❧ Out ❧ Of ❧ Time

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[savageries]

[Mass murderer? Of course.] I expected that your people's history would not speak fondly of me. [That he was a murderer wasn't something he'd argue, but the reasons for it were important, particularly when one was employing such a loaded, emotional term.] But, as history is written by the winners, by your words I can see we must lose the war. [He'd certainly not be written about so negatively otherwise. And, much as he hated it, he'd accepted the possibility, the likelihood of it. All he cared about now was saving the rest of his family, so they could take the rocket and see what awaited them out among the stars.

He can tell McCoy is judging him, it's not very hard to see it. And his repeat of the date is either recognition that he's actually been thrown into the past, or some recognition that he knows what will happen during this year. Perhaps both.

And he must feel something for the sick and dying beyond the glass. Whatever Khan might say about the rest of humanity, this man is a doctor, so perhaps has a conscience. It's true that that can't be said for most of the human doctors Khan has known (like the people who ran the labs where he was created), but perhaps McCoy is different.

His expression twists slightly, condescending, at the attempted bluff. It's not even so much that he sounds like he's lying, it's just how ridiculous the lie seems.] If you think I'm going to believe that your history books contain no records of this illness, or that everything you've learned in the past few hundred years give you no advantage, you're wrong. You've made no attempt. [he paused, then took a step toward the doctor.] Tell me, do you think my people deserve to die? Every single one of them? Do doctors in your time still swear oaths to do no harm? Or will you make an exception for the people that I love?

[maythrowup]

Or maybe the world has changed, and we don't call leaders who indulge in violences 'heros' anymore. [He gave back.] It's narrow-minded to apply the rules of your time period to my own.

[Or, that was the way it ought to have been. Peace, prosperity... a time beyond money, beyond country lines. A place where villainy was described in shade of nationality, and past savageries; wars, yes, but disease too, discrimination. Of course, it wasn't possible to wash out any of that entirely. There was an inter-galactic world now, and so while 'peace' was the winner that wrote the earth's history now and found fault with both the victorious and losing sides of all previous wars, it didn't change the fact that McCoy was in the army, more or less, and that he didn't think especially highly of Vulcans.

Everything had changed, and nothing had. Khan didn't need to know that.

But McCoy was more interested in making sure he knew he didn't know; to keep him guessing, if only to buy himself a little more time to try to figure his way out of this...]

I'm a doctor, man, not a judge. If your people live, will they kill others? Do those others deserve to die? I'm not god either, I don't make those choices... I swore an oath, and I don't want to see them suffer. But I also don't intend to set off a new timeline in hopes of curing a disease I'm not equipped to help you with.

[A pause, then gruffly,]

I'm sorry.

[savageries]

[Khan takes a step closer to him, eyeing him critically. "Narrow minded"? Heh, perhaps he was. He is extremely skeptical that human nature has really changed that much in this future the good doctor comes from, not when it hadn't changed in the last several thousand years. Humans were like children playing with very destructive toys, all Khan had wanted to do was bring peace and order to their lives. He suspects that will always be how it is, even if humanity goes out into the stars.

But it's McCoy's refusal, and the manner of it that really gives him something to work with.] You're not a judge, but you ask me if my friends will kill others, and you use that as a reason not to save them? If someone was dying, and you knew he'd killed before, would you refuse him treatment?

[He turned and looked through the window, the thought of losing every single one of them weighing heavily on him.] We're going to leave this planet, and leave the humans to their own devices. If we already do this in your timeline, then helping us will only change the number of us who escape. I never want to return here. [Probably.

He glances over his shoulder then.] In exchange one of the people you save may be able to help you find a way back to your time. [There were, after all, a few scientists in that room.]