Chapter 33: Space Seed
Dawn was on the bridge when the SOS came in. Only she, Buffy and Lieutenant Maria McGivers likely would have recognized Morse code at all, since the final transmission had been sent out on July 12th, 1999. The SOS, when answered, changed promptly to the Morse for SS Botany Bay, and stayed there as if stuck regardless of further hails. Homing on the message, the Enterprise eventually found herself drawing alongside a dark hull of a ship of the CZ-100 class. The library computer said the last one of those had been built around 1994. Clearly a derelict, its signal left on automatic.
Dawn was only seven years old in 1994. So, she honestly didn't recognize the name of the ship assuming that was when the ship was launched. Buffy like Dawn had been in school during the entirety of the Eugenics Wars, add on top of that she had been called as the Slayer in 1996 and fighting the forces of darkness had kept her attention away from things such as what was going on in Asia. So, the name of the ship did not register with her either.
The Enterprise's sensors showed equipment still operating and heartbeats. They were very faint, but they seemed to be coming from some eighty or ninety sources. None were faster than four beats per minute. There were no signs of respiration.
"Aliens?" Jim asked McCoy.
The surgeon shrugged. "You've got me, Jim. Even aliens have to breathe. Besides, the ship's name is in English."
"The English," Kirk said drily, "were notorious for not breathing, He looked at the two people who might know something.
"We can tell you nothing about the registry," Buffy said. "Dawn was seven around the time that ship would have been built. And I was busy with stuff at school." She looked at Jim and mouthed, "demon." He nodded.
"Spock?" Jim said as he looked toward his science officer. "Anything in the computer on the registry?"
"Nothing in the computer, Captain," Spock said.
"Buffy, Dawn, what can you two tell us about the period when that ship was built?"
"Not much," Dawn said. "We know the Eugenics Wars were happening in Asia. But a lot of what we know was actually garnered years after it was over. Lieutenant McGivers might know more. She is a historian."
"Well, we'd better go across and look it over," Jim said. "Since you two are from that time period, you'd better be in the party. With your engineering background you can also inspect the machinery and see what's salvageable, if anything. Bones, you too."
"Why am I always included in these things?" McCoy complained. "I signed aboard to practice medicine, not to have my atoms scattered back and forth across space by a transporter."
"You're included because we hear heartbeats, and that is your department."
"We should bring Lieutenant McGivers," Dawn suggested. "She might know something that Buffy and I don't."
"Have her meet us in the transporter room," Jim said. "Let's go."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
It was almost dark inside the Botany Bay. Where the boarding party materialized, there was little to see but a long corridor, flanked on each side by row upon row of coffin-like drawers or canisters, each about two meters square on end, thrust into the wall. Each had a small green light blinking over it, producing eerie, confusing reflections.
"Buffy, Dawn?" Jim said.
"Their cryo capsules," Buffy said as Dawn found the controls for the lights which came on overhead. "Now that I see these, I believe this may have been a sleeper ship."
"Suspended animation?" McCoy asked.
"Yes," Dawn said. "They were necessary for long space trips until about the time Zefram invented warp drive. Back then interplanetary travel took years."
McCoy applied his tricorder to the nearest cabinet. At the same moment, Dawn said, "Ah, here we are!" and lights came on overhead. McCoy grunted with interest.
"Look here, Jim," he said. "A new reading. The lights seem to have triggered something inside."
Kirk did not have to look at the tricorder reading to see that. There was now a clear hum from the cabinet, and the little light had turned from green to red.
Buffy discovered that the front of the cabinet was actually a protective shield. Pulling this away, she revealed a transparent observation panel. On the other side, bathed in a gentle violet glow, was a motionless, naked man. He was extremely handsome, and magnificently built. His face reflected the sun-ripened Aryan blood of the northern Indian Sikhs, with just an additional suggestion of the oriental. Even in repose, his features suggested strength, intelligence, even arrogance.
"How beautiful," Marla said, as if to herself.
"This cabinet is wired to be triggered first," Buffy said. "Maybe that means he's the leader or the pilot."
"Possibly a doctor," McCoy added, "to supervise the revival of the others."
"He's the leader," Marla said positively.
"Oh?" Jim said. "What makes you think so?"
"Well… you can see it. A Sikh type. They were fantastic warriors," Maria answered.
"He is reviving," McCoy said. "Heartbeat up to fifty-two already, and definite breathing."
"Dawn, Buffy," Jim said, "see if they're all like him."
Dawn and Buffy went down the line, pulling off the shields and peering into each canister. "No, Jim," Dawn said finally. "A mixed bag. Differing regions. Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, possibly Russian."
"All their lights are still green," Buffy said.
"A man from our time," Dawn said. "What we could talk about. What we could learn, Buffy."
"It's about to be impossible," McCoy said, checking the tricorder again. "His heartbeat's beginning to drop back down. If you want to talk to this living fossil, Jim, I suggest we get him over to my sick bay right away quick."
"Oh no!" Marla said.
McCoy shot her a sidelong look, but he said, "I quite agree. A patient well worth fighting for. And think of the history locked up in that head!"
"Never mind the history," Kirk said. "It's a human life. Beam him over."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
While McCoy worked on the sleeping man, Kirk took time out to collect more information from his officers.
"As near as I can work out their heading," said Spinelli, who had relieved Sulu at the helm, "they must have been trying for the Tau Ceti system."
"Makes sense. It's near Earth, and there are three habitable planets."
"Yes sir, but they would never have gotten there. Their port control jets took meteor damage, and the hits put them off course, too."
"Buffy, Dawn, any log books or records?"
"No," Dawn said. "They must have been in suspended animation when the ship took off."
"Ship's equipment?"
"Stuff needed mainly for colonization," Buffy said. "Plus, some guns, likely incase of anything hostile to human life on their new homeworld. Twelve of the life support systems malfunctioned, leaving seventy-two still operating. About a dozen of those are women."
"Seventy-two alive," Jim said reflectively. "Any conclusions, Mr. Spock?"
"Very few, Captain. The CZ-100 class vessel was built for interplanetary travel only-not interstellar."
"They tried it."
"Granted," said the science officer. "But why?"
"Good question," Dawn said. "The U.S. was relatively left alone during the war. But Asia was ravaged by it. Maybe they thought the entire planet was like their own slice of it."
"Counselor, consider the expense, just to begin with. Healthy, well-oriented young humans would think of some less costly way of surviving-or of committing suicide. It was ten thousand to one against their making it to Tau Ceti, and they must have known it. And another thing: Why no record of the attempt? Granted that the records are incomplete, but a maiden star voyage-the name Botany Bay should have been recorded a thousand times; one mention, at least, should have survived. But there is nothing."
"Botany Bay. Hmm," Jim said. "Lieutenant McGivers tells me that was a penal colony on the shores of Australia. Is that of some significance?"
"To my knowledge we never shipped anyone off Earth for any crime," Dawn said. "Not during that time anyways. Not till we started building penal colonies on other planets anyways."
"So much for my theory. I'm still waiting for yours, Spock," Jim said.
"I do not have the facts, Captain. William of Occam said that one must not multiply guesses without sufficient reasons. I suggest that we take the Botany Bay to the nearest Star Base for a thorough study."
Jim thought about it. "All right. Rig tractors for towing. In the meantime, I'm going to look at the patient."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
In sickbay, the man out of time was still unconscious, but now breathing regularly. Marla McGivers was standing to one side, watching.
"How is he, Bones?" Jim said as he and Dawn entered.
"By all rights he should be dead," McCoy said shortly.
"False modesty?" Jim asked.
"By no means. I'm good, but not that good. His heart stopped three times. When I got it going the third time, he woke up for a moment, smiled at me, and said 'How long?' I guessed a couple of centuries. He smiled again, fell asleep, and damned if his heart didn't stop a fourth time, and start up again of its own accord. There's something inside this man that refuses to accept death."
"He must have the constitution of an ox," Jim said.
"That is not just a metaphor," McCoy said, pointing to the body function panel. "Look at that. Even in his present shape, his heart valve action has twice the power of yours or mine. The only person I have seen to be equal to that is Buffy."
"Because of the," Dawn said as she looked toward Marie, "you know what." McCoy nodded. "Which means he was genetically engineered before genetic engineering was banned. Will he live?"
"If he gets some rest, he may," McCoy said. "Beat it," he looked at Jim and Maria, "both of you. This is a sickbay, not a wardroom."
Grinning, Kirk motioned Marla out and followed her.
"How much does she know?" McCoy asked as he motioned toward the door to indicate Maria.
"Enough," Dawn said. "While our records are classified. There are several non-classified instances where we were captured on film. The dedication ceremony of the warp five complex was one. Being a historian, she was able to put two and two together."
It was only a few hours later that McCoy called Jim and Dawn on the bridge. "Captain, Counselor," he said, "I have a patient with questions-and I don't mind telling you, patients like this could put medicine out of business. Can you come down?"
The big man from the Botany Bay, now dressed in a tunic from the stores of the Enterprise, was still on his bed; but he was indeed awake-vitally awake. Jim introduced himself and Dawn.
"Thank you," the man said. "I am told I have slept for two centuries or more, and am on board a real starship -not a makeshift like mine. What is our heading?"
Jim was both amused and annoyed. "Would you care to give your name first?"
"No, I would not. I have a responsibility. If you are indeed a commander, you will recognize it. Where are we going?"
Jim decided to yield for the moment; there was no point in insisting on a contest with a man just yanked back from the edge of death, no matter how arrogant he was. "Our heading is Starbase Twelve, our command base in this sector."
"Which is?"
"My sister and I are from your time," Dawn said as the man looked at her quizzically. "It's a complicated story. Anyways our heading is Starbase Twelve, our command base in this sector."
"Which is?"
"Sadly, our galactic coordinate system doesn't match what we had back in the twentieth century," Dawn said. "That said though we are nowhere near Tau Ceti."
"Galactic," the man said. "I see. And my people?"
"Seventy-two of the canisters are still functioning," Jim said. "The people will be revived when we reach Starbase Twelve. We wanted to see how we fared with reviving you, first."
"Logical and hard-headed; I approve. I do begin to grow fatigued. Can we continue the questioning at another time?"
"You haven't answered any questions yet," Jim said, "except by inference."
"I apologize," the big man said at once. "My name is, Khan. I command the Botany Bay Colonizing Expedition. I think perhaps I could answer your questions better if I knew your period, your terminology and so on-perhaps something to read during my convalescence would serve. History, technology, whatever is available."
It seemed a sensible request. "Dr. McCoy will show you how to hook your viewing screen here into our library tapes. And I think Dawn and Buffy might enjoy filling you in on the history since they lived through it."
"Very good." Khan smiled. "I have two hundred years of catching up to do. I…"
Suddenly, his eyes closed. McCoy looked at the body function panel.
"Asleep," McCoy said. "Well, I'm glad he's got some human weaknesses."
It was not until Jim and Dawn were on their way back to the bridge that they fully realized how little Khan had told them. Irritated, mostly at himself, he collared Spock at the computer. "Anything?"
"Nothing about an interplanetary starflight until just after Earth's invention of warp drive in 2063," the science officer said. "How is the patient?"
"Arrogant-and clever. Enormously powerful. And with enormous magnetism. Not at all what I expected in a twentieth-century man."
"Interesting, given when the Counselor and Commander Summers were born."
"I know," Jim said.
"That said he is possibly a product of selective breeding," Spock said.
"That had occurred to me," Jim admitted. "If I wanted a superman, he's very much the kind of outcome I'd shoot for."
"Exactly, Captain. He is almost a stereotype of an Earthman's dreams of power and potency. And from what I can put together from the fragments of the record, just the kind of man who precipitated the chaos of the 1990s."
"Oh? I thought it was a group of scientists."
"The Eugenics Wars were not started by the scientists but by their creations," Dawn said.
"The Counselor is correct," Spock said. "The scientists encouraged carefully arranged marriages among themselves, and applied their knowledge of heredity to their own offspring. The sports and monsters did not appear until after the war was well started. The scientists stayed aloof and went right on breeding what they thought was Homo superior."
"And our patient?"
"One of those children. His age would be right. A group of aggressive, arrogant young men did seize power simultaneously in several nations throughout Asia and the Orient. But they had overextended themselves; they could not hold what they seized. That much is fact. And one more thing, Captain. Are you aware that some eighty or ninety of those people were never brought to trial, were never even found? No bodies, no graves, no traces?"
"I certainly wasn't," Jim said. "Dawn? Buffy?"
"No," Buffy said. "It doesn't surprise me though. Things in that area between the Eugenics Wars and World War III were tumultuous at best. But I can see your thinking here, Spock. You think Khan and his people are those missing people."
"Yes, Commander," Spock said.
"It stands up," Jim said. "But what we're left with, is that we can get no more pertinent information anywhere except from Khan himself. He's got a mind like a tantalum-lined vault, so we'll never force it out of him. We'll have to try to charm it… which probably won't work either. Maybe we can use the customs of his own time to disarm him. Dawn, what do you suggest?"
"An introductory dinner," Dawn said. "Try and get him to lower his defenses by a purely social event."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Marla appeared at the dinner with a new and totally anachronistic hair style. As for Kahn, it was impossible to tell whether or not he was charmed; he far too efficiently charmed everybody else, instead. There seemed to be no situation in which he could not feel at home, after only a few minutes' appraisal.
Then, over the brandy, it suddenly turned out at least one officer of the Enterprise was not prepared to recognize charm even if he were hit over the head with it. Spock said, "But you still have not told us why you decided on star travel, Commander Khan-nor how you managed to keep it out of the records."
"Adventure, Mr. Spock. There was little else left to be accomplished on Earth."
"There was the overthrow of the Eugenics tyrannies," Spock said. "Many men considered that a worthwhile effort."
"A waste of spirit in a desert of shame," Khan said. "There was much that was noble about the Eugenics crusade. It was the last grand attempt to unify humanity, at least in my time."
"That's interesting," Dawn said as Khan looked at her. "The U.S. largely stayed out of what was happening in Asia. Buffy and I didn't even know that anything was going on over there till after it was over."
"You have a tendency," Jim said, "to express your ideas in military terms, Commander Khan. This is a social occasion."
"It has been said," Khan said easily, "that social occasions are only warfare concealed. Many prefer their warfare more honest and open."
"And you left Earth," Dawn said, "before the real fighting began in 2026 during World War III." Khan looked at her quizzically. She and Buffy had yet to explain how they were on the Enterprise but also from his time. She noted his gaze as being the question on how she was both here and had been born in the twentieth century. "As I said it's a complicated story. Put it bluntly Buffy and I are over two hundred years old, we are the only humans currently alive to have the lifespan that we do. The full story would take too long to explain."
Marla, who had been completely silent since the start of the discussion, stood up so suddenly that coffee slopped in saucers all the way around the table. "I never thought," she said in a trembling voice, "that I'd ever see so much rudeness to a starship guest."
"Was I rude?" Spock said mildly, raising his eyebrows. "If so, I apologize."
"And I," said Kirk, repressing another grin.
"And I," Dawn said.
"I quite accept your apologies," Khan said, also rising. "But if you will excuse me, gentlemen and ladies, I am tired. It has been a good many centuries, and I would like to return to my quarters. If you would guide me back, Marla…?"
They went out, followed, at a slight motion of the head from Jim, by every other guest but Buffy, Dawn and Spock. When the room was empty, Jim said, "I've never seen a better needling job in my life, Mr. Spock."
"I myself am not very happy with it, Captain," the science officer said. "The human half of my make-up seems to go to sleep just when I need it most. Consider, really, how little we have learned. The man's name: Khan Noonien Singh. From 1992 through 1996, military chieftain of a quarter of your world from South Asia through the Middle East, and the last of the tyrants to be overthrown. And apparently very much admired, as such men go; there was very little freedom under his rule, but also there were no massacres, and no war until he was attacked by a lesser dictator of his own breed. A man of power, who understands the uses of power, and who should have been much admired by the people whom he calls sheep, the people who feel more comfortable being led."
"1996," Buffy said. "That would place the end of his reign just at the time I was called."
"We already know why neither of us knows much about what was going on in Asia." Dawn said.
"It is not what we need to know," Spock said bringing the conversation back to the topic at hand. "The main question is, why did he run away? That was what I was hoping to elicit from him. But he caught me at it."
"Good question," Dawn agreed. "Even Buffy and I who lived through that don't know that."
"We can't know what he might intend now," Jim said, "or what risks we might run in reviving the other seventy or so of them. We will just have to try another gambit…"
Suddenly the klaxon rang with the alarm to General Quarters. Jim walked over to the intercom on the wall and asked what was going on.
"Abrams in Security, Captain. Khan's missing."
"McCoy here. Khan's not here. No sign of McGivers, either-not even in her quarters. And he's not there."
"Transporter room here. We've had a guard slugged, Lieutenant Adamski is missing, and there's been a lot of power expended in the last half hour."
"Scott reporting. I…"
"Uhura, what happened to Scotty? Get him back!" Jim said
"Dead channel, Captain. I can't raise the arsenal, either."
"Dawn, Buffy," Jim said, "check the arsenal."
"All turbolifts inoperative. Emergency exits jammed," Uhura said.
The lights began to go down. "Batteries!"
"Shunted out, Captain. Also, the atmosphere's off."
"Engineering! Scott! What's going on down there? Scotty!"
And then they heard Khan's voice. "He's not able to talk with you at the moment, Captain," Khan said. "I'm afraid your ship is mine or rather, ours. I have almost all my people aboard her, at every key point. Everything is jammed; you have perhaps ten minutes before you suffocate. Would you like to negotiate with me?"
"Uhura, can you raise Starfleet?"
"No, sir, this board is a dead duck. I can't even dump a message capsule."
"Brilliant," Spock said softly.
There was only one thing left to do. "Security Five, Mr. Spock. Flood all decks."
"Bypassed, Captain. Commander Kahn seems to have been a very quick student."
"Can we go to Six?" That would fill the air with radioactive gas from the fusion chamber and kill almost everyone on board; but…
"No sir, we cannot. Nothing is left but Destruct. That's still alive."
"The air should be getting quite toxic by now," Kahn's voice said. "You don't have much time."
"What do you want, Khan?"
"Surrender."
"Refused," Kirk said.
"Very well. It is academic, anyhow. In ten minutes, every person on the ship with the exception of my people will be dead."
"Not everyone," Buffy said. "Dawn and I will be alive."
"I stand corrected. Everyone else will be dead and you two will be unconscious."
Nothing further was heard from Khan after that. Slowly, the air turned foul. After a while, nobody was conscious …
Dawn awoke, to find herself still in the briefing room. She, Buffy, Jim and Spock were no longer alone as the rest of the senior staff had joined them. They were heavily under guard by Khan and a group of men very like him, all carrying phasers.
"Buffy?" Dawn whispered.
"I'm awake," Buffy whispered back.
"Very good," Khan said. "Now we can talk. You see, Captain, nothing changes-except man. Your technical accomplishments are illusions, simply the tools which men use. The key has always been man himself. Improve a mechanical device and you double your capacity; improve man, and you gain a thousand-fold. You, I judge, are such a man, Captain, as am I. You would be wise to join me."
Jim said nothing. Khan turned to Buffy and Dawn the only two from his time not part of his own crew.
"Dawn and I are tempted," Buffy said. "But we've both stood against everything you stand for our entire lives."
Khan finally turned to Spock. "I too am tempted," Spock said. "I admire your tactics… but not, I am afraid, your philosophy. And I know from history how self-appointed supermen treat mixed breeds. Let us see how you run the ship by yourself."
"You will see. My offer to you is closed. Navigator, I want you to set course for the nearest colonized planet-one with port facilities and a population which is not afraid of discipline."
"Go to blazes," Spinelli said.
"It is as I thought," Spock said. "You may know the Enterprise well, Commander, but your newly revived colleagues do not. I think we have a stalemate."
"Do we? Dr. McCoy, you maintain a decompression chamber in your laboratory, isn't that so? Yes, I know it is. Joaquin, take Captain Kirk to the chamber. Put him inside, and lower the pressure to zero. I trust the rest of you understand what that means. You can spare him that. All I want from you is your word that you will continue performing your duties."
"Nobody," Jim said harshly, "is to lift a finger to save me. I so order."
"I am not bluffing," Khan said pleasantly. "If, of course, you allow your Captain to die, you will all follow him, one by one, into the chamber."
"Not all of us," Dawn said. "You can't kill Buffy or I. We've been exposed to extreme theta radiation and lived to tell the tale." She smiled as she stood up. "There is something I didn't tell you about being a Millennial." She fired a blast of energy at Khan and he slumped to the floor. She turned her attention to the other two men in the room and fired on them as well and they too slumped to the floor.
All that was left was to take care of the rest of Khan's crew. It was not all that easy. Before it was over, one of the supermen was dead, and almost everyone else on both sides was considerably banged up. At last, however, the survivors from the Botany Bay were locked in a hold.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
An hour later Jim, Buffy, Dawn, Scotty, McCoy and Spock were back in the briefing room. "I think we know now why they left the Earth," Jim said.
"To start over," Dawn agreed.
"In my opinion they would never have succeeded, even had they made it to a habitable world," Spock said.
Jim looked at Buffy and Dawn. "Have Kahn brought in here, please."
Buffy and Dawn nodded and left the briefing room. They returned a few minutes later with Khan under guard and Marla behind him. Both looked at Dawn defiantly.
"At present," Kirk said, "we are orbiting a planet in a system unknown to you, and which I shall not further identify. It is savage and inhospitable, but with breath-able atmosphere and land which can be cultivated. You have the following choice: To be put ashore on this world, with a minimum of survival equipment; or, to be taken to Starbase Twelve to be assigned to rehabilitation. The second choice would be rather drastic in your case, but it would enable you to fit into our society. Which do you prefer?"
"Captain," Khan said, "I suppose you will remember that Lucifer said when he fell into the pit."
"I remember it well. I take it that's your answer?"
"It is."
"It may interest you to know that Systems Officer McGivers, given the choice of standing court martial or sharing your exile, has chosen to go with you."
Khan looked at her and smiled. "I knew I was right about you," he said. "You have the fire. And think of this: we have what we wanted after all-a world to win." He swung on Kirk. "And, Captain, we will make it an empire. You'll see."
"If you do," Kirk said, "you'll have earned it. Guards, beam them down."
Khan exited without a backward look, but Marla turned at the door.
"Goodbye, Captain," she said. "I'm sorry. But I do love him."
"I wish you luck, Lieutenant."
After a short silence, Scotty said, "It's a shame for a good Scotsman to admit it, but I'm not up on my Milton. What did Lucifer say after he fell into the pit?"
"He said, 'Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.' Buffy, clear for space. I want to get under way as soon as possible."
"Of course, Jim," Buffy said.
"What shall we do with the Botany Bay?" Spock asked.
"Hmm… You'd better dump it into-no, on second thought, let's keep it in tow," Jim said. "I suppose there are still things aboard her that the historians will want to see. At the moment, though, whenever I say 'historian' I have to repress a shudder."
"Let us think ahead, then," Spock said. "It would be interesting to come back to this system in a hundred years and see what crop had sprung up from the seed we have planted today."
"Maybe Dawn and I will," Buffy said. "That said I hope that in a hundred years, that crop won't have sprung right out of the ground and come out looking for us."