"Are you out of your corn fed mind?" Bones exclaimed. "You're not about to listen to this guy right?"

"Come on Jim! That man killed Pike and he almost killed you," I insisted, pacing back and fourth along the bridge as Jim sat in the Captain's chair.

"Well why did he save our lives then?" Jim asked, crossing his arms as he still attempted to argue against us.

"So we are just going to pop open a missile because why? Because he dared you to?" Bones asked incredulously.

"The Doctor does have a point Captain," Spock said, stepping in.

"Don't agree with me Spock that makes me very uncomfortable," Bones said, almosf making me grin.

"Perhaps you too should learn to govern your emotions, Dr.McCoy," Spock suggested.

"And then what? Become an emotionless computer like you?" Bones retorted.

"Could you two not act like sixth graders for five minutes?" I asked, looking between the two men.
After a second of hesitation, the men obliged.

"Getting back to the problem, how are we going to open up this thing. Without Mr.Scott on board I don't see how we can just open a stick of dynamite on board," Bones pondered.

"The admiral's daughter seemed to have interest in the torpedos. She is a weapons specialist," Spock announced.

I had almost forgotten about Carol.

"What admiral's daughter?" Jim asked with furrowed brows.

"Carol Marcus. Your new science officer, " Spock explained.

"Wait? Carol Marcus? Wasn't she your roommate Ferris? Why didn't either of you tell me about this?" Jim asked, putting the pieces together and looking between us.

"It did not become relative until now," Spock defended.

Jim turned to me. I shrugged.

"Hoes before bros?" I tried and Jim tried to look upset but he couldn't hide his small grin. It made me a little happy to offer my brother some levity during this stressful time.

Jim sighed and began walking to the weapons bay. I decided not to follow since I did not exactly enjoy being around bombs and missiles that could blow up.

I turned to Spock before leaving.

"Take care of Jim for me Spock."

---------------

I tended to a case of Andorian chicken pox in the mean time and then after words I finally finished up my paperwork. Half way through a settlement document my communicator went off. I picked it up and could hear Bones voice come on.

"Ferris? Come down the hanger 2. You're going to want to see this," Bones told me and I quickly stood up and followed his directions.

I made my way down to the hanger where I found Jim, Carol, Bones, and Spock all around the torpedo that Bones and Carol had opened on a nearby planet.

"Ferris, you're here." Carol said with a smile. It was good to see her again. I kind of missed having her as a roommate.

"What's going on?" I asked looking at Bones.

"Well, instead of fuel being inside these torpedos, there are actually people. The tubes have been retrofitted to freeze the inner occupant for transport, quite clever in all honesty," Bones explained.

My brows furrowed and Ipeered at the missile. Through a small glass pane at the top of the torpedo,I saw the face of a man. My blue eyes widened in surprise.

So that's what Harrison was hiding.

"But we haven't had to freeze people in ages," I pointed out. Freezing had gone obsolete once warp was discovered.

"Exactly, this technology is ancient," Jim added.

"Question is, who are these people to John Harrison?" Spock asked and Jim nodded.

"I say we go ask him," Jim said plainly. That meant we had to visit Harrison again.

Great.

Jim swiftly departed with Spock and I in his wake while Carol and Bones stayed behind to further examine the body further. I would most likely take a look at the body after we were done interrogating Harrison but I didn't want Jim going in there without me. I could feel that he needed my support.

We soon entered the brig where Harrison was being held captive.

"Why was there a man in that missile," Jim asked directly, not bothering with pleasantries.

"There are men and women in all those missiles Captain, I put them there." Harrison answered, not missing a beat.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"A remnant of a time long past," Harrison said with a deep voice that almost reverberated against the glass. His eyes became slightly unfocused as he continued to speak.

"Genetically made to be superior in order to lead others to peace in a world at war. We were condemned as criminals and forced into exile. For years we slept hoping that when we awoke that things would be different," Harrison explained and then turned to look at Spock and I. I was purposefully standing close to Spock.

"But as a result of the destruction of Vulcan, starfleet began to search the deeper regions of the space and came across my ship that was adrift. I alone was revived, " Harrison continued.

"I looked up the name John Harrison in the StarFleet database. Until a year so he didn't exist," Jim said with a calm voice that was still laced with a certain tenseness.

"John Harrison was a fiction made to conceal my true identity by your admiral Marcus in order to advance his cause," Harrison claimed while standing up to his full height. He towered over me and was certianly a couple inches taler than both Spock and Jim. "My real name is Khan."

My eyes narrowed.

What did Marcus have to do with anything?

"Why would a StarFleet admiral ask a 300 year old frozen man for help?" Jim asked, taking the words right out of my mouth.

Khan took a step back, looking back at Spock.

"Because I am better," Khan said plainly.

"At what?" I asked.

"Everything," He answered seamlessly, turning his gaze to me, which I returned easily. Unlike those moments on the shuttle where I was stunned with pain and adrenaline, I no longer found myself intimidated or afraid of this man.

"Alexander Marcus needed to react against an uncivilized threat in a civilized time. And for that he needed a warrior's mind, my mind. To design weapons and warships," Khan explained further before turning his back to us.

"You are suggesting that the Admiral violated every value he vowed to uphold simply because he wanted to exploit your intellect?" Spock asked and Khan quickly turned around looking straight at Spock. His expression judgemental.

"He wanted to exploit my savagery. Intellect alone is useless in a fight. You should know Mr.Spock, you can hardly break a rule, how can you be expected to break bone," Khan said, gazing closely at Spock with a small unsettling smirk.

"Back off," I insisted, sounding thankfully confident. Khan looked away from Spock and turned to me.

"Is that confidence I hear? Unusual in human females while experiencing fear," Khan said and my mouth twitched in irritation.

It was like he was playing with us.

"I don't fear you," I replied evenly, not looking away.

He took a step closer and tilted his head in curiosity. I was thankful for the barrier between us.

"You don't, do you?" He asked before turning his gaze to Jim and then Spock. "But you fear what I could do to your friends."

I said nothing and Jim looked prepared to open the airlock if need be.

"A commonality between us Mrs.Kirk," Khan added.

My expression turned to distaste. "We are nothing alike," I replied. "I'm not a spiteful killer."

Khan didn't like that one.

"I did not kill them out of spite!" He exclaimed.

"Marcus used me to make weapons in order to complete his vision of a militarized StarFleet. He sent you here to use these weapons on an unexpecting planet and then he purposely crippled your ship right out in enemy space. Leading to only one inevitable thing, the Klingons would come searching for whomever was responsible and you would have no chance of escape. Marcus would finally have the war he talked about. The war he had always wanted," Khan claimed.

The strange thing was that this crazy theory seemed to almost make sense.

The unexpected malfunction in the warp core, the people in the torpedoes, even Marcus's willingness to go against Star Fleet protocol and just kill Khan without trial.

"No! I watched you open fire on a room full of unarmed innocent starfleet officers. You killed them in cold blood," Jim retorted.

"Marcus took my crew from me- you are a murderer!" Jim interrupted.

"He used my friends to control me," Khan said with now a different tone of voice. The tone of loss. He turned with his back to us.

"I tried to smuggle them to safety in the very weapons I had designed. But I was discovered, I had no choice but to escape alone. And when I did, I had reason to suspect that Marcus had killed every single one of the people I hold most dear," He said in a softer but still spiteful voice.

The empathetic side of me felt for him but at the same time, I could never forget, that he was Pike's killer. No matter how we wove his words or told his story, he was an evil man.

"So I responded in kind," He continued and turned back to look at us with a solitary tear rolling down his cheek. "My crew is my family, Kirk. Is there anything you wouldn't do for your crew? Your family? For your sister right beside you?"

There wasn't.

Suddenly, the communicator buzzer went off and Jim quickly accepted the message.

"Proximity alert sir there is a ship headed at warp towards us," Sulu voice said through the com link.

I glanced to Khan, who was unsurprised by the alert.

"Klingons?" Jim asked out loud

"At warp?" Khan asked. "Kirk, we both know who that is."

Jim looked to me and then to Spock.

"Lieutenant, move Khan to med bay and post 6 security guards," Jim ordered the man who was already on guard. Jim then curtly made his way to the bridge.

I stayed behind for just a brief moment. My pale gaze watching Khan like a hawk. But in this case, he was the predator.

His cold glue eyes stared back with unflinching relentlessness.

He would stop at nothing to get his crew back.

I then turned to leave to go to the bridge where Jim and Spock would be. I entered the bridge just as Jim was sitting down.

"ETA of incoming ship?" Jim asked

"Three seconds sir," Sulu answered.

"Alright, shields up," Jim ordered.

Suddenly, a dark grey ship, almost three times the size of the Enterprise appeared.

I audibly gasped.

Khan was right.

The ship practically dwarfed us in every aspect and loomed like a dark giant infront of us. The vessel was so enormous it felt as through it may swallow the Enterpise if it got any close. It was a StarFleet ship.

I took a step towards Spock, feeling suddenly anxious.

"They are hailing us sir," Uhura announced.

"On screen, broadcast ship wide for the record," Jim said and Marcus's withered face appeared on screen.

"Captain Kirk?" Marcus acknowledged.

"Admiral Marcus, I wasn't expecting you," Jim said back with an almost unhappy tone. Most likely disappointed that Khan had been right. "That's a hell of a ship you got there."

"I was surprised when I heard word of you taking Harrison into custody, in direct violation of your orders," Marcus accused, completely ignoring Jim's earlier comment.

The tension in the air thickened.

"Well, sir, we had to improvise when our warp core unexpectedly malfunctioned. But you already knew that, right?" Jim said innocently.

"I don't take your meaning," Marcus said back.

"That's why you are here isn't it? To assist in our repairs? Why else would the head of Starfleet fly out to the edge of enemy space?" Jim questioned, keeping a straight face.

He was playing this smart.

"Captain, they are scanning our ship," Sulu said quietly.

"Is there something I can help you find sir?" Jim asked.

"Where is your prisoner Kirk?" Marcus inquired.

"Per Starfleet regulation I will be returning our prisoner, Khan, back to Earth," Jim explained.

"Well shit, you talked to him. The kind of thing I was trying to spare you from. I took a tactical risk awoke that basted up hoping he could help protect ourselves for whatever came next. But I made a mistake. Now the blood of everyone he killed is on my hands. So what I am asking is for you to give him to me so I can finish what I started," Marcus stated calmly.

Jim considered his words and seemed to be thinking intensely about what Marcus had just said.

"And what do you consider I do with the rest of his crew?" Jim asked curiously. "Fire them at the Klingons and inevitably start a war. End 72 lives in the process?"

"He put those people in the torpedoes. I simply didn't want to burden you with knowing," Marcus explained and I began to realize something.

Both Khan and Marcus were corrupted. They both had evil intentions. It was a matter of who was the lesser but I was starting to wonder if they were equally evil.

"You saw what this man could do by himself, can you imagine what would happen if we opened up the rest of his crew?" Marcus asked, becoming increasingly aggravated. "What else did he tell you? That he is a peacekeeper? He is playing you son don't you see that? His crew and him were condemned to death as war criminals and now it's our duty to carry out that command. Now I'm going to ask you one last time son, lower your shields and tell me where he is."

Jim pondered for a minute as it became almost completely silent where you could hear a pin drop.

"As you will sir. He is in engineering but I will have him put him in the transport immediately," Jim said, feigning compliance.

"I'll take it from here," Marcus said disbelievingly before cutting out of the com.

"Sulu, you keep our shields up," Jim ordered.

"Considering that you are aware that Khan is in the med bay and you gave Admiral Marcus the wrong information. I wish to know the details of your plan," Spock announced.

"Yeah Jim, what are you planning?" I asked as Jim started pressing buttons to contact someone.

"I told Marcus we were bringing Khan back to Earth so that's what we are doing," Jim said. "Checkov, how long until we can warp?"

"Sir, if we warp it may sustain permanent damage to the warp core," Chekov claimed.

"But we can still warp right?" Jim pursued.

"Well yes, but I highly advise against it," Chekov said.

Jim sighed "Noted."

He then turned towards Sulu. "Mr.Sulu set a course for Earth," Jim ordered.

"Course set, sir," He answered.

"Punch it"