Part XI

McCoy came to slowly, disoriented as to what had happened. The first thing that he was fully aware of was that his throat ached. The second was that he was somewhere he didn't recognize.

It all started coming back to him slowly, but the sound of a moan threw him out of trying to remember what happened as the doctor in him reacted to the sound of someone in pain. He felt for his medkit, relieved to find it and his tricorder both still with him, then followed the sound to a room where several people were laid out - all obviously very ill.

There wasn't even a hesitation - McCoy pulled out the tricorder and started checking them over. It didn't take him long to determine that one of the women was near critical and she became the focus of his attention. It wasn't long before he was grumbling under his breath about equipment, then a familiar noise from a nearby room drew his attention.

The medical gear he found in there wasn't set up in any sort of logical order, but at least it was there. Checking the closest biobed, he then spotted where a gurney was parked. Grabbing it, McCoy headed back to the woman and hefted her onto it, using it to get her to the biobed. She was either heavier than she appeared or his stamina was still severely in need of work.

Once he had her onto the bed, he groaned before commenting out loud.

"Either someone's messed the sensors up on this unit beyond all hope or you've got readings worse to track than a Vulcan. Wish I had a baseline for you, my dear - I haven't a clue whether these readings are normal for you or if it's the disease you have making them look this way."

An amused voice came from behind him.

"Do you always talk to yourself, doctor?"

The glance over his shoulder revealed a woman he'd never seen before. His brow rose slightly as he answered her, his tone neutral in spite of his words.

"Yes. Generally speaking, it's the only way I get any intelligent conversation. So you - are you from the same group as she is?"

"Yes. Why?"

"I need a baseline reading so I know what I'm dealing with here. Park it on that bed over there."

Her blue eyes widened in what seemed to be shock.

"Are you ordering me around?"

"See anyone else here? Look, lady - I don't know if you care one way or another about this woman, but unless I can get an idea what's wrong and how wrong it is, I can't even begin to guess how to fix it. You won't be an exact match, but you're a helluva lot closer to anything else I have to go by. So either hop up on the damn bed or go tell whoever's in charge that my hands are tied to help anyone here without some cooperation."

Without another word, the woman moved over to the indicated biobed and got onto it. He sighed and moved over to view the readings. His tone and attitude toward her altered as he spoke to her again.

"That's good. Good. Now, try to relax as much as you can. I need a resting pulse and respiration rate."

Keeping a close eye on the readings, McCoy waited until they stabilized, then recorded them onto his tricorder to feed into the other biobed.

"Thank you. At least I know how high a fever she has now. Does she have a name? I hate to call a patient 'hey, you' if there's another option."

The woman continued to watch his movements with open curiosity.

"Her name is Calypso."

Nodding his acknowledgement of the name, McCoy worked on withdrawing a sample of Calypso's blood for testing.

"I wonder if she was named for the music or the nymph."

"I believe for the nymph."

That answered one of McCoy's questions indirectly. These folks were either from Earth or an Earth colony. He growled as he searched for the machine he needed for testing the blood sample, grunting when he finally found it.

"Whoever arranged all of this hasn't the slightest clue of how a medbay should be set up. So, you have a name yourself?"

"Yes - Leona. And you?"

"Leonard McCoy."

Getting up off of the biobed, Leona slowly circled him as he waited for the tests to complete.

"What is that you're wearing?"

Her question threw McCoy slightly and he looked at himself to see if anything he'd been wearing had been altered. He was still in his usual work uniform.

"Standard Starfleet issue uniform. You've never seen one?"

"What is Starfleet?"

The next voice behind him was one he recognized. The man that had drug him around like a damn kid's toy. He never had heard anyone call the man by name.

"Don't interrupt the doctor while he's working, Leona. Come along."

Irritation rose to the forefront again and McCoy turned to Remus. It didn't help that his last memory of the man was being forced into a choke hold. Which explained the sore throat, now that he remembered that.

"She's being helpful - which is more than anyone else has done. Keep your little secrets or whatever they are to yourselves, but the more information I have, the better chance I have of actually saving these people's lives."

Remus glared at the doctor, trying to intimidate him.

"And if I told you that your lifespan depends on theirs?"

"I'm a doctor, not a god. And I can't read minds or instinctively know the medical history of someone I'm just seeing for the first time who can't speak for themselves."

The test results began coming up and McCoy turned his back on Remus to study the screen. The woman was suffering from a virulent form of a virus that United Federation children had been being inoculated against for well over a century. That plus Leona seeming to be ignorant about the existence of Starfleet was leading him to what he would normally consider to be an outlandish speculation. He turned back to Remus, irritation now quickly being replaced by anger.

"Listen, you people have taken me away from my family, friends, job . . . my whole damn life. Apparently with the intent that I heal these people, but then you practically tie my hands? Sure - I can do tests and research and eventually find the answers I need, but we both know that the ones that are already sick don't have that kind of time left to them. Either give me what I need to know to help them or go ahead and kill me because you've already sentenced them to death."

Remus moved closer and wrapped one hand around McCoy's throat, dark eyes intent on the blue ones.

"You court death so readily, Doctor?"

"No - I fight it tooth and nail every chance I get. Make up your mind - help me, kill me or leave me so that I can try to figure this all out on my own. We're wasting time your people don't have to waste."

Like the flipping of a switch, Remus shifted from being threatening to amusement as he released the doctor.

"Khan will either love you or kill you."

McCoy didn't even bother to question who this Khan was. He figured that he'd find out soon enough.

"I do seem to have that effect on some people."

That got a laugh from Remus and he gestured toward Calypso.

"Then I will tell you about us, Doctor - and we will see what good it does."

"Fine - first though, I want the two of you to help me get those other people into a bed."

Leona gave an amused smile and went to start moving the others. Remus stared briefly at Leona before giving McCoy another look.

"Not one to bother with pleasantries, are you?"

"You want a politician or a doctor? Speaking of pleasantries, since you haven't even bothered to introduce yourself, you aren't exactly one to talk."

Laughing again, he shook his head.

"Remus."

That said, Remus gave in and went to help Leona with moving the other sick to the beds as McCoy started trying to determine which medicines were already available and which he would have to try to synthesize to fight the virus. He might have to modify strengths and dosages depending on what he heard from Remus, but it would be a start. McCoy didn't care at all for the fact he'd been shanghaied, but that didn't mean that he was going to allow people to die if he had any say in the matter.