2262
The data was coming in thick and fast and Clementine could barely keep up. Apparently they were tracking a collapsing star and Commander Spock was eager to record, track and analyse every single minute detail.
"Elson, what've you got?" she called out to Chris next to her.
"A whole lot of nothing, you?"
"I've got something?" she answered peering at the screens in front of her. "Who determined our distance and the star's trajectory?" she shot back at him as he was gulping down his coffee.
"What?" he instinctively responded but then her question seeped through his early morning consciousness and he started checking his own readings. "Bridge crew…"
"Bloody hell! They have no idea!" opening a channel to the Commander she tapped her fingers on her desk anxiously. "Come on,"
"Lieutenant Kelly, how may I be of assistance?"
"Commander, the trajectory is not what we initially hoped for…" Chris listened intently as his friend and fellow Crewmember started listing off fractions and numbers. Percentages, degrees and hypotheticals were pouring from her at lightning speed. As she spoke he checked her stats at his own station, nodding slowly he silently gave her a thumbs up, letting her know he agreed with what she was saying.
"Do you have the data Lieutenant?"
"Yes, sending it to you now." Clementine froze and pulled her ponytail tighter, waiting for the Vulcan's response.
"You are correct in your analytics Lieutenant," silently she motioned to Chris, rolling her eyes and gesturing to her own head with her hand as if the Vulcan had agreed with her that the Earth's sky is blue. Chris couldn't help but stifle a laugh, he knew she wasn't just being ballsy because the Commander couldn't see her, there was no question in his mind that she would have done the same thing to his face given the chance. It was a running joke between him, Olakunle and Clementine that she had the biggest balls out of the three of them.
"Your presence is required on the Bridge Lieutenant," with that the communication cut out and Clementine swallowed hard.
"I've sent him all the stuff?" she commented to Chris.
"Priority one…" Chris whistled slowly and shook his head.
"Why the hell would you say that?!" Clementine punched his arm knowing full well she wouldn't even leave a bruise. Still, it made her feel slightly better.
"Because I like messing with you?" he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.
"Well! Well done you because now it's in my head!" she punched him again for good measure.
"You'll be fine," he gave her one of his signatory 'Stop worrying over nothing' looks. "Go Kelly," he ushered.
"Yeah, right, okay." Getting up from her station she quickly pulled her ponytail tighter again and strode from the room. Making her way there she took in a deep breath before stepping out of the turbolift, it was a hive of activity and she quickly scanned the room looking for Commander Spock. Kirk was in his chair, speaking with Doctor McCoy, she gave them a cursory glance but they were both deep in conversation with one another.
"Commander?" she caught his attention and then was pulled into a whirlwind conversation, keeping up with Spock was difficult, his mind a chasm of knowledge and logic. Clementine found herself getting a kick out of being there with him though, discussing possibilities, scenarios of outcome. She found it exhilarating.
"Captain," Spock spoke over her head, turning she watched the Captain and McCoy look up and then make their way over. Clementine looked at the Captain, who was eyeing her up and down, clearly intrigued as to why a Lieutenant from Analytics was speaking with his First Officer. She nodded respectfully and then turned to McCoy.
"Doctor McCoy," she greeted professionally but she could tell by his face he was wondering what the hell she was doing there and being a tad more obvious than Kirk.
"Lieutenant Kelly," he replied, all the while Kirk looking between the pair.
"What is it Spock?" Kirk asked turning back to his First Officer.
"Lieutenant Kelly revised my estimates and she is correct in proposing we deviate from our current path Captain," McCoy scoffed ungainly.
"You're telling me you got something wrong Spock?!" he asked gleefully.
"Correct, I fail to understand as to why that is a source of pleasure for you Doctor?" Spock replied stoically.
"Different strokes Spock," McCoy answered light-heartedly. Clementine felt embarrassed, but the smile on the Captain and Doctor's face made her think they were both extremely happy that someone had got one over on Spock.
"Great work Lieutenant!" Kirk congratulated her.
"Thank you Sir, but it was only a very small deviation, anybody could have done the same…" Kirk held up his hand.
"Take the compliment Lieutenant," he said laughing.
"Aye Sir, thank you." Clementine smiled and nodded her head professionally, she found herself stealing another glance at McCoy who was already looking at her.
"Sir, our corrected course is taking us through an Ion storm." Sulu shouted from his station, the order obviously already having been relayed. Everybody's attention was diverted to the Helmsman who was looking at Kirk expectantly.
"Can we go around?" he asked.
"I don't think we have time and in any case, that will take us back into the vicinity of the star?" Kirk was back in his chair commanding each function for a full report and Clementine stood in awe, watching the inner workings of the Bridge was a sight to behold.
"Come with me," she felt McCoy's firm grip on her arm and before she realised what was happening McCoy was leading her towards the turbolift.
"What are you doing?" she asked as they stood in the turbolift, pulling her arm back and not appreciating being man-handled.
"This is a priority one environment…" and there it was.
"Yes, and?" she interrupted, McCoy's eyebrow arched severely and he leant towards her.
"And remember what I said about you being in a priority one environment?" he asked aggressively, Clementine looked at him with the same amount of aggression.
"I do, but as you can see, Doctor McCoy, I'm fine." In just that small amount of time she had experienced what it felt like to be at the heart of the action, to be making decisions that effected the whole crew, and she had helped! She had positively contributed and just as she was taking it all in McCoy had pulled it all out from under her. Reminding her that she was a goddamn liability! She stared at him angrily as his eyes softened slightly and he gently ushered her to follow him.
"I know you are, I know. I just don't want to have to…" he struggled with finding the right words.
"Throw me off the ship?" Clementine finished for him, with a deep breath she closed her eyes for a moment and succumbed to the brutal truth, that he was only doing his job. "You're right, I'm sorry. It's just I always dreamed of being on the bridge and…" she closed her eyes again and sighed. "Never mind," standing in the turbolift she smiled gratefully at him and he found himself smiling back sympathetically.
McCoy was abruptly thrown from his feet and crashed against Clementine as the whole ship, and consequently the turbolift lurched sideways.
He'd all but smothered her but was finding it difficult to right himself with the constant pitching of the ship. The grunt underneath him made him look down and see Clementine's eyes staring back up at him.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"You weigh a ton!" Clementine managed to rasp out given there was no air in her lungs.
"Yeah sorry, damnit!" in his panic he rested his hand on her hip and pushed himself up, letting out a scream Clementine couldn't help but double over in pain and try to push him away in response. That was a lot of weight for one hip bone!
"Oww!"
"Damnit!" despite the pain he was inflicting Clementine laughed and pulled a face at McCoy.
"For goodness sake!" She exclaimed, pushing at his chest with both her hands. Serendipitously both the ship and McCoy righted themselves at the same time. Standing he held out his hand to her, "Are you alright?" she asked.
"Yeah, you?" McCoy was looking for any sign of injury.
"I'm fine, what happened?" pulling her ponytail tight she went to the comm panel.
"Lieutenant Kelly to Analytics." McCoy watched as she waited for an answer.
"Elson here." Clementine closed her eyes briefly, her friend's voice calming her down.
"What's going on Chris?" she asked as calmly as she could peering at McCoy at the same time and seeing that he was watching her intently.
"Ion storm," both Clementine and McCoy rolled their eyes at the same time.
"No shit Chris," her response slipped out and she blushed. She desperately tried to ignore the fact that she was stood with a Senior Officer who was looking at her through narrowed eyes.
"That's why they pay me the big bucks!" Clementine ended the comm and requested deck eight.
'Turbolift is inoperable,' the computer answered back.
"You have got to be kidding!" McCoy shouted angrily.
"Lieutenant Kelly to Engineering," Clementine started to tap her foot unconsciously.
"Engineering here," came the disinterested voice.
"We're stuck in a turbolift…"
"Yeah, powers down, we'll get to ya." The comm cut out and the pair looked at one another dumbfounded.
"I guess we're stuck here for a while?" Clementine shrugged her shoulders and looked at McCoy blankly.
"The hell we are!" McCoy proceeded to open a comm to seemingly every function, including Kirk, asking why the hell they were stuck in a turbolift. Clementine just stood and listened until he finally slid down the side of the wall and let his legs splay out in front of him.
"I think you need to calm down Doctor," Clementine said as she followed suit and sat opposite him, crossing her legs at the ankle and smoothing down her skirt. His jaw dropped and he was about to launch into a tirade of 'look who's talking' when he caught the glint in her eye and he knew she was joking.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, acutely aware they were in a very stressful situation.
"Not bad, considering," Clementine smiled, not really minding that he seemed to ask her that question fifty times a day. "It must be your calming influence," again McCoy was pleasantly surprised by her light hearted banter.
"Must be," he replied falling into a silence. Leaning his head back he closed his eyes and tried to relax, there was nothing he could do but the idea of being stuck in such a small space was starting to get to him. Clementine had been watching him and picking up on the tell-tale signs of someone who was trying not to panic, pulling herself up into a kneeling position she instinctively took McCoy's hand.
"What's wrong Doctor McCoy?" she asked as his eyes shot open and he looked at her shocked. He realised he mustn't have been as successful as he had hoped in hiding the fact that he was struggling with the confined space.
"I suffer from Aviophobia," he said, noticing that her thumb was rubbing the skin between his thumb and index finger. "What are you doing?" he asked, still watching.
"I'm applying pressure to the hand valley point," she answered. "Don't you mean Claustrophobia?" Clementine caught his attention again, trying to keep him occupied.
"No, I don't have a phobia of confined spaces." Shaking his head his eyes flittered to her profile and then back down again.
"Just flying?" she asked quietly.
"That's right, being stuck in here reminds me we're flying through space." Clementine nodded and continued to rub small circles on his hand. She had to stop herself from smiling, the revelation that Doctor McCoy had a phobia being oddly amusing to her.
"What the hell is the damned hand valley point?" McCoy gave her a sceptical look.
"Reflexologists claim that applying a firm touch to this pressure point may help reduce stress," she told him, letting his right hand drop to his lap and picking up his left. "Seems to be working," McCoy nodded, watching her hold his hand in hers gently. The feel of her soft skin on his was captivating and he found himself looking over every indentation and mark.
"How'd you get that scar?" he asked her, noticing the small silvery line that ran across the top of her hand. It was unusual for people to have scars, most were removed with a dermal regenerator. Clementine laughed and brushed her own finger over the long forgotten wound.
"I was hiking, held onto a branch and didn't check that it could take my weight, went flying." Shrugging her shoulders she noticed that McCoy's breathing had calmed and he was watching her avidly. Wanting to keep him that way she carried on talking. "We weren't due to get back for another week so I patched it up as best I could, when we got back I didn't want to lose it." The pair looked at one another, their eyes not moving. "A reminder of my bravery and how much of a badass I was sewing it up myself!" She winked at him as she spoke. "You seemed to have calmed down a bit," Clementine whispered to him.
"I guess so," McCoy was surprised himself at how much of a calming effect she had had on him.
"Plus I figured I owed you one, given the amount of times you've helped me." Clementine wanted to apologise to him, for being a nuisance, taking up his time but she'd promised herself a long time ago never to say sorry to anybody again.
Not about her condition at any rate.
McCoy thought back to the time he'd stayed with her through several attacks, they'd ended up sitting on the floor in her quarters. He'd brought his hands up and cupped her cheeks, asking her to focus on him. Her eyes had glistened with tears and he'd gently stroked the wetness from her cheek. That's when he had felt liked he'd crossed some invisible line, the one between caring Doctor and caring… whatever?! It had taken him a long time to shake that feeling off. Now though, it was all careening back.