Alternate Realities, Alternate Destinies

Rude Awakening

The last vestiges of sleep were beginning to drift from him when he was suddenly wide awake. The ship rocked violently nearly pitching him out of his bunk. The red alert klaxons blared to life and he dashed across the room to his comm unit with a raspy curse. As he went to push the button, a voice cut in calling him to sickbay. He hurriedly threw on his uniform and raced from his quarters to the turbo lift while he tried to flatten down his hair.

The ship rocked again and the lights in the hall flickered as he finally made it to the floor sick bay was on. What the hell was going on now? He dashed down the hall and entered sick bay as the ship rocked again.

"Dammit, man!" he shouted. "Who's flying this damn bucket of bolts?"

"I believe Lieutenant Sulu has the helm," a nurse replied.

"Helluva way to wake up." McCoy grumbled. He looked around the room before jumping into action. Despite the ship rockin' and rollin', there seemed to be only a few minor injuries. Bumps and bruises a few minor cuts. He was patching up the last crewman to enter the sickbay when Uhura's voice came over the comm.

"All hands, brace for impact!"

Before McCoy or Christine knew it, the ship shuddered violently throwing them and several crewman into biobeds and walls. A display fell from the wall sending sparks flying. An unsecured cart sailed across the room, crashing into the wall. There was a high-pitched ringing in his ears as he pulled himself to his feet.

There were voices but they sounded distorted and far away. He tried to turn to see who needed medical help only to feel as if his body was weighed down by lead and he was moving in slow motion. The chromometer's numbers rolled by so fast it was a blur while the humans seemed to barely be moving at all.

Were they in some sort of time warp? Were they attacked? Did they hit some sort of rift in space? How long would this last? Were Jim and Spock alright?

He tried to tamp down on his panic. As the CMO, he needed to project a level of calm in the sick bay. By the looks on the crewman's face, he wasn't the only one panicking.

The ship lurched sending them all crashing to the floor with startled yelps and curses. McCoy bit back a pained yelp as his hands landed in glass. A crewman that saw him fall, cried out in alarm as Christine got to her feet. Swearing under his breath, Leonard let them help him off the floor while someone commed M'Benga. He sat on the biobed visually inspecting the crew in the medbay while Christine started picking glass out of his right hand.

M'Benga entered the sick bay and began attending to the crewman still there then sending them out as freshly injured came in. The other two doctors onboard as well as several nurses and techs, came in to gather supplies and head out to attend injured on the ship. Leonard mentally urged Christine to hurry up so he could go to the bridge and be sure the command team was alright.

She looked up from her work on his hands. "Relax, doctor. They'll call if they need you."

He gave her a half-heated glare. "I need to see for myself. You know that."

"Yes, I do." She quickly finished picking out the glass then washed his hands again and ran the dermal regenerator over them. When the machine beeped, she inspected his hands then gave him a thumbs up.

"Good as new." She put her hand on his shoulder stopping him as he tried to hop off the biobed.

"Let me up," he demanded.

Christine held up the tricorder. "Let me check you over first. You had a nasty fall also."

He lay back with a huff knowing she wouldn't relent until he complied. She quickly ran the tricorder over him then smiled and help him sit up.

"All good," she beamed.

"Bout time." He grumbled while running into his office to grab his medical kit then dashed out of sick bay enroute to the bridge. He stopped several times to help injured crewman along the way. His nerves were beginning to fray. McCoy needed to get to the bridge and didn't have time for this. He quickly patched up the cuts and bruises then made his way to the turbolift.

"Thank god for small mercies," he muttered as it started up. He said a silent prayer that everyone was alright. When the turbo lift doors opened, his eyes went wide. Several panels were blacked out meaning they must have been fried. There were several monitors dangling from their wires and sparks flying about. Chekov and Sulu were frantically pushing buttons on blinking consoles. Uhura was attempting to hail any vessel within distance. Scotty and several engineers were putting out fires and working on wiring. Jim and Spock were huddled over a monitor at Spock's station, speaking in hushed voices.

Shaking out of his shock, McCoy approached the first crewmember which happened to be Uhura. He put a hand on her shoulder and she turned to him.

"Are you injured?" he asked.

She shook her head and gave him a small smile. "No, doctor. We're all fine up here."

He took out his tricorder and scanned her. "I'll be the judge of that." Seeing she was alright, he walked over to Sulu and Chekov and ran his tricorder over them. Other than accelerated pulses and adrenalin levels, they were all fine. Scotty had a minor bump on his forehead from hitting his head on a panel but otherwise was also fine. Jim had bruises on his hip and shoulder and a sore elbow from landing on his side when the ship pitched to one side while he was standing. Spock looked as unruffled and calm as ever.

"What the hell happened?" McCoy finally asked.

Jim crossed his arms over his chest. "We entered the neutral zone where we happened across the Romulans."

McCoy's blue eyes widened owlishly. "Romulans? Again?!"

"We received intelligence they were developing a new weapon," Spock replied.

"Seriously?! But that's a violation of the treaty!"

Spock gave him a half nod in agreement. "Precisely. When we reminded them of this, they opened fire on us."

"I see. But what was that thing earlier?"

Jim and Spock exchanged glances but didn't say anything. McCoy looked around the bridge. Everyone seemed frozen in place. This was bad. Jim walked up to him and grabbed him gently by his wrist. Whether it was to keep him calm or keep him in place, McCoy didn't know. What he did know was that whatever this was, he was going to hate it.