Fiction: Star Trek: Darkness Visible, Part 15

Previously on A Mind Occasionally Voyaging…

Khan chuckled at the voice from behind. A series of concentric rings rose from the controller, and he twisted the outer one as he turned. It descended back into the console. The undamaged side of his face twisted into a forced smile. There, at the emergency hatch, was Pike, phaser in hand, alongside the woman from before, his distant scion. “Pike…” he rasped. “Even now, still alive, my old friend.”

Pike was shaken for a moment at the sight of Khan’s ruined features. The burns. Even now, decades later, the childhood fear of burning alive still nibbled at him. “Still,” he managed. “Old friend.” He gestured at the bodies that littered the bridge. “You’ve managed to kill just about everybody else. But you just keep missing the target.”

Khan launched himself at Pike. Despite age and injury, he was incredibly fast. Both Pike and La’an fired their phasers. Pike’s shot clipped Khan’s shoulder; La’an’s caught him square in the chest, but Khan gave no sign of noticing either. He crossed the bridge in three mighty bounds and had his hand on Pike’s phaser before the admiral could get off a second shot. Pike’s phaser crumpled in Khan’s grip and he wrestled Pike to the ground. Pike had been no match for Khan in unarmed combat twenty years ago, and even Khan’s injuries weren’t enough to even the odds.

La’an was reluctant to risk shooting again at close range, especially if she had to set her phaser to kill. The point was rendered moot when Khan surprised her with a back-kick from the ground that knocked the phaser from her hand. She retaliated with a roundhouse of her own, displacing Khan long enough for Pike to get back on his feet.

Khan landed near the middle of the bridge. Rather than immediately return to the fray, he sprang back toward the Genesis controller. He had turned the second ring before Pike and La’an closed the distance to him. “Give it up, Khan,” Pike demanded.

“I am formed free,” Khan spat, “And free I must remain.” Pike doubled over at a blow to his midsection. La’an caught Khan with a strike to the side of his head. Khan toppled sideways. He tried to catch himself on the railing, but his missing fingers make his hands clumsy. He hit the deck hard and rolled to one side just fast enough to avoid La’an’s boot.

He was back on his feet a second later. Khan had been a skilled fighter once, but his body was too badly mangled for anything but brute strength now. La’an was fast and her skills were sharper, but Khan’s size gave him an advantage if he could bring raw power to bear. He anticipated her left hook, twisting around it and delivering an open-handed strike to her chest that sent La’an flying. He twisted the third ring on the control unit.

Despite having the wind knocked out of him, Pike was moving again. He landed a two-fisted blow to Khan’s back, and followed up with the same to his chest when Khan straightened. Pike knew the punches wouldn’t cause Khan any significant pain or injury, but he could at least ruin his balance. Khan backhanded him into the captain’s chair. He grabbed the center cylinder that still protruded from the Genesis controller.

“Hold it right there!” All three of the combatants paused a moment in surprise. Una stood, slightly unsteady, at the bridge’s emergency exit hatch. One side of her head was caked with blood and she was holding a broken pipe like a club.

“Una!” Khan said. “Kill them. Kill them and you will have your freedom.”

“Number one,” Pike said, quietly, pleading.

Una looked from Pike to Khan and back. “I’m sorry Chris,” she said. La’an tensed, ready to jump. Una took one step toward Pike, then quickly sent the pipe spinning from her hand. It caught Khan’s hand with enough force to break bones, forcing him away from the Genesis console.

“I’m sorry, Chris,” Una said again. “I couldn’t do anything sooner.”

Khan howled with pain and stepped toward Una, throwing a clumsy overhand punch that treated his ruined hand like a cudgel. She sidestepped so quickly Pike’s eyes could barely keep up, and Khan punched only air. She countered with an attempt at an uppercut, which Khan interrupted with his elbow.

The two augments fought fiercely. As he had with La’an, Khan tried to use brute force to overwhelm Una’s superior skill. But Una was both faster and stronger than any human. He could see the injury behind her ear and tried to target it, but Una was careful to protect her right side. Khan spun in response to a quick kick to his side. He stumbled, catching himself on a fragment of the ceiling that had been torn free during the battle. He picked it up and swung around fast, hoping to outpace Una’s reflexes.

She jumped backwards, but not far enough. The sharp edge of the metal sliced her leg and she fell. La’an dashed to her side, and Khan backhanded her into the tactical console. La’an gasped sharply and looked down. The jagged end of some debris had pierced her abdomen.

Khan took advantage of the sudden distraction to make for the Genesis console. Pike was caught with indecision for a fraction of a second, but made for Khan. Too late. The cylinder retracted into the device and a digital display started to count down from 280.