Chapter 16 - Why Do the Birds Go On Singing?He was performing one of the very worst duties a Captain could ever be asked to perform. He had to inform crew members of the loss of loved ones. This in itself was difficult.
But for James T. Kirk, this grim task had been infinitely expanded. No seasoned vet hearing how her husband had met with a transporter accident. No green barely post-cadet losing a great-great grandparent. No, these were all the family members of people he knew. To make matters worse, they hadn't just died. They had been targeted and exterminated by the Order Of the Ancient Destroyer, prior to Ghidorah's absorption of his followers.
By his side were his son and the woman he now realized he had always loved. But still the words were faltering. The entrance of his beautiful pregnant daughter-in-law helped only somewhat.
Peter was his legal nephew and biological son. Saavik was the biological daughter of a man so close to him that terms like 'best friend' and 'brother' were grossly inadequate. By a twist of fate, she also happened to be Kirk's own adopted daughter. It had been a hell of a hellish week. A week of revelations, lifted whole cloth from the Book Of Revelations. But as he saw his boy stare longingly at his new wife, he felt as though some odd form of balance was being struck. Yet the words still failed him.
"I - have the - grimmest... possible..."
He started again.
"Sources indicate that Andor and Tellar have fallen to the reactivated Doomsday Machine. To anyone with friends or family on those worlds, I offer my deepest condolences. I am very sorry. Kirk out."
The stare Uhura gave him was one of tender disgust. She never felt weaker than when she saw weakness in Jim Kirk.
"That wasn't the news, Jim."
"Watch it, Commander."
She folded her arms.
"That trick of switching between Command and personal lives may work on your son, Captain. But you've been pulling it on me for too long, now. Now, I suggest you tell those people that their families are gone, and I further suggest you do it fast. Saavik, how long til the Shockwave from Qo'noS hits?"
"About an hour and fifteen minutes, Commander."
The Captain and Uhura both stared at her, fully expecting one of her father's much more detailed explanations. Jim nodded his head.
"Uh... thanks, Saavik."
"You are welcome, Pop."
Despite the Crisis, Nyota suppressed a smile at hearing the young Vulcan call the Captain 'Pop'. Saavik's husband raised his hand.
"Sir, if I might speak freely."
"Peter, you can always...."
"Can I? Until Nyta pointed it out, I didn't even realize how you were playing me. Sir, I can be a junior officer, or I can be your son. I can even be both. But I can't be something in the middle. So what am I?"
There was anger in his voice. Anger directed at the man who couldn't stop his kidnapping as a child. Anger at the man who was so thrilled about having a son, he presumed fatherly prerogatives he perhaps was not entitled to. Anger at the man whose best friend had yet to acknowledge Saavik as his daughter. They both knew it was misplaced anger, but it still threw Jim to have his own younger face staring back at him, asking the kind of question he routinely asked of superiors, all those years ago.
"What can I say? I'm a lousy father, Peter. I have no experience, and I'm used to getting my way just because. But I love you kids. Spock does, too. But he's in pain, son. Just as you both were. But look at you now. Married and expecting, Life itself depending on you. You've both been better parents to each other than any of us could have been. To answer your question, you are both. Both of you. Just guide me through, okay?"
Peter nodded.
"Yes, Dad. But to ask my original question, may I deliver the news to the crew? I believe I can do it better than you, in this one instance."
"It's my job, Peter. I've been doing it all my life, God help me."
"Pop?"
"Yes, Saavik?"
"I had nothing when my life began. My life since Hellguard has been one of gain. Despite the disguised bigotry I saw even on Vulcan, my own feral rages, and a struggle with a human side I did not even realize I had, my lot merely got better."
She paused, and looked at her husband. Her smile was returned.
"Peter had everything. He lived in Paradise. He then lost everything. The spores took your brother, his wife, and your infant son Mark. The Admiralty crushed his childhood dream of living here with you. The other residents of Deneva died of residual madness, leading to its current quarantine. Section 31 murdered your mother, Pop. The Admiralty beat him to a bloody pulp and used him for their pleasure. 10 years of his life was spent in a cryogenic dungeon. Later on, when some healing had begun, you chose to temporarily surrender your parental authority over me to Spock. In denial over who I am, he concurred with T'Pau's decree of dissolution. Our first marriage was summarily annulled. So you see, Pop, you have been doing this all your life, as you say. But this kind of loss has been Peter's life. Let him help those who will soon share his pain."
As Peter held her hand, Jim couldn't help but recall the wild child they rescued from that horrific Romulan camp. Since Spock was thrown off by her attitude, coupled with his own pain over Hellguard, it fell to Jim to get her ready for presentation on Vulcan. In the beginning, he had to box with her to get food in her mouth. In the middle, she mangled the songs he taught her. By the end, she was ready. But she asked the same question Peter had: could she stay with him? The answer again, was no. With Spock still strangely distracted, it again fell to technical Vulcan citizen Kirk to sign the declaration of adoptive parent. Nine years later, his adopted daughter rescued his biological son. Even in the time of the Apocalypse, stubborn Life had twists aplenty. After all, 'Saavik' meant 'The Rock', the same as 'Peter'.
"Lieutenant Kirk, your wife seems to feel you can do this for me. Or am I playing you again?"
With grim smiles and a hug for strength, the Son delivered the news the Father found he could not. The channel was opened.
"I am not speaking to you as a junior officer of this ship. Nor am I speaking to you as the Captain's son. I am speaking to you as an expert on loss. It's an expertise I never wanted, but like this supposed 'Rock' prophecy, it seems I have no choice in the matter. At times, it has seemed in my life that the only people who had any choice at all were the members of the Order of the Ancient Destroyer. Their choice was to be evil. A simple word, evil. I never really, truly understood it til I was kidnapped. Then I saw more of it than I will ever see until we face King Ghidorah directly. I am sad to report that confrontation is perhaps two hours away. Owing to certain weapons stockpiles kept on fallen Qo'noS, the shockwave from its destruction may well be felt halfway across Federation space. I know the monster. It's lived in my thoughts for twenty years, now. It will use the shockwave to catch a ride into our space. But I know this ship is ready. More, I know why it's ready. Because this is the finest ship and crew ever to sail the stars. It is ready to triumph in our holding action against Ghidorah. It is also ready for the very worst of tragedies."
With that, the young man paused. All over the ship, work crews continued feverishly, but every word was felt in their guts. In the shuttle-bay, the children listened intently. Peter had been their friend, these past weeks. That rarest of creatures, he was an adult who had not forgotten what being a kid was like. Without knowing why, Sophia Tanabe, Commander Uhura's second cousin, excused herself and headed for the briefing room. She would need her older cousin, soon. Peter continued.
"The worst of tragedies has occurred. During the three hellish days that they ruled the Federation, members of the Order carried out a brutal and thorough campaign against our families on Earth. The crew of this ship was singled out by those monsters. They're dead, now. Soon, my wife and I will kill the demon they worshipped. This I swear. The Line of Blood will stop with those we held dear. Above all else, know the answer to this age-old question:
"We Will Fight the Enemy.
"We Will Fight King Ghidorah.
"We Will Win.
"I have no pearls of wisdom about how to cope. Just Live and Endure. It's done all right by me and Saavik."
Captain Kirk nodded to his son, and spoke up over the intercom.
"All Hands! All Hands! Battle Stations and Disaster Alert! We are an hour away from the Shockwave Front, with no way to avoid it. So we're going head on. Our goal will be to force Ghidorah and the Doomsday Machine into a close-up, pitched battle in a hopefully remote sector of this quadrant. Brace for impact, and then for all-out battle. In the name of our families, some taken while they slept. In the name of Four Major worlds, now erased forever. This crew knows its business. That is all."
The door opened, and a crying Sophie ran into Uhura's arms.
"Oh, baby. If there had been another way to tell you about your mother, I would have found it. But there's no time, now."
"Nyta, don't hate me!"
Uhura was confused. Peter's eyes shifted, and he looked at Saavik. Jim knew an 'Oh, No' look when he saw one.
"Sophie! Why would I hate you?"
"Because I'm glad she's dead!!!!"
"Don't say that. I know you two had your troubles, but you mustn't be glad about this horror."
"I'm sorry for the other people's families. I really am. But I'm glad my Mother is dead."
Saavik held her face in her hand. Peter looked ill. Jim asked the question.
"Peter, your telepathy?"
He nodded.
"I should have seen it earlier. Her behavior was classic."
But Sophie turned around, having heard him.
"Are you gonna laugh about this, too, Peter Kirk?"
Peter didn't respond. He merely opened his arms.
"Nothing to laugh about, kiddo. It wasn't funny when it happened to Saavik on Hellguard. It wasn't funny when it happened to me. They used a knife to cut my pants off. I was thirteen. I mostly remember begging them to stop. But those were strangers, Sophie. They were never our own Mother."
She ran over to the man she had tried to seduce mere days ago. But now he just held her like the big brother he would soon be, when Jim and Nyta were married.
"Oh, Godddd!! YOU? But you two are bloody super-heroes."
"Shhh. I didn't feel very heroic, then."
Saavik knew the truth. Peter had killed up to ten of the vicious Admirals that had assaulted him, and managed to 'desecrate' their Ghidoran shrine. But Sophie could hear all that another day. For now, Saavik just took over holding the little girl whose sophistication had evaporated in the light of truth.
"She smelled of liquor, Saavik. Always. I used to pray she wouldn't bring someone home with her! Th-they'd..."
"Easy, little one. Did you know that Nyota and my Pop are to be married? Will you serve us as a babysitter?"
"Can it call me 'Auntie'?"
"That sounds most logical."
Uhura held her cousin again, and was in pain herself. The pain of failure. It was a pain her future husband understood well. As the two left to talk, Sophie turned and looked at Jim.
"I was right about you two, Captain."
"That you were, Miss Tanabe."
"It's just Sophie, now. Tanabe was that - woman's last name."
As Saavik left as well, to resume her tasks in engineering, Peter sat silently, lending his strange energies toward ship's systems as they were needed.
"Peter?"
"Yes, Dad?"
"How many monsters does this universe contain?"
"More than a few. But one of them is no longer headed our way. Sir, I think Ghidorah has sensed me and Saavik. From what I'm sensing, he will now emerge by Reliant's position. Don't ask me why. I don't know if he's afraid of us, somehow. But, Captain - Reliant is not remotely a match for the Ancient Destroyer."
Kirk nodded, and hit the intercom.
"Mister Sulu, Mister Ilia. Maximum warp to Reliant's position. Scotty, all she's got. Scotty?"
"Saavik here, Po- Sir. Mister Scott is mourning his sister with Ensign and Peter Preston. He's... not in good shape, sir."
"Carry on, Lieutenant. And no lifting - that is an order."
"Aye, Sir."
"Kirk to Sickbay."
"McCoy here. Jim, can we talk later?"
"Of course. Leonard, I'm sorry."
"For what? Did you kill them? Did you make my grandson an orphan? Hell, Jim, no one blames you, and we don't have time for you to blame yourself. McCoy out!"
Up on the bridge, Kirk saw Sulu at the helm, with little Demora curled up asleep next to his chair. Hikaru's look was one of grief for his parents and siblings, but not of pointless hate for his Captain. He looked down at his sleeping little heart.
"Before she fell asleep, Jim? She said, 'When I grow up, I want to be brave like Peter."
"So do I, Hikaru. So do I."
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An hour later, with all personnel in secured areas, the mighty ship came to a full halt. Shields and inertial dampeners were raised to levels well above normal high-end limits. No one seemed to object when the Captain's daughter-in-law and son were kept with the senior staff. As Jim Kirk said a silent prayer for the safety of his friends and family aboard the Reliant, the death-throes of the Klingon Empire crossed what was the Federation border. With it came the being who had killed fifteen billion Klingons.
The Ancient Destroyer now had a whole new target, chock full of worlds to kill. As if to bring home the UFP's weakness, a resolution in the Council disapproving of King Ghidorah barely passed. Caught in the Shockwave, Enterprise prayed also for its own salvation. The first week was over. Beware the winds of March.