Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek. Sadly.
Warnings: There's more cursing in this one. Spochura. Chekov/Eprouve. Same stuff.
Author's note: Well, here it is, the final chapter to my first fanfiction. I'd like to thank all of my readers and reviewers. Now, please hear me out when I say this: Please read my other stories. I haven't started them yet, but as I now know more about TOS my writing has become better...and I have realized how much my OC sucks. In the next fanfic, dear Eprouve will be older, have a specific job, and stick to it. Give me a second chance? Please? :D R&R would be amazing. I hope you liked this story. Please enjoy chapter eight of Fake Out.
Story-related notes: There can be male nurses. It's not a typo. He's a he. Oh, and when you see a "*" (asterisk), please play climatic background music in your head. You'll see what I mean. :D
Eprouve's eyes slowly opened. Still in a fog, she sat up with a groan and looked around. The first thing she saw was an unconscious James Kirk. The Ensign let out a quiet gasp. A medical officer hurried over to her to prevent her from getting up, holding the girl's shoulder and gently pushing her back down onto the bed.
"Mind telling me what the hell just happened?" Eprouve said, a slight hint of panic in her raspy voice. The nurse stared at her uncomprehendingly.
"You…don't remember?" The medical officer asked, eyes filled with question. Emily shook her head, and the nurse sighed. "Klingons came onto our ship, disguised as Mr. Sulu, Mr. Koestler, and Ms. Chapel, and conspired to kill Captain Kirk and take over The Enterprise. The one disguised as Sulu attacked you."
The Ensign blinked, then blew a strand of hair away from her face out of annoyance. "Brilliant." She stated simply. The nurse chuckled quietly. "I suppose I need to interrogate them?" Emily asked.
"Well, yes," The Medical Officer said. "But not until we're sure that you're fully recovered—"
"I'm fine. Better than ever." Eprouve interrupted, sitting up again and looking around the room. There were a lot of knocked out officers that she didn't know, and Sulu and Christine and Kirk and…McCoy? The Ensign pointed to the CMO. "What happened to him?" In all honesty, Dr. McCoy usually was never put into situations that he could get hurt. At least, not while on the starship.
The nurse shrugged. "That's what we need you to find out. Now, if you'll let me just run some tests, the sooner we get you out of here, the better."
Emily groaned quietly and let the officer do his thing. He checked her heart rate and breathing, then shook his head. "I don't understand. With the exception of you, Captain Kirk, and those security officers," He motioned to the guards that had helped Chekov and Spock in rescuing the Captain. "The pulses of all of the personnel that were knocked unconscious are extraordinarily low. Almost bad enough to call it the beginning of heart failure."
Eprouve sat up a little straighter, becoming rigid and tense.
"Sorry, didn't mean to worry you. I'm sure they'll be fine, it's just…while you're interrogating the Klingons, if you could find out exactly what they did to knock them out, that'd make it easier for us to help."
The ensign nodded as the nurse finished. "Alright, Ensign, you're clear to—Ensign!" It was too late, Eprouve had already bolted out the door to go to her post. The Medical Officer groaned good-naturedly and went back to tending Captain Kirk.
After a long and futile interrogational session, Eprouve left the interrogation room and stepped out into the hall, ensuring that the three Klingons were still inside the room. She sighed quietly, knowing that her jobs wasn't finished until she had the information that sickbay desperately needed. The Ensign turned on the intercom, making the first of her mandatory progress reports.
"Interrogation to bridge," The officer said nonchalantly as she leaned against the wall, coughing quietly.
----------
The whistle rang through the bridge, and the half-Vulcan turned on the intercom instantaneously. He didn't see that Chekov and Uhura had actually stopped what they were doing and looked over, unsettled hope in their tired eyes.
"Spock here. Has the proper information been acquired from the intruders?" The First Officer asked, a little too fast. Emily smiled to herself. That was plain old human worry for his best friends shining through.
"Negative, sir." Eprouve responded glumly. "So far the only info that I've managed to get from them is irrelevant to the sickbay situation, though with this information I've concluded that these three were not under the orders of anyone in particular, and simply broke away from the group in order to plot their own personal revenge on our Captain and become heroes in the Klingon society…from what I've put together, no other members of their race were aware of their little expedition. They were, put simply, being mischievous. I could, as always, be wrong, though I doubt it. Like I said, it isn't very helpful…"
"Any information or conclusion that prevents a state of warfare is not irrelevant, Ensign. Deciding whether or not our intruders were an act of a declaration of war and preventing it were our top priorities." Spock corrected reassuringly.
Examining the emerald stains on the bandages around his arm, the First Officer briefly let his mind wander to sickbay, where Dr. McCoy and Captain Kirk were still unconscious.
"You have done well today, Ms. Eprouve. If you had not informed me of your discovery concerning the Klingons, it is logical to assume that the entire crew may have been captured or killed."
"Me?" The Ensign said in disbelief. "Yeah, sure. Whatever you sa—" A loud crash cut the girl off. "Shit!" She muttered.
Chekov's eyes widened in alarm.
"Emily, is everything alright?" Spock asked urgently, yet still managing to remain calm. There was a few seconds of silence.
"Er…yes, sir." Eprouve replied. "Everything's under control, really! Eprouve out."
More silence. Spock reluctantly exchanged glances with Uhura and Chekov, then shook his head distastefully and went back to work.
---
For once, everything really was under control. Mostly. With the exception of the prisoners attempting (almost successfully) to tear down the door and escape. Loud crashes and knocks and bangs could be heard from the room. Eprouve rolled her eyes and coughed, then stepped over to the interrogation room and prepared herself for whatever was to come. The door slid open and, without even looking to see if someone was there, kicked high into what should have been the air but was Reltseok's head. Emily smiled. as the Klingons all froze.
"Would anyone else like to try to escape again? Or are you just gonna take the beating like real men? Eh—rather, Klingons?" Lepahc tensed after the Ensign's correction.
"You know you're not going to get anything from us." Lepach grumbled defiantly.
"You know you're wrong." Emily countered.
"Your retorts are futile." said the female warrior, growing more tense.
"Your retorts are futile." mimicked Eprouve.
"Feh. Humans."
"Psh. Klingons."
"You may talk all you wish to, if you want any information from us you'll need a whole lot more than just an immature Earth girl." Lepach said, irritation obvious in her voice.
"You may talk all you wish to, if you want to leave this room you'll need a whole lot more than just three weak, devious Klingons."
"Stop that."
"No, you stop it."
"Foolish girl!"
"Foolish ridge-face!"
"A'rakih! Why in the universe didn't you use htaedozine on her while you had the chance? Now we're stuck here with the most annoying kid in Starfleet—" Lepach growled angrily to the Sulu-imposter before cutting herself off.
Eprouve smiled. A dark and wily smile. "You Klingons really do need to get a lesson on tolerance."
"Lepach! You fool!" Reltseok shouted. Lepach froze, then cursed in Klingon. The officer stepped out of the room again, leaving the intruders to fight amongst themselves. Emily flipped a switch on the intercom. 'I love confusing people…'
"Interrogation to security."
There was a short silence broken by a security officer. "Yes, Ensign?"
"If you would be so kind as to send a few officers down and escort our intruders back to the brig?"
"Acknowledged." He replied mechanically. "Out."
The Starfleet officer sighed and walked away from the intercom with a quiet cough. She looked back at the room, then turned and started running to sickbay.
---
Kirk practically bolted upright the instant he gained consciousness. An acute pain seared through his body, he gasped loudly and laid back down, trembling. He grimaced, looking up to see a medical officer standing over him.
"Welcome back, sir. Don't move."
"I got that, thanks."
The nurse smiled and shook his head disapprovingly. He started to run some test on the Captain, fussing with a few hyposprays and scanners. "Do you remember what happed?" He asked.
Kirk's eyes narrowed in concentration. "Not…really. The ship was having problems and there was someone in sickbay that wasn't supposed to be there. That's all."
The medical officer sighed. "Long story short, we had three Klingons on the starship disguised as Mr. Sulu, Mr. Koestler, and Ms. Chapel. For whatever reason, they wanted you dead and they tried to see to it." He started to feel around the area where Kirk was stabbed, making the Captain wince in pain. The nurse smiled apologetically, "And they nearly succeeded, too. Spock and Chekov came to rescue you after Eprouve told them you were in trouble."
Kirk blinked, then closed his eyes. "Oh. Now I remember. Reltseok."
"Who?" The officer asked, tilting his head to the side.
"Nothing. Can I go?" The Captain asked, staring longingly at the door. The medic crossed his arms.
"No, sir. You need to stay here for at least another eight days. Have some patience and be thankful you're alive." He walked toward the intercom , leaving the annoyed Kirk with another officer to tend to him. The nurse flipped a switch and leaned against the wall while he scanned over sickbay with his eyes.
"Sickbay to Mr. Spock."
"Spock here." The Vulcan answered immediately.
"Mr. Spock, you might be glad to hear that the Captain is awake and perfectly fine, though he needs to recover and we need to keep him under surveillance for at least another eight days, probably more."
"Or less," Kirk called from his bed.
"No, not less." The nurse retorted, glaring back at the Captain in annoyance.
"Very well, thank you. Has there been any progress with the other victims?" Spock responded, relieved that Kirk was okay but still concerned about the more critical McCoy.
"Negative, sir. I'm sorry to report that the crewmen are getting worse, and…well, two have died, Mr. Spock.*" The medical officer replied reluctantly, looking over to two bodies covered with white sheets.
Spock was silent for a moment. "That is most troubling. Please proceed to attempt a cure."
"Aye, Mr. Spock."
"Spock out."
Kirk's eyes were wide, his face pale and his heart beating fast. He was almost afraid to look over to the other end of sickbay, but he did, and regretted it instantly. While there were several other officers there, Kirk's eyes were glued to the still, pale body of his best friend, Leonard McCoy…and the life support system he was hooked up to. The nurse who had taken over as temporary C.M.O walked back over to Kirk.
"You're lucky Spock and Chekov got to you when they did." He said. "If those Klingons did whatever they did to them—" He motioned toward the many dying officers. "—to you, well…" The officer trailed off and Kirk winced. He didn't have to finish that sentence to know that there was very little hope for his crew.
This time, if Kirk were to say it was his fault, he would be correct. Being in command automatically made every death his responsibility, but this time the intruders were only on board because they wanted revenge on him. A while back, when Jim had been quite new at being in command, he had a run-in with a Klingon starship. They had both beamed down to the nearest planet and after one thing led to another, it was Kirk and his landing party verses Reltseok and his landing party.
Reltseok had knocked Kirk's phaser to the ground and it, naturally, broke. Kirk dove for it, having no other defense, and attempted to fix it. He accidentally crossed some of the wrong wires, and when he fired the phaser it hit four Klingons at the same exact time. Good thing? No. Immediately after that the phaser began sparking and smoking, so James instinctively threw it in the direction of the enemy. The phaser shorted out and exploded, but not before it shot out lasers at random, destroying 99% of the Klingon landing party.
As much as Jim hated to admit, there really was no reason for the fight. Both he and Reltseok were inexperienced as captains and acted rashly, acting simply on stereotypes and instincts. Accusations and insults turned into a bloodbath. It was, entirely, Captain James T. Kirk's fault; at least in his eyes.
And because it was his fault, Reltseok and Lepahc and A'rakih wanted their revenge. Because Kirk had messed up, two of his crewmen were dead. Over twenty five in the process of dying. One his best friend. Yes, this was sure to look great on his record. Why was it always his crew that had problems like this?
It wouldn't have been as bad if there were more medics. The majority of the dying crewmen were in sickbay the last time they were seen/heard from. No one that was in sickbay at the time had escaped. Over thirty officers that had been injured during turbulence, and around twenty nurses and doctors. There were only twelve medical officers conscious throughout the entire ship. They had all been either in the mess hall or getting something at the time when sickbay was attacked. Twelve nurses, four male and the rest female, were simply not enough four nearly fifty victims.
"Sir, you need to calm down. I understand you must have a lot of things on your mind, but your heart's beating way too fast considering you almost just died. Keep freaking out and you'll have a panic attack, and then you'll be in sickbay for a month."
"How am I supposed to calm down when my crew is—" Kirk gasped, having subconsciously sat up while he was talking. He immediately plopped back down, trembling in pain. He didn't know what hurt more—his ribs, or the gash on his back which undoubtedly punctured one of his lungs.
"Captain! Are you alright?" The nurse asked, alarmed. "See? Let that be a lesson to you. I told you before not to sit up. You'll start to bleed again."
Jim's eyes were closed in pain. He smiled weakly and muttered, "Heh, for a moment there, you…you sounded just…like Bones…"
The medic cursed as he scrambled for a hypo, something that was beginning to grow scarce. "Damn it. He lost consciousness again." He announced to the other officers, shaking his head. "I'm not trained for this. We need a surgeon." The medic looked over to McCoy, pale as a sheet. "Scratch that. We need a miracle."
"If you don't mind, I think I will take a short visit to sickbay," Spock said as he rose from the Captain's chair. "Mr. Chekov, you're in charge until Mr. Scott arrives."
"Aye, sir."
Uhura looked over her shoulder. "Checking up on the Captain, Spock?" She asked with a sly smile.
"Well, considering that The Enterprise is not in mortal peril at the moment, now seems the best time." Spock responded honestly.
"Of course, sir. The logical thing to do." said Nyota as she winked. Spock raised an eyebrow.
"As always, Lieutenant."
Nyota smiled, shaking her head as she turned back to her post and hailed Scotty. The half-Vulcan slowly walked off of the bridge, not wanting to become disoriented again. Spock stepped onto the turbolift and leaned against the wall as he was taken to the sickbay area.
He found that today, his thought process and priorities were both a bit bungled. Only a few hours ago he had refused to leave his post even though he was suffering from extreme blood loss. Yet now, Spock had almost completely perfect health, and he goes to sickbay for no particular reason at all. Kirk was fine. McCoy was not. Being in sickbay would not help that situation. Spock sighed. The humans were starting to rub off on him.
…Then again, it would also be logical to assume that his thought process was failing due to the blood loss. Yes, of course. How could he think correctly whilst he was recovering from a critical injury?
The turbolift opened and Spock exited it, heading toward sickbay. Standing outside the entrance was a man who the Vulcan assumed was the temporary CMO. He was leaning on his side against the wall, staring bitterly at the ground. Dark circles had formed under his eyes since the last time Spock saw him. There was blood spattered across his arms and chest, and he looked as if he had given up all hope, as if he regret not being able to do something.
"Are you alright, officer?" Spock asked. There was silence, then the medic lets out a quiet but deep sigh.
"I suppose I can't save every person that walks into sickbay."
"That would be quite unlikely." The First Officer responded sympathetically. "Would I be correct in assuming that more deaths have occurred?"
The nurse only nodded. He stepped into sickbay with the Vulcan trailing behind. "Six more have died. We still don't know why. And the Captain is unconscious again. There wasn't much we could do for him while he was awake, and we lost him."
Spock raised an eyebrow, glancing toward his friend. There was no getting around it: he did not look well. "I see. Will he recover?"
The medic frowned and reluctantly opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by a commotion at the opposite end of sickbay.
"No, no, no…come on, no!" A nurse was fussing with a few hypos and an officer whose life was failing. She injected various medicines, she tried to restart the life support system, but it proved useless. The flat line on the monitor remained, mocking all of the medical officers. Daring them to save someone. The nurse finally gave up with a long sigh and covered the body with a sheet.
The temporary CMO shook his head. "Nine officers dead. Nine. The autopsies haven't shown us anything. We're out of time. Whatever those Klingons did to the crewmen, there's no more time to fix it. It's over. Too late."
Spock couldn't help it. He stared at McCoy. Bones could have saved them. Long after time ran out. "Please do not blame yourself, officer. With the lack of doctors, deaths are to be expected. The—" He cut himself off, hearing something in the corridor. The medic turned to the door as well, skeptical.
"Move! Move, move, move, move, move!" The Vulcan heard someone say. "Dammit, out of the way! Quick, quick, quick!" There was a crashing sound made against the door to sickbay. The doors quickly slid open to reveal a very crowded hallway, and Eprouve stumbling into the room, a hand on her forehead. "Ouch…oh! Nurse!Mr. Spock!TheKlingonsdrugged'em!Somethingcalledhtaedozine!That'ssomekindaforeignpoison,right?!" Eprouve said, far too fast for anyone to understand. Spock and the nurse just stared incomprehensibly. The Ensign coughed, out of breathe from running the whole way.
"Ms. Eprouve, I gave you permission to go back to your post, not to run around the ship. If you overdo it, you'll pass out again—"
"Sorry, sir, no time for that! Htaedozine—" Emily coughed.
"Htaedozine, Ensign?" Spock asked, raising a brow. "I believe that is a drug once manufactured on Orion by combining a tenth of a milliliter of dark matter with arsenic. It caused the victim to fall into a coma. If the poison was not cleared out of the victim's body with a blood transplant, it would reach the sufferer's cardiovascular system and cause heart failure. The federation outlawed all production of htaedozine twenty-seven point six three years ago."
"But, sir, we scanned for all known poisons and drugs." The nurse explained, confused. The Ensign stayed quiet for a moment, staring thoughtfully at the floor.
"…'Shadow Tonic'…" Emily muttered, not looking up.
"'Shadow Tonic', Ensign?" The medic questioned. She only nodded. The nurse stayed silent, so Spock spoke.
"Ms. Eprouve, as the Captain would say, I do believe you have 'earned your pay for the week.'"
She beamed. "Thank you, sir."
"Htaedozine was also known as 'Shadow Tonic'. Nicknamed so due to the fact that it often appeared on scans and autopsies as a surplus of calcium." Spock stated, facing the temporary CMO. "I am quite surprised that you were unaware of this."
"I'm only in charge of sickbay because I'm ranking officer at the moment." Said the nurse. "I'm still only a chief petty officer."
"Holy crap."
"Well said, Ensign."
The nurse blushed, then cleared his throat. "Fifty three blood transfusions coming right up." He said. "Listen up, give every one of these officers a full blood transfusion." The medic announced. "Stat. And for goodness sakes," He said with a sigh. "Give it to Chief Medical Officer McCoy first."
Kirk had gained consciousness again after Spock found more hypos. He was in more pain than he had been in a while, paler than pale and covered in a coat of sweat. His mouth was slightly parted, breathing heavily, and his stare would not stray away from the wall next to him. The available medical officers had been able to stop the bleeding and cover it, and wrap his chest to hopefully help his ribs heal, but nothing else. Most of the pain killers had been used up, though some was able to be given to the Captain. It helped, but not much. Jim was in serious trouble.
Sitting next to him was Eprouve. Spock ordered her to watch him, to talk to him even if he wasn't listening in order to keep him awake. If Kirk passed out again, they might not be able to wake him up. Emily wasn't good at ranting unless she was questioning someone. Spock had stayed in sickbay for a while, but finally decided that he was just getting in the way and was needed on the bridge. The Ensign offered to leave instead so Spock could stay, but he simply replied that he needed to perform his duty as a Starfleet officer. So the girl was stuck in her least favorite part of the ship with her own personal worst fear: her friends dying. Sure, in a few minutes they wouldn't be dying anymore, but another officer had died. Ten deaths in one day.
The Captain had been thinking about this. His hands trembled weakly, his eyelids slowly descended…
"Captain.." Eprouve said breathlessly, taking one of his hands. Kirk's eyes reopened. "I'm sorry, Jim, I know you're tired; but you must stay awake." She folded her arms, looking to the other end of sickbay. They had just begun to filter out McCoy's blood. She quickly looked away, then sighed. "Don't worry, sir. Bones will be fine. Soon he'll wake up and come help you, then he'll save the other officers. Then you'll recover and go back to running the ship."
"You said before that a cure was found. What's going on?" Kirk asked, his voice scarcely louder than a whisper.
"The Klingons managed to get hold of an illegal poison known as htaedozine, or 'Shadow Tonic'. They used it to knock out Sulu, Koestler, and Chapel, and later all of sickbay. They must have ran out before they got to us, it is pretty rare. It can be cured with a blood transfusion, and that's what the medics are doing right now."
"Good…but why didn't they know sooner?" The Captain questioned.
Eprouve bit her lip. "Well, sir, among the medical officers available, the highest ranking officer was—temporarily—promoted to Chief Medical Officer. However…even though he holds the highest rank, he is still…relatively inexperienced."
Kirk finally broke eye contact with the wall and turned his head to face her. She looked down sheepishly. " 'Relatively inexperienced', Ms. Eprouve?"
"Well…yes, sir."
"Might I ask, what is his rank?"
The Ensign stiffened, looking away from the Captain. "You don't want to know."
"Ensign."
"Oh, you know…just a few ranks below 'Admiral'…"
Kirk was officially annoyed. "Emily," He said sternly. "Tell me what the rank is of our CMO."
Eprouve put a hand through her hair, still avoiding his glare. "Well…given the circumstances, we were lucky we even had someone with a rank as high as he did. The other medics were only petty officers." She coughed quietly, and glanced at Kirk. He was in no mood for games. "…Chief petty officer, Captain."
Jim's mouth dropped open and his eyes widened in rage. The Ensign laughed nervously. "Now, now, don't be angry…Spock and I weren't too happy when we heard it, either."
Kirk began to sit up, "Are you telling me that throughout this whole crisis, sickbay was being run by an enlisted man—"
"—No. Bad Kirk. Lie down. Don't make me do what Bones would want and plaster you to the bed." Eprouve interrupted as she lightly pushed him back down. The Captain just let out a quiet groan.
"Whatever. I suppose it doesn't matter as long as the work gets done efficiently." He said quietly. "How'd you manage to get the intruders to tell you?"
"I annoyed the crap out of them."
Kirk stared at her skeptically, she just shrugged. The Chief petty officer walked in, covered in blood. He didn't look triumphant, but he didn't look defeated either. He faced the two officers and sighed.
"The transfusion worked. Heart rate is climbing. But there's no way that McCoy will even be able to stand for another three days, let alone operate. He should wake up in four or so hours, and when he does we'll ask what we should do for you." The medic said, shaking his head. The thought of being incapacitated the way he was for four more hours did not amuse the Captain. He closed his eyes, and no one tried to stop him.
"Did the transfusion go well? I mean, did you have any problems? You said that was your first time doing any kind of operation." Emily asked the officer.
"It went terribly. We barely knew what to do. It was hard." The medic sighed. "For a few minutes…we thought we'd lost him." He admitted, putting a hand through his hair. Eprouve didn't comment, but her heart skipped a beat as she realized she was trusting an enlisted man who had absolutely no experience whatsoever with her friends' lives. Nice, Emily. Real loyal.
"Well, now you know for next time." She said with a cough. "I would help Koestler first since he was the first one who got poisoned—" Eprouve stopped when she saw the look on the medic's face. "He's already dead?" she asked, eyes wide. He nodded.
"He was the first one we lost."
Emily was silent for a moment. "I see." She sighed. "That's too bad…well, in that case please help Sulu. He was second. Then Ms. Chapel, then whoever."
"Yes, ma'am." The officer went back to the other medics so they could help Sulu and Chapel before it was too late. Kirk let out a quiet whimper, breaking the Ensign's thoughts. She looked over to him fearfully.
"You alright, Captain?" Eprouve questioned urgently. He opened his eyes, grimacing.
"I've been better," Kirk managed to choke out.
"Hold on, Jim. You've got to stay awake. Please." The girl begged.
"Ma'am, check out these readings. I think he's going to wake up soon."
"You may be right." There was silence. "So…what are we supposed to do about it?"
"How should I know! I told you I'm only a chief petty officer. You're an ensign."
"That makes no difference! I'm not a doctor!"
"Well, maybe if you had gotten the information sooner—"
"Don't you dare go blaming this on me, at least I know how to do my job! The Captain needs help and neither you nor your team know how to do anything but organize hyposprays, and you can't even do that cor—"
McCoy slowly sat up to see what all the commotion was about. He winced and lowered himself back down, deciding that wasn't the greatest idea. He looked himself over, seeing no physical injuries at all. Dizzy, weak, pale, out of breath, and covered in sweat and blood, yet no cuts or broken bones. Did he get sick?
"At long last, our savior hath returned!" Eprouve said cheerfully, going over to the side of his bed. "Are you alright, Bones? Had me worried."
Lenard looked up at the girl. "Feel like I just got bit by a vampire."
"No, just an inexperienced nurse." The Ensign motioned toward the man, who backed up sheepishly. McCoy sat up a little bit, not enough to make him dizzy but enough so that he could see. His lips parted slightly, his brow contracted in confusion.
"That man only signed on yesterday! He's just supposed to help with the crew's physical exams…"
Eprouve glared at the nurse. "Yes, we figured that out ourselves. Do you remember what happened?" She asked the doctor. McCoy stayed silent, staring at the ceiling for a moment while he thought.
"…Christine." Bones finally stated. "And that boy. What's-his-name. The transporter officer. They came into sickbay while I was treating someone with a concussion. They had tanks with them…they started spraying this purple gas. Someone breathed it in and started choking…I tried to hold my breath, but you can only do that for so long, you know? I guess I blacked out and inhaled some."
"Whoa. May I say, doctor, that so far you're the only person who remembered what happened without anyone telling them?" The nurse said.
"I'm guessing there weren't many medical officers outside of sickbay when we were attacked?" McCoy said with a sigh.
"Only, like, five people. The highest ranking officer was him—a chief petty officer. We had him running sickbay. None of the medics knew what to do."
"Great," Bones said, rolling his eyes. "So what happened after I lost consciousness? Is everything okay now?"
"It's all being taken care of. Mostly. Uhm, all of sickbay was put into a hidden room that took forever to find…Eprouve figured out that Mr. Sulu, Ms. Chapel…and Mr. Koestler had been captured, and three Klingons were aboard the ship. They had been surgically altered to look like Starfleet officers. They led the Captain into sickbay, broke his ribs, and stabbed him. His lung's been punctured. Spock was stabbed too, but he's alright now. Spock and Chekov came to rescue Kirk after Eprouve told them what was going on, and then…yeah. Fifty three officers, including you, unconscious for no known reason. The Klingons were interrogated. They used htaedozine gas. Ten officers are already dead. We've given thirty blood transfusions already and we're almost out of hypos." The nurse explained.
"Wait—Kirk and Spock were stabbed?" Bones repeated, eyes wide. The nurse nodded.
"Spock's okay. He's at his post. Jim was okay, but now he's not." Eprouve said with a quiet cough. "You can't get up for a while, so we need you to explain what we're supposed to do for him. If you're up to it." McCoy got even paler, the dark circles under his eyes became more prominent.
"The Captain's in a coma. All but two of his ribs are damaged, two-thirds cracked, one-third broken. He was stabbed in the back and punctured his lung." The medic told the CMO. Bones closed his eyes for a second, a trickle of sweat dripping down his face. After a minute or so, he explained to the officer what he needed to do, and he acknowledged.
"Do it quickly. It may already be too late." McCoy added. The officer nodded and swiftly left to go help Kirk. Lenard sighed and leaned back. He then looked up to see the Ensign, looking pretty stressed out. He wasn't surprised, she hated blood with a burning passion. She'd probably had to have dealt with the sickbay issue all day…he narrowed his eyes slightly, noticing something.
"My God, Emily!" Bones said, sitting up. "What happened to your neck?" He demanded, staring at the large and painful-looking bruises.
Eprouve smiled sadly at him. "Just had a run-in with one of the Klingons. I'm fine now."
Lenard shook his head distastefully as the same nurse walked over to them, smiling proudly. "Good news. The Captain's heart rate has gone back to normal, his fever is down and he seems to be in less pain. We can expect him to wake up within the hour." He said cheerfully.
Emily and Bones sighed with relief in unison. "Great."
One week later, all of the htaedozine sufferers had fully recovered and were back at their stations. There had not yet been a funeral for the victims, since the Captain wasn't allowed to leave sickbay yet. Reltseok, Lepach, and A'rakih were all taken into custody by two Starfleet ambassadors. Chekov was quite glad to have the real Sulu back, who was shocked that no one picked up on the fact that it wasn't really him sooner than they did. Ms. Chapel felt the same way, and gave Dr. McCoy the silent treatment for days. Spock took the liberty of updating the Captain's log while Kirk was recovering. In order to restock their equipment and recharge their dilithium, The Enterprise headed to the nearest starbase.
"Bones," The Captain moaned, glaring at the ceiling. "I'm bored out of my mind. Can't you let me go back on duty? Just once?"
McCoy leaned against a desk, giving his friend a look. "They aren't even doing anything up there, Jim. We only left the starbase an hour ago. And if I let you leave now, you'll want me to do it again the next time you get hurt."
Kirk raised an eyebrow. "You expecting me to get injured again, doctor?" He asked, crossing his arms.
"Yes."
"Thanks, doc. Nice to know my crew has faith in me."
"I'm always here for you, Jim." McCoy said with a smile as he walked over to the Captain. He began to scan him and run some tests. Kirk just rolled his eyes with a sigh, muttering something about a captain's right to his ship as Lenard finished up with a physical exam. When he was done, he leaned against the wall and smiled at his friend. "Alright, Captain, you can go back to the bridge. The Enterprise isn't the same when that green-blooded hobgoblin is in command. But don't overdo it or you'll be back in here again. If you feel lightheaded go straight to your courters and lie down until you feel better. Then lie down longer."
Kirk smiled. "I got it, Bones, don't worry." He said as he stood up. "Thanks." The Captain quickly headed for the exit before McCoy could change his mind.
"I mean it, Kirk, this is a one time deal!" The doctor called after him.
To boldly go where no man has gone before…
A/N: That's that. Please read my future stories. You may like the new, lesser-Sue Emily Eprouve. If you stick with my stories, you might even find out why she's always coughing...or Scotty's life story, or see Spock save Bones's life...some sad stories, some crackfics, some songfics...some non-Star Trek fics. Whatever it may be, I hope you like Fake Out.
(I'm sure that one male nurse was just promoted to a higher rank.)
