Harper looked around. The sun was a bright dot in the eastern sky. The dying star's anemic light lit up the area around them like a full Moon on Earth: yellow sand piled up against dark, volcanic stone, accented with gloomy shadows. The ship had landed on a lumpy plateau overlooking a dismal gully. To the west, V761 towered above them like a stern, unhappy parent. 

McGovern slapped his hands together. "Which way, Frannie?"

Harper consulted the screen on her forearm. "We'll be heading up that gorge," she pointed. "The bed of the gorge is too rocky, so we'll be going up the south slope until we get to that ridge." The others followed her pointing finger. They found the ridge, a narrow line halfway up the slope. "That's where we'll traverse over to the north slope. We can't see it from here, but there's a saddle at the top of that slope. Across that little col, it should be gradual slickrock all the way to the summit." 

"Charlie," said Strickland, "can you hear us?"

"Loud and clear," came Gordon's voice through the helmet speakers. The sound of his voice relaxed Harper. She turned back to the Esmeralda, and waved at his silhouette in the front view ports. He waved back. 

"Keep an eye on any changing weather patterns," Strickland advised. "We don't want anything sneaking up on us." 

"Will do," Gordon replied. 

McGovern spoke up. "I forgot to check this planet's rotation. How long are the days here?" 

Gordon checked the sensor log on the ship's console. "Looks like you've got about another week of daylight before it gets dark again." 

"Plenty of time," McGovern decided. "All kinds of time." 

"Now, before we go," Harper asked jokingly, "did everyone... go?"

"Yes, I went," said Strickland. "And can we not talk about it any more until we get back?"

"Hey!" said McGovern, slapping the seat of his mining suit, "I could be goin' right now!"

"David!" Harper scolded, but she couldn't help but smile, too. They were finally on their way. Harper led the way towards the south slope. The rocky ground was uneven but mostly flat. 

"We haven't done any climbing since we left Q'onos," Harper pointed out. "We should've been doing something every day."

"We have been doing something," Strickland replied, stepping over a softball-sized rock. "Like, get shot at, survive shipwrecks, and get shot at some more." 

"Well," McGovern added, "that's fun, too..." The ground got steeper the closer they got to the slope. Stepping up over an ancient lava flow, the ground angled up about thirty degrees. 

"Watch your step, boys," Harper said. Her trained eyes scanned the slope, and double-checking the coordinates on her forearm display, she confidently strode up the slope. Strickland and McGovern followed her as she made several switchbacks, angling back and forth across the slope as they slowly ascended. The black rock was melted in thick, rounded globs, which had hardened into exposed layers. At times, it was like climbing a long staircase. 

Harper stopped. "Let's take a break," she said. Strickland checked his timepiece; two hours had already passed. McGovern sat back on the rocky ledge. Below him, he could see the Esmeralda, a mere speck on the dinner plate that was the small plateau they had landed on. Beyond, the gully deepened into a gorge and wound off behind some hills to the east. He could see a line of dark, craggy buttes running off to the horizon. Above, the sky was a pale orange. 

"Charlie!" McGovern said out loud to the speck below them. "Can you still hear me? How are we doing?"

"You're making good progress, general," came the reply. "I've been watching your vitals on telemetry. I was about to suggest you take a rest." 

"We got it all under control, Charlie," Strickland said. 

"We're doing fine, Charlie," Harper added. She took a satisfying breath. "You should see the view from here." 

"You can tell me all about it when you get back," Gordon said. He sat back in the captain's seat, thinking back on their wonderful moments together. 

Harper took a sip of water, then another. She didn't realize how thirsty she was. "Let's keep moving," she said, standing up. 

Another hour of zig-zagging across the south slope brought them to the ridge. The slope rose to an edge, dropping off with a sharp line across the side of the mountain. It was like facing a stone wall. The land got much steeper under their feet. "Do I need to break out the ropes?" McGovern asked. 

"Don't think so," said Harper, examining her forearm screen. "If the scans were right... yes! Right over there–-a crack in the ridge. We can climb up through there."

"Through that?" Strickland asked. The ridge opened up before them, and orange sky poked through. The cavity was barely a meter wide. "It's gonna be a tight squeeze, with these suits on." 

Harper examined the crack again. Loose, black stones littered the ground, and she could not see the top of the opening. It would be easy to lose footing on those stones. "David... better let me have that rope. I'll go up first and throw down a line."

McGovern handed over the rope, and Harper looped it over one arm. Strickland handed over the axe; she used it to steady herself as she scrambled up the rocks. Twice she had to get down on all fours as she crawled over the loose stones. Finally, she emerged on top of the ridge. Finding a flat spot, she stood up. "Wow," she breathed, marveling at the expanse of ancient rock all around her. 

"You okay, Frannie?" Strickland asked. 

"I'm just fine," Harper said honestly. The ground was looser and much grainier above the ridge. Dark, jagged stone poked out of the earth like the spikes of a horned toad. Uncoiling the rope, she tied one end to a spur of rock, then threw the coil down to the others. The rope pulled taunt as Strickland jammed himself up the crack, followed by McGovern. 

"Whew!" said McGovern, joining the others. "That was some pitch!"

"Yeah!" laughed Strickland. "We needed those ropes after all."

"Well, we could've made it up without them, but why?" asked McGovern. 

Strickland started pulling the slack rope up. He turned to Harper. "How far have we come?"

"We're about a third of the way," Harper said. She pointed down the ridge to where it made a "V" shape. "That's where we traverse over to the north slope. It should be easier going up until that little peak up there." The others looked up to a thumb-shaped rock at the top of the slope. "That's the two-thirds point." She took a drink of water. 

"How's everybody's suits holding up?" Strickland asked. 

"Just dandy," McGovern said. "And I was concerned!"

"Actually," said Harper reluctantly, "I'm feeling a little warm. I'm not sure if it's the suit or what. I feel fine, besides that."

"There's a thermostat on your right wrist," Strickland pointed out. "See if that helps." Harper made an adjustment, and immediately cool air began to blow around inside the suit. She smiled and gave him a thumbs-up. Strickland coiled the rope around his arm and slung it over one shoulder. 

"Okay," said McGovern. "It's taken us almost four hours to get this far. We still got a lot of mountain to cover. Let's get going." 

"David," said Harper, "why don't you take the point. I figure we should head across the ridge and straight up the slope, then over to the left around that overhang and up to the peak." 

"Let's saddle up!" McGovern said as he led the way down the ridge. The lip of the ridge acted as a protective wall against the wind, which had picked up the higher they climbed. Pebbles and fist-sized rocks littered their path. 

"Not much water erosion," Harper noticed as they walked. "If there was any water, all this would've been washed away ages ago."

They descended to the opening where the gully cut through the ridge. The path was clearer ahead. McGovern looked out over the lip of the ridge, and stopped. "Wow," he said. "Will you look at that?" 

The hills to the east rolled away before them. Beyond was the line of buttes they'd seen earlier. Now that they were higher, they could see another line far off to the northeast: jagged, broken hulks of rock, tombstones for a dead planet. 

"V761," Strickland said finally. "Does that mean there's seven hundred sixty-one volcanoes on this planet?"

"Scans found over a thousand," Harper replied. "All along the edges of the tectonic plates."

"Man!" said McGovern. "This planet just burst apart at the seams, didn't it?" 

Strickland looked at the view with amazement. "What would cause something like that, Frannie?"

Harper thought for a moment as they traversed to the north ridge. "Some kind of shift in the planet's orbit, maybe. We can take a look around the system once we're back in orbit." 

"The sensors in that little ship might not be sophisticated enough, Frannie," Strickland pointed out. He followed two meters behind Harper as McGovern led the way. The dark, dusty north slope swept up towards the sky at about a forty-five degree angle. 

McGovern stopped to examine the slope. He pointed with one gloved hand. "It'll be easier for us to go up this way," he said. With a grunt, he started climbing up the slope. "Shouldn't take us an hour to get to that small peak--" Just then, the black soil beneath McGovern's foot cracked like thin ice, and his foot sank into the soft, black soil underneath up to his ankle. The cracked soil caused McGovern to lose his balance. "Dammit!" he exclaimed as he fell flat on his face against the slope—-which suddenly broke apart all around him. Harper and Strickland could feel the mountain vibrate beneath their feet. They watched in horror as the slope before them moved on its own. A slab of hard earth the size of a basketball court broke away from the mountain and began to slide down the slope, carrying McGovern with it. The others stood frozen as it inched straight towards them. The shell of volcanic earth stopped literally at Harper's feet. 

Gordon's voice came on the helmet speakers. "Frannie! What's going on? Everybody's heart rate just spiked way above normal." 

Harper caught her breath. Through her visor, she exchanged an anxious glance with Strickland. "Stand by, Charlie," she gulped. Neither dared move. 

"Dave?" said Strickland. "You okay?"

They heard McGovern cough. "Son of a bitch!" he said. 

"Don't move, David," Harper whispered. "You might bring the whole slope down on us."

"That had occurred to me!" McGovern growled. Slowly, he rose up on his hands. "Both of you, back off!"

Strickland moved up behind Harper. "Don't move, Dave. Let us come get you."

"No," McGovern said. "If this mountain buries me, I'll need you to dig me out." Slowly, Strickland and Harper turned and moved back towards the ridge. McGovern stood in the hollow of the cracked slab, grainy soil beneath his boots, and carefully stepped down the slope. The ground did not follow him. McGovern did not look back until he joined the others, about ten meters away from the torn, black slope. 

"What's going on up there?" Gordon demanded. 

"We almost triggered an avalanche," Strickland replied. He looked up the slope, where a cornice of newly-broken rock loomed over them. 

Harper huffed in frustration. "I don't understand it!" she said, wiping black dust from the screen on her forearm. "There was nothing in the scans about that ground being unstable. Nothing!" 

"Is everybody all right?" Gordon's voice asked. 

"Yeah," Strickland replied. "We're just a little shook up, is all, Charlie. You okay, Dave?" 

McGovern was brushing the volcanic soil off the front of his mining suit. "Well," he said, "that was exciting," he said, without enthusiasm. 

"Is the rest of the mountain gonna be like that?" Strickland wondered. Just then, he saw Harper slap the side of her helmet. 

"Of course!" she said. "Dammit! It's the hyperonic radiation. It must have disrupted the sensor scans. My climbing program found the quickest route up the mountain, but that was all based on the available data. Which wasn't complete. The probe mapped the surface of the mountain but didn't penetrate beneath the surface. Damn!" She sat down on a nearby rock. 

"So much for technology making our lives easier," Strickland commented. 

Handfuls of yellow dust blew past their ankles. "So, is this it?" McGovern asked finally. "End of the road?"

Strickland shook his head. "I didn't come this far to quit over one little setback. There's gotta be another way."

They heard Harper take a deep sigh, then slowly rise to her feet. "There is," she said. "We follow the gully to the next ridge. From there, we follow the crest up to that peak we were shooting for, then business as usual." She checked the screen on her arm. "Everything above the gully is exposed rock, so we shouldn't encounter anything like that again. It's not the quickest way, but it will get us to the top."

"Unless there's any more surprises," McGovern said. 

"The hell with surprises," Harper said suddenly, turning to face the mountain. "I came here to climb a mountain. And I'm not leaving until I do!" She took a determined step towards the rocky gully, but Strickland stopped her. 

"Hold up, there, Frannie," he said, uncoiling the rope from his shoulder. "We should rope off before anything else happens." He tied one end to a biner on his suit, then handed the coil to Harper. "We should give about eight to ten meters of slack between us."  

Harper held the rope. "Hold on," she said, "I'm in the middle? Now, wait just a minute--"

McGovern and Strickland exchanged a look. "You've been outvoted, Frannie. C'mon, let's get a move on." Once the three were connected with rope, McGovern once again led the way. The gully was an easier climb than it looked. Volcanic rocks created stepping-stones with flat sides for easy climbing. 

"This is like climbing Gro'tara again," Strickland commented. 

"Gro'tara was a long way back," McGovern replied. "Ah, Q'onos. How I long for the smell of the bacon trees again..."  

"And Klingon booboo," Harper added. 

"And dungtit!" Strickland interjected. "Don't forget the dungtit!" Harper had to chuckle at the mention of the Klingon candy. The sound of her laughter gave Gordon, listening in the ship far below, a warm feeling inside. 

"No," said McGovern, stepping over basketball-sized rocks, "it was all destroyed during the Dominion War. There wasn't any dungtit on Q'onos anymore."

"But there will be," said Strickland, following behind the others. "Once they start cultivating those jalapeno plants I had shipped to Q,onos, Klingon children will be happy again."

"Klingon children," mused Harper. "Happy, sweet, violent little children."

"With their faux dungtit," said McGovern. 

"Dreaming of booboo," added Strickland. The three continued to laugh to themselves as they pushed on up the rocky gully. After almost an hour, they finally reached the crest of the mountain. A wide, rocky shelf extended before them. Beyond, the peaks of several buttes appeared along the western horizon. 

McGovern stomped his foot as he came over the edge from the gully. "Solid. Good," he said. 

"Mind doing that after we're all on top?" Strickland said from behind him. Harper gave a tug on the rope to add her agreement. 

"Oh, yeah," said McGovern, a tad embarrassed. The crest of the mountain was a wide hump of dark stone, stretching down to the south and sloping up towards the summit. Harper looked around. For some reason, she was reminded of the gardens at Starfleet Academy. The shelf was almost as wide. 

"That way, David," she pointed. Up the slope was a tall, thumb-shaped rock. They could see the slope drastically narrowed past that point, then widened again just before the peak. 

"That's the bridge you were talking about, huh?" Strickland pointed. 

"Yes," Harper said, following McGovern. The three walked single-file towards the tall rock. As they got closer, Harper noticed the base of the rock was pock-marked with large holes. It rose above them like a giant, petrified sponge. 

They walked past a opening that looked like it was carved out of black coral. Inside was a cave big enough to park a shuttle. "What would cause that?" Strickland wondered aloud. 

"Bubbles in the lava, I suppose," Harper guessed. "There's caverns like this on Vulcan." Ahead was a line of bolders each the size of a large suitcase. McGovern stopped walking. "David? What is it?" Harper asked. 

McGovern turned to face them. "I think this would be a good place for some lunch." 

"That's the best idea I've heard all day," Strickland said. Harper took a sip of water from the suit tube. "There should be some energy bars in the sleeve inside your suits." McGovern was already shaking his right arm to pull it free of the suit sleeve. He pulled his arm back into the chest cavity of the suit and found the sleeve. 

"There's a couple of things in here," Harper said, feeling around in the sleeve. She found the energy bar, sealed in a protective wrapper. There was something else at the bottom: bigger and rectangular. "Is that a pod pack?"

"Yeah," Strickland said. "The energy bars will keep us going, but if we have to spend the night up here we'll need something more substantial." Through McGovern's visor, they could see him tearing the wrapping off with his teeth and taking a bite of the energy bar. 

Harper got one energy bar wrapper opened. "I am going to be so glad to get back and eat something that doesn't have a twenty year shelf life." 

"Amen to that," McGovern said. In the ship far below, Gordon could hear the sounds of them chewing. The sounds reminded him that he had not eaten in hours, either. He rose from the pilot's seat, and went back into the bay of the ship to find some food. There were still some sandwiches left, so he helped himself to one. While he was gone, he failed to notice a spike on the stern sensor relay screen. The screen was cleared by the time he returned. 

"What time is it?" Strickland wondered as he stuffed the empty wrapper back in the sleeve. Harper and McGovern pushed their arms back into the suits. 

"We've been climbing for about six hours," Harper reported. "Almost there, boys." 

"Hey," said McGovern, looking up at the tall rock before them, "we're the first people here. We get to name everything. What do you think we should call this thing?" The rock thrust up from the mountain, towards the orange sky. 

"It looked kind of like a thumb from below," Strickland offered. "Not so much up close."

"It sort of looks like something I burned during a barbecue once," McGovern said. 

"Well," said Harper rising, "since we just had lunch here, I suggest we call it Picnic Rock."

"Sounds good to me!" McGovern declared. 

"We should write that down," said Strickland. "We'll need to write all this out when we get back." McGovern took the lead again as they started walking single-file around the newly-named Picnic Rock. 

"We never got a camera, did we?" McGovern realized. "Damn. I'd sure like some pictures to prove we did this."

"We don't need a camera," Harper said. "My tricorder can make a record of everything in three dimensions. It won't be hard to reconfigure the data as two-dimensional images." 

"Whoa," McGovern said, stopping suddenly. He seemed to be facing the edge of a cliff. Harper looked around him. 

"Oh, my," she said. Before them, the crest of the mountain narrowed dramatically. The path they had been following stepped down slightly, then shrank to the width of a catwalk as it pointed eastward. Two great chasms opened up on either side of the path. They had come to the bridge. On the other side of the bridge, the crest widened back up again. It was the only course to the summit.  

Strickland looked over Harper's shoulder. "Holy crap!" 

"All right," said McGovern. His voice was level and calm. "We're going to take this nice and easy. I figure it's about ten meters to the other side. So, let's get anchored before we do anything." 

Harper pulled out the spare coil of rope. "And I thought this was going to be a non-technical climb."

"This is the most technical part we've come up against," McGovern said. "We could try it without ropes, but hey, I'm old." 

"It's just good that we came prepared," Strickland answered. He took one end of the spare rope and wrapped it around a buttress of volcanic rock. Tying it tight, he handed it to McGovern, who ran the coil out about fifteen meters then tied it off to his harness. 

"All right," the general said. "I'll go across first. Nobody follow until I get the second line secured." He turned to face the bridge. The others could hear McGovern blow out a puff of air. Wrapping the end of the rope around one wrist, he stepped out onto the bridge. 

The rock was solid enough. Pea-sized pebbles were scattered across the stone. Not enough to trip anybody. The col was just barely the width of his shoulders. Once begun, he did not stop, stepping carefully but purposely one foot after the other until he reached the other side. The others heard him clear his throat before he turned around. "That wasn't so bad," he said. McGovern dropped the coil of rope, then pulled out a pinion. Using the flat edge of the climbing axe, he hammered the pinion into a narrow crack in the dark rock. Yellow dust drifted past as he hammered. The wind was picking up again. The others watched from the far side of the saddle. Once it was securely in place, McGovern ran the rope through and tied it off. He sat down on the rock facing the bridge. 

"Ready when you are, Frannie," he said. "Climb when ready." The second rope now strung across the gap, it would act as a banister to support the crossing. McGovern anchored his feet against the hard rock, then pulled up the slack the belay rope connecting him with Harper. 

"Climbing," Harper announced. Using a biner connected to her harness, she connected herself to the second rope, sliding the biner along as she walked. It was comforting to have a hand on the second rope as she stepped out onto the bridge. Keeping her eyes straight ahead, Harper paced one foot after the other until she was across the bridge. "Safe," she declared.

Harper turned, braced her feet, and pulled up the slack on the belay rope. "Your turn, Warren." 

"Oh, man," Strickland breathed. He stood at the edge, looking down at the chasms on either side of the bridge. There was a tremor in his voice. "I don't know, guys..." 

"You can do it, Warren," McGovern said. "Don't look down. Look at me. Look straight over at me, okay?"

"We've got you, Warren," Harper said, waving to Strickland. "It's all right."

"Okay," Strickland said. He pulled on the biner connected to his harness and snapped it to the line. His hand fell over the metal clip. He slipped it back and forth across the line. Looking forward, he stepped down onto the bridge. 

"That's it," McGovern said. "Now just come towards me." Humming quietly to himself, Strickland stepped forward, crossing the stone bridge. His hand slid along the line as Harper picked up the slack on his belay rope. Halfway across, Strickland's left foot slipped off the edge. Immediately, his right hand clenched hard on the support line. Strickland gasped. All three travelers held their breath. Slowly, Strickland exhaled and looked down. He had stepped too far to the left. His right foot was on the stone bridge. His left foot dangled over the edge. He swallowed as he looked at the yawning abyss below him. 

"It's okay, Warren," Harper said slowly. "Pull yourself back up." His breath was heavy. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead. Strickland took a deep breath, then pulled on the support line, drawing him back in line with the bridge. He brought his left foot back onto the stone and put his weight on it. He relaxed his grip on the line. 

He looked up. Slowly, he brought his right foot forward, around his left, and took another step, sliding his hand down the line. Eight more steps, and he was safely across. 

"You did it!" Harper cried, giving Strickland a big hug. McGovern pulled himself up to his feet, smiling through his visor. 

"Good job, Warren," he beamed. Through the visor, they could see Strickland's face pale and drawn, but suddenly a big smile broke across his features. He turned to look at the bridge behind them, his eyes wide with surprise. 

"I... never thought I could do that," he breathed. A wild, cackling laugh escaped from within him. "Hoo boy! Wow!" 

McGovern slapped him on the shoulders. "C'mon," he said. "Let's top this damn mountain." 

Harper looked above them. The sun was a bright, flourescent pinpoint in a tangerine sky. Her eyes lowered to the mountain, which sloped away before them. It was another hundred meters to the summit. 

Strickland wordlessly took the point. Nothing needed to be said anymore. They dodged around wide, flat slabs of stone, cracked and melted by some ancient catastrophe. Lines in the rock glittered and shone in the dim light. The microphones in each others' helmets broadcasted their labored breathing as they climbed. Exhausted, hungry, their muscles aching and weary, the three travelers soldiered on. They were running on pure adrenaline. 

Rounding a corner Strickland stopped to catch his breath. "Frannie," he gasped. His hand waved her forward. She and McGovern stood beside their friend. Ahead was a jumble of thick, broken slabs of stone. Harper looked around, consulting her tricorder screen on her arm. 

"This way," she led. Stepping around dark volcanic stones, she came to a halt in front of a thick slab the size of a tabletop. 

"Well?" asked McGovern, his voice weary but anxious. Harper rechecked her scans, and nodded in approval. McGovern stepped up just next to her right shoulder. Strickland came up along her left side.

"This is it," she whispered. "This is the highest point. The summit of V761." 

"We made it," Strickland whispered. "We made it to the top." 

Both men lifted a foot to step up, but then they both stopped, and turned to look at Harper. She stood there for a moment, looking back and forth at them. "What?" she said finally.

Strickland extended one hand towards the slab. "Ladies first."

Harper sighed. "You guys–!" Harper bit her lip in anticipation, then slowly extended her hands out from either side.  

She looked to the others. "Well?" Strickland and McGovern each took Harper's hand, and as one the three stepped up onto the slab. 

McGovern took a deep breath. "Hot damn, we did it!" he cried. All three started laughing hysterically. Harper hugged Strickland, then McGovern, who gave Strickland a high-five. 

"I can't believe it!" Harper said finally. "After all–-Charlie! Can you hear me? We did it!" Strickland and McGovern were still laughing, slapping each other on the back, but from the ship Harper heard only silence. 

"Frannie, do a scan of us right now," Strickland said. "This'll be a picture for the walls of the Navigator's Club!" Harper used the controls on her arm to run the scan, but still she listened. 

"Okay, okay," said McGovern. "I've got a little surprise for you guys." He shook his right arm, pulling it back into the suit. "If you look inside the food sleeve in your suits, you'll find a little capsule. Open it up–- carefully." The others followed McGovern's lead. Strickland opened his capsule first, and immediately recognized the smell.

"Whiskey?" 

"You can't have an occasion like this without celebrating properly!" McGovern grinned. 

Even Harper had to agree. She raised the capsule to the inside of her visor. "We should have a toast. Here's to..."

"To adventure!" said Strickland. 

"To courage!" said McGovern. 

"To legends!" said Harper. The all chugged their vials of whiskey. 

"Hey, Charlie," said Strickland out loud as he stepped down from the slab. "You listening to all this?" After a moment, he repeated, "Charlie?"

"Can you hear him?" Harper asked, coughing from the whiskey. She stepped down as well. "I couldn't get through."

"It might be the radiation again," Strickland said. "Interfering with the comm system like it interfered with your scans. We can still hear each other, because we're right here together, but the atmosphere might be keeping him from hearing us." 

"If he wasn't receiving any signals from us," McGovern said from the summit, "wouldn't he have fired up the ship and come get us by now?"

"He must still be getting telemetry," Harper concluded. "Vital signs. He'd be worried, otherwise." She realized she missed his voice. 

"Well, he's missing the party!" McGovern said, hopping down from the stone slab. His voice sounded giddy. "We need to mark the spot. Warren, give me a hand with this rock over here." 

Harper gazed out across the landscape. Extinct volcanoes dotted the horizon like sleeping titans. She felt the pressure of the wind against her suit. She knelt down, and ran a gloved hand across the yellow dust blowing across the hard rocks. Pushing her right hand back into the suit, she ran a scan of the dust. "Sedimentary," she said, reading the results. 

She looked around. Behind her, Strickland and McGovern had carried a slab of stone the size of a coffee table over to the summit. The slab they found was mostly triangular, and resembled a large arrowhead. McGovern found a crack behind the summit, and they positioned the slab point down into the crack. Securely in place, the two stood back to admire their work. "Not bad, not bad," Strickland said. 

"Now everyone will know we were here," McGovern said with pride. He noticed Harper kneeling on the hard rock. "What are you up to, Frannie?"

Harper held out a sandy gloved hand. "It's sedimentary. There's sedimentary rock on this planet." She looked at her hand. "I think this planet had water once, maybe even life, but something happened ages ago... Maybe millions of years ago. The planet broke apart. Volcanoes erupted everywhere, heating up the atmosphere, burning off all the water. Over time, the volcanoes cooled off, and then wore down with time." She stood and joined the other two. "There might have been life here, millions of years ago. There might even be fossils..." 

Something coughed inside their helmets. Static buzzed in the traveler's ears, then just as quickly went silent. "What the hell was that?" McGovern asked. 

"Sunspots?" Harper thought out loud. 

"No," said Strickland slowly. "Wrong frequency. Hey, it might be Charlie trying to contact us, but the radiation is blocking the signal." 

Harper sighed. "Maybe it's time we started back down." 

"Yeah," said Strickland, a contented smile on his face. "It's already been a long day. Man, I feel good." 

"It's like..." Harper started, lost for words. "It's like everything I've ever done was just the preface, and right here–-right now–-this is where the story of my life really begins."

"Humph," said McGovern as he looked around, hands on his hips. "It's still a butt-ugly planet." 

Strickland laughed. Harper smiled, and started making her way through the jumble of rocks and stones back down the stony slope towards Picnic Rock. Dim sunlight reflected off sharp edges of volcanic rock. Dark, dead buttes lurked in the distance. Above, feathery streaks of saffron yellow floated across the orange sky. 

"Steak," said McGovern, stepping over some rocks. "I could really go for a thick, t-bone steak right now." 

"I doubt we have anything like that in the ship stores," Harper commented. 

"With a baked potato on the side," McGovern continued, as if he had not heard her. "And those little steamed carrots..."

"You're making me hungry!" Strickland complained. 

"Although," Harper said slowly, "David does bring up a point, Warren: where is our next meal coming from? Where do we go from here?" 

"Yeah," said McGovern. "We're not gonna be very welcome back the way we came." 

"I was thinking about that," Strickland said, as the bridge to Picnic Rock came into view. "We should probably head back into Klingon space. We've got enough food and water to make–-"

"Holy crap!" said McGovern suddenly. The others turned to look at him as a great shadow passed across the ground. They looked up, following his gaze. High above them, floating gracefully, was a large, grey spaceship, it's ugly, scarred exterior a sharp contrast to the peaceful tangerine sky. 

"Is that–-?" said Strickland. 

"The Evacado Peach," breathed McGovern. 

Harper slapped Strickland on the arm. "Run!"