Charlie X - S1E2
"The new passenger's records for you, Dr. McCoy." Good heavens. He's never heard Yeoman Rand quite so incensed before. It's enough to wander into the general medbay to receive the records in person, rather than just calling to her from the laboratory to leave them on his desk. It doesn't take much encouragement to get the full story of their newest passenger's arrival... and his fascination with Rand being, as he said, a 'girl'. Seems he's going to have a talk with Jim about not antagonizing the Yeoman, at least if the captain doesn't want horrible things to happen to his morning coffee. Still, from the account, the boy seems much less socially awkward than he'd expect for someone who grew up alone in the ruined wreak of a ship on a deserted planet.
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The boy was in excellent health - reasonably articulate and quick-minded as well. Makes sense, a less intelligent boy might not have developed as far as he did all on his own. Manners are a bit lacking - he's almost disconcertingly abrupt, switching topics and moods in the blink of an eye.
He imagines the strain of suddenly having to live with and fit in with so many other people after so long is something of a strain. He'd be more worried if the kid was entirely at ease.
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Thing is, he just plain enjoys being on the bridge. Not too many CMOs have bullied their captains into the right to go onto the bridge whenever they want - the default security settings on most ships of the line don't give CMOs clearance except in medical emergencies. But up here, he can have his finger right on the pulse of the ship... never mind having the opportunity to argue with Spock about the latest biomedical journals.
Unfortunately, it also gives Kirk ample time to come up with those cute little plans of his - like 'explaining the problems of adolescence' to Charlie Evens. Spare him. The last thing he wants to do is give a teenaged boy newly exposed to the feminine sex a talk on sexual education. Spock must have read his mind (seems like a sneaky Vulcan thing to do), because he almost sidetracked the conversation most pleasantly into an argument about whether or not Charlie could have survived on local flora and fauna. Captain One-Track-Mind, however, won't let him out of it.
Bother.
Maybe this Thanksgiving, he can give thanks that there generally aren't any civilian teenagers on board the Enterprise. As of yet, Kirk's never yet felt the need to extend this... need for a father-figure to any of the teenaged crewmembers.
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Things are starting to get a little weird around here.
First Uhuru is brought down to Sickbay with laryngitis, when she'd only had a physical the day before, and he knows damn well there isn't currently any respiratory infectious agents on board. She'd been singing just before (and he's sad he missed it, evidently Spock was her target today, and who'd guess the green-blooded elf would willingly play for her while she made up one of her ditties about him?), but it wasn't anything unusual or straining.
Then he hears about the Antares. He sent a message to that ship's CMO while they were transferring Charlie over, just a friendly hello. The reply is still unopened in his logs.
A crewman is brought in the next day, after twisting his ankle on one of the ladders in Engineering. From that voluble boy, he hears about the turkeys down in the galley.
Turkeys.
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Big as the Enterprise is, the speed of gossip is still clocked as spreading from one end of the ship to the other faster than any one man could run that distance. Through the grapevine, he hears about Kirk's... attempt to talk to Charlie about how one treats a woman.
He just about laughed himself sick. Looks like Thanksgiving's come early.
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The ship's intercom whistles as he's busy setting his medbay to rights after C-deck's rugby team had itself put back together again. He's yet to see E-deck's team, their opponents, but he imagines they'll trickle in sooner or later.
"Doctor McCoy to the briefing room. Doctor McCoy to the briefing room." He eyes the comm speculatively, noting that the message came only to the infirmary, not to any other part of the ship.
What's Jim-boy up to this time?
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He covers his shock, his outrage at the waste of life, by retreating to scientific fact. He knows what his scanners told him, at the very least - Charlie is, by all measurable standards, human. Whatever else he might be, there's some sort of human at the back of him.
He doesn't much like the idea that their existence depends on the good humor of a teenaged human.
He doesn't like it even more when the boy himself makes an appearance. That good-humored, nervous kid he met is just about gone now - it's all sullen frustration and simmering anger.
Not a good combination in a kid that likes to blow up ships with his brain.
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The ship's intercom whistles at him again, and he absent-mindedly reaches over to accept the call while scanning through another entry on Phasians.
"Doctor McCoy, your presence on the bridge is requi... Tiger, tiger burning bright, through the forests of the night!"
He stares at the intercom for a long moment, stunned. The hell?
Then he takes off for the bridge at a run, grabbing his bag on the way out the door.
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No surprise at all that Charlie's there when he reaches the bridge. Urahara's sitting crumpled on the deck, cradling her hands, Spock looks frankly outraged and as tense as a cat that's just been treed, and Kirk is in full Disapproving Captain mode, the one that crewmen talk about when comparing stories of particularly stupid comrades.
He lets out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding when Charlie backs down and wanders away. Good God. That boy's going to kill them all sooner or later. Spock leaps out of his chair as if it were electrified, but he knows where he's needed.
It takes a good five minutes of relentless good ol' boy prattling to get Uhura to relax enough to let him get a good look at those hands.
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After that, things went straight to hell. If they'd been attacked by Klingons, he couldn't have been any busier, but at least those sorts of injuries he could have done something about! How does one treat an iguana one suspects of once being a Yeoman? Or turn an old lady back into the fresh-faced teenager she had been just half an hour before? Or put back someone's face, for God's sake?
He's a doctor, not a damn magician.
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He stays on the bridge, now. His chief duty is to safeguard the health of the command crew as best he can, and... well, he might not be able to stop Charlie, but he can still make a go at repairing whatever damage he does. The kid's a menace now, arrogant and condescending. Kirk's losing his temper rapidly, and no wonder - he's losing crewmen left and right to someone who shouldn't, in a logical universe (HAH!) be a threat at all.
The minor miracle of he and Spock agreeing doesn't even get noted in the face of all that.
The second miracle doesn't get much noted either - he's finally thankful he was forced to learn all of the boards on the bridge, just in case, as Kirk said. It means while the boy is focused on torturing Kirk (dear God, it takes just about everything he has to not run over there and help), he and Spock can turn on every damn system on the ship.
Oh Jim-boy. This had better work.
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He's gone.
The Phasians, proved real, have taken their monster child back.
As he finishes Yeoman Rand's physical, he wonders if he's especially damned for not being sorry at all.
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The boy was in excellent health - reasonably articulate and quick-minded as well. Makes sense, a less intelligent boy might not have developed as far as he did all on his own. Manners are a bit lacking - he's almost disconcertingly abrupt, switching topics and moods in the blink of an eye.
He imagines the strain of suddenly having to live with and fit in with so many other people after so long is something of a strain. He'd be more worried if the kid was entirely at ease.
--------------------------------------------------------
Thing is, he just plain enjoys being on the bridge. Not too many CMOs have bullied their captains into the right to go onto the bridge whenever they want - the default security settings on most ships of the line don't give CMOs clearance except in medical emergencies. But up here, he can have his finger right on the pulse of the ship... never mind having the opportunity to argue with Spock about the latest biomedical journals.
Unfortunately, it also gives Kirk ample time to come up with those cute little plans of his - like 'explaining the problems of adolescence' to Charlie Evens. Spare him. The last thing he wants to do is give a teenaged boy newly exposed to the feminine sex a talk on sexual education. Spock must have read his mind (seems like a sneaky Vulcan thing to do), because he almost sidetracked the conversation most pleasantly into an argument about whether or not Charlie could have survived on local flora and fauna. Captain One-Track-Mind, however, won't let him out of it.
Bother.
Maybe this Thanksgiving, he can give thanks that there generally aren't any civilian teenagers on board the Enterprise. As of yet, Kirk's never yet felt the need to extend this... need for a father-figure to any of the teenaged crewmembers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Things are starting to get a little weird around here.
First Uhuru is brought down to Sickbay with laryngitis, when she'd only had a physical the day before, and he knows damn well there isn't currently any respiratory infectious agents on board. She'd been singing just before (and he's sad he missed it, evidently Spock was her target today, and who'd guess the green-blooded elf would willingly play for her while she made up one of her ditties about him?), but it wasn't anything unusual or straining.
Then he hears about the Antares. He sent a message to that ship's CMO while they were transferring Charlie over, just a friendly hello. The reply is still unopened in his logs.
A crewman is brought in the next day, after twisting his ankle on one of the ladders in Engineering. From that voluble boy, he hears about the turkeys down in the galley.
Turkeys.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Big as the Enterprise is, the speed of gossip is still clocked as spreading from one end of the ship to the other faster than any one man could run that distance. Through the grapevine, he hears about Kirk's... attempt to talk to Charlie about how one treats a woman.
He just about laughed himself sick. Looks like Thanksgiving's come early.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ship's intercom whistles as he's busy setting his medbay to rights after C-deck's rugby team had itself put back together again. He's yet to see E-deck's team, their opponents, but he imagines they'll trickle in sooner or later.
"Doctor McCoy to the briefing room. Doctor McCoy to the briefing room." He eyes the comm speculatively, noting that the message came only to the infirmary, not to any other part of the ship.
What's Jim-boy up to this time?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
He covers his shock, his outrage at the waste of life, by retreating to scientific fact. He knows what his scanners told him, at the very least - Charlie is, by all measurable standards, human. Whatever else he might be, there's some sort of human at the back of him.
He doesn't much like the idea that their existence depends on the good humor of a teenaged human.
He doesn't like it even more when the boy himself makes an appearance. That good-humored, nervous kid he met is just about gone now - it's all sullen frustration and simmering anger.
Not a good combination in a kid that likes to blow up ships with his brain.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ship's intercom whistles at him again, and he absent-mindedly reaches over to accept the call while scanning through another entry on Phasians.
"Doctor McCoy, your presence on the bridge is requi... Tiger, tiger burning bright, through the forests of the night!"
He stares at the intercom for a long moment, stunned. The hell?
Then he takes off for the bridge at a run, grabbing his bag on the way out the door.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No surprise at all that Charlie's there when he reaches the bridge. Urahara's sitting crumpled on the deck, cradling her hands, Spock looks frankly outraged and as tense as a cat that's just been treed, and Kirk is in full Disapproving Captain mode, the one that crewmen talk about when comparing stories of particularly stupid comrades.
He lets out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding when Charlie backs down and wanders away. Good God. That boy's going to kill them all sooner or later. Spock leaps out of his chair as if it were electrified, but he knows where he's needed.
It takes a good five minutes of relentless good ol' boy prattling to get Uhura to relax enough to let him get a good look at those hands.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After that, things went straight to hell. If they'd been attacked by Klingons, he couldn't have been any busier, but at least those sorts of injuries he could have done something about! How does one treat an iguana one suspects of once being a Yeoman? Or turn an old lady back into the fresh-faced teenager she had been just half an hour before? Or put back someone's face, for God's sake?
He's a doctor, not a damn magician.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He stays on the bridge, now. His chief duty is to safeguard the health of the command crew as best he can, and... well, he might not be able to stop Charlie, but he can still make a go at repairing whatever damage he does. The kid's a menace now, arrogant and condescending. Kirk's losing his temper rapidly, and no wonder - he's losing crewmen left and right to someone who shouldn't, in a logical universe (HAH!) be a threat at all.
The minor miracle of he and Spock agreeing doesn't even get noted in the face of all that.
The second miracle doesn't get much noted either - he's finally thankful he was forced to learn all of the boards on the bridge, just in case, as Kirk said. It means while the boy is focused on torturing Kirk (dear God, it takes just about everything he has to not run over there and help), he and Spock can turn on every damn system on the ship.
Oh Jim-boy. This had better work.
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He's gone.
The Phasians, proved real, have taken their monster child back.
As he finishes Yeoman Rand's physical, he wonders if he's especially damned for not being sorry at all.