To Boldly Go...

John Harrison grinned to himself as he sat in his cell, feeling all the tension aboard the ship. Not all the tension was caused by him, but by a female medical lieutenant. He knew about her, every little detail had been stored in the archive where he had been working for Starfleet. Admiral Marcus was obsessed with having the best weapons. The missiles were his recent creation but Lieutenant Allen, she was something he had been working on for years. Combining Q DNA was the first step, something that everyone had agreed to. But he had done something devious. During a medical check, he had the six year old operated on, and a chip implanted into the base of her skull. It contained high frequency waves, tapping into her Q DNA and creating the energy pulses. Her family never knew, they assumed it was because of the combined species. Marcus was planning on using her against the Klingons, to reign in the Federation plants, and to possibly create more like her. He had never considered that all those high frequencies were slowly killing her. The Q DNA was perfectly adapted to her Human DNA, but with the implant, her body was constantly fighting to stay alive. The release of the energy that she had on Cronus only stalled the inevitable. Callia Allen was dying with the implant. Either her brain would have aneurism and the chip would take over, making her body a killing machine, or kill her completely by disintegrating her internal functions. It was like a cancer. And now that it had been released, her body would get weaker and weaker by the day.

Harrison almost felt pity for the young woman but he also relished in seeing Admiral Marcus fail. He wondered if he should give Captain Kirk the access code to her encrypted files or allow the Enterprise to watch her slowly die without explanation. As he pondered, he noticed a young ensign in a red shirt. Curly, blonde hair sticking up underneath a pair of goggles. He was mumbling to himself in Russian about the warp core, speaking to one of the guards briefly about how much power the cell needed to function properly. Harrison grinned and stepped closer to the glass. He had seen the boys face before, he knew the whole crew.

“Mr. Chekov....my, donning the red shirt? Mr. Scott quit, didn't he? Hmm, shame.” He spoke, watching the young boy stiffen and glance over at him before turning back to his PADD. Harrison spoke again, “I know what's happening to Lieutenant Allen. I know the codes to her files, it could save her life.”

“I vas told not to speak to you.” Chekov said, going to scurry off, but pausing briefly at the doorway.

“Her birthday. The file name is project 87.” Harrison spoke, smirking as he crossed his arms behind his back. He watched the young boy run off, his shoes squeaking down the corridors. Maybe once the Lieutenant was conscious, he could speak to her, maybe even convince her to help him. He chuckled and sat on the bench, looking up to the ceiling.

Meanwhile, Dr. McCoy was rummaging through his cabinets, looking for a hypospray to keep the Lieutenant's fever down. She was burning up and the dose of sedative he gave her should have woken her up by now. He had tried to see if she had an allergies to medication but her file was blank. All medical files were sealed off except for some basic information. It had peaked his curiosity enough to mention it to Spock. As he searched his medicines more, he heard a loud crash from behind him. He turned to see Callia on the floor next to the bed. She was on her hands and knees, shaking violently.

“Dammit woman!” He cursed, rushing over to her. He wrapped an arm around her small body and pulled her to her feet. Her eyes looked up to him, their normal blue with honey gold around her pupil. He almost sighed in relief, except for the fact that her skin was ice cold. He sat her back onto the bed and felt her head. Her forehead was no longer boiling in fever. “What the hell is going on in there...” he mumbled to himself, scanning her with his tricorder.

“Bones, I'm okay. Just a little wobbly.” She said softly. Her scans showed up relatively normal, nothing too out of the ordinary. Her body temperature was lower than normal but she was otherwise seemingly okay. He grunted and entered the information into his PADD. He and the rest of the medical team had yet to figure out just what had happened to her. He didn't even want to clear her for duty, but they needed her.

“Alright.....just take it easy. I'm clearing you but if you so much as stumble, I'm sedating your ass.” He bitched. Callia laughed a little and nodded, showing that she understood him. “Now get out of here.” he helped her to the doors, allowing her to go back to her quarters and change back into uniform.

Callia slowly made her way back, going into her closet and getting a clean uniform and a new pair of boots. She showered, closing her eyes as the water dripped down her body. Her neck and back of head ached like she had been hit with a brick. When she closed her eyes, she could see bright blue light behind her lids. White light streaked across the blue like lightning. She opened her eyes again and sighed. She was worried about what was going on with her. She didn't think it was the species combination but maybe just being shot was taking more time to heal than it appeared. Either way, she wasn't about to stop doing her job. She dried herself off and got dressed, pulling her hair into a bun and fixing the pieces around her face. She rolled her shoulders back and exited, venturing to the bridge.

“Permission to come aboard, Captain.” She asked, making Jim hop out of the Captain's chair, eyes wide in surprise.

“Yeah....I mean, permission granted, Lieutenant.” He said. She nodded and started to walk over to him but he grabbed her arm quickly, pulling her into the turbolift. He pressed a random deck number then hit the stop button. He sighed and held onto her shoulders, looking into her eyes, seeing they were back to normal.

“Jim?” She asked quietly, watching him. He let out a deep breath and pulled her into his arms tightly, resting his head on top of hers. Jim had been terrified when Spock used his Vulcan nerve pinch on her. He didn't know what to do or how to help her and he hated not being able to do anything. Bones had yelled at constantly to stay out of the med bay and to let him do his job. But he couldn't help but worry. He knew there was something seriously wrong with her and he didn't know if it would kill her. Seeing her normal on the bridge again was the ray of hope he needed right now.

“Sorry....I....I was just so worried.” he mumbled into her hair.

“I'm okay, Jim.” she responded, rubbing his back gently. With her by his side, he was more determined to bring Harrison to justice and get everyone on board back home safely. He released the stop on the turbolift and allow Callia to get off at the med bay. He gave her hand a quick squeeze before she got off. He was going to head back to the bridge when Spock got his attention.

“Captain, meet with me in the science lab. Mr. Chekov has found something that may be of the utmost importance.”