"I can make nothing of it."
They frowned at the sizzling, sparking, colorful graphics.
"Another Genesis simulation?" McCoy said doubtfully.
"No. . . ." Kirk said. "My God, Bones, it's a game—if that's all Khan found when he got here …" He shook his head. "Phasers on stun. Move out. And be careful."
McCoy moved cautiously down the hall. The lights were very dim, the shadows heavy. Spacelab was enormous: besides the project scientists Spock regarded so highly, the satellite supported and housed several hundred technicians and support personnel. Most of them were on leave now, but there still should be eight or ten people here. So where—?
He caught his breath: a scratching noise, a faint beep from his tricorder. He turned slowly.
A white lab rat, free in the hallway, blinked at him from a dim corner, scrabbled around, and fled, its claws slipping on the tiles.
"I'm with you, friend," McCoy muttered.
Feeling a little easier, he continued. He glanced into the rooms he passed, finding nothing but offices, a small lounge, sophisticated but familiar equipment for a number of fields of study.
If they had to search the entire station, room by room, it would take days. McCoy decided to return to the main lab to see if Jim or Saavik had found anyone.
He opened one last door. Beyond, it was dark.
The hair on the back of his neck prickled. He took a step inside. No strange sound, no strange sight—why did he feel so uneasy?
The smell: sharp, salty, metallic. He smelled blood.
He turned, and a cold hand gently slapped against his face.
"Lights!" he cried, jumping back. His foot slipped, and he fell.
The sensors responded to his voice. Lying on the floor, he looked up.
"My God in heaven …!"
Staring at the hanging bodies, McCoy got slowly to his feet. He fumbled for his communicator.
"Jim. . . ."
Five people—a Deltan and four human beings—hung upside down from a ceiling strut. Each one's throat had been slashed. McCoy approached the nearest body, that of a tall black man. His own blood obscured his face. The man next to him had been tortured.
As he waited for Kirk to answer, McCoy gradually got hold of himself. The casual ferocity of the killing gave him a deep, sick sensation.
Jim's voice on the communicator made him start.
"Yeah, Bones?"
"I … found them."
"I'll be right down."
"No—! Jim, Dr. Marcus isn't here. She isn't here. But the rest … they're dead, Jim. Please stay where you are. I'll get a medical team to beam down." He was already trying to think if there were anyone on the ship he could count on besides Chris Chapel to help deal with this horror.
"Kirk out."
McCoy cursed softly.
He took tricorder readings on all the bodies and recorded their position and surroundings. Three of the people had bled to death, one had died of shock, and the Deltan … he could detect no cause for the Deltan's death.
What chance is there, McCoy thought, that their murderer will ever come to trial? Not very damned much.
"Oh, my God. . . ." Jim said from the doorway. He stared up, horrified.
"I told you not to come down here," McCoy said angrily. "There was no need for you to see what happened." He saw Saavik behind Kirk, her face Vulcan calm. "Or for her to either, dammit!"
Kirk glanced over his shoulder. "Lieutenant, I ordered—"
"I am your escort, Admiral," she said coldly. "Your safety is my responsibility, not the reverse."
"Stay outside, then," McCoy said gently. "Child, it isn't necessary for you to be exposed to this—"
"I am neither a child nor in need of protection."
"Lieutenant Saavik—" Kirk said sharply.
Saavik cut him off. "Sir. In order to protect me from sights such as this you would have had to start when I was still a child. I will not leave you unguarded when a creature who takes such great pleasure in killing—and who would take his most extreme pleasure in your death—is free and in hiding somewhere near. Nor will I stand by idle!"
She paused a moment, looking somewhat abashed by her outburst. She continued in a tone more restrained, but with words no less definite.
"Admiral Kirk, if you in truth prefer an escort who behaves differently, you must order me back to the ship."
Saavik waited, but Kirk said nothing.
She walked carefully across the blood-thick, sticky floor, hesitated a bare moment, and lifted Vance Madison. His body lay limp in her arms, and the rope around his ankles slackened.
"Please cut him down."
Kirk complied.
They lowered the five bodies and found sheets in which to shroud them. Three were Project Genesis scientists, and two were service personnel.
"They even killed the galley chief," Kirk said. His voice sounded stunned.
"The bodies are almost cold," McCoy said. "But rigor hasn't set in yet. Jim, they haven't been dead for very long."
Jim looked around the blood-spattered room.
"Carol. . . ." he said.
The search party returned to the main lab.
Saavik heard a noise. She gazed around the lab, finding nothing. But the small sound came again. She drew out her tricorder and scanned with it.
It wailed plaintively. McCoy and Kirk heard it.
"Lieutenant—?" Kirk asked.
"I don't know, sir."
She followed the signal to a large storage locker. As Kirk and McCoy joined her, she reached out and opened the door.
Two more bodies fell out and sprawled at their feet.
Kirk started violently. "My God!"
McCoy knelt down and inspected them with his medical sensor. One was a dark-haired youthful human, the other an older, bearded man, a captain. Both wore the insignia of the Reliant.
"They're alive, Jim."
Behind them, the Spacelab's communications screen glowed on. "Enterprise to Admiral Kirk, come in, please," Uhura said.
"Why, it's Chekov," Kirk said.
"Enterprise to Admiral Kirk," Uhura said again. "Please respond."
"This is Clark Terrell, Jim," McCoy said. "I've served with him." In fact he had known him, rather well, for years.
Chekov moaned.
McCoy frowned at the readings on his sensor. Apparently, Saavik thought, they looked as odd to him as they did to her, despite his enormously greater experience.
Kirk turned Chekov over and supported his shoulders. "Pavel, do you hear me? Pavel, wake up."
"Admiral Kirk!" Uhura said. "Please respond."
"Saavik, tell her we're all right, for gods' sake."
"Please acknowledge our signal, Admiral." Uhura's tone became more urgent.
"Some kind of brain disturbance," McCoy said as Saavik hurried across the lab and opened a channel to the Enterprise. "It's drug-induced, as far as I can tell."
"Saavik here, Commander Uhura. We're all right. Please stand by. Saavik out."
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Uhura said with relief. "Enterprise standing by."
Saavik left the channel open and returned to McCoy and Kirk. Reliant's Captain Terrell was beginning to regain consciousness, and Chekov was almost awake. He opened his eyes and stared blankly at Kirk.
"Pavel, can you hear me?" Kirk said. "What happened?"
"Admiral Kirk. . . ." Chekov whispered. He took a deep breath that turned into a sob. "Oh, God, sir—" His voice failed him, and he cried.
Kirk held him. "It's all right now, Pavel. You're all right. Go on, don't worry; you're with friends now."
Terrell moaned and tried to get up. McCoy hurried to him.
"It's Len McCoy, Captain." McCoy shook him gently by the shoulders. "Clark, do you remember me?"
Terrell's expression was that of a man faced with such horror that he had lost himself in it. "McCoy. . . ." he said slowly. "Len McCoy … yes. Oh … yes. . . ."
Chekov pulled away from Kirk and struggled to
sit up. "Admiral—it was Khan! We found him on Alpha Ceti V. . . ."
"Easy, Pavel. Just tell me what happened."
"Alpha Ceti VI was gone. My fault. . . ."
McCoy and Kirk glanced at each other, both frowning slightly; Saavik, too, wondered how it could be the young commander's fault that a whole world had disappeared. He was clearly still badly confused.
"Khan captured us. He—he can control people, Captain! His creatures—he—" Chekov began trembling. He clamped his hands over his ears. "My head—!"
McCoy came to his side and checked him over with the medical sensor. "It's all right; you're safe now."
Chekov's words came all in an incomprehensible rush. "He made us say things—lies—and made us do … other things, but we beat him; he thought he controlled us, but he didn't; the captain beat him—he was strong. . . ." He was shaking so hard he could no longer speak. He drew his knees to his chest and put his head down, hiding his face to cry.
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.
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 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 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 pulsepoint 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 dumb 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—"
"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.
"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.
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