Ay, every inch a king.
(4.6.122), King Lear
So sorry for taking over a year to update. D: It was a busy year and then I had a huge writers' block for the longest time.
But I'm still alive, finally back to writing, and have no plans to abandon my fics. :D
The good news is, the next chapter is about ready, so at least that won't take forever. ^^;
In case everybody forgot since it's been so long:
They're at Khan's sham trial by Section 31, trying to stop it. Back when Jim was at the hospital he asked Spock Prime to help him fix this. (This particular bit happened in the fic back in 2014, so by now other fics have come out which also touch on the subject of asylum and help from the Vulcans, since it's inevitable that this be a common theme considering it's Jim and he would naturally ask Spock. I just wanted to mention it was already set up back years ago, so no one thinks I came back to life and ripped off someone else's fic or anything. lol)
Also, Mendez is that friend of Jim's who appeared in the Menagerie in TOS. He showed Jim the video of Khan in jail, and unwittingly started this whole mess. XD
Stardate 2259.72
(March 13th 2259)
San Francisco
The doors were flung wide open, and the entire assembly turned to gape in shock at the group now striding into the room.
The guards who had been in the corridor, blocking the entrance to the courtroom when Kirk had arrived, were nowhere to be seen now, and they had clearly let pass quite a large group.
At the head of the delegation was Sarek of Vulcan, flanked by several tall Vulcan guards in traditional attire, dressed as they would have been at the Vulcan embassy for ceremonial occasions, their long lances every bit as dangerous now as they might have been in times long gone, before Surak, back when Vulcans were less controlled and more prone to martial savagery than logical reasoning.
Even without shedding a drop of blood, the presence of the Vulcan ambassador's escort alone made quick work of persuading the Section 31 guards left inside the tribunal from barring entry to the group.
It would later be discovered that the guards in the corridor had been swiftly dispensed with by way of Vulcan nerve pinches, a most unconventional situation.
To make things even worse - at least in the eyes of José Mendez, who was already worried enough about how far down the drain the two of them had flushed their careers- Jim bolted from his friend's side and hurried as fast as he could down the steps of the gallery. His presence wasn't really needed for Sarek's entrance but he still pushed his way through to try and help as much as he could so that the ambassador could reach the center of the court as quickly as possible.
The young Captain seemed to be animated by a newfound breath now that his plan -whatever that may be- was nearing completion. It was hard to believe this was the same man who could barely stand a moment ago. He had to be running on fumes and burning through his very last reserves. Jim's willpower always seemed to somehow go above and beyond his body's limitations.
Most of the officers in the way stood aside swiftly, staring in shock as they let the Vulcan group pass. A Starfleet Security major tried one last attempt to block the ambassador's path with a rather lukewarm "Hey! You can't...!" as Sarek's retinue shielded their leader and pushed through unfazed, while the man simply stood and stared impotently.
The Vulcan elder retorted in passing, calmly but loudly enough for the rest of the court to hear, "On the contrary, I can. And I must. As a founding member of the Federation as well as a long-time benefactor of Earth, Vulcan has a vested interest and an inalienable say in the matters of any Federation species in danger of extinction."
A cold wind seemed to blow through the assembly at Sarek's words.
One of the admirals cut through the stunned silence, "Ambassador, could you clarify to which species you are referring?" There was a kind of stunned dread in his voice, which was most unexpected from one of his rank.
"The one of which you were holding the last seventy-three specimens prisoner, Admiral: seventy-two in stasis and one right here, being tried before this...court."
Sarek motioned for an elderly Vulcan scientist from amidst the delegation to come forward. The old Vulcan did so and addressed the court.
"We have examined the prisoner's genetic material from blood samples taken during recent events, and have concluded that while the subject is definitely a form of human, the DNA differences are enough to classify him and his people a species of their own."
Sarek thanked him and, as the other Vulcan stepped back into the group, added, "With so few of them left, it would be a crime against nature to execute even a single one of them."
All eyes in the room were riveted to the ambassador. Khan was staring at him perhaps harder even than the Starfleet officers were.
Kirk's eyes strayed to the augment for a moment and he was taken aback by the look on Khan's face. It was as if all blood had drained from it, leaving Khan frozen between hope and despair. He seemed to be holding his breath, unsure which emotion to swing towards.
The admirals on the other hand, looked for the most part outraged, and it was only court decorum that was holding the lower-ranked personnel in the gallery back from protesting as loudly as they wished to.
Sarek's words were completely true, which was precisely why they were so frighteningly hard to deny for the assembled brass.
Nevertheless one of the admirals still blurted, "They… They are war criminals. Condemned to death..." His confidence in the argument seemed to be mounting as he made his way through the sentence, but he didn't get to finish it before Sarek interrupted him, the Vulcan's rebuttal resounding through the room, and the calm with which he delivered it making the words feel even more definitive.
"In the eyes of laws that are centuries old, yes. As far as we know, they were in all likelihood summarily condemned in ways no different from a makeshift court held by a lynch mob, on the basis of their race, rather than any form of real trial judging their individual actions. But even if the matter had been duly legal, and without discounting that Earth legislation has changed considerably since then, or the fact that the statute of limitation for a number of these potential crimes would be long over, the fact remains they are an endangered species."
The Vulcan ambassador made a brief pause to let that sink in before delivering the coup-de-grâce, "As such, the Vulcan High Council has ordered the seizing of all seventy-two cryotubes from the storage facility where they were being held. Due to the urgency of the situation, that order has been carried out already. They have been moved to the Vulcan embassy, where they were given official asylum status, before their transport departed to an undisclosed location within the Confederacy of Surak-"
At that, the court did finally erupt into a flurry of protests and even shouts from some. Demands to know when that had been done or how it was accomplished so fast and how they were not warned exploded and then died down as Sarek, unfazed, continued speaking.
"The cryotubes are already en route to their new location, where they will be stored indefinitely, or until a properly sanctioned and non-military Federation court settles on an acceptable option to awaken them within a protected environment, if such a thing is viable. As an endangered species, they cannot be harmed in any way. The Vulcan High Council will not allow anything to be done to put them at risk for any reason."
You could have heard a pin drop. Or the jaws of the admirals who were currently staring in horror at the Vulcan ambassador.
They were well aware that considering the power the Council had -even after the destruction of Vulcan- Sarek was most likely not bluffing. All that would be needed to pull this off would have been the knowledge of the location the cryotubes were stored in, and a skilled task force.
Section 31 had held secret the existence of the augments, and with the potential danger of increased scrutiny following the Vengeance crash, they had been moved out and had no longer been kept in a high-security facility. It would have been a temporary move, and should have been a non-issue since they were frozen anyway.
Several Admirals in league with Section 31 were cursing up a storm internally, not having expected that any of this information could have been leaked, much less so soon.
José Mendez was sweating heavily and, glued to his seat, was silently wishing everyone would forget who had snuck Jim Kirk into the room in the first place. This was taking things far beyond what he could have dreamed of even in his most vivid career-related nightmares.
There were only so many people who knew where the augments had been held, and Mendez was well aware that there was no chance the connection to him would not be made, especially since he'd accessed the video feed to show it to Kirk earlier that day.
Jim was having trouble containing his joy, and how awed he was by how thorough Sarek -and Spock of course, Spock Prime, who had set all of this in motion all the way from New Vulcan- had been.
None of this would have been possible without them, or without the younger Spock also, who had been liasoning with them from the hospital after Jim's departure, sending them information about Khan's blood and helping set everything up despite how many misgivings he had about Jim's urge to intervene in this. But no matter how much he trusted them, Jim had never expected everything to go so well or so quickly .
Standing next to the Vulcan delegation, the young captain was now at the foot of the gallery, face to face with the wall of admirals, not far from the enclosure Khan was still chained to.
Meanwhile, Khan stared at the proceedings with a bewildered look, lips parted as if he was either hyperventilating or simply beyond realizing he was gaping, too focused on processing the news to concern himself with his own appearance -eons away from the poise he would have wanted to maintain if the circumstances were better.
Jim wondered whether Khan's body might finally be too exhausted to handle the sudden influx of information, because despite the good news, the augment looked aghast, for the most part. Kirk found himself surprised at the fact that he was finding the look on Khan's face unexpectedly endearing, in a way; something he'd never expected to think of anything the augment did.
Their eyes finally met, and Khan was so evidently filled with fear for his people that Jim couldn't help taking pity of him. Knowing that the attention of the room was focused on Sarek -who was now answering questions from the top brass about the upcoming proceedings- far more than on him, Jim held the augment's gaze, then slowly, began blinking the letters 'CQ, CQ' in morse code, to make sure Khan recognized what he was doing.
The augment quickly caught on and answered the 'call' by blinking back a much faster "What are you doing?!" in flawless morse.
Kirk answered, slightly slower than Khan, a bit from being rusty and a bit from adapting to blinking in order to signal the letters rather than tapping them, "I made you a promise. I guaranteed the safety of your crew." He was sure he'd blinked each word right, but the augment still didn't seem convinced, so he added, "Your people are safe. Beyond the reach of anyone who might harm them. I never break a promise."
In a way, Khan looked like an abused animal being given food or shelter for the first time, and expecting someone to strike it as soon as it lowers its guard. The mental image erased the smile from Jim's face, but it only further solidified his determination to see the augment through a real, fair trial. Which, admittedly, was more for the sake of Starfleet than Khan, as had been his intention from the start. But seeing the augment like this, so diminished and so desperate, Kirk would have been unable to claim that the instinctive yearning for justice he felt was entirely for the sake of Starfleet only.
Right about that moment, and before the two could focus further on their secret communication, Sarek delivered his next blow against the court.
"Furthermore, given that the defendant was pressed into service by force, in a manner akin to the slavery that has been long outlawed in the Federation, and given that he was never a sanctioned member of Starfleet, trying him in a military court is highly... irregular ."
Illegal was the word he left hanging in the air, but it was plainly obvious to them all, and sent shivers down the spines of many of Starfleet's finest.
Sarek continued, "Whatever sentencing this court would have arrived at, it would have been overthrown in the appeal stage." The brief looks of amusement on the faces of some of the brass at the mention of Khan even getting the chance of an appeal were immediately wiped away the moment Sarek uttered the next part. "Especially with the likely outcry once the matter is widely known to the press."
"Press? What press?!" There was an underlying tinge of panic in one of the admiral's voices.
Sarek twisted the blade in the wound by calmly stating, " It is only logical: such a remarkable scientific discovery demands that the press be notified. Especially when such a measure might be required to ensure the survival of said species." There was a clear threat in the words, before he finished, "As a result, the Vulcan embassy is ready to hold a press conference and disclose the discovery at any moment, if needed. And the issue of the corruption and ill-advised choices Admiral Marcus has made remains also a subject that requires public accountability, and as such the press has already been notified of parts of this. As a founding member of the Federation, Vulcan, and by extension its representatives, has a moral duty to uphold the laws and tenets of this institution, and to ensure that any erring we witness in our fellow members is duly addressed."
The stunned silence in the whole assembly was such that you could have heard a fly buzzing. Some of the admirals exchanged silent glances that spoke of contingency plans and of everything Section 31 might have at risk.
Even Kirk himself, who had discussed the press possibility with Spock as a potential last recourse, was not expecting it to develop so fast or so dramatically.
Earth had not received such a brutal rebuke from the Vulcans since the early days following Zefram Cochrane's discovery of warp speed, when the Vulcan High Command's meddling in Terran policy had become common as a counter-balance of the technological help the Vulcans provided.
Once the initial shock wavered, some almost dared to voice what they were thinking. That New Vulcan and the smaller colonies that composed the Confederacy of Surak were far from the Vulcan of old, which had had Earth willingly rushing to cater to its every whim and admirals falling over themselves to grant any wish of a Vulcan elder. Now that they were nothing but a few thousand refugees, their 'confederacy' reduced to the survivors on a brand new colony and a meager few others scattered around other potentially vulnerable outposts, they no longer wielded the same amount of raw power.
But even if Starfleet had been able to get away with an open affront -or worse, implied threats- to the Vulcans without facing direct retaliation from the rest of the Federation -something that would not be so easy, as they all knew-, it still remained that Vulcan technology was far superior, and Earth depended quite a bit on it. Between that and the undeniably vital position that Vulcan diplomacy held within the Federation, avoiding a confrontation with them was a real necessity.
For a moment it seemed as if the higher members of the court were pondering whether to call it and see if the Vulcan's posturing would crumble or if it would hold.
But they were each individually afraid of damaging their own reputations, especially now that the cat was out of the bag. Should the Vulcan Council really be backing its ambassador with their full power -which it likely was if the information about the cryotubes having been seized was true- Starfleet would lose face terribly if the Vulcans chose to escalate the matter.
Ultimately, each of the top brass had too much to lose individually by taking the risk of calling Sarek out to see if he was bluffing. And even with the power Section 31 might still have, there was no doubt that if things soured and the Vulcans pressed for sanctions against Earth from the Federation as a whole -especially for, say, slavery and attempted genocide of a protected species- several admirals would be at risk of being sacked most dishonorably. As a group, they would likely have been able to weather the storm, but individually none of them wanted to risk their skin, or trusted the others enough to be sure they wouldn't turn on each other to save their own position. As it was, with the press aware of what Marcus had been doing, it was only a matter of time before a number of them had to scramble to save their own positions.
The wind was changing directions, all thanks to a masterful move spearheaded by the youngest captain in the room. They may not know what hand Kirk had played in it or how much of it had been his idea, but they knew he was mixed up in it somehow. If the the glares leveled at him could kill, there would be nothing left of Kirk.
None of them had expected the young man to actually be a realistic obstacle to their plans, even when he'd interrupted the trial. He'd seemed insignificant enough then, all the more so with how pale and exhausted he seemed.
They had no way to know that he'd only been stalling to give the Vulcans time to set this all into motion.
The attention focused on Kirk made it all so much more dramatic when, once it was clear that it was over and that Sarek had the admirals cornered against the proverbial wall, Kirk sighed in relief before his eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed heavily and suddenly, like a puppet with its strings cut. His limp body nearly hit the ground before the ambassador and the two Vulcan guards who were closest caught him, all three having reached for him when he fainted.
Mendez, who until then had seemed more concerned with sinking into his seat and disappearing, bolted upright the instant Jim fell, and ran down the steps of the gallery to reach him, irrationally afraid the young man might be dead rather than just unconscious. Jim may have dragged him into a world of trouble but he was his friend. His concern for Jim overrode all thoughts about his career or the fact he was implicating himself further in the whole mess.
And regardless of whatever consequences Mendez might fear they could both end up facing from Starfleet, he knew Jim had done all this for the right reasons, however much José might personally disagree with parts of it.
The collective sound of surprise in the room gave way to a myriad of murmurs and conjecture over the entire situation.
Nevertheless, even with all the background noise, José heard loud and clear when the prisoner blurted out an unexpectedly concerned-sounding "What's wrong with him?!" in a cracked voice, parched lips quivering from the effort to keep himself more-or-less upright and hanging onto the banister of his enclosure, trying to better see the unconscious Captain.
Mendez felt a flare of fury wash through his body.
The gall of this man.
No.
The gall of this thing. This animal.
José saw red, rage rushing through him like heat to his face. With quick steps, he breached the gap between the Vulcan group still holding Jim upright and the augment's enclosure nearby. He planted himself in front of Khan, up close to his face blocking his view of Jim and practically growled out, "He died on that ship! He died by your fault, you piece of shit. Or nearly did. He was in a coma until today, and the first thing he did after he woke up was come here and save your sorry ass! What do you think is wrong with him, huh?!"
Khan, paler than ever and clearly struggling to stay conscious as well, still held surprising composure in the face of a confrontation, and did not shrink back in the least at the commodore's attempt at intimidation. He seemed utterly unfazed by his presence, in fact.
It was the information which Khan seemed to take like a blow.
Ignoring the man in front of him the instant Mendez was done speaking, the augment's gaze swung back to Kirk, shock clearly written all over his features.
"I...did not know… I did not think…"
His voice was even breathier than before.
Mendez -uncertain whether the renewed surge of anger he was feeling was at being ignored so blatantly by the augment, or if it was at Khan's words- snapped at him again anyway, and hissed out, "He didn't do this for you! The point wasn't to save you! It was for Starfleet that he did it!"
But Khan did not seem to hear him at all. All of his attention was focused on Kirk. The look of shock on the augment's face was further exacerbated by the shallow breaths he was drawing, his whole body struggling to keep functioning, gaze glued to the Captain.
.
.*.
.
He hadn't known.
Not only that Kirk had been in a coma. He hadn't known that the captain had died at all.
He'd only fired to disable the Enterprise. He'd never expected it to lose power and begin to fall. It must have been more damaged than he knew from Marcus' attacks, or from going to warp speed without being completely repaired from Section 31's sabotage. He hadn't expected the ship's systems to fail at all. But then, at the moment it had happened, the thought had vanished fast; with the explosion of the torpedoes, he had had far more dire things to focus on.
After that, everything was a blur of pain and horror. The belief that he'd lost his family, -that he'd just seen them die right before his eyes just as he'd finally, finally believed he'd succeeded in saving them-, had momentarily robbed him of his sanity.
Even now, it felt so unreal to know that they were alive. It was like waking up from a nightmare so realistic that it was hard to find one's bearings. He was simultaneously overjoyed that they were out of Starfleet's hands and terrified of what the Vulcans would do to them -a people of cold hard logic; for all he knew they might be more prone to live experimentation than humans. Even now, his body still bore injuries from the beating he'd received from Kirk's first officer, made worse by the tests performed on him since then, and he no longer had any trust in his misinformed beliefs about Vulcans being unable to lie, much less to break rules and bones.
The part of him that was too tired -and too broken up to be able to keep going in the same horrible way as he had for so long- was desperately clinging to the mad hope that what Kirk and the Vulcan ambassador had said was the truth, and that his people were safe.
The rest of him had been betrayed, used and abused far too many times to still believe so easily, or even carry much hope at all, especially in a situation like this.
It could not be.
No one did him any favors without exacting a heavy price in return.
The world seemed to have declared war on him and his people since the moment they had been born, and no matter how superior a man he might be, there was only so much he could do alone.
Or even with seventy-two others. So much more could have been accomplished with an entire army as in the past, but even those armies had been defeated, in the end. The odds never ceased to get worse since the end of the war.
Stalling until he could rescue his crew, then escaping and getting as far away from Earth -no, from the whole Federation now- as possible… Those had been his intentions when Marcus had been alive, and it was still their best bet for survival now.
Escape together, before they kill us all or worse. Run as far as we can and never look back.
To hell if it didn't sound proper or warrior-like. His people would still be alive, at least. That was what truly mattered the most. Their wellbeing.
And for that, Khan would accept any humiliation. He had already accepted so many anyway. Throughout his life and more recently under Marcus. What difference did it make, one more?
Whatever it was that the Vulcans wanted from him or from his people, there was no one to stop them from taking it. And it would be taken, sooner or later. In his current condition, Khan could not prevent that. His best hopes would be to delay and stall.
He resigned himself to wait for the other shoe to drop and see exactly what they would demand of him. He had no other choice for the time being.
Until he could do better than that, the priority would be to wait and heal, delay the inevitable as much as possible until he was strong enough. So that at the first chance he could escape and rescue his people.
It was the only way.
Or at least, the only way he knew.
.
.
.
A big thank you to NurseDarry for beta'ing! :D
(Any butchering of the English language that you might spot is my own addition post-beta, and not her fault in any way.)
Reviews are so welcome! They re-energize me! :D