"But what if…" starts Jim. It's his next hypothesis in a string of theories and conspiracies he's been proposing the whole time he's been sulking in engineering. Spock be damned; that pointed eared bastard can't be everywhere and Jim's never been able to shed this teenage rebellion streak.

"No!" shouts Scotty, exasperated. Chekov winces and Jim's jaw snaps shut. A little quieter and with more patience, he adds, "I checked it myself, Jim. They were crystals." He's seen people spiral before, it's part of the reason he's letting Jim hide out in engineering despite Chekov's clear unease at disobeying the Captain's orders. Jim's definitely circling the drain, grasping at any possible explanation to support his claim from earlier this week. Admittedly, Scotty was a little disappointed not to find any evidence to support Jim.

"But…"

"No."

"I still say the brain controlling parasite idea has legs," grumbles Jim, crossing his arms.

At least the theories are entertaining today. Scotty has to give it to Jim, he's got one hell of an imagination. "Now why would a mind controlling parasite take over all of us except you and still hide a body from us?" demands Scotty, because sometimes curiosity gets the better of him.

"Maybe it's too much of a shit show up here," Jim emphasises, pointing to his head with both hands. He tries not to take that thought too personally but it still kind of hurts. Not that he wants a brain controlling parasite but it stings a little thinking he might not be good enough for even that.

Scotty shakes his head and silently prays for strength and patience today. Clearly he's the only one prepared to get any work done around here since Jim hasn't bothered to pick up a scanner or sonic driver since he stormed in here with Chekov hot on his heels. Jim lights up a little as he opens his mouth to elaborate on his theory. Scotty holds up a hand to stop the onslaught of words about to be fired in his direction. "You know what? No, I don't want to know why us and not you." It can't be healthy to keep this going. Scotty picks up his scanner and puts his focus back on work.

"Then maybe you can explain how Chekov and I saw the frozen guy walking around at lunch?" demands Jim, with satisfaction, like he just declared checkmate. He's been waiting to drop that little nugget on Scotty, who may not truly believe him but at least listens like Jim's spinning a decent espionage novel.

"You did?" asks Scotty looking down at Chekov for conformation.

Chekov just shrugs sheepishly, both unwilling to get in the middle of the debate and unsure he actually has any helpful evidence, before burying himself back in the control panel. He saw some guy at lunch but he never saw the frozen man to make any comparison to.

"What did the Captain say?" asks Scotty, a little more interested.

Jim frowns. "He didn't want to hear it." Truth is it went over like a led balloon. "He's more concerned with facts and evidence than this feeling I have that we're going to regret taking Harrison on board."

Scotty lets out a little chuckle. "Imagine that? A Vulcan not supporting a gut feeling. Did you really think you were going to persuade him without any evidence?" He crawls into the exposed panel of the control station beside Chekov.

Jim jumps to his feet, the wheels clearly turning in his head. "Then I'll just have to get some hard physical evidence," he declares.

"How are ye going to do that?" asks Scotty, shooting out of the access space so fast he bangs his head on the way out.

A grin spreads across Jim's face, one that promises trouble. "I have an idea," he says as he heads out of engineering.

"He's going to get himself thrown in the brig," sighs Scotty.

"We should probably tell the Doctor," suggests Chekov.

"Not it," replies Scotty, picking his tools up.

Leonard enters the cargo bay with a shove. The whole gang is here and looking none too happy to have Leonard intrude. The aggressive posturing and threatening stances subside as Harrison and Ling follow behind Leonard.

"What's he doing here?" snarls Otto as the rest return their focus to one of the open crates.

Ling looks to Harrison, while holding position near the door. "The Doctor is going to help us with our little problem," Harrison says, casually joining his people near the crate like he didn't just take a hostage.

Yeah, Leonard has no intentions of helping this asshole with anything. He stands firmly in place, not overly keen on cooperation in any form.

"Come along, Doctor," summons Harrison, as though his patience for toddlers has run its course.

Leonard has no choice but to move as Ling shoves him forward and towards the crate. He peers over the edge of the container and sure enough, Leonard's staring at one human popsicle. Jim was right- frozen guy in a box, or more specifically in this case, a woman in cryogenic suspended animation. Leonard's brow wrinkles in confusion. Now that he knows what he's looking at, the things Jim was saying make sense but it's not like Jim to confuse a highly attractive woman for a man.

"Carson was revived yesterday," explains Harrison like he can read Leonard's mind. "Your husband's interruption has caused us to speed up our efforts."

Isn't that just like Jim, to take whatever you thought was your path in life and derail it in spectacular and sometimes wonderful fashion. Leonard looks at the only man to make eye contact. Carson- the mystery man from the corridor, who doesn't have a medical work up, because he came onboard in a cryo chamber, of all things, disguised as a shipping crate.

It occurs to Leonard just how many shipping crates they brought onboard. Surely they can't all be… That's insane. Where would anyone even find that many working chambers? "You're planning on takin' over the ship," he manages to articulate.

That predatory smile is back. "Very good, Doctor."

"But why? Why go through all this?"

An alarm sounds from the chamber. "Khan?" shouts Ling, looking concerned while the rest of them start pulling apart and attaching wires to the chamber like some modern Frankenstein.

Ling, although having nothing more than basic medic training, has every right to be concerned. Leonard can see the woman's vitals tanking from where he's standing.

Harrison glances at him expectantly. "Doctor?"

When Harrison says it, it sounds like anything but a request. Leonard's a doctor not an engineer. He has no idea how to keep the chamber from failing and without the proper reviving sequence, coming out of cryo can be deadly. "You should have kidnapped an engineer," he admonishes.

Harrison crosses his arms looking rather amused at Leonard's moderately informal protest. His eyes gleam in the cargo bay lighting like he finally found a mouse worth of toying with. "Are you really going to stand there and let her die?" he asks, appearing as though either option will offer a new and interesting facet to Leonard.

Leonard should. These people are here to take the ship in an elaborate scheme that suggests dire consequences for the Enterprise crew. As an officer, he's supposed to resist. Name, rank and serial number. As a doctor and a human being, every blip of the alarm and twitch of the body as it fights to live demands Leonard act.

"You're more ruthless than I gave you credit for," says Harrison, dispassionately, as though the outcome here doesn't matter. "You may be worthy of joining us yet."

Leonard sneers at Harrison in disgust. "I'm nothing like you," he spits, before storming over to the chamber and grabbing the med kit out of Otto's useless hands. He runs the scanner over the chamber, confirming what he suspects. "We have to get her out of there now!" orders Leonard.

Most of them look to Harrison, refusing to move under an inferior's order. Harrison stands back quietly observing.

"If we bring Anastasia out without the proper sequence she'll die!" protests Otto.

"Possibly," agrees Leonard, "but if you leave her in a failing cryo tube she's dead for sure." He reaches over to access the ancient control screen to try and figure out the opening mechanism but Otto grabs his hand, squeezing so tight, Leonard has to bite the inside of his cheek. He turns to glare at Harrison. How is he supposed to help if Harrison's goons are going to stand in the way?

Harrison waves his hand, signalling Leonard to proceed.

Otto, refuses to let go. "But Khan," he argues.

"Let's see what the doctor can do," counters Harrison.

Otto squeezes tighter the scowl deepening on his face. "Let him go," says Ling, low yet dangerous and so only Otto and Leonard can hear her. Otto releases his grip, pushing Leonard's hand away like it's something dirty.

"Open the tube," orders Leonard as he starts rummaging through the med kit. He looks at the tools in disbelief. It's like something out of a history documentary. Like the cryo tube, these medical tools are practically medieval.

There's still some hesitation by the group to capitulate, a silent debate on what to do transpiring between them. "Do it," reaffirms Ling. The others begrudgingly comply.

Leonard doesn't exactly know what he's doing. These aren't the tools of his trade anymore, nor is this a problem he's ever dealt with in his career. Still, the basic principle is the same: keep the patient alive.

He administers a vial of a drug that's been out of use for more than a century and prays he remembers its uses correctly. It helps but more alarms sound.

He needs… he needs his own medkit, something he knows how to use, not old broken things he can only guess at. "Is this all the medical supplies you have?" he demands in disbelief. Their silence is all the answer he needs. Superior, his ass. "There's an emergency med kit in that compartment over there," orders Leonard, pointing across the room.

The order goes as well as he expected. They all look at Harrison with various levels of disdain. "We don't have time for this. Just get the damn kit!" These instruments aren't helping the patient and Leonard doesn't have to ask to know the answer to an emergency transport to sickbay.

"I'll get it," says Joaquin, running over to the compartment.

It's not fast enough, the woman stops breathing. Fuck it. They want to go prehistoric, Leonard can play that game. He starts performing good ole fashioned CPR with Ling's help until Joaquin delivers a decent medkit.

Leonard barely gets the hypo injected before the woman takes her first deep breath. A quick scan reveals her vitals are stabilizing and Leonard breathes a sigh of relief.

Ling mutters something (in what Leonard thinks was Cantonese) before ripping the scanner out of Leonard's hand. Normally he'd protest being taken off a case in such a manner, but he just sinks to the ground in relief that it worked at all. It's been a hell of a day so far.

The little makeshift medical team, (and Leonard uses that term very loosely) takes their newest member back to one of their escape shuttles, leaving Leonard on the floor.

"Well done, Doctor," congratulates Harrison, coming to stand next to Leonard.

There's something in the way Harrison says it that makes it feel anything but an accomplishment. "You want to tell me what that was all about?" asks Leonard, taking a chance on getting some kind of answer.

"My name is Khan Noonien Singh. And I'm going to save the Federation by making it worthy of this universe."

Leonard sags a little more. "Yeah?" he asks tiredly. "And who made you judge, jury and executioner of such a feat?"

"You did," replies Khan with a self satisfied smirk.

Leonard snorts. "Think I'd remember putting a psychopath in charge."

"But you did," insists Khan. "Three hundred years ago. And again when you're admirals awoke me from my slumber."

Leonard goes cold. History wasn't his favourite subject but he remembers a little bit. Three hundred some years ago was the start of the eugenics war which resulted in the outlawing of genetic manipulation of offspring. It was an especially bloody and horrific period in history in which some of the products of that genetic engineering went missing. But why the hell would the Federation set loose anyone from that period if Harrison is telling the truth. "Why?"

"Humanity lost its edge. Your peaceful ways robbed it of its teeth so when an actual predator knocked on your door you were too timid and weak to answer."

"Predator?" Leonard would remember some threat to the Federation.

"I believe you called him Nero."

That name makes Leonard nauseous under normal circumstance, hearing it out of Khan's mouth with some sick perverse admiration for the Romulan steals Leonard's breath away and causes him to break out in a cold sweat. "We stopped Nero," whispers Leonard, small and broken like saying his name out loud will summon the devil himself.

"Yes," agrees Khan, "but not before exposing your weaknesses to the upper brace. They need someone or something that can meet future threats head on, see the monsters in the dark before they strike and do what must be done to stop them."

Leonard isn't sure what universe he woke up in this morning. The Federation is a peace keeping armada designed to seek out new life and civilizations and maintain harmony in the universe not whatever Khan has envisioned. Not to mention that taking over the Enterprise doesn't look like helping the Federation, even in Khan's twisted idea of help, to Leonard. "Then why do you need our ship?"

"Because I'm no one's puppet. And no one threatens my people and gets away with it. You awoke a wolf in a flock of sheep, what did you expect? Lamb wouldn't be on the menu?"

Leonard shudders. Khan's already dangerous with his ideas and suggested pedigree but now there's a whiff of vengeance in the mix too.

"Come, Doctor," summons Khan, leading the way, "you're going to help us wake up more wolves."

Jim paces back and forth in front of the access port to the Jefferies tube network. Every step on his bad leg sends a deep ache coursing through his body, an unrelenting reminder that this is a bad idea. This is why he always leapt without looking. If you stare at the edge longer enough you begin to lose your nerve.

He thought Leonard would talk him out of this, remind him where he is, but Leonard hasn't come home yet. Jim's run out of excuses to not climb in there and find some answers- whatever they may be. The only thing holding him back is fear. He's not that reckless kid with a chip on his shoulder and nothing to lose that he once was. Yes, he's burdened with a whole new set of chips and the very visible and physical reminders that actions have consequences but he has everything to lose here.

"You used to be good at this," he sobs in some morose chuckle. Before he would have made a decision and rolled with it, however it turned out.

What he chooses to do here is going to have a profound impact on the rest of his life. The consequences for going or staying are clear and it's not just his life in he holds in his hands. This will affect Leonard too. Chekov, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, they're all going to be impacted by what Jim decides here- for better or worse. If he goes through with this and he's wrong, Spock will have no choice but to kick him off the ship. But what if he's right? If he goes back to his quarters and forgets the matter he'll keep this life but never shake the doubt that everything he knows is wrong. What if that's the wrong decision?

Fuck it. Jim crawls into the Jeffery's tube. If he can't trust himself then he doesn't really have anything anyways. He's pretty sure he's right about Harrison.

Leonard can feel Otto's eyes on him, that intense burn from the man's glare is threatening to set Leonard on fire. His eye already burns from where Otto imparted a lesson in making excuses to not revive the members of the Botany Bay from their centuries slumber. He tried to do it as slow as possible but there were too many eyes that knew far more about the process than he did and they were all watching him. He tried to buy the crew some time to figure out something was wrong but now there are forty genetically engineered augments awake and ready to do Khan's bidding and no help arrived to stop them.

So far Leonard's treatment has only been somewhat violent. He has a foreboding feeling that now that his usefulness has come to an end so has his supposed safety. He tries to stay out of the way and watch for an opportunity to alert someone to the situation.

"The men are in position," reports Carson, entering the cargo bay.

"They will resist," adds Ling, joining the conference with Khan. "Is it advisable to kill all of them?" It's a big modern ship for only forty of them to operate.

"That will be up to them," says Khan, eyeing the doctor.

Leonard instinctively knows he's not going to like whatever Khan is planning. Khan is looking at him like Leonard is the only thing standing between him and what he wants and Leonard's never been much of a fighter.

Khan strolls towards Leonard. "Now you have a decision to make, Doctor. You can help me take over the ship and spare your crew needless bloodshed or I can take it by force."

"I can't help you," replies Leonard because there has to be boundaries to how much he'll do. And he's a doctor not a command officer, there is a literal limit to how much he can do assuming he was so inclined to do so.

"There's over four hundred souls on this ship. My men can't subdue them all with physical force. I plan to vent the atmosphere on all decks except this one."

"They'll suffocate," protests Leonard. He can't help but feel like he's being played like a fiddle.

"Then give me another option, Doctor."

Panic is starting to rise in Leonard. He feels cornered and trapped. "I can't."

"Then their deaths will be on your hands," says Khan with finality. "Tell Joaquin to reroute environmental controls to me."

"Wait!" begs Leonard. Nero used to play this game too. Leonard never won then and he's not likely to win now. He lets out a long sigh, deflating in stature as he does. He's afraid to ask but he can't make a decision without all the information. "What will you do to them if you take the ship?" Even if he didn't have a desire to preserve life, he likes this crew and has an extremely vested interest in one particular soul onboard.

Khan acts like he's thinking it over. "Those worthy will be allowed to join us."

Leonard can't imagine there's too many that measure up to Khan's standards. Most wouldn't join based on principle even if they were deemed worthy. "And those that aren't?"

"I will leave them on a suitable planet."

Leonard doubts he's telling the truth, but he still knows what he has to do. The preservation of life is paramount. Sometimes that's a mathematical equation of knowing your losses and who has the best chance. It pains him to say it but, "There's containers of Preaseem gas in the storage locker on deck thirty-eight. It's used for studying certain anomalies in space but if inhaled causes unconsciousness. If it were to get into the ventilations system, it would knock the crew out."

"Excellent work, Doctor."

It's a tornado of activity, panic and blood as the shuttle docks with the Enterprise. The shuttle doors open and medics and officers swarm in, removing the injured and racing them to sickbay. There's so much chaos Leonard loses track of some of his fellow captives. Not Jim or Pike though- never Jim. Leonard walks beside Jim's stretcher, never once letting go of his hand.

The smell of sickbay hits him first. His knees start to buckle and he wants to cry. It's the most beautiful sight he's ever seen.

The medics take Jim to a biobed. Sickbay is full of patients and the nurses and medics look to be spread thin. The Enterprise took heavy damage in their engagement with the Narada. Leonard grabs one of the nurses. "Where's your CMO?" He might be able to lend a hand or free up someone to work on more critical patients like Jim and Pike.

The nurse looks despondent. "He was killed in battle and our other doctor is tied up in surgery," she apologizes before continuing on her way.

Damn it. Somehow Nero is still sticking it to them.

He looks between Pike and Jim. They both need surgery but Leonard only has one set of hands. Triage is a bitch. The window to help Pike is rapidly closing. Jim has a god damn space slug tangled through his body that's going to need a whole team of hands and someone with slightly better judgement than Leonard is capable of right now. Jim has time to wait, Pike does not. It's all moot though if Leonard can't get an assistant.

"Anyone with any real surgical experience?" yells Leonard over the chaos.

A tall blond raises her hand. "I have field medical training."

"Congratulations, you just got promoted Nurse..."

"Chapel," she offers.

"Chapel you're with me. The Captain has a very small window if he wants to walk again. You," warns Leonard pointing at young medic and two nurses and then back to Jim, "keep him alive and stable until a team can get him into surgery." If they know what's good for them, they won't let anything happen to Jim while he's dealing with Pike. They nod as Leonard moves Pike into the other operating room, looking longingly at Jim. "You better be here when I get back," whispers Leonard.

Chapel waits until they're standing in the surgical suite before saying, "You're bleeding, McCoy."

Leonard's shirt is soaked through now; the gauze no long sufficient to do its job. He doesn't have time this for this and neither do the sick and dying depending on the medical staff.

Chapel knows that look. She's seen it on many overly stubborn physicians in her career. She shoots him a disapproving glare but goes over to the cabinet and pulls out a med kit. She silently begins cutting away his shirt and pulling out the gauze.

"Thank you," says Leonard as she runs a dermal regenerator over it. He sways slightly. It's not a proper fix by any stretch of the imagination but it will buy him some time.

Chapel throws a new clean shirt at him. "You can barely stand." She presses her hand against his forehead; it's uncomfortably hot. "And you have a fever."

"If I don't do something, the Captain won't be standing ever again." Leonard can't really argue with her. He should be flat out on his own biobed not prepping for surgery. But the medical department is short staffed and what's worse, trying and failing, or sitting by and doing nothing while people die? "Just give me a shot of adrenaline and a wide spectrum antibiotic."

She does.

"Appreciate it."

Leonard gets himself and Pike through surgery in time to assist Dr Hath with Jim's surgery. Jim's is a bit more gruelling, having to chase a living creature around vital organs and nerves. The human body can only take so much and after six hours of cat and mouse, Dr Hath opts to postpone treating the rest of Jim's non-life threatening injuries for later.

It's probably for the best, because after ten hours of standing through surgeries on sheer will power, Leonard collapses in a dramatic heap on the operating room floor. He wakes up five days later.