The jungle roiled on either side of the river, the trees and plants themselves undulating with apparent rage at the presence of two Starfleet officers on a silver speedboat. The planetary organism covering Dendrion IV was not sentient, but it was very attuned to intrusions—responding like any other body would to a foreign infection by seeking it out and destroying it. Every entity on the planet’s surface was connected as a very primitive hivemind that Starfleet had been studying for decades. What looked like animals were just mobile outgrowths designed to contain and destroy infections like white blood cells did for many humanoid species.

“Fascinating. I’ve never been treated like a virus before,” Captain Sitar noted from the helm station of the boat.

The captain kept a steady hand on the throttle; if she was mindful that the coiling branches behind them were the least dangerous thing pursuing them, she was keeping quiet about it. Beside her, Commander Najan Osho was reconfiguring the type-IV phaser cannon attached to an arm that had emerged from the deck.

“This is why you should have stayed on the ship, with all due respect, captain,” Najan complained as she locked the power cell into place and slid her seat on the track to face aft.

“Your objections have been noted, commander,” Sitar said as Najan began to fire the weapon.

Configured at a power level just above a flashlight, bursts from the phaser cannon sent shockwaves of pure photonic energy—i.e., light—behind the boat. Unlike most plants, the Dendrion IV organism ran from any form of visible life, preferring to suck the energy it needed from its dim red star in only the infrared bands. Tendrils and trees recoiled from Najan’s phaser fire, but the great mass of the forest was still on them like a tsunami.

“47 seconds until we are back on the shuttle,” Sitar announced.

“At this rate, the planet will have us by then,” the commander said, her heart racing as she tried to find optimal firing points to deter the planet-lifeform from pursuing them.

In the dim illumination of a planet in perpetual twilight, it was difficult to see anything, but each time a phaser blast went towards the tree line, Najan’s skin was made to crawl by the squirming mass there. The phaser was slowing them down somewhat, but she felt like she was firing at a cloud—for each moment there was a slight disruption to the forest, it came right back. There were also things in the water—analogous to carnivorous fish—and Najan could just make out winged creatures that were getting closer and closer. They needed more firepower.

“Captain, we need support from the Pallas. Direct support,” Najan said.

“Proceed at your discretion, Commander. As they say, I am keeping my eyes on the road,” the captain replied.

“Najan to Pallas. We need you down here now—with as much of a light show as you can give us,” Najan ordered before switching the phaser to auto-fire mode and moving her chair back amidships next to the captain. “I’m sending you a phaser configuration now.”

“Understood, commander,” Nate Windsor replied from back on the ship. “Hold tight.”

Najan heard the waterfall before she saw it, though she tried to focus on relaying information to the Pallas from her station. She swallowed and looked over at her Vulcan captain as the rush of water became more intense.

“Are you going to jump us over a waterfall and into the shuttle?” she asked.

“Indeed. We don’t have time to load the boat back into the shuttle from the shore,” Sitar said. She glanced at Najan. “I’m not leaving my new boat behind.”

It was a moot point anyway—they had to somehow get into the shuttle, as there was too much interference on the planet’s surface for the transporters to work correctly. Najan just hadn’t imagined her first mission aboard the Pallas involving turning a speedboat into a missile. Behind the boat, the Dendrion IV organisms were practically nipping at their stern.

Another noise cut over that of the waterfall—the whine of Federation impulse engines in the planet’s atmosphere. By now, Najan could see the waterfall and just make out the shuttle waiting for them there. Above it came streaking like a steel-gray arrow the Pallas, her long-spear-like hull recognizable from even a great distance. Streaking in at phenomenal speed, Najan saw the near-blinding blasts from the ship’s phaser arrays and forward cannons light up the forest behind them several moments before they were also hit with the sonic boom from the ship’s high speed.

Najan looked behind the boat to see the forest curling in on itself, its response to far too much UV radiation, and when she turned back around, the boat was going at full power over the cliff. She felt her stomach sink and reflectively gripped the railing under her control station as the craft arced towards the open door of the cargo shuttle. For a moment, she wasn’t sure they were going to make it, but she saw the captain manipulate the shuttle’s flight controls to bring their goal closer to them. The boat entered the cargo compartment with a thud, sending sparks flying for a moment before the cradle system adapted and locked them into place. The adrenaline rush had Najan speechless, but when she looked at the captain, Sitar was beaming from pointed ear to pointed ear.

“I have missed frontline service, commander,” Sitar said.