Star Trek: Metamorphosis
Westfall/Star Trek TNG Crossover Fanfiction #2
Scene 10
Beverly Crusher sighed as she set down a stack of tablets onto her desk. She attempted to look through the top of the stack, only to look up when she noticed Alyssa Ogawa walk by.
“Lieutenant,” she called for her, reaching over her desk to give her a wave. “Would you be a dear and help me prepare these for Commander Riker? He’s needing them for the quarterly departmental crew checks today.”
“Of course, Doctor,” the blue-suited assistant smiled as she entered the room.
“In fact,” Beverly glanced at a clock, “Engineering will have someone sent up to retrieve theirs any moment. Geordi always sends someone promptly.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
This freed up Beverly to scoot past her and enter the medical ward–just as Giorgio Hayward ducked behind the table his case was resting on.
“Oh! Beverly!” He half-fell against the table while his hands struggled out of sight.
The red-haired doctor’s brows lowered as she tried to lean over to determine what he was doing. “Doctor? What are you...”
At last, he set both hands onto the table top, smiling awkwardly.
She blinked. “Why are you wearing one glove?”
“Oh, I’ve–misplaced the other...”
The door to sick bay hissed open to reveal a tall man in an engineering uniform. “Doctor Crusher,” Hudson Rowlett scratched the back of his head somewhat nervously, “I was sent over to pick a tablet or somethin’ for Lieutenant LaForge...?”
His words trailed off when he remained unnoticed. Beverly had even turned her back and was marching straight towards Giorgio, now cowering behind the table with wide eyes.
She plucked the glove from his hand and promptly gasped.
“Now–now Beverly,” he spoke, throwing up his Andorian blue hand in protest. “I can explain!”
“You had better!” The sharpness of Beverly’s voice pierced the room. “Because we have a young woman on a very important mission who cannot have her appearance simply start changing on her!”
Hudson’s face had gone pale. “Gemini’s gonna change back??”
The two doctors finally noticed the petty officer standing in the doorway.
“N-no–No!” Giorgio fumbled as he grasped onto the table. “She will not, it’s... it’s only when...”
“When what??” Beverly stressed each word.
Doctor Hayward’s two-toned hands were trembling near his chest. “When I try to turn anything... back.”
The Enterprise’s doctor straightened up from her prowling stance. “Meaning...”
“When Gemini returns, and I return her to her Aravasti state, it will only be a matter of hours until she... she turns back into a Klingon.” His words had grown lighter and fainter as he spoke, and his posture had mimicked his confidence. “I... I don’t know why. I thought, perhaps, I had corrected this issue by adding more power to the reversal process. But...” he bit his lip, lifted his blue hand, and shook his head miserably.
Beverly hadn’t moved. “You can turn someone to someone else, but you can’t turn them back ?”
Giorgio nodded sheepishly.
“And you went through with all of this knowing the change back isn’t permanent??”
“Yes–and there’s four Andorians with human-colored appendages to prove it!” He uttered miserably.
Beverly Crusher let out a long breath as her eyes fell closed. “All right. Hudson, I want you to listen to me,” she spoke firmly as her eyes opened and she turned to the door. “Before you run off–”
She stopped when the man was no longer there.
Hudson raced through the halls, narrowly missing other officers walking through without so much as a glance in their direction. He nearly skidded to a halt at a room door and mashed his finger into the door panel.
The two-toned chime rang in the room.
“Enter,” Data’s voice followed.
The door had barely opened fully when Hudson rushed inside. “Data!! Data–I–I just found out there’s a problem with Doctor Hayward’s machine; it’s–”
It was his turn to stop short, eyes wide, as Data turned to face him.
In his hands was a calico cat that was supposed to be an orange tabby.
“I believe I have witnessed an error as well,” Data spoke simply.
Commercial Break
Scene Notes
- Annnd here's conflict #2!