Once again she looked around the bridge. No-one was watching her so she used ship security to watch what Kirk was doing. He and Carol were walking to the shuttle bay. Carol seemed rather distracted by the idea of opening one of the torpedoes. When they entered one of the shuttles she lost sight of them and switched to looking over medical records, just for something to do.
Some minutes later Kirk was back on the bridge. "Mr Sulu, have Doctors Marcus and McCoy landed on the planetoid yet?" He asked.
"Yes, sir. They're moving the torpedo into position now."
"Good. Any activity from the Klingons?"
"Not yet." She stopped listening. Chekov called in to let Kirk know that they had found the leak but there was a lot of damage. He sounded overwhelmed to Sophia. She listened as Bones flirted shamelessly with Carol and Sophia continued hiding her grin. Carol sounded very professional. Sulu looked at Kirk who shook his head in disbelief. Bones cried out in surprise and everyone jumped.
"Sir, the torpedo just armed itself." Sulu reported. Sophia crossed her fingers and watched the countdown on the screen.
"Four…three…" Bones counted down.
"Shit." Carol swore loudly and it was deactivated. There was silence.
"Doctor McCoy, you alright?" Kirk asked. "Bones?" He said loud.
"Jim. You're gonna want to see this." Bones replied. Sophia knew that the torpedo had just revealed one of the augments.
Sophia slipped out of the bridge and made her way down to the brig. There were two people manning the stations. She smiled sweetly at the man and noticed Khan's eyes flick to her. "I've been asked to make sure that the prisoner is well." She said, indicating her tricorder. The man nodded and she walked over to Khan. She opened the ring and took out her tricorder. "Could you please come over here?" She asked. Khan walked over to the screen and she pretended to scan him. "What's your plan?" She whispered.
"I suspect that the Admiral will come when he hears I have been taken prisoner. He will not be allowed to survive."
"Yeah, I was talking about the Enterprise. And what can I do?"
"Nothing at the moment. You should go. They will be here soon and you do not want any questions asked." He murmured. She nodded slightly and closed the ring. Smiling at the man again she left the room, just before Kirk saw her. When she saw them entering the room she hung back.
"Why is there a man in that torpedo?" Kirk asked without any preamble. Khan was sitting again.
"There are men and woman in all those torpedoes, Captain." Khan replied. "I put them there." Kirk and Bones exchanged a glance.
"Who the hell are you?" Kirk asked. Finally, Sophia thought, he's realised the Admiral was lying. When Khan spoke he sounded almost nostalgic.
"A remnant of a time long past. Genetically engineered to be superior so as to lead others to peace in a world at war." Nice sentiment but didn't really work. Sophia wondered what Khan was up to. "But we were condemned as criminals, forced into exile. For centuries we slept, hoping when we awoke things would be different." Khan fixed his gaze on Spock. "But as a result of the destruction of Vulcan, your Starfleet began to aggressively search distant quadrants of space. My ship was found adrift. I alone was revived." That was a lie and Sophia wondered why.
"I looked up 'John Harrison'. Until a year ago, he didn't exist. Another person appeared at the same time. Emily Morrison." Sophia bit her lip. That was the name Marcus had given her for when she was working with Section 31.
"John Harrison was a fiction created the moment I was awoken by your Admiral Marcus to help him advance his cause. A smokescreen to conceal my true identity." Khan didn't mention her. "My name is Khan." He seemed a lot more like the monster Sophia had heard about in the eugenics war when he revealed his true name.
"Why would a Starfleet Admiral ask a 300-year-old frozen man for help?" Kirk was being patronising and Sophia wished he wouldn't be.
"Because I am better."
"At what?"
"Everything." It sounded like a joke answer but Khan was deadly serious. "Alexander Marcus needed to respond to an uncivilised threat in a civilised time and for that he needed a warrior's mind. My mind." Khan began to turn away, still talking. "To design weapons and warships."
"You are suggesting the Admiral violated every regulation he vowed to uphold simply because he wanted to exploit your intellect."
"He wanted to exploit my savagery. Intellect alone is useless in a fight, Mr Spock. You…You can't even break a rule. How could you be expected to break bone?" Sophia shook her head. He wasn't gaining any support by insulting them. "Marcus used me to design weapons. To help him realise his vision of a militarised Starfleet. He sent you to use those weapons. To fire my torpedoes on an unsuspecting planet. And then he purposely crippled your ship in enemy space, leading to one inevitable outcome. The Klingons would come searching for whomever was responsible, and you would have no chance of escape. Marcus would finally have the war he talked about. The war he always wanted."
"No. No. I watched you open fire in a room full of unarmed Starfleet officers. You killed them in cold blood!"
"Marcus took my crew from me." Khan turned away.
"You are a murderer!" Kirk was getting angry.
"He used my friends to control me. I tried to smuggle them to safety by concealing them in the very weapons I had designed, but I was discovered. I had no choice but to escape alone. And when I did, I had every reason to suspect that Marcus had killed every single one of the people I hold most dear." Sophia knew Khan was crying. She remembered how he had acted when he had told her to get out of the building. She knew that he wouldn't have bothered to rescue her if he had believed that his crew was still alive but he felt he had to save someone. "So I responded in kind." Khan turned to Kirk and Spock, showing them he was crying. "My crew is my family, Kirk. Is there anything you would not do for your family?"