Argentum Cygnus: Act II
All hospitals shared the same anesthetic and unnerving quality.
No matter how much Doctor McCoy had attempted to make it more appealing to the crewmembers of the Enterprise, it was not enough to make Diana feel any less concerned for the woman before her. Prone on the biobed, the cybernetic implants occasionally twitching, she was the picture of suffering. Doctor McCoy had assured Diana that he sedated her and gave her a painkiller, but he had no guarantee it would make a difference until he could begin to run tests on her.
Tests. Blood drawn. Sedation.
This was no way to treat a victim of such abuse.
Amazons were not known to coddle the walking wounded. If one was injured, but could still fight, then wounds were dressed and later examined with careful hands and hearts. But, those who could not fight, they were treated with reverence and kindness. If Epione, with her gentle voice and touch, could see the sterile and cold hospitals of man's world, she would have immediately told Diana to take her to Themyscira.
I would seat her on the warm beach, Epione would say. To help bring color back to her cheeks, to help her body grow strong enough to fight off this infection on her own. No illness is without struggle. The body does not like to be challenged, but it is only in doing so that we break it down and make it better.
Diana found herself longing for the simple days of the island. Before the planet, before the Justice League, before Steve, before Antiope…
She pulled up a chair beside the biobed, watching her charge as she leaned back. With one leg crossed over the other, Diana looked the picture of serenity, save for the furrow of her brow.
Who are you? She thought, scanning her features. What madness took you from your life and brought you to this state? How can I help you when I do not even understand what it is that's been done?
There was something strangely familiar about her as well. It wasn't as though Diana could place her face, but something in her subconscious told her that there was a connection there. If only she knew what that could be.
"Well, she's the strongest damn individual I think I've ever seen deal with this kind of invasive procedure, that's for sure."
Diana picked her head up as Doctor McCoy's drawl caught her attention. He had finally come out of the lab, holding a data pad and stylus while he scanned his results. As he approached her, she stood to give him her full attention. "Doctor, what did you find? Do you have any idea what happened to her?"
McCoy looked up at her, lips puckered a bit in thought before he finally spoke. "Ambassador, I don't reckon you're gonna like any of what I have to say - "
She crossed her arms and squared off. "I think we both know I am hardly a delicate flower. I do not need you to treat me as one. What did your tests reveal?"
McCoy cleared his throat and shrugged, taking the rebuke in stride. Most likely, he realized it was a futile effort to try to shield her from any of this. He was the only other member of the crew who knew almost as much as Kirk about her past. He had required a bioscan once the crisis with the planet had ended, and she'd been happy to oblige to an extent. When his scans had been "damned near impossible", she had offered to allow him more extensive testing at a later date. In the meantime, she had explained who she was on Themyscira and that she was older than she looked. It had seemed sufficient for him at the time.
"Well, this poor girl has been through the ringer. I can't find her information on any Federation database, but she doesn't seem to be human, either. She looks it, but, her bioscans are more like a half step between me and…" He sighed, meeting Diana's concerned gaze. "Well, like you."
Diana's world momentarily dropped out from under her. She whipped her head around to face the woman on the bed. For a brief moment, she found herself in awe. Had they found another god? Were there answers in this woman's mind she did not have? Then, she considered the full scope of McCoy's assessment. Not quite like Diana.
"Are you saying she is Themysciran?" Perhaps that is why she feels so familiar...
"I'm saying I don't know what she is, 'sides a tortured soul that's been fighting off these cybernetic implants since the moment they were shoved into her." Doctor McCoy crossed to the other side of her, then set his padd down on the table beside him. He braced his hands on the edge of the biobed. The way his shoulders had bunched with tension gave her the impression that he was deeply concerned. "I know that pre-Federation Earth performed a number of cybernetic experiments before we learned how to regenerate tissue and grow bone. But, I've never seen anything like this. Whoever did this, they used nanotechnology and they didn't give a damn what they did to her body in the process."
"Nanotechnology..." Diana's heart clenched as she recalled the painful process by which Vic had been brought back into the world of men. "Then it might have been him…" The only reference to this level of dramatic change had been in the near-destruction of Earth, in the creature whose darkness had spread over her beloved homeland and threatened to crush it. His wrath had cost the lives of countless Amazons. It had left her people bruised and in limited numbers.
If he was out there, among the stars… Would she find him one day? Could she even confront him again without the League?
"Ambassador?" McCoy had turned to her, but her vision was locked on an absent point on the far wall as her thoughts overtook her. "Diana. You still with me?"
She inhaled, collecting her thoughts and drawing herself to full height before she addressed him and focused her vision on him. "Yes, I am."
"Okay…" McCoy rose an eyebrow. "Who's 'him?' What's got you as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs?"
She scoffed. "I don't know if nervous is the right word. But, what I saw on that sphere, what you're telling me now… it is far too reminiscent of an enemy I faced in my past. On Earth in the 2010s and 2020s. Darkseid, the God-King of Apokalips."
To his credit, Dr. McCoy's face looked appropriately ashen, even if his tone was light. "Jesus, that sounds like a cheery fellow…"
"We thought we had defeated him, yet…" She motioned idly to his patient. "He could have done this. And if he did…" Diana swallowed thickly. "I do not know how your Federation could stop him."
McCoy crossed his arms and leaned against the biobed, clearly taking stock of her. He paused for what seemed to be an inordinate amount of time before he finally shrugged. "Well, we're not gonna know unless the sonuvabitch hits us in the backside, so I'm gonna focus on helping my patient best I can. The best way I can do that is figure out who she is, what she might still remember about who did this to her, and to get these damn implants out of her."
In that, Diana found comfort. The sickbay may have seemed less inviting, but the medical staff, especially Doctor McCoy, were no less qualified and did not match their surroundings. She had heard the crew tease him about his bedside manner, but in this moment, she could see that clearly cared about this woman and would do everything he could to help her. "Can you wake her?"
"I could, but… I wouldn't. Not until I have some notion of what those things are doing to her. She might not even be able to speak. Poor thing could be locked into her head like a vegetable, given how these neural implants are directly jabbed into her frontal lobe." He motioned to the now cleaned area of her skull. Where there had been crusted infection, it was freshly green and swollen as her body tried for another countless time to reject the foreign object.
Perhaps she could not speak, but…
"I think I can help with that." Diana slipped her hand under her jacket. While she had grown accustomed to civilian garb, she had changed once she arrived back on the Enterprise. The sphere, the victim, the signs of Apokalips, they had all led her back to her armor. Her security. Her second skin.
Diana heard the doors to sickbay open just as she pulled the golden lasso free from its hook underneath her jacket. The moment it touched her skin, it began to glow, brilliant gold against the reds and browns of her clothing.
"Diana, what are you doing?" Ah, the captain had come to check on the situation now that he had received the sensor logs from the Enterprise.
She turned, holding the lasso tight in one hand, still in its coil, offering him a bit of a smile. "Doctor McCoy has determined this woman shares many similarities to my people. She may be Themysciran."
Kirk rose his eyebrows, glancing from the doctor then back to her. He nodded some, then pointed to her hand. "Still not sure why that means you need the rope." As he had done upon seeing her in armor the first time, upon realizing Kal-El was Superman, Jim had immediately begun to focus on satisfying his curiosity. "I've been meaning to ask you: are you telekinetic? Is that how it whipped around all on its own while you were kicking Romulan butt - "
"The lasso of Hestia reveals the truth to those who touch it." She replied evenly, careful to keep it out of his curious hands. "And it compels those who are bound by it to tell the truth. It also responds to my wishes in battle."
Jim's look of befuddlement was almost enough to lighten the mood in the room. When he finally replied, she nearly laughed. "You could've just said you didn't want to tell me you were telekinetic."
Diana shook her head. "I'm not. It is the magic of the lasso. A gift from the goddess to the Amazons. If you do not believe me, I will show you."
The two men exchanged glances and nodded.
"What happened to the ship she was on?" McCoy asked Jim took up a position beside him. "You find anything we can use to help her?"
The captain shrugged. "Vaporized a few minutes ago. We think it was some sort of latent self-destruct that didn't go off when it should. Whatever secrets it had went with it. One thing's for sure: whoever jettisoned that sphere did not want this woman to survive."
Diana turned her focus to the biobed, moving within arms' reach before unfurling the lasso a foot or so. With painstaking care, she wound the lasso around the woman's exposed forearm. The spider web network of metal that had been trying to dig into skin hissed as sacred heat from the lasso melted the metal into ash.
McCoy took a step towards her, but she shook her head, eyes still on the lasso. "Do not worry, Doctor. The lasso will not harm her. Hestia cleanses those who are innocent. She is the guardian of all that is pure."
"Jim…"
"Relax, Bones. It'll be okay." Jim's voice sounded somewhere between enraptured and casual. She could not understand how he had mastered such a balance.
She drew her breath, settling it deep in her belly before exhaling slowly. It had been so long since she had drawn the truth through the lasso in this way, and while it wasn't exhausting, it was a focused effort to control what one could see.
"Sister…" Diana exhaled, holding the lasso tight. "Show me who you are."
WE ARE THE BORG.
Bright eyes, looking towards the horizon. An opportunity of a lifetime. To leave the shores of Themyscira, to see the world beyond - man's world!
YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED.
Too many images, too many memories. Lovers, friends, family. The palace. The Queen - Hippolyta herself has given blessing to the venture!
So much excitement. Wonder, like a child. To see the world - to see space! Space! Watchtower as a launch point, NASA has approved the project. They want her, she's been accepted. The first Themysciran in space!
YOUR BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES WILL BE ADDED TO OUR OWN.
The Princess sees her off. Bright eyes, full of hope and wonder - Wonder Woman! - She will be proud of her people.
The Cygnus. The Cygnus is her ship. They call her the Swan when she launches. Her call sign. But, not her name. Her name is -
WE ARE THE BORG.
No! The ship, power is failing. How is she so far from Saturn? How did she get here? The stars are all wrong - it's all wrong!
YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED.
Green light from beyond the cockpit - a ship, a vessel! Did the Lanterns find her? Yes! Of course, they are the Guardians of space, of course they would find her!
Those aren't Lanterns. Why don't they answer her transmissions?
Home. She wants to go home.
YOUR BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES WILL BE ADDED TO OUR OWN.
It hurts! Why won't they stop? They won't stop, they won't be quiet, there are too many thoughts, too many voices! She is Vanessa! She is Borg.
SHE IS VANESSA!
Why won't they be quiet? It's never quiet. Too many voices, too many voices, someone help her. She's screaming and no one's listening.
Someone save her.
Someone kill her.
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.
Diana could not breathe. She pulled back, dropping the lasso and stumbling so far back she nearly collapsed.
"Gods, no…" She choked, tears falling unabashedly from her eyes. Her feet keep carrying her further away, as if to escape the torrent of fear, of agony, of helplessness that threatened to drag her into the darkness. "She is one of mine…" She gasped, mortified. "I gave her my blessing…."
Her knees threatened to collapse. The onslaught of shared emotions were too much to bear. She had experienced pain, she had been tortured, but she had never felt such raw panic. The very sickbay was starting to fade before her eyes as the very unfamiliar sensation of hopelessness threatened to overwhelm her.
"Diana…" Steve. His voice seemed so far away. Too far. She would never see him again. She would be clawing to escape the voices alongside Vanessa, and neither of them would ever see relief. There was no hope. There was no point. There was no point to life…
"Bones, get me a chair…" An arm looped around her waist and led her away. But, it couldn't save her from the clawing sense of dread. It had all been for nothing. And Steve still sounded so far away… sweet Steve… dead Steve.. "What the hell did that thing do to her?"
"I haven't got a clue, but her vitals are all over the place. I'd give her a sedative, but, I don't have the right dosage information. Jesus, Jim, she looks like someone sucked the life out of her."
Diana shook her head slowly, shaking, haunted. What was this? Why could she not see any way out of this darkness? The despair, the loneliness…. There was no point to living….
"Diana!" She could feel a hand on her arm, but it felt hollow. It all felt so far away. "Come on, Diana, it's Jim. Don't go and ruin that perfect streak of me thinking you're invincible now." The hand left from her arm, then suddenly appeared against her cheek. It was warm. It wasn't Steve. It wasn't her heartbreak.
It was Jim. Jim Kirk. It was the captain of the Enterprise. He was very much alive. He was fearless. He was in awe of everything. He was not pointless. "Jim…" She breathed, shocked at how her voice sounded foreign to her own ears.
"You're safe, Diana… you're okay. Whatever you saw…. It didn't happen. Not to you."
Not to me…
Diana finally broke from the spell. Her eyes closed and the tears finally began to ease. She leaned into the warm touch of his hand. After the clawing darkness and palpable loneliness, the hand of ice that had clutched her heart, she didn't care who was touching her, breaking down careful walls of personal space she normally kept up. She craved human contact in the most basic, primal sense. She needed to chase away the sensation of being alone.
She realized that she had no idea how long she had been lost in that emotional pit. She assumed it had been hours, but she knew logically that it had probably only been moments. The mind could stretch a heartbeat into an epic, a breath into a treatise.
Diana barely brushed her hand against Jim's before she clutched it in thanks, then released it and stood on her own. She didn't open her eyes until she was drawn to her full height, determined to show no more of her fear than she already had. She could admit that she had been terrified, but she would not be crippled by it. She was an Amazon, a warrior of valor. She faced insurmountable odds and smiled.
When her eyes opened, Jim Kirk was entirely too close for what she had expected, and real concern had colored his features. His brow was knit with worry, and his eyes seemed more steel than ocean. He was Jim. He was the captain.
He was in danger, as were all the others on this ship.
"She was an astronaut." Diana finally offered, then motioned to Vanessa when Jim didn't seem to follow. He turned as she continued, then made her way back over to gently unwind the lasso. This time, she kept her mind closed from its gift of truth. "I met her. She was born long before I had been made manifest, but I did not see much of her. She and I trained in different arts. When I left for Man's world, I had not seen her in some time. I assumed that she had become a scholar of maths like the great minds she studied." She set the lasso back on the hook under her jacket, then cautiously reached out to brush her fingers against the woman's cheek. If she could reach her, bring her from that darkness, she would. "She was sent on a deep space mission and I gave her my blessing. I was proud that another of my sisters wished to see and help man's world after Darkseid's devastation." Diana's fingers faltered in their gentle caress. "But, they never made it to Alpha Centauri."
Jim had stepped up beside her. He was closer than she had let him be in the past, but her mind was focused on the suffering of her sister. She was not thinking of Steve, or any of her other connections from man's world. She could only hear Vanessa's screams as they tore her from her ship.
"She is Vanessa, of the house Katalepis. She was born to one of the Amazons before we were enslaved. They flew a vessel called the Argentum Cygnus."
Jim only replied, "I've heard of it. The name was unique in the era of 'Friendship One's.' They were the first deep space pre-warp flight, and one of two that went missing."
She nodded. "They must have pulled her vessel off-course. She thought they were…" Diana paused, her voice threatening to fail her. "She thought they were from the Green Lantern Corps."
"No one's heard of those yahoos in at least a century." McCoy grumbled. That ashen pallor had returned.
"They call themselves the Borg." The very name turned to ash in her mouth. She could hear the cacophony of unified thought and voice, the way it demanded that you acquiesce. "They took her and they… assimilated her. That's what they called it. They added these pieces to her and they made her think she was one of them." She shook her head, voice a bit hollow as she felt herself drifting towards the black again. "They made her lose hope. They made her lifeless."
Diana finally turned to face Jim, her dark hair spilling over her shoulders as she moved. She wanted to tell him everything. He needed to understand why it had chilled her so. This was Darkseid. Somehow… in some impossible way, these Borg had crossed paths with Darkseid.
"And you saw that nightmare through a piece of tinsel?" McCoy broke the tense silence as he programmed a hypospray in hand. He shook his head. "Sure as hell glad my ex-wife doesn't have one of those things…" He paused, glancing up at Diana. "Any idea why she was the only one left on that sphere?'
Diana shook her head, replaying the flood of images that had come to her. "I don't know for certain, but… she was fighting. She never stopped rejecting the implants. I can see how many times they tried to assimilate her and… every time, she began to cry out, to be freed." Diana's hand clutched the biobed so hard, she heard the metal give under. This time, she made no move to hide it. "They thought she was a failure. They tossed her out like trash."
Jim glanced back at the doctor. "Bones, can you give us a minute?"
Doctor McCoy scoffed. "What'd she just do to my biobed?"
"Just…. A minute. Please?" Jim begged.
McCoy nodded and headed for his office. "Don't do anything stupid while I prep more anti-inflammatories for her wounds."
Diana didn't know how to thank Jim for the kindness, but once they were alone in the sickbay, she relaxed. She let out a deep breath, running her hands through her hair and paced in a small circle to help her steady her nerves.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke. When Jim finally decided to break the peace, she was already expecting the question. "Are you gonna be alright? I didn't think you got scared of anything, seeing as how you were - are - an immortal warrior trained by Amazons. That's a lot of badass stacked up in one package." He was trying to lighten the mood, but his expression was still that same concerned furrow of his brow. Again, his openness struck her in its genuine nature.
"I'll be fine once we help her. She cannot fight those demons alone."
"You don't seem fine." He remarked.
"Being rattled doesn't render me immobile." Diana knew she was a little too quick to dismiss the concern, and the moment she did so, she held her hand up to stop Jim from interrupting. "But, I am worried."
"We haven't seen any sign that the sphere has had power recently. And if it did come from a larger vessel, there's no sign of it."
"That doesn't mean the danger is gone. There is a great darkness in those creatures." She said. "And I have seen that darkness before."
Jim leaned against one of the free biobeds. "When you were Wonder Woman. I get the impression there's a lot you've seen that you haven't told me about."
"Because it is my past, not yours." She tried not to let her frustration show. "Kal and I left Earth in the hands of our apprentices and successors. They led you here, to this Federation of peace and prosperity. But, it was not always so attainable. You made war, you fought each other for food, for money, simply because you looked different from one another."
"Diana, I know you think we're some utopian society, but we're not perfect." His expression was resigned, almost ashamed. "We still fight."
"But you value freedom." She argued. "Darkseid does not. And neither do these Borg. And when you stop believing and valuing such things, it becomes that much harder to beat him. We sacrificed many lives to stop Darkseid before. And when it was through, I begged my mother to make Themyscira a haven." In trying to warn him, she had come to the crux of her discomfort. "I encouraged refugees to come to Themyscira. I wished for my people and my culture to thrive after the decimation of our forces by Darkseid. But, I never intended to leave man's world."
Jim's eyes widened. He understood her now. "You feel like you should have been here. For us." He nodded to Vanessa. "For her."
"Yes. And now, I have so much to learn about the time I missed. If Darkseid returns..."
Jim pushed off of the biobed and made his way over to her. "Diana, I have no doubt in my mind that if you stopped him before, you'd be able to do it again. And I know we're not a bunch of superpowered, enhanced vigilantes, but we're no slouches. We'd be right there with you to make sure these things never go anywhere near Earth."
She could feel her heart finally settle into a comfortable pulse again. "I know. And I believe you. But, the lasso shares more than just thoughts and images with me. I could feel her emotions. I cannot stomach the thought that another individual must go through such pain." Diana found her gaze drifting back to her pale sister. "But, we must help her. And wake her up. I wish to do that even less."
Jim's hand brushed her arm, and the action caught her off-guard. "I can't imagine how hard this is for you. You left our world thinking everything would be fine and right now, it's just a great, big mess." The words rung against the base of her neck eerily.
Doctor McCoy chose that moment to stride back into sickbay. Either he had overheard that their conversation had reached another peak, or he simply had no patience left. She didn't particularly want to know which.
"I think I've figured out the dosage to bring her back to consciousness. Can't guarantee how she'll do." He motioned for a nurse to follow him over, then finished coding a couple of hyposprays. "These amino acid chains should help her body fight off more of the nanites until I figure out if I can purge her bloodstream."
"If? " Jim frowned. "That's not very like you, Bones."
He ignored them both and finished administering the hypospray with a hiss. "I'll have time to be cocky about it once I know she won't wake up and try to kill us all." He turned to his left. "Nurse, stay here, administer a dose in 20 seconds of the trianoline. That should decrease some of that cranial swelling."
"Yes, Doctor." The young crewman replied. As McCoy stepped back to talk with Jim and Diana, the man stood vigil in their stead, monitoring lifesigns.
"I gotta tell you, Jim, I don't like this." McCoy grumbled. "The whole thing smells rotten. If these Borg are anywhere near this nebula, I say we hightail it back to Starfleet."
Jim shook his head and in a moment, Diana noticed the subtle switch from Jim to Captain Kirk. His mind was on the bigger picture. "Bones, I'm not gonna do that until we know what we're dealing with."
"We know exactly what we're dealing with!" He hissed, motioning to Diana. "She just told us! They're called the Borg, they like to truss people up in Christmas lights and make them part of their cyborg hivemind."
"We don't have any evidence that they're still out here!" Jim snapped, careful to keep his voice low as well, but no less determined. "Until we wake her up, we won't know if we're leading them back to a station like Yorktown, or worse, Earth itself."
"Well, that's real damn noble of you, Jim, but if we get killed before we can get the word out, how do you plan on warnin' them then, huh?"
The monitors beeped behind the group and each of them turned their attention back to Vanessa. The nurse was hovering over her, checking her vitals and administering the hypospray.
"She's coming to, Doctor."
Diana moved forward, praying to whatever gods might listen that she was not in more pain than what she had sensed. She reached the biobed and watched as Vanessa's eyes slowly opened and began to examine the room.
At first, it seemed that she was sluggish, irritable. It was only after the woman glimpsed Diana that she paused, head tilting.
"W… w…" Her mouth tried to form words as she stared at Diana, wide-eyed and pale. Her voice, rough from misuse, still had the mechanical vocal flange that she'd heard in her mind. But, it was one voice, not many. And she was trying to reach out. "Wo…" The eyes grew more wide as she stared at the figure in front of her.
Diana's eyes threatened to blur with tears as she forced a smile, nodding. "Yes. Wonder Woman. Do you remember me, Vanessa? It's me, Diana."
"D… d… Di...ana…" The voice struggled to work, the eyes struggled to see. And she could feel it in her bones. Vanessa was in there, trying to remember how to speak once more.
"Yes. And I promise you, Sister, I will take you back home to our people."
The glimmer of recognition that Diana had seen faded in an instant. Vanessa's pupil's dilated and her body stiffened.
"Vanessa?" Diana tried again, hoping she could stop her from fading away. Instead, the woman sat up abruptly and turned to the nurse. Her other arm stretched out, hand balled into a fist. "No, don't hurt him!" Metal veins shot out from her hand. Like a viper, they stung the nurse in the neck just before Diana could reach across and grab hold of him.
It took all of Diana's strength to pull Vanessa away from the nurse as he turned pale, his veins blossoming in a sickening purple as he stumbled away. He fell into the crash cart behind him, and Doctor McCoy was instantly at his side. He was shouting, demanding help, but the words vanished into the back of her mind as she tried desperately to hold the Amazon-turned-drone in her arms, bearhugged.
"We are the Borg." Vanessa growled, remarkably calm. No, not calm. Lifeless. Mechanical. "You will be assimilated. This unit will add your technological and biological uniqueness to our own. We are the Borg. This unit… will…" Vanessa's body began to shake as she attempted to turn those viper fangs towards the woman holding her. "Will… assimilate… D-D-D-Diana…"
"No, Vanessa, please. You are not one of them, you are an Amazon. You are of Themyscira, you are a warrior. Fight them!" Diana pled. She caught the fist, barely keeping the veins away from her skin.
"We will… assimilate…" Her body seized and those prehensile veins began to search aimlessly in the air for purchase. No… No, they were being pushed out. The metal tubes dropped to the biobed pad before she went completely rigid in her sister's arms. Diana could tell instantly what was happening. She had seen it so many times before in all manner of injuries.
"Jim!" She cried once she managed to get Vanessa's arms pinned. "We have to sedate her! She is going into shock!"
Jim was already several thoughts ahead of her. He had called for security - there were three red-shirted security guards with phaser rifles at the door - and he was beside Diana with another hypospray. He dosed the seizing woman as he motioned for his security team to stay back.
Diana gripped her tight, heart aching as the seizing eased, then turned from seizing to slack. She went to sleep in the oblivion for the moment. Diana did not let go, instead holding her sister as tenderly as she could, even after she no longer needed to restrain her. Finally, she met Jim's eyes and was caught by their mutual concern.
She released Vanessa and laid her back down on the biobed before moving to check on the nurse. "Doctor, how is he?" She received no response as McCoy tried one more hypospray combination, then pulled his medical tricorder.
"Bones." Kirk urged. "What did she do to him?"
"She injected him with those nanites. I don't know what she was trying to, but…" McCoy slowly lowered his tricorder, looking up at them both with heavy eyes. "He's dead, Jim."
