It happened so quickly. Impulse became action. Was there even a nanosecond of thought in between?

Less than three minutes after the Spartan’s away team materialised aboard the biological derelict, their unfamiliarity as a team began to show. They didn’t demonstrate the well-oiled teamwork of a senior staff that had been serving together for years or even weeks. Or even hours.

Ensign Pipedo was first.  She was immediately enthralled by the empty shell of a large seedpod and insisted on sharing her botanical expertise with the captain.

Almost as soon as Commander Kellin Rayco could no longer feel Brennan’s gaze on him, any semblance of a professional first officer fell away. He explored another path. After testing the sturdiness of a nearby tree, Kellin climbed nearly six feet up to gather a higher vantage point of the forest.  Although the branches felt like they could support his weight, their outer layer of bark scraped away at even his lightest touch.  The bark disintegrated to dust against his fingers.  He looked out among the treetops, pivoting his gaze from side to side.

“What is that?” Kellin excitedly asked.

Aside from the transparent geodesic dome overhead, Kellin could see no sign of artificial materials, except for maybe a small glimpse, several kilometres away.

“There is a lot of that, we might need more info” Simmons shouted upwards, whilst his face moved closer to a large wilting blossom, looking like he might be about to land a kiss on its shrivelled leaves. With a long finger, he pulled the pathetic bloom aside to reveal a cluster of small green orbs, the fine fur that covered their surface prickling in the minute breeze of the dome’s climate control.

“I’m thinking of calling these ones Actinidia Spatium.” The young botanist lifted the small fruits up with a gloved hand, examining the surface of the tiny orbs.

“‘Actinidia’. Is that by any chance in reference to the Earth delicacy?” asked Hey’xet. “The berry with the oddly mammalian texture?”

His voice going high, Kellin asked, “Pardon me?”  From his perch in the tree, Kellin gawped at Hey’xet.  “I don’t remember any cannibal berries on Vega Colony.  I woulda remembered.”

“They’re not quite cannibals but the enzymes do give you a bit of a tingling sensation on the tongue as they chew through your taste buds.” Simmons eyed the small fruits suspiciously, considering a taste test, but mercifully reason overruled his twitching fingers, and he opted to slip one into a small grey sample capsule instead.

“The name actually comes from the ray-shaped flowers rather than the fuzzy surface,” he clarified as he tipped a nearby long, thin pink petal that tumbled to the ground with the lightest contact. “All the botanical life seems pretty starved, or more accurately, undernourished.”

Simmons unfurled a tricorder from his belt and passed it over the ground beneath them, probing the dry dirt with the device’s trilling. “I’m not detecting anything in the way of nutritional supply networks or irrigation. Do you think it rains?”

Hey’xet drifted slowly past Simmons, moving like a lost spectre through the trees. Their tricorder was out, but their gaze was fixed on the dome overhead. “The mechanics of the dome are far more complex than I anticipated. It may very well be capable of generating or inducing rain.”

They slowed to a stop, and their tentacles blanched in a visual approximation of a frustrated sigh as they pondered the tricorder again. “But the ionic interference is stymieing even this far from the center of the forest.”

Without warning, Kellin jumped from the tree.  He caught a branch with both hands, slowing his descent. The branch made a sickening crack as his weight proved almost too great for its integrity, and then Kellin landed on his feet.  Looking from Simmons to Hey’xet, his brow furrowed with lines of concern.

“What’s the source of the ionic interference?” Kellin asked.

“Unknown,” said Hey’xet. Their normally fluid posture went rigid, and their tentacles tightened around their tricorder. “I regret that I’ve not even been able to determine whether the ions are being generated intentionally or as a byproduct of some deeper function.”

“So… we don’t know what we’re walking into,” Kellin surmised glumly. “Brilliant.”