A/N: The last Into Darkness dialogue-heavy chapter as things will soon be redirecting away from the original plot of the film. I apologize ahead of time for Chekov's horribly typed out Russian accent, haha! Enjoy!
25. Doomsday
(Listening track selections: "Doomsday" and "A Thousand Deaths" by Globus; "Overtake You," "Faceless," "Nothing and Everything," and "Watch you Crawl" by Red)
"Damn it," Catherine groaned looking through the files on her PADD. "It looks like John found most of the pictures I took of him and deleted them. Let me try one more place where he might not have bothered to look." Opening said file, she beamed. "Aha! Here's my John, my Imzadi," she turned the PADD around and handed it to her best friend. "This is a picture of us after our wedding ceremony on Risa. The Risian that owned the chapel took it for me."
"Catherine, he's so handsome. His features are kind of unique, yet he's beautiful. You both look so happy. Where did you get that sari?"
"John gave it to me. I still have it and nabbed the sherwani he wore from his quarters before I left London. It's still hard to believe that I married a man who used to be a prince."
"A prince that looks a lot like Sherlock," Janice giggled. "What is he like?"
"Being an Augment, John is physically stronger than the average man, and yet, he is capable of being so gentle. Emotionally, he feels more deeply than any human I know. His heart is abounding with love for his family, and when I was sure of it, for me as well. He is an amazing lover and friend. He is a genius, and despite his usual outward display of confidence, I know that he sometimes feels so unsure of himself. He's my lonely angel."
"Aww, kind of like the Doctor from Doctor Who?"
"Yes," she smiled sadly. "He's like the Tenth Doctor, the one who regrets, and like the Eleventh Doctor in that he tries to forget. And here I was worried about what would happen to him if we bonded and things ended badly. I'm a wreck. If he's still alive, I cannot even begin to imagine the pain he's experiencing right now. I miss him so much."
"Don't give up, Cath. You need to hold on and hope that he's okay. I know I'm not a Betazoid, but in this picture, I can see in his eyes the love he has for you."
"I guess you're right. Despite everything we went through while in Section 31, he always told me to trust in us. I'll try to hold on for him," she started to cry a little causing Janice to get up and give her a tight hug.
Meanwhile, Carol Marcus, who had once again used her mother's surname of Wallace and had falsified her transfer orders in order to board the Enterprise to track John's torpedoes, had accompanied Dr. McCoy and just discovered John's family inside said torpedoes.
Captain Kirk barged into the brig and approached John's cell. "Why is there a man in that torpedo?" he demanded John answer him.
"There are men and women in all those torpedoes, captain. I put them there," he answered. "It is probably best for me to not mention Catherine. If by some miracle Marcus lied to me and she is still alive, I will no longer put her in harm's way," he thought sadly.
"Who the hell are you?" Kirk glared at him through the transparent security shield.
"A remnant of a time long past. Genetically engineered to be superior so as to lead others to peace in a world at war, but we were condemned as criminals, forced into exile. For centuries we slept hoping when we awoke things would be different, but as a result of the destruction of Vulcan, your Starfleet began to aggressively search distant quadrants of space. My ship was found adrift. I alone was revived," John painfully recalled his past both distant and recent.
"I looked up John Harrison. Until a year ago, he didn't exist."
"John Harrison was a fiction created the moment I was awoken by your Admiral Marcus to help him advance his cause, a smokescreen to conceal my true identity. My name is Khan," he hissed. "That is, Khan is the historical name most seem to know."
"Why would a Starfleet admiral ask a three hundred year old frozen man for help?" Kirk questioned.
"Because I am better."
"At what?"
"Everything. Alexander Marcus needed to respond to an uncivilized threat in a civilized time, but for that he needed a warrior's mind, my mind, to design weapons and warships."
Spock interjected, "You are suggesting the admiral violated every regulation he vowed to uphold simply because he wanted to exploit your intellect."
"He wanted to exploit my savagery," John growled. "Intellect alone is useless in a fight, Mister Spock. You can't even break a rule. How would you be expected to break bone? Marcus used me to design weapons to help him realize his vision of a militarized Starfleet. He sent you," he turned again to Kirk, "to use those weapons, to fire my torpedoes on an unsuspecting planet. And then he purposely crippled your ship in enemy space leading to one inevitable outcome. The Klingons will come searching for whomever was responsible, and you would have no chance of escape. Marcus would finally have the war he talked about, the war he always wanted."
"No, no! I watched you open fire on a room full of unarmed Starfleet officers! You killed them in cold blood!" Kirk became angry remembering the death of his friend, mentor, and father figure Admiral Pike.
"Marcus took my crew from me!"
"You are a murderer!"
"He used my friends to control me. I tried to smuggle them to safety by concealing them in the very weapons I had designed, but I was discovered. I had no choice but to escape alone. And when I did, I had every reason to suspect that Marcus had killed every single one of the people I hold most dear," John turned around to face Kirk and Spock as a tear rolled down his cheek as he thought of his family and especially Catherine. "So I responded in kind. My crew is my family, Kirk. Is there anything you would not do for your family?" he asked. "Imzadi, if only they knew what Marcus had put us through."
"Proximity alert, sir," helmsman Lieutenant Sulu who had earlier posed as captain alerted Kirk and Spock. "There's a ship at warp heading right for us."
"Klingons?" Kirk wondered aloud.
"At warp? No, Kirk, we both know who it is," John warned him.
"I don't think so," Sulu continued. "It's not coming at us from Kronos."
Kirk looked to the officer stationed in the brig. "Lieutenant, move Khan to the med bay. Post six security officers on him," he commanded before running to the bridge.
As ordered, John was moved to the medical bay by a contingent of security officers. Upon arriving, Dr. McCoy instructed him to sit on one of the biobeds. "Nurse Tennant," McCoy approached the nurse that had assisted him with John earlier in the brig, "please begin basic diagnostic scans of Commander Harrison."
Per McCoy's instruction, the nurse started scanning John with her tricorder. Although doing his best to remain stoic, he shifted ever so slightly uncomfortable with the nurse's scanning. "This nurse is incompetent," he thought to himself. "She could take some pointers from Catherine. My Catherine," he shuddered slightly.
"I'm sorry about earlier in the brig," Nurse Tennant suddenly whispered to John noting his discomfort. "That was wrong of the captain to do that to you. You had to feel humiliated having to strip down in front of us like that."
"I've experienced worse at the hands of Starfleet," he found himself whispering back before an unchecked tear suddenly rolled down his cheek. He quickly wiped it away hoping she did not see it.
"Are you sure you're alright?"
"No, I'm fine. It's just," he hesitated.
"Is there something I can do? Are you in pain?"
"You just remind me a little of someone very dear to me, someone I love. She is, or rather, she was a nurse, too."
"I'm so sorry," she paused. "What was she like?" she resumed scanning.
"Her name was Catherine. She was a most excellent nurse, compassionate and empathetic towards those in her care. Those were but only a couple of her qualities that made me fall in love with her."
"Funny, we have a new head-"
"Nurse Tennant," McCoy interrupted her, "if you're finished, I'll take over."
"Yes, Dr. McCoy," she walked away as he started performing his own scans of John.
Elsewhere on the bridge, Captain Kirk did his best to argue his case to Admiral Marcus who had arrived to the Enterprise's current location on the Vengeance. Kirk had Uhura broadcast Marcus' communication ship-wide for the record, but the communications system in Janice's quarters was still malfunctioning. Even if it did work, the two women had fallen fast asleep.
"Per Starfleet regulation, I'm planning on returning Khan to Earth to stand trial," Kirk stated confidently.
"Well shit," Marcus swore," you talked to him. It's exactly what I was hoping to spare you from. I took a tactical risk when I woke that bastard up believing that his superior intelligence could help us protect ourselves from whatever came at us next, but I made a mistake. And now, the blood of everybody he's killed is on my hands. So, I'm asking you. Give him to me, so that I can end what I started."
Kirk could hardly believe his ears when Marcus asked that he hand over John so that he could kill him. "And what exactly would you like me to do with the rest of his crew, sir? Fire them at the Klingons? End seventy-two lives? Start a war in the process?"
"He put those people in those torpedoes, and I simply didn't want to burden you with knowing what was inside of them," Marcus tried to explain. "You saw what this man can do all by himself, but I also have strong reason to believe that one of my very own Section 31 staff members was helping him. That devil can easily seduce others with his tongue."
"And what became of your staff member? Did you have them killed, too?"
"That person was punished, yes, but I can assure you that they are safe and sound freshly transferred to a starship."
"No!" John shouted and clenched his jaw as he and the others listened to Marcus and Kirk's conversation. "That bastard! He's lying!" his head throbbed hearing Marcus weave yet another tale about John and those he loved.
"That'll be enough of that!" Dr. McCoy walked over. "I will not tolerate that kind of outburst in my sickbay again," he scolded John. "This is a place of healing, not a battlefield. For god's sake, the captain is trying to help you, Harrison. Now behave yourself before I have to inject you with a sedative!"
John did his best to resume appearing that he had control of his emotions sitting straight up on the biobed despite the sharp pain in his head. "I do not know what to believe anymore. Is Catherine dead or alive? Marcus insisted that she died in London, and yet here he is telling Kirk that she is on a starship. If she is alive, where is she? If only I could sense her presence, hear her thoughts one last time."
Marcus continued to argue his case against John and his people. "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? Khan and his crew are nothing but a bunch of animals that were condemned to death as war criminals. And now it is our duty to carry out that sentence before anyone else dies because of him." Sensing Kirk's hesitation and resistance, he emphasized, "I'm gonna ask you again one last time, son! Lower your shields. Tell me where he is."
"He's in engineering, sir, but I'll have him moved to the transporter room right away," Kirk lied.
"I'll take it from here," Marcus agreed.
Despite Kirk's promise to have John moved to the transporter room, after confirming with acting chief engineer Ensign Pavel Chekov that they could use warp, Kirk ordered Sulu to set course for Earth and enter warp drive.
"Well, at least we're moving again," McCoy noted as they entered warp.
"If you think you're safe at warp, you're wrong," John turned to glare at Carol Marcus who had remained with Dr. McCoy after discovering John's family in the torpedoes. Seeing the wrath in John's eyes and realizing what he meant, she ran to the bridge to warn Captain Kirk that her father was undoubtedly pursing them on the Vengeance.
Back in Janice's quarters, the two best friends remained asleep. Janice was tired from her twelve-hour shift on duty, and Catherine was exhausted from her ongoing physical symptoms from her pregnancy and emotional tribulations. Janice insisted that Catherine take her bed and traded places with her taking the armchair and Ottoman. Suddenly, they were both shaken awake as the ship shuddered and the red alert alarm started to signal.
"What's going on?" Catherine sat up and rubbed her eyes.
"Ugh, I have no idea," Janice groaned.
"Shit, I hope it's not the Klingons," she worried aloud not knowing it was in fact Marcus using the Vengeance to fire upon the Enterprise.
"I've never known you to swear so much," Janice got up out of the chair before an explosion tore apart her quarters throwing both women to the floor.
"Jan!" Catherine choked on the smoke and dust in the air. "Where are you?" she called out again.
"I'm over here," a weak voice replied from behind a pile of rubble.
After determining that she was not severely injured, Catherine got up and started to dig through the debris. "Hold on! I'm going to dig you out," she encouraged her friend.
"No, get out of here," Janice insisted. "You need to keep your baby safe."
"I'm alright, and as long as I'm alright, the baby's fine. Remember, my child's father is an Augment," she tried to drum up conversation to keep Janice calm. "Though, I sure could use John's muscle power right now," she struggled to push a small, thin piece of tritanium paneling out of the way.
"I think you're getting closer, Cath. Ouch!" she grimaced as she tried to pull a piece of furniture out of her way. "I think my arm is broken."
"We'll get you to sickbay and patched up in no time, Jan," she reassured her as the room was shaken by another explosion.
"No!" Janice screamed. "Get out of here! Go get some help!"
"I am not leaving without you," Catherine peeled herself off the floor again and resumed digging her out. Finally creating enough of an opening, she crawled through to reach her friend. Janice had a large gash on her head, and her blonde hair, which was usually kept in an ornate weaved beehive, was hanging loosely around her shoulders. "Oh sweetie, you look a mess," she nervously teased her.
"I'm so scared," Janice admitted cradling her broken arm.
"Come on," Catherine started to try to get her onto her good hand and knees to help her crawl out the hole in the wreckage that she managed to create.
"No!" Janice froze in fear.
"We have to go now! I smell fire nearby," Catherine sniffed the air. "I won't let anything happen to you. I promise!"
The ship continued to shake and tremble as Marcus continued to have his crew fire upon the helpless Enterprise. Janice hesitated, but after Catherine's ongoing reassurance, she let her best friend help her crawl through the debris to reach the door of her quarters. Using a piece of broken furniture, Catherine smashed a glass panel and turned on the manual override in order to get the door open. Just as she suspected, a fire was raging about twenty feet away from Janice's door down the corridor.
"Okay, Jan, I'm lost now. I need you to tell me where to go," Catherine wrapped her arm around Janice's waist to support her as they walked down the corridor in the opposite direction of the fire.
"Turn right," Janice instructed once they reached an intersection in the corridor.
As the two women struggled to make their way through the damaged ship to get Janice medical treatment, Captain Kirk made his way to sickbay. His former chief engineer, Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott, whom Kirk affectionately called "Scotty," had managed to find and sneak onto the Vengeance using the coordinates John had provided. Scotty disabled the ship before Marcus was able to completely destroy the Enterprise. Per Spock's suggestion, given Scotty's presence on the Vengeance, their best odds would be to take the ship from within by sending a small boarding party.
"Tell me everything you know about that ship," Kirk approached John who remained on his biobed in sickbay.
"Dreadnought Class, two times the size, three times the speed. Advanced weaponry, modified for minimal crew. Unlike most Federation vessels, I designed it solely for combat," John replied listlessly.
"I will do everything I can to make you answer for what you did, but right now I need your help," Kirk admitted.
"In exchange for what?"
"You said you'd do anything for your crew. I can guarantee their safety."
"Captain, you can't even guarantee the safety of your own crew," John sighed. "Just as I couldn't even guarantee the safety of my own wife," he thought regretfully.
Despite John's lack of complete trust in Kirk's promises, he agreed to go through with the suggested plan once Kirk and Spock explained that Kirk and John were going to board the Vengeance and take the ship from within with Scotty's help. "Perfect," John thought. "Marcus can finally face his destiny."
As John left sickbay and accompanied Kirk to go to the trash chute that they were going to use to launch themselves towards the Vengeance, Catherine and Janice made their way ever closer to sickbay.
"Don't worry, Jan, we're almost there," Catherine quietly encouraged her friend as they slowly walked down the corridor. John paused as he and Kirk walked down the corridor slightly overhearing Catherine's voice.
"Are you coming or not, Khan?" Kirk turned around noting John had stopped following him.
"Yes, Kirk, I am coming," he replied.
"Having second thoughts?" Kirk slightly teased.
"Are you suggesting that I am afraid?" John rumbled.
"No," he quickly shook his head.
"Then let us proceed," he sighed. "There is no way Catherine would let me do something like this," he almost smiled thinking about their dangerous method of boarding the Vengeance. "Then again, she would only let me do it if she could come, too. My sometimes silly but always brave Imzadi."
"John?" Catherine whispered to herself quietly thinking she could hear him.
"What's wrong, Cath?" Janice looked at her puzzled.
"Stay here. I'll be right back. I promise!" she leaned Janice up against the wall of the corridor and started to jog. "John?" she called out slightly as she started to run even faster towards where she thought she could sense him.
"Imzadi?" John asked aloud as the turbolift doors closed after he and Kirk entered.
"Did you say something?" Kirk looked at him with a look of confusion.
"Um, no, just clearing my throat," he lied.
"John?" Catherine called out again as she turned a corner and was met with an empty corridor and a turbolift at the end of it. "Damn it!" she swore aloud. "I could have sworn I heard him. How could I be so stupid? It really is just a fool's hope!" she turned around to retrieve Janice from where she had left her in the corridor.
"What was that all about?" Janice asked as Catherine returned.
"Nothing," Catherine spat angry with herself. "Come on."
John suited up for what would be his first time hurtling through open space. Already having heard their plan over and over, he ignored Kirk and Spock as they rattled on over the details once again. "I could have sworn that I heard and sensed Catherine nearby. I am starting to think I am losing my sanity," he thought as he pulled on his jumpsuit over the black uniform that had been given to him in the brig. As soon as he and Kirk were flying through space towards the Vengeance, John smiled deviously to himself despite the throbbing in his head as the thought, "Soon, my love, I will avenge you."
Upon arriving on the Vengeance, the trio of John, Kirk, and Scotty easily made their way to the bridge of the ship with minimal interference. Per Kirk's orders, Scotty stunned John with his phaser, but neither Kirk nor Scotty knew that John was immune to common Starfleet issued phasers set to stun. John, however, decided to merely lie in wait for his opportune moment while Kirk and Marcus argued.
"Admiral Marcus, you're under arrest," Kirk barked angrily.
"You're not actually doing to do this, are you?" Marcus rolled his eyes.
"Admiral," Kirk aimed his phaser at him, "get out of the chair!"
"You better stop and think about what you're doing, Kirk. You better think about what you did on Kronos. You made an incursion onto an enemy planet. You killed a Klingon patrol. Even if you got away without a trace, war is coming, and who is going to lead us? You? If I'm not in charge, our entire way of life is decimated! So if you want me off this ship, you better kill me," Marcus spat.
"I'm not going to kill you, sir, but I could stun your ass and drag you out of that chair. I'd rather not do that in front of your daughter," Kirk looked towards Carol Marcus whom the admiral had beamed aboard earlier against her will.
Tired of hearing the captain and admiral bickering like a couple of school children, John got up and attacked Kirk to ensure that he would not interfere with his revenge against Marcus. After throwing Kirk across the room, John made his way towards Admiral Marcus who had run to one of the consoles on the side of the bridge.
"Listen! Wait!" Carol jumped in John's way hoping to appease his wrath. Knowing full well that she had some although most likely ignorant and small part to play in Marcus' sordid affairs regarding Catherine and his family, John pushed her aside before kicking her angrily in the leg easily breaking it. As she screamed out in pain, John continued onwards reaching the admiral who was now quivering in fear much to John's delight.
"You foul snake! This is for my wife," John whispered to Marcus as he grabbed hold of both sides of his head. "You should have let me sleep!" he growled as he crushed Marcus' skull killing him as Carol shrieked in horror at the sight.
By this point in time, Catherine was assisting Dr. McCoy with Janice's care despite his protests that she should return to her own quarters to rest. So focused on caring for her friend and for the dangerous situation at hand given the current condition of the Enterprise, Catherine had not even noticed the seventy-two cryotubes tucked into the far corner of sickbay after Spock had them removed from the torpedoes during John and Kirk's mission to the Vengeance. As she held Janice's arm so the doctor could use the osteoregenerator to repair her fracture, the viewscreens in sickbay came on as a ship-wide communication came from the Vengeance.
"I'm going to make this very simple for you," John smiled menacingly holding a phaser to a badly beaten Kirk as he spoke with Spock not knowing that his message was broadcasting to the entire crew of the Enterprise. "Your crew for my crew. Oh, you are smart, Mister Spock."
"John?" Catherine wheeled around and gasped hearing his voice. "Those coordinates! It was for the location of Vengeance's hangar! What the hell is going on around here?"
"Spock, don't!" Kirk pleaded before John hit him in the back of the head knocking him unconscious.
"Mister Spock, give me my crew," John continued as Catherine glanced over and finally noticed the cryotubes.
"And what will you do when you get them?" Spock asked skeptically.
"Continue the work we were doing before we were banished," John replied matter-of-factly.
"Which as I understand it involves the mass genocide of any being you find to be less than superior," Spock raised a brow.
"That's not true!" Catherine shouted although neither Spock nor John could hear her.
"Shall I destroy you, Mister Spock, or will you give me what I want?" John continued.
"I'll be back!" Catherine ran out of sickbay to the turbolift before Dr. McCoy or Janice could ask where she was going. "Bridge!" she commanded the turbolift.
As the turbolift rose more slowly than usual towards the bridge due to the heavy damage the ship had suffered, Spock and John continued their bantering with each other. "We have no transporter capabilities," Spock attempted to reason with him.
"Fortunately, mine are perfectly functional. Drop your shields," John commanded.
"If I do so, I have no guarantee that you will not destroy the Enterprise."
"Keep playing him, Spock," Catherine thought aloud. "Keep him entertained. Come on!" she jumped up and down slightly even though it could do nothing to make the turbolift go any faster.
"Well, let's play this out logically then, Mister Spock," John sat down in the captain's chair. "Firstly, I will kill your captain to demonstrate my resolve. Then, if yours holds, I will have no choice but to kill you and your entire crew."
"Don't do it, John. Killing him would endanger your freedom. Please don't do it," Catherine started to worry.
"If you destroy our ship, you will also destroy your own people," Spock again tried to reason with him.
"You crew requires oxygen to survive. Mine does not. I will target your life support systems located behind the aft nacelle, and after every single person aboard your ship suffocates, I will walk over your cold corpses to recover my people. Now, shall we begin?"
"Permission to board the bridge?" Catherine rushed off the turbolift.
"Lieutenant Troi?" Spock raised an eyebrow.
"I can help! I know him!"
"Permission granted," Spock replied reluctantly.
Catherine ran toward the view screen. "John Harrison! Stop it this very instant! If you kill them, you'll have to kill me, too!"
"Catherine, you truly are alive?" John's eyes widened in shock.
"Of course, I'm alive, you fool! Where have you been? Why did you leave me? Why did you leave us?"
"Us?"
"John, I'm carrying your child," she answered, as she and Spock looked at each other sideways raising their eyebrows simultaneously. "I'm sorry, Commander," she whispered to Spock, "but now is not the time to explain."
"I don't understand. I'm, uh," John started to stammer putting his hands on the sides of his head grimacing in pain.
"John? Commander Spock, please beam me over to the Vengeance. He won't hurt me, and I know I can soothe him and reason with him. He is not himself. Something is very wrong. I can barely read his thoughts, and the ones I can read make no sense. Something is interfering with our telepathic link. I cannot even sense his emotions."
"You are part Betazoid, am I correct?"
"Yes, sir. He is my Imzadi."
"Mr. Chekov," Spock signaled the Russian officer in engineering. "Are our transporters operational?"
"No, sir, ze transporters are still non-functional."
"Mister Scott, are you able to operate the Vengeance's transporters?"
"Sorry, I don't even know where the controls are located, sir, and Khan's hardly in any state to explain right now!" the engineer shouted from behind John who was writhing in pain.
"Vait! Ve have ze remote transporter zat Harrison, well, I mean Khan, used. It should still be operational!" Chekov remembered. "Ze only problem is zat if ve drop our shields I cannot guarantee zat ve can raise zem again."
"I have reason to believe that the odds are in our favor," Spock noted as he watched Catherine strap on her tricorder and med kit that she brought with her from sickbay. "Mr. Chekov, at my command lock on to Lieutenant Troi, lower the shields, and beam her to the bridge of the Vengeance."
"Aye, sir!"
"Be careful, Nurse Troi," Spock advised as he handed her a phaser set to kill. "Mr. Chekov, engage!"
Catherine ran to John's side dropping the phaser after she materialized on the bridge of the Vengeance. "John!" she gently stroked the hair out of his face.
"I'm sorry, Imzadi," he looked at her with tears streaming down his face, which was now distorted with pain.
"What is wrong, love?" she asked as she began to scan his head.
"I cannot. I cannot tell you! I cannot even sense your thoughts," he gasped as he slid off the captain's chair and sank to his knees. Catherine could hear a high-pitched squealing sound starting to emanate from his head.
"Mister Scott, I need Dr. McCoy's assistance immediately! I think something is in John's cranial cavity!" she shouted as her adrenaline began to rush causing her hands to shake jostling the medical scanner and tricorder.
"Aye, lass, I'll get him right away!" Scotty ran to the control station to hail the doctor and ask him to beam him over.
"Hold on, John," she attempted to comfort him as calmly as possible despite thinking she could see something pulsating underneath the surface of his head.
"Nurse, what is the situation?" Dr. McCoy asked after he materialized with his own medical supplies.
"Something is in his cranial cavity. Hear that noise? I'm detecting massive amounts of neurotoxins, but I cannot verify the source. His vitals are through the roof even for him and his elevated metabolism."
John collapsed completely to the floor as blood began to run from his ears, nose, and mouth. He screamed in agony before starting to convulse as the squealing became louder.
"Draw up 40 milligrams diazepam!" Dr. McCoy instructed Catherine.
"40 milligrams? That's enough to take down a horse!"
"Exactly, nurse!" Just as Catherine was about to hand Dr. McCoy the hypospray, a large, brown eel-like creature with large pincers around its mouth crawled out of John's ear and fell to the floor. He immediately stopped convulsing. "What the hell is that?" the doctor asked.
"Don't let it near you," John managed to gasp. Captain Kirk who regained consciousness shortly before Catherine's arrival grabbed the phaser that Catherine had dropped and vaporized the blood-covered parasite.
Catherine cradled John's head in her lap brushing aside the hair from his face before resuming monitoring his vital signs. "Doctor, his vital signs are dropping. He's going into shock. We need to get him back to the Enterprise."
"No, we need to stabilize him first," Dr. McCoy directed as he injected a dose of epinephrine into John's neck using a hypospray. Suddenly the ship lurched. "Now what?" he griped.
"Shit!" Kirk swore. "I had Scotty activate a silent countdown to start the self-destruct sequence in case things didn't go down the way we had hoped. Scotty, can you shut it down?"
"No, cap'n! The core is already starting to shut down. I can't rewrite the laws of physics you know!"
"How much time do we have?"
"About ten minute, and, no, we can't eject the core. Hence the term 'self-destruct.'"
"I designed the ship so that if it were to fall into enemy hands, the crew could destroy it so that the enemy would not be able to pilfer its technology or use it against us," John explained weakly.
"Well I sure as hell can't save your life under these conditions. We have to get out of here now!" McCoy threw his hands in the air.
"Scotty!" Kirk shouted.
"I think I've found the transporter controls, cap'n!"
"Spock, we're beaming back over," Kirk hailed his Vulcan first officer. "Once we get back, Sulu, you're going to have to high-tail it out of here. The Vengeance is gonna blow."
"Sir, our ship is badly damaged. I cannot guarantee that we can escape in time," Spock reported.
"We'll worry about that when we get over there. Scotty, beam us directly to the medical bay."
"Hold on, John," Catherine whispered as a tear she had been trying to hold back dripped onto John's forehead.
He weakly reached up and grasped her hand squeezing it as his body struggled to return to baseline with the help of the adrenaline McCoy had given him. "You saved me, Imzadi," she could again clearly read his thoughts as he closed his eyes to rest as they became enveloped in the blue light of the transporter beam.