The Birth of Iconia

Chapter 23

A/N We do not own any of the franchises represented herein. We are just fans.

Chapter 23

On board the Ori flagship, there had been general confusion when Adria disappeared. She had been gone for over a year, and no one knew, even now, where she had gone. The Doci was furious with her, but her being gone did accelerate his plans. There were still three Ori alive, but he could deal with them when he needed the time suited him.

Now, the Doci was stalking to the bridge of his flagship. He had been in command without Adria for over a year. He was wise enough to know that he needed to tell the crew something about Adria, and to that end, he had said she was off on a quest. What the quest was, was not for him to know or for any followers of Origin to know. They accepted his words because they feared him.

He had received a message from three scout vessels that had been trying to find the location to which the Iconians had disappeared. He knew that they were still around. He knew that The Commander wouldn't give up on his son, but where were they?

The message had said that the scout vessels had dropped out of hyperspace and that the people on board were all dying. He could think of no natural reason for this, so he considered it a place to start.

He ordered his ship to change course. "Where are you, Kirk?" he thought to himself. "You are hiding. Afraid to face your better. Come out and see your destiny!" He thought of the first time he had seen Kirk, staring out a window at him. The Doci wasn't a follower of Origin then. He was trying to save his people, those who had pledged to live and die at his command two hundred years before Kirk was born. Of course, strictly speaking, he wasn't a follower of Origin even now. He believed that the Ori had power, and they supplied him with supernatural abilities, but he did not believe they were gods. If their power allowed him to have his revenge on The Commander, so be it.

As the mammoth Ori vessel was heading at an incredible velocity to where its three sister ships had been destroyed, an alarm sounded. He saw it, and almost forgot to breathe. He had stopped hoping that this would be found. It was a ribbon of energy in space, a doorway to somewhere. In his own time, he had tried to find out more about this ribbon, but he had been unable to approach it because of Kirk's forces. He had been deliberately kept away from it. He ordered all stop, and went to his quarters. He turned off the stasis field in the room adjoining his and went in.

"What is so special about the energy ribbon," he asked Kirk's son, David Marcus.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Marcus answered.

The Doci reached through the cage and grabbed the other man by the throat. He drew him close and hissed at him, "Don't play games with me. I could crush your neck right now in my bare hand. Don't try my patience, David!" He almost spat the name.

"I'm not playing games. I don't know about any energy ribbon." Marcus was calm. He was displaying absolutely no fear.

The Doci squeezed a bit harder, and David's face started to turn red, but there was still no fear. Finally, he threw him against the far wall of the cage, and David lay still on the floor, gasping. His tormentor strode from the room and back to his bridge. For the next several hours, his people scanned the ribbon and sent probes into it. Each time a probe would enter it would break up in the turbulence.

The Doci knew that this was not the reason Kirk had kept him away from it. There was much more. He had been genetically engineered to be a leader by scientists trying to improve humanity through selective breeding. They had tried to engineer strength and intelligence into the race, but what they actually accomplished was to create superhumans who had as much ambition and ruthlessness as they did the other, more desirable traits. The Doci had been the most successful of the augmented humans. His name was Khan Noonien Singh, and at the pinnacle of his life, he had ruled a quarter of Earth. He had not been benevolent, but his rule was marked by the absence of the massacres and internal wars of some of his contemporaries.