Here's a new story that I have been thing about in my head for a while now. I have the very basic outline written up with what happens over a three day period, I still have a few supporting details to develop before I can completely type out this story. For now, I have posted this introductory piece involving Kirk and McCoy (non-slash) for you to enjoy. Let me know what you think of it. If I get a decent amount of response, i'll continue typing up this story for you to enjoy at Kirk's displeasure. Hehe.

Went back through and fixed any spelling and grammar mistakes spotted as well as elaborated on a few parts of the story. The chapter word content went up from 1,704 to 2,052. As far as the medical knowledge goes, I'm currently in Paramedic school so this information should be pretty accurate (since I am also a registered Emergency Medical Technician). Be on the Look out for an Easter egg or two in this story since this is the 50th year of Star Trek!

- Little-dhamphir

Kirk woke up to one of the most painful migraines he had ever had in a long time. As he opened his eyes the room spun with a force that he immediately retched the meager contents of his stomach onto his sheets. He turned the opposite direction he was lying in bed and tried to blindly reach his communicator on his bedside table while tears rolled down his face. "Get McCoy. Bones can help." Was his thought mantra he repeated over and over.

"Shit!" he thought to himself once he realized that he left his communicator on the kitchen counter before going to bed a few hours ago. Now there was no way to call for McCoy's help that he desperately needed.

It had been years since a migraine of this degree had reared its ugly head. The last time he had one, he passed out from the pain on two separate occasions just trying to get to a medical center. This was one of the extremely rare occasions that he sought medical attention without fear or trepidation of being around doctors and their hyposprays. Since he was highly allergic to the pain medications that help alleviate the symptoms of the migraine he had previously, he begged them to sedate him. It was the only way to escape the pounding pain he felt from them that made it feel like his brain would literally pop inside his skull.

This time, there was no way Kirk could even stand, let alone crawl to get help. The next round of nausea started to build up he quickly rolled across the bed so he could purge a fair amount of stomach acid. His throat was burning and he could barely breathe – in essence he was choking and no one on the ship had any idea what has happening to him and he was too incapacitated to seek the help he desperately needed.

Three Days Earlier:

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Jim groaned when he heard his bedside alarm go off. It was his fifth consecutive day working and he felt tired. His hand reached out from under the bed covers and struck the snooze button. Five more minutes he told himself. Then he would get up and get dressed for one last shift before his scheduled two day break. No captain duties to deal with unless a life or death emergency occurred on the enterprise. It would be a welcome break since Bones happened to be off for two days as well. It would give them both a chance to chat and catch up while drinking a beer or two and watching the 2256 Olympic Games that was being held on the Earth city of Istanbul Turkey for the third time since the Olympic games began hundreds of years ago.

Soon, the five minutes turned into fifteen as he dozed. When his alarms went off once more he looked at his clock – and saw that he was late.

"Shit!" Kirk said aloud to himself as he sprung from his bed and fumbled towards his closet. He grabbed all the clothes he needed as he made a quick dash to his bathroom. The sooner he was done with his shift, the better. He rapidly brushed his teeth as well as his hair before splashing some water on his face in an effort to try and wake himself up quicker.

As he emerged from his bathroom, he looked at the nearby clock on his wall to see that his shift had now started. It took 4 minutes to get to the bridge from his room at a steady walking pace, but he was fast enough to make it there in two minutes at a run. Which is what he did.

"Keptin on ze bridge." Kirk turned to Chekov and nodded at him in acknowledgement. He moved to his chair to take his seat. There was a PADD laying on the chair demanding the captain's attention. He looked at the PADD and read the titles for the latest ship reports he knew it was going to be a very long day.

"Keptin we are entering the Kirrillian Star System."

"Thank you Ensign Chekov for the Update. Chekov polarize the view screen so we can see the system. Mr. Sulu, proceed forward into the star system at propulsion."

"Aye sir."

"Yes Keptin!"

It was around midday that Kirk was able to take his scheduled meal break. All morning long he had been completing electronic document reports from his seat on the bridge in addition to completing and authorizing inventory replenishment documents, authorizing crew schedules for the next month, sending written communication to Starfleet command about the latest scientific observations on the Kirrilian Star Cluster among other paperwork duties.

Lunch today was the usual consisting of the same human foods most of the crew liked to consume on a daily basis from sandwiches, soups, and salads to the more exotic foods like the Vulcan Plomeek Broth, Andorian Krill Beast Steak and even Stuffed Tellarite Trotter for those who were adventurous. Jim chose the Cesar chicken salad. He added mandarin oranges to it and chose a red apple for his side. A quick glance down the buffet line showed Bones debating between the two Earth lunch specials for the day: Jambalya and Apple-glazed Sausage coins over a bed of butter creolé rice.

Now that he had an hour to decompress from staring at the small PADD screen for 7 hours, he enjoyed the welcome relief of hearing Bones bitch about his day from across the table where the two sat – until he heard what some of the crew had been doing on the holodeck.

"God Jim! It's been a chaotic day having to treat certain imbecilic crew members who dared each other to experience a bullet ant sting! I mean really, do they not have any other goddamn things that they could do on their free time that does not involve taking on bets injecting venom into their goddamn bloodstream?!" Bones was livid. It was a look that Jim had seen on multiple occasions when that anger was directed at him when he was an uncooperative patient under McCoy's care.

"Bullet ant stings? Never heard of that before." Jim spoke aloud briefly as he gave Bones a pointed look. Bones was beginning to make a scene in the mess hall during his tirade. Bones was observant enough to hear the change of tone in Kirk's voice as well as see where his eyes had wondered to know that he should lower his voice so he wouldn't cause a larger commotion than he already did.

"Yeah Jim. This type of ant hails from Central and South America. If you get stung, you endure excruciating pain from twelve to twenty-four hours – or even more – depending on how long the symptoms last. It's known as the most painful insect sting on planet Earth. Some whats-it tribe makes their boys get stung repeatedly as a way to show they are ready to be men. Quite barbaric if you ask me!" Bones rambled on twisting his hand nonchalantly in the air for emphasis.

"Anyway, 4 of your idiotic crewmen from the astrometric and biology departments got into a drunken, heated argument whether or not the bullet ant's sting was really that painful. So they created a rainforest holographic simulation of the Amazonian Rainforest to hunt these ants down by tree bases. They each collected ants and then the imbecilic retards watched each other get stung shortly after turning off the safety parameters on the holodeck. If it wasn't Crewman Marcus who heard them screaming from outside the room as she passed the holodeck 2, there would have likely been a crewman death."

Kirk sat in silence, his meal all forgotten as he wondered just how bored his crew was getting if they will willing to participate in life-threatening activities to alleviate their boredom two and a half years into their five year mission.

" – now two of those crewmembers are sedated until the effects of the venom on their bodies begins to wear off." Bones continued to ramble on.

"So, what symptoms are they experiencing right now?" Kirk was one who did not like medicine or anything that had to do with it or the medical bay. He tried to avoid that field of science whenever he could. He understood that his best friend was a brilliant trauma surgeon, so whenever Bones ranted about his job outside of medical bay, Kirk sat in silence and listened to Bones' rants long enough to ask certain questions that helped conclude the conversation.

"Other than the excruciating pain caused by the ant's neurotoxin? Let's see… there's fever, cold sweats, temors, nausea, vomiting, cardian arrhythmias, and in some cases death of one is allergic to ant venom." Bones ticked off each symptom with his fingers as he rattled them off. "They're damn lucky someone heard them or else Ensign Carleson would be dead. Turns out he's allergic to ant venom and went into cardiac arrest upon arrival to MedBay. Myself and three nurses were able to successfully able to revive him and he's been one of the two patients who have been sedated since their arrival."

"Well, keep me updated on their health statuses throughout the day." Kirk replied after McCoy finished listing the symptoms off.

"Sure thing Jim." Was Bones' response as he stabbed his fork into another piece of sausage that was in his bowl of Jambalaya.

Suddenly, the lights flickered twice before going off in the mess hall. Conversations stopped as people looked around in darkness.

"What's going on?" One crew member said aloud

"I can't see anything!" another said.

"Are we under attack?!" Came a third panicked voice.

"Why hasn't the reserve power come on?!" Another voice from far across the room quipped out.

"Everyone remain calm!" Kirk's spoke aloud as he projected his stern voice across the darkened mess hall. "The lights will come on soon once power has been restored to normal function. In the meantime, return to your posts and he careful when exiting the mess hall. We don't want any injuries."

"Aye sir!" came from several crew member responses. Kirk and McCoy could hear many chairs scrape against the floor as they slid back as the occupants stood up and followed the captain's orders.

"Well Bones, I need to go to engineering to find out why there's a power outage on my ship." As Kirk stood up as well to head out the mess hall. A few crew members had a "bright" idea to activate their PADDs and use the artificial lighting to navigate their way out the mess hall and into the darkened hallway to return to their posts.

"Stay safe Jim and for the love of God don't do anything retarded that will cause you to end up in my MedBay." Came Bones' gruff response.

Jim Kirk flashed Leonard one of his devious grins before departing with the crowd. Seven hours in, five hours left to go.