Tanna watched the Klingons disappear into the trees. She stood with her face to the sky and her eyes closed, wondering vaguely why she had decided to put her name down on that signup sheet. After a moment, she exhaled deeply, then turned to the person holding the bag. “What did they give us?”

Mason looked into the bag, quickly looking through the contents. “Rope, flint and steel, a hatchet, and…” He reached into the bag and pulled a small object out, flicking it open. “Oh, and a compass.”

“Analog, hey? Okay, we can work with that,” she said, then turned to the rest of the group. “Who has an idea of what we should do next?”

RJ blinked, sliding a sideways glance at Mason. So much for a dinner date. “You bring me to the nicest places.”

He looked over at Tanna. “Take a bearing on that bloody big rock?”

Tanna nodded in agreement. “Sounds good to me.”

Varyn shrugged as a light breeze caused the  – thankfully lightweight – long coat he wore to billow slightly and ruffled the collar of his loose-fitting shirt.  “Run, I guess?” the mid-twenties Orion said.

“That,” grunted Mason, nodding toward Varyn as he lined the compass up. “Our opponents have the advantage of familiarity with the terrain, so we need to make ground early.”

Lieutenant-Commander Alara Ley, First Officer of the USS da Vinci, was somehow beginning to suspect she’d been tricked into volunteering for this endeavor.  What were the words the Captain had used, ‘A chance to build character, forge friendships, whilst enjoying nature’? Her symbiont kindly reminded her of the exact words.

She noted that out of those present, the Orion to her right seemed the most eager to get things moving.

Tanna began to hop from foot to foot, stretching her shoulders and neck. “I suppose we’d better run then, hey?” she asked with a smile, eager to begin.

Varyn, having caught that two sets of eyes had landed on him, looked away awkwardly, embarrassed at having been so informal with so many more senior officers he didn’t know, and cast his grey eyes towards the tree line and the mountain beyond.  I wish I’d paid more attention in survival training, the ensign thought to himself, partly in distraction.  It took him a moment to catch Tanna’s question.  “As you say, ma’am,” he replied after a moment.

Tanna gave a small laugh. “Just Tanna is fine. I’ve never been comfortable with ma’am. Last one to the trees gathers firewood?”

Alara glanced across to Captain Mason, who had clearly elected himself in overall command, not that she was going to dispute the notion in any way.  She’d never met a Llanarian before, and wondered if they were all this big and imposing.

Whatever the case, she suspected he was a lot swifter than his size suggested, and wouldn’t be the one collecting the firewood.

Varyn nodded.  “Yes, m-” he stopped himself, “Okay, Tanna,” he answered.  “I’m Varyn.  Varyn K’lev,” he introduced himself, a little awkwardly and fully aware that he sounded like a character from an old holo-novel series.  With that, he started jogging towards the treeline, accelerating until he reached running speed; while he could run, he certainly would not have been first-heat on the Academy track team had he joined it.

The running made Tanna feel good. The sun had been beating down on her as she stood in the clearing, and the run was helping to cool her off. She noticed Varyn was starting to close in on her, and pushed her legs to go faster. There weren’t any stakes, but this was fun, and gathering firewood sounded dull.

Mason pocketed the compass and slung the pack over his shoulder, winking at RJ as the group set off for the treeline. RJ shook his head, setting off after the big captain. He was fast on his feet, but Mason easily outstripped him, probably not even at half speed as he hit the treeline first.

By the time RJ jogged past the treeline after the others, though, Mason was already rooting around in the undergrowth.

Varyn reached the treeline after Tanna.  He took a moment to catch his breath, then, seeing Mason already rooting through the undergrowth, he straightened and started looking for firewood, trying to be helpful.

Alara was more out of breath than she really felt she ought to be, and wasn’t entirely sure who she’d beaten to this point.  She’d been more focused on her own route and watching her step than on what anyone else had been doing.

Looking over at Mason, she waited for her breathing to settle before asking. “Looking for anything in particular?”

Mason looked up and offered her a grin as he pulled the hatchet from the pack. Chopping quickly at something in the undergrowth, he offered her half of what looked like a furry watermelon. “I can’t say the Klingon name, but it translates as crusted fungi-moss,” he explained. “It holds several times its weight in water, and you can re-wet it when we reach a stream.”

‘Don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe.’ The Ley symbiont’s voice offered as a way of reassurance. ‘Just don’t expect it to taste like a Watermelon!’

Alara decided, for now at least, not to try that theory out and instead held on to the weird, well, whatever the heck it was. Her survival courses came back as a cadet; certainly hadn’t had these on the list.

Varyn came back carrying an armful of sticks for firewood.  When he saw the fuzzy watermelon-thing, he stopped, a bemused look flitting across his face before he shook his head and rejoined the group.  “If I may…  what do you think we can expect from the Path?  I didn’t get a chance to read up on its history on the trip.”

“No idea,” Tanna said as she pulled off the light bomber jacket she was wearing and cinched it around her waist. Instinctively, she flexed and rotated her right shoulder, running her hand over the smooth metal device that covered it. “I hope it doesn’t involve Pain Sticks.” She pulled a small flask from her back pocket and took a drink, then wiped her mouth and replaced it. “You don’t think we’ll have to wrestle a Targ, do you?”

“Oh, I really hope not,” RJ grinned as he snagged some of the moss from Mason. “But if we do, I vote we put the big guy in.”

Mason snorted. “Cheers for that.”

Tanna put her hands on her hips, looking off into the trees in the direction of the mountain. “How far do you think the others got?”

Varyn shrugged.  “Maybe they captured the flag already?” he asked with a wry smile, his tone clearly that of one joking.

“Did anyone get a look at the list?” RJ asked. “Do we know who’s on the other team?”

“I think I saw Captain Thorne. Oh, and an exocomp?” Tanna replied.

Varyn shook his head.  “I could try to run ahead and find them, if that might help?” he offered.

Tanna shrugged.  “I don’t think we’ll have to, Varyn. Want some water?” She asked as she held out her flask.

Half listening to the group’s chatter, Raan continued to harvest the crusted fungi-moss to make sure everyone had some. First order of any type of survival, secure water and shelter. Since they were going to be on the move for the next few hours, water it was.

The other half of his concentration was on the woodlands around them. When the sounds of wildlife stopped abruptly, he stopped chopping at moss and lifted his head.

“Incoming. Northwest.”