Title: Pinpoints of Lights
Author: Ultra-Geek
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I own nothing, least of all the Star Trek franchise
Summary: Lives are made of moments, brief and flashing, like pinpoints of light in the dark. A collection of drabbles and ideas surrounding the crew of the USS Enterprise.
AN: 21 was born of a desire to make Spock say the word 'jiggles'.

13)

"Oh, Bo-ones!" Jim sing-songed as he barged in through the Sickbay door, "I have a surprise for you!"

McCoy looked over at Chapel as she glanced up at him. "God help us," he muttered.

"Us?" Chapel snorted. "Help you, you mean. I'm out of here."

As she hurried away in the opposite direction McCoy sighed to steady himself, then turned to face the grinning captain. "What'd'you want, Jim?"

"You'll never guess what I've been doing!" Kirk answered, his smile stretching bigger. "But you should, anyway."

"Should what?"

"Guess!"

"No."

Kirk's smile deflated slightly. Then he brightened again, making McCoy even more wary about whatever Jim was about to announce. "I'll just tell you, if you're going to be such a party pooper. I've been looking through the personnel files to, you know, familiarize myself with the crew. And guess what I found?"

"I'm not guessing."

"Whatever," Jim waved a hand excitedly. "Anyway, I came across your file. And you want to know what I've learned?"

"It's my file, Jim. I already know everything in there."

"But I didn't! And, and now I know," Jim said, and paused.

McCoy was anything but happy with the vaguely maniacal overtones that the captain's grin had taken. Dread stirred in his stomach. "Just out with it."

"I know what the H stands for in Leonard H. McCoy," Kirk said, and laughed evilly. "Man, how warped were your parents to saddle you with that one!"

"Drop it."

"I won't drop it, Horatio."

"Shut up, Tiberius."

"Touché."

14)

"So, let me get this straight," Kirk said. "Khan is evil, but I haven't met him yet. When I do, he's going to be psycho and try to take over the world and kill people. If I get catapulted into an alternate dimension, I'll know 'cause you'll – the alternate you, or, um, alternate-alternate you – will have a beard?"

The older version of Spock – Future-Spock, as Kirk referred to him in private – nodded. "Also, keep in mind that, under no circumstances, should you allow tribbles on board the Enterprise."

"Why?" Kirk asked, blinking. "What's wrong with tribbles?"

Future-Spock blinked. "Trust me, Captain, when I tell you that you should not allow tribbles on board the Enterprise," he said seriously, a look that vaguely resembled horror deep in his old eyes. Kirk could only nod his agreement. Future-Spock continued, "Then, Captain, in the event that a woman beams aboard the ship and precedes to…maybe you should be recording what I am telling you?"

"What? Oh, yeah, right," Kirk said, and pulled out a data pad, entering the information that Future-Spock had already told him, and then looked up. "Okay, what were you saying?"

"In the event that a woman beams aboard the ship and proceeds to steal my young counterpart's brain, be sure that Doctor McCoy is with the landing party so that he may use a super computer to gain the knowledge to surgically replace my brain in its rightful place."

Kirk squinted at the half-Vulcan. "Now you're just shitting me."

Future-Spock's mouth curled into a small smile. "I assure you, I am not 'shitting' you. And on the subject of the good doctor, in the majority of cases it is best to keep him far from any species with psychic abilities. Even if said species is Vulcan, it is probably best to make sure that he is not left alone."

"Why do…" Kirk trailed off, and shook his head. "Nevermind. I probably don't want to know."

"Now, moving on to things concerning myself. There is something that my young self will not tell you, but I feel it is very important that you know about it. It's called pon farr…"

15)

When Kirk was called down to the corridor outside Sickbay – not Sickbay, but the actual hall outside – the last thing he expected was to find a crowd of people standing in the way of the door. "Okay, I'm here, what's the problem?"

Scotty pointed at the door. "We think tha' Doctor McCoy's gone a wee bit mad, Captain. An' I mean more than he usually is."

Kirk shouldered through the crowd, and as soon as they realized that he was, in fact, the captain, they parted like the Red Sea before Moses. Posted on the door was a piece of paper. Not a digital message, but an honest-to-God piece of paper taped to the door. Only Bones. Kirk leaned forward to read the chicken scratch writing.

Attention Morons:

There are new rules to Sickbay.

One, you come in here when ordered here. You drop whatever the hell you are doing and run like hell, 'cause you'll have about ten minutes before Security comes for your sorry ass.

Two, if you don't follow rule one and you injure yourself in your stupid, moronic ways, you can just stay out and fucking bleed on the floor until you drop dead. If you can't come for a vaccination, you don't need to come to stop whatever stupid thing you've done to yourself. Go to Science. Maybe they can help.

Three, if you hit on a nurse, she now has permission to hit you or find someone to do it for her. Yes, Kirk, this means you too.

Four, don't bother coming if you ate something bright orange while planetside. If your stupidity doesn't kill you this time, it will next time, so stop wasting my fucking time.

All personnel must sign a contract agreeing to these rules, or you won't be allowed in my Sickbay. Deal with it. Morons.

Doctor McCoy

Kirk sighed, and stuck his head through the door cautiously. "Hey, Bones?"

"Are you gonna sign the contract?" came the growled reply.

"Uh, no, but you can't –" Kirk broke off in a strangled yelp as a hypospray ricocheted off of the wall next to his head.

16)

Everyone has a breaking point. The day had been, to say the least, stressful. After all, a planet was destroyed, a villain from the future defeated, fights won, Earth saved, and alternate timelines discovered. Chekov sat, numb and thoughtless, staring at his hands folded in his lap.

Sulu had at some point collapsed into the chair next to him. The pilot appeared just as overwhelmed as the navigator. With a deep breath, Chekov turned to face his friend. "It could haff been vorse," he said. Sulu looked up, waiting for him to continue. Chekov forced a smile that he knew looked stretched and pained. "Ve could haff died, yes?"

Sulu's face stretched into a grin, and both collapsed into uncontrollable giggles. Eventually, the laughter turned to tears, but Sulu just slung an arm around Chekov shoulders as they both shook.

17)

The thing about Bones is that he never left. Kirk had showed up in the small hours of the morning more times than he could remember – he had a sneaking suspicion, though, that Bones kept a tally somewhere – beaten and bruised and wasted, looking for the doctor to patch him up. Almost every time, Kirk had half expected the door to slam in his face as an answer, and every time, he was surprised to be pulled in among a tirade of curses and profanities. And Bones never kicked him out. They fought, and poked, and needled at each other and sometimes Jim worried that one day Bones would just get fed up and leave. But after everything with Nero, he'd lost that nagging doubt that Bones would leave. He came to the conclusion that no matter what he did Bones would just always be there, lurking in the shadows with a hypo and a lecture.

But he was wrong.

They fought. But they'd always fought. But then Kirk got stupid, and said that stupid, stupid something, and Bones had gone all stiff and silent before turning and sweeping from the room…

What scared Jim the most – not even scared, really, but completely terrified him – was that he really, truly believed that Bones wasn't going to come back this time.

18)

The transporter flared. Scotty frowned. He hadn't beamed anyone up, nor was the controls picking up any signals. Then he saw what was standing, panting, on the pad.

Scotty's eyes narrowed. "Beagle," he hissed.

The dog barked loudly and growled.

"This time, ye wee beasty," Scotty said, and picked up a phaser, flicking it to stun, "This time, we're at war. An' you are nae gonna escape from Scotty again!"

19)

It had somehow snuck on board. Kirk was fed up with with entities who wished little good will towards the Federation magically appearing on his ship. Really. Wasn't this supposed to be the best ship in the fleet? Weren't its crewmen the best that the Federation had to offer? Wasn't the security systems top of the line? It begged the question: how the hell did bad guys keep beaming on his ship?

It took a while, but soon Kirk, Spock, and McCoy – and, on the subject of unanswerable questions, why was it always the three of them confronting shit? Seriously! – had the alien cornered down in one of the auxiliary power rooms. It was beautiful. Kirk really didn't have any other word to describe it. Long, iridescent tentacles swayed quietly from its back, and it stood nearly seven feet tall. But there were something about its eyes that was just sad. It looked lonely. Spock was muttering quietly about how it was an Udolian, and highly dangerous, and something about psychic communications, when the Udolian's tragic eyes locked on Spock.

Both were immobile for several tense moments. Then Spock roared before collapsing onto the floor. As Bones went to his knees to hold the now convulsing Spock still, Kirk open fired. He'd never been so repulsed by beauty in his life.

20)

There were a surplus of McCoys. Kirk figured that he should at least be comforted by the fact they were only coming in from Dimension number whatever, but still. He was beginning to get frustrated. Kirk just wanted his Bones back, not some alternate-Bones. But, at the same time, he was rather impressed. All of McCoy's counterparts kept appearing to be undeniably badass. Or evil. Several had to be restrained.

Kirk sighed, and drummed his fingers on the armrest of his chair in impatience. All he could do was sit and wait for a new Bones. And it had been a while since the last one – a man who went by the name of John Grimm – had been whipped abruptly from the Enterprise to places unknown.

"Um, Engineerin' to the Bridge."

"Engineering, this is the Bridge," Kirk answered immediately, pouncing on the Comm button. "What's up, Scotty?"

Scotty's answer was drowned out by what could only be described as a neigh. Kirk blinked once. Then, he blinked again. Kirk frowned and glanced up. "Did anyone else just…?"

"I believe that sounded like the earth species Equus caballus," Spock said in what he obviously believed to be a helpful manner. Kirk's frown just deepened. Spock sighed. "A horse, Captain."

Kirk nodded. "So I'm not imagining things?"

"No, Captain."

He nodded once before pressing the intercom button. "Mr. Scott," Kirk said. "Is there a horse on my ship?"

A hesitation, and then, "Aye,"

"May I ask why there is a horse on my ship?"

"Well, sir," Scotty said. "Near as I can tell, the newest Doctor rode it in."

"Another one?!"

"Aye. He's been here abou' ten minutes, Captain. I dinnae tell ye right away, because we were nae sure it was another Doctor McCoy."

"And why is that?"

"He is on a horse, Captain," Scotty's voice was incredulous, "We had ta catch him first. An' he had a bloody sword, an' a helmet, an' he's blonde, and now we've got him cornered, bu' he keeps yellin' abou' witchcraft an' wizardry an' wavin' the sword –"

"I get the picture," Kirk said, even though he did not. "I'm on my way down."

It promised to be a long day.

21)

Spock poked the Jello with his spoon suspiciously. "It…jiggles."

"Aye."

"It moves as if possessing independent thought."

"Aye."

"And, Mr. Scott, there are very few things in the universe that are naturally this particular shade of purple. Of those things, even fewer are edible."

"That sounds about right, Mr. Spock."

"And, yet, I am expected to eat this?"

Kirk sat with a thump. "No, you're not," he told Spock. "You're expected to slurp it."

Scotty smirked. Spock raised an eyebrow. Kirk demonstrated, and then vanished as abruptly as he appeared.

"Fascinating," Spock said, but still seemed unable to bring himself to eat the Jello. Several minutes passed, and then Spock looked up. "It is still moving," Spock said, eyeing the Jello warily.

"Aye, it does that."

"Does it ever desist?"

"I donnae think so."

"But, Mr. Scott," Spock said, eyebrow raised once more, "that defies several of the laws of physics."

"Aye," said Scotty sagely, "that it does, Mr. Spock, that it does."