Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek.
Chapter Fifty-four:
Dr Phlox didn't know what to make of the readings he was getting from his medical scanner. JT's vitals were all over the place, his heart was speeding up and then suddenly slowing down and almost stopping only to speed up again to an almost fatally high rate. It was alarming, but the scanner was unable to determine the cause. JT was also under a lot of metal pressure and if that pressure wasn't taken care of soon, it would lead to neurological damage which couldn't be fixed.
"I don't understand," Dr Phlox muttered to himself. "These reading don't make sense."
"Is there a problem, doctor?" T'Pol asked.
"Yes." Dr Phlox answered, running his scanner over JT again.
"Should you not request assistance from the medical bay?" T'Pol replied, raising an eyebrow slightly.
Dr Phlox shook his head. "I wouldn't even begin to know how to treat him… The results from the scan are not unlike that of an untrained adolescent Betazoid when their telepathic and empathic abilities first awaken."
T'Pol didn't answer, she simply knelt beside the doctor and reached out a hand. JT flinched slightly as T'Pol fingers made contact with his face, but other than that he had no other reaction. T'Pol shut her eyes and muttered quietly under her breath.
After a few moments JT's vital signs began to calm and the mental pressure he was under began to subside, but Phlox had no doubt that when JT woke up, he'd have a rather painful headache. But that could easily be treated.
"What's going on?" Tucker asked, worry clouding his tone and making his accent stronger than usual. "What's wrong with him?"
"I am unsure," Dr Phlox answered. "But it is quite possible that JT has some Betazoid blood in him… A grandparent perhaps."
"What?" Tucker demands. "But he's human! Both his parents were human, not part human! You'd think the entire Federation would know if one of the Kirk's weren't fully human!"
"It is only a theory, Lieutenant Commander," Dr Phlox answered. "I will not know the truth about JT's potentially mixed heritage until I have had an in-depth looking at his DNA."
"But it's impossible!" Tucker exclaimed.
"Nothing is impossible, Trip," T'Pol suddenly spoke up. "As you have proved on countless occasions."
"If this is about that time-" Tucker began to defend himself.
"Dr Phlox," T'Pol turned to the doctor. "Could you please take JT to mine and the Lieutenant Commanders quarters'? We will be along shortly, but first there is an engineer who is need of a reprimand."
"What?!" Tucker demands. "None of my engineers have done anything wrong! There was an accident in engineering earlier, but that was nobody's fault!"
"I am not referring to the events which occurred in engineering," T'Pol answered. "I'm referring to the event which has caused JT's current distress and fear."
"An engineer did this to him?!" Tucker exclaimed. "We don't even know what's wrong with him!"
"Trip!" T'Pol spoke sharply, her anger momentarily breaking through her control.
Tucker stared at her for a second. "Alright, lead the way."
XxX
Flicking to the back of the book, McCoy found a hand written note and the hand writing was without a doubt was Jim's. 'Space is disease and danger, wrapped in darkness and silence' Well congratulations, Bones, you survived the first year. McCoy could almost hear the laugh Jim must have laughed as he wrote it. Buckle up, 'cause this is far from over. After all one tiny crack in the hull and our blood boils in thirteen seconds… Not to mention those solar flares which might crop up. And despite himself, McCoy smiles.
Jim stepped out on to the bridge of the ship and Jon glanced back at him and nodded in greeting, before turning his attention back to the view screen. Jim quietly made his way over and dropped into the navigator's seat beside Jon. He watched the stars zoom past them, the ship wasn't traveling as fast the Enterprise usually travelled, but Jim found some comfort in the familiar sight.
"Shouldn't you be asleep?" Jon asks, breaking the silence.
"Couldn't sleep if I tried," Jim mutters.
"Ah," Jon mutters knowingly. "If I had known, I would have picked up some painkillers you weren't allergic to."
Jim shakes his head. "The pain isn't the problem. I'm more than used to the pain… I had more than my fair share of it over the years, after all."
Jon grins slightly. "I've never meet someone quiet as able to attract trouble as you, so yes, I'd have to agree with you."
The two of them fall into a comfortable silence once more. Jim shifts in his seat as he tries to get more comfortable and knocks his broken wrist, causing himself to hiss sharply in pain. Jon snaps round to face him at the sound.
"You're injured." He accuses.
"No shit!" Jim exclaims. "I got shot remember."
"I'm not talking about that," Jon shakes his head, ignoring Jim's outburst. Jim only ever got defensive and lashed out when he was injured.
Jon had to admit it worked. When ever Jim got injured and didn't want people to know about it, he hauled insults at people and/or lashed out verbally with sarcasm or quick witted remarks, in an attempt to distract whoever it was from working out he was injured. Jon had witnessed Jim use that tactic hundreds of times, so he knew when Jim was deploying it.
"I may not be a doctor," Jon spoke up gently, after letting his gaze sweep over Jim. "But I know how to treat an injury or two. You're injured, Jim and you're aboard my ship and I'm the captain. I'd be in big trouble if I got caught with an injured, untreated civilian passenger aboard my ship, I doubt I have to tell you about the health and safety regulations. So just let me take a look, would you? It won't take long."
"Fine." Jim mutters, holding out his injured wrist. The last thing he wanted was for Jon to get in trouble on his behalf, cargo ship and passenger ships alike, could get stopped at random to ensure they were following the regulations.
Jon frowns as he examines Jim's wrist. "Why didn't you get Martha to treat this?"
"It slipped my mind." Jim shrugs. "At the time I was more worried about the bullet she was pulling out of me."
Jon shakes his head in disbelief. "Wait here, I'll just grab something to wrap that with."
"Where could I go?" Jim calls after Jon with a grin. "In case you hadn't noticed, we're on a ship in the middle of nowhere."
"You forget, I've seen you get out of more medical examinations and treatments than there are planets in the delta quadrant," Jon answers over his shoulder. "So I know you can quite literally disappear and go anywhere!"
XxX
"What's wrong with him?" Elizabeth asked, as Dr Phlox run his medical scanner over JT again.
Dr Phlox raised an eyebrow at her. "Hasn't your mother told you to speak standard while in the company of humans?"
"You're not human," Elizabeth answered. "And JT speaks Vulcan."
The three of them were in T'Pol and Tucker's quarters. The room was an odd mix of both human and Vulcan interior design. There were Vulcan artefacts and relics, which were undamaged and well looked after alongside human trinkets and framed photos. Most of the surfaces in the room were covered in PADD's and odds and ends from engineering.
Dr Phlox often wondered who T'Pol dealt with Tucker. He was one of the most highly emotional humans Dr Phlox had ever worked with and he hardly ever cleaned up after himself. He left half completed projects lying around and cloths on the floor from his rush to change in the morning. He was often careless with his things, after all if anything got broken he could simply fix it.
It was almost the complete opposite to what he was like at work. Engineering was always spotless and everything was handled with care. Every project was completed and uncompleted work was taken over by the next person on shift. Nothing was left lying around and god forbid if Tucker found one of his engineers being careless and slacking off!
"Hmm," Dr Phlox hummed, as he looked at the medical scanners results before putting away the scanner.
"What is wrong with him, Doctor?" Elizabeth asked again.
"I do not know for certain," Dr Phlox answered, glancing at Elizabeth briefly. "It could be one of two things… It is possible JT is of Betazoid descent. Or it is possible the stress and trauma of what JT has suffered, triggered his latent abilities in a means to help him survive."
"What abilities?" Elizabeth asked, curious.
"Your mother believes JT has telepathic abilities," Dr Phlox explained. "When she first melded with him, she was forced to go through his memories of Tarsus in order to break him out of them. It seems JT heard the dying scream of Hoshi Sato telepathically, as there was no way even a Vulcan could have heard that scream from such a distance away and JT's companion at the time failed to hear it, so it would seem JT heard it telepathically. And now it seems JT is showing sign of empathic abilities."
"Humans do not have telepathic abilities," Elizabeth replied. "They are a psi-null species."
"On the contrary," Dr Phlox corrects her. "Some humans have been known to exhibit telepathic abilities. One of the most powerful and skilled telepathist's in history was a human women. It is simply uncommon for humans to have such abilities."
Before Elizabeth had a chance to answer, the door to the quarters they were in opened and T'Pol and Tucker joined by Archers, stepped into the room.
"How is he, Doctor?" Archer asked.
XxX
Hey, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I hope I got the Trip/T'Pol dynamic right and a quick question: What would you prefer, for JT to be part Betazoid, or for him have latent telepathic abilities which were triggered by the stress and trauma of Tarsus IV? And sorry this chapter was slightly shorter than usual. Until next time,
Blessed be,
TreeOfLife1997.
