"Lt. Commander Jacobs, I would like to express multiple concerns with you."
"A medical concern?" she asked. "You do realize that this is supposed to be a physical, correct? You were in a very traumatic situation less than twenty-four hours ago."
"I am well aware the events within the last twenty-four hours as I have not experienced any memory loss. However, I will wait until you are finished with the examination if you prefer."
"Thank you."
Once she had found that all the vulcan's vitals were within a healthy range, she decided that she would clear him for the mission. He seemed mentally fit enough for duty. "Now, what is it you wanted to say?"
"The first matter I wanted to discuss is the nature of our mission. Although I'm sure that our captain will be informing you of its parameters I was hoping to make an official note of my objection. Would you be willing to log it for me?"
"Sure," she replied awkwardly. The knowledge that Spock disagreed with their mission did nothing to calm her anxiety regarding it. "It must be a pretty serious mission if you and I are back aboard the Enterprise," she mused, seeing if she could get anything out of him. (Charlie was well aware that the likelihood of this was slim, but she decided that it couldn't hurt her to try.)
"It is of a very serious nature," he agreed. "My second concern is of a more personal nature…Charlie."
Spock insisted on referring to her as Lt. Commander Jacobs or Dr. Jacobs while they were on the bridge together as he was a firm believer in formalities during missions. The only times he called her Charlie typically involved Nyota – either while they were out together or while discussing her. "I'm guessing this concern of yours involves Nyota?"
"Your assumption is accurate. I'd like to keep matters professional while we are on this mission, so I will ask my question now: how angry is she? I have surmised that she is unhappy and that this unhappiness is due to our last mission, but I'm having difficulties understanding anything else."
Charlie really didn't want to get in the middle of this – especially because Nyota was her best friend and she happened to agree with her. But she also knew that if Spock was reaching out to somebody for help then he must really be freaking out…in his own Vulcan way. "Well, you nearly died the other day, Spock. You scared the shit out of her and she feels as if your acceptance of death – while insisting that Jim should not rescue you – showed a complete disregard of your relationship with her."
"Nyota must be aware by now that I care," he responded. "You do not think she is being reasonable, do you?"
"I do agree with her," Charlie admitted. "I think you did show a disregard of your relationship at the time. What you need to do is actually talk about it and accept the fact that until you explain your line of thought at the time, she's going to be pissed at you."
"Are her current negative emotions towards me going to be a distraction on this mission? I do not want our personal problems to be a detriment."
She shrugged. "I honestly have no idea. You may want to avoid her if you can, though."
He nodded with understanding and they both headed towards the shuttle that would take them to the enterprise.
Leonard looked very annoyed when Charlie saw him so she raised her eyebrows questioningly. "Jim didn't show up for his medical exam," he grumbled before spotting their captain and asking where the hell he had been. "Ten hours ago you were in a damn fire fight now it is my duty to – "
"I'm fine, Bones," Kirk insisted.
"The hell you are." Leonard took the health of all those aboard the enterprise very seriously – especially the health of their captain.
"Jim it's crazy going on that ship without a medical evaluation," Charlie said as she followed him. "I don't know what this mission is yet, but if it is in any way stressful – which you and I both know it probably will be – then things could go very wrong without a captain who is fit for duty."
He was completely ignoring her and Leonard now as they sat behind him and Spock. "Status report, Mr. Spock."
"Everything is running smoothly," the vulcan informed him. By now Leonard was trying to do his evaluation right there on the shuttle so Charlie handed him the necessary equipment as she went and listened very closely to what Spock had to say about their mission. "As your first officer, I must inform you that I strongly object to our mission parameters."
"Of course you do," Kirk groaned.
"Starfleet regulation does not demand that a man be killed without a trial. Furthermore, firing torpedoes at the Klingon home world is inadvisable."
Leonard's and Charlie's eyes went wide as they each turned to the other to make sure they had heard right. "What the hell?" she mouthed at him.
"We're firing at the Klingons?" Leonard asked, beginning to feel as uncomfortable as Spock was with their missions.
"Regulations aside, this mission is morally wrong," Spock continued.
"This has nothing to do with Starfleet regulation," Kirk said darkly. "Regulations aside, pulling your ass out of a volcano was morally right and I didn't win any points for that."
Leonard was still listening to the argument between Kirk and Spock when Charlie noticed his vitals on the screen. "Jesus, Jim, calm the hell down."
"I'm not going to take morals lessons from a robot!"
"Reverting to name-calling suggests that you are defensive and therefore find my opinion valid." Charlie had never been happier to have Spock on the ship with her. At this point, she didn't care why the hell they were supposed to be attacking a Klingon planet; she just knew that she didn't want to be involved in a mission could potentially lead to war with the Klingons.
"I didn't ask for your opinion. Bones, get that thing off my face," he growled.
"He's obligated to give you an examination," Charlie snapped. "If he doesn't then it's his ass on the line if something happens, so suck it up."
"Our mission could start war with the Klingons," Spock reminded it. "It is, by its very definition, immoral. Perhaps you should take the requisite time to come to that conclusion yourself."
Before the two could continue arguing, a blonde woman approached them, claiming to have been assigned to the Enterprise. Charlie wasn't usually the suspicious type – after all, she had been assigned to the Enterprise for only this one mission – but something about Lt. Wallace seemed off to her. Not necessarily menacing, but off.
Everything seemed to be going wrong at once on this mission and Kirk was ignoring all of it. Scotty refused to sign the papers for the torpedo, Spock disagreed with the mission morally and she and Leonard were concerned about the fact that – physically and mentally – Kirk was not fit for duty. "Jim, your vitals are way off," Leonard said nervously.
"I need you two to report to the med bay," he told them irritably.
As she and Leonard changed into the uniforms together, Charlie was less than pleased with Kirk. "He's going to get us all killed! This goes beyond not following the rules into the realm of insanity."
"I know," he sighed as he zipped up her uniform. "But there's nothing we can do at this point. He has all sorts of special powers granted to him from upstairs, now."
They entered the med bay and began taking inventory together – a task that had long ago been streamlined by the two. Once again, things were running fluidly, all staff in the med bay painfully aware of how tightly it was run by the McCoy/Jacobs duo.
Once Kirk had announced their mission over the ship-wide channel, Charlie did begin to relax a little. At least he had taken Spock and Scotty's advice. There was now at least the possibility of this not being a complete disaster. The speech ended, and then Charlie and Leonard were hailed by Kirk.
"Get up here to the bridge, you two."
They did as he said, happy that Kirk had gotten over the tension that had occurred between them earlier. When they stepped onto the bridge, he turned to Charlie in particular.
"So, Dr. Jacobs, how would you like to finally be taken off the ship?"
Her eyebrows rose with surprise. "I would love nothing more, Captain. If I could ask, though, what makes this time different?"
"I read the records of your advanced combat training and you were given glowing comments by all of your instructors, indicating that you are more than capable of hand-to-hand combat on a mission. Should something happen, I'm going to need those skills."
She nodded, understanding what he meant: should they run into Klingons. Leonard, on the other hand, stiffened at the news, not liking the idea. She squeezed his hand in an attempt to comfort him, failing to do so.
The rest of the crew on the bridge returned their attention elsewhere, as there was work that needed to be done, but she turned to Leonard, anticipating his reaction. "I'll be fine."
"I know I can't change your mind but you've never been on an away team before and this is a hell of a place to start."
"Kirk and Spock will both be going, as will – I suspect – Nyota. I couldn't be in better hands," she told him with a smile.
Without any forewarning, the ship dropped out of warp, sending her painfully into a railing. She would have a really nasty bruise forming before too long. Leonard looked alarmed but she held her hands up to say "Everything's fine."
Charlie's suspicions about Kirk's choice in the other away team members ended up being accurate but she had forgotten for a moment that Nyota and Spock were fighting. This could get really awkward really fast.
Nyota huffed away to get ready for the trip when Leonard turned to Jim and Charlie with irritation. "Just great," he said, clearly referring to the fact that two members of the away mission were not currently on speaking terms. "You're not really going down there, are you Jim? You don't rob a bank when the getaway car has a flat tire."
She could tell that Leonard was worried so she smiled comfortingly at him before going to change out of her Starfleet uniform. Nyota was changing with her and when she saw the demeanor of her friend she thought to herself 'Oh, there is definitely going to be a problem with them.'
Now they were hauling ass towards the planet, hoping to locate and capture John Harrison as quickly as they could. Charlie had to admit, though, Sulu sounded pretty badass as he was threatening the fugitive. The bickering between Spock and Uhura, on the other hand, was much less inspiring.
"Guys," Jim complained as they continued to argue. He and Charlie turned to each other, both feeling awkward to be right there during the little spat. "Charlie," he whispered. "If you and Bones are ever fighting, can you please promise never to do this to me?"
"Deal," she replied quickly.
Everything that had been going on inside their small vessel was quickly forgotten when a Klingon ship spotted them. Shit. Charlie was very happy that Kirk was doing most of the steering because she just felt nauseous as he spun the damn thing around.
"I told you we would fit," Kirk said triumphantly after pulling a maneuver that very nearly made Charlie sick.
"I'm not sure that qualifies." The look on Spock's face told her that he was experiencing a similar discomfort.
Kirk's small victory was quickly ruined by the handful of Klingon ships that had them surrounded. Charlie swallowed nervously, realizing that she would likely have to employ the skills that had led to her selection for this away team. She felt a lot more confidence in her operating ability in the med bay than she did in her fighting abilities on a Klingon planet.
Kirk handed her a phaser, giving her a nod that was undoubtedly supposed to inform her of his own confidence in her. "You got this, Charlie."
She kept her eyes training on Nyota hoping that this would not come to a physical confrontation but all her knowledge about Klingons told her that an outcome without violence was doubtful. Just when Charlie couldn't take it anymore, someone who definitely was not from their ship began firing in the Klingons. It could only be one person: John Harrison.
Amazingly, she fared pretty well during the ensuing fire fight , stunning a number of Klingons in her wake. But Charlie wasn't – nor was anyone else among their party – any match for John Harrison. The man was capable of taking down Klingons without the aid of any weapons, at one point dropping them and opting for hand-to-hand combat. Eventually, all the Klingons had either been taken out or fled for reinforcements, leaving only their away team and Harrison.
He rushed towards them, weapon ready. "How many torpedoes?"
"Stand down!" Kirk ordered.
Harrison completely ignored him and shot Kirk's phaser out his hand like a cowboy in one of those cheesy western movies from the mid twentieth century. "How many torpedoes?" Harrison demanded again, as they stared at him in shock. "The ones you threatened me with in your message."
Spock was the first of them to recover from the haze that plagued their brains, answering "Seventy-two."
This in turn caused Harrison's eyes to go as wide as theirs had earlier –clearly panicked about that particular number as he surrendered directly afterward. He even took the beating that Kirk gave him as 'revenge' for the death of Pike. But Kirk's outburst didn't even leave a mark.
"Captain!" Uhura yelled, trying to bring him back to reality.
"Cuff him," Kirk growled, as he walked away.
Spock did the honors while Charlie stared at Harrison the medical anomaly. There was no way he was human – at least not completely. For the time being her hypothesis was that he was some sort of alien-human hybrid though she couldn't detect anything but human features on him. While Spock was cuffing the fugitive, Harrison noticed Charlie staring at him and gave her a smirk.
Once they had Harrison inside, Kirk told Leonard to meet him in the brig. Charlie followed him, trying to determine whether or not any of his injuries were serious. "Are you alright?" she asked. "You didn't exactly display a large degree of control back there and your face took a beating."
He looked as if he was going to lash out in anger but then he saw that her question was purely out of concern. "I'm fine."
Minutes later, once Charlie and Jim were back in their uniforms they met Leonard at the brig. "Why the hell would he surrender?" Leonard had glanced her over and, noticing that she had only a few cuts from the landing, resumed business.
"I don't know," Kirk replied.
"It sounds like we have a superman on board," Leonard mused.
"You tell me."
Leonard was taking a blood sample and Harrison was obliging very willingly but he smirked at Charlie again, earning him a glare from Leonard. Seconds later, Harrison resumed his serious manner. "Why aren't we moving, Captain? An unexpected malfunction? Perhaps in your warp core?" Charlie's attention snapped right back to Harrison. There was no way he could know. "That would strand you conveniently on the edge of Klingon space."
"How the hell do you know that?" Leonard asked quietly. (He had only said what they all were thinking, but participating in the game that Harrison was playing would get them nowhere.)
"I have insight that I think you may find valuable."
They had their sample now, so she and Leonard were going to head back to the lab in order to analyze it. "You know where to find us," she assured Kirk and Spock. She couldn't help but notice the way Khan's eyes lingered on her as she walked away. She got the distinct feeling that he had learned more about them in the few minutes they had engaged him than they had learned about him.