Author's Note:

Greetings everyone and here is another look at the Command Crew. This time we solve one of the great mysteries of the second film (my explanation for it anyway). Thank you for your support and I hope you enjoy.

I own nothing.

Bloodcarver

It wasn't until Jim was well on the road to recovery after Khan that anyone thought about the tribble.

McCoy had been telling Jim exactly what he'd missed when he 'died' when the captain mentioned it. "So you decided to synthesize a serum from Khan's blood because it brought the tribble back and it might have worked on me to."

McCoy confirmed what Jim said and the captain continued, "You then emptied one of the cryo-tubes and kept it's occupant sedated, put me in it to try and preserve my brain functions while Spock chased Khan across half of San Francisco and nearly beat him to a pulp but Nyota intervened at the last minute and stopped him."

Again the doctor confirmed Jim's summary and the younger man finished off, "Afterwards I was out for two weeks while the serum did its work and healed me, have I got all that right?"

McCoy just nodded and there was a brief silence before Jim spoke again, "Bones, I have just one question."

"What is it?"

"What happened to the tribble?"

There was a long pause as McCoy tried to remember what had exactly happened to the tribble after it was brought back to life and realised that he had no idea. Jim waited and soon guessed the answer when his friend remained silent, "You don't know do you?"

"No."

"So there is a distinct possibility that we have a potentially immortal, super tribble running round the Enterprise."

"Yup."

They looked at each other as they considered the ramifications of said tribble on the ship and Jim spoke, "Maybe we should tell Spock."

"Don't worry Jim, I'll sort this."

"You sure?"

"I'll head up, find out what happened to it and then we'll tell Spock."

"Ok but if we have a colony of them up there then that could cause a lot of trouble."

"We'll get it sorted no problem, I'll let you know as soon as I know what happened to it."

"Ok then."

It had taken awhile for McCoy to reach the Enterprise but luckily as her CMO he had authorization to be onboard during the repairs, now all he had to do was find the tribble.

He started his search in the Medbay in the hope that it was still there but it had since moved elsewhere in the last few weeks so he broadened his search. He spent hours searching every nook and cranny in the ship but his search proved fruitless. He took that as a good sign since it could mean that they didn't have a horde of super tribbles onboard, for all McCoy knew the thing could've died since they had a very short lifespan. His search eventually took him to the bridge where he was surprised to see Hikaru at his station working. The younger man looked up as he entered, "Hi Leo, how's Jim doing?"

Leonard took a moment to answer, "Fine, he's recovering well."

"Did he send you here to get something for him?"

"No, I'm just looking for something."

"What?"

McCoy thought about telling him before deciding that it would be fine, "You know that tribble that I injected Khan's blood into?"

"Yes."

"Well in all the chaos of that day we completely forgot about it and now we've realised that we left a tribble full of augment blood on the ship for the last few weeks. I'm trying to find out what happened to it."

"Don't worry Leo, Bloodcarver is absolutely fine."

"Bloodcarver?"

"You know the tribble. I found him weeks ago outside my quarters, I was going to tell you but I forgot. He's in my quarters at the moment."

"You've been keeping a tribble for weeks?"

"Yup."

"And it's not reproduced, at all?"

"Nope."

There was silence as McCoy got his head around the fact that Hikaru had been keeping the tribble and that it was apparently called Bloodcarver. He eventually came up with a response, "Ok, if you could let me take the tribble…"

"Bloodcarver."

McCoy faltered before continuing, "Erm…Bloodcarver. Then I can run a few tests to see exactly what effect the blood had on it and why its not multiplying like tribbles usually do."

"You're not going to hurt him are you?"

McCoy was surprised to hear concern in Hikaru's voice. It seemed that the younger man had become fairly attached to the tribble and he found himself reassuring the helmsman, "Don't worry I have no intention of hurting him." McCoy wondered when he had started referring to the tribble as him, "I'm just going to run a few scans to check his vitals, that's all."

Hikaru still looked worried about the request but relented, "Ok, I'll go and get him for you."

It didn't take long for McCoy to discover why the tribble was no longer multiplying. It seemed that although Khan's blood had fixed most of its functions it hadn't been able to repair its reproduction ones; this meant that it was effectively neutered but it was otherwise completely healthy. It also had a much longer lifespan and was unlikely to die soon. After McCoy had related his findings to Spock and Jim they were left with the problem of what to do with the tribble now. Hikaru had become very fond of it and eventually convinced McCoy and Spock to let him keep it (with no small amount of help from Jim, Scotty and Pavel) and the tribble named Bloodcarver became the family pet. Since Bloodcarver was largely unknown to the rest of Starfleet the Command Crew just 'forgot' to report his existence and he joined them on the five year mission. Of course the rest of the crew magically didn't notice the existence of an illegal tribble (another one of those secrets everyone knew but pretended they didn't) so it was never discovered by the Admiralty.

They still had no idea why Hikaru called it Bloodcarver.

PS-So there you go my canon now contains a super tribble called Bloodcarver. Please review and let me know if you guys have any ideas for me to write.