A/N: So, it has been a while since my last update! I got busy with school stuff. I would also like to apologise for the way that Chekov was written in the last chapter. I write at about 1 in the morning and for some reason my 1 o'clock brain decided that putting w's in all of Chekov's words was okay. It is not okay and re-reading several days later I appear to have annoyed myself. That will be changed as soon as I can and in any further chapters Chekov's accent will probably not be written in. You can all decipher that for yourself, haha. Anyways, onwards and I hope you find this next chapter up to scratch.
Show Me How Big Your Brave Is: Chapter 4
I woke with start as Mr Chekov came hurrying into the captain's room. He looked at me with wide eyes as I blinked myself awake. To have to awaken myself must have meant that I slept at least a little. That was a change from my late nights of no slumber. I tilted my head to the side as I pulled out my communicator. It flashed brightly in my face, however it showed the time to be 9:23 in the morning. I had fallen asleep properly at around 2:30 that morning because I had continued to mumble my sleepy thoughts to the captain in hopes that maybe something would awaken him. Of course I knew that was unachievable, Mr Kirk would only awake when the radiation poisoning had been battled and the new blood was flowing normally.
I had woken at 6:36 I seemed to remember and then gone back to sleep at 7:42. It was no where near a full night's sleep and nor did I feel anymore awake than when I had last night but I did feel better in myself. I felt the captain's hand in mine as I turned my head towards his bed. It was warmer than last night, mainly because the heat from my own hand had been transferred but it was still lifeless and frail.
"Mr Spock! Mr Spock!" interjected the ensign, his voice was strained and nervous. "The weapons training started 20 minutes ago! They sent me to find you, I figured you would be here." I dropped the captain's hand on to my lap and forced myself to awaken instantly. I had not read the notes on the database, nor the ones that Lieutenant Uhura had written for me. I had not prepared and yet I was expected to be able to aim and fire a new phaser with confidence.
"I see." I started slowly, my mind working too slowly for me to able to process to deal with this situation, "I am sorry for being late. I shall be there in 10 minutes. Please explain my lateness to the weaponry technician on hand."
Mr Chekov nodded in response and was about to back out the door before turning and speaking to me once more.
"You spent the night, Sir?" he asked quickly and merely nodded. He smiled to himself before removing himself from the room and shut the door again. I wondered what the smile meant for a moment and then decided that the answer would not be of any concern to me and my primary concern of the moment should be how I was going to get through this weapons practice.
I got to my feet, carefully placing the captain's hand back on to his bed and brushing a few creases from my clothes. There was no time to go change them and I appeared to have slept in a generally upright position. No slouching had occurred to completely deface my clothing and so I decided that these clothes were presentable. I had been wondering why Doctor McCoy had not turned up at the crack of dawn and found me with the captain, but the fact presented itself to me that he too would be at the weapons practice.
As I walked to the door, I turned to face the bed.
"Thank you for listening, Captain." I nodded, remembering back to the night before where I had been unraveling how I felt to the captain. I paused in the door way and looked over him once more before leaving.
I was still tired, I had not eaten again this morning and I had not eaten since yesterday's lunch, apart from an oat bar that Lieutenant Sulu had coerced me into eating. It was worth noting that small snack had not been eaten because of a sudden growth in my appetite but because I wished for him to stop grumbling at me. The oat bar itself had made me feel positively sick for a good proportion of the afternoon but I made no complaints.
My main problem however was, despite the lack of sleep and food, I had not read any notes. Neither had I done any research into these weapons. As I stumbled along the corridor and towards the correct area of Starfleet I pondered to myself whether it would be worth doing the exercise, or whether I should just tell the weapons technician why I could not do the activity for today. My brain jumped back and forth between the two ideas before settling on one.
I would do the exercise and pretend that I had read the notes. The new phasers could not be that difficult to use, I was sure. Also, this would stop the rest of the crew members worrying about my capabilities and whether I was fit to work. Clearly I was, why would I not be?
I turned a corridor and was met by two large glass doors. Behind these doors sat the weapons practice hall. I could hear the laugh of Mr Scott, his accent struck me most as it carried on into his chuckle and resonated out of the hall and into the corridor that I was standing in. The other sound was the sound of a laser being released and hitting it's target. A sound that was not entirely strange in this kind of exercise. I pushed on the laugh doors and closed it quietly behind me after I walked in.
I had not been in this room for a little while now, I had had no need to do so until now. It had a tall ceiling, no windows and laser absorbent wall coverings. There were targets painted on to one wall and rows of dummies across another that I assumed were to practise targeting moving objects as I saw one of the models tip backwards and away from the destruction of the phaser. The floor was a simple grey colour and seemed to have no special features added to it.
"Good to see you, Mr Spock." spoke a familiar but light voice. I turned, my hands clasped behind my back as I did so to put a face to the voice. It turned out to be Lieutenant Carol Marcus, a face that I had not seen since we arrived back on Earth. She smiled at me, leaning her shoulder on a wall of the hall as she did so.
"Hello, Lieutenant. I did not expect to see you here." I stated and raised an eyebrow in her direction.
"I am the weapons expert that is teaching the crew about the new phasers today." she replied with a nod, "Although I am sure you will know all about that wouldn't you, Mr Spock." I widened my eyes just a little at this comment, unsure of what to reply with. "It would not surprise me if you had done extra research, given the extra time you have while the Enterprise is grounded." she continued and nodded slightly.
"Of course, Lieutenant, I am aware of the workings of these weapons." I replied, the lies that I could not normally have told were sleepily tumbling out of my mouth. As she turned away I frowned at myself for my words until I heard her speak.
"It didn't work." she muttered rather loudly to Lieutenant Uhura. She sighed and shook her head, aiming her phaser and shooting at a red target in anger. I assumed this was in anger. She just missed the middle and grumbled to herself.
"He's got to admit it sooner or later." Lieutenant Uhura replied under her breath as I moved away from the pair of them.
I walked to the edge of the line and placed myself next to Mr Chekov. He too shot at a target on the wall, his aim was a little less sharp than Lieutenant Uhura but the ensign did his best. I picked up a phaser and turned it over in my hands. I had just watched two of my fellow crew members shoot the same piece of weaponry but I had not paid heed to how they had done so. I mistake that I was beginning to regret.
The longer I stood here doing nothing, the more attention I was attracting. A couple of people had stopped to watch me shoot it for the first time and Lieutent Carol Marcus came walking back over to me.
"Go on then, Mr Spock! Let's see if this extra research paid off!" she chattered with a smile as I raised the phaser. I sense of anxiety came over me and my hands, as steady as they usually were, began to shake. I forced them to be still and realised that I could not find the trigger.
"Of course! As we all know! These phasers have a hidden trigger, it is designed so that enemies and non-members of Starfleet would be unable to use our own weapons against us!" The Lieutenant proclaimed to the rest of the crew and I mentally cursed myself. I fumbled around as I tried to find this trigger but to no avail.
As more and more of the crew stared across at me I lowered the weapon down towards the ground. I held it in my hands and turned to the group.
"I find it hard to work at my very best when I seem to have a crowd watching me." I said. My grip tightened around the phaser and the noise that had been filling the room until Lieutenant Marcus had spoken echoed once more.
A sudden pain hit my foot and my eyes widened in shock. I gritted my teeth greatly to stop myself from crying out in agony and I fell against a wall. A collective gasp was heard around the hall and Lieutenant Uhura clapped a hand so hard to her face that the vibrated around the whole hall.
"Dammit, man!" cried out Doctor McCoy as he rushed around the back of everybody. I did not dare look down, the pain was coming from my foot and I had a horrible idea of what I had just done to myself to cause so much pain. The doctor was the first one to reach me, Mr Chekov snapped out of his horror to come to my aid as well.
I was silent as I looked around the training room, peoples mouths were moving, people were talking loudly but it simply echoed around in my head. My brain felt empty and everything appeared to move in slow motion as Mr Chekov pulled my arm over his shoulder to support me as I felt myself falling sideways. A movement I was now grateful for. While most of the crew were talking among themselves, their eyes still fixed on me however, Lieutenant Uhura was not. She kept her eyes trained on my foot and the hand that was not over her mouth hung uselessly by her side. Mr Scott had come to her side though, placing a hand on her shoulder and talking in her ear.
She began to shake her head, I could not hear what Mr Scott was saying nor were my eyes clear enough to try and read his lips. I was sure he was trying to comfort her though, a deed that I could also be grateful for. Keenser had followed Mr Scott and had patted the Lieutenant's hand in comfort.
As I broke my eye contact from her I saw that Mr Chekov and Dr McCoy had been trying to get my attention. Slow motion was all I could see in as the pain from my foot began to travel into my ankle and I winced rather loudly. They looked panicked as I made a strange noise in my pain. I could see their lips moving.
The words of Dr McCoy seemed quiet although I was sure that he was shouting at me, fear in his eyes as I didn't respond.
Okay, so definitely shorter than the last chapter. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I wanted to leave it there though. I hope you enjoyed it!