Title: The Boy and the Sea Dragon (12/14)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Characters: Kirk, Spock, McCoy
Summary: On an away mission, Captain Kirk encounters an old friend he hasn’t thought of in years. Unfortunately, their meeting is less than fortuitous and bodes ill for the rest of Jim’s crew.
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Part Twelve

“This is a bad idea,” McCoy announces as they march back to Sickbay. “This is the stupidest idea you and Spock have agreed to yet.”

“Bones,” Jim is grim. “quit complaining.”

McCoy shuts his mouth and produces a deep frown. Spock is already ahead of the group, probably has assembled a team of security in addition to the red-shirted men surrounding the creature that trails them through the corridors. Jim has one hand on a phaser tucked in his belt; perhaps touching it makes the Captain feel more secure. McCoy is weaponless at his own insistence.

He manages to keep silent until they are close to their destination. “If we all end up on that planet watching the Enterprise sail away, then it’s your fault.”

Spock, who waits for them outside the entrance to Sickbay with patience and a sharp gaze, responds to McCoy’s griping once the man is within (Human) earshot. “Doctor, the distance between the current location of this ship and the surface of the planet is too great for the eye to perceive its departure from the solar system.”

“It’s an expression, Spock.”

“Indeed.” His tone indicates that it is an expression which might be better served with more logic and less fancy.

McCoy purposefully steps around the Vulcan to enter the medical bay. He pauses a few feet inside, turns around to the sight of security officers taking positions around the entrance with grim faces and leveled phasers. Then Leonard catches Jim’s eyes. Kirk nods once, perhaps to say yes, this is really happening. With a heart-felt sigh, McCoy resigns himself to this inevitable dangerous game of chance.

He barks at the few people left to staff Sickbay—Chapel included—about impending medical crises and sends them scurrying to prep equipment. Chapel approaches Leonard, much like a second-in-command, to ask, “Where do you need me, Sir?”

Leonard answers simply, “In close attendance, Nurse.” He pauses, second-guesses sending her into a room with predators.

The woman doesn’t give him time to take back those words. Christine Chapel holds up a hypospray in one hand. “Don’t worry, Doctor, I’m armed.”

He nods and prays that it will be sufficient protection.

“Then let’s get this over with.”

They lead the crowd of officers—and the enemy—exactly where Leonard McCoy knows that they shouldn’t go.

Jim is running on iron will and discipline. He has always had both in ample quantities but, in the past, received little incentive to use the latter—until he decided to join Starfleet, that is. As Captain of the flagship, Kirk finds that discipline is more than a necessity; it is a way of life. Sometimes he surprises himself with how easy it is to push all the little matters aside and focus on what needs doing.

Such as now.

Bones is in serious trouble. The doctor is dying, the disease is incurable, and Jim is not only reeling from the revelation but desperately grasping at straws to save the doctor’s life.

His steely front hides a terrified raging on the inside. Kirk isn’t ready to give up, will never be ready to give up, when his friend’s life hangs in the balance. If there is a way to help Bones, then he is ready to restructure the known universe in order to do so. And if it means that he has to step into this danger zone, then he will gladly go. Leonard McCoy may not understand what drives Kirk but that does not deter Jim. He fights for friends and family. He fights on behalf the galaxy. He cannot, simply put, stop fighting.

Motioning for the guards to detain the prisoner, Kirk steps into the isolated area which contains the other unknown. The enemy here is the threat that has, thus far, stranded him and his First Officer on the planet below and attempted to steal his ship (and possibly his destiny as well—he doesn’t quite understand that bit, or believe it). It no longer looks like Spock. Somehow its façade has faded into sharply ridged skin and long awkward limbs. While the old sea dragon that Jim met as a child appears almost fanciful, this one is something entirely different. From the lack of long seaweed-like whiskers to the bright, fresh look of its scales, Jim knows instinctively that this being is young by its species’ standards. The other did not lie, then, about the age of its partner.

The stillness in the room creates a feeling of listlessness and unease. The patient’s eyes are closed and if it breathes, then no one can see it do so.

He gives a sharp word of command to the officers, who then reluctantly part their tight circle around the prisoner. It comes slowly as if it knows that any sudden movement will be treated as hostile action.

Jim sees Bones’ body draw inward with apprehension. He is grateful when Spock moves to a spot slightly to the left of McCoy’s shoulder. It is a subtle signal of the Vulcan’s intent to provide a comforting presence for the doctor. Bones glances at Spock and some of the tension eases from those tight shoulders. Jim looses a breath of his own.

They all watch as the creature crawls to the bed and straightens, leaning over its counterpart. The soft trill it makes sends a skittering along Kirk’s nerves. After a short pause, it trills again. The second attempt is abruptly silenced and the creature tilts its head, blinking slowly as if it listens to a response that none of them can hear.

Then it fixes those black bottomless eyes on McCoy.

The hatchling hurts.

Several pairs of eyes go wide, the security team clearly not expecting to hear a voice in their heads. Bones’ eyebrows come down in a mock scowl. Jim interrupts before Bones can antagonize the creature.

“We’ve held up our end of the deal. Tell us what we want to know.”

When a long-fingered hand reaches for the unconscious hatchling, Jim snaps out, “No physical contact or you leave.”

It cranes its neck around to peer at him. There is much pain. I help.

“Jim…”

“No.“

Leonard addresses that which watches them all so closely, its mouth twitching. “We don’t know anything about your people. Otherwise, I’d have treated him by now.”

You have goodness.

“I took an oath,” replies the doctor.

“Doctor, it would be wise to keep them separated.”

“They’re already in the same room, Spock.” Bones makes no attempt to hide the dryness of his rejoinder.

“A mental connection is strongest when physically linked,” explains the Vulcan.

Jim raises both eyebrows since he is incapable of raising only one like Doctor McCoy. “Spock?”

“During our… confinement on the planet, Captain, you related to me that you could only communicate with the being through touch. This is, of course, very similar to touch telepathy if not a more unusual form. I suspect that it spoke to you in this manner because of your young age.”

Bones looks interested. “You mean it didn’t want to scare the kid shitless and have him doubt the voices in his head. Makes sense.” He points at the sea dragon. “What were you doing, playing hide-and-seek with an un-chaperoned boy?”

Thank God the creature doesn’t understand Bones’ turn of phrase. Nevertheless, it tells them, Jem-me bright like sun.

Bones doesn’t think much of this answer by his expression. “Jim-boy, I’d say this ship has put up with a lot from your fans but we definitely draw the line at destiny-stealing stalkers.”

Good destiny, it agrees. Jem-me’s destiny is good.

“Enough,” Jim interrupts. They don’t have time to work through riddles. “How do we find the cure for xenopolycythemia?”

I help hatchling, I help Jem-me.

“You’ll help us regardless.”

No. Must help hatchling.

Surprisingly, it’s Bones who folds his arms and says, “Just let him do it, Captain.” McCoy meets his eyes then. “You’ve already put us at risk by letting it get this far.”

He shoves down the hurt at the sting of those words.

“Captain,” the First Officer speaks quietly, “though I must censure Doctor McCoy for his disrespect, I am also in agreement.” Spock is blunt. “If you wish to pursue your intended course, the rate of success degrades severely without our cooperation.”

Yes, Jim understands well that they are at the mercy of these creatures. That doesn’t mean that he has to like it or shouldn’t be able to draw a line and hold firm.

He hopes that this old friend whom he can no longer consider any such thing feels his displeasure and distrust. By the way it draws back when he levels his phaser in the vicinity of its chest, it must, no doubt, understand that to cross Captain Kirk would be a serious misstep.

He’s done with making allowances. “I will give you one option.” Jim lets his voice turn arctic. “You will tell me what I want to know, and I won’t shoot you. As an added bonus, I’ll allow you to fix your friend afterward. If you refuse to comply, in this order, I will change the setting on my phaser to kill and rid this ship of you entirely. Do we have an understanding?”

Yes.

It looks left, then right. Jim shifts his weight in case it decides to forgo whatever plan that it had originally made and jump an officer or two instead.

The cure, it says with a pause. There is way. I know not.

Jim snarls without meaning to.

It hurriedly explains that Tall one— It points to Spock, whose eyebrow lifts. –knows the cure.

“Damn it!” McCoy half-turns to Chapel standing behind the doctor and Spock. “Give me that, Christine.” No one in the room is about to gainsay a riled doctor with a deadly hypospray. “Now listen here, you piece of grade A bullhocky! I’ve had just about enough of your nonsense.”

The sea dragon warbles lowly. It backs up when McCoy takes a menacing step forward.

Tall one! Tall one knows!

Bones’ expression is frightening.

“Doctor.” Spock places a hand on Bones’ shoulder. “One moment.” Spock comes to stand level with McCoy. His words are for the black-eyed sea dragon. “You are aware that I do not have knowledge of that which we seek, correct?”

Yes.

“And yet you claim otherwise.”

Tall one, it repeats fervently. Yes, tall one knows.

Spock, then, looks straight at Jim and he reels at the intensity in the Vulcan’s eyes. Spock speaks clearly, “Captain, I suggest that the assumption is correct. I—” the Vulcan stresses, “—must know.”

The way Spock says that last sentence strikes Jim hard. He ignores Bones’ cry of “That’s God-damn insane!”

Of course.

Of course! Spock—not this Spock but the elder, transversing-universes Spock—must know that Bones would develop xenopolycythemia.

Looking at the doctor’s confused face, that not-so-carefully-hidden resignation, Jim realizes his mistake. He never told Bones about the other Spock.

I show way, states the creature. Now I touch hatchling. It doesn’t wait for their response. With intent, the creature lays a hand upon the comatose patient. For a minute, everyone in the room holds their breath. The sea dragon closes its eyes and jerks once with a full-body shudder. It begins to make a deep, vibrating sound like the low hum before an earthquake.

Jim slowly and carefully edges around to the other side of the biobed, to McCoy and Spock, never allowing his gaze to stray from the two threats to his ship and crew. He feels Bones’ hand grab the back of his arm and squeeze tightly.

“Jim,” whispers the man. “Am I the only one feeling a little weird right now?”

“Weird how?” he asks quietly.

“I can’t quite—Shit!”

The doctor starts cursing the moment that the hatchling twitches its lower limbs, then curls them inward to its chest. The biobed console protests loudly at the patient’s activity. When Bones tries to slide around Jim towards the console, Spock blocks the doctor’s path.

“Outta my way, Spock. I’ve got to take a look at those readings.”

“McCoy!” Jim makes sure that Bones can’t misread his tone. “Stand down.”

“Jim, you can’t—”

“I. Said. Stand. Down.“

“Captain.” The acknowledgment is brusque.

The creature is almost bodily situated on the biobed now. The hatchling starts thrashing with abandon. One or two of the men look around uncertainly as medical sensors go wild. When the phenomena become more pronounced, the wall lights of the room flickering with energy surges, McCoy yells furiously, “For Christ’s sake, let me do something!“

Jim does what he thinks is best. He orders the two nearest guards to hold onto McCoy’s arms. Bones’ look of betrayal is a sharp stab to Jim’s gut, but he won’t risk any one becoming entangled or ensnared by either creature. If forgiveness for this day’s work is long in coming, so be it.

All commotion ceases in an instant.

The sea dragon lets go of its tight grip on its counterpart, tucking arms close to its body and wobbles in an awkward crouch on the biobed. There is a whisper, a faint brush against Jim’s mind.

It is released, Jem-me.

What does that mean?

Perhaps the creature hears his silent question; perhaps it simply guesses that he cannot understand the meaning of its words.

It says, It feels no pain. Jim doesn’t know what to make of the sense of sorrow that accompanies the thought.

“It’s dead,” Bones clarifies in a strangled voice. “He killed it out of mercy. I—I pumped it full of toxin—”

McCoy never finishes his statement because the sea dragon keens horribly.

Jim’s stomach twists at the sound; he has the sudden sick sensation of an unpleasant memory: the smell of a rotting grain field and the low choked sobs of a mother’s grief over the grave of a child.

Then McCoy startles them all by breaking free with a sharp elbow stab and shove into his captors. Jim’s hand misses the doctor’s passing arm by a mere inch.

“Bones!”

Leonard McCoy is already across the room, reaching past the creature to the dead patient.

“Bones!“

The second shout is not just warning but terror.

The sea dragon latches onto the CMO of the Enterprise with a hiss. When both start to shimmer, Jim drops his phaser, unwilling to fire and mistakenly hit Bones, and launches himself at the pair. He collides with Spock who has the same intentions and stumbles forward, shins meeting the biobed. Spock’s long arm has reached out ahead of them but does not meet the solid flesh of the doctor.

McCoy and the creature have disappeared.

Next Part

Related Posts:

• The Boy and the Sea Dragon (14/14) – from December 7, 2010
• The Boy and the Sea Dragon (13/14) – from December 6, 2010
• The Boy and the Sea Dragon (11/?) – from November 27, 2010
• The Boy and the Sea Dragon (10/?) – from November 25, 2010
• The Boy and the Sea Dragon (9/?) – from November 20, 2010