Star Trek Into Darkness Page 0,64

he had done. In attempting to save my crew, I had made myself more of a threat than a help. For my friends, as well as for myself, I had no choice but to escape—alone.

“Once that action had been forced upon me, I had every reason to believe Marcus would kill every single one of the people I hold most dear, letting them defrost and shrivel one at a time until or unless I turned myself in—for my own execution.” He had now turned away from the two Starfleet officers, and they could not see the tear that ran down his right cheek. “So I made arrangements to have them moved before Marcus could begin to carry out his program of execution. As a privileged supervisor of Section 31, I had access to resources of my own, you see. The work was done quietly, without Marcus being aware of the move.

“But he found out . . . and had them transferred to your ship. To carry them to Qo’noS so you could fire them at me.” His turned toward them, his expression twisted. “Very neat and tidy, isn’t it? Kill me with my own people. Dispose of all of us in one move. But as I said, I had access to resources of my own.” He leaned forward, so close that his face was almost pressing against the barrier.

“Why do you think I surrendered to you, Kirk? I learned that the ‘special’ torpedoes were on the Enterprise. My intent all along was to be reunited with my crew. I would never have let you fire them at Qo’noS.” He stepped back from the barrier.

“To me, murder premeditated, Captain, is murder committed. I did what I did at Starfleet headquarters because I was responding in kind only to what I perceived to be Marcus’s intentions.” His gaze shifted to focus a moment on Spock before returning to Kirk. “Perhaps my action in attacking your colleagues was not entirely logical, but it arose out of emotion and conviction I could not repress. My crew is my family, Kirk.” Tears now running down his face, he cast an imploring gaze through the barrier.

“Is there anything you would not do for your family?”

Before Kirk could manage a response, Sulu’s voice sounded from the brig speaker.

“Proximity alert, sir. There’s a ship at warp heading right for us. It will intersect our coordinates in—” There was a pause while the helmsman checked readouts. “I don’t have a specific time frame, sir. Soon. A matter of minutes.”

“Klingons?” an anxious Kirk shot back.

It was Khan and not Sulu who responded immediately to the captain’s query. “At warp? Any local ships coming for you would by now have dropped out of warp and would be proceeding on impulse power lest they overshoot your position. No, Kirk.” His tone was almost pitying. “We both know who it is.”

“I don’t think it’s Klingons, sir,” Sulu was saying. “It’s not coming at us from Qo’noS or Praxis or any of the known outlying monitoring stations.”

That clinched it. Turning, Kirk spoke in clipped tones to the brig officer on duty. “Lieutenant, move Khan to sickbay and post six security officers on him. Full time, full rotation, full arms.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Following the captain with his eyes, the first officer of the Enterprise studied Kirk closely as both men exited the brig.

So did the room’s only prisoner.

XII

As he entered the bridge, Kirk was snapping orders even before he reached the command chair.

“Mr. Sulu, do we have an ETA yet on the approaching ship?”

“Three seconds, sir.”

Not much time, Kirk told himself as he sat down in the command chair. Not much time to do anything. Harrison’s—Khan’s—words continued to echo in his head, bumping up against long-held beliefs, knocking loose previously secure assumptions. No time for examining them, either. But “them” might prove critical in whatever was to come.

“Shields,” he crisply ordered.

It slammed out of warp from the depths of the green nebula that had been the most prominent stellar feature ever since the Enterprise had been left drifting.

It dwarfed the Enterprise. Jet black, it was constructed along the general design of a Federation starship . . . but her lines were heavier, her entire appearance from greatly extended nacelles to bow more massive and armored. Weapons blisters were amply in evidence everywhere on the huge vessel. Every part of her had been reinforced, beefed up, and braced. A glance was sufficient to indicate that this was a ship that had been built not for exploration, but for