Vance Hawkins stopped and grumbled quietly as he removed his shoe and dumped out what seemed to be the entire contents of the beach he was treading on. He looked up at his partner, Andrew Angelopoulos. The young man chuckled and ran his hand through his thick, dark mane of hair. Angelopoulos was one of seven new transfers to security after Galvan VI, and since reporting, he had turned many a female and a few male heads with his striking good looks.

“Chief, why didn’t you wear sandals?” Angelopoulos asked.

Hawkins looked up at him, shaking his head. “These shoes are comfortable.”

“Practical, was the term I think you used.” Andrew smiled. “There’s no such thing as a practical shoe on a beach.”

Hawkins gestured toward a series of nearby caves. “Don’t lose sight of our friends.”

“As if I could.” The young man looked up at the sky and placed a hand to his forehead to block out the glare. “They stick out like a sore thumb and look just about as miserable on the beach as you do.”

“I’m not a beach person,” Hawkins said. “Simple as that.”

Angelopoulos looked down at Hawkins and smiled. The two were quite the contrast in study. Where Hawkins was dark-skinned, with a head as smooth as a marble table surface, Angelopoulos was pale with a big thatch of black hair.

“So what do you think of life on the da Vinci so far?” Hawkins asked, standing up and giving each foot a final shake. “I’ll bet you’d never have thought you’d be following a group of Gorn on the beaches of Risa, dressed”—Hawkins flailed his arms about—“in this getup.” Both he and Angelopoulos were sporting a more colorful array of clothing than either was used to wearing. Their shirts were a combination of bright primary colors mixed together in what was to Hawkins, an appalling fashion.

“It helps us to blend in, sir.”

“Risan fashion leaves a lot to be desired,” Hawkins grumbled. “And don’t call me sir.”

“Yes, sir,” Angelopoulos said with a cheeky grin. Then he gestured toward their quarry. “They’re moving out. Whatever it was that interested them didn’t hold their attention long.”

“They’re looking for something. Make a quick scan of the area they were standing in as we pass.”

“Right.”

As they trudged through the sand, Angelopoulos kept the conversation going. Hawkins quietly approved; better not to draw suspicion from the Gorn, make them think they’re tourists. “I’m enjoying it, sir. I like working with you.”

“And Commander Corsi?” Hawkins asked, looking forward to hearing the awkward reply.

“She takes some getting used to, sir,” Andrew said without hesitation, which surprised Hawkins. “She certainly knows what she’s doing, but I don’t know anyone who has such a brusque style.”

Hawkins’s face darkened slightly. “That’s your commanding officer you’re talking about, mister.”

“Yes, sir. You asked me my opinion and I gave it.” He stopped and then smiled. “You thought I was going to come up with some nervous reply or maybe lie to you. I’m sorry, sir. I can’t do that. I respect the commander, it’s part of the reason why I requested the transfer, but I feel she needn’t be such a hard character.”

Hawkins grinned. “No, I was making sure you didn’t come up with some nervous reply or lie to me. A unit like this depends on trust and honesty, especially one with as many new recruits as we’ve got now.” Hawkins stopped as the Gorn reached the entrance to a cave. “Wait a minute. They’re scanning the area.”

Andrew pulled out his tricorder and tapped a series of commands. “Hang on. I’m trying to lock into their scanning unit.”

“Be careful not to let them detect you.”

“Not a problem, sir. This was how I always knew where my fellow classmates were during field exercises when I was in training. I would develop a map of the entire area and then lock on to each person’s tricorder as they scanned the immediate area.”

“Very smart,” Hawkins noted with some admiration. “They would only be scanning the immediate area as they didn’t want to be detected.”

“Yeah, but I would just link up to their tricorder and read their findings. This takes a little more finesse, but I think I can—” The tricorder chirped an alarm. “Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh?” Hawkins repeated. “What the hell does that mean?” He watched as the Gorn looked in their direction. For such large creatures, they had quickly pulled out their weapons.

“It means we’ve been spotted.” Andrew gave Hawkins a rough shove that knocked him to the ground before diving himself. Twin streams of phased energy whizzed past them, striking a tree nearby. A shower of wood chips fell upon the two. Hawkins pulled out his own phaser and made a quick scan of the area, looking for weaknesses in the Gorn’s position to exploit.

“Humans!” The Gorn’s voice trailed off in a hiss. “Surrender now and we can save you the trouble of dying in defeat!”

“Listen to him,” Hawkins muttered. “You’d think they had this in the bag.”

“Don’t they?” Angelopoulos sounded nervous.

Hawkins snorted. “Kid, after what I went through on Teneb, a couple of pissed-off Gorn are a walk in the park.”

Angelopoulos did have a point, though: The Gorn’s position was pretty solid. They had the cover of a number of large boulders that lined the cave’s entrance and the cave itself to retreat into if necessary. A thin smile broke Hawkins’s stern look.

“What are you thinking?” Angelopoulos asked worriedly as he saw the smile turn devious.

“I want you to lay down some rapid weapons fire, scattered, but centered around them.” Another volley of shots whizzed past them. “We’ll draw them toward the cave. When they’re in position, fire at the roof of the entrance. Got it?”

Angelopoulos nodded.

“We will not fire another warning shot, humans,” the Gorn announced. “Enter the clearing.”

“Go!” Hawkins said.

With his best attempt at a primal scream, Angelopoulos launched himself from his crouched position and began a rapid-fire stream at the Gorn. Hawkins took the more secure route, moving from tree to tree, getting off a series of bursts each time.

Angelopoulos’s disruptor was set for wide dispersal, which caused more area damage, but with less physical results. But the strategy appeared to be working as the Gorn began to back up toward the cave.

Hawkins lined up his shot of the entrance, allowing Angelopoulos to finish the herding. Hawkins never saw the shot that struck him in the shoulder, which lifted him off the ground slightly and deposited him on his rear end with a loud thud.

“Chief!” Angelopoulos shouted, stopping his barrage. He turned and ran toward Hawkins.

“No!” Hawkins shouted a warning as one of the Gorn stepped out and drew a bead on Angelopoulos.

Hawkins fumbled to lift his disruptor, but wasn’t fast enough. He could see the trigger finger of the Gorn twitch on the weapon.

Nothing happened.

Angelopoulos dropped to the ground and took aim with his weapon.

Hawkins tried to return fire but met with the same result as the Gorn. He looked at his disruptor and saw that the power cell was drained.

“Angelopoulos?” Hawkins looked over at the guard, who shook his head.

“I’m out, too.”

“And so are they,” Hawkins said. The three Gorn lumbered toward the two. “We’ve got to get out of here. Give me a hand up.” He tapped his combadge. “Hawkins to da Vinci.”

Angelopoulos tried his combadge as well and found it useless.

“Come on, move. We can outrun them.”

“But, sir,” Angelopoulos said, pointing toward their adversaries. The three Gorn had turned and were now moving in the opposite direction. One stopped at the mouth of the cave and stood guard there, while the other two continued along the path leading down and away. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. But we’ve got to get word to Commander Gomez. Look, I’ll slow you down right now. This shoulder stings like a son of a bitch.”

“You have to have it looked at,” Angelopoulos said.

Hawkins shook his head. “It’s all right. The shot grazed me, but it hurts to move. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on our friends. You get to Commander Gomez and report on the situation. I want a team here to investigate whatever has the Gorn’s attention.”

“Aye, sir,” Angelopoulos said with a reassuring smile. “I’ll get back here as quickly as possible.” He turned and jogged off without another word.

Hawkins settled onto a nearby rock and gently touched the throbbing wound. It was still warm to the touch. He shook his head in frustration and looked upward. “Why me?”

A low rumble filled the air and the skies above thickened with dark clouds.

“Now what?” Hawkins asked as a gust of wind began to pick up. “Great. Just great.”