Hello all! Sorry for the delay. I wasn't sure how people liked the last chapter, so thanks to those of you who reviewed! It really did mean a lot to me to get feedback.

I am pretty excited to write the next few chapters (and have bits of them already written), so hopefully there'll be faster updates in the future!

Anon. Review:
Guest: Haha glad that brought feels! :P (Bones is one of my favs, tbh.)

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Things couldn't be going anymore belly up than they already were. Sutton hadn't managed to change anything. Bones had just succeeded in pulling two more vials of blood from a irritated looking Khan when the Enterprise shook and careened under not-so-friendly fire and sent crew members struggling to stay on their feet. The lights flickered and supplies fell from their places and Sutton hoped Sayyid had listened to her. Carol had fled the med-bay at Khan's warning of not being able to escape at warp. Sutton had tried to cry out for the woman to stay, to have someone else tell Marcus that his daughter was on this ship so he couldn't just beam her off the Enterprise, but she was out the door without a backwards glance.

Sutton was still seated on the bio bed, her belongings clutched in her left hand as she kept her eyes glued on Bones. He'd procured a fuzzy, dead tribble, Sutton didn't want to know why he kept those on hand, and was testing to see if her claim that Khan's blood could reverse death was true.

When a shock of blond hair and piercing blue eyes appeared through the doors of med-bay Sutton was already on her feet. There was no way she could let another opportunity to stop Khan go to waste. By the time he was through the door she was crashing into him with wide-eyes and a growing lack of respect for personal space.

"Now's really not the best time for that. Maybe later."

Kirk tried to move her to the side as he continued on his way to Khan, but Sutton kept herself between them. Her back felt exposed and vulnerable with Khan right behind her, but she had to push that anxiety aside if she wanted to stop Kirk from making the mistake of asking Khan for help.

"No, you can't do this. You can't ask him to help. That's exactly what he's counting on."

"I don't really have a choice. You heard Marcus; the guy has his entire arsenal pointed at us and he's not going to just leave because we ask nicely."

"You can't. I'm telling you, you can't."

Sutton tried to think while sucking in lungfuls of air knowing that they didn't have time for alternate plans.

"I-I can fix it. I can disable his weapons, I just have to-"

She closed her eyes to focus and attempted to believe the weapons on the Vengeance were permanently disabled. That since Scotty had snuck on board that ship before it even reached them, he'd have been able to pull a wire or core out of place that would throw everything off. It was possible, that scenario would have actually been probable if the plot hadn't called for a final battle. But her body was weak. She could actually feel her muscles losing strength and her lungs deflating as she tried to think. Sharp pain radiated from her chest and head, but she clenched her eyes and pressed on.

Calloused fingertips glided from her right shoulder down to her elbow, pressing more firmly as they reached the crease in her arm and causing a wave of blind panic to shoot through Sutton's spine and push all further thoughts from her head. It was a familiar touch. Three short gasps left her, as if she was trying to catch her breath, and she pressed further into Kirk. The captain pulled her away, swiveling her almost behind him as he glared at their prisoner.

"Don't touch her," he snapped. "You don't get to touch her ever again, understand?"

Khan held up his still cuffed hands in a mocking surrender. Sutton tried to rise from her hunched position and could tell she hadn't done herself any favors with how weak she was suddenly feeling. Her mind was still in a tizzy; flashing thoughts and bursts of emotion made it impossible to concentrate on anything.

"Now I know that you have something up your sleeve, and I know you'll probably try to betray us, but I don't really have much of a choice. You know the layout of that ship."

Khan's gaze hardened as his chin tilted up the longer Kirk talked.

"I designed it," he said. "Dreadnought class: two times the size, three times the speed, advanced weaponry, modified for a minimal crew. Unlike most Federation vessels it's built solely for combat. Without my help, you won't make it through the ship in time to save your crew."

Kirk pursed his lips, not tearing his gaze from Khan as he obviously struggled with the decision he was forced to make.

"If you twitch, if you even look at anyone the wrong way, you're getting stunned in the face, understand?"
Sutton could only watch, still shocked into silence, as Khan dipped his head marginally and a faint trace of a smile rose to his eyes.

"Of course, captain."

The guards removed the cuffs at the order of their captain and Sutton shuffled frantically away from the two men and back towards Bones, who'd managed to look up from his tribble for a moment at all the commotion.

"Bad," Sutton muttered to herself. "Bad, bad, bad."

Khan rolled and flexed his wrists as if the cuffs had chafed, but Sutton could only see him doing it for show. He caught her gaze and she froze beneath it. A hand on her shoulder caused her to flinch, but it was only Bones, who was grumpier looking than usual.

"You should let the good doctor treat you," Khan goaded. "You look like you're about to catch your death."
She scowled but didn't respond as Kirk and his team led Khan from the room.

She'd die before she opened that watch in this universe again.

Her stomach dropped further as the group disappeared around a corner to enact their plan. The skin on her arms tingled and prickled while the hair on the back of her neck stood on end.

"He's going to do it soon. Whatever it is. He's done something to this ship just like he did something to the Vengeance."
Bones squeezed her shoulder as he sat back down next to his still-dead tribble.

"What 're you talking about, kid? Did what?"
"I don't know! What is...?" She worked to remember what Khan had said he'd done. It was like wading through syrup as her mind struggled to keep up with the constant stream of anxiety and adrenaline it was processing. "What's 'modifying command controls'? That's what he said about the Vengeance."

Bones' face twisted as he mulled over the information.

"Modified command controls? That'd be-" He cut himself off as his face suddenly went ashen. He cursed. And then he cursed three more times as he leapt off his chair and sprinted for the hall. Sutton darted after him, her boots thumping an uneven rhythm as the knee brace kept her from fully extending her leg.

"What? What is it?"
"Well it ain't good!"

"Obviously!"

She followed him into a lift and Bones fidgeted as they made the trip up to the bridge.

"Are you going to tell me or not?"

"If it's what I think it is," he snapped, "then Khan gave himself the ability to fully take over that ship's infrastructure."

When the doors opened to the bridge, the voices of both Kirk and Khan could be heard as Spock started directing them through the debris field left from the attack on the Enterprise as they shot towards the enemy ship. Bones cursed again as he eyed the monitor showing Kirk as already being in space.

"Spock, you gotta call Jim back here. It's a trap."

Spock didn't flinch. He finished rattling off degrees and coordinates that the pair should immediately avoid before dutifully acknowledging his colleague.

"The captain is very well aware that Khan is-"

"No, d*****, listen to me. It's a trap. Khan modified the command controls on that ship!"
Spock blinked as his mouth ticked down on one side.

"If that is true then, theoretically, Khan could have sole control over the vessel's systems with a simple code or phrase to the computers."

Bones looked nearly ready to choke the life out of the Vulcan as his face turned blotchy and red.

"Yes, you green-blooded hobgoblin! So you have to get Jim back here now!"

Spock's brow pressed together and his mouth opened and shut quickly and that was his display of what might've been distress.

"I'm afraid it's too late to call off the mission now. And the captain and Khan are sharing a comm feed. Any attempts to warn him will only alert Khan as well."

"Yeah?" Bones sneered with a curled lip and bugged eyes. "Well how much difference do you think that'll make now? Dear lord. He could kill Jim the minute they land on that ship! He doesn't need him at all. Think, man!"

"He could have done the same thing to the Enterprise."

Sulu was continuing to direct Kirk and Khan's flight path, but others had gone quiet at Sutton's statement. She had both Bones and Spock's attention as she stood limply between them.

"I told you; he probably got aboard while you were looking for him on Kronos. I tried to tell you."

An alarm on Sulu's control panel suddenly started blaring.

"I've lost Khan. Captain, can you see him?"

[I've got no visuals. Scotty! Tell me you're going to open that door!]

And then after a few moments of tension everything seemed to happen at once. Khan popped back on their radar, Kirk pleaded to a mute Scotty with increasingly frantic cries, the cargo door actually opened, and then it was silent. They would have no communication with them now until they were able to take over the ship. Any transmissions over comms they attempted would be blocked by the Vengeance's shields. Sutton felt sick as the quiet settled around the bridge. Bones looked every bit as ill as she felt.

Anything could be happening right now. Khan could turn on them the moment they got to their feet and there was nothing they could do about it. She could feel her stomach clench as she fought back the urge to dry heave.

"I killed him. I killed Captain Kirk. Oh, God, help."

"You don't know that."

Bones was snippy and frazzled. His captain and friend was in harm's way, the entire crew was, and there was no immediate good choice to turn to. The Enterprise had taken some damaging fire. They were lucky to have made it back through warp this close to earth as it was.

Sutton briefly wondered if Cadet Sayyid was ok. She wondered if he'd been able to warn anyone in time.

Whether Spock was running through every possible scenario in his head or merely overcoming shock, it took him a moment before he spoke.

"Lieutenant Uhura, is it possible to open a channel with New Vulcan?"
"I can try."
Sutton tried to wade through the mind-numbing panic and urge to just give up. The amount of effort she was putting into just breathing and staying awake was mildly concerning her. She was hungry and she knew that she wasn't clever enough to outwit a being genetically engineered for the sole purpose of being better.

What could she do? What could she do that she hadn't already tried?

No. No; giving up wasn't an option. She was the one responsible for changing this already altered timeline. She had chosen to ignore the Doctor's warnings to get what she wanted, and now she was responsible for setting this right. Or giving everything she had in trying to. Lying on the ground and closing her eyes and forgetting everything wasn't an option.

"All Future Spock will tell you is that he is the greatest adversary the Enterprise has ever faced. That he won't hesitate to kill every one of you and that you were able to defeat him before, but at a great cost. Hold on, let me think!"
She ran through what she knew of the movie based off this. They had only defeated Khan through trickery and luck, in the end. But Khan knew about that now. They couldn't arm those torpedoes and set the timer. He wouldn't take them and they'd be in heaps more trouble than they were now.

How had the crew originally beaten Khan in the original timeline when they were older and had more experience? Sutton could still remember watching Space Seed and The Wrath of Khan with her mother on some of their girl nights when she was much younger.

"These are some of my favorites from the series," her mom had said. "They always make science fiction so depressing nowadays. I've always liked that Star Trek is so hopeful."

"Mom, you said that you think Captain Kirk is cute."

"Well, there's that too."

In the original timeline they had defeated Khan because, while formidable, the Augment had still not fully gained an understanding of three-dimensional warfare. With no gravity, no earth to stop you or sky to limit you, space added a degree to battle strategy that Khan had not had the chance to master. If the original universe influenced this universe in any way, if attributes of both Khans had somehow melded together, maybe they had a chance. Maybe.

"He might not know three-dimensional warfare," she managed to sputter out. "That worked once."

The amount of people on the bridge openly staring at her was unsettling and only felt like a further accusation of her crimes. Sulu was half turned in his chair to look at her and he had one eyebrow arched high on his forehead. Sutton wasn't sure if it was just confusion or disbelief.

"What?"
"It's whenever you can, like, go underneath-"

"Yes," interrupted Spock, "we are aware of the dynamics of three-dimensional warfare. What makes you believe that Khan would be ill prepared for it?"
Sutton continued taking quick, panting breaths that seemed to have become her new normal.

"Well, he wasn't prepared for it at least once. And he still doesn't have experience with it now."

It grew quiet again as they seemed to mull the idea over, and Sutton sighed. She stared resolutely at the floor as she haltingly voiced another confession.

"You can't do the whole 'send him empty, armed torpedoes' trick. He knows about that."

She winced and swallowed before licking her lips nervously. Their eyes were hot on her skin but she couldn't force herself to look at them. There would be betrayal in their eyes, she just knew it, and she couldn't stomach it right now.

"What kind of dimension are you from, kid?"
Sutton laughed humorlessly, a tinge of desperation tainting the sound.

"When? A couple weeks ago? A month ago? Originally? It doesn't really matter at this point."
Spock ignored that last interaction to focus on the more imminent issue.

"Even with a thought out offensive attack, the odds of success are low. The Enterprise has been all but completely crippled and the Vengeance is still fully operational. However, it also seems to be our only choice."

"Commander, we're being hailed!"

"Commander, shield levels are wavering!"

Their view screen flickered to life and Khan's face appeared front and center. He was holding Kirk up next to him by his arm and Sutton felt her stomach roll at the blood at Kirk's lips.

He was alive, though, for the moment.

Khan's gaze flickered over the room, fast enough to seem like a fleeting glance but Sutton knew he'd gleaned everything he needed to with that one look. Spock stiffened in the captain's chair and a prickling dread sank into the room. Sutton bit her bottom lip harshly as a visible smirk tugged at Khan's lips.

"I won't waste time on pleasantries," he said. "I'm sure a little bird has warned you as best they could of what is to come."

There was a chime from Sulu's console that caused a flurry of movement from him and Sutton didn't like the look on his face when he turned back in his seat to look at Spock.

"Commander," he said in a tone to no be overheard, "our shields have been deactivated. I've been locked out of the system and can't bring them back up."

There was a chime from Khan's feed as well, and he grinned openly when he heard it.

"Perfect timing, I trust that my people are still in their torpedoes, thanks the warnings you've received."

"Spock," Kirk gasped, "you've gotta-"

Khan hit Kirk over the back of the head and the captain's body fell to the floor with a sickening thump. He then left Kirk where he lay as he moved over to his own console and hit a few points on the screen.

"Computer, beam the seventy-two torpedoes into the main cargo bay."

[Voice command authorized. Beaming torpedoes onboard.]

The torpedoes were nowhere near her, but she could hear it. She could see the golden beams of light in her mind's eye as they wrapped around each casing and could hear the faint tinny, ringing as their only bartering chip was stolen away.

Easy. She'd made it so, horrifically easy.

She was propped up against the back of the captain's chair and that was the only thing keeping her from meeting the floor in a fashion similar to Kirk's. There was a painful, burning pulse in her chest as her heart thump, thump, thumped against her ribcage. Khan's eyes turned to the view screen again, landed on her, and her entire body went cold. The blood pooled somewhere in her toes and her muscles went stiff beyond her conscious control. Concrete thoughts escaped her as his sharp blue eyes locked with her own.

"Open your pocket watch," he said. "Or I will kill everyone on this bridge with you watching."

Sutton couldn't move her fingers currently, let alone fumble with the opening mechanism on a watch. He wanted to beam her onboard too.

He wanted to keep her.

The sharp pains across her body flared at the thought, the strain in her fingers making itself more than apparent at the reminder of their treatment. A bit belatedly she realized it wasn't the captain's chair that was moving, but herself trembling. Desperately, she tried to find words.

"You-you'll do that anyway; to all of them."

Khan flashed teeth in response.

"Perhaps only because you believe it," he taunted. "But the choice is yours. Can you really risk it? I can end the lives of this crew whether you decide to cooperate or not."

The terror in the room was palpable; Sutton could taste it sour on her tongue. Her left hand fumbled for the case in her pocket even as she found herself unable to break Khan's gaze. He merely watched expectantly as she moved. The hand on her shoulder was hot and felt like it branded her skin and Sutton was able to break her gaze away from Khan. Bones frowned down at her, obvious concern mingled with fear behind the shine of his eyes.

"Do you know what you're doing," he asked in a hushed whisper. "You just said it, this guy is gonna kill us all anyway."

"I have to fix this."

His eyes flitted over her form; she didn't want to hear his assessment of her current condition.

"If you don't get medical help right away, you're going to d-"

"I'm going to fix this."

There was always the chance that it was too late or that she wouldn't be able to do anything helpful anyway. But at this point she might just be the only one who had a chance. Her fingers curled around the case and she pushed open the top with her thumb.

"Promise me you won't hurt them if I go with you."

"I will beam the captain and his crew back to his ship once I have you on board."

Sutton shuddered. It was far from a promise. She was reminded of the fairy stories her grandmother used to tell her when she was young. There was always a play on words to be wary of. Khan's showed he had no intention of giving her reassurances. Still, if it could buy the Enterprise a few more minutes, she had to do it.

No one moved to stop her as she pulled the fob watch from the case once again. Maybe they hoped she really would be able to help, maybe they didn't know her well enough to care, or maybe they just all thought they were going to die anyway. It was silent as death as she pressed on the side button and watched as the cover popped open. There was a sharp pain as something was rammed into her neck, and Sutton jerked with a yelp. Bones pulled a hypo-spray away from her throat and settled her with a serious, set face.

"Disable that ship," he said. "I don't want to die in the disease-ridden-"

Warm light interrupted his tirade, and Sutton did all she could to maintain her composure as she felt her very molecules shifting. One moment she was standing on the bright, clean Enterprise bridge and the next she wasn't.

For one split moment as she materialized again, Sutton felt a fire in her veins. Her muscles and joints felt raw, as if she'd shoved them under hot water and tried to scrub them clean far too harshly. And then, as she felt herself solidify and could see the new environment around her she snapped the front of the watch closed and the sensation disappeared. When she felt solid again and could see the much dimmer shapes of the enemy ship solidify around her Sutton darted backwards. She shoved the watch back into the case and shoved the case in her pants pocket all while her heart picked up speed. It hurt only marginally less than it had before. She realized, with some belated surprise, that Bones had probably stabbed her with a vial of Khan's blood.

Well, no matter the health benefits, she wasn't opening that watch again.

The dark form she knew to be Khan shifted as he beamed the missing crew members back to their ship. Sutton's breath caught in her throat. She had moments, if that, to save their lives. Without the torpedoes to detonate, there was nothing to damage the weapons and stop the Vengeance's attack.

If there were ever a time to be clever, it'd be now.

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Having Jane back in the lab further tipped the scales nicely in favor of actual scientists over pestering SHIELD agents. Tony still didn't get why it was any of their business to interfere with his work, but Axel was about as persistent as a tick on a dog and it would take too much effort to try and shake him off. Or, you know, kick him out.

But with Jane's research and Jane herself, Tony felt like he might be able to breath a little easier for the first time in weeks. Numbers were starting to add up correctly and they had a list of universal codes to work off of in their search for Sutton's frequency. And while Jane dove back into the research, especially regarding the readings from the Tesseract and the Aether, it was obvious that she had gone through some sort of ordeal. She didn't bring it up and Tony didn't ask. He had his own space induced nightmares to sort through without finding out about whatever it was she'd witnessed in her time amongst the stars. She insisted on staying and working despite the reassurances that she didn't need to feel obligated to. The information she'd managed to retrieve from Asgard had brought them huge leaps forward already and it was obvious that something had happened to her while she had been gone.

"I told you I'd help get her back," she told Tony. "And if you think I'm letting this research out of my sight with that SHIELD agent still around, you're crazy."

And so another week passed with three of earth's top minds working on the impossible task non-stop. Tony was finally completing the finishing tweaks to the machine that would, theoretically, pull Sutton back to their earth. It was similar in function to the one he'd built in her dimension, but that's really as far as it went. It was obviously a great improvement to its predecessor thanks to the advanced technology available to him now. This finished device wasn't quite a door though. Since she could be anywhere, even off the earth itself perhaps, and wouldn't even know of its existence the machine couldn't be a mere doorway. Instead the machine would be able to lock onto her frequency and transport it to a set of coordinates of their choosing.

Tony was just adjusting what he hoped was a final wire when a commotion broke out across the lab. He could hear Jane and Reed's excited voices rise in volume as they began to flit about frantically.

"I found her," Reed called out. "Holy crap, I found her frequency!"

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Sutton shifted on her feet, moving sideways to try and get a better angle to see from. A dark mass to her left caught her eyes and she immediately regretted looking the moment her eyes were drawn down. There was no food in her stomach to expel, but she dry heaved anyway.

Marcus' body lay crumpled and broken on the ground. His body was such a display of gruesome violence that it made any episode of Criminal Minds she'd ever accidentally seen seem tame. The man was shattered in the most horrifying of ways. Sutton looked away as quickly as she could, but the scene was already seared into her mind.

His head… oh gosh.

Smashed snail, dropped watermelon, blood, blood, blood.

No!

She had to focus. Khan was beaming the crew back to the Enterprise, as promised, but even from behind him she could tell that his posture spoke of sinister intentions.

"After all, no ship should go down without her captain."

There had to be something; there was always something! She had to strip away the power from him somehow. If only she knew how any of this stupid technology worked!

The console arched before Khan and that seemed like her only real option of disabling anything. She didn't know how it worked but- Sutton's brain backtracked hurriedly as s tentative idea began to blossom. She hadn't known how that weird egg incubator worked either. All she had done was made assumptions and, in turn, made it fit her pattern of thinking.

Sutton hoped that the few brief moments Khan's blood had worked in her system had been able to heal some of her internal damage and was enough to get this done.

Knowing there were only mere seconds left to act, Sutton rushed to the far side of the console, to Khan's right. He was dangerously close to her now and her ribs felt like they were going to crack further under the strain of her pounding heart. There was a small, removable panel on the side, just like she thought there'd be, and she ripped it off without hesitation. Inside that compartment were a mass of wires and odd microchip looking pieces and Sutton reached in to mindlessly tear a fistful out. A few lights flickered and Khan spun in the captain's chair.

"What are you-"

Sutton hardly paused as she saw the confusion and fury flash across his face. She reached back in and tore out more wires. Something popped and something else fizzed. A red light on the console started to flash in warning. Khan stood suddenly, and Sutton flew back in a crab-walk before gaining enough balance to jump back to her feet.

"That doesn't make sense," Khan snapped as he studied the console. "Why would I design-" Sutton could see the dawning realization in his eyes as he looked back to her. His eyes were cold enough to cut.

"You did this."

She needed to get off this bridge right now. She needed to run far away from here. They both moved at the same time and Sutton's heart pulsed harshly in her throat, a horrid tingling shot through her body as she ran for the door. Her left foot hit Marcus' cooling corpse and she choked back a cry while managing not to fall. She stumbled into the opening lift, but it wasn't like Khan had very far to go.

The doors are closed, the doors closed instantly! They aren't open.

A loud bang vibrated behind her, and Sutton spun around. She could hardly breathe as she forced herself to look at the lift doors.

They were shut! She'd actually done it!

But another rattling blow reminded her that it wouldn't be for long if she didn't do something. The metal doors creaked loudly and she choked back a scream as she hit several of the floor buttons at once. The lights in the lift flickered slightly before it actually started to jolt downwards.

One last bang on the door startled her, lurching her forward and causing her shoulders to tense, but the doors remained closed. After a second that stretched too long, she let out a shaky breathe and ran her hand through her tangled hair.

She was still alive for one more moment. And now Khan didn't have unmitigated control of the vessel. But he could still fire on the Enterprise. Sutton chewed her bottom lip mercilessly. She needed to incapacitate the weapons system. That was a thing, right? Scotty hadn't totally disabled them because stealth and, and... she couldn't remember right now. But she had no choice.

None of the buttons said 'weapons bay' or 'gun hanger' or 'master controls', instead they were labeled by deck, which set her at a high disadvantage.

The lift sank at least two floors before it came to a sudden, jarring halt. Sutton's stomach dropped a floor lower than the elevator as she stumbled back and braced herself against the back wall. The doors didn't open when the lift settled. The lights remained on, which was a relief, but that was the only thing she had going for her. Sutton hit the button panel again, but the lift didn't budge.

Khan.

It was most definitely his doing. Now he had her caged in a small tube probably in between decks. Sutton pushed herself off the wall and reached for the sliding doors. She couldn't afford to be locked up or spend time dawdling about it. Squeezing her left hand into the gap in the doors, she tried to pry it open, but found it impossible to do one-handed. Her arm was already sore and a bit of sweat had accumulated on her brow when she came to the conclusion that she'd have to try using both hands. She squinted her eyes closed and took a few quick breaths before shoving her right hand into the tight gap with her left. Her teeth clenched together as she tried to at least wiggle her hand in so that her palm was doing most of the work, but splintering pain still shot up her arm as she pried at the doors.

Whether she was able to open the doors because she believed she could or through sheer force alone, Sutton didn't know. All she knew was that they finally flew open and she was staring at the inside of an elevator shaft that descended down into a black abyss. A tingling shot through her feet as she stared down at the drop below her. It wasn't like there was a large gap between the lift and the wall, but it was enough to be able to make mistakes. Sutton cradled her right hand near her chest and scanned the wall in front of her for any sort of potential exit. Given how large the ship was "halfway" between floors could be quite a distance.

The elevator shaft was dim and only lit by a few lights here and there. Piping ran along the walls and there were blocks of metal that randomly jutted out from the wall every so often that probably had to do with electrical or some other mechanical functions. Sutton swallowed as she looked up. There was an inset in the wall about fifteen feet above her. That was as close to a floor as she was. Fifteen nail-biting feet. Fifteen feet that would have to be climbed with only one good hand if she wanted to get out of here.

Fifteen feet didn't seem like much until you were significantly wounded and fleeing from a homicidal madman.

"Do it," she urged herself. "Just do it. You have to. You have to fix this. Do it, do it, do it."

She would have to lean out over the edge of the lift and over the drop in order to reach the wall.

Being a normal height would be helpful right now.

Sutton took a breath through her nose and filled her lungs before taking the plunge. Butterflies exploded from her gut as she felt her hands hit the cold, solid metal before her. Her feet still stood tiptoed on the floor of the lift and she was quick to curl her fingers around something before her arms started to shake. Her knees were already knocking. The fingers on her right hand screamed as she pulled up her body weight and stepped fully off the lift floor.

A long drop stretched beneath her and a toe-curling climb loomed above.

"Don't look down."

She reached with her left hand first, keeping a tight grip on the pipe her right hand was clamped around. The borrowed boots she wore were only just able to grip the thin ledge that several outcroppings provided. Her muscles were quivering dangerously by the time she reached the top of the elevator carriage, and she managed to hop back over on to its roof for a few moments of rest. She allowed herself a half a minute of limp muscles and panting breath before she girded herself once more to attempt and finish the climb.

The carriage beneath her shifted.

Sutton wobbled, there was a metallic groan, and then the lift started to rise.

"No, no, no. Don't do this!"

But it was happening. Khan must have called the lift back up, and now she was perched on top of it. She didn't have a choice.

The lift rose about ten feet and Sutton couldn't allow herself to think about it. She jumped. Her boots hit the indented ledge of the doorway and her arms snapped out to either side of the doorframe. She pressed herself up tightly against the still closed doors and her small size was the only thing saving her from being skinned by the still moving lift. Sutton only started to breathe again when the lift passed and she didn't feel a threatening rush of air at her back.

She had to pry open the door the same as she had the lift doors. This time, though, there was only her own balance keeping her from dropping down into the empty abyss behind her. Her feet tingled again at the thought. The doors wouldn't stay open when she pressed against them, so she was forced to slip through whatever gap she could temporarily create. Sutton lunged forwards, onto blessed solid ground, and the sliding doors slammed shut behind her.

A long, dark hallway stretched out to her left and right. Like the rest of the ship, the floors and walls seemed almost black and swallowed the little light provided by recessed lighting in the walls. Sutton took a tentative step to the left then paused and looked down to the right.

"Computer," she whispered, "can you show me a route to the weapons bay? Not using this lift."
There was a faint popping noise, and then an almost static sound before a disembodied voice fell on her ears.

[Voice-voice v- command not-no ...voice comm-ommand au-thorized.]

Sutton shuddered. She didn't really want to hear a voice straight from a sci-fi horror flick right at this moment. But she must have really done a number to Khan's controls, because lights to her left flickered brighter and there was a pulsing blue light that shot down the length of the wall.

Sutton wheezed, wiped a bit of fresh blood off her top lip, and followed the light.

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Ah! Will Sutton make it?

If you liked it at all or have any constructive crit, feel free to let me know! You can never bother me! :)