Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to anything Star Trek. That credit goes to Paramount/CBS. I am only playing with the characters and their environment. I am not making any money off of this. I am doing this for plain old fun. Any of the ideas that seem to come from the TV show Dark Angel belong to 20th Century Fox. And any of the ideas that seem to come from the Resident Evil franchise belong to Capcom. No copyright infringement is meant. Thanks.
Hello everyone. I just wanted to let you know that this is my first fanfic. Reviews are very much welcome, but please no flames. Please read and review and let me know what you think. This story has been a year in the making and has been something that I got into my head and couldn't get rid of until it was written. I am a big time fan of fanfiction writing, but this is the first time I have decided to join in the fray. I love Star Trek, especially Enterprise and I have tried to stick as close to the canon as possible. I may slip here and there, but I did my best.
Also, this story is meant to be long. It is like a novel. I am posting a few chapters at a time. It does contain some violence and language, and some romance, so I gave it a T rating. None of my friends would believe that I am a sappy romantic at heart, but I am, a little. This story takes place a few months after the events in the fourth season episode, "Terra Prime" and for now ignores the last episode of that season. You all know the one I mean. Later on I actually try to come up with a unique and creative way to help Trip out of that nasty situation. Hopefully some of you will approve.
I have to give a hug thanks to a wonderful beta reader, RadcliffePotter. She was so kind and helpful in helping me bring this story forward. Any mistakes that still exist are entirely the author's fault. Also, I want to thank Sclittle. She has been a real source of encouragement. Milk and cookies for you guys!!!!!
This prologue deals with a character from Star Trek: TOS and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I have always loved the character of Khan and thought that it would be fun to work him into this story. The chapters that follow get into Archer and crew and their adventure. The prologue is just setting up some background information. The real, hardcore story starts with Chapter 1.
Read and enjoy!!!!! Plus, review. Must have feedback to gain the courage and desire to post more. Thanks!!
Prologue
She had betrayed Khan. As she surveyed the destruction of his last stronghold, she let out a shaky breath. The wounds she had received during the battle for control of his kingdom were already healing. She was special that way. A harsh, bitter laugh escaped her throat at that thought. She was certainly different than most of humanity, that was for certain. She was McKenna McKnight, transgenic super soldier. She was the only one who had been able to pull the terrible tyrant, Khan Noonian Singh, from power and no one would ever know about it – at least not publicly. Her only regret was that she had let him escape and had not ended his miserable life.
McKenna, or Mac, as the World Government Coalition (WGC) liked to call her, cursed herself for her moment of weakness. Khan had a magnetic personality, and even though he stood for everything Mac hated, he could still be very persuasive. Many of the words he spoke to her were true. Humanity would never allow people like themselves to have any freedom - unless they took it for themselves. Ordinary humans felt threatened by their very existence; even though it was ordinary humans that had created them in the first place. Working behind the scenes, controlling puppet governments, and pursuing their superior agenda for ruling the world was what they were destined to do, until enough of the inferior human population could be wiped out and destroyed. Then, the "supermen" could reign over the Earth with great glory and true power.
Khan was a product of specific and selective genetic breeding and engineering. He possessed five times the strength of a regular human male and his intelligence was double that of normal humans. Physically, his heart pumped more efficiently and his lung capacity was fifty percent better than normal, making him a superior human specimen. He even had a higher level of hearing than most normal humans. He was a master of manipulation and military strategy. He knew exactly what people wanted to hear and how to convince them why his ambitions were the correct ones to follow. Khan could get inside others' desires and twist them to unite people to his cause. In short, he was evil.
Mac was different from Khan and others like him created during the Eugenic Wars, although she too was a product of genetic engineering. Her kind of design was in competition with those who created people like Khan. Whereas he was a pure human construct, Mac was a hybrid construct. One could call Mac a Chimera, named after the old Greek myth. Mac's genetic makeup consisted of DNA from at least thirty different humans. Scientists had also mixed in some animal DNA. The human DNA came from the best and brightest of the twentieth century: people like Albert Einstein, Neil Armstrong, and Thomas Edison. Some of the other people were athletes, like Jesse Owens and Jim Thorpe.
The Corporation of Scientists, who never existed on paper, also gave her DNA from predatory animals, such as the leopard, wolf, and hawk. These DNA contributions gave her the superhuman speed and agility that allowed her to be a one-woman army.
Her strength was comparable to Khan's, but her ability to leap, climb, see, hear, smell, and avoid bullets was far superior to Khan and his people. Mac could focus her eyes to see prey from a large distance away, as if it was right in front of her. Her sense of smell was almost as acute as a dog's. She could identify the ethnic background and gender of a person by just their scent. Mac also had the ability to drop from astonishing heights without an impact injury. She could almost see the movements an opponent was going to make before they made them. Last, but not least, Mac was able to process multiple levels of information input. She could integrate the data she received from up to ten different sources, her mind sorting out what was relevant and what wasn't. With this ability she was able to learn any skill very quickly and become any kind of person she wanted to be. She also had a photographic memory. Once Mac saw or learned something, she never forgot it. She had been trained to be the perfect soldier; to follow orders without question, to kill without hesitation, to fight until the death, and to out-think her enemy.
Because of all the mucking around those biologists, chemists, and other medical doctors were doing, there were some negative side effects. With Khan and his people, the superior intellect and physical prowess, led to more aggression and a thirst for power. With Mac and her fellow transgenics, the changed genetics lead to homicidal mania and violent butchery. Mac was the last of her kind. All the other transgenics had to be put down and completely annihilated. Out of the five hundred created, only one was left. They all seemed to revert to the most primal of urges and desires. They were designed to be the perfect killing machines, predators on two legs, and that's exactly what they became. They seemed to lose all reason, even though superior intelligence was supposed to be part of their genome. The animal instincts drowned out the rational human thinking process. The results were a bloody mess. Needless to say, the Manticore project was scrapped, with the exception of Mac, while the Eugenics creations of Khan and his kind were more heavily funded and pursued.
For some unknown reason, Mac did not share their fate. She held on to her humanity by conscious choice. Every day she had to fight the deep, dark, primal forces that threaten to spill over into her consciousness and overtake it. She had found meditation practices that helped her suppress her animalistic nature, but it was always with her, even if it was buried deep inside of her. She learned to cage her beast, her Chimera, as she called it, but the fear was also there that it would escape its carefully constructed prison. Somehow, some mysterious force had given Mac a soul, and a good one at that. She truly wanted to serve and protect humanity, not dominate and rule over it. This transgenic creation wanted to be a protector, not a predator, and some secret global agency had decided she would be useful to them in that regard.
One other special feature McKenna McKnight had over the Eugenics creations and her own transgenic brothers and sisters was her ability to heal almost any injury at a highly accelerated rate. Once, in a training session at the Corporation's clandestine headquarters, she was exposed to a lethal virus. The virus had been developed to regenerate dead cells and make them live again; a handy invention for the medical profession and the military. Unfortunately, the virus killed its host's cells before it regenerated them. This created mindless zombies with an appetite for human flesh. That development allowed the virus to perpetuate itself. When Mac was exposed to the virus everyone thought that was the end of her. However, her unique genetic mixture saved her. Instead of the virus working itself on her cells and damaging her DNA, her DNA attacked the virus and rewrote its genetic code to serve her body. It gave her cells and tissues the ability to regenerate themselves whenever her body perceived an injury to itself, and gave her a stronger immunity to most diseases.
Sometimes Mac's hard won control did slip, and her darker side took over. Mac had wiped out whole battalions of enemy forces when this happened, and more than a few civilians. That was why the WGC, a global version of IMF force created by the American CIA or the MI-6 force created by the British, held profound reservations about her continued contribution to the fight against the Eugenics tyrants. Mac held these reservations against herself too. It took everything she had not to lose control of herself. It was a battle she feared she would one day lose. She figured it was just a matter of time before she gave into the monster inside her, and then hell would really come down on Earth.
Before Mac had accepted the assignment to defeat Khan once and for all, and free a fourth of the Earth's population from a cruel and merciless dictator, that most of the world didn't realize existed, she made the WGC promise that they would terminate her life. She had fought the good fight, had saved humanity from themselves, and now she could rest in peace. It would be best for everyone; at least, that's what she kept telling herself. The WGC had agreed to her demands and assured their agent that she would be "retired" when she completed her mission. How she would be "retired" had never been discussed.
The wind was beginning to pick up, blowing Mac's long, dark hair all around her. The smell of death and fire was everywhere. It both sickened and exhilarated her.
Khan was defeated, but he was not dead. He was still out there somewhere. He was a wanted fugitive now, and Mac felt certain that he would never rise to his former glory again. She found herself wondering where he would go, what he would do. The genetic super solider pushed these thoughts away. She had seduced him and let him seduce her. Her darker nature enjoyed the thrill of power and control she had had with him. Then she had betrayed him and led the WGC forces down upon him. She had even turned some of his most loyal followers against him, weakening his position before the final assault.
The hum of an engine could be heard in the distance. Mac knew instantly that it was a Coalition jeep. They were coming for her. She was ready, ready to finally have peace in her life. She could hear the rumble of Coalition trucks behind the jeep. As the vehicles crested the dune, she felt something was wrong. Without warning she felt the dart penetrate the skin of her neck. Whoever had made that shot must have been a keen marksman.
Mac pulled the dart from her neck, only to feel another one pierce her thigh. This was foolish; darts didn't have any effect on her. Her virus-enhanced blood neutralized whatever chemical was in them. Why would the Coalition be shooting darts at her? Surely, blowing her to bits that couldn't regenerate would be much more effective. Another dart hit her shoulder. Soon many more darts found their way into her body. As she backed away from the approaching vehicles, she actually felt dizzy. What was going on?
The military transports stopped several meters from her. Ten, blue and black clad soldiers hopped down and out from the back of a large army truck. They all held dart guns in their hands, pointed towards Mac. Whatever chemical was in these darts was definitely affecting her. Her vision was blurring and sounds warbled, loud then soft. She felt her knees give way and she fell to the ground. She tried desperately to rise again, but received another volley of darts for her effort. Black began to close in around her. The Coalition had found something to knock her out with. Were they killing her or just rendering her unconscious? Mac wasn't sure. She prayed it was the former.
"Have you subdued her, Major?" a distant male voice asked.
"Not quite," answered another male voice. "She sure is a tough one."
"You have no idea," the first voice said.
This was the last thing Mac could register. Her body was shutting down. It would not respond to any command her brain gave. The black spread across her vision and oblivion came soon after it.
TBC