deceased tissue of a necrotic host. You wanted me to figure out what makes the sunuvabitch tick? I’m figuring.”
Kirk turned back to Khan. “So—are you coming with me or do I have to try and do this alone?”
After what seemed like several lifetimes, but in reality was only a moment, Khan’s expression changed from taunting to thoughtful.
The security team Kirk speedily convened was comprised of the best the Enterprise could offer. Armed and ready, they quickly followed the captain and his strangely silent companion down the corridor while Uhura was busily trying to reconnect with the ship’s absent chief engineer. The security team’s presence was to ensure that Khan, now free of the confines of the ship’s brig, did not attempt to veer off on some impromptu venture of his own. If that was his intent, Kirk mused as he studied the man striding along beside him, the prisoner was concealing it well.
On board the ebony warship, Montgomery Scott kept constantly on the move as he strove to evade what had become a remorseless pursuit. Only the vast size of the ship, coupled with the fact that Marcus had crewed it with the absolute minimum of personnel, allowed him to avoid capture. And even though it was of a new and advanced design, much was still familiar to him. There were, after all, only so many ways to lay in service corridors for the engines, only so many options for placing life-support systems. Despite several near encounters with his pursuers, Scott managed to stay several steps ahead of them. On more than one occasion, he had activated an empty survival suit or its support framework, fooling ship security’s sensory detection apparatus into making it appear he was on a deck he had only recently vacated.
Listening intently for any sign that those on his trail might be drawing close again, his nerves more than a little on edge, Scott nearly jumped out of his boots as his communicator beeped for attention. Flipping it open, he all but hissed into the pickup.
“Oi, Captain . . . give a man some warning!”
“Sorry, Scotty. I take it you’re still free to cause trouble?” Kirk asked him.
The chief glanced over a shoulder. The corridor behind him was still deserted—though for how much longer, he had no way of knowing.
“Doin’ me best, sir—and still waitin’ to be beamed off this galla.”
“There’s still going to be a delay in that, Scotty. We don’t have adequate power to the transporter room yet. Maybe not for some time. So we’re planning an alternative. We’re coming over there.”
The chief’s eyes grew wide. “Excuse me, sir. Must be some problem with the communications link. I dinna think I heard you clearly. You wanna do what? ”
“We’re coming over there,” Kirk repeated into the communicator, “even though we’re going to have to do it without the use of the transporter. All the Enterprise has left that’s still functioning are the independently powered maneuvering thrusters. Not enough push to get us to the moon, much less Earth. But enough to fine-tune ship position inside a spacedock—or move us closer to where you are. Sulu’s shifting the Enterprise into position even as we speak.”
“To this ship?” The incredulity in the chief’s voice came over clearly via the communicator. “How?”
Kirk looked over at Khan. The prisoner spoke without hesitation. “There’s a cargo door: hangar seven, access port 101A. This hangar is equipped with an internal manual override system. You need to locate the manual override to open the airlock.”
Audible via the communicator’s speaker, the chief’s response was thick with suspicion. “And who is this I’m supposed to be taking orders from? Are you crazy?”
Quickening his pace toward the shuttle bay, Kirk fought to contain his anticipation. “Take my word for it, Scotty: Just listen to him. It’s gonna be all right.”
“Oh, I’m listenin’, Captain,” came the engineer’s reply. “You bet your mas I’m listenin’. Let me see if I heard this straight: You wanna shoot out of the Enterprise’s garbage chute, then I’m supposed to open an airlock—to space—whereupon I dinna know what happens to you because before you get inside I freeze and die and explode!”
Instead of disputing the chief’s breakdown of their intentions, Khan replied in a reasonable but firm manner. “And yet it will be your captain and myself who are speeding towards you at four hundred meters a second. If you don’t find and activate that manual override, it is we who will smash into the outer hull like insects on