They stood, frozen for a moment, watching the creature slowly turn around until two eyes, that looked like goggles, came into view. McCoy threw a quick glance at the comm on the wall next to the doors, trying to gauge how long it would take him to get there and alert security to the whereabouts of the intruder, but decided to stay put for the moment. Better to keep shielding Hope with his body and wait for the alien to make a move.
After simply staring at them for what seemed like an eternity to McCoy, the creature started to emit low, almost melodic sounds, and the doctor could feel Hope stirring behind him. He tightened his grip on her arm, silently pleading with her to stay motionless, but to his dismay, he felt her squirming free of his hand and slowly moving away from him.
"I wish I had my translator on me," she whispered as she leisurely stepped around him, quite obviously intending to approach the alien.
"What do you think you're doing?" McCoy hissed, painfully aware that losing his cool might startle the alien.
"Going to say hello," she replied softly, taking another cautious step forward.
"Stop right there! Don't you dare go any closer!" the doctor muttered under his breath, starting to panic.
He wanted nothing more than to reach out and yank her back, but of course knew better than to make any sudden moves.
"But that's my job," Hope returned calmly, carefully continuing her approach.
"And that was an order, Lieutenant!" he snapped in desperation, making her stop in her tracks and seeing her back tense, as she was quite clearly weighing her options.
"So, what do you suggest we do, Doctor?" she all but growled, not even trying to hide her irritation with him for pulling rank on her.
"Wait for backup," he was quick to reply.
It was the only sensible thing to do.
"They don't even know where to look," Hope sighed. "It could take ages."
She had a point there, of course.
"Please, Leonard, let me do my job!" she went on, her gaze never leaving the alien.
She didn't turn around, but he could well picture her imploring eyes. And the worst thing was, that she was right. It was her job. But she was also completely defenceless. They both were. He'd fight with his bare hands, of course, if the alien so much as touched a hair on her head, but he couldn't be sure that that would be enough to keep her safe.
"Please, let me talk to her," Hope tried again.
"Her?" McCoy was puzzled.
"Just a hunch," she said softly. "Intuition is part of my skill set, you know?"
"Mhm," the doctor acknowledged with a grunt.
"Please, Leonard, let me go," she persisted. "If she meant us harm, she would already have attacked us. Or killed us. Or absorbed us. Or whatever."
McCoy sighed. Why was this so hard? His brain told him, of course, that Hope was a capable adult, trained and professional. And damn good at her job, too. Why else would they have promoted her to lieutenant so quickly? But in his heart, she was still this shy girl that had so timidly watched him during her first physical. He just couldn't help being overprotective. And her slight build, her youth, and her unguarded kindness certainly didn't help.
"All right, love, go ahead," he agreed at last. "But, please, be careful."
"I will," she murmured, and he could hear the smile in her voice as she cautiously got moving again.
McCoy held his breath, tensing up, ready to pounce at the first sign of danger. He watched Hope slowly approach the creature, one step at a time, until she was almost close enough to touch it. Then she gingerly squatted down, to be at eye level with the goggles, and started a low, humming sing-song. The doctor couldn't make out any words, but it seemed as if she was singing rather than talking.
With the creature's gaze now completely fixed on Hope, McCoy saw an opportunity to finally get to the comm and started to inch his way to the doors, his eyes never leaving the alien. He could hear two voices humming now, and if he hadn't been rigid with fear, seeing Hope so close to this unknown creature, he might have found it soothing. Enjoyable even.
When he'd reached the comm and finally been able to whisper their location to security, Hope turned towards him with sorrowful eyes.
"I think she's hurt, Leonard," was all she said, but he could hear the compassion in her voice and instantly knew that she expected him to help.
Oh, good grief! He had no idea who or what this was! How was he supposed to help?
Then, to his horror, he saw Hope reach out a hand to touch the alien, and couldn't suppress a terrified shout of warning. After that, all hell broke loose.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Startled at the sudden noise, the alien screeched and bounced into Jenny, knocking her off balance and almost burying her underneath its viscous mass. Dismayed, she saw McCoy sprinting over to pull her out, barking a string of expletives at the creature, just as the doors opened to reveal a security team barging in with their phasers drawn.
"Don't shoot!" Jenny screamed at the top of her lungs, grabbing McCoy's hand and trying to get out from under the alien as fast as she could.
Luckily, McCoy was between the creature and the security team, standing in their line of fire, thus preventing them from using their phasers, and Jenny, grateful for the extra time, frantically scrambled to her feet and spread her arms protectively out in front of the alien.
"Don't shoot!" she repeated, more quietly this time. "She's not hostile, no danger to us. In fact, she's come here looking for help."
"And you know that how?" McCoy growled, still breathless from his stunt and audibly furious with Jenny.
"I just do," she said softly, hoping that the doctor would trust her instincts. "And we'll soon know far more, if I can get to my translator."
McCoy looked doubtful, and she could see that he was torn between wanting to believe her and needing to protect her. She was sorry for nearly giving him a heart attack, when she'd stupidly touched the creature. That had been an incredibly careless and unprofessional move. And she was gladly going to listen to any lecture he was no doubt already putting together in his mind later. But right now, she needed him to trust her. He was the superior officer on-site, and the security guards were waiting for his orders.
"She's in pain, Doctor," Jenny said emphatically, refraining from using his first name in front of the security men.
It was her best shot. She knew him so well. Friend or foe, if someone was in pain, McCoy would always help.
"All right," he relented, still wary of the creature, and turned towards the security team. "Phasers on light stun, and don't shoot unless I tell you to."
"Thank you," Jenny whispered, relieved and grateful.
McCoy nodded curtly, quite obviously still angry with her, then told one of the guards to get the captain and Spock here at once.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Kirk and Spock arrived on the double, and McCoy was immensely relieved to have the captain take over. He had no problem making decisions and being in control in medical emergencies. But other than that, he was more than happy to leave command to Jim.
"Report, Bones!"
The captain had come to stand beside him, eyes darting around the observation deck, taking everything in and trying to make sense of it.
"This creature just appeared out of nowhere, and Hope seems to have been able to sort of communicate with it. She thinks it's not hostile and possibly injured, asking for help."
The doctor was used to Jim's abrupt manner in such situations and tried to be as brief and concise as possible, too, his heart rate only just slowing down again after the scare Hope had just given him. If the alien didn't kill her first, he might do it later. Or at least have a very serious talk with her. Or gather her in his arms and never, ever let her go again. This woman was his life, but she was definitely also going to be the death of him.
"Hope?" Kirk addressed the lieutenant, taking a few cautious steps closer.
"She is no danger to us, Captain," Hope replied, still protecting the alien with her arms spread out.
McCoy could see that the creature had started to shiver. Whether with fear, pain, cold, or even rage, he didn't know.
"From what I can tell so far, she's hurt and looking for help," Hope went on. "But I'd really need my translator to find out details."
At that, Spock stepped forward, holding out the requested device to her. Of course. Trust Spock to have brought the exactly right thing.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Several hours – and coffees – later, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Hope, Uhura, Scotty, and Calmara, the alien, were sitting in the briefing room. Hope had suggested calling her that, since her actual name was impossible for humans to pronounce correctly, and, after finding out that the translucent 'blob with goggles' had actually been a spacesuit, they'd discovered that Calmara's real appearance had strong similarities to a Terran octopus.
After giving Hope some time to establish better communication with the help of the universal translator, which had confirmed her suspicion of the alien being wounded, they'd taken Calmara to sickbay first. And after determining that she was, in fact, a water creature, Scotty had managed to duct-tape a liquid-filled helmet together for her to wear, so that McCoy could get her out of her suit and treat her.
Fortunately, the wound was not much more than a simple scratch, and Calmara had been extremely co-operative and trusting through it all. Looking at her now, gracefully seated at the table with her helmet on, he wondered how he could ever have been scared of her. He'd still have to have that talk with Hope though, later. Friendly and harmless as she was, Calmara was certainly the exception to most of the aliens they usually came across.
Right now, McCoy was comfortably leaning back in his chair next to Hope, listening to Jim and Spock talking to the alien, asking question after question and answering hers, while Hope kept adjusting and improving the translator. How she did that was beyond him. How could you feed a completely new language into a machine within mere minutes? He felt a surge of intense pride. He'd always known how good she was, of course. Her credentials were proof enough. But he'd yet had to actually see her work her magic, and it was impressive.
"This is an easy case," she whispered, as so often having guessed his thoughts just from looking at his face. "Her language, even though it sounds more like humming than talking, uses actual words. Its grammatical structure is, in fact, very similar to ours."
McCoy nodded sagely, even though his ears couldn't detect any similarities at all. He always loved listening to Hope talking about linguistics and could certainly see the appeal of her job, just as she was always eager to hear all about his latest medical findings, despite undoubtedly not understanding all the details.
A perfect fit! he thought lovingly, and then quickly prised his eyes away from Hope, knowing that he should really focus on the Calmara situation rather than on this amazing woman and their seemingly perfect relationship right now.