The shuttlecraft sped into the atmosphere carrying six occupants, gear and food to last several months. The craft shifted course once they dipped down below the clouds, heading for the place near the cave where Knite had left his mark. Sha'uri had given them co-ordinates and they had scanned for the nearest and best place to land and set up camp ... the place where Sha'uri and Knite had initially landed on the moon.

After scanning the moon for several months, they had been able to determine the storms did not hit that area as often as they had first thought and mostly stormed over the lower plains lands in the far distance. This made the plateau an ideal area, high enough to survive most flooding and low enough that food and clean water was easily available.

The shuttle came down through the clouds, landing in the clearing atop the plateau and settled gently to the ground north of the creek. The water ran through the clearing, dropping over the side into a waterfall more then a hundred feet down. The clearing was fairly sized and surrounded by forest on three sides, the fourth being the cliff where the waterfall formed.

Sharp hissing resounded as the shuttle doors opened, releasing the pressure that had kept it in place. The platform was lowered and the small crew began to pull a few metal crates from the storage as they began to set up camp.

Alex stepped out of the craft and took out a scanner, flipped it on and began to walk the perimeter, setting co-ordinates to set up a shield system incase of destructive weather or potentially hazardous creatures. With the pylons in place and the settings combined with the shuttle, they could shield the entire clearing from one of those storms quite efficiently.

"Commander, we've got camp nearly set up. I see you have the shields in place and ready. Tests are good so it should work. I just have one very important question though."

Alex lifted a brow as he looked to Gavin, one of the scientist on the expedition. "What's that?"

"Hot dogs or hamburgers?" Gavin grinned.

Alex grinned back. "Flip a coin, I don't care either way, as long as we're having smore's for desert."

"You got it." Gavin laughed and headed back to the shuttle. It was his night to cook.

Alex stayed by the waterfall and gazed out over the land and watched as the sun slowly began to drop behind a distant plateau, a sign that only a few hours of light were left. He was looking forward to this for a long, long time.

The deep draconic voice, the sudden gasps and screams of the crew followed by the familiar sound of phasers being pulled had Alex arching a brow and spinning round, likewise pulling phaser from its holster with lightning speed.

"Knite!" he signalled the others to drop their weapons as he put his back into its holster. He walked over to the dragon.

"Good to see you. I take it you teleported in okay then. Mom said you had your cave marked up there so I had the shield configured to allow you in. Hungry? Don't know how much a few hambergers and smores will satiate your dragon appetitie, but we'll pull out some more if you need. I figure setting up camp for tonight and then in the morning head out on foot over the nearby lands. What say you?"

Alex couldn't help but chuckle as he grabbed two plates, handing one to the now Drow sized Knite so he could fix a plate. He had to shift his view from looking up at him to down, compensating for the change in size now that Alex was about a foot taller then Knite.

"No need to appologize. They need a shake up every now and then. Keeps them on their toes. Besides, we've already got plans to do some hunting while we're here so no worries on the rations. Home's not that far away, anyway."

Nods of greeting and even a few handshakes were offered to Knite as Alex introduced them in order, three humans, a dwarf and an elf.

"These are the crew for the journey. Gavin, my second, who made dinner... Neil, our security ... Josiah, medical... Flex, a geologist.... and Erindahl, our overall scientist who has a strong background in flora and fauna, among other things, magic being one. Hopefully we've got enough of the basics covered to make this expedition a success."

He sat down next to Knite and took a bite of his own hamburger.

"Oh, these are good... " he finished chewing and swollowed like someone savoring every molecule in his mouth. "Nothing like a burger cooked on an open fire." he smiled.

"Oh right, Natives? It's possible although either they are few and far between and well hidden.......or... not at all. We haven't found any signs of them yet. Of course, we haven't looked too hard below ground. It's plausible that there could be a whole society beneath the surface, but I doubt it. Mother didn't sense anything. I wouldn't like to think she was mistaken this time."

He wasn't going to mention the fiasco on Mardra. Then he smiled genuinely as a thought began to form.

"As to formations... You pick and we'll follow. In fact, I think it would be fitting for you to lead the expedition tomorrow. It was you and mother who first landed here. What do you say?"

Alex agreed.

"Sounds like a good plan. That'll save on the shuttle, though I can always call it in if necessary. Auto pilot is awesome."

He grinned boyishly proud while he speared a marshmallow for his third round of smores.... ready to spear a second one.

"Want another one too?"

The rest of the night went uneventful, but very pleasant. They all went to bed, awaiting the crack of dawn and Knite's lead to the real beginning of their adventure here....

The shield was taken down so the dragon could take flight. Alex made sure Knite also had a communication device with him before he took off.

"How's the weather up there looking, Knite?"

Alex tested the comm link.

"We're going to follow this deer trail. It seems to be leading southeast, though a bit more east."

Then he followed the others walking on down the way, seeming to be using a deer trail, or trail of something similar. Instead of a two toed hoof, it resembled three toes and was estimated to be slightly bigger and heavier then a deer by about 30 - 40%, perhaps more. Alex relayed all this to Knite.

About a half a mile down the way, Alex discovered that whatever normally took this route had noticed them and apparently blazed a new trail around them. Alex determined this as he took a few minutes to follow it back. It seemed to be bearing that way..... He wasn't going to follow it all the way back, but it was enough to know that on the return trip, they might meet them by surprise.

"They appear to be eating these berries."
Erindahl nodded towards a bush bearing orange berries with pink dots.
"I've noticed the bush along the way and how where the animal's estimated reach might be, the bush seems a little less blessed with the berries, of orange with pink dots, compared to others.... except for ones apparently not ripe.... the green with white dots are probably not ripe. I'll collect samples and test for toxins. Perhaps it is something we can use as a supplement for food."

They continued down the trail, following Knite's direction from above and collected several samples of plant life and a few pictures of small animals. They were all a bit... strange, even compared to the ones found on Exodii. Alex looked forward to showing Knite these pictures. Almost half the day had gone by, it was about time to break for lunch and head back.

"How's it going up there? Still awake? I don't suppose you see a clearing we can meet in for lunch...."

It had been almost an hour since their last contact.

Alex frowned as he listened to the interferrence.
"Got it. We'll meet you there Knite."

He looked to his first, who looked at the science officer, who was already looking over his scanned readings.

"Some kind of natural interferrence. I'll need to take a few more readings but it may be worse as we move. It appears to be coming from that direction." Erindahl informed them while he continued the scans.

"Well that dont' surprise me." Flex, the geologist piped up. "There's cave formations, a whole series of them that way. Hard to say which element is interferring. We're sittin on some plate techtonics action ya know. Like the elf said, we'll need more readings but it's probably what's muckin up the comm systems. Good 'ol friction between the plates 'll do it plus a good dose of certain geological elements...."

"Well, okay then! Haven't seen a good vulcanic blow up in a while. On ward and away we go." Alex led them to the north and a scent of sulfur was thinly in the air as they went further. "I had to open my mouth."
He got on the Comm system again. They were halfway there. "Alex to Knite. Got anything in sight there? Caves? Volcanoes? A little magma? Just checking."

"Al-x!!! Un--- Attack!! ----- red green ----y things. ----- claws and som- ---- wings! Immu--- to f--re! Everywh---! Damn th--gs -r- so ---- it- scarry! I am -- overr-- Ca-- take ---. They ---- me trap---! "

Alex halted the group as the call came in. Gavin had noticed the odd way the comm systems were reacting and had already contemplated several ways of clearing it up. So when the call came he was quick to try and clear it up, but only was able to catch a few more words. It was enough that they could hear it and this is what they thought they heard ....

"Alex!!! Under Attack!! ----- red green ----y things. ----- claws and some ---- wings! Immu--- to f--re! Everywhere! Damn things are so ---- it- scarry! I am -- overrun Can't take ---. They have me trapped!"

"What in the world would have him scared or overrun? This can't be good. And it almost sounds like they might be immune to something... like fire or flare. But the red green something things.. claws and something about wings... I dunno, maybe it's a red green horny thing with claws and spiked wings?" Gavin offered.

"Succubus?" Josiah guessed.

"Doubtful, but perhaps as equally bizarre." Alex countered. "There were many strange combination and experimental creatures dumped on Secak. Any of them may be here and a lot we don't know about. Either way, he's in trouble. Note his last location and we'll teleport back to the shuttle. From there, we'll deal with it. If he's having problems, we can't help him like we are now."

Alex had moved ahead just a mere five feet or so to look through an opening in the foliage to see what he could see. And just as quickly as he started to turn away, something grabbed him and pulled him out of sight.

None of the other got a look at what it was, but Gavin's reaction to activate the emergency transport for them was done before it was thought about. They all made it back to the shuttle, except Alex. For some reason the teleport either didn't activate on Alex or else was interfered with. Either way, he was still out there.

The shields were raised around the shuttle, the clearing they were in and covering the entrance to Knite's cave. Then the men began to evaluate scans and replay the message while trying to locate anything where Alex and Knite were last known. Messages were sent to the Citadel with a return response that a ship would be sent to the location. Wether that was the Armageddon or the science vessel, that remained to be seen.

Alex wasn't laughing as he was dragged into ... well, wherever they were at. He could smell the sulphur more keenly,though. They were near a geyser somewhere, he could hear it spewing steam some distance away, perhaps within a mile or two ahead.

"SO this is your rescue right?"

The blindfolds were taken off and Alex just looked around dazed by sheer numbers of them. He could see why Knite was almost laughing as these creatures looked so innocent and harmless. But for them to take him down, a Dragon... Alex knew they were not so harmless. How many other dragons or dragon like creatures had fallen to this fate? Still, he had to grin.

"No, it's YOUR rescue!" Alex countered. "Or was until my attempted escape failed too."

He looked around and didn't see the others, concluding that the crew had made it safely out and back to the shuttle.

"The others must be back to the shuttle. No wonder we didn't see these creatures..... Look at 'em blend."

Some of them were blending and un blending from the surroundings. He watched them carefully and noticed soon enough the movements near a cave opening some two hundred feet away. This lent to the idea that they lived underground.

Some actually wore what looked to be make shift harnesses and carried weapons and ropes. The leader or at least the spiritual leader had a headdress of sorts walked with a staff and now stood on the top of Knite's head shouting something to everyone.

Alex tried to gauge the emotion of the apparent shaman, but got nothing from it. In fact, he got nothing from any of them, not even surface thoughts. He quickly put two and two together and realized why his mother might not have sensed these obviously intelligent sentient creatures here....

They were psi resistant for one, they lived deep underground. It was possible the area was lined with something blocking sensors. It was possible they themselves generated a shielding resistant to psi sensing and/or technology sensors because of the way they reflected themselves from sight, blending with the backgrounds in some way. He noticed a slight shimmer as they moved in and out of their camouflage. Too bad he couldn't reach his tricorder to verify this.. all his equipment had been taken.

He could only hope the crew would happen upon the right frequencies and notice the variances.... Maybe they'd get lucky and one of the creatures would start playing with the equipment and trigger a frequency that would actually break through for the shuttle to pick up. It was also possible that they were all just illusions.

"I would have broke free and find you guys but I just can't come to squishing the little creatures they are too dang Cute!"

This being said the creatures started drawing red and green marks on both Alex and the large dragon. They started dancing and whooping about as they did this. What was to come next?

Alex rolled his eyes and sarcastically commented while one painted a green stripe to his left cheek and the other a red stripe to the other cheek. He tried to sniff the stuff to see what it was they were using.

"Oi,yeah they're cute all right... the whole time they're preping us for dinner... AS dinner. Seriously, what do you think they'll do to us?"

He was looking around now trying to find a way out, a way to get untangled from the ropes they had him in and a way to get the load stones off of Knite. If they were heavy enough to keep him down, Alex didn't believe he'd be able to move them himself. He tried to devise a plan of escape while seeming to remain as calm as he could possibly keep himself.

********************

Meanwhile, back on the ranch....er... Shuttle..

The crew worked with various frequencies trying to find a way to make sense of the readings they were scanning. At this point, nothing made any sense. They kept up their vigillante effort on the scanning, trying every known combination that they could think of. Thirty minutes later, while the leader of the crew was getting his face painted, the crew recieved a communication from the Science vessel. They'd be there in fifteen minutes.