Star Trek Into Darkness/Summary

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|-| Prologue=
During early 2259, on the class M planet of Nibiru, Captain is being chased away from a temple located at the base of an active volcano by native Nibirans. He is startled by an animal, and stuns it with his phaser. Behind the animal is an upset ; the beast Kirk has just stunned was to have been their "ride", leaving the two of them with no option but to flee on foot. Kirk has stolen a scroll sacred to the Nibirans.
Meanwhile, is piloting a shuttlecraft into the volcano, with and on board. Spock, protected by a copper-colored environmental suit, is preparing to detonate a cold fusion device inside the volcano that would stop a cataclysmic eruption from extinguishing life on the planet. Kirk tells them of their plight, using the communicator. Spock reminds Kirk about the Prime Directive, as the Nibirans are a primitive civilization. Kirk assures his first officer that he and Dr. McCoy were disguised; they were merely leading the natives further away from the volcano. With the shuttlecraft's thruster being choked by ash, Spock has to act fast. After a kiss from Uhura, he is lowered by cable into the volcano. During the descent, the shuttlecraft takes too much damage, and Sulu attempts to abort the drop. The cable Spock is hanging by abruptly snaps, suddenly dropping him into the volcano. Surprisingly, he survives the fall in his protective suit, and the cold fusion device is still operational. Sulu and Uhura are forced to abandon the shuttle; Uhura promises they will get Spock out.
Satisfied they were far enough from the volcano, Kirk hangs the scroll he stole off a tree. The Nibirans cease their pursuit, allowing Kirk and McCoy to get away, jumping off a cliff into the ocean. Using miniprops and breathing apparatuses, they swim to the Enterprise and board through an airlock on the secondary hull. Chief Engineer is still not happy that they are hiding at the bottom of an ocean, complaining that the salt water may impede their ability to launch. The officers return to the bridge. Spock arms the cold fusion device, which has a three-minute timer. The volcano has a small eruption, with pyroclastic ejecta destroying the temple in which the group of Nibirans had been worshiping. Nibiru has a very strong magnetic field that was jamming their transporters; the only way they can save Spock is by revealing themselves to fly above the volcano, which would violate the Prime Directive. 
Kirk asks Dr. McCoy what Spock would do if Kirk were the one deploying the device; Bones replies that Spock would let him die. Spock was indeed prepared for that likelihood. The cold fusion device would freeze and kill him, along with freezing the volcano into dormancy. Before the device detonates, Spock closes his eyes and raises his arms to the sky above.
The Nibirans are shocked when they see the Enterprise rising out of the ocean and above the volcano. Right before the cold fusion device is activated, Spock is beamed aboard the Enterprise, and they make their getaway. Kirk and McCoy join him in the transporter room. Spock is shocked that Kirk has blatantly violated the Prime Directive. Uhura tells them the cold fusion device has successfully detonated, but the crew is irked by Spock's apparent lack of gratitude as the violation of the Prime Directive will be a steep price to pay. The native Nibirans begin to worship an image of the Enterprise they have drawn in the soil, accepting it as their new deity.
|-| Act One=The stardate is 2259.55. Back on Earth, Thomas Harewood, a Starfleet officer living in London, travels with his wife to Royal Children's Hospital, where their daughter is currently in a coma with a severe illness. After visiting her, Thomas Harewood is stopped by he is unfamiliar with. The newcomer says he can save Harewood's daughter.
Meanwhile, back in San Francisco, Kirk is waking up in his apartment after a night spent with a pair of Caitian women. They are annoyed when he answers a call on his communicator from Starfleet. He and Spock are summoned to the office of Admiral . Kirk is convinced they are going to be given Starfleet's first five-year mission of deep space exploration, though Spock is doubtful. When they arrive, Pike reveals that there are discrepancies between the captain's log on Nibiru, and a report Spock filed about what happened there; namely being, the former said it was "uneventful", while the latter detailed a breaking of the Prime Directive. Kirk is dismayed by Spock's apparent betrayal. After a brief argument, Pike dismisses Spock, and proceeds to dress Kirk down for his lack of humility and respect for the chair. Kirk counters that Pike convinced him to join Starfleet because of his maverick attitude. However, Starfleet Command saw it differently. The head of Starfleet Command, Admiral , has formed a tribunal that did not include Admiral Pike. The tribunal has relieved Kirk of his command, ordering him to return to Starfleet Academy. Pike tells Kirk pointedly that, one day, his reckless leadership is going to get his entire crew killed.
Back in London, the unknown man extracts a vial of his own blood, and places it in a package along with a ring. The package goes to Harewood, who adds the vial's contents to his daughter's IV. As it begins to enter her bloodstream, her vitals return to normal. Harewood kisses his daughter's forehead in relief, knowing she will now be all right. Not long after, he goes to work at the Kelvin Memorial Archive, catching sight of the unknown man in the street immediately before entering, and takes a long elevator down below the archive. He goes to his workstation with a glass of water. After sending a message to Admiral Marcus, he drops the ring into the water, which quickly fizzes, then causes a massive explosion at the Kelvin Archive.
Kirk is drowning his sorrows at a local bar in San Francisco. He is about to talk to another woman when Admiral Pike sits between them. Kirk is surprised he has found him; the admiral simply says he knows Kirk well, recalling a bar fight with Starfleet cadets back in Iowa before Kirk enlisted. Pike reveals Starfleet gave the Enterprise back to him. Kirk suggests that keeping Spock as first officer isn't a good idea, but he's been transferred to the anyway. Pike has pulled some strings, and gotten Kirk assigned to be his first officer on the Enterprise. Kirk is speechless, something Pike says is a first. He then gets a call from Starfleet. They are summoned to a meeting in the Daystrom Conference Room at Starfleet Headquarters.
On their way to the conference room, Kirk meets Spock and tells him about his demotion. Spock is relieved the punishment was not more severe. Kirk is still upset that he was betrayed. Spock admits he should have warned Kirk beforehand that he would file a truthful report about the Nibiru incident. After a brief meeting with Frank Abbott, captain of the USS Bradbury, Kirk admits he'll miss Spock, though is irked when Spock is left speechless. Admiral Marcus opens the meeting. The message he received from Harewood was a confession, and informed him of who put him up to the attack: John Harrison, a Starfleet officer who has gone rogue. The officers present look over images taken of the scene after the attack, where forty-two people were killed. Kirk notices Harrison in the images with a bag, and asks Pike about it. Admiral Marcus notices their discussion and asks Kirk what the problem is. Kirk begins to express confusion as to why Harrison would target just an archive. Kirk says Harrison must have known that a terrorist attack on a Starfleet facility would result in this kind of meeting.
Before Kirk can elaborate on his concerns, a jumpship appears outside their conference room, and opens fire, killing Captain Abbott and several other officers. The surviving officers take cover, and security personnel enter to combat the jumpship. Kirk takes up a phaser rifle from a fallen security officer and attacks it from the side to little effect. He sees the jumpship's engine intake, and gets an idea. He opens a fire hose unit, in a corridor of the building, and ties the hose around his rifle.
As he works, Admiral Pike is fatally shot, and Spock pulls him to safety. Kirk throws the rifle and fire hose, which get sucked into the jumpship's intake. It takes the entire hose, then yanks its base out of the wall and through the engine, disabling the ship. Kirk gets a look at Harrison as he beams out of the falling jumpship. In the meeting room, Spock forms a mind meld with Pike right before he dies. Kirk then arrives, and breaks down at the death of his mentor.
Meanwhile, Harrison materializes on a completely different planet, lifts up the hood of his longcoat, and walks away.
|-| Act Two=
Kirk is recovering emotionally from the attack alone in his apartment, when he gets a call from Spock. Scott was investigating the wreckage of Harrison's jumpship, and found a portable transwarp beaming device on board. Its destination is set somewhere they normally cannot follow. Kirk and Spock head to Starfleet Headquarters, and they tell Admiral Marcus where Harrison ended up: Qo'noS, the homeworld of the Klingon Empire. Marcus was afraid this would happen. Spock notes Harrison materialized on a nominally uninhabited province of the planet, and Kirk says he is not afraid to go after him. Marcus comes clean about the true nature of Harrison and Harewood's target. They bombed a secret facility of Section 31, Starfleet's black ops division, which was researching weapons and tactics for a potential war with the Klingons and any other species that mean to do the Federation harm. As far as he is concerned, the war with the Klingons was already beginning. He has a new variety of advanced long-range torpedoes that Kirk can use to covertly take out Harrison. He gives Kirk back command of the Enterprise, and Kirk requests Spock be reinstated as his first officer.
As they prepare to return to the Enterprise on a shuttlecraft, Spock expresses his misgivings about killing Harrison without a trial, and insists Kirk take some of the travel time to reconsider. Dr. McCoy joins them, telling Kirk he missed his check-up, which he does on the shuttlecraft. They are joined by Dr. , a weapons expert who Admiral Marcus has assigned to the Enterprise as an extra science officer. Spock is alarmed by this turn of events. Kirk is just as surprised but welcomes the extra help.
When they get on board the Enterprise, Spock heads immediately to the bridge, while Kirk talks with Scott in engineering. Scott is unwilling to allow the new photon torpedoes on-board, because he cannot examine the shielded devices, and the Section 31 personnel refuse to tell him what they are fueled by and will not provide detailed schematics. He does not want to risk firing unknown weapons around the warp core; any instability could wreck it and kill everyone on board. He is also upset that his transwarp equation was appropriated by Starfleet Command, ending up in Harrison's hands for his crime spree. When Kirk insists the torpedoes be loaded in, Scott resigns, with Keenser following suit. Before he departs, Scotty begs Kirk not to use the torpedoes.
Kirk returns to the bridge with Uhura in a turbolift. He tells her of Scott's resignation, and his recent issues with Spock. She lets on that she and Spock have been having problems recently as well. Before they can discuss it in more detail, they arrive. Kirk promotes navigator to chief engineer, since he has been shadowing Scotty recently, and tells him to put on a red shirt and head to engineering. They depart and proceed to Qo'noS. Kirk issues an all-call with his general orders for the mission, planning to arrest John Harrison on the planet and to use the missiles only if Harrison refuses to go quietly. Spock is relieved Kirk has reconsidered Admiral Marcus' original orders, and suggests he himself could join Kirk on his mission. Spock then goes back to engineering, where he confronts Carol Wallace. The identity she presented Kirk was fake; Admiral Marcus is her father, and "Wallace" is her mother's maiden name. Her real name is . He demands to know why she is really on the ship.
Before she can give her reasons and prior to the Enterprise reaching Qo'noS, the ship violently drops out of warp. Chekov has found a coolant leak in the warp core, and stopped the ship manually. They are still twenty minutes away from Qo'noS. Kirk recruits Uhura, who knows Klingon, to join him and Spock. He gives Sulu command for the first time, with orders to contact Harrison before they arrive to demand his surrender. Dr. McCoy is concerned, but Kirk is sure Sulu is up to the task. They use a vehicle they confiscated a month before, in the "Mudd Incident". Kirk orders two other officers, including , to remove their red shirts and change into more casual clothing; they cannot have any obvious connection to the Federation on this mission, lest they start an interstellar war. Chekov assures Kirk he will try his best to repair the engines before they return.
As Kirk pilots their vehicle to Harrison's location, Sulu sends his message via a targeted com burst, giving Harrison two minutes to surrender, or he will be eliminated with new, advanced weapons. Sulu's message is assertive enough that it startles the previously skeptical Dr. McCoy, who asks the helmsman to remind him "never to piss you off."
While flying through the atmosphere of Qo'noS, Uhura and Spock begin to argue, much to Kirk's dismay. Uhura is upset at Spock's apparent lack of feelings recently, especially after his rescue at Nibiru. She also tells Spock that Kirk is upset with him too. Though Kirk doesn't want to be dragged into it, he admits that she's right. Spock tries to assure her and Kirk that they are mistaken by his attitude. He recalls his mind meld with Admiral Pike, and how he felt Pike's final emotions before his death. They reminded him of how he felt when was destroyed. He assures Uhura that he simply does not want that kind of despair anymore, and that his feelings for her are still as strong as ever.
Their relief is short-lived, as their ship comes under fire from a Klingon vessel, apparently on a random patrol. Without any offensive capabilities, Kirk is given access to all the ship's fuel cells to evade the patrol's fire and try to outrun it. He finds a narrow space and squeezes the ship through it, evading capture. Kirk thinks they have escaped, but Uhura suggests the Klingons may be jamming sensors. The Starfleet officers are soon surrounded by three more D4-class ships, which order them to land. Uhura tells her shipmates they will be tortured, interrogated, and killed. She insists she be allowed to try to reason with the Klingons. The trading craft lands, and Uhura leaves the vessel, confronted by about fifteen Klingon warriors in full-face armored helmets. Spock warns Kirk not to interfere, lest he incur their wrath and Uhura's. Still, Kirk gets some phasers ready, just in case. Uhura tells the Klingon patrol that she and her allies are on the planet to arrest a criminal who has put both their planets in danger. The leader of the patrol, who removes his helmet, tells her he has little concern for Humans killing Humans. Hoping to play on the Klingons' strong traditions, she counters that the criminal has no honor. Unimpressed, however, the Klingon leader grabs Uhura by her jaw and draws a knife, prepared to kill her.
Suddenly, somebody shoots down the Klingon patrol; it's Harrison, armed with a rapid-fire rifle and a larger beam cannon. The Enterprise officers attack, in a mix of phaser fire and hand-to-hand combat. Kirk has little luck physically, but is able to shoot several Klingon warriors armed with disruptors and various blade weapons, including daggers and bat'leths. Harrison proves to be incredibly adept with his phaser cannon as well as hand-to-hand. Other Klingon ships drop reinforcements, but they are killed as well. Harrison kills the last few Klingons with their own knives. He turns his cannon on Kirk, and asks how many of the advanced torpedoes he has. Spock replies after Kirk doesn't, saying they have seventy-two. Harrison immediately surrenders, unconditionally. Kirk accepts, then attempts to knock Harrison out by punching and beating him repeatedly, none of which has any effect on him whatsoever.
Harrison is returned to the Enterprise and taken to the brig. Dr. McCoy takes a blood sample, to try to figure out the prisoner's physiology. Harrison insists that he be allowed to speak with Kirk. Spock thinks he wants to get into Kirk's head, but Kirk agrees. Harrison somehow knows about the damage to the warp core, suggesting something is amiss. He tells Kirk two things. First, Harrison gives Kirk a set of coordinates: 23-17-46-11, a point near Earth. Harrison says Kirk can find some answers there. He then insists they open one of the photon torpedoes to find out exactly what is inside.
Back on Earth, Scott is at a bar in San Francisco with Keenser, upset that Keenser allowed him to go through with resigning. Kirk contacts Scotty and gives him the coordinates Harrison gave him. He admits Scott was likely right about the torpedoes, which Scott accepts as an apology, though he cuts the conversation short. Whereas Scott is in no mood to do Kirk any favors, Keenser insists they help anyway.
The Enterprise is still hobbled, but has enough power to go to a nearby planetoid, where they can safely examine one of the photon torpedoes. Kirk assures Chekov that the engine issues are likely not his fault. They have sent a message to Admiral Marcus with news that they have captured Harrison, but have received no reply. Spock reveals the true identity of Carol Marcus, and suggests she and Dr. McCoy can try to open a photon torpedo.
Later, on the surface of the planetoid, Marcus directs McCoy in cutting a necessary wire. The moment he does, the compartment slams shut on his arm, and the torpedo arms with a thirty-second timer. Marcus disarms it with only 2.57 seconds to spare, and it opens, revealing a cryo tube with a frozen person inside.
The coordinates take Scott to Jupiter, where he finds a large shipyard. Following a sortie of similar shuttlecraft, what Scott sees in the shipyard alarms him.
Back on the Enterprise, Dr. McCoy examines the cryo tube. The body preserved inside is still viable, but Humans have not needed cryogenic technology since they became warp-capable. The person inside is three hundred years old. Kirk and Spock return to Harrison for answers. He says all the torpedoes contain his old crew. He reveals himself to be , a genetically engineered Human. He and his crew were exiled into space at the end of the 20th century. His cryoship was found by Admiral Marcus after the destruction of , and he alone was awoken. Marcus wanted his savagery as well as his intellect to prepare for potential war with the Klingons. He also reveals that Marcus wanted Kirk to fire those torpedoes on Qo'noS and purposely sabotaged the Enterprises warp core, leaving them stranded for the Klingons to find, igniting the war that Marcus desires. Kirk refuses to accept it, but condemns Khan's actions. Khan states that Marcus held his crew hostage to force him to do his bidding. He put his crew in the torpedoes in an attempt to smuggle them to safety, but they were discovered, and he was forced to escape alone. Khan says he committed his terrorist acts on the assumption that his crew had already been killed.
A ship approaches the Enterprise, but not from Klingon space. Kirk has Khan moved to medbay under heavy guard. The ship is an enormous unmarked Starfleet vessel, the . Kirk is hailed by Admiral Marcus; he has the communication broadcast throughout the ship and recorded. He tells the admiral that engine issues had prevented him from killing "Harrison", revealing he knows the man's true identity. He also suggests Marcus knows what's going on. In turn, Marcus accuses Kirk of being affected mentally by Khan, and insists Khan be killed immediately. He then orders Kirk to turn Khan over, but the Enterprises transporters are down. Kirk falsely tells Marcus that Khan is in engineering, before breaking communication, and asking Chekov if they can go to warp. Chekov says they can, but the warp core is still hobbled, so it's risky. They go to warp anyway, and head to Earth.
"Well, at least we're moving again," McCoy says in the medbay. However, Khan reminds a nearby Carol Marcus they are not safe at warp speed. She runs to the bridge, and warns Kirk that the Vengeance has the ability to engage other ships at warp speed. Indeed, the Vengeance catches up with the Enterprise, and proceeds to fire on the other ship; an initial volley from the Vengeance causes a major hull breach in engineering aboard the Enterprise, killing dozens of crew members, before a second volley cripples the Enterprises starboard warp nacelle, causing the craft to drop out of warp between Earth and its moon. Carol Marcus tries to contact her father, skeptical he will destroy the Enterprise if he knows she is on-board. He simply beams her aboard the Vengeance. Admiral Marcus then accuses Kirk and his crew of being in league with "Harrison" and sentences them all to death; Kirk attempts to plead for the life of the Enterprise crew, but Marcus admits that he intended to destroy the Enterprise with all hands from the very start, and cuts communications.
Before the Vengeance can destroy the Enterprise, though, the Vengeances systems are reset; Kirk immediately receives a transmission from Scott, who has sneaked on-board the Vengeance. It will take time for its systems to restart, so they have an opening to stop Admiral Marcus. Kirk puts Spock in command of the Enterprise. Spock is resistant to this idea, but Kirk insists the Enterprise needs somebody who "knows what they're doing" in command. Kirk heads to sickbay, and asks Khan about the Vengeances capabilities. It is a , twice as big, three times as fast, and far more heavily armed than the Enterprise. At the same time, McCoy injects Khan's blood into a dead tribble to examine his blood's effects. Kirk asks for Khan's help, assuring him this will be his only opportunity to save his crew.
Kirk and Khan will traverse space to board the Vengeance. The Enterprise maneuvers enough for its waste exhaust to be aligned with one of the Vengeances airlocks, and Scott dashes to a station where he can open it manually. Kirk and Khan don thruster-powered spacesuits and navigate the debris field, heading to the Vengeance. During the flight, Kirk's helmet is hit by a piece of debris, knocking out his heads-up display. Khan is also knocked off course, but reestablishes himself and encourages Kirk to align himself with Khan's course and enter the airlock together. Inside the Vengeance, Scott is caught by a lone security officer, but he is able to actuate the airlock, allowing Khan and Kirk in, while also blowing out the security officer.
Spock asks Uhura to patch him through to New Vulcan and reaches his counterpart from the prime universe, Ambassador Spock. The younger Spock asks about Khan and if his elder self encountered Khan before. Although Ambassador Spock has not wanted to alter his younger self's destiny, he makes an exception in this case. He reveals that Khan is none other than Khan Noonien Singh, the most dangerous adversary ever faced by the crew of the elder Spock's Enterprise; Khan is, according to Ambassador Spock, brilliant, ruthless, and will not hesitate to kill every single crew member. The elder Spock recalls that he and his shipmates defeated Khan, but at a terrible cost.
|-| Act Three=
On the bridge of the Vengeance, Admiral Marcus confronts Carol, who simply slaps him, and expresses her shame for being his daughter. Khan, Kirk and Scott head toward the bridge on foot, with Khan navigating them through the engine compartments where weapons cannot be safely used. They succeed in one fistfight with Vengeance crew. Khan jumps ahead of them briefly. Kirk tells Scott to stun Khan the moment they secure the bridge. Spock orders all his medical and engineering personnel to the weapons bay, and asks Dr. McCoy to work on arming the torpedoes. Right when the Vengeances weapons come back online, Kirk and his crew make it to the bridge, and stun everyone except Admiral Marcus and Carol. Scott then stuns Khan as ordered. Kirk places Admiral Marcus under arrest, and orders him out of the chair, not wanting to take him by force in front of his daughter. However, Khan is not as stunned as they had hoped – he gets up and attacks Scott and Kirk. He then breaks Carol's leg, and crushes Admiral Marcus' skull, prompting a horrified scream from Carol.
Khan hails the Enterprise, and orders Spock to give him the photon torpedoes. Spock refuses, but Khan says he can get them himself, without Spock's help, by disabling the Enterprises life support system and waiting for the Enterprise crew to suffocate before retrieving the torpedoes himself. Since his crew is frozen, they don't need the air anyway. Spock complies, and assists Khan in locating the torpedoes. He beams them safely aboard, then beams Kirk, Scott, and Carol Marcus onto the Enterprise, before attacking it again. However, unbeknownst to him, Spock had the photon torpedoes armed before beaming them to the Vengeance. They explode, hopelessly disabling the ship and leaving Khan anguished over the apparent loss of his crew. Dr. McCoy then tells Kirk that Spock had the cryo tubes removed, and they are now safely in medbay.
At that point, the engines go completely down, and main power fails, with backup power severely crippled. With the ship having been station-keeping over Earth, it promptly begins to fall toward the planet. Spock orders all personnel to abandon ship, but the crew refuses, willing to go down with him. Kirk and Scott make their way to engineering, a difficult trip with the ship tumbling and artificial gravity systems failing. While there, they end up hanging from the walkways when the ship is upside down, but are saved by Chekov. When they reach the warp core, they find the injectors broken. Kirk decides to fix the warp core himself, but the chamber containing it is loaded with lethal radiation. The captain overrides objections Scott voices by knocking him out with a punch, then enters the warp core chamber. Kirk manages to knock the dislocated side of an injector back into place, and the warp core consequently fires back up, simultaneously exposing Kirk to the radiation. The ship enters Earth's atmosphere, but stops falling just below a layer of clouds, and stabilizes with multiple thrusters firing.
The Enterprises systems gradually come back online. When he regains consciousness, Scotty calls Spock urgently to engineering. Spock goes to the door to the chamber, which Kirk is lying against. They cannot open the chamber until it is decontaminated. Spock tells Kirk he saved the ship. Kirk commends Spock's action of using what Khan wanted against him; Spock replies that it's what the captain would have done. Kirk offers that sacrificing himself to save the crew is what Spock would have done. Knowing he's going to die, Kirk tells Spock he's scared, and asks him how he is able to not feel. Spock, himself in tears, admits he doesn't know, and is failing to hold back his emotions. Kirk then begins to tell Spock why he saved his life on Nibiru, but Spock knows – "because you are my friend." After saying that, he sheds a tear. Kirk reaches out to Spock as the Vulcan presses his hand against the partition in the salute of his world. Kirk then succumbs to radiation poisoning and dies. In Spock, all the rage and hate felt towards the man he now blames for his friend's death erupts to the surface in a primal scream of Khan's name.
The Vengeance falls past the Enterprise, out of control. Khan, now bent on revenge for his crew, targets his ship on a suicide run at Starfleet Headquarters. The Vengeance crushes Alcatraz, skims across San Francisco Bay, and plows through the city, leveling everything in its path. Spock, returning to the bridge, orders Sulu and Chekov to find Khan, believing him to be capable of surviving the crash. Sensors locate him, but there is too much interference to beam him up to the Enterprise. Instead, Spock elects to beam down to Earth and take Khan out. After a chase through the chaos that has now engulfed the heart of Starfleet, Spock catches up with Khan on top of a moving garbage barge. Khan quickly relieves Spock of his phaser, leaving the two to struggle hand-to-hand.
In the Enterprises medbay, Kirk's body lies in an open body bag, surrounded by Dr. McCoy, Carol Marcus, Scott, and other crew members who are all saddened by the loss of their friend and captain who has just given his life to save their lives. McCoy notices the dead tribble he tested Khan's blood on is slowly regaining its life signs. Realizing the effects of the genetically enhanced blood, he orders one of Khan's people removed from its cryo tube, reanimated, and held in a medically induced coma. He freezes Kirk to preserve his brain function, but he doesn't have any more of Khan's blood – he needs Khan back alive. 
Spock continues to fight with Khan in an evenly matched battle. Khan tries to jump to another garbage barge, but the Vulcan follows, proving physically to be Khan's equal. The crew cannot make contact with him, so Uhura beams to the transport vehicle. As the battle intensifies and Khan becomes dangerously close to killing Spock, she opens fire on Khan with a phaser set to stun. Although it has little to no effect on him, it serves to distract Khan enough for Spock to turn the tide. He breaks Khan's arm and starts to beat on him in a rage. Uhura screams for Spock not to kill Khan, that they need him to save Kirk. Upon realizing that Kirk can be saved, Spock regains his emotional control and finishes Khan with an uppercut, knocking him out.
Two weeks later, Kirk wakes up in a hospital bed in San Francisco. Dr. McCoy has created a serum from Khan's blood to revive the captain. Kirk thanks Spock for saving his life. In turn, Spock expresses gratitude that Jim is alive. Elsewhere, Khan has been returned to his cryo tube, and he and his crew lay frozen in a darkened room.
Nearly a year after the events, Kirk addresses a gathering at the rechristening ceremony for the USS Enterprise, which has been rebuilt. He says that Starfleet should not let enemies pull them away from their true mission of exploration. Soon after, Kirk returns to the Enterprise, where all is in order to begin their five-year mission in deep space. He relieves Sulu from the captain's chair; Sulu admits he finds the of command to be addictive. Dr. McCoy is dismayed by the length of their mission. Scott, who has returned to his post as chief engineer with Keenser, reports the engines are "purring like a kitten" and that the vessel is ready for a long journey. Kirk welcomes Carol Marcus aboard as part of their crew and family. Spock expresses his trust in Kirk's "good judgment" on where to begin their exploration. With that, Kirk orders Sulu to take the ship out.
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