User:Brian Kurtz/Sandbox

The crew of the United space ship Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike is flying through space en route to the Vega Colony when they intercept a distress signal originating from the Talos Star Group. The crew theorizes that the signal might have something to do with the survey ship, the SS Columbia, which diappeared eighteen years ago. Pike orders them to maintain course to the Vega Colony and retires to his cabin.

He summons his Chief Medical Officer, Doctor Philip Boyce to his room. Boyce prepares what Pike believes to be a tonic, but is in fact a martini. He says that some people are more willing to open up to their bartender than they are to their doctor. Pike vents his frustraton about some of his prior missions, in particular, a recent fracas that took place on Rigel VII. He is overwhelmed with the burden of having to be the caretaker of 203 lives. From the communicator, Science Officer Spock interrupts their conversation to report that they have discovered eleven survivors of the SS Columbia on the planet Talos IV. Pike goes to the bridge of the ship and orders his navigator, José Tyler, to direct their course to the Talos Star Group - Time Warp 7.

Once they reach the planet's orbit, Pike puts together a landing crew of six people consisting of Spock, Doctor Boyce, José Tyler, C.P.O. Garrison, a geologist and himself and transports down to the planet. They find an encampment of survivors, one of whom is an elderly scientist who introduced himself as Doctor Theodore Haskins. Doctor Boyce runs a quick analysis on the condition of the survivors and determines that they are in perfect health. Doctor Haskins introduces a young woman named Vina to Captain Pike. He explains that Vina was born shortly before the Columbia crashed on this world eighteen years ago.

Vina offers to show Captain Pike the secret to their restored health. The landing party is unaware that they are secretly being observed by a race of subterranean beings called Talosians. Vina lures Captain Pike into the hills of a nearby canyon. A doorway in the side of the cliff's face opens and a Talosian emerges. It stuns Captain Pike with an energy weapon and brings him inside the cave. The rest of the crew look about astonished as Haskins and the other members of the encampment disappear before their eyes. It was all an illusion.