Revenge or Justice, a startrek: the original series fanfic

Title: Revenge or Justice

Time Setting: A missing scene from "The Conscience of the King"

Summary: Kirk and McCoy have a conversation about Tarsus IV.

Disclaimer: Star Trek and characters are Paramount's property, I have written this story for entertainment purposes only and no money whatsoever has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. Any original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author.

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Kirk took one last look at Lenore and started out of Sickbay. Bones stopped him at the door with a restraining hand on his arm. "Jim, can we talk for a few minutes?"

The last thing Jim wanted was to have another conversation with Bones about the consequences of his need for revenge. "Bones, I didn't want it to happen this way but I had to find out if Karidian was Kodos. If that makes me as bad as Kodos in your eyes, so be it." Jim started to move around Bones to leave.

"That's not it. Join me for a drink, I think we could both use one." Bones stepped toward his office and waited. Jim thought a moment, shrugged and followed Bones.

Bones opened his private liquor cabinet and pulled out a bottle of Saurian brandy. Jim had a seat across the desk and relaxed marginally. Bones grabbed two glasses, filled them and had a seat behind his desk with his feet propped on the corner. "Tell me one thing Jim. How did you keep the Tarsus IV incident out of your service record? I have read your record and more than once." Jim grimaced at that comment. "And I never knew you were on Tarsus during the famine and massacre"

"Is this a therapy session?" Jim asked as he took a sip of his drink.

"Maybe. Humor me, okay?" Bones leaned back in his chair and took a swallow from his glass.

Jim shrugged, "Well, I was fifteen at the time of the Tarsus disaster and by the time I joined the academy it was far enough in the past I didn't want to talk about it. I was somewhat surprised I was never asked about the incident as it had been all over the vids at the time."

"How did you wind up on Tarsus IV? Were you visiting or did your family move there?" Bones leaned back in his chair as he tried to probe for information and keep his patient in a relaxed mood.

Jim wasn't fooled. "Ahhhh, we are having a session. Okay, Bones, I'll tell you the story." Jim stared at the far wall as he recalled that time of his life. "Well Bones, would you believe I was a Pioneer Scout? Well I was. And I won a trip to Tarsus IV for a survival camping trip along with a hundred other boys and girls from across the galaxy, all ages' eight to fifteen. Tarsus IV was primitive enough, but safe enough to give us an experience of living the outdoor life. It was to be my first time in deep space without family as well as my first time away from family for more than a few days. We were to spend two months on the planet and return home in time for school to start. I met Tom Leighton on the trip out and we become inseparable. We had similar backgrounds and interests; we were both from Earth, both of our fathers were in Starfleet, we both had an older brother and we both joined the Pioneer Scouts hoping to go on this trip just to get into space."

"The ship we traveled on was by no means a luxury liner but we were given the run of the ship except the most interesting areas; the engine room and the bridge." Jim chuckled as he recalled their many attempts to gain access to the restricted areas of the ship. "The ship's compliment was glad to get rid of us when we arrived at Tarsus IV. I would have preferred to spend the next two months on board the ship but I didn't have that choice. Fortunately, I enjoyed camping, climbing, fishing and hiking or those first weeks would have been torture. We didn't spend too much time in the capital city of New Carthage. I don't even think I knew the governor's name at that point."

Bones offered Jim a refill of his drink which he accepted. After another sip, he continued with his story. "We had our camping supplies and a few rations with us. We were supposed to hunt and fish and live off the land. Tarsus had a variety of roots and berries and other edible plants. The planet was in its infancy of colonization but its future looked prosperous." Jim found it easier to tell the story by starting at the beginning and easing into the horrific events which had such an impact on his life. Bones realized this, kept quiet and listened intently although his posture was as relaxed as he could make it.

Jim paused and took another sip of his drink. He wasn't aware of his surroundings as he relived the trip to Tarsus. "We hiked into the hills maybe about twenty or thirty miles and set up our camp. We had fifteen scout leaders with us and scouts from maybe twenty different planets. All went well for about three weeks. We had plenty of food mostly from the land and the water from the streams was as pure as you have ever tasted. I almost enjoyed it as much as the trip out. We were divided into groups of ten. Tom and I were the leaders of our group. Edward Olson and Danielle Eames were next to us in age and we worked well together."

"At the end of the third week, Tom and I hiked toward the east which was the direction of the city. We were maybe four or five miles from the camp when we spotted the first sign of the fungus that attacked the vegetation. We topped the next hill and as far as we could see the vegetation was wilted and brown. As quickly as we could, we returned to the camp and reported what we saw to the scout leaders. After checking out the land in several directions, we could see the vegetation wilting was spreading in our direction. The leaders made the decision to pack up the food we had gathered and dried and head back to the city. Hindsight is always twenty-twenty and we should have stayed where we were and gathered as much food as we could. As soon as we arrived at the city, soldiers took all the food we had and herded us into a warehouse and locked us in. Mr. Adams was in charge of the group and he continued to demand answers from the guards. I guess they got tired of him making a racket because they dragged him out after the third day and we never saw him again. About the fifth day they took away the rest of the adults. The guards provided us with water but no food. Fortunately, we had survival rations buried in our packs. But, I soon learned about the dynamics of survival. Some of the campers denied having any rations but were caught eating late at night. Fights began to break out as some campers stole food from each other. It was not the best show of humanity by any means. Tom and I pulled our original group of ten together and we worked our way up near the roof of the warehouse to keep the younger ones in our group safe. We found some barred windows at the top of the warehouse and we scrubbed them until we could see out. We were near a large area for holding animals and the guards were building a fence around the area with barbed wire at the top."

"Tom and I decided we had to find out what was going on. We searched the top of the warehouse twice before we found a small trap door. About midnight we left Edward and Danielle in charge and snuck out onto the roof. Fortunately, Tarsus' moon was not out and we found a way down the side of the building. We were able to find several guards warming themselves by a fire and we stayed quiet and listened. We soon found out the Governor's name was Kodos and he planned to kill half of the population. Evidently, he had his own method of deciding who would live or die. The men weren't happy about what they were doing but they wanted to save their own worthless lives." Jim fell silent as he thought about the night they had crept in the shadows of the warehouse and learned the truth of their fate.

Bones prodded him, "What happened next?"

"We learned we would be herded into the pen and phasered at dawn along with about four thousand colonists. At that moment, we knew we had to make several grown up decisions and quickly. We hurried back to the warehouse and woke the other scouts in our group. After some discussion and crying from the younger children, we decided to slip out of the warehouse and hide in the nearby buildings. Tom and I couldn't leave without telling the other scouts so we woke them and explained what was going on and it was bedlam in the warehouse. The noise they made worried Tom and me as we feared the guards would hear us. We couldn't convince them of the danger and we finally left without them. I wish we could have convinced them but maybe a hundred children couldn't have hid out like the ten of us did."

"I thought nine of you survived, what happened to the tenth child?" Bones leaned over to top off Jim's drink.

Jim took his time as he leaned back in his chair. "Actually, two of our number died at the same time Tom was injured. I never realized until recently that Kevin Reilly was the child we rescued. He must have been three years old and he couldn't tell us his name. We found him the day after we escaped from the warehouse. There were a lot of empty buildings in that part of the city. We narrowly escaped the building when we heard the guards coming in. I almost headed back in to try and help the kids but Tom held me back. I had to put their screams out of my head and concentrate on finding a safe spot for the little ones. We still had a little food left and our survival packs. We positioned ourselves on the top floor of a nearby warehouse. The pen they made was directly below us and we watched as they started to herd people in and it took the better part of the day. But when it started to get dark, Tom and I decided we should try to find more food and water. We left the children sleeping with Danielle and Edward watched over them. We crept down to the first floor and found a side door. After listening for a while, we decided it was quiet enough to risk going into the alley. We only made it half way to the street when we heard phaser fire and shouts. The alley was lined with crates and we crawled behind them just as a man came stumbling into view. He was clutching a child in his arms and we could hear the running footsteps of people following him. The man stumbled and fell next to the area we were hiding. He spotted us peeking around the crates and shoved the boy in our direction and begged us to hide him. I grabbed the boy and pulled him into our hiding spot. The man grabbed something off the ground and kept running. We had retreated further behind the crates and didn't see what happened but we heard the whine of the phaser. I was afraid the boy would cry out but he didn't make a sound. The guards debated whether they had killed both the father and boy and finally decided they had and left. We stayed for what seemed like hours to make sure no one was waiting for us."

Jim halted for another drink from his glass and then continued. "That was my first experience with death. I didn't know I would soon see more death than any person let alone a child should have to see. We waited a long time before we dared to move. We decided to wait on finding food and water as it would soon be dawn. We made it back to the building and locked the door behind us. We took turns carrying the boy up the stairs to our hiding place as he was so exhausted he couldn't stay awake. He never made a sound, even when we gave him food and water. He ate a little and curled up in a ball. We didn't know his name so we started calling him Kid and it stuck."

"Tom and I dozed for a while but the sun soon woke us or maybe it was the noise of the people below us. We stayed hidden the best we could as we watched out the windows. They had erected several platforms around the pen with two or three guards on each platform. Directly across from our position was a larger platform. We tried to spot the other children but the people were so tightly packed into the small space we couldn't find them. Hours later the crowd of people became very quiet and we all watched out the window. I didn't know at the time who the tall, stately, man was but he was surrounded by guards as he ascended the platform. The crowd was deathly quiet and Kodos just stared at his victims and then began to speak in a voice which carried as far as our windows."

Jim stared at the far wall and quoted Kodos speech from memory, "The revolution is successful but survival depends on drastic measures. Your continued existence represents a threat to the well-being of society. Your lives mean slow death to the more valued members of the colony. Therefore, I have no alternative but to sentence you to death. Your execution is so ordered. Signed: Kodos, Governor of Tarsus IV."

"I wrote the speech down. I didn't want to ever forget that moment. Kodos left the stage and what happened next seemed to occur in slow motion. The guards on the platform drew laser rifles and began to fire. We pushed the younger ones on the floor but we couldn't stop them from hearing the screams." Jim stopped as he remembered the horror of watching all the people dying. Bones hid the horror he felt that a group of children had to go through the terror of a lifetime. He covertly watched him as he waited to see if he would continue the story.

"As soon as the sound stopped we hustled the children out of the room and kept moving until we found another safe building to hide in. We continued to hide, steal food and water when we could. We must have continued this way for a couple of weeks. Food was hard to find and we didn't have anything to eat for several days. The guards continued to sweep the city looking for stragglers and one day our luck ran out. Tom, Aaron, Jason and I were searching a dumpster for food when two guards found us. They fired and vaporized Aaron and Jason before we knew they were around. Tom was near Aaron and Jason and he took part of the blast, destroying the side of his face and his eye. The guards started to adjust their aim and I was sure Tom and I were next. I worried what would happen to the little ones. But before the guards did anything, they were stopped by Starfleet personnel. The relief ships had arrived but too late to save four thousand innocent people. I had been holding Tom in my arms and one of the men picked him up and said he would take him to the hospital. They wanted to take me there as well but I told them I had friends hiding. I led them to our hiding place and we all went to the hospital together. I carried Kevin as he wouldn't let anyone else touch him but Tom or me."

"What happened next?" Bones prompted.

"There's not much else to tell. We stayed at the hospital until my Dad showed up. It happened his ship was one of the relief ships sent to Tarsus. He was very frantic trying to find me. I had never seen him like that before. The doctors found information on Kevin's family in his pocket and his grandparents came for him and he was gone before we could say good bye. Tom and I returned to Earth on my Dad's ship. We stayed in touch and visited frequently during his recovery. An experience like we went through connected us in a way most people couldn't understand. In the years after the massacre, if either of us needed to talk, the other was there. I couldn't forget the sound of those screams. I couldn't stop myself from watching. It was a sight I never want to witness again. Once I recovered, I was determined to make my life with Starfleet and do whatever I could to protect people from individuals like Kodos. No one should have the power of men like Hitler, Colonel Green, Gov. Kodos or any of those other madmen of history. I will not allow that to happen in my part of the universe. Not while I can do something about it."

The forcefulness of Jim's last statement startled Bones and one look at Jim's face told him he had learned something important about the innate makeup of this man. Bones' could foresee Jim throwing the Prime Directive out the window if it meant saving innocent lives. Would Jim's earnest need to save the universe push him over the edge someday? Maybe! Bones realized he would need to be Jim's conscience. He would need to speak up and let Jim know when he was going too far. But always he would need to give this man the support he needed. Jim had set the bar very high for himself. Bones decided the next five years might be a wild ride.

"Well, is that what you wanted to know? It's been a long time since I've told the whole story to anyone. How is Kevin doing?" Jim drained his glass and put it on the desk.

Bones dropped his feet on the floor and capped the bottle of Saurian Brandy. "He's shook up and a little worried he's going to land up in the brig. You should go talk to him and not just about what he did tonight. Talk to him about Tarsus. He needs to know what happened. He really doesn't remember much about it."

"I think I can manage it. Are we done?" Jim stood up.

"Thanks for telling me what happened. I should have asked you more questions before accusing you of revenge. I'm sorry about that Jim."

Jim stood and sat his glass on the desk. "You had cause to question my motives. Hell, I was questioning my motives. Let's just forget it, Bones. I better get back to work."

Bones continued to evaluate his captain and friend as he headed back into sickbay to see his patient.

Fin