Disclaimer: I don't Star Trek. I'd be richer if I did.
A/N: See this is totally a thing. I mean it took hell of a long time because you know writer's block and I suck at starting things, but here it is.
Chapter One: A New Race
Gasping was the first thing that registered in Marla's conscious state.
The breaking of first breath was something she had long forgotten. Memories couldn't come to the surface, but her breath was there, struggling, needing to find existence, for she was alive. Finally she took her first real breath after so long. Time wasn't a thought in that moment, only the sudden struggle to survive and the screeching of unidentifiable sounds.
Her eyes steadily focused in on white then darkness with some soft hues reflecting, light coming from above. Marla sat herself up ,clawing at the sides of the place that held her.
Prison. Home. Sleep.
The words hummed without structure or meaning.
"Marla? Marla McGivers?" She heard it aloud before registering a gender to the voice. Male, she believed, but she could not see. Her muscles were too loose and tight all at once. "Is that – yes, that's her. Lieutenant Marla McGivers."
"She's human." Another voice quickly put in. Her arms were loose. She could barely keep her head up. Marla was unable to register the males by sight.
"When?" It was a struggle to speak. Her voice did not sound like her own, though she could not recall what she had sounded like before the sleep. Slowly her head lifted. The figures were around the same height though young with barely enough meat on their bones. "When am I?"
"When?" She could process that with a slow nod. Marla knew she was awakened, but she would have imagined seeing humanoid figures and indeed the two youths were human. "2279."
It wasn't her time. She recalled the numbers being off. The future then. She had been awoken in another time though when she looked up the scenery had appeared to remain the same. Her mind wasn't working well as of yet. She couldn't process the math. Her head still felt heavy. Despite being in sleep for so long Marla felt like she needed a rest from reacquainting herself to her body once more.
"She's human."
"Okay, well, we try a-"
Marla's hand reached his throat squeezing head slumped. Slowly her eyes lifted to register him blonde wild hair, deep brown eyes, pale with a boyish need to him. He may have been in his twenties, but his uniform screamed of an officer with high rank. Her nails scratched at the thin hairs the tickled his neck standing upright in shock and surprise. His pulse quickened as she slowly lifted her back straight cracking it a little. The math finally sank in.
"Twenty years." It was a long time, but it wasn't so long. Her father was most assuredly dead. "Why?" The question that pleaded her. Her head turned slightly to see the other pods. Her eyes widened feeling something build in her belly.
Terror.
"I can answer that, Dr. McGivers." She slowly let go of the boy to turn to a slightly older man. He may have been in his thirties, dark hair, blue eyes, side burns that burdened his cheeks and a slow drawl in his voice. "I'm Cadet Jackson Simmons. I'm studying the Engenics Wars and the incident with Khan and yourself that occurred twenty years before in order to better provide Starfleet with a better defense." He motioned to the curly haired blonde. "Lieutenant Howes has security access, guarding the augments and I asked if he could awaken one so that I may have a discussion with them about their time on Earth."
Marla peered between the two not quite sure how such a young boy gained access to security and to the title of lieutenant. She then felt the need to speak, but instead she slowly lifted herself out of the pod. Howes seemed to roll into a panic approaching her quickly.
"We need to freeze her again she can't remain to –"
She punched him in the throat knocking him backwards. Her eyes sat on Simmons who appeared to be in mute terror, his hand on his blaster.
"I do not care if you shoot me." She told him with ease. "You are in your right to do so," He shook. Perhaps he knew stories. Perhaps her reputation reigned as firmed as her husband's. "I only have one simple question." The terror lurched inside her. "Where are the remaining augments?"
She hadn't had time to count them, but most certainly there were not seventy three pods behind her. She could count more than ten, but less than forty in that split second. Marla knew that one of them could not be her husband. They would have to separate the pair, lethal as they were apart, the destruction they had caused together had been frightening.
"There was a program." The cadet started.
She heard the charging of a blaster. She sat herself on the edge of the pod staring at Simmons as it was fired in her direction. Marla fell backwards rolling, knocking into another pod. Her hand went to her thigh where she recalled vaguely feeling a sharp pain when she awoke. The metal made her smile as she pulled with a wince. Another shot was fired. This one hit her as she rolled. It burned though it distracted her from the pain at her thigh. Howes was held against her chest, scapel at his throat. Simmons held the blaster firmly to her from a distance.
"Please continue." Marla insisted. "Perhaps without the blaster." The dark haired man slowly let the blaster fall to his side. Her unoccupied hand motioned for him to kick it over to her. He did as he was told.
"Ten years ago," Simmons swallowed. "The project didn't have a name, but a grouping of geneticists wanted to monitor the survival of the augments to see what kind of society they could establish if on their own."
Marla watched his eyes peered behind her with a clouded sense of interest. He was hungry for knowledge in a new way. There was history behind her he needed to get at. She'd settle for manipulating that hunger if need be.
"So, what, they sent out some of them? Where?" She asked trying not to shake with need. She was hoping the truth would not be what she was thinking.
"All of the males." Those words were not what she wanted to hear. It was clear why though. If the augments were capable of breeding the race would expand far beyond the seventy-three that were known. The male of any species was usually considered the strongest, it would benefit these researchers to watch the men in action.
"To the uninhabited fifth planet in the Ceti Alpha System. They were given minimal supplies and no ship." She watched him. The way he stood told her something was off about this story. Marla drew a dash of blood from the neck of the boy she held captive. Simmons took a step forward. Marla leaned against the pod occupying one of Khan's female crew members.
"How did they fare?"
"Contact," He swallowed. She could see him become uneasy twitched as she glanced to his blaster. "Contact was lost with Ceti Alpha V six moths after their arrival on the planet. The project was abandoned."
"No one cared to look after them? To - ?" She stopped herself before pushing the boy off. She grabbed his blaster from Howes side as he fell to the floor. She snatched both blasters and tucked the scalpel back into her thigh. "Never mind." It was pointless to ask the two what Starfleet's intentions had been. They were already unaware what they were dealing with.
"Howes." She watched as his eyes widened at his name. He stumbled to his feet. "You know the combinations to open these pods correct?" Marla saw his body begin to shake slightly. "Answer me. Do you or do you not know how to open these pods?"
"I do."
"Then we open them." She could count the pods now.
Thirty. Thirty female augments to be ripped from slumber into a new world.
She would have to lead them if she was going to get her husband back and continue the race she had longed to be a part of.
A/N: Okay by now you know that I will be including some plot points (maybe A LOT) from Wrath of Khan just in sort of a different way.
What to look out for next chapter, lots of new characters, female augments = more badassdom. Will they accept Marla as their leader or is a mutiny on the horizon before anyone has gotten started?!
