By the time she heard the crack, it was too late.  Yuulik’s reflexes were too slow, always had been.  The layer of ice over the puddle felt reliably sturdy until it suddenly wasn’t.  Her boot crunched through the ice, like a spoon smashing through the crystallised sugar atop a dessert.

Yuulik cried out in panic when she dropped into the frigid water.  She only submerged up to her knees, but she didn’t know that for certain until her soles hit solid earth.  The puddle wasn’t too deep.  Even though Leander Nune was ten paces away from her, he reached out for her as if he could somehow catch her at a distance.  He spread his arms just as openly as his heart, just as clumsily too.  In his frantic gesture, he lost his tricorder, sending it spinning through the air.

Ketris, the Romulan botanist, remained crouched in the shrubbery, a mere meter from Yuulik’s predicament.  Her eyes always spoke of a wisdom that she clutched like a secret, along with an air of disappointment that no one else could see it too.  Her response was a dismissive huff.  Ketris dropped her gaze to the lichen she was scanning in the permafrost, as if Yuulik’s safety was of no consequence.

His dark eyes locked onto Yuulik, Nune asked, “Commander, are you injured?”

Before her first thought, Yuulik’s gut reaction was to fear that Nune’s question was a ploy.  A Betazoid mind game to imply she was weakened, incapable.  But it wasn’t Nune who would have anything to gain from such a strategy.  In the past year, he’d shown little sign of career ambition. He would even cringe at the mere suggestion of showing unkindness to Yuulik.  If anything, the warmth conveyed by his voice was welcome in the frigid air.

The prospect of looking foolish —incapable— in front of the away team was literally unthinkable.  This was her away team.  This was her planetary survey.  From the moment the scout ship Grus had located Buccarro IV, Captain Taes had deferred every detail of planning the survey to Lieutenant Commander Yuulik in her scope as chief science officer.  She was the chief!

Because Nune’s question was unfathomable, Yuulik could only reply by not replying.  She fetched a vial from her satchel and purposefully dunked it into the puddle to collect a water sample, as if this had been her plan all along.

“A pity this planet was never inhabited,” Yuulik remarked.  In defiance of the chill seeping through her boots and the grey skies, Yuulik spoke in a bright and eager tone.  “The remains would be pristinely preserved in these low temperatures.”

Nune squinted at her and shook his head.

Without saying a word, Lieutenant T’Kaal strode near and proffered a hand.  Her bland stare showed indifference if Yuulik chose to accept the hand or not.  Yuulik accepted the help without saying anything about it and stomped out of the puddle.


As Yuulik moved nearer, T’Kaal stated, “If I may, commander, wishing for dead bodies may cause the away team distress.”

Yuulik smirked at T’Kaal, appreciating the boldness.  Bold and wrong, but at least bold.

“Are you telling me to calm down?” Yuulik asked.

Cocking her head to the right, T’Kaal replied, “I wouldn’t say that.  I offer an observation freely.  Do with it what you will.  Since you travelled into the distant past to repair the Krenim paradox engine, I have noticed a growing predisposition for morbid conversation.  Perhaps, it was earlier still, since Addie—”

Firmly, Yuulik countered with, “You’re mistaken.  Would you have me lead without emotion?”

Feeling doubly exposed between the piercing air and T’Kaal’s piercing observations, Yuulik yanked the hood of her field jacket up over her head.  T’Kaal knew better than anyone about the challenge Captain Taes had set for Yuulik.  Whatever happened in T’Kaal and Taes’s mind meld during the Dominion incursion had convinced Taes to give Yuulik a chance as department head, as long as Yuulik did a better job of minding her temper.

T’Kaal took a step back.  The expression on her face was unreadable and her body language stiff.

“Don’t do that,” T’Kaal requested.

“Do what?” Yuulik asked.

T’Kaal stated, “Two days ago, you warned me not to enforce pure logic upon the shipmates assigned to my meteorology analysis.”

“That’s not what happened,” Yuulik immediately snapped back.  “I complimented you.  You’re a very bright girl.  Very educated.  I thought your team could learn a lot from you, but they don’t have to become you.”

“Respectfully, commander, those were not the words you used,” T’Kaal said.  “Not the exact words.”

Exasperated by T’Kaal’s pedantic deconstruction of a single comment, Yuulik spat, “Forgive me for a teaching moment about showing grace to colleagues!”  Yuulik shrugged helplessly at her.  “Taes says I may better learn emotional management by teaching to others.”

“You made no mention of grace, commander,” T’Kaal said.  “Expansive emotions cause me no distress.  I was skilled in emotional regulation from a young age.  However, my meteorology team were all victims of the Borg on Frontier Day.  The collective took away their emotions and enforced its twisted logic on all of us.”

Delivered with impassive finality, T’Kaal said, “I would never.”

The arrival of Doctor Flavia trampled over Yuulik’s response.  Like the scientists under her command from the Romulan Free State, Flavia was entombed in a thick silver parka that was notable for its massive shoulders.  Yuulik hadn’t seen Flavia touch a sensor device since the planetary survey began.  Her hands hadn’t even come out of her pockets once.

“T’Kaal, be a dear and fetch the dynoscanners from the tent?” Flavia pleaded.  Her vowels were elongated in a saccharine tone that had no energy behind it.  “The team at the cryo-volcano aren’t getting much use from their tricorders.  They need the right tool for the job.  You’ll know what to do.”

T’Kaal complied and stepped back.  She retreated into the tent they had set up as base camp on the planet.  Once T’Kaal was out of sight, Flavia put herself in front of Yuulik.

“A little friendly advice?” Flavia languidly said.  “You can’t let the hired hands speak to you like that.  If Ketris clapped back like that in public, I would have her executed.”

Yuulik winced.  “You’re joking.”

Flavia hugged herself tighter within her parka.  She vocalised a soft “tt”.

“Your Federation has laws, yes?” Flavia asked.  “Laws against genetic manipulation; your own Starfleet chain of command…”

“Of course,” Yuulik replied.  “Obviously.”

“Mmm,” Flavia said.  “Obviously.  Any law is a promise of violence from a government to its citizens.  If you break a law, you will be persecuted.  Security officers are a secret occupying force, hidden among you, prepared to take away your freedoms at a moment’s notice.  How are the Tal Shiar any worse than that?  At least they’re honest about who and what they are.”

Yuulik’s combadge chirped and projected Captain Taes’s voice, interjecting, “Taes to Yuulik.”

Startled by the sudden intrusion, Yuulik lurched back and swallowed a gasp.  Had Taes overheard any of the past three minutes?

Tentatively, Yuulik tapped her combadge.  “Yuulik here,” she said.

“Prepare for emergency beam out,” Taes ordered.  “We’ve received a distress call from the USS Grus and I’ve set an intercept course.  Something’s got them, and they don’t know what.  Let’s find out!”