'Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven' - Chapter 10
The noise from up ahead had her pausing. It sounded like a fight going on. She had some training in defending herself, everyone who attended the Academy, no matter their track, had to pass the defensive training aspect at least. This sounded way out of her league. She was feeling vulnerable and a little stupid right at this moment. Khan had hurt that transporter operator and didn’t seem to have thought twice about it. If he had, he hid it well and when she questioned him about it once they arrived on the Botany Bay, he didn’t yell at her, but his disdain was palpable.
He had left her then, off to free his people, he said. She stood for a while, not quite knowing what to do with herself, until she decided that the best thing would be to find Khan. As she wandered around the Botany Bay, she discovered some of the life support units had been opened. Khan had managed to get them working and the people awake. Her interest in more people from the past was tempered by her fear about what was going to come next. Would Khan take the ship and leave? Would he send her back to the Enterprise? And how much trouble would she be in?
There was a loud thumping sound and then it was quiet. She pressed back against the wall, waiting to hear what was going on. She heard a little bit of rustling and then a sound that she presumed was a body being dragged.
She ran the other way, away from the sound. She tried desperately to remember the mapping records she had made, but one corridor seemed to blend into another and everywhere she ran, the life support units were empty and there were no other people in sight. Her luck ran out as she rounded one corner and ran literally into another woman. A hand clamped over her mouth as she opened it to cry out. The woman in front of her, who was holding her in place, was wearing one of the outfits she had sketched and described for her notes; a strange gold mesh overlay with a tight leotard type clothing underneath.
“Take her to the others,” the woman told the person behind Marla.
The hand was removed from her mouth and the woman let go. She was still being held and as they pushed her forward, she glanced up to see who it was that held her. It was a man. He was very tall and broad, with dark hair and pale features.
“Forward,” he said in standard, his voice deep.
She turned her head back around as he ordered, and while not exactly allowing him to direct her, she didn’t see any other option.
When they walked around another corner, and she was well and truly lost, she gasped at what she saw.
The Enterprise crew, who had obviously been over on the ship, were all sitting on the floor. Some were tied up and the rest were in the process of being secured by Khan’s people. She recognised Mr. Scott as one of those who were tied up. Standing next to him was Khan.
As the man pushed her down onto the ground, Khan looked in their direction.
“Marla, how nice to see you have decided to join us again,” Khan said. “Let her be, Otto. She was the one to help me.”
Marla felt the hand on her shoulder no longer. She looked up and the man she presumed was Otto had taken a step away from her. She stood up slowly, waiting to see if she would be stopped, but no one did.
When she was finally standing, she saw what Khan was looking at. He had a communicator in his hand.
He flipped it open and lifted it up to speak into it.
“Botany Bay to Enterprise,” he said.
There was a pause before Marla heard her captain’s voice reply.
“This is the Enterprise, Captain James T. Kirk speaking.”
“Ah Captain, I hoped I could speak with you,” Khan replied. “This saves precious time for your crew members.”
“Captain, there are--” Mr. Scott yelled out before he was cut short when one of Khan’s people kicked him, forcing him to topple over sideways.
“Scotty!” Jim yelled.
“Indeed, Captain. I have your crew members here. Once I have completed waking my people, I shall talk to you again. If you try and send people over, I shall hurt three of your people here for every one you send over. Khan out.” Khan flicked the communicator shut.
As he had been speaking, Marla had slowly walked backwards, toward the corridor space behind her. None of Khan’s people had noticed her doing so and on Khan’s threat to the Enterprise crew, she turned and ran.
She heard one of his crew cry out but then Khan yelled after her.
“Leave her, she will be back.”
oOo
“There is no way to transport while shields are up, Captain,” Chekov pointed out.
Bones was pacing back and forth behind the captain’s chair and Jim was doing his best not to snap at him to stop it.
“The scanners detect seventy-two body signatures on the Botany Bay. I have isolated the section where I believe Khan is with the Enterprise crew. Not all of the Augments have been awoken, but there are small groups in various places that we know include life support units,” Spock reported. “With each scan, new body signatures are detected. Within thirty-six minutes, all of the surviving Augments will have been removed from the life support units.”
Jim considered that news, before he dropped his hand back down on the arm rest and turned toward Sulu.
“How quick could you disengage the tractor beam and get us far enough away before we could open fire safely on the Botany Bay?” Jim asked.
“Jim!” Bones protested. “Scotty is on that ship, with his staff, not to mention some of my staff too.”
“It is a logical option to take, but it would result in the loss of thirteen crew members,” Spock said.
“Not to mention the Head of Engineering. I can’t believe you would consider it, Captain,” Uhura spoke up.
“I can’t put one life ahead of others, even if they are a friend,” Jim said.
“Jim, it’s down right callous.” Bones had put his hand on Jim’s shoulder as he spoke. “You are condemning people to death. Not to mention that ship is on the old nuclear power.”
“The doctor is correct, the time to get the required distance to minimize contamination will grant Khan time to escape and put his ship closer to a planet,” Spock said.
“Jim, you can’t do it,” Bones insisted.
Jim turned to look up at him. “I never wanted to, but I needed to see if it was possible. Keep the shields up and Spock, let me know once all the Augments have been woken up. I’m going to have a little chat with Khan again. Let’s see if he has made up his mind about what he wants.”
His senior officers acknowledged his orders and dispersed back to their stations. Jim made sure he didn’t look in Bones’ direction. The man was likely to to be pissed at him for just considering the option.
oOo
Marla tried not to flinch as Khan leaned down toward her. She had wriggled her fingers trying to get them free but they had secured her wrists too tightly together.
“I am very disappointed in you, Marla,” Khan said.
She bit her lip to stop herself from replying and resolutely stared forward and not at Khan.
He didn’t seem to like her ignoring him and he moved his head around in her direct line of sight, which made her choose to lower her eyes and stare at the ground instead. Out the corner of her eye, she saw him raise a hand and she braced herself for the hit that was to come next.
She was saved by the beeping of the communicator on his belt. He growled out some kind of warning to her as he stood up and stalked away, opening up the communicator as he did so.
“You okay, lass?” Mr. Scott asked her quietly.
She nodded at him, surprised that he would ask after her. It was all her fault they were in this situation.
“I tried to find a way off,” she said back just as quietly, trying not to move her mouth too much as she spoke. It had been a long time since she had taught herself to speak that way, but it came back very naturally. “No transporter and they stopped me before I could get below to the shuttlepod.”
“Don’t fear, the captain will have plans. He hasn’t failed us yet,” Mr. Scott said, with a little smile on his face.
“What do I want?” Khan was saying into the communicator as she turned back to listen in on his conversation.
“Yes, what are your demands?” Captain Kirk asked.
“I have many needs, Captain, that you will never be able to fulfill,” Khan proclaimed, a smile on his face as he looked around the room.
His people all laughed at his statement. It was obviously some inside joke with them all.
“What I want that you can give me, is transport back to the Enterprise for me and my people,” Khan announced.
Captain Kirk did not immediately reply and Khan narrowed his eyes as he stared at the now silent communicator. There was one little blinking light indicating that it was still connected to the Enterprise. One of Khan’s people stepped toward him and opened his mouth to speak, but Khan quickly moved his hand up and stopped them from speaking.
“Very well,” Marla heard when Captain Kirk finally spoke again. “We will arrange something, but I want proof that my people are unharmed.”
“I do not like this delay, Captain Kirk,” Khan said, his voice sounding suspicious.
“You have my Chief Engineer with you, and our Transporter Chief was knocked out. I have to arrange alternatives.”
Mr. Scott opened his mouth to speak but one of the women lifted up a phaser and pointed it at the head of another of the Enterprise crew, a man in his forties in a science blue top. The glare Mr. Scott sent Khan’s way could have peeled paint as Marla’s great-grandmother Teá was fond of saying.
“You have half an hour,” Khan said before snapping shut the communicator.
oOo
“For god’s sake Jim, the man is a super-human!” Bones declared as he paced back and forth across the small space of the captain’s room.
Jim knew that Bones needed to vent, to allow how scared he was show through in a good ol’ fashioned argument. It was one of the many ways that Bones tried to hide his caring nature.
“I know,” Jim replied as he picked up the phaser that had been delivered to his room by Malik, the Weapons Master. He checked over it quickly before holstering it.
“But you are still going to go out there and get yourself killed! Then where will that leave us? I swear sometimes, you get dumber each day.” Bones threw his hands up in the air before turning his back on Jim, arms crossed over his chest.
“I might like to hit people, but I’m not stupid,” Jim growled back. “We know they are super-human. We know that this is possibly some kind of trap, but they want back on this ship and I want my people back.” Jim put his hand on Bones’ shoulder and ignored how Bones tensed up at the contact. “Spock and the Security team will be there to meet them. Spock is the only one on this ship that comes close to their strength. I’ll be monitoring from the Bridge. Spock and I have already discussed this.”
“You won’t be down there?” Bones asked, finally turning around and Jim recognized the look of fear that Bones had been trying desperately to hide.
“No, Spock will.”
“Does--” Bones started to ask before Jim cut him off.
“Not yet, but why else do you think I need a phaser on the Bridge?”
A chuckle escaped Bones, at him probably thinking that Jim needed a phaser to protect himself from Uhura’s disapproval.
“I need you back in Medical, ready to come if there are casualties. There will be three security teams, one in the transporter room and two at each end of the corridor. One of the teams has orders to fall back and protect Medical if the Augments break through.” This was what he and Spock had discussed before, minus what parts Bones didn’t need to know.
Bones nodded and Jim let his hand slide down Bones’ arm, giving his bicep a gentle squeeze before letting go.
“I have given Spock orders that Lt. McGivers is to be treated as an enemy,” Jim told Bones. When Bones started to shake his head, Jim continued, explaining his reasons. “She helped Khan. Without her help, he would never have been able to get over there.”
“Jim, no,” Bones said. “I have her Starfleet record.”
“I’ve already seen it, it was sent when she was appointed to the Enterprise." Jim was confused about why Bones was so earnest about the record.
“Not that record, her psychological profile from her time at the Academy,” Bones said. “It’s what I was reading the other night when you wanted to look at my PADD.”
Bones’ behavior that night now made sense to Jim.
“Long story short, I don’t think she told the whole truth to the counsellor. In her second year at the Academy she was involved with a Townie. It didn’t end well. The hints the counsellor picked up on was that he was a controlling personality. Also when she joined, in her psych evaluation, some latent issues with her father or a father type figure were flagged. She was tagged as an introvert who was more comfortable on her own, but could still work well within a team environment. With the loses from...” Bones trailed off, but Jim nodded to show he knew what Bones was going to say but didn’t want to. “Well, anyway, she appeared fine, projected herself as fine. I don’t think she was, I think she was remarkably good at hiding it. Could be long term experience. Khan is a psychopath, a narcissistic psychopath, to put it bluntly.”
“That your professional opinion, doctor?” Jim asked.
“Darn right it is. The man likes to control people and with her past, he probably figured out pretty quick how to control her. Her being so interested in that time would have helped him too. You saw him at the dinner, he was very attentive to her and she liked the attention.”
“If this is the case, and I trust your judgement, why wasn’t it flagged or seen to earlier by Starfleet?”
“They needed people, Jim, pure and simple, and she seemed okay. I know that the counselling staff were literally run off their feet after everything that went on. More people to see and treat than ever before and many of them still needing treatment. All I’m saying is don’t judge her too harshly. We don’t know what Khan said to her, and the man does have a powerful magnetism. She probably didn’t know exactly what he was planning. We also don’t know what has gone on over there on the Botany Bay and until we do, don’t jump to conclusions.”
Jim sat back on his desk to think over what Bones had said. Before he could reply, the door to his captain’s room chimed. Jim pressed the comm to let the person in.
“Captain, Doctor,” Spock said as he came in the room.
“Can I?” Jim asked as he tilted his head in Spock’s direction. Silently asking Bones if he could discuss with Spock what they had just been talking about. He knew Bones had told him only because of the circumstances they currently found themselves in. If not for the hostage situation, Bones wouldn’t have told him but probably would have spoken to Lt. McGivers.
Bones nodded.
“Bones has been telling me that Lt. McGivers may be under ‘control’ by Khan,” Jim said.
Spock looked in Bones’ direction and raised an eyebrow.
“She has psychological issues in her past that make her susceptible,” Bones said.
“Proof, doctor?” Spock asked.
“As much as I can get without examining her myself. I know who wrote her report and I trust their judgement,” Bones replied.
“Captain?” Spock asked.
“I’m inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt at the moment, but if she shows one instance of partiality towards the Augments, my original order stands. Relay that to the Security team,” Jim ordered.
“Aye, Captain,” Spock acknowledged. “It is eight minutes until the deadline. Sulu has the conn.”
“Thank you,” Jim said. “Please go join the Security teams. Dismissed, Mr. Spock.”
Spock turned and walked out, leaving Jim alone in the room with Bones once again.
“We are now on Red Alert, time for you to return to Medical,” Jim said as he stood up and walked to the door, ready to go back to the Bridge.
“Jim,” Bones said as he grabbed Jim’s arm as he walked past.
Jim knew the look in his eyes well. “I know,” he said to Bones.
Bones stepped close and Jim savored the kiss they shared. This was a little ritual the two of them had done too many times. Jim pushed down the fear that this might be the last moment they see each other. It had felt like a long time since they had encountered the other ship, even though it was only two days in reality. They hadn’t had a moment since where they both weren’t thinking about that ship. This could be the last time for the two of them and Jim didn’t want to think about it, even though it was playing on his mind.
“Later,” Jim promised as he stared into Bones’ eyes, memorizing that face.
“Later,” Bones repeated, his face set in grim lines.
Jim smiled at him, his ‘shit eating grin’ as Bones called it and, with a final pat on the arm, walked out of his office.
oOo
Chapter 11 this way