Meeting Point

Disclaimer: I still don't own it. Just Marie. But the rest really isn't mine. So I'm not really making a single credit from this. Which sucks. Big time. Cause you see, my account could really use the credits.

Author's Note: Thanks to all my lovely readers, especially VulcanVamp, Fuzzeh, and CK for reviewing. Also thanks to CK and Fuzzeh for keeping me sane and messaging me insanely. =)

Good news first: if all went well I passed my exam. I'll know on the 23rd. But I'm pretty confident that I did well. That means I'll be back to posting regularly now, and as a gift I'm giving you one update early. (If I manage to get it done, I'll even give you the regular one tomorrow. =)

Bad news... well not so much bad as sad... but this is almost done. Only 2-3 parts after this I think. Then I'll go to something else. I already have a story teasing the back of my mind. It includes a topless, sweating Kirk. =)

Oh and... forgive me for my knowledge, or lack there of, of medicine. I have no idea how much of a drug can be injected safely, and I just picked a measure and went for it. Kentamine is an anesthetic most commonly used in emergency medicine.

Part 9: Meeting the Savior

The transporter shimmered just as Bones skidded into the room, a small team of nurses with a stretcher just half a step behind him. They almost crashed into him, so suddenly did he stop. Their eyes widened as they saw the figure laying prone on the transporter pad. The tattered armor clung to the Lieutenant more thanks to the drying blood than through any preference. The once golden shirt covering her was stained in old blood. The stains seemed to be worse on her left arm, where no gold remained. And near the bottom of the shirt. One nurse, only newly arrived on Enterprise, turned away from the sight, her face turning white with horror.

"Marie!" Bones' voice seemed chocked as he quickly stepped forward and collapsed on his knees besides the seemingly broken figure. As he reached for her throat to feel for her pulse, her eyes fluttered open weakly and dazed blue eyes stared up at him, unfocused. A faint smile slid across her lips as her eyes finally focused on him, recognizing the hazel eyes glaring down at her softly. Then the eyes slid shut again, her head lolling to one side in unconsciousness.

Almost gently, Bones lifted her off the platform, and placed her onto the stretcher. He didn't even have to bark the orders, the nurses immediately beginning pushing the figure away from the transporter room at almost breakneck speed.

"Is the stasis field preped?" Several of the occupants of sickbay looked at the doctor strangely. Normally, he would be hollering his requests and orders. His voice would carry and let everyone know his displeasure if things were even slightly off from what they should be. The voice with which he had spoken was soft. Distant. It told them more than any words ever would.

"Yes sir. We've also prepared several conserves of blood." He nodded and watched as they carefully transferred Marie from the stretcher onto the surgical biobed.

"Scalpel." Again his voice was oddly quiet. And the scalpel was produced much faster than normally. Not bothering to acknowledge the prompt service. Carefully, he began cutting through the layers of clothes to bare the wounds dotting the younger woman's body. His teeth gritted together as he slowly pulled the edge of Chekov's uniform from her left arm. The skin beneath was fully gone. Muscles and sinew tensed slightly as the woman on the bed shuddered from the pain.

"inject 2cc of Ketamine." Bones didn't bother looking up to check on his instructions. He simply took it for granted. In the end, it would be better for her to be out for the count for this.

"D..docteur..." Sharply he looked up at Nurse Crevecoeur as she hovered over Marie's midsection. From the paleness of her features, his gaze dropped to where the Lieutenant's skin had been laid bare. Without word, he dropped his instruments, and grabbed a scanner. His stomach sought to revolt, but Marie needed him. He would be no use if he simply gave up and gave in to his stomach.

"Activate stasis." For an instance, the sound around the surgical table stopped, and he looked up to see the raw determination on the faces surrounding him. With as much time as Marie had spent in sickbay, she had made more friends than one grumpy doctor. She always found time to chat with his staff. The damage was extensive, but not irreparable. Stasis would freeze her in time, giving him an immobile patient to work with. It wasn't his preferred modus operandi – the side effects being too unpredictable – but Marie's wounds demanded immediate attention.

"Chapel, continue on her arm. Crevecoeur, assist her. Lyndran and Krell, you're with me."

"Bridge to Medical. Report?" Bones had just begun the first incision when Kirk's voice floated to him. With a grumble he ignored the request and focused on his work. He more felt than saw Chapel reaching for the comm button. Her words only registered on an almost metaphysical level.

"Doctor McCoy is in the middle of a surgical procedure, Captain. He will brief you once he has finished."

"Marie?" With a sigh, Christine Chapel reached for the comm again.

"Doctor McCoy will brief you once we know more." On the bridge, Jim Kirk clenched his teeth. He had no doubt that if he so much as attempted to demand more information, he would find the implacable voice of Nurse Christine Chapel blocking his way. Going down to sickbay and personally demand the information was out as well. He had no doubt that he would meet up with the same implacable voice, this time coupled with an implacable face.

"I copy. Have McCoy contact me as soon as he's finished." The only answer from Sickbay was the tell tale sign of the comm channel closing. Sometimes he really hated his job.

"Spock?"

"Captain." He turned to his first officer and briefly smiled as he considered the word implacable in connection with his first officer. How Uhura managed to put up with the coldly logical exterior often astounded him. The amusement slid from his mind as he considered that it was a good trait to have in no-win situations. Perhaps he should develop some of that implacability.

"Any news on Sulu?"

"Negative. His biosigns have not moved for several moments captain." Jim nodded and leaned back into his chair, and proceeded to throughly lose himself in his thoughts. While not a good trait to have as a captain, he had come to trust his rambling mind to find solutions which should not logically work, but somehow did. He had sent Sulu over to the other ship in the knowledge that it had been based upon such a whim. Now if only he could manage to develop his intuitive thinking in a manner which would give him more than simple glimpses of a possible out come, and give him a full plan on how to proceed.

"Bio readings for Lieutenant Sulu are cognizant for levels of unconsciousness." The words snapped Jim out of his musings, and he whirled his chair around and stared at Spock's perfectly placid face.

"Repeat that?"

"It is my believe that Lieutenant Sulu is unconscious, sir."

"Damn." If there was one thing James Tiberius Kirk, captain of the Starfleet flagship Enterprise, hated more than waiting, then it was the fact of being helpless. He hated helpless with a passion which always made him cringe somewhat. It was this hatred which caused him to seek solutions to even the most dire of situations. From this hatred stemmed his belief that there was no no-win situation. If he admitted that there were such a thing as a no-win situation, then he would admit to being helpless. And that was one thing he would not do.

"The other ship seems to have regained a certain measure of power." Again, it was his First officer's voice which drew him from his musings.

"Lock tractor beam."

"Tractor beam locked." With a wide grin, Kirk stood and strode to Sulu's replacement at the helm.

"How well can you fly?" He asked with a smirk.

"Ermmm? Sir?" The man seemed confused by the sudden turn of mood from the man in command. How Jim missed having Sulu in the driver seat. At least the slight Japanese man was never fazed by whatever harebrained scheme he came up with.

"How well can you fly?" He repeated with patience not normally associated with Jim Kirk.

"I passed the Academy in the top 5 of my year, Sir."

"Top 5, eh?"

"Yes..." The man's voice lacked a certain amount of self-confidence. It made Jim's smirk grow wider, just as it turned a bit bitter. Now he really wished he'd kept Sulu at the helm.

"Do you like Rodeo?" The replacement helmsman just stared at his captain as if he'd lost his mind. Had Jim announced that there wire pink mice dancing the macarena on top of the man's console, he doubted the reaction would have been more scandalized.

"Captain?" Spock's intruded. "Do you have a plan?"

"You can bet your girlfriend's shoes that I do." He stood from his comfortable chair, and indicated the man should clear from the helm.

"Attention to all personnel," Jim spoke with a grin as he toggled the comm switch, "We will be suffering some turbulences. Brace yourselves." Then his hands began flying over the smooth surface of the console. He might not have been top 5 in piloting, but he was the best when it came to improvising. And he was about to shake up not only Enterprise, but also the other ship. With an even wider grin, he watched as the other ship was bumped to and fro at the end of the tether it was being held in.

"Their engines are warming up."

"How long until they can try to warp?" A slight sheen of sweat had begun gathering on Jim's brow as he concentrated on keeping the pattern of movement irregular and unpredictable. The replacement helmsman clung to the chair he had vacated just moment before, and had he not been so concentrated, Jim might have grinned at the awed words: "That's what you meant with Rodeo,... sir..."

"Five minutes." Jim nodded, and slowly slipped from the chair, his hands still on the control. He steadied out the rythem enough not to land on his ass while his helmsman took his place again.

"Keep us between them and any exit vector they may be pointed at. And keep it as irregular as you can." The man nodded, and Jim stumbled back towards the back of the bridge just as a particularly vicious jerk made the frame of the ship shuddered. He felt a twinge of regret at the torture he was putting his girl through.

"Medical to bridge. Dammit Jim! I'm in the middle of surgery here. Stop bouncing us around like that."

"Spock, find a way to disable their engines without blowing up the ship." Because of the haphazardous construction of the ship, targeting any part of the ship, might just blow up the whole. As long as he had two crewmen on board, Jim was not going to risk that just yet.

"I believe if we..." When his first officer's voice suddenly trailed off, Jim looked up at him, then looked over to the view screen where the ship had just gone to warp.

"dammit Ensign, I told you to keep us between them and the escape vectors." The young man swallowed hard, trying not to wilt under the grim look on his commanding officer's voice.

"I..."

"That did not demand an answer." He cut the man off, before hitting the nearest comm switch. "Kirk to medical. Smooth flying for now. I'll warn you if we start dancing again."

"I need another half an hour of calm Jim..."

"I'll do my best to give it to you." He hit the switch again, and turned to his first officer. "Track them."

Spock nodded and watched with one eyebrow raised as the man who made irrational decisions on a daily basis, collapsed into his chair with a sullen silence. He had no doubt that by the time they reached the ship again, his captain would have an illogical scheme to get Sulu and Chekov out of their captivity. And he was just as certain that it would work. Some humans, he would never understand.

Author's Notes:

It's not nearly as proofread as I'd like it to be. But I wanted to get this out asap to try and cheer a friend who's a bit down right now. Hope it helps somewhat.

I'd planed a fangirl's corner for this chapter, but due to the haste with which I'm putting this out, I didn't have time to actually type it up. It'll come next chapter. And I'll already tell you my victims... Bones and Marie. =)