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McCoy watched in horror as yet another robotic gun appeared from seemingly out of nowhere and fired another round of projectiles that hit the second security officer squarely in the back. He was aware of Kirk and Spock’s returning phaser fire even as he ran toward the fallen man. He knew before he reached Ensign Yolden’s side that there would likely be nothing he could do, but he was still discouraged to see the young officer’s bloody torn torso. There was no pulse and there was nothing he could do.
Kirk was yelling at Spock “Damnit, where are they coming from? Haven’t you been able to calculate the source yet?”
Kirk was rarely angry with Spock and the tension in his voice was more than just the loss of two Starfleet officers. McCoy began to chide himself for not having the two of them sorted this whole thing out before lives were really on the line. It was too late now
Spock didn’t answer for a moment. “I’m sorry, Captain. I will need a third vector to be able to program the coordinates.”
McCoy processed the information before Kirk had a chance to respond. “So we have to be hit one more time before you can find out where it’s coming from?”
Spock looked dejectedly at the ground. “Affirmative.”
Kirk pointed to a small shelf proturding out of the rocks above on a hill a bit away from their current position. “Let’s get under there and get some rocks up. We’ve got about a minute or less if they’re keeping the same rate.”
The three officers moved quickly and Spock and Kirk were pulling rocks and on top of each other making a small barricade.
Spock must have heard the sound before the humans did and he warned “Get down,” but the robot did not have the same configuration as before.
This time it released a smaller version of itself, and that one dove behind the rock pile in front of Kirk.
McCoy saw it and heard Spock’s scream “Jim,”, heard the exchange of phaser fire, heard Kirk’s cry of pain, but was not sure what had transpired as smoke and debris blurred his vision. He was already moving towards his friend, but of course Spock was there first.
Kirk lay on his back. His abdomen was a bloody mess with a zig-zag swath of flesh burned away by what looked closer to disruptor fire than any weapon the Federation used.
Spock was at Kirk’s side but Kirk was shaking his head. “Coordinates. Get the source.” It seemed to take all his effort to force Spock to remember to find where the robot attack force was coming from.
McCoy watched as Spock forced himself to turn away from Kirk. While Spock busied himself on his tricorder, McCoy tended to Kirk. There was nothing he could do without the Enterprise. His best friend was bleeding out before his eyes and no amount of medical skill could save him without an operating room. He applied the only thing he had in his med kit which might buy 15 minutes, but wasn’t going to make a difference if the Enterprise did not show up soon.
Spock disappeared for a moment. There was the sound of phaser fire, but no return fire. He returned and dropped to Kirk’s side. McCoy could have sworn there was a tear on Spock’s cheek, but certainly it must just be from smoke irritating his eyes, right?
Kirk tried to speak but Spock shook his head. Spock took Kirk’s hand in his. “Captain, Jim. The automated firing station had no shields. It has been destroyed.”
“Good,” Kirk whispered, his voice ragged with pain.
“Doctor?” Spock asked and McCoy recognized the begging behind his query.
McCoy froze. “If the Enterprise doesn’t get here soon—“ he couldn’t finish the sentence.
“I’m sorry, Jim,” he said laying a hand on his shoulder. “I can give you pain medicine, if you’d like.”
Kirk shook his head almost imperceptibly. “No, Bones.” He tried to catch his breath and McCoy winced at the sound of fluid in Kirk’s lungs.
“Spock,” Kirk began, but Spock cut him off. “Please let me say something Jim.”
This time McCoy was able to see a tear escape Spock’s eye. “Jim, I’m so sorry. We did listen to your last orders. I did hear your secondary message. I was scared.”
Spock was visibly trembling and it took all of McCoy’s willpower to not run a medscan on his Vulcan friend. His behavior was truly so unusual.
Spock continued. “I wish I had told you earlier. I wish—“Spock trailed off as Kirk was plagued by a coughing spell. He’d lifted Kirk’s head up gently and was holding him so close and protectively.
McCoy sat beside his two friends watching the painful drama unfold. Kirk caught a ragged breath and his eyes closed and Spock’s expression turned to terror.
McCoy dialed up a bronchodilator and administered it and within a few seconds of the hypospray Kirk’s’ eyes opened. His breathing was still ragged but he was awake. Spock looked at McCoy gratefully but McCoy knew that there was little more he could do. They were running out of time.
Kirk looked at Spock and with a shaky voice whispered, “I’ll always love you. I’m sorry…waited so long…” his voice trailed off and his head leaned back against Spock’s torso.
McCoy couldn’t bear the pain in Spock’s eyes. He palmed the med scanner over the captain’s body, but his life signs were fading fast. If he knew the Enterprise would be here in the next few minutes he’d administer epi or something, but there was no point in doing anything like that for a few seconds of consciousness. He couldn’t say anything to Spock. He just looked at his tricorder and the bleak results and silently prayed and begged any deity in the universe to save his friends from this pain.
The seconds passed and Spock had pulled Kirk’s bloody body close to him and laid his head on Kirk’s. Tears ran down Spock’s face and into Kirk’s hair and McCoy watched his two best friends suffer. The tricorder showed a pulse rate decreasing rapidly. Tears began to fall from McCoy’s own eyes. It was such a goddamn waste.
Suddenly, McCoy’s communicator chirped. “Scott to Dr McCoy.” McCoy opened his communicator with shaking hands. “Beam us directly to sickbay now!”
For another moment he half expected Scotty to say they couldn’t or some other bad news, but the world dissolved in a familiar rush and they reappeared in sickbay.
McCoy was dimly aware of himself screaming for blood and a sterile field. He began injecting epinephrine and suddenly felt himself switch to autopilot surgeon.
The next few hours passed in a blur. When he finally stitched his best friend up and shut off the sterile field he felt his legs give way. He was dimly aware of Nurse Chapel helping him to a chair.
Once his surgeon training was no longer in active mode and he was just Leonard McCoy again, he had to fight the urge to sob.
“Doctor,” Chapel was trying to get him to drink a cup of something. He thought about swatting the cup away, but he finally decided it was easier to obey and he drank from it. “Yuk,” he exclaimed upon tasting it. “What kind of shit—“
She cut him off. “Protein meal supplement. Don’t be a bad patient.”
The fact that she was teasing him a bit relaxed him. “Jim’s vital signs?”
“Weak, but stable. I think you got everything. No new bleeding.”
“Spock?”
Chapel smiled weakly. “I had to sedate him a while back.”
McCoy startled. “What?”
“I couldn’t get him out of the way for surgery. You don’t remember?”
McCoy shook his head. “No. I just remember trying to find all the sources of bleeding in Jim’s abdomen and chest. That’s all I remember until a few minutes ago. I was really going on autopilot.”
Chapel nodded. “Spock’s in bed 4. I barely sedated him. But he hasn’t woken up yet. Vital signs are stable. It’s like he isn’t bothering to wake up.”
McCoy pondered it for a moment. “Move his bed to the far wing and put Kirk’s up against it. Like right against it so they both have a chance to realize the other one is there.”
He could see the curiosity in Chapel’s face, but she was too good a nurse to question him. He went and pulled a chair to the far wing himself and sat down next to Spock’s bed. The protein shake must have helped rebalance his body out and he finally felt more like himself.
He stood up and put Kirk’s hand in Spock’s hand, drew the curtain in front of the far wing, and sat down in the chair to keep vigil.