Aviophobia (Leonard McCoy)

22. Sacrifice

After Spock talked Kate and Leonard through the plan, they were sent down to weapons bay to be in charge of the process.  All of the senior medical and engineering staff were gathered there to help them.

On the way there, Kate asked, "Do you think this will work?  Getting the tubes out of the torpedoes?  Khan is smart, won't he anticipate something like that?"

Leonard shrugged and shook his head before saying, "I don't know, Kate.  The only advantage I think we have is that Khan doesn't know about Spock Prime, so he doesn't know that we've had this time to anticipate his actions."

Kate shook her head as the rounded the corner to get them to weapons bay and pushed some loose hair behind her ear before saying, "Still, Spock basically thinks Khan will use Jim as a bargaining chip. Jim could die, Leonard."

Leonard stopped her outside the weapons bay door and said, "Jim could've died several times today.  So could I, and so could you.  We knew Star Fleet wasn't a safe option when we joined.  We've just got to trust Spock right now."

In spite of the situation, Kate laughed.  She never thought that she would ever hear Leonard say anything about trusting Spock.  Leonard furrowed his brows and asked, "Did I say something funny, darlin'?"

Kate laughed again and said, "You said we have to trust Spock.  Just not something I ever expected you to say."

Leonard shook his head and said, "Come on, we don't have time to waste," then they both headed into weapons bay.

When they entered, Kate was reminded again of how many people were on board the Enterprise.  There were at least  30 to 40 people there representing the senior engineering and medical officers, and there were seventy-two torpedoes.  That would leave each person working on two torpedoes.  If it really went as quickly as they were anticipating, they could be finished with this in a matter of minutes.

Kate looked over to some security officers that were in weapons bay and said, "We need some more people to help us in here.  There are heavy cryo-tubes in these torpedoes, and we need to get them out quickly.  Can you get about 40 people here to help us?"

The officers nodded and began making calls as Leonard began explaining the process to the senior medical and engineering officers.  The process was simple enough.  He demonstrated it on one torpedo, then Kate helped him lift the cryo-tube out before putting the torpedo back in the launch tubes.

Leonard finished by saying, "We're on a real time crunch here, so security's got people coming to help you get the cryo-tubes out.  Right now, focus on opening the torpedoes, then we'll have help to take care of the rest."

The process began running smoothly.  It's wasn't but about five minutes before all the cryo-tubes were removed and the torpedoes were set to be activated.  Spock suspected that Khan would bargain Jim for his crew, so he wanted to be able to activate, then send the torpedoes over to Khan's ship, and, so far at least, all had gone as planned.

Kate looked around weapons bay and, being satisfied that everyone was finished, said loudly, "Okay, you guys did great, but we've still got a little work to do.  Khan will scan this part of the ship if he comes hunting for his crew, so we've got to get the cryo-tubes moved to med bay.  Work in teams to get them there.  Dr. McCoy and I will be waiting there to receive them.  Thank you all."

As the left weapons bay, Kate was satisfied that all had gone well, and hoped that Spock had been right.  They stepped into the lift to go to med bay and Leonard barely waited for the doors to close before he said, "You know, you're sexy when you take charge, darlin'."

Kate felt immense heat rise to her face at Leonard's inappropriate comment, but was flattered nonetheless.  She turned to face him and smiled before saying boldly, "Well, I'll have to remember that for later when we pick up where we left off in shuttle bay, handsome."