Disclaimer: Star Trek and it's characters etc belong to whoever owns them which isn't me. I'm just playing. Please don't sue.
Elephant on the Bridge
The quiet tension on the bridge had been gradually building up for days. The crew were noticeably quiet. Mr Scott sat in the captain's chair. Sulu and Chekov were concentrating more than they needed to on the helm. Only Uhura wasn't pretending, she glanced occasionally at an empty seat at a particular station on the bridge a frown creasing her forehead. Scotty noticed her glances but said nothing. The tension noticeably increased as other members of the bridge crew were thoroughly absorbed with their instruments. Something had to give soon. Everyone turned round briefly at the sound of the turbo-lift doors opening. Doctor McCoy entered and the crew once again became absorbed with nothing in particular. McCoy glanced round the bridge. Uhura heard him mutter 'Oh.' before he turned heading back towards the lift.
"Is there anything I can help you with Doctor?" Scotty asked. McCoy looked at him in a distracted way before replying.
"No. I was looking for…" His eyes flicked towards to science station.
"Aye." Scotty said with a nod. McCoy headed back towards the lift.
"Doctor McCoy have you seen Mr Spock?" Uhura asked sounding concerned. McCoy couldn't help but notice the reaction of the rest of the bridge crew. People standing at the engineering stations to the right of the lift had stiffened and were pressing buttons in such a way to make a minimum amount of noise. Sulu and Chekov had glanced at each other before deciding it was useless to pretend and turned to look at McCoy curiously.
"Er no." McCoy replied then after a pause continued. "He is supposed to report to sickbay."
"Is there something wrong with Mr Spock?" Uhura asked concern showing in her voice.
Well he has hardly eaten a scrap since he tried to deflect that asteroid, and as far as I can tell he's not slept either, McCoy thought, but did not say anything out loud. But something must have showed on his face as Uhura suddenly looked quite sad.
"He took a risk and lost." McCoy said suddenly.
"Captain Kirk would've done the same." Scotty said. McCoy looked at him sharply. "Well," Scotty continued. "There's nothing else he could've done against the great pebble out there!" An awkward silence followed, broken only by a small sigh from Uhura.
"It's not the same without Mr Spock here." It wasn't a comment that needed a reply. Scotty and McCoy glanced shiftily at each other, before McCoy muttered something about dragging Spock to sickbay if he had to and left in the lift.
"Chekov, how do you think Doctor McCoy will get Mr Spock to the sickbay?" Sulu asked
"Simple, there is only one way." Chekov replied.
"Oh how?"
"Stun him first."
*In case you're wondering** the title comes from the phrase 'elephant in the room'. Roughly translated it is everyone avoiding talking about a particular subject because they don't know what to do about it/how to deal with it, rather like having an elephant in the room.
**Obviously if you weren't wondering, don't read this bit…