An erratic flickering of light was all that Bohkat could see through his helmet. As the away team materialized in the cavern one by one, the lamps mounted on their EV suits resolved their beams of light into steady streams. They illuminated only the barest patches of rock or flashes of someone’s arm or leg in the dark.

Suddenly one corner of the cavern lit up, and Bohkat squinted as he stared at the source. Anand stood like a beacon, calmly studying his tricorder as his lamps shone upon the rest of them like the morning sun. Ang, Szarka, and Zamora fumbled briefly in the dreamy dark, until one by one they each lit up. Bohkat was the last to tap gently at his shoulder, expanding the beams on his lamps to the widest diameter.

He sensed the weight of hundreds of meters of earth and stone above them, though this particular chamber stretched higher than their lights could reach.

The glow of their lamps danced across the ground ahead of them before suddenly plunging into a black abyss: their next destination.

“Outside channel–” Anand’s voice rang clear through the comms in his helmet. “Anand to the transporter room, all present and accounted for–”

“Sir,” the transporter chief interrupted, with a question poorly disguised as a statement: “I have one more crewmember waiting to beam down?” 

Anand immediately turned his gaze towards Bohkat. “Who?”

“Petty Officer McNeill, sir. He says his presence was specifically requested by Commander Bohkat.”

There was a sputter and a scoff and a short “Mute channel!” before Anand approached him, as if distance mattered when their helmet comms were all integrally linked.

“I missed the last-minute addition of this newly recruited engineering crewmember,” he said quietly. “Could you give me a brief overview of what you think he’ll contribute to this mission?”

Bohkat drew himself to his full height and crossed his arms. There was nothing remotely intimidating about Anand, physically speaking, but there was something Bohkat found very unnerving about him when he was restrained and reserved instead of broadcasting his emotions for the whole quadrant to see.

“Despite being a very recent addition to Starfleet, I believe that his prior vocational history suggests a proficiency in skills that would benefit our tactical department–”

Their mostly theoretical tactical department.

“–and therefore benefit this away team as well.”

Anand crossed his arms. Sighed. Did that head wobble movement that Bohkat still had yet to pin a definitive meaning to.

“Unmute channel: Send him down, Chief.”

“Aye, sir.”

Bohkat shifted from crossed arms to parade rest as the last of their party beamed down. 

The shimmering column of McNeill’s form reached nearly two meters, and as soon as he took shape, he saluted Bohkat while wearing a smile as wide as his shoulders. “Commander.”

Bohkat offered McNeill a curt nod of approval, and then McNeill rounded on Anand, his salute quickly becoming a two-handed handshake. “Thank you for this opportunity, sir!”

Anand’s surprise gave way to a warm smile and another of those head wobbles. “O-of course.” Then his smile vanished and his brow furrowed. Still in the grip of McNeill’s double handshake, he asked, “Did you have time to read the mission briefing?”

“Once in the sonic shower, once during breakfast, and once on my way to the transporter room!” he said, finally releasing Anand’s hand.

“Alright,” said Anand, reaching behind his back as he spoke. “Then you know that our crew of six has three jet propulsion packs, for emergency use only.”

Anand withdrew a long piece of rope from the (obviously not a jet) pack on his back, along with a device that looked like a cross between a giant drill bit and a suction cup. 

He crouched suddenly, and the device made a loud hiss and bang as it came in contact with the ground, like the sound of a small airlock being sealed.

“You can use the limited propulsion system in your boots to slow yourself in our vertical descents, or you can save energy and do it the old-fashioned way.”

With a speed that Bohkat’s eyes couldn’t follow, Anand attached the rope to a handbrake, attached the handbrake to his EV suit, and took two steps backwards before vanishing into nothingness.

In shock, he started towards the ledge and saw Anand’s lights diminish and disappear into a deep pit of darkness. But the rope remained taught, and he was sure he could pick out Anand’s breathing over the comms.

Suddenly the rope gave some slack, and Anand sang out “All clear!”

The rest of the crew crept closer to the ledge to gauge its depths. Zamora was the first to shake her head. “Boots.”

“Boots,” Ang nodded.

“Definitely boots,” said Szarka.

Bohkat watched each of them use the ledge and the guide rope to steady themselves on their descent, their feet jerking awkwardly until the suit worked out the correct amount of thrust to allow them to float safely to the bottom of the chamber below.

McNeill grinned and shrugged pleasantly as he engaged his boots and followed the others down. On his “All clear!” Bohkat sighed, clicked his heels, and accepted that despite Anand’s eager attempts to teach them all how to use the handbrakes, he would also be using his boots for the descent. Maybe if he’d been quicker to grasp the mechanics of Anand’s instructions, his captain would have been less insistent on joining the expedition.

As his feet finally came to rest and the glow of his thrusters died, he realized that the rest of his crewmates had shut off the exterior lamps on their suits. Their faces were still lit up within their helmets, and after a few seconds of blinking, he saw them outlined in the faintest glittering green.

The dim glow came from the walls all around them, shimmering deposits of ore excited by the barest photon of light.

Bohkat cast his glance around at the others, and they were each drinking in the image of the walls, save for Ang whose glance was quickly pivoting between his tricorder and the walls, though he looked no less awed.

Szarka, naturally, was the first to break the silence. “Well, for being the obnoxious ore that sickens transporter signals and Horta alike, kelbonite is actually really… beautiful.”

“Eh. Lots of beautiful things are obnoxious,” said Zamora, apparently compelled towards philosophy by the view.

Bohkat did another 360, taking in more of his surroundings, and when he went to count the crew again he felt his pulse quicken when he realized they were off by one.

Straining to see through the glare on the helmets, he counted Anand, McNeill, Szarka, Zamora…

“Dr. Ang…?”

The comms went silent as the rest of the crew paused, waited for a response, began casting long arcs of light as they reactivated their lamps and peered into the far edges of the cavern.

A distracted response finally crackled through their helmets. “Right here– uh, northeast wall.”

A relieved sigh rippled through the crew, and each returned their focus to their instruments and equipment.

Bohkat brushed a hand against the nearest wall and followed its circumference until he found Dr. Ang.

He was standing perfectly still in the darkness, staring at the wall.

As Bohkat inched closer, he realized that Ang was not completely still. He was brushing a thumb back and forth across a gash in the rockface.

Ang startled when he spotted Bohkat out of the corner of his eye, and for a beat, he stared as if he didn’t recognize who he was seeing.

Suddenly he pushed himself away from the wall and retreated a few paces, all while keeping his eyes locked on Bohkat and pointing to the wall.

Bohkat gave a jerky half nod and shifted until his light caught the shadowed edges of a deep gouge in the rock. He stepped back once, twice, until the full etching was illuminated.

Triple lines ran parallel, intersected, and accented each other, an echo of fury carved into the stone. Was this left behind by the Borg? Or the ones who had inhabited the ruins on the surface? Or some life form their scans had not detected?

Ang spoke up in a soft voice, as though he were speaking only to Bohkat and not on their shared comm line. 

“Does that look like a pattern to you?”