They burst onto the bridge of the Vengeance in a rush of movement. Kirk aimed for the Tactical console before the doors were fully open, trusting the layout would be similar to other Starfleet ships. His shot hit. The ensign seated there slumped in his chair, and then everything devolved into a quick, dirty skirmish. Kirk dodged a shot while firing off two more of his own. He briefly lost track of Scotty, but was keenly aware of Khan making short work of anyone who got too close to him.

There was a brief moment of calm. Kirk and Scotty stood, panting and clutching their phasers. Khan was barely breathing hard. Carol Marcus, whom Kirk was relieved to see unharmed, was breathing heavily as well: she'd taken down at least one of the Security officers. In the captain's chair sat Admiral Marcus, unmoved by the fight that had briefly raged around him.

Kirk looked to Scotty. Before he could give the signal, an alarm on the Navigation panel began beeping shrilly. He hesitated. If they needed Khan…

"Dr. Marcus," he said.

Carol hurried to the panel and unceremoniously shoved the body of the unconscious ensign who had manned it to the floor. Kirk kept his phaser trained on Marcus, which conveniently kept his field of fire close to Khan.

"Admiral Alexander Marcus, by authority granted me under the relevant Starfleet regulations governing the use of unauthorized and excessive force, I hereby relieve you of command and place you under arrest."

Marcus sounded more exasperated than upset. "You're not actually going to do this, are you?" he demanded. "Do you still really think Starfleet is about exploring 'strange new worlds'? That's a fantasy—"

Carol cut across him. "There's some kind of displacement wave coming toward us, sir."

"Put it onscreen. Mr. Scott, hail the Enterprise."

As Scotty crossed the bridge to the Comm panel, an image of the wave appeared on the viewscreen, and Kirk briefly forgot all about Marcus and Khan. It looked like one of the terrible thunderstorms that had swept across Iowa when he was ten, after the weather stabilizers failed. He had never forgotten the sight of them sweeping across the fields…

"I have the Enterprise, sir."

Kirk shook himself. "Spock, are you seeing this?"

Spock's voice echoed through the bridge. "Affirmative, captain."

"What is it? Where's it coming from?"

"There is not enough data to speculate." Anticipating Kirk's next question, Spock added, "We attempted to disperse the wave with a graviton field, with no effect."

Carol said, "Sir, the wave will reach us in ten seconds."

"Raise shields," Kirk told her. "Spock—"

"Our shields are up, Captain, but at minimal power."

There wasn't anything he could do about that, wasn't anything either of them could do about that. Not in ten seconds. He pushed the thought aside and focused on what he could do. He crossed to the captain's chair, causing both Marcus and Khan to tense, and punched up the shipwide channel on the chair's comm controls.

"All hands, brace for impact!"

He dropped into the chair next to Carol and holstered his phaser so he could grip the sides. It was a risk; he suspected Khan could do a lot of damage in ten seconds. He met Marcus's eyes and said, "Don't do anything stupid, Admiral."

Khan's mouth twisted with scorn. "The men aboard this ship are your enemies, captain. Do you usually give your enemies fair warning?"

"Three seconds to impact," Carol said. Her knuckles were white on the edges of her chair.

Kirk met Khan's gaze deliberately. "You should hold on to something."

Khan narrowed his eyes, and Kirk reminded himself that baiting Khan was both dangerous and counterproductive. Then a blinding white light washed over him, and he thought of nothing more.