U.S.S. Enterprise – Federation Star Fleet Flagship – 1 year after the loss of Vulcan and 213 years after the Olduvai massacre

Jim and Spock were both pale at the implications of the numbers. "We didn't have phasers, not that phasers would have done us much good. We had solid projectile weapons. In fact, I've still got mine. It's right under my bunk if you want to take a look at it. We had to shoot bodies that looked already dead, because there was no way to determine at the time whether or not they were infected. There still isn't a good way to check for the infection, although there are a couple of signs, unless a blood sample is taken and examined.

"For the most part the infected used their bare hands or simple weapons when they attacked us. That was the only advantage we had against them. No one knew just how much of their minds any of them retained, although one of them took a chainsaw to me and someone had sabotaged the computers in the Earth facility. The only reason that the disaster wasn't worse was that the shot of C24 my sister gave me didn't turn me into a monster," Bones explained quietly.

He waited for the next question. They deserved any truth that he could give them, no matter how much it hurt. They had become his family, just as his team had so many, many years before. "If C24 was mutating the Humans in the facility into monsters as you deemed them, why would your sister inject you with this substance?" Spock asked, confused.

"I'd been hit with a ricochet, that's a piece of a bullet that has bounced off of a surface and continued on a new trajectory. I was bleeding to death, the others were all dead or turned and she had no way to stop any of the monsters that we hadn't killed yet. She insisted that she knew I wouldn't turn. Personally I wasn't sure, but she wasn't about to let me die just because I had doubts."

"What about your sister and Jo-Anna?" Jim asked gently. Although he already had a lot of respect for the man sitting in front of him, this story increased it by a billion fold. He was a genius; he didn't need to be told that McCoy and his sister had been keeping everyone that they ever met away from this secret in order to save an untold number of lives. If something like this infection got loose on a planet with no real defenses against it, the entire population would likely die a horrible death or worse, become the instrument of destruction. Jim had seen enough of that to last a lifetime, and so had Spock.

Bones took a deep breath, and let it out with a shudder. "Sam was injured. She had a broken back and the UAC was about to take her and torture her so that I would cooperate. Someone was sure that I had been given one of the formulas the scientists were working on. Don't ask me how she got hurt. I need to be very drunk before I can talk about that, and most alcohol doesn't do a damned thing to me. It clears my system too fast.

"As for Jo-Anna, Sam thinks she might have inherited C24 from me. She was telling me that Jo was calling her mother's new boyfriend Mr. Stinky in her last letter. Considering that Sam says he smells like he's got every genetic marker for psychotic and violent behavior and they're all active, it's a possibility. On the other hand, Jo's five and if she just doesn't like the guy, well Mr. Stinky isn't that bad an insult for her age." Bones smirked and Jim grinned.

"If I may, I have one question before I must take my shift on the bridge," Spock said. Bones nodded, a lot calmer now that Olduvai was out in the open. "What differences are there if there are any, between Doctor McCoy and John Grimm?"

"I don't have a split personality Hobgoblin! Aside from C24, what you see is what you get with me. Now get that green blooded hide of yours up to the bridge so we can get to Starbase 17 on time to pick up your dad and get my sickbay stocked up!" McCoy huffed as Jim laughed and all three men left McCoy's quarters. The younger two were much reassured that things would now return to normal.

U.S.S. Challenger – Federation Star Fleet science vessel – 1 year after the loss of Vulcan and 213 years after the massacre at Olduvai

The loss of seven starships and numerous smaller vessels at the destruction of Vulcan continued to cause logistical problems for Star Fleet. Many ships had been recalled out of retirement, and the same had been done with personnel in order to man them, but the situation still caused ships to take on missions that had little or nothing to do with their original purpose. That was why the Challenger, an older science vessel that had been retired from routine mineralogical surveys before Nero's attack on the Federation, was now shuttling passengers between space stations.

The Vulcan ambassador Sarek and three of his staff were enroute to Starbase 17 in order to meet with the Enterprise, which would be transporting groups of diplomats to a conference where, among other things, a progress report on the building of the Vulcan colony would be given. This was important information for the Federation to know, not only as Vulcan was one of the founding members and progress in restoring as much as could be restored would boost morale throughout the Federation worlds, but also so that further plans could be made based upon what had already been accomplished.

There were many races, telepaths and empaths all, who could not set foot on New Vulcan because of the great grief that surrounded the Vulcan people. To do so was to invite insanity and both they and the Vulcan people were well aware of it. That did not mean that they did not wish to help, and many had generously sent materials, Vulcan plants and animals from their botany and zoological collections, and provided transportation for workers who were mind blind, and thus able to physically help where they could not. As emotional races, they needed to know what had happened with their gifts to ease their anxiety.

There were two other passengers that were also headed to the Enterprise. Doctor Samantha Grimm and her niece Jo-Anna McCoy were meeting the Enterprise to join her crew. It was due to the small nature of the ship that the six of them were placed in close quarters for their journey. That did not suit Jo-Anna at all. "Aunt Sam, why do they smell stinky?" the five year old asked, not being old enough to have learned about tact yet.

Sam wasn't about to lie to her niece. She and John had decided that if Jo-Anna had inherited John's C24, then they would answer all of her questions about her differences as she asked them. "Do you remember our talk about genetics?" she asked, pulling Jo-Anna into her lap.

Jo-Anna nodded, but kept her attention on the Vulcans sitting at the tiny table with her. "Well, different people have different genetics. Your genetics give you the ability to tell by smell if people have certain genetic markers. If a person has the markers for going crazy or that they can be violent, then they don't smell good to you. That is so that you know to be cautious around them. Now, this is one of the most important things I can teach you about this, so listen very carefully." Sam waited until Jo-Anna had turned back to look at her. "Every person in this universe has the ability to choose if they want to be good or bad. If they choose to be bad, then their smell is the worst smell ever. If they choose to be good, even if they have the markers for being bad, then they just smell stinky."

Jo-Anna thought about that for a moment. "Is that why Mr. Johnson smells worse than Johnny's poop but they just smell stinky?" she asked.

"Yes, you see a long time ago Vulcans were a very violent race. They were worse than the Klingons about getting into fights, but they learned to control their emotions so that they wouldn't fight any more. They choose to be good," Sam explained. "Mr. Johnson chooses to be bad, so he smells much, much worse than any dog poop."

Jo-Anna turned back to the Vulcans and said, "Thank you for choosing to be good, 'cause if you didn't I couldn't breathe and that would be bad."

Sarek inclined his head, charmed by this small child's direct honesty. "Choosing to be good as you have stated it has proved beneficial for many reasons. As I would not wish to cause you difficulties, I am pleased that our choice of logic has benefited you as well. I am Sarek, Vulcan Ambassador to Earth. These are my aides; T'aku, Elkeck, and Shaanveth."

"You're Hobgoblin's daddy!" Jo-Anna exclaimed in delight. As Sarek's eyebrow shot up, Sam grinned. "Daddy sent me a letter from the Enterprise and told me all about Hobgoblin and Brat. He says they're the best in Star Fleet, that's why they're on his ship. Brat used to be his roommate when they were at the Academy but he's the captain now so he's got his own room. Daddy has a hospital all to himself! He's got to take care of everyone who lives on the Enterprise and he says that Hobgoblin's insides are all mixed up and give him a headache."

"It's called a sickbay when it's on a ship sweetie," Sam interrupted Jo-Anna's ramble. "Your daddy is the boss in sickbay. He doesn't do everything by himself."

"You are Doctor McCoy's daughter?" Sarek asked, remembering the rather difficult, although extremely competent doctor.

"Uh Huh, I'm Jo-Anna," she agreed. "Brat calls Daddy; Bones. I don't know why. Daddy told me all about handle ids and he says that they're really important. They have to fit, otherwise they're no good and they're only for people who are really important to you."

Sarek realized that Jo-Anna was talking about nicknames, a peculiar Human custom, and one that he had never really understood. Perhaps this child could explain it to him. "If your father has explained these nicknames to you, perhaps you could explain them to me? Among Vulcans such a naming system does not exist, and as I understand it such names as your father has given Captain Kirk and my son are insults among Humans. I find this most puzzling."

"Well, Daddy's old but he can't call Captain Kirk, kid because that one already belongs to someone else. Kid died a long time ago and Daddy doesn't like to talk about it. Daddy calls him Brat because he gets into trouble a lot, even more than me! Do you know Spiderman?" she asked.

The abrupt change in subject did not faze Sarek. He'd had to follow more convoluted conversations before. "A Human teaching tale for young adolescents," he recalled. "My wife insisted that our son read them for a time. She explained that the tales would teach him the principle of responsibility in the face of extreme difficulties better than the Vulcan way. She was correct." He did not add the fact that they had argued over the subject and Amanda had snuck the comics to Spock anyway. She had been correct about their son. There were times when he must act as a Human and the Human ways of teaching were occasionally more useful for him.

"That's right. 'With great power comes great responsibility.' In the story Peter Parker is a superhero named Spiderman. That's because when he was in school, he went on a field trip to a lab where they were making a new kind of super spider for this colony where the bugs were eating everyone's crops. They were trying to find a responsible way to fight the bugs without destroying the eto-system," Jo-Anna excitedly explained.

"Ecosystem," Sam interrupted her with the correct pronunciation.

"Right, ecosystem, but someone bumped the cage with the spiders they weren't finished with yet and a bunch of them got loose. Everyone helped to put them back in their cage, but Peter got bitten. That bite gave him a spider's abilities. So he uses them to fight bad guys like Nero the bad Romulan who killed lots and lots of people, but my daddy and Brat and Hobgoblin fought him and won. He was really, really bad," Jo-Anna said seriously.

"He was indeed," Sarek agreed. He saw no need to tell this small child that he had been there when Nero had destroyed his homeworld and billions of Vulcans.

"So, Peter's best friend is Harry. Harry has a bunch of technology that lets him help Peter, but sometimes they fight instead of helping each other. Oh, that's because everything always goes wrong for Peter unless he's fighting the bad guys. Spiderman usually wins, but even when he wins it makes problems for him 'cause he's Peter too. Anyway, when Harry is helping Spiderman he's called the Hobgoblin. So Daddy calls Mr. Spock, Hobgoblin because they fight all the time even though they're friends, just with words though," Jo-Anna reassured Sarek. "And because Hobgoblin is a hero just like Mr. Spock was when they fought Nero the bad Romulan and because he's got green blood."

"May I ask what the color of his blood has to do with this nickname?" T'aku asked, confused. She and her fellow aides had been following the conversation closely.

"That makes him a green blooded Hobgoblin instead of a green suited one," Jo-Anna said seriously. "Spiderman's disguise so that the bad guys don't hurt his family is red and blue, but Hobgoblin's is green."