The Beginning of Every Good
Whenever the captain insisted on joining the landing party for an away mission and Spock remained on the ship to 'mind the store', he made every effort to be present when the away team was due back for transport. It was his way of making sure the captain-- and any other members of the crew with self-sacrificial tendencies-- made a timely visit to Sickbay if need be.
He watched Lt. Kyle adjust the three levers that initiated the machine. The staccato chirps and hums of the console signaled a successful lock on. The tell-tale light of atoms rematerializating cast a faint glow that hardly made it past the transporter pad. The captain would then step down from the pad with a bounce in his step and regale a story explaining how his shirt managed to tear in not one, but two places on what was thought to be a peaceful mission. Spock could predict this scenario down to the millisecond.
There was no shudder, no ion storm, no unusual event at all to account for the mistake that was to come.
"Mr. Spock, I've lost five of-- no, I've lost them all!" Lt. Kyle's fingers moved frantically between blinking buttons as he tried to recover the life signatures of the crew members. In a few long strides Spock was by his side as four hands worked better than two in situations like these. After they had input enough commands into the console to short circuit even the best of machines, they were still short of recovering five life forms.
While the surviving landing party finished materializing, Spock issued the orders for Sickbay to prepare for a possibly injured crewmember and for Engineering to begin repairing the transporter immediately.
"Hey, she's not Starfleet..." Spock turned to face the lieutenant, a scathing response to the absurd claim on his lips, but Kyle was correct. A humanoid female dressed in white stood where the rematerialized crew member was supposed to be. If this incident was the work of an alien species demonstrating their superiority by seizing the ship and her crew yet again, so help them.
"Identify yourself." Spock held no phaser in his hand and relied only on the tone of his voice-- or lack thereof-- to indicate the haste with which she was expected to answer.
