#spock likes mccoy and wants to make it official... basically

[lenievi]

Spones Day 2023 fic

Canon divergent universe where TMP never happened. Takes place a few years before TWOK (but if TWOK happens is in the stars). Kirk has retired from Starfleet (just so you’re not confused), because I like that tidbit from Generations.

#McCoy didn’t know they were dating #first kiss #strangely proactive Spock

~1000 words. | G

---

The door to the Transporter Beam-up Center opened, and mixed groups of various species started to come out. McCoy moved to the side to not stand in their way, his eyes scanning the crowd for Spock’s familiar face. It was a few minutes before he heard, “Doctor McCoy.”

McCoy startled. “I need to buy you a cowbell.”

Spock lifted an eyebrow at him. “You’ve been saying that for years, Doctor, and I’m still waiting.” He raised his hand, fingers spread in a Vulcan salute. “We meet again.”

McCoy blinked and looked at his hand. His third finger quivered as he tried to connect it with the fourth one, hoping to form a V, but with no success. He gave up, shaking his fingers a bit, relieving the slight pain in his ring finger. One day, one day, he would succeed.

Spock held out his hand, the corner of his mouth twitching in amusement. 

McCoy glared at him. “You could’ve done it from the beginning.” He clasped Spock’s hand, soaking in the warmth he hadn’t felt for three months. “How was the trip?” He let go.

“Commanding a ship full of cadets on their training voyage is hardly a trip, Doctor.”

“You visited Vulcan before that, didn’t you?”

Spock gave a stiff nod. “Sarek sends his regards.” He beckoned toward the exit. “Shall we?”

Spock led him to a nearby restaurant.

Even after three years, it still felt odd whenever Spock invited him out. Sometimes to a science or technical museum, sometimes to a restaurant, sometimes to an arboretum. Just the two of them. If anyone had told him that ten years ago, five years ago, hell, even three years ago, he would scoff and tell them not to drink anymore. But Spock kept reaching out, and McCoy kept saying yes.

“Have you spoken to Jim recently?” McCoy asked after they ordered. He kept his eyes on the tabletop, not wanting to see Spock’s judging expression.

“Not since before my trip to Vulcan,” Spock said. “He acquired a dog.”

McCoy raised his head. “Jim has a dog?”

“His name is Butler.”

McCoy blinked.

“You would know that if you called him,” Spock said, his eyes piercing.

“Well…” McCoy wet his lips. “He could call me.”

“You informed him rather vehemently you didn’t want to see him unless he comes out of retirement.”

“You can’t tell me you think he can just live on a farm in Idaho and be happy.”

“That is not for us to judge.” Spock sipped his tea. “He appears to miss you.”

McCoy’s stomach did a funny flip. He reached for his glass of water and clasped it in both hands. His argument with Jim was ugly, and they hadn’t seen or talked to each other for two years.

“So, uhm…” he started but was saved by the waiter bringing their meals. The plates were placed, and McCoy grabbed the utensils. He should not think about Jim. Spock had always made it clear that they should resolve it themselves and did not wish to discuss it.

“It’s good to see you, Spock,” he said instead.

Spock smiled. 

They dug into their meals.

“My father offered me to work with him and accompany him to Ensis,” Spock said between bites.

McCoy frowned. “You want to leave Starfleet?”

“It would not immediately come to that, but it is an option I am considering.”

First Jim. Now Spock. McCoy had stayed in San Francisco because he wanted to stay close to them. Then Jim left. He stayed because Spock would have someone welcoming him back whenever he left on a training voyage. He stayed because… because he… 

He swallowed.

“I wanted to ask for… your opinion,” Spock said, his eyes focused somewhere behind McCoy’s shoulders. 

“My opinion?” McCoy put down his utensils. He didn’t feel hungry anymore.

“I have… always appreciated your company, Doctor.” Spock frowned. “Leonard.”

McCoy's heart skipped. He didn’t remember the last time Spock used his name.

“In the last three years, perhaps before that, the appreciation evolved, changed.” Spock looked him in the eyes. “I do not enjoy the thought of not seeing you for months.”

McCoy didn’t know what to say. His mind was flying at warp speed. The almost realization a minute ago. Every time Spock invited him to go somewhere. Every time McCoy invited Spock to his apartment, sharing meals, cooking together. The soft brushes of their shoulders, as they passed each other in McCoy’s narrow kitchen. The soft brushes of the back of their hands, as they walked down the streets or halls of the museums. Spock’s fingers on his elbow, demanding his attention. So common, so frequent that he didn’t even notice them anymore.

“Are we dating, Spock?” McCoy blurted out.

“As there hasn’t been an official agreement, we are not.”

“Do you want to?” McCoy asked before he could think about it.

The tips of Spock’s ears darkened. “That was the matter I wanted to discuss today. In order to answer my father’s offer, I first needed an answer from you.”

“Why?”

“I have already told you. I would have… missed you.”

McCoy could not hold back his smile, his cheeks growing hot.

“If you did not answer positively, creating a physical distance between us would be a logical thing to do.”

“The distance wouldn’t help,” McCoy murmured.

“Perhaps.” Spock inclined his head. “But it appears we do not have to test it.”

“But your father –”

“My father is aware.”

McCoy opened his mouth and closed it. “You…” He wet his lips. “You talked about us with Sarek?” Us. There was an us.

“My father thinks highly of you,” Spock said. “Mother too. She’d like it if you accompanied me next time I visit Vulcan.”

McCoy blinked.

“You don’t have to give me an answer today.” Spock bit his lower lip. McCoy hadn’t seen that habit in years. “But I would like to kiss you.”

McCoy nodded, lost for words. His heart beat loud in his ears. He raised his hand.

Spock leaned across the table and pressed their lips together.

#spones #sponesday2023 #sponesday #leonard mccoy #spock #my writing #i finished something \o/ it's probably not as good as my other stuff but it's very self-indulgent and despite me complaining all the time #i had fun writing it #even though it's very dialogue heavy and would probably benefit from some introspection but... not today #spock likes mccoy and wants to make it official... basically #hopefully in a spock way but i took liberties #i normally don't care because i'm normally confident but if you leave a comment i'm gonna love you forever <3

[shutupanddance]

Bones or Spock and the dumbass God couldn’t stop?

This is my favorite prompt so thank you for requesting it! Enjoy!!

(I picked Spock because I haven’t written anything for him yet)

- It was a miracle you ever made it through the academy.

- Well, less of a miracle, and more having to do with nepotism.

- You’re the granddaughter of an old general, and when the academy offers you a place, you take it. Your parents are a little relieved that you’re the academy‘s problem now.

- It’s not that you’re a bad person, in fact, you’re a great person, but you’re also a walking disaster area who struggles with basic math

- Spock meets you around the same time he meets Kirk, because right after Jim cheats his way through the Koabashi Miru, you pass as well.

- *Pass* is a loose term. More like ”this chick somehow broke the machine by just standing near it, and every time we try and give her the test again, it breaks. So she passes, we guess.”

- Spock is convinced you also cheated, until he happens to see you run into a wall while staring at a butterfly.

- You don’t join the Enterprise for awhile. Putting you on Starfleet’s flag ship sounds like a bad idea, but they’ve run out of places to put you, so to the Enterprise you go.

- Jim helped you in a few of your classes, so you know him. And you were often the test dummy for beginning medical students who were learning first aid, since you were always getting injured, so you know Bones too.

- The crew are a bit apprehensive at first, but you’re so eager to learn and fascinated by everything that they can’t help but adore you. (There’s probably an alarm code specifically for Y/N-related incidents, but you’d never know)

- Spock thinks it’s foolish to bring you on board at first. He mentions this to Kirk, and you overhear. You feel really bad about all this, and you end up crying in engineering. But, because of your tears, you can’t see, and run straight into an I-beam.

- McCoy lights into Spock, pissed off that he hurt your feelings, and that it caused you to be injured.

- So Spock apologizes. You agree that your being on board probably isn’t the best idea, but you just want to help. He’s not sure what to say.

- Spock avoids you for a few days, until you corner him on one of the observation decks. He’s afraid you’re angry at him, but instead, it turns out you were looking for him to ask a specific question about the culture of the last planet you were on. He answers your question, and gets a funny feeling when he sees the way you’re looking at him. With rapt interest.

- This becomes a minor problem, because wherever Spock goes, you follow soon after, asking questions. You’ve never had a walking encyclopedia before.

- Because you’re always asking questions, you get easily distracted on away missions. Spock gets the role of keeping you alive by pulling you away from blaster fire, stopping you from running into things, and making sure you don’t eat anything poisonous.

- This is probably a good thing, since Bones is occupied trying to keep Jim alive.

- But though you struggle with math and science, Spock learns very quickly that you excel in reading people and making them feel loved.

- You’re a comfort to planet natives who have experienced natural disasters. You know how to read a room, and when to push certain officials in the direction the federation wants. You even help the Enterprise a lot with Starfleet, because you can spin a story in a way that makes them believe they are 100% behind whatever Jim Kirk is doing.

- And somehow, you know all the ways to make Spock feel at ease. You can practically read his mind, and he finds himself even laughing from time to time.

- You think he’s the coolest thing to ever walk the earth (or the universe, I guess), and he thinks you’re the cutest.

#spock #spock x reader #spock imagine #spock headcanons #star wars reader insert #star trek imagine #star trek headcanon #request #masterlist

[kinetic-elaboration]

May 10: 2x18 The Immunity Syndrome

Finally another TOS episode. I missed it. I miss Star Trek in general, I need to... get back into obsessing about it on the regular. It makes me so happy but I haven’t had room in my brain for it lately.

Anyway, I didn’t remember too much about this ep until halfway through, but I enjoyed it a lot!

Hilarious to me that as Kirk says “Some lovely...planet” he’s obviously supposed to be looking at the pretty woman who passes by his line of sight, but the camera also takes that moment to pan out far enough to show Spock for the first time. Who is implying what??

Poor Spock... The Intrepid dying was the thing I remembered most about this ep, because, like, obviously, a whole group of Vulcans on a ship. But this is such a sad moment. But at least his best friends come to see if he’s okay.

Lol Kirk, when has there EVER been another starship in the area? I feel bad for the crew; their vacation has officially been cancelled.

The space amoeba was hungry.

“A deep understanding of the way things happen to Vulcans.” I really like that. I like this whole Spock and McCoy conversation.

Also, damn Spock. I feel like he read not just McCoy but the whole human race. But also like what a hypocrite, because the Vulcans were pretty violent.

Kirk’s thinking face. Like the human embodiment of the thinking emoji.

I feel like this ep is inspired by people’s curiosity about black holes in the 60′s.

Mccoy’s go-to is always the stimulants. That should solve everyone’s problems.

“You’re the science officer! Do the science!” Basically an exact quote.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Oh no, they’re penetrating the Zone.

“The stars are...gone.” Whoops, guess we’ll have to rename it “Trek.”

“Kindly tell me what happened to the stars! How can I have a romantic nights on the observation deck if there aren’t any stars, tell me that, Mr. Spock?”

Is this one of those eps where Kirk pushes himself too hard, and everyone else, too?

“Are you trying to be funny, Mr. Spock?” I mean like in his defense, that was pretty funny. An also, Spock definitely knew it was.

“I recommend survival.” That’s it, put Bones on t100 now.

I’m sorry, but how do people not love and respect Kirk? He just wants to explore, he is so brave, and he always knows what to do.

Drink every time someone says “unknown.”

I feel like Spock is the only one not bothered by all this.

“If it went against the rules of logic [to do everything opposite], would Spock suggest it?”

Also love that Kirk’s like ‘well worst case scenario, it doesn’t work, and I can use this incident to make fun of Spock until our inevitable oncoming death!’

Bones has been hitting the stimulants pretty heavy, I see.

And Spock stays behind for a moment alone with Jim...

I love this take on Vulcans!! They have never been conquered. They don’t understand facing the unknown. At the end, they felt astonishment.

This acting is amazing. Make me believe you’re being thrown about bbs!

Oh, no, it’s like a virus... I don’t like that one bit.

Kirk’s like “I remember my biology. The biology... of Vulcans, right Mr. Spock?”

It devoured the Intrepid extra fast because it was hungry.

Oh no, Spock and McCoy are having a martyr-off. And insulting Jim’s science skills too lol. “Stay out of this, yellow shirt.”

Oh I remember this now. Kirk has to choose between his two bros.

“I have two science personnel in front of me, but only one photo in my hands.”

This is absolutely a classic reality tv show style fake out. “I’m sorry, Mr. Spock... you’re going on the death mission.”

Spock’s shade as they’re walking down the hall. “Sorry I’m better than you at everything, Dr.”

This Spock & McCoy scene too!! How McCoy should wish him luck. Let me have my Vulcan dignity. And then he does wish him luck but only when Spock has left... They’re both so savage here but I guess they’re both stressed out and tired. And Spock’s in mourning too. This is like Spones Unfiltered.

“And Dr. McCoy... you would not have survived it.” Why does that hit me so hard?

“He’s kicked it in the side to let us know!”

Destroy! That! Organism!

Spock getting a jab in at McCoy even now: “You should have wished me luck.”

Attack! The! Germ!

That beastie.

This score is going so hard.

The amoeba would just like phasers. Lots of energy. Yum yum.

Lol I thought Spock was going to dictate an actual will but he was just being extra. I mean... he does have a lot of property.

I love that Kirk asked for one tractor beam and Scotty was like “I think that’s a bad idea” and Kirk’s like “okay TWO tractor beams.” He’s going to save his space husband, Scotty, it’s not negotiable.

Captain McCoy. So sassy.

The power levels are dead, Jim.

Spock is bringing back data for McCoy as a gift! How sweet.

How does McCoy know he messed up the tests?

“Some..lovely planet.” For real this time.

Okay, that was a great episode and I really enjoyed the whole thing: the concept of the giant space cell virus, the Enterprise then becoming a sort of virus itself to destroy it, Kirk’s excellent leadership abilities, the triumvirate scenes and especially the Spock and Bones relationship, the reference to the Vulcan ship--but it did not stick the landing. We didn’t get to see Spock return? More importantly, we didn’t get to see Kirk totally collapse from the stimulants? Okay, maybe that would have been bad. Bb can make it to Starbase 6. I just didn’t want it to end I guess.

I feel like Spock was especially savage today but then it also makes sense. He was probably as drained as everyone else. Plus, I think losing the Intrepid must have been very difficult for him. Like he told McCoy, he felt all of it. Poor Vulcan as a whole; that’s a lot of people. Also, I suspect, based on their pacifism and also how upset Sarek was about Spock joining Starfleet, that they are probably underrepresented generally in the service. That was probably the only all-Vulcan constitution class vessel in Starfleet. And you know Spock knew some of them personally.

Anyway now that I’m thinking about the Intrepid... I so desperately want to know what an all-Vulcan ship would be like. Just 400 Vulcans. At first I suggested they had a meditation room but that’s too private an activity. They probably do a lot of jamming out in their rec room. Also all their cabins must be extremely decadent.

Current plan is to watch another episode on Thursday to make up for missing last week, but the next one is A Private Little War, which is just so depressing so... we’ll see.

#the year 2021 #2021: star trek #star trek tos

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #450

Top Ten Characters with the Best Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes

As I’m writing this, it’s officially Star Trek: Discovery day; the first episode of the new season is up on Netflix and ready to watch. Given how little time I manage to find for watching anything that I want to watch, I’m cautiously optimistic that I can get to see it this weekend, but we’ll see; my lovely wife might want to finally catch up with Star Trek: Picard first, which for some reason she never finished. Regardless, I’m excited, and I wanted to write about Star Trek again.

The new Star Trek series have been a bit of a roller coaster, because whilst they’ve both generally been very good, they’ve certainly had their odder and more controversial moments, and neither of them has consistently felt like classic Trek. If I had to be critical, I’d argue that there are plenty of darker adult-tinged sci-fi shows at the moment, including ones set in space, but not that many that follow the day-to-day travails of a starship crew, which as always been Trek’s raison d'être. However, both shows have succeeded in giving us some compelling stories and – especially in the case of Discovery – a fantastic cast of new characters to celebrate. Great characterisation has been the cornerstone of Trek since the beginning, and no doubt one of the reasons why it still resonates to this day, from the “Holy Trinity” of Kirk, McCoy, and Spock, through to the wonderful and insanely empathetic Saru in Discovery and Captain Sexpot Rios in Picard. The fact that we’re now in a new time period, with no established history to try to tie the narrative to, means Discovery 3 is in a great place to give us some great new stories.

Anyway, to celebrate all of this – the new season of Discovery and my overall love of Star Trek characters – I’ve decided to go back to the Next Generation well and talk about just that: characters. TNG famously hit its stride when it started focusing each story through the lens of the different characters on the show, so that we tended to get a “Worf episode” or a “Riker episode”; even the best eps, the biggest and most epic, really had a tendency to hone in on one or two characters specifically, such as the all-time classic “The Best of Both Worlds” really being about Picard and Riker, or “Yesterday’s Enterprise” being a much-belated Tasha Yar episode.

But which characters have the best episodes? That is, if you know an episode is focused on a particular character, how likely is it that it’s going to be a belter? Can you reasonably say one character was better served than another in terms of the quality of “their” episodes? Well, yes. Yes you can. That’s this list. That’s the whole thing.

So this list is basically which characters have the best episodes, or are more likely to. It’s not a list of my favourite characters, or even really a list of the best episodes overall; it’s just, well, who got to chew scenery the most on the bridge, basically. Now, I really feel like I should end this blurb with an appropriate Star Trek quote, but I must have used “Make it so” and “Engage” before, so I’m not sure what else to say.

May the Force be with you, I guess.

Picard: Yes, of course; he’s the star, he’s the stand-out actor of the bunch, he gets the best episodes. If it focuses on the captain, you can rest assured you’re in for a treat. Whether it’s an epic mythology-enhancing saga or – even better – a slower, sadder meditation on life, Picard’s episodes are engaging. Chortle. Also if there’s room for a classic Picard Monologue, all the better; I don’t know if you’ve noticed this about Patrick Stewart, but the guy can chew scenery. Key episodes: The Best of Both Worlds, The Drumhead, The Hidden Light

Worf: Worf’s complex backstory offers a lot of opportunities for great stories, with the caveat that pretty much all of them focus on Klingon history or the contrast between his heritage and his place in Starfleet. Issues of familial loyalty rub up against quasi-Shakespearean dynastic dramas, often with high adventure. You can assume a Worf ep is a good one, despite the fact that quite a few of them are also about Alexander. Key episodes: Sins of the Fathers, Redemption, Birthright

Data: everyone’s second-favourite emotionless nerd on Star Trek, Data’s eps are almost uniformly great, and often poke at what it means to be alive. There may be a bit of ground retrod as we examine the notion of humanity, or sentience, or emotion, but his episodes are always interesting, and often very funny, and Brent Spiner is a continuing delight. Key episodes: The Measure of a Man, The Offspring, Brothers

Q: is it cheating to include a recurring guest star? Maybe, but I don’t care. John de Lancy is just phenomenal as Q, one of the best Trek characters, and so good he became a My Little Pony. He’s arch, he’s hilarious, he can take the show into new directions; he raises questions of fate, or of the concept of divinity; and underneath it all there’s a malevolent streak, a genuine sense of danger exemplified in his first appearance. Pairs very well with Picard, naturally. I didn’t like the Robin Hood episode, though. Key episodes: Deja Q, Encounter at Farpoint, Q Who

Riker: he’s a Kirk-esque horn-dog ragamuffin with a heart of gold and a fist of steel, so there’s always a lot to love when William T. takes the helm (see what I did there?). Often issues of loyalty, or duty versus personal wishes, arise; he’s frequently putting his life on the Enterprise above his career. But he’s also a very moralistic character, so quite often he’ll be trying to do the right thing in tough circumstances. Key episodes: The Pegasus, Future Imperfect, Frame of Mind

Crusher: always a stand-out supporting character, Crusher has some great episodes focused on her too; usually quite a self-righteous sort who puts the immediate moral obligation above her own safety or duty to Starfleet, which raises lots of interesting, thorny questions. She’s a smart cookie, exemplified in the astounding Remember Me; her relationships with her son and with Picard are good to explore too. She also shagged a ghost, but let’s try to forget about that. Key episodes: Remember Me, Attached, Suspicions

Wesley: pigeonholed somewhat unfairly due to a few ropey first-season episodes, Wesley Crusher is actually an interesting character whose stand-out storylines offer a good deal of nuance and intrigue, as well as exciting hi-jinks, insights into the Federation, and – should you go that far – weird magic Jedi stuff. He gets a nice romance with Ashley Judd, we unpeel his relationship with Picard over multiple episodes, and the bloom comes off the rose in spectacular fashion when he gets to Starfleet Academy. Wil Wheaton was a good young actor and was sadly underserved by the show, but at least we get these eps. Key episodes: The Game, Final Mission, The First Duty

Pulaski: say whaaat? Yes, she’s only in the show for five minutes, but Doctor Pulaski gets a few crackers under her belt in that time. A bit like Crusher would later, she often excels when standing up to authority and presenting herself as a moral arbiter. Interestingly, she’s not always right, and it’s a fun dance to watch. She’s also been round the block a bit, adding facets to her relationships with other characters, particularly Riker. And, of course, she flirts with a bunch of polygons when Geordi and Data cock up the Holodeck. Key episodes: Elementary, Dear Data, Unnatural Selection, The Icarus Factor

Troi: sadly suffering in the face of a bunch of soppy romances and storylines involving her mother that are, shall we say, an acquired taste, Troi still gets some good stuff, mostly later in the series’ run. Taking her out of her comfort zone, making her a spy or an investigator, or giving her some proper dramatic meat, works wonders. Also once she was a cake. Key episodes: Face of the Enemy, Eye of the Beholder, Dark Page

LaForge: oh, Geordi. I love Georgi, but he kinda got done dirty a little bit. Always an interesting and dependable secondary character, unfortunately the bulk of his episodes as a primary character tend to revolve around him being a bit of a jerk or a bit of a creep. Obviously the most heinous sin is making a computer program based on a real person and then, well, trying to shag it, but he also has a tendency to be a dick to anyone new in Engineering. He’s even a bit of a dick to Scotty! I sometimes think the writers never quite had a handle on Geordi’s character; is he a young tech genius with poor social skills? Is he supposed to be arrogant? A wannabe lothario who’s just really unlucky? Anyway, like I say, I still love the guy to bits, and LeVar Burton is fantastic, but of all the main ensemble, his are the flakiest solo episodes. That said, the three listed here are all belters. Key episodes: The Next Phase, The Enemy, Relics

Anyway. There we are. I’ve still, as of going “to press”, not watched Discovery season 3, and my wife’s still not watched the end of season 1 of Picard. Any day now…!

#top ten #star trek #picard #discovery #the next generation #star trek discovery #star trek tng

[spacedancer1701]

On Borrowed Time  a Star Trek fic (Chapters 11 - 20)

Fandoms: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS), Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (AOS) Pairing: McCoy x Original Female Character (Dr. Jennifer Hope) Characters: The Crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) Rating/Warnings: None Tags: Friendship, Romance, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, Mild H/C, Caring/Protective/Tender/Comforting/Happy/Grumpy McCoy Word Count: This is a long one 😄 (61 chapters - 120k)

Read it on AO3: On Borrowed Time 

Chapter 11

The next day, after Hope had told him the name of the ensign she’d been so concerned about, and he’d again promised to take care of the matter, McCoy was happy to see her flitting about sickbay, back to her happy self.

And once again, he had the opportunity to admire her way with people, when two of his obviously bored patients started a noisy argument about something or other, and Hope managed to restore harmony in sickbay in less than five minutes.

Hearing the commotion, he’d come running out of his office, only to see Hope already standing between the two beds, hands on hips, like a displeased mother. In her cheerfully bossy way, she insisted on them communicating civilly, made them find something they had in common and eventually let them both come out of the argument as winners.

Watching the two men, both tall and burly security guards, hang their heads in shame and obediently do as they were told, was a sight to behold. And after making sure that everything was quiet again and Hope had it all under control, he quickly returned to his desk, closing the door behind him and letting out a loud guffaw.

How many trained psychologists could never achieve what Hope accomplished with sheer intuition? he wondered fondly.

No wonder, she was so successfully involved in the intuitive enhancement of the universal translator, whatever that was exactly.

Hope and Uhura had tried to explain it to him several times, and he could certainly appreciate its usefulness, especially when encountering new species whose language might not even be based on actual words. But he just didn’t see how it could work.

They’d compared it to him knowing what was wrong with his patients before they even said a word, just by observing them, reading their faces, their body language, and so on. And when he’d pointed out that he’d had years of experience to get there, Uhura had immediately refuted that by reminding him how many aliens he’d already helped, even though he hadn’t had the first idea about them.

That, admittedly, was true. He’d surprised himself more than once in that regard. But at the end of the day, the universal translator was still a machine. And in his book, that just didn’t go together with intuition or empathy.

Cobbler, stick to your last, he thought contemplatively, and safely leave the universal translator and its further development to the experts.

********************

Towards the end of Alpha shift, there was a lull in the constant stream of people coming to sickbay for more or less urgent medical attention, and McCoy, Chapel and Hope sat around the doctor’s desk, nibbling on some delicious biscuits a grateful patient had left them earlier.

“How can you be so happy all the time?” Chapel wanted to know, looking enquiringly at Hope. “You are so balanced and well-adjusted. And so full of energy. I’m jealous! What’s your secret?”

Hope laughed and took a moment to think about it, while McCoy gazed at her with interest, often having wondered the same thing.

“I do a lot of yoga,” she finally explained.  “A little every day. Breathing exercises, too. But basically, I think, it’s a matter of attitude. I want to be happy, so I am!”

“Just like that, huh? So easy,” Chapel scoffed, clearly not satisfied with Hope’s explanation.

“Well, what else can I say, Christine?” Hope chuckled, shrugging helplessly at McCoy. “I try to appreciate the good things in life. There are plenty, at least in mine, and they clearly outweigh the less pleasant ones. Besides, dwelling on the bad stuff helps no one. Least of all me. I don’t want anything to spoil the happiness in my life.”

“But don’t you ever get annoyed or upset or anything?” Christine questioned.

“Of course, I do!” Hope laughed. “I’m not a saint! But I try to deal with it as quickly as possible and then just let it go. I believe in the law of attraction. You attract what you send out into the universe. If you expect bad things to happen, they eventually will. So, I endeavour to keep my thinking positive, and it usually works. It’s all about good vibrations!”

Nurse Chapel seemed impressed, and even though McCoy was not really inclined towards the esoteric or supernatural, he respected Hope’s belief and even gave it some thought. The way she explained it didn’t lack a certain logic. But real or not, it certainly seemed to work for her, and that was all that really mattered.

********************

That evening, long after his shift had officially ended and there was still no end of dealing with all the bureaucratic stuff in sight, McCoy had developed an annoying headache. He was rubbing his temples and just about to take a painkiller out of his desk drawer, when Hope stopped him.

“Don’t! There’s no need for drugs, Doctor! I can help you with a tension headache.”

“You can?” McCoy spun around, surprised that she was still there. “How? Are you going to kiss it better?” he asked wryly, immediately regretting his cheek when he saw her blush furiously.

But then again, he rather liked the way she blushed over silly little comments like this. It was adorable, how she couldn’t help it, even though she knew he was just teasing her.

“Not quite what I had in mind, Doctor, but I can always give it a try, if you’d prefer that method,” she quipped, smiling sweetly at him.

“You spend too much time with Spock,” McCoy grumbled. “You already sound just like him.”

But secretly, he was impressed. She was learning to give as good as she got. He liked that. Just as he liked her sense of humour in general. She was great fun to be with. She was great – full stop.

But before he could get carried away by the image of this lovely girl kissing away his headache, he put on a more serious face again and asked her what she’d really had in mind. His headache had almost vanished already, simply by her soothing presence, but the physician in him was curious as to what she was suggesting instead of ‘drugs’, as she’d called it.

“Lean back, close your eyes and relax,” she ordered.

Now it was his turn to glance at her warily, which she acknowledged with a satisfied grin.

“No kissing, Doctor, I promise,” she giggled, a warm and cheerful sound that delighted McCoy every time he heard it.

Then, thinking that the no-kissing promise was almost a shame, he leaned back in his chair and relaxed.

Hope stood behind him and touched gentle hands to his temples, cool fingers massaging in circular motion. And even though he’d already been feeling much better before, he could now feel all the tension ebbing away. He relaxed completely into her tender touch and felt invigorating energy flooding him. It was an immensely pleasant feeling, as if all her kindness and positivity was pouring into him, relieving him of any pain he might have been feeling. The sensation was so strong that, for a fleeting moment, he was afraid he was somehow draining her.

An involuntary sigh of contentment and wellbeing escaped him as he opened his eyes again. And when Hope took away her hands, smiling enquiringly at him, he was relieved to see that she was her usual energetic self and didn’t seem drained at all.

“Unbelievable,” he blinked, shaking his head in amazement, “It’s completely gone! That’s amazing! Where did you learn that?”

“It’s …” she hesitated slightly, a faint shadow crossing her face, gone again so quickly that he might have imagined it, “just something a friend taught me. I’m glad it worked.”

“You can work your magic on me again anytime, my dear!” McCoy smiled at her gratefully, hoping that she would, since he had enjoyed the connection very much.

“If your headaches are a regular thing, maybe you should go to the gym to loosen up more often?” Hope suggested.

“You might have a point there, young lady,” the doctor conceded. “With all that’s been going on in sickbay lately, I haven’t made much time for exercise.”

“I’m headed to the gym right now! Why not come with me? Otherwise you’ll just put it off again,” she smiled at him encouragingly.

How could I resist such a charming invitation? he thought, revelling in a feeling of lightheartedness brought on by her beaming smile, then nodded, turned off his computer, and followed her out of sickbay.

********************

A few minutes later, McCoy joined her in the gym, where she was already doing some yoga exercises with a group of people. As always, she looked gorgeous in her gym suit, and with the touch of her gentle fingers still fresh in his mind, it took the doctor some effort to keep his thoughts on the straight and narrow.

His own not entirely platonic feelings, however, were completely forgotten the moment he overheard two young lieutenants from the biochemical lab shamelessly discuss Hope’s hot outfit. Outraged, McCoy swung around and glared at the two men who, unfortunately, couldn’t take a hint.

“Have some respect, you louts!” he bellowed, attracting the attention of the whole gym.

The two men looked at him, perplexed, but turned around and swiftly left anyway. Even though they hadn’t known the doctor to mind a little man talk up to now, they knew better than to cross their superior over something so trivial.

McCoy exhaled deeply in an attempt to regain his composure and turned back towards the yoga group. Hope shot him a questioning glance, but when he smilingly shook his head and raised his hand in an everything’s-just-dandy gesture, she quickly went back to focussing on her yoga.

Yoga, however, was not for him, he decided after he’d watched her a little longer. The way she moved and twisted around on the mat, he just couldn’t believe how flexible the human body was. Not to speak of her impressive ability to keep her balance, taking the most strangely tangled postures without as much as a wobble. No wonder, she was so balanced in her personality, too.

Remembering that he’d actually come here for some workout, he finally tore his eyes away from Hope and her yoga group, and made for the nearest treadmill.

Chapter 12

Ever since she'd so magically taken away his headache, Hope had taken to giving McCoy gentle massages whenever she saw him hunched over his desk, tense with worry or fatigue. It was life-transforming, his headaches all but gone. Not to speak of what the touch of her tender hands to his head, neck and shoulders did for his soul.

As CMO, he was used to looking after everybody else, but it felt so good to just let go, relax and be taken care of once in a while. He'd even stooped to pretending being tense once or twice, if it had been too long, craving the warmth and vigour that filled his body and soul by her simply standing close behind him.

He didn't feel too guilty about that, though, because, however giving she was, he sensed that she, too, enjoyed these moments. While she soothed away his worries and frustrations, she also drew strength from their physical contact, which he’d often draw out by gently placing his hands over hers to give them a grateful squeeze, before she pulled them away.

He knew that underneath her mature and confident personality, she was hiding the tender soul of a very young woman, a girl really, desperately in need of warmth and affection. And this was another perfect way for him to get her a little of that.

********************

Right now, however, McCoy was anything but relaxed. In fact, he was so tense, he was afraid he was going to snap any minute. Feeling his blood-pressure rise to new heights, nearly popping the pulsing vein in his jaw, he gripped the handles of the treadmill he was currently maltreating so hard, his knuckles went white.

Next to him, Scotty was puffing away at a steady pace, and he could sense the Chief Engineer’s bewildered gaze on his face.

“Who rattled your cage, laddie?” Scotty couldn’t help asking after a while. “Got a problem with Hope and Chekov dancing together?”

McCoy didn’t take his eyes off said pair, practicing on the far side of the gym, wincing every time Chekov lifted Hope off the floor.

“They can dance all they like,” he muttered through clenched teeth, “but this has nothing to do with dancing. Rock’n’Roll is acrobatics, and it’s suicidal!”

“Well, there sure is a lot of jumping and throwing and summersaulting involved, but it’s splendid to watch, and they certainly know what they’re doing.”

“I’m happy, you’re enjoying the show, Scotty, but as for me, it’ll give me a heart-attack any moment now.”

“Ach, don’t be such a sourpuss, Doctor!” Scott laughed, slowing down his treadmill to catch his breath. “Let them enjoy what they’re obviously so good at.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” McCoy rounded on him, thinking about Hope’s brittle bones and what a fall from that height could do to them, then nearly falling off the treadmill himself, as he watched Hope throwing herself over Chekov’s shoulder, dive head first towards the deck, only to have Chekov grab her by the hands and pull her up again through his spread legs in the nick of time.

“And you’re not the one who has to patch her back together again, if something happens,” he finished in a hiss.

Scotty just looked at the doctor, flabbergasted. He was used to the doctor fretting and railing all the time, of course, but this level of agitation over nothing was a new high, even for him.

“Sorry, Scotty, but I can’t watch this any longer,” McCoy growled, hit the stop button of his treadmill hard with his fist, and, with a last angry scowl in the direction of Hope and Chekov, stomped out of the gym, leaving a baffled Scotty behind.

********************

Chekov watched Dr. McCoy leave the gym in a huff and wondered what he’d done to make the doctor throw him such furious glances. Up to now, he’d always felt that McCoy rather enjoyed their little dancing shows.

He didn’t want to let that spoil his evening, though, and quickly turned his eyes and thoughts back to the woman of his dreams. He was in heaven. As always when she was so close to him. Dancing with her, holding her, was the highlight of his evenings. They made a great pair.

And as much as he enjoyed every kind of dance with her, Rock’n’Roll was special. The way he could lift her slight form around, her lithe body rolling across his chest and shoulders and back so excitingly, sent hot shivers down his spine.

And the way their movements blended together with perfect timing, her trust in him to catch her just in time, were absolutely thrilling. Not even Salsa could top that.

But they didn’t just dance together. Chekov relished every minute he spent with Hope. She was so much fun, so interesting to talk to, and simply the most adorable woman he’d ever met. He would sit through the dullest film again anytime, just to be close to her. There were certainly worse things than watching ‘Dirty Dancing’, right?

They often met in the mess – and mostly not by chance, either, but she didn’t have to know that – and had breakfast or dinner together. And sometimes, he would still go to sickbay at lunchtime, where he could be sure of Dr. McCoy’s support. Always worried about Hope losing weight, the doctor didn’t miss a chance to order her on a lunchbreak.

The only fly in the ointment was that she kept emphasising how much like a brother he was to her. That irked. But one could still hope, no?

Chapter 13

Sulu had the conn on nightshift, when the Enterprise received urgent orders to set course for one of the newest planets to the Federation.

Four diplomats, who had spent the better part of the last three months there, had been kidnapped by members of the resistance, who just couldn’t accept that their government had finally joined the Federation and wanted to blackmail them into leaving again. The diplomats’ five children had been left behind, and the Enterprise was supposed to pick them up and take them to the nearest starbase.

Given the seriousness of the matter, Sulu had notified the First Officer right away, and was not surprised to see Spock enter the bridge, closely followed by the captain, mere minutes later.

Swiftly taking the centre seat, Kirk had the communications officer on duty open a channel to the planet’s government, and had a long conference with the local governor. The diplomats’ lives were not in danger, the governor assured him, but since they couldn’t be sure how long the negotiations would take, he thought that the children – all humans – would be safer and better taken care of back with their own species.

A little while later, the captain, Spock and a still yawning McCoy had a meeting in Kirk’s quarters to establish the best way of proceeding.

“The children must be terribly afraid and traumatised,” McCoy stated the obvious, his face full of compassion after he’d been filled in on the full story.

“That’s why I need you and your team to take care of them. You’ll know how to give them the psychological support they’ll need.”

“Of course, Jim,” McCoy nodded, his face lined with a mixture of sadness and rage. “I think I’ll put Hope in charge of taking care of them. I can’t think of anyone better suited to the task. I’ll prep her first thing tomorrow morning and ask her to meet the children in the transporter room.”

“Won’t you be there, too?” Kirk asked a little worried.

“No, Jim,” the doctor smiled at him. “Believe me, Hope, security and the transporter operator will be more than enough. They’re only little, and they’re scared. Too many strangers waiting for them would just frighten them more.”

Kirk looked at McCoy and nodded. That made sense. Now, more than ever, he was glad that the Enterprise had such a kind-hearted and compassionate CMO. The children would be in good hands.

********************

Jenny was appalled when McCoy filled her and her colleagues in on the facts of their current mission the next morning, her face mirroring the doctor’s emotions exactly.

They arranged for one of the bigger guest quarters to be turned into child-friendly accommodations, setting up a direct intercom line to Jenny’s quarters and a communicator she was going to carry on her at all times.

When the children arrived on the Enterprise, seeing this bunch of terrified, pale-faced kids standing on shaky legs on the transporter platform, almost broke Jenny’s heart. But knowing that tearful pity would do nothing to help them, she put on her most cheerful smile, asked them to step off the platform and squatted down to warmly welcome each of them individually.

Then she took them to their quarters to get them settled, memorising their names on the way, and trying to make them feel at ease, asking all about their favourite foods, animals, stories, anything she could think of to take their minds off the scary situation they were in.

By the time everyone had chosen a place to sleep, the first smiles had appeared on the kids’ faces, and when she asked if anyone would like a hug, because she suddenly felt very much like hugging, she was happy to see them eagerly taking her up on the offer. All but one. Ella, the eldest, was still looking at her a little warily, but Jenny noticed that she, too, had stepped closer, and just gave her a beaming smile and a wink.

********************

The next stop was sickbay, where Dr. McCoy was already waiting for them, needing to give them a medical check-up. But even though the doctor was as warm and gentle as she’d ever seen him, the sterile surroundings clearly scared the children.

Jenny cheerfully introduced them to the CMO, trying to make them comfortable around him, but when he smilingly asked, “Right, who wants to go first?” they just huddled together and avoided his gaze.

Seeing that he could really do with a little help there, she quickly yelled, “Me, Doctor! Please, can I go first?” and eagerly started towards the biobed.

McCoy chuckled and, grateful for her support, played along. He liked how he could always count on Hope to save the day with some whimsical idea. She was resourceful, he had to give her that.

With a big affectionate grin on his face he grabbed her around the waist with both hands and easily lifted her onto the biobed, where he pretended to check her, making a big show of tickling her ears and neck with his scanner.

Watching her have so much fun with the doctor, the children forgot all about being afraid and eagerly demanded their turn at being examined, McCoy of course taking great care to keep up the tickling and fun throughout the complete check-up.

Watching the probably noisiest physical ever, Jenny beamed when the doctor, between patients, gave her a wink and a thumbs-up mouthing “Thank you!”

She was glad she’d had this idea to make the children more comfortable around sickbay. And she’d rather enjoyed her own ‘examination’, too, always relishing being close to the doctor. The way he always looked after her, along with the gentle touch of his hands, which he ever so often casually bestowed upon her, never failed to make her feel wonderfully cared for.

He knew next to nothing about her, of course. Couldn’t know that there was no one else to care about her. But then, maybe, she thought, being the kind and compassionate man he was, he just somehow sensed what she needed.

She could have watched the doctor like this all day, her heart brimming over at his gentle and affectionate way with the children. He was so sweet with them, and she could tell that the kids enjoyed his attention immensely.

McCoy, in turn, was enjoying himself thoroughly, too. He loved the way the children had taken to him, wanting them to feel safe and cared for. Loved the way they let him examine them so trustingly.

And, if he was honest, he also liked how Hope watched them, her sweet face so full of love and tenderness for the children. What a great team they made, he thought fondly, smiling at the memory of the ‘check-up show’ they had put on for the children earlier.

********************

That evening, after his shift had ended, McCoy went to the children’s quarters to look in on them and found them singing ‘Five Little Monkeys’, one of Joanna’s favourite songs when she was little.

Apart from her cheerful personality and loving way with the kids, Hope had turned out to be a true well of children’s songs, games and stories, and McCoy was happy to have been right in assigning her to be the children’s official caretaker.

He stopped in the doorway and smilingly watched the children jumping around on the biggest bed like mad. They hadn't noticed him yet, but when towards the end of the song they all chanted, “Mama called the doctor and the doctor said,” he ventured farther into the room and shouted, “Put those monkeys back in bed!” at the top of his voice.

They all came bounding towards him, jumping up at him like eager puppies and dragged him over to the bed, where they fell into a giggling heap around Hope, and he joined in their tickle fight.

McCoy was very relieved to see the children so cheerful. They seemed to be okay, considering. Having fun despite the circumstances. And it was all Hope’s doing. He gave her a sidelong glance. Her hair had come a little undone, and she looked adorable.

He felt an intense surge of gratitude and affection for her, and thankfully, she didn’t seem to mind that she probably got even more tickled and cuddled by him than the children.

Afterwards, he stayed to help her put the children to bed, monitoring trips to the bathroom and teeth being cleaned, the air filled with warm affection and tenderness. He even stayed on to listen to her reading them a bedtime story. The way she read, putting on all kinds of different voices, quite obviously enjoying herself, too, you'd think she'd done this her whole life.

She really is a remarkable young lady, he thought fondly as the children, one after the other, fell asleep.

Hope quietly finished the story, and before they left the cabin, she brushed the softest good night kiss on each of their foreheads. McCoy’s heart was melting and he found that, at that moment, he felt surprisingly envious of the children.

********************

Having enjoyed the evening enormously, and wanting to keep her a little longer, McCoy asked Hope to join him for a nightcap coffee in the mess, where they continued to talk about the children.

He told her how great he thought she was with them, at which she blushed adorably, like she always did when he paid her a compliment. And she said how much she loved taking care of them, having realised that one of the things she really missed on the Enterprise were children.

“They’re all coping differently,” she went on, “but one of them, Cal, started to show rather aggressive behaviour. That’s why I thought a little action, like jumping on the bed, was a good idea.”

“It was a great idea,” he agreed, “I couldn’t have recommended anything better. They need to let off steam. And tickle fights are perfect, too. Give them the chance to work off their aggressions and get some cuddles at the same time.”

“My thoughts exactly, Doctor,” she smiled. “I’m trying to give them as many hugs and cuddles as I can, anyway, because I feel they really need a lot of tender love care.”

Just like you do, he found himself thinking affectionately, remembering how her eyes lit up with every little touch she received.

“What else can I do for them, Doctor?” she asked, drawing him back to the present. “Do I talk to them about the situation? Or had I better take their minds off it?”

He thought a little about it, touched by her deep concern for the children.

“I think you’re handling it perfectly fine, mostly taking their minds off thinking about their parents. But if they start to talk about them, take up the conversation. Be gentle but honest, don’t promise things it’s not in you power to keep. Try not to scare them more than necessary, of course, but don’t tell them everything will be alright, either. Just make it clear to them that, whatever happens, they will not be alone, they will be taken care of. And if you feel out of your depth, just take them in your arms – you were right about them needing a lot of TLC, then call me and I’ll take over.”

Jenny nodded, smiling gratefully at McCoy. As always, she found it immensely reassuring to have the kind and experienced doctor at her side. Sitting here, across from him now, nursing her coffee, Jenny felt completely at peace, regarding him with growing fondness. She’d long figured out, of course, that underneath his crusty shell lived the softest, kindest heart.

He’d been ever so gentle with the children, tenderly taking care of all their medical needs. But obviously a little at a loss how to entertain five to eight-year-olds, he had been perfectly happy to leave the playing and general taking care of them to her.

All the greater her surprise, when he’d so enthusiastically joined in the fun that evening. She’d enjoyed the warmth and affection he’d shown the children – and her – immensely. Being so close to him, his fingers gently tickling her, his hands so naturally caressing her, had left her wanting more.

And when they’d worked together to get the children ready for bed afterwards, she’d felt a new familiarity between them, which she found incredibly pleasant.

Chapter 14

The next afternoon, Jenny was playing ball games with the children in the gym, when five-year-old Marc fell and hurt his knee, immediately begging to have Dr. McCoy check his injury. After their Little-Monkey tickle fight the evening before, he had taken a real shine to the doctor.

Carefully checking the boy’s knee and finding it perfectly all right, Jenny realised that Marc was just looking for a chance to see the doctor again. And hoping McCoy wouldn’t mind, she decided to indulge him.

She left the other kids with Uhura and Chekov, who’d eagerly volunteered to help her entertain the children in their free time, although probably for different reasons, and took the boy down to sickbay.

There, Jenny winked at Christine and quickly explained that Marc’s knee needed Dr. McCoy’s personal attention, at which the nurse smiled knowingly and went to fetch the doctor from his office.

McCoy entered with a big smile on his face and, after exchanging a quick glance with Hope to make sure there was really nothing wrong with the boy, crouched down in front of Marc.

“All right, young man, I hear you hurt your knee?”

“Yes, Doctor,” the boy smiled shyly, “I fell catching a ball, but I didn’t cry!”

“Is that true?” McCoy made a very impressed face and looked at Hope as if for confirmation.

“Yes, Doctor,” she nodded, smiling. “Marc here is a very brave boy.”

“And my team won, too!” Marc piped up.

“I see!” McCoy could hardly hide his amusement this time. “So, you’re a really good player, as well. Congratulations!”

Straightening up, he gently hoisted the boy up onto a biobed and started to carefully probe his knee with his hands.

“Does that hurt?” he asked, softly squeezing a little here and there, at which the boy shook his head and started to giggle.

“No, Doctor, it just tickles!”

“Oh, does it now?” McCoy said, feigning surprise and squeezing a little more, making the boy giggle again.

Then, glancing sidelong at Hope, he suggested, “I think you’ll need to have an ice cream with your friends now, and your knee will be as good as new. What’s your favourite flavour?”

“Strawberry!” Marc’s reply was instant, delighted at the prospect of ice-cream.

“That’s perfect,” McCoy said with a straight face, “because chocolate or lemon just wouldn’t have done.”

Hearing Chapel’s and Hope’s muffled guffaws next to him, he ruffled Marc’s hair affectionately and was just about to lift the boy back down, when the latter launched himself at the surprised doctor and wound his little arms tightly around McCoy’s neck.

“Thank you, Doctor!”

Quickly recovering from his surprise, McCoy hugged the boy tightly to his chest for a few moments, then drew back a little and said, “Know what, son? Why don’t you come back tomorrow afternoon, so I can check your knee again? Just to make sure?”

“I will, Doctor,” Marc promised solemnly, and McCoy was touched to see the boy’s eyes light up at the thought. Jenny, who had watched the scene with rapt attention, felt her heart melt at the doctor’s kindness and Marc’s delight. Sometimes, she was thrown by all the warmth and kindness she experienced on the Enterprise. It really was a special ship with a very special crew, and she was forever grateful to be here.

When McCoy had released Marc from his embrace and gently put him back down on the floor, she threw the doctor a warm glance, which he returned just as warmly. Then she took the beaming boy’s hand and led him out of sickbay. McCoy watched them leave with a warm feeling in his heart. The little boy’s trusting affection had deeply moved him. Those were such sweet children, they deserved a happy and carefree childhood. He’d really like to give their parents’ kidnappers a piece of his mind.

Christine suddenly appearing at his side startled him out of his thoughts.

“I didn’t know you had such a great way with children! Always thought they’d be scared of a grouchy doctor like you,” she teased. “But that little one really seemed to like you.”

“Don’t act so surprised, nurse,” McCoy grumbled, “You know my bedside manner is faultless. I’m always a great hit with my patients – big or small.”

Nurse Chapel just snorted at that and turned back to her work.

********************

That evening, after Jenny had put the children to bed, she was delighted to find McCoy waiting for her outside the children’s quarters.

“It was so quiet inside, I thought you’d be out any minute,” he smiled. “Care to have coffee with me again?”

“Of course, Doctor!” Jenny beamed, trying not to sound too enthusiastic.

She’d really enjoyed their conversation over coffee the evening before. Being around the doctor always made her feel so good.

When they were seated at a table in the mess, Jenny glanced at McCoy over her mug and smiled.

“You were brilliant today, Doctor, thank you! Marc really adores you. He wouldn’t talk about anything else but you all evening, telling everyone that he’s going back to sickbay for another check-up tomorrow. You really made his day!”

“Well, he’s a cute little boy,” McCoy shrugged, a little embarrassed by her praise, then grinned mischievously, raising an enquiring eyebrow at her, “I hope his knee isn’t giving him too much trouble?”

Jenny laughed, regarding him fondly.

“You’re a very kind man, Doctor. Children can sense that. Marc feels safe with you. Can’t say I blame him, I always feel safe with you,” she added softly.

McCoy looked up from his coffee, deeply touched by her words. Where most other people saw a difficult and cantankerous man, she seemed to see only kindness.

Clearing his throat, he reached out and, for a moment, gently cupped her face in his hand. It was only the lightest touch, but so tender that Jenny thought her heart would burst.

“You sure know how to flatter an old man, Dr. Hope,” McCoy chuckled as he pulled his hand away again.

Then he continued more seriously, “But we’ll have to be careful. Sweet as the children are, we mustn’t let them get too attached to us, or they’ll have a hard time leaving again next week.”

“You’re right, Doctor,” Jenny nodded, grateful, as always, for the doctor’s prudence, then sighed, “but that’s not an easy feat. There’s a very fine line between making them feel cared for and getting them too attached.”

“True, but if there’s anyone who can accomplish that, it’s you, my dear.”

His voice was soft, his eyes on her even softer, making his gaze feel like a gentle caress.

“Thank you for your trust, Doctor,” Jenny replied, looking a little doubtful.

“Anytime, my dear,” McCoy smiled. “And while we’re here, do me a favour and have something to eat with your coffee. You’ve lost weight again. And impeccable as you are in looking after the children, you obviously need someone else to look after you.”

Jenny grinned at him sheepishly. She knew a rebuke when she heard one, but seeing the doctor looking out for her like that still sent a warm glow to her heart.  

********************

Joining Hope and the children before bedtime whenever his shift allowed it, had quickly become a much-loved routine for McCoy. Just like having that ‘debriefing coffee’ with her afterwards, when the kids were asleep. He would certainly miss that when the children were gone.

The evening before the Enterprise reached the starbase where the kids would be taken care of, he entered their quarters to the heart-warming sight of Hope with the children all huddled up against her on a big bed of mattresses, watching a film.

He’d had a rather busy day in sickbay thanks to Scotty and one of his ‘worst case’ drills in engineering, so he’d come here for a more positive end to his day, and this was exactly what he’d had in mind. A peaceful, loving scene.

Just as he was about to sit down next to the little group, eight-year-old Ella got up and went to sit in a corner all by herself. Hope immediately tried to untangle herself from the other children to go after her, but the doctor motioned for her to stay put, lifting a hand and mouthing, “I’ve got this!”

Then he went over to where Ella was sitting, squatted down next to her and put a gentle hand on her back. When she shrank away and shook her head, he sat down next to her on the floor, not touching.

Jenny watched the doctor quietly talk to the girl, who didn’t react at first, but then shook her head vigorously. His face so full of tenderness, it made Jenny’s heart flutter, and his eyes never leaving the girl’s face, McCoy kept talking until Ella started to cry and let herself be pulled into his lap. Wrapping her tightly in his arms and tenderly rocking the sobbing girl, he kept murmuring soothing words to her until her tears subsided again.

Jenny couldn’t hear what he was saying, but whatever it was, it had obviously worked. She watched, enthralled, as McCoy gently wiped away the last of Ella’s tears with his thumbs, then offered her a tissue, which he’d seemingly produced out of nowhere, waited for her to blow her nose, and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and smiled, and they both got up to join the others again.

McCoy sat down on the edge of a mattress with his back leaning against the bulkhead, and Ella quickly climbed into his lap again, nestling snugly into his arms, quite obviously feeling comfortable there.

Jenny’s heart melted at the sight, and she couldn’t help thinking how good it would feel to be right there in McCoy’s arms, being held so tightly and lovingly. Envying a little girl whose parents had been abducted was very wrong, of course. And yet...

Cradling Ella tenderly in his arms, McCoy had a hard time keeping his rage under control. Seeing how this adorable little girl’s sense of basic trust had been so cruelly corrupted and replaced with fearfulness and distrust, he was overcome with murderous feelings of hatred towards these thoughtless kidnappers.

It took a few minutes of conscious breathing, until he finally felt calm enough to meet Hope’s eyes again, certain that she’d watched them closely all the time.

If he hadn’t been so angry, he’d probably have basked in her attention, the realisation of how much he thrived on her approval a little unsettling at the back of his mind.

Finding Hope glancing questioningly at him, clearly concerned about Ella, he nodded reassuringly at her to let her know that the girl was all right.

But when she kept gazing at him holding Ella, he also saw the yearning in those soft brown eyes, wondering if she longed to be held like this, too. And feeling another surge of the by now familiar protective tenderness towards her, he wished there was a way for him to give her all the tender affection she so longed for.

Maybe that’s why she enjoyed dancing with Chekov so much, he mused. That definitely involved a lot of touching and holding. And even though his feelings for Hope were nothing but fatherly and platonic, the thought nagged a little at him.

*********************

It took longer than usual to get the children to sleep that evening, having to leave the Enterprise the next day making them a little anxious. But McCoy managed to put their minds at rest by telling them that he had a friend there, who was going to take care of them. That ‘friend’ was just an acquaintance, really, but he knew her to be kind and trustworthy. So, surely a little white lie was ok, if it took away some of the kids’ fear.

Hope smiled at him warmly when the children started to relax, and gave in to the request of a second bedtime story. It was their last evening aboard, after all.

A little later as well as a little more subdued than the days before, they found themselves sitting in the mess, nursing their coffees, and McCoy watched Hope absentmindedly stirring her mug, even though she’d put neither sugar nor milk in it.

“What was Ella so upset about, Doctor?” she broke the silence eventually.

Still simmering with rage, McCoy tried to choose his words carefully and hesitated just long enough to worry her.

“Something I did?” she asked quietly.

“No, not at all, my dear,” the doctor was quick to assure her. “She was just scared about tomorrow. And a little disappointed because you can’t come with them.”

“So it was my fault, after all,” Hope hung her head. “They got too attached to me. Exactly what you warned me about. I’m so sorry I let them down.”

“Don’t be, Hope,” McCoy reached across the table and put a gentle hand over hers. “It’s hardly your fault they like you, is it? You gave them love and security when they needed it most. They had a wonderful week because of you. It was unavoidable that they would be sad to have to leave again.”

She looked at him despondently, obviously not quite ready to forgive herself.

“So what did you tell her?”

“I told her that she was a lovely girl,” McCoy smiled, softly squeezing Hope’s hand, “and that everyone at the starbase was looking forward to having her and would like her just as much as we do. And then I asked her, if she thought my hugs were as good as yours.”

“They obviously were,” Hope chuckled, and McCoy was glad to see her cheering up again.

“Well, I honestly wouldn’t know, because she never said,” he grinned, “but at least she wasn’t complaining, either.”

They finished their coffee in silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts, comfortable in each other’s presence. It was only when they got up to say good night, that they realised that the doctor’s hand was still resting on top of Hope’s.

Chapter 15

When the Children were gone, everything went back to normal. Hope spent most of her time in sickbay again, and McCoy couldn’t get enough of watching her interact with the patients. Her buoyant personality brightened sickbay no end, and the grown-up patients appreciated her infectious liveliness just as much as the children had.

They’d never talked about the ‘hand-incident’, as McCoy called it in his mind, after that evening, and he’d since convinced himself that it wasn’t really such a big deal at all. They’d grown closer during their time with the kids, she’d been upset, he’d wanted to comfort her, end of story.

Just another gentle touch, another opportunity to give her a little of the physical affection he knew she craved. That one had just lasted a little longer, so what? It had seemed like the most natural thing at the time, had, in fact, felt so right that he hadn’t even been aware he was still holding her hand.

And Hope hadn’t seemed embarrassed or uneasy, either. She could have pulled away anytime, after all. But when he’d stood up and let go of her hand, she’d just smiled at him in her sweet, affectionate way.

What he didn’t know, however, was that Jenny had enjoyed his soothing touch, his thumb absentmindedly drawing gentle circles on the back of her hand, so much that she’d been sitting completely still, afraid that if she moved, she’d startle him out of his thoughts and draw his attention back to his hand still protectively covering her smaller one. The contact had somehow been so intimate, yet felt so right, Jenny could have sat like that all night, savouring the warm and comforting feeling.

The evening had really worn her out – getting the overexcited children to sleep, covering up how sad she was to see them go again so soon, watching Ella in exactly the place she hadn’t even known she desperately wanted to be, and then learning that she’d got the kids too attached despite her endeavours to the contrary, had simply been too much.

But when the doctor had so tenderly reached for her hand, talking about love and security, it had felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. A simple touch of his hand had taken away her pain, and Jenny had wanted to hang on to that wonderful feeling forever.

When he’d eventually pulled his hand off, Jenny had been incredibly relieved to find that the awkward moment she’d been half expecting, never happened. Instead, the doctor had acted as if they did this every day, smiling at her in his sweet, distinctive way, and giving her hand a final affectionate squeeze before finally letting go.  

********************

A couple of days later, Jenny was carrying her dinner tray across the mess, heading to where Sulu and Chekov were sitting, when she heard the captain’s voice calling her name. Surprised, she turned around and saw him beckoning her over to his table, where he was just having dinner with Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy.

“Dr. Hope! Why don’t you join us for dinner?” he smiled. “I haven’t yet had a chance to thank you for taking such good care of our recent young guests.”

Tilting her head in appreciation of his words, she put her tray down on the table and sat in the chair next to Mr. Spock, immediately regretting her choice of only salad for dinner, when she saw the doctor’s disapproving face.

“How often do I have to tell you to eat more than just a salad for dinner?” McCoy scolded her.

“Why do you never say that to me?” Kirk complained, grinning.

“I’m all for a healthy diet, Hope,” the doctor continued, with a warning glance towards Kirk, “but if you plan a career as a starship officer, you just can’t lose any more weight! I really don’t want to be a nuisance, but if I can’t trust you to look after yourself, I’ll have to supervise your eating habits. Meaning you’ll have to eat with me for the time being.”

Before Jenny could decide whether this was actually a good or a bad thing, the captain chortled, then laughed out loud.

“Bones, this is by far the worst chat-up line I’ve ever heard,” he scoffed, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes, while the corners of Spock’s mouth twitched almost unnoticeably, too.

“Very funny, Jim,” the doctor grumbled, “you’re hilarious!”

Jenny was surprised to see McCoy actually blush a little before turning back to her and putting on his sternest doctor-face.

“I really mean it, young lady,” he went on. “No more unsupervised dinners for at least a week. Until the scales show me what I want to see. And now, chop, chop, go back and get some meat and potatoes to go with your salad.”

Feeling like a naughty schoolgirl caught out by the headmaster, Jenny glanced at Kirk and Spock, who were both sitting straight-faced and very still, and obediently got up to do as she was told. McCoy could be really quite intimidating, if he wanted to be.

When they were done eating, Spock and the captain took off for a game of chess in one of the rec rooms, while McCoy asked her to stay for coffee. Jenny was more than happy to continue their tradition of ending the day with a comfortable chat over coffee, even now that the children were gone.

“Sorry for that earlier,” McCoy started the conversation with a nod in the direction of where Kirk had been sitting. “Jim just loves to embarrass me, he can’t help it. But he certainly didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

“Oh, don’t worry, Doctor, I know he likes to tease you. But he adores you. How long have you been friends with him?”

“Well, for quite a while now. We’ve certainly been through a lot together already.”

“I really like him, I think he’s great,” Jenny said, sounding almost a little surprised. “And so very different from what I expected a starship captain to be like.”

“He certainly is,” McCoy smiled fondly. “He’s one of a kind. Keeps me on my toes, mind you, with all his harebrained ideas and the risks he takes. But I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. In fact, I’d probably even grow more of an ulcer, if I couldn’t be around to patch him back together every single time he goes and does something stupid.”

Jenny smiled at McCoy’s display of loyalty. There was certainly no better friend to have than the doctor.

“You know, when Admiral Dakunia first told me that I was allowed aboard the Enterprise, I never thought I’d even get a chance to talk to the captain, let alone have the occasional dinner with him.”

“Yeah, Jim wants to know everyone in his crew, wants to really get to know people. That’s how he sees command. To lead, and not just to rule.”

“He’s really awesome.”

“Of course, he is. Everybody aboard loves him.”

"I know! And it really surprised me at first. I somehow expected people to complain about him behind his back – as people usually do, seeing their boss as too demanding, or unfair, or whatever. But people here never do. They adore him and wouldn't put up with anyone talking badly of him. They'd go through fire for him."

"And a lot of them literally have,” McCoy chuckled wryly. “But yes, you’re completely right. That's the special thing about Jim and his ship."

"But what makes him so special? Why would people give their life for him?"

"That's very simple to answer, my dear. Because he would give his life for each of his people's. He asks a lot, but he gives a lot, too. And he'd never order anyone to do anything he wouldn't do himself."

********************

The days on the Enterprise seemed to go by so fast. There was always plenty to do, but McCoy and Hope still tried to find time for sharing a late-night coffee whenever their shifts allowed. Even though neither of them would openly admit it, they were more and more drawn to each other and treasured their easy conversations immensely.

One evening, McCoy even told her about his daughter Joanna, something he rarely talked about to anyone, not even Jim. It was too hurtful a topic for him. But he found that he actually enjoyed talking to Hope about it. Enjoyed her listening so attentively to his tales of Joanna as a toddler, not judging or commenting on his divorce or the ensuing neglect of his parental duties.

On the contrary, she saw how badly he missed Joanna and even encouraged him to try and rebuild their relationship.

“Your problems were only with her mother, Doctor. And I get that it was difficult when she was little. But she’s almost grown up now, she understands things. You should just talk openly with her. She needs her father in her life. In fact, she has a right to have her father in her life. You’re a wonderful man, a renowned physician. She can be more than proud to have you as her father.”

McCoy was deeply touched by Hope’s fervent speech and that she should care so much about him and a girl she didn’t even know. And, of course, she was right, too. He really should make more of an effort to become closer to Joanna again. He’d been so hurt by how things had ended with her mother, by months and years of not being allowed to see his daughter, or, sometimes, even talk to her, he guessed he’d just started to accept it as the way it was.

For so long, he’d had to be content with birthdays, graduations, maybe even the odd weekend, grateful for every little chance to see his girl. And seeing her become more and more of a stranger over the years. That had hurt most. But Hope was right! He’d been so caught up in his pain, his sorrow, he’d never even thought of doing something about it now that she was no longer a child under her mother’s influence.

Well, he’d definitely start doing something about it now. And he couldn’t be grateful enough that Hope had pointed it out to him. It was incredible in what ways this woman kept changing his life.

********************

Jenny saw the doctor in a different light after that conversation. Maybe that's why she felt so comfortable with him, so safe, so taken care of. He had a daughter nearly the same age. And he was a very proud and doting father, the love for his little girl shining from his eyes with every word, every story he told about her. Once he’d started, he couldn’t stop talking about her. It had been heart-warming.

To think that there was a young woman out there who had a wonderful, loving father like McCoy and might not even realise what she was missing. Jenny just had to make sure that the doctor really did start to make an effort now. His daughter surely deserved to have him in her life again, to get more from him than the occasional birthday or Christmas card.

So, after that evening, Jenny kept making little comments on how proud Joanna would be, or how lucky Joanna was to have such a wonderful/kind/gentle/brilliant father. She never stopped pestering McCoy, although she liked to think of it as inspiring him, until he finally sent a message to Joanna. And another one. And then regular ones, turning into real-time conversations, whenever he got the chance.

Jenny was really happy to see him become a regular part of his daughter’s life again, to see the love and the joy in his eyes whenever he told her about any of Joanna’s news.

And she was deeply moved to find a message from Joanna herself on her computer, one evening, simply saying “Thank you for looking after my dad!”

Chapter 16

McCoy was in high spirits. His staff was already gossiping about possible reasons for his ever-improving mood, as word got around that he actually smiled at people who brought him reports or requests to sign. Even he was aware that it got harder and harder to keep up his cranky image.

Incredible, he thought to himself, shaking his head in wonder, his eyes repeatedly darting over to where Hope was busy disinfecting and restocking hypos. There were no recent casualties, he was talking to Joanna on a regular basis, and he’d even adopted Hope’s habit of humming to herself while doing desk work.

Life can be really good, he realised, and happily started on the next report.

It was very quiet in sickbay when he finally shut down his screen and tidied his desk. Unbelievably, there were no patients, and McCoy assumed that everybody else had already left. He got up and went over to lock up the cabinets, softly singing one of his favourite classical country songs.

Just when he started on the chorus, a second voice joined in. He whipped around, startled, and came almost face to face with Hope, who laughingly gestured for him to keep singing. They finished the chorus together, and McCoy was thrilled to find that they made a pretty good duet. Her normally crystal-clear voice was strong, yet somehow suitably husky for the song.

Of course, she’d be the perfect country singer on top of everything else!

“You know that song?” he asked incredulously when they’d finished. “I was pretty sure I was the only country music lover aboard.”

“Faith Hill and Tim McGraw,” she smiled wistfully. “My favourite Nashville couple.”

“I don’t believe it!”

“I didn’t know you were into classical country music, either. Let alone that you have such a great singing voice. You should join our ensemble! Uhura’s not really a fan, but I’d love to do a few country classics for a change. If we get on it right away, you could be the star of our Christmas gig! Are you in?”

“Oh, no, no,” McCoy shook his head and laughed, raising his hands in defence, “I’m not much of a performer. But I’m very good audience. What other kinds of music do you like?”

“Well, I’m a sucker for the really old stuff. From Bach and Mozart to Pop and Rock. And country music, of course, as you now know. You?”

“Pretty much the same, we seem to be kindred spirits in music,” he smiled at her. “I have quite a good collection, actually. We could do a music and drinks evening in my office some time.”

“I’d like that,” Hope beamed at him, a strange feeling of excitement gripping her stomach at the idea of spending some time alone with him.

********************

Christmas was approaching fast, and with the crew being mostly Terran, it was always a big event. Not necessarily a religious one, but mostly about having a party and presents.

With all the smaller department parties going on, Hope and Uhura’s band was fully booked, leaving them not much time for other activities. But the two women didn’t mind. Singing and making music was the best recreation for them, anyway, and the lads they played with were a lot of fun.

The only one not happy at all with the situation was Chekov, because for him, of course, that meant no dance practice with Jenny. To compensate, and being quite popular really, he managed to get invited to most of the parties, for then only to mope about in some corner and give the male members of the band the evil eye.

The main event, however, was going to be the big, ship-wide party on actual Christmas Day. A big fake fir tree had already been put up and decorated in the great assembly hall, and Hope had learned that it was customary for the senior officers to hand out the presents that had arrived on the Enterprise from family and friends and were stored all around the big tree.

Although certainly a nice tradition, Jenny’s first thought was about the crew members who might not receive anything and feel left out. And, of course, being Jenny, a plan began to form in her head immediately. She’d ask Pavel to help her with it. That would keep him busy and happy.

Chekov, of course, didn’t have to be asked twice, and spent the next couple of days putting together a collection of little Christmas presents. So, on Christmas Eve, having volunteered for the late shift, Jenny spent a quiet evening in sickbay wrapping and labelling small presents with Pavel.

That’s how McCoy found them, when he came over after the senior officers’ Christmas Eve dinner with some non-alcoholic punch for his staff on night duty.

“Who are these for?” he asked, looking over Hope’s shoulder and watching her write ‘Santa sends his love’ on the card.

“We don’t know yet, Doctor!” Chekov grinned, then, seeing the doctor’s puzzled expression, cheerfully added, “We’ll find out tomorrow.”

“OK,” McCoy drawled, clearly not understanding any of it, but prepared to let it go, when Hope smiled at him reassuringly.

“You’ll see, Doctor. All for a good cause, though.”

********************

On Christmas Day, after the band had accompanied the crew in their ambitious rendition of a number of popular Christmas songs, it was time for the presents.

Hope positioned herself close to the tree, armed with part of the now beautifully wrapped gifts. Seeing her standing there with her arms full, McCoy beckoned her closer, holding out his hands to take the presents off her.

But she just shook her head, pointing out one of the still blank name tags to him, mouthing, “Not yet!”

And as he looked around and found Chekov and the young men from Hope’s band each standing close to one of the other senior officers, holding a bunch of similarly wrapped presents, it finally dawned on him what they were doing. The thought made him feel all warm and soft inside, and he gazed at Hope with endless tenderness. Sometimes, he just couldn’t help but wonder, if she was for real.

Sure enough, when all the other gifts were gone, Hope’s little presents had magically appeared under the tree, each now neatly labelled with a name on it. By the time he was done distributing those, too, the band was already back on stage, getting ready to rock as soon as his fellow officers had finished as well.

When the music started again, McCoy grabbed a glass of punch off a tray and went over to where Jim, Spock and Scotty were standing around Chekov and Uhura, talking animatedly.

“I know that this has been a tradition on the Enterprise since long before I was in command,” Jim sighed, “but there was always someone left after the last gift was gone, and I hated that.”

“Exactly,” Uhura nodded. “And it wasn’t about not getting a gift, either. It was about being exposed as someone obviously without friends or family, that was so humiliating. Even though your presents might just have arrived late, which is not unheard of in the midst of nowhere out here in space.”

“That’s why Jenny came up with this plan!” Chekov explained proudly.

Uhura nearly spluttered her drink when Kirk deadpanned, “Do they not come up with plans in Russia anymore?”

And Scotty couldn’t help but add, “Ach, Captain, who needs inventions from Russia as long as there’s still Hope?”  

Chekov sighed good-naturedly, a long-suffering grin spreading across his face, as everybody around him just cracked up. Everyone but McCoy, he noticed, who gave him a fond smile and a sympathetic pat on the back instead.

“You did well, Chekov,” he smiled approvingly. “That was an excellent idea. You and Hope have just made some of your crew mates really happy!”

Chapter 17

With Christmas and all the extra gigs involved over, Jenny could finally make more time for Pavel and their dancing sessions again, and Chekov was back to his happy self at last. To make up for lost time, he also made a point of having at least one meal per day with her, and she was all right with that.

He was really sweet, always making her laugh, and he had been a great help with the Christmas presents, after all. Chekov was definitely one of the good guys. Besides, he was always happy to finish her meals for her, if she once again couldn’t manage to eat everything McCoy had put on her dietary card.

Usually, she’d scan the mess thoroughly before quickly swapping Chekov’s empty tray for her own. That evening, however, she’d obviously been careless, and had failed to notice the doctor sneaking up on her, making her jerk and nearly topple her glass when his booming voice suddenly sounded right behind her.

“What do you think you’re doing, young lady?” he rumbled, sounding genuinely pissed off.

Jenny froze. She knew, of course, that the doctor was just worried about her, and had, admittedly, put a lot of thought into her nutritional plan. But that didn’t give him the right to yell at her like that, did it? It wasn’t as if she’d committed a crime.

She just didn’t need that much food. It all tasted pretty much the same, anyway. She ate when she was hungry, and she was really comfortable the way she was. She certainly didn’t need scales to tell her how healthy, strong, or energetic she felt.  

Taking in her defiant expression, McCoy relented a little and even managed a weak smile.

“I’m not doing this for fun, Hope,” he sighed, “you really need to take this more seriously.”

“I know, Doctor,” she conceded, “but I just can’t force down all this food. Please, believe me, it’ll just make me sick. And that would be really counterproductive.”

Looking defeated, McCoy sat down heavily in the chair across from her.

“You make me sound like a bully,” he grimaced, “when I’m really just trying to look out for you.”

“I know that, too, Doctor, and I’m sorry.”

Hope smiled at him ruefully, and McCoy had to laugh at her puppy-dog face.

“All right. Maybe we can think of something tastier, less healthy. There’s got to be something you actually like! What about chocolate?”

Hope looked at him, frowning and shaking her head.

“No. Chocolate’s not the same anymore, either,” she began and then stopped abruptly, as if realising she’d just said something wrong.

“Not the same anymore?” McCoy and Chekov echoed in unison.

But seeing her face fall and not wanting to upset her any further, the doctor decided to let it go for the moment, got up again and left her and Chekov to finish their dinner in peace.

********************

Running into her again on the observation deck later that evening, he knew he’d been forgiven when she came up to him carrying two mugs of coffee and settled down comfortably on the couch next to him without even asking. Kicking off her boots and curling her legs underneath her, she turned to face him and proudly pulled a little bag of nuts out of her pocket.

“See, Doctor?” she grinned impishly, opening the bag and putting it down on the little table in front of them. “I’m really going out of my way here to make you happy.”

“Atta girl,” he chuckled his approval, grateful for the opportunity to take up their earlier conversation again.

“Talking about food, what was that about chocolate not being the same anymore?” he asked casually, watching her closely over the rim of his coffee mug.

It was an innocent enough question, and he was surprised to see Hope hesitating, almost looking cornered.

"I just meant I used to like it, but now I'm not that keen on it anymore," she said cagily, making it sound more like a question.

With a pang of conscience, McCoy realised that, apart from what was written in her file, he really knew very little about her. Sure, he knew what music, films or literature she liked, that she was a gifted singer and dancer, what sports she was into, little things like that. And, of course, he knew what a thoughtful, caring person she was.

But after all their time working together, all their cosy chats over coffee in the evenings, he still had no idea where she came from, how she’d grown up, or what her family was like. She just never talked about herself or her past, and to his great shame, he’d never even really noticed before.

"I'm curious,” he tried the direct approach. “You know practically everything there is to know about me, while I know hardly anything about you. Tell me a little about yourself, Hope. Why did you become a linguist? What made you join Starfleet? What about your family? They must be awfully proud of you!"

Her reaction caught him completely off guard. Her eyes filling with sudden tears, Hope quickly turned away, on the verge of losing her composure for a moment.

McCoy was stumped. Wishing he could take back the words that had so obviously hurt her, all he could do was run a comforting hand gently up and down her arm.

"I'm so sorry, dear, I didn’t mean to upset you. You don't have to talk about any of this, if you don't want to."

Recovering almost instantly, Hope turned back towards him, smiling and blinking away a few unshed tears.

"It's all right, Doctor, I’m sorry. It's just, I don't have a family," she explained almost matter-of-factly, then quickly changed the subject before McCoy, who was still processing what he’d just heard, could say or ask anything else.

And recognising the hurt still clearly visible in her eyes, the doctor just went along.  

Chapter 18

After Hope had dropped the bombshell about not having a family, she started babbling, chatting away merrily about all sorts of things from Scotty’s latest invention to Sulu’s newest floral experiment. As if she hadn’t just revealed one of the probably saddest aspects of her life.

And while McCoy could see what she was doing, he was only half listening to her chitchat. Still reeling from the news, his mind was working overtime connecting the dots, as a lot of things suddenly fell into place.  

Like why her medical issues had not been treated properly. Or why contributing to the tight-knit community that constituted the crew of the Enterprise was so important to her.

Maybe it was also the reason why she seemed so mature for her age. The way she talked, the way she treated people, her sense of duty, her thoughtfulness, her empathy. If it weren’t for her young face and endless vitality, he could easily forget about their age difference when they were together.

It certainly explained why bringing Joanna back into his life had mattered so much to her, and why she’d put her heart in making the ambassadors’ children feel loved and cared for. Not to forget about why she relished every act of kindness, every little touch, every physical contact so much. Even though she tried so hard to conceal it.

His heart broke a little at the thought, and he had a hard time refraining from taking her in his arms or even just touching her cheek. Normally, he would have grabbed the chance, any excuse for a gentle touch. But seeing her determination to keep up her happy façade, and guessing that inside she was just hanging on by a thread, he was afraid that any expression of kindness right now might undo her.

********************

Even later, when he was already lying in bed, his mind was still whirring, his thoughts circling around Hope incessantly. He looked at her with different eyes now. The cheerfulness, the happiness, were certainly in her nature, which was a good thing as it helped her cope where others might despair.

Yet, it also helped her prevent others from discovering that she, too, had issues. She’d even tricked him! And she’d made a good job of it, too. He was ashamed to admit that he'd never really considered the possibility of her being unhappy or facing problems of her own up till now.

Today, however, he’d seen another, troubled side of her. A side he’d already seen glimpses of during her physical when she’d first come aboard the Enterprise, but which he’d mistakenly attributed to her simply being nervous about being on a starship for the first time.

But the way she’d reacted to his simply mentioning her family today, if only for one careless moment, had convinced him that there was more to it than just that. And he was going to find out what it was. Even though she obviously didn’t want him to. But right now, he felt like he’d somehow failed her, and he wouldn’t let that happen again. He’d pay closer attention from now on.

********************

Jenny was pacing the tiny space of her quarters, trying to calm her nerves. Her mind replaying the day’s conversations with the doctor over and over again, as she tried to remember her exact words.

She’d slipped up before, but never that badly. Usually, she managed to cover up her mistakes as jokes or slips of the tongue. It always worked with Chekov and the others. Even with Uhura, who wasn’t easily fooled.

But today she’d blown it, she was sure of that. The doctor hadn’t bought her feeble excuse about chocolate. He’d become suspicious. Or rather worried. Especially after her accidentally giving away that she had no family. She’d really tried hard to avoid situations like that. But his mentioning her family had been so unexpected, the pain of missing them too intense.

Of course, they’d be proud of her! And so glad to see how far she’d come, how happy she was.

She’d seen the shock in the doctor’s face, the compassion, the kindness. And it had taken every ounce of her strength to keep from just throwing herself in his arms and letting him comfort her, as she knew he would have. But then he’d have asked questions, would have wanted to know every little detail, and she couldn’t have that.

All she could do was pretend that she was fine, and hope that he’d let the matter drop. She was under no illusion that he might not have noticed her distress, but she sincerely hoped that he would respect her wish not to talk about it.

It had been so much easier with her friends at the Academy. She hadn’t been as close to them as she was to her friends here on the Enterprise. It was getting increasingly harder to keep her secret from the people she cared about and who cared about her.

But Starfleet had been very clear about the dangers of people finding out and had prohibited her from telling anyone. She’d agreed to those orders. Only now she wasn’t so sure she could do it much longer.

********************

Desperate for some caffeine and conversation after a long morning of deskwork in his office, McCoy grabbed a coffee in the mess and went over to join Uhura and Hope for lunch at their table.

However, seeing that they were deep in conversation, he decided not to intrude and quietly sat down at the table next to them. They were discussing linguistics, totally engrossed in the topic, and McCoy could not but smile as he overheard them talking so passionately.

“Intuitive enhancement is such an interesting area of linguistics,” Uhura enthused, “and so important, too! All the misunderstandings that can be avoided if the translator gets the meaning across rather than the wording.”

“Oh yes, Nyota, and think of all the words that are just impossible to translate, because they don’t have an equivalent in other languages,” Hope agreed. “And I’m not even talking about xeno-linguistics. There are plenty of examples just looking at different Earth tongues.”

Uhura nodded thoughtfully as Hope went on, “Take the German word ‘geborgen’, for example. There’s a myriad of nuances to this word, impossible to translate into just one single word of standard.”

“It basically means ‘secure’, doesn’t it?” Uhura asked, intrigued, taking a sip of her coffee.

“Basically, yes. But that’s just a little part of it, really. It’s more of a feeling, actually. It means to feel secure, sure, but also loved and accepted, safe and protected, comfortable and at home. It’s the feeling children have when they are in their parents’ arms. Or what partners feel, when they are in a stable and loving relationship.”

“I never knew your native language was German,” Uhura looked at Hope in surprise.

“Well, I have Austrian ancestry,” Hope quickly explained.

By now, McCoy was listening intently, slowly spinning his coffee mug around in his hands. He was extremely touched by Hope’s passionate explanation of everything the word ‘geborgen’ embraced. And he knew it wasn’t just a random example, either. It held deep meaning for her. Something she really long for.

What a beautiful word! he thought, and found that he absolutely wanted her to feel that way.

Chapter 19

Still glowing from his ‘linguistic lunchbreak’, and hoping to squeeze in a quiet word about Hope with Kirk, McCoy went up to the bridge for a look at a huge, unknown rocklike something that Spock had just recently discovered in their path and was currently drooling over. In his restrained, Vulcan way, of course. But having known him for years, McCoy could always tell when Spock was really giddy with excitement.

So, obviously, could Jim, judging from the fond grin on his face, as he looked at his first officer’s back, hunched over his station, and listened to the constant stream of precisely expressed information.

McCoy’s amusement was short-lived though, as the rock suddenly started to glow, then expand, and finally simply vanished in a massive explosion, shaking the Enterprise like a tin can in its wake.

As soon as the doctor had picked himself up off the floor and made sure that the bridge crew was unharmed, he hurried back to sickbay for a busy afternoon, all thoughts of Hope and her sorrows gone from his mind.

There were plenty of casualties, but luckily no really severe injuries. It still took three whole days to get all the patients out of sickbay again, and even longer for Scotty to restore the ship to its full functioning glory.

Three days of nothing but working at full stretch and then falling into bed, exhausted, for a couple of hours. Three days of working closely with Hope, grateful for her efficiency, and no time to exchange a single private word. Three days of quietly wondering, if she was all right.

When the pressure finally abated and the sickbay staff could relax again, the first thing McCoy did was ask her how she was, gazing at her long and meaningfully. But Hope just smiled at him and simply replied that all she needed was an extended yoga session and a good night’s sleep, deliberately referring only to the mad rush of the past few days. She was clearly not planning on opening up to him anytime soon.

After how their last evening on the observation deck had gone, and her obvious reluctance to acknowledge her unresolved hurt, McCoy was a little afraid that Hope might start to avoid him altogether. But between all her dancing and singing, he was happy to see that she still frequently made time for their evening chats.

And although he was certainly looking more closely now, he had to admit that she appeared to be perfectly all right. Vivacious, charming, happy to be alive. And brightening his and everybody else’s life simply by being there.

*********************

“Are you even listening to a word I’m saying?” Kirk asked, his tone amused, following McCoy’s gaze to where Chapel, Hope and Uhura were having breakfast together.

“Sorry, Jim,” McCoy returned his attention to him, “you were saying?”

“Actually, I wasn’t saying anything,” Kirk laughed. “There’d have been no use, anyway, seeing as our lovely Hope has you hypnotised once again. I could have choked and died right here in front of you, for all I know. You certainly wouldn’t have noticed.”

“Oh, cut the crap, Jim,” McCoy grumbled. “I was just checking on her diet. She isn’t very good at sticking to the plan, as we know.”

‘Keep your hair on, Bones!” Kirk grinned. “I’m just kidding. You’re entitled to a little romance in your life. Or a little heartache, as it seems you prefer that. You always put up with mine, after all.”

McCoy rolled his eyes at the captain and was just about to come up with a snarky reply, when he was momentarily distracted by Sulu approaching the ladies’ table holding some kind of flower that looked like a cross between a lollipop and a giant willow catkin in a lovely shade of purple. Presumably a new breed, judging from his proud face and his long, excited speech before finally giving the flower to Hope with a gallant little bow.

Kirk, who’d been watching the little scene, too, saw Hope beaming at Sulu delightedly, as she reverently took the flower from him, her eyes lighting up as she admired its beauty.

“I can certainly see, why you have a soft spot for her, Bones,” Kirk smiled at his friend. “Just watching her is heart-warming. She can be so happy about little things like this flower. And she always has a friendly smile, a word of comfort for everyone. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen her in a bad mood!”

“OK, now you’re exaggerating a little, Jim,” McCoy chuckled. “Like everybody else, Hope has her problems, too. She’s only more skilled at hiding them than most of us.”

“Well, nobody can be happy all the time, can they?” Kirk shrugged his shoulders. “We all have our bad days.”

“It’s more than that in her case,” McCoy was suddenly serious, “I’ve seen a sadness that goes deeper, something to do with her past.”

“What are you talking about, Bones?” Kirk was surprised. “Do you know something I don’t?”

“Well,” the doctor began. “I was actually about to tell you just before that rock of Spock’s exploded.”

McCoy quickly filled Kirk in on what he’d found out and told him of his determination to get to the bottom of this.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” the captain said, “but don’t you think that you’re exaggerating a little now? I mean, just look at her, she seems genuinely happy. In fact, thinking back to her first day aboard and how shy she was then, I’d say, if anything, she’s become more confident and happier since then.”

McCoy couldn’t object to that. Now that Kirk had mentioned it, he could definitely see how Hope had blossomed over the past few months.

Chapter 20

It was only two days later, that Kirk got to see for himself what the doctor had been talking about.

Unable to relax in his quarters, and hoping to unwind in more beautiful surroundings, he’d come to the arboretum late at night, fully expecting to be alone, when he saw Hope standing there. And for the short moment before she realised his presence, he saw this heartbreakingly sad and lost expression on her face.

But when he stepped to her side, and she turned around to face him, her trademark beaming smile was back in place.

“Hello, Captain,” she said softly, “I didn’t expect to meet another insomniac here.”

“Neither did I, Hope,” Kirk smiled at her. “I like to come here for some peace and quiet when I need to clear my mind.”

“I can leave,” she began, but Kirk quickly cut her off, shaking his head.

“Not at all, please stay!” he assured her, sitting down on an old-fashioned park bench and motioning for her to join him. “I’d like a little company.”

After sitting there in companionable silence for some time, Hope started to talk.

“Thank you for allowing me to come on the Enterprise, Captain. I really love to be on this ship. The legends about it are certainly true.”

“What legends?” Kirk wanted to know, always eager to hear his ship being praised.

“You know, about the crew, how skilled and competent everyone is, the team spirit, the respect you have for each other.”

“Why do you say ‘you’?” the captain interjected. “Don’t you feel part of our crew?”

“Well, I do feel very welcome here, Captain,” Hope replied, her eyes radiating nothing but happiness, “but I’m not really part of the crew, am I? I still have a lot to learn before being allowed to serve under a captain like you.”

“A captain like me?” he chuckled.

“You know what I mean,” she grinned, “famous, successful, legendary.”

Kirk just raised an amused eyebrow at her.

“Seriously! I always imagined a starship captain to be sort of aloof, distant. But you’re so approachable, so,” she tried to find the right word, “human. Everybody aboard adores you. They all trust you implicitly, like children would trust their father.”

Kirk was deeply touched by her words.

“And that’s exactly what makes the Enterprise so special,” he said, eyes shining with pride. “I appreciate and respect my crew, they appreciate and respect me. And I’m happy every time I’m reminded of it.”

Then, looking kindly at Hope, he continued, “But there’s no reason for you to feel like an outsider, Hope. No one on this ship is more or less important than anybody else. That’s the actual charm of the Enterprise, really. Everybody contributes in their own way, according to their strengths and abilities. Everyone has a special talent. I may be the captain, but I certainly couldn’t run the ship on my own.”

Hope looked at him, captivated, seeing that he really believed in everything he’d just said, and understanding that loyalty and respect were the key to the Enterprise’s success.

“You’re very kind to say that, Captain,” she smiled, “but seriously, what do I do to help run the ship? What’s my special talent?”

“You mean apart from being kind and caring and spreading happiness wherever you go?”

Hope’s eyes grew wide at his words, a slight blush colouring her cheeks.

“Err, yes, actually,” she chuckled self-consciously, “I was thinking more in terms of things they teach at the Academy.”

“Just teasing,” Kirk grinned, “but I certainly don’t have to remind you that you’re a highly qualified linguist, do I?”

“No,” hope blushed again, “but that’s not been of much use on this mission, so far.”

“Maybe not yet,” Kirk admitted, “but then, we never know what we’re going to encounter out here in space. We need to be ready for anything. But let me tell you about your special talent now.”

Hope looked at him expectantly.

“You’ve repeatedly proven yourself capable of working outside your field of expertise. From helping out in engineering to actually working in sickbay.”

“My dabbling in engineering with Scotty kindly teaching me some basics hardly counts as work, Captain,” she made light of his praise. “That’s just me being curious.”

“Exactly,” Kirk laughed, satisfied to see her catching on to what he was saying. “You’re not only capable of doing various jobs, even more importantly, you're willing to do them. You've completed your Ph.D. in linguistics, and yet you work as an orderly in sickbay without complaining, because we need you there. And you don't always point out that you are actually overqualified, either. You’re not ashamed of doing something you’re still new at."

“But everybody would do this,” Hope was astonished.

“And that’s where you’re wrong,” the captain countered. “Not everybody would. But McCoy keeps telling me what a quick study you are, what an asset to his team. Besides, you really have this special gift to make people feel good. Even Mr. Spock has repeatedly stated that the general mood aboard has improved noticeably since your arrival. You’re a breath of fresh air on the Enterprise, Hope. So, you see, you're all but dispensable."

Hope lowered her eyes bashfully at that.

"Your officers are shamelessly exaggerating, Captain! Especially Dr. McCoy has a far too high opinion of me. "

"McCoy is usually a really good judge of character."

Kirk tilted his head, then, remembering the doctor’s words, tried to find out more about her past, carefully avoiding any mention of her family in the process.

“But tell me, what’s your fascination with linguistics? What made you choose this field in the first place?”

“I think it started when I was still really young and impressed my English teacher with my glottal stop,” Hope began passionately, then broke off mid-sentence, a hint of alarm crossing her face.

“Your glottal stop?” Kirk echoed in bewilderment, failing to see the connection there.

“I’m so sorry, Captain, I’m not making sense anymore, I think I really need to get some sleep now.”

And just like that, Hope ended their conversation, and with a murmured, “Good night, Captain, it was really nice talking to you,” hurriedly left the arboretum.  

Baffled, Kirk stared after her for a few moments, then decided that Bones hadn’t been wrong, after all. There was definitely something in Hope’s past that she was embarrassed about. He’d talk to McCoy about it in the morning.

********************

“Have you got a minute, Jenny?” the harried-looking young ensign from engineering asked, looking first pleadingly at Hope, then apologetically at McCoy, who was frowning at her, pointedly looking at Hope’s still untouched lunch.

“Of course, Rita,” Hope said cordially, pushing back her chair to stand up and throwing the doctor an intense glance. “Anytime, like I said.”

McCoy subtly nodded his understanding, then followed the two women with his eyes, as Rita pulled Hope into the far corner of the mess for some privacy.

Looking at Hope’s abandoned meal slowly cooling down in front of him, he fondly thought about how she never hesitated for an instant, if someone asked for her help. He might have frowned at the interruption, but it was actually one of the things he liked most about her.

Watching her now, calmly talking to the agitated young woman, then giving her an encouraging hug before sending her on her way again, he felt a warmth spreading through his body that only ever Hope could evoke in him.

“You have advice and comfort for everyone, don’t you?” McCoy said fondly, when Hope returned and started on her lunch at last.

“Everyone but myself, it seems,” she sighed almost inaudibly and McCoy’s heart sank when he saw her face fall ever so slightly.

“What is it?” he asked concernedly, touching a gentle hand to her cheek.

She just shook her head, looking away.

“Something you’d like to talk over with someone?” he persisted, gently turning her face back towards him, only to feel his heart breaking as her lips decidedly said, “No,” even as her eyes clearly said, “Yes!”

Swallowing hard, and looking into her eyes intensely, he let his hand slide off her cheek and dropped it to her hand on the table, giving it a tight squeeze.

“If you ever want to talk, I’ll be there.”

Hope nodded her thanks almost imperceptibly, then pulled her hand away to finally finish her lunch.

********************

Knowing perfectly well how dangerously close she’d come to revealing too much to McCoy again over lunch, Jenny just couldn’t find the strength to keep away from him. With her emotions all over the place lately, she needed to be near him, longed for his soothing presence so badly.

Maybe it had to do with the anniversary of her grandmother’s death coming up, that had her feeling so melancholy recently. She’d absolutely adored her grandmother, who had died shortly after her 20th birthday, and she missed her cheerful personality and perceptive advice dearly.

Maybe she could talk to the doctor about her? That would be harmless enough, maybe even keep him off her back with other questions for a while. But then again, every mention of her past could lead to trouble. It was too risky, just not worth it.

So, having recovered at least some of her balance after a couple of relaxing yoga exercises, she made her way to the observation deck, counting on finding McCoy there and hoping to draw strength from his endless kindness towards her. And thankfully, he was already there when she entered, spotting her immediately and delightedly waving her over to where he was sitting.

Jenny got herself a coffee, then slumped onto the couch beside the doctor, seeing his affectionate smile and thinking there was no place she’d rather be at that moment.

Looking out at the stars, her thoughts returning to her granny, while she enjoyed the quiet and her coffee, Jenny suddenly became aware of McCoy studying her. Really studying her.

She was used to him checking up on her all the time. Had she eaten enough? Had she got enough sleep? That sort of thing. But this was different.

“What is it, Doctor?” she asked curiously.

McCoy exhaled noisily, then blinked, obviously thinking about how to phrase his next words.

“I wish I could just ease away your sorrows,” he said softly.

“What sorrows?” Hope asked, seemingly perplexed. “I couldn’t be happier!”

McCoy just kept looking at her, his gaze gentle and kind.

“I don’t know where this is coming from, Doctor,” she became flustered, “but I can assure you, there’s really no need to worry. Sometimes you worry too much.”

“I don’t worry, I observe,” was McCoy’s quiet reply, but, seeing that she wasn’t taking the bait, he let it go.

He didn’t want to spoil a cosy evening, and he felt that he had accomplished what he’d intended to. That’s to let her know that he didn’t buy her ‘I’m always happy’ act anymore and would be there, if she wanted to talk.

********************

Continue to: Chapters 21 - 30 Chapters 31 - 40 Chapters 41 - 50 Chapters 51 - 61

Go back to: Chapters 1 - 10

Or read it on AO3: On Borrowed Time 

********************

Disclaimer:

Nothing of or associated with Star Trek is mine – it all belongs to Paramount / ViacomCBS (or whoever else is currently holding the rights). This is a work of fanfiction, no infringement intended.

#Leonard Bones McCoy #star trek #star trek TOS #star trek aos #star trek fic #leonard bones mccoy fic #leonard bones mccoy imagine #Jim Kirk #captain kirk #pavel chekov #nyota uhura #christine chapel #montgomery scott #hikaru sulu #mccoy x original female character #leonard bones mccoy x original female character #Dr. Jennifer Hope #On Borrowed Time by Spacedancer #on borrowed time #leonard mccoy imagine #mccoy imagine #mccoy fic #mccoy fanfic #bones mccoy fic #bones mccoy imagine #bonesohbones #lovebones #i love bones

[grandtheftstarship]

Way Out There (Leonard McCoy x Reader) [Songfic]

A/n: So this started off really small for the song and then it ended up going nearly 1000 words on after the song ends... oops. You don’t really need to listen, the lyrics just relate to the idea of the fic and are written in, but Lord Huron is a bop and I really recommend it :) If you want to play the song, start the music at the bolded sentence. 

Summary: [y/n] finds out that the Enterprise crashed on Altimid and rushes to save Leonard, her boyfriend.

Word Count: 2226 Warnings: none :) Posted: Tumblr, Wattpad Requested: no

Link to Way out there by Lord Huron.

U.S.S Enterprise Missing.

The headline mocked you, grinning evilly from the page. Your eyes brimmed with tears, one person on your mind.

Leonard.

He was on the damn ship, and if you weren't recovering from Andorian Fever you would be too. Your chest tightened with grief at first, then loneliness then anger.

You readjusted your heading, now walking briskly towards Starfleet headquarters instead of the local Starfleet medical center. You knew Commodore Paris personally, she was a family friend, so hopefully, you could get in quickly and easily.

"Lieutenant {y/f/n] to see Commodore Paris," you told the receptionist, rapping your fingernails on the marble countertop.

"She's in a briefing, but they will be on break in a few minutes," she nodded at you, returning to her computer.

You thanked her and paced lightly in the adjacent waiting room. Five agonizing minutes later, the Commodore and several other Starfleet officials left the room, heading for the small cafe across the street. You rushed to her side, greeting her quickly.

"Do you have any information regarding the Enterprise?" you asked hastily. "Do you know who attacked them?"

"Nothing yet," she replied. "Do you have someone out there?"

You sighed looking down. "Yes. My boyfriend, Doctor Leonard McCoy."

"I see," she patted your shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," you returned, fire burning in your eyes. "Commodore, I'm requesting a ship to go after them."

"Are you crazy?" she asked, eyebrows raised. "I'm not letting anyone out there until we can confirm a safe way through the nebula."

"But Ma'am-"

"No, [y/n]," she said firmly. "Your request is denied. It's not safe."

The commanding officers returning to the briefing room caught her attention.

"I have to go now," sympathy softened her face. "I'm sorry."

She removed her hand and walked back towards the open door. You looked on after her, the heavy feeling of defeat settling in your chest.

Then a crazy idea hit you. An idea so insane, it fell into Jim Kirk crazy. And it could 100% get you fired.

I'm a long way from the land that I left

I've been running through life and cruising toward death  

If you think that I'm scared you've got me wrong

If you don't know my name, you'll know it now

I belong bodily to the earth

I'm just wearing old bones from those that came first

There are many more flames when mine is gone

They will build me no shrines and sing me no songs

Upon leaving the now empty waiting room, you made your way hastily towards the shipyard. You knew that there were a few small scout ships that were manned by one pilot. Filled with a newfound determination, you knew you would do anything to save your boyfriend. You swiped your keycard at the entrance. It was late and you didn't have much time before officers working there noticed a stray engineer attempting a case of "Grand Theft Starship". You tiptoed on board one of the survey vessels, shutting the door and getting straight to it.

I'm a long way from the one that I love

I've been tending old flames, lamenting what was

Drifting in a land time forgot

If you think that I've changed, you know me not

I belong bodily to the earth

I'm just wearing old bones from those that came first

I been unraveling since my birth

Gonna wander out there and see what I'm worth

Find me way out there

There's no road that will lead us back

When you follow the strange trails

They will take you who knows where

If I found a way to stay with you tonight

It would only make me late, for a date I can't escape

The vessel hummed to life, panic spiking through your core. You worked quickly, getting systems online like there was no tomorrow. As you engaged the thrusters, you began hearing the confused shouts of Starfleet officers trying to get you to land. Once you finally left the atmosphere, you cursed Bones and his stupid job. Rescuing his ass was so going to get you fired, and when you found him you were going to give him a piece of your mind. You were able to reprogram the maneuvering capabilities of the small vessel so you could get through the nebula unscathed. At warp three, you carried on.

Navigating through the nebula was one of the hardest things you had ever done. You managed to get through with only small damage to the hull, but your victory was short-lived. You eased the craft out of the cloud, jaw hitting the floor.

Find me way out there

There's no road that will lead us back

When you follow the strange trails

They will take you who knows where

If I found a way to stay with you tonight

It would only make me late, for a date I can't escape

Two nessels were floating aimlessly in front of you, the destroyed body of the ship not far from them. Tears brimmed your eyes as the saucer was nowhere to be found. You were distracted from your astonishment by the small beep of your sensor.

You couldn't believe your eyes. Your scan of the planet below showed you three groups of life forms. One was large, seventy-five to one-hundred or so life signs, while the other two were much smaller. You decided on landing near the group of four, praying the small dots on the screen were your friends and crewmembers.

"Keptin!" Chekov shouted, scrambling over the rocks towards Jim, Scotty, and Jaylah. "There's a scout ship heading straight for us."

He slowed down to catch his breath, having caught the captain's attention. "It's federation, sir."

"Are you sure?" he asked, moving towards Chekov and his tricorder.

"Yes sir," he replied, pointing to the small figure on his tricorder. "I am picking up Starfleet frequencies."

The low hum of your thrusters and the low crackle of you entering the atmosphere drew the group's attention from the small device. You maneuvered the stout vessel to a bare plot of land not far from them, landing softly on the patch of rock. Jim led his miniature crew towards your stolen ship, all anxiously waiting for the metal hatch to open and reveal who was behind the sudden change in dynamics.

The door thudded open whilst you finished shutting down the power to save the small amount of fuel you had left in case you needed it. You nearly threw yourself out of your chair when you finished, anxious to see who was outside.

"[y/f/n]?" Chekov gasped, rushing to the front of the small pack. "Боже мой, это действительно ты!" (Oh my god, it's really you!)

He rushed forward, nearly tripping on loose stones, and tackled you in a hug. Pavel was your best friend, besides Bones of course.

"How are you doing? How did you get here? Are you okay- are you still sick? You should be recovering-"

"Slow down!" you laughed, nudging his shoulder slightly. "I'll explain everything, but you have some things to tell me too, mister."

"Okay, so here's what went down," he began, already waving his arms around enthusiastically. "Basically, I was expertly navigating through this nebula when these teeny little ships caught my attention-"

You smiled at the captain, waving slightly as Pavel babbled on about the attack while leading you across the jagged terrain.

"That would explain the torn up ship floating about up there," you nodded towards the sky. "Thank god this planet is class M. I can't even think about how horribly worse this could have gone if you had crashed on a planet full of toxic gas or something."

"It is already quite a terrible situation," he followed your eyes up into the wispy clouds. They reminded you of those on Earth. "I mean, the attackers took all the crew members that managed to get into their Kelvin Pods. If I had used mine any earlier, I would have been taken as well."

You shuddered at the thought.

"Who are you?" an unknown voice spat from behind you, the hostility dripping from the spoken words catching you off guard.

"This right here is [y/f/n] [y/l/n]," Scotty clapped you on the shoulder. "The best assistant chief engineer one could ask for."

"Aw, shucks," you punched him lightly on the shoulder. "I try."

"[y/n], this is Jaylah," Scotty gestured to the white-faced alien, looking a little ruffled. You waved.

"Is this another one of your mates?" she asked, a little less harshly. Scotty nodded.

"You betcha."

By now, your little group had reached Jaylah's house. They explained to you how it got there, how Jaylah found it, and why nobody else had stumbled across it.

You brushed your fingers over the ancient technology. "Wow."

"There's not even a sickbay?"

Jim shook his head. "Nope. Bones would be pissed."

You giggled. "Speaking of, where is he?"

You knew instantly something was wrong.

"Jim," panic rose in your chest. "Where is he?"

He avoided your eyes.

"H-He's fine, right?"

"We don't know where Bones or Spock are," Jim said finally. "They were in the turbolift when the saucer was separated."

"We will find him, [y/n/n]," Chekov patted you on the shoulder. "Somehow, one way or another, we will find him."

You, Chekov, and Scotty worked for the next several hours to reprogram the transporter modules to allow a person to be beamed aboard.

"Done!" you called from underneath the transporter pad, a low hum of electricity proving your statement.

"Ура!"(Hooray!) Pavel cheered.

"Well done, lass," Scotty congratulated you as he helped pull you out.

"It was nothing," you replied, brushing yourself off. "I mean, you guys helped too."

Pavel interjected before Scotty could respond. "Hold on, I'm reading some... life signs?"

You and Scotty hurried to the panel he was looking at, and sure enough, two life signs blinked back at you.

"Beam them," Scotty muttered.

You turned to him. "What?"

"We can beam them here!"

"But what if they're hostile?" Chekov asked, fear flashing through his eyes.

"Then we'll... beam them back?"

"Wait, there are more coming!" you pointed back to the screen.

"What if they're crew members?"

"That wouldn't make sense, lad!"

When the two of them started arguing, more signs of life began appearing.

"What the hell," you murmured, locking on to one of the signals. The transport sounded a bit more static-y than you were used to but as you and the boys turned towards the pad, a familiar face greeted you.

"Lieutenant [y/l/n]?"

"Spock?"

Before you could hug him (even if he protested), he hobbled off the pad as urgently as he could.

"You must beam the doctor out of there."

Without missing a beat, you thrust yourself back at the panel and locked on.

Once the strange noise faded, you felt your stomach drop in relief.

"It feels like my innards have been to a barn dance," Leonard said, looking a bit green.

"These old transporters were mainly used for cargo, but a bit of maintenance did the trick," Scotty explained, slapping him on the shoulder. "Sorry, we had to beam you one at a time, to avoid being... misplaced."

"I couldn't imagine a worse scenario," Bones looked around the room before letting his eyes fall on your worried-slash-relieved complexion.

Your legs moved on their own accord, propelling you into Leonard's waiting arms. He held you so tight you weren't sure how much longer you could breathe.

Suddenly, he pushed you out of his arms, brows furrowed in a grimace.

"What the hell, [y/n], you're supposed to be recovering!"

His face melted back into worry and he pulled you back into his embrace.

"I'm so happy to see you, love."

You giggled. "I'm so happy you're safe."

He then, more gently this time, released you from the hug and grabbed your hands.

"I'm still mad at you for trekking all the way to this goddamn planet," he scolded, wearing worried and frustrated expressions simultaneously. "Thank god you weren't on the ship or I'm pretty sure I would have died from a damn heart attack."

"I'm fine, you big silly," you reassured him. "But, I'm pretty sure Spock isn't."

His face paled. "Shit."

He placed a quick, chaste kiss on your lips before rushing off to treat his patient.

You smiled sweetly as he rushed off, simply ecstatic he was alive and well.

#star trek #star trek imagines #star trek songfic #star trek x reader #star trek reader inserts #bones mccoy #leonard bones mccoy #leonard bones mccoy x reader #bones mccoy x reader #leonard mccoy x reader #lord huron #I LOVE LORD HURON SO MUCHH #leonard mccoy reader inserts #leonard mccoy aos #leonard mccoy aos x reader

[pennywaltzy]

The Paths We Take, Glittering And Entwined (1/? - A “The Paths We Take, Glittering And Entwined” Story)

So this is going to be the start of a series with the same name because I love this title, but basically, this is going to set up for an AU Star Trek 2009. Spock is a Captain, Kirk is an Ensign who will end up the First Officer, and they’re soulmates. Fair warning: in this story, Kirk is addicted to a drug that kills any human attempting to go through withdrawal, but that’s something most humans don’t know. Spock is going to save his life and this is the only story where he’ll be an addict, but it is a prominent theme in this particular story. I hope @greenskyoverme will forgive me because apparently I had chapter 2 and 3 both finished and could have posted them last year. ::sheepish look:: Sorry!

The Paths We Take, Glittering And Entwined - Before the new ship the USS Enterprise is set to take its maiden voyage, it's new captain, Captain Spock, attempts to meet some of his crew on their "home turf." What he and Ensign James Kirk do not expect, however, is the rare connection that makes Kirk Spock's bonded t'hy'la. But Kirk is hiding a secret that is slowly killing him, and this unexpected connection leaves them both with problems: for Spock, it is how to remain unattached in the face of a personal crisis and for Kirk, it is how to remain alive with the secret he is keeping from both his captain and his best friend.

READ CHAPTER 1 | SERIES PAGE | HELP ME SURVIVE? | COMMISSION ME? | BUY ME A KOFI? | MY PATREON

“Stardate 2258.66. This is Captain Spock of the Starship Farragut. We are returning to port in San Francisco after a three-year voyage exploring the farthest reaches of the known galaxy. Starfleet Command has said that it is their wish to decommission this ship and reassign the crew to new ships in the fleet, and I will be given captainship of the newest ship in the fleet, the USS Enterprise. I am...unsure...how I feel about this situation. I must ponder it some more.”

Spock turned off the recording mechanism on which he did his logs and then looked at the place which he had called home for the last three years. Home was an unfamiliar concept to him; Vulcan was not home, and neither was earth. He was a child of two cultures, two planets, and as such fit wholly into neither. He had essentially turned his back on Vulcan by choosing to go to Starfleet Academy and had, within five years, become the youngest Captain on record, surprising absolutely no one, it had seemed. His mother had been pleased. His father, he had not been sure about.

He would rather have not told them, he thought, but it was proper. It was, he supposed, an honor to have the youngest Captain in history as your son, but then, Starfleet was not too aware of Vulcan culture, and only one-half of his family was human.

He had always done his work with due diligence. He knew he was not everyone’s favorite captain, but he had no need to be. What he cared most about was doing his job, and doing it within the rules set forth by the Prime Directive. He cared about keeping his crew safe. He cared about keeping his ship in one piece.

And he cared about his duties above all else, it seemed, even himself.

He had bonded with no one on his crew, and as such he would not be sorry to see any of them leave his command. Perhaps it would be best if he had an entirely new crew. Perhaps he could study in depth the last three years and see where improvements could be made. Learn and improve. That was always his way.

He reached over for the paper logs he also kept. While technology was a marvelous thing, he did not entirely trust it. There was some comfort to pen and paper. For three years he had dutifully recorded is thoughts, some of which had not made official logs, and he went to the ones which were the earliest from this voyage. There was some time until they arrived in San Francisco and he would have to supervise the deboarding. He could begin his process of revisiting the past and improving upon it.

---

“Bones, did you see? We both made the Enterprise crew!” James Kirk was nearly bouncing up and down with giddiness. Well, maybe not giddiness. It could be the aftereffect of his last bump of KCW. He usually felt pretty upbeat after he had some, and generally pretty shitty when he hadn’t. If it hadn’t been for that wonder drug he swore he never would have managed to make it through the Academy, not while trying to balance a social life and other responsibilities on top of it.

He’d tried for years to make his mom proud. For years to show her he wasn’t a screw-up, wasn’t a mistake. His dad had died when he was a baby, his brother had high-tailed it out of there when he was old enough to survive on his own, his uncle...well, the less said about him the better. And while his mom had gone off and traveled the stars Jim had stayed in Iowa and tried to just survive and be good for as long as he could, but eventually, he’d said to hell with it. And he’d made mistakes. Made more than he could remember until he’d been given the choice: jail or Starfleet.

It had only been because someone liked him he met Bones his first day. Leonard McCoy was no stranger to a crap life, and they’d bonded. Bones was more or less a straight arrow, though he had his vices, and he tried to guide Jim as best he could, with some moderate success. They’d made it through the Academy just in time to get placed on the newly commissioned Enterprise, under a returning Captain from one of the ships that was being decommissioned. He’d heard about the Captain, Spock. Supposed to be a tight-ass but fair. You didn’t mess around with him but he’d make sure you were okay.

Could be worse, he supposed.

Bones rolled his eyes. “Look, Jim, we gotta talk.” He grabbed Kirk’s arm mid bounce and pulled him to a shady grove of trees in the quad, looking around to make sure no one was nearby, and then pushed Kirk to something resembling a sitting position. “Just because that crank you take doesn’t show up on piss tests doesn’t mean I’m going to cover for you forever if you’re still taking it when this mission starts.”

“I can stop anytime I want,” Kirk said, with an indulgent shrug, but his fingers started tapping nervously against his leg. The very idea of quitting was just not appealing in the slightest, even though he knew this mission was five years in deep space and he had no idea if there was any way he could take that much KCW aboard or if he could get more once they left Federation space. The very thought of it all was making the euphoria of his hit ebb away like the water draining out of a tub.

“That’s bull and you know it,” Bones said, starting to pace. “You’ve been on this crap since day 1 when I met you. Do you even eat anymore? I mean really eat? I can’t think of the last time I saw you eat an actual meal of real food. And don’t think you’re going to have unlimited supplies of water like you do now, or get to take a bathroom break anytime you need. It’s not going to be like the Academy.” He shook his head. “I should rat you out. You know I should.”

“Don’t!” Kirk said, scrambling to his feet. “You know I need to go on this mission. I need to go out into space.” He reached over and put his hands on Bones’s shoulders. “You know it’s important.”

Bones stared into the eyes of his friend. “You need to get help, Jim,” he said, his voice soft but insistent. “You don’t kick this habit by the time the mission starts, I will tell the Captain. Got it?”

Kirk nodded, willing to agree to anything to get on that damn ship. “Fine. I’ll do it. Okay?” He could. He really could. He could kick the habit. He hadto, now. Bones wasn’t the type to make idle threats.

He just hoped it didn’t kill him in the process.

#star trek aos #spirk #kirk x spock #fanfic #fanfiction #spock #james kirk #Leonard McCoy #multipart: the paths we take glitering and entwined #my au: the paths we take glittering and entwined

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

Episode 1.1: The Man Trap

AKA: AHHHH SALT MONSTER AHHHH

The Man Trap was the first episode of Star Trek ever aired, but it's not the pilot in the traditional sense of being made to sell the show to a network (we'll get to the actual pilots in time). Nor is it the first episode shot, which accounts for some inconsistencies that show up in episodes shot earlier but aired later, in which they hadn't figured everything out yet. Not that that accounts for all the inconsistencies. Frankly, it took them a pretty long time to figure everything out with this show. Actually I'm not sure if they ever did.

It's also not a pilot in the sense of going out of its way to set up the show and the characters and everything. Apparently, Where No Man Has Gone Before, one of the actual pilots, was considered 'too expository' to be aired first, so they dealt with that by not having any exposition at all. Just jumped right on into things. In fact, The Man Trap being the first episode was pretty much arbitrary. It won out over the other episodes they had ready to go basically because they all had some kind of strike against them, and this one didn't, and it was a pretty solid story with a cool space monster, so hey.

And it's not a bad intro. We see most of the main characters and we get a feel for their personalities and the way they bounce off one another, and while it is a monster story, it's one that gives a considerable amount of thought to the nature of the monster. But I've always thought the title of this episode was kind of odd. It's so vague. You could apply it to practically any TOS episode and it would work just as well.

Our episode begins with a captain's log telling us that the Enterprise is currently orbiting planet M-113, which you know has to be pretty far down on the list of cool planets considering it didn't even get a name. It was once home to an ancient civilization, who apparently also didn't have a name. Kirk explains that he and McCoy are beaming down, which is a bit odd considering that even as he says this we're clearly shown three people beaming down. Guess the third guy also doesn't have a name.

Kirk goes on to explain that they're here to do a routine medical examination of an archaeologist and his wife who evidently are the only people on the planet. You know, just one guy studying an entire civilization by himself, as you do. Kirk also mentions that the wife, Nancy Crater, was “that one woman in Dr. McCoy's past” which is definitely a detail that needs to be brought up in his official log.

As the three of them make their way over to the only building in the area, Kirk teases McCoy by suggesting he pick some flowers for his old girlfriend. Or, well, there's not really any flowers around, but maybe he could make do with some dead grass. McCoy fires right back.

[ID: A shot of McCoy and Kirk standing in front of a stone wall. Kirk is holding a sheaf of grass in one hand and grinning. McCoy is saying, “Is that how you get girls to like you, by bribing them?”]

They head on into the building, which is one of the old ruins that has been re-purposed as a house for the Craters, a normal archaeologist thing to do (preserving the site, what's that?). No one's around yet, so Kirk and McCoy keep chatting about Nancy for a minute. McCoy explains that he last saw Nancy ten years ago and doesn't even know if she'll remember him. Come to think of it, it's a remarkable coincidence that in all the vastness of space the two of them have managed to run into each other again like this. It's a small Federation, I guess.

Nancy enters, singing and carrying a hunk of rock, and not only does she remember McCoy, she's delighted to see him. She looks like a dark-haired young woman and McCoy remarks that she hasn't aged a day, yet when she turns to look at Kirk, he sees an older woman, or at least a woman with graying hair. McCoy finally gets around to introducing the superfluous third guy, who does have a name, it turns out (Darnell), and when Darnell looks at Nancy he sees an entirely different woman, who is not only young but blonde. Kirk asks why Darnell is staring like a deer in the headlights, and Darnell explains that Nancy looks just like someone he “left behind on Wrigley's Pleasure Planet.” Wow, open mouth, insert foot, Darnell. You could have just said, “You look like someone I know,” that would have been a perfectly acceptable thing to say to someone you just met, but no, you had to keep going, didn't you.

McCoy tells Darnell off and Kirk shoos him outside. Nancy heads off to go get Professor Crater, in the process revealing that she used to call McCoy 'Plum', which Kirk is quite clearly not going to forget anytime soon. On her way outside, she sashays past Darnell and, like the responsible crewman he is, he follows her away from the building. Uh-oh. Cut to black.

After the opening credits, we get another captain's log entry. This one is unusual in that's in the past tense, something that, despite making more sense than them being given while events are still unfolding, is not going to become the pattern. At any rate all this one does is reiterate that each of the landing party members were seeing a different woman without realizing it.

Kirk and McCoy are busy poking around Crater's things when he walks in and immediately establishes himself as a pleasant individual by grumpily telling them to go back where they came from. He also mentions that they need more salt, not in a very subtle way either. “GO AWAY WE DON'T WANT YOU HERE but leave us some salt while you're at it NOW GO AWAY.” McCoy insists that he's required to check them out anyway and Crater makes a crack about his 'arcane machinery' so surprisingly Spock isn't the first one to get that particular dig in.

Kirk tells Crater that regulations insist that all personnel on alien planets are required to have their health certified once a year by a starship surgeon, and since one of the biggest and best ships in the fleet doesn't have anything better to do than do checkups two at a time on remote planets, they're here to do that and they're not leaving until they do. Crater calms down enough to sit and let McCoy start scanning him, and is surprised to hear that they've already met Nancy. He explains this surprise by saying that he's glad she got to have some social interaction with an old friend, since while he enjoys solitude, “for a woman, you understand, of course.” Indeed, as we all know, women never enjoy solitude.

McCoy goes on to reiterate that Nancy hasn't aged a day, and Kirk gently replies that she's not quite the girl of twenty-five McCoy insists she looks like. Crater comments that McCoy is seeing Nancy through nostalgia-tinted glasses and that when he sees her again she'll be “of a more believable age” which is not a suspicious thing to say at all. Anyway, now that we've got this awkward bit of extended conversation about a woman's age out of the way, McCoy pulls out a tongue depressor and tells Crater to open up, he wants to see his tonsils.

[ID: Crater, a middle-aged white man with curly brown hair wearing a brown smock-like garment, sitting inside a rough stone dwelling as McCoy stands in front of him with a tongue depressor in his hand. The subtitles read [Screaming]. 

“No, I said ‘say ah,’ not ‘say AAAAHHHHHHHHH.’”

Everyone runs outside to find Nancy standing and screaming over the body of Darnell, who's laying on a rock with some weird ring-shaped markings on his mouth. Kirk immediately reaches into Darnell's mouth and pulls out a wad of plant material that Crater insists is what killed Darnell. Which Kirk has now handled with his bare hands. Nice.

Under questioning, a distraught Nancy explains that she was coming back from looking for Crater when she encountered Darnell and noticed he had a borgia plant in his hand, but before she could tell him not to be an idiot he'd already started eating it. McCoy stares at her the whole time, presumably because he's noticed that she looks considerably older now and that's pretty weird.

Kirk puts off the Craters' examinations until the next day and the landing party beams up, although not before Nancy gets over her emotional trauma by asking rather harshly if Crater requested more salt tablets. On that ominous note, we cut to the bridge of the Enterprise, where Uhura is pestering Spock. Spock responds to her flirting with total confusion (which I can emphasize with), and when asked what Vulcan looks like “on a lazy evening when the moon is full” he responds that Vulcan has no moon, a minor throwaway line that's going to result in a fair bit of continuity trouble down the road, but never mind that. All this is interrupted by the transporter room calling in to report that the landing party is coming back with one fatality. Uhura reacts to this with the surprise anyone might upon hearing that the landing party managed to get someone killed while doing a physical.

[ID: Spock and Uhura on the bridge, Spock in the command chair, Uhura paused partway through stepping up to her communications console. The intercom is saying, “They report one death.” Uhura is looking up in some surprise.

Of course, 'anyone' doesn't include Spock, who doesn't react at all, much to Uhura's consternation. She points out that for all Spock knows it could've been Kirk who died, although one would think the transporter room would have brought that up, considering he's the captain and all.

Anyway, now that we've established that Spock doesn't emote, we cut back to Sickbay (or 'Dispensary' as it's known in this episode), where McCoy is expressing confusion over this so-called 'borgia plant'. Spock calls in to report that the borgia plant is a known alkaloid poison, but there's no reference to the weird facial markings being a symptom of it. McCoy therefore insists that Darnell wasn't poisoned since there's no evidence of alkaloid poisoning in his body, and that Nancy must have been mistaken. I'd say that's backed up by the fact that, aside from the dead-looking grass everywhere, there were no plants visible anywhere near Darnell or anywhere on the surface at all, actually.

McCoy goes on to explain that he actually can't find anything wrong with Darnell at all, presumably excluding the fact that he's dead. He rambles a bit about how maybe his eyes are tricking him because Nancy looked a lot younger then he first saw her, but the potential of this being an important clue is cut off by Kirk snapping that now is not the time to be talking about McCoy's ex-girlfriend. On the one hand he's right that they've got a guy on the slab over there so this might not be the most apropos time to be mooning over your lost love, but on the other hand if someone manages to age a good twenty years in the five minutes since you last saw them it's probably worth pointing that out.

After the break, Spock is assuring Kirk that there's no mistake in their tapes about the borgia plant's properties, and that there's nothing particularly suspicious about the Craters, aside from, you know, their entire behavior. Apparently they arrived five years ago and have been making shipments of artifacts since then, except during the last year when that fell off quite a bit. McCoy interrupts by calling Kirk to Sickbay—uh, Dispensary—where he reveals that they found something during the tests—Darnell has no salt in him whatsoever, and you kind of need that to live so that's a problem. Interestingly, we get a shot of Darnell's diagnostic panel, where for some reason one of the readings is up high unlike the others.

[ID: A Sickbay diagnostic panel with all but one arrow at the bottom.]

Maybe that's the reading that measures how dead someone is.

Kirk makes the connection that here's a crewman with no salt, and both Craters made a point of mentioning how much they needed salt, and hmm, that's a bit odd isn't it. He forms a landing party with McCoy and some guys named Green and Sturgeon to go back down to pester Crater some more. Crater insists that they “can't just beam down here and bully us and interfere with our work” not realizing that that's the Enterprise's entire modus operandi. Kirk sends Green to go find Nancy and Sturgeon to go find a borgia plant for analysis, and badgers Crater about the strange salt scenario. Crater insists that they just have a normal need for salt on a hot planet, but of course it's pretty odd that he focuses on the salt so much and doesn't mention anything else they might need, like, I dunno, food, water filters, sunblock, uh...air conditioning units? I don't really know, but I'm gonna go out on a limb here and presume you need more than just salt tablets to survive in a desert.

Crater shows them a ginormous chest that was once filled with salt tablets but now only has the dregs of one bottle left. Apparently they started with twenty-five pounds of the stuff, which, holy moly. That's a lot of salt. Even I think that's a lot of salt, and I am genetically predisposed for maximum saltiness.

Kirk insists that the Craters stay on the ship until they get this thing figured out. Crater protests, because of course he does. While Kirk is distracted talking to Spock, though, Crater exits through the back door, and we see him discovering Sturgeon, dead with the same rings on his face. He calls to Nancy, who is crouched over the body of Green, beckoning her with salt tablets. “Heeeeeere, Nancy, Nancy, Nancy...”

While looking for Crater, Kirk and McCoy run across Sturgeon's body. They decide they need to locate Green, which they do by just yelling for him, since apparently he didn't bring a communicator with him. We see Nancy assume Green's form before going off to meet Kirk and McCoy, leaving the real Green dead in the dirt. Since this by now clearly isn't Nancy at all, we need another name to avoid confusion. I propose Salty. Salty's going to be referred to as a shapeshifter throughout the episode (and the Netflix summary) but it's a bit unclear to me whether they actually physically change shape or just create an illusion that makes them appear to have done so. The latter seems more likely, but the distinction never really becomes relevant.

Salty-Green tells them that they (I have no idea what gender Salty is so I'm going neutral) found Sturgeon dead and were looking around to try and find what caused this. Kirk decides that they'd better head back to the Enterprise and use their scanning equipment to find the Craters. McCoy objects to leaving Nancy behind. Kirk tells him to stop thinking with his glands.

[ID: McCoy standing with a hand on Kirk's arm and an angry look on his face. Kirk is saying, “You could learn something from Mr. Spock, Doctor.”]

HOW DARE YOU

Kirk, McCoy and Salty-Green beam back up—apparently the transporter just locks onto things without making any assessment of what they actually are, because no one notices that one of these crewmen is not like the others. Kirk tells McCoy that he could use some sleep, which is a bit odd since there's no indication that it's nighttime or the end of a shift or anything, but McCoy goes to do that, Kirk goes to the bridge, and Salty-Green goes to wander creepily around the corridors.

Salty-Green soon encounters Yeoman Rand, waiting by a turbolift with a tray of food. The tray includes celery, weird space food cubes that look like Starbursts, and a salt shaker. None of that looks like it would go very well with salt, but the shaker attracts Salty's attention. They go to badger Rand, jumping in the turbolift with her as she leaves.

On the bridge, Spock is saying that their scanners are only picking up one person on the planet's surface, presumably Crater. Meanwhile, Salty-Green continues to stalk Rand, who tells them to piss off, although the creepiness of their behavior is somewhat undermined by the fact that some passing totally normal crewmen are equally creepy.

[ID: Two male crewmen, a redshirt and a blueshirt, standing in a corridor while Salty-Green looks on from the background. One of the crewmen is saying,“Yeah, how'd you like to have her as your own personal yeoman?”]

It turns out Rand is heading for the botany department, where she's bringing Sulu the tray. Why Sulu gets his own yeoman delivery service is beyond me, but whatever. He tells her “may the Great Bird of the Galaxy bless your planet” which is a weirdass way to say, “thanks for bringing me lunch” and the two have a brief bit of chatter about one of the plants in the room, an animate specimen named either Beauregard or Gertrude, depending on who you ask; I propose splitting the difference and naming it Beauregertrude. Salty-Green comes into the room and looms ominously and mutely over Sulu, apparently having left all their ability to interact with people down on M-113. Before they can make a grab for that good good sodium chloride, though, Beauregard/Gertrude starts squawking up a storm, apparently having some kind of plant sense that tells it that Salty-Green is not the real deal. Salty-Green hastily leaves the room, and Rand wonders if Green's going 'space happy', which is like regular happy but in space.

Deprived of their salt, Salty-Green goes back to wandering the corridors, until they spot Uhura coming out of a turbolift. They change shape again and go up to her, telling her that she was just thinking of someone like them, a surefire way to get a woman to trust you. Uhura is understandably skeptical about this, but warms up when the mysterious crewman starts speaking Swahili...and then promptly cools back down when he starts approaching her in a pretty intimidating way. Salty-RandomGuy backs her up against the wall and raises their hands, but thankfully Rand and Sulu come out of the room at that moment and Uhura seizes the distraction to make a break for the turbolift with them.

Meanwhile, McCoy's attempting to follow Kirk's suggestion and get some sleep, but isn't being successful, possibly because he's laying flat back against the mattress in what looks like a pretty uncomfortable position. He's also wearing a tight black t-shirt, which I think we can all appreciate. Unable to get any shut-eye, he calls up the bridge, where Kirk tells him they haven't found Nancy yet and recommends McCoy take “one of those red pills you gave me last week.” Apparently McCoy just keeps those pills in his room right next to the computer console, because he immediately picks them up and tosses the bottle around contemplatively. And bloody hell, that's a big bottle. You could get arrested for trying to buy that many pills at once.

[ID: McCoy standing inside his dimly-lit quarters, wearing a black uniform undershirt with the overshirt off, looking down at the pill bottle in his hand, which is filled with very large red pills.]

Back in the corridor, Salty has evidently given up on the subtle approach and just starts stalking a random guy. On the bridge, Spock is saying that their equipment insists there's only one person on the planet within a hundred mile radius. Kirk decides that what the hell, if there's only one person they'll go get that person, and he and Spock head off back to the planet.

Meanwhile, Salty is still wandering around when they happen across McCoy's room. They turn back to Nancy just in time for a surprised McCoy to open the door (apparently Salty can read English?). He ushers them inside, wondering why he wasn't told that Nancy was found but not questioning it too much for some reason. Salty-Nancy tells him that they like him because he has strong memories of Nancy, and when McCoy shows visible discomfort at a married woman sensually embracing him, they say that they like his feelings better than Crater's. Salty-Nancy then convinces McCoy to take some sleeping pills, since evidently he doesn't see anything weird about a woman appearing out of nowhere and encouraging him to drug himself.

Rand and Sulu are coming back from wherever they went when they stumble upon the crewman the creature was stalking earlier, now dead with the telltale rings on his face. Sulu calls for a medical team and then helpfully puts his hands all over the guy's face.

McCoy hears the alert in his room after the ad break, but Salty-Nancy convinces him that nothing's wrong and lures him off to sleep, stroking his face all the while, which is creepy. Then they go to lick their fingers, which is just gross. With the real McCoy (ha ha) now thoroughly passed out, Salty assumes his form and reports to the bridge.

Meanwhile, Kirk makes a captain's log entry stating that “armed and able-bodied crewmen are not attacked and slaughtered this easily.” Enterprise crewmen aren't killed easily? Keep telling yourself that, Kirk. He speculates that the creature has some power that lets it hypnotize people to get close to it. Salty does seem to have some kind of telepathic thrall that they use on people, but I'm not sure how far it goes—did Salty use this on McCoy to get him to take the pills, or is it nothing more than paralyzing victims long enough for Salty to get in close? Or does Salty just creep people out so much that they're stunned into submission?

At any rate, Kirk and Spock beam down to the planet to flush out Crater (why they can't just beam him up, since they've got a sensor lock on him, is not explained). They find him hiding behind a rock, still yelling about how much he doesn't want them around, only this time he has a phaser to accentuate his point. Undeterred, Kirk keeps approaching him, but is interrupted by Sulu comming in to report the death of the guy he and Rand found in the corridor. He also says the guy had the same symptoms, even though there's no reason at all for Sulu to know what symptoms the other guys had. I mean, he's been in the botany lab for most of the episode.

Spock breaks into the conversation, having found the body of the real Green. He calls Kirk over to have a look, ominously confirming that 'something' beamed up instead of Green. Kirk calls in a security alert to the ship, warning them that they have an intruder aboard, and we get a few shots of people rushing around the corridors to show how seriously everyone is taking this. Thanks to some sloppy use of stock footage, a few of them are wearing the wrong uniforms.

[ID: A shot from Where No Man Has Gone Before, showing two Enterprise crewmembers, one in a beige shirt and one in a blue shirt, walking down a corridor while the intercom says, “General quarters three, intruder alert.”  Both the corridor set and the heavier turtleneck-style shirts the crewmembers are wearing are clearly from the pilot rather than the designs used in the main show.]

GET BACK IN THE PILOT

On the planet, Kirk refuses any assistance from the ship with the armed hostile and goes back to closing in on Crater. Crater blasts a nearby archway support into chunks of polystyrene to show how serious he is. Kirk tells Spock to approach with his phaser on stun, ascertaining that Crater is trying to frighten them away rather than kill them, although if that archway had been made of actual rock it probably would have killed Kirk when it came down.

We get a shot of McCoy sleeping in his chambers just to remind us that he is, then Salty-McCoy shows up on the bridge, where Rand, Uhura and Sulu are talking about Fake Green and the Fake Unnamed Crewman. Salty-McCoy nearly gives themselves away by calling the creature a creature, since no one actually knows that there is one yet, but backpedals quickly and everyone lets it go.

On the planet, Kirk and Spock are moving in on Crater. Fortunately for them, the ancient civilization really liked stacking blocks on top of other blocks, so they have plenty of cover.

[ID: A desert landscape under a reddish-brown sky with yellow grass dotting the sandy ground and a haphazard pile of crumbling stone blocks standing in the middle of the shot, with Kirk peering out from behind one of the blocks.]

Spock distracts Crater, allowing Kirk to nail him with a light stun, and they run up and take his phaser away. Kirk demands to know where Nancy is, and being stunned has apparently made Crater finally lose some of his belligerence, as he starts rambling about her being the last of her kind—or as he corrects himself, the last of its kind. He starts talking about buffalo, how there were once millions of them but now they're all gone. (This probably made more sense as a future assumption in the '60s, when bison numbers were a lot smaller than they are today—although they're still considered Near Threatened, so it's still a possibility. Never underestimate the human ability to wipe out entire species!) Crater compares the buffalo to the salt-eating creatures, of which there were apparently also once millions (how does he know that?) but now there's only one left. He confesses that the creature killed the real Nancy some time ago and has been taking her place ever since. As Kirk realizes this means the creature can definitely take on any shape, Crater keeps going, insisting that the creature has the right to survive, and that there's no difference between Salty and the extinct buffalo.

Well, there's a few, I'd say. Bison aren't telepathic, for example (as far as I know), and they don't generally murder people. They do kill people, sure—more often than you'd expect, actually; tread carefully around bison!--but unlike Salty, they don't murder. And I make that distinction because here's the thing: it's clear Salty is sapient. They're able to act like a human beyond the bounds of what could be considered simple mimicry. If they're capable of forming plans as complex as faking the method of Darnell's death, hiding Green's body, or drugging McCoy to assume his place, they're surely capable of just asking for salt. But they don't. They choose to kill people instead, and their telepathy and ability to understand memories and feelings makes it pretty darn unlikely that they don't grasp the concept of other thinking and feeling life besides themselves. So it's really hard to believe Crater's assertion that the creature is just an animal doing what they have to to survive. But then, he's not a very unbiased source.

Anyway, Kirk points out that unlike buffalo, Salty is actively attacking his crew, and he's not having that. He takes Crater back up to the ship and holds a meeting. Uhura confirms that she's looked at every crewman on the ship and the one she saw was not any of them, which is a heck of a lineup parade considering that's over four hundred people. Spock says that they've set out salt as bait all around the ship, but it's yet to attract either the creature or any nearby space deer. Salty, still masquerading as McCoy, suggests they offer the creature salt without tricks (subtle) and claims the creature is just trying to survive and has no need to attack anyone. Crater backs this up by saying the creature is not dangerous when fed. But we've seen them completely drain four people over the course of what seems to be about a day and still lurk around thirsty for more. How frikkin often do they need to be fed? No wonder these guys all went extinct.

Crater goes on to talk about how Salty's ability to shapeshift (or glamour themselves, whatever) is probably “retained...from its primitive state” but now unused, like our incisors, which were once fangs. Which, okay...one, human incisors might have changed over time, but we still use them, they don't just sit in our mouths for no reason (that's what wisdom teeth are for). And two, more to the point, it's pretty dang hard to argue that these are all primitive, vestigial abilities when the creature is actively and effectively using them to hunt prey. That's like saying that a bear's claws and teeth are retained from its primitive state. It might technically be true, but they were clearly retained for a good reason.

And honestly, this just undermines Crater's own point. He's simultaneously trying to argue that the creature is simply trying to survive, but also that those abilities are no longer necessary for them to survive. Which is it, Crater? Either the creature's a simple predator, in which case their predatory abilities are clearly not vestigial, or they've evolved past needing those abilities, in which case why are they still using them? He claims that we likewise would use our chasing muscles and teeth to survive if we had to, but that's like arguing that a modern human biting peoples' throats out and then eating them is excusable because they're just trying to survive. It's not a matter of basic survival if you have other options.

Salty-McCoy chimes in to claim that they're “an intelligent animal” but nobody's buying it. Sulu calls and reports that all the halls are clear and that they've secured all weapons on the ship, which must have taken a while. Kirk doubles down on Crater, demanding he tell them where Salty is. Crater goes off on a spiel about how much he loved Nancy, and how the creature imitates Nancy for him (creepy). He claims that they're not just an animal but an “intelligent beast” which, again, is undermining his own point (if they're intelligent why are they killing everyone). He also claims that they need love as much as they need salt, but doesn't elaborate on whatever that means. Salty clearly has some psychic abilities, and what they said to McCoy earlier implies that they're some sort of televore (yes I did just make that word up), but it's not really gone into in any depth. If they do feed on emotions as well as salt that seems like a really backwards evolutionary step, since they'd be required to kill the source of something they need to survive. Hey, maybe that's why they went extinct. Jeez, they're worse than koalas.

Kirk questions whether Crater is really just advocating for Salty because they're the last of their kind, or if he just enjoys having someone around who can imitate anyone he asks them to. Crater doesn't have much of an argument for that one. He says that he can recognize the creature in whatever shape they take, but refuses to help the crew find them. Spock chimes in to suggest they use truth serum, because apparently we've taken a hard left into Harry Potter here. Salty-McCoy leaves with Crater, ostensibly to take him to the lab to get truth'd up, with Spock accompanying them.

They don't get very far, though, because immediately afterward we see Kirk running to Sickbay—Dispensary—where Spock is being examined for a nasty cut on his forehead. He explains that he had his suspicions about Salty-McCoy, and in retrospect they indeed should have guessed it wasn't him when he got through a whole meeting without even raising his voice. At any rate, Salty-McCoy hit Spock and Crater grabbed his phaser, but Spock's okay because his blood is not human and wasn't appetizing to the creature. How fortunate that Salty evolved to be able to feed on one completely alien lifeform but not another completely alien lifeform.

Crater wasn't so lucky, though; Salty killed him (just barely off screen, and for some reason no one noticed until now) and has now scarpered off. Salty goes back to McCoy's room, where they change back into Nancy and wake him up, begging him to help them. McCoy is understandably confused to be woken up like this, but things don't get any simpler, as Kirk then enters the room with a phaser and tells McCoy that Nancy isn't Nancy, but the creature, which kills people. Keep in mind that McCoy sacked out before anyone knew there was a creature, let alone one that could change shape, so he's pretty baffled by all this.

McCoy refuses to move away from Salty-Nancy, so Kirk tries to lure Salty-Nancy out with salt tablets. This escalates into a tussle which ends with Kirk being cornered by Salty-Nancy and McCoy against the wall with Kirk's phaser. Salty-Nancy advances on Kirk and grabs him by the face, but McCoy still can't shoot, even when Spock bursts into the room (complete with glittery space bandage) and yells at him that Salty's killing the captain. But to be fair to McCoy, he just woke up. I take long enough to get out of bed even when all conditions are normal. If someone burst into my room telling me to shoot someone else I'd probably just roll over and go back to sleep.

McCoy won't give up the phaser, so Spock reverts to a classic method of sussing out shapeshifters: punching them in the face. Surprisingly, McCoy isn't convinced by Spock beating up his ex-girlfriend, but he's a bit more swayed when Salty-Nancy backhands Spock across the room. Salty goes back to advancing on Kirk, and we finally get to see their true form.

[ID: A gray-furred, gray-maned alien with a wrinkly face, heavily lidded staring eyes, and a protruding circular mouth lined with sharp teeth, standing against the gray walls of McCoy’s quarters and looking directly at the camera.]

This haunted my dreams as a child, and I have no idea how because I didn't even watch Star Trek as a child. Somewhere I must've gotten a glimpse of it, and boy howdy did it stick in my memory. McCoy evidently has a similar reaction, because he finally shoots Salty. They stumble into the corner and change back into Nancy, pleading with McCoy to stop. So McCoy has to kill what looks and sounds exactly like a woman he loves. Fun times! At least Salty goes back to their original form when they're dead, so McCoy doesn't have the corpse of his ex-girlfriend laying on his floor.

Back on the bridge, once everything's calmed down, Kirk is deep in thought. At Spock's inquiry, he says he was thinking about the buffalo. We'll get a lot of lighthearted ends to episodes over the series, but this isn't one of them. It's not too grim, but it's obvious that, whatever anyone thought about the salt monster, no one wanted it to end this way.

Kirk tells Sulu to take them out, and they leave the planet behind, presumably leaving it to get studied by someone else who's hopefully less of a jerk. For some reason, we see the Enterprise's backup camera while this is happening.

[ID: A shot of the bridge seen from just behind the two helmsmen sitting at their stations, showing the bridge viewscreen as it displays a rear view of the Enterprise nacelles as the ship pulls away from the planet.]

And so our first adventure ends. And I'm sure extinct animals will never come up in this series again.

[ID: A crude drawing of a cylindrical probe similar to the one seen in Star Trek IV, only this one has a brown mane and buffalo horns, approaching Earth and saying, “MOOOOOOOOOOO”  while Earth is saying, “oh goddammit not this again” and the probe replies with another “MOOOOOOOOOOOOO.” ]

TREK TROPE TALLY: We have four crew deaths in this episode: two blueshirts (Darnell and Sturgeon), one goldshirt (Green), and one unspecified (Barnhart), all dead of salt depletion after an encounter with Salty. We also have one instance of a Doppelganger Effect, with Salty impersonating McCoy, Green, and various other people via shapeshifting or illusions or something.

I'll leave you on that note. Next time we'll be looking at a tale of unusually troubled adolescence with Charlie X.

#star trek #star trek TOS #star trek TOS season one #recap tag #star trek TOS recaps #1.1. The Man Trap #1.1 The Man Trap Recap

[jbk405]

Discovery is really starting to lose me

“An Obol for Charon” episode was such a hash.

Being four episodes into the season, I can now officially say that the plotline is too much about Burnham and her family.  We’re not getting An Episode about Burnham and her family, it’s the point of the entire season so far.  It’s the driving point of drama, with the Red Angel only important because it is somehow connected her her relationship with her brother.  It was already overpowering the story in the preceding episodes, but now characters are acting like Michael repairing her relationship with Spock is the focal point of their mission.  As though her family drama is their overriding goal and they're willing to accept death and the destruction of their ship in furtherance of that point.  The crew of the Discovery are all-in on pursuing Spock, but with the way Burnham and Pike talk about how some info is secret and classified they can't know how it's all connected and yet they're all-in anyway.

Pike's presence isn't overpowering the plotline, but it is overpowering the series.  Every-other-scene with him is a joke reference to TOS or a handwave explanation to connect the current story to TOS.  Over and over again.  And nobody loves a good inside reference more than me, but it's taken over the show.  In the gap between seasons one and two I was giddy at the thought that we might get an appearance by Number One, but when she shows up here it's just so that she and Pike can meta-reference why the original Enterprise has flatscreens instead of the holograms that we see throughout this show (And also to again talk about Michael's family).  Pike should have been a guest-star in the first episode of the season, staying on his own ship, and then should have gone his way to let this continue to be its own thing.  Instead Discovery is no longer its own show, it's a "When they were young" special event for Star Trek itself.

With this episode in particular, it was like I said at the start, a hash.  The overall concept could have worked well, and would have been Trek to its core, but the execution fell apart completely.

When that woman they rescued at the start of the season shows up and says she was sent by the Chief Engineer I was gobsmacked, because I thought Stamets was the Chief Engineer.  If he isn't, then who is?  We've never seen anybody else on the bridge or reporting to the captain, and apparently the room with the Spore Drive does connect to main engineering since that's where Michael ended up when she was going to engineering, so where is this hypothetical chief even working?  On that same note, the argument between her and Stamets over Warp Drive vs. Spore Drive made no sense, and does not function as an allegory for the modern day fossil fuels vs. solar power argument like they tried to claim.  In the current argument there at least are some benefits to fossil fuels (They're far outweighed by the benefits of renewable energy, but they do exist), where her entire point about Warp drive is just that it's old and therefore better.  She doesn't make a single actual point about why the Spore drive is bad.  It just read like a bad hackjob at writing the old Spock vs McCoy scenes where they argue about emotion vs. logic.

Saru's "I'm going to die so I want you to kill me first" schtick was horrible.  Just atrocious.  Apart from the fact that they somehow managed to turn his death scene into again being about Michael and Spock's relationship, the scenario was completely pointless.  He said that the issue is that Kelpiens are driven insane by the pain of the process, and if he isn't killed now he will simply go mad and likely die as a result.  So then the answer is simple: Sedate him and wait for the process to pass.  That's it.  As he himself admitted, this wasn't a natural onset of the process, it was being artificially created by the mysterious object.  So, if they just put him in a medically induced coma -- something which we can do now in real life -- he avoids going insane due to the pain and hopefully when they bring him out of it in a day the process will have stopped because the mysterious object is gone.  This was such an obvious point that I actually expected them to bring it up because it's such a basic part of treatment methodology.

Just getting into the pure technicalities of the episode, they had a dozen self-contradictions throughout its runtime which showed either poor scriptwiting or very lazy copy-editing.  Characters use the comms and then refer to comms being down.  There's a half-a-dozen "Like doing XXX" analogies strung throughout the episode, and they never had that many even during Voyager when technobabble was such a critical element of every episode.

Because the comms are down (Even though we saw them used) the captain leaves the bridge during a crisis so he can check in with sickbay instead of sending anybody else to get information and then relay it back to the bridge.  When in sickbay, there is apparently no support staff of any sort because he and Michael are shown assisting the doctor in treating a wounded crewman even though the ship as a whole is under threat and if they don't deal with that they'll all die.  We know sickbay isn't overloaded because only a few individual crewmen were injured in accidents, it's not as though they've suffered battle damage or lost a significant chunk of their complement, so where are the nurses and other doctors?  On a different forum just yesterday I was ranting about the lack of any medical support staff with regards to Star Trek: Enterprise (How's that for timing?) and this is somehow worse than that show did, because here we've seen that sickbay does have support staff, so where the hell are they?

There were a few interesting elements, like everybody speaking different languages because the UT was malfunctioning and I still love the B-Cast and the way they're getting larger roles, but we're a fourth of the way through the season now and I've only actually enjoyed a single episode. If they continue like this I might just tune out and only come back when it's time for internet reviewers to make mocking videos on YouTube.

#Star Trek #Discovery #DISCO #An Obol for Charon #Poor writing

[girlkirk-blog]

SPIRK (for the otp ask meme) !!! xoxo

omg hey!! HOW ARE YOU?

1- Who is the most affectionate?

I’m going to say that Spock is? I know that’s kind of a curve ball for some people but I believe that he shows affection in a very different way from what a lot of people are used to. Like, his affection is checking to make sure everything is alright. You know how in the Shore Leave episode (when they go to that planet and Bones sees a furry and then gets stabbed) Spock tells Kirk that there’s someone who desperately needs some time off and Kirk’s like “YES GOOD IDEA MR. SPOCK I WANT EVERYBODY TO BE HAPPY BC i’M JAMES T HAPPYPANTS” and Spock’s like “jokes on you, it’s you, go bye now” so I think that Spock’s affection is the best type of affection – it’s not all cuddles and quick kisses, Spock’s is things like making sure Jim has eaten, that Jim is okay, etc. 

2-Big spoon/Little spoon?

Spock: Big Spoon

Kirk: Little Spoon (even though he hates it sometimes)

3-Most common argument?

Probably something about how “illogical” Jim’s decision was that day. Like, “Jim, it was highly illogical for you to challenge that alien that was approximately 40.6 times larger than you to a duel” and Jim’s like “suck it logic i BELIEVE IN MIRACLES” (omg i’m making jim such a joke i’m sorry i’ll stop now)

4-Favorite non-sexual activity?

Probably legit being huge nerds with each other. Kirk was known for being basically a pile of books with legs at the academy, and I feel like in their downtime, Spock and Kirk just like go to town with the computer’s library and float all these theories and concepts past each other. Like, Spock tries to help Kirk with the logic of his thought and Kirk tries to help Spock see past the logic in his thought to come to more conclusions. 

5-Who is most likely to carry the other?

KIRK IS MOST LIKELY TO CARRY SPOCK 24/7, 365 EVEN THOUGH IT SHOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE BC OF VULCAN BONE DENSITY

6-What is their favorite feature of their partner’s?

I think Kirk really likes Spock’s pointy ears. I feel like he always hates it when they have to go and do recon on a planet and they have to cover Spock’s ears up with a beanie or something. I feel like as soon as they’re away from the other people on the planet, Jim quickly takes off Spock’s lil beanie. 

I feel like Spock’s favorite feature of Jim’s is his eyes. I don’t know, I guess Spock just likes them because they’re legit windows to what Jim is thinking? Jim is really good at composing himself and never panicking, but Spock is always able to look for Kirk’s eyes to see exactly what the captain is thinking – he doesn’t even have to use the mind link. 

7-What’s the first thing that changes when they realize they have feelings for the other?

HOT DANG THE INTERACTIONS ON THE BRIDGE??? I have a feeling that they’ll both start analyzing each other a lot (before they confess their feelings.) Like every single time Spock stops to talk to Kirk, Kirk is always like “I MUST ANALYZE EVERYTHING DOES HE LIKE ME BC I LIKE HIM HOLY CRAP WAIT WHAT DID HE SAY ABOUT AN ASTEROID BELT APPROACHING? SHUT UP CHEKOV I’M TRYING TO LISTEN” and Spock just tries his hardest to logically explain WHY the captain would have feelings for him? 

The whole Bridge starts to get annoyed and bones is like “y’all kidding me? y’all kidding me? I’VE BEEN PUTTING UP WITH THIS BY MYSELF FOR LEGIT YEARS” and the atmosphere on the bridge is just kind of funny (in a good way) and Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov are always serving up each other looks. Like, “lmao did you see Spock just check out Kirk’s ass?” 

8-Nicknames? & if so, how did they originate?

Hmmm. I don’t feel like Spock and Kirk are big on nicknames, unless you count “Jim” as a nickname, which it kind of is since Kirk’s first name is actually James. 

9-Who worries the most?

Kirk. Definitely Kirk. You can’t tell me that Kirk doesn’t worry his ass off about Spock, especially during the episode “Journey to Babel” – Jim is so concerned about Spock’s relationship with his father. Like, he wants to know all about it and he wants to help so bad. ALSO I think Spock also worries A WHOLE BUNCH because he’s just always on high alert to be on the look out for his captain – like in that one episode when the flowers SHOOT OUT THORNS AT PEOPLE?? AND SPOCK LEGIT STANDS IN FRONT OF KIRK AND GETS IMPALED WITH THEM TO PROTECT JIM??

10-Who remembers what the other one always orders at a restaurant?

Spock. Dude has a photographic memory and it’s legit amusing but also terrifying when they have little fights. Spock just pulls out “Do you recall what occurred on Eminar VII when…” and Kirk’s like “SPOCK NO?”

11-Who tops?

I think it’s like a cycle – they’ll take turns, whoever is up to it at the time. 

12-Who initiates kisses?

(I already answered this one, so check it out!)

13-Who reaches for the other’s hand first?

Spock. I think he just really likes the feel of Kirk’s hand in his? I also think that it’s just instinct, since Vulcan hands are so sensitive. I kind of think it may be the first thing to really calm a Vulcan down – for them to reach out their hand and have their hand held by someone they are close to. 

14-Who kisses the hardest?

Kirk, no doubt. 

15-Who wakes up first?

KIRK. Kirk is the BIGGEST morning person in the FREAKING GALAXY. He’s one of those people that’s like “AH YES MORNING *HUGE CRAZY DEEP INHALE* HELLO GALAXY! I’M STAR TREKKIN’” (ok i’m sorry i just love kirk so much) 

16-Who wants to stay in bed just a little longer?

I think it’s neither, really. Spock isn’t energized by mornings, but he’s also not exhausted and dislikes them. I think that when Jim gets up, Spock usually gets up as well. 

17-Who says I love you first?

Spock. And it happens in the most VULCAN WAY EVER. like, i’m a slut for the th’y’la trope, y’all already know. Like in all my fics for Star Trek TOS, it always revolves around the expose of “CAPTAIN KIRK IS SPOCK’S FATED” because i just love that trope and nobody can pry it from my hands. So I think it happens when Spock is just like “ok it’s a matter of time before we accidentally fully mind meld so i better just get this over with” 

I believe that they SHOW each other that they are madly in love with each other through their actions such as making sure the other is okay, basically SACRIFICING themselves for the other, etc. I think that when it comes to doing it verbally, they’re both lil nervous babies. 

18-Who leaves little notes in the other’s one lunch? (Bonus: what does it usually say?)

I think Kirk would be the one to leave notes and they’d be cute little things like “you’re a vulCAN not a vulCAN’T” and stupid stuff like that, and it begins to grow on Spock a lil bit and he keeps all of the post-it notes that Kirk puts up. 

19-Who tells their family/friends about their relationship first?

I feel like EVERYBODY ABOARD THE STARSHIP ENTERPRISE knows that Spock and Kirk are in a relationship, even before Spock and Kirk do, so that’s not really applicable. I feel like Spock tells his mama first because Amanda is that mom that wants to know everything and whenever Spock contacts her she’s always asking about that “nice kirk boy!” and junk and Spock’s just like “UGH FINE” and Amanda’s all excited like “JUST WAIT ‘TIL I TELL YOUR FATHER” 

20-What do their family/friends think of their relationship?

I think that all their friends LOVE it, even though Bones acts like he’s always suffocated by it. I don’t think Bones EVER feels left out, because they’re such an amazing friend group, and they’re all so close, so Bones isn’t threatened by the officialness of the kirk/spock relationship. I think he just LOVES to tease about it and frustrate Kirk and Spock by being a lil southern cockblock. 

As for family, I think that everybody likes it too. Amanda is like the #1 Spirk fan and Sarek is pretty okay with it – he doesn’t really mind either way, I think. 

21-Who is more likely to start dancing with the other?

Kirk loves to dance like a freaking idiot sometimes, but Spock isn’t really into dancing, so he’ll stand there and just watch, like “…please don’t throw out your back like last time, Doctor McCoy won’t be as understanding this time” 

22-Who cooks more/who is better at cooking?

REPLICATOR SQUAD, enough said. (I think that they’d both suck at cooking tbh) 

23-Who comes up with cheesy pick up lines?

Spock actually starts with them first, because he probably asks Bones for some RARE ADVICE and Bones is like “holy shit is this really happening????” when Spock asks Bones about earth relationship advice. So Bones is like “just do these pick up lines and you’re golden” and Spock tries one and instead of Kirk just being like “the fuck is this” he just laughs and loves it. 

24-Who whispers inappropriate things in the other’s ear during inappropriate times?

Kirk, because Spock does it through the mind meld lmao

25-Who needs more assurance?

I think they both do. I think that they both need each other very badly – one can’t exist without the other. It’s like that whole entire “by your side” thing. It’s where they’re meant to be. That being said, I think that they’re both VERY assured in their relationship. 

26-What would be their theme song?

“You Sexy Thing” by Hot Chocolate (AKA THE “I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES” SONG  all because of that DAMN video someone made (and it’s my FAVORITE of all time) where there’s that #CLASSIC scene where Spock is like “Captain, you make me almost believe in luck…” and Kirk is like “why mr. spock…you almost make me believe in MIRACLES” and the damn song plays while the credits come on. 

27-Who would sing to their child back to sleep?

aww omg omg omg my fav thing is a kirk/spock raising a child together thing and it brings a tear to my eyes y’all. um. I think that Spock probably would. I think Spock would be extremeLY affectionate with the child. Maybe because he realizes that the child is kind of like him as a child – a human parent with a vulcan parent. and he wants the child to feel like they really do belong. (wipe ur tears i’m crying too)

28-What do they do when they’re away from each other?

wait until they see each other again lmao

29-one headcanon about this OTP that breaks your heart.

oh dang. okay, here goes. i have this head canon that spock is super super insecure about confessing his feelings for jim, because here’s jim – this huge ass ray of sunshine that LOVES to laugh and smile and he’s just so open, and Spock feels like, since he is a Vulcan, he cannot make jim laugh or so happy like that since it just isn’t in his nature? I also feel like Spock sees Jim as almost unattainable, because here is this amazing captain that he loves to serve under, ofc, but STARFLEET REGULATION and it also doesn’t help that literally almost EVERYWHERE they stop Jim runs into a former female friend or something. (which is something that I really do love because it really shows feminist kirk because he still treats them with respect and love!) 

30-one headcanon about this OTP that mends it.      

Kirk knows that it’s hard for Spock to feel like he can fully express himself, and Kirk is fine with that. So that’s why Kirk flirts so openly and freely with Spock and smiles around him. Spock makes him happier than anything else in the universe, and nothing could ever replace him. (AKA SEARCH FOR SPOCK HELLO?????). So Kirk is always at Spock’s side, smiling and laughing and trying to encourage Spock and is patient with him.

thanks for the ask! and sorry for writing so much!!!

#super long y'all sorry #spirk #otp ask

[samingtonwilson]

Loot - Part 9 - Jim Kirk

loot masterlist Word count: 2,786 Warnings: language

A/N: this is my favorite part of this story so far. i love it so much, it’s made the frustration associated with the last two parts worth it for me. part 10 is gonna be the last official part and then maybe an epilogue? also, i think it’s quite clear to see how reader’s changed over the course of this story which i love. i HONESTLY LOVE this part, holy shit. ENJOY IT, SERIOUSLY! AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!

In the queue waiting to use your favorite replicator of the plethora in the commissary, your eyes zeroed in on the table in the rightmost back corner. Your table in the rightmost back corner. 

It was occupied. And that, too, by the same plucky, blue-shirted ensigns that cornered Commander Spock in the middle of your discussion regarding his relationship with Uhura.

Due to that, you harbored some resentment. You and Spock didn’t interact much and every conversation you had with him fascinated you— his mannerisms weren’t as controlled and void of expression as you were expecting, he was just a little more controlled than the average full human being. 

You valued those conversations. While you knew he didn’t enjoy your company much, he often asked for your advice on his and Uhura’s relationship that seemed to be hanging onto its last, fraying thread. He likely sought out your advice because of the great amount of time you and Uhura spent.

During the time in question, you had told him you thought their demise came at the hands of Uhura feeling unimportant, like she came second to her half-Vulcan boyfriend. He only frowned in consideration ever so slightly as one of his eyebrows crept closer to his pin-straight fringe before the flood of blue shirts could get to him.

Therefore, your resentment increased at the sight of them at the table. Your table.

You crossed your arms over your chest as you glared at them. Your nostrils were flared. You’d developed a sense of possessiveness as a young child— probably a result of such a rocky upbringing, you clung to anything and everything you could that made you comfortable in any way.

Your shoulder was pushed by three fingertips and you stumbled a few inches to the side. “Stare any harder, sweetheart, and they’ll vaporize.”

You hummed out a sigh and loosened your arms. You moved up in the line as glanced at the frowning Southern doctor. “Blue shirts are the fucking worst.”

McCoy looked offended. “Ain’t a fan of you, either.”

You snorted. “You, Chapel, and Spock are the exceptions.”

“First you go on about hatin’ blue shirts and now you put me in a group with Spock. The insults just keep on comin’ this evenin’.”

You moved up again and placed your tray and empty dishes under the replicator. “This little act of yours is getting unconvincing.”

“And what act would that be?”

You picked up the tray that was now stocked with an array of Earth fruits that you desperately missed and walked beside McCoy— whose tray was also well-stocked. “This whole grade school ‘Spock is a green-blooded hobgoblin’ act.”

“Grade school?”

You nodded, maneuvering through the many officers that were vacating every table but yours. “You know how they preach to little girls that the reason little boys are mean is because they’ve got a huge crush? Like that— except not so heteronormative and, quite frankly, toxic for teaching a girl to equate a man’s meanness with love.”

You continued after grinning at Chekov as he waved from a centrally located table consisting of said Russian ensign, Sulu, and Jim. “You’re taunting Spock because of that sexual tension all of us can cut with a knife when you’re both in the same room.”

“That’s no reason to taunt someone,” he snorted, following you to your table.

You stood before the table and glanced at him. “But you don’t deny the sexual tension?”

“Who am I to deny anythin’, really?”

You smiled before looking at the blue shirts that were already staring up at you. You raised your eyebrows and motioned to their empty trays. “Finished?”

There was a girl whose scowl rivaled any of McCoy’s best, her hair a deep brown and her eyes matching. She shook her head once. “No.”

“Y’all look finished to me,” McCoy stated, raising a single eyebrow. He waved his hand with an even deeper scowl— it was like a scowling competition. “Up and at ‘em. Let’s go.”

You laughed silently as you stared at him, trying to hide your wide smile and teary eyes from the outraged, albeit obedient, ensigns.

Finally seated before your favorite crew member of the USS Enterprise, you cleared your throat and wet your lips. “Speaking of Commander Spock, can you keep a secret?”

“You got gossip, Cadet?” he asked with that same eyebrow cocked. When you nodded, he nodded back with a small smile. “Thank fuck. Gettin’ borin’ ‘round here.”

You stabbed a synthesized watermelon cube with your fork. “So you’re a gossip, eh, McCoy?”

“We’ve all got our vices. You gonna tell me before every damn hair on my head turns grey?”

“That shouldn’t take long. But,” you trailed off as you leaned forward and motioned for him to follow in suit, “he and Nyota are basically over.”

“Really? What’d he do?”

“Why do you assume he did something?”

“Well, did he?”

“Yeah,” you nodded with a wrinkled nose. “I don’t know exactly what, but it’s making her feel like she’s not a priority to him. And she’s talking to me about it rather than talking to him directly, while he’s also talking to me about it rather than talking to her directly. It’s like they’re both the same brand of evasive.”

“Yeah, that could be a problem.”

“What could be a problem?” you heard from just a few inches away.

You looked in his direction and sighed out. As if you needed to look at him— as if his voice and the overwhelming smell of citrus and sandalwood weren’t confirmation of his presence enough.

You set your fork down and leaned back. “Nothing.”

Jim scoffed and fell into the seat adjacent to McCoy’s. He slouched against the backrest and placed his clasped hands in his lap, one of his legs outstretched and the other bent to form a ninety degree angle. He looked totally relaxed with the soft smile over his full lips and the slacked nature of his jaw. “You sure?”

“Yes, Captain, I’m sure.” Your voice was far more gentle than intended.

“Uhura and Pointy are countin’ their relationship’s final days,” McCoy replied, eying you curiously for the moment preceding.

You clicked your tongue. “Bones! I asked if you could keep a secret!”

“And I never answered,” he said with a smirk. His enjoyment was visible in his brightened hazel eyes and smile of amusement. “You just assumed. There’s a sayin’ where I’m from, darlin’. ‘When you assume you make an—’”

“‘— ass out of you and me,’” Jim finished, frowning at his friend. “Bones, that’s a saying where all of us are from.”

“I didn’t need an accurate origin story to prove my damn point, Jim.” McCoy rolled his eyes when he met your gaze again. “Before I was so mannerlessly interrupted,” he said pointedly, “I was going to doubt your abilities to be a communications officer if you can’t ensure that I answered your question.”

“No, no,” you said, your voice thick with food you’d just swallowed. “I want to go back to what Captain said. You can’t just stick a Georgian flag in an idiom.”

Jim hummed in agreement, nodding. A smile pulled at his lips as he stared at you with a look that had your ribs rattling. He stole fruit from your plate. “Yeah. You can’t claim ownership to something almost universal for English-language speakers.”

“(Y/N)’s claimin’ ownership of this fuckin’ table.”

You scoffed at McCoy. “Yeah, because that’s pertinent.”

“It is,” Jim returned, nodding as his lips now formed a frown. “You’re claiming ownership of something that doesn’t belong to anyone on this ship— it’s Starfleet’s just like that idiom belongs to the English language.”

“You think you own that fuckin’ chair on the bridge—”

“You think you own the medbay—”

“What are we even arguing about here?” you spoke over them to the best of your abilities. Both men faced you, their eyes following your movements as you nodded upwards questioningly.

“We’ve lost sight of the real argument which was…” you trailed off. “Fuck, what was it?”

“Fuck if I know,” McCoy said as he frowned and looked down at his communicator. The small gadget was buzzing erratically against the table, rendering a huge grimace over his lips even as he answered it.

“So Spock’s been talking to you about Uhura, too?” Jim asked when McCoy continued speaking into his communicator.

You nodded. “He talks to you about her?”

“They both do— sometimes,” he answered, placing his forearms atop the table and drumming his fingers against the silver surface. “Can never get any real details from either of them.”

“It’s frustrating, right?”

“Insanely,” he laughed with a shake of his head, keeping his gaze on you unwaveringly.

McCoy sighed heavily and pushed back against the table to stand. Tray in hand, he sighed again. “Gotta head back to the medbay. Some stupid kid got into your Saurian brandy and isn’t handlin’ it too well.”

Jim looked offended. “It’s not—”

“Save it, Tiberius— I know it’s yours,” McCoy muttered as he walked away.

“Tiberius?” you repeated, smiling widely once McCoy was out of the sliding doors. “Is that what the T in James T. Kirk stands for?”

He visibly struggled to not return your smile. “What’d you think it stood for?”

“Something better than Tiberius, that’s for sure.”

“I’m surprised my fan club didn’t fill you in on that piece of trivia.”

You shrugged. “If I interacted with your fan club, they might’ve. It’s just too much gushing for me to be a part of.”

“Right. Have to keep that intense, angry, cynical persona up at all times.”

“Exactly. Thank you for understanding, Cap—”

“Call me ‘Captain’ one more time and I’ll be forced to kiss you right here, in front of the crew,” he interject, looking immensely satisfied with himself as your mouth remained hanging open. “To, you know, shut you up.”

You closed your mouth and swallowed. You frowned. “You shouldn’t go around kissing people— might send the wrong message.”

“What message? That I’m crazy about you and want a gossip-worthy relationship?” He was smiling softly, he was speaking softly, he was looking at you softly. “Because that would be the right message.”

You tilted your head. “Why can’t you just let this be over?” “Because I can’t.”

You stood up from your seat, retrieving your tray that you and Jim had emptied throughout your conversation with McCoy. You set it into the pile and started towards the door, hearing Jim’s steps behind you. “Sometimes I think we were better off last week when we weren’t speaking.”

You didn’t think that. For the entire week, you hadn’t thought that once. Neither were you two dating, nor were you two having sex— at least not as often as you two did once. You were just friends and, truthfully, it was enough for you no matter what your heartbeat told you.

As cliche as it was, being in Jim’s company forced you to be a better version of yourself. You were less angry, less anxious, less upset at the universe for everything that’d been thrown your way. He was a reminder that you didn’t need to be angry, anxious, or upset at the universe because he wasn’t angry, anxious, or upset.

It was when you left his side that you felt those three emotions. Angry— at yourself, at the artifact literally burning a hole in your closet, at Starfleet regulations, at every dismal scenario you could think up. Anxious— due to your actions, your feelings for Jim that ran far too deep, the artifact’s existence, the possible consequences of being caught. And upset at the universe for, well, everything.

“Now don’t lie to yourself, angel.”

You looked over your shoulder as you walked down the corridor, your eyes meeting an electric blue pair that had your steps faltering momentarily. “You’re calling me ‘angel’ now?”

He caught up to you easily, purposefully brushing his hand against yours. “Not a fan of it?”

You peered at him and clasped your hands together so as to not grab his on impulse. You smiled and shrugged. “I know I shouldn’t like it— but I do, for some reason.”

He stood beside you in the turbolift, beckoning it shut before anyone else could step inside. “It’s because you like me.”

“I like you?” you asked with a laugh, facing the doors rather than face him. “Is this high school? Are we attending Enterprise High?”

He pushed your shoulder, chuckling. “Shut up.”

“Listen, I know you’re a big, strong chivalrous man,” you started as the two of you exited the lift on your target deck of Excited Ensign Village, “and I could never knock anyone for wanting that, but you don’t need to walk to my quarters every night.”

“You’re a wonderful, strong person so I know I don’t,” he told you, nodding once in greeting to the passing ensigns. “I like walking you to your quarters. I like being around you.”

You smiled to yourself, biting down on your bottom lip. You shook your head. “You don’t think that’s a little narcissistic?”

“Narcissistic? Why?”

You shrugged and continued down the hall. “You think I’m a xenolinguist version of you— kind of narcissistic to like being around someone so similar to you.”

“So you see it, too?”

“Well, we both have master’s degrees in being left behind.”

You stopped in front of your door and you leaned against it, feeling the coolness of the metal seep through your shirt. You faced him easily and wrinkled your nose at him. “You can go now.”

He took a small step forward, placing his hand on the door and leaning in. “I’ll wait until you’re inside.”

“Concerned about my safety, are you?” You set your hands against his chest, feeling it collapse with an exhale.

He clicked his tongue. “Honestly just waiting for you to invite me inside.”

“I’m not planning on it.”

“Am I supposed to tell you I’m in love with you while running the risk of being heard by an excited ensign?”

Your mouth was dry, your throat was constricted with the feeling of your heart being lodged in it. Your hands remained on his chest, your eyes remaining in his as the blue turned from sapphires to the ocean before you. “What?”

“An ensign could hear me and complain to Spock— you know how much of a stickler he is for the rules—”

“You’re in love with me?”

It was his turn to tilt his head. He smiled a bit. “Thought it was obvious.”

“We haven’t— We’ve only known each other, like, two months and—” You felt like you were spiraling, every part of you was spiraling and reeling.

“There’s no set minimum time,” he replied, taking his hand from the door and setting his palm against your cheek to run his thumb over your cheekbone. “I love you.”

He closed the short distance between you to press his lips to yours, kissing you for the first time in only days while it felt as if he was kissing you for the first time in dreadful eons. His arm was securely around your waist with such tightness that your circulation could have been cut off, but your light head couldn’t mind it one bit.

“Holy fuck, if I thought you were narcissistic for just liking me,” you breathed once you broke the kiss, staring up into his dilated pupils that rendered his irises to mere bright rings.

He smiled into the next kiss, one his hands now gripping the black fabric of your shirt so it was tight against your back and the other sneaking under the shirt to sit against your waist. “Are you gonna invite me inside now? So I can say it over, and over, and over, and o—”

“You still can’t come in, Jim,” you reluctantly interrupted, offering him the smallest smile. “I have my weekly appointment with Bones before Alpha shift and he’ll hit me with a sedative if I’m not well-rested.”

“Should I doubt that excuse?”

“You love me?”

He nodded as if it was the easiest thing he’d ever done.

You could have melted into your boots at the look in his eyes. “Then don’t doubt it.”

Alone in the confines of your quarters, the smile didn’t leave your lips— you had never known such a full feeling. You were smiling as you pulled your shirt off and tossed it into the dirty clothes pile, smiling even as you dried your face after splashing it with scaldingly hot water.

It wasn’t until you unswaddled the burnt black shirt that your smile faded.

There was no clanging against the deck plating, no orange glow, and no engraved circular metal in your hand. 

There was no artifact.

tagged: @outside-the-government @daughterofthebrowncoats @multifandom-slytherin @buckyy3s @cinema212 @caaptain @dani-fae @wonders-of-the-enterprise @imaginesofdreams @the-witching-hours12-3 @kaitymccoy123 @anyakinamidala 

#jim kirk #jim kirk imagine #kirk imagine #jim kirk x reader #star trek #star trek imagine #captain kirk x reader #captain kirk imagine #imagine kirk #imagine jim kirk #IMAGINE ME POSTING THIS AT A DECENT HOUR #IMAGINE YALL ACTUALLY PAYING ATTENTION TO ME #byeeeeeee

[kinetic-elaboration]

April 10: 2x14 Wolf in the Fold

Watched Wolf in the Fold last night. The only thing I really remembered about this ep going in was that it was a Scotty ep. Which is true but also… slightly misleading. Also that it had to do with Jack the Ripper—which is more true than I remembered!

A decadent intro… I get why Spock isn’t here but I actually DO think he would be into it.

Matchmaker Kirk lol.

Scotty is so awkward. This is the other detail I remembered from this ep, actually: how Scotty wants to applaud using his hands no matter what. (Even with those cool lights RIGHT THERE lol). Old Aberdeen pub crawler…

This is honestly such a bizarre back story: Scotty got a concussion because someone who happened to be a woman made a mistake and now not only is his head all funny but he has a “total resentment toward women.” Like okay, nothing creepily sexist in that concept. Also –they ultimately barely even use it! I know it’s the implied rationale for why he would suddenly start murdering women and also not remembering it but it’s like such a flimsy excuse that they never say it out loud in so many words for fear it should sound too stupid. Which it would. Honestly, you really only need the concussion imo. Why go into the weird misogyny thing at all?

And now Kirk and Bons head off to a brothel, giving me a total resentment toward men.

Nice eerie fog out here. Very Aberdeenian.

Okay, so this woman was stabbed a dozen times but she only screamed once? And then a second later, Scotty had somehow teleported several feet away, still holding the knife? He’s good at his job but he’s not that good. This is already deeply suspicious.

“Therapeutic shore leave.” Trying to cure his hatred of ladies lmao.

So this weird little bald man, Hengist, from Rigel IV. Is he an alien? I suppose he must be. Rigellians are a race, as we know from Journey to Babel. It’s not always clear to me which groups of people are Earth colonists who have migrated to or been born on other planets and which are humanoid aliens.

The Aurelians are a gentle, harmless people. Cute. I like these aliens.

I wish we could hire aliens to be our administrators. Alien Overlord and Taylor.

“I’ll be taking over, since I am the highest official.” He out-officialed him.

I like this guy and his slightly creepy empath priestess wife. I feel like Spock would like them, too.

Speaking of: Spock in the captain’s chair. Hot.

I don’t get how this planet is the only space port around. Like… could not any planet be a space port? What does that even mean?

Oh no, a woman with the lie detector machine! She must be incompetent and/or to be despised.

I love Sybo’s outfit. Her hair and jewelry too. Honestly just a great head-to-toe look.

Another murder! Sorry but this one is on the Aurelian for just leaving the murder weapon out there unattended.

Generally speaking, the costume and set people are doing allllll the work in this episode.

Hengist went to look for suspects and he came up with the victim’s father and fiancé?? He’s not even trying lol. Anyway, he obviously did it.

How can you NOT tell if a lock was picked or not? I mean I know McCoy is a doctor, not a locksmith, but come on. It can’t be that ambiguous.

Spooky mumbo-jumbo.

Interesting that Spock doesn’t trust the mumbo-jumbo either. I guess he only approves of it when it’s Vulcan.

When Sybo says “monstrous evil” the camera is looking right at Hengist. Not suspicious at all. He’s only clearly railroading Scotty, looked right at the second victim before she was killed, was in the perfect position to take the murder weapon after it was carelessly left about, and is the most obvious non-Scotty suspect here.

I love how loyal Bones is. He literally saw Scotty holding Sybo and the knife with blood on his hands and is like “It’s impossible he could have done it.”

So many of the “truth discovery” devices on TOS are truly creepy. Like they’re all clear plot devices, and for that reason depicted as completely reliable, and the more completely reliable they are, the more deeply disturbing they become upon any reflection at all.

That’s a pretty computer though. All those pretty flashing lights! And it runs on floppy disks.

I literally just remembered what happened.

“Scotty, lie to me, how old are you?” / “Twenty-two, Sir.” Yeah, I’d say that’s a lie.

So like this allegedly all-powerful computer is literally just a lie detector. That’s it! A lie detector that picks up on psychological signs of lying, just like our lie detectors today. I mean… you could have just said that straight out. All they do is show what a person believes to be true, so in the case where someone truly doesn’t remember something, the usefulness is… limited.

My mom suggested a Vulcan mind meld which, actually, would pretty much solve the problem! But for once Spock actually treats it like something serious and not to be thrown out as a solution to all problems at the merest suggestion.

Someone needs to do a fashion line based entirely on the Argellian outfits.

Spock is internally eye-rolling at all this drama. I feel like he’s a real advocate for the computers today. That’s like… really his only role.

The computer’s linguistics banks don’t know what this word means? Maybe we should get Uhura on the case.

Plot twist: the killer was Jack the Ripper the WHOLE TIME! The last one you’d ever expect.

I don’t get how the computer made the leap from Redjac to Jack the Ripper since that is not a real word and no one outside of this episode of TOS has ever used it for Jack the Ripper.

“Everyone feeds on death, even vegetarians.” So dark, Spock. So emo.

Aw, alien creatures that derive sustenance from love. Adorable. There should have been an episode devoted to them. (Wait a minute…. Idea coming on…)

Speaking of gaseous cloud aliens…the Companion?

This episode really relies a lot on the computer to provide information and otherwise move the plot along.

Kirk keeps ignoring everyone to just talk to Spock.

“Cloud the issue” lol that’s a good pun. (Already can’t remember who said it but… point stands.)

The cloud entity feeds on women because they are more easily and deeply terrified. That sounds fake but okay. It’s also not in keeping with what Sybo said, is it? She mentioned a hatred of women. That’s not the same as finding women useful.

Hmm, when do we get our Martian Colonies, @ perseverance?

Oh, Rigel IV, you say? There seems to be a Rigellian right here!

This whole history of the entity is bizarre. The first killing sprees (that we know of) are on Earth, and Kirk specifically says that when man left Earth to explore, he took this with him. Does that mean… the cloud creature/entity originated on Earth? Truly a bizarre hypothesis, when you think about it.

Are you the entity, Sir?

There is actually very little Scotty in this Scotty-centric episode.

Lol the knife originates with the hill people of Rigel IV. What is this, Deliverance?

Omg Kirk punched the entity right out of that man!

So to summarize: “Jack the Ripper is actually a gaseous cloud that is capable of infecting the computer system of the Enterprise, thus hijacking the whole ship” is the basic, wacky concept of this episode.

This tranquilizer could quiet a volcano. Where was it during the volcano scene in STID hmm?

Kirk’s plan to keep people from being scared by the maniacal voice of the entity: Tranquilize the entire ship. That’s why he’s paid the big bucks.

Yet another twist on the old Kirk v. Computer plot. Time to use Math to defeat it.

Kirk is so unimpressed with the entity. “Eh, shut that off.” He would not be moved by a haunted house.

“This is the first time I’ve heard a malfunction threaten us.” Sulu can man his post AND be funny; he’s multi-talented.

Kirk and Spock don’t need tranquilizers because they’re smart enough to know this high-pitched voice yelling random threats just isn’t actually scary.

Kirk is really insistent that Sulu man his frickin’ post!

Oh no, not PI!! My nemesis, PI!

I’m really living for Sulu here.

If the entity entered a tranquilized person, it might take up knitting. I gotta say, that doesn’t make any sense as a plot point but I like it anyway.

That was a very efficient tranquilizing job! Everyone in a 400+ person ship in like 10 minutes? Get the medical team on the Enterprise in charge of the vaccine distribution stat.

Kirk just outright assumes that Spock won’t be a hospitable entity choice. And he’s not even wrong! The entity chooses the dead body over Spock or Kirk. It knows when it’s not wanted.

Hengist has been revived!

The entity is honestly, truly hilarious. Die, die, everybody die! Kill! Kill you all! Maniacal laughter! All while being carried by a still utterly unimpressed Kirk down the halls of the ship.

Spock’s like “get out of the way, you tranquilized idiot. Got some entity-scattering to do.”

“I gave them a pretty big shot, Jim!” Think you might have slightly overdone it, Bones? You didn’t need to make everyone useless for 6 hours for a problem that was solved in 5 minutes!

This is one of those moments, Kirk trying to get Spock to see the pretty ladies with him, when Spock seems super gay. Like, I don’t even think he is, that’s not my reading of him, and I also assume that wasn’t the intention here, but that’s just so clearly how it reads.

Aw, Kirk doesn’t want to go the strip club alone. Poor bb.

Weird how Lt. Leslie was in this when he died in the last episode.

Overall, I’d actually have to say that was a very crack-y episode. I liked the ending the best because it was so ridiculous.

What I don’t understand, in addition to whether or not the entity was really supposed to be from Earth, was how it came to be Hengist. Like, it can enter and leave bodies (or computers) at will, so perhaps it just entered Hengist, a normal Rigellian, at some point. But if that’s so, putting him on the transporter and scattering him into space was a pretty cruel thing to do. Also, why did he die (or appear to die) when the entity wasn’t in him? That implies he is the entity’s physical form. But then, first of all, how is also a Rigellian? Like did the entity mate with a Rigellian? Did the entity take over a baby Rigellian? Did the entity just claim to be Rigellian but is really just humanoid in its physical form—we did establish that some aliens, like this one, or creatures or whatever, are gaseous sometimes and solid others, so maybe its solid form is humanoid. Which would fit well with it originating in Earth, although that also brings a new and perhaps unintentional layer of creepiness to the story. I have to assume that’s the situation, but still, wild. And it doesn’t explain this: why does Hengist “die” when the entity “leaves” him, as opposed to just disappear entirely when the entity changes form??

Anyway, I know I’m overthinking this very wacky premise. Overall, I think the episode was fine. It didn’t have enough Scotty (for being a “Scotty episode”) and it changed genres an awful lot for 50 minutes. There was a tad too much misogyny going on. And overall I didn’t feel like the characters—even Kirk, and in actuality this was a Kirk episode much more than a Scotty episode, and purposefully so—were at their most interesting. Tbh Sulu ultimately stole the show in the final minutes.

Next up is the Trouble with Tribbles! Also a funny episode but at least undeniably purposefully so!

#the year 2021 #2021: star trek #star trek tos #wolf in the fold

[heartsywritesthethings]

Story Time

A/N: Alright! It’s time for Tickle Planet Series 4! Honestly I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this but it took me ages to actually get to writing it so I’m just putting it up. I hope y'all enjoy it!

Word count: 1,283

~~~~

“Captain, there’s an incoming transmission coming from Starfleet command.”

Not missing a beat, Captain Kirk orders, “Put it on the view screen, Lieutenant.”

Moments later, Admiral Pike appears on the view screen before the Enterprise crew, data PADD in hand. The Captain addresses, “Admiral. To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?”

Turning the PADD he’d been holding to face the screen, Pike smiles and says, “Well, this is a bit more of personal call, though I would like to discuss this wonderful mission report you sent a couple days ago.”

Jim tilts his head in confusion before realization hits and heat immediately rises to his cheeks. He bites his lip before asking, “We should move this call over to my ready room, don’t you think? Lieutenant could you-“

Pike interjects, “Oh no that won’t be necessary, son. In fact, I think your crew could help out in this conversation. So sit back down, won’t you?”

Reluctantly Jim lowers himself back into the captain’s chair, while the bridge crew continues wondering what’s going on. Once Pike is satisfied in the level of curious attention he’s receiving, he looks back to the report in his hand. He hums while looking it over before asking, “Where’s the newest addition to your crew, Jim?”

Sulu and Chekov both look to each other with mischief in their eyes, now aware of just which report the admiral was viewing. Before Jim can mumble an incoherent reply, Sulu adds himself to the conversation, asking, “Did you mean the tickle monster that Captain Kirk practically begged to keep? And names Smores? The one that basically has its own spot in the Captain’s chair? Yeah he’s either in the Captain’s lap or his quarters.”

Chekov –with a quick look behind him– confirms, “He is in fact in ze Keptin’s lap, Admiral.”

The subject in question purrs as he nuzzles into the spluttering captain’s stomach. Jim’s cheeks are steadily getting redder under the scrutiny of a laughing admiral. Despite the embarrassed smile on his face, Jim attempts a glare at his two friends. Sulu and Chekov smile innocently back at him, prompting a muttered, “Traitors.”

Pike reclaims the crew’s attention with an amused clearing of his throat. However, Jim’s attention remains averted from the older man as he absentmindedly pets the small bundle in his lap. Unperturbed by the lack of heed from the young captain, Pike prompts, “Jim, I do want to hear about this mission, but off the record. I’ve already heard Captain Kirk’s account. I’m far more interested in what my boy Jim though of the adventure and his new friend. And I promise that I ain’t make fun of you… too much. I’ll keep it to a minimum, but only because I know I can trust that McCoy has a majority of the teasing covered.”

Brushing a hand through his hair, Jim chuckles, agreeing, “Yeaaah. He definitely does.”

There’s a quick flutter of fingers over the back of Jim’s neck as another voice adds, “You’re damn right I do. Someone has to make sure this kid’s head stays down on Earth with the rest of us.”

“Doctor, the Captain could not possibly be kept in Earth as we are all currently in another system entirely.”

McCoy groans. As he pushes away Jim’s hands in order to continue tickling behind his ears, Bones argues, “You know exactly what I meant you hobgoblin. Stop pretending not to understand normal phrases just so you can point out the illogicalness of us primitive humans.”

“Not to ruin your fun, but I suggest stopping you bickering and leaving Kirk be; the kid has a story to tell.”

The two officers begrudgingly cease their typical quarrel and Jim is allowed to breathe freely once that devious hand retracts. Though it takes an extra moment or two to get Smores to back off. Of course when he’s settled down, he becomes aware of the many expectant looks he’s receiving. With a quick clearing of his threat, Jim begins, “This is all completely off the record. You read the official report so you already know the basics of what all happened, especially because Bones actually wrote a majority of it for me, but you probably realized that.”

Chris nods his head, confirming, “Yes I am well aware of that especially considering you would never admit to your enjoyment of tickling in general much less in an official report.”

“Wait WHAT?! Bones what the fuck?”

“It’s not my fault you never actually read what I wrote up for you before you signed it, kid.”

“Oh hold on you two. Jim, you seriously never read this report that I’m holding? Really? Son… you goofed. I think I should just read you the exact part I’m talking about.”

This statement is met with cheers of encouragement from a majority of the bridge, an approving nod from Spock, and adamant refusal from Jim (who is ignored). Chris readjusts his posture, leaning toward with the report, he jokingly chides, “Alright calm down children. You need to be quiet for story time.”

At this point, Scotty has made his way onto the bridge thanks to a quick comm from Uhura. Sitting himself on the arm of the captain’s chair despite Jim’s protests, Scotty chirps, “Oh I love story time. Perfect timing, innit?”

Uhura calls out, “Now lets all be quiet so we can listen to the undoing of our beloved Captain.”

“How ‘bout we don’t? Let’s not.”

The crew finally stop their chatter in order to allow Chris to begin. Jim is only quiet because of the hand Bones has clasped over his pout. With everyone’s attention, Pike starts, “Now this is a short story; only one sentence. So pay attention, I don’t like repeating myself. Ahem. ‘It was discovered that the species do, in fact, enjoy tickling others, especially if the target’ –which in this case was our dear Jim– 'also enjoys the activity.’ AKA Captain James T. Kirk admitted he enjoys being tickled in an official, signed report.”

The crew laughs and applauds while Jim takes the chance to try disappearing into his chair, which is impossible. But dammit he is gonna try. It’s Uhura who takes note of Jim’s behavior, noticing he’s beyond the embarrassed stage and more uncomfortable. As she’s in charge of communications, she’s able to ease Jim’s nerves with what she knows. “Kirk, the mission was assigned to us specifically by Admiral Pike, so the report went straight to him. No one else saw it.”

Pike adds, “She’s right. No need to worry, the rest of the fleet still thinks you’re a trouble making bad boy. How that is, I’ll never know. It’s quite the opposite. I’m proud of you, Jim.”

Jim’s blushing from both the embarrassment and the praise. He complains, “You just did a total 180 from making fun of my to saying you’re proud of me; that’s so weird.”

Bones is quick to swipe a finger behind Jim’s ear to draw out a squeak. “We can definitely go back to making fun of you.”

“Nohoho! That’s okahay.”

Chris let’s out a laugh as he watches each member of the crew try to get a hand in to tickle Jim. Smiling fondly, Pike speaks above the noise, “Well I’m gonna be signing off now, you children. I’ll talk to you more another time. And let me just say, you’re the weirdest jumbled family. Glad to be a part of it. Pike out.”

Through his laughter, Jim manages to shout a goodbye. It’s not long before the crew leaves Jim to catch his breathe. Though it’s not much longer until they’re poking at him once again.

#Star Trek #tickle planet series #tickle fic #tps #star trek: tps #mine #my writing #ticklish!jim #ticklish!kirk #jim kirk #bones #scotty #uhura #chekov #sulu #spock #pike #father figure pike

[deforrestdraper]

Remember when I said all my faves are alcoholics?

(Takes place before Mirror, Mirror.)

Drowning

Leonard McCoy knew he was functioning about as well as could be expected for someone who had absolutely no business being in space in the first place. He knew, logically, that the only form of transportation statistically safer than space travel was beaming from one location to the next—and wasn’t that a laugh. There simply wasn’t anything in space to collide with, no vehicles that weren’t operated by highly trained personnel. He had a better chance killing himself walking the halls of the corridors tripping over his own two feet than he was to die in some horrific accident out in the vacuum of space. And yet—

And yet, he knew what the vacuum of space could do to a body, what kind of radiation was out there, what kind of disasters could result from a little bit of trouble with the warp core. He had to know about them, because he was the one expected to undo the damage and save lives should they ever happen to anyone on the ship.

So he managed about as well as anyone else who had gotten this far out before realizing that space probably wasn’t the best line of work for them. At his age—and anyone else on the ship with a similar problem, but he kept those safely and confidently in his own medical files—there wasn’t much option by the way of career choice. He’d worked too long and too hard to be a doctor, and he was in the service now whether he liked it or not.

Sometimes, he needed a mild tranquilizer to push back the dread, or a light stimulant to force his mind to focus on the work, but never more than he prescribed anyone else, never more than strictly necessary, never enough to qualify as a problem when he tallied and submitted the monthly inventory report. Never enough that it couldn’t be chalked up to the regular needs of any surgeon who was technically on-call 24/7.

Which is how it came to be that when he needed to relax on his off-duty hours, he poured himself a glass. One was usually enough, two if his mind wouldn’t let it go that they were in the macro equivalent of a tin can screaming through space—don’t think about it, Len, don’t think about it. Sometimes, though, something would just set him off, like the ensign today who had come in with a minor exposure injury after “forgetting” to wear a pressure suit beneath his walk suit—and Leonard would be tearing Scotty a new one later about enforcing basic safety procedures—when he’d set out in a space walk to repair some minor damage that had caused a bit of buckling in one of the bulkheads.

Leonard had been fine, at first, safe in his Med Bay far from any of the outer layers of the ship, but later, alone in his cabin, with a view straight to the stars through a porthole he really wished hadn’t been put there, not knowing what section the damaged bulkhead had been in, not knowing when the last time his may have been inspected, not knowing if any moment now, a fissure that had been invisible to the naked eye would rupture and he’d be blown out into space like so much debris and Leonard caught himself pacing his cabin like he was trying to put off weight, that he set aside a hypospray charged with a chemical that would counteract the alcohol’s effects should something happen and his services were required, and knowing that he had been scheduled the next two days off, he drank.

It should have been fine. They were sitting in a starless expanse, even by the massive scales set by space itself, studying what existed in vast swathes of nothing. They were deep in Federation space, lightyears away from anyone or anything else. It was the kind of mission where you expected more injuries from boredom idleness than anything else.

4 hours and one Romulan encounter later, Leonard was swaying in his quarters, administering a second dose of the antihol because one wasn’t working well enough this time, and waiting for the effects to fully register in his system before, without changing back into his uniform, he was back in the business of saving lives. His hands were steady, his decisions correct and competent, his reaction times superb, and his breath smelling of moonshine from the amount that was still trying to digest in his gut.

It wasn’t the first time, and Leonard knew it probably wouldn’t be the last, but it was obvious enough that after everything was secure again and no one was fighting back the dark curtain of death, that Jim came down to speak with him. At least he had the grace to see him in Leonard’s office with the door shut.

“Bones,” Jim began, tentatively, struggling in and out of captain-mode in such a way that Leonard wasn’t sure if he was here in an official capacity or not.

Leonard kept his back to his “medicinal” liquor cabinet and decided to give the conversation a small push. “Jim, is this about what I was doing before I came back to sick bay?”

A kind of relief pushed at the corners of Jim’s face, perhaps at knowing they were both on the same page without having to say it, without having to push the damning question. “I’m told this wasn’t the first time.”

“Need I remind you that I was also off duty?” Leonard asked easily, always feeling lighter after a successful shift, scheduled or not. “A man’s entitled to a little drink now and then.” The words felt like a misstep before they’d even left his tongue.

“A little drink? Christine said you were smashed.” Christine, not Nurse Chapel—the talk was off the record, and Leonard intended to keep it that way.

“And I was also supposed to be off for two days! If it were anyone else—”

“It wasn’t anyone else, Bones!” Jim proceeded with the argument Leonard had started. “It was my Chief Medical Officer, who I might need in an emergency at any time—”

“Exactly!” It was the point he’d hoped Jim would make. “No one else on this ship is expected to be fit for duty at any given moment, just the Chief Surgeon. Everyone else has someone in the chain of command who can take over in an emergency, but medical personnel are expected to be ready to go at the drop of a hat.” Jim looked like he hadn’t considered so much, and Leonard made a show of rubbing a hand down his face. “Look, Jim, I’ll admit I had two days off and I had no reason to believe I’d need to be called in, so I let myself get a little drunk. But I was also ready to come in when you needed me. I did do my job and I can do my job, but you can’t expect me not to relax once in a while if you’re not going to hold the rest of the ship to the same standards. Does that sound fair?”

Leonard thought it was nothing short of a miracle that Jim had let him get it all out like that without challenging him on any point, but the bigger miracle yet, was the understanding smile. “That sounds fair,” Jim conceded. “I’m sorry, Bones.”

Relief spread through Leonard’s body almost as quickly as the impending hangover was. “And I’m sorry, Jim, for putting you in this position in the first place.”

“It happens to the best of us.” Jim took two steps toward the door, stopped, pivoted. “Just to be sure, I want to hear you say it. Do you have a problem?”

The look on Jim’s face was so gentle, so kind, that Leonard felt the regret deep in the pit of his stomach even as he kept every hint of deception clear from his face. “I don’t have a problem.”

A couple hours of paperwork and a looming headache the size of Jupiter later, Leonard made it back to his cabin, exhausted and hoping to be unconscious before the last of the moonshine finished metabolizing in his system and his hangover could begin in earnest. He could always counteract the effects medicinally, but he felt that would be taking it one step too far. Negating the effects of the liquor to save lives was one thing, canceling out the resulting hangover for his own comfort was something else entirely. He’d made his bed, and he was determined to lie in it—face-down this time, apparently.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d laid like that—not long enough to drift off to sleep, that was for sure—before a chime rang through his quarters. He ignored it; it came again, and a minute or so later, again.

Leonard groaned and pulled himself into a sitting position. “Enter.” The door slid open to reveal Spock, who stepped through immediately and allowed the door to shut behind him. Of course it was Spock. No one else would just stand there for who knows how long ringing the bell without backing down but Spock. Leonard scrounged up the last of his patience. “Listen, Spock, I’m exhausted, and I’m off duty. Whatever it is, it can wait for tomorrow.”

If Spock got the hint, he ignored it. “Doctor, I have received some disturbing reports about your health as of late.”

Leonard let out a slow breath, forcing his brain to kick back up into a gear that could handle this conversation. If Jim had been aware of his problem, then of course Spock would be. As First Officer, in charge of all crew and command issues, and being Spock of all people, Spock would be aware more than Jim should have been. “Is this on the record?”

“No, not as of yet.”

“Alright, sit down, Spock” Leonard pressed a hand against a temple and rubbed briefly. Off the record was something at least. His official reputation remained in tact, no matter what rumors circulated about him. “Then about those disturbing reports?”

Acknowledging the invitation and the fact that Leonard had no intention of leaving his bed entirely, Spock sat next to him on the bed, and both of them stared forward, determined not to look at each other. “Doctor, it has come to my attention that you may be suffering from an illness.”

Leonard could never tell if sticking to titles without names meant anything when it came to Spock, but he didn’t intend on making things easy for the Vulcan. “And what illness would that be?”

“Substance abuse disorder, specifically alcoholism.” Hearing it stated so plainly when Leonard had been lying to himself about it so far, gave him enough pause that Spock was able to press on unchallenged. “While this disease has not affected your medical ability to any measurable degree at this time, it has impacted your interpersonal relationships with both friends and shipmates. I have observed that not only have you have become increasingly reticent as of late, but that your temper has become shorter as well. It is my intention to address this problem before it becomes a matter of record.”

There was that magic word again: problem. It was a problem, and Leonard knew it no matter how much he tried to sweep it under the rug. In the beginning, it had been manageable, most likely. Thinking back on recent months, he had been hanging back from the rec room in favor of his own quarters, he had been taking a sip when nerves had started getting to him, he had let slip a xenophobic insult or two Spock’s way when he hadn’t been totally up to snuff. As usual, Spock’s logic was damn near bullet-proof.

Spock continued: “Judging from the apparent cycle I have observed, it would seem that your urge to imbibe is in response to a trigger. I have correlated these instances and they seem to most align with high-stress incidents, specifically those that affect the ship as a whole. Would I be correct in assuming that this is in response to feeling overwhelmed in the medical bay? If so, I may be able to request the addition of another surgeon to the staff in order to decrease your workload.”

It dawned on Leonard that Spock was trying to be considerate in his own way. Instead of seeking a replacement, he was offering additional support. Instead of condemning him for a drinking problem, he was offering assistance in understanding and correcting it. “No, Spock, I’m not feeling overwhelmed in sick bay. If I had my way, I’d be spending more time there than here in my quarters.”

Spock folded his hands in his lap. “If work is not the stressor, may I inquire as to what is?”

Leonard took a deep breath, held it, released it. “It’s space.”

“Space?” Spock parroted.

“Yes. I’m terrified of it, Spock. I keep thinking one of these days, something’s going to happen, and I’m going to just die blown out into space—that my body’s going to be drifting lost in that damn vacuum for the rest of eternity.”

“Doctor,” Spock’s voice sounded very patient, “Surely you are aware that space travel is safer than any form of ground travel available on earth at this time.”

“I know that, Spock,” Leonard caught his temper rising and cut it off, “But knowing that and getting over my astrophobia are two entirely different things.”

There was a pause as Spock considered Leonard’s words. “If you are indeed suffering from astrophobia, why did you pursue a career as a doctor in Starfleet?”

“It wasn’t this intense at first,” he admitted with a little defeat. “I feel like every time we have an incident—a battle or an accident—it gets worse.” It sounded logical to Leonard at least.

Spock adjusted his hands so they were laced together in front of him. “Doctor, if you are experiencing a fear of space to this degree, then perhaps—”

“No, Spock,” Leonard cut him off before he could finish the thought. “I want to be here. I can do the most good here. I’m just not adjusting well, that’s all.” Adjusting well was probably not the word for it, considering they had been out in space for over a year now, but if Spock took issue with his wording, he didn’t say as much.

“Then you are determined to stay here on the Enterprise?”

Leonard nodded. “I am.”

Spock sat still—thinking, considering—long enough to make Leonard more than nervous. Then without warning, Spock straightened even more than before. “I may be able to provide assistance for the psychological aspect of your disorder, and I am willing, so long as you address the physical aspects accordingly.”

Leonard frowned a bit. “If you mean talk therapy, I’ve already—”

“No, not talk therapy, Doctor. You have already admitted that your aversion to space goes beyond your rational processes, and that despite that, you are determined to remain here on this ship. This leads me to believe you would have already attempted to encourage your mind to accept the logic of the facts, to no avail. As you are a skilled physician and it would take considerable time to arrange a replacement and acquaint them with a new ship and new patients, I am averse to recommending your discharge at this time if it can so be avoided. When putting these things into consideration, it is of my opinion that a mind meld may be the most appropriate course of action.”

“A mind meld?” Leonard said with a start. “You really think you’re going to be able to solve this mess by poking around in my head?”

Spock brought his hands in front of his face. “No. I am aware that this will be an ongoing struggle for you. I do not expect you to achieve sobriety overnight, nor am I dismissing the possibility of experiencing setbacks.” Spock pulled his hands back down and turned, facing Leonard for the first time since the difficult conversation began. “However, I do believe the best results will be achieved by first correcting the underlying aberrant thought processes, and that continuing success depends strongly on building on a strong foundation of logical thought. I would also prefer to avoid watching you become increasingly ill or facing the prospect of losing your services on this ship. A mind meld is the most logical solution at this time.”

It was about as emotional a confession as he was going to get. Leonard brought a knuckle to his chin and turned over all this new information in his head. He couldn’t argue that the idea had merit, and he didn’t relish the thought of possibly facing a discharge or having his problem turn into a more permanent issue. Everything Spock said sounded right, and if Leonard was being honest with himself, the proposal felt like the saving grace he’d been looking for all these months. Mind made up, Leonard addressed Spock again. “And this will all stay off the record?”

If Leonard didn’t know better, he would have thought Spock looked relieved. “So long as progress is being made, I am reasonably certain your treatment can remain confidential.”

“Even from Jim?”

“The Captain need not be informed.”

Leonard propped his foot on a knee and considered once more, giving himself one last chance to back out. He could trust Spock to be discrete. He believed him when he implied that this would be between just them so long as some progress was being made. He knew for a fact that Spock could handle the job with all the tact the situation deserved. All that was left for Leonard was to decide if he was really ready.

Leonard turned and faced Spock cross-legged on the bed. “Alright, Spock, let’s do this.”

Leonard closed his eyes and felt fingers press lightly against his face. “My mind to your mind. Your thoughts to my thoughts….” Then Leonard’s mind was both one and two and space suddenly was not so very vast.

#star trek #mccoy #kirk #spock #tos #oc #t #n #starTrek #km #sm #ksm #me #work:drowning

[kinetic-elaboration]

February 26: 2x08 I, Mudd

Finally getting to this week's episode of TOS.

I remembered I, Mudd being basically fun but not exactly my favorite, and that's still my feeling.

This is the angriest I've ever seen Spock. "Labels do not make arguments." And then how McCoy realizes as soon as he gives his impression of the android how badly he's fucked up but he just has to keep digging that hole.

McCoy commits a micro-aggression lol.

And when Spock talks about McCoy's "beads and rattles"--that voice is 100% the tone Vulcans used to use before they killed someone.

That android looks so familiar. I guess he's not actually a common ST actor but he looks a lot like the common ST background actors.

"Scotty, the intruder's in your area" while Scotty's already on the floor. He got the memo.

"Tell security we found the intruder." We know the situation isn't that serious because Kirk still has a sense of humor.

I like that Spock appreciates that the android doesn't refer to Spock as part of "humanity." And he's definitely interested in the android.

I feel like it shouldn't be this easy to get control of a Federation star ship. Like Mudd is NOT that smart.

I can't believe Spock's first instinct is to try to meld with the machine. Stop being such a slut, Spock.

"He appears to have turned himself off."

Right there on the bridge!! Where he just stands in front of the doorway for 4 days, the least convenient spot.

Kirk is so relaxed about this mission. The ship's been captured and is rigged to blow but oh well! "We're going on a trip." "A gracious invitation." It's like he can already sense this episode is going to be nonsense all the way down.

JAMIE. How dare??

The last time we saw Mudd, Kirk was volunteering to be a character witness for him. Oh where did it all go wrong?

Spock is "ill equipped to appreciate" the ladies. Makes him sound gay.

How much do I LOVE that the VULCANS caught Mudd? He tried to steal Vulcan IP and they didn't like that. I want to know everything about Vulcan society tbqh.

So gross how obvious it is that Mudd is fucking the androids.

The irony of Mudd's situation: a prisoner who can have whatever he wants, but still a prisoner.

Kirk is not amused by the sexist wife android.

This is basically What Are Little Girls Made Of? but like.. not as good.

Kirk doesn't like androids, clearly.

This whole bit about how Uhura could live forever in an android body... First, her interest in the pretty girl androids is very Gay. Second, interesting that this is appealing to her? Third, so this is Dollhouse but with androids. And finally... I feel like this is very not in keeping with the rest of the universe. Like nothing else they can do is on the level of making people immortal. It's such an outlier skill/offering.

Replacing the Enterprise crew with androids--Kirk doesn't like that.

Better than Leningrad...

I am intrigued by the concept that the androids both want to serve and want to study people. Like it does make sense, they can't serve if they don't understand, but it has just that little bit of subtle creepiness to it, which I appreciate.

Kirk cannot be bought. I love episodes where everyone else is, to some extent, tempted by something, like utopia or soft animals or android servants, and Kirk is just like "I'm already living my best life as Captain of the Enterprise so thanks but no thanks."

Spock stepping in to this conversation just reads to me like the smart kid in class waving his hand to answer a question. Like he was not involved in this but he hears a question and he must answer it. "I know what human unhappiness is!! I know!"

THE ENTERPRISE IS A BEAUTIFUL LADY AND WE LOVE HER.

There is nothing tougher to overcome than a sense of purpose. Love that line. Honestly, among other things, I think it describes Kirk and his heroism well. He has a sense of purpose!! And he cannot be swayed.

And now the androids are becoming more like the threatening robots you expect: humans are imperfect/flawed/lacking in logic, can't be trusted to roam free, but are easily pacified with baubles and shiny things, so the robots will make everything better by simply distracting them with whatever they might want, thus saving them, and the universe, from themselves. “You species needs our help…We shall take care of them  You will be happy and controlled.”

I wonder a little bit if this is what happened to the Makers. Like, I know their official cause of death was Exploding Sun/old age…but as my mom pointed out, if the robots DO have the ability to grant immortality in the form of robot bodies, why didn’t the Makers take it? Because the robots made life boring?

Kirk admits to no longer be amused. Uh, yeah, this USED to be hilarious, but is it still hilarious? No.

Pointy-eared thinking machine. YOUR pointy-eared thinking machine, specifically.

Kirk and Spock are operating like a hive mind.

Spock would NEVER sell false patents to Amanda, she is awesome.

And now we’re officially in “Kirk versus the machine and Kirk wins” territory. I do like this type of narrative, so this isn’t a complaint.

Finally, he’s fully enjoying himself too.

I love the fake out with Uhura “betraying” them.

…Okay this is just wacky lol. That’s my only commentary.

Can you imagine the Vulcans seeing this? Not only are the humans acting strangely but SPOCK is too. He’s playing along with the fun and games! How weird of him.

And the head of the androids bites the dust, done in by the old “liar lies” conundrum.

The satisfaction Kirk gets from saying "I am not programmed to respond in that area."

And now he gets to listen to the soothing sounds of Bones and Spock gently mocking each other.

Some of Mudd’s androids have the same dresses as the women in Mudd’s Women.

Not super keen on Mudd's eternal punishment being having to live with many versions of his irritating wife.

And that was the ep. I don’t have much else to say about it. I think What Are Little Girls Made Of? did the androids who’ve outlived the civilization that made them concept a lot better, and overall, as far as sci fi narratives go, this ep didn’t contribute much of anything that hasn’t been said or done before. Not that every story has to be ground breaking, but I just mean, as a sci fi story, it wasn’t fantastic, and as a humorous story, it was… decent, but maybe not as much my thing? I don’t know. Surreal.

It does bother me that we never find out how Norman got on the Enterprise in the first place lol. Like, does Starfleet not have security measures? Can anyone with a uniform just beam right on?

Next ep is Metamorphosis, which, while it does have some uh problematic gender stuff, is also all about LOVE and has my favorite Kirk speech in it so it’s one of my faves. 

#the year 2021 #2021: star trek tos #2021: star trek #star trek tos

[kinetic-elaboration]

September 13: 1x14 Balance of Terror

A little late this week because Friday didn’t work out but here I am with my liveblog (ish) of Balance of Terror.

This is the one that starts off with Kirk officiating a wedding, which is adorable. He loves this part of his job. He loves love so much!

Also they’re going to broadcast this important event through the whole ship. And Scotty is walking the bride down the aisle, which is so on point for him.

Sulu, shut up. Kirk’s busy officiating here. He broke out the romantic lighting on his eyes and everything.

The Earth-Romulan War, over a century ago. That’s a long time. Interesting that it wasn’t a Federation war, although Spock mentions allies. Either that was pre-Federation within canon, or pre-Federation in the writing of Star Trek, or if it really was just an Earth war. Were Vulcans allies?

I’m just....... eternally fascinated by Romulans. It fascinates me too that this whole history is ALSO the background to the Kelvin attack in AOS, which is 35ish years before this. So at the time, the Romulan war had happened, but Earth didn’t know what Romulans looked like, and then one shows up on this big-ass ship and just destroys a Federation vessel for no reason. It’s not even clear if they knew Nero was a Romulan if I remember correctly. Basically my point is that AOS should have done way more with this.

Also outposts on asteroids.

This engaged couple is adorable.

A space vessel attacked your outpost? A space vessel? In space? How could it be??

Spock’s make up on point as usual.

Time to screen share.

“Their invisibility screen must work both ways.”

Kirk is so smart and has such a great command presence. I love him.

Today’s one allotted use of Kirk’s first name by Spock: “The exact heading a Romulan vessel would take JIM.”

I mean it was obviously a Romulan attack lol. I know from the last ep Kirk really likes to be sure of stuff but who else could it possibly be??

Stiles suggests there could be Romulan spies on the Enterprise, for reasons I missed because I was busy thinking about how he was dumb. I respect Kirk for listening to his men when they’re being smart but on further reflection... how the heck would Romulan spies get on a Federation ship?? Also nothing ever came of this so...

Dun dun dun, big reveal! Everyone’s so shocked and Spock is like initially surprised and then faintly resigned. “I know how this is gonna go... brace for racism.”

Alternately: “...Dad?”

Yeah, Kirk, shoot down that bigotry on the bridge. “I said I’m sure you’re complimenting my husband on his decoding abilities, RIGHT?”

Spock probably could decode the message though.

...Thinking about it now, did they ever decode the message? Or was it just important for like figuring out where the ship was or that it still existed even though invisible or whatever?

Cry me a river about wanting to go home, Romulan Commander, you were the one who crossed into Federation territory and attacked outposts for no reason lol. “I can’t believe our acts of war are going to lead to war.”

He’s like Romulan Pike. So world weary and dramatic. “Danger and I are old companions.”

Stiles is all like “well Spock’s an expert on Romulans” but he’s not an expert? He’s just making up what he knows about them based on very old Vulcan history.

I know later “canon” killed this theory but I took Spock’s reference to Vulcan’s colonizing past as him guessing that perhaps Vulcan colonized a planet and then forgot about it, and those colonists missed out on the Surakian revolution. And I find this pretty hilarious so I’m just gonna stick to it.

Romulan Commander would not get along well with Nero. Here he is waxing all poetic and stuff. Bet he’s never met a miner in his life.

Kirk’s profile when he’s looking down... you can see why CPine was a good choice to reboot him.

Lol random Janice Rand. Just here to hug Kirk since Spock is too busy being on the floor.

What the heck was that with Spock and Stiles? He just shows up at the navigator’s station like “Hey. I dare you to be racist right now.”

People who don’t like Kirk need to watch this ep, along with the Corbomite Maneuver. His gravitas, his sense of command.

RIP Centurion.

The Romulan Commander is so “oh woe is me, I am so far from home, I only wish to see my familiar stars again” but BITCH you left home! You attacked people for no reason!

Enterprise after dark.

Kirk just lying around, looking handsome. Resting handsomely.

Taking out Chris Pine’s tiny violin while Kirk whines about command.

When McCoy started in on his speech, my mom was like “McCoy has been drinking” and honestly......lol and she’s probably not wrong. He’s still being sweet though.

Spock what the hell man. Stop being so awkward and clumsy, bitch.

“He reads the thoughts in my brain.”

Woah forgot the part of this where they blow up a literal nuclear warhead.

Sulu’s into this Navigator Uhura thing. Real step up from Stiles.

Commander’s so fed up with this Decius bitch.

Spock runs like a dork, too. Still there to save the day and Stiles’s ass though!

Firing the phasers isn’t very pacifist of him.

“In a different reality, I could have called you a friend.” They should have rebooted him, and had him meet CPine’s Kirk.

No, not Tomlinson!!

The irony of the groom dying is the part I remember from this ep, that Kirk did a good job, destroyed his enemy, avoided the neutral zone, and got away with only one casualty--but that casualty was the man who was about to get married--but the actual literal ending is bizarre. “There there, crewman... okay time to get back to work.”

Then striding through the halls alone.

I love this episode and it holds up, although I sometimes missed the finer points of their maneuvering. I think this is partly because there’s a lot of technical stuff going on along with a lot of other stuff in the span of less than an hour and partly because this is SUPER space Navy, like one of the straight up Naviest episodes they ever did, and Naval battle narratives is not a genre I’m super familiar with.

There is way more to unpack here than I am really up for lol. First, while I love Kirk and Kirk-centric eps and the whole ‘he and the Commander are so similar they basically have a telepathic connection’ stuff... there’s a lot of barely touched upon Spock stuff here. My mom and I are disagreeing about how much he knew. She thinks he did know what Romulans look like, or that at the very least some Vulcans, like important Vulcans (and we know Spock is important) would have to know, because the whole concept of katras makes it impossible for them as a people to really forget anything. But I think it’s more interesting, and more in keeping with what this episode implies, if Spock specifically did not know. So this is a big reveal for him. And then in addition to dealing with Stiles’s shit, he has to assimilate that an Earth/Federation enemy is a relative of his people. And it’s a glimpse into the pre-Reform era, which you know even Vulcans have gotta be fascinated by. AND his positions in this episode are just... not super pacifist. Like the stuff he has to advocate, and actively do, like in firing the phasers and so on, is exactly what his dad warned him about when he was like ‘hey I’m gonna join the military, peace out.’ Then there’s the added wrinkle that the Romulans probably also don’t know what the Vulcans look like and Spock is conveniently never around for the Romulan Commander to see him. Not that he could take the info back with him, but they never have any confrontation even between them. So that’s a lot right there.

If this were a S2 or S3 ep, it would have been Spock-centric.

Literally can’t believe there were only 2 Romulan centric eps in the whole of TOS lol. Major missed opportunity there.

Next ep (hopefully this Friday!) is Shore Leave. In which McCoy has 3 ladies and Kirk has a homoerotic wrestle in the dirt with a man and somehow everyone still thinks he’s the space slut.

#the year 2020 #2020: star trek #2020: fandom thoughts #star trek tos