San Francisco is… strange. A familiar bustle of activity, the same biting cold… and yet things are different. There are no aliens, which is odd. San Francisco is something of a hub of non-human activity in his day.
There is, of course, the difference in technology. Cars traverse alone the ground now, in strange shapes making strange noises and strange smells. None of this is completely new, of course - McCoy has studied his history and this isn't even his first trip to the past.
Still, every time period is a little different, and everything strikes him all over again. It is the feeling in the air that is the most different - a tension that hangs and clogs the city. This is a place without the hope of the future but with all of the energy - pent-up frantic energy unable to unleash itself into the stars. As far as these people know, they may not last long enough, as a race, to reach beyond their own moon.
Frankly, looking around, McCoy can hardly believe they ever got to the moon, much less moved beyond it. Imagining these brusque, angry, suspicious people with nuclear power… well the past may be a nice place to visit, but McCoy wouldn't want to live there.
It was nice to visit, though… to have the feeling that he knew something they didn't, to see those first fumbling steps before they really started on their race to the stars… how much longer until Zephram Cochrane would invent warp power…? Not long, McCoy knew that much.
It was easy to get lost in the sights and sounds of the city, even as they traveled as a group. They had to familiarize themselves with this new time period, after all. Despite the entrancing nature of the metropolis around them, McCoy found himself repeatedly being drawn back to Spock and Jim. Spock seemed to gravitate towards the both of them, or at least McCoy liked to think he did.
Perhaps it was nothing more than Spock's curiosity that led to him shuffling towards the front, and nothing more than the polite deference of the others hanging back that afforded the slight separation between them. Certainly Jim kept wandering closer to Spock, and certainly McCoy couldn't resist the urge to hover either.
Ridiculous, perhaps, that with them all so out of their depths they should be particularly worried about Spock. Of course, Spock would have the hardest time of all of them interacting with the people of this time period regardless, even if he technically knew the most about this era. In any case, McCoy thinks he rather has the right to worry about Spock on their first mission since… well, since.
Spock doesn't seem annoyed by the attention, though, if he is even aware of it, which is at least an improvement over McCoy's earlier disastrous failed attempt at conversation. Eventually, Jim decides that they need money, and seems to light upon an unspoken idea.
"Spock," Jim summons, "the rest of you stay here." And with that, Jim and Spock traipse off to their unknown destination while the rest of them try to look as inconspicuous as possible.
'The rest of them'... a few years ago, McCoy wouldn't have been a part of that particular group, and he can't help but wonder if Jim has realized that it is too early for Bones to rebuild his relationship with Spock. If Jim is doing this, isolating himself with Spock intentionally.
Still, he doesn't know for sure one way or the other, and speculation isn't going to get him anywhere. McCoy takes a deep breath of smog-choked air, and lets it go. He has a mission, a task to complete that doesn't involve Spock, and he won't get anywhere by worrying about a man he can't even keep tabs on.
Let this mission be a reprieve - it isn't as though he can do anything else useful anyway. If this is as far as he can and must get from Spock and from Starfleet with its court marshals and impending doom… then he might as well make the most of it. Let this be the calm before the storm.
It's all very good and well that McCoy has decided to think of it that way, because this is what winds up happening. Frankly, the entire mission is the most fun Bones has had in a while. While he has to play second fiddle to Scotty's (overblown and egocentric) professor, it almost feels like playing a game, with parts as dramatic and engaging as they can make them.
It isn't often he takes center stage on a mission like this, especially without Jim leading the charge, and it's… well, it's fun. No one shooting at him, no threats hanging over his head. Everything falls into place almost supernaturally well, and almost before he knows it they find themselves inspiring the creation of the very transparent aluminum their aspiring whale tank needs.
Sometimes things are almost too easy.