This story takes place in the late movie era, between "The Final Frontier" and "The Undiscovered Country", and I imagine Doctor Christine Chapel as having rejoined the crew at that point.
Hope you have fun with this one! What can go wrong on a routine mission?
Medieval Meddling, or: Bedlam in Brieldar
The away team of the USS Enterprise materialised on the outskirts of a small town on yet another of all the lively planets in the galaxy.
Stepping into the road from behind the trees they had used as a hiding place from prying eyes, they followed the thoroughfare towards the settlement, disguised in native clothing to observe and catalogue the pre-warp civilisation's culture and society.
Preliminary scans had identified their destination as the capital city of a small but flourishing kingdom, with frequent trade and tourism.
"We should see the capital any moment now," Spock said with a last glance on his tricorder before he hid the instrument beneath the tunic he was wearing. His shipmates, Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy, and Doctor Chapel, took that as a sign to make sure none of the equipment they carried was showing. Even just a peek of a communicator could threaten the integrity of the Prime Directive.
As they rounded the next bend in the road, they found themselves on a hillside looking over a labyrinth of alleys and streets, lined by sturdy stone buildings. On a grassy hill in the middle, an imposing castle threw a long shadow over the adjacent streets.
"Looks like something from a fairy-tale," McCoy murmured, breathing in the fresh summer air. He could hear alien voices coming from the busy market centre, too faint to be picked up by the universal translator.
"Earth's fairy-tales are notably grim, Doctor," Spock observed. "I wish nothing of the like for us."
Dr McCoy smirked up at him. "Grimm, Spock? I didn't know you'd taken a liking to puns."
The Vulcan raised a bemused eyebrow. "I have not. Terran fairy-tales are grim, I see no joke in that."
"No, of course, you don't," McCoy chuckled as he continued walking down the road next to Kirk whose amused grin had not alleviated Spock's confusion.
Doctor Chapel had silently watched the light banter and laughed to herself as she and Spock followed the Captain and the CMO downhill.
"I do not understand the Doctor's ability to find humour in my statement," he said, addressing her. "Earth's fairy-tales are grim."
"Some of them are quite literally 'Grimm'," Chapel said but doubted he'd get the hint now. "Why, tell me some authors of fairy-tales, Spock."
"Most fairy-tales do not have one clear author. But several people are credited with collecting and writing fairy-tales, among them Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers…"
Spock stopped when he realised the cause of the Doctors merriment.
"The Brothers Grimm, yes," Christine said. "You know, you could explain something like that, Leonard," she admonished the Doctor as they caught up to the pair walking in front of them.
"I'm a doctor not a lexicon, darlin'," he replied, without even looking at her.
They continued their descent into the town in silence, curiously observing the inhabitants passing them at infrequent intervals. The looks of them confirmed their first scans of the population in that they were humanoid with no shortage of genetic mutations, a fact that let them roam the lanes and alleys without drawing attention to their appearance, not even Spock.
"The population size is similar to Earth's late middle ages," he said and then pointed towards the stone houses lining the street they were walking along. "However, without such irksome catastrophes such as the plague and, to my information, with fewer devastating fires as European cities had to endure on Earth at that time, this civilisation has prospered faster and accumulated an intellectual knowledge that is more comparable to the Rennaissance. Or the advances in architecture, medicine, and general sciences have already prevented those disasters from happening here. It should be an interesting study of cause and effect."
"Oh Spock," sighed McCoy, rolling his eyes. "Maybe we can do all of that later. For now, we should probably find somewhere to stay, shouldn't we, Jim?"
"You're right, Bones, I'll ask that local woman over there."
He nodded over to a young woman moving in the same direction as them and approached her. They talked quietly for a while and then came over to the waiting officers.
"This is Elinor, a local innkeeper. She's offered us the rooms over her inn for the duration of our stay."
Elinor smiled lightly as they thanked her and introduced themselves. "Welcome to Brieldar," she said. "You are very welcome to live under my roof. There will be enough space and comfort for the four of you, I think. But I have already remarked to your charming leader that you have arrived at a most unfortunate time to get to know our people. Our young king, Jorek, has been imprisoned by his uncle just this morning. We are all concerned about his safety and the wellbeing of us all. But still, my house is open for you and you may spend your time in our community."
They followed her further towards the centre of town until they stopped at a two-storey corner house.
Elinor led them through the inn on the ground floor towards the stairs at the far end.
"You'll find a spacious room up there that'll cover all your needs, as well as bathing facilities. It's the first door on the left. If you want, you can have dinner down here in the evenings. I usually eat in front of the fireplace. Just come down later and there'll probably be something to eat."
"Is there anything we can help you with in return? Anything we can repay your hospitality with?" Kirk asked.
"Oh, you're kind, but there is nothing I need," Elinor said, beaming up at him. "You're good people, I can see that. You will help when help is needed. It's what we all do around here."
They thanked her again for her hospitality and followed the turn of the stairs up behind the inn's small bar. At the top, a hallway stretched to their right, presumably along the length of the barroom downstairs.
As instructed, they took the first door to their left and found that Elinor had not exaggerated; it did cover all their needs. The opposite wall was lined with four beds, the afternoon light streaming in through white curtains between the middle two. There was a ceiling-high wardrobe right from the door that provided them with more than enough space to stow the little belongings they had brought.
"This is a nice view."
The Captain pulled back the curtains and revealed a broad window with an inbuilt window seat looking out into the street and over the tiled roofs of the smaller buildings on the opposite side.
"And this is actually not bad," McCoy called from the other side.
He had opened a door to the left of the entrance and was standing in a small room with bathing facilities. The slope of the roof would prevent at least Spock from standing up straight, but there was a bathtub, a sink with a big chunk of soap, and towels were stacked on a shelf.
"A bathtub is more than we have on the ship," Chapel said while joining him. "If Starfleet had consulted me when they built the new Enterprise, I would have wanted one. Sometimes I'd prefer a bath over sonic showers."
"Well, they didn't ask me either. But they never do."
"You could try requesting a change to your bathrooms at the next drydock appointment," Spock said, also joining them.
McCoy only made a noncommittal sound, shrugging his shoulders listlessly.
"Well, I'm not keeping you from using that one," Kirk said from behind Spock. "Just don't flood Elinor's kitchen, I think it's directly beneath us."
"It would be a shame. She's very trusting," Dr Chapel said while moving back to the main room. She started sorting the few clothes they had brought into the wardrobe.
"She is. I wonder why. I wouldn't just give any stranger a place under my roof if I was all alone," McCoy said from the bed next to the bathroom.
"She's empathetic. And this is an inn," Spock said as he joined Dr Chapel in sorting their belongings away.
"She's an empath?" Kirk asked from the window seat.
"I believe so. I sensed heightened empathetic abilities from her when we talked. She trusts us because she knows she can. Based on what she said, I'd expect most of the population to have that ability."
"Well, maybe that'll lead to some good. I have a bad feeling about the situation, with their king having been imprisoned and all. I don't want to get involved," McCoy said.
"Neither of us do, Doctor. Besides, we are not allowed. We have to operate in compliance with the Prime Directive."
"I know the Prime Directive, Spock! But I also know how easy it is to get caught up in something. The best we could do were to beam off again and wait it out."
"We would if we could, Bones. But the Enterprise is doing a supply run while we're here," Kirk said. "She left orbit at highest warp the moment we had beamed down and she'll be out of communication's range by now." He flicked open his communicator to illustrate his point, and only static answered.
"Oh, as long as we don't get involved and no one gets seriously injured, we should be fine," Chapel said, shooting a glance at Leonard while she hid their sparse medical equipment under the pillow of the closest bed.
"Not getting injured is easier said than done with these two," McCoy sighed, pointing at Jim and Spock on the inner two beds. "They get themselves into trouble faster than you can say Zefram Cochrane."
"I can assure you, we have no intention of getting into trouble," Spock said from next to Christine.
"I know Spock, I know. But you still always manage to. We just can't afford any medical emergencies. All we have is a dermal regenerator, some painkillers, and a scanner."
"We'll be careful," Jim shrugged.
"Coming from you, that's not reassuring. I can heal barely more than a papercut," McCoy grumbled and turned on his side. "I should have taken more than just the basics.", he murmured, closing his eyes.
Christine observed their bickering for a moment, and when Leonard had turned away, apparently to take an afternoon nap, she met Jim's imploring glance with a shrug of her own.
"He's right," she mouthed.
Her reaction to conditions like these might be less intense than Leonard's, but she could not help but see the precarity of their situation. More than once, political conflicts in alien societies had become a problem of unsuspecting Starfleet officers on routine explorations.
She leaned back on her bed and closed her eyes. The unintelligible noise of chattering voices reached her ears from the street, while within their room, the only sounds were Leonard's soft snores and the murmur of a quiet conversation between Spock and the Captain.
Sometimes she missed the sensory impressions of a planet when being ship bound for too long. On a starship, the length of days and nights was determined by the chronometer and not the nearest star, and the lights often seemed sterile, lacking the natural warmth of a sun.
Christine cherished the feel of the day's last sunbeams on her face as she breathed deeply. Smells she may have never smelled before reached her nose, and the alien voices from outside continued to be unintelligible. Those were the truly remarkable aspects of 'strange new worlds', she thought. Because however different all these single impressions might be to her home of Earth, even though the light seemed ever so slightly different and the smells and noises were largely unfamiliar, together they completed the familiar puzzle of a living, breathing civilisation.
Lazing in the waning sunlight of this alien world, she could almost forget they were here on an official scientific mission with a new cause for concern. But the conversation between her commanding officers suddenly reminded her. She hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but the sound of her name had caught her attention.
"She is a capable officer with diplomatic experiences and works well under pressure. As well as any of us. She did coordinate the relief efforts at Starfleet Headquarters when the probe attacked," Spock said to something Kirk had asked about her. "She is also not asleep, Jim."
A shadow fell over her eyes and she squinted up at Kirk who had moved over to her bed.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to disturb you." He sat down on the edge of her bed and furrowed his brow at her. "This could quickly become very dangerous, even if it doesn't look like that right now," he said.
"I know."
"We have to take every precaution possible not to get involved. If we do, we cannot reveal our identities. Under no circumstances. No phasers, no communicators. No involvement or exposure whatsoever."
"I know." She furrowed her brow slightly. Surely he was not doubting her abilities? "I am up to it, Captain." She glanced over Kirk's shoulder at Spock's indecipherable face. "I am an experienced officer and doctor," she added.
"I know you are, Christine, I know." Kirk took her by the shoulders. "But that's just it. You're a doctor. He's a doctor." He motioned over to McCoy who was still dozing peacefully. "You're healers, not fighters. You're innocents; if something went wrong, your loss would be the most unfortunate."
Christine crossed her arms. "Well, I appreciate the sentiment. But we're also volunteers. We know the risks of every mission. Don't worry, Captain. Doctor's orders."
Kirk seemed reassured for the moment and got up again.
"Oh, and Captain?"
"Yes?" He turned back to her.
"To us doctors, the loss of those we didn't save would be the most unfortunate, not our own."
"So that's why the two of you are still sticking around," Kirk smirked. "Spock and I need saving."
"Oh, if you want to see it that way, yes. I'm sure Leonard would agree."
"I have no doubt," Kirk said with a look at the other doctor. "But we should probably wake him now and see that we eat something. Otherwise, we'll need saving from him, not by him. Spock?"
"I'm on it, Jim."
Spock had already gotten up and moved towards McCoy while Kirk had talked. He bowed down over him and lightly shook his shoulder. Opening his eyes slowly, the Doctor blinked up at Spock with a grumble.
"What is it? Something wrong?"
"No, Doctor. But I'm sure you want to eat."
"Ah yes, well, thanks, Spock."
Thanks for reading so far, reviews are always appreciated. The scene is set, and nothing can go wrong, right? It's a routine mission after all. Stay tuned!