So, it's going to be angsty in this chpt. Sorry guys. Hope you're enjoying it so far!
"What? What was I supposed to do?" Veron exclaimed.
"Not baiting him would have been a good start. Avoiding traumatizing the crew would have been even better." Spock quipped.
"Smart-ass," Veron huffed, crossing her arms.
"I fail to see how my-"
"Shut up! I didn't mean it like that and you know it!" Spock had a ghost of a smile on his face as he watched one of the most terrifying creations in the universe pout like a chastised child. Although that was exactly what she currently was. Because of her little show on the bridge, she was officially placed under house arrest in a transparent cell - much like the one Khan had been kept in - with nothing but a chair to sit on until the Captain came to and decided what to do with her. Spock knew he wouldn't dare dismantle her; for one, that would be considered murder, not to mention that Scotty would probably kill the Captain himself. But one possibility was to place her on autopilot for an indefinite period of time; perhaps forever - Kirk was always a little bit on the dramatic side. But drama aside, what she had just done was considered an act of treason, even if it was for the good of the crew.
On the other side of the glass, Veron had been thinking about Kirk's words on the bridge. The more she pondered them, the more she came to a revelation: she was a machine. She had been aware of this before, but now that fact hit her like a ton of bricks. She was expected to act like a machine and not like a person. Everything that had been human had been shed away; even her emotions were artificial. Nothing but her brain was hers. She didn't know if she could ever truly love or be loved in this form; perhaps that was why she referred to her two creators as 'mom' and 'dad'. But they too seemed to brush her off, unless it had to do with upgrading her system and making sure she was functioning normally. Why was she even here then? Just to protect the crew? She would die - again - for them, of course, but that was her primary function. Did any of them even value that, she wondered.
It hurt to think about it, and she realized that she couldn't even physically express her sadness. There was no lump in her throat or teary eyes that signified that she could use to show the pain she felt inside. She could feel it though, as intense and judgement-skewing as it always was.
Spock thought about the logical thing to do as he watched his charge's sobering features after she fell silent. Logic stated that she must be placed on autopilot. Yet, as much as he didn't like to admit it, the young human had grown on him. She had been an intelligent student, diligent, clever (sadly, just as clumsy), and resourceful; she learned everything she could from him. He felt guilty that she had died under his command, on a mission that he had asked to lead. He was Vulcan, and as such, he should follow logic, but he was also Human. He would do whatever he could to make sure that she stayed "alive". He was not keen on reliving the experience of having a student die in front of him.
"So," Veron started, jolting Spock out of his memories. "What d'you think the Captain will do with me?"
"I will talk him out of anything unpleasant," Spock stated, joining his hands behind his back as per his usual stance.
Veron blinked, her eyebrows shooting up. "Really? That's the last thing I'd expect to hear from you." Spock chose not to reply to that, and he didn't have to either because it was at that moment that the door at the other end of the room slid open and Kirk strode in, his hair and clothes completely soaked through, with a dry McCoy tailing him. Spock realized that it was McCoy who had set off the sprinkler system, effectually negating the fear hormone for those that had been affected. He would commend him at a later time, when he didn't look so furious.
"Jim, I swear to God- If you deactivate her, I will make sure you are stuck in the med bay with me for at least a week! Scratch that, a month! And I will use every hypo I own on you!" McCoy was yelling as he tried to get in-between the android and the captain. Kirk merely stepped around him and came face-to-face with the E.L.A.N.I. unit. She sat cross-legged in a chair in the center of the cell, one elbow resting on her knee and her hand propping up her head. Her violet lenses were trained on his own eyes, and given that she didn't need to blink, it was quite eerie. Spock stood just in front of the cell, eyes trained on Kirk, who nodded somewhat begrudgingly to the Vulcan. He was not going to forget that nerve pinch for a while.
"I hope you realize how cooperative I'm being right now because - as you saw on the bridge - I could easily smash through this... I don't actually know if this is glass or not, but whatever." Veron said, still staring at the captain with a bemused expression on her face. He knew she was trying to make herself seem like she was there on her own terms and it reminded him of himself, but he had to be the Captain at that moment.
"No you can't," Kirk replied coldly. "McCoy put the safety restriction's back on so you can't destroy anything else."
"He did?" Veron remembered McCoy stopping her before she had left for the cell and his actions made sense now. "Well crap, never mind then." Veron sat up straight then. "So, Dad," McCoy flinched visibly at the scalding tone used, "did Mom give you the shutdown key or something?"
"No one's shutting anything down," McCoy insisted, glaring meaningfully at Kirk.
"Only because I'm the most successful example of both brain transplant surgery and digital-to-neural data transformations," she shot back. "What does it matter if I'm shutdown? It's probably better for the crew anyway - I probably mentally scarred a few of them in the state they were in when I was exposed as a robot."
Spock glanced at her, eyebrows slightly lowered. What was she doing? Did she want to be shut down? "You did what was necessary to diffuse the situation to the best of your capabilities," he stated, hoping to clarify this point to Kirk.
Veron ignored him. "I threw the Captain across the bridge; that alone could have killed him since I don't know my own strength yet."
"Although your actions were somewhat outlandish, you have avoided-" She turned her gaze to Spock, cutting him off in mid sentence.
"I'm a risk to the crew because I'm as unpredictable as any human but with the destructive capabilities of an entire military Starship." Then her eyes found those of McCoy. "The most logical and productive thing would be-"
"I said no one's shutting anything down, damn it!" McCoy yelled.
"Why not? I wouldn't feel a thing; the Autopilot's more efficient anyway. I'm not afraid - my emotions are all false, so really, I can't actually feel anything," She concluded, falling silent once more, her eyes once again locked with Kirk's.
McCoy didn't have to have his monitor with him to know that she believed what she had said. He was speechless. He hadn't at all realized that her mental adjustment to her new situation was this bad. Then again, he hadn't seen what had happened on the bridge when she had been revealed as a machine but he deduced that with the crew in their hormone induced terror that it had to have been pretty bad. To not be accepted for what you truly are... Poor thing must feel like a blight on life, he thought.
Kirk hadn't spoken at all during her explanation and his expression was unreadable. Finally, he spoke.
"E.L.A.N.I. - no, Carter - I'm here to apologise for exposing you like that in front of the crew - top secret or not, that wasn't my decision to make. You were right, I wasn't in my right mind and thanks by the way for not throwing me hard enough to kill me. We need to keep you awake. It's true that the Autopilot is a better machine, but I need a soldier, someone who will be able to make the call about whether what she is doing is right. I'm not encouraging you to ignore my orders, but you did just prevent a full-scale war. We still need you because we need those destructive capabilities of yours to help defend the Enterprise, but we also need your mind. We'll take you, if you'll have us. Please, Carter."
Veron sat there silently for a moment, her face devoid of all emotion; she could have been mistaken for the Autopilot if it wasn't for the fact that her eyes were still purple. "I accept," she said quietly, breaking eye contact. "Thank you Captain."
Kirk nodded, giving her a small grin. "Good. We have some trade relations to discuss; let her out," he called to the security technicians in charge of the holding cell. The cell was opened and Veron stood, slowly walking out. Dr. McCoy approached her first. He wasn't at all satisfied with the way things were turning out but he'd talk to the bluenette later.
"Alright, squirt, you need a disinfectant bath so you don't spread the hormone to anyone else by accident," he said, putting on rubber gloves in case he needed to drag her to the disinfectant - her safety restrictions were on and she was nearly an entire foot shorter than him, so it wouldn't be too hard to do so.
Veron scowled at her nickname. "Excuse me? Squirt?"
"You heard me. Move it." McCoy almost felt like he was talking to Joanna again when she had been five years old.
"Do I have to?" She whined, imperceptibly edging her way back towards the cell. Or so she thought, until Spock stepped directly into her path.
"It is imperative to begin discussions as soon as possible, but I must confess, the tediousness of physical hygiene has been observed to be difficult to enforce on human children," Spock quipped. "As seems to be the case with you, although you are not a child or physically human anymore."
"Hey!" Veron snapped. "It's different for you; you take a bath in nice warm water! I get to be scrubbed with freaking citric acid. It makes me smell all fruity for days and it sucks! Then I get to be rinsed by actual water that is boiling hot. And from not one, but multiple pressure hoses, mind you, because SOMEONE didn't hardwire me to operate while being completely submerged in water!"
"You can yell at them later, squirt. We need to get that hormone off of you. This one's gonna be special though; you get an enzyme scrub." McCoy said, putting as much false enthusiasm in his voice, placing a hand on the unit's shoulder and steering her out the door. If McCoy seemed to be more gentle with his movements than previously with the young woman, Spock made no comment.
"Oh goody. And stop calling me that!" Veron turned around and stuck her tongue out, "You suck, Dad! And you fail at coming up with nicknames," Veron yelled as she stormed down the hallway away from them.
McCoy turned back to Kirk before following her to the medical unit. "Jim, you can be an asshole, but there are these moments when you truly impress me."
Kirk looked offended. "Hey, I am smart, you know!"
"Judging from your overall demeanor and method of handling first impressions, it is relatively effortless to assume otherwise," Spock countered. "Are you sure you weren't trying?"
McCoy shook his head incredulously and went after the android, leaving what appeared to be an amused Spock and an incredibly insulted Kirk. He could see Veron's blue hair waiting alone by the lift and he went to join her. They had some things to discuss.