starlogs | ( closed ) and I'm floating in the most peculiar way

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( closed ) and I'm floating in the most peculiar way

WHO: James T. Kirk & Leonard McCoy
WHERE: Enterprise
WHEN: February 14th (+ another thread later on)
WHAT: Waking up with no power and zero gravity isn't their idea of fun.
WARNINGS: Nothing aside from Bones panicking and Jim hating himself a little later on. Possible mentions of death too.

When things actually started going down, Jim was too fast asleep to realize. Even the faint glow filtering through the windows as the nearest ship blew up wasn't enough to wake him, eyes shut for a while longer. The fifteen minutes of peace that followed would be the last bit of decent and unhindered rest he'd likely get in a while.

It started with a strange tingling sensation, at first. As the systems started malfunctioning, it was the engines shutting down completely and the whole ship going dead silent that had him waking up. His heart thrummed to the beat of the engines and the warp core, and suddenly everything felt... misaligned.

He nearly startled awake at that, shoving the blankets off of him in one sudden move as he got to his feet. Except his feet touched the ground for about a second or two before his whole body started to float, as if weightless, and the more he struggled to reach the ground, the farther away he got from it.

"What the fuck—" he looked over sharply, seeing Bones's silhouette starting to lift from the bed even in the dark of the room. Despite the evident lack of gravity, he tried to glide over to him. "Bones. Wake up, wake up— Bones!"

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He never liked zero-g training. Moving anywhere without gravity was the worst feeling he could imagine and to be honest, he had too many bad memories tied to watching things floating lifeless in space. Right, too many bodies. Closing his eyes for a moment, he focused on calming the fuck down.

Jim's voice pulled him out of it enough to turn his head and look at the blonde silently. Turning in the air, he reached out to catch Jim's hand. Where the contact calmed his nerves considerably, he still had a terrible feeling about the entire freaking situation.

"The hell happened? Did those bastards mess with the ship?" He didn't trust them. Never had. But he couldn't imagine what they could be trying to accomplish with this. But he also knew asking Jim all these questions was not gonna help any of them.

Jim was trying really hard not to focus on bad memories or less than pleasant experiences right now. There were a myriad of reasons why he should be panicking right now, but that wasn't going to help them any. What he needed to do was calm down, get Bones to calm down too, then find a way out of the room so he could at least activate auxiliary power so he could figure out what was happening.

"Got you," he said finally as his hand caught Bones's, fingers curling tight. He tugged hard and pulled Bones closer, until he could wrap his arm around his waist instead. Not that it helped, but at least the contact had them both floating slowly towards the door.

"I doubt it," he muttered, looking around the room. What would the purpose of completely shutting down the power be, after all? It just made no sense. "Won't find out from in here. We need to... come on."

Free hand reaching up to the ceiling, he pushed hard against it, propelling them closer to the door.

He grabbed on to Jim's hand tight, the contact cooled some of that burning fear racing along his spine. Breathing in slowly, he moved closer with the force of the pull and couldn't help but curl his other arm about Jim's neck. The race of his pulse stuttered oddly in his chest as he pressed into Jim's space in this strange weightless scenario.

And maybe he didn't want to admit it, but he ducked his head to press his face into Jim's neck as he bit into his lip. Being close to Jim kept his mind from flying off the handle and going overboard.

Focusing on breathing slowly, he let his fingers curl into Jim's shoulder. It took a lot of effort to remove himself from being pressed so completely against the blonde. "We don't have any tools in here... the hell are you planning to do?" He knew they needed to get out of the enclosed room. If it was total power failure, a larger space with more air would be better...

But doing that could be dangerous. Though, so were the calculations he was doing in his head about how long it would take for them to run out of air here.

Jim didn't mind being close in the least but it did help to have a little more freedom to move, so when Bones eased his hold on him, he let him, though his arm stayed where it was, curled around Bones's waist. Looking around them more than at the doctor, he didn't notice any changes in his expression, though he took the lack of yelling as a good sign.

Even if the lack of yelling should probably worry him even more, but anyway. At least he could focus more clearly like this.

"Don't know. Manual override? There's got to be a way to bypass the door's mechanism," he said, gripping at the wall once they were close enough. Using a groove on the wall, he tugged and boosted the both of them towards the door, holding onto the edge until they slowed to a near halt of sorts. "Can you hold onto my shoulders from the back? Kinda need my arms free for this."

At first, he disliked pulling away. He knew damn well that just being in contact with Jim was keeping him calmer, but he shouldn't be such an infant. And that point became infinitely clear when Jim told him to move to grab his shoulders cause he was... well... in the way.

He looked away at that and slowly pried his own grip away from the blonde and moved just enough to press his hand to the wall. "Just let go." He said the words almost to forcefully to be considered calm like he was aimin' for. Closing his eyes, he felt that shaking panic clawing it's way back into the pit of his stomach. Goddamnit, why was he being such a child?

"Don't get yourself hurt." He pointed out as solidly as his quivering insides would let him. "Can't do any real first aid in zero gravity." Most of the color was bleeding out of his face and a shiver ran up his spine. He knew the tell-tale signs of the onset of shock, but he also knew how to distract himself. Mostly. And Jim's well being... he could focus on that before his own while not being a damn bother to him.

To be honest, Jim didn't want to let go of Bones any more than he did, if nothing else because he worried that Bones might end up floating too far away from him. Jim had done pretty great during his zero gravity training but simulations weren't the same as it happening in real life without any warning or preparation, in a room clearly not designed for it.

Well at least the furniture was attached to the floor and walls, so aside from shoes, a few clothes and small decorative items, there was nothing else floating around mid-air. Small blessings.

"I won't," he promised even though he technically shouldn't (or couldn't). He did let go of Bones finally, reaching for his hand and squeezing it just once before moving to the door's control panel. It was completely dead so inputting any codes wouldn't work, so instead he felt around the edge and tried to pry it off of the wall so he could take a look behind it. "We'll be fine, Bones. Gotten us out of worse, haven't I?"

Looking for any hold he could get on the wall, he tried to keep his body as stationary as possible. But it didn't matter how hard he tried not to think about this shit, he still did. His mouth felt dry and well, he could blame the lack of gravity for making everything feel like it was sitting in his throat. Turning his head, he pressed his forehead into the metal wall closing his eyes.

He was no engineer. He really couldn't offer anything useful to Jim right now. Hell, at best he was a liability in the situation. So best to bite his tongue and stay out of the way.

Which wasn't that hard when he felt like he might shake out of his skin at this point. Turning his head just a little he could feel the cold sweat at his temple and hairline while setting his jaw to watch Jim work. "Yeah. You have." If anything he did know that. But Jim had a whole crew backing him then. Now he was stuck with just him.

For Jim it was easier not to focus on the more harrowing details for now, since he was currently getting busy messing with the control panel. Everything seemed to be in order with the wiring, nothing cut, frayed or burnt— though that didn't surprise Jim all that much. He had heard the very engines turn off, after all. It was a ship-wide problem.

Unfortunately that meant they were stuck in here. The doors could be pried open if only he were strong enough, but he wasn't, and he had no tools here that could help him with that. The air vents leading to his own room were also too small for any human to crawl into them, so that wasn't an option either.

Just for good measure, he disconnected a couple of the wires and tapped them together. But there was no spark, no energy of any source flowing through them. He didn't even have a phaser here, or he might've shot the panel in an attempt to get enough energy into it to get the door to open. No such luck, though.

Sighing quietly, he glanced towards Bones, pressing his lips together. "Power's down. Everything... I'm guessing you don't have anything lying around that can help us open the door by force," he tried, just a little hopeful, but he was pretty sure he knew what the answer would be.

Evening out his breaths, he knew that hyperventilating was a bad idea. Also knew that air would be scarce and him freaking out would only use up what air they had left. Of course his brain would work that way. Turning in that sickeningly weightless way, he leaned back against the wall and held himself there as best he could. At least that was some sort of grounding in this scenario.

Closing his eyes, he tried not to look to closely at the current situation. Not if he wanted to stay mostly calm. Then Jim spoke and he forced his eyes open. God, it was dark in there. Fucking black of space.

Breathing in a little deeper this time, he turned his head to look at the blonde. His mind shifted gears a little at Jim's question then he finally shook his head. Not that Jim would see that too well in the black of space. Goddamn space.

"None of my tools in my medkit are strong enough to cut through alloy or metals. Unless you want to find a way to disassemble the furniture." His voice was oddly quiet, losing a lot of the edge to them that usually came with his grouching or sarcasm. But then, it could be because his head felt like it was spinning and he couldn't even sit down.

Jim looked down and away for a moment, not even disappointed by the answer when he'd known from the start that there was very little chance Bones would have a solution to offer. Well, the furniture suggestion wasn't bad per se, but it would be more doable if they had gravity, at the very least. As it was, it was unmanageable.

"Alright," he took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts. Shoving the panel back into the wall so it didn't just float around, he moved so he slotted himself under the door frame next to Bones, reaching for his hand and holding it tightly in his own. As much for Leonard's sake as for his own, honestly.

"Okay. Good thing right now is we don't have to worry about air. There's enough for us to last a few days, if not over a week if we keep ourselves calm. So that's good." They were much likelier to suffer the effects of the cold or to feel thirst or hunger long before they ran out of air, though Jim wasn't about to point that out to Bones right now.

The lack of light he could live with. Although... now he had the time to, he looked out the window to spot where the faint glow from outside came from. Not any nearby planet or a distant sun somewhere, no— looking more attentively, he realized it was one of the ships on the fleet. Or it had been... before it blew up.

"That's a ship," he blurted out before he thought twice of it. "Shit. What the hell is happening?"

"Guess that panel is no use?" He offered quieter, watching Jim as still as he could be. When Jim went to take his hand, he had to unclench it from his palm and curl his fingers about Jim's. He didn't even realize when he slipped his fingers through Jim's and closed his eyes again.

"The rooms are just as air tight, Jim. They're made that way for a reason." For hull breaches and the like. And where the vent would not have shut off from loss of power. But with no circulation, there was no guarantee that oxygen would move this way. But he decided he didn't want to think about that.

He was content to sit there with his eyes closed and fight his own thoughts until Jim's outburst had him looking up. Staring at the window, he blinked a few times and thought that maybe he should be thankful they didn't blow up like that. Just a split second of thought before he frowned. "I hope no one was on it..."

His back stiffened as he turned his head to look at Jim. "You don't think whatever happened to those ships will happen here, do ya?"

"Yeah, but this room is huge. Plenty of air in here, trust me." Jim was already going through the math in his head, and he'd already figured that air wasn't their most immediate concern. All he had to do was make sure he kept Bones calm so he didn't start sucking up air and burning through what oxygen they did have that much faster.

His fingers weaved through Bones's without hesitation, finding that touch particularly soothing, which at this point was something they both needed. Especially as he saw the faint glow of the explosion filtering through the windows.

He looked towards Bones at the first remark, not saying anything to it. He did know some of those ships were empty, but he still couldn't tell Bones that was the case right now. And as much as he wanted the doctor to keep calm, he wasn't going to treat him like he was stupid.

The question, however, got an all too sure answer out of him. "No. Our girl's tough. She'll keep us safe." He patted the door frame with his free hand distractedly, eventually looking over to the bed. "Guess all we can do for now is wait. I think I've got a few belts... we can strap ourselves down to the bed or the couch."

Of course Jim felt safe on the Enterprise. They may die of dehydration or suffocation, but Jim’s faith in the Enterprise was unfailing. Well, he had to admit, she got through a lot of hell even if she had to be rebuilt more than once. Sighing softly, his eyes tracked Jim’s to the bed and stayed on it as Jim made that comment about belts and being tied down. A small sardonic smile pulled at his lips.

“Yeah? Have to say, when I considered my first go at being tied to a bed, I never pictured it in a zero gravity scenario. It kind of takes the edge off of the whole thing, I think.” Joking was better than serious. If he thought too hard and focused on all that was wrong, they would get nowhere. And here he was just wanting to not think about the possible negative outcomes.

“Honestly Jim, I don’t care where you put us.” He didn’t. Squeezing Jim’s hand, he decided to be a little brave even. God help him. “Next time you tie me to the bed, make sure the gravity is working and we have life support. Promise it sets a better mood. Granted I’d rather start with dinner if that’s all right by you.” One brow rose as he turned to look at Jim in the dark. The sarcasm is light, and at least it sounded far more like him than he did moments earlier.

Jim's mind was pulled away from worries related to their current situation by Bones's words. His eyebrows shot up his forehead as he looked back at the doctor, lips stretching to a grin. It was enough to distract him, but luckily not enough to distract him so bad that he'd actually picture Bones tied down to a bed in that sense. Which was probably for the best right now, all things considered.

However, Bones wasn't so lucky that Jim would just let the opportunity to tease him back go by. And really, he'd placed himself in a prime position there. As they say, you reap what you sow.

"Really now? Well, then..." He hummed with a faint lilt to his tone, turning to the side and floating just a hint closer to Bones. "I'll be your first, if you want to. Promise I'll be real gentle on you."

Smirking, he winked at Bones, eyes flickering up and down briefly before he finally pulled away and started to move them back to the bed.

Good thing it was dark, cause the moment Jim said that a rush of heat flooded into his cheeks. Clearing his throat, he arched a brow and snorted at him. "Ass." Then he thought better of it and decided why the hell not and dug his grave a little deeper. "Think you bein' gentle is the stipulation. Hardly." Cause he knew damn well Jim wasn't serious right now.

Not that he expected any seriousness involved with this conversation when they were in a dangerous situation. "You can get me to do that shit, but I'm a one person kinda guy." Take it as he would, Leonard just knew if he didn't continue this he would end up setting on fire from being embarrassed and oxygen was scarce enough.

A shudder ran through him as Jim pulled him through the air back toward the bed. And where it might have been a lot better to think about how it felt to have Jim that close and hint things like that, he chose to let himself be freaked a little by the zero gravity rather than get his hopes up.

Raising his eyebrows, he let out a faint surprised hum. "So you like it a little rougher, hm? Well, good to know, doc." Because teasing made all this so much easier to deal with. Not just the fact they were stuck in that room, completely helpless while power was down, but the fact that he didn't really want to think about whether he meant that or not. This was hardly the time or place for that, anyway.

Which was why he said nothing else, not even when Bones added the last few words. Maybe a talk for some other time— maybe not. Hell, he didn't even know if they'd make it out of this alive. He could only hope someone was working to get the power back online.

With a soft push from the door, Jim managed to move them slowly enough that he could hook one of his feet to the edge of the bed. Slowly he guided Bones towards the mattress, gesturing towards the frame around the side. "Hold on there, will you? I'll go get us something to keep us in place."

"Wouldn't know till I tried." He pointed out without hesitating. Cause if he hesitated, he'd stumble over his words and fidget his way through the mind burning embarrassment of talkin' like that. Instead he went with impulse reaction to Jim's words. Cause hell, why not? Maybe he could blow off some of that ridiculous steam he'd been repressing for god knows how long in regards to one Jim Kirk.

In any case, he caught the bed frame as directed and sighed lightly. Yeah. Good thing the furniture was all basically nailed down. Cause being smacked by an unattached mattress would not constitute as fun. Though he may end up with the blankets coiling about him if he moved too much for the time being.

And honestly, he was more fighting to keep his expression in check when Jim moved away. It was like losing a damn security blanket. Breathing in slowly with a measured breath, he closed his eyes and tried not to think about it. "Being stationary might help, so yeah.. hope you find what ya need."

The longer they were stuck like this, the easier it was for Jim to move around. He'd always been a natural during zero G training and right now that proved to be an asset, even if they couldn't seem to get out of the room just yet. Once he reached the dresser, he pulled a drawer open (carefully so his underwear wouldn't go floating off through the room), then dug into it for a few belts.

Thankfully he'd gotten himself a decent number of them, which would prove useful right now. Closing the drawer again, he moved back towards Bones, holding onto his arm with his free hand first, then unceremoniously wrapping his legs around the doctor's waist.

"Sorry," he offered honestly, devoid of any teasing this time around. "I need my hands free for this. Think you can just hold me in place?" He was already working on hooking the belts together into a longer strap that would hopefully encompass the whole bed. It was a little weird but honestly it wasn't like they had that many options right now.

When Jim came back in his direction, he automatically caught his arm. What he hadn’t expected as he hauled the blonde closer was to have those legs instantly curl around his waist. And maybe he let a gasp escape him that he hoped Jim didn’t hear. Brow furrowing instantly, all he did was nod in reply to Jim’s statement. It was necessity, sure…

Just didn’t account for Leonard not expecting Jim to attach himself so… inelegantly and maybe more suggestively than he expected. Breathing in slowly, he reflexively gripped Jim’s hip while his other hand stayed attached to the bed frame to hold them steady. “Yeah. I’ve got you.”

Offhandedly, he knew that phrase was something he said a lot to Jim. And quite honestly, he made an extreme point to keep that true. He’d cut his own hand off before letting Jim down. A reality he should likely wonder about. But he never saw it as misplaced loyalty. Jim never let him down either. Not really. Not in moments like this and surviving. “How do you always look in your element no matter what the situation is?”

If Jim heard that gasp, he figured he'd just collided a little too hard with Bones, but right now there was nothing that could be done about that. At least he'd managed to hold onto the doctor tightly enough, if somewhat unorthodoxly, and while the hand on his hip was a little distracting, it also did a pretty good job of keeping him in place. Sort of.

What mattered was that he had his hands free to put all the belts together, something he did with growing ease as he went along. He paused only to look down at Bones at his comment, huffing out a breath and shooting a small smile at him as he shrugged. "Natural talent, I guess."

He did not feel in his element right now, though, not even a little bit. But if he managed to work well under this kind of pressure (or complete lack thereof) and making it look like it was somehow easy for him, then all the better. At least he took comfort from the knowledge that it might be keeping Bones calm.

Finishing with the last belt, he nodded to the frame where Bones was holding onto. "Think you can tie one end there? Or just pull me closer."

"You've got a lot of that." He rarely fed the actual ego. He figured a long time ago that doing that would make Jim unbearable. But right now, he couldn't help but appreciate the man for keeping so... calm. Even if he knew damn well neither of them had it together, Jim made sure to look like he did.

Tipping his head to look at where Jim indicated, he arched a brow slowly. Well, if Jim had no issues manhandling him, why not return the favor? "I'll do my best to get you over there." Slipping his hand over from Jim's hip to simply around his waist, he turned them shifting his hold on the frame. Granted this put Jim's back closer to the mattress and more with his back to what he needed. "You're gonna have to stop clinging to me like a spider monkey and turn over. "It's alright. I'll keep you in place from above. I'd try what you want, but I'm not sure where you're goin' with this."

Uncurling his arm from Jim's waist, he didn't even think about it as his hand drifted to his thigh and patted it slightly. "Mean it though. I got you. You do what you gotta do and I'll be your anchor."

"Yeah, well," he let out a huff as he struggled with the belts a little, lifting his shoulders at Bones. "Comes in handy at times, doesn't it?"

He wasn't bragging, not this time around. Not like their current situation was very conductive to his ego getting blown out of proportion by Bones's words, but he did appreciated them. They reassured him, grounded him (though not literally), and Jim could very well use that right now.

Huffing a little as his back brushed against the mattress, he uncurled his legs from around Bones, then promptly turned himself around so he was facing the frame too, his weight kept down between Bones and the bed. It was by no means a secure hold, but it was enough for him to loop the belt around the side of the frame, while sure that he wouldn't just float away.

And if nothing else, their situation meant Jim was focused on a whole lot, more than enough to stop himself from thinking about how close they were, or how he could feel Bones's presence brushing lightly against his back.

His hand moved to grip Jim's hip firmly as much to hold him in place as it was to reassure him. Furrowing his brow a little, he turned that thought over along with the current situation. "Hey, Jim... you know there is no one else in the universe I trust half as much as you. Sure as hell don't believe in any half as much as I believe in you. It's not just 'natural talent' as you put it."

He paused a moment, his eyes following the motions of Jim's hands as he attached the belts to the bed. "Figure I'm bias as well, but you have never let me down when it counted the most." Anything he did let him down in really was a personal problem and he had no right to even be remotely irritated by it. So just having the man close by doing something that may or may not be important, made Leonard feel ten times better.

"Got faith in you. And if our luck ever does run out, just hope I'm there with you." Cause god help him, he hoped he could 'have Jim's back' so neither of them would have to face that circumstance alone.

Jim listened to Bones in silence as he talked, his hands not slowing down as he tied the belts tight to the bed frame. Eventually he glanced over his shoulder when Bones fell silent, eyebrow raised just barely before he was looking away again. "Can you stop saying things like that? Makes me want to hug you and our current situation isn't very conductive to that."

He did appreciate Bones saying those things, even though he knew them already. He'd always known he had Bones on his side, that the doctor trusted and believed in him in ways that no one else really did. And honestly, he wouldn't have pulled half the crazy stunts he did if he hadn't had Bones standing by his side— figuratively or literally.

Tugging on the belts to make sure they were secured to the bed, Jim turned slightly to look at Bones, nudging him a little. "Okay, can you— hold onto the sheets and crawl us over to the other side of the bed?"

Rolling his eyes a little at Jim, he arched a brow at him. "Gee. Says the guy that thinks I never say anything positive." Snorting at that, he purposely ignored the hug comment cause well, obviously Jim was just givin' him hell as always.

Which was why he shrugged a bit at the request and slid one arm about Jim's waist and used his other to pull them both over the width of the bed so Jim could get to the other side. Once they reached that point, he switched arms to catch hold of the blonde while he grabbed onto something more solid to keep them in place. "Better?"

Honestly, having a task made things... easier. Not that he liked this feeling. He still felt stick to his stomach and he didn't want to function in zero-g even if he had no choice. Still, Leonard put his focus into keeping Jim in place while moving his hand from it's spot on his stomach to carefully return it to his hip. It was more to keep him in place than anything else... and certainly kept him from accidentally holding on to him too tight. Well, for many reasons.

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