Jim was trying to get down the tunnel he was in. He had managed to get away from Khan…at least for now. He could barely walk on his right leg, and he had gotten another cut across his hand in that last battle. He was holding onto the bat'leth. It was such a heavy weapon, he wished he could find something else. He was a strong person, and he worked out, but his strength was starting to wane. He fell over a large stone in the tunnel. He lay there only a moment wishing he could just stay, but he had to get up.
As Jim kept on going, he heard someone coming behind him. He knew it had to be Khan. It seemed to be Khan's goal to weaken him rather than just kill him all at once. He wanted him to suffer.
With a yell of rage, Khan attacked again. Jim barely avoided the blade that time, and he was against the wall of the cave trying to hold Khan back as their blades were together. "You are weakening!" Khan said.
Jim could feel his muscles trembling. He was definitely weakening, but he would not give up. With a yell of strain, he pushed Khan back until he could get out of the struggle. He stood there a moment, panting as he watched Khan with his smug look of confidence. Jim was beginning to wonder if he was going to survive this. He would have already died if he had not been determined. The only weapon he had was the bat'leth now, but he sure wished he had something lighter.
Suddenly, Khan came at him again. Jim blocked his attack as he had been doing. He had gone completely on the defensive rather than attacking himself. He was too tired to make any progress, although he had caused some wounds on his opponent. However, his opponent was a hologram and did not get tired.
This time, Khan managed to disarm Jim, and Jim found himself flat of his back with the bat'leth blade to his throat. He did not dare move. "Why don't you just go ahead and kill me and stop gloating over it!" he said.
"Oh, not yet, Captain. I want you to see someone else die first."
Scotty had just about tracked down what the program was attached to. "We've got it," he said. "Now, we have to put what I'll call a breaker on each one of these. When that power surge tries to go through here, this will shut the system down."
"Brilliant," Solan replied. "Then what?"
"Then we have the more complicated problem of getting into that program."
"Just when I thought it was getting easier…"
Scotty and Solan managed to get the "breakers" on all the attached relays. "That guy was really prepared," Scotty said. "When did he have time to do all this?"
"Well, from what I've been told about the guy, he probably didn't have to have a lot of time," Solan replied. "He knew what he was doing in the short time he was here."
"Now, we're trying to unravel the work of a super genius."
"Mister Scott, have you made any progress?" Spock asked.
"Yes, sir," Scotty answered. "We've figured out the relays, and once we get them blocked, we can try to get into the program."
Spock thought that all sounded very complicated even for his genius brain, but he was glad Scotty could figure it out. "Is there anything that I can help with?" he asked.
"Not at the moment. I'll let you know."
"How many relays are attached to this program?"
"As far as I know, there are thirty. I hope there are no more hidden. This is very complicated, Mister Spock."
"We must be certain that there is nothing else attached."
"That's what I'm trying to do."
Spock looked at the holodeck controls which gave a clear indication that the program was still running. "Once you have the relays blocked, will you be able to transport us into the holodeck?" he asked.
Scotty considered that while he blocked another relay. "I'm not certain of anything at the moment."
Spock thought he was beginning to learn what impatience was. He did not want to find his friends dead in this holodeck, and he wanted to get to them now…but that was impossible.
Khan had gotten Jim up and they were on their way back down the tunnel toward the area where Bones and Carol were. Jim could feel blood running down his body in several places…or maybe it was dried now. He did not know how badly he was injured but he had fought until Khan had taken advantage of his waning strength.
Carol and Bones had made it to what she hoped was the front of the holodeck. "Computer, where are the controls?" she asked.
"Unable to answer that question."
"Why?"
There was no answer. "Wait," Bones said. "I just saw a glitch over there."
They hurried to the area and when they touched it, the hologram cleared up so that they could see that it was indeed the controls. "Perhaps we can override the program," Carol said.
"There has to be a sub-routine installed for it to take over like this," Bones said. "Right?"
"Right. We just have to figure out where it is, and how to shut it down."
"I can't believe Khan would make it that easy."
"I never said it would be that easy."
Carol turned on the intercom that should allow them to contact someone outside the holodeck. "Can anyone hear me?" she asked as she pressed the button.
Spock was surprised to hear Carol's voice. He pressed the blinking button on the console. "Doctor Marcus," he said.
"Spock! Khan has us trapped in here!"
"We know, Doctor. Is anyone injured?"
"Yes, but we're all alive. Khan has taken Jim away from us in a bat'leth battle. We don't know Jim's condition now."
"Mister Scott is working on a solution to this problem."
"Khan has programmed himself into this holodeck program. The hologram reacts just like he would, and it adjusts."
"Do you know anything else?"
Just then, Khan came around the corner of the tunnel. "Transmission over!" he said and fired at the console.
Carol screamed as she barely moved in time to keep from getting shot herself. Bones grabbed Carol and tried to put himself between her and Khan. He would not stand by and let him kill her if he could help it.
"Doctor Marcus!" Spock said. He had heard part of the chaos before the console went into sparks. He grabbed his communicator. "Mister Scott, we have to hurry! Doctor Marcus contacted me. They are in grave danger!"
Scotty was already sweating with his task, and trying to do it faster. "We're working as fast as we can, Mister Spock!" he said.
"I am afraid our friends do not have much time."
Scotty could hear the strain even in Spock's voice as he relayed that message. "We can't do anything until we get these blocked!"
Carol and Bones faced Khan now, and Jim faced them as well with that look he always had when he was trying to find a way out of a situation. "Do you think I will not fire through you to get her?" Khan asked.
Bones knew it would do no good to try and reason with a hologram. "You may kill us both, but you'll still be dead," he said.
"But your friend here will see your dead bones before he dies."
Jim hated the way Khan used their names as an insult or intimidation technique. He would not stand here and allow him to kill his friends. He would find some way. "Move, Bones," he said.
Bones was surprised that he said that, but he thought he must have some plan in mind, and he wished he knew what it was. "You want me to just let him kill her?" he asked.
"I don't want to see both of you die."
Carol could not believe he said that, but she had to believe there was something else behind his sudden attitude change. "Move, Bones," Jim said. "That's an order."
Bones just stared at Jim a moment but he moved from in front of Carol…
Scotty finally got the last breaker on the relays. "Let's get to the controls now!" he said to Solan.
Solan was ready to move. They hurried out of the access tube while Scotty went through yet another rant about having to crawl rather than run. Solan thought sometimes he was just trying to keep his mind off the seriousness of the situation. They ran down to the controls for the holodeck. "Alright, Laddy," Scotty said as he ripped the cover off the whole station.
"Hurry, Mister Scott," Spock said.
"Don't say that again, Sir. With all due respect."
"I will attempt to comply with that request. Let me know how I can help."
Scotty jerked a large cable out of the console. "Hold on to that," he said. "Don't let it snap back in there."
Spock grabbed the cable and held it firmly. Scotty squatted down to the lower part of the console. "Solan, when I say now, I want you to clamp this down on that wire right there," he said.
Solan took the clamp and got his finger on the right wire. Scotty stood up and began working …
The Khan hologram just stood a moment and Bones noticed a waver that ran over the image. He thought maybe Scotty and the others were about to get something done, and he thought maybe it was interfering with the movement of Khan's hologram…and maybe its thinking too.
Khan pulled a long-bladed knife from a sheath on his side as he kept a blaster pointed at Jim's head. Bones hoped Jim would do something soon because he did not intend to let Khan stab Carol with that blade.
Jim locked eyes with Carol. She could see his love for her even just looking into his eyes. Bones watched them a moment and wondered if they had some sort of silent communication going. He had known what true love was once.
Suddenly, everything sprang into motion, and Jim felt like he was seeing it in slow motion. Khan hit Jim with the blaster to knock him down, and then he headed for Carol with the knife which he intended to plunge into her aiming up. "NO!" Jim yelled, but as he tried to scramble to his feet, Bones stepped in the path of the blade.
Carol screamed as she was caught in the corner of the cave entrance and could not maneuver her way out, and Bones took the full force of Khan's momentum pinning her against the wall. Jim got over the initial shock of what he just saw happen, and he tackled Khan, grabbing his legs. However, Khan had time to jerk the knife, or dagger, out of Bones' mid-section before he went down.
Carol kept Bones from falling hard on the floor, but he went down to his knees. Jim grabbed Khan's hand that had the blade in it to keep him from stabbing him. His real goal was to get that blade from him and stab him, and maybe this program would end, but he could not maneuver lying on his back with Khan trying to overpower him.
Bones gasped for air. Carol helped him lie down. "I wasn't going to let him watch you die," he whispered.
"You're not going to die either!" Carol said. She ran to the console again. Khan had missed the main part of the communicator with his blaster. She pressed the button. "Spock!"
Spock looked at the flashing light of the communicator but he could not let go of the cable he was holding. "Mister Scott, how much longer?" he asked.
Scotty was having to wipe sweat off his hands because he was so nervous and trying to hurry. He did not even want to answer that question because he had heard the desperation in Carol's voice. He hated the fact that they were right on the other side of the door and they could not get to them. He had to be careful and do this right or he could mess up the whole thing and end up killing them himself.
Jim finally managed to get Khan off him and they both stood up. Khan was not wasting any time, however, and he was already coming at Jim again before he had his footing grounded. He managed to avoid that blade the first time, but then Khan swung it at him, cutting him across his chest. Jim grunted with that pain, but he had no time to think about it as Khan intended to bring the blade back into his left side. He grabbed Khan's knife wielding arm and shoved him into the cave wall, grabbing him by the throat with his other hand. He was not sure that would work on a hologram, but he was ready to try anything.
Khan rammed his other fist into Jim's ribs causing him to lose his grip on his neck. Jim drew back his fist then and punched Khan. He remembered punching him until his muscles almost gave out the first time he ever met this horror. This was just a hologram but he still had the same hate and arrogance of his creator.
Jim grabbed the knife hand with both his hands trying to get the knife from him, but then someone else was beside him. With a yell of effort, Carol plunged a dagger of her own into Khan's chest. His grip on the knife definitely lessened, and Jim managed to get it from him. He and Carol then got Khan down on the floor and Jim stabbed him again with the longer blade, hoping that this hologram would die, but he did not stop with only one stab.
Carol knew it was just a hologram, but she had never wanted to kill anyone. However, this was life or death for them. She and Jim sat and watched the hologram and it soon disappeared. Jim thought he would collapse as he dropped the knife. He could feel his whole body trembling.
"Jim!" Carol exclaimed as she hurried back over to Bones.
Jim looked around at his friend lying on the cave floor. He ran to him. "Bones!"
Bones held up his hand that was covered in blood. "I guess I'm gonna know how my patients feel," he said struggling to breathe.
Carol was starting to cry now as she ran to the console again. "Spock!"
"We're almost there, Lassy!" Scotty said, but they could not make it so she could hear him. "Now, Solan!"
Solan clamped the wire he had been holding for what seemed like forever. Sparks emanated from it as Scotty got the last thing in place…
