a K/S Novel
by Anna S. Greener
Captain James T. Kirk stood in sickbay's isolation unit watching his first officer and the ship's doctor as they studied the latest set of readings produced by the medical scanners. Their alien subject hung motionless in the center of the room, its weight negated by three large medical antigravs, its body surrounded by a web of medical sensors.
Kirk squirmed uncomfortably in his environmental suit. He had to remind himself that it had been his own idea to join Commander Spock and Doctor McCoy. He could have watched from the other side of the transparent aluminum wall that separated the isolation unit from the rest of sickbay—a position that would have afforded considerably more comfort than his current one. But, as usual, he'd wanted to be where the action was. The trouble was there hadn't been any “action” to speak of for some time, and he was beginning to feel out of place and useless.
He suppressed an urge to scratch his nose—an impossible feat in the suit—and wished for at least the twentieth time that he had something to do other than standing on the sidelines, watching and waiting.
Spock and Bones are the specialists, he told himself. Your job right now is to let them do theirs. But just as he was resigning himself to an even longer wait, both officers looked up from their instruments and started toward him.
The built-in comm unit in Kirk's helmet crackled to life. “It's no good, Jim,” McCoy said. “Our guest here is just too different: the universal translator isn't going to help us.
We've encountered non-humanoid life forms in the past, Bones. Isn't there some way to adjust the translator to compensate for the differences?
Not this time,” McCoy said, as both he and Spock came to a halt a few feet from the captain.
The doctor is correct,” Spock said. “The being's brain waves do not conform to any of the configurations that can be generated using the translator's standard patterns. Its language—assuming that it has one—must be mastered without the aid of the translator.
And you're certain you can't help it without being able to talk to it?” Kirk asked.
McCoy's answering snort resonated almost painfully in the confinement of Kirk's suit helmet. “Its brain waves are just the beginning, Jim. I haven't begun to figure out what makes it tick. By the time I feel even minimally competent to treat it, it'll be too late.
Are you sure there's really anything wrong with it? If you're that much in the dark about how it functions....
Join us in the classic world of 'Trek', Kirk and Spock as ever, brush lives with an alien who opens Spock's eyes to his peoples' past. Ancient Vulcan, ancient rituals, ancient love blend into and modern lives, commingling to give us the K/S we know and love.
