Fiction: Star Trek: Darkness Visible, Part 11

(Part 12 will be delayed a week to make room for something seasonal. Also, I have one more plot point I want to introduce and I’m hoping a delay will give me time to figure out how to do it.)

Previously on A Mind Occasionally Voyaging…

M’Benga entered the observation deck and dropped into a chair, exhausted. “Commander Ortegas is stable,” he said, directing a pointed look at Kirk and McCoy. “We weren’t fully stocked when we set out and a lot of our equipment was damaged in the battle. Fortunately, Christine happens to be an expert in archaeological medicine. She was able to evacuate the subdural hematoma.”

“Like something out of the dark ages,” McCoy said, wryly, “But it worked.” He shook his head guiltily. “There might be some permanent impairment. We won’t know until we get her back to Starfleet Medical for a full exam.”

Jim Kirk’s attention shifted to the frantic repairs to the warp core below. “It’s bad, Captain,” La’an explained. “Shield control is completely destroyed. One torpedo tube, but the loading mechanism is inoperable. We have partial main power, but damage to the plasma cooling systems means we can only maintain warp for a few seconds at a time.”

“The mind is its own place, and in it self can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven,” Pike said, grimly. “Reliant is still jamming subspace communications. Without it, we have no way to warn Starfleet. With Reliant’s access codes and Una’s expertise, they could make it all the way to Earth. And with Genesis…”

“I should have seen it,” Kirk said, angrily. “I got caught with my britches down. I must be getting senile.”

“Jim, you couldn’t have guessed-” McCoy tried to comfort him.

Kirk pushed him away. “I was brash. I was impulsive. If I’d left Genesis back on Regula…”

“He would’ve found another way,” Pike said. “This isn’t your fault. La’an, you’re the closest thing we have to an expert on Khan.” With a deep sigh, he added, “And on Una. There has to be some way to stop them. We have a little time while they fix their engines, but not much.”

La’an considered this. “Admiral… I’m finding it hard to believe Una would side with Khan. Even after…”

“It would be illogical for Lieutenant Commander Chin-Riley to resist,” Xon said. “Khan would simply dispose of her. She is already a convicted criminal under Federation law; her most rational course of action would be to ally with Khan, at least until an opportunity to escape to neutral space presents itself.”

“I agree with La’an,” Pike said. “Una wouldn’t betray us.”

“She may not have had a choice,” Jim said. “Those parasites Khan used on Terrell and Ortegas.”

“If that’s true, her Ilyrian physiology might give her some limited resistance,” M’Benga said.

Kirk nodded. “Khan might not have known about Reliant’s prefix code, but Commander Chin-Riley would have. She didn’t warn him.”

“So we can’t trust Una, but neither can Khan,” Pike concluded.

“He’s used to inspiring absolute, unwavering loyalty,” La’an said. “Now that she’s proven herself, it won’t occur to him to question her.”

“Which means that if we give her an opening, she might be able to take him by surprise,” Kirk said.

“Khan is brilliant,” La’an said. “But he’s also obsessive. Single-minded. On Earth, he was brought down by a sort of Trojan Horse. There was one particular geneticist, Khan believed he needed him to create new augments. The international coalition used him as bait to draw Khan out.”

“Bait,” Pike said. “Me. He wants me.”

Kirk nodded. “He was close to finding Genesis on Regula, but he dropped it to set a trap for you.”

“So what do we do, stand on a corner and shout ‘Yoo hoo!’?” McCoy asked.

“That’s exactly what we do,” Pike said. “Right now, he doesn’t know where we are. Whatever move he’s planning, he’s hoping to draw us out. Bring us to him. Bring me to him.”

“So we flip the script,” Kirk said. “Bring him to us.”

“We’re sending out invitations to our own funeral, now?” McCoy said with growing incredulity.

“Doctor McCoy is right,” La’an said. “In our present state, we’re no match for Reliant.”

“Maybe there’s a way to even the odds,” Kirk said.

As the others started to file out, Saavik paused. “Captain Kirk,” she said, “May I ask you a question?”

“What’s on your mind, Lieutenant?”

“Sir…” she was reluctant. “Your brother mentioned the Kobayashi Maru.”

Pike also stopped. “Are you asking if we’re playing out that scenario now?”

“Do you mind telling me what you did, sir? I’d like to know.”

La’an and McCoy exchanged a look. She rolled her eyes. It was McCoy who spoke. “Lieutenant, you are looking at the only Starfleet cadet who ever beat the no-win scenario.”

Saavik was confused. “But how?”

Kirk smiled, painfully. It was Pike who spoke. “He cheated.”

“I reprogrammed the parameters of the scenario. Made it possible to rescue the ship,” Kirk admitted.

“The academic tribunal was divided on whether to expel you or give you a commendation for original thinking,” Pike said.

“Six to three,” Kirk said. “It wasn’t that close.”

“Then you never faced that situation, faced death?” Saavik asked.

He looked out the observation window, wryly. He seemed about to say something, but Pike cut him off. “Captain Kirk doesn’t accept the premise of the no-win scenario. Battle stations, Mister Saavik. Jim, walk with me?”

He let the younger captain around the longer route to the secondary companionway. “Sam was a friend,” Pike said. “I won’t pretend it’s the same for me as it was for you.”

“Saavik was right,” Kirk said. “I’ve never faced death. Not like this. I’ve cheated death, talked my way out of it, but I’ve never looked it in the face.”

“This isn’t your fault, Jim,” Pike said. “It’s mine. I hesitated.”

“You didn’t want to assume an attack posture against a Starfleet ship,” Kirk said. “I might have done the same thing myself.”

“Not just now,” Pike said. “I hesitated now, and I hesitated twenty years ago. I knew what my duty was with Khan, but after what happened with Una, I wanted to believe there was a better way. That’s what I do, Jim. I… obsess, over the possibilities. I’m not like you. You don’t hesitate.”

“I did once,” Kirk said. “My first tour, back on Farragut. I… I won’t go into it. But I froze. Just for a second. And people died. Ever since then, I’ve been determined to only regret the things I’ve done, not the things I haven’t.”

“You and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, but I admire your… clarity,” Pike said. “We’re about to go into battle with half a ship against one of the greatest tactical minds of human history. I need a Number One who can back me up, someone I can trust to act in the moment, without hesitation. I need a Number One who doesn’t believe in the no-win scenario.”

Jim stiffened. “Aye aye, Admiral.”