I'm positively blown away by the responses to last chapter! You guys are the greatest! Special shoutout to a guest from the original series!

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek.

The uproar in the courtroom was furious. Very few people had known precisely what the trial was going to be about, only that it was high-profile. Flashes from the recorders carried by the press had the judge and anyone else unlucky enough to be in their path blinking furiously to clear their eyes. Questions and comments were being shouted out as though each person thought that if they could just make themselves heard over everyone else, they'd get their answer. Finally, someone did make themselves heard over everyone else. The bang of the gavel was deafening, and it lowered the volume enough that the calls for silence were finally heard and heeded.

"There will be no further outbursts!" shouted Eneery. "Anyone who disrupts these proceedings will be evicted from the courtroom and possibly held in contempt! Now, if the jury could finish reading out the charges?"

The juror cleared his throat nervously and looked down at his PADD again. "Mr. Garson is also charged with several counts of child abuse and one count of attempted murder." The gavel stopped the pandemonium in its tracks.

"Prosecution, call your first witness."

A middle aged man in drab civilian clothes stood up. Jim had only known of Samuel T. Cogley indirectly, but the man had the greatest recommendation Jim could imagine- he had been Christopher Pike's personal attorney and close friend. Jim talked with him over subspace and had quickly taken a liking to the slightly old-fashioned but quite passionate man. Jim asked him to prosecute, and once Cogley heard the situation, he agreed immediately. Having him there gave Kirk a small sense of having Pike there, and it gave Jim a tiny bit of welcome comfort amidst the large mass of dread settling in his stomach.

"Your honor, the prosecution calls Captain James Tiberius Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise."

Apparently those in the room had learned their lesson, for nothing louder than murmurs followed Jim as he slowly stood and made his way to the seat leaning against the left wall perpendicular to the judge, facing the jury who were sat against the right wall.

As he lowered himself into the chair, Jim's eyes rose to view the rows of chairs behind the lawyers' tables. He met the gazes of his crew. Spock's eyes radiating the discipline of intellect overtaking emotion. Bones' eyes, flashing with the conviction that he was prepared to catch Jim when he fell. Uhura's eyes, burning their strength straight into his. (Kirk did his best not to focus on the tiny pang as he realized he couldn't see Scotty, figuring he was taking care of their girl, and that had to be more important, right?) Sulu, Chekov, Marcus. More of Enterprise's crew, as many as could fit, still more visible through the windows set into the doors. Kirk took a deep breath and placed his hand on the deception detection pad, the drawling voice of the computer identity check being quite possibly the most monotonously quiet starter's gun Kirk has ever heard.

"Identity; Kirk, James Tiberius. Occupation; Starfleet Officer. Rank; Captain. Current Posting; Commanding Officer, U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701. Starfleet Metal of Honor. Kragite Commendation for Excellence. Talus Medal for Conduct Above and Beyond the Call of Duty."

As the computer's recitation ended, Cogley moved to stand on Kirk's right, facing the jury while keeping his head angled towards Jim and the judge as well.

"Captain Kirk. I understand you were the one who first brought the allegations against the defendant to light. Could you describe for the court what precipitated this?"

Here goes nothing. "On our last mission, the Enterprise was assigned to conduct a delegation of scientists and engineers to various sites around the Federation. The defendant came onboard leading a contingent from his contracting firm. Several days into the voyage there was a disturbance in the mess hall between the defendant's party and members of my crew. As I had already had to warn him about his behavior during the voyage I proceeded to order him confined to quarters. The defendant started shouting at me."

Cogley cut him off as expected. "Your honor, at this time I would like to enter into evidence the visual record made by Enterprise's security systems so we can hear firsthand the defendant words."

"Very well."

The lights in the room dimmed and a viewscreen set into the wall behind the judge came on. The viewer was positioned to the judge's right so he could turn and see it as well.

The viewer showed the aftermath of the brawl in the Enterprise's mess hall, with Kirk facing down an angry Frank held by a pair of security officers.

"Oh of course that's what you'd do you little punk. Blame me. Just like I'm sure you blamed your horrible old step-father for all of your mistakes. How else could you get into that academy of yours? They don't just take failure washouts normally. No, you just find someone else to blame it on. You'd never take the blame for your own mistakes. Nobody could ever get you to listen to anything. Not me, not Walken, not Barnes, not even Kodos!"

The image faded from the screen as the lights brightened, once more illuminating a deathly silent courtroom.

"Captain, could you enlighten the court as to just what association you have with the last name on that list?"

Jim gritted his teeth to bear having to answer the necessary question.

"Fifteen years ago, my step-father, the defendant, decided he'd had enough of me and sent me to live with relatives on Tarsus IV. Less than a year after I arrived the planet's crops were wiped out by a bacterial fungus. Governor Kodos's 'solution' to the declining food supply was to have roughly half of the colony's population of eight thousand put to death. Anyone who attempted to resist was killed. Starfleet later found evidence that Kodos was aware of the fungus for at least six months before the situation became desperate, possibly longer, and did nothing so he could use it as an excuse to institute his eugenics policies. He carefully crafted the lists of who lived and who died to leave the survivors as those he felt would breed more genetically perfect specimens."

Cogley was nodding, making an obvious effort to keep his face stiff and expressionless. "How did the defendant's outburst in the mess hall show you that he was complicit in the massacre?"

Jim closed his eyes so briefly that most probably mistook it for a blink before answering.

"When I was little, I was incredibly stubborn. Many people tried to get me to listen to what they wanted me to hear, very few doing so gently. A kid who is getting into trouble and resistant to authority is a magnet for bullies of all varieties. The defendant was expressing his frustration for never being able to make me do what he wanted himself. The thing that everyone on his list had in common was someone who not only tried to break me, but someone who did it because Frank wanted them to. His coworkers, poker buddies, rowdy bar friends. Everyone but Kodos. When I heard him put Kodos on that list, I realized that Frank had known what was going to happen when he sent me to Tarsus, meaning he had foreknowledge of Kodos's plans. Kodos was the latest in his attempts to break me."

Cogley nodded, saying in a clear voice that rang through the room, "Nothing further, your honor."

Cogley sat down, and Frank's lawyer, a gray skinned Binderi name Fasel got up taking Cogley's former position next to Kirk.

"Captain, how would you characterize your relationship with your step-father when you were living with him? Adversarial?"

"Objection!" yelled Cogley, shooting out of his seat. "Leading the witness."

"Sustained."

Fasel nodded at the rebuke and turned back to Jim. "Your relationship, Captain?"

"I'd say adversarial is as good a word as any."

"You didn't listen to him."

"No."

"You didn't like him."

"Being hit repeatedly tends to have that effect on me."

"And yet you did nothing about his supposed treatment of you? You never told anyone?"

"My brother Sam tried once. All he got for his trouble was a face full of bruises and a broken collarbone. I didn't see any point in trying after that."

"But you don't like your step-father. You never have."

"No."

Fasel nodded before pursuing another tack. "Captain, you stated that the list my client gave was of those whom he had had try to break you personally. Correct?"

"Yes."

"But Kodos the Executioner committed his crime against an entire colony. How was he personally trying to break your spirit if he never even saw you personally?"

Of course, Frank's lawyer would have to ask the one question he had been hoping against hope would not come up during the trial. Jim mumbled his reply through his clenched jaw.

Fasel, apparently sensing weakness, jumped on him, leaning in closer and smirking. "I'm sorry, Captain, what was that?"

"I said he did see me personally."

The gray man jerked back in surprise, clearly not having expected that, before recovering. "Captain, one of the most well-documented facts about the massacre is that Kodos killed all those who resisted him and got caught. Why would he have not killed you?"

"Believe me, he intended to."

Fasel raised an eyebrow. "Meaning?"

Jim ran his tongue around his mouth as he worked up the will to answer the question, pushing all of his strength into holding down the memories struggling to bubble to the surface.

"Kodos wanted something from me. When he caught me, he tried to make me give it to him. I wouldn't. If I had, he would have killed me right then and there."

"You were thirteen years old. What could you have possibly had that would have made Kodos torture you instead of killing you?"

Jim snapped his head around to face the lawyer even as Cogley shot out of his seat to object, rage blazing at the use of the word torture as well as the question. "That's none of your business!"

The gray man seemed taken aback by the extent of Kirk's anger. He opened his mouth to respond to Kirk when the judge's gavel interrupted him.

"Objection sustained. Move away from it, counselor."

Fasel nodded slowly at the judge. He glanced quickly at Kirk before turning back to the judge. "Nothing further your honor."

The judge excused Jim from the stand and declared a recess for the time being. Kirk gratefully zipped toward the door once the judge left, only to be met by reporters on all sides pressing in, shouting questions over each other.

Kirk felt his world starting to spin. All these people were asking him questions about Tarsus as if it were their G-D-given right to know, breaking memory after memory through to the surface. Jim closed his eyes, wishing against hope that someone, anyone would rescue him from the onslaught. As if in answer to his silent prayer, his skin began to tingle. Jim opened his eyes to find the courtroom and the reporters fading into a tangle of color, to be replaced a moment later by the magnificent sight of the Enterprise transporter room and the concerned visage of Montgomery Scott.

Jim stood panting, trying to gulp in air to stop his head buzzing from the reporter's assault. Between breaths he tried to say something to put his engineer at ease. "Who- put you- up to this- Scotty?"

"Mr. Spock figured those daft reporters might mob ye on the way out, and that ye might not be ready for it just then. So he had me standing by here for his signal to help ye give em the slip."

Jim had never, ever been more grateful for his Vulcan friend and first officer before. Nor his engineer for that matter. "Thanks."

Scotty nodded as Jim sat down on step of the transporter pad, not really feeling like going anywhere just then. He was barely aware of Scotty silently moving forward and sitting down next to him, but he was very much aware of his friend's presence, having a second person at his back for the second time in as many days that he faced his ghosts. Like Bones the night before last, he had no idea how to thank him, or to express just how much it meant, but the beauty of his friends was that he didn't need to. They just knew, leaving him able to sit in the silence he needed on the ship he loved, with one of the family he loved, both of whom had just yanked him out of a situation that scared him more than any ten armies of Klingons.