Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek.
Chapter Fifty-two:
"JT," Dr Phlox greeted JT, as he entered the medical bay with Elizabeth and Kev. "Just who I was hoping to see."
"Kev said you needed help with Eleanor," JT answered looking round for where she was hiding. "Where is she?"
"I show you, if you'll follow me," Dr Phlox replies, setting down the medical equipment he was checking.
"Okay," JT nodded and Dr Phlox smiled and began to lead the way across the medical bay.
They made it half way across the medical bay when a voice caused JT to stop.
"Elizabeth," A voice called across the medical bay. "Come here."
JT turned towards the voice and Elizabeth momentarily tightened her grip on JT's hand. Frowning JT turned his attention to Elizabeth, as he had only heard Elizabeth speak Vulcan and the person had spoken standard. But then understanding a language and speaking it were quite different.
"No," Elizabeth answered in Vulcan.
"Elizabeth," The person replied, their voice sharp. "Now!"
JT took a moment to study the person. The person was a women in her late thirties, if JT's judge of age was anything to go by. She had black hair pulled back into a ponytail and she was wearing a red uniform which JT recognised to be a sign she worked in engineering, as it was slightly different to the security and communications uniforms'.
Elizabeth glanced at JT, before letting go of his hand and walking over to the woman. Sharing a glance with Kev, JT turned and began to follow Dr Phlox when the woman's hushed voice stopped him in his tracks.
"You are not to go near him, Elizabeth," The woman scolded Elizabeth. "He is dangerous to be around. His behaviour is unpredictable and he could harm you. What would your mother and father say, if they heard you were mixing with him? If I see you with him, or any of the others for that matter, I will be forced to tell your parents."
"JT is not-" Elizabeth began, only to be cut off.
"No, Elizabeth, he is dangerous," The women replied. "The things he did on that planet are unforgivable and if it were not for the fact he is underage, he'd have been thrown in the brig. The others are no different. They are all dangerous."
JT turned and looked towards the woman and his gaze meet Elizabeth's. If JT had been anyone else, he probably wouldn't have heard the woman talking. But his hearing was sharper than most peoples, as it had been key to his survival. He had needed to be able to hear Kodos' men before they heard him.
The woman turned her attention towards him too and seemed to realise what she had just said had been heard. And JT it felt like his whole world was crashing down around him once more. Like his safety nets had just been cut and he was falling once again.
They thought he was dangerous.
They thought he was a monster.
They thought he wasn't safe to be around.
They thought he was a murderer.
JT turned and looked at Dr Phlox. Did he think it too? Had his kindness just been an act, because he thought if he wasn't kind to him, he would kill him? Had he only asked him down here to help with Eleanor, because they thought while she was hiding she could jump out and attack them. After all it was safer to have your enemy in full view.
"JT?" Dr Phlox asked, seeing JT was no longer following him.
JT shook his head and began backing up. What would Dr Phlox do now he knew JT knew his kindness was just an act? Would he be thrown in the brig like the woman had said, in order to keep the crew safe? Would he be tortured again? Kodos claimed it was for the same reason after JT had sent so many his men to their deaths.
Dr Phlox reached out a hand to try and comfort JT upon seeing the look of his face and thinking he was having a flashback to his time on Tarsus.
"Keep away from me!" JT yelled, ducking past Dr Phlox's hand and running from the medical bay.
XxX
Spock was snapped from his thoughts as the chime from the door rung.
"I'll get it," Uhura offered getting to her feet and moving over to the door.
"Scotty, what are you doing here?" She asks in surprise, as she answers the door.
"A'm needin' tae talk tae Mr Spock," Scotty explains.
Jim stares at the PADD in front of him. He'd found another puzzle piece, No. 1 would be pleased to hear about it no doubt. Jim shook his head and sat back in his chair, wincing as the movement pulled at his wound. Shutting his eyes, Jim sighs. Of all of the people in the universe, why did Kodos have to be a part of The Five?
The Five were a group Jim had stumbled upon after he had looked through some files from Section 31. It had been during the period where control of Section 31 had been handed over to No. 1 and Starfleet's intelligence agency had hidden Khan and his crew somewhere safe and at a location only a handful of people knew about.
At first Jim hadn't thought much of it. It wasn't unusual for codenames to be used in documents concerning Federation secrets, but when the names kept appearing over and over again Jim decided it wasn't something which could be ignored. And that's how The Five had been found out about and Jim had done a good job at putting the pieces he had together.
The Five were a group of five people with a plan to rewrite Federation history and not for the better… Well they'd probably argue it was for the better. In the most simple of terms, they wanted to start a second eugenics war. Only less like a war and more like a massacre.
It seemed massacres were a theme when it came to Kodos.
Each of The Five had a different role to play, but thankfully their plan had fallen apart when Admiral Marcus had died, as he had been the one in charge of the first stage of the plan and his part of the plan would have worked if Jim hadn't decided against firing torpedoes at the Klingon Empire.
Jim had found out who another member of the group was purely by accident when Nurse Chapel had insisted he go with her, when she visited her then fiancé and he had found out about Roger Korby's cloning machine. Now he knew Kodos was the third member, so that left two people unaccounted for.
Of the two people who were left, one was responsible for bioengineering a disease, which would kill those who were genetically undesirable and the other was responsible for developing the weapons which were going to be used in the second eugenics war… The weapons which would be used to kill entire planets which were deemed undesirable.
Jim had seen the blue prints for weapons when he had dug deeper into Admiral Marcus's files. If one was detonated, the results wouldn't be pretty and there would be no survivors. Opening his eyes, Jim switches off the PADD and gets to his feet. It seemed Tom had unearthed more than the fact Kodos was still alive in his search and this was far more important, even if he hadn't known about it.
Jim quickly left the room and headed up to the bridge where Jon was currently piloting the ship on his own. Martha and Kev had both headed off to bed an hour or two ago. Jon ship was a cargo ship, so the majority of the space aboard was for cargo storage, but there were five sets of crew quarters. But as tired as he was, Jim knew he wouldn't be able to sleep.
XxX
JT ran and he didn't stop. He ducked past crew members and ignored their startled cries as he did so. He needed somewhere to hide, but nowhere was safe on this ship. No matter what hiding place he found, the crew of the ship would be able to find him. He could try hacking the system, but it'd take too long and he didn't know if he could successfully hack something so complex.
Hearing the sound of crew members talking further down the hallway he was running along, JT climbs up into the closest Jefferies tube and crawls along it. The voices draw closer and pass before going out of hearing range. JT breathed a sigh of relief, before shutting his eyes and trying to work out whereabouts in the ship he was.
Picturing the ship's blueprints in his mind, he works out where he could be. But the blue prints he had looked at had only covered the hallways, corridors and rooms which made up the ship. The Jefferies tube's had their own set of blueprints. Opening his eyes, JT kept crawling forward. No matter where he ended, he just needed to keep moving and keep his movements as unpredictable as possible in the process.
He didn't know what they'd do if they found him, he just hoped if they did find him the worst they would do was throw him in the brig. He knew it was illegal for Starfleet to torture their prisoners, but JT had learnt long ago, just because something was illegal didn't mean people didn't do it behind closed doors.
Suddenly a wave of fear, panic, sadness and general distress hit JT hard, like being hit by a speed train made of raw emotions causing him to gasp for breath as the emotions threaten to overwhelm him. And as quickly as it struck him, it was gone, fading into the background noise of emotions, which weren't his own, he could now feel at the back of his mind.
Gasping and backing up into the side of the Jefferies tube, JT blinked rapidly as tears welled up in his eyes and his heart felt like it was going to burst from his chest. The sheer power of the emotions which hit him made it feel like his skull was going to explode and a migraine made itself known as his head began throbbing.
Trying to focus on the world around him, JT almost cried out as the light sent spikes of pain through his head. He screwed his eyes shut and tried to calm his now uneven and shaky breathing. But all JT could focus on was the pain. It hurt so much. He never felt pain like it, even when he had been tortured, the pain had never been like this. He was sure his skull was about to crack open.
Gasping and keeping his eyes firmly shut, JT began moving forward. He couldn't stay in one place for too long or he'd be found. All he could do now was trust his instincts would lead him somewhere safe and keep him from danger.
XxX
Hey, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I have posted two new Star Trek stories: 'AOS: Where No Man Has Gone Before' (it is the AOS version of the TOS episode) and 'C-24: The Truth about Mars' (it's a crossover with Doom), so please check them out if you're interested. Until next time,
Blessed be,
TreeOfLife1997.
