McCoy excused himself to the labs while they worked.
Cygnus' observation, the fact that McCoy was perhaps concentrating too much on facial reconstruction, stuck with him.
He wandered up one row of tables, and down the other, checking growth rates, hormones levels. Reassuring himself that all the pieces of the puzzle were on their way.
"Vocal cords," he grumbled to himself. With a sigh, he sat down in front of one of the microscopes.
"Bridge to medlabs?"
McCoy shoved himself away from the microscope and flicked on the intercom.
"McCoy here."
"Ah, good Bones. Just the man I want to talk with. Chekov found an inhabited planet in our search radius. We're putting a landing party together, I'd like you to join us. If you've got the time between babysitting duties, of course."
"Yes, yes Jim. Give me ten and I'll meet you at the transporters. I want to pick up some things from sickbay."
McCoy didn't quite sneak into his own sickbay, but neither did he announce his arrival. No reason to get hopes up.
He waved Chapel into his office and shut the door.
"Jim's got a fix on an inhabited planet. Here's hoping it's the right one."
"Oh good!"
"Don't tell them anything yet. We're having enough ups and downs."
"Of course. Your egg timer?"
McCoy checked it quickly.
"Five hours and change. I'll make sure I'm back before then. Uhura might be able to step in if I'm not back."
McCoy gathered a variety of items and tucked them into his satchel. If this was Cygnus' planet, he wanted to take detailed visuals, along with medical scans, as many measurements as possible, who knows what types of samples.
He got to the transporter pads a moment before Sulu and Chekov.
"Jim. Any sign this is Cygnus' planet?"
"No subspace transmissions," Spock replied for the captain. "It is improbable that this is the native planet we are searching for. However, it is possible that this is a colony world. We have detected small settlements along coastal areas."
"Like the man said, Bones."
"Then why are you dragging me down there, blast it? I've got better work to do."
"Spock suggested you could use a little time out. Something about becoming stagnant."
"Great."
"Mr. Scott? If you would be so kind."
In a fizzing flash and pop, the plain walls disappeared in favor of a hilly stretch of land. No sights or sounds of industrial influence. Endless yellow sky above. Simple plants, similar to short grass and clovers, grew between the rocky ridges. Spots of greenish white flowers sprinkled along the pink leaves. The ocean off to the left, however, looked as healthy and blue as any he swam in back home.
"At least it isn't another Garden of Eden. I tell ya, I'm starting to get paranoid whenever we land in any sort of forest or jungle."
"Ah, the primitive fear responses of a human. From a scientific standpoint, I must admit to being curious. It must be rather exhausting, to jump at every shadow, fear every unseen menace."
"Unlike the rolling desert, where the very sun will cook your brain in your skull, eh, Spock?"
"Only for those not appropriately adapted to such environments, Doctor."
"Alright kids, let's head towards civilization now, shall we?"
Chekov did a quick scan. "Major encwampment at heading two mark seventeen. Three clicks."
"Well then gentlemen, shall we?"
Jim directed a couple security men to take point, following Chekov's directions.
They traveled along the coastline. A couple hundred yards away, McCoy caught sight of a thin ribbon of sand.
"Could be a nice place for a bit of rest and relaxation," he said conversationally. "If we end up staying here to help Cyngus' recovery."
"You assume that his people will be unable to do the repairs themselves?"
"He isn't some machine, Spock. He's a living, feeling, caring person. One does not 'repair' a living, breathing being."
"You are building replacement pieces, working to find components that will be compatible with current equipment, instituting staggered installations to test said compatibility. If you wish, I can contact Mr. Scott for engineering teams. Perhaps they will have more success, considering-"
Kirk help up a hand, silencing the team. He made a gesture. Spock jogged up to the head of the group. They pointed at something on the ground, nodded, and Jim motioned for everyone to follow him.
They paced up a gentle slope. At regular intervals Spock would track sideways, towards the ocean, then return and they would continue on.
Chekov made a sign, using his tricorder to point to where the settlement sat before them, then off towards the land side, farther up that blasted slope.
Just as McCoy started contemplating a tri-ox compound, Jim held up his fist for a halt.
The doctor let himself flop down on short bolder.
"Kirk to Ensign Kelly."
"Kelly here sir. Nearly at position."
"Good. Find a hiding place once you get there. Kirk to Ensign Parson. Parson come in."
Kirk tapped the communicator a few more times, trying to get onto his frequency.
"What's all this hullabaloo? I thought this was going to be a simple walk-in-walk-out."
"Hull-a-ba-loo, Doctor?" Spock asked from right behind him. "I am unfamiliar with the term."
"Shit man! Don't sneak up on a man like that."
The Vulcan tipped his head. "The Captain is organizing a recon team. What has caused all the 'hullabaloo' was a dead body on the path. There was a stone axe deep in the back."
"And you didn't think to call me up to take a look? I could have done something."
Spock shook his head. "No. As you would say, 'Too far gone.'"
McCoy stared off at the Captin, who'd gotten a hold of Parson by now, since he issued the two scouts orders to move their way in. Hmm. I might hate the forests for their 'hidden dangers,' but this grassland must be killing Kirk. No way to sneak in and get info without being caught ourselves.
"The dead body; was it like Cygnus?"
"No, Doctor McCoy, it was not."
With that the Vulcan nodded and returned to the Captain's side to wait for details.
Not this planet. McCoy sighed. Not much point in lolligagging about now. Hell, we could beam back up right now and avoid the inevitable-
"AAH!"
Drama.
"Parson! PARSON! Answer the damn channel Parson!"
"Weapons fire?" McCoy asked.
"No, damn. He was reporting in, then he screamed, and the comm channel went out."
"Orders, Captain?"
Jim looked back and forth between his senior officers. "Kelly," he shouted into his comm unit. "Report. Did you have a visual on Parson?"
"No, sir, not since we split up."
"Retreat and work your way around to where he last reported in. We'll meet you there."
He closed his communicator and eyed the men around him.
"Bones, if you'd like to stay back with Chekov-"
"You're not getting rid of me that easily, Jim. Let's go find your man."
"Phasers on stun everyone. L-Formation."
McCoy fell in step between Chekov and the remaining security officer, medical tricorder ready and sweeping the area for any lifeforms.
They circled around the rocky outcropping they'd used to hide, Kirk setting a pace that kept them crouched low but not slowing. A flicker of bright red caught their attention. Kelly's bright blond hair made it clear which ensign ran to meet them.
"Signs of struggle," Spock pointed out. He and the captain studied the area of smashed grass and mud, reading who-knows-what from the tracks in the ground. While they pointed here and there, commenting on how several bipeds converged on this area, before separating off again, McCoy took a deeper look in that clay-red mud.
"Blood," McCoy said, stopping their discussion. He opened up his medical tricorder to take another look. "Not a life threatening amount. It isn't Parson's. Unknown DNA."
"At least he got his licks in. We'll have to split up, to see which of these three trails he got dragged down."
"Why don't we just try to beam him up?"
Spock lifted a smashed communicator from the grass. "I'm afraid that won't be very effective, McCoy."
"Spock, you and Ensign Kelly take the trail towards the settlement. McCoy, you and Chekov take the one towards the beach. Ensign Cooke, you'll go with me. Radio back in ten minutes, regardless."
"Aye, Captain," they chorused.
McCoy let Chekov take point as they took the lower path towards the blue ocean ahead. He had to trust the young Russian's ability to trace where the grass had been beaten down, because he couldn't see it for the life of him.
"Govno!" Chekov flicked open his communicator. "Keptin, this trail goes to a deert road, fweekwently twaveled. Keent tell if they went to the teown or away."
"Stand by then, and keep out of sight. I don't want my CMO running on a wild goose chase."
"Stand by?" McCoy repeated after Chekov closed the lid. "Bull. Come on, kid. We know they're heading back to town."
"Why do you say that?"
"Spock was running back and forth to this road the whole way here. He would have seen someone. Come on, Ensign."
McCoy shoved past the young man and led up the road.
"Sir, shouldn't we take cover?"
"What cover? We'll see them as they see us, plenty of distance. You heard the Captain, they've got no energy weapons. They'll have to sneak up on the both of us to catch us off guard. And you're a decent shot, right?"
"Decent enough sir, but-"
"But?"
"Ensign Parson is a much better shot, and they snuck up on him."
"Wonderful."
McCoy shook his head and stamped off back in the direction of the town. Chekov kept sweeping his eyes, and his tricorder, around. McCoy tried to keep an eye out for obvious breaks in the grass to either side of the path, but he didn't have the eye for that that Jim did, that's for sure.
"Doctor, there're the bwildings."
If McCoy had been expecting a built up colony, prefabbed even forms in the typical cookie-cutter style, he'd be mistaken. These little shacks would be more at home in the highlands of Scotland, than the colonies of Mars.
Even from here, he could see the regular thin plates of slate stacked one on top of the other, the same type of stone he'd sat on minutes before. The same gray stone that littered the grasslands all around them. Halfway up the walls, the stone shifted over to a pale gray stucco, topped with the pink grass in a regular thatch pattern. A little paler than the grass they walked through, thanks to slow bleaching from the white dwarf star this planet orbits.
"They don't look space fairing," Chekov commented glumly.
"Don't judge a culture by their construction methods, Ensign."
"Sir, shouldn't we-"
McCoy held up a hand to silence him. Dark silhouettes against those pale houses made his fingers itch to start medical scans.
Several broke away from the structures. Dark, long, sinuous bodies rushing for them. His little hand held unit didn't have the range to go the couple hundred yards. Won't do any good. The communicator on the other hand...
"Jim?" McCoy asked, after flicking open the lid. "Your CMO didn't listen to orders. We might need a rescue in a minute."
He tucked it back in his pack, muted but open.
"Doctor..."
"If you think you can outrun centaurs, Mr. Chekov, you're welcome to try."
McCoy held his hands open, palm out towards the creatures as they rushed towards them. Chekov mirrored him.
They didn't look quite like centaurs, but close enough. Three pairs of legs underneath the main trunk of the body propelled the creature with surprising speed. Who knows what the agility would be like, with that much of a tangle just waiting to happen.
Rudimentary bows and arrows, the height of stone-age tools, in each set of hands. Well, upper set of arms held the bows at the ready, string drawn tight, an arrow as big as a spear notched in each. The lower set of arms, smaller and less muscular, held spare arrows tight to the sinuous sides.
Bare flesh brought an obvious blush to Chekov's cheeks, but hell, they've got better things to worry about than Russian sense of propriety.
McCoy had more interest in the sloping forehead, widely spaced eyes, and warthog tusks. Why, I do believe we have a herbivore, with as much fight as flight.
And it's the fight I'm worried about.
"We mean you no harm," McCoy stated in a quiet, even voice. "We're just looking for a friend."
"Strange monsters!"
"Bright creatures!"
"Weird coverings."
"Of course the UT works for them," he grumbled to himself.
"What is this Ooo Tea?"
I'm a doctor, not a diplomat.
"I realize we look a bit strange to you, but if you'll let me explain UGH!"
He caught the flash of a fist a moment before total blackness sucked him in.