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Jim Kirk toweled off his hair, wet from the shower, while he looked over his agenda for the day.
Along with the usual stuff, there was the global message, "1107 ARRIVAL 217B VII ('Lumpenfrauenzimmer')" after which he had penciled in "1115 - beam up landing party" and "1200 - reunion with Spock!!!11" The 1's were introduced by the padd software misinterpreting his scrawl.
Kirk smiled. Big day ahead. It was 0538 and seven hours--six and a half!--was too long to wait.
He arrived on the bridge, whistling, at 0552.
--//--
Spock woke up early to check the seismograph readings.
The eight-day geophysical survey of 217B VII was rapidly coming to an end. Much of the equipment had already been stowed in the shuttlecraft, but the seismological equipment was still set up in tents some distance away. Spock intended to gather as much da ta as possible. Above the sleeping landing party the weather dirigible drone was also still afloat.
The primitive life forms on the planet, one-celled organisms of various types which relied on photosynthesis or chemical energy, provided the landing party with a breathable atmosphere that nevertheless smelled slightly sulfurous.
The site where they had set up camp experienced a perpetual stream of groundquakes during their stay. They reminded the landing party as they slept of the thrum of warp engines, only more erratic.
The morning was cold, damp, and dewy as Spock crossed over to the seismograph. His nose also detected a distinct odor of swamp gas. He dutifully took notes and waved his tricorder around for good measure. Satisfied that nothing was amiss, he packed up and entered the tent.
The data outputs looked much like looked much like the seven previous days, but he didn't let that stop him. Opening the portable computer interface (taking care not to jostle all the sensitive equipment), he started going over six hours worth of output f or interesting events.
--//--
The power anomaly started at 0942, ship's time. The terminal screen Spock was working at blanked out and the memory storage unit's power cut out. When he pulled out his tricorder to diagnose the hardware problem, the device returned error messages on the screen. Scanning functions refused to work.
The LED's on the seismograph were still blinking cheerfully. Visual readout was indicating some ground movement, but presently Spock realized that the apparatus was picking up the pounding feet of his two scientists who had just run up to the tent.
"Mr. Spock!" Boma, breathless. "All power's gone out in the shuttlecraft."
"The dirigible is not responding." Cartier, panicking. "We were bringing it down when we lost contact. Now it's drifting."
"I am also experiencing equipment difficulties," Spock affirmed. "Have you contacted the other landing party members?"
"We tried!"
"Can't raise 'em!"
Spock raised an eyebrow at his subordinates' emotionalism and flipped his communicator open. He adjusted the dial. No signals incoming. He attempted to broadcast. No response. "Mr. Boma, do you have your communicator handy?"
"Yes, sir." He pulled it out.
"Are you receiving my signal?"
Boma adjusted his tricorder, fiddling with the wheel and holding it at various angles. "No, sir. Nothing at all."
Spock sat back and steepled his fingers. Very odd.
--//--
The warp field decomposed suddenly at 1011 just as the Enterprise hit warp 1 in preparation for the drop to sublight and approach to Lumpenfrauenzimmer. The power to the lights and bridge consoles dipped momentarily, but did not cut out.
"Mr. Sulu!" Kirk demanded. "Scotty!"
"No power to warp engines," Sulu reported. "Wait, I have impulse power. Looks like the emergency safeties cut in when we lost power and we're coasting at point three impulse."
"I cannae explain it, Captain. If you'll excuse me, I'm probably needed down below."
"Go on, Mr. Scott." The captain nodded calmly, sitting forward in his chair, the chessmaster surveying his board. "Science station, report."
The hapless science officer left at Spock's console fiddled frantically with the dials. "Sensors are not responding!"
"Do you have any data at all, Norquist?"
"A moment, sir. Yes, I have data on EM bands. All of them. Sensors are completely blank."
"EM? You have visual?"
"Yes."
"On screen."
The various officers on the bridge looked up at the viewscreen, straining to see this new phenomenon which had cut out their warp drive.
"It looks perfectly normal," Sulu observed.
--//--
Spock organized the party to find their missing members, since they couldn't communicate with them, and return all personnel and equipment to base. Since there were only six members in the landing party, and only two of them were any significant distance afield, it would not be a difficult task, but the inability to communicate did make the procedure more nervewracking for the humans involved. Spock was privately concerned about earthquakes, accidents, and persons not returning on schedule, but attempted to re assure the humans by pointing out the unlikelihood of the native flora/fauna attacking.
Sure, as far as Spock could tell, certain physical laws had suddenly ceased to operate, but there was no reason to assume that anything else would go wrong.
The weather dirigible drifted off about 600 meters before landing, so Spock and Boma set off across some rather inclement geography to retrieve it. The shuttle refused to power up, so there was going to be no mechanical help. Spock supposed he would be carrying the bulk of the device himself on the trip back, which was nothing more than logical. It would, however, leave Boma with not much more to do on the way back but talk, which was an unfortunate outcome. Spock decided it could not be helped.
Before he left, he rigged an automatic beacon to broadcast an EM radio signal. The shuttle had an automatic subspace beacon, which he also set, but did not expect results since the communicators were refusing to send/receive subspace signals. Communicators could be rigged to send/receive in EM (or even to give off sound pulses), but Spock felt it was best not to wait for the other team members to figure that out with a rendezvous due so soon. Uhura Spock trusted implicitly; she would not miss a morse code radio message. Since he doubted their ability to receive a subspace signal from the Enterprise, radio would serve as their means of communication.
--//--
An emergency conference call on the bridge. At least the intraship comms were still functioning.
"You know how I always said 'ye cannae change the laws of physics'? Well, they've changed."
"My biomonitors? They're dead, Jim."
"Making orbit with only our gas maneuvering jets will be a challenge, but--interesting."
"No contact with the landing party at all, Captain. I'm not even sure we're sending."
"So, to summarize, we've entered an area of space where the ordinary laws of physics don't apply. Subspace seems to have disappeared. None of the transtators are working, the dilithium crystal decomposed? Is that correct, Mr. Scott? We have no sensors, no transporters, no inertial dampeners and no warp drive. We're headed for planetary orbit but we only have limited fuel. Priority is to retrieve the landing party by any means at our disposal. Perhaps Mr. Spock and the other science officers on his team ca n help us make sense of this. I want Mr. Scott and Mr. Chekov to assist Mr. Sulu to make sure we achieve orbit with a minimum of fuel outlay. Uhura and Norquist, keep scanning for any signal from landing party, even unconventional ones. Doctor McCoy, I'm sorry about your equipment. You have my authorization to pull some of the trained medics in the crew onto sickbay duty if you need more hands down there."
"Don't worry about the equipment, Jim--that's not the most important thing in medicine. Chief Tso tells me that most of the lab equipment is working just fine. Unfortunately our medical tricorders are useless."
"I'm glad to hear the biomedical lab is still in working order. Everyone, you have your assignments. Let's stay the course."
--//--
It was only a subjective perception, but Spock felt as though the collapsed weather balloon and detectors were growing heavier and heavier on his back as he and Boma descended the bluffs and set off over the scree. Boma's incessant chatter about the "devil" in the equipment and "Murphy's Law" only added to his burden.
If G really were increasing, Spock would have found it very interesting, but he was also well aware that changing universal constants of that sort could very quickly get out of hand for him and all the other hapless lifeforms stranded on 217B VII. With only very little changes to physical constants, they could all abruptly meet their ends.
Spock had his own thoughts on the equipment malfunctions. It looked suspiciously to him as though every effect attributed to the subspace physics of the last two hundred years had suddenly ceased to operate. Spock noted that his telepathic abilities seemed somewhat muted as well. The universe he was now inhabiting much better approached that known by Feynman and Fermi than the one he was accustomed to.
It could be, of course, that he was imagining things and his telepathic senses had, figuratively speaking, a form of the sniffles. Interaction with the subspace realm depended on the transtator, and it was quite possible that something else was causing all their transtators to malfunction. Spock had encountered technologies which disabled phasers selectively, so why not? The military use of such a device was intriguing.
Only 200m now. Spock upped his pace.
--//--
Kirk studied the projected flight path on the terminal screen. According to Mr. Scott, the malfunctions throughout the ship were following a systemic pattern. For the most part the Enterprise computer was still functioning. Kirk had been warned by his chief computer tech that the backup memory banks were not functioning, but assured that the central processing unit had passed a diagnostic test with flying colors.
It looked like Enterprise would glide into orbit without any serious problems. The timing of their loss of warp power had been lucky indeed.
Escaping orbit was another issue entirely. Kirk intended to deal with that bridge when he came to it.
A call came in from Uhura. They were receiving radio signal from the planet. Kirk bounded off to the bridge at once.
The signal was a repeating series of beeps: a distress call in Morse code. "It's Spock," Kirk stated confidently. "Send a response. Confirm that the Enterprise has received their signal and is on approach."
"Shall I use voice or Morse code?" Uhura asked.
"Oh." Kirk thought about it for a second. "Try both."
Kirk sat down for an impatient wait. He knew there would be some time delay using RF signals. After a few fidgety minutes he asked, and was told that the delay was at 16 minutes and closing. Kirk sighed and reluctantly started looking into the food problem. The replicators and recycling systems were malfunctioning.
--//--
Spock arrived at camp in the midst of considerable excitement. The two officers present had received an EM radio message from the Enterprise and responded. Two members of the landing party were still missing; Cartier and the paleontologist she'd been sent to retrieve. Theoretically, they would still be walking back.
Spock instructed everyone to adjust their communicators for short-range EM signals--walkie-talkies. Phasers were powered down and stored; cutting lasers would be used if the need arose. The next priority was to rewire the shuttlecraft to get something, anything on it operational. Spock was severely pessimistic about their chances of getting it off the ground. Given the other difficulties they were having, there was no reason to assume the antigravs would function, making the liquid fuel propulsion system useless. Spock decided it was best to keep the others busy to forestall panic.
Almost as an aftersight, Spock asked the others if they had asked the Enterprise if they were also experiencing the same equipment malfunctions.
At this point, Spock experienced his own moment of panic. He had implicitly assumed that the problem was localized and that the Enterprise was all-powerful and that the pick-up would occur on schedule. What if the phenomenon was wide-spread and the Enterprise was being led into a trap? How well would she function without transtators? Would the warp engines be functional? Spock struggled to remember what physical principles warp drive depended upon. As far as he could recall, the warp drive did not depend on subspace physics. However, there were some complications. The warp field itself had certain exotic properties. At least the impulse engines were certain to work. Perhaps the Enterprise would simply fly out of the area of disturbance on its own power. Perhaps it was only this area of space and they would escape it as VII continued in its orbital path.
The message was sent and they calculated that they would wait, at minimum, 25 minutes for a reply, given the Enterprise's last known and projected positions.
Time was closing in, and there was little they could do. Spock would not resign himself to the situation until every logical leaf had been overturned. He instructed Boma to send a detailed report of the physical anomalies observed since 0947 hours. In the meantime . . . Spock began to uncouple the control consoles from the electrical power supply in the shuttlecraft.
--//--
"Is there absolutely no way to get the transporters working?" Kirk was dogging Scott. Now that he knew the landing party was effectively grounded--Engineering said that a shuttlecraft could not lift off under the conditions--he was even more eager to get his people off the planet.
"I can try, Captain, but I don't think it's possible," Scott said. "Th' transporters depend on transtators and they're not functional."
Kirk rubbed his head.
"An' you'd better warn the crew we're going to lose artificial gravity when we make orbit."
"Gravity? Why?"
"Th' artificial grav units aren't working. We've been decelerating at a rate of one g since the warp field cut oot."
"Why are we oriented like this?" Kirk demanded, realized that they must be traveling belly-first.
"Traction when the warp field dissipated. It flipped us aroun'."
"I see." Kirk didn't recall any change in the gravity other than a jolt when the lights flickered and the engine noise stopped. "This is all . . . very convenient," he remarked. "Almost . . . planned."
"It's a mystery, sir, you can bet on that."
The time delay for communications was rapidly shrinking. Kirk wanted a report from Spock. Come to think of it, they hadn't apprised the landing party of the complete situation. They were going to have some trouble getting the landing party out of there, and for that, they needed Spock's help.
"Kirk to Bridge," he said into the nearest wall comm.
--//--
Cartier finally returned to base late, limping and leaning on Liu's shoulder. "Turned my ankle in a temblor," she explained. She was obviously in pain. Spock let them carry her into the shuttlecraft. Everyone accounted for.
The last message from the Enterprise had not been encouraging. They had hit the phenomenon twenty-four minutes later, which might suggest a front passing through or expanding through space-time, disrupting or nullifying subspace. Spock was also not pleased to learn that the warp drive was out.
He decided that it might be most practical for the Enterprise to rig a special shuttlecraft using engineering supplies and equipment on board in order to retrieve the landing party. This might take hours or days. It was unfortunate that he was not yet in direct contact with Mr. Scott.
Little was working on the shuttlecraft, now in an advanced state of disassembly. The modern design relied heavily on transtators and crystal memory cubes. Rigging the power lines to manual control proved workable, but the antigravs were still dead. There was some disagreement among the human scientists as to what this might mean.
Spock was also concerned about the battery life on his jury-rigged radio transmitter. He had no choice but to cannibalize their equipment. Boma was now attaching some solar cells taken from the weather dirigible drone. He did not believe that it would provide adequate power into the night.
The radio lag was down to four minutes. Spock manned the transmitter, relaying their best suggestions.
--//--
"The dirigible," Kirk said, looking over the equipment list. "Can they use that to lift off?"
"I'm afraid not, Captain. We've already looked into it," Scott said sadly. "That thing has a maximum payload of 45 kilos and the shuttle weighs in excess of 3 metric tonnes."
"Damn! There has got to be something we can use!" Kirk exclaimed in a forceful staccato. The voices around the conference room fell silent and only the scratchy sound of Spock's radio transmission, piped in by Uhura, could be heard.
" . . . Repeat, all personnel safe and accounted for. Shuttle Tycho Brahe non-operational. Antigravs non-operational. . . ."
"This is not good enough. What about Spock's idea--we rig a special shuttle here?"
Scott shook his head. "Our shuttlecraft were designed for space travel and controlled landings. They aren't aerodynamic in the slightest. I doon't know how to achieve sufficient lift without a scaffold and a couple o' rocket boosters, which, being explosive, aren't exactly in plentiful supply."
"You mean to say we don't have any. Well, there has to be another fuel source. Think, men! There's got to be . . . something on this ship we can use.
"Scott . . . what if Spock means you could weld . . . wings onto a shuttlecraft. Perhaps take one apart to get the metal. Would that work?"
"Aye, that might help. Work, now I can't guarantee."
"It's a start. We should be in range for a two-way with Spock. Can we hook that up? Fields?"
The young electrical engineer started and started typing commands at the terminal. "Go ahead, sir," the ensign said softly.
"Mr. Spock! This is the captain. I think we're in range for a two-way."
"Confirmed, Captain. This is Spock."
Something in Kirk's center surged at hearing Spock's voice in realtime. "We should be entering geosynchronous orbit shortly. We've adjusted our approach to end up right above you."
"Understood. Are transporters operational?"
"Negative. All transtator-based equipment is non-operational."
"The same conditions . . . on the surface." Spock's verb was forever lost to static.
"Same on the surface?"
"Affirmative. We--"
"We're looking into possible solutions--"
" . . . Please repeat."
"We're trying to rig a shuttle for you." Kirk paused.
"I copy."
"It's going to take time. You may have to leave the equipment behind. Do you copy?"
"I copy. Equipment to be jettisoned."
"We know you hate that idea," Kirk said with a smile.
"Data uplink may not be possible," Spock warned.
"I don't think they have a digital transmitter," Fields said. Kirk glared at him for speaking out of turn. "Sir," Fields added nervously.
Spock continued. "Computer equipment is unreliable at present. Memory storage units . . ." He faded out again. " . . . unretrievable."
"You're breaking up."
"Our data may be unretrievable."
Kirk made a face. His people trapped on a backwater world and nothing to show for it. "We're going to get you back. We're trying everything we can. Recommend we meet back in twenty minutes and discuss our options."
"Understood. Meet you in twenty. Spock out."
Kirk nodded to Fields to end transmission. They would continue to receive as long as there was a signal to be found.
Shortly after the ship hit its target orbital velocity and the Enterprise became a micro-gravity environment.
--//--
The landing party went over their options grimly. Even if they stripped the shuttlecraft of everything but the insulation, they would be unable to achieve lift-off with the means available to them. They had enough rations to last them another two weeks, but there was no indication that waiting it out would yield a positive outcome.
Cartier began to discuss the possibility of taking the native flora/fauna for food.
--//--
Midday and afternoon on the Enterprise was spent in a tumult for most of the scientists and engineers on the ship. From adjusting all details of the ship's operation to the limited services now available, they had turned to the challenge of retrieving the landing party with only the parts and wits lying about them. Various schema were being debated while the captain fidgeted, strapped in his bridge chair and ready to bolt.
Finally he couldn't take it any more, and went to his office to put in a semi-private call to Spock.
--//--
The signal was much clearer now that the Enterprise hung some 35 thousand kilometers above them.
"Jim, you must face the facts. There is little chance of us ever leaving the planet's surface. You must maroon us here and take the Enterprise away."
"Accelerating at 10 meters per second squared? Maybe 2 or 3 g's for fun--that will test everyone's tolerance rating. Haven't you heard? We're dead in the water."
"The phenomenon may be localized. When you pass out of it--"
"We don't have warp crystals."
"But you will be able to contact other ships who can render assistance. There must be a limit to this field."
"What if there isn't?"
"If there isn't, then everyone on the Enterprise is trapped. Since it apparently propagates at the speed of light, you cannot hope to outrun it now."
"Thanks for that . . . depressing news, Spock."
"Jim . . . if I could rectify this situation, I would."
--//--
Kirk was holding onto the desk to keep from floating away. He curled around his arm and pressed his head against his sleeve, touching his emotional pain. All he had left of Spock was a voice? No, he couldn't, wouldn't accept that. "I need you up here, Spock. We don't stand a chance without you. Forget the data, forget the mission--we're not leaving until we have all six of you safe on board."
"How long will that take? When will rations run out?"
"We have time. Please, Spock. There's nothing to be gained by giving up."
"There is no sense in futile pursuits, either. If our time is running short I do not see the logic in wasting it on unrealisable hopes."
"Spock . . . please."
"Captain. . . . Jim, I miss you as well."
"You're coming home soon. I promise."
Scott and Kirk met on Deck Three for another conference on the origins of the anomaly. It was all much too convenient for Scott's taste. The warp field could have collapsed a thousand other ways and destroyed them at once or left them going too fast or in the wrong direction. The nature of the anomaly was also highly suspect (to Scott's mind) and he began to opine that it was more than just luck--or bad luck--that got them into this.
"That's a very fine theory, Mr. Scott, but how do we get ourselves out of this?" 
"You don't, of course!" The booming words came from a caped crusader, whose cape flapped freely in the minor air currents in the room. Kirk was not amused.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
"Shouldn't it be clear? I'm ObviousMan." He pointed to the "DUH" across his chest.
Kirk fumbled to flip the comm switch without the customary leverage against the floor. "Intruder alert," he finally managed.
"Tut-tut, that won't do you any good, Captain Kirk," said the intruder. "You're stuck in a Conventional Physics Zone. All that magical pseudo-physics you use to justify the liberties you take with natural laws no longer applies. You're going to have to deal with the world as Newton and Einstein intended."
"First of all, Newton and Einstein's intentions have nothing to do with the nature of physical reality," Kirk said, his ire raised from his little-known background in the Philosophy of Science. "Secondly, if you know so much, how did we get into this zone and how do we get out of it?"
"I put it here. You can't get out. It's reality. Suck it up."
Scott was about to pound the man for his insolence, but Kirk wisely, if clumsily, held him back. The last thing they needed was to test this being in zero-gee combat.
"If you really caused all this, Obviousman," said Kirk, "then prove it. Change it back."
His face was a mask of mock shock. "Oh no . . . I almost fell for that trick--too bad it was INCREDIBLY STUPID!"
Kirk shrugged. "It might have worked. Anyway, I still don't have any reason to believe a word you say."
"Who cares? I'm just here to gloat. Now that I've readjusted your attitude, I should probably be going."
"Well, at least you've got no problem with candor," Kirk muttered. "Can't you give us some . . . hint as to how to go about things?"
"Don't be silly. I've got more important things to do. There are a lot of fools in this galaxy." He flew out of the room and was gone.
A few minutes later security teams bounced off the walls searching for the mysterious intruder, but they found no trace of him.
--//--
A groundquake rattled through the tiny geologist's camp, causing some boxes to tumble over and a soldering job to go askew. The paleontologist was far more concerned that the others, and even Spock's dry assurance that "The ground will not open up beneath us," was insufficient comfort.
Spock was somewhat concerned that the other humans were perhaps a little too blase--for humans. Stories of vulcanologists who died on the job came to mind. Spock watched Boma closely. The others were unknown variables, but Spock had a history with him. The man seemed to be keeping himself very busy, however. He had also stretched out a tarp to catch rainfall if rescue was not imminent, the practicality of which Spock found immediately appealing.
Spock was surprised to get another call from the Enterprise. Uhura's voice relayed a strange tale of an alien visitor who claimed responsibility for the subspace-nulling effect.
"Conventional physics zone?" Spock wondered aloud.
--//--
"Spock, if someone caused this effect, there has to be a way to uncause it." Floating upside-down from his captain's chair was a rather unusual position, but Kirk was too engrossed in the issue at hand to think about strapping himself in.
"If I were to--tentatively--accept the logic of that proposition, the problem remains that we do not know how the phenomenon was brought about. Clearly, this 'Obviousman,' if he is responsible, has a knowledge of physics which far exceeds our own."
If Kirk had been the grumbling type, he would have grumbled. He put his fingers together as if he were going to snap them, and gestured at someone who couldn't see him. "Just . . . give me something to work with."
"There is no known means by which physical laws can be abridged. It is believed that in the first moments of the big bang--"
"A time of incredible pressure and heat. A singularity. That's strange, what he said, about Newton and Einstein. Just because we don't know about a physical law, doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, correct? Newton didn't know about the light-speed barrier or the quantization of energy. That doesn't mean that his world was any different from Einstein or Planck's."
"Furthermore, subspace effects were noted in classical physics, but ignored because they were minor deviations from the predictions of the model, and they could not be explained."
"Then perhaps this is just an effect which renders transtators inoperable."
"Transtators are tuned to a myriad different frequencies. It would be quite difficult to jam all of them at once."
"If it weren't, the Klingons would have already figured it out," Kirk said sourly. "Besides, there's that lump of Lithium where our Dilithium crystals used to be. Explain that."
There was a silence on the other end. "Spock?" Kirk asked.
"We are faced with a situation, while not physical impossible, at least highly improbable. Is it simpler to assume that well-known physical laws are in abeyance, or that our assessment of the situation is incorrect?"
"An illusion?" Kirk let go of the chair back and considered that. He began to turn in lazy circles. Fortunately he was used to weightlessness on spacewalks and not given to nausea.
"An illusion might be as sensible an explanation as any," Spock said. "Particularly given the 'convenient' nature of your encounter with the phenomenon."
"What is the nature of the illusion?" Kirk wondered.
"I . . . have experienced a certain . . . dulling of my telepathic awareness since the phenomenon began."
Kirk did snap his fingers then. "That's it!" He stretched out his hind legs like a frog and launched himself from the ceiling towards his chair. "This is a crisis of faith. Faith in our own convictions, in our own science and technology. We need to believe that it's not true."
"Jim . . ." Spock grumbled skeptically.
"It worked with the Melkotians, didn't it?" Kirk retorted cheerfully. He strapped himself into his chair. "Get the landing party together--you're a part of this too."
Kirk snapped on the intraship. "All hands, this is the captain. Prepare for restoration of artificial gravity. An important announcement will be made in five minutes."
"Why do you not order an alert and awake those who are sleeping?" Spock asked.
"They've been sleeping since before this began, most of them. They believe it in their sleep."
"That logic is . . . difficult to argue with."
"Trust me," Kirk said. "Time check, Mr. Sulu?"
"1644, Captain."
"Eight hours of this. Like a bad dream. It's about to be over." Fortunately McCoy was not around to correct Kirk about REM sleep and spoil his cheesy lines.
Kirk punched the intercom toggle again, which caused him to rise in his chair. Only the straps restrained him. "All hands, this is the captain. We have been experiencing some--unusual phenomena since this morning. They were caused by an act of will, the will of one being."
"There are 457 beings in the crew complement. Together, all of us have a will more powerful than that . . . one being."
"I need you to come together. Hold hands, if necessary. Repeat after me: I believe in subspace. I believe in FTL travel. I believe in the transtator. I believe in subspace . . ."
Obviousman appeared on the bridge. "That won't work," he said. Kirk glared at him and continued. The voices of the landing party could be heard joining in.
The lights flickered. "What are you doing? That's not possible!"
"I believe in the transtator." The artificial gravity abruptly came on-line. Kirk ripped off his straps and jumped out of his chair and walked right through Obviousman with nothing more than a kewl sound effect. "Mr. Scott, status?" he barked.
"But--!" Obviousman whined, and was gone.
"Transporters operational, sir. Wait--"
"Inform the landing party," Kirk said, and Uhura plugged in her ear bud and attempted a subspace call.
Scotty came back on the line. "The dilithium crystals are completely restored! We have full power."
"That's excellent, Scotty!" Soon, everyone would be back on board and they could get out of this area of space for good.
But Captain Kirk had forgotten one detail.
The shuttle Tycho Brahe was still in pieces on the surface of Lumpenfrauenzimmer.
--//--
Scott, Spock, and McCoy crowded around the bridge as the Enterprise warped away.
"I found this entire incident disturbing," Spock said.
Kirk, who was already pulling a double shift and not about to relinquish the captain's chair until they were far, far away, only shrugged cavalierly. "We're only a few hours behind schedule."
"I've got to admit," Scott said, "that it was a good drill for me lads in Engineering."
"Don't forget the lasses," McCoy said, nudging Scott and waggling his eyebrows. He was evidently thinking of the interesting effects zero gee had on women's uniforms.
Kirk settled into his chair more comfortably. "Don't look so glum, Spock. You retrieved all your data, and everyone made it back here safely. I think you all did commendably."
Spock's mouth was set in a firm line. His faith in the nature of physical reality had, indeed, been shaken.
"I do have one regret, though," Kirk said, with a puckish gleam in his eye.
"What's that, Jim?" McCoy asked.
"Well, what with Spock being on the planet . . . I missed my chance to get it on in zero gee!"