The snow swirled around the small landing party as they took in their surroundings. There was about two feet of snow on the ground and even more was falling from the grey sky, making it almost impossible to see beyond ten feet.
        "Spock wasn't kidding when he said the planet had arctic characteristics," Bones muttered.
        "Yeah, no kidding," Kirk muttered back.
        "Eet's not zhat cold," Chekov argued. "Eet's only..." He checked his tricorder, "Tventy-zhree degrees." He took a few steps forward, already becoming a blurry outline to Bones and Kirk.
        "Not that cold, my a**. You're Russian, you're used to cold. I'm from Georgia. The coldest it ever got back home was about forty degrees," Bones grumbled.
        Kirk tutted. "Watch your language, Bones. There's a young person in our presence."
        Both Bones and Chekov cast Kirk irritated glances.
        "Keptin, I'm almost tventy-vun. I'm pretty sure zhat I hef heard Bones curse before."
        Bones nodded in Chekov's direction. "What he said," he agreed.
        Kirk sighed. "Alright," he said, "What exactly are we looking for down here?"
        "Vell, any sign zhat R'Volok vas here."
        "How are we going to go about doing that?"
        "Tricorder scans, Jim. Obviously," Bones rolled his eyes.
        "Yeah, but how do we know if we're in the right place? R'Volok could have been anywhere in the planet," Kirk argued.
        "Spock calculated where it was most likely that R'Volok landed using that residue Chekov found, then gave Scotty the coordinates to beam us down," Bones explained with slight irritation. "Honestly, Jim, pay more attention to what's going on on your own ship."
        "Well, why don't you try being captain?" Kirk shot back.
        Chekov walked back over and put a hand in between the glowering faces of McCoy and Kirk. "I don't zhink zhis ees zhe time to be arguing, gentlemen. C'mon, let'z go. I can hear a riwer near here; eet must be big and fast enough to not have frozen ower. Ve can follow eet until ve find zomething."
        Kirk and Bones slowly looked away from each other and towards the young Russian with subdued expressions.
        "Alright," Kirk agreed. "Sounds like a plan to me."
        "Alright, but let's try to keep it on the short side. Two hours, tops. If we're out here any longer than that, we could get frostbite."
        Kirk and Chekov nodded.
        "Okay, let's head toward that river. Lead the way, Mr. Chekov." Kirk gestured for Chekov to walk in front of him. They began making slow progress through the snow.
        When they reached the river after about fifteen minutes, Kirk and Bones were already exhausted, the doctor in particular. Chekov, however, was bouncing around with energy from excitement at being on a mission with two of the highest ranking officers on the Enterprise.
        "C'mon! Let'z keep going!" He waved his arm forward.
        Bones held up a hand. "Now, wait a minute, I need a rest. I'm unaccustomed to walking through snow." He brushed some snow off of a log and sat down. Kirk did the same.
        Chekov made a puppy-dog-eye face, pouting slightly.
        "Don't give me that look. It'll make me guilty," Bones said gruffly. Chekov sighed and sat down as well.
        After a short break that involved much stamping of cold feet, the group stood and continued to follow the river. As they walked, Kirk began to speak.
        "You know," he said, speaking loudly over the sound of the river, "this reminds of when I first met Scotty."
        "Oh yeah?" Bones cast him a half-interested look. Chekov, being several yards ahead, was too far away to hear the conversation.
        "Yeah. It was right after Spock abandoned me on that planet. You know, the really cold one."
        "I remember, Jim."
        "Yeah. It was just as cold as this one, if not colder. Poor Scotty must've been freezing his ears off. Even in the base, it was cold. Must've been about thirty-somethin' degrees."
        Bones cast Kirk a disbelieving look. "That's too cold for a person to stand," he said dubiously. "You must be exaggerating."
        Kirk shrugged. "It's not like I had a thermometer in there. I lost my tricorder along the way."
        Chekov had fallen back slightly to listen to the conversation. "How?" he asked, his interest piqued.
        "Well, I was recording my predicament into the tricorder when I saw this creature running towards me from a distance. At first, I thought it was small, but as it got closer, I could see it was actually some sort of huge alien polar bear. I dropped the tricorder and started to run." Seeing Chekov was still watching with a fascinated expression, he continued. "I thought it would get me, but then this huge red thing jumped out and grabbed the polar bear. If the polar bear was a tennis ball, the red thing was a basketball, and I was a marble."
        Chekov was enraptured. "How did you get avay?"
        "I'm getting to that. I, of course, kept running. I ran into a cave, but the thing pursued me, breaking apart the rock and ice. If Spock hadn't appeared, I would have died."
        "Spock? I zhought he vas zhe vun zhat kicked you off zhe sheep," Chekov thought aloud. "How could he be on zhe plenet?"
        "It was the Spock from the other reality. He chased the thing away with a torch, then told me about the whole temporal anomaly thing. He also led me to the Starfleet base a few kilometers away, where we meet Scotty."
        "Zhat vas a wery interesting tale."
        "Yep. I never seem to run out of them," Kirk said, sighing. "I hope this doesn't have to become a story to tell the younger officers." He gestured at their surroundings.
        "Me niezher."
        They walked in silence for a while, then stopped to take another break.
        "My nose is so cold that I can't feel it anymore," Bones grumbled.
        "Aw, toughen up, Bones. Time's almost up. We'll be back on the Enterprise soon enough."
        "With our luck, something'll happen at one hour fifty-nine minutes." Bones rubbed his eyes. "We should never have beamed down. We could've just scanned the planet."
        "Zhe scenners didn't read any lifeforms, but eet eesn't perfect. Only eyes vould be able to see zomezhing as small as a footprint or dropped item," Chekov explained. He looked at the chronometer function on his tricorder. "Ve only hef about forty-five meenutes left."
        "Yeah, we should get moving again." Kirk stood. "C'mon, Bones, moving'll warm you up a little."
        Sighing, Bones rose from his seat on a rock. "Alright. Let's go." And so, again, the trio began the slow process of walking, scanning, walking, scanning. After about fifteen more minutes of this monotonous task, Kirk stopped.
        "What is it, Jim?" Bones asked, looking back.
        "We haven't found anything on this side of the river. Maybe we shoud cross."
        "Yeah, but how would we do that? Unfortunately, there aren't any bridges."
        "Are you so sure about that?" Kirk pointed to a fallen tree that was just long enough to span the thirty-foot-wide river.
        Bones's eyes widened when he saw what Kirk wanted to do. "No, Jim! We should just get Scotty to beam us across!"
        Kirk shrugged and took out his communicator. He flipped it open. Scott's familiar brogue greeted them.
        "Captain? What're ye commin' me for?"
        "Scotty, we're next to a river and we want to cross it. Can you beam us from one side to the other?"
        Scott's voice sounded nervous. "Actually, Cap'n, that might be a bit difficult."
        Kirk's face turned from one of boredom to one of concern and confusion. "What? Why?"
        "Well, it's a new ship an' all..."
        "Just spit it out, Scotty! What's wrong with the transporter?!"
        The sound of Scott wincing could be heard on the other side. "Well, it's got some bugs. I didn't notice 'em at first, but usin' the transporter made 'em worse. I cannae guarantee ye'd be in one piece on the other side."
        Kirk swore. "How long do you think it'll take to fix it?"
        "Maybe an hour or two, Cap'n. Sorry." Scotty's choice was filled with guilt and was pinched tightly in expectation of reprimand.
        Kirk looked like he wanted to be angry, but just let out a despondent sigh instead. "Alright, Scotty. Comm me when you get it fixed."
        "Will do, Cap'n." The group was left staring silently at the communicator. Kirk's face was part anger and part resignation. Bones's face was all anger.
        Kirk slowly turned his gaze towards the fallen log.
        "Oh, no you don't, Jim. That log is less than two feet wide and that river is thirty-some feet across. There's no way we're getting across that. It'll be a wild goose chase anyway!" Bones whisper-shouted as he grabbed Kirk's arm.
        Kirk turned to him as he took a step forward out of Bones's grip. "Bones, this is what we train for. A little log isn't gonna stop us."
        "The kid's got a broken arm! He can't crawl across a slippery log!"
        Chekov cast Bones a slightly irritated glance at being called a kid. Bones didn't notice.
        "He can do it, can't you, Chekov?" Kirk patted the Russian on the back with some force, causing him to stumble.
        "Um, y-yes, m-maybe," he stuttered.
        Kirk gave Bones an indignant look. "See, he can!"
        Bones glared at him.
        Kirk sighed. "Alright, we'll take a vote. All in favor of crossing the river?" He raised his hand. Chekov raised his hand timidly.
        Bones made a sound of exasperation. "Alright, fine. But if someone falls in, it's your fault, not mine." He then grumbled, mostly to himself, "Why does that da** transporter never work when it should?"
        Kirk patted him on the shoulder. "Aww, c'mon, angry face. It'll be an adventure! We've faced worse than a little log on this mission," he joked.
        Bones sighed submissively. "I already said we were crossing. Who's going first?"
        "Chekov should. The sooner he gets across, the better."
        "That doesn't sound like the best idea. He should go last."
        Chekov's timid voice spoke up. "Ectually, I zhink I should go in zhe meedle." He held up his broken arm. "Zhen you could hold zhe ends of zhe log to stabilize eet."
        Kirk and Bones looked at each other.
        "Yeah, you're right. That sounds like a plan," Kirk agreed. "I'll go first."
        Bones gestured towards the log. "By all means, show us how to do it." His voice was thinly laced with sarcasm.
        Kirk shrugged and began crawling across the log. Several times he nearly slipped, causing Bones to bite his lip and Chekov to flinch. When he finally made it across, he stood and gave them two thumbs up. He shouted something, but the sound of the river was too loud.
        Chekov took a shaky breath and slowly began crossing. He could barely keep a grip on the log with his casted arm and hand. It was slippery from ice and mold, and was worn smooth from possibly months of weather and water crashing into it. In some places, there were tree limbs he had to navigate around, nearly causing him to lose his grip and fall into the icy water below.
        When he was about ten feet from Kirk, a wave crashed into him, hurtling him off the log and into the roiling waters below. He heard a shout that was quickly cut off as he became completely submerged.
        The cold hit him like a phaser beam. It was the coldest he had ever been in his entire life, and that was saying something. He gasped at the shock of it, inhaling a lungful of water, which caused him to cough, which caused him to inhale more water. Struggling, he tried to get to the surface, but his heavy parka and equipment belt were holding him down. He wrestled the coat off and unclipped his tool belt reluctantly. He made sure to grab his tricorder, but his communicator was swept away with the current.
        Free of the extra weight, he kicked upwards, and, at last, broke the surface. He gasped for air, coughing, as he struggled to keep his head above water. He looked around desperately for something to hold onto. There: a rock protruding from the waves. Knowing the water would take him around the rock, he swam with all of what was left of his strength towards it.
        He barely managed to grip the rock. Clinging to it desperately, he shivered, gulping the cold air. He looked around again. There was no telling how far the river had pushed him. He could be a mile away from his friends. Shivering violently, he lay his head down on the rock. He couldn't feel his arms or legs anymore.
        Kirk was going to get an earful when they saw each other again.