Title: "Aegri Somnia"
Author: tprillahfiction (2008)
AEGRI SOMNIA (Chapter 9)
McCoy felt himself dragged along with the metal figure deeper and deeper into the caverns of the ship.
"What do you want from me?" he demanded.
"Human," said the figure. "Species 5618. You are to be assimilated."
"No!" screamed McCoy. The doctor lunged away from the figure but the strong hand clasped around his neck and dragged him further.
The figure reached higher up and viciously pulled on the wet brown hair of the doctor's and jerked his head back. McCoy fell down onto the mucus-like floor of the dim passage. The figure dragged him across the floor by his hair. McCoy's ankles swam wildly for purchase on the floor to pull himself back up under the alien's grasp. The doctor was weak and beaten.
"You can't be real! This isn't real!"
The figure picked up McCoy, laid him down onto a bed and prepared him for surgery.
Spock picked up his folded uniform and proceeded to change out of his sickbay garb, then shave in the small sickbay lavatory. He finished up and walked back into the ICU.
McCoy lay still, back in the ICU, with no change in his coma status. He'd made it out of surgery all right; M'Benga managing to save him. But McCoy was slipping away; it wouldn't be long, now. As Spock reflected on the events of the past month, he gazed at Doctor McCoy's peaceful, unconscious figure. The only indication of the ebbing life was the soft beeps of the monitor.
Spock walked up to the bio-bed, and with one finger slid a lock of mousy hair off the doctor's eyes.
"Keep away from me," hissed McCoy.
"You cannot kill me, Doctor, and there are many more of us."
"I said keep away from me!" He struggled.
The figure was losing patience. "Lie still so you can be assimilated."
McCoy closed his eyes as he felt something pierce his temple. "It hurts."
Suddenly hands were on his arms and he opened his eyes with a start.
"Leonard, it is I."
It was Spock! Standing in front of him. "Spock? Is it really you?"
"Yes Leonard." Then, Spock smiled at him. A full elfin grin.
McCoy gaped at the Vulcan in horror. "NO it isn't...you just smiled at me!"
"It is really me. Inside your head. I do have emotions, you realize, I just don't show them on the outside."
"What are you talking about, the outside?"
"We are in your head. I've mind melded with you."
"What happened to the alien?"
"There is nothing here, Leonard. You have slipped into a coma as a result of the double pneumonia you are suffering."
One word jumped out at the doctor. "Coma? I'm in a coma?" McCoy asked, incredulously.
"Affirmative."
"And M'Benga can't bring me out of it with all his damn training on Vulcan? Hell, I must be pretty far gone then." McCoy giggled maniacally.
Spock lifted up McCoy to a standing position. "No time for levity. Come on Leonard."
"Where'r we going?"
"I am taking you home."
McCoy suddenly flew into a rage. "NO!" he said, with wide blue eyes blazing. "I don't believe you. You're not really Spock!"
"Now, you are being ridiculous. Who else would I be?"
"I don't know, an impostor. Trying to take me deeper into this alien ship."
"Doctor, we are not in an alien ship, we're trapped deep into your mind. I don't know how I can prove to you who I really am, but you are going to have to trust me. But you have to trust me NOW, as we are running out of time. You are dying."
"I don't believe you. It's them!"
"Come on, Leonard McCoy," Spock insisted.
"No! I can't!" McCoy held onto the examination table tightly.
Spock sighed and mustered up the proper emotion to frighten the doctor with: "DAMMIT! Come with me, NOW!" he shouted.
McCoy, with terrified eyes, got up quickly. Spock slid an arm around McCoy's waist, threw the doctor's arm around his shoulder and supported his weight.
The pair pressed onward to try to find a way out. They staggered down many passageways; some with dead ends, where they had to retrace their steps. They stopped to rest.
It smelt so dank and moldy in this part of the passageway of McCoy's mind. He could feel darkness creeping up unto him. "Spock, I'm going to pass out..." he said, numbly.
That alarmed Spock. "No! If you lose consciousness, you will die."
"I can't help it Spock," McCoy said softly. "I can feel it."
"Then I am with you." Spock took McCoy by the shoulders. "If you come home, I will go with you. But, if you choose to die, I will die, here with you."
"Spock, whose idea was it for you to do a dangerous thing like mind melding with a dying man?" Before Spock could reply, McCoy twigged. "Oh yeah, it was your idea. Nobody knows you're doing this."
"Come on, Leonard. Time is of the essence."
"Kiss me," McCoy suddenly demanded. Spock pulled McCoy into the most passionate kiss the doctor had ever experienced in his life. "Uhhh..." McCoy moaned till it transformed into a sob. "Oh God...I love you...Spock!" Spock's mouth slid down to the doctor's neck while his hands moved up the doctor's bare back. "I'm sorry...I can't go on, Spock. I'm blacking out."
"No..." gasped Spock. "No!" McCoy could hear the Vulcan's voice crack with emotion and it unnerved him.
...end of chapter 9...