Category: Writing

Previously on A Mind Occasionally Voyaging…

Jim got to main engineering ahead of Pike, in time to hold him back from rushing the safety door. “You’ll flood the whole compartment!” warned the chief.

“Una?” he asked.

McCoy shook his head. “I’m a doctor, not a fortune teller. That much radiation, I just don’t know. If she were human, she’d be dead five times over already.”

Pike leaned on the transparent partition. “Una!” he called out again.

She stirred, her head turning broadly toward the sound of his voice. She clumsily pulled herself to her feet, pressing her whole forearm to the console rather than grabbing it with her fingers. She wobbled, then collected herself. She tugged at her prison uniform, straightening it as best she could, though again, she used her arms rather than her fingers. Una stumbled toward the transparent wall, and as she approached, Pike could see her eyes were unfocused. He had to force himself not to look away from the burns that marred her face.

She misjudged the distance slightly and walked into the barrier that separated them. Her cheek left a wet mark where it touched the wall. She put a hand up to steady herself. It too streaked the surface. Her fingers splayed limply: she had no fine motor control left, and her skin was raw and weeping. She rested her forehead against the wall and tried to turn her eyes to where she imagined Pike’s would be. He moved to meet her vacant gaze.

“Ship?” she asked, in a raspy voice. “Out of danger?”

“Yes,” Pike said. He placed his hand to match hers.

“And La’an?”

“Recovering,” Pike said.

Una nodded. Or perhaps just wobbled. She let herself slide down the wall into a crouch. Pike followed her movements.

“All right then,” she said. “Took you long enough to come get me.”

“I’m sorry. I should have tried harder.”

“You had your mission.”

“You should’ve been my mission,” Pike said.

“Chris…” Una said, “I’m scared.”

“I’m here, Number One,” he said.

“It’s time.”

Pike looked over his shoulder. “Vent the chamber,” he said. “The second he can get a lock, have Chief Kyle beam her directly to sickbay. Tell M’Benga to prep for radiation and decompression sickness.”

Both McCoy and the chief engineer started to protest, but Jim Kirk reacted without hesitation, putting in the call to the transporter room even as he disabled the safety interlock that protested at the command to purge the irradiated atmosphere while the engine core was occupied.

Una managed to get back on her feet. Her hair flew wildly around her, blown by the rush of air as the room depressurized. Her exposed skin began to glow bright red. “I’ll be damned,” McCoy muttered. “Ilyrian healing trance. Never thought I’d live to see the day.”

“Bones, will it work?” Kirk asked.

“I’m just an old country doctor,” he said. “This? This is more like magic. I don’t know.”

“I’ve got a lock,” came the voice of the transporter chief. “Energizing.” The red glow began to fade, replaced by the blue one of transport.

Kirk helped Pike back to his feet. “My God, Jim,” he said, “So many people. Reliant. Regula. Sallius. Erica. Una. Sam. What have I done?”

Kirk thought for a second. “What you always do,” he finally said. “What you had to do. You faced the no-win scenario and saved as many people as you could.”

Pike turned away. “Not enough,” he said. “Never enough.”

---

Admiral Pike stood at the end of the loading railway as the mechanical arm lowered the mark 6 torpedo casing onto the track. To his right, Sulu lifted the Federation flag from the casket and stepped away. McCoy put a hand on Jim Kirk’s shoulder. To Pike’s left, Christine Chapel held Uhura’s hand supportively. Even Saavik struggled with her composure.

“We are assembled here today,” Pike started, “To pay respects to our honored dead. When you are a Starfleet Captain, you believe in service. In sacrifice. In compassion. And in love. We stand here today because of the sacrifice of so many people. They did not believe the sacrifice a vain or empty one, and we will not dishonor them by questioning it.”

He stepped aside and allowed Kirk to move forward. “George Samuel Kirk Junior never sought his own command. He was a scientist. I know he would be honored to be laid to rest on a strange, new world, one his sacrifice helped to create and nourish. Of my brother, I can say only this: few among us have been called to give so much, or to face so much pain. And if anything awaits us in that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns, I hope you find peace, Sam.” He placed his hand on the casket. “Give my love to Aurelan and the boys.”

Sulu called the honor guard to attention. A dirge played on bagpipes as the casing moved slowly down the rails into the torpedo launcher, where Enterprise fired it in a pale red arc to the Genesis planet below.

 

Previously, on A Mind Occasionally Voyaging…

On the bridge, Kirk looked to Saavik. “Time?”

“Three minutes, thirty seconds,” she said.

“Distance from the epicenter?”

Sulu answered, “Four hundred kilometers.” He paused, and asked, “We’re not going to make it, are we?”

Kirk looked to his son. David shook his head.

“Captain,” Xon said with surprise, “Main power is nominal.”

“I’m stealing your engineer,” Kirk said. “Go, Sulu!”

The Enterprise shot from the nebula just seconds before the nebula ceased to exist, contracting in the face of the Genesis wave. The diffuse cloud of ionized gasses imploded, millions of years of stellar evolution compressed into a few seconds. Where the nebula had been, a rocky planet remained, glowing red-hot with the energy of its accelerated creation.

“Status on Reliant?” Kirk demanded.

“I have them, sir,” Saavik said. “The ship is starting to break up.”

“Sulu, get us into transporter range.”

“I’m not sure I can, sir,” Sulu said. “They’ve got a big head-start and we’re still limited to low warp.”

Damn. He turned to Uhura. “Is Reliant still jamming our transmissions?”

“Intermittently,” Uhura said. “I’m still having trouble getting through.”

“Open a channel on band sigma three,” Kirk said.

“Sir? That’s an obsolete smuggler frequency. No one’s used it in decades.”

“I’m hoping Khan wouldn’t bother jamming it,” Kirk said. “And I know someone who might be listening, if we’re lucky.”

“Channel open,” Uhura said, then, surprised, “I’m receiving a hail.”

She put it on speaker. A thickly accented voice said, “This is USS Reno. Is that you, keptin?”

Kirk smiled. “About time we caught a break. Reno, the Reliant has been hijacked. Can you assist?”

“Keptin, we are conducting engine calibrations, but have negative tactical capability.”

“That’s okay. They’re not going to put up a fight. They’re about to break up, but Admiral Pike is aboard. We’re too slow to make the rescue. Think you could test those new engine upgrades?”

“Understood, we have your location and are preparing to attempt transwarp.”

---

Khan punched Pike in the jaw. A few minutes ago, the punch would’ve easily broken it, but Khan was far past running on fumes. It was still enough to make Pike see stars. He shoved Khan away.

“The unconquerable will!” Khan screamed. “Study of revenge, immortal hate!” He threw another punch, but Pike blocked it and countered with a body-blow. “Courage never to submit or yield-”

An uppercut silenced him for a moment. “Khan!” Pike roared, “It’s over. Look around you! Everyone’s dead and this ship is about to explode.”

“Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep!” Khan yelled and jumped toward Pike again. “Farewell hope! Farewell fear! Farewell remorse! All good to me is lost, evil be thou my good.”

Pike braced himself against the railing and kicked with both feet as Khan came for him. “I,” he yelled as the kick connected, “Have had!” he kicked again, “Enough!” One more kick. “Of you!” One last kick sent Khan spinning into a pile of debris.

Pike wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. Things inside him were broken, he could feel it; he would need medical attention soon. But he could still walk for the moment. He staggered toward the helm. Reliant was tearing herself apart. Before he could shut down the engines, Khan was back on his feet, he swung a piece of wreckage, but not at Pike; it hit the helm controls, smashing the interface.

Pike gave a quick look around the bridge. The devastation was severe. There wasn’t an intact console left that could issue the shutdown command, and he doubted he had time to reach auxiliary command.

“Grim death,” Khan said, wryly. He fell to the floor, at last too spent to continue the fight. “My son and foe. We die together, Christopher. As it must be.”

Pike looked to the viewscreen. He wasn’t even sure if Enterprise had survived. How much had this cost him, how many more deaths on his head?

Then he felt it. He turned back to meet Khan’s widening eyes. “Not, I think, today,” Pike said. “Enjoy your reign in hell.”

---

Kirk watched helplessly as Reliant’s saucer began to shear apart in the unstable warp field. Enterprise was closing the distance, but not fast enough. Then, suddenly, from out of nowhere, a modified Sombra-class ship appeared ahead of them. It traced out a hyperbolic arc toward Reliant. Just as the three ships reached syzygy, Reliant exploded. The Reno was sent spinning from the force of the explosion, and even Enterprise, farther out, was shaken. “Pavel!” Kirk shouted.

“I got him!” came the response from the Reno. “I got him! Keptin, Admiral Pike is aboard. We are ready to beam him over to you.”

Kirk slumped into the captain’s chair and sighed. “Mister Saavik, stand down red alert. And-”

There was another chirp from the intercom. Bones. “Jim, if Admiral Pike’s back aboard, you need to get him down to main engineering. Now.”

Previously on A Mind Occasionally Voyaging…

Aboard the Enterprise, the Genesis torpedo began to glow. A fine mist issued from it as it pulsed with internal energy. On the bridge, Xon announced, “Captain Kirk, I am detecting an unusual energy pattern. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before.”

“From Reliant?” Kirk asked.

“Negative. From us, sir. Deck seven.”

The intercom beeped. “Bridge? This is Chief Kyle. Something weird is happening with the device Admiral Pike had beamed aboard.”

David Marcus had joined them on the bridge as Pike was leaving. He looked at Xon’s console. “That’s the Genesis wave,” he said. “It’s on a build-up to detonation.”

“How soon?” Kirk asked.

“We encoded four minutes.”

“How do we stop it?”

“You can’t.”

“Can we beam it into space? Blow it up?”

David shook his head. “Transporters won’t be able to get a lock now that it’s active. If you damage the casing, it will just release the wave immediately.”

“Transporter room,” Kirk shouted, “Get that thing to the nearest airlock. Engineering, I need warp power in three minutes or we’re all dead.” He pointed to Uhura. “Raise the admiral.”

“Channel open, sir.”

“Chris, Khan activated Genesis. We have less than four minutes.”

Kirk was surprised when a voice he didn’t recognize responded. “This is Una,” she said. “We have a medical emergency. Get us out of here.”

Seconds later, Una and La’an materialized in Enterprise’s main transporter room.

“Number one?” Kyle said, surprised.

“I’ll explain later,” Una said, carrying La’an from the pad. “Where’s Chris?”

“I only have partial power,” Kyle said. “It will take me a second to get a lock.”

M’Benga appeared at the door. “Una?” he said. “You’re hurt.”

“Later!” she repeated, shifting La’an into his arms. She turned and noticed the Genesis torpedo, now glowing brightly. Two cadets were struggling to lift it.

“You need to get that thing off the ship, now,” Una said. “Here.” She pushed the cadets aside and hoisted the heavy device onto her shoulders. The strain of carrying it made her head wound start bleeding again. She couldn’t manage a full sprint with such a heavy load, but she carried it as fast as she could to the emergency hatch. She dropped it, retreated past the next emergency bulkhead, and slammed her hand into the controls. Heavy doors sealed on either side of the section of corridor in front of the hatch before it blew off into space, the Genesis device carried with it out of the ship.

She pushed the intercom button. “Bridge,” she said, “Genesis is off the ship. Get us out of here.”

Una didn’t recognize the voice of Jim Kirk when he responded, “We still don’t have warp power.” Una pressed her hand behind her ear to check if she’d stopped bleeding and looked down the corridor in the direction of the turbolift.

---

Khan’s strength was flagging. His augmented body had limits, and he had blown far past them. Pike got in a lucky punch that spun him. He fell onto the helm console. Pike took the moment’s respite to draw his communicator. “Enterprise, security to the transporter room. Lock on my signal. Two to beam up.”

“Just a few more seconds, Admiral,” came Chief Kyle’s voice.

Pike prepared to grab onto Khan. If they managed to survive this, outrun the Genesis wave, he was determined to make him stand trial for Salius and Regula.

“Which way shall I fly, infinite wrath and infinite despair,” Khan rasped. “Which way I fly is Hell, myself am hell.”

Then Pike saw the display. “Main power nominal.” Khan smacked his hand into the controls clumsily. They both fell to the deck as Reliant threatened to shake itself apart when its remaining nacelle lit, just barely formed an unstable warp field, and flung the ship superluminal.

---

“I just lost transporter lock,” Kyle’s voice rattled.

“They will not be able to maintain warp for long,” Xon observed. “I estimate the ship will suffer catastrophic hull failure within six minutes.”

“That’s two minutes longer than we have,” Kirk said. “Sulu, back us away, best speed possible. Engineering, where the hell’s that power?”

Below, Una didn’t have time for a radiation suit, but she took the gloves from an incapacitated cadet. Doctor McCoy grabbed her shoulder as she approached the radiation door before the warp core.

“You out of your mind?” he protested. “No human can tolerate the radiation that’s in there.”

Una gave him a withering look. “Starfleet has been very clear that I am not human,” she said.

“You’re not going in there,” McCoy maintained.

She looked at the chief, slumped in a chair. “Maybe not,” she said. “This is the chief? Can you bring him ’round?”

McCoy turned away to look at him. “Well I don’t think that he-”

She sucker-punched him as he turned back, then caught him as he fell. She gently lowered him to the deck, then returned to the radiation door. The chief revived just as the door sealed behind her. “Who the hell are you?” he shouted through the transparent partition. “Get out of there!”

It was hot as hell in the central compartment of the engine, and the radiation burned. Una heard the engineer’s muffled pleas and obscenities through the partition as she heaved the cover off the focusing chamber. A column of bright white light shot from the open core, and Una felt hotter still as her body desperately tried to repair the damage she was doing to it.

She stared into the column of incandescent gasses. The last thing she saw, before she saw nothing at all, was the dilithium matrix. The problem was straightforward enough. The heat had deformed the tritanium mounts that held the crystals in alignment. She’d helped Khan compromise the cooling system; she was responsible for the damage. The normal fix would be to shut down the engine, vent the radiation, let the entire system cool down, remove the mountings and replace them or machine them back into their original shape. It would take hours, if not days. They had about ninety seconds. She had to take her gloves off. She reached blindly into the column of gasses, found the dilithium crystals by feel. Her hands were starting to go numb. She pushed hard, visualizing the angle of the crystals as she bent the metal. Blind, and rapidly losing her sense of touch as well, she had to rely on dead reckoning to line the crystals up. When she found the spot, the plasma stream reignited, pushing her backward.

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.

Previously on A Mind Occasionally Voyaging

No one was there to challenge Pike and La’an as they materialized in Reliant’s transporter room. La’an checked her tricorder while Pike covered the door with his phaser.

“Energy fluctuations all over the ship, Admiral,” she said. “It’s making it difficult to isolate life signs.”

Pike looked at the other transporter pad. “This is Genesis,” he said, indicating the torpedo. They both moved to the transporter controls.

“Pike to Enterprise,” he said into his communicator. “We’ve located the Genesis warhead. Beaming it over now.” The device vanished in blue energy.

“We still need the control unit,” La’an said. “Without it, it’s not much more than a very extravagant bomb.”

“Can you locate it?”

She shook her head. “The sensor signature Doctor Marcus gave us is too faint to locate from here, but I think we have to assume Khan would have taken it to the bridge.”

“Let’s get up there,” Pike said.

---

Una shook herself back to consciousness. The railing on the gantry past the warp core was deformed where she had grabbed it to prevent herself from being thrown. Her left arm didn’t want to move. Dislocated. She reached across her chest and popped the joint back in.

She checked the control panel. Someone had started to redirect power back to weapons before the last salvo. Just redirecting again wasn’t going to be enough, and openly defying Khan at this point was still dangerous. There was only one thing she could think of. She initiated a hot restart of the warp core. She had bypassed the main energizer enough to restore power flow, so the engines would start up, even though the ship was by now damaged badly enough that it wouldn’t be able to maintain a stable warp field for long. But the restart sequence would siphon off almost all available power for about six minutes; it wouldn’t be possible to charge the phasers until then.

The two augments on the deck below hadn’t been fast enough when she ship had pitched. It was possible they were still alive, but what mattered was that they were unconscious.

She grabbed the medical kit and set the hypospray for the most powerful painkiller it contained. The pain of relocating her shoulder was nothing compared to what would come next. The tricorder was no help; whatever the parasite was made of, it didn’t register on scans. Una set aside the laser scalpel in favor of a crude metal one; she would need tactile feedback for this.

She closed her eyes and concentrated on her body, her sense of self. She had been suppressing her body’s natural self-healing. It wasn’t equipped to handle a parasite capable of complex responses to external stimuli. She allowed her immune system to work its magic now, and as she had predicted, the creature inside her thrashed in response. The world went blurry and even with the painkillers, Una had to fight the urge to retch. As she knew it would, the creature moved under her skin. She visualized the web of nerves and blood vessels in her skull. Picked the safest place. Imagined the shape of the Ceti Eel, and saw a straight line path to where its head would be that avoided the posterior auricular vein. She couldn’t quite keep her hand steady, but it would have to be enough. She stabbed upward, just behind the ear.

Something went away inside her, a cluster of neurons crushed by the death-throes of the creature. She couldn’t even remember what it was she had lost. But the pain eased. She fumbled for the autosuture. She lacked the medical skill to close the wound properly, much less while working blind, disoriented, suffering from brain trauma and heavily dosed on painkillers, but she hoped her concentration would last long enough to staunch the bleeding.

---

“Awake!” Khan told himself. “Arise or be forever fallen.” Half his face had burned to the console. He pulled himself up with a shaking hand. His left hand, the hand that had been his “good” one, had been burned as well. Two fingers had been blown off in the explosion.

A voice issued from the tannoy. “Enterprise to Reliant. You are ordered to surrender your vessel, respond.” Khan dimly recognized the voice from all those years ago. The Kenyan woman, Uhura. He recalled her as a strong and noble woman, and the tiniest part of him was surprised she would still be in a subservient position beside Pike so many years later. But he had little time for such reflections. Only his enhanced physiology had kept him from succumbing to shock, and even that would not protect him forever.

“No, Pike,” he said, wryly. “The game’s not over.” He limped to the side of the bridge, where the Genesis control unit stood, and pressed the button on its side that caused it to unfold.

“It is over, Khan. Move away from the controller.”

So, I had this idea of a different climax, but I couldn’t get over the fact that in the canon, Enterprise needs to Warp Speed it out of there to avoid the genesis wave, and I felt like that precluded an alternate version where Reliant is destroyed over an inhabited planet. Oh well. Still got a few twists ahead before the disproportionately long epilogue.

Previously on A Mind Occasionally Voyaging…

“Engineering, report!” Pike shouted.

“Admiral,” came a panting reply, “I’ve got to take the mains off-line. The radiation…”

Kirk and McCoy exchanged a look as the voice trailed off. Kirk looked to Pike for confirmation. The admiral gave a quick nod. “Go,” Kirk said. McCoy grabbed his medical bag and headed for the lift.

“Where the hell are they?” Pike asked. “Xon?”

“Sporadic energy readings portside, aft,” Xon said. “Could be an impulse turn?”

“What do you think, Jim?” Pike said. “He’ll be back, but from where?”

Jim studied the static on the screen. “Without sensors, he’ll be relying on his tactical expertise. From what I’ve heard, he’s an absolutely brilliant tactician, so what’s the smartest thing for him to do?”

La’an turned her seat to face them. “Expertise,” she said, realizing something. “But not experience. He’s studied the theory, but he’s still working from a twentieth-century mindset.” She turned back to her console and replaced the static-filled view of the nebula on the main viewscreen with a map, centered on the Enterprise. A blue line traced its path, while a red one connected the places where they’d seen Reliant. Touching a few more buttons, La’an had the computer guess more points along the path.

“A fractal search pattern based on multimodal reflection sorting,” Xon observed. He raised an eyebrow. “The ideal approach to maximize the probability of finding us before we find him. Calculating the optimal search pattern without sensor assistance would be impossible for a normal human.”

“But there’s a flaw in his logic,” La’an said. “He’s brilliant, but not experienced.” She touched her control panel and the image rotated, showing that Reliant’s path formed a flat disc.

“Two-dimensional thinking,” Kirk realized.

Pike nodded. “My flight school instructor always used to say you can only look in one direction at a time, but the rest of them are still there. He meant that you needed to rely on your instruments, but here… Sulu, full stop. Z-minus ten thousand meters. La’an, stand by photon torpedoes.”

The Enterprise dropped down into the clouds. “Xon, can you predict his search path?”

Xon raised an eyebrow. “Admiral,” he said, tentatively, “I regret to report that an accurate calculation based on the available data is beyond my capability.”

“Best guess. Switch main viewscreen to dorsail camera. Look sharp.”

On Reliant, Khan silently studied the viewscreen. There were plenty of places for Enterprise to hide, but as he ordered the ship to yaw to starboard, he imagined his field of vision on the viewscreen as a searchlight, sweeping out an arc on his mental map of the nebula. They would complete this pass, turn, and pass again, fencing Pike in. “So much nearer the danger; go and speed,” he reflected. “Havoc and spoil and ruin are my gain.”

It felt like an eternity before the underside of the Reliant flickered on the viewscreen. Pike gave a quick nod to Sulu. The Enterprise rose up through the nebula. The bridge fell into a tense silence as the Enterprise silently pulled up behind Reliant. “Fire,” Pike ordered.

A red ball issued from Enterprise’s remaining torpedo tube. Reliant wouldn’t have had time to react even if had seen Enterprise approach. The torpedo tore through Reliant’s own torpedo launcher, and the pylon supporting it away from the hull crumpled. Enterprise followed on with a burst of phaser-fire to the port nacelle, striking up internal explosions.

The bridge around Khan became an inferno. More supports collapsed, sparking wires dropped in piles as consoles burned. He pushed a body out of the helmsman’s seat and tried to fire phasers. Reliant was dying, but surely he could take Pike to Hell with him. Nothing happened. “Weapons!” he demanded, but as his gaze swept across the bridge, it became clear he was the only one left standing. “Una!” he barked into his communicator, “Weapons!”

“I’ve diverted all weapons power to life support,” crackled the response. “The game’s over, Khan; you’ve still got a handful of people here you can save.”

“No!” Khan shouted. “Rather than be less, I care not to be at- he was cut off when one final torpedo took the port nacelle clean off. The ship listed hard and Khan fell into the fire of an exploding panel.

---

“One more shot will finish them,” Kirk said.

“We still have our orders,” Pike said. He locked eyes with La’an, looking for… Permission?

“And Una, sir?” she asked.

Instead of answering directly, he turned. “Nyota, send to commander, Reliant. Prepare to be boarded.”

“I’ll go,” Kirk said. “I lost Genesis, I’ll get it back. For Sam.”

Pike stood, just a bit shaky. “No, Jim. This is my mess. I should have stopped Khan twenty years ago. If things go south, get my ship out of here.”

La’an stood. “I’m going with you, Admiral. Frankly, you’re no match for Khan on your own.”

Pike considered it for a second. “No heroics. We’re there to recover Genesis and any survivors willing to be taken into custody. He stepped aside, looked to Kirk and indicated the Captain’s seat. “You have the conn.”

 

Previously, on A Mind Occasionally Voyaging…

Kirk indicated the maelstrom on the screen as he and Pike stepped from the turbolift. “Mutara nebula,” he explained. “Gave us a rough ride on the way here.”

“High energy static discharge,” Saavik explained. “Sensors won’t work, shields will be useless.”

“A fair fight,” Pike said.

“A fair fight with Khan,” La’an said. “Still long odds.”

“Mister Xon, Any sign of Reliant?” Pike asked.

“Sensor range remains limited,” Xon said. “I can not fix their location, but the lack of a warp signature suggests they have not yet restored engines.”

“Mister Sulu, set course into the nebula. Nyota, give me an open channel.”

“Aye sir. You’re on.”

Pike stepped to the center of the bridge, but didn’t take his seat. “Khan, this is Pike. I’m still willing to negotiate. I have warp, you don’t. If you try to run, Starfleet will hunt you to the end of the galaxy. I tried to give you a chance, twenty years ago. I’m willing to do it again. This doesn’t have to end in bloodshed. Hand over Genesis, and I’ll report that Reliant was destroyed. No one will come looking for you. You have my word.” Pike signaled for Uhura to close the channel.

Kirk gave Pike a concerned look. “If he agrees, do you really plan to let him go?”

Pike gestured Kirk closer so they could speak privately. “We have priority orders from Starfleet to recover Genesis,” he said. Slowly, pointedly, he said, “Regardless of Khan’s response, the ship’s log will reflect that we made every reasonable attempt to carry out those orders.”

They both looked to Saavik. “By the book,” Kirk said, wryly.

---

Una measured every syllable of Pike’s message. What game was he playing?

“Triangulate that signal,” Khan demanded. “Find them.”

“My lord,” Joachim protested. “We will have warp in an hour. We could be at Earth in two.”

Khan scoffed. “Princes, potentates, warriors, the flower of heaven once yours, now lost… Have you chosen this place after the toil of battle to repose, to slumber here as in the vales of heaven? I want him found.” He looked to Una. “A ruse, of course,” he said. “But what kind?”

“Pike will abide by his word,” Una said, cautiously. “But, of course, he knows you can’t accept his terms. He wants you to think help is on the way. He’s hoping you’ll run, give him time to escape.”

“We have him, lord,” Joachim said. The screen showed the Enterprise limping toward the nebula. “Their warp signature is intermittent.”

“There he is,” Khan sighed with satisfaction. “More wounded than we were led to believe. Accursed, and in a cursed hour he hies.”

“If he puts the nebula between us and them, we will not be able to jam their subspace transmissions,” Joachim explained.

“Close to firing range and explain our displeasure,” Khan ordered.

Moments later, a pair of bright phaser bursts narrowly missed the Enterprise’s port nacelle pylon. The larger ship continued unimpeded.

“Why are we slowing?” Khan demanded.

“We can’t follow them into the nebula, my lord. Shields will be useless there.”

Pike’s voice crackled on the open channel. “This is Admiral Pike. What’s the matter, Khan? We’ve come this far. Khan… I’m laughing at the superior intellect.”

“Full impulse power!” Khan demanded.

“No, sir,” Joachim said, desperately, “You have Genesis. You can have anything you-”

He stopped short as Khan grabbed and shook the younger man. “Full power! Damn you!” he shoved him aside and touched the engine controls himself.

---

“I’ll say this for him, he’s consistent,” Kirk observed as the Reilant surged forward. “Now entering the Mutara nebula.” A tremor struck the Enterprise bridge and the lights went out.

“Emergency lights,” Pike ordered. Red light bathed the bridge. “La’an, best guess; fire when ready.”

---

“Tactical?” Khan asked.

“Inoperative,” Joachim answered.

“Raise shields.”

“As I feared, sir, non-functional. I’m reducing speed.”

Khan started to say something, but held back. He turned to Una. “How long until we have warp power?”

“Still a while,” she said. “You just don’t have enough people for all the work.”

A pair of phaser bolts appeared through the flickering static on Reliant’s viewscreen. They has missed the ship from behind, but the ionization of nebular matter nearby still sent a tremble through the ship.

“Aft torpedoes, fire!” Khan shouted. The torpedo disappeared into the clouds.

---

Reliant again vanished into cloud and static. “Hold course,” Pike ordered. “He’s close.” The bridge fell into an uneasy silence as they squinted at the screen. Kirk moved to Xon’s side, studying the mostly-indecipherable noise on the sensor display. La’an checked the phaser banks. “Sir!” Sulu exclaimed, indicating the screen. Reliant appeared through a break in the static, heading straight toward them.

“Evasive to starboard!” Pike ordered. “Fire!” The Enterprise rolled counterclockwise fast enough that the bridge crew swayed from centripetal motion. A salvo of phaser-fire tore through the side of the port torpedo launcher. Enterprise fired back, a series of red bolts from the underside of the saucer. Two caught the starboard edge of Reliant’s bridge dome.

An explosion blew out the turbolift doors. Even Khan was knocked from his feet. His navigator was thrown over the console and Joachim tumbled over the railing toward the captain’s chair. Khan saw the structural support break free, but he was too far away. It hit the deck, then toppled to the side, on top of Joachim. Khan lifted the heavy metal fragment and tossed it aside. “Joachim?” he asked. The younger man’s shirt was quickly soaking through where the sharp edge had pierced him.

“Yours…” Joachim managed, “Is superior.” His eyes went wide.

Khan shook him gently, then cradled him in his arms. “I shall avenge you,” he promised, then rose to his feet. He pointed an angry finger at Una, who had just managed to get back to her fee. “You! To engineering. I want main power, now!”

Her voice remained calm. “As you wish, my lord.” She headed for the emergency hatch, calculating how many things Khan was likely to keep track of at once under the circumstances. On her way by, she pulled the first aid kit off the wall. He didn’t notice.

(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.”

Previously on A Mind Occasionally Voyaging…

 

It had, in fact, been years since Jim Kirk had taken hands-on approach to computer hacking. He struggled to lock out command protocols, but he couldn’t do it indefinitely. To his left, Ortegas swayed as she tried to line Galileo up with Enterprise’s hangar bay doors. They parted with painful slowness. “They’re kicking me out,” Kirk said. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep their phasers down.”

“Just a second,” Ortegas said. There was no procedure for what they were trying, and she’d had to disable all the computer-assisted navigation, which would only force them out of such a suicidal maneuver. She could only see out of one eye, her heart felt like it was going to tear itself out of her chest, and the pain in her head made her hands shake. She visualized the shape of the shuttlecraft, imagining it between the hangar bay doors, saw the path from their current position to the Enterprise. Too soon, and the shuttle would tear itself in half on the doors. One more second. “Now.” She tapped the thruster controls. Galileo jumped forward.

She was just a fraction too low. The shuttle’s nacelles sheared off against the leading edge of the runway, but the body of the shuttle skidded narrowly between the doors. The bay’s automatic landing controls tried and failed to control what had become an unguided missile that tore up the deck plates. The tractor beam failed, then the safety force field. Explosive bolts deployed a dense nanofiber webbing across the middle of the bay, the last defense before the heavy tritanium bulkhead that would smash a crashing shuttle to pieces to protect the Enterprise’s interior. The webbing pulled taught, stretched to its limit, but held. The remains of the shuttle listed to one side as it slid to a halt just feet shy of the bulkhead.

“Galileo is aboard,” Sulu reported.

“Finally,” Pike sighed.

“Reliant locking phasers,” La’an shouted.

“Engineering, main power now!” Pike demanded. “Sulu, hit it!”

A phaser beam lashed out from Reliant, but met only empty space as the Enterprise jumped to warp.

The battered ship dropped out of warp only a few seconds later, but it was long enough to take them out of Reliant’s compromised sensor range. Pike left La’an in command and jogged to the hangar bay.

By the time he got there, it had repressurized. McCoy and M’Benga were carrying Ortegas from the crashed shuttle. “Erica?” Pike asked, surprised.

One eye flicked open, briefly. “Give the word, Admiral,” she rasped.

He put his hand on her shoulder. “The word is given. Warp speed.”

She blacked out. M’Benga gave Pike a hopeless look. Pike turned to Kirk, still getting his footing against the shuttle. “Erica was on Reliant,” Pike said. “Khan?”

Kirk nodded. “He attacked Regula I. Killed almost everyone. Chris… he got Genesis. It’s all my fault.”

Pike waved off the apology. “What about David?” he asked.

“He’s here,” Kirk said. “We had to leave Carol and the others behind.”

“And the rest of Reliant’s crew?”

“Captain Terrell is dead,” Kirk said. “Khan used some kind of parasite on them. We got the one in Commander Ortegas, but I’m not sure how bad the damage is. The rest of the crew was marooned on Ceti Alpha V. It doesn’t sound like they’ll last long, the planet is uninhabitable.”

“I don’t understand. Ceti Alpha V was class M.”

“Not anymore,” Kirk said. “Khan thinks you set him up.”

Pike looked away. “I should have gone back. Should have checked on him.”

“Don’t think that would’ve helped,” McCoy interjected. “From the sound of it I don’t think this Khan fellow was, uh,” he tapped his temple, “Firing on all thrusters.”

The intercom beeped. “Admiral Pike, this is sickbay,” came Doctor Chapel’s voice. “You need to get down here. It’s the captain. If Jim Kirk is with you, he should come too. Admiral, you’d better hurry.”

“Sam?” Kirk asked. Pike’s expression was all the answer he needed.

---

“There’s just too much organ damage,” Chapel said. “I don’t have a working medical stasis chamber, and even if I did… I think the best we can do is delay the inevitable. I’m sorry.”

“It should’ve been me,” Pike said, wryly. “He pushed me out of harm’s way. He never even wanted his own command.”

Jim knelt down beside the biobed. “Sam,” he said. He squeezed his brother’s hand.

Sam coughed. “Jim?” His eyes flickered. “Did you…. David?”

“Yes,” Jim said. “He’s safe.”

Sam managed a nod. “That’s good. Worth it then. Hold on to him.” He coughed again. The biobed indicators fell. “Jim… You know, they don’t give us the Kobyashi Maru test in the science track. I never took it until now. Maybe not as extravagant as your solution, but what do you think?”

“Sam…”

“Grieve later,” Sam rasped. “You’ve got a ship to save.” His focus drifted past Jim, settling into the distance. A sharp intake of breath, and he said simply, “Oh my.” The biobed droned its alarm as his life signs faded.

A sudden surge of violent anger overtook Jim as he closed his eyes, trembling. The unfairness of it. It burst out of him in a sudden, violent, primal scream, “Khan!”

 

Previously, on A Mind Occasionally Voyaging…

“Prefix code?” Saavik asked. “I don’t understand.”

Jim continued to try to shake Ortegas back to consciousness. “You have to learn how things work on a starship,” he said.

M’Benga nodded. “Of course.” He looked to Saavik. “He’s betting that Khan thinks of computer security in terms of physical access. That it wouldn’t occur to him to change the cipher key that identifies the command console to the main computer.”

“First rule of space piracy,” Jim said. “Steal a ship, change the wifi password.”

The communication console trilled. “Galileo, this is Enterprise.” Jim recognized his brother’s voice. “Jim, we’re moving into position. We don’t have a lot of time. We’re going to attempt emergency landing plan… B.”

“B?” Saavik said, questioningly.

“As in barricade,” Jim realized. “Damn. Bones, can you get her on her feet?” he indicated Ortegas. “I don’t think I can pull this off without her.”

“Have to try cordrazine,” McCoy said.

“Dammit, man,” M’Benga protested. “You have no idea what kind of cerebral trauma she’s suffered. You could trigger a massive hemorrhage.”

“Doctors,” Jim said, urgently, “We’re about to hit by a photon torpedo.”

M’Benga surrendered and allowed McCoy to inject Ortegas. She sat up instantly, panting.

“Commander,” Jim said, helping her into the pilot’s seat, “Can you fly? There’s not much time.”

She seemed confused but she nodded. Jim continued. “Do you know if Khan reset Reliant’s prefix code? If we can take down their weapons for a few seconds, we might have a chance.”

“Incoming,” Saavik dispassionately reported. A red glow emanated from one of Reliant’s torpedo launchers. A bright ball of energy flew toward them.

Suddenly, there was Enterprise, filling the space between Reliant and the shuttle.

Ortegas stirred, muttered, “One six three zero nine.”

Enterprise reeled as it took the torpedo head-on. The bridge exploded.

Xon was thrown from his console as the panel beside him exploded. Uhura’s chair broke, dropping her face-first into the communications station, but she managed to right herself despite the pain and keep desperately working to coordinate repair efforts across the ship. Sulu felt something pop out of place in his shoulder as his death-grip on the helm just barely kept him in his seat.

Sam Kirk landed on his back when he hit the deck. That was why he saw it first. That last hit had damaged one of the structural columns supporting the dome of the bridge. The heavy post pulled away from the ceiling and started to tumble, pulling with it some of the high-energy conduit that fed the bridge’s defenses. “Chris!” Sam shouted. Pike fell backward toward his seat. Sam sprang to his feet with a speed that belied his years and threw himself shoulder-first into the Admiral. Pike didn’t have time to respond before he was thrown away from the Captain’s chair and to the deck. The metal beam caught Sam across the back, driving him back down to the deck. There was a shower of sparks as the still-energized cabling grounded through him, burning his uniform.

On Reliant, Khan’s patience ran out. “Finish them,” he ordered. Joachim initiated the firing sequence.

Pike shouted for a medic, struggling to process what was happening, but a shout from La’an forced his attention back to the viewscreen. Reliant’s torpedo launcher lit up again… And went dark.

“Our shields are dropping!” Joachim shouted in alarm.

“Raise them!” Khan demanded.

Joachim slammed his fists on the console. “I can’t!”

Khan shot Una an accusatory work. She casually looked at a nearby display. “Who was in charge of securing the main computer?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“Can you restore control?” Khan asked.

Una’s fingers flew over the controls. “It’ll take a second. You really should’ve changed the prefix code.”

“Reliant dropping shields,” Xon said as he returned to his station.

There was no time to question it. “La’an, Fire!” Pike shouted.

A bolt of red lashed out from Enterprise. It traced its way across the rear of Reliant’s saucer, cutting a dark burn toward the dome at the top of the smaller ship’s engine column. The second bolt hit the dome squarely. The illumination in Reliant’s nacelles flickered with the power interruption.

On Reliant’s bridge, a mass of cabling dropped from the ceiling. Khan took it on the shoulder, straining to remain on his feet. A normal human would have been pinned by the weight. Behind him, someone grabbed a fire extinguisher to use on a sparking console. Khan grabbed Joachim and demanded he return fire.

“We can’t fire, sir!” he shouted.

“Why? Why can’t you?”

“They’ve damaged photon control and warp drive.”

“We should withdraw,” Una said. “Enterprise isn’t going anywhere.”

“No!” Khan insisted. “Phasers?”

“Almost there,” Una said. “Whoever he is, he knows his way around command protocols.”