01x08 - Still Treads the Shadow

[bunniefuu]

KIRK (VO): Captain's log, stardate . .

A nascent singularity has been reported
near the uninhabited Cressida system.

The Federation has assigned
a gravitational wave engineer

to the Enterprise
for our investigation.

Are we there yet?

Not yet.

Are we close?

Mr. Chekov?

Approaching Cressida now, sir.

Take us out of warp, Mr. Sulu.

Aye, sir. Switching to impulse.

[CRASH]

What the blazes?

I'm detecting a significant gravimetric
field, sir. Stronger than we anticipated.

There's no guarantees with black holes.

Sensors confirm a
massive shift in this system.

The event horizon has
consumed planets through .

In days?

SPOCK: It is possible
an interphasic rift has thinned

...the structure
of spacetime in this region.

I'd say that's our cue to
hightail it outta here.

No! Jim!

"Captain." We are here to study the effects
of singularities on spacetime.

With all due respect,
we nearly lost the captain

to a dimensional k*ll-zone
like this a year ago.

[INTERCOM WHISTLES]

Scott to bridge. Captain, it's taking
every ounce of our engines

...to maintain this position.

Understood.
Just hold her together, Scotty.

Samara, how long do you need
to finish your assessment?

Six hours, minimum.

Captain, an unusual reading nearby.

KIRK: What kind of reading?

Lieutenant, I am attempting to ...
extrapolate the data into audible sound.

[DEEP THUMPING SOUND]

That's no engine.

Uhura, can you speed it up?

[FASTER THUMPING SOUND]

That's a heartbeat.

Confirmed. One set of life
signs on Cressida 's moon.

[CRASH]

The moon's destabilizing, sir!

Spock, can we get a transporter
lock on that life form?

[HEARTBEAT CONTINUES]

Still detecting faint life signs.

I think we can rule out the moon.

Sulu.

Magnify the primary hull.

The Defiant?

Affirmative.

The ship's wave signature is out of phase
from when we last encountered it.

And life support has been reestablished.

Life support?

There was no one left alive on board!

There is now.

Spock. This time, if anything
happens while I'm away...

I shall...

IN UNISON:
...secure the safety of the Enterprise.

Jinx.

Captain.

I must protest. I should be
investigating that rift.

Your protest is noted.

If that ship fades away with me in it...

...I'm gonna come back and haunt
the whole lot of you.

[SIGH] Energize.

Kirk to Enterprise.

The bridge is empty.

It was filled with dead crewmen
the last time I was here.

Captain, maybe we can
examine the ship's logs.

...Figure out what happened.

Transferring.

[COMM BEEP]

Scott to captain.

Somebody's been souping up the engines.

She'll make at least warp now.

- Warp ?
- [McCOY ON COMM] Cutting in, captain.

Go ahead, Bones.

You should've listened when I said
we should hightail it outta here.

- Why?
- Come see for yourself.

On my way.

What is it, doctor?

KIRK (VO): Space. The final frontier.

These are the voyages of the
Starship Enterprise.

Its continuing mission:

to explore strange new worlds.

To seek out new life
and new civilizations.

To boldly go
where no man has gone before.

KIRK (VO): Captain's log, supplemental.
We've returned from the Defiant...

...at least SOME VERSION of the Defiant...

...with a cryonically-preserved
man on board. A familiar man.

Jim... He's you.

That's impossible. A clone, maybe?

I did a full DNA scan.
No genetic drift. He's YOU, all right...

...just much older.

I don't understand...

Let's give 'em some room to work, lass.

Bones. How long to, uh...

De-ice him?

Not sure. I'll let you know when I do.

Captain, my research theorizes that

rogue singularities can
pass through realities...

...move from universe to universe.

Spock, what do the logs show?

They are encrypted.
But from what we've managed to decipher

...apparently the Defiant discovered
this so-called "black hole"

as it phased into our reality.

The ship, however, is unable
to complete its transfer.

So she's stuck.

Half here, half there.

And you say she can manage warp ?

Aye. According to the
engineering logs...

...her engines have been modified
over a LONG period of time.

But we just saw her a year ago.

Time is not an absolute, captain.

It is, as Einstein surmised, relative.

In whatever space the
Defiant has been...

...time obviously moves more rapidly.

But if the man we found
was the only one alive

on the ship, then who
overhauled the engines?

DRAKE: He insisted on seeing everyone.

Scotty.

Cap'n... is that really you?

Eh, last time I looked in the mirror...
whenever that was.

How are you so young?

All this time... I thought
you'd left me.

I thought I'd never see you
or the Enterprise ever again.

You are mistaken.
That would never happen.

I don't expect a hug.

Is this really necessary?

It is for now.

SAMARA: Jim?

Avi?

Avi Samara?

Ms. Samara arrived
a few days ago.

I'd given up hope of seeing you...

...all of you... a long time ago.

But you're HIM. How?

No clue. I thought I was abandoned.

Nobody was abandoned...
as you can see for yourself.

What's the last thing
you remember before we...

...before YOU thought
we'd left you?

You were beaming me back
to the Enterprise...

...and for a moment, everything
was transparent.

And then you were gone,

and I was back on the Defiant.

I managed to reactivate life support
right before my oxygen ran out.

That's not possible.

SAMARA: Unless... a divergence field!

Such a phenomenon is
purely hypothetical.

That's the only plausible
explanation, Mr. Spock.

Two Defiants. Two Jim Kirks.
I don't know where "our" Defiant went...

...but when it was in interphasic space...

...it must have been duplicated.

And so was the captain.

How long?

Based on physiological age?
Sixty-odd years.

Two-hundred seventeen.

Perhaps two-hundred eighteen.

I was put in cryo most of that time.

PUT in cryo?
How could you be "put" in cryo?

[INTERCOM WHISTLES]

Bridge to Captain Kirk.

Kirk here. Go ahead, Sulu.

Captain, a Klingon vessel
has just entered the system.

Go to yellow alert.

Spock. You and Scotty
get to the nuclear electronics lab.

Run a full subspace scan
on the Defiant.

Find me some answers.

Samara.

It's a D battlecruiser, captain.

They're holding position
off our port bow.

The Klingons are instructing us
to leave the sector.

They claim salvage rights
over the Defiant.

Any record of a Klingon claim
to the Cressida system?

CHEKOV: None, sir.

Send the following reply
from Enterprise:

The Federation recognizes no such...

What the hell...?

SULU:
I don't know, sir. But that phaser blast

...went right through their shields!

Their power grid's offline
and they've lost attitude control.

They're being drawn
into the black hole!

- Can we get a tractor beam on them?
- We're too far, captain.

Where did that phaser fire come from?

It didn't come from us, sir.
That's for sure.

Well, if we didn't fire...

But... there's no one on board!

OLD KIRK: Uhura.

Open a channel to that ship.

Captain?

It's good to see you. All of you.

Patch me through to the Defiant.

Tiberius!

[VOICE SOUNDS LIKE KIRK]
Jim. What are you doing?

Ti...

We were wrong.

Wrong?

They didn't leave me.

They didn't leave me.

Don't trust them, Jim. Please.

Another Kirk?

How many of us are there?

I am the protector of James Kirk.

I AM James Kirk.

There was an anomaly. Your entire ship,
including your version of me,

...is a copy. We didn't know
he existed until now.

He's telling the truth, Ti.

"Tiberius"?

Given the extended
timeframe involved...

...it's possible the
Defiant's computer developed

rudimentary multitronic circuits.

Artificial intelligence.

I saved your life.
I took care of you.

You kept me sane.

Yes. We have been closest friends.
Don't leave your friend for THEM.

Tiberius! If Jim is your friend...

...why did we find him
unconscious in cryostasis?

We wandered for over two centuries.

He would have d*ed if I hadn't
preserved him until I could get him home.

I AM home!

Thanks to you.

Jim, don't leave me.

Ti, please.

Send my friend back!

Captain, the Defiant's
weapons are charging.

Red alert.

Ti! Don't do this!

Torpedo detonation meters
off our starboard bow.

If he's trying to get our attention,
mission accomplished.

Charge phaser banks.

Phasers ready.

- Fire.
- No! You can't give him the power!

- What are you talking about?
- It feeds the dark... the dark...!

[SCREAMS]

Let's get you back to sickbay!

UHURA: Captain?

I'll explain later... if I can.
Sulu, get us out of here.

Wait! The black hole's
event horizon... It's expanded.

Confirmed. The Defiant's torpedo
compromised our position.

If we move...

We'll be drawn in.

You're trapped, Enterprise.

Lieutenant, can the Defiant
leave the system?

No. That would require
further expansion of the rift, sir.

You hear that, Tiberius?

You can't fire on us
without hurting your captain.

And we can't fire on you
without risking my crew.

So why dont we call a truce?
Share resources... knowledge.

Maybe we all leave here safely.

I'm not interested in your safety
after what you did to my friend.

Your "friend" is in pain. Why?

I did what I needed to... to save him.
When I found him...

...he was as young as you.
Now he's a shadow of his former self.

Take care. A shadow can be
larger than the man that casts it.

Close channel.

Spock?

Ms. Samara's hypothesis
was correct.

The Defiant is a precise duplicate
of the vessel we previously

encountered, as is the
other James Kirk.

He is, for all intents
and purposes, real.

Sir, we can't stay here too long.

We're being bombarded by
Hawking radiation.

Kirk to Scott. Can we allocate
more power to the shield grid?

Aye, but I found something
I think you should see.

Meet me in sickbay.

Sulu, you have the conn.

SAMARA: Captain...

I need you here on the bridge
studying the rift, Avi.

If anyone can get us out of here
on a wing and a prayer, it's you.

Aye... it's a bonnie
piece o' tech, all right.

Neural interface;
self-charging power cell.

You think it's the answer?

Answer to what?
Where's your patient?

My patient is with Dr. McKennah.

There's nothing physically
wrong with him. He's just old.

And this wee devil. We found it
in the Defiant's cryo tube.

TIBERIUS VOICE: It is forbidden
to remember. Know you are safe.

The dark will send us home.
It is forbidden to remember.

Know you are safe.
The dark will fulfill your directive.

Fascinating. A subliminal transceiver.

A brainwashing device.

Probably triggered a pain response
whenever the captain...

...the OTHER Ccaptain...
tried to remember something.

Something he'd been told to forget.

But he's away from it now.

He's been conditioned, Jim.
The effects are long-lasting.

I could synthesize a theragen
derivative to help him overcome it...

...but I'll need to know more
about this device.

Aye.

It's almost as if Tiberius is
trying to protect the old man.

Jim, are you listening to yourself?

"Old man." "My patient." "Our guest."
What happened to "captain" or "Jim"?

How would you feel, Bones?
Seeing another you...

...an older you...
standing right in front of you?

Years of pain,

loss, loneliness...

...on your face. In your eyes.

[INTERCOM WHISTLES]

Bridge to Captain Kirk.

Kirk here, Sulu.

Sir, we've managed to decrypt
some of the Defiant's visual logs.

On our way.

Ship's log, stardate... unknown.

I've managed to re-establish
life support.

But I think the Enterprise is gone.

I am marooned here.

There's enough food and power
on this ship for an entire crew.

Should last me indefinitely.

The Defiant personnel, all dead,
deserve proper burials.

Seems only fitting I take them
to the transporter room

...and beam them into space.

Burial at sea.

Ship's log.

Stardate...

The Enterprise isn't coming back.

My friends left me here.

I'm reprogramming the ship's computer.

Giving it a new prime directive:

To get me home.

He's developing a personality.

I tell him stories, we play chess...
He's imprinting on me.

As if one Jim Kirk wasn't enough.

Thirty-one years.

Twenty-seven parsecs of...

...of NOTHING!

TIBERIUS VOICE: Jim, it's all right.

We'll break through. We'll
get you home. It's just a matter of time.

McCoy would have told you...

"Time."

I have nothing but "time."

What is it?

Just remembering something.

A poem...

...I treasured when I was young.

"Is this the hill?"

"Is this the kirk?"

"And I with sobs did pray..."

IN UNISON: "O, let me be awake,
my God, or let me sleep alway."

The Ancient Mariner.

Adrift in a wasteland.

And yet you survived.

If you call this "surviving."

Four months.

It took me four months to carry them.

Every crewman.

To carry every crewman
on the ship down...

to the...

Remember...

After his ordeal, the old mariner

was given a second chance...
to remind others

not to lose faith or hope.

[DOOR OPENS]

Counselor.

How is he?

As we can only imagine.

All those years alone.

Everything that defines you
and gives you purpose torn away.

Your sole companion... a computerized
reimagining of yourself.

One man, two minds.

And one of those minds was
tampering with the other.

He's struggling with a
deep sense of betrayal.

In the past from his ship and crew...
and now in the present

from his only friend
for the last years.

How do we help him help us?

He needs to know that even though
he lost all those years...

...he hasn't lost WHO he is.

What would you need to hear most
if you were him?

Because, sir...

you are.

If you need anything, just call.

Reminiscing?

Reconnecting.

When memories are all you have,
they either fade away completely

or take on too much significance.

Well, no one could accuse
Avi Samara of being

"insignificant" when
we were years old.

Sixteen.

She rebuilt that biplane
for our birthday.

"The Grim Reaper."

Nearly plowed that cornfield
with our skulls when the seatbelts broke.

I used to yell, "How far are we going?"
And she would yell...

IN UNISON:
"All the way!"

You don't realize how rich your life
is until all the comfort, structure,

family, friends are ripped away.

It's like being thrown into prison.

You know you'll never see
your shipmates again.

Never find someone to love.

Someone to have your back.

Find a way home.

Years go by and you finally realize...

Are you even a captain

when you have no crew?

Are you a leader

if no one is following?

You know your crew wouldn't leave you.
Not intentionally.

But the decades pass...

and they never come back.

And you can't even replace them.

You can't integrate into a new society.

There are no societies.

No planets, no sun, no galaxies.

Nothing but endless light-years of void.

And your only friend is a voice.

Tiberius.

When does a machine become conscious?

I don't know.

When there's no one around
to say it can't.

I never said he couldn't, so he did.

And now he's as self-aware
as he is invincible.

If he's self-aware...

...perhaps he can be reasoned with.

He caught me reprogramming
the chess simulator once

so that I could b*at him.

Teach him what it's like to lose.

He didn't like that much.

He's hiding something.
Something you'd never agree to.

Something so horrific
that you could never face it.

The dark.

What is "the dark"? Try. Remember.

It's...

it's, uh...

It's uh...

[SCREAMS]

Bridge to Captain Kirk.

The Defiant's engines are beginning to
generate a warp field.

- Power level !
- Has she moved?

No sir... but the rift is starting to
emit some sort of dark matter.

Dark matter?

The dark... THE DARK!

Keep me posted, Chekov.
Kirk out.

Years...

Years of nothing but black.

Computer suggests new engine design.

Power...

...to open a rift home.

Year .

Computer sentient,
caring, controlling...

[MOANS]

He needs a sedative.

Event horizon.

Shared realities.

Two black holes...
must not merge!

Trap it! Trap it!

His blood pressure's
going through the roof!

[HYPOSRAY SOUND]

The other side of the portal, captain.

Another black hole.

A binary system?

OLD KIRK:
Thousands of times larger...

Tiberius... determined to
blast through the rift...

Disruption of space to that extreme

would likely manifest
the additional singularity.

If they merge, it would
destroy the entire sector.

I pleaded with him.

Tried to shut him down.

I tried.

The Defiant's computer
must've drained the oxygen

enough to incapacitate him.
Then...

Beamed him into that cryotube
and fed him that subliminal lullaby.

Sir, I analyzed the device.

I reckon it was obstructing
more than we thought.

I think he discovered part of
the computer's k*ll code algorithm.

Are you saying you can
shut down Tiberius?

Not from here. We could
give the laddie a right wallop, but...

But we cannot control the Defiant
without someone ON the Defiant.

I can't send him back.

So for now... a wallop
will have to do.

Thank you.

Spock, find me the rest
of that k*ll code.

I'll be on the bridge.

OLD KIRK: Jim?

How is it with you and Avi?

She's an incredible engineer.

That's not what I meant.

You remember.

We each chose our separate paths.
Nothing's changed.

With enough time...

...some things do.

Bones. Someone has to stop Tiberius.

I suppose you think that has to be YOU.

Please, doctor. No more lectures.
I'm too old.

It's a good thing you're
still strong as an ox...

...and as stubborn as a mule.
That subliminal conditioning

coulda given you one whale of a stroke.

I've been called a lot of
animals in my time...

...but never all at once.

Spock, tell me you've got a plan
to defeat that evil twin.

Not an appropriate description, doctor.

A computer lacks the capacity for evil.
It knows only logic.

Look here, you green-blooded...

A computer lacks the capacity
for a lot of things.

For years, Jim
thought we abandoned him

in that void.
He was angry with us.

Hell, he probably hated us.
But, after all that time,

he was able to forgive.
Because he's human.

Tiberius doesn't get that, Spock.

At the end of the day,
he's just a machine.

An intelligent machine with
no mercy and no understanding.

If that's not evil,
I don't know what is!

If you will excuse me, doctor...

I must complete my analysis of the
...evil twin.

Status?

SULU: Captain, the Defiant
has escaped the portal.

On screen.

- Sir?
- On my signal.

Ship-to-ship.

Aye, captain.

Tiberius. If those two black holes merge...

...you can kiss every sun, planet, and
creature in this sector good-bye.

[LOW RUMBLE]

We're experiencing undertow
from BOTH singularities!

Sulu, we need to ride the face of that
gravitational wave... just under the crest.

I'm a native San Franciscan, sir.
I was born on a surfboard.

Just don't hit the planet.

I'll give it my best ride.

KIRK: Full stop.

Where are you, Kirk?
Send my friend back. Save his life.

Tiberius. Close the portal.

Please! I'll come back.

You want him back?

Why don't you put your
money where your ship is?

How about a game of chess?

The stakes?

You win... you get him back.

And you can do what you want with us.
But if you lose...

...you tow us to safety.
And we figure out

a way to close the rift together.

What'll it be? Game, or no game?

Agreed.

Bishop to rook's level two.
Your move.

Queen to king's level one.

That will result in checkmate
of your king within seven moves.

We'll see.

Knight to king's level one.

Queen to queen's level three.

That... makes no sense.

Seems perfectly obvious to me.

What... have... you... done?

Your queen has lost her head.

You... cheated.

YOU cheated! When you
brainwashed your friend.

I... will... not...

I... will... not...!

Please tell me he's not dead.

No, just a bad headache.

A Trojan horse program!

You never intended to send him back.

How long before the Defiant's
auto-diagnostic restarts the computer?

Usually about an hour.

Uhura, all senior officers
to the briefing room.

Aye, sir.

KIRK: You too, Samara.

ALL senior officers, captain.

I dunno how long our engines can maintain
this position before we're either pulled

into interphasic space
or that bloody black hole.

The Defiant's got power to burn.
Am I right?

Far as I can tell.
She recrystalizes her dilithium

at four times our highest rate.

You're thinking the Defiant
might be able to close the rift.

Block it so we don't get
stuck in the backwash.

Tiberius will never do that.

SPOCK: Currently, Tiberius
is unable to do anything.

I have successfully determined
the memory purge subroutine, captain.

Utilizing that, one could delete the A.I.

and manually pilot the
Defiant back into the portal.

I know that ship... and Tiberius.
I'm the logical one to go.

You're in no shape for
something like that.

I can manage, Bones.

KIRK: No doubt... but you'll be
busy captaining the Enterprise.

I'M going.

[PROTESTING IN UNISON]

McCOY: Anyone who goes
through that rift is a dead man!

I don't want command of the Enterprise!
She's not my ship any more.

She's always been your ship.

You know her like the lines on your face...
the gray in your hair.

You love her as much as I do.

Maybe MORE now.

You didn't cause this to happen.

It was MY decision
to leave the Defiant last.

You spent a lifetime
paying for that decision.

Between the Tholians
and the portal, I was lucky.

You weren't.

No more arguments. I'm going.

Cap'n, you'll need an expert to
handle the engines while you helm the ship.

- I'd be honored.
- They'll need you HERE, Scotty.

I've studied the data Mr. Scott recovered.
I can do it.

- But if you don't know how to...
- No "buts."

I've been building engines
since I was .

You sure?

Samara, you're with me.

Thank you, captain.

Transporter room in minutes,
gentlemen. Dismissed.

Spock! Go talk some sense into him.

To what end, doctor? You and I both know
he will not change his mind.

Samara and I will tow the Enterprise
to a safe distance.

Then we'll enter the rift and seal it.
After that...

Captain. Don't do this.

You just take good care of
the Enterprise. Captain.

And take care of yourself.

For old times.

Jim.

I can't convince you
not to do this, can I?

Not this time, Bones.

The k*ll-code sequence.

Once inserted, input
your override sequence.

What are you doing?!

Giving the Enterprise the
best chance she's got.

Her REAL captain at the conn.

McCOY:
This'll only last a minute or two!

SPOCK:
Time is of the essence.

Are you with me?

All the way.

Energize.

Power up the engines.

I'll lay in a course for the portal.

My God.

Dark matter!

It's breaking down the
interphasic barrier.

Rig for tractor beam.
Let's tow the Enterprise free.

No!

Ti, there's no other way.

I know you can think.
Can you not also FEEL?

The people who
created your programming...

The programming from which you
were born. Ideals, mercy, forgiveness...

...stored in your mind.
They mean NOTHING if you

destroy those who share them!

They LEFT you.

Abandoned you to wander
the emptiness of space...

...alone, with no hope.
But I saved you.

We gave EACH OTHER hope.

Jim, we're outta time!

I don't want to put you
back in cryo, Jim.

Don't force me.

[HISSING SOUND]

Jim! Life support is shutting down!

[GASPS]

I'm sorry, my friend.

Stop. Please stop, Jim.

I'm sorry!

Please! Don't! Jim!

Sleep.

KIRK ON COMM:
Enterprise to Defiant.

Enterprise to Defiant.

Kirk here.

I know how hard
that was for you, captain.

You had no choice.

As for my senior officers,
on the other hand...

They were acting under
my orders, captain.

It's a little late for a court martial.

[CRASH]

Gravitational wake is increasing.

Activate tractor beam.

Enterprise, prepare to be towed.

All power to the engines.
Scotty, get us outta here.

Hold onto your bustle.
We're making a run for it!

Full impulse!

Is the Enterprise safe?

Yes, sir. She's free.

All right, then.

Once more into the breach, dear Avi.

Captain, they're entering the rift!

Scotty, transporter!

With this interference?
Not a prayer's chance.

Wait... what are you doing?

We can't risk this happening
again, Avi.

There's only one way to
seal the rift permanently.

This is a one-way trip, Avi.
It always was.

I know.

I k*lled the auto-pilot,
so I have to stay.

You don't.

No.

Kirk to Enterprise. Scan for
a pattern-enhancing beacon.

A what?

One last gift from Tiberius.

No!

I never forgot you, Avi.
I never will.

Jim! [SOBS]

OLD KIRK ON COMM:
Enterprise, do you have her?

KIRK: She's safe.

Send me back. Send me back!
[SOBS]

OLD KIRK ON COMM:
Take care, Avi.

See you on the other side.

[SOBS] He's all alone.

Not any more.