AUTHOR'S NOTE:

This was written on a whim for fun and takes place prior to the events of Star Trek Into Darkness. Even though I tend to be a stickler for detail and technicalities, I am not a Vulcan. For the sake of brevity (and less work on my part, won't lie) I skirted around any explanations regarding Khan's apparent change in ethnicity.

Also, I probably never would have written this had I not been inspired by the many wonderful YouTube videos of hahagirl727TV! All comments (good or bad) appreciated. And go check out her channel, too! :D

CHAPTER-01:

[ - Lt. Marla McGivers, Personal Log—Stardate 2258.3:Yesterday I was behind a desk at Starfleet Academy. Now I'm on board the USS Mandolin. I was hand-picked by Admiral Marcus himself for an assignment at Starbase 12 where I'm told they need my expertise in 20th Century Earth history. I can't even begin to guess what that means. I was told I would be briefed on the details en route. It's all so hush-hush that I can't help wondering what they would need me for. I'm just a historian... -]

One hour into the voyage, the captain of the starship, Captain Horig, called her to the conference room. There were only three of them in there. The Captain, Marla, and one other man whose uniform did not belong to the starship they were aboard. He was young, perhaps in his thirties, and dressed in the generic slate gray Starfleet uniform that shaped him like a toy soldier, his neck confined in a collar like a neck brace.

"Lieutenant McGivers," Captain Horig addressed her when she entered, a warm smile appearing. "This is Commander Andrew Lassiter."

"Have a seat, Lieutenant," Lassiter's voice was surprisingly soft, almost laughably so.

She seated herself in a vacant chair at the far end of the small conference table, facing her superior officers with outward calm, even though she was restless with curiosity.

"You are well aware," Lassiter began, leaning forward in his seat for dramatic emphasis, "that the operation you've been assigned to is deemed classified."

"Yes, sir."

"Whether it stays classified or is cleared for public release will be based on your input."

A new weight was added to her sense of purpose here, and she felt her throat go dry. "What is it that I can do, Commander? I worked the archives at the Academy, that's all."

"But you graduated the top of your class and specialize in twentieth century Earth history. You ought to know how few people there are with those credentials."

"I'm sure there are others more qualified than I am, sir. But I will certainly do my best."

"I think you'll do just fine." He offered her a reassuring smile, making her feel suddenly like a child. "Now, onto the meat of the matter so that you can see why you're so important..."

Lassiter nodded to the captain, who reached forward to tap a few buttons on the computer console. The screen that hung over the center of the conference table flickered to life, and projected on it was the image of a ship. An old ship, which had obviously seen a great deal of wear and tear. It wasn't just any run of the mill vessel, however, and recognition of it made Marla's lips part with a fascinated smile.

"A DY-100…" she breathed. As the image was zoomed in, she canted her head.

"I told you it was a 100 and not a 200," Horig grinned at the Commander.

"You know what it is, then?" Lassiter seemed impressed.

"Yes, sir," she couldn't peel her eyes from the lone object as it hung in space. "These were built around the early 1990's."

"That was our general conclusion," he said. "It was found floating in the Gamma 400 System with barely readable life signs on board. Approximately eighty or so individual life forms, all of them in cryogenic sleep."

"It's a sleeper ship?" She didn't mean to interrupt, but this was getting more and more exciting by the minute!

"Apparently. The ship has no identification, aside from a name: The SS Botany Bay. There is no registration number, no information on its computers—from what we were able to access on the antiquated motherboards—and no discernible IDs on the sleeping crew."

"The Botany Bay…" She repeated the name under her breath, letting the familiarity stir up her stored knowledge. "That was the name of an Earth penal colony."

"It's embarrassing how long it took us to research that same fact," Lassiter mumbled. "But, yes. Same name, but that doesn't give us much information. There's no indication that the crew are either prisoners or guards or neither. We were able to find out which of the crew was the leader. When we boarded the ship, its system automatically attempted to revive him. Nearly killed him due to the old, faulty circuits, but we managed to extract him from the container in one piece."

"He's alive?" She tried not to sound too hopeful.

"And well. Exceeding well, actually." The Commander sounded more concerned than relieved. "We have him in induced coma. He recovered immediately from what would normally kill a person, and only seems to get healthier by the day."

"You think he's one of the unaccounted for augments?" she inferred from Lassiter's frown. "One of the genetically altered people of the Eugenics Wars?"

"Everything seems to be pointing that way. And if he's an augment, then the 72 other survivors of his crew might be as well. Either way, we can't risk waking any of them. Especially not until we have an idea of who they are and why their ship left Earth in the first place."

"I don't think I could be any help in identifying people," she said ashamedly. "The records from those years are so scarce, there's nothing to refer to."

"That's exactly why we need you, Lieutenant. If there were enough records at our disposal, we could do this on our own. As it is, though, we need an investigator who know has a lot of information on that time era at their disposal. And if we can wake any of these people, we could learn a lot from them about the late Twentieth Century."

"Living people from 300 years ago…" she murmured distractedly, a small smile of wonder touching her lips. "It's hard to believe."

"So is a half-crazed Romulan from the distant future sucking Federation planets into black holes, and look what that got us," Captain Horig finally decided to add his two cents.

Commander Lassiter kept his attention on Marla. "You'll have access to what little data has been collected from the Botany Bay. When we reach Starbase 12, where the Botany Bay's been towed, you'll be allowed to do your investigating."

"Will I be allowed to see the leader? The one in induced coma?"

"I'll see to it that you have clearance. I'm sure you'd like to dive right into the file, so you're dismissed for the rest of the voyage. If you have any questions, I'll answer to the best of my knowledge or liberty."

She rose to her feet, "Thank you, sir. It's such an honor to have this opportunity I hardly know what to say."

He smirked and seemed to contain a laugh, a hand waving her away. "That's all, Lieutenant."

When she left the conference room, she let her smile fully grow. This was beyond exciting! With all the restrictions on time travel, and the Federation's general paranoia about it, the opportunity to engage with anything directly from Earth's history was nearly impossible. It was unheard of. And yet, here was the Botany Bay, a virtual time capsule from one of the most fascinating and terrifying eras of the past.

Already she began to speculate what would drive so many people out into deep space in a time when space travel was still in its infancy. And the knowledge of the one revived man being a genetically engineered human sent a shudder of excitement through her.