Once the other two Lieutenants on Kronos had been recovered, the K'normian shuttle had arrived back at the Enterprise relatively safely, their prisoner remaining silent throughout the entire flight. When they docked, Harrison was led by a five-man security team towards the brig, the away team behind them. As the armed escort walked by Carol, she stared at Harrison with a shocked expression.
Kirk pulled out his communicator. "Bones, meet me in the brig." He requested.
"Be right there." The doctor's reply crackled.
"Lieutenant." Kirk stopped, turning to Uhura. "Contact Starfleet, let them know that we have Harrison in custody, and that we'll be on our way once the warp core is repaired."
"Yes, sir." Uhura nodded, and Kirk turned, heading for the brig.
Uhura turned around to face Spock, who had stopped along with the captain and the lieutenant. She walked a few steps toward him slowly and leaned up on her tiptoes, kissing him. Spock closed his eyes and kissed her back, hoping that this meant that he was forgiven. After a few seconds, Uhura broke the kiss, leaning back down and smiling up at him, before walking away.
Spock turned to look after her, admittedly still a little confused.
"Why the hell did he surrender?" McCoy asked, as he and Kirk walked down the hallway leading to the brig, Spock following behind them.
"I don't know." Kirk answered. "But he just took out a squad of Klingons single-handedly, and I want to know how."
"Well, I certainly feel better about holding him behind a glass wall now." McCoy growled.
"He seemed to have no reason to engage us." Spock noted. "His interest in the torpedoes is most likely connected to that."
"All the more for us to ask, Mr. Spock." Kirk replied, as the three of them entered the brig.
Harrison was pacing back and forth in one of the large rooms, looking at them through the extremely reinforced glass wall. They had taken his long coat and multiple layers from him, leaving the man in just his pants and a black Starfleet shirt. McCoy walked up to the glass wall, grabbing a small metal object attached to it and pulling it upwards. After he clicked a switch it, it opened, leaving a small hole in the glass.
"Put your arm through the hole, I'm going to take a blood sample." McCoy told Harrison.
Harrison didn't reply, but he pulled his sleeve up, sticking his arm out through the hole. When McCoy stuck his white syringe into his arm, Harrison didn't even flinch.
As the syringe's small chamber slowly filled with his blood, Harrison finally spoke. "Why aren't we moving, Captain?" He asked Kirk, who didn't reply. "An unexpected malfunction, perhaps in your warp core, which has conveniently stranded you on the edge of Klingon space?" Harrison asked.
McCoy looked up from Harrison's arm. "How the hell do you know that?" He asked, surprised.
"Bones." Kirk warned, and the doctor didn't continue.
"I think you'd find my insight valuable, Captain." Harrison added.
McCoy took out the filled syringe and moved the metal hole downward again after Harrison had retracted his arm, and turned to look at the captain. "We good?" he asked.
"Yeah." Kirk nodded. "Let me know what you find." The three of turned away from the cell, McCoy heading for the med bay, while Kirk and Spock walked back the way they came.
"Ignore me and you will get everyone on this ship killed." Harrison called after them.
Kirk and Spock stopped walking. Kirk stared ahead, trying to control the rage that was Harrison causing him to feel.
"Captain, I believe that he will only attempt to manipulate you." Spock said quietly, looking between the two of them and noting Kirk's anger. "I would not recommend engaging the prisoner further."
"Give me a minute." Kirk replied, his voice slightly above a whisper.
Spock hesitated for a minute before following the order, and he walked away.
Kirk turned back towards the cell, approaching it with the anger very clear on his face. "Let me explain what's happening here." He snapped. "You are a criminal. I watched you murder innocent men and women, and I was authorized to end you!"
The anger built the more that Kirk spoke, his voice steadily rising, but Harrison gave no reaction.
"And the only reason why you are still alive is because I am allowing it." Kirk continued. "So shut your mouth!"
Harrison sighed. "Oh, Captain, are you going to punch me again, over and over until your arm weakens?" He asked mockingly. "Clearly you want to, so tell me, why did you allow me to live?"
"We all make mistakes." Kirk hissed.
"No." Harrison shook his head. "I surrendered to you because, despite your attempt to convince me otherwise, you seem to have a conscience, Mr. Kirk. If you did not, then it would be impossible for me to convince you of the truth. Two-three, one-seven, four-six, one-one. Coordinates not far from Earth. If you want to know why I did what I did, go and take a look."
"Give me one reason why I should listen to you." Kirk replied.
"I can give you seventy-two." Harrison said. "And they're on board your ship, Captain. They have been all along. I suggest you open one up."
Kirk's face no longer showed anger, but had now gone to an expression that Spock usually associated with a bad idea.
EARTH
SAN FRANCISCO
San Francisco's night life was as vibrant as usual, neon lights keeping the city awake even as many slept. Multiple clubs were pounding loud music through the ears, and other hearing functions, of many humans and aliens, all socializing in various ways. Two of these patrons were Scotty and his small alien friend, who were conversing over drinks. The conversation was mostly one-sided, with Scotty speaking loudly over the music.
"You know what really bothers me, though?" Scotty was asking. "It's the modifications, you know, the enhancements. Right? And then like that, I'm off the ship!" He exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "Just for trying to do what's right? And what did you do, anyway? You just stood there like an oyster, looking at me!"
As usual, the small alien gave no response.
Scotty's communicator beeped. "What?" He asked into it, clearly annoyed.
"Scotty, it's Kirk." The captain's voice crackled.
"Oh, well now!" Scotty exclaimed. "If it isn't James Tiberius Perfect Hair!Did you hear that? I called him Perfect Hair."
Kirk rolled his eyes on the other end. "Where are you?" He asked, hearing the music in the background.
"Where are you?" Scotty replied, his words beginning to slightly slur.
"Are you drunk?" Kirk asked.
"What I do in my private time is my business, Jimbo." Scotty answered, taking a drink from his glass.
"I need you to help me out with something. Will you jot these coordinates down?" Kirk asked. "Twenty-three, seventeen, forty-six, eleven."
Scotty didn't reply.
"Are you writing?"
"What, you don't think that I can remember four numbers?" Scotty asked indignantly. "Ye of little faith...what was the third one?"
"Forty-six." Kirk answered. "I don't know exactly what you're looking for, but...I have a feeling you'll know it when you see it. You may have been right about those torpedoes."
Scotty was surprised. "I will consider that an apology." He replied. "And I will consider that apology."
"You are the one that quit." Kirk pointed out, smiling on the other end of their conversation.
"You made me quit!" Scotty yelled, closing the communicator.
"Mr. Scott?" Kirk asked into his communicator a few times, before sighing in annoyance and walking away.
Scotty downed another shot, wincing. "The nerve of that guy!" He exclaimed. "I am not doing that man any favours."
His alien friend just stared silently at him.
"No!" Scotty said to him, but after a few seconds realized that no matter what his little friend said, or didn't say, he knew what was right. "All right, fine! I'll do it!"
"Are you out of your corn-fed mind?" McCoy asked. "You're not actually going to listen to this guy?"
He, Kirk and Spock were standing back on the Enterprise's bridge, near the main viewport. Kirk had just relayed what he had learned from his conversation with Harrison, and his crew members were reacting as he had expected them to. But Kirk just absorbed their objections, because the more he thought about what Harrison had told him, the less that their mission made sense.
"He killed Pike, he almost killed you, and now you think it's a good idea to just pop open a torpedo because he dared you to?" McCoy continued.
"Why did he save our lives, Bones?" Kirk asked.
"The Doctor does have a point, Captain." Spock said.
"Don't agree with me, Spock. It makes me very uncomfortable." McCoy replied, turning to look out of the viewport.
"Perhaps you, too, should learn to govern your emotions, Doctor." Spock suggested. "In this situation, logic dictates-"
"Logic?" McCoy cut him off, incredulous. "Oh my God, there's a maniac trying to make us blow up our own damn ship and-"
"That's not it." Kirk interrupted. "I don't know why he surrendered, but that's not it." He walked away from the small circle they had created, past Spock, who had a thoughtful look on his face. "Look, we're going to open a torpedo. The question is how."
"But, Jim, without Mr. Scott onboard, who exactly is qualified to just open a four-ton stick of dynamite?" McCoy asked.
"The Admiral's daughter appeared to have interest in the torpedoes, and she is a weapons specialist. Perhaps she could be of some use." Spock suggested, while McCoy turned to him in confusion.
"What Admiral's daughter?" Kirk asked, also in confusion, as he turned back to the Vulcan.
"Carol Marcus." Spock answered. "Your new science officer concealed her identity to board the ship."
"When were you going to tell me that?" Kirk asked, surprised.
"When it became relevant." Spock answered, with a hint of victory in his voice. "As it just did."
Eventually, Kirk had managed to find Carol, and was now walking with her quickly down one of the engineering bay's many hallways. She clearly had an idea once he explained that they needed to open the torpedo, but he didn't know what it was. But he knew why she seemed eager to get away from him. The situation was certainly awkward.
"Are the torpedoes still in the weapons bay?" Carol asked.
"Loaded and ready to fire. What are they?" Kirk asked.
"I don't know." Carol answered, speaking quickly. "That's why I forged my transfer onto your ship, to find out why." She stopped in the middle of the hallway. "I do apologize for that, by the way." She added. "If I've caused you any problems, I am sorry. I'm Carol Marcus."
"James Kirk." He replied, holding out a hand.
"Torpedoes." She reminded him, shaking his hand and continuing down the hallway.
"My father gave me access to every program he oversaw, and then I heard he was developing these prototype torpedoes." Carol explained, as she and Kirk entered the shuttle bay. "When I went to ask him about them, he wouldn't even see me. That's when I discovered that the torpedoes had disappeared from all official records." She paused in the entrance to a shuttle.
"And then he gave them to me." Kirk said.
"You're much cleverer than your reputation suggests, Captain Kirk." Carol nodded, turning and entering the shuttle.
"I have a reputation?" Kirk asked, following her.
"Yes you do." Carol answered, starting the shuttle's launch sequence. "I'm a friend of Christine Chapel's."
Kirk paused for a moment before answering. "Christine, yes. How is she?"
"She transferred to the outer frontier to be a nurse." Carol answered. "She's much happier now."
"That's good." Kirk nodded.
"You have no idea who I'm talking about, do you?" Carol asked.
Kirk opened his mouth to say something, but closed it, looking down.
"Don't worry, Captain." Carol added. "I rarely let reputations affect my own opinions. Unless they're accurate."
Kirk nodded. "What are we doing here?" He asked.
"Is this shuttle prepped to fly?" Carol asked.
"Of course it is." Kirk answered.
"Would you please turn around?"
"Why?"
"Just turn around." Carol replied, pulling a black suit out of a box.
Kirk nodded, understanding what she meant, and turned away.
"It's too dangerous to try to open one of these torpedoes on the Enterprise." Carol explained as she changed out of her blue Starfleet uniform. "But there is a nearby planetoid, it would be safe to open it there."
"Will you need any help with that?" Kirk asked, working against every thought that was telling him to turn around.
"Yes, someone else will be necessary, if it operates as I expect it to." Carol answered. "Who do you recommend?"
"I think that Mr. Spock is currently the most qualified." Kirk answered. "Will he be all right?"
"We'll certainly find out." Carol replied, walking past him towards the shuttle's cockpit, now wearing a suit more equipped for an outside environment than the regular Starfleet attire. "Could you send him down, and have one of the torpedoes moved here?"
"I'll get right on it." Kirk answered, exiting the shuttle.
Later, once the shuttle had departed the Enterprise with all of its cargo, and was heading towards the planetoid Carol had suggested, Kirk made his way back to the bridge.
"Captain on the bridge!" Sulu called out.
"Mr. Sulu, have Doctor Marcus and Mr. Spock landed on the planetoid yet?" Kirk asked the pilot.
"Yes, sir. They're moving the torpedo into position now." Sulu answered.
"Good." Kirk nodded. "Any activity from the Klingons?"
"Not yet." Sulu replied. "But if we're stuck here any longer, they will find us."
"Lieutenant Uhura, did you let Starfleet know that we have Harrison in custody?' Kirk asked.
"Yes, sir. No response yet." Uhura answered.
Kirk turned to her, about to ask another question, but he was interrupted by the sound of Chekov's voice coming through the comms.
"Engineering to bridge. Hello, Captain, can you hear me?"
"Mr. Chekov, give me some good news." Kirk replied, as he sat down in his chair.
"We found the leak, sir, but the damage is substantial." Chekov said. "We're working on it."
"Any idea what caused it?" Kirk asked.
"No, sir." Chekov answered regretfully. "But I accept full responsibility. I must have made a mistake with Mr. Scott's methods."
"Something tells me it wasn't your fault." Kirk replied. "Stay on it." He clicked the comm on his chair, closing the call.
"Shuttle is standing by, Captain." Sulu reported, as McCoy entered the bridge, standing behind the Captain's chair.
Kirk clicked the comm again, opening the signal to the Vulcan officer. "Mr. Spock, thank you for assisting Doctor Marcus."
"It is only logical, as I am the only science officer qualified to-" Spock started.
"Yep, you're welcome." Kirk cut him off.
"You know, I've often dreamed of being stuck on a deserted planet with a gorgeous woman." McCoy said. "Only there was no torpedo."
"Perhaps it was better that I was sent, then, Doctor, as we are not here to flirt." Spock said into his communicator, as he followed Carol onto the empty, gray, rocky planetoid, both of them holding cases of equipment. "Dr. Marcus, what do you need me to do?"
"To understand how powerful these weapons are, we need to open the warhead." Carol explained, attaching several sensor's to the torpedo's body. "To do that, we need to access the fuel compartment."
"Unfortunately for us, the warheads on these weapons are live." Spock finished her thought.
"Exactly." Carol nodded, opening a side hatch and looking inside. "Mr. Spock, there's a bundle of fiber optic cables against the inner casing. You'll need to cut the twenty-third wire down. Whatever you do, do not touch anything else."
"To do so would not result well for us." Spock replied, taking a pair of wire cutters and inserting them into the hatch.
"Wait for my word." Carol said. "I'm rerouting the detonation processor. Are you ready?"
"Yes."
"Good luck." Carol said, clicking a button on her sensor pad just as McCoy cut the wire. The hatch's door slammed back into place, pinning Spock's arm inside it, causing him to yell in pain.
Back on the Enterprise's bridge, a small sensor lit up on its main viewport, where the bridge crew was monitoring the torpedo via Carol's sensors.
"Sir, the torpedo just armed itself." Sulu reported.
"The warhead's going to detonate in thirty seconds, sir!" Officer Darwin, Chekov's replacement, added.
"Doctor, what's happened?" Spock asked, with a hint of panic in his voice.
Uhura ran from her station to the centre of the deck, once again finding herself staring forward at the screen and hoping that Spock wouldn't die.
"Target their signal. Beam them back right now." Kirk ordered.
"The transporter can't differentiate between Mr. Spock and the torpedo!" Darwin replied. "We can't beam back one without the other."
"Dr. Marcus, can you disarm it?" Kirk asked into the comm.
Carol was on the other side of the torpedo, opening up the main sensor grid and clicking a series of switches, looking for a disarming function. The torpedo had begun to increase the volume of its electronic whirring, while the counter beeped every second.
"I'm trying." She answered.
"Captain, beam her back onboard." Spock said.
"No!" Carol yelled. "If you beam me back, he dies, just let me do it!"
"Ten. Nine. Eight." Spock counted, watching the counter on the hatch's door, as Carol continued to look for the kill switch.
"Standing by to transport Dr. Marcus on your command, sir." Sulu said.
Kirk didn't answer.
"Four. Three." Spock continued.
All of the lights of the torpedo's fuel compartment device were red.
"Shit!" Carol yelled, grabbing the entire device and pulling it out of the hatch, falling backwards against the ground.
The side hatch's door retracted and Spock fell back as well. The two Starfleet officers lay against the grey rock ground for a few seconds while the electronic whirring died down, both of them happy to still be alive. On top of the missile, a hatch opened, revealing the inside of the weapon.
"Deactivation successful, Captain." Sulu reported.
Uhura let out a deep breath and hugged the captain, who patted her back reassuringly before leaning over the console and clicking the comms button again.
"Mr. Spock, are you all right?' He asked.
Spock and Carol both slowly got back to their feet, looking inside the missile to see what Harrison had been talking about.
"Mr. Spock." Kirk repeated through the communicator.
"Captain." Spock answered. "You are going to want to see this."
Inside the torpedo, visible from the open hatch, was a man inside of a glass tube, the front of which was almost completely covered with frost.
COORDINATES
JUPITER
Scotty had managed to acquire a Starfleet shuttle, and was currently headed towards the coordinates that Kirk had given him, flying around behind Jupiter. He had passed by the enormous planet and was heading towards Titan. As he flew over the moon, he looked around, searching for anything suspicious or strange. Eventually, a giant, metal, rectangular, but unidentifiable structure came into view.
Scotty turned the controls towards it, trying to make out what it was as he moved closer. He could see that it was clearly made by humans, with big satellite dishes and spires pointing outwards, as well as shafts of blue light emerging from inside of it.
Scotty flew around to the other end of the structure, checking his sensors, trying to figure out what it could be. He moved the shuttle to look downwards at it, and the entire end opened, blue light flashing out into space.
"Delta team, deliver your thrusters to loading dock twelve."
Scotty jumped at the voice coming through his comms. Before he could locate the source, another voice crackled through.
"U.S.S. Vengeance bridge crew, requesting entry to construction hanger."
"You are cleared to land."
Scotty looked, up, and saw a large group of shuttles, identical to his, headed towards the enormous entrance. He moved the flight joystick into their group, blending in. as they entered, Scotty realized that what he was inside was a hanger bay, but there was only one thing inside it. An enormous black shape that looked familiar to him, but he couldn't place it.
"I need a welding team on the number one nacelle."
Scotty realized what the shape was. And there was only one thing he could think of to sum up what he was seeing.
"Holy shit."
The door to the Enterprise's med bay hissed open, Kirk walking inside to investigate what Doctor Marcus and Spock had discovered inside the torpedo. The two were currently taking the weapon apart, while McCoy performed a number of medical scans on the pod inside.
"What have we got?" Kirk asked.
"It's quite clever actually." Carol answered. "This fuel container's been removed from the torpedo and retrofitted to hide this cryo tube."
Kirk walked over to the torpedo, looking down at the man inside. "Is he alive?" He asked McCoy.
"He's alive." McCoy nodded. "But if we try to revive him without the proper sequencing, it could kill him. Now, I once performed an emergency C-section on a pregnant Gorn. Octuplets. And let me tell you, those little bastards bite, but this...this technology's just beyond me."
"The cryo tube is not advanced." Spock explained. "It is ancient."
"We haven't needed to freeze anyone since we developed warp capability, which explains the most interesting thing about our friend here." McCoy said. "He's three hundred years old."
Kirk looked up at Spock, who met his stunned look with his usual neutral one. They both had the same idea, and they both knew what to do next.
Harrison didn't look surprised when Kirk and Spock ran into the brig. He was sitting on his bunk, continuing to stare ahead, calm and collected.
"Why is there a man inside that torpedo?" Kirk asked.
"There are men and women inside all of those torpedoes, Captain." Harrison answered. "I put them there."
Kirk and Spock looked at each other, their suspicion confirmed.
"Who the hell are you?" Kirk asked.
There were a few seconds of silence between the three of them, and the only sound in the room was the low whirring that the ship always had.
"A remnant of a time long past." Harrison finally answered. "Genetically engineered to be superior so as to lead others to peace, in a world at war. But we were condemned as criminals, forced into exile. For centuries we slept, hoping that when we awoke, things would be different."
Harrison turned his head, looking at Spock.
"But as a result of the destruction of Vulcan, your Starfleet began to aggressively search distant quadrants of space for unforeseen threats." He continued. "My ship was found adrift, and I alone was revived."
"I looked up "John Harrison"." Kirk said. "And I found no recent records, not even in confidential files."
"All records of who I truly am were lost long ago, burned to ash." Harrison replied, standing up. "Very convenient for your Admiral Marcus, to have a blank slate to use in the advancement of his cause."
"Why would a Starfleet Admiral want three-hundred-year-old frozen man's help?" Kirk asked.
"Because I am better." Harrison answered, smiling.
"At what?"
"Everything." Harrison answered, the smile gone. "Alexander Marcus needed to understand those who were born from war, and suddenly, he had a man who was designed for it, and who he could control. He needed to respond to an uncivilized threat that no-one in this civilized time could understand, so he used the knowledge of the past with the tools of the future."
"You are suggesting that the Admiral violated every regulation that he vowed to uphold simply because he wanted to exploit your intellect." Spock said.
"He wanted to exploit my savagery." Harrison hissed. "Design alone is useless in a fight, Mr. Spock, you need something that can truly cause damage. You, and your kind, can't even break a rule, how would you be expected to break bone?"
Spock stared at him, with the noticeable hint of anger starting to creep onto his face.
"But Marcus needed to break a species, so he used me to design weapons. To help him realize his vision of a militarized Starfleet." Harrison continued, looking at Kirk. "He sent you to use those weapons. To fire my torpedoes on an unsuspecting planet. And then, he purposefully crippled your ship in enemy space, leading to one inevitable outcome."
Kirk kept his face neutral, but his mind was racing at all of this information. Belief and doubt were warring painfully inside his head.
"The Klingons would come searching for whoever was responsible, and you would have no chance of escape." Harrison smiled, knowing the effect that his words were having. "Marcus would finally have the war he talked about. The war he always wanted."
"No." Kirk shook his head. "I watched you open fire in a room full of unarmed Starfleet officers. You killed them in cold blood!"
"Marcus took my crew from me." Harrison said, turning away from them.
"You are a murderer!" Kirk yelled.
"He used my friends to control me." Harrison hissed, breathing heavily. When he spoke again, his voice was soft. "I tried to smuggle them to safety by concealing them in the very weapons that I had designed. But I was discovered. I had no choice but to escape alone. And when I did, I had every reason to suspect that Marcus had killed every single one of the people I hold most dear." He paused, a single tear running down his cheek. "So I responded in kind."
Harrison turned, looking at the two Starfleet officers. They had matching expressions, but Harrison could tell that they were conflicted.
"My crew is my family, Kirk." Harrison said. "Is there anything that you would not do for your family?"
Before Kirk could answer, the room's comm chirped, and Sulu's voice crackled through it. "Proximity alert, sir! There's a ship at warp headed right for us."
"Klingons?" Kirk called, snapped out of his thoughts.
"At warp?" Harrison asked. "No, Kirk. We both know who it is."
"I don't think so." Sulu answered. "It's not coming at us from Kronos."
Kirk turned away from the prisoner, starting to run out of the room. "Lieutenant, move Harrison to med bay." He ordered one of the nearby officers. "Post six security officers on him."
If Harrison was right, Kirk needed him out of the way. He was developing a plan in his head, and if he made a mistake, they would all pay.
So, this chapter was a little bit shorter, but the next one should be back to the typical length, it's just how I'm dividing up the story. Hopefully you enjoyed, see you soon!