Line in the Blood

A/N: the Ceti Alpha star exists in reality; it's a red giant in the constellation of Cetus. Menkar is its traditional name.

"The head is not more native to the heart,
The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father."

(William Shakespeare, Hamlet)

# # #

He stared at the double mirror that occupied the entire wall in front of the bed, to which he was strapped. He could not see her, but he knew she was there – the woman who had given birth to him, the one he was not allowed to call 'mother'. The needle slipped into this wrist. The sting was so familiar, he barely noticed it anymore. The chill traveled up his arm and slowly crept into the rest of his body. The pain would start soon and he would struggle against his binds, but it would be no use, since they had been altered to resist even his strength. But he kept his eyes on the glass, murmuring her name over and over game, drawing heart from her presence, even if he was aware she wasn't there for him but rather to observe the experiment currently being performed.

Unbearable heat stabbed at his arm, replacing the cold. The pain mounted. He twisted and twitched, though there was no escape. At least, it was him being submitted to this and not one of his brothers and sisters. His mouth went dry and his own heart-beat was thunderous in his ears. It hurt... . It hurt worse than before. His eyes never strayed from the mirror. She was there. She had to be there.

"Mother," he screamed the name he had no reason or permission to use.

# # #

Khan's snapped awake in the familiar surroundings of his and his wife's bedroom on the augment colony located 220 light-years away from Earth. It was three centuries later. Instinctively he rolled to the side, searching for Carol, longing for the comfort of having her near, only to recall dimly that she was on Nausicaa with Otto to acquire components necessary for their ground defense systems. He closed his eyes and pulled her pillow to his chest and squeezed it tightly. It was over. It had been over for three hundred years and he had come a long way since that terrified little boy. Doctor Sarina Kaur, the woman who had birthed him, was dead too. Unlike with the chief of the lab, he had not killed her and went to great lengths to prevent other augments from doing it themselves. She had died in the entanglements that had marked the beginning of the Eugenics Wars.

But Carol was alive, so vibrant and loving, and all his. She would come back to him. Carol always came back to him.

# # #

Kati stared despondently at the rotten root of the dead tomato plant. Even in a glass-house environment, the soils available on Menkar were not kind to Earth-born vegetables. She would have to put dirt samples on the list of things to buy the next time someone left their system. She was plugging out the dried-out plants and dumping them into the compost basin, when the computer in her tiny office at the back of the facility chirped to alert her of an incoming call. She spared one more dejected glance at the uneven mass in the processor before pulling the coverlet over it and sealing it shut. Then she sprinted away, removing her dirty gloves as she did and scrubbing a hand over her sweaty face.

Once in her office, she pressed a few keys on her upright terminal one with one hand, while using the other to grab the bottle of water from the tiny folding table sticking out of the nearby wall. She used the space as an observation point for the development of her main glass-house and so saw no reason to have in there anything besides the bare minimum, but right now after spending almost the entirety of one of the 39-hours long Menkar days trying to salvage her fifth attempt at growing tomatoes, she wished she had a chair around to rest her aching back and legs. Her muscles burnt and felt over-stretched. She rotated her head to encourage the flow of blood in her throbbing neck and nape and very nearly choked on her water, when the face of Christophe Pike filled the screen.

Kati coughed, cheeks flaming. He cocked his head slightly to the side and smiled, amusement and warmth filling his bright blue eyes. There was something about him that often made her act uncharacteristically gauche in his presence. Though not related by blood, she had always regarded her fellow augments as brother and sisters and acted accordingly around them – carelessly and on the tomboyish side. It was more than a little ridiculous that at her age and given everything she had been through, a mere human could unsettle her without even trying.

"Are you alright?" Chris asked kindly.

Kati battled the desire for the ground to open and swallow her whole. "Fine," she muttered, gesturing a bit more widely than it was wise with a open bottle of liquid. "It's just... the water." That had come out a lot less coherent than she had planned.

His smile bloomed into a bemused grin. Kati could not help but grin back. She put the water out of reach, only then realizing with a sinking feeling that she was still dressed and looking like she had been doing what she had been doing: crawling through dirt and disposing of rotten vegetables. Her old, loose-hanging T-shirt was stained; her pants were caked with mud and wilted leaves. Her hair was trapped in a messy pony-tale and she probably had more dead greenery in it. By contrast, he was impeccable in the uniform he was rarely out of, when he called her from Earth.

"How are you?" she asked quickly to cover up her embarrassment.

"I'm alright," he said, looking down a the table before him before lifting his luminous gaze to her again. "Kati, this isn't altogether a social call. I've been trying to reach Carol Marcus for a few days now without any luck."

"She's off planet. You won't find her at the usual subspace coordinates for at least another of our weeks."

He leaned back in his chair, folding his hands before him, his expression now thoughtful. "I have a favor to ask of you. It's both personal and Starfleet related."

Kati winced upon hearing the "s" word. "What did her father do now?"

He studied her carefully, the corners of her mouth lowering in discontent. "We don't know," he said somberly. "All I can tell you is that he would only talk about it to her. In person." He paused, unknowingly giving Kati's hackles time to rise. "As a matter of fact, I'm glad I got to speak to you first. Even though her father and I used to be friends, I didn't have much interaction with Doctor Marcus herself, but she struck me as a someone with a strong sense of duty so I have no doubt that if we asked, she would come to Earth to help us, regardless of her feelings on the matter. I know I can count on you to tell me the truth." He leaned forward looking her straight in the eye through the screen and the many light years separating them. "What's her state of mind, where her father is concerned? Would Starfleet be asking too much of her?"

Kati tapped her right foot against the floor, feeling the burden of exhaustion lift off her shoulders only to be replaced by the uneasy knot in the pit of her stomach, a knot which she got each time her mind was tainted by thoughts of the former Admiral Marcus. She drew her lower lip into her mouth, chewing on it, as she pondered which reply would not do her friend a disservice. "Carol rarely if ever speaks of her father. I imagine the wound is too raw. He betrayed everything he taught her to uphold under her very eyes. But even so, he is still her Dad and she still loves him. As for what might be too much for her to take, that's for her to decide. I'll give you the subspace frequencies of the ship she is on so you can talk to her yourself."

He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, a stern expression plastered onto his face, deepening the lines marring his skin, making the gray at his temples stand out in even sharper contrast. It didn't matter. Kati still felt too old for him.

"Starfleet and the Federation Council would never allow Khan Noonien Singh anywhere near Earth again, but I can make a good case every now and then. I could persuade my colleagues to grant you permission to come with her to the Sol system."

Kati's eyes narrowed. "Chris, is there something you're not telling me? Why are you so hesitant about Carol returning to Earth for the first time since she resigned from Starfleet?" A dark suspicion sneaked into her thoughts. "Oh, no!"

"It's not something I'm proud of admitting, but that doesn't make it any less true. However, I can assure you it's not a universally held view."

Kati briefly closed her eyes. The knot at the bottom of her stomach tightened further. "I suppose Starfleet can't be too enthusiastic about a distinguished officer leaving their ranks for a rock on the edge of the Mutara Nebula, where she's the wife of a product of banned 20th century genetically engineering."

He looked as though she had slapped him and she instantly regretted the hostility of her words.

"You're right, Kati," he said gravely, his tone one that made her fight down the urge to stand to attention. She had always respected stark, well-earned authority and he radiated it from every pore, cascading from the straight, firm line of his shoulders and shining from the steel in his gaze. "Carol Marcus was an officer who throughout her entire career embodied the ideals of the Starfleet Charter. I am proud to have had such a brilliant and ethical young woman under serving under my command and anyone who bad-mouthes her or her personal choices within my earshot does so with a guarantee of being reprimanded. This kind of gossip and bigotry has no place in Starfleet."

Shame burnt like acid in her gut. She held up a pacifying hand. "Chris, I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."

He gave her a smile and his eyes softened. "No harm done."

"Thank you for not asking if she's allowed to leave our system at all."

"I wasn't under the impression that she was a prisoner there. If she were, I would have done something about it, regardless of what kind of ship your commander has available."

Her heart lurched unpleasantly, as a lump formed in her throat. She swallowed hard to force words past it, but they failed her. The way he was looking at her, his eyes sparkling with genuine affection, was not helping her ability to express herself. A loud noise erupted from the direction of the glass house, interrupting them. Kati blinked, torn between relief and sorrow.

"Everything alright?" he inquired with genuine worry in his voice.

"No, I'm being robbed," she replied with a wink.

Joachim and the children of the Orion settlers were allowed to have anything that was ripe in the glass-house or the hydroponic gardens, but they found it much more fun to steal fruit every now and then.

"Wait a second," she told him. "I know just the thing to lighten the mood."

She poked her head out of the office and whistled as loudly as she could. Joachim knew that meant trouble and hid, but the aliens were always fascinated by the odd sounds the augments and the humans could produce so they came running.

"Come along, Joachim," she called to Joaquin and Ling's elder child, who was now three. The Orion children were all older, but true to his genes, Joachim caused the most mischief. "And I might not tell your parents about this one."

She waited patiently until the little boy crawled from under a row of potted rosemary and orange pepper plants and sauntered towards her with his best innocent look coloring his features resembling those of an angel straight out of Rafael's paintings. Kati reminded herself that he had the same expression every time he did something wrong, which was ludicrously often, and that there was no reason for her heart to melt like it just had. Meanwhile, she had to fight to maintain her balance, as no less than twelve Orion children were currently attempting to either hide behind her legs or brazenly peer at the screen of her terminal. Chris chuckled at the sight.

Kati bent to pick up a sweetly-smiling Joachim up from the doorway and his arms immediately went to wrap themselves around her neck. "Christopher, allow me to introduce you to the local criminal element."

TBC