The panic kept her still, as her mind moved to remember the events earlier in the night. Khan had said something about the injections…hadn't he?
The pain was blazing hot, as if someone were shoving a hot poker into her neck, pouring lava down her veins. Mira's teeth drew blood as she clamped her mouth shut to stay quite. As quickly as she could she wiggled out of Leonard's arms and slipped off the bed, standing very shakily. Looking at the clock she saw that it was barely midnight.
Pushing threw this was not an option, whatever was in her needed his blood. Blood. Mira's stomach twisted at the thought. Using the bed as support she made her way round, now facing the door to the living room/kitchen and the bathroom. Falling to her knee's Mira was having difficulty breathing now, her body was starting to feel far away. She couldn't think, and could barely move. The answer came to her in the over the deafening sound of her heart thudding: "You'll find them in your washroom.."
Mira looked at the door to the bathroom and proceed to slowly crawl to the door. However she only made it half way before her legs gave out. This was real, it was happening…he won. It was then she saw the bedroom door open, a solider clad in the black filling the door way. When it found her it rushed over and picked her up gently, but quickly, and carried her in the bathroom with out a sound. He wasted no time as he closed the door, knelt and found the injections. HIs motions were fluid and quick like a snake striking. Keeping Mira cradled to him he pushed the needle firmly in her thigh, giving her the much needed blood.
The relief came slowly, the pain faded and Mira found her breath again, however her body still felt far away. The solder holding her waited for a minute before he injected her again, not seeing any sings of improvement. It wasn't long after the second injection that Mira responded, letting her head fall back to take a few deep breaths, the solider could feel her body moving in his arms, as though it were testing out each muscle to make sure it still worked.
After several heaving breath's Mira lifted herself to sit in this soldiers arms. "Who are you?" She asked, voice merely a whisper.
His head shook and held up the empty injector, then pointed to the case under the sink. He put the injector back and held up two fingers.
"An injection every two hours," she said, keeping her voice low.
He nodded, closed the cabinet door and stood, holding the petite chief bridal style as he did.
"Wait, help me," she pleaded, throwing caution to the wind, as well as pride, "Help me get free of him." she asked, hands gripping the amour.
The figure stood still for a moment, as if contemplating, then set her down but kept an arm about her, keeping her close to his body as he took off the helmet.
"But darling the game has just begun," Khan's voice was a mere hiss, full of mockery and sinister promises.
Fear took hold of her body and stole her voice, but only for a moment, when she drew breath she did so with the intention to scream.
Mira jolted upright in bed, breathing quickly, her body covered in cold sweat. Her head whipped around, looking for Khan.
Leonard grumbled something unintelligible before sitting up, "What...Mira.."
Mira stopped and looked next to her, for a moment unsure it was her boyfriend. She looked around once more, just to make sure, "A bad dream. Sorry," she answered, her words slow.
"What about?" he mumbled wrapping an arm around her and pulling her back down.
"Bad doctors," she lied, unwilling to admit to the man in her dream.
"No bad doctors here," McCoy whispered, nestling his little spoon as close as he could.
Mira was silent, concentrating on taking comfort in his arms. However something about her body felt off kilter. Looking over at the soft blue glow of the clock Mira understood why: it was almost 2 am.
"I need a minute," she tried to tell him, but her words fell on sleeping ears. Slipping out of his arms took few moments longer, as his grip was still rather tight. Mira made her way to the washroom, closing the door and flipping on the dim light.
The case was still there, under the sink, two of the injections were indeed empty.
"But how...He couldn't have been here." Rotating her leg, Mira noticed her thigh was lightly bruised and could make out two injection site's that were nearly healed.
"This is really happening..." she murmured. "Bloody hell." The dull ache was growing worse, her head was beginning to pound. Her hands moved almost on their own: grabbing an injector and prepping it, then holding it parallel to her thigh.
"Bloody fucking hell," she whispered before injecting herself, biting her lip to keep from crying out. She did not bother to stop the tears that fell from her eyes. It only took a handful of seconds before she felt better. Quickly she removed the needle and placed the injector back with the others and close the cabinet.
Mira's hand went to the back of her neck, but felt only smooth skin. "But you saw the video..." she reminded herself, "It's all real..." A part of her had hoped, prayed it was all fake, a trick, maybe some sort of drug. Maybe that was still it, but the doubt was overwhelming.
Mira let her head fall back against the wall and wiped the tears away. "Just breath." She told herself, "Just breath. You cannot brake down." she whispered reining in all her emotions. I can fix this in the morning. I can sneak into Leonard's lab and run a blood test or something, after I think up a fake report to give the captain. She thought to herself. "The history records…I can find the thing Khan says is in me…"
"Mira, you ok?" Leonard called.
"Oh bugger," Mira flushed the toilet and turned on the sink, hoping Leonard wasn't paying to much attention to anything. Double checking the injections were hidden she left the restroom and climbed back into bed, snuggling into her lover's arms.
"Everything ok?" He asked, now mostly awake. Her partner had a habit of falling asleep and waking back up, especially when she left the bed.
"Yes just moving a bit slow. Tried," She explained before finding his lips. Funny, the kiss stung a bit.
Leonard pulled away and flipped on the light.
"Hey, what-"
"I taste blood. Mira what happened?" He asked, examining her lip.
Thats right, she though, I was trying not to scream. "I think I bit in in my sleep. It dose not hurt," she told him.
Leonard looked at her long and hard, "Well there isn't any swelling..."
"I'm fine. I'll clean up." She suggested sitting up and pulling facial tissue from her night stand drawer. It only took a moment. "See? Barely any blood, I'm alright."
"Mira what is going on?" Leonard asked sitting up and facing her. "You're fighting me at every turn. Your defenses are up."
She was silent for several minutes, not knowing what to say. "It was a stressful night," she offered weakly, knowing those words would not state the man across from her.
"Are you having the nightmare's again?" He asked, voice more gentle this time.
Mira nodded, feeling that if she spoke he would hear it was a lie.
"Listen to me, you're safe, from them, from Khan, from Seeker. No one can hurt you." He told her as he reached for her and pulled her close. "You're stronger then anyone I know."
Mira buried her face into his neck, unable to look at him. She had never lied to him so much. Nor anyone; maybe save the captain. What was even more frightening is how natural it felt. Sure, lies were easy to her captain, to Starfleet and the occasional disgruntled crew member, but it had always been hard to lie to Leonard.
"Hey, look at me," he asked, keeping his arms around her.
It took a moment but she finally did, kissing him again. He was slow to oblige, but did so.
"hey, Hey, " He said after a moment, pulling away. "Something you wanna tell me?"
"I love you."
"Is that all?"
Mira's answer was to move out of his arms and sit herself on top of him, straddling him before taking off her tank. Fuck it, She thought, With his blood in my veins, I do not know how long I'll be me. If I lose to him, I will not lose everything.
Leonard turned red as an apple, having never seen his lover bare. Raising his eye up to meet her's he tripped over his words, "Mira..."
He did not get the chance to finish before she drew his hands upward, cupping them around her chest. "Yes," she answered.
She could see the contemplation in his eyes, as well as his hesitance.
"You're sure?" He asked.
"Yes. You?"
"Yea. Yea I think so."
When 4 am rolled around Mira was almost to exhausted to drag herself out of bed, but somehow she managed. She made it out of bed and back without incident, and without noticing the man hovering in the door way.
Collective alarms blared to life at five thirty, much to the dismay of the sleeping lovers.
"No." Mira protested, as Leonard turned off his alarm.
"Come on." He grumbled sitting up and stretching.
Unable to stand the blearing beeping noise Mira begrudgingly turned her alarm off.
"You wanna shower first, hunny?" he asked looking down at his bed partner.
"How about together?" She suggested, in no mood to be alone. Mira sat up, mimicking her partner before looking at him with half opened eyes.
"I think we'll get distracted." he countered, though he loved the idea. "Go on, you first. You take longer."
Groaning, Mira slipped off the bed and walked over to the bathroom not bothering to close the door. She hoped in the shower and turned the water to as hot as she could stand. What was she going to tell the Captain?
"Mira fifteen minutes!" She heard Leonard call.
She instantly turned of the shower and grabbed a towel drying off at lighting speed. Briefly she closed the door and injected herself, while praying that Leonard wouldn't open the cabinet for anything. It was then she noticed there was only one injection left.
"Oh hell...Maybe he does plan on killing me," she mused. Mira situated the case in the back of the cabinet, and hid it behind a few big items just in case. Flying out of the bathroom the officer dressed as quickly as she could and pulled her hair into a high pony tail.
"Coffee's in the kitchen, be right in," Leonard said as he kissed her cheek, then left to bath himself.
The nervous officer bee-lined to the coffee, glad for a bit more alone time to contemplate her story. Jim could be rather hard to fool, especially when it came to Khan. However something interrupted her thoughts. Mira looked around her flat, then moved to the windows. It felt like she was being watched.
"I'm getting paranoid..." She decided.
The Captain did not bother to knock, he walked in, looking weary. Mira pointed to the coffee, to which the captain gladly accepted.
Once he fixed his coffee the two left the apparent, coffee in hand. The plush blue carpet ate all sounds their footfalls made as they made their way to the lounge at the end of the hall.
"Report," he ordered, catching her eyes.
"My first mistake was going armed. In under five minutes he managed to disarm me and take control of the situation. Having been given no chips my only hope was to get him relaxed, to let down his guard. I got too close and he grabbed me-"
"Why did you kiss him?" The Captain asked.
"I couldn't get his hands off, not without someone noticing. I had no choice but to oblige. But I... I had to resist, I couldn't show him weakness," Mira paused, having to look away from her captain. After a breath she looked back. "I resisted with physical force, when I did his grip tightened. He only let me go after I pushed with my powers, then I was able to turn my head. His intention was to prove his dominance-"
"Wait, you used your powers on him? He knows?" The Captains voice grew high with disbelief, his face agasht.
"Captain I panicked," Mira explained, "It was a automatic reaction when I couldn't pull away myself. He doesn't know, per-say he just knows I am strong."
"We have to keep him quite."
"Captain, this is a game to him, I merely threw in a new chess piece. He's interested, he gave me information. He wants to keep playing."
"No. I am not risking this getting out. What you got was a good start, Mira, but I wont risk your safety."
"What dose Seeker say?"
"Give me the rest of your report."
"His intention was to prove his dominance, which he did, to a point. He knows I will never submit completely. I was hoping that getting him alone would aid me. It did, away from Star fleet eyes he was much more agreeable, open to giving information."
"What what cost to you?"
"A bit of physicality, and information about his crew, Star fleets plans for him."
"Damn it Mira! You are not at liberty-"
"I know! It's give and take, Captain. I get nothing if I do not give him something. It's a game, like I said. Now if I had been given something to bargain with it all would have gone better."
Jim was obviously angry, it as plan on his face. "That report was sloppy. Get it together for Seeker and his cabinet. Then I'm pulling you off of this. End of discussion."
Mira's report for Star fleet went off without a hitch (of course omitting the part about her ability), that is until she finished said report.
"Very well, Chief. I wish I could say that we are done with Khan, however he is one step ahead of us." Seeker spoke, hitting a few buttons on his console.
Mira sat, looking at the screen in front of her. It was a file, with several other smaller files. As Seeker moved to open each, it asked for a password.
"The password gave us access to all of Khan's files...which, in turn are each password protected and all the other technical mumbo jumbo that can be put around it. Mira I need all of these passwords."
"How many files are there?"
"Twenty-three."
Mira's mouth fell open slightly, and that all too familiar knot in her stomach returned. Khan was much more then one step ahead.
"Admiral I want Mira off this assignment. To get that information she-"
"I am aware, Captain. Mira is the only one the bastard will talk to. I need this information. She's proven she can handle him. You should be proud to have such a women on your crew."
The room fell silent. Jim opened his mouth to protest, Seeker held up a hand to stop him.
"How am I to do that?" Mira asked. " Get the passwords?"
"Visit him in his quarters, unannounced, catch him off guard, and offer him whatever he needs to hear."
"He will not speak to me with Starfleet in the room." Mira countered.
"I will not deactivate the camera's or leave you alone with him. I will not abandon our regulations and your safety." Seeker's voice was firm, each word pointed as he glanced at Kirk. "You will not be so reckless again as you were last night."
"If you want those passwords, Admiral, your going to have to brake the rules. I would very much rather getting as much information out of one attempt then having twenty-three outings."
"We do this by the book, so last night dose not happen again. We need to have complete control of the situation, and you will follow my orders to a "T". Are we clear?"
The urge to protest was so strong Mira opened her mouth to do so, but was interrupted her captain clearing his throat. She looked at him, and he shook his head, motioning with his hand for her to stand down. Looking back at the Admiral all she could say was "Yes Sir."
Again, very light revisions to this chapter. Some grammar work. Enjoy!
