Sonya ran a hand along the surface of the sky flyer sitting in the landing bay of the Monagas Peninsula. She smiled at the thought of taking it out and guiding it through the deep blue skies above. But her smile faded as she glanced out a nearby window and watched the clouds outside quickly darken as a late afternoon thunderstorm was developing.

Normally, the weather control system would be able to deter the storm, allowing visitors to the peninsula to enjoy their evening. But after a sweltering hot day trapped inside, the tourists would find themselves remaining indoors to avoid getting soaked.

Soloman poked his head out of the top of the flyer. “This is definitely not a systems problem. In fact, this flyer is ready to take off.” And so saying, he activated the flyer, bringing a low hum to the surrounding area.

Pattie stepped out from behind the craft. “Structurally, it’s a sound vessel. In fact, all the flyers in this bay are fine.”

“Then why couldn’t they launch them when they needed to rescue those climbers the other day?” Gomez asked.

Soloman shook his head. “This is clearly an external influence, Commander. While I would like to take a look at the launch bay control room to see if I can determine anything else, I feel we need to shift the focus of our investigation.”

“I agree,” Gomez nodded.

The doors to the launch bay entrance parted and a couple of Risans entered the area. The female of the duo approached Gomez, her gaze less than friendly.

“Commander Gomez, I’m Shira from Risa Operations. How are your investigations proceeding?” Her tone was not the usual congenial, friendliness that Gomez was used to from a Risan. In fact, it seemed downright hostile.

“I don’t think there is anything wrong with any of your systems, Shira.” Gomez tried to keep a smile on her face, hoping that the Risan would pick up on it. “We have been through your communications systems, aircraft, and the weather control station. We can find no systemic reason for this power loss. Our current hypothesis is that an outside force is responsible.”

“Outside force?” Shira repeated. “You mean alien?”

“Possibly,” Gomez admitted a little reluctantly. “We don’t want to rule anything out. It could be some natural phenomenon we haven’t accounted for yet.”

A chime from a communicator interrupted them. The Risan male stepped forward. “Shira, it’s the weather control station.”

“Thank you, Milan,” she replied, taking the small device from him. She looked at Gomez. “Will you excuse me?” She turned away without waiting for a reply.

Pattie stepped up behind Gomez and leaned into her ear. “What happened to the famous Risan warmth? You could take the chill from that woman alone and reduce the temperature of the entire peninsula.”

“She’s got her feelings hurt by our involvement in this,” Gomez said simply. “How would you feel if we couldn’t handle a certain engineering situation and they brought in another S.C.E. team to assist?”

“Something I’ll never have to worry about,” Pattie replied, clicking one of her mandibles with a flourish, the equivalent of a human wink. “We never need anyone’s help.”

I only hope that’s always the case, Gomez thought.

The approach of the da Vinci’s security chief changed the commander’s mood. A smile broke out on her lips. She always got a kick out of watching Corsi in “full security mode,” as Gomez liked to think of it. She was like a cat, tensed, ready to spring into action on a nanosecond’s notice.

Corsi stopped just short of Gomez. “We found our Gorn friends. They appear to be searching the beach areas around the lagoon. I’ve got Hawkins and Angelopoulos following them.”

“We don’t want to draw attention, Domenica.”

“They’re dressed as tourists. I also issued them Ferengi disruptors, which won’t connect them with Starfleet. I did a check with Risan orbital control. The Gorn never stated a reason for coming to Risa. They don’t have to, when contacted by the Risans, but most vessels do answer the question.”

Shira turned back to face the S.C.E. team. “I am being informed that the weather control grid is back online.” As she said this, the lights in the landing bay winked on. A hum filled the chamber. “As is this landing area. The portable generators you provided are working nicely.” Shira looked from Gomez to Corsi and muttered, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Gomez replied. “They should do the trick until we determine the source of the energy drain.”

The lights, as quickly as they winked on, flashed off. Gomez looked at Soloman. The Bynar pulled a tricorder out and began a scan. The device gave off the usual whine for several seconds before it too began to die out.

“Not the tricorder too,” Corsi said.

“It is worse than we feared,” Soloman replied. He pointed toward a large window looking out into the sky. “I managed to detect an approaching aircraft.” Moving rapidly toward the landing area was a small flyer.

“We’ve got to warn them off,” Gomez said.

Milan shook his head. “From the looks of it, it’s out of control.”

Gomez tapped her communicator, but wasn’t greeted with its familiar chirp of activation. “Gomez to da Vinci.” There was no response.

“Quick!” Gomez ran toward the landing bay control room. “We’ve got to open those bay doors. Domenica, Pattie, I want you two to clear everyone in the surrounding area. Let’s minimize the potential for casualties.”

“Right,” Corsi replied as she moved off with the Nasat.

Shira and Milan followed after Gomez and Soloman.

“You should leave the area too,” Gomez said as they climbed the circular stairs to the control room, a glass-enclosed structure that rested just above the landing bay.

“This is my responsibility,” Shira said coolly, “as much as it has been made yours.”

“Fine.” Gomez didn’t have time to argue.

They entered the control room and Gomez settled herself into a chair facing the main operations panel. Soloman settled to her right, activating the scanners and getting a lock on the craft.

“Thank goodness this is still working,” Gomez said, wincing as the lights began to dim. “Why did I have to jinx us?”

“Open the bay doors!” Shira shouted. “Quickly!”

Milan leaned over Gomez and tapped in the command. The four looked out as the huge metallic barriers began to part with a loud groan. They parted about five meters before coming to an abrupt halt.

“We’ve lost all power,” Gomez said.

“We’ve got to stop them from landing!” Shira’s voice was becoming hysterical.

Gomez watched as the flyer drew near, not exactly sure how they could accomplish that in time.