(A/N: I do not own)

"The whole ship, what the hell is going on Jim?" McCoy turned face the captain.

"I don't know Bones, that's what we're trying to figure out." The doctor's angry scowl simmered down to a grumpy frown; at least he wasn't the only still in the dark.

He looked over Jim; the tired "I'm going to come over and whine at you" expression was gone, replaced by a sharp, almost excited look in his eyes. Sure, right now he was straight-faced, mouth in a grim line, but if the captain had been anywhere but the bridge he would have been grinning like an idiot. If Bones had been anywhere else he would have groaned; he couldn't believe it, this man was enjoying him self.

Lieutenant Uhura's voice rang out across the bridge. "Captain all deck report: all systems working, although sensors appear to have been reset and are taking awhile to come back on line fully."

"Estimates for how long that will take?"

"They report anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour, Sir."

"I want to know the minute they're back online."

That meant that they were going to be going after whatever had caused them to lose power, Leonard McCoy groaned. Jim looked up at him from his chair smiling (like an idiot).

"What was that Bones?"

"Do you need me here, Jim?" If he could get back to Sickbay maybe he would have time for a drink before the shit hit the fan (medically speaking). Twenty minutes was enough, although he would settle for ten. Hell five was enough for a dozen shots of bourbon.

"You might want to get your emergency med supplies and come back up here. Have respond teams at the ready; the list of injuries should be coming in soon. Nobody reported anything serious in the initial sweep, but I'd rather be careful."

Damn right, this damn crew would just keep going until they collapsed, and then he'd have to take care of the damn lot of them. He nodded at Jim and made his way to the lift. Well, at least he would have a few minutes of quite. Once inside, he called out his destination in an already hoarse voice. The lift acknowledged with movement. The doors squeaked open and McCoy stepped out.

Turning right, he walked down the hallway to the Medical bay's doors. Now what would he need? There probably wouldn't be any real emergency but if he didn't bring everything there would be some idiot calling in with a chest pain which would turn out to be a cardiac tamponade or something.

He walked through the doors, nodding at a passing nurse. On his way in to his office, he picked up the bag he always kept near at hand. He shuffled through it, double-checking everything. Where the hell was the Hyronalin? Today just seemed longer and longer, he thought as he walked out of his office. With the way it was progressing, it would still be quite a while before he finally got his drink.

The Hydrolin was in the wrong freezer. Of course. Back in his office, he did a final check, he tidied up his desk a bit - well he stacked a few papers and crammed the unnecessary stuff in to a drawer. Clean enough. Packing up his case, he left his office, with a light squeak and a compression of air the door of the medical bay opened and Dr. McCoy exited. Walking to the turbo lift on automatic, grunting at the computer to tell it where he needed to go, a final opening of the door and he was back on the bridge. Yep, today was going to be a very long day.

The bridge was back to it's normal hum of activity. People seemed much more relaxed now. He made his way forward to the Captain's chair. Jim looked up.

"What took you so long Bones?"

"Someone forgot to replace some of the hypos after the malfunction in the engines last week. Took awhile to find the right stuff." Jim grimaced, that hadn't been fun and Scotty hadn't been happy. At least nobody had died.

"Captain, I've got a report saying sensors are now fully functional" the lieutenant called out. Bones could tell Jim was thinking something along the lines of marvelous although his voice was as firm and commanding as ever.

"Alright. Mr. Sulu I want us to back track to where we were just before the disturbance"

"Aye-Aye Captain." How was the crew not scared shitless right now, and showing it? As a doctor Leonard was used to death but that didn't mean he wanted to deal with it.

"This is the place captain."

"Put us on half power, anything abnormal I want reported right away."

The next few minutes nothing happened, the crew working to record and compare data that would be useful later. Bones was tempted to go back to Sickbay; not much was happening - maybe he'd have time for that drink. A call from across the room brought him back to his senses.

"Captain, I'm picking life forms." It was a young science officer. Jim looked over at him.

"The 'not to great of a danger' ones?"

"No sir…" the officer trailed off "They appear to be humanoid."

"They?" The captain's eyebrows scrunched in a frown.

"There's two of them sir"

Jim's voice shot across to another officer.

"Kren, get me a visual!" He turned back to the first man. "How sure are you?"

There wasn't any doubt in the young officer's voice.

"A hundred percent sir."

Spock had reached the station.

"He's correct, Captain." Spock's voice was final. The crew looked forward to the picture that was now coming in to focus.

Bones' bag dropped by his feet. There was a young man, just barely out of boyhood. Covered in blood, he swung a piece of metal at a swarm of red, shelled creatures. They were clambering over each other, trying to devour him. The officer had said two - where was the other? There! There was another human form, slumped and unmoving. The first seemed to be having trouble. He had staggered back, coughing.

"Jim get them up now!" Leonard McCoy was first and foremost a doctor; he would not let somebody die in front of him with out doing something.

"Captain that would be a breech of regulations, I advise against it."

"You pointy eared son of a bitch, I don't give a damn about your regulations - I'm a doctor not a rule book!" McCoy was furious; that green blooded computer had just crossed a very important line, again.

"Jim!" He almost pleading, he turned back to his captain. Jim locked eyes with him for a second and then spun his chair.

"I want a full security detail to the transporter room, alert medical. Beam them up as soon as security gets there." He stood up, every inch the captain. "Bones lets go; Mr. Sulu, you have the con. Mr. Spock," The Vulcan followed the other two men in to the lift not voicing his obvious dislike of the orders.

By the time the lift doors had opened Security was already disappearing through the transporter doors, all three men followed after them, running. As they reached the doors the transporter was already in action. First a huddled form appeared, the one that had been unconscious. The other man began to appear, Bones started forward, pushing past Jim, then the red shirts.

"Bones wait! Security set up a perimeter."

Both the young men had fully materialized. There was blood all over them - clothes stained rusty red, smeared across mouths, drying thick and stiff in their hair and flaking off their hands. The standing boy's eyes darted, glassy and unfocused, across the room franticly searching - he tried to turn, facing his companion. He seemed to shudder, falling forward.

The doctor shoved past the last of security, leaping to catch the man. A hacking cough passed his already blood stained lips, red splattered the floor. Security began to close around them.

"Out of the way, dammit!" the doctor gritted through his teeth.

By the time Bones had got the man laying down on the transporter pad - on his side to be sure no blood blocked the limited breathing the his patient had - his eyes had already rolled back in to his head, completely dead to the world. A nurse took over care of him. McCoy rushed to the other man, still crumpled. He was on his back; only the slightest pulse and a hellish fever told the doctor that he was alive.

The crowd of security parted, the stretchers had arrived. McCoy tried to lift the boy as gently as possible. He considered himself a fairly strong man - while in no way a Vulcan (thank you very much), he wasn't a child either. But this kid was heavy; he could feel his back muscles strain.

"You get over here, help me lift him. Don't grab his neck you idiot!" God, the uselessness of some people was so damn aggravating. Setting the boy down carefully he check over him for any possible problems for the trip to the sick bay. Turning he saw the medical assistances already laying the first one out. All right, at least some people knew standard protocol. It was all this technology - corrupting people in to thinking that since computers could do any thing, what was the point of using your own two hands?

The rush to the Sick bay was uneventful, only a few people to yell at, Bones was in his element and people didn't get in his way when he was in his element. Reaching the doors, the team of medical officers and security swarmed through. Every thing had already been prepared. Well, maybe there were some advantages to the technology of instant communication.

"I want all unessential personnel out of the way or out of the room, now," the doctor practically roared at crowd.

There was a scramble of movement. Normally he'd let the nurses prep any patient but this was different this was an unknown and Leonard wasn't going to sit by. He cut through the boy's shirt. The other one was being examined - as soon he finished here, McCoy would be over there in a flash. With a final snip the fabric parted he had cut through the left sleeve; he always had started with the farthest way - the second one was always harder. Getting a grip on the right side of the collar he began to cut through.

A scar had appeared first, then as the fabric parted the full medically horrifying truth came in to sight. It was an arm, but in no way was it human. The metal seem to be screwed in to the boy's flesh, deep scars were gouged in to the body. For the first time in his medical career Leonard McCoy dropped his tools in front of a patient.

Yeah and by "up by the weekend" I meant in a few weeks, my bad. But I have excuses (not that it counts for much). One my dog had surgery, he is doing well but still has to wear the cone of shame. Two I'm sick, please note that this will happen a lot, my immune system is made of cardboard water soluble glue.

-Elliot

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For more information please go to www (.) allyweek (.) org

~E and C