They landed on the steps of the main square in Starfleet Headquarters. It was dark. Khan tried to stand up, but everything tilted and he found himself on the ground again. Not good. He wasn't going to be able to get to the Vulcan embassy in this state. He looked at Jo. No, he couldn't expect the kid to find it on his own with no map and then explain to the Vulcans what was going on.
He was going to have to do the unthinkable. Be as public as possible and hope the whole mess couldn't be hushed up by Admiral Marcus. He looked around. Unfortunately, it was night and there was nobody close. Damn. Where were the media when you actually wanted them? Fickle bunch of parasites.
"Uncle Khan, you're hurt," said Jo. "Uncle, are you listening?"
"Yes," said Khan, and coughed, tasting blood. "Vulcan... Embas..."
Jo frowned, then his face lit up. "I'll go get help," he said. "You wait. I'll be back soon, I promise." He then ran off across the square towards three people standing talking at the far side of the square. Khan reached up, and managed to get his sunglasses off on the second try. He still couldn't really see details, but one had a cane, and he suspected all were Starfleet from the shape of their silhouettes.
Not ideal at all. Khan watched as Jo ran up to three men and they turned towards him. Khan pulled out his earplugs and listened, but it was too far away for him to hear anything clearly. He settled down to wait, and examined his phaser burns. As he thought, they wouldn't be fatal provided he didn't lie out here in the cold all night. No doubt whoever Jo brought back would freak out at how bad they looked and insist he got immediate medical attention. That would be nice. They hurt.
Khan closed his eyes and rested his head on the step, then opened them. He couldn't pass out - he had to be able to talk to them! Meanwhile...
Admiral Pike and the former Captain Kirk walked somewhat erraticly through the square on the way home from the bar.
"Admiral, Captain," said a familiar voice just ahead.
"Spock!" said Kirk. "Found your new Captain yet, you reprobate?"
"No. I was concerned about your state of mind," said Spock. "Yet you appear well enough, if a little intoxicated."
"Yeah, well, you know me."
Pike turned, seeing movement. A human boy, maybe four or so, running up to them. "Sir, uncle Khan is hurt. Please help!"
"Ok. Where is your uncle?" said Pike.
"Vulcan. Are you Vulcan?" said the kid, looking way up at Spock.
"Half-Vulcan." said Spock.
The kid bit his lip. "You help Uncle Khan." The kid gestured across the square. He grabbed Spock's hand and began pulling him in that direction. Kirk and Pike shared a look, and followed.
There was a man lying at the bottom of the steps. Pike took one look at him and hit his communicator, calling medical and requesting a team equipped for burns to the side steps of the Main Square.
It was bad. Multiple phaser burns to chest, leg and shoulder, with blood seeping from them and blood at his mouth. He was wearing a starfleet uniform with Commander's tabs, and had a pair of oversized sunglasses hanging haphazardly off one ear.
Spock meanwhile, had knelt down next to him, as did the kid, who poked his uncle. "Wake up, Uncle Khan. I found a Vulcan!" To their shock, the man opened his eyes and started talking. "Help... family... Marcus... Stop him."
"Don't try to talk," said Spock. "Help is on its way."
"He'll kill... family. Stop him."
"Stop who?" asked Kirk.
"Do you mean Admiral Alexander Marcus, head of Starfleet?" Pike asked. Alex was the best-known Marcus, after all.
"Yes."
"Is this to do with Section 31?" asked Pike.
The man nodded.
Oh wonderful, thought Pike. It looks like Marcus may well be up to something nasty. In any case, I need to know what is going on. "Where are they?"
"Jup.." The man coughed and choked, closing his eyes and breathing shallowly once the coughing stopped.
"Admiral, it would perhaps be better to discuss this at a later time," said Spock. "Can I borrow your overtunics? He's going into shock.
"Ok, careful there. We can talk about this later." Pike sat down on the steps to remove his command tunic. The thin tunics wouldn't do much, but they'd be better than nothing.
"Jo... Vulcan." Khan's hand twitched towards the child. "23...1..7...4..." The man's eyes opened but they were glazed and promptly closed again. Spock checked his breathing - it was shallow but there.
The kid sniffled, and poked Khan's shoulder. "Uncle, wake up?"
"Medical help will be here shortly." said Spock, removing the boy's hand, who pulled away from Spock and glared. "They will help your Uncle."
"Admiral Marcus?"whispered Kirk to Pike, "He's accusing the head of Starfleet of wanting to kill his family!"
"And he's obviously been attacked by somebody," Pike whispered back.
The boy glared at them but didn't say anything.
"Do you know where your family is?" Spock asked the child. "And what is your name?"
The child turned back to Spock. "Jo."
"What is your full name?"
"Joachim Weiss."
Spock nodded. "Where are your parents?" The boy pointed at Khan.
"I believe you stated that Khan is your uncle."
Jo nodded.
"Where are your parents?" Spock asked again.
"They aren't my real parents. They're lying."
"Who aren't your real parents?" asked Spock, starting to look confused.
"These people who weren't my real mummy and daddy were taking care of me. They kept telling me to call them mummy and daddy but they're lying. They're Normals."
"Normal whats?" asked Kirk.
"Normals." said the boy, looking at them as if this should explain everything.
Finally the medical team arrived. They took Khan away with them. Jo tried to follow them, but Pike intervened. They didn't know what Admiral Marcus was up to, and the only person capable of answering questions right now was the little boy. Best to keep him with them until they had a better idea of what was going on.
"I want Uncle Khan!" Jo wailed, holding on grimly to Khan's arm. Spock pried him off. Jo squirmed and thrashed, screeching. Spock nearly dropped him, not expecting this reaction.
"But Uncle Khan wants you to stay with the Vulcan," said Pike, thinking swiftly. Khan had mentioned Vulcans... actually, it had sounded like he was trying to say something about the Vulcan embassy. Perhaps he had intended to seek refuge there? Not a bad idea, if he were in danger from Admiral Marcus and couldn't get out of Federation space.
Still, Pike would rather not disturb Ambassador Sarek until he had a better idea of what was going on. Starfleet needed to know what its leader was up to, and better to get that first-hand now than second-hand later from the Vulcans.
Jo seemed to calm a little, but glared like mad. "I want Uncle!"
"We also have some questions to ask you, so that we can better help Uncle Khan and the rest of your family." said Spock. "Khan's going to be sleeping for a while, so you wouldn't be able to talk to him anyway."
"I want to go home." He sniffled.
"Can you tell us where home is?"
Jo said nothing.
"Admiral, perhaps we should go back to your office or to the Enterprise. If this is likely to be politically delicate it might be better not to have Jo on Earth."
"The Enterprise is still Starfleet property. My apartment might be better, as it is not Starfleet property and most people would think twice before breaking in. I believe both of you are still on leave?"
"Yes" said Spock.
"Yeah," said Kirk. "But Chris, your apartment's still on Earth. You didn't sound all that surprised that Admiral Marcus was getting accused of something like this - what's up with that? I thought you two were friends."
"Long story. We need to know more as soon as possible. My place for now, and if we need to move later we can."
"Admiral, what about the Vulcan embassy? Khan may have intended to take refuge there," said Spock. "And it's Admiral Pike," he said, frowning at Kirk.
"Do you really want to wake Ambassador Sarek in the middle of the night if this turns out to be a minor internal Starfleet squabble?" asked Pike.
"Yeah, of course it's Admiral Pike," said Kirk. "You both knew I meant that, right?"
Pike rolled his eyes. Brilliant Jim Kirk might be, but the man definitely had subordination problems. He was beginning to wonder if the man would ever grow up.
"I'm hungry," said Jo. "Why's it night here? It was morning before."
"I'd be worried if it was morning after," said Jim.
"Let's go back to my apartment," said Pike. "You can have food there. I even have ice cream." Then he turned to Kirk. "We should really get the child checked out medically too. He doesn't look hurt, but given the state Khan was in we should check. Can Dr. McCoy be trusted with something like this?"
"Bones? Oh yeah."
"Can you find him and get him here?"
A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed. Special thanks to zedille for catching some spelling errors in the last chapter, and to a friend who prefers to remain anonymous for being a plot soundboard.