Chapter 21
Despite the thick walls, the cold still creeps in. Khan works tirelessly on establishing communication, leaving the humans to their own devices in terms of entertainment. After a while, Meira gives up on attempting to fix the heater and sits patiently in the doorway, handing him tools that he needs.
"So," she says finally. "What was your home like?"
A strange question. Khan raises an eyebrow at her. What does it matter?
"Home?" He asks dumbly. "What do you mean?"
"You know, the place where you live with your family? Where you felt safe and all that jazz, I guess."
"I never had one." He says in a bored voice.
"Ever?"
"No."
"Well, what was the place that was closest to a home? What was that like?" She asks him curiously.
"Do you know what I am?" He questions her in an even tone. He had told her that his name was Khan…but did she know that he was an Augment? Or was this some kind of cruel joke?
"You're 'Khan'. Why?" She gives him a weird look.
"Khan what?" he presses and she shrugs.
"I don't know. I thought that was your last name. Who cares?" She continues to look at him strangely.
He sighs and looks back to his work. Only two panels needed to be rewired now and would, hopefully, work to get them out of the nightmare Kirk graced with calling a planet.
"The last place I considered home was a in palace India." He decides to answer her previous question. Why bring up his blood soaked past when he could avoid it? "It was very nice. I had…" He wanted to say 'servants' but knew that she wouldn't care for the phrasing. "People who worked for me," he said carefully. "It was very large. Very grand. There were feasts and banquets. My family and I played sports and talked politics. Normal family things, I suppose. It was a good time. We were safe and well off, as were our allies..."
"Why did you leave? Why not stay?" Her voice sounds sad, but why would she care about the life he had been robbed of?
"Because it was no longer possible to do so." His strict tone that left no room for argument. His own subjects had turned on him, forcing him and the other Augments to flee for their lives. Anger boils in the put of his stomach but he pushes it down effortlessly.
"And you?" He picks up a screwdriver and crawls beneath the panel. "What was your home like?" His silky voice echoes to her.
"We moved a lot and didn't really stay in one place for long," Khan can practically feel her shrug. "We used to live in England, though. We had moved there when I was ten and then left when I was fifteen. It was longest I had ever stayed anywhere. I had made a friend, her name was Cassie—I called her 'Cas'. She was the one who taught me how to code…er…hack," she makes the correction quickly.
"Why did you leave?" Curiosity gets the best of him. "Why move so often?"
"It was time to go. We always moved often. My dad had people who were…not particularly fond of his existence. It was better to stay in a place for a short while and then take off again."
There were so many secrets about the man who had rescued him from the clutches of Admiral Marcus. Why did he have so many enemies? Were any of them in Star Fleet? If so, how did he ever enter to facility to save Khan? He shakes his hide, mentally throwing the questions aside. Who cared? What's done is done.
"Did you like it there?" He tightens a bolt and then shifts to put himself closer to the wiring while she contemplates his question.
"It was nice. Quiet. We made forts in the forest and played in the meadows. I went to school for the first time; that was certainly strange. I had liked it there, at least, until winter came."
"Too cold?" Khan narrows his eyes at a loose screw before tightening it.
"It was awful! You don't know, man. You don't know." She repeats and he chuckles. "It was so cold, you bones hurt; it was crazy."
"I've seen cold. Trust me, England is nothing." Especially compared to Cryosleep. "Do you ever miss it? England?"
"I miss some things. I miss my friends, but that's about it. It didn't end well when I left. It was better to just leave and forget about it. I'm going to try to cook dinner," she changes topics a little too quickly. "Any requests?"
"Alien kabobs." He smirks.
"If you want to eat that thing, then you're going to have to gut and skin it. I'm putting on soup."
"Whatever." Khan rolls his eyes. Everyone was a critic.
…
"Any progress yet?" Kirk peeks his head into the room.
"Captain," Khan snarls. He has far less patience for the annoying man than for his odd companion. "When there is any change, I will inform you. Until then, I suggest you leave and quit distracting me."
The look Khan shoots Kirk is absolutely murderous; needless to say, Kirk scurries away.
Imbecile.
…
A bowl of soup slides across the floor and hits him in the knee.
"Eat and then bath, stinky," Meira orders sitting down in front of him with her own bowl.
"Or you'll what?" Khan lifts a spoonful to his mouth and savors the flavor, but his face remains unreadable. It was far superior to their protein bars.
"I'm not telling. I can be mysterious too, you know."
"Thats highly doubtful." Khan takes another bite and then another. A thought occurs him. "How old is this soup?"
"Trust me: it's better if you don't know." She says as she takes another bite.
"That isn't very encouraging." He complains and she shrugs.
"Sucks to be you then."
…
"Help!" A feeble voice rouses Khan from sleep.
Slowly, he rolls away from Meira and crouches to where Kirk lies sleeping to steal the other man's phaser. He moves stealthily through the corridors and pauses at the window, risking a look outside. A pack of long-clawed creatures like the one Khan and Kirk had killed before surrounds someone in a blue science officer's uniform.
Khan quickly lights some small towels on fire and surges outside with his flaming arsenal. The creatures shriek and snarl, but instead of attacking, they rush quickly out of range and hiss at him angrily, flattening their short ears close to their bulky heads in discontentment.
"Inside," Khan orders. "Now!"
The man limps feebly inside and then falls face first in the snow. Disgusted, Khan hauls the man to his feet by the back of his shirt and throws him unceremoniously through the door before slamming it shut behind to two of them.
Kirk stumbles blearily into the room and looks around wildly.
"What's going on?" He yawns.
"A new survivor." Khan hauls the man over the couch and drops him like a sack of potatoes onto the dusty furniture. The man howls and holds his leg, wincing in pain. "Oh, shut up," Khan growls. "Stop being so dramatic. It's not even broken."
Why were humans so soft? So pathetic? Khan shakes his head and rips the man's pant leg open and then tears his boot off of his foot. It was a sprain. Weakling.
"Hey, is that guy alright?" Meira frowns.
"I'm dying!" The stranger yells.
"Oh, shut up. You're fine." Khan rolls his eyes as Meira inspects the wounds.
"It's just a sprain, wimp. Suck it up," She says as she wraps his ankle up in a simple bandage.
"You guys are mean," The man pouts and Meira smiles in amusement.
"But we're not the ones crying over minor injuries," She says and Khan bites back a chuckle. Maybe they were spending a little too much time together. It seemed he was beginning to wear off on his mild manner friend.
…
"What are you doing?" Meira demands as Khan drags her into a large, empty room the next morning.
"Practice." He says simply.
"For…?"
"Sparing." He closes the door behind them.
"Why?"
"Revenge. Remember when you hit me yesterday?"
"You were supposed to forget." She kicks him in the ankle but his hold doesn't loosen.
"Was I now?" He releases her and then walks in a slow, deliberate circle around her like a wolf cornering its prey.
He lunges forward and tries to grab her but she jumps quickly out of the way and moves behind him, kicking him hard in the back of the knee, but he doesn't fall. Surprised, he spins around and aims a light punch towards her head. Again, she dances away, evading his efforts.
"Do you surrender?" She smiles and he narrows his eyes irritably.
An idea hits him: "Yes."
He puts his hands up. Raising an eyebrow, she walks away, unwisely putting her back to him. He smiles a predatory smile: never turn your back to the enemy. In one fluid movement, he springs forward and tackles her to the ground.
"So," He asks silkily and she glares at him. "While we're on the topic of surrendering…"
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