Star Trek: Uncharted

04 || A Red Sunrise

"There's still no sign of them, sir," Lieutenant Xander, one of the landing crew, reported in grave voice.

It was morning. The long, seemingly unending night had eventually turned into a crimson red sunrise. The black rain clouds sweeping across the sky like ink spilled in water. The first sun, a small red star, rose over the jagged horizon. It was followed two hours later by a larger white sun that shone with a cold and pale light over the jagged black rock structures that twisted and rose unevenly out of the low mountains. Their crumbling shapes twisted upwards like spires towards the sky. A thick layer of wet ash covered the ground and seemed perpetually present across the strange new landscape.

"We must keep searching the surrounding area until we have located the Captain and Jaylah," Spock said.

They had been transported onto a narrow path cutting through the twisting black mountains. It was wide enough to carry a decently sized transport vehicle, however due to the unstable nature of the geological formations and the ground shaking thunder, part of the road had crumbled down the steep hill and off of the cliffs below.

"This is all a bloody mess," Xander muttered under his breath as he turned and began gathering together the long cables they had used in an attempt to lower themselves over the precipice far below. Their attempts had quickly proven futile, as the ropes were not long enough to penetrate the seemingly bottomless abyss and the ground was too unstable to anchor to anything lower than the top of the road on which they now stood.

"I still can't get the scanners to work," Ensign Elden reported, studying the half taken apart device in his hands. The communicators, beacons, scanners as well as most other devices besides the phasers were all unresponsive.

"The severe storm last night must have been powerful enough to create an electromagnetic pulse that destroyed the semiconducting circuit in all our devices, rendering them inoperable," Spock theorized, watching the dark storm clouds fall away in the distance. Red streaks of lightning flashed in their swirling black depths. "The phasers however have a modulating energy core which repulses every three point six minutes, protecting the primary functions from the electromagnetic pulse."

"So we have no communication with the Enterprise, no captain and no way to find our way out of this hell hole?" Xander swore loudly as coiled up the rest of cable. "This is just damn perfect."     

"In accordance with Starfleet Order 104, Section B, Paragraph 1-A, in the absence of the captain, I as first officer, take on the duties and responsibilities until he is able to resume them himself," Spock warned his crew member.

Xander glared at Spock for a long moment before continuing his work. "Yes sir," He grumbled.

"How will we return to the ship if we have no way to communicate with them?" Elden asked.

"The indigenous lifeform upon this planet possessed the technological capability to contact the Enterprise. We merely need to locate civilization." Spock told him.

Despite the two suns in the sky, the planet surface was very cold and an icy wind moaned its way through the tall spires of black rock around them. Spock attempted to remain indifferent to the temperature, although it was difficult.

"It is illogical to remain at this location accomplishing nothing, we must move on and attempt to find a position in which we can successfully rescue the Captain," Spock said.

"Yes sir," Elden said, shoving the pieces of his scanner into his pack, following closely behind the Vulcan. Xander brought up the rear, glaring at Spock.

The three traveled down the narrow and winding road for several hours but were still unable to find any suitable location from which to descend into the deep drop below. Black clouds soon covered the sky again, blocking out what little warmth the two distant suns provided. An icy black rain fell for a few minutes before stopping.