AN: And here's the obligatory post-plot heart-to-heart with Rev Bem. Can't you just hear the Andromeda theme playing in the background?

When the last officer filed out of the briefing room Kirk allowed himself to drop his elbows onto the table and buried his head in his hands. He did not groan aloud: he had too much pride for that. He was the captain of the only Starfleet vessel in the Delta Quadrant, and if he had an occasional, quiet breakdown in private, well, the important thing was that it was quiet.

But he would have liked to have a real breakdown, one with smashing things, some hysterics, maybe even a little primal screaming. The only Starfleet vessel in the Delta Quadrant had just had her first staff meeting, and her captain wanted nothing more than to crawl under a rock. Preferably a rock in the Alpha Quadrant.

"Captain?"

Kirk jerked his head up and saw, to his chagrin, that there was still someone left in the room. Spock stood beside the door, hands clasped behind his back and looking as apologetic as a Vulcan could look.

"Spock," Kirk said blankly. It could have been worse, he thought. It could have been one of the junior officers, or Sh'athylnik. "What is it?"

"I wanted to speak to you further regarding Mr. Harrison."

Now Kirk did groan. The usual business of a staff meeting—repairs, crew assignments, and the like—had been straightforward enough, if depressing. They had salvaged as much as they could from the debris of the Vengeance before destroying what remained so no Federation technology couldn't fall into alien hands, but repairs were still slow. Sh'athylnik had agreed that she and the rest of the Vengeance crew would be absorbed into the Enterprise crew, filling vacant positions as they could, but the Enterprise was still painfully understaffed. The mood of the meeting had been grim—even before the question of what to do with Khan, Kati, and their 71 sleeping crewmates was raised.

"I'm pretty sure I made it clear discussion was closed on that subject, Spock."

"Yet no decision was reached," Spock pointed out.

"The decision is mine," Kirk said tiredly. "I'm the captain." That responsibility weighed heavily on him, now. Kirk was not the kind of person to send problems up the chain of command when he could deal with them himself, but he wished Pike was here now to give him some advice.

"Indeed," Spock said. "Yet it occurs to me that you might lack objectivity in this decision."

"And you think I could use a good dose of Vulcan logic while making it?"

Spock wisely said nothing. Kirk sighed. "You're right, I'm not objective at all. You heard what everyone said—" And it seemed like everyone had an opinion, from McCoy to Uhura to Sh'athylnik. "—what's the logical solution?"

"The logical solution," Spock said, "would be to return all of them to stasis."

"I know," Kirk said. They were both silent for a moment and then Kirk said, reluctantly, "He saved my life down there, Spock."

"He saved your life three times," Spock corrected. "On Qo'noS, on Ocampa, and in the battle with the Magog. On no occasion were his actions selfless: by saving you his furthered his own aim of freeing and reviving his crew."

"On Qo'noS, yes," Kirk agreed. "And when he boarded the Vengeance—maybe." Kirk still could not shake the image of the Vengeance's dive toward the Magog ship from his mind. "But not in the tunnels. He could have left me there to die and he didn't. He risked his life to save mine, at no benefit to himself."

"It may have been a calculated risk intended to win your trust," Spock suggested, "allowing him greater opportunity for escape in the future."

It was something Kirk had already considered. If that was Khan's plan, it had worked perfectly, allowing him to escape to the Vengeance—except he hadn't really escaped, had he? He had used his freedom to save the Enterprise and wound up back in the brig—though if Kirk hadn't beamed him out at the last moment, he would have wound up burning along with the Vengeance.

Maybe he had considered it a calculated risk, since his sleeping crew, stored in one of the Enterprise's cargo holds, lived and died with the ship. Maybe he hadn't even considered it that great of a risk, maybe he was confident Kirk would do the right thing and not leave him to die. Maybe his heroics aboard the Vengeance were meant to cement Kirk's trust, trick Kirk into dropping his guard completely. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Spock was still watching him, waiting patiently for him to make some response. Kirk felt a sudden rush of gratitude that this man, reliable and infuriating and loyal, was here and his friend. He opened his mouth to say something—he didn't know what, only that it probably didn't have anything to do with Khan—when the briefing room door slid open.

"I hope we are not intruding," Rev Bem said. "Lieutenant Sulu said we might find you here."

"Not at all," Kirk said. "Come in."

Rev Bem stepped into the room, followed closely by Trance and Kes, who were holding hands. Spock, apparently deciding there would be no further discussion of Khan and his crew, excused himself. When the door closed behind him Kirk said, "We've supplied your ship with water and she's ready to go. But before you leave—I'd like to thank you for your help. We never would have got Kati and Chekov back without you."

Kes offered one of her small smiles. "You're welcome, Captain, though it was least we could do after the help you gave us. But it's leaving that we wanted to talk to you about—we'd like to stay."

That wasn't what Kirk had expected. "This isn't a passenger ship," he said.

"We know that," Trance said earnestly. "We won't be passengers—we can help you. You don't know this part of space, but we do. We can act as guides, help you find supplies, contacts, whatever you need."

"Captain," Kes said, "we want very much to be a part of your journey."

Kirk looked at the three of them—Rev Bem hideous, Kes delicate, Trance adorable—and thought he could never have imagined a more unlikely set of guides. He had to admit, though, that he could use them. Not since the original Enterprise set out on her first mission of exploration had an Earth vessel flown so blindly into such uncharted territory, and Kirk had a feeling that before they made it home they would give old Admiral Archer's legacy a run for its money.

"It won't be safe," he warned them, because he knew there would be trouble. There was always trouble. "And you'll wind up a long way from home."

"We are aware of the dangers," Rev Bem said. "But also the rewards."

Kirk couldn't think of a better way to describe his own crew's attitude toward their mission. He felt a smile tug at the corner of his mouth and nodded. "Alright. Welcome aboard."

Trance and Kes beamed at him, and at each other, and slipped out of the room, still holding hands. Rev Bem lingered in the doorway.

"Forgive me, Captain," he said, "but you seem troubled. May I ask what is on your mind?"

Maybe it was the monastic demeanor, or maybe it was the same urge that prompted people to pour out their troubles to strangers in spaceport bars. Kirk had known Rev Bem for less than a full day, and yet he found himself saying, "It's about Khan—John Harrison. I have no idea what to do with him."

Rev Bem looked puzzled. Of course, he knew nothing of Khan's history, had barely interacted with the man. "He saved your life on the planet, did he not? And he saved us all from the Magog. Surely that calls for gratitude at least."

He sounded merely curious, but also like he already knew the answer was complicated. Kirk remembered an instructor at the Academy like that, a woman who asked gentle questions that led to more gentle questions that eventually led you to talk yourself into a corner. There was no point arguing with her, because you just wound up arguing with yourself—and somehow you always lost.

"He did," Kirk said. "But before that… he's a criminal. He's killed dozens of people—including someone who was very close to me. One good deed isn't enough to erase that."

"Then your decision should be simple." Rev Bem spread his clawed hands. "Imprison him, or execute him, or do whatever it is your people do with killers."

Kirk pushed to his feet and paced restlessly across the room, wishing there was a window so he could pretend to look out it. "The thing is," he said, and stopped.

Behind him, Rev Bem said nothing.

"The thing is," Kirk said, "I can't help but see myself in him. The things he did… I'm not sure I would have acted so differently, in his position."

"You don't strike me as the kind of person who would kill innocents."

Kirk gave a short, humorless laugh. "I hope not. I would never strike a civilian target like the Kelvin Archive. But he considered himself to be at war with Starfleet. The attack on Starfleet headquarters… a surprise blow against the enemy's top command is a smart move. If we were at war with the Romulans or the Klingons and he made the same attack against them, I would call it a brilliant tactical decision. A bit cold-blooded, but still brilliant."

"Then you believe his actions to be justified."

"No," Kirk said. That much, if nothing else, he could be confident of. "What he did was wrong. He acted out of a desire for vengeance, not justice or even survival."

He turned around and found Rev Bem watching him closely. "And you?" the Magog asked. "Out of what desire have your actions arisen, since Harrison killed this man who meant so much to you?"

Kirk looked away. It wasn't justice that had brought him from Earth to Qo'noS.

"I see," Rev Bem said, and Kirk thought he did. "Tell me, Captain: do your people understand the concept of forgiveness?"

"Of course."

"Many people believe forgiveness is only for the person who is forgiven," Rev Bem said. "But that is not true. Forgiveness is also for the person who forgives. Holding on to your anger and pain has caused you to do things you know to be wrong, just as it has for Harrison. You cannot make him forgive, but you can forgive him."

Kirk shook his head. "There have to be consequences for his actions."

"There are always consequences to one's actions," Rev Bem said, gently rephrasing Kirk's statement. "But those consequences are not for mortals to determine. Only the Divine knows what will come of our choices: all we can do is try to make right what we have done wrong."

"You're saying I should give him a second chance."

Kirk wanted to deny the suggestion outright. He had Khan's measure—the man was a criminal, and justice for all the people he had killed demanded he be punished for his crimes. But if he was honest with himself, what he really wanted was vengeance for Pike's death.

Pike had given him a second chance, when everyone else had given up on him.

"You say you see yourself in Harrison," Rev Bem said. "If your positions were reversed, what would you want him to do with you?"

Kirk thought he knew the answer, and he didn't like it.