Series Title: Moments in Time
Episode: The Doomsday Machine
This Scene characters: Kirk, Spock, bit of McCoy
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for Doomsday Machine
Rating: K
This Chapter Word Count: 2131
Series Summary: Missing scenes and tags to each episode as I do a TOS rewatch. This one, a schmoopy little tag to Doomsday Machine, which was the second TOS episode I ever watched and which is still one of my all time favorites.
Episode: The Doomsday Machine
When stranded in deep space without warp capabilities, there is little for members of the command chain to do besides wait out repairs, and plan for the worst-case scenarios such as a shortage of food and water (a rare occurrence on any starship equipped with matter replication devices). Engineering works overtime during such instances of power loss, while Sciences and Operations take up the slack during the times immediately following such long terms of repair work. The procedure is beneficial for all areas of the ship, but the command staff usually bear the brunt of the arrangement.
Such incidents mean triple the amount of paperwork which normally ensues after a successful mission, and given the official implications of this last, Spock is kept quite busy directing, re-directing, and mis-directing reports and forms from hitting the captain's inbox. Spock may not fully understand the human process of grieving, but he does know it requires time, and solitude, for this particular human which he dares in his innermost thoughts call friend.
However, when the captain disappears late in ship's night, and does not report to his cabin communicator when Spock finally finishes the previous day's reports around 0530 hours, he decides a minor breach of privacy is in order. He soon discovers that according to Kirk's cabin's bio-monitor, the captain has not been in his cabin since the previous morning. This is not necessarily unusual, especially following a traumatic mission; but upon determining that Dr. McCoy has not been the recipient of a late-night visit, nor has anyone in Engineering put the captain to work repairing his beloved ship, Spock knows this is now a situation in which he should and can become involved.
By this time, Jim knows him well enough to know precisely what will happen if the captain does not report to either his cabin or to Sickbay at some point during the night following an away mission gone wrong. The only issue, is whether or not the time alone has done the human good, as the expression goes.
Spock does not need to search for long; after checking the usual out-of-the-way Jefferies tubes around Engineering without success, he retreats six decks below Engineering to the shuttle bay. And, as he had suspected, he finds his captain slouching in the pilot's seat of NCC-1702/15, feet up on the inert dashboard controls and absently scanning over a well-worn, hardbacked novel. (1)
Kirk glances up, and regards Spock's intruding head with a rueful grin.
"Took you long enough," he remarks, without annoyance, and offers a small smile as Spock settles wearily into the co-pilot's seat. "How late were you up doing my paperwork for me?"
"You would have done the same, sir," he replies, smoothly dodging the question.
Kirk nods, and stretches down to carefully place the fragile book on the floor under his seat. Then he leans back, both hands slowly scrubbing down his face in weariness, eyes closed. "Status report?"
"Repairs on the warp core are proceeding ahead of schedule, though Mr. Scott seems to believe we are better off not knowing precisely how he is managing that remarkable feat." A small chuckle is encouragement enough for him to continue. "Transporter repairs are completed, as they were primarily due to a power drain which was fixed shortly before the warp core repairs began. All else is proceeding as scheduled, and Starfleet Command has been notified of recent events. They have requested a full report from you at an undetermined time within the next forty-eight hours."
One hazel eye opens, squints incredulously at him. "How did you manage that for me?"
"To paraphrase our Chief Engineer, Captain…you do not need to know."
The captain laughs this time, genuinely and without that shadow of grief which Spock had tried unsuccessfully to dispel yesterday with insignificant condolences and an assuming of command tedium. Perhaps solitude and safety have done what Vulcan strategy could not. It is unfortunate, that he is unable to perform the human act of comforting; but he does what he can, and perhaps it is an arrangement which works for them.
Boots clump loudly to the durasteel flooring, as Kirk turns in his chair to face him directly. "I want to apologize for Commodore Decker's treatment of you yesterday, Spock," he says seriously, and Spock blinks in surprise, for it is undoubtedly the last thing he would have expected.
"The Commodore was perfectly within his rights, Captain."
"And he was wrong to be so as well as incapable of assuming command, not to mention discourteous of your command ability. I wouldn't tolerate that from a visiting dignitary, and I wouldn't have tolerated it from him had I been on board. I hope you know that."
"Had you been on board, sir, the situation would never have –"
"Oh, forget it, Spock." A warm grin belies any exasperation in the tone. "How'd you know where to find me, anyhow?"
"I suspected you would be contemplative of the commodore's…feelings, at the time of his absconding with the shuttlecraft yesterday," Spock replies, only vaguely uncomfortable at this admission of understanding and sympathy. "I am aware that you value your crew more highly than all else in the universe, and you must be hypothetically empathetic to the commodore's unfortunate tragedy."
He never fails to be astonished at how his blunt directness can shatter this human's boundaries like nothing else he has ever seen short of a telepathic attack. It is as if he knows precisely where the chinks are in Kirk's armor, and it is as if Kirk almost welcomes the ability to cut straight through all else to the heart of a problem.
"Wow. That's…pretty deep, human introspection for a Vulcan, isn't it?"
"I do my best, sir."
"Of course you do." Kirk's eyes darken then, from rueful amusement to deprecation, sadness. "I can't imagine being in his position, Spock. It's haunted me from the moment I realized." The captain glances down at his hands, clasped between his knees, and Spock sees a full shudder run through their tight grip. "There's no worse nightmare I can ever dream of having, than what he lived through. Thinking he was saving his crew…and then having to listen to them die without being able to do a single thing…it just makes me sick to think about it, Spock."
"You will never be in such a position, Jim."
"You have no way of knowing that," is the quick, almost desperate answer. "It was an error in judgment, nothing more – there's no guarantee I wouldn't have done the exact same thing! I probably would have, actually." Kirk shakes his head, shuddering again. "That could so easily have been me, Spock. And it scares me half to death."
"It would not, could not, have been you, Captain," Spock counters, more earnestly than before.
Kirk lifts an eyebrow his direction, clearly skeptical of what has been called by uninformed (and jealous) colleagues Spock's blind loyalty.
"The situation would not have transpired as it did with Commodore Decker, sir, and that I can safely assure you," he clarifies, internally wondering how Kirk does not yet see it himself.
"And just how, Commander, do you know that?"
"Because one of three situations would have resulted from your giving the order to evacuate the ship in the middle of an emergency, to a planet in the system below."
Kirk's eyes are alight with interest now, and what is probably a slight bit of mischief, for Spock is well aware the human enjoys watching him discourse upon scientific possibilities. "All right, Mr. Spock, I'll bite. What are the three hypothetical scenarios you have formulated for such a situation with this ship?"
"One, you would have given the order, to abandon you for the purpose of distracting the planet-killer alone on the Enterprise, and at least your senior Bridge crew would have politely refused to follow it."
Sandy eyebrows rise comically, and Spock performs the Vulcan equivalent of a shrug. Perhaps the human really has no idea just how far his crew will go to protect him; but truth is truth, and that fact remains.
"Two," he continues, ignoring Kirk's muttered incredulity, "the crew would have evacuated, with the two of us remaining until last. I would then, naturally, have performed whatever actions were necessary to render you unconscious, and would have beamed you down to the same location as your crew. Sir."
The addendum on the end seems to be what sends the human's face into an oddly wide-eyed expression of surprise. "And three?" Kirk manages, in a tone several pitches higher than previously.
"Three, I would simply have refused to obey your evacuation order, sir. Between the two of us and the Enterprise herself, we would have formulated a plan to rid the galaxy of the planet-killer before it endangered the members of your crew which had beamed down to that third planet. That plan most likely would have been to fly the Enterprise into the mouth of the machine itself," he continues, brows drawn thoughtfully at the hypotheticals, "but at the least, you would have been spared the situation in which Commodore Decker unfortunately lost his crew. Which returns us to our original hypothesis; you will never be in that position, Captain."
Kirk's lips are twitching suspiciously, as he swivels his chair toward the blanked viewscreen, and then slowly revolves back again, toes scuffing with a metallic squeak on the floor of the shuttle. "So, basically what you're telling me, Mr. Spock…is that I have a potentially mutinous crew, and especially one belligerently insubordinate First Officer?"
Spock blinks innocently back at him. "Hypothetically speaking, of course, sir."
Kirk nods solemnly. "Oh, of course. Purely hypothetically."
"Purely hypothetically, sir."
"Quite so."
"Indeed."
Kirk's sudden grin dispels the last of the shadows which had surrounded them from the events of yesterday. Spock has long since ceased to wonder at how the man can brighten any room without physically radiating photonic energy; it is a non-scientific phenomenon which certainly bears further study.
A throat clearing jolts them both from their shared moment, and their heads turn to see one apparently very amused Chief Medical Officer slouched in the doorway of the shuttle.
"If y'all are quite done, there's a kid out here who needs to do delta shift Requisition checks and is too scared of our resident hobgoblin to just knock on the door," the doctor drawls lazily, though Spock can immediately tell his sharp eyes are silently categorizing the captain's condition.
"And what, precisely, are you doing here, Doctor?" Spock inquires, refusing to be ruffled by this particular volatile human's shameless smirking.
"I was feelin' left out, Mr. Spock. Oh, for the love of Pete, it was a joke, you pointy-eared idiot," Blue eyes roll toward the hangar bay ceiling in a theatrical gesture of disbelief. "Uhura's been tryin' to comm you for the last twenty minutes, Spock. Something about Starfleet Command needing more details about the circumstances surrounding Commodore Decker's assumption of command and his death yesterday."
"Please have the lieutenant inform Admiral Barrett that I will be up shortly. And –"
"Spock." The hand on his arm squeezes gently for a moment, and the captain smiles warmly as he moves past them out of the shuttle. "I'll go actually do my duty and field this call. You at least take alpha shift off and get some rest, I don't want to see you on the Bridge or in the labs until at least 1600 hours. Bones, make sure he eats something, or you're fired."
Spock looks warily at the physician, who is now scowling at the captain's retreating back.
"I assure you, Doctor, I am in no need of sustenance or repose at the present time."
"Yeah, and I'm actually more scared of Jim than you at the moment, so you're coming with me now." McCoy gives him a wicked grin. "Unless you want me to send Christine down to your cabin with a tray and a little too much personalized room service?"
"Your ability to manipulate your fellow crewmen for your own purposes is unsurpassed, Doctor. Truly, a skill to be lauded."
"Indeed," the doctor retorts, grinning. "So, how'd you come along with you-know-who?"
"I believe the captain has grieved for his friend sufficiently, for the present. He does appear in a frame of mind capable of command duty."
"Looked pretty much like he was okay, but I'm counting on you to keep it that way, y'hear me?"
"I believe your unmistakably grating voice could be heard in the delta quadrant, Doctor. My superior hearing, certainly has no difficulty whatsoever."
"Y'know, if Jim didn't like you so much, I would really have to hate you."
"As you humans would say, Doctor…please, do not let that stop you."
(1) In the episode, at least the remastered version (which I am now watching with great respect), the shuttle Decker stole just said NCC-1701/6 on the side, if I remember correctly. So I just used that numbering system, since we know there were far more emergency shuttles aboard than just the Galileo and the Copernicus.