Hello there :D Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Sorry I haven't updated in the past few days but I needed a break you know? Annnd I got to see Into Darkness...again. That makes 5 times for me, and I'm planning on seeing it again soon ha! Ok enough with the talking I'll let you get on to the chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek...I only own Lara...


"Sulu, ETA on the approaching ship." Kirk ordered as he and Spock rushed onto the bridge.

"Three seconds sir."

Jim calmed his racing heart as he took the chair, "Shields."

The pilot did as he was ordered and raised all the shields to full power. The captain watched anxiously through the view screen, waiting on the appearance of the admiral. The vessel slammed out of warp, Jim could have sworn he felt the air shift with its arrival. It literally dwarfed the Enterprise. The metal of the new ship was ebony black, built along the general design of a typical Federation ship. But Jim could see that everything about this ship was different. It looked hundreds of times heavier, the entire feeling that came from the ship was massive, weighted and all together threatening.

The ship was made for battle. Two gigantic weapons hung down from the bottom, beefing up the exterior of the ship even more than it was. It blocked the entire view of the nebula the Enterprise was parked in front of…the whole thing was just…big.

"Captain," Uhura's voice came from behind him, "They're hailing us."

"On screen. Broadcast shipwide for the record."

The view screen blurred for a second and then showed a face. That face, confirmed everything Khan and Lara had been saying. Well…dammit…Kirk thought as the admiral greeted him.

"Captain Kirk," Admiral Alexander Marcus was professional, cold…all business.

Jim nodded at him-or to himself he wasn't quite sure-and said, "Admiral Marcus. I wasn't expecting you. That's some ship."

"And I wasn't expecting to get word that you'd taken the Harrisons into custody in violation of your orders. Or did you forget that you were directed to find them and take them out?" Marcus shook his head slowly like he was disappointed.

"Well we had to improvise when our warp core suddenly malfunctioned," Jim replied, calling on his old bluffing talents he had used far too many times while at the academy. He continued with as much innocence as he could muster, "But you already knew that, didn't you sir."

Marcus began to sound like he was growing impatient, "I don't take your meaning."

"Well that's why you're here isn't it? To assist with repairs? I mean, why else would the head of Starfleet personally bring his ship to the edge of Klingon space?"

From his seat at the helm, Sulu quietly said to Kirk, "Captain, they're scanning our ship."

Kirk felt his smile tighten, "Something I can help you find sir?"

"Where are your prisoners Kirk?" Marcus asked, tiring of the game he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.

"As per Starfleet regulations I'm preparing to return Lara and…Khan to Earth, where they will both stand trial."

Marcus sat back up, "Well…shit," he rubbed his forehead, "You talked to him. This is exactly what I was hoping to spare you from."

" 'Spare' me, sir?" Kirk asked bemused.

"Listen to me son," the admiral took on a gentle tone, "I made a mistake. I'm not afraid to admit it. There'd be no point in not admitting it. Not when your prisoner has gone out of his way to provide ample proof of my error. I took a tactical risk waking that bastard up, thinking his superior brain could help us protect ourselves from whatever came at us next.

"He brought back that girl and I could have let that one slide until he started to use her to his advantage. Khan turned her into the weapon she is today. She is just as dangerous as he is, they are both dangerous. The blood of everyone they killed is on my hands. That is something I will have to deal with on my own. I don't blame you or your crew for anything that happened during this little episode, Kirk. I know what they are both capable of. They fooled me, and they fooled you. There will be no reprisals against you or your crew. I'll see to that personally. And if I can manage, the entire incident will be expunged from the official records. Now I'm asking you: Give them to me so I can end what I started.

Kirk almost bought it. The admirals story made sense, all of it did. And Kirk would be guaranteed amnesty, for himself and his crew. He did believe what Khan and Lara had told him. And…he believed that Khan truly cared for Lara. The way Khan had watched her when he talked about his family…that was love. The softening of the Khan's eyes as he gazed across the brig at her had only shown that the cold exterior was protecting the man underneath. And it seemed that Lara was able to find her way to that man.

But, Kirk could just forget it. They were murderers. Khan killed Pike; Lara had killed innocent Starfleet personnel without a second thought. The captain would be rid of the two terrorists, he could go back to exploring…except for one detail. Something Marcus had failed to mention.

"And what would you have me do with the rest of Khan's crew?" Jim asked straightening in his seat, "Fire them at the Klingons? Just…end seventy-two lives, start a war in the process?"

The admiral's brow furrowed, "War? Is that what he told you? Consider this for a moment son. He put those people in those torpedoes. He made your girl the way she is. They were able to survive on Kronos by themselves. Can you imagine what would happen if we woke up the rest of his crew? What else did he tell you? That he's a 'peacekeeper'? He's playing you son, don't you see that?"

Kirk tried to defend his prisoner, "He and his crew were misused, forced into cryosleep—"

But Marcus cut him off, "Khan and his people were war criminals. They were condemned to death before they managed to get away. And now he's turned your former crewmember into one of his! She is just like him! I'm simply trying to do what is right here and carry out the sentence that was passed on the prisoner and his cohorts before anyone else dies because of them. So I'm asking you again. One last time, son. Lower your shields, tell me where they are."

Jim paused and weighed his options. He was always a gambler at heart, loved playing outside of the rules. But he knew he was outranked, outgunned and outmatched. He couldn't challenge the admiral and his massive ship outright on the Enterprises sensors. He took a deep breath,

"They are in Engineering, sir. But I'll have them moved to the transporter room right away."

Marcus' shoulders slumped as he sighed, the admiral was relieved. "Thank you, son. I'll take it from here."

The image of the admiral vanished, replaced by the image of his massive warship. The instant his face was gone, Kirk stood from his chair and pointed at his pilot, "Mr. Sulu do not drop those shields."

"Yes sir." The pilot nodded at him as Kirk stepped down from the chair. He was stopped by that familiar voice,

"Captain," Spock said to him, "Bearing in mind that the reality is that Khan and Lara are in sickbay and not in Engineering leads me to believe that you are contriving a plan that conflicts with what you have just told the admiral."

Kirk looked back at him, "I told Marcus we were bringing the fugitives back to Earth to stand trial and that's exactly what we're going to do," he activated the comm system, "Mr. Chekov, can we warp?"

"Sir, we're working on it as hard as we can. There is some functionality, but if we engage it now, we risk further damaging the core."

"Well can we do it or not?" Kirk snapped at the Russian whiz-kid.

"Techinically…yes. But I would not adwise it Keptin."

"Noted," Jim nodded then turned back to his helmsman, "Mr. Sulu, set course for Earth."

"Yes, sir." The ensign entered the coordinates in record time, "Course laid in."

"Punch it," Kirk ordered, as he calmed his racing heart and returned to his seat.


Lara closed her eyes when she felt the small jump to warp. She opened them to find Khan staring right back at her. They had been moved to the sickbay, metal cuffs around their hands. Both sat on opposite beds across from each other with five guards for each of them. They were so close now, Lara only had to extend her leg and her toe would touch Khan's knee.

But she couldn't of course. One wrong move and the security officers would be all over her…and that would just be annoying. Thinking back she realized that pretty much the whole 'shipwide broadcast' had been annoying. Hearing the admiral's slimy voice made her want to break something. Of course that was only an internal feeling. She and Khan had been stoic the entire time, simply watching one another as Marcus spewed out his little story of mistakes and redemption.

Carol Marcus had been assisting Doctor McCoy in analyzing the prisoners. She was currently working on scanning Lara with a tricorder. Lara ignored the blonde and kept her eyes focused on Khan's.

"Well at least we're moving again," McCoy stated in a conversational tone. He moved a tricorder over Khan's face and hoped his manner would ease the tension in the room.

For the first time since taking his seat on the table, Khan moved his eyes to the Doctor's, "If you think we're safe at warp…you're wrong."

Lara couldn't help but smile up at Carol. "Daddy's coming sweetheart." The young doctor's eyes grew wide as she realized what both prisoners were talking about. Before a curious McCoy could think of a question, Carol had thrown down her equipment and bolted out of the room.


"Lieutenant Uhura, contact Starfleet," Kirk said from his chair, "Identify us and tell them we were pursued into the Neutral Zone by an unmarked Federation ship."

She shook her head as her fingers flew across the many screens and buttons in front of her, "Can't do any of that, sir. Comms are down. All ship auxiliary power's being diverted to warp."

Kirk felt his temper flare for just a moment but it quickly dissipated when he saw Doctor Marcus sprinting out of the lift. "Permission to come on the bridge!" she called even though she was halfway through the command center.

"Dr. Marcus? What's going on?"

"He's going to catch up with us, and when he does, the only thing that's going to stop him destroying this ship is me, so you have to let me talk to him."

Jim tried to calm her down, "Carol, we're at warp. He can't catch up with us."

She pressed on, "Yes he can. He's been developing a ship that has advanced warp capabilities and—"

The ships proximity alarm blared and interrupted Carol's hurried explanations. "Mr. Sulu what's going on?" Kirk asked his helmsman.

Sulu hardly looked away from his screen, "Captain, I'm getting a reading I don't understand. There's a…distortion—a very big distortion," he watched the readout closer, "There seems to be something in the warp tunnel with us."

This time the admiral skipped the professional courtesies and went right for the aggressive negotiations. The Enterprise was rocked from side to side as she was hit numerous times with the admirals advanced weaponry. Kirk barely managed to stand on shaking legs as every alarm in the ship was going off.

"Sulu damage report!" he called out, "Where are we?"

"Shields dropping, all weapons systems offline!" Sulu reported from his seat, also quite shaken, "We're twenty thousand kilometers from Luna!"

Kirk whipped around and checked on his bridge crew. Everyone was in a slight state of panic, nothing too extreme though. "Captain!" an ensign reported to him, "Major hull damage, we've been knocked out of the warp tunnel."

"Captain," Spock announced from his seat, "Marcus's ship clearly has advanced warp and weapons capabilities proportionate to her size."

Another group of blasts rocked the Enterprise and Kirk felt the artificial gravity give way for a moment. They couldn't lose that, if they lost that, they were done for. "Evasive maneuvers! Get us to Earth now! Full impulse! Sulu—"

"Captain stop!" Carol said recovering from being thrown over. She grabbed his shoulder and gave him a slight shake. "Please, we are all going to die if you don't let me speak to him!"

Kirk paused and realized he truly had no other option. "Lieutenant Uhura, hail them."

Carol turned around to face the screen, "Sir, it's me-it's Carol. I'm here."

The viewscreen flickered and showed Marcus, leaning toward the screen, a look of pure horror on his face. "What are you doing on that ship?"

"I heard what you said," the young doctor spoke to her father with a shaking voice, trying to hold back her anxiety as the tears slowly welled up in her eyes, "That you made a mistake and now you're doing everything you can to fix it. But Dad…I don't believe that the man who raised me is capable of destroying a ship full of innocent people. And if I'm wrong about that…then I guess you'll have to do it with me on board."

There was a solid pause as Admiral Marcus seemed to weigh what his daughter had just said. He leaned back in his seat, "Actually Carol I won't."

The girl's eyes widened as she saw the familiar lights of a transport begin to swarm around her body. She turned around and called out helplessly to Kirk, "Captain?"

"Can we interrupt their transport signal?" he called out.

"No, sir!" a private quickly responded to him. Carol ran for the lift, trying to interrupt the signal as much as she could. But she was gone as quickly as she had been there.

Jim watched her disappear and felt a chill run down his spine. The admiral's cold, unwavering voice sounded behind him, "Captain James T. Kirk: Without authorization and in league with the fugitives known as John and Lara Harrison you and your crew went rogue in enemy territory, leaving me no choice but to hunt you down and destroy you," he looked to his right, "Lock phasers."

"Wait sir!" Kirk raised a hand and ran to stand in front of the view screen, "Wait, wait, wait!" the admiral paused and Jim knew what he had to do, "Admiral, I take full responsibility for my actions. But they were my actions, and mine alone," he was pleading now. Pleading for the lives of his crew.

"My crew was only following my orders. They acted only as instructed. Following a captain's orders should be reason for commendation, not termination. If I transmit Khan and Lara's location to you now, all that I ask is that you spare them," he stepped even closer to the screen, "Please sir. I'll do anything you want, just let them live."

The admiral let him finish and spoke in a sympathetic tone, "Well, Captain, I have to say that's a hell of an apology. But if it's any consolation," he leaned back in his chair, "I was never going to spare your crew…fire."

There was a dead silence that followed as the view screen cut out. Jim looked back at his bridge crew; saw Spock and Uhura standing by each other, hands entwined. He watched all their faces, knew that there was nothing more he could do. He had done everything he could.

"I'm sorry."


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