Aviophobia (Leonard McCoy)

30. Attack

As what felt like normal for the crew of the Enterprise, things didn't exactly go as planned.  The captain of another ship came in her escape pod and said that there had been a critical malfunction on their ship.  She was able to escape in a pod, but her ship crashed on a nearby planet.  The issue was the planet was surrounded by a large nebula.  One that would require an advanced ship to navigate it.  Jim had been part of command that had interviewed this captain and volunteered the crew of the Enterprise for the mission.  A straightforward rescue mission.  Something they had done numerous times, so no one blinked an eye when Jim paged them and notified them of their mission.  The rescue mission, at worst, would take half the day then they'd be back on shore leave for a few more days.

Kate stood  next to Leonard in the flight deck of the Enterprise.  They were both still giddy with the news that Kate was pregnant, but it was something they wanted to keep between the two of them for a while longer.  Both being medical professionals knew that, no matter how healthy the mother, the first trimester of a pregnancy was iffy.  They didn't want to share their news with friends only to be disappointed later if something went wrong.  That didn't keep them, though, from holding the other's hand and sending loving looks to each other.  Even this interruption to their shore leave wasn't going to bring them down from their good mood.

Jim stepped on deck and stated, "Lt. Uhura, open a shipwide channel."

Nyota nodded and said, 'Yes, Captain."

The alert sounded to notify all the crew that Jim was making an announcement, then he began, "Attention, crew of the Enterprise.  Our mission is straightforward.  rescue a crew stranded on a planet in uncharted space.  Our trajectory will take us through an unstable nebula, when we will lose all communication with Starfleet.  We will be on our own.  However, the Enterprise has something that no other ship in the fleet has... You.  We have come to understand that there is no such thing as the unknown, only the temporarily hidden.  Kirk out."

Leonard chuckled to himself and Kate squeezed his hand before whispering, "What?"

Leonard shook his head and said, "Nothing, darlin'.  Your brother has just gotten a lot more poetic in his shipwide announcements than he use to be."

Kate laughed, thinking back to some of the early days in their missions when Jim was still new to the position and nodded saying, "He's come a long way, that's for sure."

Jim stepped over to them after commanding Sulu to begin navigation through the nebula and asked, "You two love birds seem comfortable for being the worst about flying on this ship."

Kate shrugged before saying, "You said it yourself, it's a straightforward mission."

Leonard nodded and added, "Med bay is always prepared for something like this because we  never know what we're going to encounter in deep space.  And, quite frankly, this nebula is not the worst thing we have gone through with you at the helm."

Jim laughed to himself and shook his head saying, "Glad you two are so comfortable with this.  I hate that everyone's shore leave was interrupted."

Kate shrugged again and said, "We're the best equipped and the most practiced with missions like this.  We'll lose half a day.  No biggie."

Jim shook his head again and said, "I don't know what I did to deserve a crew so willing to step in and do this right after shore leave started.  Thanks guys.  I should go check with the other ship's captain now," then left the two of them staring ahead as Sulu navigated through the nebula.

Coming through the other side, Sulu stated, "Readings indicate cloud density is diminishing, sir."

Jim nodded and turned to the other ship's captain who stated, "This is Altamid.  My ship was stranded here."