You Can't Be Too Careful [Star Trek/Leonard "Bones" McCoy Love Story]

[21.] The Fire To My Ice

[21] The Fire To My Ice

I hugged the strange white tablet to my chest as I strolled through the strikingly white halls. My heart pounded furiously in my chest. Sure, nothing too horrible had happened yet, but I knew that the issue in the Warp Core was just the beginning; a portent for what was to come. Nervous anticipation sat like a boulder in my stomach. As I walked, I subconsciously tugged on the end of my braid, much harder than I meant to.

Sighing, I held the tablet in front of me and decided to figure out how it worked. I lightly grazed my fingers over the dark screen, which lit up immediately at my touch. A single bar graph appeared, surrounded by several electronic dials and legends. As I walked, I studied the strange graph, unsure of how it would help me. Though there were too many different scales and measurements to keep track of them all, I finally found a circular one that was pulsing red. The brighter the red became, the more the bar filled up. I quickly figured out that as the bar filled up more, the level of radiation went up as well.

South hallway, deck 31, I noted mentally. Small traces of radiation.

I continued onward, feeling exceedingly proud of myself for working out the mechanism myself. I tucked the tablet under my arm and walked quickly, desperate to get back to Chekov. Sure, I had just met him, but at least he was somewhat familiar. I frowned as my scalp began to ache from my incessant yanking. I quickly dropped my shaking hand back down to my side, deciding that it might be a good idea to do so.

I slowly made my way through each level, checking every corner, every hall, and every room that I could find. As far as I knew, there weren’t many areas affected by the Warp Core’s malfunction, but that didn’t mean I was any less nervous for the performance of the Enterprise because of it. I finished my rounds on deck 27 and proceeded upwards to continue my checkup. I had managed to get my hands to stop shaking, but nothing could stop the incessant pounding of my heart or the scrambled mess that was my mind.

My thoughts sporadically shifted from Astrid to Scotty, but most of all, they focused on Bones. I knew I should be worrying more about my best friend and second father, but all I could think of was him. I was so scared. I knew Astrid would calm me down, as would Scotty, but nothing was more comforting than the thought of him. I didn’t know why. All I knew was that I wanted to be with him more than anything at the moment.

The doors in front of me slid open, and I entered deck 26. This deck’s design was much more open. Whereas the previous levels I had visited were rife with intricate hallways and several rooms, deck 26 was an open space, with only a few columns here and there and a sunken floor with a control board in the center. I looked down at my screen and began to scan for radiation, taking each step slowly so that I didn’t trip over my own feet. I managed to get a few yards in without any spikes in the radiation levels.

When I looked up, I nearly dropped the device. Somehow I had failed to notice the prison with a glass wall as a blockade upon entering the room. Inside, there was a man with dark hair and icy blue eyes that he had trained on the wall across from him. He was tall and well built, and something about him seemed altogether mysterious and unnerving. I shivered.Even though no one had told me, I knew that this was the terrorist, John Harrison.

Before I could gather my thoughts and continue with my work, he glanced up and caught my eye. I froze in spot, unsure of how else to respond to the situation. He cocked his head and began to eye me from head to toe. At first it looked like he was creepily checking me out, but then I realized that there were no flirtatious intentions behind his actions. He was examining me, almost like I was a test-subject, or a puzzle that needed to be solved. This made me more uncomfortable than my previous flirtation theory.