It Had to Be Ducts
Apr. 5th, 2026 11:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerChapter would be on time as it was half written but then I decided to scrap a bunch of it so. Yay. If it helps I did start working on it before the turn of the day.
Main Points:
Star Trek (the 2009!movie verse) Cambion AU (New Genesis)
Summary: It doesn't exactly go to plan.
Word Count: 1795
Rating: Teen
Chekov had been right about wanting to come down with him when it comes to getting in trouble, Kirk reflects as he throws himself out of the line of actual fire. Mostly, he’d said no because someone needed to hide near the transporter room. Preferably someone with the kind of hand at the controls that could pull him up in the middle of just about anything happening, and Kirk trusts Chekov and Scotty to be able to pull that off. It’d confused him briefly that Khan hadn’t done the same thing, leaving someone to be able to pull him and his crew up, but that ego must be working overtime and it also occurs to him suddenly that while it’s possible for you to teleport up, say, hauling someone who’s fighting you, it’s probably easy for that to go horribly wrong. At least Bones only tended to fight verbally, rather than using his fists, about the experience. And if there’s anything on-planet he’d actually like to keep, like, oh, some nasty weapons, he’d need to use shuttles or whatever they actually have on the planet. He hadn’t expected to be welcomed with open arms, given the whole secrecy thing plus the possibility of court martial, but he hadn’t exactly expected to get shot at the second he set down. Normally they’d be able to tell they were setting him down in the middle of a fight, but given that it’d taken both of them to set him down, he’s guessing they have some sort of shielding messing with the signal or any sensory capabilities, and Khan hadn’t bothered to try to fix anything because, well, why would he? He’s pretty much expected as an ‘employee’, and he knows any of the changes so he’s familiar with the best place to set down.
He’d smacked something before he’d gotten behind some crates. Usually that would be fine, but he’d felt something like an electric shock down his arm. He still can’t feel it, but he’s pretty sure it wasn’t actually an electric shock because he’s still moving. Or smacking his head, because he’d at least managed to avoid that. It does actually feel a little like a nerve pinch (thanks Spock; he can recognize it by feel alone now, though his second would probably raise an eyebrow and tell him he should stop doing things that require Spock to respond with one, which is a fair point but it’s not always his fault, okay) so he’s guessing that’s what it is, though he’s pretty sure they’re usually supposed to go away quick and this isn’t. Maybe he hasn’t ‘fed’ recently enough to be healing that fast, or something. He’ll ask Bones for help (and maybe help) after all this is over.
A woman crawls over next to him, adding the occasional shot to the covering fire she’s given for the maneuver, and he braces himself.
“Captain Kirk?” she asks, raising her voice just loud enough to be heard and no more.
He takes a deep breath and nods. “Khan’s figured out how to get his revenge. He’s getting the Augments off-planet, and once he’s done that he’s going to destroy the planet. That’s your deadline for getting all of your people out of here, too.”
She nods like that’s putting the pieces into place. “One of the Augments was acting a little oddly, following orders in a surly manner, and when questioned started this fight.”
One breath wasn’t enough, it seems. “I think if I was enslaved I’d be pretty ‘surly’ about it too,” he points out. At least she’s smart enough not to argue the point, tell him anything like they deserved it or they’re happier as they are now. “Do you have shuttles, any other kind of craft?”
This time they both shoot over the side of the crate, hearing some movement. “Khan thought of that. He’s blocked off our way there, so even my order to evacuate was useless.” At least that’s an improvement over Kodos. He wouldn’t have ordered an evacuation even if it would’ve saved everyone. “But if you’ve come here in your ship…”
He hates to dash this woman’s hopes, but he’s not about to lie to her, either. “Sorry, Khan took the Enterprise. I did come here on her, but she’s not a safe option for you.” He considers. “Okay, they’re not going to sabotage the shuttles. I’m pretty sure Khan is counting on that being his way out, too. But that depends on us finding a way there they’re not expecting. Think you could show me on the map where you’ve got everything parked?”
She hesitates for a second before handing over the padd—honestly, pulling up the map was comparatively fast. “You’re one of the Tarsus Nine, aren’t you?”
He swallows and nods. There’s no words, but fortunately it doesn’t look like she needs any of them, because that’s all the confirmation she was looking for. She just hands it over silently, and it quickly becomes obvious why she’d even asked.
He’d half expected the new group to have bulldozed everything and rebuilt everything according to desired specs, but no. Section 31 just picked back up in the buildings where Kodos had left off.
Maybe they’d been trying to avoid scrutiny even here? Maybe somebody would’ve asked one too many questions about building supplies being transported out to the middle of absolutely nowhere, galactically speaking? They’d excavated more underground, it looks like (which had to have been a pain to pull off, given that the soil is so sandy), but they’d known those areas and he hadn’t so he’d steered well clear. On the other hand, they don’t have the near-encyclopedic memory of a kid determined to survive and have the other kids survive too sneaking in for the occasional food ration, and it shows.
“What about these ducts?” he asks, pointing at a section of the wall in the next room, and she just stares at him blankly. Well, if she doesn’t know about it, and judging by the uniform she’s the one in charge of this installation, locally, anyway, then it’s at least less likely that Khan would know. It’s sad to say it but this is all burned into his brain enough he knows the routes in and out, at least. Better than they do, better than Khan. “Okay, fine, we have our way in. That means we have to get out of this room first. You’re the lady with the weapons research facility. Anything in this room go boom, any distractions you can think of, any last resort weapons you’re holding back for the right moment, that moment’s now.”
She nods and wriggles back to the rest of her friends, and after a moment he follows her carefully, yanking himself along with his one working arm and stopping for the occasional shot when any of the fire gets a little too close for comfort. It’s a risk but danger is his middle name and it’s better than just staying put and doing nothing. If he stops moving, that just lets the thoughts catch up to him.
What they settle on is overheating a piece of metal and then lobbing it into something liquid, which vaporizes instantly and gives them something like a smoke grenade. It’s probably not lethal, but Kirk takes care to breathe through his sleeve as he leads them out anyway. They probably don’t have long, but unfortunately the group of Starfleet personnel had been farther from the entrance he would’ve preferred to take, so they have to go around. It’s honestly kind of surprising how easily it comes back, running quick and low and only fighting back when it’s absolutely necessary. The room next door used to be a warehouse. It looks like it’s still fulfilling that function now, but the boxes hold something very different than rotting food. Though it doesn’t matter how they try to sanitize, some of the smell still lingers. Or maybe that’s just Kirk. If he was a little more naïve Kirk might’ve said they look like heavy boxes full of medical equipment, but he’s pretty sure there’s no thought of actual healing here and now.
It’s a little harder to squeeze through the tight spaces than when he was a kid, but he’s also stronger by virtue of being older and also not starving. He gestures for them to follow him and then to help him pull the boxes away from the wall. Pretty much everything sucks when he’s having to do it one-handed, though, and he grits his teeth, glad that at least being a Captain and getting in trouble all the time is good for something, specifically keeping him in shape. He helps the others climb when they can, because he hears the footsteps getting closer, but there’s only so much he can do and they quickly revert to helping each other out instead, until they’re in the actual ducts (someone else ended up prying that off, while he just hung there uselessly).
His stomach isn’t too happy, but throwing up isn’t going to help, either. He’ll need the nutrients, especially if he wants his arm to heal at all. The dreams aren’t going to do it now. They’re no better than chewing on cardboard.
He blinks. The nightmares invading his dreams, yeah, sure, whatever, happens all the time, but they’re not staying separate now.
Command gold, he reminds himself, glancing down. It’s kind of hard to see with the lighting, but a little comes through from behind and none of his clothes were gold, back then. This, this is real. Pike, Number One, Boyce. Sure, it feels distant and not-real, but that’s his brain lying to him because it’s a jerk.
“Captain Kirk?” someone else whispers from behind him, and yeah, that’s right, he’d stopped moving.
He doesn’t recognize that voice, but he’s a little pathetically grateful for it anyway, because there it is. That title. He’s not just imagining something better with nothing to show for it. He’d earned it. At first he’d stepped up because he’d had to, but it’s not just that he’s here because of Pike or because of his other self.
They’re nearly to the other room when Khan, the bastard, decides it’s the perfect time for another announcement. “To the rats in the walls—you might as well abandon any hope of rescue. The Jackson has been destroyed.”
He has to be lying. That, or Spock had pulled off something. Kirk wipes at his face and ruthlessly shuts off any further emotion that might get in the way of them making it through this, because Spock, never mind Uhura or Sulu, would never forgive him if an emotional reaction ended up getting him killed, too.
Main Points:
Star Trek (the 2009!movie verse) Cambion AU (New Genesis)
Summary: It doesn't exactly go to plan.
Word Count: 1795
Rating: Teen
Chekov had been right about wanting to come down with him when it comes to getting in trouble, Kirk reflects as he throws himself out of the line of actual fire. Mostly, he’d said no because someone needed to hide near the transporter room. Preferably someone with the kind of hand at the controls that could pull him up in the middle of just about anything happening, and Kirk trusts Chekov and Scotty to be able to pull that off. It’d confused him briefly that Khan hadn’t done the same thing, leaving someone to be able to pull him and his crew up, but that ego must be working overtime and it also occurs to him suddenly that while it’s possible for you to teleport up, say, hauling someone who’s fighting you, it’s probably easy for that to go horribly wrong. At least Bones only tended to fight verbally, rather than using his fists, about the experience. And if there’s anything on-planet he’d actually like to keep, like, oh, some nasty weapons, he’d need to use shuttles or whatever they actually have on the planet. He hadn’t expected to be welcomed with open arms, given the whole secrecy thing plus the possibility of court martial, but he hadn’t exactly expected to get shot at the second he set down. Normally they’d be able to tell they were setting him down in the middle of a fight, but given that it’d taken both of them to set him down, he’s guessing they have some sort of shielding messing with the signal or any sensory capabilities, and Khan hadn’t bothered to try to fix anything because, well, why would he? He’s pretty much expected as an ‘employee’, and he knows any of the changes so he’s familiar with the best place to set down.
He’d smacked something before he’d gotten behind some crates. Usually that would be fine, but he’d felt something like an electric shock down his arm. He still can’t feel it, but he’s pretty sure it wasn’t actually an electric shock because he’s still moving. Or smacking his head, because he’d at least managed to avoid that. It does actually feel a little like a nerve pinch (thanks Spock; he can recognize it by feel alone now, though his second would probably raise an eyebrow and tell him he should stop doing things that require Spock to respond with one, which is a fair point but it’s not always his fault, okay) so he’s guessing that’s what it is, though he’s pretty sure they’re usually supposed to go away quick and this isn’t. Maybe he hasn’t ‘fed’ recently enough to be healing that fast, or something. He’ll ask Bones for help (and maybe help) after all this is over.
A woman crawls over next to him, adding the occasional shot to the covering fire she’s given for the maneuver, and he braces himself.
“Captain Kirk?” she asks, raising her voice just loud enough to be heard and no more.
He takes a deep breath and nods. “Khan’s figured out how to get his revenge. He’s getting the Augments off-planet, and once he’s done that he’s going to destroy the planet. That’s your deadline for getting all of your people out of here, too.”
She nods like that’s putting the pieces into place. “One of the Augments was acting a little oddly, following orders in a surly manner, and when questioned started this fight.”
One breath wasn’t enough, it seems. “I think if I was enslaved I’d be pretty ‘surly’ about it too,” he points out. At least she’s smart enough not to argue the point, tell him anything like they deserved it or they’re happier as they are now. “Do you have shuttles, any other kind of craft?”
This time they both shoot over the side of the crate, hearing some movement. “Khan thought of that. He’s blocked off our way there, so even my order to evacuate was useless.” At least that’s an improvement over Kodos. He wouldn’t have ordered an evacuation even if it would’ve saved everyone. “But if you’ve come here in your ship…”
He hates to dash this woman’s hopes, but he’s not about to lie to her, either. “Sorry, Khan took the Enterprise. I did come here on her, but she’s not a safe option for you.” He considers. “Okay, they’re not going to sabotage the shuttles. I’m pretty sure Khan is counting on that being his way out, too. But that depends on us finding a way there they’re not expecting. Think you could show me on the map where you’ve got everything parked?”
She hesitates for a second before handing over the padd—honestly, pulling up the map was comparatively fast. “You’re one of the Tarsus Nine, aren’t you?”
He swallows and nods. There’s no words, but fortunately it doesn’t look like she needs any of them, because that’s all the confirmation she was looking for. She just hands it over silently, and it quickly becomes obvious why she’d even asked.
He’d half expected the new group to have bulldozed everything and rebuilt everything according to desired specs, but no. Section 31 just picked back up in the buildings where Kodos had left off.
Maybe they’d been trying to avoid scrutiny even here? Maybe somebody would’ve asked one too many questions about building supplies being transported out to the middle of absolutely nowhere, galactically speaking? They’d excavated more underground, it looks like (which had to have been a pain to pull off, given that the soil is so sandy), but they’d known those areas and he hadn’t so he’d steered well clear. On the other hand, they don’t have the near-encyclopedic memory of a kid determined to survive and have the other kids survive too sneaking in for the occasional food ration, and it shows.
“What about these ducts?” he asks, pointing at a section of the wall in the next room, and she just stares at him blankly. Well, if she doesn’t know about it, and judging by the uniform she’s the one in charge of this installation, locally, anyway, then it’s at least less likely that Khan would know. It’s sad to say it but this is all burned into his brain enough he knows the routes in and out, at least. Better than they do, better than Khan. “Okay, fine, we have our way in. That means we have to get out of this room first. You’re the lady with the weapons research facility. Anything in this room go boom, any distractions you can think of, any last resort weapons you’re holding back for the right moment, that moment’s now.”
She nods and wriggles back to the rest of her friends, and after a moment he follows her carefully, yanking himself along with his one working arm and stopping for the occasional shot when any of the fire gets a little too close for comfort. It’s a risk but danger is his middle name and it’s better than just staying put and doing nothing. If he stops moving, that just lets the thoughts catch up to him.
What they settle on is overheating a piece of metal and then lobbing it into something liquid, which vaporizes instantly and gives them something like a smoke grenade. It’s probably not lethal, but Kirk takes care to breathe through his sleeve as he leads them out anyway. They probably don’t have long, but unfortunately the group of Starfleet personnel had been farther from the entrance he would’ve preferred to take, so they have to go around. It’s honestly kind of surprising how easily it comes back, running quick and low and only fighting back when it’s absolutely necessary. The room next door used to be a warehouse. It looks like it’s still fulfilling that function now, but the boxes hold something very different than rotting food. Though it doesn’t matter how they try to sanitize, some of the smell still lingers. Or maybe that’s just Kirk. If he was a little more naïve Kirk might’ve said they look like heavy boxes full of medical equipment, but he’s pretty sure there’s no thought of actual healing here and now.
It’s a little harder to squeeze through the tight spaces than when he was a kid, but he’s also stronger by virtue of being older and also not starving. He gestures for them to follow him and then to help him pull the boxes away from the wall. Pretty much everything sucks when he’s having to do it one-handed, though, and he grits his teeth, glad that at least being a Captain and getting in trouble all the time is good for something, specifically keeping him in shape. He helps the others climb when they can, because he hears the footsteps getting closer, but there’s only so much he can do and they quickly revert to helping each other out instead, until they’re in the actual ducts (someone else ended up prying that off, while he just hung there uselessly).
His stomach isn’t too happy, but throwing up isn’t going to help, either. He’ll need the nutrients, especially if he wants his arm to heal at all. The dreams aren’t going to do it now. They’re no better than chewing on cardboard.
He blinks. The nightmares invading his dreams, yeah, sure, whatever, happens all the time, but they’re not staying separate now.
Command gold, he reminds himself, glancing down. It’s kind of hard to see with the lighting, but a little comes through from behind and none of his clothes were gold, back then. This, this is real. Pike, Number One, Boyce. Sure, it feels distant and not-real, but that’s his brain lying to him because it’s a jerk.
“Captain Kirk?” someone else whispers from behind him, and yeah, that’s right, he’d stopped moving.
He doesn’t recognize that voice, but he’s a little pathetically grateful for it anyway, because there it is. That title. He’s not just imagining something better with nothing to show for it. He’d earned it. At first he’d stepped up because he’d had to, but it’s not just that he’s here because of Pike or because of his other self.
They’re nearly to the other room when Khan, the bastard, decides it’s the perfect time for another announcement. “To the rats in the walls—you might as well abandon any hope of rescue. The Jackson has been destroyed.”
He has to be lying. That, or Spock had pulled off something. Kirk wipes at his face and ruthlessly shuts off any further emotion that might get in the way of them making it through this, because Spock, never mind Uhura or Sulu, would never forgive him if an emotional reaction ended up getting him killed, too.
