Reference to "The Empath"
o0o
Kirk couldn't believe his eyes. They found all 132 people, Vulcans and Romulans, on the surface. They weren't exactly sick, although that's what M'Benga claimed they were.
"Their metabolism is way off, Captain. And they all have a slight fever."
"And why are they just sitting there? They do nothing, except eating these pink fruit!"
"I don't know. But they all have the Vulcan flu. Although they do not show any symptoms."
M'Benga checked the readings on his medical tricorder for the hundredth time. It showed there was a virus in their system. A virus that looked like the Vulcan flu.
Kirk bowed down to Captain Saluk, who was sitting on a stone, now noisily slurping up the juice that the pink fruit in his hands was oozing.
"Captain Saluk! Do you understand me?"
The Vulcan looked up at him. Then slowly nodded.
"What happened? We found your ship, the P'Jem, deserted in orbit."
Saluk just shrugged and started peeling small bits off the fruit.
It was an unusual sight. He remembered Spock once saying that Vulcans were careful not to eat with their bare hands. "Finger Food" was unknown in their cuisine, and even seemed vulgar from their perspective.
"What kind of fruit is that? Maybe it contains some kind of poison?" Kirk hypothesised pointing at the egg shaped pink fruit that grew everwhere on the ground and that every Vulcan or Romulan had picked and was nibbling at, being almost oblivious to their presence.
"Nothing that I can detect," M'Benga said, running a scanner over one of the half-eaten fruit that had rolled from another Vulcan's hands, "though I can't say it is healthy. Too much sugar."
Kirk shook his head. "You mean they're going to get caries?" He hadn't been prepared for this. Violence, death, illness or even murder, yes. But here were 132 Romulans and Vulcans having a peaceful picknick together on the grass. All had some pink juice on their hands, around their mouths and on their clothes, it would have been funny, if not for the vacant look in all their eyes.
"Not right away, of course. But I guess the high amount of sugar will only benefit the spread of the virus in their systems."
Kirk opened his communicator. "Kirk to Dr. McCoy."
Nothing.
Bones was probably occupied in the biochemical lab right now.
"Captain, there's one thing about that virus."
"What?"
"Well, if it is the Vulcan flu, the Vulcans here shouldn't be affected. They should all have been vaccinated."
"They are not showing any symptoms," Kirk said, but he was not so sure. They were showing symptoms, only not the symptoms of the flu.
"Yes. But the virus is spreading inside their bodies at an amazing rate!" M'Benga looked at his scanner again.
"Well, Bones said this was some kind of mutation."
"I would like to discuss this further with him."
"Yes," Kirk said and took out his communicator again. He needed to call the security team back to them so that they could beam to the Enterprise.
While Kirk spoke, M'Benga turned to take a blood sample from the Vulcan captain, whom he believed to be sitting peacefully on that stone behind him. He wasn't there.
"Kirk to Enterprise." He heard the captain, who was standing with his back to him, order Chekov to beam them up on his signal. The three security guards who were walking towards him suddenly shouted something, drew their phasers and started running.
What the ... out of the corner of his eye he saw Captain Saluk with a stone in his raised hand. He wanted to warn the captain, but only succeeded in letting out a yelp, before everything went black.
Kirk heard shouting, then a cry and the noise of something falling. When he turned he saw M'Benga lying in the grass with Saluk standing over him looking at the fallen man in mild curiosity. A Romulan who had been dully nibbling on the fruit just a minute before came towards him, others were following him. Like zombies.
A phaser beam hit the Romulan, another Captain Saluk. Two of the guards came to a halt with their backs to M'Benga, shielding him in their middle. The third arrived at his side.
What brought this on? Kirk asked himself, already having ascertained their chances. 130 against four. No chance, even with their phasers.
"Now!" he shouted to Chekov over his communicator and felt the tingling sensation almost immediately.
o0o
The very moment after they had materialised on the platform, Kirk barked an order at the transporter chief to alert medical. He bent over M'Benga who lay prone on the platform beside him. Blood had started to trickle from his nose. Not a good sign, he remembered.
His hands stopped in mid air. Better not move him, he thought, though he itched to smooth out the odd angle at which the doctor was lying on the floor. He was still breathing, Kirk observed with relief.
"What happened, Captain?" It was Dr. Pulliam. She'd answered the call together with a nurse and an orderly.
"He was attacked. Hit on the head, I believe."
The young female doctor ran a scanner over the deputy CMO.
Haven't seen much of her, Kirk thought. He recalled McCoy saying about her that she was so young he tended to overly protect and underestimate her. But he'd been of the opinion that she was a brilliant doctor, only lacking experience.
Of course, you didn't become one of the 4 doctors on Starfleet's flagship if you were only average. However, looking at the young girl scrutinizing her scanner, then taking out a hypo somewhat hesitatingly, he suddenly wished for Bones to be here.
"We're losing him," she said, and her scanner made a noise that Kirk knew didn't mean anything good.
"Set the vascular stabilizer now, we need to move him!" she said, waiting for the nurse, who was at least twice her age, to put the medical device on the doctor's forehead until she injected him with a hypo.
"Alert Dr. Taylor, we need to operate at once," she said to the transporter chief who immediately relayed the message.
Kirk moved out of the way and surpressed the urge to take the other end of the stretcher to which M'Benga had been transferred to. He would just stand in their way, he knew that, but he couldn't help feeling that he had to do something.
He followed them to sickbay which had been prepared for an emergency. Dr. Taylor was already waiting and led the way to the operating room while Dr. Pulliam briefed him on their colleague's condition.
Kirk brushed a hand over his face. He hated this. Of course it always hurt when one of his crew got injured in action, but when it concerned one of the medical staff he always felt extra sensitive. Not only did he owe them his life on more occasions than he cared to remember, but when things got rough, the whole ship depended on them. They had four doctors in total, and now two of them were occupied operating on the third.
That made him think about the fourth doctor. Where was he anyway? He must have heard the emergency call. It disgruntled him that McCoy hadn't even asked what kind of emergency it was. This had nothing to do with having or not having faith in your staff, it just meant you cared.
He strode over to the biochemical lab, marching in, an angry remark on his lips, when his foot got caught by something on the floor, and he stumbled.
It was Bones. He was lying there in a heap, on his stomach, one arm was under him, the other was stretched out towards the door.
Kirk was on his knees beside McCoy in a nanosecond. There was a wetness on the floor. Something must have spilled, Kirk thought, gripping Bones by the shoulders and turning him around.
Blood. He could only gasp. Nothing had been spilled, it was blood! He could see it everywhere now, on the floor, the wall, the edge of the door, and all over the lower front of Bones' uniform. It was coming from a deep wound in his side.
It shouldn't be on the floor, it should be in his body. Kirk pressed down hard on the wound in a desperate attempt to keep the life saving fluid inside his friend's body. He heard a crack, but didn't pay much attention. Who cared for cracked ribs if Bones was bleeding out?
With the tip of his left foot he was able to kick at the door which then opened with its usual soft sound.
"Help!" he cried, already knowing that the two only people on board the Enterprise who could save Bones' life were needed in the operating room.
"Oh my god!" It was a nurse's voice coming from outside. She was holding her hands over her mouth in shock.
"Get a doctor!" Kirk shouted at her, "They're in the OR!"
He looked into Bones' face for the first time since he'd found him. It was ashen, he was sweating, frowning, and not at all peaceful.
"My god, Bones, please! Hang in there, you hear?"
Of course he didn't, couldn't. Maybe never again.
He heard commotion outside, Doctor Pulliam was coming through the door, stepping over Bones' legs, kneeling down at the other side. She carried an emergency medical kit.
An orderly and the nurse who had alerted her were also there, carrying a stretcher. It had become very crowded suddenly.
Kirk critically eyed Dr. Pulliam. She was running the medical scanner over Bones' body with one hand, while setting a hypo with the other. It didn't look too professional, but it saved time he guessed.
She injected her patient with the hypo, then deposited her scanner on Bones' chest, rummaging around in her emergency kit with her free hand and setting the hypo anew to give him yet another shot with the other. "I need more hands," she mumbled, then put the hypo in her mouth to turn around and retrieve an instrument from the kit.
"Kee' u' the 'ressure on 'at 'ound, Ca'ain!" she said to Kirk, who only nodded looking at his friend's face again.
Bones' brow creased even more. No! He's waking up! Jim thought. And although it should be a good sign, he felt horror at the thought of Bones waking up in this chaos with a hole in his body deep enough to swallow Mount Seleya.
Dr. Pulliam noticed too, but did not pay much attention. She only put a mask on his face, pressing down on it. In the other hand she was holding another instrument. Her knee was pressing down on McCoy's shoulder. The hypo had gone to the nurse who was standing above her, waiting.
"Captain, when I say "now", you will let go and move to his head to press the oxygen mask on his face."
"I'm ready."
"Good, keep him still, he must not move."
"Understood."
"Right." She breathed to calm herself. "Now!"
Kirk let go and was awarded with a spurt of blood immediately coming from the wound. Dr. Pulliam said something, the nurse was moving and he couldn't see the wound anymore. He forced himself to do as he was told, pressing down on the mask with one hand. He used the other hand and a knee to pin McCoy down, in case he should start moving.
He didn't immediately, only his eyelids fluttered. Please Bones, don't wake up just yet, he prayed.
Too late. Blue eyes opened, finding his almost instantly. They widened and he heard a small cough coming from under that mask.
"Don't talk! - Don't speak! Just take it easy!" he said, feeling a sense of deja-vu. Only on Minara there hadn't been any blood.
A hand was tugging at his sleeve, weakly, but determined to make him remove that mask from his face.
"No, Bones. You need that!" He said, but for some reason he removed the mask anyway.
"J-Jim, that s-sweet s-pot ...," he heard him whisper. Bones was hardly able to find enough strength to form the words, but his eyes spoke volumes. Kirk just couldn't quite understand exactly what he meant, only that this was important.
Could these be the last words his friend was going to say?
"I know, Bones. All your burdens will float away." He smiled at him, feeling his eyes sting.
"Y-You don't under - stand!" There was a note of exasperation in that whisper. Then the pain must have hit him, because he was suddenly convulsing, scrunching his face and weakly pushing against Jim's hand.
"Shh, Bones, hey, hey! Just stay still. You're okay," Kirk knew he wasn't much help from the look on Bones' face.
He heard another hypo hiss and briefly turned to see one of the nurses nod at him. He nodded back gratefully. Bones led out a cry of pain which made something twist inside him.
"Shh, please. Just concentrate. What - what don't I understand?" With the back of his hand, that was still holding the oxygen mask, he stroked over his friend's cheek in order to distract him from the pain he was feeling.
Bones' face was starting to swim before his eyes.
"Th - That virus. M - Must kill it." Bones' eyes were beginning to close again.
"Zero gravity! It will do the trick?" Kirk saw things fall into place.
"Y-You're a gen - ius, Jim-boy." Bones was looking at him with his eyes half closed, his face was almost white now, but he was actually smiling at him. "D - Don't blame S - pock! - Tried, t-to warn me."
"Please, Bones, you're gonna be fine! Just stop talking!" Kirk begged, but he couldn't bring himself to press the mask on his mouth again - just yet.
"G - Good - bye!" Bones breathed, and then his eyes turned up and closed at the same time.
He's only lost consciousness again, Kirk was sure. It just had to be that way.
The mask had gone back to where it should be and he strained to hear another breath.
He couldn't. But he saw a small puff of the nebulized air coming from the mask.
He heard someone else release a breath and turned to see Dr. Pulliam watching.
"Did he just say "Goodbye"?" she asked looking worried.
Kirk swallowed and turned away from her, on the one hand to look at Bones' face again, on the other hand to drag the back of his hand across his eyes, without the young doctor seeing it.
"No," he lied quickly.
"I've stopped the bleeding for now, but we need to get him into the OR at once!"
Dr. Pulliam was now giving orders, they transferred their patient to a stretcher and then rushed him to the other operating room.
Kirk followed them until he was stopped by the orderly, who looked at him apologetically and closed the door. "We'll let you know, sir."
