A warning to the people,
The good and the evil,
This is war.
To the soldier, the civilian,
The martyr, the victim,
This is war.
It's the moment of truth, and the moment to lie,
The moment to live and the moment to die,
The moment to fight, the moment to fight
To fight, to fight, to fight!
To the right, to the left
We will fight to the death!
To the edge of the earth
It's a brave new world
From the last to the first
To the right, To the left
We will fight to the death!
To the edge of the earth
It's a brave new world
It's a brave new world!
This is War – 30 Seconds to Mars
"DAD!"
"That's Carol," Jim said as she, Gramps and Harrison ran to the bridge on Marcus' ship. The three officers opened fire on anyone who wasn't the blonde weapons officer.
"Was that necessary, Captain?" an accented voice asked, shaking off her attempt to stun him. The man dropped Marcus' lifeless body and turned to look at her.
"Khan Noonien Singh," she whispered in fear and reverence.
"It seems my reputation proceeds me. As does yours Jamison T. Kirk," Khan said. "Since I was awoken, I've read much about your Starfleet. Although your abilities intrigue me, humanity as a whole is quite honestly inferior. Mentally, physically. In fact, I am surprised how little improvement there has been in human evolution. You are, however, an anomaly in a sea of mediocrity, Captain. I am rarely impressed."
"Does that mean you're gonna surrender quietly? Or is this the calm before the storm?" Jim asked.
"I surrender to no man… or woman," he told her as he stepped closer, the threat was as clear as day. On instinct, Gramps put himself between Khan and Jim. Unfortunately, that left the young captain's right side open to Harrison and the Section 31 operative took his opportunity to take her down.
The first hit didn't shock her as much as it should've and she blocked the second one before he could hit her in the head. Jim knew how Harrison fought, so she also knew that she was in a shit-ton of trouble. She dodged as many hits as she could and only swung on him when she knew it would connect. The man took down a bunch of Klingons without much difficulty, she was outmatched. Harrison flipped her over one of the consoles and charged towards her, that's when Gramps tackled him.
This was bad, this was very, very bad.
Carol rushed over and pulled Jim to her feet while Khan watched. He pulled a knife from somewhere and threw it, hitting Harrison right in the neck. The agent dropped to his knees, staring at Khan with wide eyes.
"I pledged myself to you. I did everything you asked," Harrison gurgled. Khan rose from his seat and closed on them, stunning Gramps and Carol in quick succession. He grabbed Jim by the neck and she couldn't get him off.
"You failed in your task, John," Khan said. "Rest now and allow me to finish what was as started centuries ago." He hit a command on the chair and viewscreen popped up. "I'm going to make this very simple for you."
"Captain!" Spock said.
"Your crew for my crew," Khan told the Enterprise.
"Spock, don't…" she warned but Khan hit her in the head. Her vision went blurry and she felt like she was underwater but she could still hear them… mostly.
"Commander Spock, give me my crew," Khan growled.
"And what will you do when you get them?" her first officer asked.
"Continue the work we were doing before we were banished," the tyrant was back in action.
"Which as I understand it involves the mass genocide of any being you find to be less than superior," Spock said. If he was stalling for time, it wasn't gonna work.
"Give me what I want?" Khan growled.
"We have no transporter capabilities."
"Fortunately, mine are perfectly functional. Drop your shields."
"If I do so, I have no guarantee that you will not destroy the Enterprise." That's right, protect the ship.
"Well, let's be logical, Mister Spock. First, I will kill your captain to demonstrate my resolve, then if yours holds, I will kill you and your entire crew."
"If you destroy our ship, you will also destroy your own people," Spock countered.
"Your 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, give me my crew?" Khan demanded. Jim didn't hear anything for a moment, then Khan's voice again. "A wise choice. Mister Spock. I see all seventy-two torpedoes are still in engineering. If they're not mine, Commander, I will know it."
"Vulcans do not lie. The torpedoes are yours," her first officer growled. "I have fulfilled your terms. Now fulfill mine." Jim tried to push herself up.
"Well, Kirk, it seems I should return you to your crew. After all, no ship should go down without her captain," Khan told her before the familiar swirl of the transporter wrapped around her.
"Bones! Bones!" Jim called as she, Gramps and Carol ran into sickbay.
Her husband ignored protocol and pulled her against his chest. "Welcome home."
"You helped Spock detonate those torpedoes?" she asked.
"Damn right, I did," he told her.
"Bones, he killed Khan's crew," Jim said. What the hell happened between these two that they've joined forces to kill people?
"Spock's cold but he's not that cold. I've got Khan's crew." Bones pointed over her shoulder. Jim turned around to find a bunch of cryo-tubes in the –already full- medbay. "Seventy-two human popsicles, safe and sound."
"Son of a bitch," she muttered. "I'm…"
A sound that no person on a starship ever wants to hear rolled through the Enterprise.
"What was that?" Carol asked.
"The warp core," Jim said as she headed for the door. "Hang on to something, it's gonna get bad."
"Where are you going?" Bones called.
"Engineering," she yelled as she ran out of sickbay. Jim sprinted though the ship as they started to lose gravity and stability. "This is not good."
"Talk to me, Scotty," Jim ordered as she ran into engineering.
"Emergency power is at nine percent and dropping. That's not the major problem," he told her.
"Which is?"
"The housings are misaligned, there's no way we can redirect the power! The ship is dead, sir. She's gone," Scotty said with a look of disbelief.
There has to be a way. There has to be something. "No, she's not."
"Wait, Jim!" he called after her but Jim was already punching in the sequence for the entrance to the warp core. "If we go in there, we'll die. Will you listen to me? What the hell are you doing?!"
"I'm opening the door, I'm going in," Jim told her friend.
"Lass, that door is there to stop us from getting irradiated! We'll be dead before we made the climb."
"You're not making the climb," she said before she punched him and maneuvered him into a chair near one of the consoles. She hit the command for the harness to keep him there and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for everything, Monty."
Jim took a deep breath before she went to make the climb into the warp core. This isn't how she thought she would go. Not that she's thought much about it in the last few years.
Tarsus. She was sure that Tarsus IV was going to be the end of it. No food and a bunch of kids, not to mention Kodos murdering people. Jim thought she was a goner then. But she survived.
Then, there was the hostage situation on Vulcan when Jim was still training. The mission where she met Spock and got the first glimpse of what they would become. A force of logic and sheer determination in the crazy universe around them. She still doesn't know how they pulled that off. But she survived.
The Republic. The Farragut. The Constitution. Ajilon Prime. Nero. She survived.
Marcus. Harrison. Khan. She wasn't going to survive. She knew she wasn't going to survive.
Her crew. Her family. They had to survive.
"How'd we do?" Jim asked.
"You saved the crew," Spock whispered.
"You used what he wanted against him. That's a nice move," she chuckled weakly.
"It is what you would have done."
"This is more your speed. Logical," she paused. "You gotta do something for me, Spock."
"I will watch over him."
"I'm scared. I didn't think I would be but I'm scared."
"As am I," he told her. Jim could see the tears running down his face. "You are my friend." She put her hand on the glass in the Vulcan salute and Spock does the same.
"Always."
Silence is deafening.
