Jadari took in a deep lung full of the crisp, cool air on the planet. Sure, it was all barren rock and the sunlight on it was blinding, but it had fresh, clean air.

"Jadari."

Jadari turned to the sound of the voice. It was T’Lara, who was scanning a rock.

"Yeah?"

"I do not believe the captain commissioned us to breathe the air of this planet for our report. Scan it if you like."

Jadari sighed. Deflated by a blunt Vulcan statement. "Some fun you are," Jadari muttered. She picked up her tricorder and began scanning the surrounding area like T’Lara and B’riana.

"These rocks are composed of volcanic ash and powdery glass," B’riana said, reading her data carefully. "Hey! There’s a mineral in here JezNe’s been looking for."

"We should collect samples," T’Lara said flatly. Jadari sighed. Was it just her imagination, or was T’Lara especially blunt and Vulcan-like today? Usually she seemed merely mechanical in tone, and had perhaps a mildly sarcastic spin on her words, but had T’Lara been human, Jadari could have sworn the Vulcan was in a bad mood.

The trio was silent for a moment, then B’riana remarked, "These rocks sure are light. This one’s bigger than my hand and it hardly weighs anything!"

"Scans of its size, composition and density show that it should weigh 8.28 grams," T’Lara said with pointed efficiency. Jadari tried to ignore it.

"Eight point two eight grams it is," B’riana sighed.

"As I suspected."

Jadari tried not to shiver. Nothing grated on her more than T’Lara being blunt and cold.

Another few minutes of silence followed before T’Lara spoke. Her voice was tinged with the curiosity that had been absent only minutes ago.

"These rocks are forty percent air pockets."

"They crunch into dust under my boots," B’riana observed. T’Lara ignored the statement.

"According to my readings, there is a subterranean chamber directly below us. The rock we are standing on is approximately ten centimeters thick. Air pockets in its composition have severed weakened its structure."

Jadari and B’riana walked over to view her data. "Meaning…what?" Jadari asked.

T’Lara looked Jadari in the eye as if the answer was obvious. "Meaning we should not be standing here."

B’riana looked at Jadari. Jadari returned the uneasy look. "Maybe we should beam up," Jadari offered.

"Why?" B’riana asked. "We’ve been walking around for ten minutes. Nothing has happened."

Jadari shook her head at B’riana’s statement. "Any idea how deep the chamber is?"

T’Lara shook her head. "I am getting strange readings. No depth is certain yet, but it is likely over nine meters deep, possibly twenty."

Jadari whistled. "I think we should either get away from the roof of this chamber, or beam up."

"I agree," T’Lara said. Even B’riana by now agreed. The thought of falling a possible twenty meters was not a pleasant one. The trio started walking away from the spot, though their tricorders still showed the chamber below them in every direction.

Jadari didn’t like it. With every step, her boots seemed to sink farther than she liked. The ground seemed to tremble. Perhaps it was her imagination. She sincerely hoped it was.

Without warning, her foot broke through the stone. T’Lara and B’riana stopped. Jadari, though panicked, attempted to pull her leg out of the hole. The ground shuddered. So did Jadari.

"We need to get off of this planet now," T’Lara stated. Her hand went to her com badge, but before she could contact the ship, with a great rumble and roar, the stone below their feet gave way, plunging shards of stone, and three Starfleet crewmen, into the dark below.

* * *

Jadari groaned. Her groan ended in a rattling cough as she choked up dust from the collapse. The collapse. She shuddered. She remembered now. The ground had just…given way. She shoved a pair of large, but not particularly heavy, stones off of her, and struggled to her feet. Dusting her bruised and battered body off, she stopped and looked up at the cavern roof above. Only a relatively small portion had caved in. At least, it looked that way. It was hard to tell. She didn’t know just how far up it was.

Eyes adjusting to the relative darkness, she searched for B’riana and T’Lara. Her hand brushed against textured rubber in the darkness. A boot? She followed it with her hand. A pant leg. More leg. She shook the knee of the leg. "Hey, wake up."

A whimper, then a mild groan broke the silence. "Jadari?"

Jadari smiled. It was B’riana.

"Bri, you okay?"

The Klingon moaned and sat up. "Yeah, I think so. Where’s T’Lara?"

"I don’t know. I found you first. Help me find her, would you?"

"Sure," B’riana answered, shifting her weight to her feet and standing. But even in the dark Jadari caught the grimace of pain on B’riana’s face.

"What’s wrong?"

B’riana sat on a nearby stone and rubbed her right ankle. "It’s either a really bad sprain, or a mild fracture. I must have landed on it funny. My wrist’s a little stiff, too."

Again the grimace as she moved her right wrist.

"Must have landed on your right side," Jadari mused.

"You look like you landed on your head," B’riana said, indicating the left side of Jadari’s face. Jadari put a gentle hand there. She winced and drew her fingers away. Even in the dim light, she could make out the blood.

"It’s not real bad, is it?" Jadari asked.

B’riana squinted in the dark. "I doubt it. It looks worse than it really is, I think. It’s not bleeding much. Just a flesh wound. I could heal it now if I had a dermal regenerator."

"But we don’t," Jadari sighed. "We don’t even have a source of light."

B’riana shook her head. "Let’s find T’Lara first. Then we’ll worry about light and medical needs."

"But can you walk?"

"I will survive. Chances are she’s on the floor around here somewhere."

Jadari nodded and the two spread out to find their missing comrade, keeping in contact verbally.

"Hey Jadari! I think I found her shoulder!" B’riana said. Jadari followed the sound of B’riana’s voice over to a pile of larger rubble, where, in the dimness, T’Lara’s form lay partly draped over a rounder chunk of stone.

"T’Lara. T’Lara!" B’riana pleaded. T’Lara did not respond. B’riana felt for the Vulcan’s neck. At least she registered a strong pulse.

"Well?" Jadari asked. "Is she okay?"

"She’s alive," B’riana sighed. "But she’s out cold."

The two flung rubble off the Vulcan, then half-dragged, half-carried her to a patch of clear ground, B’riana limping all the way. As they laid her on her back, T’Lara began to rouse from her daze.

"T’Lara? You awake?" Jadari asked.

"Yes," T’Lara responded. A cough followed her answer. T’Lara clutched at her chest. Jadari and B’riana exchanged worried glances.

"That didn’t sound good," B’riana said matter-of-factly. "Where does it hurt?"

"My ribs…my lungs…It hurts to breathe."

B’riana felt the Vulcan’s side gently, feeling a steady throb under her hand. T’Lara’s heart. At least it didn’t seem to be injured.

"I landed face down on that rock," T’Lara added. "Jadari…you’re bleeding…"

Jadari nodded and tried to gingerly wipe some of the blood away. "Darn rocks bit me. Bri sprained a few joints. We’ll both be fine."

"T’Lara got it a little worse, I’m afraid," B’riana said with a sigh. "She has at least bruised, if not cracked, some of her ribs."

The Klingon looked Jadari firmly in the eye. "It might be worse, but I can’t be sure."

Jadari just stared. A small twitch brought her mind back. "We have to beam out of here. We have no medical supplies and no survival gear. It was just supposed to be a short away mission and…"

B’riana put a hand on Jadari’s shoulder, stopping the Trill’s montage. Jadari sighed. B’riana tapped her badge.

"Away team to Maverick."

No answer. She tried again. Still no answer.

"Maybe it’s broken," Jadari suggested. "I’ll try mine. But Jadari was unable to contact the ship either. T’Lara’s badge was nowhere to be found, and both Jadari and B’riana were sure that after T’Lara had landed chest first, it couldn’t possibly be in working condition anyway.

"Whatever happened to the tricorders?" T’Lara asked, voice low.

Jadari shrugged. "You don’t need to worry about it now. We need to find out how to get out of here before we worry about tricorders."

"What if it’s the stone roof that is preventing our com signals from reaching the ship?" T’Lara suggested. "I did detect the presence of several elements that tend to distort signals."

"Typical Vulcan," B’riana mused. "Thinking logically when she’s injured…"

The Klingon was interrupted by low sounds in the cavern. The three fell silent.

"They sound like…voices," T’Lara said. Jadari put a finger to her lips, listening intently. The sounds grew louder until they were certainly voices of some humanoid race. Universal translators in the trio’s com badges translated the ghostly words.

"Did you hear that?"

"Yes, I heard someone talking."

"Mother, I’m frightened."

"Come, let’s go see what it was."

The faint glow of light started to shine from one corner of the cavern. Jadari shot a look at B’riana. She dared whisper, "Should we hide?"

"How? We’d make too much noise! There’s no place to hide anyway. And we can’t move T’Lara."

"I am capable of movement," the Vulcan insisted, attempting to sit up. B’riana pushed her back down, shushing her.

"Don’t be ridiculous. We don’t even know how badly you’re hurt."

The faint glows brightened to shining points of light, illuminating the silhouettes of several humanoids, ten at least. Each bore a lantern over his head. Jadari and B’riana pursed their lips together and hunkered as low as they could. In the silence, they could hear the crunch of the approaching strangers’ feet on the powdery stones, and T’Lara’s shallow, painful breathing.

"Over here! People!"

Jadari’s heart leapt. They’d been spotted. She hoped these strangers were friendly, because none of them were in the shape to do any defending. Yet none of them moved as the band of humanoids drew closer, until Jadari could make out the face of the apparent leader. It was a young man, who looked essentially human, except for a thin ridge of cartilage, approximately a centimeter high, running from his hairline to the tip of his nose. He wore a loose white shirt, loose pants, soft shoes, and a long, soft-looking robe. More men, some with beards, and some women and two small children carrying baskets stepped out of the shadows behind him. Each bore the ridge down their nose.

"What are they, Mommy?" a little girl whispered. The child’s mother stooped to whisper an uneasy ‘I don’t know’ to her daughter.

The leader stepped forward, setting his lantern on a rock. "Who or what do we have here?" he asked. His eyes traveled upward toward the hole in the cavern’s roof, but he said nothing.

"Don’t get too close, Denghat," a woman begged. "They might be dangerous."

The man, apparently named Denghat, waved her remark away. He stared intently at B’riana, his green eyes twinkling. "What are you?"

"A Klingon," B’riana answered. "My name is B’riana."

"B’riana," Denghat repeated. He turned to Jadari. "And you?"

"A Trill," Jadari answered, still mystified at the small group’s fascination with them. "Jadari."

"Jadari. And her?"

Jadari and B’riana looked at T’Lara, who lay very still on the cavern floor.

"She’s a Vulcan. Her name is T’Lara," Jadari said quietly. "She’s hurt. Maybe badly."

"They all look a little worse for the wear," a woman added. Denghat nodded. Beckoning to another of his posse, he whispered a few words. The man nodded and retreated back into the cave. Then Denghat threw off his robe and laid it on the ground.

"You will come back to our village. We will care for you."

He and Jadari moved T’Lara onto the robe, and Denghat and another man lifted her. B’riana leaned on a woman’s shoulder as the small group hobbled deeper into the dark abyss. Topside, the sun was beginning to set.

* * *

"I really have to thank you for this," Jadari said, half-smiling at Denghat, as his wife, Thisha, sponged a gash on the Trill’s temple. "I don’t know what we’d have done if you hadn’t shown up."

Denghat smiled an almost feline smile. "You seemed afraid when we found you."

Jadari shrugged. "We didn’t know if you would attack us or not."

"That makes sense, I suppose."

The two fell into a mellow silence as Denghat’s wife wrapped Jadari’s head in a strip of clean cloth. Jadari sighed as she looked around at the village. It was little more than dozens of stone huts in a huge chamber in the seemingly endless cave. In the center, a large fire burned. And, somehow, though Jadari really wasn’t sure how, plants grew everywhere in the stony dust and flickering light.

"So that’s where the foliage readings came from," Jadari thought. She shifted her position in a sort of hammock made of bamboo-like plant stems and wooly cloth.

"All bandaged," Thisha said, giving the knot in the cloth strip a final tug. Denghat smiled at his wife then bade her leave Jadari alone to rest. Jadari, exhausted, was grateful. She closed her eyes and was half-asleep when a hand shook her shoulder. B’riana stood before her, leaning on a cane of the same, bamboo-like plant.

"You get doctored?" Jadari asked, looking down at B’riana’s splinted ankle and expertly wrapped wrist.

"Yeah. You look like you got it too," B’riana said with a smirk. "You look funny with a headband."

"Hey, don’t knock the bandage," Jadari joked. B’riana forced a smile, but then became serious again.

"Better come see T’Lara."

Jadari’s jocularity died. "How is she?"

"About as good as we left her. These people may be hospitable, but they don’t have the kind of medical equipment we need to see exactly what’s wrong with her, let alone correct it if it’s serious."

Jadari sighed. "Where is she?"

B’riana nodded in the direction of another hut. Jadari got up and followed her. As the shadows danced with the firelight, Jadari wondered what she’d see.

Inside the hut, several torches burned in sconces on the wall. A level pile of rocks lay perpendicular to one wall. A thick layer of fluffy plant fibers and a blanket made the mattress. On the crude bed lay T’Lara, apparently asleep. B’riana and Jadari stood by the bedside, watching her for a moment. B’riana put a hand over the Vulcan’s heart again.

"At least her pulse is still strong and regular. I guess she didn’t injure her heart." B’riana’s hands moved up T’Lara’s ribs. "She’s definitely in pain, though. Did you see her face when they moved her? I’ve never seen that much of an expression on her."

T’Lara winced in her sleep at B’riana’s touch, and awoke with a gasp. B’riana withdrew her hand.

"B’riana."

T’Lara’s voice was low. B’riana nodded.

"You sound a little disoriented," she observed.

T’Lara was silent for a moment. "Why wouldn’t I be?"

Jadari and B’riana looked at each other, then back at T’Lara.

"I’ve fallen through the roof of a cavern. I am in too much pain to think, let alone walk. It hurts when I breathe. It is dark, cold, damp, and enclosed-- the opposite of Vulcan. Yes, I am disoriented."

Jadari sighed. "We’ll get out of here. Somehow. Maybe these people can help us get out."

T’Lara shook her head. "I spoke with the doctor of this village as he was attempting to care for me. Very primitive medical knowledge. His kind has not been out of this cave for generations. They do not know of a way out. When I told them we were from a starship, he asked what a starship was. When I proceeded to explain that we had come from the sky, he asked what sky was. They have no concept of the world outside of their cave. I would have tried to explain this fact as well, but he made me take a sleeping draught, and I have been asleep until your arrival."

The Trill and Klingon sighed in unison. "So now what do we do?" Jadari asked. T’Lara did not answer. B’riana shrugged.

"I will sleep tonight," T’Lara said. "If I do not appear to be alive in the morning, do not panic, and do not, under any circumstances, let them bury me. I will not be dead."

B’riana nodded, but Jadari looked confused. As the two walked out to seek their own places to sleep, Jadari asked B’riana what T’Lara had meant by ‘I will not be dead’.

"Tau-kath," B’riana answered.

Jadari frowned. "What?"

B’riana gave her a quizzical look. "Tau-kath. The Vulcan healing trance. I’m surprised that you haven’t heard of it. When they’ve been injured and they look like they’re dead, but they register a pulse and they’re not asleep, it’s Tau-kath. They focus all their blood, energy, and anti-bodies on the injury. It’s like a self-induced, carefully controlled coma."

"And I, not being a medical student, would not know this, of course," Jadari mused, rolling her eyes. B’riana punched her playfully in the arm.

"T’Lara will come around when she’s hungry or feeling better. Meanwhile, it’s up to us to find a way out. Come on. For now, we need some sleep."

Jadari nodded in agreement, and shuffled back to her hammock. Time to sleep. Upon waking, she’d endeavor to find a way out of the cave. There had to be a way.

* * *

Jadari awoke the next day, if one could call it ‘day’, to the same flickering darkness and light, and quickly remembered that she was in a cave. She shook her head. The Captain would be worried about them now. She looked around, trying to find B’riana. The Klingon was sitting by the fire, eating something one of the native people had provided her with.

"You’re awake, huh?" Jadari asked, yawning as she approached. B’riana nodded.

"I just checked on T’Lara. Minimal pulse, minimal breathing. She’s deep in Tau-kath, all right. I had to convince the doctor guy that she wasn’t dead, and made him just leave her alone. We’re going to have to find a way out of here ourselves."

"I figured we’d have to," Jadari sighed. "Have you seen that Denghat guy yet? I wanted to ask him some questions."

B’riana shook her head and offered Jadari a plant stalk.

"They call it ishte. Eat it."

Jadari took the stalk in her hand and turned it over and over, even smelled it. "What’s it taste like? Not nasty, I hope."

"Sort of like Terran celery, but a little greasy-tasting," B’ri sighed. "Eat hearty. It’s all there is until they find some more flakva, whatever that is."

Jadari cringed at the word. "Call me crazy, but the word ‘flakva’ doesn’t sound that appetizing."

The Klingon shook her head in agreement. "So. Now what do we do?"

Jadari shrugged. "We could find a guide to show us around the cave. We have to get back to where we fell through. So far as we know, that’s the only entrance."

"It’s an idea. Better than sitting here. Let’s go find someone."

* * *

Jadari and B’riana eventually located Thisha, Denghat’s wife, and took her aside to explain their plan.

"We need to find our way back to the place where you found us," Jadari said, trying to be as pleasant and charming as she knew how.

Thisha looked rather confused. "Why?"

"We need to find a way out," B’riana added. Her comment did not alleviate Thisha’s confusion.

"What is ‘out’? Out of what?" she asked. "Out of the village?"

Jadari started to nod, but stopped. "When you found us, there was a hole in the ceiling of the cave. Did you see it?"

"A hole?"

Jadari nodded. "Yes. A spot of light up above?" She indicated over her head to illustrate her point.

Thisha nodded, seeming to understand a bit more. "I saw the spot of light, yes. You want to find the light?"

Jadari and B’riana nodded, hoping they didn’t come across as being too desperate. "Yes! We need to get to that light!" Jadari said.

"Why?"

The two Starfleet officers stopped, wondering how to explain why. These people did not even grasp the concept of ‘out’ as referring to ‘out of the cave’.

"That’s how we’ll get home," Jadari said. "We need to get home."

Thisha nodded. "I understand."

She didn’t, Jadari noticed, look too happy about it. She decided not to ask about it, and asked about the 'flakva’ that the village was looking for.

"Flakva," Thisha responded, "is our main food. This is a very lean season. Not much is alive in the cave. All of our prey animals are hibernating. We survive on ishte, flakva, and some glow-spores."

"Not a really varied diet," B’riana mused. Jadari nodded. She couldn’t imagine eating ishte for any length of time, let alone surviving on it.

"If you help us look for the flakva, we will direct you to the spot of light you seek."

The two quickly agreed. Thisha provided them each with a basket, and soon, she, the Trill and the Klingon, joined a small horde of children and ventured into the depths of the cave.

"What exactly IS flakva, anyway?" Jadari asked. "What does it look like?"

"I will show you when we find some," Thisha answered. "It grows in pools."

"It grows in pools," B’riana mused. She looked at Jadari, who looked less than pleased by the revelation.