-Prologue-

Sitara
The Beta Quadrant
2261.105

Anthea Harrison leaned against the sink as her vision swam. Her husband ran his fingers over her back, cupping her shoulder in one of his large hands.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"This- What's happening to me?" Anthea met his gaze in the mirror over the sink. "Sometimes I'm fine, and sometimes I feel like I'm about to explode."

Khan Noonien Singh drew her back against him, arms strong around her. "This has never happened before," he told her in a soft voice. "The rest of us were all created at conception. I do not know what changes it's causing in you."

Anthea hung her head, then turned in his arms, burying her face against his chest. "How did you know I would be stronger?"

Khan pressed his lips to the top of her head. "You broke Yves's finger when he was checking your unconscious response to stimuli, while you were in the coma."

She snorted a surprised laugh. "Really?"

"Really."

"Then why do I feel weak today?"

It had been three days since Anthea had awoken from her coma, after she'd stupidly aggravated a brain injury acquired two weeks before when one of Khan's men had struck her in the head. That man was now dead, as dead as Anthea had nearly been. Khan had killed him for his betrayal.

She'd been warned not to do anything to raise her blood pressure, because it might tear the injured blood vessels and tissue inside her head. She hadn't been thinking when she'd gone after Marla McGivers for trying to seduce Khan; she'd just been enraged.

Anthea had nearly paid for that mistake with her life. Only a serum that Khan and Yves had created, with the help of Leonard McCoy, had saved her life. And just barely. She'd hung on the verge of death for days, her body not sure what to do with the DNA-altering serum.

The changes it had wrought in her came and went in sporadic waves, as her body adjusted. What the final result would be, they didn't know. It wasn't turning her into a super soldier like Khan and his men, at any rate. Her reflexes varied between fast and sluggish, no in between. Sometimes she was strong enough to bend metal, others she could barely lift her eighteen-month-old son.

"I want it to stop, Khan," she whispered. "I don't like what it's doing."

"I know, my love, and I wish I had answers for you." Privately, Khan was still afraid that there was a chance she could outright reject the change. He'd been so optimistic when she'd awoken healed and alert and strong. But that had lasted such a short time.

"Even if I go back to normal," his wife mumbled into his chest, "I'd be okay with that. I just want it to pick something and stick with it."

Khan ran his fingers through her hair. "I know," he repeated. "I wish there was something I could do, but I'm at a loss."

Anthea pulled away and wandered into their quarters aboard the Reliance. They'd been planning to move out of the ship and into their completed cabin, but with everything Anthea was going through at present, having her close to the medbay and their doctor seemed the best option.

The two living spaces were lightyears apart, in terms of technology. The plumbing in their house was turn of the century. Turn of the twentieth century, that was. There was a well out back, and a small cistern atop the cabin to create water pressure for the interior. The cistern was part of a dismantled cryotube from the twentieth century, one of the ones Khan and his people had slept in for nearly three centuries.

Inside the starship, however . . . First of all, it was a warp-capable starship, a small-scale prototype of the now-defunct USS Vengeance. The Reliance could reach warp twelve in bursts, and fire its weapons while at warp. More importantly, it had sonic showers, air conditioning, and replicators, all of which were things that Anthea, at twelve weeks pregnant, greatly appreciated.

"I need to lie down," she said, as she swayed in a somewhat drunken fashion towards the bed.

Khan caught her arm and guided her to it. "I take it one of your legs isn't working as well as the other one?" he asked wryly.

"That and I have morning sickness," she reminded him.

"Ah, yes." He helped tuck her into bed. Sitting on the edge, he said, "Part of me wants to scream at you for doing precisely what Doctor McCoy and Yves both told you not to do. But I think you know very well how close you came to dying."

"Didn't you tell me I technically did die?"

"Your heart was stopped for two minutes. That's not precisely dead."

"Close enough."

"Too close," he agreed. "Your anger at McGivers nearly cost your life, and that of our child. Please do not do that again."

Anthea flung an arm over her eyes. The lights were too much suddenly. "My brain is healed."

"I meant, do not risk our child's life. Or yours. I will not hesitate to chain you to the bed if you insist on doing stupid things."

"Good luck finding a chain," she retorted.

"Anthea."

She sighed and lifted her arm to slit one grey eye at him. "I know, I know. Don't do stupid things. I've got it."

Khan bent and kissed her forehead. "Would you like me to bring Nolan in, to nap with you?"

"No," she said after a moment. "If I need to run to the loo and puke, I don't want him in the way."

"He misses you."

Behind her arm, Anthea felt tears well in her eyes. "I know. And I miss him. Maybe . . . maybe after I sleep, you can bring him in to see me?"

"That I will definitely do. Rest, my love."

Khan shut out the light, to let her sleep. He stepped out into the corridor, where he was met by his sister.

"How is she?" Kati whispered.

"The same," he responded in kind, and sighed. "I wonder if it would have been more merciful- I do not know what would have been worse, Kati. We saved her from imminent death . . . But it seems that the cure is slowly killing her."