Space: The Final Frontier | Star Trek

Chapter 25

Knowing Jim was hurtling through space with a convicted killer and not being able to physically see what was going on was almost enough to give me a panic attack. Nevertheless, Bones and I stood on either side of Spock and stared out the window even though we could see nothing but bits of the debris field between ours and Marcus' ship.

"Sir, Kirk is headed for collision at .432!" One of the bridge crew turned around to warn Spock.

Nodding, Spock made sure he was still connected with Jim. "Captain, there is debris directly ahead."

"Copy that," Jim responded.

Hearing a loud beeping, I turned to look at the screen with Jim's trajectory on it. Due to his having to adjust position to avoid being hit with debris, he was now on a path that would smash him directly into the side of Marcus' ship. "Whoa!" Bones commented on the drastic change. "Jim, you're way off course!"

"I know, I know! I can see that."

"Use your display compass, Captain," Sulu instructed Jim, who at that point was slowly making his way back on the proper course. "You must correct precisely 37.243 degrees."

"Got it. I'm working my way back. Scotty, you're gonna be ready with that door, right?" Jim attempted to check in with Scotty, but after a few seconds of nothing, he tried again. "Mr. Scott, where are you?"

Uhura's hands moved fast as she worked. "Captain, he can't seem to hear you. I'm working on getting his signal back. Stand by."

My eyes constantly shifted from one screen to the other, trying desperately to pick out as much information as possible. I didn't know a whole lot about what was going on, however, but I knew that flashing red was usually a bad sign; and I was seeing a lot of red.

"Damn it."

Everyone perked up at the sound of the distressed Captain. "Captain, what is it?" Spock asked.

"My helmet was hit. Uhura, tell me you have Mr. Scott back."

"Not yet. I'm still working on a signal." Uhura shook her head as she reached up to flip a switch above her head. "His communicator is working. I don't know why he isn't responding."

Turning around in his seat, one of the ensigns locked eyes with Spock. "Imminent collision detected!"

"Khan, use evasive action!" Spock directed. "There is debris directly ahead."

There was a moment of silence before Kahn responded. "I see it."

As the large screen before us showed us both Jim and Kahn's trajectory, we watched as Kahn's icon wavered up and down, signifying he was dodging debris, before it completely disappeared followed by a frantic beeping. "Mr. Sulu, did we lose Khan?" Spock seemed more worried about Kahn that I would have thought.

Sulu's head shook slightly as it craned down to the console in front of him. "I don't know, Commander. I'm having trouble tracking him in all this debris."

"Was Khan hit?" Jim's voice came over the communicator again.

"We are trying to find him now," Spock assured.

At that moment we had two people out in space, one completely off our radar and the other still extremely off course. The closer they got to the ship the more drastically they had to adjust, and the more drastically they had to adjust, the more room for error. Even though I had offered to go on the mission earlier, I was thanking my lucky stars I wasn't out there.

"Captain, you need to adjust your target destination to 183 by 473 degrees." Sulu relayed the information to Jim.

There was an eerie silence before Jim's voice was heard again, and it wasn't with good news. "Spock, my display's dead. I'm flying blind."

Spock's eyes widened. "Captain, without your display compass, hitting your target destination is mathematically impossible."

"Spock, if I get back, we really need to talk about your bedside manner."

I felt my heart jump into my throat as my eyes followed Jim's icon on the screen in front of me.

"Commander, he's not going to make it." Sulu exhaled, but just then Kahn's signal was reconnected and his icon was back on the screen alongside Jim's.

"My display is still functioning," Kahn said. "I see you, Kirk, you're two-hundred meters ahead of me at my one o'clock. Come to your left a few degrees and follow me."

Ever so slightly Jim's icon moved back into place with the help of Kahn's directions. "Scotty, we're getting close. We need a warm welcome. Do you copy?" Jim's voice was beginning to grow frantic as he and Kahn quickly approached the other ship. "Do you copy? Scotty?"

"If you can hear us, Mr. Scott, open the door in ten, nine..." Spock began the countdown, "eight, seven, six, five, four-"

"Scotty, where are you? Do you copy, Scotty? Please!"

Before I even knew what was happening, I was yelling. "Scotty, now! Open the door now!"

There was a barrage of yelling from Kahn and Jim, followed by a silence that seemed to last a lifetime before we could hear the faint conversation between Jim, Kahn, and Scotty. "Oh, thank God." My hand gripped my chest.

As one by one the bridge crew let out sighs of relief, Uhura turned around in her chair. "Commander, I have that transmission as requested."

"On screen, please." Spock requested. As the transmission appeared on screen, it took a few moments for the pixels to disappear before the whole bridge was greeted with a man who looked very familiar. In fact, so familiar that I could have sworn I had met him before.

"Mr. Spock." The man on screen turned his head slightly to reveal his pointed ears.

Spock nodded at the man. "Mr. Spock."

That's when it hit me. Somehow, someway, the man speaking to us was another version of Spock. I then remembered the time traveling stuff Jim had mentioned back when we had fought Nero, and suddenly it all made sense.

On screen was not simply another Vulcan or even a Spock look alike. No, staring back at all of us was Spock. Spock from the future. 

"I will be brief." Spock seemed oddly calm in the face of himself from the future, giving me reason to believe the two had met before. "In your travels, did you ever encounter a man named Khan?"

Future Spock exhaled as he shook his head. "As you know, I have made a vow never to give you information that could potentially alter your destiny. Your path is yours to walk, and yours alone. That being said, Khan Noonien Singh is the most dangerous adversary the Enterprise ever faced. He is brilliant, ruthless, and he will not hesitate to kill every single one of you."

Spock's eyes inspected the floor as he thought. "Did you defeat him?"

"At great cost. Yes."

"How?"

Future Spock was hesitant at first to share with us how Kahn had been defeated, but knowing all too well what would happen to us should we fail against him, he eventually explained what needed to be done. Standing up, Spock walked to Uhura and lowered his voice. "Lieutenant, I need you to assemble all senior medical and engineering staff in the weapons bay."

Uhura was confused but agreed nevertheless. "All right."

Spock then turned to Bones and I. "Dr. McCoy, you inadvertently activated a torpedo. Could you replicate the process?"

"Why the hell would I want to do that?" Bones snapped.

"Can you or can you not?"

Bones huffed. "Damn it, man, I'm a doctor, not a torpedo technician!"

Spock nodded. "The fact that you are a doctor is precisely why I need you to listen very carefully."