Hello. I'm once again playing around in the Star Trek Universe. Reviews are always welcome.

Chapter 1

Life had a habit of changing at the most inopportune of times. It loved to watch Khan as he struggled to overcome the obstacles it threw at him, but, right now, everything was going well. Khan had been re-awakened from his slumber, and his sleek ship was cutting sharply through the vast blackness of space and far away from Starfleet. Away from the Admiral Marcus.

All was calm.

Peaceful.

...And then the alarms began to wail. The cockpit was drenched in red as his ship got caught in the gravity of a nearby planet. Nothing he did helped him wriggle free of destiny's suffocating grasp. Khan could only snarl as the gravity slammed his ship cruelly into the ground. The ship screamed and groaned in agony as its metal wings were twisted and broken beyond repair by the hard rocks. Growling, Khan kiced out a window and ventured outside and into the great unknown. His rucksack sat lightly on his back. Narrowing his icy blue eyes, he began to walk towards a large beacon of light: a town.

Hopefully, he'd be able to find a new ship and once again begin his search for his beloved family.

No one speaks English…or any other Earth language for that matter. People narrow their eyes in confusion at Khan's strange languages and bizarre clothes as he passes, but he pays them no heed. There are no ships here—no electricity. These people are no more than primitive savages, their beacon of light nothing more than a bonfire.

Now what?

A small girl no older than five years of age glances at him and smirks at him playfully. Khan ignores her. What could a child possibly do for him? A man suddenly grabs the girl by the arm and starts to scream in her face. He pokes her roughly in the chest and Khan watches as spit flies into her face. The girl flinches, clenches her jaw, and glares back at the men. Despite her brave front, Khan can easily see the telltale traces of fear in her posture.

But, there was nothing he could-or would-do to help. It would only waste his time; besides, as far as he knew, the child deserved the harsh scolding. Khan shifts his bag a little higher up on his shoulders and ventures into the forest. Maybe there was another village nearby—one with ships to help him get off of this Godforsaken rock.

He walks for hours. The sun will set soon, ushering in the darkness of night. Khan sighs and rests against a tree. His eyes narrow as he takes in his surroundings: trees, trees, and more trees. By now, he is definitely lost. He'd be lucky to make it make to the village he was in earlier.

"You're not very smart—are you?"

Khan's head snaps towards the unfamiliar voice. Finally, someone who spoke English! But…where were they? The voice was young, female…where is she hiding?

"And how do you suppose that?" He asks calmly and then sees the girl—the same child from the village—step out from behind some bushes and she points calmly to the ground by his feet.

"You're standing in quicksand, genius."

Glancing down in disbelief, his icy blue eyes widen in surprise: he is sinking.

Oh.

"Hold on—I've got you." She pulls a rope out from behind some bushes behind her and throws one end over a branch above Khan's head and fastens the other tightly around the trunks of a nearby tree. "You'll have to climb, you know. You're too big for me to pull."

"I assumed as much." He fights off the urge to roll his eyes at the kid. Moments later, he's free and towering over her. "I'm looking for a place with ships."

"What kind?" She asks curiously.

"The kind that flies."

"You crashed the last ship you flew—are you sure getting another one is a good idea?" Her eyebrows turn downward in disapproval.

He stares at her coldly but she continues to look at him with innocent curiosity. It was sickening.

"Is there somewhere nearby where I can acquire one?" He ignores her previous question and she looks at him with her pale, pale blue eyes.

"Yep: Riverweed. I am heading that way now."

"How far is it?" Khan asks.

"It changes depending on the weather and stuff."

"I'm coming with you."

"I figured. If I left you to your own devices, you'd wind up killing yourself."

"I could have freed myself." Khan growls. He huffed irritably.

"Right…of course you could have..." She shifts uncomfortably: she clearly doesn't believe him. Changing the subject before this strange man strangles her seems like the best option. "Well, we'll travel by day and rest by night. Come on, then." She shakes her head. "So," She says once they are settled in a cave. "What should I call you?"

"John." He looks away from her and stares into the darkness.

"I'm Little Wolf." She says and his eyebrows furrow: that was a weird name.

He doesn't know when he falls asleep, but what he does know is that when he wakes up, "Little Wolf" was gone and so were her belongings. Groaning in frustration, he eases himself to a sitting position and glares at the mouth of the cave.

"What are you pouting for?" Little Wolf appears in the entrance and throws a small bag at him. "Here, catch."

"What is this?" He catches the small bag warily but doesn't open it. It's loose and lumpy. If he were to close his fist, whatever was inside would bleed out onto his hand.

"Open it and find out." She leans casually back against the wall and watches him with wolfish eyes…no pun intended.

"And if I don't?" He cocks his head to the side and expects her to throw a temper tantrum. Surprisingly, she doesn't. She merely shrugs and yawns.

"You'll be sorry," she answers calmly.

Then, she leaves. Sighing, he glances inside the small bag: berries. She had given him berries. Had he not played along, he would have missed breakfast and "been sorry". Still, that didn't mean that these things weren't poisonous, but he concluded that it was very unlikely that a small child would desire to see him dead and began to eat while walking after her with his bag slung over his shoulder.

She waits for him by a boulder. Grinning, she waves at him and then walks into the forest. Khan didn't understand why she seemed so happy to see him. Personally, he didn't care about the girl; she was simply a means to an end. Once he got his new ship, she would be worthless to him…but still, it was…nice to see someone who didn't want to see him or his family dead.

Little Wolf pauses long enough for Khan to draw up beside her and then begins to tell him all about the history of the land and people; Khan tunes her out. After a while, she looks up at him and stops speaking. Their blue eyes meet and she frowns.

"Something wrong?" Khan asks inquisitively.

"You're weird." She says loudly.

Then she is jogging ahead of him and darting onto a fallen log that provides a bridge across a large crater in the ground (a dried up pond, maybe?). For hours after that, they walk in silence. Sometimes, they travel beside each other or with Little Wolf running ahead for a while before impatiently waiting for Khan to catch up.

"Where is your family?" Khan asks for a while. Her smile, which had not wavered all day, now vanished completely. Saying nothing, she shrugs her tiny shoulder.

"Gone." She says finally. Khan nods to himself: they had probably died from disease or starvation. "Where is yours?" She asks.

"Gone." He echoes her word back at her in response.

It's quiet for a long moment.

"Do you miss them?" Little Wolf stares at him. An emotion-Sadness? Pity?-flickers in her pale blue eyes.

"We should keep moving." Khan changes the subject deftly. Little Wolf stares at him a moment more before running on ahead. She does not return again that day to walk beside him.

Khan does not care.

That night, he makes the fire in their new cave home while Little Wolf gathers food for their dinner. When she returns, she makes vegetable soup. They eat in silence. Small bowls of berries sit around the pot. Khan reaches to grab one—a bright red one—and Little Wolf sharply whacks his offending hand with the spoon she had used for cooking.

"Bad, John." She reprimands

Frowning, he reaches for a different one. Little Wolf sighs, grabs all three bowls and throws their contents outside the cave into a small trickling stream.

"Those are poisonous, stupid." She explains.

"You ate some." Khan retorts.

"I'm immune." Is her only response. Khan glares at her for a while before leaning back against the cool cave wall and allowing his eyes to drift closed. This was going to be a long journey.

Somewhere out there, Khan was sure Life was once again breathless with its mocking laughter.