Chapter 19 - If Tomorrow ComesAs she had since they were little more than shattered children groping in the dark, Saavik lay beside her husband, Peter Kirk. They had both slept an unusual eight hours, exhausted by their telekinetic efforts at defending the Enterprise from King Ghidorah. She felt uneasy, and could not pinpoint the source of that unease.
"Peter?"
"Yes, Wife?"
"Do you wish to have this baby?"
The simple question was so startling in its scope that Peter sat up suddenly in bed.
"Why do you ask?"
"Simply because you have said almost nothing of it since we re-bonded."
"Do you want to have it, Saavik?"
"Not to be petty, Husband - but I did ask first."
Peter's waking head swam with all sorts of things. He hesitated a bit.
"Yes, but -"
She cut him off.
"No qualifiers. If your answer is no, the time to see Doctor McCoy is now."
"Are you going to let me speak?"
Saavik nodded her assent.
"The answer is Yes. Our timing stinks, as always. I'm worried about a child born with our abilities. Add to that - we were both violated as children, and I dread hurting our child as a result."
"Your 'Yes' is less than resounding."
"Saavik-kam - Quel Ne T'mra..."
"Speak Standard. My Old Dialect Vulcan is atrocious."
"So is your patience. Now, despite all those things I brought up, I want this child. It will know who its parents are, know it was wanted - mostly - and know it is loved. I love children - I always have. I helped take of little Marc, back on Deneva. I want this baby, Saavik - if you do."
She closed her eyes.
"Once, after our first time, we melded. I was upset when I saw a fantasy you had about our becoming parents. As you know, I did not believe in romantic love, then. Now - I can think of no more compelling reality than your idle fantasy. But Peter, are we ready to become parents?"
He kissed her, then held her chin.
"No. Of course not. What you have inside you scares me more than Ghidorah. All we have to do then is destroy. Here, we have to create, and we have to do it right."
She kissed him back, then caressed his cheek.
"Historically, it has always been easier to destroy than to create. But we built a new life together, My Darling, and the ashes and smoke were thick, then, from the ruins of our old ones."
When the two found time, they often recited a love oath to carry them through for when they could not be together. Peter began.
"Mother to my new life, you cracked open the cold coffin my enemies laid me in and restored me to life with a kiss."
Saavik continued.
"Father to my new life, you exposed my cynical thoughts as a comforting fraud. Foreswearing just vengeance on an enemy, you restored me to life with an open hand and gentle heart."
"Sister By Name, You forgave my lapses and heard my cries of pain, ending the night's terror. You kept the flame in our father's heart burning, and when I rose, he was still the man I knew."
"Brother By Name, You forgave my confusion and unease, and held me when that was all I asked. The flame in our father's heart was easy to sustain-that flame was you."
"Daughter of my Father's Brother, He who is to my father as his good right hand. Strong, and no seeker of glory. "
"Son Of My Father's Brother. He from whom my father, now known, has said he derives his great strength."
"Lover... Whatever we could, or could not accomplish, I knew that I was worth the wait. This message I saw in your beautiful eyes."
"Lover... Though surely you thought I was insane, incapable of making a choice, you waited for me. For the first time, I dared allow myself to think that I might be pretty. Even that Worst Of All Nights could not destroy what we have."
"Thy'la, who beside me will answer the Great Question."
"Thy'la? Will We Fight the Enemy?"
"Thy'la. We Will Fight the Enemy."
"Thy'la? Will We Fight Ghidorah?"
"Thy'la. Ours is The Face, Glimpsed as though over a hill. We Will Fight Ghidorah."
"Peter, what is our name?"
"I am Peter, which means, 'The Rock'."
"I am Saavik, which means, 'The Rock'."
"Whole Galaxies Are Gnashed Between His Mighty Teeth."
"But upon us, That Ancient Destroyer's Mighty Teeth Will Shatter."
"Then, still, Saavik, I will joyfully call you Wife. For we are bound, You and I."
"Then still, Peter, I will joyfully call you Husband. For we are Klaefthe - Born Bonded. Not even she who is all of Vulcan could break what we are."
"I Love You."
"I Love You. Now, let's...."
A sudden door chime put paid to Peter's amorous notions.
"Who is it?"
"Peter? It's David. Can we - talk?"
Peter sighed, but Saavik allowed a small smile. "He is Family, Husband. More, he is hurting."
It hit Peter like a ton of bricks.
"Oh, God... Carol Marcus. I forgot - Saavik, Sophie wants to have lunch with us. You have dinner with Spock. Plus, the ship has to be gotten back on-line..."
She pulled him back to her side, pushing him down to the bed. She stared hungrily.
"David, this is Saavik. We will be out in ten minutes."
Ten minutes later, they both emerged, contented on several levels. Saavik nodded to David as she left. David Marcus stared after his sister-in-law had left.
"What did you need, David?"
"A cloning device - er, um."
Peter smiled, and was glad to have the ability to control his once-invasive telepathy. He was pretty sure his younger brother's thoughts would upset him right then.
"Think Only Pure Thoughts, David."
"Easy for you to say. I didn't come here to ogle your wife, Peter."
"That's good to know."
"Alright. Here It Is. I miss my Mom like Hell. But I'm not crying, and all I can think about right now is what a royal bitch she could be, almost for no reason at all. You lost your Mom and Dad. How did you handle it?"
On a ship full of individuals grieving the loss of their loved ones on Earth, Peter had answered this question hundreds of times in the past few months. He could certainly answer it for David.
"When Mom, Sam, and Marcus died -"
"Whoa, what - who's Marcus?"
"Nobody told you?"
"Apparently not. Is this another unknown relative of mine?"
"Almost. Marcus was his first name. Marcus Aurelian Kirk, my - *Our* - younger brother. He was an infant, and was lost to neglect when the Ghidoran parasites struck. I think I grieved hardest over him. Actually, I went stark-raving mad. Retreated into a grand delusion.
For a moment, the pain of Deneva bit back and Peter just stood there. David realized then how long his own grief might last. He, like many others, wondered how his older brother carried on through it all.
"Wanna see his picture?"
"Sure."
From a small viewer-chip he kept on him, Peter produced an image he had saved of the little boy.
"Pete! He looks - he looks - like me! I-I gotta sit down."
Going back into his quarters, Peter grabbed a chair for the suddenly unsteady David. The tears were no longer absent.
"It's a rotten universe, Pete. Your little guy dies from neglect, my Mom's second kid was stillborn -"
"Your mother had a second child? Jim's?"
"I'm pretty sure. They went out again, when I was three or four. Heh. I didn't like him much. Then, Mom said I imagined her being pregnant again. Then, she admitted it again a few weeks back. Why was she always trying to control me, Pete? I would've done what she said - no matter what. I loved her! She was my -"
Peter simply patted David's back supportively, uncertain how to proceed with so new a relative. As David lay his head on the table, Peter wisely held back on the worst secret of all. Carol's second child had not been stillborn. Rather, it had been turned over to Admiralty Hall and was sacrificed to Ghidorah - as a cryo-conscious Peter watched from his icy coffin. Years later, a raid on the Order's archives would help Peter piece most of this together. But for now, he kept his silence, and shunted this dread information away from the bond he shared with his pregnant wife.
"David?"
But Doctor David Marcus was asleep, and Peter had no wish to wake him. Since he had no quarters of his own, Peter Kirk did something he had not done for twenty years - and put his little brother to bed. As he left for his duties, Peter mentally spoke to Saavik.
"Wife?"
"Yes, Husband?"
"Before you get into bed tonight - Check!"
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In the Briefing Room, Captain James T. Kirk was holding a meeting of his senior staff. There was a lot to go over - and a lot to be done. When this meeting was over, he would speak privately with Spock. Angry as he was about David's revelation, Jim still prayed that Spock would be able to explain this secret away. If he couldn't - then quite possibly, their friendship was done for.
Captain Kirk began the meeting with the most pressing and obvious of issues.
"How stands the Enterprise?"
Scotty responded first.
"Except for those addle-brained fools slagging our duotronic systems, this ship is in much better shape than we deserve. That beastie took out the entire Klingon fleet, remember. Cap'n, if not for our two telekinetics, we'd be gone. The kids did not merely keep the shields up and enhance our attacks. Based on energy readings from the Bridge, they were keeping every system at peak efficiency by whatever means possible. I fear our fate if we should face Ghidorah again - and one or both of them were gone. Also, I wish to apologize for my poor response to the news of my Cissy's passing. It was merely that having to handle that and comfort Jessa and my Peter was all a bit too much. I do not care now if Scotland itself falls. You will not see that lamebrain I was ever again. I swear it."
Kirk shook his head.
"Belay that. Scotty, when I was informed of my Peter's death, eighteen years ago, I went stark-raving mad. I thought I was going to die from the pain. If not for Nyta, I would have. What about making our way to Reliant for spare parts?"
Since it was Chekov's ship, and it was Chekov's crewman who was on the computer system troubles, he responded.
"Mister Guinan is in full contact with our remaining systems. The problem is, she must literally persuade them to work. Add to that, her Borg implants are a painful reminder to her of her violation and the betrayal of her cousin. Sir, we are limping towards Reliant, in fits and starts. Even then, her computer systems cannot be expected to run a massively re-fitted Constitution-class Starship. That said, I must wonder if re-enabling M5 is the best of ideas. That thing is a CrossMatrix Cossack!"
Spock broke in, as deftly as always.
"Despite M5's flaws, Commander, we will need a unit capable of replacing dead or disabled crew as they fall. In a battle with the behemoth, we could lose up to 75% of our crew - including the Bridge. The creature must be destroyed. In this case, there can be no study, nor contemplation of alternatives. Ghidorah is programmed to destroy all life. He is perilously close to achieving that very goal."
When Kirk did not say how good it was to have Spock back, the Vulcan knew something was wrong. He also started to have a dark inkling of what that something might be. Choices, he reasoned, have consequences - and Spock's one choice may have condemned a young man to Hell.
Further, through his awakened parental link with Saavik, he sensed two things - a conflict, soon to be resolved, and the life within her. In essence, the baby "saw" its grandfather, and waved hello. Spock felt his stomach shrink, and fought hard against a joyous smile. This was a pity, for he would soon have need of that smile.
Kirk now spoke again.
"Doctor? How stands the crew?"
"I won't lie to you, Jim. Many of the more religious crewmembers are praying as often as working - myself among them. I mean... that goddamn thing's the AntiChrist!"
But Spock disagreed, and said so.
"Doctor, King Ghidorah is not - and indeed, could not possibly be - the AntiChrist."
Now, Scotty threw in. "Mister Spock, simply because you yourself do not hold our beliefs, I'll have to ask you nae ta mock them!"
"Engineer, I meant no disrespect. But the fact remains that Ghidorah is not that prophesied figure, whatever else it truly is."
McCoy snorted with contempt. "This one I've gotta hear!"
"So you shall, Doctor. Simply put, the AntiChrist is a deceiver. Ghidorah's followers deceived themselves, chiefly. The monster itself offers no deception. It merely seeks its goal with a hideous clarity of purpose."
Kirk forgot his anger for a moment and chimed in after Spock.
"The problem is, that goal is the Fall of Creation. Now, on to other business."
"Jim, what about the crew?"
"Bones - tell them to keep praying. Now, Mister Decker."
"Sir."
"You were not on the Bridge during the battle."
"No, sir. I was not."
"Were you injured?"
"No, sir."
"Grieving over Mister Ilia?"
"No, sir."
"Overwhelmed by the immensity of it all?"
"No more than the rest of us, sir."
"Can you explain your absence?"
"Yes, Captain. But I choose not to."
"Then you understand my position?"
"Aye, sir. I hereby resign as First Officer. May I play ramrod below deck?"
"You - may not. Confine yourself to quarters, Number On- Commander Decker. Effective immediately."
Not wearing the look of one who has just been demoted, Will Decker left the Briefing Room. Not missing a beat, Jim spoke to Hikaru Sulu.
"Hikaru - congratulations. I need a First Officer I can rely on, and you are the best available choice. Mister Spock, if you will add the Helm to your Science duties, I believe Commander Uhura can rework the consoles appropriately."
Shock filled the air like toxic smoke.
With Spock sitting in the same room, Kirk had proclaimed someone else to be the best choice to replace Will Decker. It was a mental shot so powerful, its physical equivalent would have wiped even Ghidorah away like dust. Except for Spock, all wondered what had passed between the two dear friends that could cause this. But no one wanted to breach this particular firewall. Not even Uhura, Kirk's beloved fiancée. So Sulu merely nodded.
"Aye, sir. Jim - I won't let you down."
"I know, Sulu. I've always known. Uhura? The Bridge Operating System?"
"I can't touch Xon's station, and Guinan needs that space to do her work. All the rest are fine for now - and I'd like to add another - a separate tactical station."
Spock agreed, keeping his calm, as always.
"In battle, decentralizing main weapons would free my and Mister Chekov's attentions for the business of guiding this ship - which I believe will be pressing enough as it stands."
Kirk made a show of turning away from Spock, and nodding at Uhura.
"Make it so. Do you have someone to run this new console, though?"
Chekov raised his hand.
"Keptin, the Klingon - Colonel Worf - is a brilliant tactical officer, and his desire for revenge on Ghidorah only seems to focus him further."
Kirk allowed a small smile.
"Ask him - and then, score one for the Organians!"
The air in the room seemed to go dry, then. All quickly departed the room, as whatever problems Kirk had with Spock were about to be addressed.
Kirk got up, and looked at Spock. He prayed that he was wrong about what he had to say. He was not wrong.
"Spock - David told me something. Something about you and him - and Peter's funeral. Now, I -"
Spock interrupted.
"Jim - there is no need for an interrogation. I am prepared to tell you everything. But I start with a basic statement."
Sensing hope, Jim assented.
"Go on."
Spock closed his eyes, and offered up his own prayers for peace between him and the man who was like his own brother. The words were among the most difficult he had ever had to speak.
"As early as 2268, I knew that Peter was still alive - and more, that it was Starfleet Command itself that held him at Admiralty Hall. For a number of reasons - I kept my silence on this subject."
And in that small room, primeval fury reigned supreme.
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Responding to an Emergency call, Leonard McCoy rushed to Sickbay. Uhura's cousin Sophie stood beside the bio-beds holding Peter and Saavik.
"Doctor, they just both kind of screamed, then fainted. Is Ghidorah back?"
McCoy checked Saavik first. He gave her something to reduce her internal toxin level, so increased by sudden stress as to endanger the life of her child. Peter was still out cold when she awoke.
"It's all right, honey. I think the TK effort during the battle must've..."
Saavik was crying, openly.
"No, Doctor. It is our fathers - they want to kill each other!"
"Damn! McCoy to Security - Get your asses to the Briefing Room -weapons on heaviest stun! And may God have mercy upon us all."
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James Kirk stared at his friend, disbelieving what had just been said. If what Spock was saying was true, then the worst thing that ever happened to him never needed to happen at all.
"You - knew that my son was alive?"
Spock nodded, wrongly sensing that Jim's overwhelming fury had snuffed itself out somehow. In truth, he merely sat at the eye of this vast emotional storm, uncomprehending of the flesh-ripping winds beyond. Neither man yet knew how close this clumsily-unleashed torrent had come to killing Peter and Saavik.
"After David explained his 'dream' to me at Peter's funeral, I approached Admiralty Hall - and there, I sensed... you. Or, rather, I sensed a psyche so like your own it could only have been Peter. Jim - I had many reasons for not telling you."
His eyes reflecting fervent prayers that all this was not so, Kirk turned around, unable to bear looking at Spock.
"Spock - do you know what they did to him there?"
Spock now felt the emotional cascade, and realized too late that he had chosen the wrong manner in which to tell Kirk this wrenching news. Unsure of his footing, he attempted to retreat into the safety of the logical approach. But there was no safety to be had on that day.
"Based on what we now know of the Order's activities, I would assume that Peter was sexually assaulted, prior to being cast into cryo-stasis."
Spock only tangentially saw Kirk grip the chair he was holding. He did not register at all how quickly the Captain smashed him in the face with it's bottom supports. He only felt himself falling back, in no small amount of pain. The next thing he heard was Kirk's ranting. His voice was full of salt and fury.
"Three-Hundred-Times, Spock. They RAPED him three-hundred-times!"
Amazed that his jaw was neither smashed off nor broken, Spock took in this information.
"How could he survive? The blood loss involved would be staggering."
This time, the chair caught Spock in the chest, but he went back no further.
"Blood loss? What about a young man's dignity and self-worth? His sense of safety? Spock, those slimy bastards broke him with their bodies. They - invaded my boy. Killed my Mother."
"For which you blame me?"
"Don't be foolish. I couldn't have stopped them. But I could have avenged my family, Spock. Because my best friend knew it all. My older son contacted his younger brother, David. Told him via some kind of telepathy where he was. Despite Carol's warning, David told you. You reasoned out the rest. Carol I understand - she was afraid David's dream would upset me. That, and she was just plain nuts, sometimes. But you? You, Spock, I have to admit, I have never understood - at all. Wasn't destroying your own child enough? You wanted mine, too?"
When Spock took umbrage at this and got up, Kirk swatted him again with his cushioned bludgeon. This time, though, Spock deflected some of it with his arm.
"You don't like what I'm saying, Mister? Too Freaking Bad! My son lay in that hell with those demons for ten years. He survived what was done to him because they pumped him full of genetic accelerants. Do you know what 'Pierce Syndrome' is, Spock?"
The contempt in Kirk's voice was crystal-clear.
"Pierce Syndrome is an extreme form of personality detachment. When genetic accelerants are used to artificially evolve a subject, motor, cognitive and social skills must be completely relearned. The subject often describes 'leaving themselves behind'. Jim - I am sorry."
When Kirk swung the chair twice again, Spock ducked it entirely, and each time it hit the transparent duranium alloy window looking out into space.
"Spock - I honestly don't know if you're sorry. I only know that you are going to *be* sorry!"
This time, he hurled the chair at Spock, missing him entirely, striking at the same spot as before. Kirk pulled back his fist and threw a punch, which Spock stopped in mid-throw with one hand.
"This has gone far enough. You will permit me to explain myself, and I will not permit you to destroy me."
Kirk spat in his face. "Screw You."
Feeling his own self-control almost vanish, Spock savagely back-handed Kirk, who went flying. "No, Jim. Screw You."
But the warrior in Kirk knew exactly whom he was attacking, and had rolled with the blow to a large extent. He ran forward and rammed his head into an exhausted Spock's stomach, putting him clean against the wall. He punched Spock square in the nose.
"That was for my son!"
Spock turned for the next punch, but still caught much of it.
"That was for my daughter!"
Moving furiously, Kirk still managed to strike the side of Spock's head as he pulled away.
"That was for their first marriage, which you dissolved in a kangaroo court!"
Barely thinking, Spock kicked Kirk in the shin, then punched him in the stomach, actually lifting him up as he did.
"Hear me, Jim! I will not be pushed much further. Moreover, Saavik is now my daughter once again. You and your son have made her far too human for her own good. I thank you for your efforts - clumsy as they were."
Kirk did not move against Spock right then. Grabbing his stomach, unsure of whether his guts would hold together, he sneered at his once-brother.
"You must be nuts, if you think I am ever entrusting that young woman's care to a man whose life is little more than a series of psychotic episodes? Why should I? So you can re-annul her marriage? Maybe force her not to have the child?"
Spock had not questioned his own rationality in this confrontation. This changed once he spoke his next words.
"Both those things, may, in fact, become necessary to restore her emotional balance."
As he felt Kirk foot-sweep him, Spock realized in horror what he had been doing. Why he had chosen to be alone with Jim when he told him. Why he had almost dismissed how Peter - a young man now fully a member of his own family - had been brutalized by the Order. He knew it all, now. But things were too far along. Kirk yelled out.
"Who are you? I don't know you! Was it all always an act? Our friendship? Our lives running this ship? Are you a traitor or just a functional psychotic?"
Spock shoved Kirk against the window, hard.
"You are a fool. What I did, I did for you. Had you moved to rescue your son, we would all be dead now. They were the Admiralty, Captain! They knew exactly how to destroy us. Had I told you, you would have been unable to not respond. It was Peter's life and your happiness against the lives of billions threatened by those coup-hungry lunatics. In that, I have no regrets. To fulfill my many oaths, I chose to sacrifice one young life. I will apologize to Peter for this, and then to Saavik for being a poor absentee father."
Furious, Kirk then tripped Spock, caught him, and hurled him at that same Briefing Room window. He bounced off, and hit the floor. Kirk stood and pointed.
"Don't you go near my boy, you coward! And you were not an absentee father to Saavik - I was! YOU weren't around enough to be an absentee father. To you, she's a possession. To me - she's beautiful. Do you know what your excuses did to her self-confidence? She only recently decided to let Peter tell her how pretty she is."
Spock looked up, plaintively.
"I was in pain, Jim. I had been used, betrayed by Sybok, and had Saavik torn from my arms. I was forced to leave her behind. My shame overwhelmed me, and she suffered for it."
But Kirk was having none of it.
"I am so damned sick and tired of hearing about your pain. You're in pain, so the Enterprise is diverted to Vulcan. You're in pain, so the Babel Conference is badly jeopardized. You're in pain, so you let a god-damned flower with attitude lead you to mutiny. You're in pain, and so you start to become like Gary when Q gave you half his powers. Your pain drove you to end those kids blessed union, even though you were half a galaxy away on Qo'noS. No more, Spock. I can't handle the pain of a man who, in theory, should be more than able to do it himself, and yet insists on exporting it to everyone else. You and Me - We're Done!"
No words could have cut Spock more deeply.
"I beg you - do not say that. As for my pain, you have viewed the parlor tricks of our Vulcan emotional regimen. You have seen the discipline, the strength, the endurance. But you do not see the struggle. The struggle to maintain the control. The struggle to maintain the pace. The struggle - to be your friend, Jim. You make it so hard, sometimes. After our first five years, I considered a retreat to Gol. I - needed that retreat. But you needed me here, with you. A choice was made. That choice was made on your behalf. As was the choice to protect you at Peter's expense. Despite my failings, can you not see past the 'overman' facade and accept that I have suffered on your behalf? That boy has restored Saavik's soul. For that, I love him - and again, because he is his father's son. We are a family, Jim. We have each played our role in building it. Can you not at least thank me for taking the burden of the very sorriest role?"
Jim desperately wanted to end the confrontation, to bring back the bond between the two friends that was reflected in their children. But the fact that Spock could have helped Peter, when the boy was in Hell, hit him once again, and all the good reasons vanished in an instant.
Kirk kicked Spock in the ribs.
"Don't do me any favors."
Time in the Vulcan's mind spun back 5000 years in that one moment. In a cold casual movement, he threw Kirk back against the wall by the Briefing Room window. As a stunned Kirk stood there, a Spock driven by two kinds of adrenaline ripped the Briefing Room Table out from its moorings, and held it over his head. Kirk attempted to rush him, but was kicked back again. He stared at the thing that was once closer to him than his own breath. He shuddered when he realized what was really going on. But again, it was far too late.
Spock threw the table at Kirk.
Kirk ran, and the table missed him entirely. It did not, however, miss the oft-beaten window, weakened in the battle with Ghidorah, and further weakened by their own savagery. They both stared over at it.
At first, it merely seemed to vibrate. A sudden remembrance about slagged computer systems and suppressive force-fields now rendered inoperable came over them. As the window briefly turned into framed, crushed, silicate- based ice, the two stared at one another once again.
Suddenly, Spock saw his own errors with such crystal clarity, he wondered why Jim hadn't tried to kill him years ago. Or for that matter, why Saavik herself hadn't.
Suddenly, Jim saw the way he sometimes took those he loved for granted, and wondered why Spock or Peter had ever bothered returning to him. Or why Nyta stuck by him, through it all.
As the vacuum claimed the first minute particle of window, they turned and said the same two words to each other.
"Forgive Me."
The next word was just as simultaneous.
"Forgiven."
Now the window was gone, and the eternal night pulled them into its airless embrace. Kirk and Spock were together again-perhaps for the last time.
Throughout all the once-vast universe, the disparate tales of the End-Days always shared two common themes. The first, of course, was that King Ghidorah would return, again as the Ancient Destroyer. The second theme was, quite simply, that brother would turn upon brother.
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Aboard the USS Enterprise, no one could have any doubt but that in fact, two men who were as brothers had indeed turned upon each other with a horrifying fury.
Doctor McCoy heard the news in Sickbay from the security detail he had sent, and nearly fainted. But of course, he didn't have that luxury.
"The Briefing Room - sealed off due to vacuum exposure?"
His medical mind quite logically ticked off what had surely happened next.
"Implosion of internal organs. Absolute freezing of all bodily fluids. If Spock survived long enough, he may have tried to expel his remaining air into Jim's lungs. All Jim would have received was a throat-shaped ice-cube. Cast out at low impulse, there would have been a momentary red mist - and then nothing at all. Their atoms are already tens of thousands of kilometers away."
Then, as Leonard knew it would, the damned untrustworthy logic faded, leaving him an emotional wreck.
"Why? Jim, what could he have done that made you that angry? Spock - didn't you know better than to cross him alone? Or - or it doesn't matter. You both made a decision to die. I always knew you two would go out fighting - I just never, ever imagined it would be each other you tried to kill. I'll live long enough to deliver your grandchild. I owe you both that much. Then - I think I'll join you. The stars are winking out as we speak. Add to the list of the vanished - the only known example of a Binary Quasar. Beautiful to behold, impossible to oppose. Your kids are that way. But they'll have to find another third. Goddamn you two, because you left me without the strength to do it again."
Unsurprisingly, one of the first people to know of the pointless tragedy was Commander Nyota Uhura, Ship's Console Officer - and very briefly, fiancée to the apparently deceased James T. Kirk.
"You've never once raised your hand to me, Jim. Not even when I was a rotten little girl who lied about my age to get you in the sack. You were furious, then. But five minutes after I told you, we were back at it with a vengeance. Had our love stayed in that realm, it might yet have endured. But as you and Spock flew off everywhere together, you needed an anchor - and I needed a chain. I reminded you that you were human, and you reminded me that I was alive. Maybe, with all that taken into account, we've been married for decades. But I like those silly pieces of parchment, Jim. I wanted the one we would sign. I'll take care of the kids, Jim. You take care of Spock. He's far more fragile than he cares to admit. I still love you, you foolish farmboy. I always have. I always will."
Hikaru Sulu had no words. He merely stared at a chair which now seemed larger by far than Ghidorah itself - and twice as frightening. No one even saw Pavel Chekov just wander off the Bridge. A lost soul, even he himself didn't notice it.
In Engineering, Scotty told his techs to clear every last drop of liquor out of his work area and quarters.
"We've lost our best drivers, and I can afford no crutch at this time."
The reactions to the announcement of the loss ran the gamut. Only two disbelieved the obvious evidence. One was Colonel Worf.
"The hopes for vengeance of three B'hai Masters run with those two. They are not permitted to die, until Ghidorah falls in battle and is no more."
The other was Will Decker, the former First Officer, who was not remaining confined in his quarters as ordered, but rather refitting Shuttle X. He turned and spoke to an unseen companion.
"Oh? He Is? Great News, Sir."
Will turned and got back to his work.
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Back in Sickbay, McCoy noticed two missing patients. Peter and Saavik were nowhere to be found.
"God, please - we need those two!"
McCoy imagined strangling Ghidorah and then dissecting it-slowly. But for now the young demigods were his only true concern. He imagined he'd find them crying their eyes out - life had never even attempted to be fair to either of them.
"Kids, please! We'll get through - somehow. Just be strong for the sake of..."
But when he found them, they were not crying. Rather, they were using their abilities to hold two badly frostbitten bodies above bio-beds that they then gently placed them in. The Doctor felt his heart start all over again.
"You've got them - Peter, how?"
Saavik answered for them.
"Simple teleportation, just before their bodies began to lose air and freeze. Doctor - you must leave."
"The hell I will! Jim and Spock may be fools, but they need my help. Can you use your abilities to restore their health?"
Peter answered, his voice like low thunder, even though he was speaking in a normal tone of voice. Leonard then realized that Saavik was the same way.
"We can - but we will not. Nor will we permit you to help them."
"Why the devil not? They've suffered vacuum exposure! Without help, they will die in very short order."
Saavik answered again.
"Their hate nearly killed our child. That hate still exists. They must conquer it - or they must die, so that the child may be protected from this evil."
McCoy took a shot in the dark.
"Is your child the Messiah?"
Peter smiled, and his wife soon after him.
"No, Uncle Len. But it is our child. That alone makes it precious, and worth protecting at any cost. Now - you must go."
'Uncle Len' then vanished and reappeared on the Bridge, startled, dumbstruck, and more than a little afraid.
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Peter hovered over his father.
"Dad - I am the last of the family. You have fallen under the Aegis of Judgement, as told by the Ancient Mysteries. Do you accept me as a fit judge, to demand punishment for your actions? Do you accept your daughter as my co-magistrate, to stand over your life in judgement?"
Jim coughed up blood, but spoke.
"I offer no resistance. For my actions, I must submit. Who - told you?"
Peter got a very sad look.
"Doesn't matter. The Order got them all."
Saavik stood over Spock.
"Father, who is also brother to my Father, your fate is bound up with his, and you have no choice in this matter. Acknowledge that you understand this."
"Saavik-kam....."
"Do you understand this or not?"
Spock was tired, and terribly puzzled.
"I...accept this stated fact. I will not pretend, though, to understand it."
Saavik nodded.
"This is acceptable."
Peter now laid down the rules.
"I am fully restoring your powers of speech and cognition. But nothing else. You must, very simply, fully talk out your problems in the time before your bodies claim you. Understand, you are both still two exhausted men who barely survived an airless, frozen hell after beating the holy crap out of each other. You are still dying. My wife and I can heal you. But if, when we sense your lives ebbing, your hate is not destroyed - then we will face Ghidorah without you, and we may not survive as a result. We are your children, whom you have failed. We love you no less as a result."
Saavik concluded things.
"There will be no unusual telepathic links, nor magic realms full of music and whimsy, to heal the Thy'la. If you cannot find the words - then we will miss you greatly. Both of you. But our child will be made safe from your hate. Know this."
Then, they were both gone, leaving Kirk and Spock alone - and at a loss for words. How to talk out a lifetime in so short a timeframe was a question that frightened them both greatly.
"Jim - do you believe they will kill us?"
"No, Spock. But rest assured, if we can't settle things somehow, here and now... They will let us die."
"Jim? I Love You - My Brother."
"I Love You, as well as I loved Sam, and as well as Peter loved poor little Marc. As well as Saavik loves Peter, My Brother. But back in that room - it wasn't enough."
So they sat in silence and wondered what words could possibly be enough to heal something once thought unbreakable.
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KELVAN RELOCATION COLONY
Rojan stood before his assembled people. Though human in appearance, they were actually Kelvan Tentacloids that had been used to take over and supplant the human colonists who settled at Kelvan invitation. They literally infested their hosts to death while keeping their forms. But now all that was done.
"Let us shed these useful shells, my people, and prepare to feast upon Ghidorah himself!"
Like skin-suits, the human flesh fell away, and the kilo-tentacled creatures emerged. The flesh was all eaten as it tore off. Rojan spoke again.
"We call the Three!!"
Literally devouring each other in a horrid orgy, millions of Kelvans were eventually whittled down to one, overstuffed pale Tentacloid, which continued to grow - until it burst.
"Arise, First!"
From out the burst mega-Kelvin came a transparent nightmare. It resembled a twisted jellyfish.
"Arise - Yog!!"
Another group, again millions strong, became an amalgam, 'cells' in a giant octopus looking-creature.
"Arise, Second!"
The 'cells' smoothed out and the creature was now the largest Kelvan ever seen.
"Arise - Gezora!!"
Now, Rojan transformed all the remaining Kelvans into pure energy. One by one, their images moved into their leader, who grew as they did.
"Arise, Third!"
Finally assuming a size that could face Ghidorah head on, Rojan exulted.
"Arise - Viras!!!"
A war of the Giant Monsters was rapidly approaching, with power being bandied about that could easily destroy all planets.
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In a flash of light that the Bridge Crew thought resembled the entry signal of the late Q, Leonard McCoy appeared next to the Captain's Chair. He looked around at his startled friends, and blurted out two very welcome words.
"They're alive."
Knowing nothing else, the extended family of Kirk and Spock literally rejoiced. Few could be happier than Commander Uhura, who would soon exchange vows with her Captain of more than twenty years and her lover of almost forty. But Sulu, who by nature did not trust good news, saw in Doctor McCoy's face the two words he failed to add to "They're Alive". Those words were "For Now". After McCoy explained what he knew, Sulu nodded.
"If those two kids are well enough to do that - Uhura, summon them. We're going for Reliant. And when we're back up - we're going after Ghidorah."
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Rescued from oblivion by their married children, the two top officers lay in Sickbay. They were alive, but they were also dying. There was not an inch of their bodies that was not bruised, broken, or badly marked up. They had gone at each other with hell's own fury.
As he lay there, Jim thought of the heavy Briefing Room chair he had lifted like a feather, so high was his testosterone and adrenalin. He remembered using it for no other purpose than to make Spock suffer. Spock had lied to him about something precious and fundamental. Spock had known that Peter was alive, after his kidnapping by the Admiralty. Spock had kept this information from everyone. That everyone included Peter's father. For ten years, Jim had thought his boy was dead.
"You bastard. You knew."
Kirk hadn't meant to blurt that out. He was trying hard to plan his each and every word in an effort to puncture Spock's pompous-sounding defense of his actions that were so clearly indefensible. But despite Peter's restoration of their speech and cognitive powers, the young man had left them as he and Saavik found them. Pain ripped through Jim as he realized that Spock's one blow to his lower torso must have absolutely pulverized his intestines.
For any number of reasons, Spock had caught the worst of their brief trip into the vacuum. His skin itched, and was falling off. Ice, like fire, can tear through dermal layers like a hot knife through butter. Unable to look over at Kirk, and not sure he wanted to, Spock blurted out an equally unprepared response to Kirk's words.
"You hit me."
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Acting Captain Hikaru Sulu didn't mince words.
"Lieutenant Kirk, do you possess the ability to bring our Captain - your Father - back to full health, and restore him to his place on the Bridge?"
The young man with the glowing eyes nodded.
"Yes, Commander. But I won't."
Sulu maintained his angry look at a young man who had always had his admiration. He had no choice but to do so.
"If I order you to, will you do it?"
"No, sir. You have no authority in this matter."
"Because I don't have your powers?"
Peter winced a little at that suggestion.
"Mitchell thought he was a god, Hikaru. I don't, and neither does my wife. You would lack the authority to settle this matter even if you had these abilities and I didn't. This involves the family. No one may interfere. Either Spock will be brought back in, or they must both be shut out forever. If their hate is part of us when we fight Ghidorah - then we're dead."
Saavik, whose eyes glowed in the same manner. agreed with her husband.
"We have both been dead before. We have no desire to repeat the experience. What they feel now must be expunged - or we must prepare to mourn both the father of my life and the father of my heart. They are Kings - it is long past time they acted the part. But we will move Enterprise back toward Reliant, for repairs."
With that, they vanished, making Sulu wonder if Peter Kirk was really avoiding the corruption brought about by absolute power.
"What the hell was all that about their family? What family law could grant him the right to judge his father and disobey his Starfleet Oath?"
Nyta, attempting to coax life out of the fried computer console, had an answer.
"Witten."
Sulu looked over.
"Uhura?"
"Sulu, you're the devotee of European history. Jim once explained his extended family to me. The parts he understood, anyway. Witten was a European Royal House. Founded about 900, it was a kind of Over-House. Every Eurasian Royal Family belonged to it, even if they themselves didn't know. House Witten was said to possess the Sang Real - Holy Blood. Some believed themselves to be physical descendants of Christ. Jim's family is like that - -except on a planetary scale."
Disbelieving, Sulu shook his head.
"So that's it? Jim and Peter are some kind of royalty, and we have to watch them play-act? I don't think so. I'm going down there and treat them. Peter is my friend, and he won't stop me."
Uhura regarded her old shipmate.
"He will stop you. And if you got past him somehow, Jim would kill you for interfering. By the way. That explanation? The Captain told me it was a watered-down version of what little he understood. So don't go quoting me."
Uhura stopped her work, and got up suddenly. Her eyes darted around. She called out to the son of her heart.
"Peter!"
The young man appeared in an instant.
"Yes, Mom?"
This only surprised Sulu a little, since Nyta and the boy had always been close. But it was increasingly becoming clear that the cliché about forces beyond comprehension was no longer just a cliché. Peter had answered her call in a heartbeat.
"Peter - we have a GNN stringer on board. They've been using the chaos to piggy-back a beam through my console."
Peter closed his eyes.
"Saavik-kam - find them!"
Saavik then appeared as well, with three officers in tow. They looked stunned. The apparent ringleader spoke haltingly.
"Um, Commander - the press has a right to know - and, uh, so does the public."
Sulu glared hard at him and his cohorts.
"You took an oath. You will return to your duties and resume fulfilling it. But your supervisors are to cut you no slack - and your crewmates will watch your every movement. Now get out of my sight."
They left, and mumbled as they did. Peter spoke up, in response to the mumbling. "That's where you're wrong. The Captain would have pushed me out the airlock, if I did what you did."
They stopped mumbling and just left, quite whipped.
Sulu gestured at the forward viewer. "Tune in GNN. Let's check the damage."
The damage was intense.
"Again, we show the two plucky telekinetics keeping the Enterprise safe from the attack of Ghidorah, Butcher Of Worlds. One of them actually punched the creature square in the nose! They have been identified as Peter and Saavik Kirk, children of Enterprise senior officers Captain Kirk and Ambassador Spock, according to our stringers. Together, our fairy-tale couple will be saviors of the universe. Once again, Enterprise saves the day!"
Sulu was sickened, and looked at Saavik. Peter was stone silent, and looked stunned.
"Congratulations, Saavik. You and your husband are now media celebrities. Now I almost hope Jim doesn't make it. There'll be hell to pay when he finds this out."
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In Sickbay, two old friends who had the scars to prove it made their move to survive what they had done to themselves.
"Spock - no holds barred?"
"It would seem - I have no choice."
"This isn't just a conversation. Things could get pretty bad."
"Worse than what went on in the Briefing Room?"
"Far worse."
"I fail to see how that can be possible."
"You wouldn't. In here, Spock, there's no ducking or blocking. Just us. Two dying men who have a lifetime to settle in not nearly enough time."
Spock took this in.
"Then let us begin."
Next- Chapter 20 - There Will Be Wars, Such As You Have Known.....