Khan studies the nest of wires then carefully selects two of them, re-routing their power supply. In another minute, the security locks on the Life Support Room will release. The men guarding the room will undoubtedly double before he manages to get there but with these two weapons (phasers they are called, in the weaponry inventory) Khan is certain he can eliminate a majority of the guards and slip inside. He must force Kirk’s hand and take command; then Khan can revive a loyal crew of his own and enjoy the freedom and bounty of the 23rd century.

Khan’s plan evolves as new obstacles present themselves. The Vulcan turned out to be less of a fool then he anticipated; Mr. Spock placed the ship’s safety before his own and warned his Captain before Khan could neutralize him. Kirk’s response was quick—that much respect Khan will grant the man. Thus slipping unnoticed to the deck with the transporter had proved unwise, boarding his ship and reviving his crew impossible. For the first time in ages, Khan realizes he needs stealth as opposed to confrontation, which is not his favorite style of conquering an enemy.

Then the doctor pursued him with a tenacity bordering on suicidal.

It occurred to Khan that he might use the doctor as a hostage. Lure his prey into a corner and take him down, then negotiate his way into a position of power—or onto the Bridge. Doctor McCoy is not simply a colleague of Kirk’s, he is a friend. Such is a weakness of James Kirk, to nurture emotional attachments to his subordinates.

That particular course proved futile, too.

McCoy is not human.

Khan had recognized something odd about the doctor, something strong. He had originally assumed it was animosity. Men have hated Khan because they feared what he was. Why should McCoy be any different?

Except the doctor showed no fear, not in his decision to pursue Khan, not when he engaged in battle with Khan.

The surprise was momentarily refreshing. Then Khan’s pleasure quickly evolved into a deep disturbance.

Khan has fought ordinary humans. They pose little challenge. McCoy was more than simply a challenge; he seemed sure that he could defeat Khan.

And he might have.

Once Khan disposed of McCoy, he had had time to think.

How does the Captain fit into this revelation: were the unnatural abilities of his senior officer common knowledge? Khan can think of only two possibilites: Kirk knew and used McCoy as a weapon, deployed McCoy against Khan; or Kirk did not know and McCoy was in hiding.

(Why would a powerful man want to hide? Some men are fools, and Khan pities them.)

Neither of those possibilities matter now. Khan won and Doctor McCoy is dead. The Enterprise has one less threat to overcome, though Khan wonders how many more surprises he may encounter.

Khan shifts his weight and moves to another panel, comparing the markings to his memories of the manual. He sees the switch he is looking for and flips it off. They will figure out soon enough where he is, and Khan feels ready for another fight, despite the dull ache of his ribs from McCoy’s fist. He masters the pain as he masters his mind, knowing he has the power to win.

The room is soundproof so he has set the computer alarm to identify when heat sources approach within a five-meter range of the doors. The security feed gives him a visual of the outside. When the computer beeps, Khan watches two officers come into view and thinks, How tragically foolish of you, Kirk. Within a minute, four red-shirted officers form a semi-circle behind the pair.

The Captain leads. The rest follow. Khan has little doubt Kirk will be an easy target. The group of men prepares to enter the circuitry bay, and Khan prepares to meet them, powering both phasers to kill.

What is Bones doing? What is Bones thinking? Jim has asked himself this more times than he can count since arriving with Mr. Spock on Deck 11.

Jim has been able to overlook Leonard McCoy’s oddities in the past, but this he cannot ignore. If they survive—no, when they survive—Captain Kirk needs to make a careful review of his CMO. And Jim needs to evaluate what he thought he knew about his friend Bones. He is a captain and is responsible for too many lives to continue turning a blind eye.

That realization hurts him, more than he thought possible. Jim assumed he could trust McCoy as he had during the Academy, when it was a surface trust and neither man expected much from the other. Now he needs implicit trust, needs to know it is real and binding between them because he simply cannot have McCoy behaving erratically, especially in circumstances like today,and not know why or if he should expect it.

Jim acknowledges that he has behaved as foolishly as McCoy but he’ll fix it. He will.

He is distracted from calling out to Bones by Scotty’s urgent communication. Kirk is partly relieved that he has yet to stand face-to-face with Bones; he is not sure what he will say when he does. Khan is the root of their mission, so Jim finds it easy enough to slide into his role as captain, abandoning the momentary lapse of concern for friend, and turns his mind to Khan.

Spock alerts the remaining security officers on the deck of Khan’s whereabouts as they proceed to Section A3. Kirk feels like a live wire, crackling with the need to fight, to take out the enemy on his ship. Only Spock’s presence keeps him grounded enough to think like a leader and not someone who expects to see the face of a monster from his past. He has to remain cool-headed, and he has to win while doing it.

Once upon a time, many people who knew him would have thought that impossible. He was James Kirk, the boy who leapt before he looked, punched before he thought twice, and never gave a damn of what it might cost him. He was “wild” and “careless” and “not worth wasting time on.” Now he is Captain Kirk and he is, simply put, everyone’s everything.

Jim still believes his life is one big cosmic joke, less a part of a grand design and more somebody’s evening entertainment. Khan is the crappy plot device, and if Jim doesn’t play his part well, Jim gets his whole crew killed and sets another tyrant loose in the galaxy.

The idea of being nothing more than a pawn makes him angry, which is not a new emotion and more like a constant pressure in his gut. There are times, like now, when that core of anger in Jim feels molten. He used to think the anger would burn itself out. After Nero and the dream of Kodos, after finding comfort with Bones, Jim realized that he was the one keeping it alive. Someday, he promised himself, I’ll let it go. He keeps making that promise.

Jim motions for Spock to stay behind him and they creep up to the doors of the circuitry bay. He decides that he isn’t allowed to die in the next few minutes, mostly because Bones—AWOL or not—would resurrect his ghost just to bitch (McCoy has an issue about people dying; Jim hasn’t figured out if McCoy has had too many or too few people die in his life) and also because Khan isn’t likely to die with him. If Jim dies before he stops Khan, his efforts will be wasted—he will have wasted himself.

When the four security officers arrive, Jim moves to the front of the crowd and nods to Spock. The Vulcan inputs the override code, the doors slide open, and they rush in.

There is no time to think, only act on instinct, because they might have dived into the middle of battle. At some point in the blur of phaser fire, Spock barrels into Jim, knocking him out of range from a deadly accurate blast. Jim loses his phaser from the unexpected impact (and shit, Khan has two phasers and double-shoots like a maniac). The First Officer drags Kirk behind the nearest console with nary a “Captain.” They crouch there, and Spock returns fire until his phaser is drained of power.

Deadly silence falls like a shroud. Kirk’s other four men are gone, vaporized like they never existed. Khan destroys the silence at last with a bark of laughter and “Captain, do you surrender?”

Jim is all but prepared to jump over the console and brain Khan with their single useless phaser. The Vulcan holds him back and replies flatly to Khan, “We surrender. We are unarmed.”

Jim wonders if those words burn Spock’s gut as much as they burn his.

“Stand up,” orders Khan. “Do not try anything heroic, Captain, Mr. Spock. I will kill you.”

Jim rises, hands up, with Spock at his side. Khan studies the Captain’s face for a long moment.

“This turn of events ill-pleases you, Kirk,” observes Khan. “Even so, I am a generous man. If you willingly give me command of your ship, I will spare the lives of your crew. Not yourself, you understand, but your men and women.”

Jim swallows down the bile in his throat. “No.”

“I respect your choice,” Khan answers, voice easy and arrogant, “as a man who understands your position of power.”

“My decision has nothing to do with pride, Khan. I despise everything you stand for. I won’t give you the Enterprise. No one will.”

“Then I shall take it.”

Jim looks at the phaser steady in Khan’s hand and is surprised to discover that he feels no fear.

Then Khan says, “Mr. Spock, I grant you a choice as well: will you join me?”

“I will not,” replies the Vulcan, measured and calm.

Khan nods as though he expected Spock’s answer. “Let us hope that the remaining crew of the Enterprise is wise enough to accept my offer.”

Jim drops his hands and walks around the console standing between them. Khan watches his determined approach, only the narrowing of Khan’s eyes giving away his unease at Jim’s boldness.

“You think you’ve won, Khan, but you are wrong. You are not on a planet anymore—and that makes you more insignificant than you realize. I have met enemies with nothing but bloodlust, who breathe cruelty like air. They would sooner obliterate this entire galaxy than see it prosper. People won’t bow to you, Khan, because you aren’t the worst that could happen to them.”

Khan warns Jim to stand still by raising his phaser. “I never said I want to rule the galaxy.”

“You think you don’t now, but I know men like you, Khan. One world won’t be enough, once you’ve tasted the power of holding it in the palm of your hand. You’ll attempt to expand—and you’ll die.” Kirk says, “For all that you can do, you are a human. Humans can’t afford to fight each other. Not once we outgrow Earth.”

“None of what you say changes my mind, Captain Kirk.” Khan’s voice is deceptively mild. “None of what has transpired on this ship can turn me from my destiny.”

Jim shakes his head. “Then you’re crazy and I pity you.”

“I am the victor,” Khan proclaims, as if that negates Jim’s meaning. “I defeated your men, your doctor—” he emphasizes, “—and you, Kirk.”

“What?” Jim asks sharply. “What do you mean? What did you do to McCoy?”

Khan is clearly satisfied that he has shaken Jim. “I killed him.” Khan waves the phaser at Spock. “He was more of a challenge than you, Vulcan, which only tells me that humans are a superior race.” Khan misunderstands Jim’s silence. He lifts his chin in arrogance and asks Jim, “Did you think he would win against me?”

Jim pictures the red dot (not blue he tells himself fiercely, not blue) and cannot figure out why Khan is lying. “I didn’t realize he would fight you,” Jim answers truthfully then crosses his arms and smirks in a manner that always agitates bullies. “It looks like Bones got in a few good blows of his own. I guess even ‘selectively bred’ humans can get the shit kicked out of them.”

Khan almost takes a step forward but catches himself. “Good, good. You wish to distract me. I assume you expect your second-in-command to use the opportunity to overpower me. I tell you now, he has no advantage.”

Jim shrugs and tosses over his shoulder at his First Officer, “Hear that, Spock? We’re done for.”

“Indeed,” remarks the Vulcan, who locks his hands behind his back and casually strolls along a wall.

Khan snaps, “Do not move! I said do not move!”

Jim rocks back on his heels and stares at the tips of his boots like they hold the secrets of the universe. Nonchalance is like an itch—and it will drive Khan crazy until he reacts. Jim hopes his barely hatched plan works and that Khan doesn’t simply shoot him into oblivion. Kirk is not disappointed.

Khan moves quickly, perhaps to grab Jim or hit him but Spock’s sharp cry of “The vents, Captain!” proves to be a perfectly timed distraction.

Jim doesn’t think when Khan half-turns to look. He flies into Khan like a bullet using his hands to force Khan’s phaser arm back and cracks it against a console. Khan drops the phaser with a grunt of pain and Kirk kicks it across the room. Then Spock is there, hauling Jim out of Khan’s reach with both arms—which is a good thing because Jim is suddenly light-headed. Spock wobbles.

That is when Kirk realizes Spock wasn’t simply distracting Khan. Little puffs of gas are drifting out of the vents and into the room. Jim thinks muzzily that whoever issued the order for nerve gas gets ten commendations, no questions asked. He covers his nose, coughs, and looks at Khan. The man is frozen in place, a hand clamped over his nose and mouth; then Khan comes alive again and slides around the console, looking for something.

Spock’s legs buckle in that moment, taking Jim to the floor with him. He wonders if the nerve gas just saved their lives or if it has given Khan a fatal advantage.

Jim is about to follow Spock into unconsciousness when he catches sight of a figure which looks like McCoy. He calls “Bones?” with part-disbelief and part-I never thought I’d find you and has a last moment to think that the mystery of Bones is more like an eighth world wonder before he passes out.

The nerve gas is odorless but recognizable as white plumes filtering out of the vents. John ducks his head and covers his nose and mouth with a piece of uniform he had torn off his shirt. It smells of blood and sweat but the scents are better than finding himself twitching on the floor, helpless. He drops his shoulder as he nears the double doors to the correct circuitry bay and slams into them at a dead run, denting one inward enough to create a gap in the seam. He then drops the cloth to dig both sets of fingers into the gap and pulls the doors apart, hoping he isn’t too late.

He is super-human but he can only hold his breath for so long. The sight which greets him—Jim, on his knees, and Spock already prone (don’t be dead, he thinks out of nowhere)—has John sucking in a breath that makes his eyes water.

On the left side of the small room, leaning on a wiring console, is Khan. Khan also makes the mistake of breathing as he gasps, “McCoy! Impossible!”

If only you knew, you sorry bastard. John is too tired to gloat.

Jim falls forward onto his hands, calling weakly “Bones?” like a sob, and goes limp. Khan coughs, seems to realize he has forgotten about the nerve gas filling the room, and launches himself toward the now-open doors for escape. Except Khan’s launch quickly turns into more of a rasp and a stagger, one John is barely able to block. They fall against each other like drunkards, both fighting off unconsciousness rather than one another. John gropes for the door and sinks to his knees. Khan fairs better, managing to make it past John and into the hallway before he collapses completely.

John blanks out. When he comes to, his head feels like it has been stuffed with wool and his mouth is dry. He blinks against an array of shapeless colors and sits up, remembering where he is—who he is with—and what he needs to do. Jim and Spock have not recovered; John estimates that it won’t be much longer before they do.

Then the fuzziness fades, his blurry vision clears, and his presence of mind is back, honed like a blade. John levers himself from the floor, only stumbling once in the hallway beyond the circuitry bay. He sees the flash of Khan’s gold shirt weaving down the corridor. Khan is obviously recovered, too, but with a head-start and able-minded enough to know his destination. John drags in a lung full of air, hoping the gas has dispersed into the fresh air now pumping through the deck’s vents. He thinks briefly of Jim and Spock and decides that he can do nothing for them without losing sight of his mission.

Khan is far ahead but John hunts him intently, mainly tracking a guess of the man’s movements. With security down, now is the perfect time to vacate Deck 11 and there is only one way to do it. John reaches the section with the access shaft in time to hear the groan of metal yielding to superior strength. He feels better, sharper now, and less like his muscles are working against him. When John spies Khan at the end of the long corridor, framed in the light of the tunnel beyond, he breaks into a run. Khan glances up, sees him coming, and quickly disappears inside.

John hardly hesitates when he hits the opening. Khan is on the ladder, some feet below and climbing down steadily. For a moment, John has a flash of Jim foolishly jumping off of a cliff and then leaps, aiming for Khan. His hand catches on Khan’s long tunic as he falls past the man, making a deadly attempt a near miss. John’s body swings smartly into the side of the ladder and his boots automatically lock themselves under a rung. He loses his leverage for a moment when Khan slams his fist on top of John’s and it spasms open. He drops three rungs down before he breaks his fall, panting once, and resolutely climbs back up until he can grab at Khan’s foot. Khan uses the heel of his boot to break John’s nose but John doesn’t let go of the ladder despite of his disadvantageous position. John stabilizes his legs then uses both hands to latch onto the back of Khan’s shirt.

The bar in Khan’s hands bends as John pulls on him. Having no success in dislodging the man, John throws all his weight into leaning backwards until, with a cry, Khan’s grip breaks. John hastily twists and grabs for the ladder and Khan grabs him instead of falling. They struggle, using elbows, fists, and cheap, dirty moves but it is hard to fight at such close proximity and neither man is willing to give up his tenuous hold. Then John has the upper hand, literally, and hits Khan with a blow that sends Khan’s head cracking against the metal wall of the shaft. For a brief second he hopes Khan is going to fall but Khan doesn’t. Instead, Khan retaliates by kicking viciously at John’s kneecap, breaking it, and in the next instant drops below John on the ladder to pull him off in a moment of weakness. John can’t stop a scream of agony but he manages to grab the rung in front of his face. Khan puts his full weight into wrenching at John’s injured leg.

John pants into his arm, thinks climb! climb! and forces himself to climb, one hand over the other, dragging himself out of Khan’s reach one rung at a time. Khan follows doggedly until John feels Khan get his hand around John’s right ankle. John stops moving, holding on to the rung, almost level with the opening to Deck 11 again, but his grip starts to slip. He kicks at Khan’s arm, hoping to break the stronghold but Khan is like a burr. John thinks in that split second that he ought to let go and take them both down. He’ll survive—he has survived falls before.

He isn’t expecting for a long arm to snake out from the deck opening above and fingers to wrap around his wrist. That arm is attached to one fiercely concentrating Vulcan, who is half-bent and hanging over the ledge next to the ladder, securing McCoy from falling—securing Khan, too.

“Spock!” John gasps, “you can’t—“

“Do not struggle,” says the First Officer, calmly overriding McCoy’s shout. “I will assist you.”

John almost laughs and retorts See the crazy-ass tyrant attached to my leg? He makes a quick assessment of the situation, alarms in his head rattling that Spock is ill-balanced and in danger himself from the effort to reach McCoy.

Khan has found steady purchase on the ladder again but he doesn’t do the smart thing and release McCoy during the distraction. Instead, Khan seems to put all his strength into prying John off the ladder.

John grits his teeth and looks straight at Spock. “Damn it, Spock! Let go before you go with us!”

Spock ignores him, bracing his legs against God-knows-what and attempts to haul Leonard upward. Determinedly, John tries fighting against Spock and against Khan at the same time, feeling like a rag doll in tug-of-war between them.

“Let me go!” he yells. Then, more frantically, “Spock, it’s okay. It’s gonna be okay if you just let me go!”

Vulcans are stubborn, this half-Vulcan in particular. If anything, Spock’s grip tightens on McCoy’s wrist, hard enough to fracture delicate wrist bones. Khan drags at John, bruising arms wrapped around John’s legs, intent on if I die, everybody dies.

John’s shoulder pops loudly out of its socket, and he bites off a cry at the pain and the feel of muscles tearing apart under a strain they can’t handle. If I could rip off my arm—why won’t you listen to me, Spock?—God damn it, don’t fucking save me or Khan wins, he wins! John must have said the last part out loud because he hears, of all things, Jim’s furious “Bones! Bones, take my hand!”

And there is Jim, next to the Vulcan with one hand pressed flat on Spock’s shoulder like he is pinning Spock while reaching for John. Sweat drips off the tip of the man’s nose, flowing in rivulets down his face, and John sees the fear burning in Jim’s eyes, too.

“Jim,” John tries to explain but Jim refuses to listen. Kirk’s hand is held out imperatively, both an order and a plea.

Shit. John releases the rung with his other hand, crying out in frustration and damn you, kid! and strains for Jim’s fingers. When their hands connect, he feels momentarily dizzy. Then both Spock and Jim are pulling John up and away from the ladder and Khan is the one who lets go, giving up McCoy.

When the three officers are safely situated inside the opening, breathing hard, John peels off Kirk’s arm anchoring his chest and leans out of the opening to track Khan’s progress below. He ignores Jim’s sharp intake of breath and says, “You damn idiots, he’s getting away!” but John’s anger is without heat.

“No,” replies Kirk, “he isn’t.”

Jim scoots to the edge alongside him and takes out a phaser. Despite that it is set to stun, paralyzation during descent is tantamount to instant death. John lowers Kirk’s weapon with one hand, saying, “Let me do it, kid.”

Jim is looking down at Khan, seemingly uncaring, but John sees the young man’s throat work with emotion. “It’s all right, Bones,” Jim tries to say at last but John insists otherwise.

“I won’t let you. I promised, Jim, remember?”

The kid is shaking like he is under great strain but John knows he has won when Jim offers McCoy the phaser with wordless acceptance.

Except John can’t even get a good grip on the phaser before Spock plucks it away, takes precise aim, and stuns Khan without a second’s hesitation.

They watch, silent, as Khan’s body stiffens, almost frozen for a second in time, before his body drops backwards from the ladder and down through the open shaft. John says nothing when it is over and they all hear the dull thud of a body connecting with the bottom deck of the ship.

John falls back against the inner wall, his rush of adrenaline inexplicably depleted. Behind closed eyelids, he recalls that Khan had been looking at them as he fell. Khan’s body had been stunned but the man had been very much aware of what was happening; it was the terror in Khan’s eyes that John recognizes. He thinks, Khan had a measure of humanity after all.

John is certain he won’t forget that any time soon.

He opens his eyes to find Jim looking at Spock. He looks at Spock, too.

Spock returns their regard for a long moment before saying, “Khan would have breached Deck 12 in another twenty-six point two seconds. It was the only logical course of action.” And that, it seems, is all the reason a Vulcan requires to kill.

John’s respect for Spock grows tenfold; his gratitude, immeasurably.

“Are you hurt, Bones?” Jim quietly asks the man beside him.

McCoy stares at his right leg for a moment before replying, “No. I’m good.”

Neither Jim nor Spock say anything of the doctor’s appearance. Jim leads the way to the nearest intercom. Sulu answers the call to the Bridge, sounding relieved to hear his voice.

“Captain, the nerve gas—” begins the pilot.

“The intruder is down, Mr. Sulu. Call to the bottom deck and send two armed officers to confirm Khan’s status. Access Shaft Two. They are to report in and wait for further instruction.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Thank you, Mr. Sulu. Kirk out.”

Jim’s finger slides off the button and he makes a fist against the wall, leans his weight on it. Once he feels fortified again, Kirk straightens and steps back, turns on McCoy. Bones doesn’t flinch under his stare.

“Mr. Spock, escort Doctor McCoy to Sickbay.”

“Jim…”

“I haven’t the time to discuss your actions, Doctor—yet—but we will discuss them. Right now, you can agree to go with Spock and let Dr. M’Benga assure me of your good health. The rest will follow.”

McCoy says, “Yes, Captain.”

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy walk to the active Bridge lift. Jim steps into it alone and without hesitation, knowing that Spock will execute the orders concerning McCoy. His final look at the two officers, before the turbolift door closes and he ascends to the Bridge, confirms that Spock is unchanged and Leonard McCoy is, once again, a man Jim does not know.

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Related Posts:

• Of Sacraments and War – Posting Date – from April 29, 2011
• Of Sacraments and War – Epilogue – from April 28, 2011
• Of Sacraments and War – Chapter Five – from April 27, 2011
• Reaper vs Khan Countdown – from April 29, 2011
• PODFIC HAS ARRIVED! – from March 15, 2014