Chapter Eight:
Pavel was more nervous than usual. Sitting in his usual spot in between Mr. Spock and Nyota, he was clutching at his knees through the denim of his pants. Khan and the Romulans were going up first, and even as they played—a sad song obviously about how the world was crumbling all around them because of humanity—Pavel couldn't get his mind off the fact that they were just so good.
"You're song is better. These angst-ridden pretty boys don't know true sadness," Nyota told him, putting her hands on his upper arms and rubbing them comfortingly.
"And they don't know how to convey them into… ah… pretty melodies and harmonies," Spock added, cleaning out his ear with his pinky in a classic 'um, ow, my very sensitive ears' fashion.
The crowd, however, seemed moved and was really listening to the deep meaning behind Khan's song. One lyric, however, Khan repeated and looked for Pavel in the crowd each time. That's why Pavel was nervously glued to his chair.
I don't want to wake up
Because the world won't wake up with me one day
Looking for a face in the crowd
Who will beat me down in some way…
It was part of the chorus, but the chorus was built of two stanzas. Somehow, Khan knew that Pavel would be nervous. But why would Khan want him to win? Khan was just as competitive as Kirk, and though he was smoother than the latter, calmer, even, he was scary and… Pavel hated to think what he could do. He just hoped the song made the slick-haired musician change his mind about doing anything drastic to him or one of the members of the Brothers Grimm.
The crowd loved Khan and the Romulans. When the song finished, there was a standing ovation in the crowd, and a ripple of nervousness went straight up Pavel from his stomach. He tried to get up, but Nyota knew better and had put her arm straight across his lap, and applied pressure when Pavel tried to run. He then proceeded to ball his fists as the Brothers Grimm were setting up. He closed his eyes and tried to breath, but his heart was beating too fast. Nyota took his hand with her right hand and rubbed the boy's back with the other hand, humming Pasha's Lullaby to calm him.
He slowly calmed as Kirk introduced himself, and away they went.
Spock turned from his little song-writer to the crowd. They seemed to have gone from hating the world to listening carefully to the words being sung. The girls soon started to cry softly, and even put their heads on their boyfriends' shoulders as they listened, enthralled by how pretty the accompaniment was. When the song ended, there was no contest about who had won. The crowd when wild—cheering and crying—and demanded an encore of the song, which Kirk and his band did again, this time upping the tempo and making it semi-techno-ish, which didn't take away from the song at all.
Pavel had slowly unwound in this period, even smiling a little as Nyota hugged him fairly hard, daring to break his bones. "They like it… they… they really like it," the Russian whizkid said.
"Of course they did! Khan doesn't know true sadness," Nyota assured him again.
Spock was watching the crowd as well, smiling slightly. "Looks like we'll be recording this. A slow version and this new version as a bonus, hm?" he said, mostly to himself.
Pavel smiled, "Perfect. We almost have enough to put out an album now, right?"
"Almost. Maybe five or six more," Spock replied, "I hope that's all right?"
Pavel looked at Nyota, who looked to him, then to Scotty onstage. They had just finished, and the crowd was once more going nuts. The Brothers Grimm bowed as Khan and the Romulans glared from the back of the venue.
"I think it's going to be okay, Mr. Spock," Pavel replied, smiling and elbowing his friend.