Kirsash arrived on the Corinthian ship and she was suddenly incredibly thankful to her father's rigorous diplomatic training that he had enforced of her or she would have screamed in fright at the sight of the Corinthians. She was also glad that the fear hormone was out of her system, because she might have died.

The Corinthians looked like walking human skeletons with skin tightly wrapped around them. It was as if a human body had all of the water sucked out of it. The black robes that they wore did nothing to diminish the fear; in fact, it enhanced it quite a bit. But more terrifying than their bodies were their eyes. They were completely black, shiny and beetle-like, with the skin around the eyes black as well, giving the appearance from a distance that they had hollow eye sockets. She had read in the files that they were horrific-looking creatures, but she had never imagined that they would be so terrifying.

Kirsash swallowed her fear and stepped off the beaming pad, walking forward one step and then bowing, just as the file had told her to do. She stayed in that position until she heard one of the Corinthians step forward and felt them do the same. As they both started to stand up straight, Kirsash felt a presence trying to enter her mind. The Corinthian in front of her tilted its head, as if it was asking for her permission. She nodded slightly and felt the presence start to enter her mind.

She was surprised by how shy and unintrusive the Corinthian was, but she still felt scared; What would it see in her mind? What if she insulted it? To her great surprise, the Corinthian sent her feelings of calm, friendliness and a desire to learn more about her. Kirsash looked to the other Corinthians and realized that none of them had any sort of weapon on their person. She looked at their technology and even though it seemed advanced, there was nothing to indicate that they had weapons equipped to the ship. Kirsash realized that this species was incredibly passive and simply wanted to learn why the last explorers had been so violent to them.

Kirsash wasn't sure if she was doing the right thing, but she allowed the Corinthian to feel the fear she had felt when she first saw them. She then allowed the Corinthian to explore her more recent memories of fear, showing that it could engulf the logical mind and cause acts of violence in a desire to keep oneself alive. She didn't want to justify what the previous humans had done, but she tried to make their actions easier to understand. She felt something like a question come from the Corinthian. Fear. Was she afraid?

'No,' she thought, and it knew that she meant it. She wasn't afraid. She knew that they meant no harm to herself or the crew, so she had nothing to fear. The Corinthian presence in her mind pulled away. It then turned to the others, and after a minute, they all approached her. They all bowed to her at the same time and with all their thoughts combined, sent her feelings of gratitude and greater willingness for friendship. Kirsash couldn't help but smile as she bowed back to them in thanks.


Deep in Engineering, Veron was being hosed down in a special compartment with hot water. It was currently rinsing off the enzyme solution that was supposed to break down whatever hormone had gotten on her 'skin'. She was wearing a one-piece black swimsuit to expose her limbs so that the points where she could have potentially had the hormone on her were in contact with the solution. She had been in the process of rinsing for approximately 20 minutes and 17 seconds total. But who was counting? Certainly not her literal internal clock.

She pretended not to notice McCoy standing outside, scowling in her direction while he monitored the data feed on the room and chose instead to focus on her hands. She held them in front of her face. They looked like human hands, even the artificial skin looked real, although it was perpetually cold - yet another indication that she was not really alive. She closed her right hand and then flattened it. That was the hand that had snapped Sulu's sword. Then she focused on her left, which had thrown her captain across the bridge. She balled them both into tight fists. The machinery that she knew lay under her skin was very artfully crafted; if she didn't know better, they'd have just looked like human bones. But they weren't. And now everyone else knew it too.

She was startled out of her thoughts as she felt the pressurized jets power down, the scalding water trickling to a stop. The heat didn't bother her at all - it would have cooked any regular person - and it helped with the disinfection. She kept her head down as she waited for the plexiglass wall that served as a waterproof door to sink into the floor so she could step out. A blast of cool air greeted her when the glass was lowered. Veron stepped out of the 'shower' and took not three steps when she noticed a pair of black shoes in front her. Before she could look up questioningly, McCoy had already dropped the towel he had been holding onto her head, effectively covering her face with it. She reached up and dried her hair with it, only peeking out from under it when she heard him walk away.

He had seated himself on one of the tables and was watching her expectantly. At her glance, he beckoned her over with his head. She made her way to him slowly, with the towel still draped over her head.

"Good God, V'ron. At least dry yourself off properly," McCoy sighed exasperatedly. Veron just shrugged; it didn't matter if she was dry or not; It's not like she would catch a cold. She grabbed the black Starfleet undershirt and pulled it on over her swimsuit before wriggling into her blue uniform. She didn't bother to put shoes on and just hopped up onto the table behind McCoy, sitting back-to-back with him.

She felt him lean back against her slightly. "What's the matter, squirt?"

Veron sighed and looked down. She didn't talk for so long that McCoy thought she was never going to answer him but finally she spoke.

"Why?"

"Why, what?"

"Why did you fight for me? It wouldn't have hurt." Since she was facing away from him, he couldn't see her expression, but he knew she was referencing what had happened in the holding cell.

McCoy looked up and sighed, "Call me a sentimentalist, but you remind me of Joanna, my daughter. She is such an amazing woman now and sometimes... well, I realize that I wasn't always there for her."

McCoy sat up straighter, "You are not Joanna, I know that, but I still want to help you. You may have lost your human body, Veronica, but you still have your mind. You knew that what the Captain was asking you to do was wrong and you stood your ground. Even as a human, if you had been placed in the same situation, I know you would have made the same call."

"Ironic," Veron murmured. "Had I been human, I would most definitely have not been placed in the same situation under any circumstances."

McCoy ignored her and closed his eyes, "When I saw them bring your body in here when it was destroyed, I could barely register it. No child should have to die from wounds like that." He paused to take a shaky breath. He could see it again, the emergency team dashing in from the transporters with a stretcher in between them, the fatal wounds that had been inflicted upon the girl which had burned away nearly half of her body, his desperate attempt to come up with any crazy idea to keep her alive... "I knew I would stop at nothing to try to save you. You were too young, V'ron, far too young to die. All of us, even Spock, would have done anything to have saved your human body, but that was gone. Your life wasn't. Maybe it wasn't our decision to make, but I will never think I wasn't right to save your life."

They sat in silence, back to back with each other for a few minutes. The girl in the machine felt like crying, screaming, curling up into a ball until no more tears could fall. But the machine didn't have any tears to cry in the first place. Veron settled for turning sideways and tentatively inching her hand over so her pinky wrapped around his. Sometimes she felt like she barely knew this man, yet she called him 'dad' because he was one of the closest things she had to family right now. He saw her for what she really was: a child trapped in the body of a weapon. Finally, Veron laid her cheek against his back, "Dad? Can I ask a favor?"

"Shoot."

"Could I sleep? I mean, sleep like anyone else; no Autopilot while my brain is sleeping, my whole body just resting, if we can still call it that. Can you do that or do I have to wait for Mom to wake up?"

McCoy chuckled, "I can do it. Just lay down. I'll wake you up if anything serious happens, like, say, the ship blows up."

Veron rolled her eyes as she hopped off the table and placed herself comfortably on the bed that Scotty sometimes used if he ever worked late this far in Engineering. "Ha ha, Dad. You're so funny." She drawled sarcastically as she watched McCoy dial in some sequence into the PADD she knew was used specifically to monitor her status. He dramatically pressed a blinking button that popped up on screen.

"Done," he announced, smiling down at her. "You are free to sleep."

Veron sighed and allowed her eyes to slowly slide shut. "One more thing," she said, eyes still closed.

"Yeah?"

"Would you... stay until I fall asleep?" Veron felt like kicking herself. She was seventeen for crying out loud but she felt like a little girl again after all the events that happened today.

McCoy only chuckled. "Sure, squirt," he said as he seated himself on the edge of the bed.

"I'm sorry I broke Mom."

"That's alright, squirt. He's a tough one; he'll be in here yelling at you himself for that once he recovers." Veron smiled a little at that.

"Tell him I want those upgrades when I wake up," she mumbled, beginning to drift off.

"Sure thing."

"And I'm never going up to the bridge again."

"I can't make any promises, but I'll threaten Jim with Andorian shingles if he tries to bring you up anytime soon."

Veron nodded gratefully. She could still see the judging stares of the bridge crew after she revealed what she truly was. She didn't think she could face any of them ever again.

"Also..." she trailed off. "Nevermind, I forgot."

McCoy laughed softly. "Go to sleep, V'ron."

"Uh-huh... Thanks, Dad," she mumbled. He sat there in silence for a few minutes to make sure she was asleep. There were no telltale signs of her being asleep, no deep breathing, relaxing muscles or twitching eyelids. He gazed at her somberly before he finally stood to leave. As he turned the lights off, a small "You're welcome," echoed in the room before the door slid shut behind him.