CHAPTER 14:

Marla had memorized the codes for releasing the neuro-gas perfectly. Khan's instructions on the matter were clear, and executing them was not difficult. At least in practice it wasn't. When the time came to put in the fourth and final code to release the neuro-gas, Marla suddenly doubted if he was being truthful. What if it would kill everyone instead of sedating them? What if it was going to blow up the entire ship? It wasn't likely to be the latter, but the momentary doubt reminded her just how much she didn't know him. This was also the first time that she questioned his command.

It took an insane amount of rationalizing compressed within seconds before she reached her conclusion. She would have nothing to gain by not doing as she was told, and by obeying she had little left to lose. She released the gas and was relieved to learn that it was just that. No one was killed by it.

She climbed carefully back down the ladder into the junction where she had left Khan melted on the floor. He moved while she was gone, but not by much. He was closer to the computer and facing the entryway in which they initially entered.

"What's wrong?" she looked from the computer, to him, to the door.

"A minute longer and they would have cut through," he said wearily. "You've done exceptionally well..."

The way that his eyes lifted to her from his seat on the floor, they were impossibly green and bewilderingly endearing thanks to the drugs in his system. For just a second or two, he looked like a careless child and it made her smile. At last, she felt that they could breathe, if only for a little while. And breathe she did, a deep inhale taken as she settled herself on the floor beside him, her legs tucked under her.

"Now what?" she asked softly. "You didn't sedate the bridge crew. They're sure to come for us."

"Of course they will…" he murmured with annoyance. "But they will be a manageable number… We need them to fly the ship until I can safely revive my crew to replace them…"

"And then?"

"According to the computer we're currently in orbit around a class M planet…" Though he was speaking coherently enough, he was clearly fighting to keep his eyes open as they occasionally rolled and closed. "I will leave Kirk and his crew there… and we will have a ship and the freedom to fly her…"

"You're barely conscious and you still plan that far ahead," she mused aloud. "You're the most ambitious man I've ever known, Khan… But how do you expect to do any of that?"

"I expect to do it… efficiently…" His words were heavy, and his head lulled back and hit the metal wall with a clang.

"For God's sake…" she whispered sharply and took his shoulders to prop him upright before he flopped over onto the floor. Not that it would do much damage to him, but she didn't want to know what it sounded like when a skull hit the floor that hard. "Khan, this is ridiculous. Even for you. The drug isn't wearing off as quickly as you said it would. In fact, it seems to be working better now."

"I… am… impervious…" he hissed arrogantly.

Had circumstances been different she might have laughed.

"Khan." She took his face in both her hands, forcing his unfocused gaze onto her. "Khan, listen. I'm going to the med bay and I'm getting something to help you."

The furrow of his brows told her that he heard everything she said. His head tilted, cradling his cheek into the cup of her hand so that his lips just barely brushed the heel of her palm.

"Stay…"

"I can't," her voice caught to feel his breath on her—and to feel wanted by him. "We can't accomplish anything with you like this, and I can't go any further alone. I'll be quick. The turbolifts should be working and I'll be back in no time. Okay?"

He pulled his face from her hands and blinked hard. She could see him forcing his usual cold resolve to the front. He then placed the phaser into her lap. "Go quickly, then." He spoke hoarsely and reluctantly sank back against the wall again. "If they come here…and if I manage to escape, I will find you…"

If I manage to escape.

When did he ever refer to himself with 'if'? She gripped his pale hand where it rested beside him on the floor and without another word, she made for the nearest exiting tube from the junction. Once again, she found herself in an awkward crawl through the narrow space of a maintenance shaft, but when she finally emerged into one of the brightly lit main corridors again, she felt like she had spent the last year in a cave. But her liberating escape from the dim veins of the ship was hampered by the sight of bodies in various colored Starfleet uniforms strewn all over the sleek floor of the ship.

They were only sleeping, but knowing as much didn't ease the eeriness of the silence and the sudden weight of guilt on her shoulders. So, it was with looks and murmurs of apology that Marla moved through the ship, occasionally stopping to turn a man or a woman into a more comfortable position than the one they fell in so that they would have a little less pain when awakening.

She took the turbolift with an unconscious Orion tactical officer to the med bay, which was more of the same, except for the inclusion of white uniforms. Draped over the desk was Dr. McCoy. Once again the poor man was going to wake up with a headache because of her and Khan.

Tip toeing through the sea of sleeping figures, she carefully began to pilfer the hypospray cartridges. She didn't know what she was doing. So she began to fill a med kit with what might be most useful, to the best of her limited medical knowledge. Her best bet was a number of stimulants, since Khan was certainly in no state to inform her on the matter.

The amount of conflicting decisions she found herself faced with caused her to linger in the quiet med bay longer than she felt safe with. She couldn't leave Khan alone much longer, for her own sake as well as his. With the med kit under her arm, and her phaser held loosely in her hand, she carefully made her way around the fallen bodies and into the main corridor to return to the turbo lift.

She stood impatiently at the glass doors as she waited for the lift. The longer she waited, the more it dawned on her that the only reason she would have to wait for it is if it was called to another deck. The doors hissed open and she was staring at the stoic face of a high ranking Vulcan in a blue uniform. There were others with him.

With a gasp, and not a second thought, she fired her phaser into the turbolift. There was a shout, and a flash of sparks igniting from the lift's wall where her shot landed. She ran from the turbolift as fast as her legs could carry her, the med kit clutched tightly to her chest. She pivoted to take cover in the med bay, but something white hot yet freezing all at once pounded into her back, and the last thing she saw was the floor before everything slipped away.