Disclaimer: SSDD
Warnings: I have no idea what I'm talking about so I'm sure all the computer crap is completely wrong – and truthfully – I could go upstairs and have some guru check it over right now – but I don't wanna – so let's all just pretend that this is FICTION and that in some alternate reality it actually makes sense. Hehe.
Just don't flame me fore being a reject.
Author's note: Sorry this was a long time coming – just got midterms done. Updates will be slow for the rest of the semester but Spring Break is coming up. Yay.
Spock was once again awoken the next morning by James standing next to his bed pouting.
"What is the matter James?"
"I can't go potty and I don't know what to do."
"I see. What seems to be the problem?"
"Don't wanna say." James admitted sheepishly staring at his feet.
"James, if you do not tell me what the problem is, I cannot help you."
James shifted his weight from one foot to the other nervously as he contemplated whether or not to explain to Spock what the problem was. Finally he leaned over and whispered into Spock's ear, blushing furiously as he did so. Spock nearly grinned when he realized what the problem was....nearly.
"I see...perhaps you should try...showering first James."
"But I gotta go NOW!" James whined practically dancing back and forth on his feet.
"James, do you remember Jim having a similar problem n the mornings?"
"Yeah I guess." James shrugged.
"Cannot you do what he did?"
"No way! That's scusting!"
Spock had to struggle to hide his amusement at this remark. He formulated a way to approach the subject differently.
"That is not the method I was referring to James. There are different techniques that can be employed to quell the...problem. For example, you could meditate, or utilize certain breathing and calming exercises. However, the simplest method is to revert your thoughts,, think about something mundane, or tedious."
"Something boring?"
"Precisely. You should find that will remedy the situation."
James shifted back and forth on his feet more frantically. His brow furrowed as if he were concentrating very hard on something of great importance.
"I can't do it!" he finally spat exasperated.
"I see. There is a technique I can employ to help you , but I will have to engage a minor meld in order to help you." Spock explained, automatically reaching up towards the meld points on James' face.
"NO!" James shrieked, backing away from the Vulcan. "No MELDS! That's a big rule. They said no melds or I get in big trouble." James' face paled and his heart raced as he fell backward onto his makeshift bed. He seemed terrified, staring wide eyed at Spock.
"It is alright James" Spock spoke softly. "I will not perform a meld. Please do not be frightened. You are alright and you are safe with me. No one can hurt you here."
James seemed to calm and soon his fright turned into a pout and he slid off the chase lounge and shuffled back over to Spock, who was now sitting solemnly on his bed. James sat down beside him and hugged the Vulcan tightly, resting his head on Spock's shoulder.
"I'm sorry Spock. I didn't mean ta yell. Are you mad at me?"
"No James, of course not. Are you quite alright now?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I can go potty now too." James said perfunctorily, sliding off the bed and padding toward the bathroom. Spock thought to himself that he had much to discuss with Doctor McCoy indeed.
The rest of their morning went smoothly and soon they were on their way to breakfast. James refused to leave his blanket behind and ended up getting syrup all over it, which immediately upset him.
Nyota and Christine took James to the ships laundry to get it washed, which left Spock and Leonard to explain to Riley, Giotto and Janice Rand what was going n with the Captain. The others soon dispersed to their various duty shifts, and Spock was about to explain the events of the previous evening when he was called to the bridge to deal with a minor problem.
When Jim got to sickbay Bones gave him a thorough examination, but found no changes. Jim conveniently shared none of the previous evenings events with his friend the Doctor, telling him only that he got a bubble bath and a bedtime story.
When he repeatedly whined about being bored Bones had to find something for him to do. Christine remembered that there were a few tubs full of blocks and legos in the daycare and sent one of the medical yeoman to get them. They cleared out the back area of Bones' office for Jim to play in and he spent the better part of the morning erecting an elaborate block and lego city through which he ran hot wheels cars that the yeoman had also seen and brought.
Bones made notes in his file about his building ability, noting that his manual dexterity was fully intact, and that he seemed to have retained the ability to construct complex structures such as bridges ans skyways with no problems. The mechanics behind the bridges were sound as well, they were well shored and well constructed, but when Bones asked how he knew how to make them so well, James just shrugged.
He had managed to explain to Bones that he wouldn't let anyone call him Jim anymore, Jimmy was okay but not Jim. Bones found that very interesting as well and made a not to contact the ship's counselor to talk to Jim.... or rather James... about that later. He was just finishing up entering his observations into the database on the computer when the screen went blank and his file disappeared. He tried many things to retrieve it but it was to no avail, something was going on with his terminal and it wouldn't cooperate at all. He could get back to his files and pull any file up, but the minute he tried to add to it, the glitch re- occurred and the screen went blank and herky jerky before the main screen came back up again.
He swore up a storm hitting the damn thing for good measure until he had James giggling at him in the corner which of course only caused him to scowl deeper, so he gave in and called IT. They told him there was a problem in the mainframe and it was effecting several terminals throughout the ship and that they were working on it but couldn't nail down the problem.
They were sure it was a breakdown in one of the primary algorithms concerning data storage and file updates, but they hadn't been able to trace the source yet. The best they could do was to have a tech come up and reroute the Doctor's terminal temporarily so that he wasn't connected to the mainframe, then reconnect him once the problem was fixed and have him back up any changes he'd made to his files to the mainframe then.
Unfortunately because the problem was effecting random terminals ship wide, they were already stretched thin and it would be over an hour before a Tech could get to sickbay, which of course made Bones swear even louder and longer. Fortunately for the ensign in IT on the other end of the comm, someone from Engineering came in with a gash in his forearm and required immediate attention, so Bones severed the comm link and stomped out into the sickbay main room grumbling all the way.
When he came back into his office 30 minutes later he dropped the data PADD on his desk, knowing it would do no good to link it with his terminal and update the Engineering Lieutenant's file until after IT had fixed the problem, but when he turned the terminal on he could tell an immediate difference. His files had been moved around and seemed to be in a much more efficient order and the screen was no longer glitching at the bottom as it had been.
He experimentally pulled up the Lieutenant's file and synced his data PADD and then hit the update button and the data saved, not only to his terminal but to the mainframe as well. He was grateful but found it perplexing that he hadn't even seen the Tech enter sickbay or leave.
"Guess he must have been avoiding my wrath" he grumbled to himself hitting the comm button for IT.
"Dr. McCoy, I was just about to comm you." the ensign who he'd been talking to earlier stated.
"Yeah, I see you fixed the problem. The data I just entered saved to the mainframe as well, so I guess you must have tracked down the faulty algorithm. Good job kid."
"Well that's just it, we didn't and the Tech I was going to send up to your office never made it there yet."
"Well it's fixed isn't it? I mean I just came in here and my terminal was set up different, and all the bugs aren't...well... buggy anymore."
"Yes the problem is fixed, but we didn't fix it. As near as we can tell, somebody hacked into the mainframe, traced the problem to the source, repaired the algorithm and then remotely restored all of the terminals that had been affected, and that same somebody did a full restore to your terminal as well as adding a whole list of upgrades some of which I wasn't even aware were available for your system – we still haven't upgraded your terminal from the last system wide updates, but it looks like we don't need to now. The problem is, we don't know who did it, and it's got IT Security up in arms."
"What do you mean you don't know who did it?"
"Just that sir, it wasn't anyone in the IT department, and we've already contacted Commander....sorry.... Captain Spock, Ensign Chekov, and Commander Scott, and none of them were responsible for the hack or the algorithm repair or anything else. The only thing we do know sir, is that whoever did it, used your terminal. Um... is the Captain... you know, Captain Kirk, is he with you? I mean I heard that he, well, wasn't himself, and wouldn't be able to do something like this, but he's the only other person on board with the kind of computer skills to have pulled something like this off sir."
"Yeah, yeah he is here with me." Bones admitted thoughtfully, shooting a sideways look at James who seemed to be completely engrossed the the game he was playing as he sat in the middle of his block city. "Look, I can't imagine that he could have done it given his current …. medical condition, but, I don't have any other explanation for you. You are sure that it was my terminal that was used?"
"Oh yes sir, that's the only thing we are sure of at this point. I alerted Captain Spock just before you commed me. I was about to comm you and let you know what was going on and tell you that he said he'd be in sickbay shortly."
"Yeah well thanks, if I come up with any answers for you, I'll let you know."
"We'd appreciate it sir."
McCoy shut the comm link off and swiveled in his chair to face James, who was still playing in his block city and completely ignoring the Doctor.
"Jim... er.. James... look Sport, did you do something to my computer terminal while I was out fixing the Lieutenant's arm?"
James just shrugged at him and kept playing his game. Bones got down on the floor and scooted over next to the city so he could look over the wall and bridge at Jim.
"It's okay, you aren't in trouble, I just need to know. Did you?"
"Maybe. I heard you talkin' to that IT dude."
"Uh huh. So you knew that there was a problem with the mainframe?"
"Yeah, it wasn't that big a deal Bones."
"Oh really? Why do you say that?"
"Acuz it wasn't."
"Well, what do you mean though. What wasn't a big deal? You mean the problem with the mainframe?"
"Yeah, that. It was a algorithm like he said. The origination code expired. It just needed to be updated, so I updated it."
"You did huh? You know that would have meant re-writing the algorithm."
"Yeah I know. That's what I did... you sure I'm not in trouble?"
"No, no you're not sport. So let me get this straight. You used my terminal, to hack into the mainframe, track the problem to the source, find the degrading algorithm, re-wrote the algorithm, re-installed it into the mainframe, rebooted the entire ship system, and then wrote a subroutine that would automatically backtrack to all the affected terminals and restore them as well?'
"Uh huh. It's not that hard you know. Then I noticed your puter was on the upgrade list so I fixed that too. And I changed some stuff around to make it easier for you to access stuff from in here. An I dint hack the mainframe, I got access still yaknow, Jim was the Captain afterall, and Spock ain't changed our access codes yet."
"Spock hasn't changed your access codes yet James. Ain't is not a word, and I may have to remedy that and terminate your codes if you do not stop using them in inappropriate fashions without first getting permission from either Doctor McCoy or myself." Spock said from the office doorway, where he had obviously heard all or enough of James' explanation to understand who had fixed the computer issues.
"But you said last night was okay wif the door and stuff cuz I had a bad dream an.... HEY, where'd you get that cool bear?" Jim broke off suddenly spying the green teddy bear that the Vulcan was holding.
"I did say that you were not in trouble for using your access codes to enter my quarters last evening James, but that was because I should never have locked the door in the first place. As for using your codes to access the mainframe, you should have apprised Doctor McCoy or myself of what you intended on doing before you did so, and I expect you to use better judgment in the future. If you promise to seek permission before using your access codes again, I will not terminate them unless Starfleet orders me to do so, and you may have this bear that I found in the Daycare."
"I promise, I promise, I promise!" Jim exclaimed excitedly his eyes and attention focused only on the bear. He nearly knocked over the outer wall to his city trying to hurdle it and get to Spock to take the bear. "Wow he's so cool, he's just like the one I usta have cept he's green but that's even better cuz he reminds me of you Spock cuz you're kinda green too and Vulcans got green blood. Christine look at my bear!" he shouted excitedly at the nurse who came right over to see it.
"Guess you two had an eventful evening last night." McCoy said wryly to Spock.
"Indeed. It seems that James' computer skills are fully intact, as well as his fine motor skills, and mechanical abilities. There are other things you should know as well." Spock began to explain, looking at James reluctantly, not wanting to have this conversation in front of him. Christing seemed to pick up on that as well. James had been telling her he thought the bear should have pointed ears like Spock's.
"Well I think that's a fine idea Jimmy." she said to him and looked pointedly at Spock and the Doctor as she took his hand and led him out of the office. "I'll bet we could make his ears pointed like Spock's, what do you say we try?"
"Oh could we?" they heard him say as Christine led him away and out of earshot.
Spock then explained all of the events of the previous evening which perplexed Bones just as much as they had him.
"So wait, does that mean that Jim is still in that brain of his somewhere, maybe co-existing with this younger self?"
"I do not know for sure, It seems as if something like that is possible, there was one point when James seemed to actually talk to Jim internally, it is very complex, and very confusing and I do not know what these things are that they need to 'think about' or come to terms with in order for Jim to return to his normal state. I can only suggest that we continue to observe his behavior, and enlist the help of the ship's counselor in determining what the solution might be."
They talked things over for a bit longer, batting theories back and forth but ultimately getting nowhere, except for being more confused about what was going on with Jim than they were to begin with. Bones was rubbing his head and face in frustration when James came bursting back in with his bear who know proudly boasted pointed ears. Janice had somehow cut and sewn them that way, in that short amount of time.
"Isn't he awesome, I'm gonna call him Spock." James declared, hugging the bear closely to him, his blanket now all but forgotten, still lying in the middle of block city.
"Will not that be confusing?"
"Yeah kiddo. If you call the bear Spock, what are you gonna call Spock?"
"Hmmm, I dunno yet, I dint decided. How bout I just call him little Spock then? I'm hungry can we go get lunch?"
"Of course we can kiddo." Bones said, standing and clapping Jim on the back.
"Can little Spock come too? He's hungry too."
"Sure he can. Can't he Spock? What does little Spock eat?"
"I fail to see how he can eat anything. He is a stuffed bear. He is not alive, nor does he have a mouth or a digestive system."
"Of course he eats and his mouth is right here and he eats green stuff silly." James stated as if it should have been obvious to the other two as he took Spock's hand and practically drug the Vulcan out of sickbay.