– The Second Eugenics War – Chapter 4 –
Jim had always found it best to leap without looking, because if he listened to his mind rather than his gut, if he really thought about the possibility of dying on a mission, then he might hesitate or stall—as he was doing now. In front of him the shuttle controls blinked and beeped at him, untouched. He closed his eyes and tried to ignore the hammering of his heart. There was no point in delaying take off. It wasn't as if he could back out now. If he got off the shuttle, what would people think of him? He punched in the launch sequence.
The shuttle trip down to the surface of the large moon the Enterprise was now in orbit around took less than ten minutes. Recalling Spock's words about keeping a transporter lock on him put a humorless smile on his face. He'd ordered the Enterprise to keep her shields up regardless of what happened. He knew after his encounter with Spock's counterpart on Delta Vega that Spock did feel. He felt his stomach twisting. Boy, did Spock feel. And he'd witnessed those normally hidden emotions come to the surface when he'd died. He looked over his shoulder back at the warp core sitting mere meters away from him. His fingers went white as he clutched the armrest tightly.
"-mander Spock to Captain Kirk. Come in. Are you receiving us? Jim, are you alright?"
He jumped in his seat. He knitted his brow and checked the comm panel—there was an incoming signal from the ship. How had he not heard it?
"Kirk here," he said while checking all the sensor readings. "Everything is fine down here. I'm about to initiate the landing sequence. I want Commander Scott to stand by on one channel in case I need his input."
There was a slight pause before Spock acknowledged the orders curtly. Jim bit the inside of cheek. After all that had happened after Pike's death—because he'd let his emotions rule over his actions—how could he let them interfere with his duty again? Whatever example he set, his whole crew might follow suit, first and foremost his bridge officers.
The shuttle touched down on the moon's rocky surface with a jolt.
"Computer, lower shields," he commanded.
He leapt out of his seat, strode over to Scotty's portable trans-warp beaming device. The warp core shielding reflected the interior of the shuttle. Kneeling down in front of it he took a deep breath and then initiated the warp core containment field, before powering it up. It emitted a humming sound and Jim felt the whole shuttle vibrate beneath him. Was it meant to do that? Maybe he should have let Scotty do this, he thought.
"Scotty, it's on," he said, his voice louder than he'd intended. "I'll attempt to beam the canister down to the planet. You have the coordinates. Monitor whether it arrives or not. On my mark start broadcasting the interference signal."
"Ready when you are, Sir," Scotty replied.
Jim knelt down next to the device on the floor in front of him. "Now!"
He operated the controls and the container disappeared in a beam of light—as did the warp core cladding. Shielding his eyes from the bright light with one hand he stumbled back towards the cockpit. He could tell now that the cladding hadn't disappeared, it was melting in places.
"Scotty! It's melting!" he shouted.
"What's melting?" That was Spock's voice.
An awfully familiar blue light flooded the shuttle. A Captain cannot cheat death, he thought. Harrison's blood had bought him extra time in the universe, but this had been how he'd meant to die. Having been snatched back from Death's clutches, the Grim Reaper had simply been biding his time until the circumstances were right for another attempt to collect his soul.
Spock's voice broke over the comm link like a hail storm. "Captain? Jim!"
The emotions in his voice broke through Jim's shocked calm and he slumped back against the shuttle's interior wall.
His throat felt dry. "The containment is melting away."
"We'll beam you out, Ca-," Scotty replied, but he was cut off mid-sentence.
Through the onset of a pounding headache Jim staggered to the main controls. He tried to hail the Enterprise but the comm line was dead. Next would be the nausea, he knew. While he still had energy he had to make sure the trans-warp beaming device was not posing a danger to the ship. Then he'd grab a spacesuit and get the hell out of the shuttle.
"Did you just turn off life-support and the communications array?" Scotty shouted at Spock, who ignored him.
"Commander Spock to Lieutenant Uhura, what is the status of the test?"
"It's too early to say, Commander. The deflector dish is running on full power now, but with trans-warp beaming there is no signal we can track. It's all inter-dimensional. If the container doesn't show up at the coordinates within the next five minutes we should be good."
"I am aware of the physics, Lieutenant. Keep me informed, Spock out."
Even with life-support turned off they didn't have enough power to beam the Captain back onboard. The deflector was consuming the vast majority of their power. He lowered their shields. They'd have to be lowered anyway in order to beam the Captain back on board.
"An additional 5% engine output is required to use the transporters," he said, fixing his eyes on Scotty.
The engineer held up both his hands in front of him and took a step back. "I really don't think we should mess with the power output without first shutting the system down and restarting-."
"But you could do it?"
"Aye, sure. I really don't think-."
"Do it. Now."
Scotty scrambled to the engineering console. The signals Spock was looking at indicated that Jim hadn't left the shuttle. Spock's heart was pumping too fast. He gripped the command chair tightly, eyes fixed on the power indicator. When it finally turned green he barked the orders to have the Captain beamed on board. As he dashed to the turbolift Scotty grabbed his upper arm.
"Sir," Scotty said and Spock spun around to face him. The human didn't let go of his arm.
"Spock, I scanned the shuttle just now. There's no way he was exposed to anything under 5000 rads. He won't make it."
Spock barely heard the last sentence. Without even acknowledging the commander he shrugged him off and stepped into the turbolift. Not all hope was lost, he knew. The disruptor blast hadn't killed Jim, this might not either.
But logic didn't help when the memories of his friend's death barged their way to the front of his mind, dragging up with them all the emotions associated with them—all the emotions he'd held back since Vulcan's destruction. When the turbolift came to a halt again Spock's hands were visibly shaking and upon entering sickbay his breathing was visibly labored.
"Spock!"
It was Jim. Spock rushed to his bedside, ignoring doctor McCoy.
"How did the test go?"
The Captain's question caused Spock to blink. "It is not yet complete," he replied. If it was, Nyota would've informed him.
His eyes rove over his friend's body to check if he had any additional wounds. When his gaze returned to the Captain's face he found his eyes shuttered.
"Doctor?"
McCoy stepped next to him. "I'm doing all I can for him. Blood transfusions, everything. The cell damage is extreme. He's way beyond medical help."
"Your prognosis?" Spock pressed.
For a moment the doctor said nothing. Then his eyes narrowed. "I don't know. It was less than what he was exposed to last time. Way less. I think he'll make it, but that's not really my medical opinion. Just... a feeling."
Spock found himself nodding. He reached out and took one of Jim's hands in his. It comforted him to feel the life still flowing in those veins, but they were hot—several degrees above average human body temperature.
"Commander Spock," Uhura's voice sounded through a comm channel, "we managed to prevent the beaming of the container. It's not on the shuttle either though. It's gone completely. We lost the dilithium crystal on the shuttle as expected. Commander Scott also reported damage to the Enterprise's warp core crystals, due to turning up the power output above the recommended limit."
"Acknowledged," he replied.
They'd saved the captain, he thought. And that was what mattered. Not a logical thought, he knew, but he could fight the illogical thoughts once he had his body and mind under a semblance of control. Jim brought out emotions in him that he hadn't thought he was capable of feeling ever again. He wasn't sure yet whether that was a good or a bad thing.
"Acting-Captain Spock to the bridge. Mr. Sulu, resume course to the Klingon border." He then added, "Maximum warp speed possible," and hoped that would turn out to be more than warp factor 1.
Spock's face was a blur to Jim, as was the rest of the world. Bones couldn't tell him how long it would be before his vision returned to normal again, since as far as Bones was concerned that all depended on his body's healing powers. If his vision didn't improve and cataracts formed in his eyes, Bones could fix that easily. So he wasn't worried.
"What's our situation? We're at the Klingon border, right? Any contact from Starfleet? Sightings of Klingons?" Jim asked.
"ETA is forty-nine hours, ten minutes-," Spock started to reply.
"Hang on! What happened? We were only a couple of hours away!"
"We had to stop for engine maintenance."
"Maintenance," Jim repeated in a flat tone of voice.
"Hairline cracks in our main dilithium crystal. Mr. Scott has made adjustments to the system to compensate."
"... and?"
"He does not think it wise to travel above warp factor 3."
"You can keep talking, Mr. Spock without me prompting you. I can't currently read the report you've surely sent me about all this."
As Jim listened to clinical, logical reasons why Spock had gotten Scotty to increase engine power, he wished that he was able to focus on Spock's face. He wanted to look him in the eye and force Spock to admit that it had had nothing to do with logic.
"We have spare dilithium crystals, don't we?" Jim asked.
"Indeed. Had we replaced this crystal though, the calibrations would have taken too long. It would have taken 32 additional hours to travel to the border."
Jim nodded. "Understood. If the deflector uses so much power to broadcast the interference signal, will we be able to make use of it under these circumstances?"
"If we are aiming it only at a ship, rather than a whole planet, we should be able to do so with our current power capacity."
There was nothing else he could think to ask. Eventually Spock excused himself.
"Would you believe it?" Bones said, stepping up to take Spock's place. "Cold as ice again."
"Huh?"
"He was pretty torn up about your injuries when they first brought you down to sickbay. Now he's decided all that doesn't matter apparently."
"He does care, Bones."
"Very occasionally. When he temporarily forgets that caring is illogical."
Jim didn't want to engage the doctor on that point, because it was a fair enough point to make.
"How am I doing?" he inquired instead.
"You're healing even faster than I predicted. The combination of the treatments I'm giving you and your... enhanced body is yielding fantastic results."
"I'm one of them now," Jim stated, staring up at the blurry ceiling.
"One of who?"
"The augments. I'm like Harrison."
"You're nothing like him."
"I think I am. The augments wreaked havoc on Earth during the Eugenics War. They weren't raised to be tyrants, their ambitions came about due to their superior biology. A biology I now share."
"I'll call security and have them throw you in the brig then, shall I? Spare me, kid." Bones jabbed Jim with a hypospray. "I'm still analyzing the results from all your tests. Understanding you is our best chance to come up with a way to stop Harrison and the other augments."
The blur of the ceiling started to tilt to one side and started spinning. "Was that some kind of tranquilizer or anesthetic?"
"You'll wake up before we reach the border, don't worry."
To be continued...