"I'd welcome your friend to try if he wants to hunt people in blue shirts so much, but I can't guarantee it'd end well," McCoy somewhat vaguely said in response to Grif. Not in a threatening tone, or a condescending one, or even a passionate one. He just spoke calmly and surely, as though stating a simple fact,
"Besides, if you and your friend are so focused on the colors of our uniforms -- I'd hate to hear what you think about the colors of people's skin -- the ones in red are the ones with the higher mortality rate anyway, since that's the color for the security staff."
To Samus, the doctor simply shrugged.
"It's certainly world-shattering -- no pun intended -- so I'll give you that much. To spend one's whole life dreaming of voyaging through the unknown, only to realize how limited your perception of the unknown had been all along. Like dipping into what you thought was a pond, only to find you were in a vast ocean. It's exciting, yet terrifying, and though the rewards are as great as the risk, haven't you ever felt apprehension in the face of such risk? Fortune may favor the bold, but so does misfortune."
To Kumagawa and Gumi, he simply grunted in irritation, moreso to the former of the two.
"Robotics have come a long way since the beginning, but still, that's just what they are right now; robots. They can emulate, but that's all they can do, emulate. If there is a society out there with fully functioning, emoting androids, I haven't seen 'em yet. If you want to gauge how much better your world must be than this one, I'd have to estimate that a truly emoting android is probably a hundred years ahead of what our current tech can do, at least," he explained, slowly speaking in a more calm manner as Gumi posed other questions,
"Slow down, kid. One at a time."
"As for as entertainment goes, we're still in development of holographic recreation; its in its infancy stage at this moment, but it's there. Just... not equipped on the Enterprise at this moment. And as long as there's no outside interference, yes, we can beam ourselves to and from anywhere within the accepted range of the transporters. As for rocket boots, uh... We do have some gravity boots stationed somewhere, usually for the engineering crew to get to hard-to-reach spaces, but with the development of warp technology, we've grown past the need for that."
"Right... Great. Okay..." Kirk sighed initially as the responses to his question ranged between being told to shut up, a description of a banal world that let on more than one might think, and a world where humanity probably did not evolve beyond 20th century sensibilities. It was all quite unfortunate, especially as Kirk speculated to himself what kind of worlds Vader, Titus, and Sarge might have hailed from, considering their appearances, and how they were all built up with one scenario in mind.
War.
But judging was not a Starfleet job. It was not his place to commentate on mere speculations over the realities of other people's lives. He at least knew that much.
At least Gakupo and Meceliss decided to humor him, at least, and for that, he could appreciate.
"Soldiers, bounty hunters, pink puffballs, and android celebrities..." Kirk repeated mostly to himself, pondering over how radically different everything must be. The appearance of the Discovery brought to mind how there were other possibilities -- other directions -- that Starfleet had taken, but never had he considered there to be other worlds where Earth didn't even
exist, much less a world where such emotive androids were a work of the 21st century. Non-linear thinking indeed.
"No, we don't," Kirk went on to answer Gakupo, shaking his head gently,
"Robotics is on the road to it, but it's hard to tell how long it'd be until we create androids. It's easy to build a robot who is able to copy emotions, but not an android who creates and truly feels emotion. Your presence here by itself is probably some sort of miracle in the field of robotics alone, not to mention cosmology if almost all of you are from different dimensions, but I'm guessing none of you are very keen on becoming guinea pigs."
As both those following McCoy and Kirk made their way to the
Cargo Bay, bumping into each other right then and there, Kirk pursed his lips and nodded toward McCoy.
"Bones," he greeted, as though it were a nickname for Doctor McCoy, before looking back at everyone else,
"Everyone, give a warm welcome to Doctor McCoy, chief medical officer. If you ever get hurt, he'll patch you up good, at the cost of lecturing your ears off. Right, Bones?"
"Well, I don't know about you, but this doctor is prescribing a cold drink for himself and anyone who needs it once we're done with this business," McCoy sighed.
"Alright, guess the infestation was twice as big as we thought, but at least the good doctor managed to get a handle of it with some of your other friends," Kirk said to the group following him, looking over to find that the numerous barrels tipped over on the ground, lids spilled open. The captain bit his lip briefly,
"Hmm, wonder if we were too rough while lifting off... I'm really gonna have to talk with the security staff about who didn't seal these damned things shut," he uttered, before beginning to harmlessly drop the Tribbles on him into the barrels and containers lying around, gesturing others to do the same along with him and McCoy.
"By the way, Bones, remind me to tell you about how someone had to swallow up all the Tribbles on my side to transport them."
"Remind me to tell you that someone did the same thing here."
Once everyone had safely dropped the Tribbles off, with Kirk and McCoy making extra sure that the containers were sealed tight and sure this time, the two patted off their hands, before McCoy let out a breath.
"Alright, well, glad that's over with. What's the point of even having a security staff if you're gonna make me do this heavy lifting, Jim? I'm a doctor, not a forklift," he sighed, scratching the back of his head briefly, before speaking again,
"Anyway, thanks for the help, everyone. Drinks on me if anyone wants to hang back at Ten Forward... or, rather the recreational facilities. Not that synthesized muck though. I'll show you all real ale; aged Romulan. Crazy bastards, but they make a fine ale."
With that, he began walking back to Recreation now that the job was over, but not before briefly stopping next to Grif, gesturing to Sarge.
"I guess that's your crazy friend over there?"
As for Kirk, he cleared his throat. "Well, as long as you're not on call, I'll trust you, Bones. I'll be heading back to Engineering to talk things over with Mister Scott, and hopefully we'll be able to take another step forward in bringing you all home," the captain promised everyone with a nod, before beginning to leave the area.
So with that, you were all free to do as you pleased now, whether to return to Recreation (having a drink with McCoy or not), or to go somewhere else.
@Kaykay @Yun Lee @Archmage Jeremiah @Raptor Jesus @Jeremi @Donder172 @Gummi Bunnies @Archmage Jeremiah @Crow @CrunchyCHEEZIT @dark @Alex Azure
