Title: The Man and the Memory (6/?)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Characters: Kirk, Spock, McCoy
Summary: Sequel to The Boy and the Sea Dragon. McCoy wakes up and finds that his world has been turned upside down.
Previous Part: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Part Five

“So…” McCoy catches Spock sedately turning the corner of a corridor on Deck 39.

The Vulcan stops when he encounters the doctor with an expectant and an advantageous position to block his path. Spock’s eyebrow climbs in greeting.

Leonard decides to skip the hunt and tree the prey. “When were you planning on mentioning that I’m on the fast track to the Great Beyond? After I start coughing up blood?”

Wow, he didn’t know it was possible for Vulcans to pale like that.

Leonard shrugs in what he hopes is a bracingly nonchalant manner. “But hey, who am I to complain—it’s not like we’re friends.”

Then Spock opens his mouth after a moment of pause and says, rather sincerely, “Forgive me, Leonard. In my inaction, I committed a grievous error and caused you pain.”

Damn. Vulcans are good at remorse, aren’t they?

Now Leonard feels a little guilty for sticking Spock with verbal barbs. It had been too simple to let his shock turn into bright anger and zero in on the most obvious target. As a doctor, McCoy may have experience with relaying a grave diagnosis to a patient but he can’t assume that others so readily understand that even bad news is a common courtesy.

He grimaces. “I guess I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to jump down your throat. I was just… a little surprised.”

“Understandable, Doctor,” murmurs the Vulcan.

“Spock.” Leonard reaches out hesitantly to see if Spock will reject the contact. When Spock does not, he touches the sleeve of the Vulcan’s uniform. “We ought to talk. About everything. Do you have a minute?”

“The Captain has requested my presence on the Bridge.”

“You’re off shift?”

Spock nods.

The decision is easy to make. “Alright. Let’s go ‘n see what the man wants.”

McCoy marches purposefully to the turbolift at the end of hall. Spock’s voice reaches him when he depresses the button to call the lift.

“You desire to go to the Bridge.” Spock phrases it as a statement but Leonard picks up on the inherent question.

He gives the First Officer of the Enterprise a strange look. “Why wouldn’t I? And don’t give me any bull-hocky about regulations! I’m a doctor with a Chief Medical Officer’s responsibilities. I’m sure it’s in my contract somewhere that I ought to have full access to this ship.”

Spock says nothing during Leonard’s mini-speech and once the doctor runs out of breath, the Vulcan remarks, “I would not attempt to censure your demands, Doctor McCoy.”

That twinkle is back in Spock’s eyes. Leonard makes room for him in the lift, all the while resisting the urge to poke the Vulcan in a very annoying, childish manner. Spock, no doubt, realizes this because he subtly shifts his proximity to not-so-close to whimsical humans.

Leonard pretends to listen to the computer count the decks as they rise while, instead, he silently wonders how many times he has poked Spock in the past and gotten away with it. A quick glance at the slightly wary Vulcan cements his suspicion that the answer is a lot.

Uhura pretends not to notice when McCoy enters the Bridge directly on the heels of Mr. Spock. And she hastily aborts the interested swivel of her head when the Captain’s cold voice slices through the air.

“You are not authorized on this level, McCoy.”

The doctor answers in a calm drawl, “Why, Jim, you’ve never made a fuss about my visits before.”

Has Leonard regained his memory?

She glances furtively at him and decides that his agitated posture has more to do with uncertainty than the usual banter.

It’s a difficult thing to ignore the dangerous tete-a-tete between Kirk and McCoy. Such an occurrence happens so rarely in public unless the issue is a serious matter between the Captain and the CMO of the starship. Even then, the doctor is generally careful enough not to undermine Kirk’s authority as leader. They could never work together if some professional lines were not observed. Secretly, she thinks that both Kirk and McCoy are wise enough not to rile the prim First Officer who would, quite simply and at length, remind them of the proper etiquette and protocol befitting officers of high rank.

She fiddles with her earpiece, almost on edge for the Captain’s response to McCoy’s unsubtle challenge.

It shouldn’t be surprising when Mr. Spock cuts in smoothly, “Are you unwell, Captain?”

Kirk measures Spock—and his question—as a suspicious man looks for a trap. Spock remains standing next to McCoy at the railing, not approaching the Captain but not giving ground either. It’s a pattern that she is starting to recognize, as if the Vulcan has forbidden himself to step within a five-foot range of the man.

Strange.

And perhaps more than strange, now that Nyota notes this new behavior. Jim was one of the first people to earn admission into Spock’s carefully maintained personal space. Something has changed.

When was the last time that Jim Kirk brushed shoulders with his First Officer out of habit?

In fact, when was the last time that Jim Kirk initiated a friendly gesture to any crew member as he has been wont to do in the past?

The current conversation draws her back from her thoughts.

“My health is not in question, Mr. Spock.”

“It is my duty as First Officer to inquire of such matters.”

“I have no time for this,” says Kirk in a short temper. “You are here to answer my command.” The emphasis is not subtle.

“Very well. How may I assist you at this time?”

“Mr. Scott has failed to identify why we are unable to go to warp.”

“Scotty can’t figure it out?” inputs McCoy incredulously. “You gotta be mistaken.”

“I said why, not what prevents us, McCoy. The circumstance is clear. Someone sabotaged my ship.”

She isn’t able to waylay her jerk of surprise. Across the Bridge, Pavel Chekov makes a small exclamation in Russian. Sulu shushes him.

The Captain continues. “I want the reason—and I want the perpetrator. The Chief Engineer has not provided answers; he is incompetent. You, Mr. Spock, will conduct a full investigation. The guilty party is to be arrested and residing in the brig by 0900 tomorrow. No exceptions.”

The last part falls like the wrath of an angry god and in its wake is speechless disbelief.

McCoy clearly wants to say something but Spock’s quiet “Doctor” warns him to remain silent.

The First Officer nods once to Kirk. “I will comply with the wishes of my captain.”

Kirk seems to accept that answer. “Dismissed.” He adds to the doctor who reluctantly follows Spock to the lift doors, “McCoy.”

“Yes, Captain?”

“Unless I ask for you,” warns the hard-eyed man too softly, “your jurisdiction does not extend to the Bridge, effective immediately.”

Nyota bites at her bottom lip when McCoy doesn’t simply bow out. “May I ask why the change of heart, Sir?”

They all want to know the answer to that.

Kirk doesn’t give it to them. “No, you may not.” He directs his attention to the screen of stars in clear dismissal. “Sulu, how long can the Enterprise maintain orbit without significant decent into the atmosphere?”

Spock and McCoy exit the Bridge, and Nyota blocks out Sulu’s somewhat nervous answer.

It is no longer a matter of what is wrong with Jim. Now she wants to know who the Hell is he?

“I’ll be damned if I call a man like that my friend!” rants McCoy.

Because Spock is silent (has been silent since they left the Bridge), McCoy steps in front of the Vulcan walking alongside him.

“Spock,” Leonard asks, seeks a sign of what his companion is thinking, “what are you going to do?”

“I do not know.”

“Jim—oh Hell, let’s call it Kirk or something because it ain’t a Jim.”

Spock blinks.

“Kirk,” clarifies McCoy, “expects you to arrest somebody. Unless you’re gonna handcuff yourself…”

“I have no intentions in that direction, Doctor.”

“Then, for God’s sake, tell me your plan!”

“It may disturb you.”

McCoy groans. “I’ve been disturbed since I woke up and didn’t recognize my own face, Spock.”

“Based on the known parameters, I can only conclude that the optimal tactic is no tactic,” replies the Vulcan.

Leonard makes a noise in the back of his throat which might be repressed hysteria. “Well, that’s the most illogical nonsense I’ve heard from you yet! Your plan is to not have a plan?“

“Jim refers to it, I believe, as ‘winging it.’ Although,” Spock pauses in thought, “I have yet to comprehend the purpose of wings in this reference.”

He barely manages to avoid smacking the Vulcan upside his pointy-eared head in the middle of the corridor. (Notably, from the looks of a few passing ensigns, an altercation between the two officers would not be unexpected.) McCoy’s own brain aches with the beginnings of a migraine.

“You know what I think, Spock?” he says grimly. “I think we’re at a dead end.”

“On the contrary, progress has been achieved.”

“How?”

“Without the distraction of a Captain’s duties to Starfleet, Jim’s impersonator is more likely to reveal his true nature.”

“You mean the longer we keep Kirk idling here instead of space hopping, the easier it will be to crack his facade.”

“Precisely.”

McCoy shakes his head. “Spock, I sure hope you know what you’re doing. ‘Cause I don’t. I really, really don’t.”

“Until the time in which you do, your presence suffices, Leonard.”

If only McCoy had that much confidence in himself. Since he doesn’t, McCoy accepts Spock’s confidence in him instead.

Next Part

Related Posts:

• The Man and the Memory (8/8) – from January 7, 2011
• The Man and the Memory (7/?) – from January 6, 2011
• The Man and the Memory (5/?) – from January 3, 2011
• The Man and the Memory (4/?) – from December 30, 2010
• The Man and the Memory (3/?) – from December 29, 2010