Chapter Text
Star date: 2260.251
A Solitary Cell Whose Walls Are Mirrors
Book One: No Reflection
Chapter One: Looking At The Devil
"McCoy, with me."
Leonard didn't even look up from his grisly work long enough to acknowledge the captain's words. He knew better than most what was coming if he did. Had seen enough messy wounds and scarred faces to know you never stared the captain directly in the eyes. To meet James Kirk's eyes is to commit messy, brutal suicide.
Leonard had managed to mercifully stay relatively clean on Kirk's radar so far. A damned good doctor, a useful asset and not ambitious in a way that would interfere with any plans of Kirk's. He guessed it was one of the only reasons he'd lasted as long as some of the more bloodthirsty members of the crew who were much more valuable and much more ferocious.
He had been aboard the ISS Enterprise since she was built, has served within her deceptively clean bowels for almost two years and during that time he'd managed to avoid nearly all personal contact with the Captain save for a few times when he'd treated him. It had become almost a rule between them, that after what transpired at the Academy, with the Narada, with Khan, that they would leave each other be.
This was the first time that Kirk had specifically requested him for an away mission and he wondered what it was about.
"Yes, Captain. I'll just finish up this autopsy then report to the transporter room," he said, ignoring the way his stomach clenched at the thought of using the damn thing. His fear of technology had only become worse since boarding the Enterprise and seeing all the creative ways that a transporter could be used to dismember someone and send various crucial parts of them to far flung parts of the galaxy.
"Immediately McCoy. I'm sure that M'Benga can finish up that for you. It's quite apparent that he died of nightshade poisoning after all," Kirk said dismissively. Leonard pulled his arms out of the man's corpse and stepped back. No it wasn't immediately apparent but at least now I know how you did it you sneaky sonuvabitch.
"Right away, sir," he said instead, keeping thoughts that would get him the space equivalent of keel hauled to himself as he stripped off his gloves and scrubs, letting M'Benga close up the poor wretch that had pissed off the captain.
"What can I help you with Captain? Am I going to need any specialist equipment?" Leonard asked, keeping his tone light and casual as possible. The captain was looking him up and down. Leonard could feel the eyes on him like phaser fire. He made sure to busy himself with removing his viscera splattered scrubs.
"Just your charming company, Doctor. You're required to take some basic medical readings. I thought you might enjoy the... Scenery," the captain continued and Leonard immediately felt a chill go down his spine. This was against the unspoken rule that he had with the captain, the agreement that they would ignore each other and do their best to come into as little contact as possible. What was Kirk up to?
"I see, sir," he kept his voice carefully neutral. There was a moments silence while Leonard finally got rid of the scrubs and pulled on his medical officer's uniform, wrapping the gold sash around his waist. Kirk's eyes were watching him carefully as he dressed.
Normally Leonard would have tucked a blade into his sash, a beautiful sharp blade that looked mean enough to deter most attackers before he even drew it. It had been Klingon in design, and boy did those fuckers know how to inflict maximum damage with minimal effort. But with the captain watching him, he knew arming himself would make himself seem like a threat. Instead he turned slightly, scooping up his scrubs to send to the laundry and pocketing a scalpel along with it. He couldn't inflict as much damage with it unless he got the first hit in, but he'd gut Kirk like a fish if the other showed any signs of ending his existence, Empire poster boy be damned.
Kirk didn't appear to notice and Leonard hoped it stayed that way. The scalpel hastily stashed away, he turned once more to the captain and offered him the salute before walking a respectful few feet behind him as they made their way to the transporter pad.
"We are heading to Planet M-113 to check on the status of an archeological dig by a Doctor Crater," the captain explained as they walked. Leonard didn't know what to say in response. The captain wasn't usually one for small talk and so it seemed strange that he would be sharing information like that so willingly.
"I see, sir. I trust they have something that the Empire wants if we've been sent there," he suggested. Kirk chuckled and glanced over his shoulder at McCoy.
"Something like that. There's rumours that Crater has been hiding important findings in his reports and we are to discover if he is part of the Revolution. Of course that's where you come in, Doctor. I want you to administer truth serums and do a full psychological analysis on Crater when we arrive," the captain said. Leonard nodded, adjusting the hypo settings for sodium thiopental and loading it carefully. He had far more of the drug in his stock than he'd have liked, with the captain's love of dragging the truth out of prisoners and the fact it could double as a lethal injection if needed. Leonard had administered the drug in both ways more than he'd have liked.
They travelled the rest of the way to the transporter room in silence, the boot clicks on the floor the only sound between the two of them. Two sets of tread falls, sounding not so different against the Enterprise's metal walkways, and yet belonging to two people so different they might have been born in parallel universes.
"Captain, the transporter is ready," Scotty reported from his position at the transporter. The captain nodded and got onto the transporter pad. A young ensign was waiting for them and Leonard tried to place him, trying to remember if he was one of the captain's personal guard or from another faction completely.
"Energise," Kirk ordered and the cool temperature of the Enterprise dematerialised in a flash of white before the arid, dry heat hit McCoy as they arrived on the planet. He felt sweat immediately spring to life on his brow, his mind instantly going back to Georgia, his beautiful home where he'd spent his youth before becoming one of the Empire's dogs.
"I believe you will recognise the doctor's guest, McCoy," Kirk said, stooping and plucking at some dried grass. He began to slowly pull he dried sees from its ends as he spoke. Leonard felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Who on Earth is going to be out here in the middle of space?
"I'm sure it'll be a great surprise Captain," he replied carefully. Kirk smirked broadly and led the way into the little house that had been constructed in the ruins.
It took McCoy a moment for his eyes to adjust to the gloom before he realised what he seeing. A girl, barely 12 years old, sat before him. She had large hazel eyes and thick, dark hair. Her mouth was full and her skin was wind chafed and tanned. She was incredibly thin and dressed in a simple smock that was wispy and barely covered her developing body. Across her collarbones there was a tattoo, a sequence of numbers and letters that designated her psi-scores.
Leonard caught himself before he whispered her name and damned them both, though he knew that he was surely already discovered if Kirk had eyes in his skull.
"I'm here to do a medical examination," he said. Behind him he heard Kirk shift slightly and he tried not to let his shoulders hunch in anticipation for the knife he was expecting between his shoulder blades.
"Are you the Empire's report makers? I'm Joanna," she said, getting to her feet. She didn't give a last name and Leonard was glad that she had the sense not to. She moved with an abstract grace he didn't remember her having.
"McCoy you look like you've seen a ghost. Aren't you going to greet our hostess? Are you Doctor Crater's wife?" Kirk asked. McCoy clenched his fists around the hypo in his hand. Kirk was expecting him to inject her with truth serum but he couldn't. Not without his own secrets coming to the fore almost immediately.
He quickly switched the settings over, using his body to block the captain's line of sight as he did so. He positioned the hypo at Joanna's neck. She looked up at him in fear, licking her lips slightly. He noticed that she had white foam in the corner of her mouth, evidence of dehydration. The vitamin shot he gave her wouldn't help with that, but it wouldn't hurt them both as much as a truth serum would.
"No. I just keep the Doctor company. He bought me from Cerberus almost a year ago," she said softly. Her accent slipped slightly, Georgia colouring her tone like peach syrup for a brief moment before it was hidden again. Leonard could feel his heart in his mouth.
"And what a pretty little thing you are too. I wouldn't have thought Crater's tastes ran quite as young as you... And I'd have thought he'd have kept a ESPer fully collared rather than letting you do what you please," Kirk commented lightly, his tone covered with distaste. McCoy swallowed and tried to busy himself with taking scans as Kirk moved across the room, his manner that of a predator.
"It's usually just me and the Doctor, so there's no point sir, but if you want, I can put the collar on," she said, standing and moving around the room. Kirk made no move to stop her and she attached the collar around her neck, ensuring that her psi-abilities would be locked within her own brain.
"McCoy, any anomalous readings?" Kirk asked. Leonard tried not to start, looking down at his tricorder. The readings were a mess. Not a single one made sense. Dehydrated but also low in salt, a strange mixture of critical organ failures that couldn't be possible if his eyes were to be believed.
"Tricorder's on the blink, Captain," he said, shaking the thing knowing it wouldn't help. Joanna looked at him with large eyes. "Ensign, let me borrow yours."
The Ensign immediately reached for his tricorder and McCoy held his hand out impatiently. At that moment Doctor Crater arrived and McCoy watched him carefully as he entered. No weapons that he could see, but McCoy was more concerned about the other's reaction towards his daughter.
He was glad to see that the other merely put a fatherly hand on her shoulder, clasping it gently before he walked passed her to shake the Captain's hand. Fresh tricorder in hand, Leonard did his job, scanning the doctor while he and the captain talked, before injecting him with the sodium thiopental.
"Joanna, why don't you take Doctor McCoy and Ensign Green for a walk outside, show them the ruins, while I speak to Doctor Crater?" Kirk almost made it sound like a request, though everyone in the room knew otherwise. Leonard allowed himself to be led out. His eyes drinking in the beautiful shape of his daughter. A girl he hadn't seen since her fifth birthday when her psi-scores had come through.
ESPers had few options in the Empire. They became commodities, sold as slaves to the highest bidders, to those to whom the ability to read minds was an invaluable resource. Leonard had scored poorly, as had his ex-wife, but his daughter... She'd scored off the charts. She'd immediately been tattooed and collared, her powers announced for all to see. Leonard had been given a choice, comply with the Empire and let Joanna be sold into slavery, or try to smuggle her beyond the Empire's reaches.
He'd used the last of his family's money to get her out into the Romulan Star Empire, far enough from the Empire's clutches that he could have hope she might find some solace away from the clutches of the Terrans. And yet here she was, sold into slavery after all.
"Doctor McCoy. Could you wait here? I will show the Ensign to some water. He looks dehydrated," Joanna said softly. Leonard nodded, his throat closing slightly as he watched her walk away.
His mind continued back to those years ago. Jocelyn had hated him, had threatened to tell everyone what he'd done. That he'd sold them into poverty to protect a freak of a daughter. It had been the last straw when Leonard had woken up to a knife at his throat and Jocelyn above him, hissing about how she hated his weakness and that she couldn't wait to be rid of him.
Because he'd loved her once, Leonard made her death quick and easy. One moment he was married, the next he as a widower, his wife's lifeblood sprayed across their marital bed like champagne. He had cried as the light left her eyes, but then he'd hardened. Her body was buried in the family plot and no one questioned him as to his motives, especially when it came out that Jocelyn had been a little liberal with her affections over recent months.
Then he'd signed up to Starfleet and served the Terran Empire, blindly following orders and hoping that his secret was safe. That Joanna was safe.
A scream broke his train of thought.
Kirk was by his side in an instant.
"Where is the creature?" Kirk demanded and Leonard stared at him.
"Creature?" He repeated. Kirk gave him an annoyed glance and Leonard realised too late that he'd met the others eyes.
"Yes. Joanna. She's a creature that the doctor discovered here. Stupid idiot thought he could keep the discovery from the Empire. He's been dealt with but we need to capture her now," Kirk ordered. Leonard's mouth opened and closed a few times while he processed the information.
"That can't be-"
"I don't want your opinion, McCoy. It's a shapeshifter. I don't know what she looked like to you, probably someone endearing so you couldn't hurt her, but now you know. She's a dangerous beast and must be brought back onto the Enterprise for study," Kirk ordered. Leonard immediately let his mask fall into place, hiding his emotions from view and putting on his doctors mask.
They followed the sounds of the scream, finding Green's corpse laid out, strange mottled bruises on his skin.
"Looks like our Joanna gives one hell of a lovebite," Kirk commented, scanning about for Joanna as he spoke. Leonard looked down at the Ensign's body and checked for a pulse. Non-existent. Even if this was his Joanna, she'd murdered a member of the crew and through obscure means.
"McCoy, beam back aboard the Enterprise immediately and send down a full security team in your place. This has become a hunting mission, not your area of expertise," Kirk ordered, and Leonard was almost certain that there was a smirk on his face. He tried to ignore the way the captain's eyes flashed knowingly as he flipped open his communicator.
"McCoy to Enterprise. One to beam up."
McCoy spent the rest of his shift wondering if the Joanna he'd seen really had been a mirage or if he'd condemned his daughter to a relentless chase from the Captain of the Enterprise. He was insufferable to the other members of the medical staff, turning on them and snarling if they got too close into his personal space. At one point M'Benga had moved just a little too close and McCoy had reacted without thinking, drawing the hidden scalpel and slashing the hand that nearly brushed against him.
M'Benga had retreated. The nagging worry and anxiety did not.
"Bridge to Doctor McCoy," Uhura's voice came through the communicator. He stopped the restless pacing of his office to answer the comm.
"The Captain wishes for your attendance in the Menagerie," she said. Leonard could hear Sulu behind her, as usual attempting to get her attention even though it would put him firmly in Spock's bad books.
"I'm heading there now," he confirmed before making sure he was armed. It would do little if they had truly captured Joanna and not the monster Kirk was expecting, but it made him feel better.
The Menagerie was a curious thing. The Emperor himself had one, full of exotic aliens that had been collected by his star ships over the last few years. Beautiful creatures from all over the galaxy trapped in glass cages to be admired and played with as the Emperor saw fit. A pleasure zoo that could cater to any whim of fancy.
Kirk's menagerie was something different entirely. While some creatures were inevitably beautiful, they all had another purpose. They were all dangerous, deadly, able to kill and maim and torture. Some were capable of communication, though Kirk made sure that all psi-creatures were telepathically gagged with the help of a machine he'd acquired and his First Officer. If there was one thing that Kirk hated, it was ESPers.
Leonard entered the menagerie, ignoring the curious, sorrowful sounds that the wretched creatures within made. He headed straight for the Captain, keeping his eyes at the others boots as he saluted.
"Tell me, Doctor McCoy, who is it you see when you look upon her?" The Captain asked. Behind him, Chekov, the Russian wunderkind who was also one of the most dangerous officers on the ship, shifted his hand to his agoniser maliciously. Kirk waved a hand, as if to say it wasn't necessary, but Chekov didn't draw it, letting long fingers caress it in promise instead.
"I see a girl of about twelve years, Captain," Leonard replied. Kirk considered his answer.
"Is she a stranger to you?" He asked. Leonard made a show of looking up, staring into the cage. It truly did look like Joanna. Her clothes were torn and she grasped at them for modesty, hot tears streaming down her dirt coated cheeks. Her hair was in disarray, her shoulders slumped as she cried.
"Daddy! Daddy please!" She cried out to him when he met her eyes. He tried not to flinch noticeably and instead moved his gaze back to Kirk's boots.
"Ah... So she appears as your daughter. I looked up your file, McCoy. Interesting reading. Says you... Conveniently got rid of a wife and daughter some years ago. I wouldn't have thought you had it in you," Kirk said, chuckling a little. He drew his agoniser and Leonard swallowed, wondering if he was going to be allowed to make a case before he was subjected to the terrible device.
"We want to see the creature's true form. Here you go," Kirk said, handing over the agoniser to McCoy. Leonard stared at it for a moment, wondering why it wasn't hurting him before he realised what Kirk wanted him to do.
He turned back to Joanna - no a creature who looked like Joanna - and stepped closer. She was still crying, hazel eyes wide and wet, lip trembling. McCoy remembered holding her in his arms after she'd skinned her knee. She'd had the same expression then. He remembered telling her that she wasn't to cry, that crying was weakness and that she couldn't be weak in front of anyone but him. That people would hurt her in life and she would have to pretend that she felt nothing at all.
He pressed the agoniser against her trembling chest. He glanced back at Kirk, catching the other's eyes for a moment, that piercing blue seeming to see his secrets laid out as though he'd broadcasted them ship wide.
"Daddy, please don't!"
He didn't even look at the creature, activating it while he met Kirk's eyes. You have underestimated me, Kirk. Just because we don't clash heads, doesn't mean I'm not as goddamn ruthless as anyone else on this ship in my own way.
Joanna's screams began but they soon changed, becoming inhuman. Leonard backed away almost immediately when he caught movement in his peripheral vision, breaking eye contact with Kirk long enough to see the strange creature that his daughter had become.
He tried to back out if the tank, but found he couldn't move, his whole body frozen strangely against his will. He struggled for a moment before he felt a hand grasp his arm, tugging him to safety. The force field came to life between him and the creature just in time, sending it reeling back with a screech.
"It feeds on sodium. Sucks it straight out of humans," Kirk's voice was directly in his ear. McCoy could feel the captain's hot breath against the back of his neck as the other spoke. He remained there, frozen, as the captain continued. "It'll be a great addition to the collection, I think. Don't you agree McCoy? And if you miss your daughter, well, I'll turn a blind eye if you come converse with it."
McCoy felt the captain draw away, but he felt more paralysed than when the creature had him in its thrall. He swallowed, trying to clear his throat.
"Yessir," he finally forced out. Kirk chuckled and made his way to the door.
"You have everyone fooled, don't you McCoy? Well, not me. Not anymore. I'll be keeping an eye on you from now on Doctor."
With a smirk like Satan and the sound of the hydraulic door closing after him, Kirk left McCoy to stare at the pitiful form of his daughter, sat huddled on the floor, battered, alone, inhuman and snarling curses at him.
He'd looked the devil in the eyes, now he'd just have to ride the storm that came with it.