A/N:
This is the last chapter of this story that I will post in 2018. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to everyone. I will resume posting this story on the first Sunday in January.

Chapter Ten

To: S'nellastina zh'Vecar, Earth, United States of America, Maryland, Baltimore

From: Leonard McCoy, Lieutenant Commander, USS Enterprise A

Hi S'nell. Now that we are further from Federation space it takes longer for messages to reach us. Lieutenant M'Ress is working with Scotty to build new subspace relay stations that will reduce the time it takes for messages to travel from Federation space to here in unexplored space. But until they are built expect messages to take longer the further out we go from Earth.

I don't think you need anger management classes. Personally I appreciate that you speak your mind. But perhaps when it comes to pointing out the mistakes of others do so privately next time. A lot of people will take a critique of their work personally no matter the species. All of us make mistakes but none of us want others to be aware of this fact. On the other hand, I'm not really the person to talk to about how to critique others given how curt I can be with the medical officers and technicians in the med bay.

Thanks for remembering my birthday, but like you I don't make a big deal of it. My mom and sister might send me a message around this time and perhaps Joanna will. But as for gifts I don't need them. That old tradition went out the window after World War 3 when there was no excess goods and people were just trying to survive. Now when you can order almost anything from a synthesizer why do you need your family and friends to give you anything? Though the exception are those Humans who still celebrate Christmas as my family does.

As for what you said to Nurse Dominique I'm not surprised that as your friend she wanted details about our relationship. I'm glad you didn't tell her anything and rest assured that I will never tell Jim or anyone else anything either. I think Jim's accepted that. Though he did threaten to hurt you if you broke my heart. He shouldn't be so protective of me but he knows how long it took for me to recover from my divorce. Not to mention more recent romances which have ended badly for me.

When it comes to that legendary hands comment, it seems that I will never live that one down. I can't talk about the mission itself the Enterprise was on as it was classified. But I can talk about the context of that remark. I could tell that Jim liked the female Starfleet officer that I was working with so I was flirting with her in order to get a rise out of him. It worked too, especially when I called her sweetheart and then told her the pregnant Gorn story. That happened when myself, Jim, Spock, and Lieutenant Sulu were on a planet delivering supplies to a Gorn colony. A female Gorn threatened Lieutenant Sulu and so he stunned the female with a phaser. It turned out that she was pregnant with octuplets and the phaser brought on her premature labour. So I was forced to do a c section on the female and deliver the babies. They were almost fully developed including their fangs. I don't know how my fingers stayed attached to my hands to be honest. Fortunately we soon returned to the ship where my hands were tended to. Jim thought it was hilarious while I just brushed it off as an occupational hazard of being a doctor. Though if I never have to deliver Gorn babies again then I will be grateful. I wonder how their own doctors manage. It's probably by putting on protective gloves first.

Well, there's not much else happening now on the ship except for us scanning an accretion disk of a neutron star which has the astrophysicists on board excited.

Thinking of you fondly too, Doctor McCoy.

Message sent 1924 hours UTC Stardate 2267.31

To: Leonard McCoy, Lieutenant Commander, USS Enterprise A

From: S'nellastina zh'Vecar, Earth, United States of America, Maryland, Baltimore

Hello Doctor McCoy. Fortunately myself and the coworker who I had an argument with have reconciled and made an agreement to discuss any further mistakes privately much to the relief of my supervisor. I'm glad that Kirk won't know every detail about our love life though I doubt that would interest him. I intend to continue to make you happy so there is no need for him or anyone else to threaten me. The Human need to do so when it comes to the romantic partners of friends or family is something I've never really understood. Surely if there are two (or more) consenting adults who enter into a romantic relationship then what happens in that relationship should stay between them? That is not to say that the families of a bond group do not have some say on Andoria of course. But as marriages are prearranged beforehand not many will challenge them provided that the bond group has children. Otherwise there is much more open criticism.

I enjoyed your Gorn story. I can just picture you swearing as those babies bit your fingers and you tried to stay professional nonetheless. I can imagine that gloves would be required for delivering Gorn children and you are likely one of the few Human doctors to have done so. The fact that you put aside your own discomfort to see to a safe delivery just tells me how compassionate of a man you are. Not every doctor would help a Gorn given their species is not a member of the Federation.

Over the last two weeks, my evenings not spent exercising have been filled with what could be called working dinners as a group of three of us from the lab finalize a scientific paper to be published next month in the Federation Exobiology Journal. My professional title is Master S'nellastina. So look for that if you wish to read about the evolution of creatures that originated in the sea but became land animals as the seas dried up. Specifically, we use the example of Rigel Four whose oceans used to be much larger then they are today. I look forward to your thoughts on the article.

Thinking of you, S'nell.

Message sent 2138 hours UTC Stardate 2267.42