captivity

[full_of_wrath]

Kirk gets called in. Mostly because Khan has made two duty officers guarding his cell ask to be relieved, one of them in tears.

He creates a lot of wear and tear, in general.

Comments

[kobayashiwhatnow]

He lifts his head, because that's about all he can do right now to express his surprise.

"Why didn't you go with them?"

Kirk would have, he's pretty damn sure.

[full_of_wrath]

"It's important that they feel as though the threat has passed. They'll hang me, and they won't go looking."

And he seems quietly at peace with that.

"And besides, I was needed here, and they couldn't risk waiting a second more."

[kobayashiwhatnow]

It's that second sentence that makes Kirk swallow and lay his head back down.

"They won't hang you."

That gritty, stubborn tone again. Khan will pay for what he did to Pike, Kirk will see to it, but he won't pay for Marcus's actions.

[full_of_wrath]

"What do they do, these days? We always hanged or injected."

Pushing himself onto his side, to watch him.

"Exsanguination? You'll be reliant for some time."

[kobayashiwhatnow]

'Exsanguination' gets a decided snicker.

"Was that a joke? God, I hope that was a joke. No. We don't execute. You'll get rehabilitation, probably for the rest of your life."

And Kirk isn't sure that's what's right, here. Khan's rehabilitation will be based on late 23rd century standards; he'll be judged by rules he has never lived under. It's virtually impossible for him to satisfy the system.

[full_of_wrath]

"What happens in rehabilitation?"

He wants to know, still on his side, watching him. He isn't sure if it'll be better or worse if he's braced for it.

[kobayashiwhatnow]

"It's psychotherapy, behavior modification. It's run mostly by Betazoids--they're empaths and telepaths."

So it's a lot more intensive than therapy in the 1990's had been.

[full_of_wrath]

"I don't think they'll like me much."

He admits, but closes his eyes. He can live with that, no matter what the consequences down there turn out to be.

"I'm sorry he died. He wasn't the target."

[kobayashiwhatnow]

The drugs make his head swim already, but grief and anger make it worse. He grabs for another topic.

"Have you ever met a telepath?"

[full_of_wrath]

"She started crying and fainted."

He's actually being serious.

"Marcus didn't try that again. Ask Spock, he tried a little touch telepathy on me earlier, though I think he's made of sterner stuff than she was."

[kobayashiwhatnow]

"He tried it on you? Why?"

Kirk has grown up in a universe with known mind readers, but even so, it seems intrusive and overly intimate to him. There's a reason he never wanted even basic therapy as a troubled youth.

[full_of_wrath]

"I'm sure it was to make sure I wasn't intending to rebel, or escape. It wasn't successful, so it wasn't an avenue her pursued. There were a few false starts along those lines."

Explaining, absently. Someone comes in to bustle about his monitor, to readjust his restraints, and he stops the story for the moment.

[kobayashiwhatnow]

Kirk waits until the medics are gone, too. It gives him a moment to mull things over. The telepathy might have worked; the Betazoid might have just panicked at what was there. And Marcus might not have been looking for cooperation; he might have been looking to see what Khan's plans were.

"How did you escape?"

[full_of_wrath]

"From where?"

He still feels incredibly trapped right now.

"I never much succeeded in escaping anything, Kirk. Otherwise, your friend wouldn't be dead, and mine wouldn't be gone."

[kobayashiwhatnow]

"If you had just killed Marcus, I probably would have let you go."

Kirk admits, in the honest fog of medication.

"If you hadn't killed good people, you'd be with your crew right now."

[full_of_wrath]

"I believed they were dead. If I'd known the truth, I would have acted accordingly. But all I could think to do was hurt him the way he'd hurt me. I wanted him to know what it was like to watch."

He answers, just as struck open.

"But I'm here to pay whatever price you ask. I'll plead guilty, whatever the charge. Let me pay any and all price. Send me to Betazoid."

[kobayashiwhatnow]

Kirk has another idea brewing. One that, he hopes, would be more rehabilitative than trying to force Khan to abide by moral codes that hadn't quite existed in his time.

He doesn't say that, of course. He won't even say it to Spock, not until he's spoken to Starfleet Command.

"I hope you mean that."

He knows Khan does.

[full_of_wrath]

"I'd like it if I could be moved to the brig, Captain. Since the draws are no longer needed quite as frequently."

He proposes, quietly.

"Would you consider having me transferred?"

[kobayashiwhatnow]

"You should ask me when I'm on my feet. But yes."

He doesn't want them to drain Khan dry--nor does he want Khan to feel like some kind of human fueling station.

"If I need more I'll just come see you myself."

No, he won't, because Kirk is always too busy to care for his own health. But the intention is in the right place.

[full_of_wrath]

"Thank you."

He agrees, and before long, he's been shuffled out of Kirk's sight and out of the way. They'll have to take to the channels to try to arrange a solution, a trial, and in the mean time, Khan is sent to Betazoid as a stopgap measure, if only to make sure he doesn't escape and kill anyone else on the way.

Unearthing all of his work for Marcus is proving to take much longer than anyone had thought possible. Then there's the confusing matter of report falsification, of several empty cryo-tubes, of the terrifying implication that there are several of Khan's brethren unaccounted for and on Earth. The popular theory is that they're alive, lurking, ready to free him, but it adds a touch of panic to the proceedings that makes everything much more complicated.

[kobayashiwhatnow]

It's several days more before Kirk is up, and he really shouldn't be on his feet then either but he is. And when he learns of the empty cryotubes he feels a very real sense of shock setting in.

To him it's not the possibility that they're alive on Earth (if they are he thinks Khan might help him round them up to safety). It's something Khan once said, he made me watch..., something that makes Kirk think they're gone forever. It is something Marcus would do. He wouldn't put anything past Marcus.

He almost has his request to Starfleet finished, but he puts it on hold, and takes his crew to Betazoid. Because they can sense violence from miles away, Kirk is allowed to see Khan alone.

[full_of_wrath]

They warn him, very graciously, that the visit may be alarming. The work they're doing with Khan is abnormally intense, and the effects of it can be shocking.

It's true. The room they're keeping him in is lush, utterly humane, but the man pressed under the blankets is a far cry from the force of nature that helped Kirk take out the Vengeance with almost physical strength alone.

"They said you were coming." He observes, managing to sit up a little. "They eased up on the... pressure, I suppose, so that we could talk."

For that reason alone he looks glad to see him.

[kobayashiwhatnow]

This is what he'd been afraid of.

"What have they been doing?"

Kirk pulls over a chair and sits very close to the bedside. He'll be here a while, which means a good reprieve for Khan.

[full_of_wrath]

"The philosophy is that evil arises from the mismanagement of pain. Through unhealthy..."

Pulling himself the rest of the way up.

"...coping mechanisms, through suppression. They want me to engage with loss more productively. It isn't a bad theory, actually, it's just."

He scrubs a hand over his eyes, wiping the evidence of his fight with it away.

"I don't think it will help."

[kobayashiwhatnow]

Kirk doesn't, either. He's more convinced of that now than ever.

"I'm here to ask you about some empty cryotubes that were found."

He watches him very intently.