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Kirk poked his head into McCoy’s office. “Bones,” he said. “What’s this about taking Chekov off duty? Is he sick?”
Bones made a face. “Not quite,” he hedged. He motioned for Kirk to come inside and closed the door behind him.
“Alright, then what’s the matter?”
The doctor sighed. “Sulu’s been working on a new program to track the lineage of botanical specimens. He realized it could be used on other organisms, so he and Chekov decided to test it out on themselves using an ancestry databse.”
“Okay,” Kirk said. “So what’s the problem?”
"Chekov found out that he’s not actually Russian. His family is from there, but his heritage is Lithuanian.”
Kirk stifled a laugh. “Really?”
“He’s very upset about it,” Bones scolded. “I recommend giving him time to let him process.”
“Alright. I’ll take him off duty and mark it as personal leave.” Kirk shook his head. “But tell Sulu not to give that test to anyone else.”
-
In his quarters, Sulu rubbed Chekov’s back as he reviewed the readout on the PADD. “It’s okay,” Sulu said to the despondent young ensign. “Maybe it’s a mistake.”
“It can’t be,” Chekov cried out. “DNA testing was developed in Russia.”