sharpestscalpel | Is this fucking thing on?

Is this fucking thing on?

Attn: Ms. Dr. Emma McCoy of some other goddamn universe

We were conversing the other night and I, rather unfortunately and needlessly in my view, got called away to deal with a so-called emergency. I just wanted to tender my apology for running out on you like that and see if we might pick up a bit where we left off.

You just let me know, ma'am.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Alas the busy life of a doctor. What did you say your name was? I don't think I caught it last time around.

I don't think we'd actually gotten around to that, unfortunately.

Dr. Leonard H. McCoy, ma'am. And it is a pleasure to you, even across dimensions like this.

...Wait...then that means...was I really that bad of a mother in your dimension?

Ah, now wait a minute. You can't be that douchebag's mama. If absolutely nothing else, he did not take after you in the personality department.

I have to say, you're not at all inspiring a familial feeling in me.

Don't you call him a douchebag. That's my son. And I'd like to think he took after me in the personality department.

Well I should be inspiring a familial feeling. Seeing as you look like a rough cut of Lenny, the other me shouldn't look all that different.

I'll refrain for your sake. I'm just saying, he didn't make a very good first impression while you... did.

Ma'am, my mama was stone cold foulness wrapped up in bad. She can't hold a candle to you. And, you know, I don't know that the bonds of blood mean a whole lot across dimensions.

Lenny tends to be on the defense and takes after his father in that respect. And I believe the first thing you said was something along the lines of "You lost or you just show up to make faces against the window?"

Huh, kind of hard to imagine myself as anything but loving towards my own family. And crossing dimensions or not, you're still considered my son. Well...the other me but I'm sure she and I share a lot of things.

Well, he didn't say anything, he just made that face at me like I was some sort of zoo oddity. Maybe we got off on the wrong foot is all.

Maybe we can debate that over dinner sometime. But I don't know how much y'all'd share. She stayed at home and was primarily interested in her garden. And the poolboy. And the milkman. And several other service industry professionals.

Well you two do look an awful lot alike. He could've just been shocked.

Seeing as you're in a different dimension, dinner would be difficult. No, I was not a stay at home mom. I told you, I was a professor. And I never strayed from David. Though she does sound like a few of the other moms on our street.

It's a crazy galaxy, ma'am, you never know what's going to happen.

I would never suggest you were out tomcatting around. You certainly don't seem the type. And I'm quite interested in your work, as a matter of fact. I respect that sort of work.

This is true. I did come back from the dead after all. And all sorts of other crazy things have happened.

Of course I'm not the type! I loved my husband too much. Did you mean my work in prosthetics and marrow regeneration? Or teaching frat kids at the collegiate level?

How was that for you, if you don't mind my asking? The whole, coming back from the dead business?

Dr. Emma - do you mind if I call you Dr. Emma instead of ma'am? - Dr. Emma, I could talk about prosthetics and bone marrow regeneration all day. I don't know near as much about teaching frat kids at the collegiate level.

It wasn't as traumatizing as most people would think. One minute, I'm in 2245. The next, I'm in 2258.

If you're gonna call me Dr. anything, call me Dr. McCoy. And I did spend my days talking about bone marrow regeneration and prosthetics all day as well as forensics. I believe my graduate assistants would get sick of me by the end of the day though...

Now see, if I call you Dr. McCoy and you call me Dr. McCoy, we're going to confuse ourselves.

I get the sense that you and your interests have been underappreciated by you and yours.

Trust me, I've lived in a house with two Dr. McCoys, including myself, I can tell the difference.

No, I loved my work. The replacement in bone marrow would've wiped out a quite a few blood-related illnesses. And the prosthetics were so lifelike that you couldn't even tell the difference. We helped out a lot of war victims in that time.

Can't blame me for trying, can you?

Sounds like you're quite a bit ahead of us in the prosthetics department. Missing limbs are usually enough to ground a sufficiently ranking officer - or get you killed if you don't rank enough.

Freshmen have tried that trick without fail at every semester to poke at my soft spot and it never worked.

Well personally, I was working on involuntary movements. I was still fine tuning reading the signal between the prosthetic part and the human brain. ...They kill in your universe?

And do you have a soft spot?

Involuntary movements.... Timing is the trickiest part of that, I think. I've done a bit of research into the signals that get sent in response to certain stimuli.

Universe here is a hard place, Dr. McCoy. Not a lot of leeway for weakness.

I do believe that's classified information. Only one person knows and he's currently dead.

Yeah, the university understood that our little school couldn't handle the entire thing on its own so we had to seek outside help. The actual neurology of it was the hard part.

Beings shouldn't be killed simply because lack of competency in one area. They would potentially be incredibly useful in another area.

So noted. Though I do tend to think of classified information as simply more of a challenge instead of being truly out of reach.

What you need, if you don't mind my saying, is to set yourself back up. There's plenty of research you could get yourself back in on.

Starfleet only values a handful of qualities. You prove yourself valuable to them without pissing off too many people, it doesn't matter so much if you've got all your pieces and parts.

I think that's a secret that was literally taken to the grave.

It's all right. If death and being gone for a while taught me anything, it's that I just want to spend more time with my son. So, until further notice, really, I want to stick around where he is. Catch up on a missed out decade, so to speak.

That doesn't sound like the Starfleet I know. Not at all. What sort of universe are you from?

Graves don't always keep their secrets.

Sounds like you got your priorities and you know what they are. Not a lot of people can say that.

Terran Empire, Dr. McCoy. You familiar?

Highly doubt you'd get the information.

Of course I have my priorities straight. My family is very important to me. Lenny always came first. That's what David and I always said.

..Terran Empire? I've never heard of it. It's almost like being thrown back into the 3rd century.

I always did like a dare.

My mama was known to say something similar but, ah, I think she meant something entirely different by it.

Ancient Roman Empire exist in your universe? We're kind of modeled on that a bit.

It wasn't a dare, Dr. McCoy.

...I'm almost afraid to ask what she meant by that. Did some sort of Oedipus complex happen in your home?

...Oh my...Are we speaking Rome under Caligula's rule? Or Rome under Marc Anthony's rule?

If I only did what people actually dared me to do, I'd never get anything done.

Well, I didn't kill my father, I've got that going for me over Oedipus, at least.

Throw in some Caligula and mix in a generous helping of Nero. Maybe some frontier rule out on the fringe when Caesar was fighting the Gauls. That's a good approximation.

Really, there's nothing interesting to look for.

...Oh. That explains why...Oh you poor dear, though.

This Terran Empire sounds absolutely monstrous. How could you live in such an environment?

I don't know, Dr. McCoy. You seem mighty interesting to me.

As for the rest, that's an existential question I don't really have an answer for - it's just the way things are, ma'am. How do you live in your universe? We can debate philosophy if you want, but sometimes you just play the cards you're dealt.

Simply because we both share a common enthusiasm about the human skeletal system.

Well, I can't really describe how life goes in my universe. My whole universe was making sure that my boy grew up in a warm and loving environment and David was happy.

Maybe I'm just biased because, while this is a big damn ship, there's not anyone else interested in this particular field.

That's... real sweet.

Science is always a uniting field. Like we said before, more kids should get interested in bones.

My family's my whole universe, I told you. Wouldn't trade them for anything.

I know I try to inspire that interest through my own articles.

Inspirational, ma'am. Though I'm slightly more cynical about family, you might understand.

My only regret: I wasn't able to publish as much as I wanted to. I'll work on that when things settle down again.

I only hope I've passed that onto Lenny. And yes, you've had such a...god, I can't imagine...should I apologize on my other self's behalf?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only