Chapter 20
He awake to find the bed empty. Quickly, remembering the bowl incident, he whips around to glare at the space behind him…but she wasn't there either. Twice now his superior senses have failed to realize that she had snuck away. He must be getting soft in his old age. A small explosion has him on his feet instantly and running towards the kitchen.
"Meira?! Meira!" He yells.
"Sorry!" She calls back in response. "The stove didn't want to cooperate." She smiles nervously when he finds her, covered in soot and ash in the kitchen.
"So you made it explode? That's a tactic not even I would use." He says as he carefully steps over a broken glass. "Are you injured?"
"No, just dirty." She says and he frowns as he surveys the room. Besides the stove and the broken glass, nothing else seemed damage.
"What were you trying to do?" He asks curiously, tilting his head to the side as he moves to tower over her. She was so small, so feeble. How could one so weak create such havoc?
"Warm the place up, what else? It's freezing in here!" She says and he smirks.
"Oh, poor little princess," he says mockingly, stroking her check with this deadly fingers. "That sounds so dreadful. How did you ever survive in such hardship?" he shoots her a predatory smile.
"Oh, who asked you?"
She shoves him irritably and he allows himself to take a step backwards to help appease her quick burst of adorable anger. He rolls his eyes and allows his face to become neutral once more though he can feel his eyes laughing at her still.
"Here, you take a bath; I'll clean up the kitchen."
"What the catch?" She asks suspiciously.
"You make a sandwich when you're finished." He fights back a smile and he can see her considering whether or not to punch him in the face.
"Make your own sandwich," She shoots over her shoulder as she walks away. He waits for her to disappear into the bathroom before allowing his chuckle to escape his chest.
…
After the kitchen is functional once more, he gets to work on the communications room. Much of the equipment had been damaged and wires were sticking out of the walls. Someone had stripped with room quickly, breaking whatever they could in a big hurry. Why? What where they afraid would be found?
As he works on that he can hear Meira trying—and failing—to fix the heater, but at least she wasn't breaking it more. The attempt was…adorable to say the least. Ineffective… but adorable.
"How is it going in there?" He yells, knowing that it will irritate her. "Any progress?"
"Shut up!" She yells back.
Cheeky little spitfire, he thinks.
"Do you need help?" He tries again, adding insult to injury. He knew that she could be just as stubborn as he was and would insist on doing the job herself rather than to let him assist her and run it in later.
"No!" She shouts back.
"It would really be trouble at all," He continues.
He knew he had nothing to fear from Meira. She was no real threat to him and her childish pranks seemed to be the worse she had to offer thus far. If she wanted to get physical, he could easily overpower her…or let her burn herself out like Kirk had when he was punching Khan on Kronos.
"I've got it!" She yells, and he can hear the irritation creeping into her voice. "I can do it!"
"Are you sure?" He smiles evilly; he loved messing with people.
"Yep!"
"Alright. If you need anything…"
"I don't!"
…
They still have no communications with the crew. Khan is at his wits end at fixing the stupid room. Meira had to go in there and drag him out by the arm (he allowed himself to be dragged) before he could rip the panels from the walls and thrown them into the door.
"Let's eat," she offers.
"Did you fix the heater?" He asks, inclining his head. She glares at him.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"It's alright. We can't all be amazing at everything. You'll get there…one day." He bites into a protein bar and bites back his disgust at the taste.
"Don't make me hurt you," She warns.
"Why? Are you going to dump water on my head…or will you make the stove explode again?"
"I don't know…" She says cautiously. She smacks him quickly upside the head and jumps away before he can retaliate.
"That," Khan says calmly as he slowly stalks towards her. She quickly backs towards the door, careful not to show him her back. She was smarter than she looked. "Was not a wise move."
And then she's running down the corridors with Khan racing at her heels. She spins around a corner, losing speed and he takes the opportunity to catch up. His arm reaches ahead of him as his fingers seak out the fabric of her blue coat.
A primal scream erupts towards them. Meira jumps backwards and Khan hastily puts himself between her and the large alien creature stalking towards them. Its large claws click on the hard floor as it approaches and roars again.
"Meira?" Khan breaths.
"Yeah?" She cowers behind him and looks up at him with wide, green eyes; her long brown hair a mess on top of her head.
"Run!" Khan roars.
And then he's rushing the animal in a fight to death. It's thick, white fur softens his blows but not much. That must be why he hadn't seen it before. With its white fur, it would have been perfectly camouflaged to its surroundings. It rakes its sharp claws down his back and opens its mouth wide to bite him. Khan punches it hard in its soft throat and it crumbles to the ground. He kicks the beast savagely in its side, breaking several rips as its gleaming fangs meet his heel.
He falls to the ground and it towers over him. Khan's hands uselessly grip its neck to keep its teeth from sinking into his own, but it's useless. His hold is slipping on the loose, wrinkly skin. It surges forward powerful, its teeth just nipping the skin when phaser blasts throw it to the side.
Quickly Khan glances at his savior: Kirk. Where had he come from?
"You alright?" Kirk yells.
"Never better." Together the two of them kill the animal.
Kirk limps deeper into the room and looks around. Shivering, he holsters his phaser and looks at Khan: "Anyone else here?"
"Meira is in here somewhere. And the others?"
"I don't know. I slept in a den I dug myself in the snow and climbed up here about an hour ago. Took forever to find a way in."
"Your security officers are dead. I found their bodies yesterday."
Kirk nods slowly. "Have you been able to communicate with the Enterprise?"
"I'm working on that." Khan sighs inwardly. It was going to take forever to fix that room.
"Need help?" Kirk offers.
"From you?" Khan pretends to consider it for a moment. "No." He then stalks away.
"Wait! About this thing?" Kirk gestures to the creature. "What are we going to do with it?"
"It's dead, Captain. We're going to eat it. What else?" Khan says and he takes more satisfaction than is proper at the shade of green Kirk becomes.
Well, I can't just kill off poor Kirk. Who else would annoy Khan in Spock's absence? *evil smile*