Chapter 2
As soon as they entered the room, Rachel noticed Captain Kirk, standing a few feet from the middle chamber of the brig where there stood a tall, muscular, dark haired man in all black Starfleet attire.
"Jim, what's going on? Who is this guy?" McCoy prodded as the three of them approached the others.
"Just calm down Bones, I called you and Officer Deveaux down here because I need your combined scientific expertise," Captain Kirk explained. "Our friend here in the brig, is an intergalactic terrorist going by the alias John Harrison and is refusing to tell us anything about his true identity or his reasoning behind his attacks including the latest one that he almost got away with on the planet that we are currently surveying." As Kirk continued there was an emotional twinge in his tone. "We have just received news that Mr. Harrison was the one responsible for the attacks on the federation last week that claimed the life of 42 of our fellow Starfleet officers including that of Admiral Pike. Admiral Marcus has instructed that any officer to come into contact with him was to kill him on sight, but I have stumbled upon some evidence that, at the moment, Mr. Harrison is of better use to us alive as long as this secret is kept between only the few people in this room."
"Jim, this is insane, why should we keep this lunatic alive after all the grief he's caused, and what possible reason is there for you to need Deveaux and me to give you scientific advice in this situation?" McCoy shot out heatedly.
"Bones, watch your attitude," Kirk warned. "Mr. Harrison has some sort of genetic mutation and I'm going to need you, Spock, and Deveaux to figure out what makes him tick. We are going to stay in orbit until the natives of the planet finish their ritual, so that we can grab our last samples and head off, but in the mean time I want you three in here studying him and writing up a full report on your findings. And none of you are to breathe a word of this to anyone else, we don't want Marcus to find out we have him, understood?" Kirk finished as he looked at the officers for their responses.
With that, McCoy gave a hesitant nod, and he and Rachel replied in unison "Yes, sir." As she spoke, Rachel wondered to herself about the man whom she was about to study and how the entire time that she had been in the room, she noticed that his steely blue eyes had seemed so calm as his straight posture gave him an air of assurance even though he was a prisoner aboard the ship who was about to undergo medical testing, it seemed he had no qualms about the situation whatsoever.
The Captain dismissed the red shirts whom, it seemed, had already been sworn to secrecy earlier. The Captain then announced that he would be back at 22:00 to gather any developments that the three might have to report.
"I suggest that we begin by drawing a blood sample," Spock stated after the doors had closed behind the captain.
"I'll do it," McCoy grumbled as he grabbed a syringe from the cabinet.
McCoy walked over to the barrier of the brig and made a hole big enough for Harrison to stick his arm through and instructed him to do so.
With a stoic yet slightly interested look upon his face, the man approached the barrier and complied with the medical officer's request. Rachel watched as McCoy drew the man's blood and wondered how he could maintain such composure. When McCoy had finished, he split up the sample into different vials for each officer to study and then he brought them into the adjacent room which served as a smaller scale med-bay specifically for prisoners. Rachel and Spock followed and he handed them the samples and got on the computer to start recording the initial report. After a few minutes with the samples, each of the officers were astonished at their findings.
"Fascinating," Spock exclaimed.
McCoy was so sick to death of always hearing Spock say that word and was increasingly eager to see what was going on behind those microscopes, but had been relegated to writing the report as he was the prisoner's attending physician.
A few minutes had passed and Spock again expressed his interest in the samples.
"Truly fascinating."
McCoy pushed his Vulcan crewmember aside to peer into the microscope as he barked "What is so damn fascinating, you probably don't even know what to look for you green blooded…." McCoy drew in a breath and began again "This…This is amazing."
Rachel added "Isn't it incredible? The regenerative properties of these cells are like nothing I've ever seen! I thought the foliage we're studying was a breakthrough, but this….this is just epic!"
"It seems as though Mr. Harrison's blood could prove to serve very useful in the curing of an astoundingly wide variety of humanoid ills," Spock concurred.
As the three discussed the possibilities, they vigorously continued their research for hours until they decided on a lunch break.
