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swimmingwolf59 · 3 years ago

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[Fic Excerpt] Mirror Spones rewrite of Operation: Annihilate!

I’ve been working on a monster of a tos s1 rewrite for spones in the mirrorverse--which got a little bit bigger than my original plan of “let’s write a mirror spones smut scene!” lol--and since day 23 of trektober is a mirrorverse prompt I thought I’d share some of it with y’all! This is a rewrite of the final episode of tos s1, Operation: Annihilate! Please keep in mind that this is from a wip, so editing on this has been kinda minimal lol.

CWs: internalized ableism, mentions of murder (including that of a child), minor character death, non-explicit surgery scene, mentions of real and assumed sexual encounters

I think my mirrorverse is pretty tame comparatively, but I just wanted y’all to know what’s up ahead! If I missed anything, feel free to let me know so I can add it!

I’ve had SO much fun working on this, and I’m so excited to get a chance to share some of it with y’all!! I really hope you enjoy!!!

1.2 weeks after Doctor McCoy comes aboard, the Empire starts receiving intelligence reports that suggest an unusual wave of mass insanity devastating the Quadrant. Entire civilizations have broken down into insanity and annihilated one another until the whole population was destroyed. It is not an isolated occurrence, either – it has happened four times now, and the insanity seems to be jumping from planet to planet in a nearly linear line. If it was aliens destroying Terran outposts it would be one thing, but in this case, Terrans themselves are destroying their own civilizations.

At first, it was just a minor irritation. Colonies could be rebuilt. People could be replaced. But then Section 31 began noticing a pattern to the destruction, a pattern that is bringing the madness directly to the Terran colony of Deneva Prime.

Deneva Prime is a major supply colony for the Empire. Slaves mine the nearby asteroid belt and send the most valuable of their findings back to Deneva Prime for processing and distribution throughout the Empire. Without this colony, the loss of easy access to such materials would be devastating. Ships would be harder to repair. Energy supplies would be diminished. Weapon construction would halt. Cities would take longer to establish on conquered worlds, providing ample opportunity for successful rebellions.

The Emperor had dubbed this unacceptable, and sent the Enterprise to protect the colony at all costs.

When Deneva Prime fails to respond to their hails, however, it appears they may already be too late.

“Anything?” Kirk growls, tapping his foot aggressively from where he is sprawled in his chair.

“No, sir,” Uhura says, “I’ve tried every major transmitting station on Deneva. No response.”

Kirk’s hands tighten around the arms of the chair briefly and then let go. Spock notices, but doesn’t comment. “Doctor McCoy, I want your theories.”

McCoy, standing directly behind him, shoots him a disdainful look. “There are no theories. What’s happening here is unprecedented and, as far as we know, medically impossible.”

Kirk whirls around in his chair to face him. While he had delighted in McCoy’s ability to defend himself when he first came aboard, Spock has noticed that he has quickly grown tired of McCoy’s combative nature. McCoy never lets Kirk boss him around, and he gets away with it because he can hypo Kirk to death faster than Kirk could ever hope to kill him.

Kirk knows this, and it infuriates him. Spock considers it to be yet another reason why it is beneficial to have McCoy on his side.

“Well that’s just not good enough,” Kirk hisses. “I thought you were supposed to be the Terran Empire’s leading xenobiologist, but Piper was more imaginative than you.”

McCoy’s lip curls. Before they can strike at one another, however, Sulu cuts in. “Captain, there’s a ship on our sensors.”

“An attacker?” Kirk demands, spinning back around in his chair.

“…No sir.” Sulu frowns down at his sensors. “They’re flying directly into the sun.”

“What?” Kirk points behind him at Uhura. “Hail that ship.”

“Aye, sir.”

“The ship is a one-person vessel of Denevan configuration, Captain,” Spock says evenly, staring into his scanner. “They do not seem to be out of control – they’re on a direct course for the sun.”

“Suicide?” Kirk scoffs. “I’m not letting anyone get away with that until I find out what’s going on around here. Where are those communications, Lieutenant?”

“They’re just responding now, Captain,” Uhura says tightly. “Audio only.”

“Denevan ship!” Kirk barks. “This is James T. Kirk of the I.S.S Enterprise. I demand you to tell me what exactly you think you’re doing.”

Static crackles over the channel, but no one responds.

“Denevan ship!” Kirk snarls. “I don’t like repeating myself. What happened on Deneva?”

“Their outer hull temperature is now 480 degrees and rising, Captain,” Spock says. “They will not survive much longer.”

Kirk smacks his fist against his console. “Dammit, answer me!”

“…I did it!” a voice finally says. “It’s finally gone! I’m free! I’m—!”

Communications cut out abruptly.

“They burned up, Captain,” Sulu says.

Kirk clicks his tongue. “Guess we have no choice but to investigate Deneva Prime ourselves. Plot a course.”

“Aye sir.”

“Captain,” McCoy says as the Enterprise resumes its previous course. “I think there’s a good chance that the insanity has already reached Deneva Prime.”

“Thank you, Doctor, any other helpful observations?” Kirk snarls.

McCoy bristles. “I’m trying to warn you before you go barreling headfirst into dangerous situations like you always do. If you catch the insanity, don’t expect me to treat you!”

Kirk squints threateningly at him. “Are you trying to suggest that I can’t fend for myself, Doctor? That I need your help, like Spock here?”

“Do not involve me in your petty arguments,” Spock interrupts. “Though it will only benefit me if you decide to kill one another.”

Kirk backs off, like Spock thought he would. If Kirk is anything, he is incredibly selfish. He sits back in his chair with a huff and waves his hand dismissively at McCoy. “I don’t want to see you until you have something useful to say.”

McCoy glares daggers at Kirk. His hands twitch at his sides, considering, but he knows better than to try and kill Kirk when Scott and Uhura, both high-ranking underlings of Kirk’s, and all three of their personal guards are closest to him. He exchanges a glance with Spock, evidently trying to get some meaning across that is lost on him, and then storms off the Bridge.

“Captain,” Uhura says, “I’m finally getting a response from Deneva Prime. It’s from a private transmitter, though.”

Kirk explodes out of his chair and stalks up to Uhura’s communications console. “Well, let’s hear it!”

“Please hurry,” someone’s broken voice says. “Help us. I don’t have much time – they’ll know. Please! Please help us!”

“Aur—” Kirk starts to say, but then stops. “Who is this? What are you talking about?”

“The connection’s broken, sir,” Uhura says softly.

“Re-establish!” Kirk shouts.

Uhura pushes some buttons, and then shrugs with her hands. “I’m sorry, sir.”

“I’m not interested in your excuses, Lieutenant,” Kirk snarls. “Re-establish contact with that transmitter!”

Uhura glares at him icily. “I’m afraid that’s impossible at the moment, Captain.”

“Did you recognize that individual, Captain?” Spock interjects. He has been working on turning Uhura to his side, as her loyalty to Kirk just barely overshadows her disdain for him. She’s loyal to him because she believes he has the power to remain Captain for some time, but that is all. A shaky alliance, at best. Spock hopes to gain better with her, so he finds it a logical move to redirect the Captain’s wrath away from her.

Kirk whirls to face him, his expression absolutely murderous. “Of course not – why would you even suggest that?”

“You seemed like you knew their name.”

Kirk’s lip curls, and he bodily pushes past Spock as he returns to his chair. “You would benefit from keeping your speculations to yourself.”

Spock raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t push it. Curious. He wonders how the Captain could be connected to a low-ranking citizen such as those that live on the Deneva Prime colony.

They come into orbit around Deneva Prime 20.9 minutes later. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, their personal guards, and several security officers gather in the transporter room.

“Beam us directly into the capital city, Scotty,” Kirk barks before turning to Spock. “What’s the situation down there?”

“Sensors show that the correct number of people are down there, and alive,” Spock says. “But they are strangely quiet and inactive.”

“Well, at least they’re not all killing each other yet,” McCoy mutters.

“More helpful observations from our good doctor! Let’s see if you can do a bit better than that once we’re down there, hm?” Kirk says petulantly, pushing past him to step onto the transporter pad.

They beam down onto a grassy field that stretches out across the city. It looks like a college campus, with its ample green spaces and short, long buildings. They walk down one of the bright white walkways, Spock examining the area with his tricorder as they go. Oddly, the city appears deserted; they don’t run into a single other person, and the citizens’ life signs barely even register on Spock’s tricorder.

“Where is everyone?” Kirk barks. “There should be 100,000 people here!”

“They’re here, Captain,” Spock says, examining his tricorder. “In the buildings.”

“Then let’s pay them a visit.” Kirk spins around and seems to point out a building at random.

Before they can enter the building, however, they hear shouting. They look up sharply to find several people running towards them, waving heavy clubs and shouting.

“Go away!” one snarls.

“Get out of here!” shouts another.

“We don’t want to hurt you!”

“Don’t want to hurt us? Then what’s with the weapons?” Kirk scoffs and gestures at his personal guard. “Take care of them.”

The guard steps in front of him, killing one of the attackers with his phaser. Spock nods at his own men and they step in front of him and McCoy, easily killing the rest of the attackers. The altercation takes less than three seconds before all of them are dead at their feet. McCoy kneels beside one of them, scanning them with his medical tricorder.

“I must say, Spock,” Kirk says. “People have attempted to kill me many times, but I’ve never been almost killed by someone who claimed they didn’t want to hurt me.”

“Indeed,” Spock agrees. “Most strange. Their words didn’t match their actions.”

“Captain, there’s something wrong with their nervous systems,” McCoy says, frowning at his tricorder. “A dead person shouldn’t give off any readings, not even autonomic activity, but I’m getting a very high reading. Even when they’re dead, something is stimulating the hell out of them.”

Spock frowns. Nothing he knows about biology could explain that, and McCoy seems puzzled by it as well.

Before they can speculate, however, a loud, piercing shriek suddenly breaks the silence.

“Let’s see if we can finally get some answers,” Kirk growls and starts running towards the scream.

They enter the building nearest to them and find someone, likely the source of the screaming, banging their fists on an access hatch over the ventilator in the wall. “They’re here! They’re here!! Please, keep them away!!”

The person runs into the center of the room, screaming as they clutch at their head. They are surrounded by dead bodies. One older person and a child lay splayed at their feet, motionless. Though the person is screaming and crying, they seem to be completely unaware of the bodies beside them. “They’re here! They’re here!!”

Kirk grabs the person’s shoulders and shakes them. “Tell me what’s going on here! Who’s here?”

The person gasps, focusing on Kirk’s face for the first time. “…Jim?”

Kirk freezes. Spock and McCoy both pause from where they had been examining the bodies and turn to stare at him. Spock raises his eyebrow. So. He had recognized the person on the comm after all.

Kirk gnashes his teeth. “Tell me what’s going on!”

But the person is practically comatose, shaking their head and crying. Kirk pushes them none too gently onto the single chair in the room and then whirls around, only to freeze once again. Spock is kneeling by the body Kirk has just seen, so he sees the shock on his face clearly before Kirk neutralizes his expression.

And suddenly, the pieces of the puzzle finally slot into place. When James T. Kirk was thirteen, he lived in a Terran colony on Tarsus IV. The conditions were harsh, and supply lines often didn’t make it there either because they were shot down by enemies or because the Terran Empire genuinely did not care about what happened to one of its poorest colonies. Anyone coming from that colony would usually be considered nothing, but Kirk was infamous for supposedly killing his entire family so that he could survive and rise to the top of the Empire. He was especially infamous for supposedly killing his own brother and ripping the food right out of his dead hands. Because of this, Kirk has always been thought to have no weaknesses, since ties to family are always what bring people down, in the end.

Except, apparently, he never actually killed his brother. It has to be him, because why else would Kirk pretend not to recognize him or his spouse? “This man was your brother.”

Kirk scowls and turns away. “I’ve never seen that man before in my life.”

“Jim,” McCoy growls, and Kirk visibly tenses at the provocative use of his first name, “is this kid your nephew?”

Kirk doesn’t say anything.

“Well?” McCoy barks. “Dammit, the kid’s still alive!”

That captures Kirk’s attention. He walks over and kneels by the child, his expression dark.

“We should bring the kid and your brother’s spouse back up to the Enterprise so I can check them out,” McCoy says. “Maybe then I can understand what happened to everyone else—”

“Bring them back to the Enterprise?” Kirk snarls, standing again abruptly. “And let them be targets for everyone on board? No, Doctor, you will perform your examination here, or I will kill them.”

McCoy looks shocked, as if this type of violence isn’t commonplace. Spock finds Kirk’s stance surprisingly logical. Having people one cares about is dangerous, especially for someone in Kirk’s position. His family would not last a minute onboard the Enterprise as soon as it was discovered that they mean something to him.

“…There’s not much I can do with just my tricorder,” McCoy mutters, his lip curling as Kirk starts to reach for his phaser, “but I’ll perform the examination here.”

While McCoy scans them, Spock searches through the rest of the house, trying to find any information about what happened here. The spouse had been screaming about someone, or something, being here, but Spock can’t find evidence of any other lifeforms but them in the house. However, based on the fact that they had found the spouse desperately trying to block the ventilator, they must have been concerned about something getting in.

He comes back into the main room to find Kirk standing over his dead brother.

“I put him on this planet to keep him safe, and now look at him,” Kirk growls, kicking at his brother’s skull. “He was always such a weakling.”

Spock says nothing. He is not used to seeing vulnerability in his captain, and is unsure what to do in the face of it.

Kirk takes a breath and turns to face Spock. “Spock, I want your best guess about what the hell’s going on here.”

“Evidently your brother’s spouse was worried about something getting in, as they were doing their best to block that ventilator on the wall. However, they were apparently unsuccessful, as whatever it was they were trying to keep out likely is what killed your brother.”

Kirk’s lip curled. “His name is Sam, his wife’s name is Aurelan, and their son is Peter. You will refer to them by name and not by their relation to me, understood?”

Spock raises his eyebrow. He could use this as leverage against Kirk, but he has no reason to antagonize him at this time. “Understood, Captain.”

Kirk sighs and slams his fist into the wall. “I don’t understand what’s happening. No dangerous lifeforms were reported, our sensors didn’t pick up anything that wasn’t supposed to here…”

“That is correct,” Spock says. “I am at a loss to understand it.”

McCoy walks up to them, a frown furrowed in his brow. “Well, I finished what little examination I could manage without Sickbay equipment. All I can really tell you is that they’re in extreme pain – I’m talking levels so high they don’t even register on my tricorder.”

“What’s the cause?” Kirk demands.

“I don’t know yet – I took some samples to take back to the ship’s lab, assuming I’m allowed to do that?” McCoy says, his glare acidic.

Kirk considers him with narrowed eyes, then nods. “Fine. But if you tell anyone who the samples are from, I’ll kill you. Understood?”

McCoy rolls his eyes. “Understood, Captain. And oh, by the way, Aurelan’s regaining consciousness. Maybe she’ll be more cooperative faced with your charming personality.”

McCoy stalks away, presumably to beam back to the ship.

“I despise that man,” Kirk growls before turning to Spock. “Go search the rest of the colony. I’ll talk to Aurelan. Report back in an hour.”

Spock dips his head. “Very well, Captain.”

They reconvene an hour later, near the staircase where the group of individuals had attacked them earlier. Kirk looks dark and dangerous when he storms out of the building where his brother’s family was, and Spock can only assume that they are dead.

“Report,” he growls when he reaches Spock.

“The streets are extraordinarily quiet, Captain,” Spock says. “We’ve seen no other Denevans, and the ones we killed earlier were gone when we came out.”

“…Have you seen some kind of creature?” Kirk asks. “Any alien form?”

Spock raises an eyebrow. “None. Though I have heard a peculiar buzzing sound – I was planning to investigate it after we reconvened.”

Kirk nods. “Good, let’s go find out what it is. Aurelan told me that some type of parasitic creature was brought along by an alien trading vessel eight months ago, and they apparently use pain to force their victims into taking them elsewhere before killing them. We can’t allow them to continue taking over this colony, or to spread, or we’ll have more to worry about than lack of materials.”

Spock nods and leads the way to the building where he had heard the buzzing. It is loud when they enter the building and walk down the small staircase leading into the main room. It sounds like the buzzing of many Earth bees, but louder. There are also occasional strange squeaking noises, evidently the cry of the creature.

Kirk turns as something squeaks particularly close to him, and hisses, “Spock!”

Spock turns to follow his gaze. It takes him a moment to see them, because they are plastered on the underside of the archway leading into the other room. The creatures are tan in color, with red squiggly lines in the center of their bodies, and they are shaped like giant Earth dumplings. One suddenly detaches from the ceiling and flies at them, causing them to all drop down to the floor.

“Form a ring!” Kirk hisses as he and Spock move close together. Their personal guards sit with their backs to them, guarding their blind spots.

More creatures drop down from the ceiling and fly at them, just barely missing them.

“Fire!” Kirk snarls, and Spock aims his phaser at the creature closest to him.

It takes 6.3 seconds of sustained phaser fire before the creature finally drops from the ceiling, landing on the floor with a soft smack. The other creatures peel off and fly away, leaving the space open for them to advance.

Spock crawls over to the fallen creature and runs his tricorder over it. To his surprise, the readings come back blank.

“Incredible,” he says. “Not only should it have been destroyed by our phasers, but it does not even register on my tricorder. It is not life as we know or understand it. And yet it is alive, it exists—”

“And we can’t kill it,” Kirk says grimly. His hand tightens into a fist at his side.

“Captain, I suggest we risk taking it aboard,” Spock says. It will help them understand what it is doing to the people on this colony, but additionally Spock feels a certain curiosity about it. He wants to understand what this organism is, how it functions, everything.

But Kirk, as always, is thinking about himself. “It’s too close in here – it may be a trap. Let’s get out of here.”

Reluctantly, Spock gets up and leaves the creature behind. As he’s walking up the stairs, however, something suddenly slams into his back—and then everything is pain. It is pain like nothing he has ever felt before – it slams into every single one of his nerve endings with the power of an agony booth. He gasps, and falls backwards down the stairs.

Stemek is at his side in an instant. “Sir, the creature—”

“Spock!” Kirk leaps down the stairs, but is blocked from approaching Spock’s huddled form by Stemek. “What the hell—”

He can’t respond – he can’t breathe through the pain. All he can do is scrabble at the creature on his back. Get it off get it off get it off get it off—

Fingers pry at the creature, ripping it off his back, but it’s too late – he can still feel it. It is inside him, seeping into his nervous system like slow poison.

“The creature is gone, sir,” Stemek says in a calm, quiet voice. “Can you stand?”

He cannot. He feels paralyzed from pain.

Target acquired

One of us

Life is eternal

“Dammit.” Kirk spits. “Get him to Sickbay. Guess he got his specimen to study after all.”

Spock regains consciousness, and immediately wishes that he hadn’t.

The pain is everywhere – all around him. Vulcans usually have a high pain tolerance because they can center on the parts of themselves that are whole, focus away from the injured body part. But he can’t escape from this.

You are under our control

Your pain is at our command

Do what we ask, and there will be no pain

He becomes aware of McCoy standing beside him, with Nurse Chapel on his other side. He immediately tenses. He is on his stomach, back to them – a most vulnerable place to be. He attempts to roll over, but McCoy plants his hands firmly on his back to stop him.

“Stop moving around!” McCoy barks. “I’ve given Christine half of my meal credits so that she doesn’t kill you, so just stay still!”

“I wouldn’t have killed you, anyway,” Chapel says, her hand suspiciously close to Spock’s own. “We’ve had a beneficial relationship even before Doctor McCoy came aboard, and I’m not about to jeopardize that. But I wasn’t going to say no to his meal credits, either.”

“So that knife you were holding in your hand earlier was just an act, is that it?” McCoy snaps.

Chapel laughs. “Oh Doctor, that was for you! But you’re on Mister Spock’s side and had a hypo handy so I figured it wasn’t worth it.”

McCoy snorts, and Spock is amazed to realize that he sounds amused. Apparently McCoy has already formed a strong pact with Chapel – the man is more resourceful than his flippant nature would suggest.

“Doctor—” Spock starts, but is cut off by a sudden, agonizingly intense wave of pain flowing through him.

McCoy’s thumb rubs the skin at his hip gently and then pulls away. “We’re working on figuring out what’s happened to you, Spock. Now if you’d stop fighting us, maybe we could get some work done.”

“It is—not me,” Spock pants out. “The creature—”

Another wave of pain, worse than before, rolls over him. He clenches his teeth so hard his jaw quivers.

Do not tell

They cannot know

Healers—evil

“Hm.” McCoy peels something long and slimy out of his body. “Prepare to close.”

Chapel looks up at him sharply. “Doctor, surely that’s not all you’re going to do! There’s more of that thing in him, entwined all through his body!”

“I’m aware of that, Nurse!” McCoy snaps. “Now unless you really do want to kill him by breaking apart every single one of his nerves, help me close!”

They stare at each other heatedly. It takes Spock a moment to realize that McCoy can’t help him. The creature is still inside. It, and the pain, may always be inside.

You will be free if you take us away

“No,” Spock whispers, squeezing his eyes shut and thrashing against the pain flooding his body.

“Spock?” McCoy asks, putting a hand on Spock’s arm.

Take the ship

Take us away

“I will not!” But his body is already moving, tossing Chapel to the ground as he gets up and sprints for the door. Something crashes into him bodily from behind—McCoy. It’s enough to unbalance Spock for a moment, and McCoy uses that moment to move in front of him, blocking the doorway. Spock breathes heavily, staring just past his ear at the door to Sickbay.

Take us away

He is nothing

Fight fight fight

Spock reaches for McCoy’s neck. McCoy ducks away, faster than Spock had anticipated, and aims a few jabs at his shoulders, biceps, and stomach. They hardly hurt, but they’re enough to do damage of a different kind; something in Spock’s body gives in and he falls uselessly to his knees, unable to move his upper body. Chapel tosses McCoy a hypo, and McCoy glances at it briefly before jabbing it into Spock’s neck.

The world goes black, and Spock crumples to the floor.

“They’re pieces of some form of living tissue,” McCoy is saying when Spock regains consciousness again. He is laying on the biobed once more, although this time on his back, with heavy restraints around his arms, legs, and waist. Spock closes his eyes as another wave of pain washes over him—no doubt the reason for the restraints. He cannot allow himself to lose control like that again, or he will certainly be killed.

Kirk is also in the room now, standing near the doorway, and he is who McCoy is talking to as he holds up a jar with some kind of fleshy tentacle floating in it. “I removed this one from Spock’s spinal cord. His body’s full of these tentacles, entwining and growing all about his nervous system. Evidently, when the creature attacks, it’s with a stinger much like a bee or a wasp, and it leaves one of these behind in the victim’s body. It takes over the victim very rapidly, and the entwining is far, far too involved for conventional surgery to remove.”

Kirk opens his mouth, likely to make some sour retort about McCoy’s lack of surgical skill, but McCoy continues quickly, “Now I’ve got the results for Aurelan and Peter back from the lab, and their biochemical readings are similar to how Spock’s are right now. I’d like to go back down there and examine them again, to see if it’s—”

“They’re dead,” Kirk says.

McCoy freezes. He takes a threatening step forward. “Captain, did you—?”

“Aurelan was killed by that damned creature,” Kirk interrupts. “But I did kill Peter. He wouldn’t have survived anyway.”

McCoy is murderous. Spock has never seen him look so angry, not even when his own life was threatened. “You murdered a helpless child?!”

“It was better than what would have happened to him if he’d lived,” Kirk growls. “You should know that, Doctor, having tortured countless innocents yourself.”

McCoy’s mouth works furiously. Spock thinks Kirk’s decision is logical – brutal and unfortunate, but logical. McCoy however looks at Kirk with disgust, like he can’t imagine an act worse than the one Kirk has just committed. Spock wonders how he has managed to keep such a moral high ground in this kind of universe.

“This creature has taken over all the inhabitants of Deneva,” Kirk says, changing the topic swiftly. No doubt he is not keen on potentially being on the receiving end of one of McCoy’s hypos. “You need to find some way to destroy it, Doctor, or else the Empire will not be very happy with you.”

“I’m already running all the tests I can on the damn thing – you don’t need to threaten me,” McCoy growls. “What would be helpful is to have someone go down there and collect an actual creature. This tentacle and Spock’s bioreadings aren’t much to go off of.”

“Captain, I will go,” Spock says, alerting McCoy and Kirk to his conscious state.

“What?!” McCoy barks, but Kirk holds up a hand to silence him. He stares calculatingly at Spock, his eyes drifting down to the restraints holding him.

“As I am already infected, the creatures pose no threat to me. I am the logical choice to collect a specimen.” He turns his head to stare at McCoy. “These restraints are hardly necessary, Doctor.”

McCoy just watches him, eyes narrowed. Evidently, he has not told Kirk about the incident, for Kirk just raises an eyebrow. “Now is hardly the time to be trying out a new kink, McCoy. Release Spock immediately – and Spock? I want that creature in Sickbay within the hour.”

“Very well, Captain.” Spock sits up, and nearly throws up from the pain that rolls over him. It takes all of his concentration not to show anything on his face.

Do not return to the surface

Do not take any of us

Take the ship

Kill the captain

“Spock—!” McCoy protests, but stops when Spock turns his most intense stare on him. He allows McCoy to do a lot of things to him that he would not allow for others, but he will not let him condemn him to death simply because of a brief lapse in control.

“Captain, the creature uses pain to control its victims, which explains how it has been able to travel from planet to planet,” Spock says, looking at Kirk. “Fortunately, as a Vulcan, I am immune to its influences. However, because of this, it will not be possible to reason with the colonists, or likely even get close to them. The creature has already expressed hatred towards Doctor McCoy as a healer.”

“I couldn’t do anything even if I could get close enough,” McCoy reiterates, and Spock nods.

“The creature must be destroyed remotely.”

Kirk’s jaw tightens. “Alright, I’m putting you two in charge of figuring out how to destroy it, without killing the human host. We cannot let that creature spread any further, but we can’t afford to lose Deneva and its workers, either. I want a report on my desk in two hours.”

“Yes, Captain,” Spock says, and ignores McCoy’s eyes, heavy on him.

Spock returns to the surface to collect a specimen, which is mostly uneventful aside from a brief skirmish with one of the infected colonists, and then joins McCoy in Sickbay. They place the creature in a biomedical incubator and try everything they can possibly think of to kill it, and yet still it will not die. They have at least discovered that the creature is single-celled, and seems to function like a brain cell. Though it is disconnected from the other cells, it is still part of and draws strength from a much larger creature. However, none of this has told them anything about how to destroy it. He and McCoy have been at it for 1.6 hours, throwing every type of destructive force they can think of at it, but nothing works. The Captain is expecting a report in 12 minutes, but so far there is nothing to put into it.

Cannot kill

Life is eternal

Punishment is constant if you continue

The amount of pain the creature puts Spock through is excruciating. It makes it extremely difficult to focus on anything – it takes all of his control just to remain sitting in the chair in front of the incubator. He does not know how any Terrans have endured this pain, for even as a Vulcan he is barely holding himself together.

His hands clench into fists on top of the table. A second later, a loud whirring sounds next to his ear. McCoy.

Spock whirls around and grabs the medical scanner, crushing it in his hands. “You will cease scanning me, Doctor.”

McCoy’s nostrils flare, his eyes bright and angry as he glares at Spock. “I will not, your pain levels are—”

“Manageable,” Spock grits out, enunciating each syllable carefully.

They stare at each other. McCoy’s jaw works, obviously wanting to argue with him, but he just pulls back, letting the broken pieces of the scanner fall on the floor between them.

As much of a healer as he is, even he must understand what it means to show weakness in a universe like this.

McCoy consults his tricorder as Spock turns back to the incubator. He hates that McCoy and Chapel know the amount of pain he’s in, how debilitating it could truly be. It gives them power over him, and that’s not a position he is at all comfortable with being in. He supposes it’s a good thing he formed a pact with McCoy when he did, but that does not mean he won’t decide to turn on him as soon as Spock ceases to be useful.

His already limited concentration is split even further – he keeps one eye on the creature and one on McCoy at all times.

It is no wonder the obvious answer never occurs to him.

“This is impossible!” McCoy growls a few seconds later, throwing down his tricorder in frustration.

“It cannot be, Doctor. The Denevan that flew into the sun claimed that they were freed, that they had won,” Spock says. “This suggests that something in the sun must have killed it.”

“But we’ve tried everything! Radiation, heat—”

Life is eternal

Cease this experimentation

Seize the ship

“It must be an additional property of the sun,” Spock grits out through the next wave of pain the creature washes over him. His mind is empty, consumed with maintaining control of his body, consumed with agony.

A light suddenly goes off on the incubator. It is merely telling them that the oxygen within the container needs to be replenished, but it is enough to trigger an idea.

“Light,” they say simultaneously. McCoy snaps his fingers, a gleeful grin on his face, and Spock raises his eyebrow.

They move to the bio lab immediately to test it. McCoy rigs up a test room with a light source that will allow them to throw light from all spectrums at whatever is inside the cubicle. Nurse Chapel places the incubator with the creature inside on the chair in the room once it’s set up, and then retreats to the controls where McCoy and Spock are calculating how bright the light thrown needs to be.

“Ready, Doctor,” Chapel says.

McCoy hands them both a pair of protective goggles. “Here, put these on.”

Spock and Chapel do as they are told, and then McCoy throws the bright light. He keeps it on for 5.4 seconds and then shuts it off again. As soon as it is off, Spock removes his goggles and goes to look at the creature.

It is completely incinerated.

“It worked!” McCoy exclaims, poking his head in next to him. “We can do it.”

“I’ll go run some computer analyses on the remains,” Chapel says, stepping in to take the creature before leaving the room.

“It worked in a lab, Doctor,” Spock corrects once she is gone. “We still need to test if it will work on a living host.”

McCoy frowns. “You don’t mean you?”

“Who else?” Spock meets his eyes. “The creature will not allow you to get close to anyone else. I am the logical, and only, choice.”

“Do you have any idea of the risk?!” McCoy demands. “Your optic nerves—”

“I am aware of the risks, Doctor.” Spock starts to enter the test cubicle.

“Wait, Spock! We need to wait for the results of the first test, and you need some protective goggles—”

“There will be no protective goggles on the surface, therefore I cannot use them either.” McCoy’s mouth drops open, so Spock continues before he can say anything, “Additionally, we have no time to wait – the Captain requires his report soon. And I will not be held responsible and punished for it being late.”

McCoy’s jaw works, anger seeming to curl off his entire body. This is the fourth time he has shown anger at the idea of someone being needlessly hurt. Twice now it has been directed towards Spock himself, a fact that Spock finds greatly puzzling. Just because they have an arrangement doesn’t seem to warrant McCoy’s drastic emotional response to his well-being. “…I hate it when you’re right, Spock. Fine. Let me know when you’re ready.”

Do not do this

We will kill you

Life is eternal

Spock nods and then lays back in the chair, staring up at the light source. The pain within him is the worst he’s ever felt, and he is more than ready to be rid of it. “I am ready Doctor.”

So he’d said, but nothing could’ve prepared him for the actual moment when McCoy turns the light on. It is piercing—startling—so incredibly painful. His head jerks back, his eyelids falling shut on reflex, but it doesn’t help. Even with his eyes closed the light is blinding, everywhere.

He’s so distracted by the pain radiating from his eyes that it takes him a moment to realize they are the only part of him that feel pain. When McCoy finally switches the light back off, this fact is even further accented. He feels nothing; he hears nothing. The creature is gone.

He is free—he has no pain—he—

Spock opens his eyes.

He is completely blind.

Spock blinks a few times, just to be sure. However, the situation does not improve; his eyes are open, but all he sees is blackness.

Panic starts to settle in him. The pain had been debilitating enough, but this? This is much worse. He had been able to work through the pain. He cannot work if he is blind; he cannot read his scanners if he is blind; he cannot perform experiments if he is blind. And if he cannot work or read his scanners or perform experiments, then what use is he to the Empire?

He will be useless. He will be killed.

“Spock, did it work?” McCoy asks, sliding the door open.

Spock tries hard not to flinch, and instead turns his head in the direction of McCoy’s voice. He will have to pretend he can still see long enough to get past McCoy. Then he can hand in his resignation, and at least his career will be over on his own terms, and he will still have his life.

He stands from the chair as gracefully as he can. McCoy is observant – he will notice immediately if Spock is not careful. And there will be nothing stopping him from just killing Spock himself once he realizes what has happened, how useless he will be to him now.

Spock pauses at the door of the cubicle with his hands behind his back, waiting for McCoy to shift noisily before confidently turning his head to look in that direction. “The creature within me is gone, Doctor.”

There’s a loud smack, like McCoy slammed his hand down on the table, and then he says, “Sickbay to Captain – we’ve figured out how to kill the creature. Meet us down in the bio lab.”

Spock’s pulse thrums in his throat. McCoy has fallen silent now, and he is unsure of where he is. He knows he must move from the doorway of the test cubicle, or else McCoy will start to wonder if something is wrong, but if he chooses his path incorrectly, it could be disastrous. He is confident that he remembers the layout of the room, however, so he takes a few confident steps forward.

Almost immediately, his hip catches on something and he nearly falls over. His hands splay out in front of him to keep his balance, colliding with the table that must be what he had run into. Has this table always been here?

“…You can’t see,” McCoy whispers. It is not a question. “That procedure blinded you, didn’t it?!”

“You are incorrect,” Spock insists, his heartbeat starting to pick up speed. “I simply misjudged where I was going.”

A loud snapping sound suddenly emanates directly in front of his face and he flinches back.

“You. Can’t. See,” McCoy growls, now standing directly in front of him.

Spock stares straight ahead. He’s aware of McCoy’s position now, and hopes that will be enough should McCoy decide to attack him.

“Doctor, the results of the first test on the creature’s remains,” Chapel says, re-entering the room. She pauses, though Spock cannot discern for what reason, and then he hears her footsteps recede again.

McCoy’s breath suddenly catches. “…Shit. I threw the whole spectrum of light at the creature – it wasn’t necessary. I didn’t need to throw the blinding white light at all…”

…Spock should be angry. He should be furious. He should be suspicious that this was McCoy’s plan all along. What a convenient way to get rid of the person most dangerous to him, one that even gives him an excuse should Kirk accuse him of foul play. Spock himself had even suggested they not wait for the results of the first test. It is the perfect plot.

But all he can think about is that he is incredibly vulnerable, and that McCoy could kill him instantly.

“Spock—” McCoy moves, more nosily than he would have usually, but that doesn’t process quite yet. Spock can just imagine him reaching for the hypo he always keeps in his boot, and his fight response kicks in.

He grabs McCoy’s wrists, twisting and pulling them behind his back to restrain him, and places his hand on McCoy’s neck. McCoy’s pulse thunders against his hand, but he doesn’t struggle. Spock is touching him, bare skin to bare skin, and his mental shields are in tatters from blocking the pain all day, but it still takes him a moment to realize what exactly it is that McCoy’s feeling.

He freezes.

McCoy is not intent on killing him. He is not even afraid for his own life.

What he feels is guilt. And concern for Spock.

“…Well, Spock?” McCoy’s voice is unusually quiet. “Are you going to kill me or not? All you have to do is apply a bit more pressure, and then you get rid of not only the person who blinded you, but the person who’s most dangerous to you on this ship.”

Spock releases him. McCoy doesn’t move away, only proving what Spock had picked up telepathically. McCoy is not afraid for his own life, but he also does not intend to kill him. Why? He could have so easily done so when Spock was not aware of where he was, but he hadn’t. In fact, he had purposefully moved loudly so that Spock could tell where he was. He didn’t struggle when Spock grabbed him, even though Spock knows he carries the Vulcan-strength hypo on him at all times. He has seen McCoy kill others that attacked him, and yet he made no attempt to kill him.

He doesn’t understand. He can’t think of a single reason for why McCoy would not simply kill him.

“Why?” Spock demands. “Why do you feel concern for me, instead of a desire to kill me while I am vulnerable?”

There is silence. And then, in the distance, the sound of Sickbay’s doors swishing open.

Kirk.

Spock stiffens and moves away, pressing back against the table. It won’t do much defensively, but at least it should allow him to hear if someone attempts to attack him from behind. Because while McCoy may spare him, Kirk certainly will not.

“Well, Doctor?” Kirk says, loudly entering the room. “You actually managed to kill that thing, huh?”

“Yes – light ended up being the answer. That was what killed it when that Denevan flew into the sun. These specifications for some satellite probes should destroy them on the planet, too.”

“Excellent.” Kirk actually sounds pleased. “And Spock?”

Spock closes his eyes, tries to picture the layout of the room and his best defenses against Kirk’s attack.

But McCoy simply says, “He’s fine, the creature inside him is dead so he’s back in top condition. I just need him to go over some results still.”

Kirk is silent for a moment, but then snorts. “‘Results’, sure. Just make sure my first officer will be in working condition when you’re done, hm?”

He leaves, and Spock just stands there, stunned. Twice now he should’ve died, and yet here he still stands. He looks to where he thinks McCoy is, unsure if the shock is visible on his face. McCoy is silent except for his breathing, but then he suddenly touches Spock’s face, his warm hand cradling his cheek before sliding back into his hair.

“We have an agreement, remember?” he says, and then pulls away again.

“You cannot hide my blindness forever,” Spock points out, fighting back the gratitude and wonder, both dangerous things, that threaten to overwhelm him.

“No.” Something cold, a scanner most likely, presses into Spock’s face. “But maybe we can fix it before then.”

It ends up not being necessary – Spock’s second eyelid has protected his eyes, though he had assumed it hadn’t since he had been blinded at all. McCoy berates him for forgetting about this little detail, but then spends half an hour studying it curiously. Spock has noticed this about McCoy – he has a curiosity about life and xenophysiology that is unrivaled. It is not a common trait among Terrans, Spock has observed, or at least one that is readily displayed in the Empire. Most Terrans have some kind of aversion and disdain for alien life, but not McCoy.

He is the only other person Spock has ever met who is more interested in science than killing and conquering.

“Your planet must have an incredibly bright sun, or more than one sun,” McCoy says eventually. They are sitting in his office, Spock allowed to stay there until his vision fully returns. McCoy has been studying his tricorder readings of Spock’s second eyelid the whole time, and Spock has been studying him.

He still doesn’t fully understand why McCoy spared his life. Their arrangement is fairly new, so Spock has not offered him enough significant protection for his presence to be something McCoy desires. And though they have enjoyed sexual encounters, he can’t imagine he is so amazing in bed that it would be a significant reason to keep him around.

So he has concluded that it must be something about McCoy himself, something about his character that he hides away, that encouraged him to protect Spock’s life.

“Our sun is two times brighter than that of Terran’s,” Spock says. “Terrans there often have trouble with long-term exposure.”

McCoy hums thoughtfully. “But you must not have to use this second eyelid very often if you didn’t even think about it.”

“Its usage is an autonomous response – when the sun reaches full brightness during the afternoon, it automatically falls shut, and retracts again once the sun has started to set.” Spock raises his eyebrow pointedly. “We do not think of it, just as Terrans do not think of their appendix.”

McCoy barks out a sharp laugh. “That is not at all the same thing, and you know it!”

Spock allows a small smile to pull at the corner of his mouth. He doesn’t know what it is about McCoy that makes him feel so…at ease. Though the fact that he didn’t kill him when he had ample opportunities to might be part of it.

“Spock, I have another question for you.” McCoy puts his tricorder down and meets Spock’s gaze, his blue eyes bright. “You could’ve killed me easily, when you had your hand on my neck. Why didn’t you? It would be safer and easier for you if I wasn’t around.”

It is as good of a question as why McCoy hadn’t killed him, but Spock hasn’t devoted any time to thinking about it. The only answer he can come up with at the moment is that he had felt that McCoy hadn’t wanted to kill him, and therefore there was no reason to dispose of an ally.

It’s not the full truth, he can sense, but it is all he wants to think about for now.

“We have an agreement,” Spock says eventually, and looks down at his PADD so he doesn’t have to see McCoy’s expression.

#star trek tos #spones #mirrorverse #trektober 2021 #day 23: mirrorverse #spock #leonard bones mccoy #james t kirk #chapel briefly #episode tag: operation: annihilate!#8k words #excerpt #my writing

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