As soon as we beamed back to the Enterprise I went to my lab immediately. McCoy was trying to speak to me but it sounded like static to me. As soon as I stepped in I locked the doors. "He's... gone." I lifted a hand, looking at it blankly. "Yet I feel nothing. I've become an empty shell... and that promise he made with me.. Pointless. I should write up my resignation letter, there is no reason for me to remain aboard a starship. My only reason for being... was to be his science officer."
Looking up I walked straight to my desk and pulled out a board to begin my resignation. 'Captain. Given the circumstances I no longer have a reason to stay aboard this vessel. Without our previous captain, James T. Kirk, I no longer have an obligation to fulfill. Therefore, I am writing this Letter of Resignation. Please drop me off at the closest star base. Signed, (Y/n) (L/n).'
I placed the pen down and took the hamster from his cage. Setting him on the floor without his ball so he could run round while I packed up my research. All of my Viruses going in a small hand held cooler, my plants lined easy to carry containers. Even half complete mechanical projects were packed into boxes. It didn't take more than an hour to pack everything of mine in the lab.
Once that was complete I sat heavily in my chair, pulling out the singular musical instrument I had. I had taken my hamster as well, settling him in my lap to sing. "A king he was on carven throne. In many-pillared halls of stone. With golden roof and silver floor, And of power upon the door. The light of sun and star and moon. In shining lamps of crystal hewn. Undimmed by cloud or shade of night. There shone forever fair and bright. The world is Grey. The mountains old. The forge's fire is ashen-cold." I had just started When I felt something bite my wrist, its teeth small, almost needle like.
I looked down, my hamster had its mouth around my wrist... he looked... different. More menacing. When he pulled off of me, I saw the drip of green coming from small needle like teeth. I was in a state of shock. Not only could I not feel my arm, but my hamster wasn't a hamster. I didn't know what he had done to me but I just as soon grabbed his scruff and started taking a sample of the venom he'd injected into me. After I'd gotten enough I grabbed a new cage from him. One similar to the one I held my lizard in. Writing a quickly scribbled note I stuck it to the cage.
Taking the venom I'd gathered and rushed to my Spectrometer. It was going to take far too long to get the results and I didn't even know what the venom did. I just knew I had to start working on an anti-venom. With this in mind I drew two vials of blood. One I set next to the Spectrometer, the other I placed under the microscope. By this point I couldn't move my arm, so this definitely had a paralysis effect to it. My door dinged but I didn't dare open it. I needed to solve this current issue before my exhaustion overtook me.
I was already on the verge of collapsing as it was. Yet I didn't dare touch a stimulant because I couldn't predict its reaction with the venom. Blackness overtook my vision, swirling around it's hard to focus. Pulling my seat is close to the table as I dared I put my eye to the scope. Again the door dinged, slightly more intense than it had previously. I still didn't move. The cells in my blood were still red, but there were little green cells floating around. They seemed to consume the red cells they touched.
I bit by lip hoping what I was seeing wasn't what was happening. Then it felt like my arm was burning, I gasped in pain. My chair fell back, and I couldn't breathe. The dinging continued, again. This time I hit the switch under my table allowing access to the person on the other side. Just as I heard the door compresser opening I blacked out.
(Spock POV)
I walked straight into Sickbay as soon as I beamed back to the enterprise. "Doctor, I shall be resigning my position immediately, of course... so I would appreciate you making the final arrangements." McCoy was trying to say something to me, but now was not the time. "Doctor, please, let me finish. There can be no excuse for the crime of which I am guilty. I intend to offer no defense. Furthermore, I shall order Mr. Scott to take command of this vessel."
That was when I heard it. "Don't you think you should check with me first." I turned in surprise.
Behind me Kirk was smiling. "Captain!" I lost my composure and let a huge smile grace my face. "Jim!" Then the realization hit me and I quickly regained my former composure. Both the nurse and McCoy had devilish smiles present on their faces. I would never live this down. With that sense I readjusted my shirt. "I am... pleased to see you, Captain. You seem... uninjured. I am at something of a loss to explain it, however. And what of (Y/n) does she know?"
Kirk shook his head glancing at the doctor. "Blame McCoy. That was no tri-ox compound he shot me with. He slipped in a neural paralyzer. Knocked me out. Simulated death." I nodded, that was.. Well thought and executed. McCoy quickly dismissed the nurse to see if she could gain access to (Y/n)'s lab. They asked what had happened to T'Pring. I explained that I simply had overcome the madness when I thought I'd killed Kirk.
That said we were now ready to head to our previous destination. "There's just one thing Mr. Spock. You can't tell me that when you first saw Jim alive that you weren't on the verge of giving us an emotional scene that would've brought the house down."
I was quick to shoot this down. "It was merely my quite logical relief that Starfleet had not lost a highly proficient Captain."
I don't think they bought it, but accepted the answer. "Of course, Mr. Spock. Your reaction was quite logical." I thanked him and both myself and the Captain started to leave so we could check on (Y/n). She would be most pleased to see- "In a pig's eye." To that we stopped, both of us looking to McCoy before turning to one another.
Kirk raised a brow. "Come on Spock, let's go check on (Y/n). I need to let her know everything's fine." I nodded quickly following him out the door. When we arrived on Deck twelve a frustrated nurse was ringing the door again. No one was answering, yet she was definitely there. Her door locked.
Kirk quickly pressed the doorbell for a few longer seconds. This time the door opened and we heard gasping. The three of us ran into the room, (Y/n) was on her back in a chair, her fingers pressing against a button under her desk, only to fall limp seconds after we entered. She'd stopped breathing, the nurse quickly ran to the communicator on the wall to call McCoy back down to the lab with us.
Kirk held his head to her chest to listen. "She's still got a weak heartbeat, but she isn't breathing. Spock, look around to see if you can find anything that could have caused this. I'll try to get her breathing until McCoy can get here." I nodded rushing to her desk, no needles. So not a suicide. On her desk was a resignation letter, I picked it up reminding myself to look at it later. On the other side of the desk was something of a mystery. The hamster cage was empty and his ball was next to it.
On the floor not to far away was a small string instrument, it had been dropped and broken. Not something she would have done, so something had obviously occurred. Checking around I noted the hamster in a specimen container, not unlike the one that had the lizard in it. Beside it on a different report was a hastily written note. "To the person who finds this. Do Not, I repeat Do Not let this hamster out of its confindments. It is not a hamster but a far more dangerous species of animal I have not seen before. It had small needle like teeth, red eyes, and ridged fur. It... it bit my wrist as I was taking a moment to relax my mind. Its small needle like teeth had been dripping with a green venom. I took a large sample and have some in my Spectrometer, processing. I will be taking two vials of my own blood to test... And should I not make it to that point, I implore you to let the process of whatever is going to happen to me happen. The only thing of note at this moment is that the first affected limb goes numb. Until more time passes I do not know what will happen to me. But for the sake of research... write everything down."
I slammed the note on the desk. "Damn it!" My outburst surprised not only myself but Kirk as well. He was having her taken back to the cot, her breathing seemed to be under control for the moment. "Captain... we have samples to send to the bio-lab as quickly as possible. If we want to save her and disregard her wishes that is."
He looked between myself and (Y/n). "We will do everything we can, but if her notes are anything to go by we have absolutely nothing to go on. That hamster has been on my ship for months and it just happens to choose now to attack my best scientist. I don't like this." McCoy chose that moment to come running in and the nurse explained everything we had just stated. His expression was grim.
He walked over to her, running the tricorder over to get vitals. "This doesn't look good right now, Jim. I'm not sure what I can do for her until we get an anti-venom. Nurse, call for two more medics and a stretcher. We need to get her to Sickbay as soon as possible." I watched the nurse return to the com system. "Spock, is there any useful information in that report your holding." I clenched my hand around the first one I'd picked up.
Turning back to the captain I held it out. "Captain. Given the circumstances I no longer have a reason to stay aboard this vessel. Without our previous captain, James T. Kirk, I no longer have an obligation to fulfill. Therefore, I am writing this Letter of Resignation. Please drop me off at the closest star base. Signed, (Y/n) (L/n).' Spock... is this what I think it is?" I nodded, unsure of how to respond.
I stood with hands behind my back. "I believe so, Captain.... But I would not take this to heart as she didn't know you were alive. Perhaps she will reconsider after we take care of the current issue?" None of us knew what to say. "Doctor... I know that the anti-venom we used last time was for that lizard, but perhaps one of her other specimens has a venom with similar attributes. That might be able to buy us some time."
He nodded looking over the notes of anti-venoms she had drawn up and created. "Here, these should buy us a few days. But they also might not work at all." Kirk ushered him to do what he could. She was already beginning to sweat, her skin growing pale. McCoy pushed the hypo to her arm giving her both anti-venoms. The only thing we could do was wait.
When the men arrived with the stretcher they loaded her onto it. McCoy left to drop the samples of at the Biolab. The results from her spectrometer went as well. Kirk sat heavily at her desk, head in his hands. I placed a hand to his shoulder. "She adored that hamster you know. I don't know how we didn't notice sooner."
I thought for a moment. "You said she got it on a planet it didn't belong. Perhaps it was the apex predator and hid it's true identity from her." Kirk shook his head. They had checked it out when they found it. It carried the same DNA that a hamster did. There had been a few discrepancies, but they had thought nothing of it.
There was still work to be done, and we had to let the labs do their jobs. It went on for four days, and there was no improvement. They couldn't find anything and her situation was deteriorating by the hour. Today I was going in to check on her. McCoy was speaking with someone in the bio labs, so this would have been a good opportunity to test it out.
I approached her silently, taking a place beside her. She had hair sticking to her rosy cheeks while the rest of her skin was pale, some veins were slightly green. Just brushing the hair back I could feel the heat radiating off of her. "(Y/n)... if you can hear me I am going to meld with your mind. I need for you to tell me how to assist you. What chemicals to mix. I told you the results of the tests yesterday... surely you have some idea as to what would work. The Captain would be very upset if you were to go dying on him."
I closed my eyes, letting my fingers find their place on her face. I could see what was consistent of an old earth black board. There were strings of chemicals drawn out in octagonal branches. She was still drawing it out. Lines of Chlorine attached to Oxygen, Sulfur, Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen Dioxide, and Nitrogen Hydroxide. She paused for a moment before drawing a few lines out to a final chemical Carbon Trihydride. The room was still cold, seeming colder than before.
Seconds later I was shoved out of her mind. It took a moment for me to regain my senses and I quickly took the report and started drawing out the structure she had been writing up. With it in hand, I rushed to the Biolab to have it analyzed. They immediately scrambled to work, I was pushed out of the room for them to work. I was a little surprised but took it as a good sign, returning to the bridge to continue my work. "How is she doing, Spock?"
Kirk asked as soon as I exited the turbolift. "She... is running a bit of a fever, but I managed to get something today. I gave the compound to the Biolab so they have the information. They seemed really excited by what I gave them." He nodded, looking back to the screen. I took my place by the sensors. The day preceded by slowly, nothing of note happened. Until McCoy came running in.
He was out of breath but stopped by the captains chair. "She's going to make it. Whatever that formula was that Spock gave the Biolab worked. She's already improved significantly. I expect her to wake within the hour." Kirk's eyes widened, seeming almost shocked by what he'd heard. Turning to Sulu he gave him the Com and walked out waving for me to follow. I followed closely behind as we headed to Sickbay.
Upon our arrival, you could see color returning to her skin. Her fever had gone down some as well. Kirk walked right up to her, took her hand, carefully lifting it. I could see it was the wrist that had been bitten, it was wrapped in a gause to hide the green marks that had been left behind. Even the green veins had gone down considerably. We stayed silent for a long time, watching as she slowly got better. It was about three hours before we saw a twitch.
Her eyes opened slowly, the first person she saw was McCoy. "Looks... like it worked. Not bad for a rush job, 'ey Doc?" McCoy rolled his eyes walking over so that he could look at her vitals.
He rolled a tricorder over her slowly. "You would be able to pull something like that off with such little time. Why do you think you get the most interesting cases?" She gave a half hearted laugh, even with her dead expression. "Hey, don't make me get you psychologically tested. Laughing like that is out of character for you." To this she rolled her eyes. Stopping as they landed on me.
She seemed to tense up. "Captain... I take it you found my resignation letter? When will we be stopping off at the starbase?" I didn't answer that, instead turning to Kirk.
He laughed, letting her hand go. "(Y/n), what would I do without my best science officer? Don't you think you should discuss that with me and not Mr. Spock?" She turned her head slowly, her eyes widening as she stared at him.
She'd grown silent. There was a small glint in her dead gaze. "Ji- Captain. Your alive? Of course you are. McCoy gave you a sedative that simulates death. Nice move, Doctor. I actually believed that Spock had killed the Captain." To this she frowned, adjusting her hands so she could sit up. "In any case, I have a new species to document... plus all of the work that has been left unfinished... I'm going to be busy for the next week getting all caught up."
Kirk's gaze hardened, McCoy gave him a worried glance. "No, you are going to take the remainder of the week off. There are several other scientists on the Enterprise already working on most of the projects. For as long as I've known you you have refused time off. (Y/n)... you have to start taking care of yourself. What would I do without you onboard?"
She didn't answer, she just looked exhausted. "Captain... perhaps we should let her rest more. Her body is more than likely still fighting off the venom even with the help of the anti-venom. The days you gave her off should be sufficient in allowing her to gain the strength she lost back." McCoy seemed to agree with me ushering us out of the room.
He followed behind not long after. "Like I said Jim, she is going to pull through... but for now I would suggest when she starts work back up we cut back on how much work you give her. I know you tend to give her the most difficult jobs, and I believe she enjoys it... but with what her mental state that the job comes before her health, I don't think it would be healthy for her to continue that trend. You've seen how she spends several days just to catch-up on her work."
There was something else I wanted to discuss with Kirk but it could wait until (Y/n) recovered. I had a 'wake-up call' so to speak seeing her like that. It was like when I thought I'd killed Kirk, yet it was different at the same time. For a second she had a pained, betrayed expression. Just for a split second, but it was there. I think.... I think I'm starting to fall for her.