Chapter 5
by Starsinger
You've probably guessed by now, that the beauty I put up as a picture for this story is the Sovereign Class USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E. It survived three movies, after succeeding the Galaxy Class Enterprise that was destroyed in "Generations". "First Contact" btw, is not my favorite Next Gen movie. Mine was "Insurrection". I was told, but that movie was bad. No it wasn't. It was more whimsical than the other three, so was the Voyage Home and no one complained about that one. I love Troi and Riker and their getting back together in that movie was just the icing on the cake. I liked Nemesis too, but it suffered from being "too dark" I think, and Data killing. "Into Darkness" suffers from that one too for Trekkies, too dark, I mean. Data wasn't in this one. Okay, back to the story, Kirk wakes up, and Marcus is court-martialed. Don't own them.
Uhura showed up with a serious look on her face, "Admiral, I'm here to take you to see Captain Kirk. It's time." Chris looked serious momentarily before he nodded his head as she wheeled him out of the room. They were well clear of the room when Pike looked over his shoulder to see a huge smile on her face.
"Was it hard to keep a straight face in there?" Pike asked. "Is Jim awake?"
"You have no idea how hard that was," Uhura said with a chuckle. "No, he's not awake, not yet. McCoy said it will be today."
Pike smiled for the first time in over two weeks. His boy was coming back to him today. Uhura wheeled him into Jim's room and left, she'd be back later. He entered to see McCoy and Spock both hovering. Jim's eyes were still closed. Spock looked down and nodded at Chris in welcome. McCoy smiled at Chris as he waited. His view kept swapping from the vitals screen to Jim's prone form. It was a waiting game, and Chris was good at waiting. Then it happened, Jim took a deep breath and his eyes were open. He glanced around, looking very confused. Two weeks in a coma does that to people. It was a little odd, the only thing he moved. After a few moments of conversation between Kirk, McCoy and Spock, Spock moved aside to make room for Pike. The look of pure and utter joy on Jim's face was priceless.
"Chris…how?"
"Well, thanks to a technique developed by Cadet McCoy, they were able to bring me back," Chris answered. McCoy nodded with a grin of satisfaction. McCoy and Spock left them alone. "Jim, you didn't have to die to prove that you're a good captain."
Kirk sighed, "That's not why I did it, Chris. I did it because they're my family, and we were about to die."
Pike reached out and stroked Jim's hand, "I know. Jim, Marcus is my roommate." Kirk looked away, out a window. "You're going to have to face him sometime."
Kirk sighed, "He's not going to like what I have to say, and I won't hold back. He tried to KILL me and my crew. There is no forgiveness for that. I at least showed compassion to Khan. We didn't even get that."
Pike snorted, "The Klingons are trying to extradite him." Jim's head perked up, "Heard anything about Rura Penthe in your clearly misspent youth?"
Kirk looked sheepishly at Pike, "Yeah, I've actually been there. Really, really cold place, don't recommend it, but then again, I don't recommend being dead either. No, I wasn't a prisoner. The administration there is about as honorable cough as most prison administrations. I was working as an engineer on a freighter, I did mention that I have a Masters Degree in Engineering, right? Anyway, we stopped by Rura Penthe for a swap. I worked on their Environmental Systems, keeping people somewhat warm, while they gave us some high value dilithium crystals. Got some good credits out of that one. Not only did I get my share of the money from that cargo, I got some gold pressed latinum on top of that. The Klingons were VERY grateful."
They were soon joined by the rest of Kirk's crew. They crowded around the bed and laughed and cried. This lasted until Kirk fell asleep. A perfectly normal thing for someone who was recovering from dying, McCoy told them. Marcus looked up to see Pike reentering their room with a huge grin on his face, "So? How is he?"
"He's awake," Pike replied. "He'll talk to you, but you're not going to like it, Alex." Marcus nodded. Two days later Alexander Marcus was court martialed, and stripped of his rank.
"We'll wait until you're discharged from the hospital to convene a formal trial, Marcus, but understand this, get a lawyer now. It's not in our hands to determine the Klingon's claim on you," Admiral Johnson told him. Unfortunately, tomorrow would be the toughest yet, tomorrow, he would face the man he had tried to kill.