'Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven' - Epilogue
Jim was sitting at the computer, still staring at the screen. Bones sighed as he realized that he needed to talk to the man. He berated himself for a moment for being a coward for pretending to be asleep the night before, when Jim had got back to their room. Jim was normally the one doing the avoiding after a mission. Bones had needed the time to sort through things in his own head first, though.
“What is so interesting that you need to stare at it for five minutes?” Bones asked.
Jim thumped the desk.
“Okay, so it’s not interesting but annoying instead,” Bones said.
“I should have been able to stop him earlier.”
“Jim,” Bones said, waiting for Jim to look in his direction before continuing. “You’re a good man, but you ain’t perfect.”
“I’m like him more than I wish I was,” Jim said.
“Nonsense,” Bones said, snorting his disapproval at the stupidity of that comment from Jim. “You both might have been in charge of others’ lives, but there is a world of difference between a captain and a dictator. I’m a bit fond of the captain I have.”
“I sent my people into danger, like he did,” Jim pointed out.
“He willingly sent them as canon fodder and didn’t care how many were injured. I heard what Spock said about the first wave that came out of the Transporter room. Remember I had to note those deaths and injuries. They were just used by him for his ultimate goal to take the ship.”
“How is that any different to what I did sending Marla into that room with him?” Jim asked.
“Because he is bound to that wall and not sparing a thought to those lives lost apart from how it didn’t get him what he wanted. You don’t think the same way he does and you never have,” Bones pointed out as he put his own PADD aside and stood up from his chair to walk over to Jim. “You consider the greater good, but would rather put yourself in harms way first. Can’t say I’m too pleased about it, but that’s you. It was the best option at the time with battles on multiple fronts. I hate to agree with that damn computer but he is right. It was the most ’logical path to take.’”
“Quoting his report, Bones?” Jim asked as he looked up.
“He showed it to me,” Bones offered as he sat down next to Jim on the couch.
“Well, I wasn’t the only one who put themselves in harms way,” Jim pointed out. “Next time, get on the other side of the door before putting Sickbay into lock-down.”
Bones resisted the temptation to respond with a, ‘whatever.’ Jim was a little too close to the pot, kettle, black scenario that Bones didn’t want to admit to.
“Are we going to end up like the Augments?” Jim asked. “Darwin’s theory, aren’t Khan and his people fated to be the next evolution of humans?”
“Survival of the fittest? Yes and no. Fittest does not necessarily mean the strongest. Khan and his people are stronger, and they are cunning, but they lack what we have and why we were able to defeat them. Empathy. A good leader is concerned for the people under his care. Khan wasn’t and never would be. They might have been strong, but Spock would be the first to tell you that was their downfall. Ordinary humans beat them last time and we beat them again this time. We are the fittest.”
“True,” Jim admitted. “I just saw...” Jim shrugged.
“You aren’t the same, Jim. Similar, but not the same. He saw Marla’s past in the way she reacted and used her for his own end. You didn’t want to use her.”
“I should have known really. I should have seen the signs with her,” Jim said. “I’m still a bit pissed at you for not telling me straight away.”
“I needed to observe myself before I reported it to you. She hid it well. I didn’t even pick it up until the dinner and then it was only a niggling suspicion. We both missed things. Do we really want to sit here and talk recriminations all night?” Bones asked.
Jim shrugged and glanced back at the screen.
“That your report?” Bones asked.
“No, that’s done. This is further recommendations about dealing with incursions on a Starship for Starfleet to consider and possibly use for training.”
Bones shook his head at how Jim could still surprise him, even after eight years of nearly living in each other’s pockets.
“Bones, she has no family listed,” Jim said.
“I know.”
“What do I do with her commendation? I know it normally gets sent and put on her file in these cases, but it should be read by someone, not stored away.”
“We know it. She was a brave woman,” Bones said. “She stood up to not one, but two abusers. The first scarred her, but she made a break for it. It made her susceptible to Khan, who recognized it in her. She then made the decision to run from him and then to go back into that room to face him, while she was probably scared shitless. That takes more courage than I think I have.”
“Has her coffin been sealed yet?” Jim asked.
“Why?” Bones asked, a little taken aback by Jim’s question.
“I want to put it in there with her,” Jim said.
“Get me a PADD tomorrow and I will arrange it,” Bones said.
“She had hardly lived her life Bones, and most of it seemed to have been crap.”
“Some would say she was lucky to have been assigned on the Enterprise,” Bones pointed out. “History was her passion and she got to see some it come alive in front of her eyes.”
“Do you think that was a comfort to her in her last moments?” Jim asked.
Bones dropped his head back onto the cushioned back of the couch and looked up at the ceiling of their room. He thought back to the view of Marla being held gently by Jim. Her eyes closed looking peaceful and making a mockery of her demise. The ring of bruises on her throat like a necklace of purple and green anger.
He looked back at Jim before speaking, feeling a weight of sorrow at the loss of a life of a woman who was trying to atone for her mistakes and would never know that she did and had saved so many lives.
“No.”
Master post