Kirk refused to accept the evidence of his eyes.
“I didn’t give you this anger,” he told his son. “Think back… think back and remember… all I offered you was love and acceptance. You always belonged.”
Joseph hesitated.
“Think for yourself. She’s been manipulating you,” Kirk said. “Controlling you….”
Norinda, restored, stepped up behind Joseph, ran her hands over his shoulders and onto his chest, pressed against him as if for protection. “He’s lying again,” she whispered. “Everything he says about me is a lie because he’s jealous.”
“I want to live my own life,” Joseph said.
“You can’t with her,” Kirk warned. He shot a quick glance to the floor to locate the gravity weapon. It was three meters away, and its operating lights still glowed. “She’ll absorb you into the Totality.”
“Liar,” Norinda said, as if Kirk’s claim was of no importance. Then, so quickly that the movement was a blur, her arm shot out, stretched into a black ribbon, and shattered the gravity weapon, sending its components tumbling and sparking across the dark floor, leaving Kirk defenseless.
Joseph didn’t seem to notice. He kept his attention on his father, eyes burning with the indignation of youth. “Then why hasn’t she done it?”
For a moment, pain and desperation fell from Kirk. Joseph was right. Why hadn’t Norinda acted against Joseph?
Kirk had assumed that she had taken Joseph to use as bait to capture him. But now that Kirk was here, she had taken no action against either of them.
The answer came to Kirk like a lightning bolt.
Norinda couldn’t claim either one of them.
Kirk knew she had tried to take him into her realm of dark matter on Remus, but other than his arm momentarily appearing to corrode into darkness, nothing had happened.
Kirk stood straighter, filled with the power of knowledge. He ignored the pain in his ribs, in his hand.
“Because she can’t harm us,” Kirk told his son. “There’s something about us, you and me. Maybe our genes. Maybe something alien I was exposed to in Starfleet.” A smile played over Kirk. Wasn’t that what Starfleet Medical had said about McCoy’s astounding longevity? That he had been exposed to something in his career?
It had to be the same explanation for Kirk. There was something special about him. Something he’d passed on to his child.
“You’re finished,” Kirk said as he began to advance on Norinda. “I’m the weapon that will keep the Totality away.”
Joseph stepped forward in confrontation. “Stay away from her.”
“I know what she’s like, Joseph. I know how she can distract and confuse– “
Kirk suddenly gasped as Joseph struck him in the face.
“You don’t know a thing about her,” he said.
Kirk put his hand to his face, the shock of actually being struck by his child more painful than the physical blow.
“Joseph, no….”
The youth stepped closer, punched Kirk again in the chest, turning his broken rib into a white-hot steel lance.
Kirk choked with the pain, stepped back in agony. “You don’t understand…” he said, his voice faltering.
He had never felt so old, never felt such a failure.
“If you want to go after her,” Joseph said, still advancing, powerful, unbowed, with all the force and assurance of youth, “you have to take me out first.”
He stood there then, hands at his sides, making no attempt to protect himself.
Kirk was within arm’s reach of Joseph.
He could never defeat his son’s strength, evade his speed, or match his endurance.
But Kirk had years of Starfleet combat training. He had learned the Eighteen Strikes of Vengeance from a Klingon Master. Spock had taught him how a sudden, sharp blow to any one of six nerve clusters could bring down any human.
Kirk could not defeat Joseph in any kind of fight. But with his experience, all he had to do was raise his hand against his son once, and Joseph would be unconscious before he hit the floor.
One strike. One hit.
Against his own child.
To do so would be inconceivable.
There were no rules to change, no new game to play.
Kirk had finally met the one opponent he couldn’t defeat, because it was the one opponent he would never harm.
Joseph appeared to sense his father’s acceptance of defeat.
“In time, you’ll understand,” Joseph said.
“I already do,” Kirk said with sorrow.
Norinda slipped up against Joseph, turned his head to hers, kissed him deeply.
Kirk looked away.
Norinda laughed.
“Don’t worry, James,” she said kindly, “you’ll feel better soon.”
Kirk looked back at Norinda, wondering what she meant.
“It’s time for you to receive your gift.”
Kirk was confused. That’s what the Totality called it when they captured humans and brought them into their realm.
“Accept,” Norinda said as she walked toward Kirk, arms outstretched. “Embrace,” she said, and her arms dissolved into black tendrils that flowed through the air like smoke to wrap gently around Kirk.
“Be loved,” she said.
Pain danced like electricity across Kirk’s skin as he felt himself dissolving in Norinda’s grasp.
Her face was so close to his, changing back to the human form it had when he had first met her.
“That’s right,” she said in a childish, teasing voice, “you were wrong. There’s nothing special about you at all.”
Overcome by defeat, Kirk felt his body decay into nothingness as he was absorbed at last into the Peace of the Totality.
33
U.S.S. ENTERPRISE
STARDATE 58571.5
“Surrender?” Riker said.
On the viewscreen of the Enterprise’s bridge, Picard appeared to be as pleased with the strategy as his former first officer.
“For this to work,” Picard explained, “we have to get close enough to the Vulcan ships to take them off- guard.” His voice and image sparkled with interference, and there was a definite time lag between exchanges. Instead of using subspace, the Enterprise and the Belle Reve were communicating by laser transmissions-an old but effective method of evading eavesdroppers. In this case, the eavesdroppers were the two Vulcan cruisers chasing Picard’s vessel, within minutes of arriving, weapons armed.
“It isn’t quite what I had in mind for my first command action on this ship,” Riker said.
Picard smiled ruefully. “Just don’t get too used to that chair.”
Riker returned the smile. “Is there anything else Geordi needs to know?”
“Just follow Mister Scott’s lead and… hope for the best. Belle Reve out.”
