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we did get
     your warning right off the bat.” Sulu gave her a smile of encouragement and said,
     “Keep listening, and let me know if you hear anything more.”
    “Aye, sir,” Uhura said, smiling back at him. He turned and continued to walk the circuit
     of the upper bridge stations as she picked up her earpiece again. He’s going to make an excellent commanding officer someday , Uhura thought, replacing the receiver in her ear.
    The earpiece was still full of static, but Uhura immediately detected a difference
     in its tonal quality. She removed it and checked the settings, thinking at first that
     she’d knocked something out of adjustment when she’d tossed it down earlier. Everything
     appeared to be normal, but when she put the device to her ear again, there was still
     the same unexplained change in the signal.
    Acting on a hunch, Uhura switched the active channel on her board and tried to hail
     the planet’s surface. “ Enterprise to Captain Kirk.” She received no reply. “ Enterprise to landing party, come in.”
    Sulu, now standing at the engineering station where he had been talking with Ensign
     Strassman, turned back around toward her. “What is it, Uhura?” he asked.
    Before she could answer, the ship was rocked by a surprise collision.
    *   *   *
    “Enterprise!” Kirk put the communicator directly to his lips, trying to make himself heard to the
     communications officer while at the same time hoping not to draw the attention of
     whoever it was still shooting at them. “ Enterprise , come in!” The captain tried manipulating the device’s settings as he repeated his
     message, but to no avail. With a frustrated sigh, he snapped the communicator shut
     and looked over to where Spock had taken cover, flat onhis stomach behind the thick trunk of another ancient tree. With only a look passing
     between them, his first officer clearly understood that the landing party was all
     on their own.
    Kirk slipped the communicator back into place at the small of his back, and then drew
     his phaser. Slowly, the captain lifted himself off the forest floor, turned over onto
     his knees, and peered over the top of his log to try to assess their situation. The
     rapid-fire volley of shots ended as suddenly as it had started, and a stillness descended
     over the forest, broken only by the faint buzz of flying insects. Kirk slowed his
     breathing as he listened, and after only a few seconds, he heard approaching footfalls,
     and then indistinct voices.
    He looked around for the other members of the landing party. Ensign Frank was off
     to his right, past Spock. To his left, Kirk spotted a glimpse of a red uniform shirt,
     belonging to either D’Abruzzo or Farah, standing out plainly against the browns and
     greens of his surroundings. Kirk winced, and wondered why Starfleet opted to put their
     security personnel in such a highly visible color. O’Reilly and the second security
     officer were out of Kirk’s sight, and he hoped out of sight of the aliens who were
     now making their way toward the clearing.
    There were two of them, both humanoid, standing just over a meter and a half tall,
     wearing gray armor-plated uniforms and carrying what lookedlike phaser rifles. Both wore helmets of the same dull gray material, with translucent
     visors covering their faces. Through the face plates, they appeared to be reptilian,
     or perhaps amphibian, with greenish complexions and large, outward-bulging eyes.
    They stopped as they entered the clearing and immediately took notice of the dead
     campfire. “See? They were here,” the first of the pair said.
    “This fire has been dead for three dohs ,” the second one said as she—both aliens had higher-pitched voices that made Kirk
     automatically identify them as female—lowered herself onto her haunches and sifted
     her gloved hand through the cold ashes. “It was probably just some animal you heard;
     the Taarpi are long gone.”
    “It was no animal. It was