Star Trek XV – Now and Forever

Chapter Four

The only thing Kirk achieved testing his restrains was some nasty friction burns on both of his wrists thus, he stopped struggling against the leather rope and decided to glare at the Klingon who kept them captive. After their ambush, the Klingon had forced them to move to the ship's bridge, lining the four of them up facing the viewscreen as if they were guests of honour in some sick show. From there, he tried glancing over at his three fellow officers, noting that poor Chekov looked pastier than ever. Kirk returned his attention at the Klingon leader and dared to ask:

'Who are you? And what do you want with us?'

The warrior studied him for a moment before he let out a grutural sounding laugh. Kirk had definitely not missed that horrible noise.

'I was told you had spirit,' the Klingon taunted him.

'By whom?' Kirk insisted with his questions.

'My friend Kor,' the Klingon surprisingly replied, 'he died in battle, with honour, unlike our other friend Koloth.' He stopped speaking as if the memory actually hurt him, 'but of course, you know nothing of that.'

'No, I don't,' Kirk confirmed.

'A human!' the Klingon spat with disgust, 'a HUMAN killed my friend so that he could come after your ship.'

Kirk didn't understand at first but, digging deeper in his mind, he finally made the connection.

'Khan,' was all he needed to say. McCoy, Sulu and Chekov all went to stare at him, 'his name was Khan.'

'I know,' the Klingon said, 'it took me months to find out but, when I did, I promised myself I would one day find you so I could take revenge for the wrong you and your crew caused to my kind.'

This must have been part of the twisted Klingon logic for Kirk failed to understand how he was in any way responsible of the death of a Klingon he had never even met. Again, with much bigger problems at hand, he quickly sweeped that one under the carpet and decided to focus his attention on the present predicament.

'So, what are you planning on doing to us?' Kirk asked him full of bravado.

'Don't be so impatient,' the Klingon said almost as if he was having fun, 'first, I need something from you.'

'What is it?' Kirk asked him.

The warrior stared at him for a while as if he was trying to decide how to approach the situation then, he made a gesture to the human called Gus who was standing nearby along with the rest of the Klingons. The man walked confidently in front of Kirk, swaggering like he was the king of the world.

'This human is certain you have a device onboard your ship along with its inventor.'

Kirk felt his eyes widen with shock and a large dose of fear.

'Is this true?' the Klingon asked him.

'I…'

'Don't bother lying mate,' Gus interrupted him, 'I saw it with my own eyes how that sweet little thing loaded it on the shuttle headed to your ship. You know,' he added with a vicious sneer, 'she was a real cutie, I cannot wait to see her again, if you know what I mean…'

Seeing red with a sudden burst of fury, Kirk tried to get up so he could attack that bastard. Two Klingons came out of nowhere pushing him down and kicking him on his ribs as punishment for the insurrection.

'You stay away from her!' he barked at him instead, 'I swear to God if you…'

'Oh, oh, wait,' Gus suddenly said, he lowered himself right next to Kirk as to be at his same level and, after looking at his face for a bit, he announced with an absurdly happy voice, 'I knew it. From the moment I saw you I knew I had seen your eyes before. Her kid…he's got your eyes…hell he looks exactly like you…'

It took every ounce of willpower for Kirk not to try to literally bite his head off.

'You're that kid's father, aren't you?' Gus asked him having the time of his life.

'Enough,' the Klingon said grabbing Gus by his arm and pulling him away from a murderous looking Kirk.

'Master, I just got you another bargaining chip,' Gus told him sounding like he expected some reward for it.

The Klingon glanced at him for a moment, he then pulled a large knife out of his belt and, without giving anyone the time to think, he proceeded to calmly slice the man's neck, cutting it as if it was made of butter.

Gus dropped dead right next to Kirk who, in all honesty, didn't feel at all sorry.

'He just outlived his usefulness,' the Klingon told them with the same tone one reported the weather.

Trying not to look at the blood pooling right next to his feet, Kirk glanced at the Klingon and asked again:

'Who are you?'

'I am Captain Kang,' he finally supplied.

'You know I cannot give you what you want,' Kirk said.

'Well,' Kang said, 'that depends on what you've got to lose, doesn't it?'

'I…'

'Take a look,' Kang invited him with an out of place cordiality.

Following his hand, Kirk saw the Klingon was pointing at the viewscreen and there, he saw something that made him feel like his world had just lost its bottom: surrounding the Enterprise, he saw six uncloaking Klingon warbirds. Studying them more carefully, he realised they were of a kind he'd never seen before.

'Impressive, aren't they?' Kang asked him sounding very pleased.

'They…' he tried then, clearing his throat, he tried using his cockiest tone, 'we can blow them up, you know?'

'Really?' the Klingon Captain asked looking vaguely amused.

'My First Officer will destroy them as soon as he sees them,' Kirk assured him.

'I'd like to see that,' Kang taunted him, 'in fact, why don't you try ordering him to do it?'

Kirk stole a quick glance at his officers: they looked every bit as confused as he felt. Especially Chekov.

'Come on,' Kang said grabbing one of the confiscated communicators, 'go on, issue the order.'

Since Kirk had his hands tied at his back, the Klingon was actually kind enough to press the button himself.

'Kirk to Spock,' the Captain said speaking into the device.

'Captain,' the Vulcan's voice replied, 'we have confirmed visual of at least six Klingon warbirds.'

'I know,' Kirk said, 'I'm seeing them too.'

'We have attempted to employ the Romulan frequency to no avail,' Spock informed him.

'I told you,' Kang said with the Klingon equivalent of a singsong tone.

'Who is that, Captain?' Spock was heard asking.

'We're being held hostages by…'

Another kick prevented him from finishing the sentence while Kang angrily threw the communicator onto the ground, stepping on it as if he was trying to vent his frustration on the thing instead of doing it on Kirk.

'You shouldn't have said that,' the Klingon grunted narrowing his clear green eyes at him, 'I was even thinking of sparing your ship but now…now you have given me no choice,' he said somehow managing to look said, he then unclipped a Klingon communicator and was going to press its button when Kirk stopped him.

'Wait! What do you want to do with the device?' he asked trying to buy some precious time to think.

'Do you know what it does?' Kang asked instead.

'No, not really,' Kirk admitted regretting not having asked Carol about it.

'It's a really ingenious little thing,' Kang said, 'according to our…former collaborator,' he said pointing at Gus, 'the machine is designed to trigger a chain reaction that can accelerate the terraforming process on a planet but, if the documents he stole for us are correct, our engineers said we could use it in reverse.'

'What the hell do you mean by that?' McCoy asked speaking for the first time.

'They can start a chain reaction that will destroy all life on a planet,' Kirk answered him instead.

'Correct, Captain Kirk,' Kang said sounding like a proud teacher.

'You're going to use it on Earth,' Kirk said refusing to succumb to his constant bullying.

'Only half-correct, this time,' the Klingon said looking disappointed, 'we'll get there, eventually, but first we must repay the Romulans for the humiliation we have been suffering at their hands for nearly three years and, what better way to do that than to destroy the very planet they betrayed us for?'

'You're going to destroy Romulus?' McCoy asked him.

'Yes, we are,' Kang confirmed, 'but first, you must hand us the device and its inventor.'

'No,' Kirk immediately replied, 'no way, that's just not going to happen.'

'I think it will, Captain Kirk,' the Klingon said, 'you know why I think that? Because I think you don't want me to destroy your ship with your crew onboard. And that is what I will order my fleet to do if you don't order your ship to lower your shields so that we can come onboard. And after I have forced you to watch while I blow the Enterprise to smithereens, I will also force you to watch while we kill your men as slowly as we can, and then...then we'll kill you.'

Against his will, Kirk found himself swallowing hard.

'I…I need time to think,' he finally confessed.

'Okay,' the Klingon said as if he was willing to be reasonable, 'you have thirty seconds from…now.'

Kirk's brain was simply overloaded: he could not accept having the Klingons destroy the Enterprise but he also couldn't accept having the Klingons come onboard, steal the device and kidnap the mother of his child. Feeling the clock ticking, he glanced at McCoy for help.

'I'm sorry,' the doctor said out loud, 'either choice sucks,' he added, 'but…'

The Captain didn't need his best friend to complete the sentence for, in his mind and as much as he hated the option, he had already figured out that he had to pick the lesser of the two evils.

If he didn't comply with his request, Kang would destroy the Enterprise, including Carol and their two year old son. If he did, Kang would take Carol and the device to Romulus, which would put her in mortal danger. Kirk could only guess that the Klingons needed her alive, but for how long? Long enough for him to rescue her, Kirk fervently hoped.

'Your decision,' Kang demanded.

Once again, Kirk exchanged a meaningful look with McCoy and then, glaring at the Klingon, he said:

'Alright, I'll order them to lower the shields.'

'Smart move,' Captain Kang nodded approvingly.

Less than five minutes later, after he'd been forced to issue the hardest order of his career, Kirk impotently watched as all the Klingons marched out of the bridge, closing the door behind them. Then, to their horror, they heard some phaser blasts frying the console which controlled the opening mechanism, leaving them trapped inside.

'Dammit!' Kirk shouted his frustration.

Meanwhile, on the Enterprise's bridge, Spock had just proceeded to comply with his Captain's instructions. He remained outwardly calm but, inside, he was racking his brain trying to figure out what had happened onboard the Reliant to force Kirk to issue such an alarming order. Ruling out a number of possibilities that he considered too far-fetched, he ultimately reached the conclusion that it surely was related to Dr Marcus and the device she had brought onboard. For this reason, he looked at Mitchell and said:

'Lieutenant Commander, retrieve your phaser and come with me.'

'Yes, sir,' the tactical officer said.

'Uhura,' he then added glancing at the Communications Officer, 'you have the conn.'

'What?' she couldn't help but to ask.

'It will be just for a moment,' he promised her.

'Oh…okay,' she said tentatively rising from her seat. Slowly, she walked to the Captain's chair and sat on it.

'We shall return as soon as we can,' Spock told everyone, 'in the mean time, continue performing admirably.'

With that, the Vulcan grabbed his own phaser and, setting it to kill, he rushed out of the bridge with Mitchell doing his best to keep up with him. While the two of them ran, Spock told him what he needed to do:

'Go to the Storage Room 4 and locate Dr Marcus and her son, you must accompany them to the ready room.'

'What are you going to do?' Mitchell asked him.

'I am heading to the transporter,' Spock replied, 'I shall endeavour to slow them down as much as possible.'

'You'll be killed!' Mitchell exclaimed.

'I certainly hope not,' Spock replied as calmly as ever, 'but if that is the case, then you must find Mr Scott, he is third in command and must take charge of the ship. Organise whatever defences you can and, if at all possible, scan the Reliant, try to find out if the Captain and the rest of the away team are still alive.'

Mitchell found himself unable to believe the First Officer could talk about stuff like that with such aplomb but, oddly enough, he didn't think Spock was crazy. For some reason, he found his even tone quite soothing.

'Understood, sir,' the officer replied.

They parted ways with Spock continuing to the transporter and Mitchell racing down to the storage section of the ship. The Vulcan arrived at his destination just in time to watch the Klingons materialising onboard. Knowing he could not stop eight fully armed Klingons all by himself, he opted for diplomacy instead:

'What's your business onboard this ship?'

'Now, now,' their leader said, 'I assume you are the First Officer?'

'Yes, I am,' Spock confirmed coolly.

'Good,' the Klingon said, 'in that case, you know we have your Captain's permission to come onboard.'

'I do,' Spock confirmed again, 'however, you still have to answer my query.'

'You will take us to the device you picked up on 25-Alpha, you will hand it over along with its inventor.'

Usually Spock liked being right but this time he really hated it.

'I understand,' he said as calmly as he could.

'Do not make this difficult on yourself,' the Klingon advised him, 'remember we still have our fleet pointing their cannons at you. One order from me and the entire ship will get blown to pieces. You understand?'

'Yes,' Spock replied, 'please follow me,' he then added.

He knew very well he was risking his life by doing this but, making a conscious effort, he led the way walking as slowly as he could, hoping that this way he would obtain enough time for Mitchell to get Jimmy and Carol to safety. In spite of that, he reached the Storage Room 4 only a few short minutes later.

'Oh, how convenient,' he heard the Klingon say.

Spock stared inside the room with disbelief and a lot of frustration seeing that Carol was still there.

'Dr Marcus,' he chastised her, 'I…'

'I'm sorry,' the doctor stopped him, 'I know what you tried to do and, I thank you for it but we both know what was in Jim's mind the moment he let them come aboard,' she said pointing at the Klingon, 'all I ask is that you keep Jimmy safe,' she added and, for a brief moment, he saw such raw pain that it reminded him of the way his Captain had looked at him when Carol had left him, 'please,' she continued, 'take care of him until you get his father back onboard.'

'I will,' he found himself promising.

'Thank you,' she said then, she squared her tiny shoulders and, glaring at the Klingons, she said, 'I will come with you but, just so you know, if you harm anyone onboard this ship, or the members of the away team, I will make you all wish you had never been born.'

'And how are you going to do that?' the Klingon leader asked.

'You really don't want to know the answer to that,' she warned him.

The Klingon glanced at the universal translator he was carrying as though he refused to believe what he'd just heard. He checked with one of his soldiers, asking him to confirm what she'd said. He did and the Klingon leader looked at Carol with a degree of admiration in his eyes:

'For a puny human,' he said, 'you show the spirit of one of our females. For this, I have decided we will grant you an honourable death but now, it is time for us to depart,' he added pulling his communicator out.

'Wait,' Carol stopped him suddenly looking worried, 'you cannot beam the device out of this ship.'

'Why not?' the Klingon asked her.

'The core is unstable,' she replied, 'even the tiniest molecular modification might start a potentially lethal chain reaction and…'

'That's a risk I am prepared to accept,' the Klingon said, 'now, we have wasted enough time.'

As if proving his point, he grasped her arm and, pulling her towards him, he barked an order to his communicator. Carol barely had the time to look at Spock one last time, then she was gone, along with the Genesis device and the Klingon leader.

'Now,' another of the warriors told Spock, 'take us to the bridge.'

'Why?' Spock asked him.

'You will take us to our next target,' the Klingon answered, 'planet Earth.'

To be continued…