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McCoy leans his back against the bars of the cell. Bars. This planet’s prisons still have steel bars all around it! He can already feel a chill settling into his bones. Tonight is going to be a long one, and why? McCoy narrows his eyes at the back of Spock’s head. The vulcan was ‘examining’ their prison. In truth he’s pacing, and McCoy won’t hear a word of argument against that fact.
The vulcan runs his hands along the top and bottom of every bar as if one would luckily be loose.
The doctor sighs heavily. In the end luck with grace them with a means off this planet. It’ll even probably deem the pair as worthy of keeping thier lives, but that doesn’t mean it will let them out of this prison anytime soon.
“Doctor, you should assist me in testing the bars.”
McCoy crosses his arms. “Why? So we can both walk away with our hands smelling like metal?”
“So we may find a means to escape,” Spock announces as he turns to stare down McCoy from across the cell. His cool gaze unavoidable.
The doctor closes his eyes, and snaps, “Damn it Spock your pickiness got us in this mess.”
“I did not know the food, doctor. Why should I eat it?”
“To keep them happy Spock! It wouldn’t kill you to give another culture’s customs a try.” He opens one eye slightly to see Spock’s reaction.
The vulcan merely turns away and tries the next bar. As he stands on the tips of his toes Spock asks, “Why should I when the odor made was unpleasant?”
“It’s polite Spock.” McCoy starts. The vulcan says nothing.
McCoy waves his arm about. “Because we’re explorers. As explorers, we visit other people’s planets. When they welcome us, it’s only right to treat their hospitality with the same effort.”
Spock stares at him impassively, as if their efforts did not matter at all in this situation. One hand still stretched out high above him. His fingers continue to try and turn the bars.
“Damn it, it’s just basic human decency,” McCoy announces cutting the air between them with both of his hands. Spock does not seem persuaded by his expressive palms, or empassionate plea.
“I’m not human, doctor.”
No. He’s only half-human. Spock’s biology, his culture, the very planet he was raised on, is all so different from McCoy’s own, and yet the doctor finds it doesn’t matter. Not in this instance. All he had to do was eat the strangely colored noodles. That’s all. If Spock had done that then Kirk wouldn’t be negotiating for their safe release right now. Had their hosts overreacted? Yeah, McCoy would say so, but that doesn’t change the fact this was a completely avoidable incident.
“Well, it wouldn’t hurt to act like one sometimes.”