After living with the man for years at the Academy, Jim knew that the effort Doctor Leonard McCoy put into his appearance directly correlated with his mood. Which was why, when the doctor arrived on the bridge an hour later than usual, with flat, wet hair that had obviously just been hastily washed, Jim felt a slight temptation to run.
"Glad you could join us, Bones" Jim smiled. "Are Ensigns Rowling, Fisher, Hinkley and Maynard feeling better?"
"I'm here, ain't I?" Bones grumbled. "For the sake of future reference: that blasted aquatic puff ball may only go off every four hours, but its effects last for twenty-seven. And withdrawal involves a whole lot of vomit. Projectile."
Jim grimaced. "Duly noted. Thank you, doctor."
"All in a day and then some's work," Bones said. The doctor crossed to Jim's left and leaned against his chair. "So, where the hell are we headed today?"
Jim looked out the viewscreen. He always thought warp looked beautiful. Millions of stars zipping past so quickly they became streaks of colored light. But they seemed to shine more when he was the one telling them where to go. Orders took some of the fun out of it.
"The Xedna system," Jim said. "Starfleet wants us there, although they're being pretty tight-lipped about why. How much farther, Mr. Sulu?"
"About three minutes, Captain," Sulu said. "Scotty and Keenser's adjustments to the engines have increased our maximum speed by point–five percent."
"Good to hear," Jim smiled. "I owe them a drink. I thought it wouldn't be more than point-two-five percent."
Bones frowned. "Jim, don't tell me you're placing bets on the ship's performance…"
Jim gasped. "What? No...Of course not!" He grinned. "Although, we do have to have fun somehow, Bones."
"I know your idea of fun, Jim," Bones straightened. "And I strongly disapprove of it."
Jim wanted to reply with something witty and suave, but he felt the Enterprise shifting out of warp. The white lines of faraway stars contracted back into pinpoints, and a blue star nestled itself into the upper left corner of the viewscreen.
"Captain, we have arrived in the Xedna system," Sulu said. "Is there any particular area we should head for?"
Jim shook his head. "I'm not sure. Mr. Spock, is there anything on our sensors that could indicate why Starfleet wanted us to come here?"
"I am Detecting a structure on Xedna Eight," Spock said. "No lifesigns. It appears to be of Starfleet design."
"Captain," Uhura called out. "There's a signal coming from the facility."
"What kind of signal?" Jim asked.
"A distress call," Uhura's face was troubled. "It's repeating: 'Emergency 24601. Emergency 24601. Requesting immediate assistance. Emergency 24601' ...I don't recognize that code..."
Jim's breath caught. He turned to Spock. The vulcan's eyebrow was raised in the closest thing the guy would ever let himself get to showing alarm. Uhura wouldn't recognize that code. It was only given out to admirals, captains and first officers. Two years ago.
Of course they would be called here.
"Lieutenant Uhura," Jim said. "Please send out this message in all directions, frequency eight: 'This is Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise. Code Delta-Eight-Nine-Charlie-Four. Signal Emergency 24601 received. Standing by for orders.'"
Uhura gave Jim a concerned look, and repeated his command.
Bones crouched down to Jim's level. "Jim, what's going on?"
"You're about to find out," Jim replied.
"Yeah," Bones' face was serious. "Because you're gonna tell me."
A monitor beeped.
"Captain, sensors are picking up a vessel approaching from the far side of the planet," Spock said. "They are hailing us. It appears to be the USS Archer."
"Admiral Orwell," Jim mumbled. "Put them on screen. Stay on frequency eight."
Bones was scowling at him.
"It'll be alright, Bones," Jim said. "Trust me."
Bones huffed. "Sure. Secret codes and mysterious Starfleet bases. This is sounding a little too familiar."
Jim shrugged. Unfortunately, the doctor was not wrong.
The Xedna system flickered out of the viewscreen and was replaced with the grim face of Admiral Martha Orwell.
"Hello, Admiral," For once, Jim's tone matched the situation.
"Captain Kirk," Orwell said. "We're glad the Enterprise arrived so quickly."
"How long has it been since the signal first went out?" Jim asked, hoping it had not been long.
Orwell shook her head. "Four days. We arrived yesterday. He could be anywhere by now."
Jim closed his eyes. This was bad.
"Where who is, Admiral?" Of course Bones would ask.
Jim looked to Orwell. She nodded.
Jim sighed. "Khan. That code meant that this was where Khan was being held. He's escaped."
The command crew gave a collective gasp. Except for Spock, of course.
"How in the hell did this happen?!" Bones shouted.
"Bones," Jim cautioned. "We need to stay calm here."
"Calm?" Bones shouted again. "That homicidal psychopath has been on the loose for four days, and you want us to be calm?"
"Doctor McCoy," Spock said calmly. "If we are to recapture the homicidal psychopath you speak of, we need more information about his escape, and we cannot get that information if you are panicking and shouting over everyone."
Bones shot a look at Spock, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"You're right, for once," Bones muttered. "God help us."
Jim turned his attention back to the admiral.
"Do you want us to search the facility?" Jim asked.
"We already did, and there's not much left down there to search," Orwell said. "It seems Khan took everything he could find. All the medical supplies, uniforms, documents, weapons, and rations are gone. It looks like the man even took a couple of the bio beds, which were supposed to be bolted down...He took everything but the bodies."
Jim swallowed. "How many are dead?"
"Twenty-eight," Orwell bowed her head. "Ten doctors, sixteen security officers, a medical anthropologist, and Admiral Yearling. No one survived."
The captain took this in. This wasn't just an escape. This was a massacre.
And odds were, Khan was just getting started.
"We think he programmed a virus into the facility's computers," Orwell's expression was grim.
"What did it do?" Jim asked.
If Khan could find a way into their data network…
"We're not sure," Orwell said. "We think it was a data–skimmer of some kind. The computers weren't connected to anything outside of the facility. All information on them had to be manually entered. The virus hasn't had any impact on the Fleet's network..."
"He could be attempting to locate his crew," Spock said. "Were the locations of Khan's crew on those computers?"
The admiral shook her head. "No. That information was deemed too dangerous to keep in the same facility as Khan."
"And waking up a mass-murderer for a second time was such a safe decision," Bones muttered.
"Bones…" Jim warned.
"Well, damn it, Jim!" Bones snapped. "What the hell did they think was gonna happen?"
"It wasn't a decision made by Starfleet Command," Orwell grimaced. "Admiral Yearling became...paranoid. He thought Admiral Marcus might have created more than one of those war ship…monstrosities. Yearling was afraid there might be an abandoned fleet of those ships, just waiting to be discovered by the Klingons or the Romulans. There was no evidence of this, and so we denied his request to revive Khan. He ignored our denial. And he paid dearly for that."
This seemed to mollify Bones. Slightly.
It also restored Jim's waning faith in the Starfleet admiralty. Somewhat.
"So," Jim said. "What do you need us to do?"
Admiral Orwell tapped something into the controls on her chair.
"I'm sending you the frequency for an encoded emergency subspace channel," Orwell said. "That frequency takes priority over all other messages that travel through the subspace beacons." Orwell continued. "You can use it to communicate with Starfleet Command in real-time. We've scheduled our next meeting for half an hour from now."
A twenty digit series of numbers, letters, and symbols appeared on the Enterprise's viewscreen. Jim nodded to Uhura and Chekov. Uhura logged the frequency into the ship's computers while Chekov began tapping frantically them into an emergency PADD. Better safe than...well, in this case, cut off from the Fleet with a killer possibly gunning for them…
Admiral Orwell leaned in. "Captain Kirk. We have no way to determine where Khan has gone. But we were hoping you and your crew might have some ideas. You are the only people left alive to have had sustained contact with him. We need to know what–"
A flash of white light filled the Enterprise's viewscreen; then the screen went dark.
Jim froze. "Admiral Orwell?" No response. "Lieutenant Uhura, what happened to the channel?"
"It just cut out," Uhura said. "I'm trying to hail them again, but so far there's no answer."
"Captain, sensors indicate that an explosion just occurred on the bridge of the USS Archer," Spock's voice was level, but urgent.
"Get that ship onscreen," Jim ordered. "We need to see what's happened."
The viewscreen flickered, and the USS Archer came into view.
At least, what was left of it did.
The bridge was gone, as was most of the saucer section. Obliterated.
"Mr. Spock," Jim croaked. "Life signs?"
"Fifty seven," Spock replied. "And dropping. The USS Archer had a crew compliment of over two hundred."
"Get us closer, Mr. Sulu," Jim ordered. "Uhura, keep trying to contact survivors. Chekov, tell Scotty that we need to enact Emergency Beaming Protocol Four. Beam everyone from that ship into the shuttlebay, and then sort out the injured and beam them straight to the medbay. Make it fast. We can't put up our shields until those people are onboard."
"Aye, sir!" Chekov turned his full attention to the comms.
"Bones, get down to–" Jim turned. Bones was standing in the turbolift.
"On my way, Jim." The doctor gave a grim nod as the doors closed.
"Mr. Spock," Jim said. "Scan for explosives. Whatever hit them might be headed for us as well."
"Already in progress, captain," Spock called over. "However, without more information as to what just occurred, there may be no way to determine what kind of explosive we are looking for."
"Look for everything!" Jim barked. "Organic, synthetic, a sentient rock spewing lava! If it could take out half a starship, look for it!"
Spock nodded as he worked. "Yes, Captain."
There were a few heartbeats where Jim could do nothing. He set his crew in motion, and they had to do the rest.
"Captain," Spock said. "I am picking up a new energy reading from Xedna Eight."
Jim tensed. "Is it a missile?"
Spock shook his head. "No. It...appears to be...a transporter beam."
Jim's eyes went wide. He understood.
