Title: The Prosenectus Virus
Fandom: Star Trek (AOS)
Rating: PG
Length: 1,794
Summary: Dr McCoy is called back to the Enterprise when the children suddenly fall ill.
Warning: Death of a child (non-graphic)
My thanks to impishtubist for the fast beta and encouragement.

Leonard McCoy had not hesitated when he read the message that had arrived on his PADD.  “Return to Enterprise at once.  Assistance required with diagnosis of abnormalities affecting children.  Spock.”

He had grabbed his medical kit and run to the departure point of the colony’s central hub, which was fortunately conveniently close to their medical facilities.  A few urgent requests and a shuttle and pilot were made available to him.  Once they had taken off he sat hunched forward as if by so doing he could hasten the journey.  The pilot tried to tell him that the trip would take some hours and that he might as well relax while he could, but Leonard ignored him.

When Leonard had answered the call from the colony for medical assistance when their own medical staff had succumbed to a virus, he had left Joanna in Jim Kirk’s care.  It was an illness he had encountered before and he was confident that his presence would only be needed for a few days, before sufficient numbers of the staff had recovered.  It meant that he would miss the planned R&R trip to Vlancia, which Joanna had been looking forward to for weeks, but Jim had assured Leonard that he would see that someone took her, so that she did not miss out.  And now something had happened and he hadn’t been there for his little girl.

Leonard was off the shuttle the second they docked and running towards the main entrance gates.  He was stopped by Spock.

“Let me through,” Leonard shouted, trying to push Spock out of the way.  “I’m not contagious; I don’t need screening.”

“We need to give you the details, before you go rushing in,” Spock said.

Leonard drew back his fist ready to punch the Vulcan.  “Joanna needs me.”

Leonard felt Spock grab his fist and continue to restrain him, whilst he struggled ineffectively.  Slowly he realised that Spock was repeating, “Your daughter is well.  Your daughter is in no danger.”

“She’s okay?”

“Yes, although grumpy.”

“That might be a symptom of illness.”

“No, doctor.  It is the response of a child who has not yet acquired the logical functions that permit it to accept a minor misfortune that is out of its control.”

“Similar to Jim when we ran out of double chocolate donuts?”

“Even worse.”

“Can I see her?”

“Of course.  She is in your quarters.  Whilst she has not been affected, we thought it wiser to keep her away from the other children.  For a number of reasons.”

“I’ll go to her straight away.”

“I will let the captain know.  He will wish to brief you.”
Leonard set off at a jog towards his quarters.  Despite the reassurances that Spock had offered he wasn’t going to be happy until he had seen his daughter for himself.

He opened the door and as he stepped through Joanna threw herself into his arms.  “Daddy, you’re back.”

He nodded to the ensign, who had been keeping Joanna company, as she slipped out.  “I am indeed.  And you’re well?”

“I am.  The others have got something though.”

“You’d better tell me all about it.  Did you have a good time on Vlancia?”

“I didn’t go.”  Joanna pouted.  “Uncle Jim was going to take me and then he got busy and then there wasn’t enough time.  But all my friends went and now they’re being mean to me.”

“I’m sorry about that.  I’ll make it up to you, I promise.  Why are your friends being mean?  It wasn’t your fault you couldn’t go.”

“The day after they came back I was going to play with them, but they said my games were childish.  And then they laughed at me and said I was shrinking, ‘cos they were all taller than me.  And then later on, I was shorter than even the ones who were much younger than me and everyone called me ‘Baby’.”

Joanna started to cry and Leonard picked her up, sat her on his lap and held her close.

“I’m not a baby, am I, Daddy?”

“No, darling.  You’re not a baby; you’re my beautiful girl.  Did anything else happen?”

“The teacher called the parents and Nyota came to get me.  I told her I was shrinking but she laughed and said I wasn’t.  And then Mary came to be with me, because everyone was rushing round and Nyota had to do things.  Later Uncle Jim came to see me, and Mr Spock came with him.  I told them that I was shrinking but Mr Spock said that was illogical and made me stand by the wall where you mark my height.  And I hadn’t shrunk and Mr Spock said I had grown a bit and marked my new height.  Here, I’ll show you.”

Joanna jumped off Leonard’s lap, took his hand, and dragged him over to see how tall she was.  He had just agreed that she had indeed grown when he heard a voice outside saying, “Bones, can I come in?”

“Yes, do!”

Jim entered and greeted Leonard with a kiss.  They hugged, but Leonard felt one of Jim’s arms move.  He glanced around and spotted Jim slipping Joanna a silver fruit.

“You spoil her,” Leonard said.

“Not at all,” Jim replied.  “This is by way of apology to her, because I have to drag you away again.”

“’Salright, I understand,” Joanna said with a mouthful of fruit.

The two men left her with the ensign, who had returned, clearly anticipating that her assistance would once again be required.

“How much do you know?” Jim asked as they made their way to the medical bay.

“From what Jo has said, the children have been infected with some form of aging reagent, which has caused rapid physical growth and also emotional growth.”

“That’s about it.  Over the past day they have apparently grown up, but the growth is uneven.  According to Uhura, whilst their ability to use language has progressed in line with their emotional maturity, their vocabulary remains that of a child of their actual age.”

They had reached the medical bay and Spock nodded in acknowledgement of their presence.

“Who’s been affected?” Leonard asked.  “Presumably not all those who went to Vlancia.”

“The oldest child affected was 13, the youngest 3 years 6 months,” Spock replied.  “Due to the small sample source we cannot be precise as to the age band.  We know that a child of 3 years 3 months was not affected, and that no-one of 15 years and above has been affected.”

“And you’re sure Jo’s safe?” Leonard said.

“We have been monitoring her regularly, and she is clean,” Jim answered.  “Similarly the middle sibling of the Horvath family, who didn’t go, is unaffected.”

“So what’s been found?”

“Each of the children has a particular chemical compound in their blood, which we are currently trying to analyse,” Spock said.  “It is not present in those who remained on the Enterprise, or in anyone outside that age range who went to Vlancia.”

“Jim,” Leonard said, “Jo told me that you were going to take her, but that you were unexpectedly busy.  What had happened?”

“I had fully intended to take Jo.  She knew we would be going after the main group, because I had various tasks to finish.  But then there was a major communications blip and I wanted to be sure that everything was back on line before I left the ship.  By the time I was fully satisfied it wasn’t worth going.  Jo was very upset, but in hindsight I’m glad about it.”

“Do we know what caused the blip?”

“It was an unexpected pulse in engineering,” Spock said.  “Mr Scott is currently running diagnostics to identify the source.”

At that moment one of the nurses hurried over, “Dr McCoy, could you assist us, please?”

Leonard followed the nurse to find a patient about to give birth.  As he reached the bed he suddenly stopped.  “This is, was, my daughter’s best friend.  They’re the same age.  How?  How?”

“When the aging started we didn’t realise the effect it would have.  We’ve had to isolate all those affected.  Initially we thought it would be good to let them stay together for support, but they had grown into young adults and it was as if the hormones had taken over.”

Leonard turned to the girl.  Her life signs were fading fast.  He tried everything he would normally try in that situation, but nothing made any difference.  Realising he was going to lose her, he administered an injection to speed the baby’s birth.  What emerged, although the size of a baby that had undergone a nine-month gestation had all the characteristics of a three-month foetus and was stillborn.

Feeling sick at heart Leonard left to make his report to Jim.  Jim listened and then said, “We think we’ve found the cause.  Scotty and Spock have found the source of the initial pulse and within it is a trace that’s also been identified in the blood compound.  Spock believes he can produce an antidote.”

“I’ll go and find him.”

Leonard found Spock peering into a microscope.  “She died,” he said.

“So I heard.  I have an antidote here, but it will be risky.  I would prefer to run further tests before using it, but am not sure that we have the time.”

“What effect will it have?”

“It should either halt or severely reduce the aging process.  It won’t reverse what has already happened and may not be sufficient to repair organs that have been unable to cope with the rapid aging.  At least it should buy us some time.”

“We have to try it.  I think Ellie died because the additional strain of being pregnant was too much for her body, when it had already undergone so many changes.  If we can prevent any more deaths then we have to try it.”

“The captain will need to authorise the injections.”

“We need to see him now.  We cannot afford to wait.”

***

Later, when the other ‘children’ had been given the antidote and sent, with their families, on the first leg of the journey back to Earth, Leonard headed back to his quarters.  He found Joanna in bed, having a story read to her.

“Thank you,” he said, “I’ll finish reading to her.”

When he had read the story and a second because she had asked and he was incapable of refusing her anything at that moment, he tucked her in and went to sit down.  He found the scotch and poured himself a large glass.  Shortly afterwards Jim joined him.

Leonard looked at Jim.  “It could have been Jo, Jim.  It could have been Jo.”

Jim put his arms around the doctor and held him as he sobbed.