- The Enterprise takes off, but Reliant spots it and moves in to finish it off.
- Luckily, the nearby Mutara Nebula can even the score, rendering the Reliant's shields useless and sensors totally inoperable.
- Kirk uses the time-honored "neener-neener boo-boo" tactic to convince Khan to chase them into the Nebula.
- The final battle commences, with both sides taking damage.
- The Enterprise has to take its main engines offline, because radiation and stuff.
- Kirk and Spock discuss strategy; Spock suggests that Khan is fighting like they're ships at sea instead of ships in space.
- Kirk orders the Enterprise to drop down, and then pops up behind the Reliant as it passes overhead.
- The Reliant takes a full-bore phaser blast right in the shorts, rendering it inoperable and all of the crew but Khan apparently dead.
- Khan, however, is what we like to call a sore loser. Rather than admit defeat, he activates the Genesis Device.