I'm sorry if this is sad. I mean, I'm also not sorry, because that's what I'm aiming for here, but sorry anyways.
Nothing goes well on the U.S.S Enterprise. That statement, that one sentence, should have been one of the key points for any person to read before signing up. You wouldn't even have to be on the ship for more than a day before some sort of trouble began. Most people on the ship knew this, especially the bridge crew. That's why, after several weeks of no insane activity, the ship's entire crew began to get worried. Whilst passing through the halls of the ship, whispers and mutters could be heard in the far corners. Whispers and mutters with traces of fear and anticipation. Crew of all races and genders were waiting for the one day, the one moment where the entire ship was going to hell. The longer the peace, the more fearful everyone got. Soon, they knew. Soon.
X-X-X-X-X-
"Bones, how's it going in med bay?" Kirk's voice could be heard on the bridge as McCoy walked through the doors. A groan was heard.
"Same as five minutes ago, dammit. Everything's fine. Why do you keep calling me here, I've got paperwork!" Bones snapped back, clearly frustrated.
"I have a bad feeling, Bones," Kirk answered back, not looking at his friend, but deep into space instead.
"Like a sick feeling, or a stupid captain that always bothers people feeling?" Bones rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed.
"As were all aware, everything has been running smoothly for about two weeks," Kirk began, before McCoy interrupted him.
"Yes, and how is that a bad thing?"
"Because nothing is just ok on this ship, Bones! Don't you feel it? That dreadful feeling? How many patients have you treated in the last two weeks?" Kirk inquired, slightly raising his voice.
"Well, nothing major. A few burns from some ensigns down in engineering. Chekov hit his head a couple days ago, but it wasn't anything serious. What's your point?" Bones gestured to Chekov sitting in front and crossed his arms.
"Captain, I would have thought you would have been in a higher mood currently. What Doctor McCoy says is true, everything is running smoothly. There have been no large accidents in the ship, which although is a bit different from usual, it is still better," Spock's voice made the two turn their heads to the Vulcan, who was now facing the two. Bones simply pointed to Spock for emphasis.
"He's right ya know. I know what you're feeling now, I felt it too the first week. I've gotten used to it now. Everything is running well. That's it. Pretty normal for most starships right?" Bones spoke up before Kirk could intercept.
Kirk groaned and got up from his chair. "I get it, I get it. Fine. I still don't like it though. Spock you have the conn, I'm going-"
A large rumble that echoed through the ship stopped Kirk mid-sentence. Everyone on the Bridge stopped what they were doing and looked to each other, some with wide eyes, knowing that the day that hell was going to rained upon them was there, others with confused looks. Kirk immediately answered his communicator when it began beeping. A panicked screaming voice nearly deafened everyone there. It came from Kirk's communicator.
"Engineering to Bridge, this is Scotty!"
Kirk immediately answered. "What going on down there, Scotty?"
"Engineering just damn near blew up, sair! Thare's a big fire down 'ere now, I cannae assess the damage just yet! I need medical staff down here, pronto!" Scotty's loud shouting could barely be heard over the screaming metallic sounds in the background.
"Got it. Try and fix the damage Scotty!" Kirk ordered through his communicator before turning to Bones. "Assemble a medical team to Engineering."
Bones rushed out the doors and his voice could be heard giving commands to his nurses through his communicator.
Kirk sat down in his chair again, preparing himself mentally for any further developments.
"Spock, what's the status?" He asked.
"It appears that an internal explosion has damaged a large part of the engineering department. Just like Mr. Scott has informed us, a fire has started. However, the fire is spreading quite fast, despite the upgraded fire-proofing that was added last time the ship was in for repairs. I am even detected some sort of life coming from the fire. It appears to be some sort of one celled fast reproducing organism," Spock recited to the captain.
"Is there any way to contain it, maybe communicate with it?" Kirk asked.
"Not so far, captain. I'll look into it further," Spock sat back at his station.
X-X-X-X-X-
Engineering was a living hell. Fire everywhere, screams from injured ensigns trying to avoid worse burns then they already had, and a constant screeching sound from the metal being literally melted from the intense heat.
Scotty himself was rushing around the catwalks, trying in vain find a way to save his ship. The fire ate up everything it came into contact with. He had already escorted some of his ensigns to the nurses to be treated when he ran into Bones.
"Scotty, what the hell is going on down here?" He yelled, barely audible over the noise.
"Uh, I'll get back to yah on tha'," Scotty yelled back, running away again in an attempt to help his ship in any way. Bones started to run after him, shouting at him something about a huge burn on his back. Funny, he didn't feel any pain, though he was feeling a bit tired. Probably from the heat, he guessed.
A large crashing sound made him turn around to see a large beam take down a large chunk of the catwalk. Bones was on the other side, seemingly unharmed but a terrified look replacing his frustrated grimace.
"Jus' get everyone outta here! I'll follow soon!" Scotty continued running the length of the path and down a ladder, though he had to let go a few feet from the ground when the ladder burned his hands too bad. He landed on the ground with a thud and a groan. Everything was just too hot. He reached into his pocket for his communicator, but dropped it with a yelp.
The high heat had partially melted the device in his pocket. That's when the true feeling of pain set in. Scotty finally felt the multiple burns and scratches across his entire body and nearly collapsed. He was heavily sweating. No matter. Push through it. There's a ship to save.
X-X-X-X-X-
"Any update, Spock?"
"None yet, Captain. I'm still not certain how this life form got on the ship in the first place," Spock's answer frustrated Kirk, much to the point that he just wanted to go down in Engineering himself to try and fix the problem. Wait, why hadn't he done that yet? It was his ship, for god's sake!
"Spock, you have conn. I'm going down there," he announced, before heading out the door, Spock on his tail.
"Captain, I highly object. The state of the Engineering department is in too much turmoil for anyone to access. The chance of you dying in there is close to 81.4%. Staying here would be a more logical decision," Spock argued, but James T. Kirk had his heart set on going to save his ship.
Spock sighed internally. "Captain, how will the situation improve by going down there?"
"I'm going to try to talk to it," Kirk answered, though Spock heard him mutter "or something like that" under his breath.
X-X-X-X-X-
Scotty could hardly breath in the depths of Enterprise. The smoke was so thick. He was heavily coughing and hacking up his lungs as he tried to drag one of his ensigns to safety. Just a little bit further. An exit was just up ahead.
The loud metallic sounds had calmed a bit and the cries of pain and panicked shouts had almost ceased. Scotty hoped most had made it out alive. The person he was dragging in question was a young male, black hair, or blonde, he was covered in so much ash and soot it was hard to tell. From the looks of it, he had been knocked out by one of the many pieces of falling debris. His head bled a little and he had a nasty burn above his eyebrows. More like what was left of his eyebrows. He didn't recognize the worker, but heck, he was covered in soot and Scotty tended to get too buried in his work to notice most of his workers anyways.
The door was finally in sight and with a new sense of adrenaline, Scotty rushed forward, opening the sealed door in seconds. He laid the ensign on his back against the wall and climbed back through the door for one last once over. There was no way to save his precious department now. The fire almost seemed alive, the way it ate everything up. Scotty took one step away from the door, scouting for any other people. A large crack resounded above him. Without thinking, Scotty leapt forward as a rather large singed piece of machinery fell from the ceiling, blocking the door.
"Well, shite," Scotty whispered to himself aloud as he looked around at his surroundings again, a feeling of raw hopelessness growing in his stomach.
X-X-X-X-X-
Bones stumbled through the corridors of the ship, heading back to Medical, where he was needed most. He sported a nasty burn on his legs from that stray pole that separated him from that idiotic Scotsman.
"I hope he knows what he's doing," McCoy muttered to himself, rounding a corner and bumping into Kirk.
"Jim! What the hell is going on!" McCoy nearly screamed at him, partially for scaring the crap out of him from coming out of nowhere and also for the fact that their captain was currently heading towards danger. Never a good thing.
Kirk stumbled a little from running into the doctor, but recovered quickly.
"The fire is a living thing. I'm going down there to try to talk to it. Maybe find a way to contain it," Kirk continued his way further into the ship.
"Like hell you are! It's too unstable down there! You need to-" McCoy tried to talk sense, but Kirk was having none of it.
"Bones! Get to your station, now! I have a plan!" Kirk yelled back.
McCoy gritted his teeth. "Fine," he spat. "Just make sure to bring back that damn Scot," he spoke through his grit teeth and clenched his fists in frustration.
At that, Kirk stopped. "Scotty's still down there?" he asked, worry lacing his voice.
"As far as I know, yeah. I tried to pull him out. He was injured, but he still wanted to help the ship. Why?" Bones softened just a tiny bit after hearing Kirk's tone.
"I haven't been able to reach him yet. I think there's something wrong with his communicator. If he's still down there-" Kirk didn't finish and instead looked down the hall.
Kirk looked to a device on the wall, pressed a button and spoke into the speaker.
"Computer, locate Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott," He said, then paused for an answer.
"Cannot locate Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott at this time. Scanners in the Engineering department down. Try again later," The mechanical voice answered back.
It didn't even have to finish talking before Kirk and Bones set off for Engineering together, at a much quicker pace than they had been walking before.
X-X-X-X-X-
Another piece of debris scraped Scotty's arm. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't see. His entire body was almost completely covered in black soot, though there were some spots on his body were enough sweat had collected to keep the black ash away.
Scotty stumbled away from a large wall of fire to his left side and towards what he thought was a way out. He was wrong of course, because he didn't get his sorry ass out of the danger zone quick enough. They would probably have to detach the entire Engineering department from the ship to save it.
His legs finally gave out, and he slumped to his knees. It was too much, all of it. He was an Engineer for god's sake, it was his duty to keep the ship flying. What had happened. Why had this fire started? Where had it come from. He couldn't even remember where the first explosion came from.
As the fire began to close in around him, the thought finally got through his head. He was going to die. No way he could get out of this, even if Kirk had decided to ram the entire ship into the ocean as a way to put it out. There was too much. It was too late.
Facing your own death is a strange thing, Scotty thought to himself, taking one more look at his surroundings before closing his eyes.
I guess it's just going to sleep for a long, long time, he thought.
He couldn't keep his eyes closed when the fire did touch him though. Even after having so much trouble breathing, he let out the most bloodcurdling scream as the fire consumed his body.
X-X-X-X-X-
Jim and Leonard finally made it to the doors of Engineering, only to find it blocked by a large amount of flaming debris.
"Well that's just typical," Bones grumbled, crossing his arms and glaring at the door as if it had just insulted him.
"Wait, I think I know a way in," Kirk sprinted to the right down another couple of hallways, McCoy closely following.
They reached a small side door with an injured red shirt by the front door. It seemed as if he had just woken up. His hair could've been blonde, though the soot caked it so it looked black. Eighty percent of his eyebrows were missing and he sported a bad head wound.
Bones immediately kneeled down to scan him and put pressure on the wound to stop the blood.
"Damn it, this door's blocked too!" He heard Jim shout and looked up to see a large pole blocking them from entering.
"T-There's someone in there…" the ensign choked out, pointing to the blocked door. "I dunno who it was but… they got me out. I think they're still in there though."
Kirk and McCoy gave each other a knowing look. It had to be him. Kirk took his phaser and set it to high stun before shooting the metal obstructing them from entering out of the way.
He motioned to Bones to get the ensign back to medical, but the worker spoke up.
"I'll be fine, just call down some doctors. It's really dangerous, I don't recommend going in there, but since you are, it would be better to be in a group," he choked out, before taking his own communicator out of his pocket.
Bones looked back and forth between the two, before stepping into the melting department and saying, "Sorry, but as your doctor, I have to agree."
Kirk shook his head and gave a small chuckle at that, just for the fact that he seemed to pull that doctor card out way too often. He and McCoy stepped deeper into the room, turning back to see the door still open to them.
A loud scream interrupted any thoughts they had and they rushed to the source.
X-X-X-X-X-
Interesting…
Spock read further through the computer's database.
"Very interesting," he wondered aloud.
X-X-X-X-X-
When they found the body they couldn't breathe. Couldn't speak. Not for the fact of the thick smoke, but for the fact that Scotty was dead. He had been burned alive by this monster. This monster that was destroying the ship.
Rage fueled Kirk as he observed the fire. He looked at the entire thing as a whole. He didn't care about communicating with it anymore. He didn't care about any new information or whatever that could be learned from it. All he cared about was killing it. It killed his friend, and know it was about to pay the price.
A spot a different shade from the rest of the flames stood out to Kirk. A bright green spot that slowly inched its way up a wall. It looked to have tentacles, tentacles that looked to be shooting out something. Fire it looked like. It was the culprit. It had to die. Kirk set his phaser to kill. It had to be stopped.
X-X-X-X-X-
"What's interesting?" Uhura asked. Spock glanced up to see Sulu, Chekov and Uhura all looking to him.
"I found some information about a creature that fits the description I was able to get. It is a creature that emits fire to gain nutrients from the environment around it. They are an endangered species that were used in countless alien wars for land control due to their destructive nature. They can be bought on the black market for a high price," Spock recited the paragraph to the others. Their eyes widened.
"How did it get on our ship?" Sulu asked.
"Currently I am unable to answer that. It would have had to have been smuggled aboard, since it is illegal for most species to own one of these creatures. I feel that someone may have brought this creature on to sabotage our ship," Spock stood up and walked over to the captain's chair for the comm.
"This is Bridge to Captain Kirk, do you read me Kirk?" Spock spoke clearly through, but was met with static.
Spock frowned and tried again. Static.
"Uhura, you have conn. I'm going to investigate. It is crucial that the captain gets this information. I'm going down there," Spock left in a hurry, leaving the rest of the crew on the Bridge stunned and silent.
X-X-X-X-X-
Bones didn't even have enough time to talk Jim out of it. He had already shot the thing dead before he could look up. He couldn't get his eyes off of Scotty's corpse. Burned. Completely charred. Dead.
That was a hard idea to keep in his mind. Memories of the bubbling Scotsman entered his mind. Drinking nights had always been the best with him.
Dead.
He heard a shot and almost immediately the fire stopped.
Just ended.
It all receded and disappeared until there was a small thunk on the ground and a small limp green body could be seen on the burned up floor of Engineering. Just as quickly as it had started, it had ended.
Smoke still floated in the air, but a new smell of burned flesh hit McCoy's nose. He gagged. Kirk couldn't bring himself to look down on the ground. He turned away. Closed his eyes and turned away.
X-X-X-X-X-
Spock strode into Engineering, completely awestruck that there was no fire. He could spot two dots of color some ways away from him and headed there.
It appeared as if Kirk had killed the organism. A strange decision for Kirk, he thought. Didn't he say he would try to communicate with it?
A new smell covered up the strong essence of smoke. A black mass on the ground took his attention away from the two men.
"Who is it?" Spock asked, although he figured Doctor McCoy hadn't even been able to scan it to find out yet.
The reactions of the two made Spock actually feel a bit scared to know the answer. Both began to cry simultaneously, McCoy covering his face and Kirk stumbling with his words.
"It's my fault!" Bones screamed, slamming his fist on the ground. "I didn't get him out! I could've-could've stopped him o-or something!"
All the pieces seemed to click in at that moment. Scotty's body was sitting in front of him. This explained the emotional reactions of his captain and the doctor. Scotty was the type of stubborn man to go down fighting to save his ship. And go down he did.
Spock cleared his throat, forcing his illogical human emotions down to talk.
"Captain, I have some interesting information I need you to take a look at."
X-X-X-X-X-
It was him. That guy they had run into in front of the door. The guy that Scotty had saved.
It was several days after the incident, the crew was in mourning. The ship itself had a depressing aura to it, as if it sensed her Engineer had passed. Everyone swore that it had become a few degrees colder.
After much digging, Spock had uncovered that a man named Jake Aberdeen had bought one of the creatures and planned to sneak aboard the Enterprise. He was even stupid enough to leave records of his dealings and his plans.
He wasn't however, moronic enough to stick around. After many security searches, he could not be found throughout the ship. The transporter had a record of one person using it last, with the coordinates still saved.
The bridge crew didn't wait for their ship to be fixed. They took another one and headed for the destination, flying as fast as they could, anger, sadness and pure determination to bring this man in and teach him not to mess with the crew deep in their hearts.
That's it. This entire story is just going to be made up of short oneshots where Scotty dies. Why, you ask? Because there's not enough Scotty angst fanfics in this fandom to quench my thirst. And so I write. I'm sorry. I swear Scotty's my favorite character. I know it may not seem like it, but he is. I don't know how many different stories this thing will have, but I have a few ideas. If you have any suggestions for maximum angst, go ahead and comment, I'm all ears. Maybe I can even write up a fic where more than one character dies.
Also the title of the story means "Death of a Friend" in Gaelic. Or so Google Translate says. For all I know it could be pants or something like that.