The wind had picked up and the sky was growing steadily darker. The large snow flakes swirled over the thick blanket of white.

"Kirk to Enterprise!" Kirk shouted into the communicator. "Come in!" There was a slight rushing of static, but otherwise nothing.

"Any luck?" Giotto asked the captain as he shuffled along beside him.

Kirk shook his head. A layer of ice had formed on the edges of his helmet, the faint blue light inside barely illuminated his face. "We need to keep moving. The structures aren't that far ahead."

As of that moment, there was nothing surrounding them but the the small outcroppings of dark rock and the thick drifts of snow. Although the that did little to ease the minds of the small landing party. The crew was still on edge, the readings Mayama had reported were still fresh in their minds.

Captain Kirk stopped walking for a moment. The red shirt behind him hesitated before the captain gestured for him to continue. He watched his crew for a moment, shuffling slowly through the snow in front of him before he fell in line with Bones and Chekov.

"How are things back here?" He asked.

"Freezing my ass off, for one!" Bones replied in frustration. "Are you sure we ain't lost? We should have reached that rock pile by now!"

Captain Kirk tried to give a reassuring smile but his face was beginning to go numb in the cold. The EV suits were capable in a whole variety of situations, but the surface temperature on the planet was dropping so rapidly with the storm that the suits were unable to keep up.

"We're almost there." Kirk turned to his science officer, whose helmet was down turned as she studied the tricorder readings. "Anything?" Kirk asked.

Mayama took a deep breath, her voice shaking as she spoke. "Temperature is minus seventy point six degrees Celsius and dropping rapidly. The wind chill is—"

"How far until we get there?" Kirk interrupted. The temperature of the planet didn't matter at that point. What mattered was getting to where they needed to be before the night fell and they lost what little light they had left.

"Ten minutes.. If the storm doesn't get any worse."

"Ten minutes. That's not so bad."

"Captain!" She reached out and grabbed his arm. She looked at her tricorder. "There appears to be—" Her voice suddenly broke into a harsh scream as something pulled her into the snow. The captain dropped to the ground and grabbed her arm.

"Hold on!" He yelled. Her panicked screams crackled through the built in communicator as a tremendous force tried to pull her further under the surface.

"Don't move!" Someone yelled. The snow started caving inward around her, the hard packed layers of ice crystals sifting like sand in an hour glass.

"Please help me! Please!" Mayama cried, her voice breaking into a series of incoherent screams as her hand began to slip out of the captain's grasp.

"No!" Kirk yelled, reaching further down the quickly forming crater as he tried to  to hold onto her. There were several flashes of light as the phasers shot at the snow. A jagged shriek echoed through the ground beneath them and the tight grip on the science officer was gone.

"Help me!" Kirk yelled, trying to drag Mayama back onto the surface. Someone grabbed him and helped pull them out of the deep crater. The wind was howling and the captain's hands were numb he was helped to his unsteady feet.

He reached down and helped Mayama stand. She was sobbing and breathing heavily as she leaned against the captain.

"Captain! We need to get moving! Before those things come back!" Someone told him. Kirk nodded.

"Head out. Keep your phasers ready! Fire at anything that moves!" He instructed. He gently held Mayama away at arms length so he could see her face. "I think we got it. We're okay now." he reassured.

She nodded, raising her hand to wipe her eyes but realizing she was still in an EV suit. Her lips trembled and it was difficult for her to let go of the captain to keep trudging through the snow.

They continued to wade through the storm for several long minutes. Captain Kirk shivered in his suit, his chest beginning to ache as each breath of icy air tore through his lungs. The rapidly falling snow had almost completely obscured his vision. He could see the hazy outline of Mayama in front of him and the faint blue glow of her tricorder shining on her helmet.

Captain Kirk was finding it immensely difficult to keep his frozen legs moving forward through the thickening drifts of snow. He wrapped his arms around his chest, for whatever little help it did with retaining body temperature. Surface temperatures on the planet had dropped very rapidly over the past half hour. He couldn't even guess what they were now that the EV suit was beginning to malfunction in the cold.

Suddenly Mayama came to an abrupt halt in front of him. Bones nearly walked into the captain as he stopped suddenly as well.

"Please tell me we're there," Kirk mumbled.

"It—it's just a—ahead, captain.." Mayama reported before she resumed her slow walk forward.

The new realization that they were very close to their target did nothing to quicken the time as the seconds dragged on for eternity. It seemed like another hour before they finally reached the dark cliff face that towered high above them. Old carvings and frozen veins of metal ran down the length of the dark grey rock.

"There should—should be a—a—an entrance here." She told the captain, her hands shaking as she held the scanner.

"Maybe with all the snow it's beneath the surface." Captain Kirk proposed, barely able to control his voice as he took out his phaser and adjusted the setting. He aimed it at the snow covering the front of the sheer rock face.

The snow began to melt downward, the rock near the beam turned a faint red color. The snow sunk down at least three feet before the outline of a door became visible.

"I think I found something!" Kirk announced, leaning down and shoveling away some of the snow with his hands. Strange markings were etched into the dull metal surface. As he ran a gloved hand over it, a dim orange glow began to spread across the metal. Kirk stepped back, watching as the snow around the door began to glow as well.

"Watch out!" Chekov yelled just as something grabbed one of the men's leg.