Daughter of the Stars

From Delta Vega

Stardate 2258.42

Jim let out a groan as his senses reactivated. He looked around to find himself, not somewhere aboard the Enterprise, but in a simple jettison pod. Jim moved his hand to interact with the small screen of the pod's computer.

"Computer, where am I?" Jim asked.

"Location, Delta Vega. Class-M planet. Unsafe," The computer relayed.

Jim unwrapped his hand as the computer continued.

"There is a Starfleet outpost fourteen kilometers to the northwest. Remain in your pod until retrieved by Starfleet authorities."

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me," Jim groaned.

With his mind made up quickly, Jim opened the door to the pod and began to climb out. He grabbed a bag within the pod that was likely to have some survival supplies within it. All the while, his pod was letting out a two-tone alert.

Seeing that his pod had significantly fallen into the ice and snow of Delta Vega, Jim strapped the bag over his back before starting to climb up the sides of the crater his pod created. Once he managed to reach the top, he pulled the bag over his head and it fell to the ground as he looked around, seeing a vast expanse of nothing but snow and ice.

Letting out a deep sigh, Jim reached into the bag he brought up with him, thankful to find the coat inside. He also found a comms unit within the bag, but no phaser. Another frustrated sigh left Jim's lips as he put the coat on.

"'Course there's no phaser," Jim muttered to himself.

After securing the coat on his person and pulling on some gloves that were in the pocket, Jim grabbed the comms unit and attempted to put himself in the correct direction of the Starfleet outpost that was on this planet.

After walking for a while, holding the hood up over his head and along his face, Jim opened up his comms. He figured he might as well record what had just happened to him while he walked.

"Stardate, twenty-two fifty-eight point four two. Or uh, four four. Whatever. Acting Captain Spock has marooned me on Delta Vega, in what I believe to be a violation of Security Protocol fourty-nine point oh nine, governing the treatment of prisoners aboard a star," Jim trailed off, hearing something wailing behind him that was different from the wind.

His arm falling to his side, Jim looked behind him and saw something in the distance through the snow. He stood there, trying to figure out what he was seeing, before he realized something. 

It was a lone animal. Most likely, something that was making its way towards him to kill him. 

Quickly, Jim turned to run, repeatedly looking over his shoulder to see how close the beast was getting to him. He tripped, trying his quickest to recover, letting out a cry of fear as he ran.

It was seeming almost a sure thing that the beast was going to catch Jim. 

He felt the ice under his feet violently shake, causing him to pitch forward. Hearing the roar of two beasts, Jim turned over to see an even larger, red beast, had broken from the ice underneath him and attacked the first beast that was chasing him. Jim kicked his feet, trying to scramble away as the red beast swung the first beast about before it threw the smaller beast into a large spire of ice.

The red beast then turned to face Jim, roaring in his face, its own face opening like a flower.

Jim was back on his feet and running once again, hearing the red beast clamor after him. He let out another panicked cry as he ran. The brief instance that Jim spared a glance over his shoulder, his footing faltered and he found himself rolling down an ice cliff.

At first, the red beast that had given chase only roared at the top of the cliff. Some of the ice it was gripping gave way, however, causing it to fall down the ice cliff like Jim.

As Jim came to a stop, he had little time to recover. He heard another roar from the red beast and looked to see it falling after him. Jim quickly got to his feet and attempted to continue running, but had difficulty gaining traction on the exposed ice while snow was packed in the tread of his boots.

He did, however, manage to get out of the way before the red beast came to a halt as well, atop where Jim was standing only moments ago.

Jim took this as a chance to create some distance between himself and the beast, running once again in an aimless direction. Seeing an opening in the ice, Jim guessed it to be a cave he could potentially hide in. He made a beeline for the opening, looking over his shoulder to check if the beast was still in pursuit, and if so, how far behind him it was.

Jim ran into the opening of the cave but the beast blasted through the ice walls at the entrance, making its way into the cave as well.

Weaving through the cave, Jim continued to attempt to get himself away from the beast.

The beast, however, had other ideas. Two tongues shot from the beast's mouth and wrapped themselves around Jim's right ankle. 

This halted any further forward movement from the young man, and knocked him off his feet.

The tongues then started to retract into the mouth of the beast, pulling Jim with them.

Jim furiously attempted to kick off his boot in a last ditch attempt to get away from the beast but the efforts seemed all for naught.

Suddenly though, a light appeared and quickly approached the face of the beast.

The light, a torch, swung back and forth before it was thrust towards the retracting beast, which had since released Jim.

The beast let out one final roar before it retreated out of the cave. The figure, who was wielding the torch, took a moment, as did Jim.

The figure holding the torch, presumably a male, was then joined by another figure, who's gender was unclear. The two spoke for a moment before turning to face Jim.

There was only the sound of Jim's panting before the figure holding the torch spoke.

"James T. Kirk," The figure said, the voice tone indicating that the figure was indeed male.

"'Scuse me?" Jim asked, finally catching his breath.

"I never cease to be impressed by you," The second figure, a female, said, "How did you find us?"

"Whoa whoa whoa," Jim said, standing from the cave floor, "How do you know my name?"

"We have been, and always shall be, your friends," The male said.

Jim let out a mixture of a chuckle and a sigh.

"Look, uh, I don't know you two," Jim said.

"I am Spock," The male said.

"And I, am Sala," The female said.

Jim looked at both people for a moment, looking at the two, trying to figure out what he had just been told.

"Bullshit," Was Jim's answer.