yamaguchi asked, looking over at Jim. "That could be anything."
Jim opened his mouth to respond, but there was a hissing behind him. He looked over at the Tuataran that was righting himself, checking over his body before looking at the four humans again. Jim looked quickly to Yamaguchi, who had the universal translator already in his ear and was listening intently, but the Tuataran didn't say anything to them. He seemed more worried about the bright sun, beginning to rise higher in the sky. Letting out a ragged hiss noise, he winced as if the light hurt his eyes, then headed toward an almost invisible path between the trees leading deeper into the jungle.
Bones looked over at Yamaguchi. "What did he say?"
"Nothing the translator understood," Yamaguchi answered. "Maybe a curse word or name or something."
"Translator," Jim held out a hand for it, which Yamaguchi gave over. "Follow him. Best chance of finding out way out of here is with one of the natives." Except the Tuatarans could move fast, and Jim had to sprint to catch up as he fumbled wrapping the translator around his neck.
As soon as he caught up, Jim started talking towards the Tuataran. "What's going on? Why were we thrown out here? And where is Lt Uhura?" Jim tried to get any information he could from the snakeman, who clearly wanted nothing to do with any of them.
But as they continued to follow, the Tuataran slowed a fraction, listening to the noises coming out of Jim's translator. Then he shook his head, as if unimpressed at the ragtag group following him. "You must be faster," he said, the device in Jim's ear translating the hisses into words. "Must reach the valley before Cyli shows her face."
"At least answer this. Why are we out here? Why did your people drug us and toss us out in the jungle? Why are you here?" Jim went for a different angle, hearing the other three just behind them.
"I walk the path to Cyli because I am not afraid!" the Tuataran spat out at him, as if his honor had been disparaged. The look on his face was one of disdain. "Only the strongest can reach the Eye and become one of Cyli's Chosen. I do not know why you are here, unless She wants to see if you are worthy." Jim could hear the respect and honor in 'She', and knew it had to mean their goddess, not the Mother Priestess who had, he assumed, gotten them thrown out here.
"Then where is Lt Uhura? The other member of our team?"
That actually stopped the Tuataran and the snake-man looked back at them. "Female?"
Jim thought it was reason to continue. "Yeah, what have they done with her?"
"Nothing." And the Tuataran kept moving.
The blunt answer, and the almost offended tone it was given in, made Jim look at Bones in confusion, then anger. Jim asked again, wanting some real information. "What do you mean, nothing? Why isn't she out here with us?"
That earned him a glare that coming from a nearly seven foot snake man made even him pause. "All females are chosen of Cyli. Your female would be given no less honor."
"What do you mean, given no less honor?" Jim continued, trying to get some sort of non-cryptic information out of the Tuataran.
"Your female is free to come and go as she pleases. May return to your ship if she desires, or may wait for you in comfort."
Well, that was somewhat reassuring, if it was true. With them kidnapped, Jim knew Uhura would return to the Enterprise and along with Spock, start trying to figure out how to get them back. Would the Tuatarans given her any information about what had happened, or leave her entirely in the dark? Still, after what happened to them, Jim just couldn't settle the belief that Uhura was in some sort of danger. Until he could see her again, he had to assume the worst. "What does it mean to be one of Cyli's Chosen?"
The Tuataran ignored this question. "Hurry. We must reach the Valley of Ryss before Cyli shows Her face. Otherwise, much danger." With that, he began moving faster, just as the others caught up with Jim.
"You get anything from him?" Bones asked, beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead.
Jim looked to Bones, slowing down just a touch so he could talk to all three of them at the same time. "The Tuatarans have put us on some sort of religious quest, if what I'm guessing is right. I think we've got two days and nights to get to somewhere and get this Eye or who knows what's going to happen. He," Jim jerked a thumb in the Tuataran's direction, "said something about how this means we're Cyli's Chosen, if we make it."
"Is that why the Tuataran is with us? To help us?" Vickers asked, frowning.
Jim shook his head. "Not in the least. I get the feeling that he's actually pretty insulted that they put us out here along with him. Right now he's our best shot to figure out where to go though, so we need to stick with him. He seems to have some idea of where this Cyli's Eyes might be."
"I'd feel better if we had our phasers," Vickers grumbled as they all began walking fast again, catching up with the huge reptilian creature. Jim couldn't help but agree with that.
Thoughts about their situation and Uhura plagued Jim as they walked for a while, moving fast and following as close to the Tuataran as they could. From the bits and pieces of answers Jim could glean from the snakeman, they managed to figure out that the Valley of Ryss was their destination this evening, somewhere relatively safe compared to the dense jungle where eyes watched them at every turn. All around them they could hear the calls of animals as evidence that they weren't the only things alive in this humid jungle, and they could feel their passage through the trees being noted by whatever lived there. The air was thick with buzzing insects, too, and every few minutes one of the men slapped at the bugs biting their exposed skin.
All of a sudden the Tuataran stopped. He made a hissing noise that the translator couldn't interpret, but Jim understood one hand held up in front of him - the universal sign of 'wait'. The Tuataran's forked tongue flicked out several times, as if sensing something, a minute smell in the air only he could identify. They all watched cautiously as he picked up a large stick from the ground and tossed it a few feet in front of him. There was a collective gasp of horror as the stick was instantly snapped in two by three blades that seemed to materialize out of the ground in a wide circular arc then vanish back again into the surrounding foliage
The away team was instantly on guard again. "You mean the jungle's booby trapped?" Vickers growled, looking at the ground in anger. Their senses sharpened to the shadows, sounds and scents around them, and the dangers that lurked there, when it was not only the jungle against them but planned, purposeful dangers as well.
"Appears so," said Bones, watching the face of the Tuataran, who seemed to be both pleased that he discovered the trap, and amused at the astonished faces of the Starfleet crew. "It's more than just making it to Cyli's Eye?" he asked the large native, who scoffed.
"Cyli's Chosen are the strongest and smartest of all. Those who live through the rite receive the best of everything." His eyes seemed to be scanning the ground again, and soon they were walking again.
The atmosphere now changed from a vague danger, more annoying than anything else, to a serious and continual threat all around them. Jim could feel the change in the group, the constant prowl in the two security guards that was oddly comforting, and something like instinct that put Bones in the middle of the group. The longer Bones didn't notice the extra protection for him, the better.
They learned the Tuataran's name not long after that - Ruud. He acted a little different from the other Tuatarans that Jim had met so far, less controlled somehow, leading Jim to believe that Ruud was actually more of a teenager than an adult. Ruud wasn't yet seven feet tall, seemed more impatient that the others they'd met. He appeared to be unconcerned or worried about the humans trailing him, but the small glances back combined with the fact that none of them had to run to keep up anymore made Jim think Ruud was no longer trying to actively outrun them.
But Ruud still kept up the pressure for them to move quickly, pausing to grab at berries from a thorny bush. "These, the red ones," he told them, pointing out another bush. "Only these. Others will make you sick."
Bones picked up one of the berries, looked at it closely. "Not gonna make it too far if this is all we gotta eat for two days, but they look safe enough. Lot like some of the stuff they were feeding us at that feast of theirs." he said, looking over at Jim.
"I'd rather take this than having nothing at all," Jim said bluntly, shaking his head. He pulled off his gold shirt, making an impromptu sling, and started collecting as many berries as he could get his hands on. With more hands working, the humans collected a decent load into his shirt that he tied off and carried over his shoulder like a gunny sack. Jim looked to Ruud with a nod of thanks, wondering why the Tuataran was giving them any help at all after seeming off-put by their presence early on. Maybe Ruud understood they offered him no challenge to his position as a 'Chosen' but just wanted to get through this alive.
Eating their impromptu meal while still on the movie, Jim kept an eye on Bones as much as their surroundings, worried about the doctor even though he knew Bones had made it through the Academy's courses on survival. Jim felt keenly his responsibility to his entire away team, and there was a pit inside him that would remain until he knew for certain that Nyota was safe and unharmed. But Bones... Jim felt a particular protective feeling for him that had little to do with Bones' ability to take care of himself. It had a lot more to do with the strength of their friendship, everything they had pulled together between them in the years they had known each other.
The fact was Jim knew there was more that just friendship, even if Bones had long since told him that it couldn't happen. Yet that hadn't stopped Jim from growing more attached, hadn't stopped him from feeling something deeper than he'd known before, an emotion he consciously couldn't name but felt for Bones and Bones alone. That attachment was something he avoided in his life, but no matter how he tried, he couldn't avoid it with Bones. They gravitated together, opposites and as linked as deeply as the idea of F,ate.
Fate that the old Vulcan on Delta Vega had made into some sort of unavoidable reality.
But he couldn't think about that right now, what Fate might have in mind for them. They had a long way to go, and it was only getting harder as the sun rose overhead. The sheer physical requirement of dealing with the heat and the tough terrain was clearly starting to get to everyone, including Ruud. Jim wished he had a machete almost as much as he wished he had his phaser because getting through the thick undergrowth was building a rapidly growing ache in his arms.
A small noise in the distance set Ruud looking, still slithering forward but Jim could see that the previously steady flicker of Ruud's tongue had increased, poking through the air with rapid motions. Jim wished he could remember more about snakes, because Ruud acted very similar to one. "What is it?"
"There is something following us I cannot see," Ruud responded, a soft hiss the translator barely picked up. Jim gave a small hand gesture to his team.
Bones found his way to Jim's side along with Yamaguchi and Vickers, a worried look on his face. "Ruud's picked up something, something's following us," Jim whispered softly to the three. The doctor turned his head slightly, as if trying to determine where the danger was, but the noise Ruud heard was too faint for human ears. The concern on Ruud's face was obvious, though, as he picked up his pace again, the men moving at a near-jog to get away from whatever was chasing them.
Then it struck. Jim only got a glimpse out of the corner of his eye - something massive, the size of a freight train, coming straight at them, before he screamed out, "RUN!"
It was no contest. The small group took off together, but the creature gained on them rapidly despite its difficulty moving through the jungle. Ruud suddenly went up a tree, leaping up to a height that would have impressed Jim if he wasn't busy running for his life. He grabbed a handful of thick bramble in his way and shoved it aside--
Then there was nothing under his feet, just a feeling almost like leaping, flying, before gravity took over. Jim didn't even have time to absorb the information that he was falling before he slammed into the side of the cliff, fingers desperately grasping for any holding at all. A moment later his shirt was choking him, and he turned his head up to see Yamaguchi grasping it, trying to get a better grip as Jim tried to shove his toes into a foothold.
Yamaguchi got an arm under his, barely holding up his weight. "I can't hold you!" Yamaguchi cried out, "get some weight on your legs!"
"Trying!" Jim gasped out, but the collar of his shirt was wrapped tight around his throat, cutting off his air. Something crashed above his head and he heard Yamaguchi curse and whatever had been chasing them suddenly flew over their heads. Jim twisted to see it, a creature with long green-brown fur and eye stalks, now falling thousands of feet down beneath him. It felt like time stopped until he heard the quiet, dull thud from a distance.
Slowly, Jim looked back up to an equally stunned Yamaguchi, and together they got Jim back up on top of the cliff. Time resumed its normal speed for the men laying on the ground, panting as they caught their breaths. Bones ran up, staggering to a stop before he looked over both of them, his face frowning at the scratches and cuts on their hands and arms. He gave Jim a little glare that Jim immediately recognized, the one he got it every time he walked into Sickbay after an injury on one of these missions. He suffered under it, but when they started to go back looking for Vickers and Ruud, he fell into step beside Bones. "Wasn't my fault," Jim muttered. "See what you do when a giant mammoth thing is chasing you down."
Bones didn't answer, just kept walking. A full minute passed before he spoke. "I don't have anything with me," Bones finally bit back, just as quiet. "I can't do anything if you get hurt." Then he walked faster, catching up with Yamaguchi and walking beside him.
Jim couldn't have felt worse if a mule kicked him in the chest. He sighed, the adrenaline running out of his veins catching up with him and making him feel exhausted. He moved along behind the other two men, feeling every bruise and cut on his body as they struggled through the jungle again. He understood why Bones was angry, even if he didn't think it was fair. Shouldn't have brought him at all. He'd be safe back on the ship. But so would he, and Yamaguchi, and Vickers. Danger was part of Starfleet and something everyone knew could happen at any time. A part of him knew he wasn't being fair at all to Bones, who was no weakling, but that didn't stop the guilt and resolve that came with thinking Bones' place should have been back on the Enterprise. He was a doctor, not a diplomat, after all.
They regrouped quickly enough. Vickers found Ruud first, and Yamaguchi began telling Vickers what had happened between him and the Captain. Ruud was watching them all with an expression Jim couldn't read, but when they started off again to find a way around the gorge where Jim had almost fallen to his death, the Tuataran stayed beside the group. They climbed to the top of a huge series of boulders, scouting out the area. Jungle as far as Jim could see, dipping up and down in what he could only guess was a series of canyons and ravines, all enclosed by mountains. Ruud pointed to the peak that was most directly in front of them, a short peak compared to some of the monstrous ones near it, and told them that was their destination - the home of the Eye and the temple that honored it. Jim tried to memorize where the mountain was compared to the sun's path in the sky, but without being familiar with the movement of this planet's sun he couldn't be sure he was right. It didn't seem all that far away, the base of the mountain, but Jim knew it was only playing tricks with his eyes. The rough jungle, those other ravines, would all make it hell to reach the seemingly short distance.
Eventually they found a shallow, slanting cut into the side of the ravine that would let them walk down. It was slow going though, single file and all of them had to press against the stone at their back as they inched along. He was pouring sweat by the time they got down to the bottom of the ravine, which seemed to curve in the direction they wanted to go. Even at the bottom they had to stay mostly in a single file line, following along the edge of a murky looking sliver of black-green water no bigger than any creek he knew in Iowa. Ruud proclaimed some sort of flesh-eating, tiny creatures lived in the silt-filled water.
Nice to know even the water was out to kill them. Out of the corner of his eye from where he studied the creek, Jim saw Ruud look up, tilting his head as if listening carefully with the slits on the side of his head that served as his ears.
It happened fast as lightning. Their eyes met and Jim saw something he hadn't yet seen in the Tuataran - fear. Shit. Instinctively Jim looked for Bones, still walking ahead beside Yamaguchi, and then back at Ruud, who started to hiss loudly and make the universal sign for 'hit the ground'.
"DOWN DOWN," Jim yelled, watching as his team began reacting.
The whole scene took less than a second, but it felt like far longer than that. Jim could see dirt and leaves lifting from the ground as a shimmering length of something popped up, moving at them fast. He saw the Tuataran throw himself to the ground. He saw Yamaguchi fall, pulling Bones down with him, the two of them getting tripped up with Ruud. Jim hit his knees and rolled onto his back, calling out for Vickers to get low... just in time to see the shining wire pass through the man's body, and Vickers fall to the ground in two pieces, dead.
For a moment all Jim heard was his own breathing, loud and labored. Darius. It wasn't the first death Jim had ever seen, but this was his man, his crew, now laying on the ground bleeding out, bisected into two pieces. It took a moment for him to remember where he was, snapped out of his nightmare by a groan to his left.
Bones found his way to Jim's side in a matter of seconds, his face frozen in horror at the sight of Vickers. "Oh fuck," Bones muttered softly, making his way toward the body. Jim turned from the sight, nauseated as the ground grew more and more red with blood. Vickers was dead; he fucking didn't need the doctor to tell him that.
"Doc, can you look at this?" Jim and Bones turned their attention to Yamaguchi, who was attempting to help their guide. "He's hurt."
Bones made it to the Tuataran before Jim did, trying to examine the injury immediately. "Let me look at his, okay? I'm a doctor. I can help." The hisses and snaps crackled through Jim's translator, and Ruud looked surprised, shocked... but he stopped fighting them.
Close up now, Jim could see Ruud's injury - the last segment of his tail was neatly clipped off. Thick blue blood poured out of the wound, mixing purple-black on the ground with some of Vickers' and Jim took a few steps back, needing to think. "Can you get him fixed?" he asked Bones, not recognizing the sound of his own voice. Dead, emotionless.
"Yeah, I think so," Bones sighed tiredly, but looking focused as he knelt on the ground. He ripped off part of his sleeve to make a bandage, and began binding Ruud's wound.
"Do it." Natural leadership instinct took over, words easier now. Jim could be horrified later; right now he had to be captain. "Yamaguchi, with me."
Yamaguchi followed the captain toward Vicker's body, both men still shocked at the sight of someone who'd been alive seconds ago. "Saved my life on our last mission," Jim murmured to himself. And now Darius Vickers was dead, on some strange planet his family had never even heard of. "See if you can find something to- to dig," Jim said to Yamaguchi. "I'll get his personal possessions."
It took almost an hour to bury Vickers properly, but Jim didn't want his grave desecrated by wild animals, if it was possible. Ruud seemed confused about what they were doing, but didn't complain and eventually even helped, looking solemn. Jim wondered if it was because he was exhausted from heat and blood loss, if he could understand a sign of respect for the dead, or some combination of both. They were all filthy by the time they were done, a shallow grave and a marker made up of a large stone. The numbness had settled in deep by that time, and Jim was grateful for it.
He stood up from his crouch and looked to Bones, Yamaguchi, and Ruud. They were all staring at him, looking to be a leader, and so that was what he did. "We need to keep moving, or we'll never make it and Vickers'll have died for nothing." Jim wondered if that wasn't already true, but hid that thought somewhere deep in his chest where it settled as a heavy lump. "This whole place seems trapped, we'll need to be on our toes."
Considering that they all needed a show of confidence that none of them felt, Jim took place at the head of the group, walking as quickly as he could manage in the heat. After several moments, he heard the group start to move behind him to catch up. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Bones trying to wipe blood from his hands without success, and the thought of cleaning brought the thought of water. That only cued his mind to think how thirsty he was.
"Ruud," Jim started, waiting until the snakeman looked at him. "We need to find a source of clean water. Are there any rivers or streams you know of?" Ones hopefully not infested with creatures that would eat them alive.
The question ended with Ruud tasting the air again, heading turning with each flicker of his tongue. "There is a body of fresh water some distance away. We'll pass near it on our way to the valley."
The sun was near overhead, and Ruud made rude hissing noises as he looked up that Jim didn't need a translator. The light of Vioniss, Jim remembered Ruud calling it before with a sneer. Right now, as the heat of the day began bearing down, Jim wasn't too fond of it either, though it had to be worse for the normally night-dwelling Tuataran. Thankfully, they heard the sound of running water sooner than expected, growing louder as they headed in that direction. A collective sigh went out when they came upon the river, but Ruud surprised him once more by stopping them all and tasting it first with a flick of his long tongue, before nodding and hissing his assent. "Is sweet," the translator chirped.
"Don't drink too fast," Bones said gruffly. Jim knew that Bones knew all these men would already know better than to do that, but being a doctor was a hard habit to break. They all drank deeply, and once everyone finished, they all stepped into the water and washed off, cooling their bodies as well. Jim could see how tired they were, everyone quiet and in shock over Vicker's death. He stepped over to Bones, and nudged him.
"Talk to me," Jim said quietly. Despite their not-quite-argument earlier, it didn't stop Jim from being worried. Worried about how Bones was taking the death of Vickers, how he was dealing with their situation. Maybe, just a little, he needed to talk as well.
Bones looked past him, toward the other side of the river. "Fuckin' useless way to die." His face looked shadowed for a moment. "What are we doing here, Jim?"
"Right now? Surviving." It wasn't meant to be happy, just a fact they couldn't escape. "Or do you mean the bigger picture?"
"I mean, hell, I don't know what I mean." He turned to Jim, staring at him like he was looking for some answers, and hoping Jim had them. "How are you doing, Captain?" Somehow when Bones said it like that, he made the title sound more intimate than his given name.
"Lost a man." It summed up a little of everything yet said nothing at all. They had to survive, get through whatever this was or find a way to get back to the Enterprise through pure damn luck. "Otherwise, all I can do is be until we get out of this."
Bones looked worried, as if there was more he wanted to ask, but he didn't. Maybe he knew this wasn't the time or the place. Maybe he didn't know what to ask. Eventually, he just reached out, a warm hand on Jim's shoulder. "That lizard over there's a tough thing. Didn't want my help, couldn't seem to get why I wanted to help him." He watched as the group all stood, preparing to keep moving. "That tail injury, its gotta hurt like hell."
"Nothing we can do for now, unless we can get some local medicine advice from Ruud," Jim said, which seemed like the best possible thing to do for now. "Some more information about more food in this jungle would be good, too." He looked up through the trees at the sun overhead and swayed slightly in place. The heat was oppressive, squeezing oxygen from the lungs and playing with the mind. Even cooled off slightly from the water, the humidity made it a futile gesture.
"What do you think happens if we don't make it there by morning after next?" Bones asked, as they joined the others.
That was something he wasn't actively trying to think about. "We figure out a new plan, fast." Jim gave a weak smile towards Bones, then looked to Ruud. "We need to find out more about this jungle. Medicines, food... anything that can help us out here." He had to trust that if his instincts were right and even if Ruud wasn't an adult yet, that Ruud would at least know these things.
Ruud looked back at Jim, curious and unsure and a little unsettled. Jim wondered if seeing Vickers killed, or even his own brush with death hadn't shaken him up a bit. "Berries, can eat berries," he began as they started crossing the river at a shallow point. The idea of jungle medicine didn't seem too important to the Tuataran, which made Jim wonder if most injuries were lethal, or if the adolesent was covering his own lack of knowledge. The latter seemed more realistic, especially the more Jim listened to Ruud talk.
They moved quickly, the formation of the group tighter than before, with different men taking their turn at point.
Authors: salvaged_pride and sullacat
Artist: gadgetorious
Fanmixer: dizilla
Beta: shinychimera
Series: Star Trek XI
Characters/Pairings: Kirk/McCoy
Rating: R
Chapter Word Count: 8451 out of 42601
Summary: Jim is everything he needs to be when he's sent on a diplomatic mission to meet a potential new addition to the Federation - charming, calm, convincing - especially with his CMO at his side to back him up. But when Jim, Bones, and their security team wake up in the depths of an alien jungle and are given a mission to succeed or die, they'll need not only to survive, but come to terms with their true feelings for each other. Will it destroy their friendship or save them both? Is it enough to teach Jim and Bones what they have been blind to - that sometimes there's more than just meets the eye, and the loss of one's world can lead to another?
Main Chapter Listing | Chapter 2 >>
The Art | The Mix
No one had shot them, no one was running at them with spears. They hadn't beamed down in the middle of an ocean, they hadn't disturbed anyone's eggs. Already, this was going better than their last few away missions. All in all, the first six months on board the Enterprise had been more exciting than any of them had ever dreamed.
Having been assured that the new species they'd been asked to meet with had friendly intentions and genuine interest in joining the Federation, Spock had asked to remain on board to complete a crucial experiment. So it was Bones this time standing at Jim's side, looking typically uncomfortable but ready to meet the representatives of Tuatara. Uhura stood on his other side, an excited gleam in her eyes. Jim knew she was particularly interested about this away mission, as the new species' dialect was most unusual, a mix of vocalizations and body language. The past couple of encounters with new species had been cut short, and Uhura hadn't been able to spend as much time studying their syntax and vocabulary as she'd wanted.
But this, Jim hoped, was going to be the beginning of a long and peaceful friendship with the Tuatarans, and the Federation would get the ally it so desperately needed in this sector.
The landing party stood waiting for their hosts at the beam down coordinates, one of the few places the radiation in the highest atmosphere of the planet was thin enough to allow transport to the surface. Jim looked over at the two security personnel that accompanied them, who stood calmly on the outside of their group in a relaxed parade stance. Good guys, they'd both been with him on their last away mission and he'd been pleased with their quick thinking and actions, enough to request them both specifically for this important meeting. Darius Vickers had a wickedly sharp sense of humor he could keep well in check, a keen eye for detail, and was such a good shot that Jim had been impressed, while Adam Yamaguchi was good-natured with an easy smile that seemed to put others at ease which made him perfect for negotiations.
It wasn't either of them that Jim was worried about when it came to the mission. It was Bones who concerned him, because while Spock was calm, dignified, and somewhat ruthless in his diplomacy, Bones was... none of those things. So when Spock suggested Bones of all people take his place, Jim had to wonder if Bones was the best choice. The best damn doctor that existed, Jim couldn't deny that, but a diplomat?
Maybe it was a lingering fear after remembering Bones' idea of diplomacy - in various bars around San Francisco, pissing off medics at the infirmary on campus, and a memorable scuffle in New Mexico after a return trip from Christmas one year that led Jim to have a little discussion with his chief medical officer - a discussion about diplomatic manners, keeping his mouth shut instead of making a mumbled comment, and not touching anything he shouldn't. It was rich, coming from Jim of all people, but there was no one who knew Bones better.
"...Remember what we talked about?" Jim said with a sly grin, his voice pure sing-song tease.
"Yes, Mom," Bones answered drolly, rocking on his heels and rolling his eyes. "I'll try not to embarrass you too much."
Jim heard a rustle and turned back to see two of the Tuatarans approaching them, leaving Jim to suppress a laugh from Bones' sarcasm. Even having been prepped on what little was known of them and their culture, it was still a bit of a shock to see them in person. The female was humanoid, bipedal with two forward facing eyes, but her body had not a trace of fat to soften the outline of green-hued skin over ropey muscle and her eyes were a slanted, hypnotic gold. Jet black hair coursed down the length of her back, and the long split tunic she wore was a tight fit to her body. Her hand was settled lightly on the arm of the male beside her. It was the first time that Jim had seen an alien species, in person, where the males looked so vastly different than the females. Where the female was vaguely humanoid and walked bipedal, the male looked entirely snake-like and was one long ripple of muscle with no legs. He was entirely unclothed, bore a large curved sword over his back, and looked like he knew how to use it. At seven feet tall, the Tuatarans towered over the away party as they stopped several feet away.
The female leaned over slightly and Jim could hear her hissing softly in a whisper to the male, who listened intently, the flicker of his tongue in and out the only movement from his body. Finally he nodded and the female straightened again. Then the male spoke, a language all clicks and hisses of the tongue, and within a heartbeat the portable universal translator around Jim's neck started to do its job. It fit snugly into his left ear, wrapped around the back of his neck, and had a microphone and speaker settled on his right collar bone. It was an expensive new toy that the Enterprise got the joy of testing over the old bulky translators, and Jim highly approved.
"Be welcomed to our world," the male's voice was an even yet formal computer tone in his ear thanks to the translator. The male bowed from the waist down, drawing claws diagonally across the air in front of and towards his chest. "The light of Vioniss is an insult to Cyli's people, let us venture underground until Cyli returns." Two words hadn't translated; instead the computer had repeated the closest translation of syllables it could find in its rapidly expanding vocabulary. From the corner of his eye, Jim could see Uhura's mouth tightening, presumably her mind already attempting figure out a translation for the gap in the translator's work.
Jim repeated the bow, minus the gesture across the chest, doing his best to be respectful. "It's our pleasure to be here to speak to you on behalf of the Federation. Please, lead the way." Jim had discovered rapidly as captain that he actually could be quite diplomatic when he needed to be, and to his surprise, he even enjoyed it. His actions and words appeared to please their hosts, and the male and female turned together and started to walk back through the dappled sunlight of the jungle overhead.
Already he was starting to sweat in the jungle's extreme humidity. Jim glanced over to Bones, who seemed to be comfortable enough. Probably happy to be warm again. Southern boys. He grinned at his own mental joke, and looked to Uhura who seemed to be studying the backsides of their host with interest. She caught his look and nodded slightly. "I didn't expect so much of their language to be body language."
The comment surprised Jim, who raised his brows. "Really?"
There was a smug smile he saw curling at the edges of her lips that told him just how much Uhura liked being able to prove herself superior when it came to linguistics. "Actually, while he was talking, there was a great deal of body language. Movements in the horned ridges at the back of his jaw, the tip of his tail, and the sway of his body. It isn't the first time I've had to learn a species' body language, but I've never studied a reptilian race before."
"Think you'll be able to pick it up quick?" Jim questioned.
The tone Uhura adopted made Jim smirk. "Of course, Captain."
Jim shook his head with a small laugh, then looked around as they hit the edges of the jungle and stepped onto stone-covered ground. It seemed like some sort of marketplace or something similar, with stalls made of wood and metal lining the pathway they were walking. Yet despite what he was seeing, Jim saw not a single soul in sight beyond their small party. "First impressions?" asked Jim, in a low voice.
Vickers answered first. "I'd feel better if I saw some others. Don't like deserted areas like this."
Neither did Jim. "Agreed. Let's just keep our eyes open right now," he said with a confident smile.
"Sir, yes sir!" Yamaguchi answered in a snappy tone of voice, then laughed at his own small joke, easing a small bit of tension between them all. There was something about Yamaguchi's way, even in his laugh, that reminded Jim of his older brother every time they ended up on a mission together. Just something small, when he and Sam were young and life was still simple. It always made him feel easy around the security guard, and he had seen that attitude work well on both other crew members, guests on ship, and aliens alike.
They were being led through a beautiful city, all stone work in pyramid shapes so familiar that it took Jim's mind a minute to realize where he had seen similar architecture. It looked like an ancient South American native city, something Aztec or Olmec. They saw stepped pyramids of a stone that was almost white, though from a distance Jim couldn't tell if they were painted or the stone was naturally such a bleached color. Their hosts seemed uninterested in talking, and from the long strides he was having to take to keep up with them, Jim guessed they were in a big hurry to get underground.
Jim was working on a theory about what he was seeing when they came to the edge of a large square hole in the ground. Raised stonework kept someone from falling into the hole on three out of the four sides, while the fourth side opened to allow them to walk down a ramp. Their hosts kept walking without hesitation, going straight down and vanishing into the darkness beneath it. Jim looked back to the rest of his crew, shrugged, and kept following.
After the brilliance of the day above ground, the darkness underground seemed complete as Jim tried to blink away sun spots and let his eyes adjust. Eventually he realized there was a low level of electrical lighting leading their way, down through tunnels that much to Jim's amusement, felt almost like walking down the corridors of the Enterprise. The walls were smooth-surfaced and squared off, and the floor had the feeling of being padded beneath it, comfortable to walk on but with a rough surface, almost like the texture of concrete or fine black top. Jim wondered if the snakemen needed the rough texture to aid in how they moved.
Eventually they were led to an well-lit antechamber, a lounge of sorts filled with tall chairs and large pillows. "Please wait here for the Mother to awaken. She wishes to greet you herself." With that, the two Tuatarans turned and left the room, the door sliding closed behind them with a hiss.
The away party turned to look at each other and the room where they were waiting. Bones pulled off his translator, rubbing at his ear. "That was friendly enough," he said, a little sarcastically. "Why did they ask us here right now if their Great Mother is napping?" he asked. "We could've come down later."
"Dunno," Jim answered, beginning to examine the room more closely. "Maybe they wanted a little time to check us out."
"Captain's probably right," Yamaguchi added, looking at the strange shield on the wall etched with swirling carvings that might have been writing. "According to reports, the Federation's had minimal dealings with this species before. They're bound to be as curious about us as we are about them."
To that, Jim could only agree. In quiet voices, the away party discussed what they had seen so far and knew from the contact that had come over the communications system the previous day. They waited no longer than half an hour before a male slithered into the room and asked them to join the Mother for 'first meal'. As they followed their guide into the tunnel system again, Jim looked to Bones at his side. "Must be a nocturnal species if this is their first meal of the day," commenting somewhat matter of factly, though he was curious about how Bones felt about all this.
"Sure looks like it," Bones answered, eyes tracking as much as they could as they walked, never stopping. "Strange though, most Terran reptiles tend to stay out in the sun all day, keep themselves warm. These guys seem the opposite."
"If you've noticed, Doctor, most Terran lizards aren't seven feet tall, either," Uhura added lightly, and Jim saw that twitch of her lips again as he walked with her into the banquet room.
"Captain!" The voice was far away and fuzzy, but incessant. "Captain, wake up!" Now there was something else, hands grabbing at his shoulders. Jim's body reacted more than his mind did, reaching up and trying to grab for the nearest wrist, but his body felt uncoordinated and off, and Jim's eyes flashed open.
Yamaguchi's face hovered over his eyes, looking down on him with worry, and beyond him Jim saw a mixture of shadow and the cool pink-light of dawn or sunset. Jim waved him back and sat up, but found himself blinking as the world swam in front of his eyes. "Sir, be careful." Yamaguchi said worriedly. Jim accepted the hand on his arm that kept him steady and upright, shaking his head to try and rid the dizziness that had come up. "Doctor McCoy and Vickers are still both out cold," Yamaguchi pointed off to the side, where Jim could see the other two laying out on the jungle floor, "and Lt Uhura is missing."
Something in his chest clenched, making him freeze on hearing those words. Jim's eyes peered on the jungle around them. A thousand scenarios ran through his head about why Uhura would not be with them out here, all of them bad. Jim whispered a curse and forced himself up onto his knees, crawling over and putting a hand on Bones' shoulder, jerking the doctor's body. "Bones. Bones. Wake up!"
It took a bit of shaking for Jim to get Bones' eyes opened, Jim sighing in relief as Bones' eyes did open. Bones sat up with Jim's help, his expression filled with the same muddled mixture of worry and fear Jim was feeling. "What happened?" Bones asked, rubbing his face.
What had happened? Jim frowned as he sat back from Bones, pulling together his memories. They had been invited to the Tuataran's festival in celebration of their Goddess, held in the center of the city under the brilliant white light of the full moon. Much to his surprise and pleasure, the Tuataran people really knew how to party. There had been displays of music and fire dancing that was almost hypnotizing against the black night, a huge feast of fruits, berries, leaves, and meats that Bones declared safe for their consumption, and strange religious rites that they sat respectfully through. Jim had been given a place of honor on a stone platform along with the Mother Priestess and her male attendant, with his crew right beside him. He learned about their gods, mouth stuffed full, listening to stories and legends while he sat and ate. Cyli - the word for one of their two major deities. Cyli was female, and was either night time or the moon, Jim hadn't quite figured out which. The other had been Vioniss, which was day time or the sun.
It was late into the night when everything seemed to hit a crescendo, and another rite began. The Mother Priestess spoke - she was the only female Jim heard speak out loud instead of a whisper to one of the males - and Jim got a chance to ask what was going on in a whisper to the Mother's attendant. The male attendant told him that tonight was a night of great power, and that the truly strong would be sent on a quest. The translator had taken its sweet time in coming up with the word, as it had been doing all day long for difficult or unknown words, but despite the hiccups Jim was generally able to follow all that was being said. He had asked about the quest...
Asked about the quest. The male attendant had turned to the Mother, who had leaned over to them and offered them the chance to prove the Federation's word and honor. Of course, Jim had said yes. That was why they were there, after all. Then a dish was placed in front of them, a blue-white bowl of something that proved to be bright-sweet on the tongue like ice cream and just as cold.
After that, Jim couldn't remember a thing. Just darkness.
"We got drugged," Jim said with some anger in his voice as he came to the realization. Whatever had been in that bowl, he'd eaten without even a second thought. Drugged. Damn. The hot-cold feeling of betrayal sat heavy in his stomach and hard in his chest. "And Nyota's gone."
From the corner of his eye, he could see Yamaguchi shaking Vickers awake. Jim and Bones called out for Nyota, searching the immediate area but there was no response, just dense jungle in every direction. "Drugged, and left out here on our own." Jim looked in the direction of the Tuataran Yamaguchi pointed out. Almost on their own.
Bones looked around, patting at his side. "My medical kit," he said. "I don't have it. Do you?"
Jim looked down at his belt, fingers running along it, and quickly shook his head. "Nothing. They took everything."
"Not everything sir," Yamaguchi called out, looking from where he was kneeling beside a dizzy looking Vickers. "We also have a friend," he added, this time pointing behind them at the Tuataran male unconscious on the ground, "and this." Yamaguchi tapped his neck, where Jim could see the universal translator still wrapped around the security man's neck.
Jim felt at his own neck, but his translator had been taken. He couldn't see one on Bones or Vickers.
"Why would they take all but one of ours?" Bones seemed to have drawn the same conclusion.
It was a conclusion that made Jim go cold inside. "Because they have something to tell us, or they want us to be able talk to him," indicating the Tuataran laid out nearby. He doubted that the Tuatarans would have made such a mistake; leaving behind one translator had to be deliberate.
He heard Vickers curse quietly under his breath, and for a moment the four men just stared at each other as each of them tried to figure out what to do next.
"We know that the Enterprise can't beam us up," Jim said in a very soft voice. They had been given a very specific set of coordinates to beam down to, a natural weak spot in the thick upper-atmosphere radiation of the planet. "Not unless we get to somewhere that the transporter can lock onto us and they're actually looking for us." Jim guessed that the light filtering down through the thick foliage was the first fingers of dawn, which meant that a good few hours passed since the feast. Would the Enterprise know to be looking for them by now? Did they even have an idea that something might be wrong? Jim tried to recall when he last checked in with Spock the night before, but all he could remember was telling Spock that everything was going great, don't worry about them. Smart move, genius, Jim mentally slapped himself in the back of the head.
All of a sudden a crackling noise surrounded them, making everyone jump, and the air was filled with the sounds of the hissing, long syllables that made up the Tuataran language. Yamaguchi grabbed at the translator and turned the volume up, so that the others could hear. Find Cyli's Eye before the light of Vioniss awakens three times to shine upon your face. Prove your strength and your words. Your worth may be proven.
The message repeated three times, then faded away.
All four men stared at each other. Jim swallowed once, thinking fast. "...They want us to find something before..." He thought fast, working through the formal wording. "Vioniss awakens three times... daytime.... sunrises? Three sunrises?" Jim looked up at the sunrise staring them at the face. "Guess this is morning number one then."
"But what is Cyli's Eye?" Yamaguchi asked, looking over at Jim. "That could be anything."
Jim opened his mouth to respond, but there was a hissing behind him. He looked over at the Tuataran that was righting himself, checking over his body before looking at the four humans again. Jim looked quickly to Yamaguchi, who had the universal translator already in his ear and was listening intently, but the Tuataran didn't say anything to them. He seemed more worried about the bright sun, beginning to rise higher in the sky. Letting out a ragged hiss noise, he winced as if the light hurt his eyes, then headed toward an almost invisible path between the trees leading deeper into the jungle.
Bones looked over at Yamaguchi. "What did he say?"
"Nothing the translator understood," Yamaguchi answered. "Maybe a curse word or name or something."
"Translator," Jim held out a hand for it, which Yamaguchi gave over. "Follow him. Best chance of finding out way out of here is with one of the natives." Except the Tuatarans could move fast, and Jim had to sprint to catch up as he fumbled wrapping the translator around his neck.
As soon as he caught up, Jim started talking towards the Tuataran. "What's going on? Why were we thrown out here? And where is Lt Uhura?" Jim tried to get any information he could from the snakeman, who clearly wanted nothing to do with any of them.
But as they continued to follow, the Tuataran slowed a fraction, listening to the noises coming out of Jim's translator. Then he shook his head, as if unimpressed at the ragtag group following him. "You must be faster," he said, the device in Jim's ear translating the hisses into words. "Must reach the valley before Cyli shows her face."
"At least answer this. Why are we out here? Why did your people drug us and toss us out in the jungle? Why are you here?" Jim went for a different angle, hearing the other three just behind them.
"I walk the path to Cyli because I am not afraid!" the Tuataran spat out at him, as if his honor had been disparaged. The look on his face was one of disdain. "Only the strongest can reach the Eye and become one of Cyli's Chosen. I do not know why you are here, unless She wants to see if you are worthy." Jim could hear the respect and honor in 'She', and knew it had to mean their goddess, not the Mother Priestess who had, he assumed, gotten them thrown out here.
"Then where is Lt Uhura? The other member of our team?"
That actually stopped the Tuataran and the snake-man looked back at them. "Female?"
Jim thought it was reason to continue. "Yeah, what have they done with her?"
"Nothing." And the Tuataran kept moving.
The blunt answer, and the almost offended tone it was given in, made Jim look at Bones in confusion, then anger. Jim asked again, wanting some real information. "What do you mean, nothing? Why isn't she out here with us?"
That earned him a glare that coming from a nearly seven foot snake man made even him pause. "All females are chosen of Cyli. Your female would be given no less honor."
"What do you mean, given no less honor?" Jim continued, trying to get some sort of non-cryptic information out of the Tuataran.
"Your female is free to come and go as she pleases. May return to your ship if she desires, or may wait for you in comfort."
Well, that was somewhat reassuring, if it was true. With them kidnapped, Jim knew Uhura would return to the Enterprise and along with Spock, start trying to figure out how to get them back. Would the Tuatarans given her any information about what had happened, or leave her entirely in the dark? Still, after what happened to them, Jim just couldn't settle the belief that Uhura was in some sort of danger. Until he could see her again, he had to assume the worst. "What does it mean to be one of Cyli's Chosen?"
The Tuataran ignored this question. "Hurry. We must reach the Valley of Ryss before Cyli shows Her face. Otherwise, much danger." With that, he began moving faster, just as the others caught up with Jim.
"You get anything from him?" Bones asked, beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead.
Jim looked to Bones, slowing down just a touch so he could talk to all three of them at the same time. "The Tuatarans have put us on some sort of religious quest, if what I'm guessing is right. I think we've got two days and nights to get to somewhere and get this Eye or who knows what's going to happen. He," Jim jerked a thumb in the Tuataran's direction, "said something about how this means we're Cyli's Chosen, if we make it."
"Is that why the Tuataran is with us? To help us?" Vickers asked, frowning.
Jim shook his head. "Not in the least. I get the feeling that he's actually pretty insulted that they put us out here along with him. Right now he's our best shot to figure out where to go though, so we need to stick with him. He seems to have some idea of where this Cyli's Eyes might be."
"I'd feel better if we had our phasers," Vickers grumbled as they all began walking fast again, catching up with the huge reptilian creature. Jim couldn't help but agree with that.
Thoughts about their situation and Uhura plagued Jim as they walked for a while, moving fast and following as close to the Tuataran as they could. From the bits and pieces of answers Jim could glean from the snakeman, they managed to figure out that the Valley of Ryss was their destination this evening, somewhere relatively safe compared to the dense jungle where eyes watched them at every turn. All around them they could hear the calls of animals as evidence that they weren't the only things alive in this humid jungle, and they could feel their passage through the trees being noted by whatever lived there. The air was thick with buzzing insects, too, and every few minutes one of the men slapped at the bugs biting their exposed skin.
All of a sudden the Tuataran stopped. He made a hissing noise that the translator couldn't interpret, but Jim understood one hand held up in front of him - the universal sign of 'wait'. The Tuataran's forked tongue flicked out several times, as if sensing something, a minute smell in the air only he could identify. They all watched cautiously as he picked up a large stick from the ground and tossed it a few feet in front of him. There was a collective gasp of horror as the stick was instantly snapped in two by three blades that seemed to materialize out of the ground in a wide circular arc then vanish back again into the surrounding foliage
The away team was instantly on guard again. "You mean the jungle's booby trapped?" Vickers growled, looking at the ground in anger. Their senses sharpened to the shadows, sounds and scents around them, and the dangers that lurked there, when it was not only the jungle against them but planned, purposeful dangers as well.
"Appears so," said Bones, watching the face of the Tuataran, who seemed to be both pleased that he discovered the trap, and amused at the astonished faces of the Starfleet crew. "It's more than just making it to Cyli's Eye?" he asked the large native, who scoffed.
"Cyli's Chosen are the strongest and smartest of all. Those who live through the rite receive the best of everything." His eyes seemed to be scanning the ground again, and soon they were walking again.
The atmosphere now changed from a vague danger, more annoying than anything else, to a serious and continual threat all around them. Jim could feel the change in the group, the constant prowl in the two security guards that was oddly comforting, and something like instinct that put Bones in the middle of the group. The longer Bones didn't notice the extra protection for him, the better.
They learned the Tuataran's name not long after that - Ruud. He acted a little different from the other Tuatarans that Jim had met so far, less controlled somehow, leading Jim to believe that Ruud was actually more of a teenager than an adult. Ruud wasn't yet seven feet tall, seemed more impatient that the others they'd met. He appeared to be unconcerned or worried about the humans trailing him, but the small glances back combined with the fact that none of them had to run to keep up anymore made Jim think Ruud was no longer trying to actively outrun them.
But Ruud still kept up the pressure for them to move quickly, pausing to grab at berries from a thorny bush. "These, the red ones," he told them, pointing out another bush. "Only these. Others will make you sick."
Bones picked up one of the berries, looked at it closely. "Not gonna make it too far if this is all we gotta eat for two days, but they look safe enough. Lot like some of the stuff they were feeding us at that feast of theirs." he said, looking over at Jim.
"I'd rather take this than having nothing at all," Jim said bluntly, shaking his head. He pulled off his gold shirt, making an impromptu sling, and started collecting as many berries as he could get his hands on. With more hands working, the humans collected a decent load into his shirt that he tied off and carried over his shoulder like a gunny sack. Jim looked to Ruud with a nod of thanks, wondering why the Tuataran was giving them any help at all after seeming off-put by their presence early on. Maybe Ruud understood they offered him no challenge to his position as a 'Chosen' but just wanted to get through this alive.
Eating their impromptu meal while still on the movie, Jim kept an eye on Bones as much as their surroundings, worried about the doctor even though he knew Bones had made it through the Academy's courses on survival. Jim felt keenly his responsibility to his entire away team, and there was a pit inside him that would remain until he knew for certain that Nyota was safe and unharmed. But Bones... Jim felt a particular protective feeling for him that had little to do with Bones' ability to take care of himself. It had a lot more to do with the strength of their friendship, everything they had pulled together between them in the years they had known each other.
The fact was Jim knew there was more that just friendship, even if Bones had long since told him that it couldn't happen. Yet that hadn't stopped Jim from growing more attached, hadn't stopped him from feeling something deeper than he'd known before, an emotion he consciously couldn't name but felt for Bones and Bones alone. That attachment was something he avoided in his life, but no matter how he tried, he couldn't avoid it with Bones. They gravitated together, opposites and as linked as deeply as the idea of F,ate.
Fate that the old Vulcan on Delta Vega had made into some sort of unavoidable reality.
But he couldn't think about that right now, what Fate might have in mind for them. They had a long way to go, and it was only getting harder as the sun rose overhead. The sheer physical requirement of dealing with the heat and the tough terrain was clearly starting to get to everyone, including Ruud. Jim wished he had a machete almost as much as he wished he had his phaser because getting through the thick undergrowth was building a rapidly growing ache in his arms.
A small noise in the distance set Ruud looking, still slithering forward but Jim could see that the previously steady flicker of Ruud's tongue had increased, poking through the air with rapid motions. Jim wished he could remember more about snakes, because Ruud acted very similar to one. "What is it?"
"There is something following us I cannot see," Ruud responded, a soft hiss the translator barely picked up. Jim gave a small hand gesture to his team.
Bones found his way to Jim's side along with Yamaguchi and Vickers, a worried look on his face. "Ruud's picked up something, something's following us," Jim whispered softly to the three. The doctor turned his head slightly, as if trying to determine where the danger was, but the noise Ruud heard was too faint for human ears. The concern on Ruud's face was obvious, though, as he picked up his pace again, the men moving at a near-jog to get away from whatever was chasing them.
Then it struck. Jim only got a glimpse out of the corner of his eye - something massive, the size of a freight train, coming straight at them, before he screamed out, "RUN!"
It was no contest. The small group took off together, but the creature gained on them rapidly despite its difficulty moving through the jungle. Ruud suddenly went up a tree, leaping up to a height that would have impressed Jim if he wasn't busy running for his life. He grabbed a handful of thick bramble in his way and shoved it aside--
Then there was nothing under his feet, just a feeling almost like leaping, flying, before gravity took over. Jim didn't even have time to absorb the information that he was falling before he slammed into the side of the cliff, fingers desperately grasping for any holding at all. A moment later his shirt was choking him, and he turned his head up to see Yamaguchi grasping it, trying to get a better grip as Jim tried to shove his toes into a foothold.
Yamaguchi got an arm under his, barely holding up his weight. "I can't hold you!" Yamaguchi cried out, "get some weight on your legs!"
"Trying!" Jim gasped out, but the collar of his shirt was wrapped tight around his throat, cutting off his air. Something crashed above his head and he heard Yamaguchi curse and whatever had been chasing them suddenly flew over their heads. Jim twisted to see it, a creature with long green-brown fur and eye stalks, now falling thousands of feet down beneath him. It felt like time stopped until he heard the quiet, dull thud from a distance.
Slowly, Jim looked back up to an equally stunned Yamaguchi, and together they got Jim back up on top of the cliff. Time resumed its normal speed for the men laying on the ground, panting as they caught their breaths. Bones ran up, staggering to a stop before he looked over both of them, his face frowning at the scratches and cuts on their hands and arms. He gave Jim a little glare that Jim immediately recognized, the one he got it every time he walked into Sickbay after an injury on one of these missions. He suffered under it, but when they started to go back looking for Vickers and Ruud, he fell into step beside Bones. "Wasn't my fault," Jim muttered. "See what you do when a giant mammoth thing is chasing you down."
Bones didn't answer, just kept walking. A full minute passed before he spoke. "I don't have anything with me," Bones finally bit back, just as quiet. "I can't do anything if you get hurt." Then he walked faster, catching up with Yamaguchi and walking beside him.
Jim couldn't have felt worse if a mule kicked him in the chest. He sighed, the adrenaline running out of his veins catching up with him and making him feel exhausted. He moved along behind the other two men, feeling every bruise and cut on his body as they struggled through the jungle again. He understood why Bones was angry, even if he didn't think it was fair. Shouldn't have brought him at all. He'd be safe back on the ship. But so would he, and Yamaguchi, and Vickers. Danger was part of Starfleet and something everyone knew could happen at any time. A part of him knew he wasn't being fair at all to Bones, who was no weakling, but that didn't stop the guilt and resolve that came with thinking Bones' place should have been back on the Enterprise. He was a doctor, not a diplomat, after all.
They regrouped quickly enough. Vickers found Ruud first, and Yamaguchi began telling Vickers what had happened between him and the Captain. Ruud was watching them all with an expression Jim couldn't read, but when they started off again to find a way around the gorge where Jim had almost fallen to his death, the Tuataran stayed beside the group. They climbed to the top of a huge series of boulders, scouting out the area. Jungle as far as Jim could see, dipping up and down in what he could only guess was a series of canyons and ravines, all enclosed by mountains. Ruud pointed to the peak that was most directly in front of them, a short peak compared to some of the monstrous ones near it, and told them that was their destination - the home of the Eye and the temple that honored it. Jim tried to memorize where the mountain was compared to the sun's path in the sky, but without being familiar with the movement of this planet's sun he couldn't be sure he was right. It didn't seem all that far away, the base of the mountain, but Jim knew it was only playing tricks with his eyes. The rough jungle, those other ravines, would all make it hell to reach the seemingly short distance.
Eventually they found a shallow, slanting cut into the side of the ravine that would let them walk down. It was slow going though, single file and all of them had to press against the stone at their back as they inched along. He was pouring sweat by the time they got down to the bottom of the ravine, which seemed to curve in the direction they wanted to go. Even at the bottom they had to stay mostly in a single file line, following along the edge of a murky looking sliver of black-green water no bigger than any creek he knew in Iowa. Ruud proclaimed some sort of flesh-eating, tiny creatures lived in the silt-filled water.
Nice to know even the water was out to kill them. Out of the corner of his eye from where he studied the creek, Jim saw Ruud look up, tilting his head as if listening carefully with the slits on the side of his head that served as his ears.
It happened fast as lightning. Their eyes met and Jim saw something he hadn't yet seen in the Tuataran - fear. Shit. Instinctively Jim looked for Bones, still walking ahead beside Yamaguchi, and then back at Ruud, who started to hiss loudly and make the universal sign for 'hit the ground'.
"DOWN DOWN," Jim yelled, watching as his team began reacting.
The whole scene took less than a second, but it felt like far longer than that. Jim could see dirt and leaves lifting from the ground as a shimmering length of something popped up, moving at them fast. He saw the Tuataran throw himself to the ground. He saw Yamaguchi fall, pulling Bones down with him, the two of them getting tripped up with Ruud. Jim hit his knees and rolled onto his back, calling out for Vickers to get low... just in time to see the shining wire pass through the man's body, and Vickers fall to the ground in two pieces, dead.
For a moment all Jim heard was his own breathing, loud and labored. Darius. It wasn't the first death Jim had ever seen, but this was his man, his crew, now laying on the ground bleeding out, bisected into two pieces. It took a moment for him to remember where he was, snapped out of his nightmare by a groan to his left.
Bones found his way to Jim's side in a matter of seconds, his face frozen in horror at the sight of Vickers. "Oh fuck," Bones muttered softly, making his way toward the body. Jim turned from the sight, nauseated as the ground grew more and more red with blood. Vickers was dead; he fucking didn't need the doctor to tell him that.
"Doc, can you look at this?" Jim and Bones turned their attention to Yamaguchi, who was attempting to help their guide. "He's hurt."
Bones made it to the Tuataran before Jim did, trying to examine the injury immediately. "Let me look at his, okay? I'm a doctor. I can help." The hisses and snaps crackled through Jim's translator, and Ruud looked surprised, shocked... but he stopped fighting them.
Close up now, Jim could see Ruud's injury - the last segment of his tail was neatly clipped off. Thick blue blood poured out of the wound, mixing purple-black on the ground with some of Vickers' and Jim took a few steps back, needing to think. "Can you get him fixed?" he asked Bones, not recognizing the sound of his own voice. Dead, emotionless.
"Yeah, I think so," Bones sighed tiredly, but looking focused as he knelt on the ground. He ripped off part of his sleeve to make a bandage, and began binding Ruud's wound.
"Do it." Natural leadership instinct took over, words easier now. Jim could be horrified later; right now he had to be captain. "Yamaguchi, with me."
Yamaguchi followed the captain toward Vicker's body, both men still shocked at the sight of someone who'd been alive seconds ago. "Saved my life on our last mission," Jim murmured to himself. And now Darius Vickers was dead, on some strange planet his family had never even heard of. "See if you can find something to- to dig," Jim said to Yamaguchi. "I'll get his personal possessions."
It took almost an hour to bury Vickers properly, but Jim didn't want his grave desecrated by wild animals, if it was possible. Ruud seemed confused about what they were doing, but didn't complain and eventually even helped, looking solemn. Jim wondered if it was because he was exhausted from heat and blood loss, if he could understand a sign of respect for the dead, or some combination of both. They were all filthy by the time they were done, a shallow grave and a marker made up of a large stone. The numbness had settled in deep by that time, and Jim was grateful for it.
He stood up from his crouch and looked to Bones, Yamaguchi, and Ruud. They were all staring at him, looking to be a leader, and so that was what he did. "We need to keep moving, or we'll never make it and Vickers'll have died for nothing." Jim wondered if that wasn't already true, but hid that thought somewhere deep in his chest where it settled as a heavy lump. "This whole place seems trapped, we'll need to be on our toes."
Considering that they all needed a show of confidence that none of them felt, Jim took place at the head of the group, walking as quickly as he could manage in the heat. After several moments, he heard the group start to move behind him to catch up. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Bones trying to wipe blood from his hands without success, and the thought of cleaning brought the thought of water. That only cued his mind to think how thirsty he was.
"Ruud," Jim started, waiting until the snakeman looked at him. "We need to find a source of clean water. Are there any rivers or streams you know of?" Ones hopefully not infested with creatures that would eat them alive.
The question ended with Ruud tasting the air again, heading turning with each flicker of his tongue. "There is a body of fresh water some distance away. We'll pass near it on our way to the valley."
The sun was near overhead, and Ruud made rude hissing noises as he looked up that Jim didn't need a translator. The light of Vioniss, Jim remembered Ruud calling it before with a sneer. Right now, as the heat of the day began bearing down, Jim wasn't too fond of it either, though it had to be worse for the normally night-dwelling Tuataran. Thankfully, they heard the sound of running water sooner than expected, growing louder as they headed in that direction. A collective sigh went out when they came upon the river, but Ruud surprised him once more by stopping them all and tasting it first with a flick of his long tongue, before nodding and hissing his assent. "Is sweet," the translator chirped.
"Don't drink too fast," Bones said gruffly. Jim knew that Bones knew all these men would already know better than to do that, but being a doctor was a hard habit to break. They all drank deeply, and once everyone finished, they all stepped into the water and washed off, cooling their bodies as well. Jim could see how tired they were, everyone quiet and in shock over Vicker's death. He stepped over to Bones, and nudged him.
"Talk to me," Jim said quietly. Despite their not-quite-argument earlier, it didn't stop Jim from being worried. Worried about how Bones was taking the death of Vickers, how he was dealing with their situation. Maybe, just a little, he needed to talk as well.
Bones looked past him, toward the other side of the river. "Fuckin' useless way to die." His face looked shadowed for a moment. "What are we doing here, Jim?"
"Right now? Surviving." It wasn't meant to be happy, just a fact they couldn't escape. "Or do you mean the bigger picture?"
"I mean, hell, I don't know what I mean." He turned to Jim, staring at him like he was looking for some answers, and hoping Jim had them. "How are you doing, Captain?" Somehow when Bones said it like that, he made the title sound more intimate than his given name.
"Lost a man." It summed up a little of everything yet said nothing at all. They had to survive, get through whatever this was or find a way to get back to the Enterprise through pure damn luck. "Otherwise, all I can do is be until we get out of this."
Bones looked worried, as if there was more he wanted to ask, but he didn't. Maybe he knew this wasn't the time or the place. Maybe he didn't know what to ask. Eventually, he just reached out, a warm hand on Jim's shoulder. "That lizard over there's a tough thing. Didn't want my help, couldn't seem to get why I wanted to help him." He watched as the group all stood, preparing to keep moving. "That tail injury, its gotta hurt like hell."
"Nothing we can do for now, unless we can get some local medicine advice from Ruud," Jim said, which seemed like the best possible thing to do for now. "Some more information about more food in this jungle would be good, too." He looked up through the trees at the sun overhead and swayed slightly in place. The heat was oppressive, squeezing oxygen from the lungs and playing with the mind. Even cooled off slightly from the water, the humidity made it a futile gesture.
"What do you think happens if we don't make it there by morning after next?" Bones asked, as they joined the others.
That was something he wasn't actively trying to think about. "We figure out a new plan, fast." Jim gave a weak smile towards Bones, then looked to Ruud. "We need to find out more about this jungle. Medicines, food... anything that can help us out here." He had to trust that if his instincts were right and even if Ruud wasn't an adult yet, that Ruud would at least know these things.
Ruud looked back at Jim, curious and unsure and a little unsettled. Jim wondered if seeing Vickers killed, or even his own brush with death hadn't shaken him up a bit. "Berries, can eat berries," he began as they started crossing the river at a shallow point. The idea of jungle medicine didn't seem too important to the Tuataran, which made Jim wonder if most injuries were lethal, or if the adolesent was covering his own lack of knowledge. The latter seemed more realistic, especially the more Jim listened to Ruud talk.
They moved quickly, the formation of the group tighter than before, with different men taking their turn at point.