Kirk glanced over at Terrell, who maintained the composure of oblivion.
“Captain, where’s Dr. Marcus? What happened to Genesis?”
“Khan couldn’t find them,” Terrell said with dreadful calm. “He found some of the scientists.”
“We know that,” Kirk said sharply.
“Everything else was gone. He tortured them. They wouldn’t talk; so he killed them. The station was too big for him to search it all before he took Reliant and went to kill you too.”
“He came damned close to doing that,” Kirk said.
“He left us here,” Chekov said. He raised his head. His face was wet with tears. “We were ... no longer any use.”
“Does he control all of Reliant’s crew?” Saavik asked, wondering if humans were that susceptible to mind control.
“He stranded most of them on Alpha Ceti V.”
“He’s mad, sir. He lives for nothing but revenge,” Chekov said. “He blames you for the death of his wife ... Lieutenant McGiver.”
“I know what he blames me for,” Kirk said. He sat with his eyes focused on nothing for some moments. “Carol’s gone, but all the escape pods are still in their bays. Where’s the transporter room in this thing?” He glanced at Saavik.
“Even the Spacelab specifications were erased from the computer, sir,” she said. “However, the Enterprise should have a copy in its library files.”
They contacted the ship, reassuring Commander Uhura and Mr. Spock that they were all right, and had a set of plans for the station transmitted down. Even the decorative printed maps of Spacelab, which ordinarily would have been displayed in its reception area, had been torn down and destroyed.
[155] In the transporter room, Kirk inspected the console settings.
“Mr. Chekov, did he get down here?”
“I don’t think so, sir. He said searching such a big place was foolish. He thought he would make the captives talk.”
“Somebody left the transporter on,” Kirk said. “Turned it on, used it, and left it on—and no one still alive remained to turn it off.”
Saavik figured out the destination of the settings. “This makes no sense, Admiral. The coordinates are within Regulus I. The planetoid is both lifeless and airless.”
“If Carol finished stage two, if it was underground,” Kirk said thoughtfully, “—she said it was underground. ...”
“Stage two?” He must be referring to the mysterious Project Genesis, Saavik thought.
Kirk suddenly pulled out his communicator. “Kirk to Enterprise.”
“Enterprise, Spock here.”
“Damage report, Mr. Spock?”
“Admiral, Lieutenant Saavik would recommend that we go by the book. In that case, hours could stretch into days.”
Saavik tried to understand what the captain meant by that. It sounded vaguely insulting, unlikely behavior from Captain Spock.
“I read you, Captain,” Kirk said after a pause. “Let’s have the bad news.”
“The situation is grave. Main power cannot be restored for six days at least. Auxiliary power has failed, but Mr. Scott hopes to restore it in two days. By the book, Admiral.”
“Spock,” Kirk said, “I’ve got to try something. If you don’t hear from us within—” he paused a moment, “—one hour, restore what power you can and get the Enterprise the hell away from here. Alert Starfleet as [156] soon as you’re out of jamming range. By the book, Spock.”
Uhura broke in. “We can’t leave you behind, sir!”
“That’s an order, Spock. Uhura, if you don’t hear from us, there won’t be anybody behind. Kirk out.” He snapped his communicator closed and put it away. “Gentlemen,” he said to Terrell and Chekov, “maybe you’d better stay here. You’ve been through a lot—”
“We’d prefer to share the risk,” Terrell said quickly.
“Very well. Let’s go.”
“Go?” McCoy exclaimed. “Go where?”
“Wherever they went,” Kirk replied, and nodded at the transporter.
Saavik realized what he planned. She went to the transporter and set it for delayed energize, being careful not to alter the coordinates. Kirk stepped up onto the transporter platform. Terrell and Chekov followed, but McCoy stayed safely on the floor and folded his arms belligerently.
“What if they went nowhere?”
Kirk grinned. “Then it’s your big chance to get away from it all, Bones.”
Dr. McCoy muttered something and stomped up onto the platform.
“Ready,” Saavik said. She pressed the auto-delay and hurried up beside the others.
Spacelab dissolved; around them, darkness appeared.
Jim Kirk held his breath, waiting for his guess to be wrong, waiting for solid rock to resolidify around him forever as soon as the transporter beam ended. Fear tickled the back of his mind. The instant he finished transporting, lights blazed on around him.
“Well,” Jim said as the rest of his party solidified, “if anybody’s here, now they know we’re here, too.”
He was in a small cavern: several tunnels led from it. The caverns were definitely dug out, not naturally formed. The chamber was haphazardly piled with [157] stacks of notebooks, technical equipment, peripheral storage cells. It had all obviously been transferred from Spacelab in terrible haste.
“Admiral—” Saavik said. She gestured toward the next chamber. Jim could see within it a massive curve of metal.
He followed Saavik into the second cave. It, too, held piles of equipment, but a great torpedo shape dominated everything.
“Genesis, I presume?” Dr. McCoy said.
Without answering, Kirk moved farther into the cavern complex.
Suddenly someone lunged at him from behind a stack of crates, plowing into him and knocking him to the ground. A knife glittered. Jim felt it press against his throat, just below the corner of his jaw, at the pulse-point where the carotid artery is most vulnerable. When he tried to fight, the knife pressed harder. He could feel the sharpness of its edge. If Saavik or McCoy tried to draw a phaser, he would be bleeding to death before they could finish firing.
“You son of a bitch, you killed them—”
Jim Kirk recognized David Marcus.
“I’m Jim Kirk!” Jim yelled. “David, don’t you remember me?”
“We were still there, you stupid bastard; I heard Zinaida scream—”
“David, we found them. They were already dead!”
“David—”
Carol’s voice.
“Go back, mother!”
“Jim—”
Kirk strained around until he could see her. The knife dimpled his skin, and a drop of blood welled out. He felt its heat.
“Hold still, you slimy—”
“Carol,” Jim said, “for gods’ sake, you can’t believe we had anything to do with—”
[158] “Shut up!” David cried. “Go back, mother, unless you want to watch me kill him the way he killed—”
Carol Marcus took a deep breath. “I don’t want to watch you kill anyone ... least of all your father.”
David looked up at her, stunned.
Feeling stunned himself, Jim slid from beneath the knife and disarmed the boy. Surely Carol had said that just to give him such a chance—
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Clark Terrell step forward and take the phaser from the Deltan—Jedda Adzhin-Dall, it must be—who had been covering Saavik and McCoy.
“I’ll hold on to this,” Terrell said.
Jim stood up and turned to Carol.
“Carol—”
He went toward her, and she met him. She smiled, reached out, and gently stroked a fingertip across the hair at his temple.
“You’ve gone a little gray—” She stopped.
He put his arms around her. They held each other for a long while, but finally he drew back to look her in the eyes, to search her face with his gaze.
“Carol, is it true?”
She nodded.
“Why
didn’t you tell me?”
“It isn’t true!” David shouted. “My father was—”
“You’re making this a lot harder, David,” Carol said.
“I’m afraid I must make it harder still, Dr. Marcus,” Clark Terrell said!
Jim spun around.
Reliant’s captain held his captured phaser trained directly on Jim Kirk and Carol Marcus.
“Clark, in heaven’s name—” McCoy said.
“Please, don’t move.” He glanced toward Chekov, who nodded. He came toward McCoy, who made as if to resist. “Even you, Len,” Terrell said. McCoy let his hands fall. Chekov disarmed everyone, then joined Terrell in covering them.
[159] “Pavel—” Jim said.
“I’m sorry, sir.”
Terrell opened his communicator.
“Have you heard, your excellency?”
“I have indeed, Captain. You have done very well.”
Khan.
“I knew it!” David whispered, low and angry. Jim turned, but not in time to stop him. David launched himself at Terrell. Saavik instantly reacted, catching David and flinging him out of the way with all the force of muscles adapted to higher gravity. They collapsed in a heap as Jedda, too, sprang forward after David.
Terrell fired.
Jedda fell into the beam.
He vanished without a sound.
“Jedda!” Carol cried.
“Oh, God. ...” David said softly.
“Don’t move, any of you!” Terrell’s hand clenched hard around the phaser. “I don’t want to hurt you. ...”
“Captain Terrell, I am waiting.”
Chekov started violently at Khan’s softly dangerous voice. He was deathly pale and sweating. He began to tremble. The phaser shook in his hand. Jim Kirk weighed his chances of taking it, but they were no better than David’s had been.
“Everything’s as you ordered, my lord,” Terrell said. “You have the coordinates of Genesis.”
“I have one other small duty for you, Captain,” Khan said. “Kill James Kirk.”
On the ground beside David, Saavik shifted slightly, gathering herself.
No, Jim thought, no, your instincts were right with David. Don’t pull the same stupid stunt he did and get yourself killed for nothing, Lieutenant.
“Khan Singh—” Terrell said. He wiped his forehead on his sleeve and pressed his free hand against the side of his face. “I can’t—” Wincing, he gasped in pain.
[160] “Kill him!”
Terrell flung down his communicator. It clattered across stone. Terrell groaned as if he had been struck himself. He gripped the phaser with both hands, shaking so hard he could not aim.
Pavel Chekov raised his phaser slowly, staring at it with utter absorption. His whole body trembled. He aimed the weapon ...
... at Clark Terrell. He tried to fire.
He failed.
Terrell screamed in agony. He forced his phaser around until he had turned it on himself.
“Clark, my God,” McCoy whispered. He reached out toward him.
Terrell raised his head. Jim felt the intensity of his plea to McCoy in his horrified gaze.
The only thing the doctor could do for Clark Terrell now was ... nothing. McCoy groaned and turned away, his face in his hands.
“Kill him, Terrell!” Khan said again. The damaged communicator distorted his voice, but still it was all too recognizable. “Fire, now!”
Terrell obeyed.
He disappeared.
Chekov shrieked. His phaser fell from his shaking hands, and he clutched at his temples as his knees buckled. He quivered and convulsed on the hard rock floor.
McCoy hurried to his side, pulled an injector from his medical pack, dialed it, and stabbed it into Chekov’s arm. Chekov struggled a moment more, then went limp.
“Terrell!” Khan said. “Chekov!”
“Oh, my God, Jim—” McCoy said in horror.
Jim hurried to him.
Blood gushed down the side of Chekov’s face. Through unconsciousness, he moaned.
Something—a creature, some thing—probed blindly [161] from inside his ear. It crawled out of him: a snake, a worm, smeared with blood down its long, slimy length. Jim fought against nausea. He scooped up a phaser.
“Terrell!” Khan’s voice was low and hoarse.
Jim clenched his teeth and shuddered, but he forced himself to wait until the creature flopped on the stone, leaving Chekov free.
He fired, and the creature disintegrated.
“Chekov!”
Jim snatched the communicator from the floor.
“Khan, you miserable bloodsucker—they’re free of you! You’ll have to do your own dirty work now. Do you hear me? Do you?”
After a moment, a terrible sound came from the communicator.
Khan laughed.
“Kirk, James Kirk, my old friend, so you are still—still!—alive.”
“And still your ‘old friend’? Well, listen, ‘old friend,’ you’ve murdered a lot of innocent people. Kirk looked at Pavel Chekov lying at his feet, close to death. “I intend to make you pay.”
Khan laughed again. “I think not. If I was powerful before, I will be invincible soon.”
“He’s going to take Genesis!” David rushed toward the next cavern.
Saavik and Kirk both sprinted after him. As they rounded the corner, a transporter beam enveloped the Genesis torpedo. Jim raised his phaser. If he could at least damage it before it dematerialized—
David Marcus was directly in his line of fire.
“David, get down!” Jim yelled.
Saavik caught up to David. He struggled with her.
“Let go—I’ve got to stop him!”
“Only half of you would get there!”
“Get down!”
Saavik dragged David out of Kirk’s way.
Jim fired. The phaser beam passed through the [162] empty space where the torpedo had been, and sizzled against the stone.
Jim Kirk wanted to scream. He barely restrained himself from smashing his fist against the cave wall in pure frustration. He only had one chance left.
He found Terrell’s communicator.
“Khan, you have Genesis, but you don’t have me! You’ll never get me, Khan! You’re too frightened to come down here to kill me!”
“I’ve done far worse than kill you, Admiral. I’ve hurt you. I wish to let you savor the hurt for a little time.”
“So much for all your oaths and promises, so much for your vow—to your wife!”
“You should not speak of my wife, James Kirk. She never wanted me to take my revenge. So now I will grant her wish. I will not kill you.”
“You’re a coward, Khan!”
“I will leave you, as you left me. But no one will ever find you. You are buried alive, marooned in the middle of a dead planet. Forever.”
“Khan—”
“As for your ship* it is powerless. In a moment, I shall blow it out of the heavens.”
“Khan!”
“Good-bye, ‘Admiral.’ ”
On board Reliant, Khan Singh shut off communications to Regulus I and stretched back in his chair. Not quite what he had foreseen, but a most satisfying climax, nonetheless.
Joachim came onto the bridge.
“Well, Joachim?”
“The Genesis torpedo is safely stowed, my lord. The warp drive is still inoperative, but all other systems will be restored within the hour.”
“Excellent.”
“Sir?”
“What?”
“May I plot a course away from Regulus I?”
[163] “Not yet. Kirk is finished, but I promised him that I would deal with his ship.”
“Khan, my lord—”
Khan frowned at his old friend and aide. Joachim had been with him from the beginning, but he had been acting most strangely since their escape from Alpha Ceti V.
“You are with me, or you are against me. Which do you choose?”
Joachim looked d
own. “I am with you, my lord.” He turned away, “I have not changed.”
Carol Marcus sat on the floor of the cavern, staring at the empty spot where Genesis had been. She pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes. She could not believe that Jedda, too, was gone. Vance, and Del, and Zinaida, and Yoshi and Jan: all dead. All she had left was David.
She could not help being grateful that it was David who survived. Yet at times she had felt like mother to everyone on the station. She had always been the sort of person to whom people told their troubles.
She grieved for Vance particularly, missing his gentleness, his steadiness. She covered her face.
Despite the pressure of her hands, tears squeezed from beneath her eyelids. She dashed the drops away angrily, forcing back her grief by willpower alone. She could not collapse into the despair she felt: there had to be some way to stop what was happening.
She glanced across the cavern toward Jim. She had sworn to herself never to tell him about David, or tell David about him, but telling them the truth had been the only way to keep them both alive. She needed to talk to Jim—to David, too—but since Genesis disappeared they had all three been revolving around each other like satellites, pulled together by her revelation and pushed apart by time and old pain and lack of trust.
“Saavik to Enterprise,” the young Vulcan—Vulcan? [164] Carol wondered; maybe not Vulcan—lieutenant said into her communicator for about the twentieth time in as many minutes. “Come in, please.”
Carol knew how efficient the other ship was at jamming communications. She doubted Saavik would be able to get through.
She heard a soft moan and glanced across to where Dr. McCoy worked over Chekov, who he had feared might die.
“Jim—” McCoy said.
Jim went to his side.
“Pavel’s alive,” McCoy said. “It’ll be rocky for a while, but I think he’s going to be all right.”
“Pavel?” Jim said gently.
Chekov tried to get up.
“It’s okay, Pavel,” McCoy said. “You’re going to be fine. Just try to rest now.”
“Admiral,” Lieutenant Saavik said, “I am sorry, I cannot get through to the Enterprise. Reliant is still jamming all channels.”
STAR TREK: TOS #7 - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Page 15