Chapter Thirteen: Lydia's Breakdown
I gasped a little as I stared at myself. It was hard to see but you could easily tell it was me. I was sound asleep. However, I looked a few years older.
"How is this possible?" I asked.
"We don't know," Carol said.
I got down and I backed up at bit.
"Lydia, are you alright?" Jim asked me. I looked at them and shook my head. I backed up a bit and I started to take deep breaths.
"Lydia, calm down?" Bones said.
"Calm down! I am looking at me! Literally! I don't know why I'm here and you guys are staring at me as if I'm a bad person," I said.
"Lydia-" Jim reached out.
"No! Don't touch me!" I screamed.
"Miss Lydia. Please calm down," Spock said.
"I can't," I said. I looked up at everyone who was staring at me.
I ran out of the door and I could hear everyone yelling at me. I ran to the cell room and Harrison looked at me.
"What do you want now?" He asked.
"Why am I in the torpedo?" I asked.
"You finally found out," Harrison said, suddenly interested.
"Why am I in there?" I said.
"You said you wanted to be frozen. I wasn't sure why. You were starting to have a good life," Harrison said.
"Who are you?" I said.
Jim and Spock came over to us and we looked at them. Jim stood next to me and looked down at me.
"You okay?" He asked. I shook my head at him and looked away.
"Why is Lydia in the torpedo?" Jim asked.
"There are more men and women in all those torpedoes, captian. I put them there. Lydia wasn't meant to be in there," Harrison said. Jim and Spock looked at each other before looking back at Harrison.
"Who the hell are you?" Jim asked him.
"A remnant of a time long past. 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 when we awoke, things would be different. But as a result of the destruction of Vulcan, your Starfleet began to aggressively search distant quadrants of space. My ship was found adrift. I alone was revived," Harrison said.
"I looked up, John Harrison. Until a year ago, he didn't exist," Jim said.
"John Harrison was a fiction I created the moment I was awoken by your Admiral Marcus to help him advance his cause. A smokescreen to conceal my true identity. My name is Kahn."
"Kahn? You knew my father. Henry Oswald," I said. I remember him now. My dad and he were friends when they were younger. I met Kahn once when I was small.
"Yes. When your father died, it was terrible. He was supposed to be like me but he had your brother then you."
"Why would a Starfleet Admiral ask a three hundred year old frozen man for help?" Jim asked.
"Because I am better," Kahn said.
"At what?"
"Everything. Alexander Marcus needed to respond to an uncivilized threat in a civilized time and for that he needed a warrior's mind. My mind. To design weapons and warships," Kahn answered.
"You are suggesting the Admiral violated every regulation he vowed to uphold simply because he wanted to exploit your intellect," Spock said.
"He wanted to exploit my savagery. Intellect alone is useless in a fight, Mr. Spock. You… You can't even break a rule. How would you be expected to break bones? Marcus used me to design weapons. To help him realize his vision of a militarized Starfleet. He sent you to use those weapons. To fire my torpedoes on an unsuspecting planet. And then he purposely crippled your ship in enemy space, leading to one inevitable outcome. The Klingons would come searching for whomever was responsible, and you would have no chance of escape. Marcus would finally have the war he talked about. The war he always wanted," Kahn said.
"No. No. I watched you open fire in a room full of unarmed Starfleet officers. You killed them in cold blood! You almost killed Lydia as well," Jim said.
"Marcus took my crew from me."
"You are a murderer!" Jim yelled.
"He used my friends to control me. I tried to smuggle them to safety by concealing them in the very weapons 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. So I responded in kind. My crew is my family, Kirk. Is there anything you would not do for your family?" Kahn asked.
"Proximity alert, sir! There's a ship at warp heading right for us," I heard.
"Klingons?" Jim asked.
"At warp? No, Kirk. We both know who it is," Kahn said.
"I don't think so. IT's not coming at us from Kronos," Sulu said. Jim started to walk away but I stood where I was.
"Lieutenant, move Kahn to med bay. Post six security officers on him," Jim said.
"Before I leave. I have to know something," I said to Kahn.
"What is it?" Kahn asked me.
"Why am I in the torpedo?" I asked.
"You were going to be the next generation but they stopped. You however made them wake you up in about this time frame. I don't know why but that was your instructions," Kahn told me. I stared at him confused before going to the bridge. I saw that everyone was getting ready and I saw a large ship in front of us.
"Lydia, go to med bay with Bones," Jim ordered.
"Why?" I asked him.
"Just go," I looked at him before running off.