The clattering of the tool on the floor attracted the attention of a nurse.
"Is there something wrong doctor?"
"No." Well yes, shit, he thought.
"Please contact both the captain and first officer and ask them to report to sick bay as soon as things are under control," he managed to grit out. As a rule, Jim didn't enter the sick bay when he wasn't needed.
When he picked up the cutting tool, his hands were steady; they were always steady. He cut the remaining side of the sleeve and lifted it off the young man's arm. There were three obvious wounds, blood soaked bandages, torn strips of fabric, had been hurriedly applied. The doctor used the tricorder to scan for any thing his eyes would miss.
There was shrapnel in the left shoulder; metal, it would be easy to remove. He had undoubtedly lost a lot of blood, and was developing a burning fever because of it. A slight concussion, and that was about it; Easy enough to patch up, if there aren't any more surprises. Could do with a few more nutrients in his blood though, McCoy thought.
A more senior assistant came over.
"Preparations have been completed with the other boy, readings indicate that it is a male human, deficient in almost all vitamins, physically exhausted, and appearing to have a upper respiratory infection, advanced, nothing familiar, the tests should be done in about two minutes and we will know what it is"
"Good. Let me know the second you've got it." He nodded at another man to help him
He needed to focus on the problem at hand, and that wasn't the arm.
Holding out his hand, someone passed the hypo to him and he pressed it in to the young man's neck. Antibiotics first, to kill anything he might have picked up. Somehow the hiss of the needle was comforting; he was doing a job he knew. The bandages had to come off before anything else; the damage with the shrapnel would take the longest so he would do that one last.
McCoy was nothing if not an efficient worker. In constant smooth motion he removed the fabric over the first two target spots. It wasn't that they were bad they just looked bad. Spraying antiseptic over the wounds and letting it soak in for a few seconds to be sure. Next came the liquid healer, again a quick spray over the damaged areas and let it sit. It would be healed in a matter of minutes now.
Peeling away the last section of waded cloth the doctor looked at the wound. Red, angry, and very round, a stab wound maybe? No the edges wouldn't be like that. He held out his hand; the assistant knew what was needed. This time, something for the pain. PSSSST. Then antiseptic again, reaching out he found the assistant already holding out the magnetized pincers and base. Not replying McCoy laid down the metal frame, it would ensure no fragments were left behind and give him a picture of the shrapnel at the same time. The piece was cylindrical rounded at the end farther in. It couldn't possibly be what he'd thought it was; he'd only seen them in textbooks.
With a gliding motion the removed the piece of metal and placed it on the waiting tray.
"Doctor the results of the test are finished, but I think something might be wrong with them"
"How so?"
"They're near impossible." Bones didn't like the word impossible, not in his Sickbay, not in connection to a patient. It could only mean trouble. "The upper respiratory infection we found in the scan showed up as pulmonary tuberculosis."
"Pulmonary tuberculosis?" That wasn't near impossible that was impossible. All strains were totally wiped out and had been for hundreds of years. Even if it had survived it would have mutated at least. Had it been kept as a weapon? he wondered. Surely not - it only had an effect on human kind. It should have been protected against with all vaccinations that allowed space travel. Why then did the scanners pick it up - he trusted his equipment. What the hell is going on?
"Dr. McCoy, what do you want us to do?"
"Keep a sample of the PT and then cure the kid. I'm sure the computer has got the code for the antibiotics needed, get them and then give me the numbers. If they can be improved then do it. Record all the changes and get someone else to check for you, I don't want any screw ups."
Turning back to kid he was working on, he did one last scan to make sure nothing was left behind in the wound. The doors to the medical bay squeaked open, and Jim stepped through followed by Spock.
He nodded at the assistant. "Patch this one up and then I want tests on him too, check for everything and give both of them the basic vaccinations, make sure it doesn't react with the antibiotic on the PT one though." The man left going to get materials; Dr. McCoy called over a nurse.
"Set him up with a drip to be sure and keep close tabs on him. If anything changes alert me."
Bones pulled off his gloves; and made his way over to the captain and first officer. In his hands he held a dish, rolling around in it was the piece of metal removed from the boy's shoulder. He barely stopped in front of them
"My office." Both of the other men responded raised eyebrows. McCoy turned and started stalking to his work place he didn't look back. "Any time gentlemen." he gritted out.
Jim shrugged his shoulders taking a few quick strides forward to catch up with Bones. Damn that man was fast when he was mad, which was most of the time, his calves were probably made of steel. Thoughts of manly legs aside, Jim was worried. If the two that were brought in weren't on their way to being healthy and safe the good doctor would still be working on them. Even the Sickbay wasn't that bad, mainly because he wasn't the current emergency, he wasn't being poked with any thing and Bones practically lived here. Even though he was all sorts of grumpy most of the time, Leonard McCoy was still his best friend. And something was bothering him and that was bothering Jim.
Weaving in and out of the thinning personnel, the group made it's way to the office.
"So Bones, what have you got for us?"
Eyebrows furrowed deep and looming, Bones lifted up the dish he had been holding to show them."Do you have any idea what this is?"
Spock raised an eyebrow. Man, Jim had never noticed it but he was surrounded by a lot of people with really good control over their facial muscles. Spock especially, his eyebrows expressed more emotion than a thesaurus could.
"It would appear to be a bullet, circa 19th possibly 20th century"
Jim's eyes snapped to the small piece of metal. He was familiar enough with his own facial muscles enough to hold back the look that he knew Bones could read and be concerned about. Yes he knew what a bullet was, he had know what a bullet was since he was 12, his left shoulder in particular remember it well, he preferred not to.
"And do you want to know what else I found, besides the entirety of the shot one's arm and leg." Bones paused to breath. "Pulmonary tuberculosis. The other damn kid has consumption, advanced, no decent medical treatment to speak of; he's had it bad for at least half a year maybe more. Do you have any idea what that means?"
Spock had opened his mouth in an attempt to speak, but he was cut off by the good doctor. Jim on the other hand knew any questions mid-rant were rhetorical.
"That means that a disease that has been nonexistent for the past few hundred years has found it's was into space. The only reason it's not a danger is because we've got the exact cure, he'll be as healthy as one could expect in about two hours, he might even wake up in four."
"Do you have a hypothesis on these young men Doctor?" Spock wanted either answers or enough information to make his own, Jim couldn't tell.
"Yeah I've got one and I don't like it." Well this could either be incredibly interesting or entirely shit, one of the two. "I only pulled you two in here because I don't know how the rest of the crew is going to feel about it." Both Jim and Spock knew what was coming.
"These two kids are from our earth but they are definitely not from our time."
Still two sets of eyebrows went up. This was even better than interesting, quite possibly this was fascinating. Spock opened his mouth, but it wasn't the expected word. "Before, you mentioned "an arm and a leg." Can you elaborate doctor?"
"No, but can sure as hell show you. Follow me" He turned to Jim. "I'm assuming no time travel talk until we've got more information."
Jim nodded "Yeah but the moment we do know I'll give the announcement. I don't like keeping the crew in the dark." Stepping out of the doctor's way he held up a arm.
"Lead the way Bones."
Anybody who has problems with the medical procedures in this feel free to shoot me, I'll just patch my self up with my space gear and such. I apologize for the poorly placed Taraus IV angst (if you don't know what that is shame on you, go look it up) it's probably going to show up later too. If you have any problems with that please tell me nicely, and if you don't want to do that I'm still waiting for a limerick.
-Elliot
A/N: And important message of importance. This story was at first going to be a bit of a romance, due to the fact that I am indeed the definition of awkward that's not happening. It's probably going to be toned down a lot, like to the point of nothing. Ms. C might write some slashy stuff later, when she's done fighting the monsters of homework and other time consuming creatures. These will be posted in a different story as kind of a side thing with just a few scenes here and there.