AN: I'm honestly baffled by the Stardate system. I may decide to make it similar to a Gregorian calendar (i.e. 365 days in one year) in this fic, if I couldn't figure it out. Again, I made up an event in this chapter to rationalise why no one escaped from Tarsus IV during the famine (or maybe they did, but I never read the novel so I don't know). This chapter's title is taken from Ernerst Hemingway.

And this chapter was challenging to write;I had so much trouble trying to get the atmosphere for Jim. Additionally, my mind has been everywhere this past week since I had a practical exam in uni and then an oral presentation, my mind was everywhere and anywhere.

If anyone is still reading this fic, please give a shout out, please? And please do tell me if you find a plot hole or typo or grammar mistakes. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

PS: I made minor changes to the previous chapter.

02 The world breaks everyone

Riverside, Iowa, Stardate 2246

It has been close to a year since Kirk last saw Winona. Not that he minded her absence, but at least Frank was slightly more tolerable when she was around. Like last year, on the rare occasion when Winona was earthside in Riverside, she witnessed a drunk Frank hitting her thirteen year old son black and blue in a drunken rage. Winona had stopped her brother and for a short period in the aftermath, had let her maternal instincts to rule her actions.

Instead of restoring Kirk's faith on Winona, that experience made him conflicted. On one side, it made him glad to receive the care and attention that he craved from her, but on the other hand it made him felt even more bitter towards the neglect that he experienced since he was small.

Ever since then, Frank had stopped taking it physically on the boy and started a different kind of abuse. Frank got even snider at Kirk, often belittling and distrustful of the boy. It always drove Kirk off the wall with anger, and since shouting back at Frank would end up with Kirk receiving a black eye and kicked out of the house, it was altogether easier to avoid him completely. Thus, as usual Kirk took to spending his time outside of his uncle's farmhouse.

Kirk exited the unassuming building of the local library, weighing his options. Kirk had memorised the layout of the whole town without meaning to during one of his roamings, so there was no chance that he would get lost; or, he could go back to the library, be antisocial and bury his nose in old holos again.

Kirk decided that he probably should go out and socialise, as the sky was still bright, and he had been spending too much time in the librarylately.

He might swung by the police station and say hi and give his only friend in the town—Officer El-Hage, a surprise visit.

They had struck up an unexpected friendship, when he offered entertainment to the young Kirk who was being held overnight in the station for his act of rebellion back when he was eleven years old. All the other officers in the station seemed wary of the Kirk boy who nearly killed himself in the car crash, but Officer El-Hage was undeterred. It started with a coincidence, El-Hage had left his padd on the table with his computer programming manual opened. When the elderly man returned and found Kirk perusing his padd in fascination, seemingly forgetting the world aside from the information inside the padd. El-Hage—who was a bit of an academic, was curious.

It started with that computer programming manual, then the history of space technology, and finally El-Hage introduced Kirk to chess. Kirk gobbled up the knowledge El-Hage offered him. Kirk lost his first and second games, but he quickly grasped the logic of the game and trumped El-Hage and the other officers in the station.

Kirk waited for a few days in the station for Winona, since Frank declined to even come. Those few days he spent waiting for Winona in the police station was honestly one of his most enjoyable, since back home he never could go out and play with other kids his age in fear of Frank getting angry. The few times Kirk had gone home late from school, Frank had locked him out of the house during winter, or deliberately made a mess of the house for the boy to clean. According to Frank there was always chores for the boys, and the least Kirk could do as repayment for staying in his house was to finish them on time without complaint. George had left since he decided that he had enough of their uncle.

Kirk was halfway to the police station when something caught his eye. It was an old rusty frame of a motorcycle. The frame was laying against the wall of a local mechanic shop, amongst other debris. Kirk had often seen it in old texts and holos from the library. The wheels reminded him of his father's old corvette.

It would be a challenge to restore the motorbike to function, but his heart was already set on it. There was only one way to find out, and that was by talking to whoever owned the bike.

Curious heads turned as the young teenage boy marched into Riverside's local mechanic shop.

"Hey," Kirk greeted. "Whose bike is that lying outside?"

Tarsus IV Colony, Stardate 2246

Carol took a lungful of breath and released it slowly. It felt wonderful.

It has been a day since her fever broke, relieving Lenore and Kodos. Carol herself felt so much better, it no longer hurt and restrictive to breathe, her body no longer felt feverish and she could finally think and comprehend her surrounding again. Carol decided to use the first day of her convalescence to catch up on news that had occurred while she was indisposed.

The riot that occurred two days previously took her by surprise. In the panic of the mass, the shuttle port along with the long-distance space communication hub was burned down. Now everyone was stuck on Tarsus IV. Carol could feel her heart sinking with cold fear when Lenore told her of the news. Then her suspicion was piqued when Lenore said that her father had made an announcement to allay the colonists' fears, that he already had a plan in motion to save them.

Lenore was confident in her father. "After all, he did know how to save your life, when everyone thought you'd die, Carol. So, if dad said he has a plan, I believe him." assured Lenore.

But how? That was the question that continuously plagued Carol's mind. Because Carol had clearly caught the same disease that was spreading among the colonists and reaping lives left and right. It was no wonder that everyone believed Carol to be a lost cause. She could not ask Lenore, since Lenore so clearly adored her father.

The whole premise seemed and sounded too suspicious to Carol. It was not due to lack of gratitude on Carol's part; Kodos had accepted her into his house and from what she heard, cured her as well—but,Carol's mother had once been an emergency consultant to Starfleet, and everything that had occurred had been going according to June Wallace's worst case scenario.

Carol dreaded what would happen next.

She knew there was no way she could stay still when she was so restless and anxious. So, the moment she was strong enough to walk unattended, Carol silently left for Kodos' office.

There was a boy in the academy who was a repeat offender for hacking into sensitive databases. Being a minor, he was spared from the usual harsh punishment and instead was sent to Tarsus IV in light of his incredible skills. Carol had become acquaintances with the boy when she accidentally walked in on him hacking into the academy's network. Instead of reporting him, Carol had asked him to teach her instead. In the five months since she started learning programming (and hacking), Carol's skills had grown by leaps and bounds. This was the skill she utilised in hacking into Kodos' personal network and bypassing his safeguards. She found that Kodos had planned for some sort of tribunal with half of the population to occur late in the evening that day.

"Come quietly, Lenore." Carol dragged Lenore with her when evening came.

Lenore was confused. "Why are we sneaking through the maintenance hatch?"

Carol kept her voice low, "Let's just see what's gonna happen, okay? Then we can return."

They hid in the shadow on the balcony, crouched down together against the solid banister. Lenore could feel Carol's still slightly shaky breath blowing against the nape of her neck as she breathed out. Lenore made a mental note to hurry and get Carol back to rest afterwards.

They watched as people trickled in, seemingly as confused as they were to the purpose of the emergency meeting.

The moment the meeting was to be commenced, the whole atmosphere abruptly changed. Enforcers shut the wide double doors and the tall windows. The general chatter cut off immediately to a sense of unease among the colonists assembled in the meeting hall. Carol briefly wondered what was the purpose of gathering a few thousand people people?

It seemed everyone could feel that something huge was about to happen. Carol could feel it in her suddenly dry mouth, and in Lenore's sweating, trembling hands in Carol's.

What proceeded next would give Carol nightmares for years to come, and destroyed Lenore's mind. The two girls witnessed the speech that began the madness:

"The revolution is successful. But survival depends on drastic measures. Your continued existence represents a threat to the well-being of society. Your lives mean slow death to the more valued members of the colony. Therefore, I have no alternative but to sentence you to death. Your execution is so ordered, signed Kodos, Governor of Tarsus IV."