22Hello everyone! Thanks for reviewing! Double thanks to Username1576, she gave me some GREAT tips on McCoy's character, AND she has graciously accepted my request that she/he be my beta! (This chapter was unbetaed, though, as we hadn't established a DocX connection at the time I finished the chapter, and I want to get this to you guys ASAP!)
John woke up in his bed at Baker Street.
Or, at least, that's where he thought he woke up. John had vague memories of waking up... On a starship? Weird dream. he thought. The doctor didn't hear any noises coming from downstairs, so Sherlock either must be asleep (yeah, like that's going to happen) or working on an experiment. And that was never good. John hesitated in getting up. He wanted to just not deal with Sherlock's shenanigans for once. But that was not in John's nature, and so he opened his eyes...
And immediately stopped as the onslaught of memories hit him.
Dr. John Hamish Watson wasn't in 221B Baker Street, London, England, Europe, or even on Earth. He was on the starship (starship) Enterprise traveling millions of light years a second. John suddenly felt very homesick. The beginning of a good cry built up behind his eyes, but he pushed it down. Crying would do him no good, especially not in his situation. He took a deep breath and swung his legs over the edge of the biobed. John walked over to the door, which hissed open as he got near. Watson wandered through the Sickbay, looking for Dr. McCoy.
The nurses gave him some odd looks, and after a while of this one of them approached him. "Hello, sir. Do you need any help?"
"Yeah, actually. I'm looking for Dr. McCoy?" John said gratefully.
The nurse nodded as if she knew that. "He's on the Bridge currently, would you like me to comm him?"
"I can go up there, if it'd be easier." John didn't want to cause any trouble.
The unnamed nurse bit her lip, clearly hesitating. "Ok... You'll want to go down the hall to the left until you reach the turbolift, take it to Deck 2, the take 2 lefts and walk down the hall until you reach the next turbolift, and take that one up to the Bridge." She thought for a moment. "Want me to write that down?"
John shook his head. "I think I can remember it."
She shrugged. "Alright. But if you get lost, ask someone, and they'll tell you."
John thanked her for her help and turned to leave.
"Oh, one more thing!" The nurse called as John was about to go through the doors.
"Tell them that Christine Chapel sent you!"
John walked the maze that was the Enterprise's hallways, mentally going over what the nurse (Christine Chapel, that was her name) had said. He was going left, just like she told him to. A never-ending stream of various species and genders in red, blue, and gold shirts passed him by, most too focused in their destination to realize that he didn't belong there. John wondered what the Bridge of a starship would look like. Probably nowhere similar to that of a naval vessel, the only thing they probably had in common was their name.
John approached a turbolift. There was button near the door, he assumed it was to call the eleva- turbolift, so John pressed it. Four seconds later, the doors opened, and John stepped inside. It was, like most things on this massive ship, sleek and white and covered with all things chrome, it looked very... New. So did the crew, John counted 12 people in the approximate 150 he had seen so far that weren't fresh-faced. Speaking of fresh-faced... he thought.
A young looking man with unruly dark brown curls hurled himself in the turbolift just as the doors were closing.
Please stand clear of the door. the computer chided.
"Sorry." the man said in a very thick Russian accent, and John couldn't tell if he was apologizing to him or the computer. He made a noncommittal gesture with his hands and shoulders that could've been John acknowledging the other man's apology, or him stretching.
"My name is Pavel Chekov." The man (Chekov) introduced himself.
"John Watson." Watson stated.
"Are you new here, John? I have not seen you before."
"I guess you could say that." John replied.
He could tell that Chekov was confused at this, but he didn't pry.
"Vell, vhere are you off to?" Pavel made conversation.
"The Bridge. I'm meeting Dr. McCoy there." John supplied the information.
Chekov made a small gasp of delight. "I'm on my way zhere now as well! Ve shall go togezher, yah?"
John smiled unwittingly. He liked the kid, his enthusiasm. It reminded John of himself, back in his youth, when he was just a young medical student walking into Bart's for the first time, eager to learn.
"Yeah." John smiled.
The two exited the turbolift, and John let Chekov lead the way, his steps confident and sure. Pavel chattered on about various things, and John just walked with him, content to do all of the listening. They quickly reached the next turbo lift.
"Bridge." John and Chekov spoke at the same time, except Chekov's "Bridge." sounded more like "Breedge."
The turbolift opened, and Chekov immediately steppod out and took a seat near the center of the circular room. But John, remembering standard military protocol, said, "Permission to board the bridge?" He figured that at the worst he would sound like an extremely polite person. But it seemed to be the right thing to say, when Captain Kirk smiled and answered, "Permission granted."
John awkwardly entered and looked around. There were people busily working on stations, again, wearing red, blue, or gold. John recognized exactly 4 people: Chekov, Captain Kirk, First Officer Spock (John now knew he was a Commander, he had asked McCoy earlier), and Dr. McCoy who was hovering near Captain Kirk's chair, arms crossed, with his signature scowl on his face. John walked over to him.
"Is something wrong, John?" Leonard asked, worry creeping into his tone. Captain Kirk looked back at them, a questioning look on his face. John guesses that he was the type of man who wanted to know everything that went on in his ship.
John shook his head. "Nurse Chapel pointed me up here, so we could continue the tests."
Leonard nodded.
They now had the attention of the entire Bridge. Kirk muttered under his breath, but John's now enhanced hearing picked it up. "Well, I guess this is as good a time as any."
The Captain cleared his throat. "Everyone this is Dr. John Watson. He's..." He trailed off, then resumed talking after a slight wince. "He's one of Khan's crewmembers, a genetically-engineered human."
Immediately, chaos broke out. Everyone started talking at once. Captain Kirk held up his hands and the noise ceased. "I'll answer all your questions, let's just do it in an orderly fashion. Uhura, ladies' first."
A dark-skinned woman with her black hair in a high, long ponytail halfheartedly glared at him. "Why is he on the ship? Shouldn't he have been asleep in a cryotube?"
Kirk looked at Dr. McCoy. "Bones, I believe that's your question to answer."
John was curious. He supposed he never found out why he was awake. Leonard sighed. "John over here has some heavy scarring on his left shoulder." Jim unconsciously winced. His gunshot wound throbbed psychosomatically. "It was a great opportunity to have a hands-on study of how they did things in the 21st century. And we don't know how he woke up. He just did, and we didn't want to leave this poor man to suffocate because he woke up smack-dab in the middle of the ice!" McCoy defended his actions.
Uhura just nodded.
"Next," Kirk said. "Sulu."
"How do we know he's not as dangerous and ruthless as Khan?" Sulu exclaimed without preamble.
"We don't." His answer came from the Captain.
"But," Leonard, one of John's main supporters (okay, one of his only supporters), interjected. "John is a good man, I can vouch for him. He ain't like Khan."
At the mention of Khan's name, Spock started a little.
James nodded (1.) at his CMO in acknowledgement of his statement.
"Ok Chekov, your turn."
Chekov looked at John accusingly. "I talked to you in zhe turbolift! You said zhat you vere a new crewmember!"
"No I didn't!" John said defensively. "You asked if I was new because you hadn't seen me before, and I said that I guess you could say that."
The Russian man's anger deflated like a punctured balloon. "I guess you're right..." He said dejectedly.
Kirk looked around the room, remembering who still had to ask a question. "Scotty, you're up."
"Sir," "Scotty" said with a heavy Scottish accent (it sounded comfortingly close to home, John thought) addressed the Captain. "...Jim. Are you sure this is a good idea?" He gave Kirk a significant look. "You know what 'appened the last time you le' a genetically-engineered superhuman run loose among our fair lady."
Everyone winced. Sore topic? thought John. He would ask about it later. And "our fair lady"? That must be a metaphor for the Enterprise.
Captain Kirk stuck to his guns. "I appreciate your concern, Mr. Scott, but I'm not planning on dying again anytime soon." He grinned. "I'll still be around to bug you all for many, many more years after this, don't worry."
Died?! John's mind was reeling from this new piece of information. James T. Kirk had died and then came back to life? Has medicine really advanced so far as to that they have eliminated death?
James Kirk looked around the Bridge commandingly. "Anything else?"
"Yeah." It was Scotty again. "There's something wrong with Replica'or Three in the Officer's Mess. It won' make sandwiches anymor'!"
His Captain grinned. "Don't worry Scotty, I'll have Maintenance check it out. Or you could send one of your minions over and have them check it out."
Scotty grumbled good-naturedly.
All of a sudden, the ship rocked and red lights light up on the walls, bathing the room in a crimson light. An annoying klaxon blared. John was knocked over. He winced slightly and picked himself up.
"Silence that alarm!" Kirk ordered, no trace of humor in his voice. He was Captain Kirk now, not James or whatever nickname he had.
Sulu gulped and turned to face his Captain. "Two Romulan warbirds dead ahead, sir!"
Jim was having a crazy day. It started out crazy, and only got crazier. They were preparing to leave Spacedock, and the necessary preparations were hell. They had to go through the formalities and procedures FOR the formalities and the procedures. But Jim would do anything (okay, MOSTLY anything) the Admiralty asked him to, since they were the dubious about him being on active duty again after he died. And the paperwork, ohmygod, it just piled up. Jim ignored it until he realized that he would have boatloads more to do once they actually left Spacedock, and he did not need about 12 tons more on top of that. So, he sat down to do paperwork.
And then Bones commed him, and his already hectic day turned worse.
One of the genetically-engineered humans was waking up.
What and how the hell? Jim had wanted to know, but Bones had no answers for him this time. The only thing they could do was let it happen, and Jim Kirk hated being in no-win scenarios, hell, didn't believe in them, but when Bones tells you (regarding a medical thing, Bones is shit about pretty much anything else) that this is your only option, you better damn listen long and hard about what he has to say because chances are it'll save someone's life, possible yours.
And so Jim sat back and let him wake up.
About 5 hours later, this human (John) is on the Bridge, and people are asking questions and generally giving Jim an even bigger migraine than he already had, and then a Red Alert is sounding, and Jim's day suddenly got even more crazier (he didn't even think that was even possible anymore) and Romulans are attacking.
And damn, wasn't Jim's life just one big mess?
AAAAAAAAAAANNNDD that's a wrap, folks! For this chapter, anyway.
(1.) John calls him James because that was how they were introduced, John doesn't know his nickname is Jim.
3 questions:
- Do you like the POV? AKA, third person?
- If you could be any job on the Enterprise, what would it be? (And not Captain, or First Officer. Something NOT in Command.)
- What would YOU like to see in this story?
Thanks for reading and reviewing!