Author's Notes: This is just a little idea that popped into my head. If you enjoy I hope to post a review. Thank you!
"What's all this about, Doctor?" Kirk asked as he hurried through the sickbay doors to find Uhura seated on one of the beds behind a force field while Dr. McCoy was engrossed in some readings, he had on his medical scanning pad. The Captain had been alarmed once they had arrived back from an away mission to find the transporter room blaring its alarms and he and the other away team locked onto their transporter pad by a force field. Then his concern grew when he watched as Lieutenant Uhura energized away again. Seconds later Doctor McCoy had summoned him to sickbay.
"Standard protocol, Captain," McCoy mumbled out while his brows furrowed as he continued to read.
"I think this must be a new protocol I was not aware of," Uhura spoke out. She had been in her isolation in sickbay for only a few minutes but she felt like it had been hours, particularly due to the fact that Dr. McCoy kept brushing off and mostly ignoring her questions about what was happening and why she had been beamed to the sickbay behind a force field.
"Nor I, Lieutenant," Kirk agreed. "Care to enlighten us, Bones?"
"It is standard protocol for the transporter to beam anyone deemed to be infectious directly to sickbay and put up a force field," McCoy finally spoke as he now gave both of his friends his full attention. Concern quickly filled the faces of both Kirk and Uhura.
"Infectious," Uhura repeated as if she was not sure she had heard him correctly. "But Doctor, I was given a clean bill of health by you before I beamed down to the planet."
"Yeah, I know but the transporter says you brought something back on board with you. Initially, I thought the blasted transporter probably had a glitch. Which is one of the main reasons I don't like using the blasted things."
"Yes, we are all aware, Doctor," Kirk cut off what he knew could turn into an hours-long ranting. "What has the Lieutenant been infected with, and what of the other crew? Myself, Scotty, and Sulu? Should we also be quarantined?"
"No," McCoy said as he moved to the medical panel on the wall and pressed a button which turned off the force field. "It's not a contagion and you're not infected, Uhura."
"Well, that's a relief," Uhura breathed out truly happy to hear this.
"So, there is a glitch in the transporter then? I'll have Scotty take it offline for a full analysis and repairs," Kirk declared as he moved to the intercom on the nearby wall.
"That won't be necessary, there's nothing wrong with the transporters either, at least not in this regard," McCoy stopped him and Kirk turned back to regard his longtime friend.
"Then what the hell is it, Bones?" He exclaimed a little as he grew irritated with the doctor's evasiveness.
"Lieutenant Uhura, you're pregnant," McCoy directed to Uhura who sat and looked as if she were still waiting for his true words.
"Well how about that," Kirk said with a genuine smile on his face. He was not aware she had been seeing anyone, not that he kept up with such things. But the ship wasn't so big that he wouldn't have heard something or seen something to allude to Uhura being in a romance. She was a very private person but still, people tended to gossip onboard which on most days annoyed the hell out of it's Captain. "Congratulations, Lieutenant," He said as he stepped to where she sat in shock, leaned in, and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek.
"But, Sir," She turned to look up at him. "That can't possibly be right," She insisted.
"She's right, it can't be. At least it shouldn't be," McCoy concurred. "I gave each of the away team a full examination before you all left the ship not two hours ago, and Uhura wasn't pregnant before she left this ship."
"Could your readings have been wrong?" Kirk offered. "Is it possible that it's your equipment that has a glitch?"
"Even if it does it wouldn't explain any of this. Doctor, I can't possibly be pregnant, because I have not been with a man for over three years now," She declared and both Kirk and McCoy's eyes bulged a little in their surprise and disbelief.
"I'm sorry Lieutenant, but I find that very hard to believe," Kirk stated.
"Me too," McCoy chimed in with a slight scowl on his face.
"Well, I am certainly not lying about it, why should I?" Uhura stated indignantly.
"I'm sorry Uhura, I only meant that," He paused as he searched for the appropriate words, "Well, you are a very beautiful and very desirable woman," Kirk said and she felt herself calming and even blushing under his complimentary words.
"Yeah, yer, definitely a looker," McCoy added with a nod and smile as he placed his hands behind his back and bounced a bit on the balls of his feet.
"So, it's a bit difficult to believe that no crewman has asked you out," Kirk continued.
"Plenty have asked, sir, and on some occasions, I agree, but that doesn't mean I have to sleep with them does it?" She countered.
"No, of course not, my apologies, Uhura," Kirk replied in a gentler tone and informally. "And are you sure?" He added on.
"Sure? That I didn't have sex with anyone, yes quite sure," Suddenly a beeping went off on McCoy's medical pad. He frowned up in confusion and then hurried back to the medical panel and raised the force field again.
"What is it now?" Kirk questioned his actions.
"This baby is growing at an impossible rate," McCoy said and Uhura clutched a hand against her still flat mid-section as Kirk eyed her curiously. "When I examined you just a moment ago you were only 2 weeks into gestation, now you're 6 weeks along."
"But that's not possible," Kirk proclaimed.
"Yeah, that's what I just said," McCoy replied.
"None of this is possible," Uhura spoke out her voice a pitch higher than normal. "I do know where babies come from, Doctor, and there's no way in hell I knowingly conceived a baby."
"Well, maybe it was unknowingly," McCoy offered and her eyes doubled in size at the implication.
"You think she may have been raped?" Kirk asked as he felt rage begin to fill him. Not only to the fact that someone would commit such a crime on his ship but mostly that they would dare cause such harm to Uhura. He thought of her with friendly and nearly brotherly affection. She was the only female crewman on the entire ship he had ever spoken to and socialized within any informal manner. The thought of someone hurting her, particularly in such a vile way made him want vengeance.
"I'm sorry, but that's the only explanation I can come up with at the moment," McCoy said. "There are some species we've encountered and even some who are crew aboard this ship who have a faster gestation time than us.
"I want a list of all of them," Kirk demanded. "Would you be able to determine who might be the father?" He asked McCoy as Uhura sat behind the force field terrified by the thought that she might have been violated and didn't remember it.
"Yes," McCoy answered as he grasped a handheld scanner and began to input some parameters into it. "I can use this scanner," He then pointed it at Uhura before he punched in more data. "I have blocked the reading from Uhura's DNA in the baby so that just leaves the father's DNA. I just point this at …" The Doctor's words faltered as he stared down at the readings that were now flashing on the scanner. "My God, Jim, it's saying that you're the father," He breathed out low as he lifted shocked eyes up to Kirk, whom he was pointing the scanner directly at.
"Excuse me?" Kirk responded as he stared back at his friend with a look of amusement on his face, as if waiting for the punchline to his joke.
"Now, this is beyond ridiculous," Uhura spoke out as she hopped from the bed. "Let me out of this force field, Leonard," She demanded informally and he hurriedly complied. "You might think this is funny, but I think we all have better things to be doing than pulling pranks on others."
"I have to agree with the Lieutenant, this is not one of your better jokes, Bones."
"Do you two honestly think I would joke about something like this?" McCoy asked outraged by the accusation. "I can assure you, Lieutenant Uhura you are," He paused and held the scanner up to her. "Now 18 weeks pregnant," He then moved the scanner back to Kirk. "And Jim, you are definitely the father."
"Oh my God," Uhura exclaimed as she clutched at her mid-section again.
"What is it?" Kirk asked as his eyes locked onto her belly which he'd swear was more profound than it had been just a few seconds before.
"It's grown. I can feel it now," She replied as she shot her hand out, grasped the Captain's hand, and then placed it back against the slight swell of her belly. Kirk stood in awe to the fact that Uhura was in fact pregnant and that he was going to be a father. He shook it off as he pulled his hand from her belly and focused fully onto McCoy.
"Bones, what the hell is going on?"
"I honestly don't know. I mean, what exactly did you two do while you were down on the planet?"
"Nothing that would have done that," Kirk said as he pointed at Uhura's belly.
"He's right Doctor," Uhura affirmed. "While the Captain and I were mostly alone together on the mission all we did was take readings of the planet. The air, the water in the stream we found, and of all the beautiful flora that seemed to be everywhere. The captain even plucked this flower for me," She spoke this as she reached up and touched the small purple flower she had placed in her hair.
"No, don't touch it," McCoy hissed out as he moved and grasped tweezers from his desk and moved back to her to grasp the flower from her hair.
"I already scanned it, doctor, it's perfectly harmless otherwise, I wouldn't have put it in my hair," She assured.
"Well, unless you confess to having some private torrent affair with each other, and tell me one of you has the ability to make super grow babies, I'm not ruling anything out," He stated as he placed the flower inside of a chamber that would give a more intensive reading on it. "And unfortunately, until I know more, I will have to confine you both as well as the other away team members to sickbay."
"Is that really necessary?" Kirk asked not happy at the idea of being away from the bridge but happy that Spock had not joined them on this particular away mission.
"At this point, I don't know how this even happened, do you want to risk you or Scotty, or Sulu impregnating other female crew?"
"No, of course not," Kirk grumbled out in a defeated tone as he moved to the comm, "Scotty and Sulu report to sickbay immediately."
"What do we do?" Uhura questioned as she stood with her arms wrapped around herself in a comforting manner. She seemed as if she hadn't been really saying the words to anyone specifically, and she looked very lost at that moment.
"Don't worry Lieutenant," Kirk spoke in an authoritative tone, his 'Captain's voice', though inside he was just as lost and scared as she was. "I have the utmost confidence that the good Doctor here will figure this out and undo it somehow."
"Undo it?" McCoy repeated a little stunned by the words. "Well, I guess if that is something Uhura wants I can 'undo' it now before she gets too far along," He scanned her once more. "It looks like 18 weeks might be the magical number, it hasn't grown anymore in the last few minutes, and all of the levels read normal"
"So, from this point on it will be a normal gestation?" Kirk questioned.
"Maybe, I honestly don't know," McCoy replied. "Do you want to keep it, Nyota?" He posed directly to her using her first name and all eyes in the room locked onto her.
"I could not abort this child, Doctor. Not unless you tell me there is some medical reason I should," She announced as she again placed her hands against her belly. Dr. McCoy smiled at her proudly and then moved back to check on his experiment. "It doesn't matter how it was conceived it's a life and it's mine," She added on with conviction. "I'm sorry Captain if that puts you in an unwanted predicament."
"Not at all, Lieutenant, it is in your body and so completely your decision. And I would never presume to have any say in that matter. But I hope you understand the ramifications of what having the child would mean. There are no children allowed on any Starfleet exploration vessels. So, it would likely mean reassignment back on Earth or to some other federation outpost or base," He mumbled out as he locked his eyes down to the floor while apparently deep in thought about it. Uhura simply nodded to his true words as she was fully aware of these facts. "But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, all right?" He ended with a kind smile.
"Yes, sir," She said around a sad smile as she nodded.
"Well, it's definitely the flower," McCoy who had focused back on his examination of the flower spoke out. "Likely, some kind of effects through pollination. I touched the flower to this Treyvilian mouse that wasn't pregnant before my test, but now it is," At that moment both Scotty and Sulu entered the sickbay.
"Reporting to sickbay as ordered, sir," Sulu spoke first.
"Aye, and I hope this is something serious because if I don't fix the misalignments that happened to the transporter after we beamed back aboard, we'll not be able to beam back down to finish the survey of the planet on schedule," Scotty added on looking irritated at being summoned.
"I'm sorry Scotty but this is rather an urgent matter, and until further notice, no one will be beaming back down to the planet," Kirk said. "Now, did either of you touch or take any flowers or plants from the planet? Please think hard, it's extremely important."
"No sir, there was no fauna of any kind on the part of the planet we checked," Sulu stated as he frowned up a bit in confusion.
"Aye, it was all desert and rocks. Why what's happened?"
"Well, it seems that I have somehow impregnated Lieutenant Uhura with a flower from the planet," Kirk replied and both men stood silent a moment stunned as they let his words sink in.
"Aw, congratulations sir," Scotty was the first to speak out jubilantly despite the situation and moved to heartily shake the Captain's hand. "Lass," He then moved and pulled Uhura into a quick hug. Sulu for his part only smiled nervously and nodded as he was not sure this was a celebratory moment, though both the Captain and Uhura smiled kindly at Scotty's elation and well wishes.
"Thank you, Mr. Scott, but let's hold the celebrations until after the Doctor has given you two a full examination and can assure me that you have not somehow impregnated anyone."
"Well, sir, unless that wee flower has the power to impregnate men it's just not possible. Sulu and I have been in the transporter room with Ensign Hathaway this entire time. Hathaway and I were working on the transporter, while Sulu was uploading into the computer terminal the findings we had on our tricorders."
"That's right Captain. Mr. Spock was adamant that we do so as soon as we transported on board. We came straight here when you called us, and passed no females on our way," Sulu affirmed.
"That's good news," McCoy spoke of again. "Still, I want each of you to take a sterilization shower before you leave sickbay. I am pretty certain that this was all due to this flower," He said and they all looked to the purple flower encased inside the secure containment glass. "Jim, you touched it and got your DNA on it, then gave it to Uhura which got her DNA on it. Then, somehow the pollen from the flower got into your system, Uhura, likely through your pores and caused this miraculous conception," He picked up the scanner again and pointed it at her. "Still at 18 weeks with normal readings one would expect to see in a normal and healthy gestation," He nodded and then pointed the scanner at Scotty, Sulu, and then finally Kirk, "And, Jim, you're definitely the father," He added on though no one questioned or doubted him.