Tarsus IV
Kodos had been killed. His own daughter had killed him. Not that Kirk had thought he hadn't deserved it. Kirk had seen it all when he massacred those people, and he wasn't suppose to live to see it. He was suppose to have been killed with the others. Killed with phases disruptors, then thought to be painless, now known to be the opposite.
"Captain you seem quite... out of it as you humans say. Anything wrong?" Spock had noticed the quickest that the Captain was acting as though on autopilot while they played their nightly game of chess.
"No..." Jim had said assuming that if he had confessed Spock would make him go to counciling. And in order to do that he'd have to leave The Enterprise.
"Captain I am the closest thing to a therapist on this ship, and I'm your friend. Tell me."
"I can't... verbalize it. But something about Kodos' death just didn't seem painful enough. After killing all those people... and then being on the ... run for twenty years. He had too painless of a death." said Jim his eyes fixed on the white bishop piece he just ran his finger down it and Spock felt a small shiver go down his back. He chalked it up to the coldness of Jim's quarters.
" Jim. You saw him as the biggest criminal in the universe and you have a slight hero complex. As a hero you'd -"
"Thats not why. He was going to kill me too. And Dr. Leighton and Riley and the other six. He wanted to kill us."
"That would have been ... illogical Captain. All of Nine were fit healthy people."
"Not in Kodos' mind, In his mind we all had some ... problem. I only remember my 'crime' none of the other Nines. Mine was falling in love with a friend of mine. His name was Troy. His family left Tarsus IV a month before the famine. One of my classmates who despised me, her name was Miriam, She told her dad, one of Kodos' Henchmen and he told Kodos . He issued his commandment of death and the names of all those who were meant to be killed and one by one they were killed. I remember the screaming and crying that went on. A sickly little kindergardener was killed. Then the Rileys. Then one of my teachers from school, a mister Bleckman. He'd been killed for not giving a list to Kodos of the students most often sick. He saved a lot of kid's lives. Fourteen kids had some...breathing problem after all Tarsus IV had a few small toxins in the air. More people were killed and then the shuttle crafts arrived. Kodos heard them and ran to stage his own death. We Nine, the only ones left in the hall where Kodos killed them. We ran. In our mind whomever landed those shuttle crafts were far better than Kodos even if they were Klingons sent to kill us."
"Jim." was all the Vulcan could manage, his eyes looked on the verge of tearing. He got out of his chair and walked over to the other man and hugged him. Just barley there but it was enough.