Part Two.

Sanjiv turned his attention to the Zaldan. “What colors are your wife and daughter wearing?”

The Zaldan looked perturbed by the question for a moment before its relevance occurred to him. “My wife is dressed in neutral colors, but Needa is wearing pink and purple. Oh, and my wife is wearing a large gold arm band, if that helps.”

“Hmm. It might,” said Sanjiv. He set his pack down and pulled out a high-powered flashlight. As he hefted his bag onto his back, he turned to Doran. “Do you think you can shout for your mother and your sister as loud as you possibly can while we’re walking?”

Doran nodded vigorously, and immediately screamed at the top of his lungs. “MOOOOOOOOOOOOOTHER! NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDAAAAAAAAAA!”

Sanjiv flinched, then gave Doran an encouraging pat on the shoulder. “Great work. Keep it up.”

He gestured for the Zaldan and his son to follow Aakon through the underbrush, and he followed behind.

The small group traipsed thought the underbrush as best they could. Aakon was careful to not deviate too far from the path they had made coming up; if the others had spotted it then there was a chance they opted to follow it. Every few minutes or so Doran would let out a scream for his mom and sister that could only be described as enthusiastic. Aakon wasn’t thrilled that some random creature in the jungle would take interest in them because of the yelling, but they had little choice.

It didn’t take long before they arrived back at small clearing in the jungle, near their start point. The Zaldan father looked over at Aakon, anger on his face. “What now? You Starfleet types are all the same. Good at playing dress up, horrible at helping anyone.”

Aakon ignored the comment as he turned to Sanjiv. “At this point we need to get these two to safety and bring in some actual equipment. There are to many places they could have…”

A rustling noise the left of them made the group jump. Aakon instinctively reached for a phaser that would normally be on his hip but found an empty space. He held his hands up in a defensive posture, as if that would do anything against whatever ranging beast was about to be upon them.

There was no beast, but instead two Zaldans burst from the foliage, breathless and covered in dirt and sweat.

“Needa!” shouted Doran, who ran to embrace his sister. Their mother quickly caught her breath. “Get us out of here, Starfleet. Some large beast was coming after us. It will be upon us in moments.”

Aakon’s eye’s widened, turning to Sanjiv. “I think it time we end this little adventure. If I hit the emergency locator on the Tricorder, we just might get lucky and someone will be able to transport us out, unless you have a better idea?”

“I very much do not,” said Sanjiv, who did have a phaser on him and was now holding it at the ready. It was a low-powered civilian sidearm he’d borrowed from the shuttle pilot, but hopefully better than nothing against whatever creature was in pursuit.

Aakon nodded and activated the beacon.

Sanjiv kept his eyes and the phaser on the direction that Needa and her mother had come from. They could all hear a rustling sound now, growing closer by the second. The Zaldans scurried behind the two Starfleet officers, and Sanjiv wished for a moment that he was the one with the tricorder.

Suddenly, a stocky, fuzzy creature burst forth from the foliage. The Zaldans shouted in surprise, and even Sanjiv and Aakon flinched… but it was quickly apparent that this ‘beast’ was no real threat.

It looked almost like a wolverine from earth, except it had a horn on its snout and no ears to speak of. It seemed even more surprised than they were, and after a few agitated barks, it waddled back into the underbrush.

Sanjiv lowered the phaser, and he and Aakon both gave sighs of relief and agitation. “There goes your beast,” said Sanjiv.

“That wasn’t the beast,” said Needa, her voice full of the sort of incredulous disgust that only a teenager could master. “The thing that was chasing us was–”

A familiar whooping call rang out in the trees, and gleaming rainbow feathers erupted from the canopy. The Casperian Parotel had returned, and she was in full defensive mode.

A demonic screech gave them all just enough warning to duck as the Parotel dove and sliced at them with her talons, missing by centimeters.

“Is that the thing that built those nests in the trees?” shouted the Zaldan patriarch. Sanjiv and Aakon quickly put two-and-two together, but neither had the chance to take him down a peg before the Parotel swooped back for another dive.

Right before the talons could sink into flesh, all six of them felt the fizzy dissolve of a successful transporter lock. They rematerialized on the now-repaired shuttle, already zipping along high above the forest.

“Hey, you found them!” The shuttle pilot swiveled around to face the group, grinning in triumph (‘triumph’ in this case being ‘not losing two-thirds of his tour group in the jungle’). “Well, now that the shuttle is up and running again, do you still want to finish the tour–”

For the first time that day, all six shuttle passengers were in perfect agreement, as well as perfect unison: “NO!”