Chapter 20 - There Will Be Wars, Such As You Have Known.....SICKBAY, USS ENTERPRISE
Spock stirred.
"Should I go first?"
Kirk was noncommittal.
"Do whatever you like, Spock. It seems you will, anyway."
Spock knew how to read 'neutral' human speech.
"Then you have still not accepted the logic of my decision to keep silent regarding your son's captivity?"
"No, Spock, I haven't accepted that. Do you know why I haven't accepted it? Because it wasn't logical. You kept silent on my child's fate, just the way you did on your child's existence. An emotional response, Mister Ambassador."
"You are wrong. In both instances, my response was based in a logic I placed beyond my personal pain. That is the Vulcan path. The path my daughter must be re-taught, it seems."
Kirk managed to turn his neck, at that. He heard and felt a savage pop, but felt it was worth it to see Spock actually say these words he considered so foolish.
"Spock, she may or may not want you in her life - and I think she does. But Saavik wants nothing more to do with Vulcan. Did mother - did your mother tell you about the tunic incident?"
"She wrote me of how T'Pring's niece sought to embarrass Saavik over her then-small chest size. Again, proof that she has become far too human. A Vulcan girl would have no such biological obsession. Especially when one considers that Peter's affection for her has never wavered, from her late adolescence to her so-called 'filling-out' stage. The Vulcan path is not an easy one, but it is free of such nonsense."
Kirk saw the weakness in Spock's argument, and exploited it.
"Self-Image, Spock. Self-Image is important. Agreed?"
"I would accept that as a truism."
"What would you say my son's self-image is? Just a speculation."
"Like you, he blusters frequently, and then expects that everyone concerned shall forgive him. More often than not - everyone does. His self-image is that of a tired crusader who proclaims loudly the desire to lay down his sword while dreading the day he must do just that."
Kirk heard an undertone in Spock's voice that he pushed aside, for now. "Fair enough. You did forget to add that my boy is just slightly out of his mind, but then so is his wife. What about her, Spock? What about Saavik's self-image? Do you wish to hear my assessment?"
"I suppose it would be informative. How is it you can turn your neck, and I cannot?"
"Simple, Spock. Neck exercises. Peter's kata. If you'll recall, the neck pinch doesn't work on him - except for Saavik."
Spock sighed.
"Tell me of my daughter's self-image."
Kirk fired a shot as he did.
"*My* daughter knew she didn't want to be a Romulan. After all, to her Romulans are rapists and thugs. She wanted to be Vulcan - she tried so hard to be Vulcan. She really is quite Vulcan - by the standards of us Non-Vulcans. But your world refused to meet her halfway. So she found another part of herself. She didn't know why it was there. But it gave her answers - not perfect answers, but then these answers never claimed to be perfect. Her adoptive father used these answers. So did her unspoken grandparents, as Sarek's condition progressed. Then, one day, she cracked open a glass coffin and found the Prince. She awakened him with a kiss, and he told her she was beautiful."
Spock responded in a limp tone of voice. "She is beautiful."
Kirk roared in response. "Of course she's beautiful! But she never heard that from you. Not even in a restrained Vulcan manner. Do you know what she would have given to hear you say, 'Your appearance is acceptable and pleasing to me.'? I understand your pain, old friend. I even understand your silence. But your distance from the girl has shattered her self- image. Don't you see? Rather than being a separate thing, your logic has become hopelessly infected by your pain and denial. Even worse, you allowed it to harm my son."
Spock took this in.
"Then, besides accusing me of being incapable of separating my feelings regarding Saavik, you now postulate that I kept you in a similar position regarding Peter?"
"Misery loves company, Spock."
"You must be close to death, Jim. You are growing ever-more irrational. Again, while a pair of uncomfortable subjects, my logic and my pain are and always have been separate. As they always shall be."
"Because you are a Vulcan?"
If Spock could have nodded, he would have done so then.
"Indeed. The difficult path yields many such rewards. Even in my pain and absence, I maintain my control. Hence, I was well able to surrender my dignity by publicly embracing her and still remain functional."
Kirk laughed.
"Jim. I fail to see what I said that could be construed as amusing."
"Damned right you fail to see. You are functional, Spock. A functional psychotic."
"Who struck who first?"
"I can prove my thesis, and in a non-emotional manner, Mister Ambassador."
"If that is so, then, Captain Kirk - I will consider what you have said."
There was five minutes of silence while Kirk prepared his argument.
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FEDERATION COUNCIL EMERGENCY MEETING, PARIS, EARTH
The Tellarite Ambassador no longer had a planet to represent. But he still had a mouth that rivaled Ghidorah's in sheer shrieking power.
"Your leadership has left us drifting in a void while enemies of rapacious power nibble at the foundations of all that we are! You quote rules and regulations and continually squander opportunities to resolve this situation and bring us back to where we should be. Worst of all, we are all now merely your advisors, and you run things by Executive Fiat! Your plan is slow and plodding, and we need to find a shorter path, or we are lost!"
While his arguments were compelling in one respect, they were nothing that UFP Executive Spokesperson Harriet Janeway hadn't heard before, since the crisis began.
"Mister Ambassador - the President still maintains that only a strategy which forces Ghidorah and the Doomsday Machine into fighting one another can possibly succeed. The Ancient Destroyer took out the entire Klingon fleet. No Starfleet strategist ever even dreamed that could be done. The Doomsday Machine is wiping away worlds and their colonies right and left. People we know. People we don't. People we like, hate, you name it. Starfleet is still trying to deliver goods and restore services to those worlds ravaged by the coup leaders."
The Ambassador From Trill spoke next.
"Kirk's ship - the Enterprise. Why is it the only one to actively pursue King Ghidorah? Apart from the renegade Excelsior group, that is?"
Janeway nodded.
"We are trying to change the Excelsior group's orders. As you know, currently, they are locked into orders from the dissolved Science and Exploration Council. They have been told to capture King Ghidorah for study. We disagree with that goal - for obvious reasons."
She breathed in.
"As for the Enterprise - not only does it contain the finest Captain and Crew going, but it has Kirk's son and adoptive daughter. Files we took from the vanished coup leaders indicate they are Psis of immense power and skill. Indeed, the Order considered them the only real threat to Ghidorah's power. That was why they kidnapped the boy."
A Science Council member under house arrest shouted out.
"So the fate of all that is rests with a boy and a girl, children of Starfleet's most notorious renegade crew?"
Janeway stared directly at the noisome hulk of a man.
"I'll take Kirk's kids - neither of whom I've ever met - over the pointless bickering in this chamber that I know all too well. Goodbye, gentlebeings - supposedly. I'm joining my family on Alpha Centauri before heading for the Counter-Spin Shipyards that the Hall set up in secret. I'll be facing Ghidorah - better him than you."
Janeway embraced her superior as the UFP President emerged to make his remarks.
"Goodbye, Harriet - you're a damned tough act to follow."
"Give em' Hell, sir!"
"And why would I wish this bunch on the devil, Harriet?"
He tried to open his remarks, but found the shouting and mumbling about evacuations of important people and reallocation of remaining starships drowned him out. So the President brought out a gift once given him by then-Captain Sulu. It was a 20th-Century style pistol, a souvenir of an odd amusement park. He fired the pistol into the air. All fell silent and were brought quickly to attention.
"Thank You. Now, you have, while worlds have burned, yelled and screamed about matters so petty and parliamentary that I myself have no clue as to their importance, even in your eyes."
The Tellarite began to yell again. "You have lost......"
The President aimed his pistol and shot him. The Tellarite screamed, but did not bleed. The President smiled. "Blanks. Empty cartridges, that make a lot of noise, but have no value in a war."
The silence continued.
"Many of you here have spoken of occupying the Klingon and Romulan colony worlds. Others have talked about moving the UFP capitol off of Earth. Still others proposed raising the price of consumables so that agrarian worlds may finally reap the benefits of their labors in this catastrophe. You have shown me, that, in time - of ultimate crisis, anyway, this Council is a farce. Since I am head of this council - I must leave this office."
There were cheers, and automatic mumbles of who should succeed the outgoing President. Then they saw what he held in his hand. There was silence yet again.
"This is the revered original document that was signed to create the United Federation Of Planets." Before their horrified eyes, he tore it to pieces, and threw it like confetti down upon the mass of political cowardice.
"In keeping with that document, I choose to not merely resign, but to enact Final Dissolution. On Paper, and in teality, this time not because of the actions of evil beings, but because of the inaction of good ones..."
He paused, having set the fuse on his fully constitutional H-Bomb.
"The United Federation Of Planets Is No More."
Their power gone, the bureaucrats sat down. Legally, the President held all the cards. And he had just played his Ace. All Five Aces, actually, and the game was done.
"Wait! You Must Appoint An Interim Caretaker!"
Despite phantom pain from his lost arm, the President smiled even more broadly.
"Already done. He is a man well known and loved by you all."
If sarcasm were acid, the Council Chamber would have then sunk into the Seine'.
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USS ENTERPRISE
Colonel Worf nodded appreciatively at Uhura. "An honor, Commander. I shall serve with distinction at your new tactical console. And I never miss."
Uhura was worried about her Captain and fiancé, as well as Spock. But she hid it well.
"Considering the target is over one thousand old unit miles across, Mister Worf, I hope you don't miss."
Before Worf could respond, Uhura saw an incoming priority transmission symbol on her Comm Board. When she read it, her eyes bugged out.
"Captain Sulu - come here, sir."
"Yes, Commander? I... ohh, My God!"
Worf read it and puzzled.
"You seem disturbed. Is this not good news, being the proper ascension of a great man?"
Sulu responded.
"It is both great news and a great shock, Colonel. The outgoing UFP President has a sense of humor, though. What do you think, Nyta?"
Her eyes reflected her torment. Uhura would abide by Peter's judgement in the matter of Jim's life, but she didn't have to like it, since she dearly loved all involved.
Right now, Kirk and Spock struggled to unravel the pains of a lifetime. This new piece of information would further transform that lifetime - if they all lived.
"What do I think, my old friend? I think that I was ready to be a Captain's wife and an officer - a mother, and maybe a grandmother. But I never in my wildest dreams thought that marrying Jim would make me...."
She drifted off, as did Sulu. So Worf spoke up.
"From what I have studied of your system of governance, I believe the term is - 'First Lady.' Or is that First Spouse?"
Either way, life on the USS Enterprise had just changed forever - again.
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THE FORMER FEDERATION/KLINGON NEUTRAL ZONE REGION
Captain Paul Stiles of the Excelsior-class Starship USS Edmund Fitzgerald differed significantly from his battle-group's leader, Captain John Styles of the Excelsior. For one, he did not deride James Kirk or his ship as relics. Nor was he terribly keen on using ships built in secret by the deceased residents of Admiralty Hall. Having once been a bigot himself, he knew better than to trust anything the Order had crafted.
"All stop."
Executive Officer Angela Martine, a friend of Stiles from the Enterprise, carried out the all-stop, but not without question.
"Captain, why are we stopping? The other ships - sir, we'll lose them."
He acknowledged her, but did not change his mind.
"Trust me, Angela. Jim Kirk gave me an Imperial-Class lecture before he kicked me off Enterprise. He asked me if I instinctively trusted Spock. I said I did. He then asked me why I didn't obey that instinct, instead of family history. That hit home."
"If that's so, Paul, then why did you join the Order?"
"I was in my pure jerk phase. I was easy pickings for Bunson and her crew."
"Ok - then why did you leave it?"
"At a rally, a new recruit got up and denounced the whole thing. Again, his words hit home. And again, his name was Kirk. It must have been two months before the bastards kidnapped him. I cleaned up my act - and got held back for it, til 'the Rapture' came and cleaned house."
When Ghidorah effectively "ate" all of its followers' souls, including a shocking amount of Starfleet Officers, some chose to call it, without a hint of irony, 'the Rapture', after a Terran religion's belief about the End Of Days. Paul Stiles had been among those whom the Order had kept back, for the crime of refusing them. But for Paul, it all had been worth it. 42 was not a shocking age to reach Captain, especially of so new a class as the Excelsior. More importantly, he had kept who he was and improved on it. Much like his first Captain. Much like that Captain's son.
"Science Station! Can you make our computer believe that the planet fragment in front of us is King Ghidorah?"
"Aye, Captain. But why, sir?"
"Just do it, Mister. My instincts tell me not to trust the Hall after its death anymore than when they were all alive. Angela, you with me?"
"Aye, Captain. But what about our tin-plated group leader? If he hasn't stopped already, he will soon, to find out why you have."
Captain Stiles understood her concern.
"You have your orders, Exec. If I'm wrong, we'll feign minor problems and rejoin the group."
"And if you're right?"
"Then to hell with John Styles, and his affectations. This group may not be able to even approach the Ancient Destroyer."
The Science Officer spoke.
"Helm, Nav both reset, Captain. Reading planet fragment as Ghidorah."
The Captain gestured.
"Fire. All weapons, all banks, full spread."
As Stiles had feared and predicted, the Computer's voice rang out a warning.
"Error... Error... This ship is not permitted to fire upon Lord Ghidorah. Any further efforts to do so will be regarded as a break with General Order Seven. Appropriate action...."
Stiles waved one hand in disgust.
"Science... detarget fragment."
The XO stared in horror at the readouts.
"Captain - our weapons systems refused to budge, once the target was named."
"Can we re-name?"
The Science Officer shook her head.
"No, Captain. In fact, we can no longer fire on that fragment. The Computer refuses to believe it might not be Ghidorah. Good call, sir."
Stiles put his hand to his chin.
"A good call, Ensign, would be how to get our ship away from those deep codes."
The Comm panel blinked.
"Sir - it's Captain Styles."
Since both men had agreed to dispense with the obvious similarity in their names, the officious John Styles got straight to the point, as soon as his image was on screen.
"Captain Stiles, I demand to know why you have fallen back."
"Captain Styles, sir. Prepare to receive the findings of a test we just conducted."
The Group Leader almost didn't look at the results.
"Rubbish. A computer error. Human error - *your* error, Captain. For one thing, we won't be firing on Ghidorah. We're merely acting to capture him."
Stiles looked at the man who held his fate, and the fate of his crew. He wondered why incompetents weren't raptured, bigoted ideals or no.
"Captain - humor me. Tell your ship's computer that the planet fragment is King Ghidorah, then fire your reinforced tractor beam at it."
"My capture beam, you mean? If only to prove a point, I will. Then I shall have you relieved of Command by my own First Officer. Why, John Harriman should have had your seat to begin with. All ready? Fire! Now, *Crewman* Stiles..."
Aboard the Excelsior, a familiar warning rang out. Styles handled it much less well than Stiles.
"John! Reprogram that bloody computer! It obeys me! IT WILL OBEY!"
"I'm trying, sir. But we're getting no response. It's locking up!"
"Fire a weapons spread, then. It's only a planet fragment, not Ghidorah itself. Fire - now!"
Aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald, Paul Stiles shook his head. "Captain, didn't you hear? The damned thing is programmed to carry out General Order Seven if you don't... Helm, Nav, get us out of here!"
The computer apparently had no problem with getting out of "Lord Ghidorah's" way, and so the Edmund Fitzgerald, along with the Constellation, the Titan, the Maine, and the Intrepid all pulled back as Styles screamed bloody murder.
"You stooopid machine! I order you to do as I say!"
"Do you wish to cease hostile activities against Lord Ghidorah?"
"No, of course not. This is my ship."
"General Order Seven initiated. Warp Core Implosion in 10-9-8-7......"
In the distance, the five ships watched as the Computer ignored Styles' final commands.
"Wonderful. Comm, tell Star- tell the UF- call the shipyards and tell them about this deep code problem. Also, get me the Maine."
"This is Toriatsyx, aboard the Maine. Captain Stiles, thank you. If not for your quick thinking... we'd all be one with the final void."
"You're welcome, Toriatsyx. But I need to know where the Excalibur, the Lusitania, the Bismarck, the Valiant, the Andrea Doria, and the Odyssey all are."
Toriatsyx frowned.
"Styles - he sent them ahead after Ghidorah. Just before we caught up with you, we started hearing screams on subspace as they caught up with him at Kelvas-2."
Paul slammed his hand down on his chair.
"You mean to say people were dying and he came back to lecture me? Captain, suggest that we are useless in the battle against Ghidorah. We should withdraw."
"Perhaps in the battle against Ghidorah, Captain... but I think you better take a listen to what our enhanced subspace transceiver picked up, from what was the Dead Zone."
Stiles nodded.
"On audio, Comm. Enhance as you can."
The signal was already surprisingly strong, and the voice familiar. It was that of James T. Kirk.
"Move forward, and use every advantage. This is crush, kill, destroy time, people. No room for weakness. All for victory, and all for glory. This Federation was already weak-kneed - now it's in ruins, and quite Ripe for the pickings. Remember, though - Kirk is mine."
Paul Stiles was dumbfounded.
"Kirk would never say anything... My God."
Toriatsyx nodded.
"The Enterprise is currently laid up a good couple of light years from that signal's point of origin. Our former sponsors on the Council slagged their duotronic systems. Do you want to see what pictures our probe recovered?"
"Yes. But I fear I don't need to."
It was all there, in living color. The hull of the signal-origin ship said NCC-1701, and it said Enterprise. But there was one major difference. On all the ships seen in the pics.
"Do you remember, Angela? Right before Kirk sent me packing? How he, Uhura, Mister Scott and the Doctor all went insane and had to be put in the brig?"
Exec Martine turned to the Comm officer.
"Inform anyone who can receive a priority channel, and scramble it as you go on each word."
"Aye, Mister Martine. What should I tell them?"
"That we face war on a third front, now. Tell that the UF- that the Alpha Quadrant is being invaded by the United Empire Of Planets!"
Stiles stared at the screen.
"Always on Monday."
"Paul?"
"Yes, Angela?"
"This Is Tuesday."
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Kirk began his argument.
"Spock, what is the planet and culture that celebrates - for want of a better term - Emotional Control and Restraint?"
Spock could not nod, and did not hesitate to answer.
"That planet and that culture are Vulcan. Jim, if your intent truly is to persuade me that I am a functional psychotic, then I must in all fairness point out that you are off to a very weak start."
Jim did not respond, and pressed ahead.
"What planet best exemplifies- or sadly, exemplified - the opposite philosophy? That philosophy being the virtual free reign of emotions, to achieve and remain at one's best? Again, a lacking piece of oversimplification, but still mostly correct."
"Your condition must be worse than mine. Why, then, are you so able to make coherent arguments?"
Kirk could not move to shrug.
"I'm trying to rescue our lifetime of friendship from a deep pit of hell that we both had a hand in digging, Spock. So please do me the great courtesy of not asking where I'm finding the strength to attempt it. Kaidith."
"Then, the answer to your question is Qo'noS. Indeed, the free reign of emotion that is the norm there...."
Spock stopped, and coughed.
"...Was the norm there proved a very difficult adjustment for me."
"Did it? You mean you couldn't do your job as Ambassador?"
"Jim, you are well aware of my accomplishments on Qo'noS. Do you now seek to dispute the record?"
Kirk was the leader, as always.
"Not at all. Given five more years, and I do believe you would have nailed down a treaty of Alliance that would have fulfilled the Organian Prophecy and been approved by both sides. You were, and I mean this without humor, a diplomatic Scotty. You did it, Spock. You balanced off multiple levels of concerns - certainly you made my life easier, during the Dead Zone Crisis with the Breen and Kzinti. With your trade concessions, the Klingons were finally able to fully monitor the Romulan border. I saw it in their relatively relaxed stance. No, Spock. If I listed all your accomplishments as Ambassador, we'd be gone well before I was done. It is not your diplomatic record I question."
"Then what still lies in question?"
"Spock - if a man had horrible breath and there were no cure, might he find solace by moving to a place where everyone else's breath was far, far worse?"
"I do not have bad breath. More, I fail to see the point in this hypothesis."
"No, you don't have bad breath, and neither do most Klingons, unless they've been drinking bloodwine. Breath isn't what it's about. No, it's about emotion. You, who were beginning to lose control over your emotions, moved to a place where you could still be Vulcan, despite this. Humans might notice - maybe not. Vulcans definitely would. But Klingons? Kang wrote me and sent his compliments at how well you were throwing in to their culture. He thought it was an effort on your part. I didn't have the heart to tell him you were just a scared little Vulcan running away to the circus."
Spock's face tightened.
"I believe that we have established that you are absent any heart at all."
"That may as be, Spock. But in my heartless state, I still see a man who moved half a galaxy away from a dying father, a desperate daughter, and a young man that he unwittingly betrayed. Where did he go, Spock? To a land that is a Surakian nightmare."
"There are many disciplines that counsel restraint on Qo'noS, Jim."
"Feh. I'll take a laughing Vulcan over a quiet, sober Klingon any day, and not because the Klingons were my enemies once. It's because in a Klingon, that quiet could mean literally anything. But I know that the laughing Vulcan is ill."
"Jim - I am not laughing."
"But you are ill, Spock. I should have tried harder to help you. You make it hard, Spock. If you had just asked, I would have done anything for you. Literally anything."
"Where I had pain - you could not have helped me."
"That assumption again, Spock. It fairly proves my point."
"That assumption being?"
"Easy. That I can't do anything. I can't help you with your pain over your imprisonment, so you don't speak to me of it. That I am an automaton who would have staged a cowboy-type rescue of Peter, ignoring all common sense. Don't you get it? Your pain is so deep, it has you not just doubting me - it has you dismissing me. Not even allowing me the possibility to try."
Spock closed his eyes, then snapped them open again. There were doses of pure anger in his otherwise staid voice.
"I concede that I very likely went to Qo'noS to escape what I saw in myself as a long-term emotional lapse and its public consequences. But I will require two more sound points before I concede your overall argument. I must wager that you do not have them."
"You'd lose that bet. Because my next point involves - our children."
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EXCELSIOR BATTLE GROUP THE DEAD ZONE
Paul Stiles was now de facto Commander of a fleet of five of the most advanced starships ever built. This thought pleased him not at all. It was a promotion unearned, and granted through out-and-out battlefield disaster.
Captain John Styles had almost literally ordered the Excelsior to self-destruct, refusing to hear the pleadings of the younger Captain with a similar name. Stiles had realized in time that ships built by the corrupt Admiralty would never be permitted to fire upon the being they worshipped. That being was Ghidorah.
But now, something equally as bad, though not nearly as powerful, was adding to the growing Apocalypse.
"Commander Martine, replay the latest audio. I want to hear again what 'the Captain' said about opportunities."
Angela Martine, Stiles' XO, knew exactly what portion of the aud-file to replay. The bond between Captain and First Officer did not need true telepathy to work, if it was developed right.
The voice was that of James T. Kirk. The soul was not unlike that of Ghidorah's followers.
"In the Name Of the Empire, we move forward. Through the static, one thing remains perfectly clear - the Federation is in chaos. Fatal chaos. The 'Experiment' in democracy has gone where it usually goes - onto history's scrap heap. Right now, as we speak, a massive Federation battle group is massed near a planet they call Kelvas-2. A sign of their innate weakness, it is a haven they have given freely to an alien enemy. A sign of our strength, we shall observe this overlarge group as it fights. Its power is quite tremendous, and surely they have placed their best tech there. We will either break this tech or make it ours. Victory here, profit back home. EMPIRE! HUMANITY! VICTORY!"
The file ended. Martine shook her head.
"They know we're here. But they seem to have greatly overestimated our size and power. That file came through well after we lost half the group."
Just for a moment, Paul Stiles allowed the hate to be filtered out, and he let the voice of Kirk inspire him. He was, for an instant, able to think like the man who regretfully transferred a young, know-it-all bigot. Captain Stiles then knew.
"The Empire Fleet is unaware of Ghidorah. They must think that war has broken out among all the major powers, and the Federation won a crippling victory."
The Science Officer took in the Captain's words. "That would make sense. They read us by Kelvas-2. But it's Ghidorah and the other three monsters that they're picking up."
Martine shook her head. "It could easily be a trap. They might even have tech, like the Romulans did, capable of controlling Ghidorah."
Stiles nodded. "If it is a trap, and they do possess such tech - which, by the way, I doubt could do its intended job - then we're all dead, anyway. Plus they have almost twice as many ships as we did at our peak."
"Which means that is merely the vanguard fleet."
"Which means we seal their portal or otherwise disrupt their portal area. One disaster at a time, Mister Martine. My gut tells me that they think Ghidorah is either a lot of ships or one big weapon of ours. If that's the case, we have one advantage that we will have to fully exploit. Knowledge. We have some that they do not. We hope."
The XO smiled. "Paulie, I suggest we play our cards just so. And maybe recognize that we won't walk away from the table."
"I disagree, Angie. I firmly disagree. I think that, by hook, crook, and book - we emerge the living winners. I think it's time we showed those barbarians that a goofball castoff of this Universe's Kirk can whip the real thing from a dark corner of hell. Then - we'll send him back there."
The battle of Kelvas-2 raged. The weakened Excelsior group could not join it. But Stiles and Martine had learned well from their one-time mentor the means by which one makes a difference. The Empire would pay for its opportunism.
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It was a dramatic shift in fortunes. While both were wounded unto death, it was Spock who found mere speech difficult.
Kirk, on the other hand, was talking up a storm. That storm had been building through most of their adult lives. Now, though, Jim spoke of two people who had only recently achieved adulthood. Two people who very nearly hadn't.
"They are a remarkable duo, Spock. Both wrongly presumed dead - both violated. Both killers."
Spock disagreed. "They were children when they killed. Saavik killed to survive Hellguard. Peter killed when threatened on Deneva by those possessed by the Ghidoran neural parasites. Those things in themselves do not make the children killers."
"Peter killed fourteen of the Admirals on that horrible night. He stuffed a phaser inside one of their - orifices - after setting it to overload. Saavik once killed a roomful of her fellow cadets - people she knew and liked, because they were trying to retake Peter at the Academy. Peter killed T'Pring."
"Good. For T'Pring deserved to die. She was evil."
Spock's reaction worried Kirk, for it surely meant that his old friend was far closer to death than he had imagined.
"Spock, I am doing this to break down the barriers between us. Not to break your self-control. Even for all she did, I hesitate to say that T'Pring deserved death."
But Kirk had sowed the wind, and now reaped the whirlwind.
"I have no such hesitancy. I hope that your son made her suffer greatly, Jim. Would you care to hear why?"
"Yes. I'll take any road into you I can get."
"First, there is her House. House Sindel brought the Order to Vulcan. It did so in direct opposition to the Reformation. They drove Surak and S'tssk apart. That division between Father and Son helped found Romulus. Next is the girl T'Pring. Vicious from birth, a true Ghidoran. At 7, she immobilized Sybok, and then allowed herself to be recorded using him. This extortion kept him in the Order as much as anything else. The adult T'Pring's anger over losing title to my estates reveals her evil at its most brutal. She even bragged of it to me, and took joy from my shaking despair."
Kirk's intuition hit hard. He knew what was to follow. So he said it.
"T'Pring was behind it all. My mother's murder. Peter's kidnapping. A precise job planned by a cold as space professional."
"Indeed. It was she who suggested to the Admiralty that a young boy would be an easier target than myself, who also was marked by the spores."
Kirk shifted things back quite suddenly.
"But it was you who kept silent on it. Spock, you knew Saavik might be alive, but I understand denying Hellguard. But you knew my son was alive. A young man, scared and alone in hell. But the man his father called brother could not be at all BOTHERED to tell me what hell he was kept in. Again, why, Spock?"
Spock found himself on an emotional slope. He might one day soon once again be the Spock of legend. But his control on these matters would be forever altered.
"Because I could not show valor in the case of my own daughter. I ran. When she was most vulnerable, I ran. My mind would not allow me to do for your child what I could not do for my own."
"And after Saavik was rescued?"
"To be near her was to remember. To see her strength was to see my own, and know that it was not enough when the time came. To see her struggles with cruel classmates cut too closely for even the pretense of objectivity on my part. Then she took your son for a lover. Your son, who calls Sarek 'Father' and Amanda 'Mother'. Peter, who is my daughter's world. The young man I wrongly chose to keep silent about has taken my place in all their lives. Silent once through faulty logic and denial, silent later because I was jealous of my brother's son, my daughter's brother - my own brother."
Kirk's bravado was gone. So was most of his anger. But Spock was as wrong about these things as some others, so he reluctantly pressed on.
"You aren't jealous of him, Spock. Or if you are, it is not, in my opinion, part of what so thoroughly corrupted your immense intellect."
"Intriguing. You claim to know what has and has not affected me. Further, I, whom you proclaimed a fool, am now possessed of a vast intellect."
Kirk sneered, though Spock could not see this.
"I'm not angry at a fool, Spock! I'm angry at the most brilliant man I've ever known for failing to recognize the limitations of the path he's chosen."
"C'thia - the path of Surak..."
"NO! Surak's path is a wise, but tough one. In many ways, it's probably an ideal way to live - emphasis on the word, 'Ideal'. What you keep failing to recognize is that you have been put through less than ideal circumstances. The first hybrid on your world. A brother who left, and then betrayed you when he returned. Parents who tried their best, but made a muddle of it for you. A daughter you couldn't choose, couldn't save, and then couldn't bring yourself to acknowledge."
"We all have our burdens, Jim. Surak prepared us for that. Logic is the one true way. I am a Vulcan - there is no pain."
"Liar. You have pain. We all do. Surak never once made that statement, by the way. 'No Pain' is propaganda. Your pain has you at war with yourself, Spock. I hit you, though, because that war almost killed my boy. Once, as a child. Then later, as a bondmate."
"You refer to the annulment?"
"I refer to the annulment. Spock, what could have happened to the children as their bond was dissolved?"
Spock took in a new perspective. It almost stopped his heart.
"They - could easily have died. Suicide is also not unheard of. Jim, I plead to you for mercy. I still have no clear idea as to why I challenged their bond."
"I know why. And it is a perfectly normal reason, Spock. I felt it, despite all logic."
"Then I must ask that you tell me. The challenge I posed in the midst of celebration over the bond confuses me to no end."
"It's all quite simple, Spock. Unmarried, Saavik is still a little girl. There's still time for you to make it all up to her. But when she's married - wellll. Even though we both know him to be a fine young man, Peter is still doing things to our little girl, Spock. Things a man does to a woman. And she loves every minute of it. Logic dictates: she's not anyone's little girl anymore."
"Then my chances with her are done?"
"No. Just your artificial timetable. My friend - do you honestly think that she needs you any less, months away from becoming a parent herself?"
"She has her Thy'la and Husband. She has you. You have Uhura. The people I was ambassador to are no more. Certainly Peter has no use for me."
"Wrong on all counts. Peter told me he got through it all by studying how you did it. He couldn't comprehend you, Spock, but he admires you. The Klingons? You think they won't need an advocate, after all this is done? Nyta and I are to be husband and wife. Do you think that means she doesn't want her brother-in-law around? Lastly, that woman who is so very crazy about my son has needed you since you touched her mind as an infant. You saved her, Spock. Linviaj would have corrupted her soul, if not for you. You were her dream of a better day. Yes, you made mistakes. You only make me angry when you keep permitting them to cripple you."
But Spock was not buying just yet.
"What I saw in the Briefing Room was not a man upset by my limitations."
"That was my mistake. I make them a lot. You caught it all, Spock. Everything I ever wanted to do to Cartwright's bunch. Everything I wanted to do to my own mother, for her ham-handed efforts at discipline. I think I was even angry at Nyta."
"Jim, you wanted to kill me."
Kirk turned the words around.
"Spock, you wanted to be killed."
"Indeed? I will require you to explain that statement."
Kirk felt his rib-cage contracting. Time was running out.
"Spock, you told me a piece of news that you knew for certain would upset me. Greatly upset me. Worse, you told it to me alone, with no one to restrain me. Nyta, Bones - no one. You knew my temper. You knew my killing skills. But you told me a horrid secret in private, anyway. Logically, what would you label a person who would do such a thing?"
Spock's vision was blurring, and yet he could never see more clearly.
"Suicidal. Rather than live with my pain, I attempted to force you to relieve me of it. Jim - my apologies. I had no right. No right to ask this of you in any fashion."
"Problem is, Spock, you are so damned good at - everything -I keep vastly overestimating your strength. Whenever you stumble, I want to kick you, despite myself. Stupid, when the only thing you've let down is my inflated expectations."
"You also frequently forget something else - something critical."
"That being?"
Spock was obviously fighting to retain consciousness. "I... thought... certain... you knew. Jim - I have long felt that you, and not I, was the stronger at his core. If you overestimate me, you grossly underestimate yourself."
"You left me with a kid as XO, Spock. Now, it's all falling away to nothing. Live or die - I want you there, on that Bridge. I can't contemplate the Last Days if you are not by my side. Give me your flawed wisdom, Brother, and I'll give you my imperfect leadership. Together with our wonderfully insane children - we will slay the damned Dragon. What do you say?"
"Jim - you were wrong. My participation in the annulment had one more level."
"Does it matter?"
"If I am to be free of it, yes. Linviaj had occasion to taunt me, as I lay there bound. She told me of T'Rea - Sybok's mother."
"The one who was forced to commit suicide?"
"No. That never happened. House Sindel helped her get away from Vulcan. She fled to Romulus, which wished to learn how to break Vulcans mentally and physically. She carried with her a frozen embryo dating from her marriage with Sarek. As before, she bore his child in secret. This child was a girl. It was Linviaj. The woman who was great with my child was also a child of Sarek. T'Rea, it seems, was Romulan. A deep-cover spy. Lies, ALL OF ITTTTTT!!!!"
Kirk now understood the fourth component to his Thy'la's shame. The rape and imprisonment by another sentient. The betrayal by his brother. The necessary but agonized abandonment of the infant Saavik. Lastly, to know that the lost child was a sick prank played on him - by an unknown half-sister. One he later likely killed. The only sorry comfort was the knowledge that Vulcans had no real problem with recessive genes.
"Spock - I'm sorry. I should have pushed through the barriers to help you. I should have found a way. I should never have let it come to this."
"You have never made it easy, Jim. Nor have I. We lie to protect threadbare shields that are no comfort to us. I am done with lies - and it seems, done with life as we..."
Kirk felt a great shadow descend as Spock's body finally gave out.
"No....NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Peter, we did it! Now restore us! Saavik! THAT IS AN ORDEBUFUFGIHDLRRLR"
Blood came from Jim's mouth as he joined Spock in death.
Into the sickbay came the bridge crew, with the Lieutenant Kirks in tow. They stared speechless at the still forms. Nyta Uhura tried hard not to sob openly.
Peter spoke in a normal tone of voice. "Now Is the Time Of the Renewal."
Saavik spoke next. "Will you all join us, as we restore what must be?"
They all nodded, and it began.
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The private shuttle of Doctor Thomas Sorel shifted forward, suddenly. In the blink of an eye, he found that shuttle and its precious cargo aboard the Enterprise. A voice that Sorel knew well bounced through the ether.
"Greetings, Grandfather."
The former Tasorel the Fifth, Once Imperator Of Romulus, looked around.
"Peter?"
Now, Saavik's voice came through.
"Come to Sickbay, Grandfather - soon to be Great-Grandfather."
At that happy news, the Romulan did as he was bid and smiled.
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The ship was still. Its crew in shock. The heroes had failed.
Weeping openly as though to somehow offend Spock into wakefulness, McCoy ran repeated scans on both his dearest friends. They showed the same thing. He turned on the Children Of the Enterprise.
"You little monsters! You said you could help them, but you let them lay here, dying in the name of some vague ritual. Is this punishment, Peter? Punishment for the man who couldn't stop your violation? Punishment for the man who annulled your marriage?"
In an eerily familiar gesture, Peter put his hands on McCoy's shoulders. "Bones... It's Going To Be All Right. Peter knows what he's doing."
Now, Saavik responded in a similar vein. "Indeed, Doctor. Having been born for this purpose, both my daughter and Peter should be looked to, at least in this crisis."
The Doctor nodded, and then laughed.
"I should've known you two would find a home nearby. Well, get comfortable, because you're not going into those things."
He pointed to the dead bodies.
'Spock' analyzed his. "A brutally efficient job, Captain." Which confirmed Spock's ID to McCoy, without a doubt.
Uhura was not confused but rather uneasy.
"Jim - what happens now?"
"Oh, first - this!" He kissed the woman he loved full on the lips.
"Jim! You're wearing our son's body!"
'Jim' shrugged. "Married or no, Nyta - the kid has a serious Oedipus Complex."
Sulu intervened.
"Captain - there is a time and place, and it's sure not now."
'Spock' shook 'her' head.
"You are incorrect, Hikaru. The human defense mechanism known as humor will be sorely needed in the weeks and months ahead. Keep it in your heart, if not on your lips."
Chekov shook a little, to hear Spock say that.
"Vill things get that bad?"
'Jim' nodded. "We're going to lose more than we win. There will be times when all of you will wonder what the hell we're doing. You may even want to mutiny."
Sulu felt anger at such a suggestion.
"Not if we're in our right minds. Barring some influencing agent, though, Never!"
"You say that now, Sulu, but I ask you to wait. That time will come."
"Captain - the transfer?"
Leonard puzzled. "Transfer?"
"Spock and I need to talk to the kids - very briefly - before we begin."
"Begin what?"
'Spock' laid down. "The Renewal, Doctor. It Is Long Past Due."
As Thomas Sorel entered Sickbay, he ignored the bizarre scene and motioned to Scotty.
"Aye, Doctor?"
"Your engineers have M-5 and are beginning its installation."
"Is Doctor Daystrom helping them?"
A tear formed, but did not flow, on Tom's face.
"My Richard - is dead. That brilliant, tortured brain of his developed a cellular-branch tumor. Quite inoperable, I'm afraid."
Scotty felt sad, and was paradoxically happy to discover he still could. "I'll extend you no sympathy, Thomas, only envy. For that one might spend all my days with has never come around."
The man who could be Sarek's double appreciated the compliment.
"He could be a pain, Mister Scott. But he was my pain - and I loved him."
Scotty smiled. "Well, here's something else you might just love."
He went over to McCoy's desk, and pulled up scans of Saavik's womb. Tasorel gently ran his hands across the screen, looking in wonder at the new life. He sniffled.
"Richard - hated children. Which meant, of course, I would have forced him to change its diaper!"
Inside Saavik, Jim spoke with the young woman he loved so well.
"He's finally back with us, Saavik-kam."
"But - he is not yet ready to be my father, is he?"
"No. But I think he's ready to be a close uncle. You know what he said about Linviaj? About your mother?"
The young Vulcan shrugged.
"I am the product of incest, as well as rape. Actually, it explains at least some of my mental instability. Since there is a physical cause, I can now combat it. Much like my human side, I can come to terms with it - provided I know it is there."
"Then the incest bothers you not at all?"
She smiled a beautiful smile, but one that still unnerved the man who had always been there for her, and always would.
"Father - to have Peter, you made ferocious love to your brother's wife. I have been adopted by you, and married your son. I will bear your grandson. I was conceived forcibly of the man who is as your own brother. We are both of Surak's line. We both derive our abilities from a long-dead victim of Ghidorah, whose genes shine like stars within us. Plus, there is Amanda - half-sister to your mysterious 'Cousin Jean'."
Kirk was impressed.
"So you know about that. It doesn't matter, though. The Order found the Family. By hook or by crook, they got them all. In this universe, the Great Mystery will never play out."
"Peter has told me of what might happen as a result of your extended family's passage. Is this so?"
Kirk looked out at the City, and saw his Father and Mother waving back. He imagined they were still arguing, even in the Necropolis.
"It's not a might-happen. Without those souls, Earth..."
But Kirk was interrupted by the City's Guardian, a young man with a sword and a monkey's tail.
"Hey, Saavik! You guys gotta go. Lots of stuff to do as we get ready."
"Thank You, GK. We will depart."
'GK' bowed to Jim. "Gotta go, myself. A pleasure to meet you, Captain. Wish I could have served on your ship, but I became Dragon kibble. Bye!"
As Jim watched him leap back into the City, he pointed.
"Who... was that?"
"That, sir - was GK - and a story for another day."
"Count on it. So you can live with Spock's choice?"
Saavik could, and her face showed it.
"I have a father - you. All I have ever wanted was his love - and now I have that. Spock will at last be a part of my life. That will be enough. Kaidith, James-Kam."
"Que Sera Sera, Saavik-kam. Whatever will be, will be. Wait - did you say grandSON?"
In Peter's mind, Spock looked at his son-in-law.
"You have done well for her. You have been there for her. Dried her tears. There is very little you have not done for her. Now I ask - can you forgive her birth-father for the wrongs I have committed against her? For the silence I kept which damned you both?"
"You and my Dad didn't talk it all out, did you?"
Spock shook his head.
"We spoke of much. But your plan was too grandiose. A lifetime may not be settled in such a way."
"Thing is, Spock, that your pain and hate ran so deeply, I felt like I had to force you to put it all on the table. Leave it to you two to change the rules, even then."
"Peter, I must have your answer. Will you forgive me?"
"Spock, you hurt me, and you hurt the being who is my heart. But you have also been a good part of what saw us through. The mistakes Sarek and Amanda made with you made it easier for me and Saavik. Certainly, your example was one I sought to live up to. Saavik adores you - even if you're not ready to be her father. So, the answer, very simply is -"
He paused. "Kaidith, Spock-Kam."
"Even for all you have been through?"
"Everything that has happened in my life has happened for a purpose. If I had not been kidnapped, I might never have met Saavik. Had I not been kidnapped, my father and Saavik might not be so close. But for your pain on Hellguard - my wife would never have been born. Forgiveness, Spock? You have my thanks and appreciation, and again, I say - Kaidith."
Spock stood, and took all this in.
"You Are Truly His Son."
Together, they all departed the two minds that were as one.
The Starship Enterprise was then reduced to a thought.
The Renewal had begun.
Kaidith.
Next- Chapter 21 - A Renewal