She gave Khan Noonien Singh three chances not to follow through with his plans for revenge...
CHANCE #1 – THE KELVIN ARCHIVE – LONDON
"Your daughter, I can save her," he had told the distraught father. And he could. But the price for doing so was high.
Although he didn't detonate the bomb that destroyed Section 31's secret facility that killed forty-two people, and injured many more, he was responsible.
He ruthlessly coerced the vulnerable Lt. Thomas Harewood, using the desperate father's wish to do absolutely anything to save his terminally ill daughters life as the motivation to get him to set off the bomb that he had created.
He was given this chance because he did hold up his end of the bargain. He sent Harewood not only the ring containing the undetectable explosives, but also a vial of his genetically modified blood that cured the disease that was killing Harewood's young daughter. This enabled her to live a long and happy life, though her father had to sacrifice his own to achieve it.
CHANCE #2 - DAYSTROM – STARFLEET HQ – SAN FRANSISCO
Khan's motivation for destroying the archive was to ensure that the mandating of Starfleet protocols that required an emergency meeting be called with all senior Starfleet personnel in attendance took place.
And this Starfleet duly did.
Khan left London in a stolen Starfleet Jumpship 208, flying it to Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco, timing his arrival to coincide when everyone would be seated in the conference room.
"Clear the room!" Kirk cried urgently, but too late. And the body count continued to mount.
Khan's main target was Admiral Alexander Marcus, the man he held responsible for his current circumstances:
- The changing of his appearance and memories to make him believe he was Commander John Harrison.
- The using of Khan's crew as leverage when his memories reinstated themselves, to ensure Khan continued working on the advanced systems and weaponry that Marcus so desperately needed to begin his war against an unsuspecting Klingon Empire.
- The realisation that Marcus never intended to release him, or his crew. So Khan, after discovering where Marcus held them, smuggled his crew into the torpedoes he'd created, but was discovered.
- Confronting Marcus to demand for his and his crew's freedom. But Marcus had anticipated the confrontation, and on his signal a Jumpship appeared and fired on Khan who barely escaped alive.
- Now believing his crew to be dead, he set about getting his revenge.
But Khan had not calculated for the intervention of one James T. Kirk, who brought a premature end to the onslaught, by crippling Khan's ship.
But, having appropriated the formula for trans-warp beaming, Khan, after making a few modifications had then constructed a portable device which he used to escape, making his way to Qo/noS.
He was given this chance because he had been driven to it, as she saw it, by a man who continually manipulated him for his own ends, under the guise of protecting the Earth from a potential threat he intended to provoke. Because when that happened Admiral Marcus would finally have the war he wanted to justify Section 31's existence and clandestine agenda.
CHANCE #3 – USS VENGEANCE – 237,000 KM FROM EARTH
The battle of wills between the hot-headed captain of the Enterprise and the cool, calculating augment that had begun the moment Admiral Christopher Pike lost his life during the attack on the Daystrom Conference Room, had now reached a critical point, where they both needed to work together in order to bring Admiral Marcus to account for his actions.
Khan seized upon the opportunity, using it to finally get his revenge and to begin a new reign of terror with his 72 comrades.
Khan easily cornered the fleeing Admiral and took hold of his head in a firm grasp. "You should have let me sleep," he raged, as he began to crush Marcus' skull with his bare hands.
He was on the point of achieving his goal, when Khan suddenly realised Marcus was no longer screaming. Not because he'd succeeded in killing him, but because he was frozen in suspended animation. Glancing over to where the admiral's daughter still sat, he noted she too was completely still, as were Kirk, and the Enterprise's engineer.
And then a voice queried. "Are you absolutely certain you want to do that?"
Khan released his hold of the admiral and turned around, where he saw a slight hooded figure with a sickle.
The figure calmly removed the hood to reveal a young woman. Her long brown hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail.
Her name had once been Molly Hooper, but she now represented the physical embodiment of Death.