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“I looked up John Harrison. Up until a year ago, he didn’t exist. Unless you want to try and fill in the gaps for me right now.”
Harrison rolled his eyes, looking very bored at the proceedings. “I was born in 2228 in Dover, Great Britain, Earth to Richard and Sara Harrison,” he said flatly, not even looking at them. “I attended grade school in Islington, London. When I was eighteen, I attended an educational exchange program on Tarsus IV and was present during the massacre where both of my parents died. I am one of nine people who survived the massacre and—”
“Bullshit.”
Leonard started and turned to Jim, surprised at the venom in his voice. Spock seemed similarly...well, startled wasn’t really the right word with him.
Harrison’s eyebrows shot up, giving Jim a curious look, but he did not seem deterred. “I can assure you, I am one of the Tarsus Nine. While there is no record that you have clearance to view, there is proof available.”
Jim let out a short, humorless laugh, and Leonard was rapidly becoming concerned at his reaction to Harrison’s information.
“You’re right, a captain wouldn’t have access to those files,” Jim said, stalking closer to Harrison, stopping at Leonard’s shoulder. “And if you were in this situation with anyone else, they wouldn’t call your bluff and they’d take you at your word. As it is, I’m one of the few people who can call you on it.”
“Captain—”
“Don’t you dare claim to be one of the Tarsus Nine, you don’t have the right!” Kirk seethed, continuing his rant.
“Jim, we really can’t confirm his story, only a select few have access to that kind of information,” Leonard tried to reason, laying a hand on Jim’s shoulder, but he wasn’t having any of it.
“Them and the Tarsus Nine themselves,” Jim said in a clipped tone.
“Well, unless you can find another one of them at such short notice, we’re gonna have to take him at his word,” Leonard said, impatience leaking into his tone.
Jim smirked without an ounce of humor in his gaze. “Oh, you have one,” he said simply. “And it’s not John Harrison.” Harrison, whose gaze had turned calculating, stood and stepped closer to the field, standing eye to eye with Jim.
“As I have told you, I—”
“You’re lying straight out your ass, that’s what you’re doing,” Jim glared, keeping steady eye contact. “I happen to be intimately acquainted with the Tarsus Nine, and you, Harrison, are not among them.”
“I don’t see how you would be privy to that information, and therefore—”
“I’m privy to it because I’m one of them!”
Silence followed this declaration, and Harrison’s eyes narrowed. While his gaze revealed nothing, it seemed clear that he was unhappy at this development. One that none of them had seen coming. Jesus...Jim was one of the...he was on Tarsus when the genocide happened...oh my God...
Knowing he had caught Harrison in his lie, Jim continued with a satisfied grimace. “While I have no desire to risk the lives of the other eight by listing them to confirm that your name is not among them, I can say with surety that the eldest was only a couple months older than I was. As I was thirteen at the time of the massacre and you claim to have been eighteen, you cannot possibly be one of them. As the Nine are the only ones whose names have been wiped from the survivor lists, and John Harrison’s name is not among those lists, it’s safe to say that you were not actually on Tarsus IV at all. And the only reason you would claim to be is to give yourself a decent untraceable backstory. And sure, claiming to be one of the Nine would have worked, none of us would have been able to check.
“It’s unfortunate for you that I happened to be the captain of the vessel that has you imprisoned. Now, I think we’ve established that John Harrison is an alias that doesn’t exist, so why don’t you tell us who you really are?”
Not-Harrison held Jim’s gaze with a cold, calculating glare that had Leonard on edge. This man was dangerous, and Jim had pushed his buttons and forced him to operate out of his comfort zone, only making the man even more of a threat.
“You’re correct, John Harrison was a fiction created the moment I was awoken by your Admiral Marcus to help him advance his cause. A smokescreen to conceal my true identity. My name is Khan.”