Chapter 21

by Starsinger

Okay, I'm nervous. You're not going to like the ending. Please, no rotten fruit, peasants bearing pitchforks and torches, or fire tribbles aimed at my apartment. All is not lost. Don't own them.

"Scotty, please, I'm begging you. Check out those coordinates," Gary spoke quickly into the comm.

"Sure, check out these coordinates, Captain Gary Bighaired Mitchell-Kirk! Ye hear me? I called 'im bighaired!" Scotty said with a giggle.

"Are you drunk?" Gary asked incredulously.

Jim laughed. "Look, Scotty, we need you. Something really weird happened not long before Gary returned to the ship, and I wanted you to check it out, but you quit!"

"Alrigh', alrigh' Jimmy. No need to get yer knickers in a twist! I'll do it! Geez, ye think I cannae remember four numbers. What was that last number again?" Scotty asked. "For you I'll do anything, Jimmy."

The link severed as Gary turned to look at Jim. "Do you mean to tell me that all I needed to do to get Scotty back was get you to call him?" Gary asked.

"I'm closer to his engines than you are," Jim told him. Gary couldn't help it, he started to laugh. Minutes later he emerged from yet another talk with Khan with a puzzled look on his face.

"He told me to look in those torpedoes," he told Jim and Spock.

"Perhaps if you talked to Dr. Marcus about opening up the torpedoes," Spock replied. Jim sighed, Spock had no tact whatsoever. He wasn't turning out to be the diplomat Sarek was.

"Who's Dr. Marcus?" Gary asked.

Jim sighed. The cat was out of the bag. "Carol, her name isn't Wallace, it's Marcus," Jim told him.

"As in Alexander Marcus?" Gary asked. "Wait, where's Elizabeth?"

Spock responded unblinkingly, "She had not made it back to the ship before we departed."

Gary's mouth moved as he absorbed the words. "Yes, Gary, you managed to miss her by not missing her," Jim responded as they ran headlong into Carol. Spock and Jim turned left leaving the two alone. "He's unbearably dense about that woman," Jim spoke.

"Dr. Dehner?" Spock asked. Jim nodded. "Indeed. Jim, might I ask a question?" Jim nodded again. "If you had a chance at a body, would you take it?"

Jim considered the question. He, like other shellpeople, often contemplated the question. "I don't know, Spock. I've been like this so long I have no idea what it would be like to be otherwise." Jim turned as Bones went past him. "We're going to an asteroid to look inside the torpedo and Bones is helping with the 'operation'?" Jim asked. Spock and Jim looked at each other perplexed as Gary ascended the stairs. None knew how much danger they were putting Jim's brawn in.

When the door slammed down on Bones' arm, trapping him, Jim's heartbeat skyrocketed. All he could hear was Bones screaming at him to beam Carol up and leave him to die. He wouldn't do that, he couldn't leave his brawn to die. Fortunately, Carol solved the problem. She pulled out the timer shutting down the launch sequence. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief until Bones announced that there was a surprise inside, a human.

Jim watched Bones and Gary talking with Carol over the cryotube. Suddenly, his sensors started beeping at him. He routed it to Sulu who concurred with him and called Gary over the intercom. "Captain, there's a ship approaching from warp space," Sulu told him.

"Is it Klingon?" Gary asked.

"No, coming from the wrong direction," Sulu told him.

"Gary, I wouldn't trust the engines right now," Jim told him.

"Did that incident you spoke of damage the engines?" Gary asked.

"I don't know," Jim responded. "Pavel is trying to fix the problem, but I don't recommend anyone go into the Warp Core. Whoa! That's a big ship!" They all heard Jim exclaim. "Gary, we're being hailed. It's Alexander."

"Marcus? He wants our prisoner," Gary muttered.

Jim had seen Gary talk his way out of many situations. That appeared to be exactly what he was trying to do right now. There was something very wrong about that other vessel. There appeared to be a grand total of twenty individuals running the ship, and it didn't have a brain. Jim gratefully jumped to warp speed as Gary gave the order. Jim spent the entire trip with Sulu nursing the engines. They fell into Earth's orbit. Gary had spent some time in Sickbay talking to Khan desperate to salvage the volatile situation.

Jim hated Marcus even more as he spoke to Gary. "Alright, I'll destroy your ship. You and your abomination that you call a brother will no longer be a burden to Starfleet. He and his kind should never have been allowed to live. Good-bye Captain," Marcus told him.

Gary whirled to face his crew. "I'm sorry," he told them. "I'm sorry, Jim." He didn't hear what the brain said as they waited, and waited. They continued to wait until a familiar voice sounded.

"Enterprise, this is Scotty. I've bought ye a little time! Beam me over so we get the hell outta 'ere!" came the welcome voice. Even the outraged cry, "Wha' hae ye done to my ship?" didn't dampen everyone's spirits.

Minutes seemed like hours while Jim and Khan raced over to stop Marcus. Then, Spock approached Uhura, "Uhura, Jim can you get a transmission to New Vulcan? There's someone who might be able to help us."

It took three satellites, two relay stations, and four AI's associated with ships to get the connection. Finally, the most elderly Vulcan Jim had ever witnessed appeared on-screen. And he had met this man before. "Mr. Spock," the man said.

The bridge went quiet. "Mr. Spock," Spock responded. "I need your help."

"I have no doubt you have called on important business," the elder said.

"What do you know of Khan?" Spock asked.

A deep sigh emanated from the elder Spock. "I have debated what I should tell you, but this, this is different. Khan Noonien Singh is the most dangerous individual I have ever encountered. He will not stop at getting what he wants, whatever it is. He will not hesitate to kill you and your crew if you stand in his way. I strongly suggest that you avoid him."

"Did you defeat him?" Spock asked.

"At great cost, yes," came the response.

"How?" Spock asked. The answer was enlightening. They simply had to outthink Khan. Which was why Bones spent the next hour with his medical and engineering staff along with Carol Marcus disarming the torpedoes long enough to extract their contents.

Bones looked around satisfied. Cryotubes were strewn everywhere, but they were safe. Bones had barely caught his breath and sat down when he felt it. Something slamming into the sides of the ship. They'd been fired on. "Jim! What's going on!" he cried. "Jim? Jim?" his voice became increasingly strident.

"Doctor, are you in contact with Jim?" Sulu asked. "Our Engineering section was just hit and Jim went silent."

"Oh, god no," Bones muttered. "He's gone silent, Sulu. Jim isn't talking to me either."

Sulu went silent. Spock spoke up. "We must assume that Jim has been either killed or severely disabled. Sulu, the ship is entirely yours."

Bones sat down, still trying to reach Jim. No matter what he tried, he couldn't reach him. Finally, in a fit, Bones picked up a PADD and through it against the bulkhead. He had failed. He had failed George, Winona, the Institute, and most importantly, he had failed Jim.