For Author's note and Disclaimer, see chapter 1
Chapter 13
By the time the biology department came down for their vitamin shots and brief examinations McCoy was just warm enough he felt he could get through it. Pulling on the sweater that nurse Chapel had lent him also helped. Looking at the way they were dressed he wasn't quite sure if it was funny or not. It was just the way it was, and that was something he had learned early on when he trudged along on the heels of his grandfather. Going to a farm where the son had got his arm sliced up on a piece of machinery, and treating a family dog while you were at it. It wasn't what they were supposed to do but the dog was hurt and they were there and his grandfather wouldn't leave before he saw what he could do about it.
It was for the same kind of thing that Jocelyn had been so mad at him, that he wouldn't think about profit and prestige as much as he thought about what he could do.
It was the same kind of thinking that seemed to get his instructor so furious with him at the academy, why it seemed he could never do anything right. They worked with simulations, with fixed scenarios where they were sometimes just ordered into a room without knowing what to expect at all. Sometimes there were real people in there, told to act in a certain way, actors to lend authenticity to the situation.
One of the scenarios was on the bridge of a starship after an attack, wounded everywhere, blood, screams, smoke and sparks flying. All very realistic. He understood the reason and he could even agree with the importance of knowing the personal could handle that sort of thing. He went in, he swallowed and coughed as the smoke got in his lungs, he surveyed the damage and the visible injuries and went to the one he deemed to be in critical condition.
Apparently that was where he was wrong, they wanted him to go to the Captain first, even if it was obvious he was not in the most need. It was something he could not really understand, and when he ignored the sharp command there was an ensign on the bridge that rose from the slump and attacked him.
The irrationality of a wounded man his instructor said later. A lesson to always be on the alert, to be ready for every eventuality. Wounded men were not always rational, did not always recognize that you were not a threat.
He did take that lesson, he was able to recognize the importance but he also took the other lesson. With bruises on his face, swollen hand and bruised ribs he learned something else. That some people won't let you do what's right, won't accept that you might know more than they know about something. A student is not allowed to know more than an instructor, no matter how many hours of surgery you have behind you compared to a training instructor with no hands-on experience. Some people are petty, jealous and devious and you can never win against them.
Some people wants to hurt you just because your pain allows them to feel power….
They were just seeing the last of biologists out of the door when a handful of ensigns showing severe rhinoviruses symptoms came in. While not itself dangerous, more often known as the common cold it was still something that could spread fast through the crew. It was really just what he had been waiting for.
Poor rations, cold temperature and crowded quarters, a perfect breeding ground for the virus.
Dealing with them was easy, there might not be a cure for it, but there was plenty of medication that would help ease the symptoms and then it was just a matter of isolating them as much as possible from the rest of the crew. Hoping to spare most of the crew, but the next ones were members of his own staff. The ones who would have taken the next shift in fact, which meant that he would have to work a double shift. If he rotated a nurse who was supposed to be on gamma shift onto the beta, he'd leave the gamma shift one short but there would most likely be less to do then. That way he could still send Chapel away at the end of her shift, which he wanted to do because he did not approve of keeping anyone more than one shift in the cold sickbay.
It was one thing for him to do it himself, he was the CMO it was his responsibility.
When he was on his earlier postings he had just been a regular Medical Officer, the CMO's back then had liked to order him to the less desirable shifts and tasks. It wasn't that he couldn't handle it. It was just that he knew it was because the CMO figured he could kick back and take it easy and let the junior officers take the brunt and he had disliked it. It was one thing to have the most experienced officer on the shift most likely to need it. To constantly order your staff to take double shifts while never taking one yourself though, that was something else.
He had sworn to himself to never do the same thing. To honour the way his grandfather worked because that was in his mind the way a doctor should act.
He was busy with a man who had managed to electrocute himself with a welding rig when Jim came down, rubbing his hands over his arms as he sat on the edge of Bones desk to wait for him to be done.
"Alright, you're good to go, but take it easy for the rest of the day," he urged. The good thing about being busy was that it was easier to keep your body temperature up.
"Thanks doctor," the man studied the freshly healed burn and hurried out of the room with teeth chattering.
"Your nurse said you were staying," Jim mused when they were alone.
"Have to, I'm understaffed," he shrugged as he sat by the computer terminal to make a note of it.
"Isn't there anyone who could take the shift?" Jim wanted to know.
"No one who's qualified," he shook his head. "I got a couple of juniors we're training, but anything worse than a splinter and they'd have to get me anyway so there's no point to it."
"Given how cold I think it is here, I'm not sure how much I like you're pulling double shifts," Jim mused. Obviously the wrong to say as Bones' eyes narrowed.
"Well, I'm sure I don't like it when a ship's captain comes telling me how to run my sickbay," he half snapped.
Not truly angry Jim knew, a warning that you were treading on dangerous territory, a caution to mind what you said. "I wouldn't dare to try to tell you your job Bones," he stated easily. "If you say you have to, I'll take your word for it, but I don't have to like it, do I?"
"No, you don't," Bones ran a hand over his face. "Like it or not, we're all starting to get affected. Cold, no real food, everyone's affected Jim, some of us just show it less but everyone is and it's only going to get worse. Now we got a cold virus going around, and with the way everyone is packed together it's the perfect breeding ground. I have to get back up to the lab, again mind. It's wearing on all of us Jim, and that's just a fact. If we don't get the crew some real food soon, we're going to have even more problems. There's got to be some way to do it, cook it on the warp coils, I don't care. But even if all we get them is soup or tinned beans we need to get them something because we're on a downhill slide here."
"Is it really that bad?" Jim frowned. He had thought they were holding up better.
"Yes, it is that bad," Bones flared enough to let him know he did indeed mean business. "There are more injuries, more neglects, arguments and general plumb idiocy. I got an engineer who tried to electrocute himself with a welding rig like a first year cadet. They're making mistakes they would not normally do, and it's just going to increase because no one is getting enough sleep or enough nutrition and there is only so much I can do. Those vitamin boosts are fine, for a short time, but they don't make up for it. If we can give people just one real meal a day we can hold out longer, but without it, it's just not working Jim."
"You're right," he had seen signs of it but had not known it was quite so bad. "I've been told that there is no way we can make meals for the whole crew, but if Scotty could rig something up for at least a part of them, and we rotated them, that would buy us more time, yes?"
"Yeah," Bones' shoulders slumped as the burst of energy left him. "It'd be better than nothing anyway. Just something Jim, something hot to dig a fork in, real food. You have to understand how much difference that would make."
"I understand," Jim nodded. "I'll speak to Scotty, see what he can manage. I imagine at worst he could at least rig up some small stove or something. Now, did you say you were going up to the lab?"
"Yeah, we're going through the vitamin supplement like crazy," Bones sighed, running a hand over his face again. "Which reminds me, you skipped out of your last one." Turning around he checked the hypo sitting on the shelf behind him, then reached forward and discharged it into Jim's arm.
"Satisfied?" Jim rubbed his arm through the tunic, trying not to notice how he was tense with cold and had barely felt it.
"For now," Bones shrugged. Taking the oxygen mask from the same shelf he grabbed a blanket that had been left to lie beside it.
"Hold on, I'm going with you," Jim slid down from the desk.
"Why?" Bones folded his arms across his chest.
"Because I believe you asked that no one went up there alone, but in pairs, and I also believe you stated it was cold as hell up there, and that is another reason why you should not constantly go alone," he stated. "Beside that fact, I'm the Captain, I can go along and be miserable for a bit if I feel like it."
"Alright," Bones gave in quicker than he had expected, showing that he was more weary than Jim had expected. Normally he would have had to use more force, and, he had prepared several very forceful statements in his mind that he now did not get to use.
"How are you doing on those shots yourself?" he asked as he accepted the oxygen mask that Bones handed him.
"Got them just about coming out of my ears," the doctor shrugged. "I'm good for another five hours or so. Unlike some, I've no aversion to hypos. But if you're serious about coming along, you can't go dressed like that. I'm not going to have you suffering from exposure."
"Alright, I'll meet you by the turbolift," he nodded. Hurrying to his quarters he pulled on a second tunic, and grabbed a blanket. If he was too long, he wouldn't be surprised if Bones took it upon himself to go up alone anyway.
One thing was instantly obvious, Bones' complaints about how cold the lab was were not exaggerated. Five minutes in and he was shivering and trying to rub his hands together for warmth while Bones sat at the table, blanket around his shoulders. Keeying commands into the machine, and then taking all the little tiny vials that came out of the slot and stored them in the case. The fact that he had been doing this, once, twice a day was not something Jim enjoyed knowing.
His friend however seemed to be enjoying himself immensely as he watched Jim shivering and rubbing his hands over his arms. "You're right, it is cold enough for polar bears here," he finally allowed, his words just slightly obscured by the oxygen mask.
"We got some people here that really can do nothing to help Jim," Bones mused. "We got analysts, historians and the like who really can't do anything to fix the ship, and I don't know what some of them would do, but maybe there is some way to use them anyway? If asked, at least a couple of them might be willing to help out more, if they were given a task they could handle."
"You don't think all of them would?" Jim wanted to know.
"Not all of them, there's a couple of them that are too, well, too focused on their own work," Bones finished. "But a couple of them, if Scotty could rig something, anything, for some basic cooking I think a few of them would be willing to help out with that. It wouldn't slow the rest of the repairs down too much, but I'd rather we were bunking together for a day longer if it meant the crew got hot food."
"I'll talk to Scotty," he promised again, trying to keep his teeth from chattering. "Bones, I really don't want you to go up here alone again later…"
"That an order Captain?" Bones raised an eyebrow as he threw a glance over his shoulder.
"No, because if you felt like it, you'd just ignore it and I'd have my CMO in the brig for refusing an order," he sighed. "It's a request because I need my CMO whole and healthy."
"I've been managing so far Jim, I'll manage a little longer," Bones stated. Closing the lid on the case he shut off the machine. "I'm done, how about some coffee to warm ya up?" his low southern drawl spiked for a moment and Jim found himself smiling. They would manage a bit longer.
TBC
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