-Chapter One-

2261.112

Khan made Anthea wait until she'd managed to go a week without keeling over dead, figuring that was long enough to decrease the chances of it happening, until he let her rejoin society.

Kati, Khan's younger sister, had been visiting for hours at a time, teaching her sister-in-law how to hand-stitch things. It was fairly easy to do and gave her something to concentrate on in the times she felt like doing something with her hands. So Anthea gathered her small container of sewing things, and the baby dress she was working on, and went out to join the other women in the shade, where Kati held a sewing circle. Not all the women were into sewing, but a small group of five or so were.

They greeted her with smiles all around, save for Marla McGivers, the normal human woman who had left the Enterprise's crew to join their colony. Anthea had slapped her on her first day on Sitara. The other women didn't much like Marla, seeing her as the reason Anthea had nearly died.

Petty as it was, Anthea didn't feel like disabusing them of the idea.

She settled into one of the rudimentary chairs Joachim had made. The eighteen-year-old, the youngest of Khan's people, had taken up carpentry as a hobby before they'd been exiled from Earth, and liked to practise it here, on their new planet. He had carved the mantlepiece in their new home, which was still unoccupied.

"When are you and Khan moving into the cabin?" Kati asked, as Anthea sat down. "It seems such a shame to have it ready and unused."

"As soon as I'm feeling better, I suppose, though I'd really like to move in now." Anthea pulled out the dress she was making. It was simple, but would go on a baby easily. She didn't know why she was making a dress; they didn't know yet what the gender was of the child she was expecting.

Secretly, though, she was hoping for a girl.

The women chatted for a bit, as Anthea concentrated with trembling hands on placing one stitch, then another.

"What ever happened to that guy you were dating, Anthea?"

Marla's voice broke through her reverie, and she tried not to grimace.

"What guy?" Anthea asked.

The group of women had fallen quiet around them, everyone waiting in tense silence to see what would happen. They all knew Anthea didn't like Marla, and as Khan's wife and their saviour, of the two adversaries, Anthea had their allegiance.

Marla continued, oblivious to the changed mood. "That Kipling guy?"

Anthea looked down at the dress she was currently hemming. It was a long and tedious process, but making the clothes that her future-someday-daughter would wear was completely worth the sore hands and jabbed fingers.

"Commander Dunn was never officially someone I 'dated'," Anthea said finally. "He was a friend I occasionally shagged. And he died on the USS Farragut, as you well know, McGivers."

Marla shrugged. "I just thought you'd be more broken up about him, is all."

"I was never in love with Kip. I am in love with Khan." The difficulties with her change, along with Marla's continued obnoxiousness, brought Anthea's cruel streak to the surface. "Of course, you know that Khan infiltrated Starfleet as John Harrison, yes?"

Marla's big, brown eyes blinked. "What?"

"Mmm. Yes. The man who blew up the Kelvin Archive, attacked Starfleet Headquarters, destroyed San Francisco? Our wonderful leader."

"That was- That-" For once, Marla was completely speechless.

"You really had no idea, did you?" Anthea asked. "You had no idea what you were getting into when you came to join us. You romanticised Khan and his people and thought it would be a grand adventure, didn't you?"

Marla was still shocked into silence.

"I think you broke her," Kati put in.

The redhead floundered like a fish for a moment, then blurted, "But why would he do that? Starfleet is-"

"An organisation that took an entire civilisation captive and forced their leader to work in slavery for a year to design weapons for them, continually threatening him and his people, and then put him back into cryosleep when they were done with him, after he tried to get away and to free his people," Anthea interrupted harshly. "Everything Khan did to Starfleet? Admiral Alexander Marcus brought that on them himself."

"But . . . Admiral Marcus died in the crash of that ship, trying to save the city . . ."

Anthea laughed. "You are so incredibly gullible, McGivers. Khan killed Admiral Marcus."

Several of the women smirked at Marla's naivety.

Leaning forward, holding the little bundle of fabric so she didn't drop it, Anthea said, "Look. I'm telling you all of this because, as you're now a citizen of our colony, you really should know the truth. Admiral Marcus was designing weapons and ships in an attempt to start a war with the Klingons. He was using Khan to design those weapons. Khan managed to escape and Marcus sent the Enterprise after him, on an unsanctioned assassination mission. Kirk opted to capture my husband rather than kill him outright, and Marcus tried to destroy the Enterprise in revenge and to cover up what he'd done. Khan and Kirk manage to take the Vengeance from Marcus and Khan killed the admiral, which prevented a war. Starfleet then captured Khan again and put him in cryosleep without a trial, for twenty months, during which I had to give birth to and raise a child on my own."

Anthea felt her insides burble, then realised the little flutter was actually her baby moving. She completely forgot about Marla and pressed a hand over her belly, all her attention riveted on the tiny life inside her.

Marla had lost her attitude and openly stared at Anthea. "But how are they, we, here?"

It took her a long moment to drag her attention away from her small miracle. When she did, it was to glare at the other woman. "I was Starfleet Intelligence and I worked on the weapons project. I was Khan's assistant, actually. That's how we met. When he disappeared, after Starfleet imprisoned him, I spent over a year trying to locate him and his people. After I found them, I freed them and brought everyone here. And if it were up to me, you wouldn't be here."

Marla's nose pinched. She stood, tossing the blanket she'd been hemming on her chair, and stomped away.

Kati reached over and touched Anthea's arm. "Are you alright? Do I need to get Khan?"

"No, I'm fine. I was . . . It's nothing. I think I'll go find him myself, though."

She packed her things in the tote Kati had made her, and went to find Khan where he was having a conference with Otto, Chin, and Inigo.

"Kaiserin!" Otto greeted her warmly, with a one-armed hug around her shoulders. "How are you today? I have not seen you since you woke!"

"I'm as well as I can be, Otto," she said. "Mind if I steal Khan for just a moment?"

One brow lifted in curiosity, Khan followed Anthea a few paces away. It was still within earshot for his men's heightene hearing, but he knew that they'd tune out whatever it was Anthea wanted to tell him.

"What is it?" he asked.

She grinned. "I know it's silly, but I wanted to share it. I felt the baby move!"

A broad smile spread across his usually somber face. "You did? That is wonderful news, Thea."

"I know you can't feel it yet, but . . . I've been worried, with everything. Yves has been checking its vitals every day, yes, but it's not the same as being able to feel the baby."

"I can hardly wait until I can feel our child," he told her. "But I look forward most to when I can hold him or her. Does that make me . . . unmanly?"

She stood on her toes to kiss him. "Not at all. Real men have a hand in caring for their children."

"I take that to mean you aren't letting me out of diaper changes this time around."

Anthea snickered. "Not on your life. I had to do thirteen months of those all by myself. The least you can do is pick up some of the slack and change the baby whle I'm trying to sleep."

Khan cupped her face in his hands, fingers tangling in the brown strands. "When I first realised you were changed," he whispered, "I thought, 'She can survive this for certain, having this child in this wilderness.' But with what you're struggling with now, I am even more afraid than before."

"Don't be! Women have had babies for thousands of years and been fine. I've already had one."

"Under the best care available," he pointed out. "Yves is good, but our facilities are somewhat lacking."

"Why are you so afraid?" she asked him quietly.

Khan pulled her close, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Growing up in India . . . The health care at that time was appalling, especially for women. They caught infections and died, or they bled to death in childbirth, or the doctors would overlook something while the mother was pregnant and it would kill her and child. And this was the country that created me, that could manipulate genetics to bring about a race of superior beings. And yet, mothers died every day, whether giving birth at home or in a hospital."

Anthea wasn't sure how to respond to that, so she hugged him hard. "I'm not going to die, Khan. I won't. I refuse to."

"I nearly lost you once, Thea."

"But you didn't. You saved me. And I trust you'll do it again if you have to."

Khan ducked his head and kissed her, quick but tender. "You're pale again," he murmured. "Go back inside and lie down."

"I'm going to lie down in the house," she told him. "Our bed is just sitting there, unused, and I haven't lain in it in months."

He chuckled. "Do that, then. You have the monitor with you?"

She held it up. It had originally been a communicator, modified into a baby monitor, currently pressed into walkie-talkie service so Khan could keep an eye on his wife and she could reach him at any time.

Anthea went and found Nolan in the playpen near where Kati had been watching him. Her little boy brightened when he saw her, his smile rivalling the sun, and he chirped, "Mama!"

"You look tired, No. Let's go take a nap."

She reached down to pick him up, but her left arm failed her and she nearly dropped him. His little by heavy body slipped through her grasp. Heart pounding, she put extra effort into the stronger arm and hauled him up, clutching him close.

Only Kati had seen. Her sister-in-law asked, "Are you alright?"

"Fine," Anthea replied tightly. "No worries."

Nolan patted her face. "Mama?"

"Mummy's fine, No. Come on. Let's have a lie down, shall we? Mummy will tell you a story."

Blue eyes crinkled, Nolan beamed at her. "Pwince Noony!"

The previous month, Anthea had told her son a fairy tale version of her romance with Khan, casting him as a prince who was captured by a dragon, and herself as the princess who rescued him. Ever since, "Prince Noonien" had been Nolan's favourite character and he begged constantly for tales of his exploits. She was running out of tales to adapt from Khan's past-what he'd told her of it-and would soon have to resort to making things up entirely.

She sighed. "Okay, I'll tell you a story about Prince Noonien."