Thank you as always to Amatista, CLTex, and Poodle warriors for your reviews and helpful critique. Having other people tell you what isn't right with your story is probably one of the best things a writer can get and I'm literally not joking.
Chapter 11 - Kronos
When they arrived on the Enterprise, Madelyn barely had a moment to take everything in. She was informed that her things would be dropped off in her assigned quarters, and then McCoy whisked her out of the hangar. She didn't even have a chance to speak with Carol, who was already busying herself with the new torpedoes onboard, torpedoes that were apparently untested and dangerous according to a mouthy technician who had now dragged Captain Kirk into a heated discussion over that very fact. Madelyn caught the word "classified" as she passed them, and once again she couldn't help but feel wary about this turn of events.
There were so many things that didn't add up. There were explanations she should have received from Admiral Marcus that had fallen by the wayside, like the fact that Marcus no longer intended to have John captured alive, but instead assassinated underneath a barrage of highly advanced and unstable torpedoes. It wasn't that Madelyn was completely against the idea. She didn't think she'd feel overly remorseful if the man she'd been sleeping with for the last couple months who'd turned out to be a terrorist was killed outside of Federation law. But the fact that he was on Kronos changed everything.
It was a horrible idea that left a bad taste in her mouth and a worse feeling in her gut, and she knew that if she'd had any sort of command position on this ship she would have done anything to stop those torpedoes from being fired.
It was almost as if Marcus was trying to start a war.
All of that aside, if John wasn't going to be brought onboard the Enterprise as a prisoner, then why had Marcus insisted she remain with the mission in the first place? She was only taking up space, a non-member of Starfleet on a starship that had more than enough people onboard already taking up much needed resources.
But maybe Marcus hadn't known John was on Kronos until this morning, and had overlooked his previous requests due to the amount of stress he was certain to be under. Maybe the veiled threats he'd made to coerce her into cooperating were just that: threats, which he could've had no intention of actually following through on. That was the only way she saw this making a little more sense, but the nagging feeling persisted.
"Madelyn, I'm gonna need you to come to the medbay with me. I need to run some basic tests."
McCoy's voice tore her from her thoughts as they went down the corridor. She'd forgotten she was still with him, but nodded without a response. At this point, there was nothing else to do but go along with things and hope for the best.
The medbay was bustling with activity, doctors and nurses preparing it to be used to take on emergencies. A man in the corner in a red shirt was being patched up from an accident, but otherwise Madelyn was the only non-medical person there.
"This will be like a usual check-up," said McCoy, motioning her to the nearest medbed. "I also have to follow regulation for first-timers and take a few blood samples, just in case."
Madelyn shrugged. "It's fine. I don't mind."
Suddenly a wave of vertigo swept over her and she had to brace herself against the med bed until it passed. McCoy put a firm hand on her shoulder and instructed her to lay down. "We've just jumped to warp speed," he said. "It happens sometimes, especially if you're not used to space travel. Believe me your reaction ain't the worst I've seen."
"Well that's reassuring," Madelyn replied, giving McCoy a look as she carefully hoisted herself up onto the medbed. When McCoy began to run through a basic physical exam, the room's intercom system chimed and Captain Kirk's voice over the speakers. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing to listen, and suddenly Madelyn was grateful no one in that room knew why she was on that ship.
"Attention, crew of the Enterprise. As most of you know, Christopher Pike, former captain of this ship, and our friend, is dead. The man who killed him has fled our system and is hiding on the Klingon homeworld, somewhere he believes we are unwilling to go. We are on our way there now. Per Admiral Marcus, it's essential that our presence go undetected. Tensions between the Federation and the Klingon Empire have been high, and any provocation could lead to an all out war."
There was a long pause. Madelyn half-hoped Kirk wouldn't follow through on the Admiral's orders and fire torpedoes on John. He had to be aware of the consequences. As Spock had pointed out earlier, an action like that would not only be immoral, but it could provoke a war that the Federation wasn't equipped to handle. At least as far as Madelyn was aware.
She knew Marcus and John had been working together to create weapons and warships to counter a threat like the Klingons, but no one else seemed to be aware of that fact and she wondered how serious John had been when he'd revealed that to her.
Suddenly she realized she no longer cared what John might have to say, and that she definitely wasn't looking forward to seeing him again should Kirk change his mind about following the Admiral's orders. It seemed that whichever direction this situation chose to take, Madelyn was going to hate it.
"I will personally lead a landing party to an abandoned city on the surface of Kronos, where we will capture the fugitive John Harrison and return him to Earth so he can face judgment for his actions."
Madelyn managed to let out a breath. At least they weren't going to execute him, though a little voice in her head told her that'd be much easier. So Kirk would go down and find John and arrest him and bring him back to the ship. Fine. And she would be far away until they wanted her to talk to him. And even then, maybe she could convince Kirk that she didn't need to talk to him. She wanted to forget everything about him, his face, his voice, his existence. What made them think he'd even tell her the truth now, when he hadn't before?
"Alright, let's go get this son of a bitch. Kirk out."
"You alright, Madelyn?"
She looked over at McCoy. He was busy preparing a syringe that would draw blood quickly from her vein through a length of tubing and deposit it into a vial for later.
"I'm fine. Just a little nervous about all of this."
When the doctor reached for her arm, she realized her fingers were wrapped tightly around the edge of the bed until her knuckles had turned white. Letting out another breath, she forced herself to relax and rolled up her sleeve so he could position the syringe on her arm.
"It wouldn't have something to do with this John Harrison guy, would it?"
She hardly felt when the microscopic needle pricked her skin. "I'd rather not talk about it," she said quietly.
"No hard feelings. But if you two had a thing, he sure pulled a fast one on you."
Madelyn glanced up at McCoy again as he removed the needle from her arm and transferred the vial full of her blood into the device to be tested. He sure fucking did, she thought angrily.
She was resisting the urge to tell him everything. He was a doctor after all, so technically she could tell him everything and he'd be sworn to secrecy. Glancing up at the people working nearby, she decided they weren't paying them any attention.
"The thing is I found out the same time as everyone else," she said, and McCoy glanced at her to indicate that he was listening. "He disappeared two weeks ago, and then London was bombed and Starfleet showed up at my apartment soon after with evidence that he was there. Then I get to San Francisco only to find out that he attacked an emergency meeting of Starfleet brass. I just don't know what to think anymore."
McCoy turned back to her, giving her his full attention. "I've never met the guy, but I'll say this. You'll be able to move on eventually. It won't be easy. Anything you got that reminds you of him, you'll wanna burn it all. And after that you'll wanna move halfway around the world, or maybe to another planet, but you'll move on."
Madelyn was shocked by his frankness, and realized her fingers were playing with the bit of silver hanging around her neck. It was the only thing John had ever given her, and it contained a precious photo that she wanted to last forever. She couldn't get rid of that. Nevertheless she was grateful for the McCoy's honesty. "You sound like you're speaking from experience."
"I am. She took the whole damn planet in the divorce. It's why I joined Starfleet. All I had left was my bones." He gave her a knowing look as she hopped down from the med bed. "You're all set. Unless you wanna stick around for the test results, but I can't guarantee they'll be interesting."
She offered him a smile. "That's ok. I think I'll—"
The room lurched and Madelyn was thrown backwards. She grappled for the bed to steady herself as nurses screamed around her and medical equipment was thrown across the room. The ship's skeleton seemed to be groaning, like it'd been completely thrown out of alignment. When the room steadied, people gathered their senses and busied themselves with cleaning up, returning to their work as though nothing had happened. Madelyn was shaken but none the worse for wear. A quick check revealed she was unharmed, and she waved McCoy away when he offered assistance. "What the hell was that?"
"I think we just dropped out of warp. Believe me it's not supposed to happen like that."
"Kirk to medbay. Dr. McCoy, I need you and your patient on the bridge right away."
Madelyn couldn't imagine why. "What?"
"That's us. You sure you're alright?"
"I'm fine. Why does he want us on the bridge?"
"Beats me. Maybe we made it to Kronos early."
She felt her heart sink into her stomach, but as she followed McCoy out of the medbay, she reminded herself she could still find a way out of this.
Kirk was waiting for them on the bridge when they arrived. "Ah, Ms. McGivers—"
"Just Madelyn," she butted in.
"Madelyn, right. You're coming with me, Commander Spock, and Lieutenant Uhura to an uninhabited region of Kronos."
Madelyn only half heard him. "Captain, I really don't think—"
"Look, you're here because of Harrison, and Marcus made me bring you on this mission in the first place, so you might as well make yourself useful. Uhura, please make sure Madelyn is properly equipped and meet me in the hangar in ten minutes."
"Yes sir."
Madelyn glared at Kirk, but nonetheless followed the dark skinned Lieutenant from the bridge, not daring to speak up until they were making their way through the ship.
"I can't believe this. I can't believe he actually believes it's a good idea to send me down there."
"The captain is just doing what he feels is necessary. Have you ever used a phaser?"
Madelyn shook her head as they walked into a room stocked with weapons and tools and uniforms. Uhura gave her a once over, then pulled a black leather jacket and a gray scarf out of a locker and handed them to her to replace her more blatantly fashionable city wear. Meanwhile the lieutenant traded her red dress for a set of similarly appropriate clothing, then she pulled a phaser down from a rack on the wall and held it out so Madelyn could see it.
"Hit this to charge it. It's set to stun by default but if you want to cause some real damage, hit this," Uhura explained, showing Madelyn which buttons to press. "Whatever you do, don't point it at anyone you don't want to hurt. I'm sure you thought of that."
Madelyn took it from her carefully, testing its weight in her hand, then made sure the safety was turned on before tucking it inside her jacket. At least she had a way of defending herself if the worst happened.
She pulled her hair into a ponytail and followed Uhura through the ship. When they arrived in the main hangar, Kirk and Spock met them with two other officers. Kirk gave Madelyn a once over, nodded as though reassuring himself this was a good idea, then climbed onboard a disc-shaped ship that didn't look like something Starfleet would normally operate.
But Madelyn was too nervous to care about the specs of the ship. They were about to head for the surface of Kronos, where John was apparently hiding. Not only was she about to set foot on the Klingon homeworld, but she was going to have to face John and come to grips with his betrayal, and that was the last thing in the world she wanted.
The quiet, two-hour flight towards the surface of the planet ended abruptly when the ship shuddered violently, and Spock announced they were being pursued by a D4-class Klingon vessel. Madelyn scooted deeper into her seat, gripping the straps that held her in place, and clenched her eyes shut for the wild ride.
Barely minutes later, after her insides had been shaken up so much that she wondered if they still worked, they finally careened to a stop. Blinding spotlights penetrated the narrow viewscreen that circled the cockpit and grating Klingon warnings filled the polluted air outside. Madelyn was starting to suspect that they would never get off Kronos alive, especially when Uhura translated and informed them that when they landed, the Klingons would bring them in to be questioned and tortured, and when they were done, killed.
"So we come out shooting," said Kirk.
Uhura unbuckled herself from her seat and stood up to face the captain. "We're outnumbered, outgunned. There's no way we survive if we attack first."
"This is insane," Madelyn muttered for the hundredth time that day.
"You brought me here because I speak Klingon," said Uhura. "So let me speak Klingon."
There was a moment's hesitation from Kirk, but he agreed. Flanked by Klingon Birds-of-Prey, they landed their ship in a clearing between monstrous, decrepit buildings. Uhura went out alone into the dirty air, leaving the rest of them to watch and wait. Maybe Kirk hoped Uhura could convince the Klingons they were only there to catch a criminal, and though Madelyn didn't know too much about Klingons, she was aware that they were a proud people who valued honor, respect, and conquest above everything else.
"This isn't gonna work," said Kirk, once Uhura had made her presence known to a party of approaching Klingon warriors.
"It is our only logical option," Spock replied. "And if you interrupt her now, you will not only incur the wrath of the Klingons, but that of Lieutenant Uhura as well."
The way he said it made Madelyn wonder briefly if there was something going on between Uhura and Spock, but she didn't dwell on it. Crouching beside Kirk and Spock in the cockpit, she watched Uhura through the viewscreen as she stood confidently in front of a large group of well-armed Klingon warriors.
Madelyn could feel her phaser's cold metal in her jacket through her shirt, and knew that if she needed to use it she was already screwed. Despite the position he'd allowed Lieutenant Uhura to walk into, Kirk had already passed phasers out to his men as though he was expecting the worse, and now they waited with baited breath for a reaction. They had no way of knowing what Uhura was saying, but the moment her face was snatched up in the large hand of one of the warriors and she was lifted off her feet, everything went downhill.
A sudden blast of weapons fire from an unknown assailant distracted the Klingons long enough for Uhura to get away, and Madelyn had little time to react as Spock, Kirk, and the other two men launched out from the ship to provide cover fire. Watching the carnage from inside the relative safety of the ship's cockpit, Madelyn caught a glimpse of Uhura as she stabbed her assailant in the groin with his own knife, then rolled out of the way for cover.
The clearing became a battlefield. Madelyn slid her hand inside her jacket to feel for her phaser. With any luck, she could hide in here for as long as the Klingons were in the area, until Kirk and his people had gotten rid of the initial threat. By then the Klingons would probably call for reinforcements, but it would give them enough time to get out. This thought quickly slipped away as two Klingon warbirds soared overhead, reinforcements swinging down on long cables and brandishing jagged bat'leths and phaser rifles. Then in the distance, on a raised ledge that would have offered anyone a clear view of the entire area, she caught a glimpse of the source of weapons fire that had started all this.
It was one man, dressed in a long, black leather coat, his face obscured by a hood. He wielded what looked like an enormous phaser cannon that should have been mounted on a ship, way too large for him to be swinging around so easily, and in his other hand he deftly maneuvered a phaser rifle. Within moments, he'd slaughtered well over a dozen ground troops and crashed a Klingon warbird with a single blast of his cannon.
After a minute of watching the man, in awe of the ease in which he moved, Madelyn realized she'd lost sight of Kirk, Spock, and Uhura. The other two lieutenants' bodies lay on the ground about fifty yards away, and several Klingon soldiers were closing in on her position within the ship. She swallowed, eyes flitting from the Klingons to the hooded man with his massive cannon, still sending out a steady rain of weapons fire and hitting his targets every single time. More reinforcements arrived from the air, but he quickly took them out.
Suddenly she caught sight of Kirk, on the ground with his neck beneath a Klingon boot, looking barely conscious. Almost as soon as she realized what was happening, the Klingon owner of the boot was hit with a phaser cannon blast that severed his legs from his torso. Kirk rolled over just as Spock and Uhura appeared and half-dragged him away out of the fray.
Meanwhile, the Klingons that had been converging on the ship had turned and were now focusing their efforts on the man Madelyn was quickly suspecting to be John, despite the way he was easily killing Klingon after Klingon. John or not, his cannon had cleared a large gap between the ship and the building where Kirk and the others were crouched and Madelyn knew she could make it if she went now. They needed to get back to the ship safely, and it looked like she was the only one with a weapon now.
She pulled her phaser from her jacket and turned the setting up so that any blasts that managed to hit their target would actually do damage. As she headed for the ship's door, she heard the crash and subsequent explosion of another warbird biting the dust, but stopped in her tracks before she reached the doorway. One Klingon blocked her path, no doubt guarding the ship to prevent escape, but his back was turned and he hadn't seen her yet.
Madelyn swallowed and muttered to herself once again how ridiculous this day was becoming, then raised her phaser and without hesitation sent three strong blasts into the Klingon's back. He stumbled forward, but somehow managed to withstand the weapon's effects. Wheeling around with an angry growl, he spotted her and raised his multi-pronged weapons until they glinted in the dirty light. Madelyn backed a few feet into the ship and sent another series of blasts into him, imagining the metallic bite those weapons could give her. He continued towards her until he'd stepped inside the ship, but she kept firing, her heart pounding in her chest with each step closer he got. She could see the blue of his eyes inside his mask and suddenly aimed her phaser higher. The blast seared his helmet and he collapsed in the doorway.
Adrenaline coursing through her, Madelyn rushed forward, using all of her strength to push the Klingon's motionless body out of her way so she could get to the others. As she ran from the ship, the man with the phaser cannon shot another sweeping blast that took out five Klingon warriors. Then he dropped the cannon with a heavy thunk and pulled the hood from his face before leaping down some thirty feet from the ledge, taking out another Klingon with his phaser rifle in the process.
John. That was definitely John. Madelyn could barely contain her shock. Despite his hood and the long black coat that obscured the rest of him, she knew his face anywhere. But she'd never seen him like this, easily destroying Klingon after Klingon and wielding weapons twice his size without difficulty. And if he'd come here to hide from the Federation after committing acts of terror, why the hell was he helping them now?
She choked on the air as she got closer to where the others were huddled and covered her mouth to avoid breathing in larger particles, watching shocked as John continued to take out warrior after Klingon warrior with nothing but a dagger, his fists, and some well-placed kicks. She still gripped her phaser in her other hand, which she quickly realized she could use on John if Kirk and the others had lost theirs in the fight.
When she careened to a stop beside them, Kirk pulled her down into the shadows. John threw a dagger into the face of the final Klingon still standing, and then retrieved a rifle from the ground and stormed towards them.
"Stand down," said Spock, raising his rifle.
John advanced on them, ripping off his hood to reveal his dirt-streaked face and tangled, greasy hair. "How many torpedoes?"
Madelyn tightened her fingers around her phaser.
"Stand down!" Spock repeated.
John shot the rifle out of Spock's grip in an explosion of light. "The torpedoes!" he roared. "The weapons you threatened me with in your message! How many are there?"
Changing her mind, Madelyn slid her phaser carefully back into her jacket, but John had seen. He caught her gaze with narrowed eyes, but made no motion to attack. She was terrified he was going to kill them all. His hair half obscured his face, and his keen eyes were wild. He looked primed to explode. And who cared how many torpedoes there were? One would have decimated a hundred square feet of that wasted planet.
"Seventy-two," Spock replied, snagging all of their attentions.
John stared at the Vulcan with widening eyes, as though he'd just received startling news.
Yeah, seventy-two torpedoes is a hell of a lot of weapons to have pointed at you, thought Madelyn. I'd be shocked too.
John looked back at the rest of them, his shocked expression retreating until it was replaced with utter calm, then he threw his rifle to the ground. "I surrender."
After all of that, after bombing London, attacking Starfleet's own headquarters, escaping to Kronos, and then killing every Klingon within fifty miles just to ask how many torpedoes the Enterprise was pointing at him? Madelyn couldn't understand why, but she knew he deserved to have her phaser shoved in his face, or elsewhere. She just didn't have to guts to do it.
Despite her initial fear, she couldn't take her eyes off of him. His hot-blooded demeanor had cooled and now he stood there composed and weaponless, the broad shoulders of his leather coat making him seem even more aggressive. She wasn't even sure this was the same person she'd been with just weeks ago, but when he looked in her direction again, she caught a familiar look in his eye and met his gaze indignantly.
Spock retrieved a rifle from the ground again and aimed it at John, while Kirk slowly rose to his feet, groaning all the while.
"On behalf of Christopher Pike, my friend," Kirk said slowly, "I accept your surrender."
Madelyn swore she saw the beginnings of a smile materialize on John's face, until Kirk whirled around and swung a fist square into his jaw.
She started to react, despite her misgivings, but stopped when she realized John looked barely affected by the blow. He eyed Kirk with indifference, until the captain swung his other fist and connected with the opposite side of his face. John's body followed the momentum, but again he didn't show signs of pain, only disgust.
A third punch made Kirk groan, but John didn't fight back. Madelyn couldn't understand why he hadn't at least started bleeding. Those blows should have knocked out his teeth.
With rising anger, Kirk slammed his fist up into John's gut. The latter stumbled backwards, going with the momentum again, but he didn't lose his breath. He stared at Kirk with an unsettling look, even when Kirk drove his knee up into the exact same spot in his stomach, and then grabbed a fistful of black hair and pummeled his face with bleeding knuckles.
"Captain!" Uhura yelled. They could all see that Kirk's efforts were only causing himself more harm, and yet somehow, after battling dozens of Klingons and failing to be beaten up, John didn't appear to sport a single scratch. It didn't make any sense.
What Madelyn did see was growing anger. John's hands in their fingerless gloves had curled into tight fists and she could tell that he wanted to give Kirk a taste of his own medicine, but he hadn't. He'd surrendered after all, and Kirk never should have attacked him. But why wasn't John hurt?
Gasping with exhaustion, Kirk finally let up and backed off, leaning over with his battered hands on his knees. After a moment he straightened to meet John's eyes, receiving a fascinated look that sent a shiver down Madelyn's spine.
A faint smirk graced John's lips. "Captain…" he murmured, sounding surprised.
Kirk held his stare for what felt like an eternity before finally turning away, looking utterly defeated and as confused as the rest of them. "Cuff him," he rasped, and trudged past them for the ship.
Spock quickly went forward and slammed a set of heavy cuffs around John's wrists, but Madelyn hardly noticed. She was trapped in John's gaze, as though he hadn't noticed she was there until now and was trying to figure out what she was doing there in the first place.
Feeling Uhura's hand on her arm, she turned away and hurried towards the ship before John had a chance to say anything to her. Not that she was expecting he would. Kirk glanced up from the cockpit, but his gaze shifted from her to the people behind her. She quickly settled into her seat and focused on strapping herself in, but paused when a heavy set of boots stopped in front of her, their owner settling into the seat across from her. She gritted her teeth and slowly raised her face until her gaze was even with his.
She wanted to hit him. She wanted to get up in his face and demand to know everything, to know why he had done what he had, but she knew that wouldn't accomplish anything, not if Kirk's attempts had been any indication. She'd never thought John to be some kind of impenetrable war machine, but she'd seen what he was capable of and wasn't about to provoke him, even if he was in cuffs. Besides, when she really considered it, she didn't want to be closer to him than she already was, belted into a seat facing him with their knees just a couple feet apart.
They left the surface of Kronos without incident, but the longer Madelyn looked at John, the more it hurt, and the sicker she felt. He must have thought it was amusing to have her in front of him this whole time, because the corner of his mouth had lifted into a smirk that was making her very uncomfortable. Uhura and Spock sat close by with weapons trained on him, but it made little difference to Madelyn when all John had to do to make her squirm was keep looking at her. The worst part was she knew he wasn't going to say anything to alleviate the tension, not while the others were there. He would probably sit there silently for the two hours it would take them to return to the Enterprise, watching her, eyes flitting over her every time she moved or shifted or did anything.
She wanted to melt into her seat so he couldn't see her. She wanted him to say something, at least to break the silence with a biting remark, and to rid herself of the angry questions flying through her head. Instead, it was all she could do to breathe normally while trapped in his sights.
The only thing she knew for sure now was that he was dangerous, and that as soon as he was put into Federation custody, she never wanted to see him again.
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