Lieutenant al-Kwaritzmi’s log, supplemental: the contact with the locals has gone as good as it could. They have been informed of our goals and I hope this will be enough to smoothen any friction and pre-empt any conflict. Our tricorders can’t pick up the position of the Romulan engineering toolkit with precision, so Ensign Pasteyr and Lieutenant Koli will now prepare a scanning drone to survey the area.

They had exited the village or Zaminakö and climbed a small hill just north of it. Not only could they overlook it, but from there they could see the orange desert in the distance, the swampy riverside that crossed it, and the sparsely wooded hills that stood between the two. In the weirdest, most dissonant way, it was still evening, and would keep being evening for many days.

While they had some distance to the village, they were under no illusion to be out of sight or forgotten. A good number of Limitöe were flying above their village, and their eyesight was extremely good: they were watching, in part probably out of curiosity, in part probably because of apprehension.

Diran and Ensign Pasteyr were endeavouring at setting up the drone — it had just been beamed down from the Sternbach — and Ensign Limkas was typing at her PADD. She also had a binocular which she used liberally. Iskander approached her after he had been done updating the Sternbach.

“I have been impressed by your words, Ensign” he said.

The Xindi interrupted her typing and looked at him with her scaly, reptilian eyes. “Thank you. Much was improvised, to be honest, and based on preliminary cultural observations.”

“Do you think that they hid something from us?”

The Xindi looked thoughtful. “They were very guarded, as they should be. But it is difficult to say, through the cultural barrier we have, if it was reticence.”

Diran looked at them, said something to Pasteyr, and came around to Limkas and Iskander. “The Syndic was honest when he said he doesn’t know anything. I couldn’t feel any deception coming from either the Judge or the Holy, who were in turn worried and horrified about our presence. The Guildholder was definitely reticent, especially when we discussed the toolkit.”

Iskander looked at the Betazoid. “That makes sense. His questions about the toolkit were quite interested and specific. How much does he know?”

Diran pondered while smoothing their thin moustache. “I can’t answer. I am unskilled even as an empath. My… gut feeling is that he isn’t involved personally, but he might have a hunch of who is.”

Iskander nodded. “That might play out in our favour, if we should parlay with the person who has appropriated the repair kit. That said, our plan doesn’t change. Ready the drone and scan the area thoroughly.”

The drone was readied quite quickly and took on flight, a sleek dark thing that made no noise. For sure, it would be a confusing or memorable sight for flying Limitöes that crossed its path and saw it, and Iskander hoped that no one would try to attack the piece of technology. It was too sturdy to be damaged.

Ensign Pasteyr would be monitoring the scan from her PADD. “Do we think they brought the toolkit underground?” she asked.

“If they hadn’t, we would probably have been able to detect it from orbit” answered Iskander. “Either that, or they put it in some sort of metallic casing.”

“Twenty meter rock penetration?”

The planet, Norborhann-3A or Nidöe, was rather devoid of caves due to its rather limited telluric activity. Cave systems deeper than 20 meters were rare. On the other hand, it was possible that they had a system of mines that deep — or deeper. “Aye.”

Ensign Pasteyr set the drone with the appropriate rock penetration depth. The deeper the scan, the slower it would cover an area. “I’ll start with a twenty kilometer radius around here.”

For a moment Iskander allowed himself to just look at the scenery. He had rarely been on such an unurbanized planet. Now that his eye had somewhat gotten used to the Limitöe’s technology, he could recognize that most of the area around the village was actually a large orchard. Some Limitöe were even toiling in their fields: they flew from fruit tree to fruit tree, carrying woven baskets loaded with ripe produce, and would only occasionally make a trip to the wagon where, for now, some of their toil domesticated animals grazed on the wild grass. There were some roads, he recognized now, but only so that their wagons could carry what their wings didn’t.

It was probably time to update the Sternbach on their progress. He called and had a quick chat with a communication officer. There were too many simultaneous missions happening at the moment for the senior crew to monitor personally.

Limkas, on the other hand, had been looking at the village with and without her binocular, her gaze difficult to decipher, and now spoke up. “Lieutenant” she said. “Have you been following the traffic to and from Zaminakö?”

He jolted out of his thoughts. “No, Ensign. What have you seen?”

She pointed a scaly finger in the direction of two Limitöe who were flying away from the village. “From their clothes I think those two individuals arrived a couple a quarter of an hour ago, and now they are leaving in what seems to be a hurry.”

She was offering her binocular to Iskander, who took it and had a look. Even closer, it was difficult to tell much about them, aside from the dark clothing. Whether they were in a particular hurry or not, the human couldn’t discern from their flapping.

“I think that they are carrying weapons” said Limkas, “and now a Limitöe is flying towards us, having departed the village just after they left.”

Iskander nodded and straightened his back. “Look presentable” he ordered, knowing full well that it was a pointless order: they already did.

The Limitöe arrived in a matter of a minute. They were unfamiliar — they looked younger, and dressed in much less fanfare. “Oh you — eh — esteemed wanderers” they called out, and then landed next to them. “Please do heed me in patience!”

Iskander realized that they were not only in a hurry, but also quite scared. “Take a deep breath” he said to the Limitöe. “Whatever you came in a hurry to tell us, we appreciate you coming here so swiftly. I am named Iskander.”

The Limitöe looked at Iskander with their large eyes. “Eh, ah, I’m Zütil. Thanks for making me feel better, but I carry thunder in my words. One of us in the village, my cousin in fact, was just attacked and beaten by two ruffians!”

Iskander raised his eyebrows. “We just saw two of your species, clad in black, leaving the village in a great hurry. Are they involved?”

“You have keen eyes! It was them, we think! The Syndic wants you to come quickly to the village.”

Iskander took a deep breath and nodded. He didn’t necessarily like this. If the Syndic thought they ought to be involved, then he could presume that the beating was connected with the toolkit. But his instinct, Prime-Directive-wise, was that the least the Limitöe were involved and saw the away team, the better.

And yet, better to see what was happening.

Ensign Limkas and him ran down the hill, back into the village of Zaminakö.