Karmic Retribution
Post- The Empath: In which the Vians find out that Gem got more than feelings of compassion and self-sacrifice from the Humans...
Standard disclaimers: Star Trek is not mine - the injustice of it all...
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Personal log, Lt. Nyota Uhura
Today's shift was certainly one for the books.
It started out as an ordinary day. Sulu and Chekov were having a quiet discussion on the merits of fencing versus running as exercise. Mister Scott and some technician (and I'm embarrassed to admit I can not remember his name) was tinkering with one of the engineering control panels. Captain Kirk was leaning on the console next to Mister Spock's station, chatting about nothing in particular. I had finished running the daily diagnostics on my station, and was about to test some new software on our translation modules when the lift doors opened.
It was Doctor McCoy, with a grin on his face. I was happy to see the doctor smile. Ever since the mission to Minara II last month, he has been uncharacteristically quiet. Why, I think Mister Spock even tried to deliberately goad him into one of their arguments, with no result. It worried me. It worried everyone who knows him.
"Ah, Uhura, I have your new ear piece ready for you. I didn't touch the electronics, mind you, just the casing. Want to try it out?."
A week ago, my communications earpiece started to bother me. Then it started to rub my skin raw. McCoy treated the skin irritation, and then asked if I could give him one the pieces, to see what he could do. He handed me the new piece, and I replaced the one I was wearing. It was amazing - I barely noticed it after the old, heavy one.
"It is wonderful, Doctor. If you don't mind, I'll just put it through its paces," I said, and turned back to my station. He leaned up against my console, looking like his old, relaxed happy-in-a-grumpy-way self. And then everything hit the fan.
There was an odd noise behind me, half popping, half odd musical tone. Gasps from around the bridge, and then the Captain's outraged, 'You!"
I spun around. There were two aliens standing near the helm. They were tall, with angular skulls. They wore long silver robes.
The Captain spoke first, his voice tight with control. "Ladies, gentlemen, I have the great displeasure of introducing you to the Vians. You remember, from the Minara II mission?"
How could we forget?
The captain looked furious. Mister Spock had a look of stern disapproval on his face. I could see Hikaru's fingers twitching, like he wished he was holding one of his fencing swords. Belatedly, I looked up at McCoy. His face had gone gray. His hands were clutching my console, his knuckles white. He noticed me looking at him, and, bam! Down came his professional face, which gives away almost as little as Mister Spock as his most Vulcan.
The taller of the two aliens spoke. "We know that you have no reason to help us, yet we would ask..." He was interrupted as someone behind him pushed him aside.
She was a lovely thing, delicate, with large dark eyes. Her eyes flicked across the bridge until it came to my station, but she wasn't looking at me.
"Gem?" It was McCoy. I was relieved to see the color come back to his face.
The young woman smiled and ran to him. She moved like a dancer, quick and light. She hopped up to the upper level of the bridge and threw herself into his arms. After a moment, he returned the hug, one hand stroking the back of her head.
"There, there now," he said, that charming accent of his becoming more pronounced. "Worried about me?" He pulled back from her a little, so he could see her face. "See, all in one piece."
The life door opened, and a team of security officers poured in. They pointed their phasers at our unwelcome guests. Kirk gave an small wave of his hand - "wait", it said.
One of the intruders said, "We told her we had reversed the damage, but she wanted to see for herself."
"She didn't believe you. Imagine that," said McCoy with his characteristic sarcasm.
Good for him, I thought. Like you could just wave your magical techno-wand and undo that kind of damage. I was at the officers' briefing on the Minara mission. I knew what happened to them, what happened to him. I heard the tricorder recording, Mister Spock detailing McCoy's injuries, heard the doctor telling Spock, in a barely audible whisper, that he had a good bedside manner. And two weeks ago, as I was going to my quarters, I heard some inarticulate shouting. As I ran down the corridor, I saw the captain pounding on the doctor's door, yelling for him. Just as he was starting to use his override to open the door, the door slid open. McCoy was standing there, face haggard and eyes wild, like he had just seen something terrible. And, typically, he tried to shrug it off. "Nightmare, Jim," he said. "Didn't mean to cause a fuss."
"Reverse the damage" - what arrogance.
Gem reached up and touched McCoy's face. She frowned, and touched him again, sliding her hand up to his temple.
"What's the matter?" asked Kirk, who had moved up to my station.
To the surprise of everyone, she turned and glared at the Captain. He seemed to be taken aback.
"What did I do?" he asked, amazement, and perhaps a bit of hurt in his voice.
"She does not believe that you are taking proper care of your friend," said the other alien.
She turned her glare on Mister Spock. He raised one eyebrow in surprise. One of her eyebrows raised in response. All of a sudden, it clicked for me. The glare, her posture, the angle of her head, the way she raised her eyebrow. I could see the realization dawn in the Captain's eyes. For the first time since the Vians appeared, he relaxed.
"Got more than you bargained for, didn't you?" he asked, in a tone that could be taken as polite or mocking. I'm pretty sure he was aiming at mockery.
"As we planned, she passed along the desired qualities - the love of life, the need to know, the will to protect others. But..."
The captain actually laughed at them. "Yes. But you got some other things, didn't you? Let me guess?" he purred (he was really enjoying this). "She is also grouchy, bossy, and doesn't suffer fools gladly, if at all? And she is passing all of those qualities on her people?"
"Yes." They were almost expressionless as a Vulcan, but they seemed dismayed.
The Captain's grin got wider. "Sorry, you're on your own. As we say on my world, live with it."
I think both of Spock's eyebrows were going to crawl right off his face. But then I could see the glint of humor in his eyes.
"An entire planet of beings behaving like a mother hen with only one chick? The social dynamics must be - fascinating." he said dryly.
At that common complaint, Doctor McCoy jerked back a bit.
"Are you implying that she is acting like me?" he asked, torn between amazement and outrage.
I had to turn away to hide my smile. He didn't see it of course - we never see ourselves as others see us.
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TV back in the 60s had a bad habit of hitting the reset button at the end of every episode - no matter how much trauma and angst the characters went through in one episode, it was like it never happened. And this episode just screamed "there has to be consequences" to me. I rather like the story arc style now used in many shows, although I am not adverse to the occasional stand-alone episode.
I did make a small change, based on a comment by reviewer EmRose. McCoy would be concerned more with the ergonomics of the earpiece, not the circuits inside. Although, when I worked for a large Chicago hospital, we often did small repair work ourselves. It was that or wait for the work order to work its way up our department's chain of command, over to the Maintenance department, and down their chain. It was just a heck of a lot quicker to fix stuff ourselves!
Poor Bones. Return of the Archons, Catspaw, Mirror Mirror - it's amazing the guy wasn't a basket case by the end of the 5-year mission. (and let's not forget the whole Black Knight incident - ouch)
OK, I think Southern accents are adorable. Hey, I married a guy from Virginia.
And if you liked this work, it is possible you may like the fourth chapter of my story It Never Happened in Middle Earth - it is possible.