This Chapter:
Little nervous about this chapter. I really don't want to disappoint. I'm ok with making readers anxious for the next chapter; but after all this time of you lot reading this story, I just want this to be good for you. Anyway, many thanks for your continued patience.
M for more violence (like you weren't expecting it),vibrant language, more mature themes, and sexually mature scenes. I don't own Star Trek, more's the pity. Only my original characters and plot line.
Loss
Chapter 26 – Zeroing
Kirk's eyes widened as Carol ended the transmission. "Change of plans, Khan. Change of plans! We can't attack Carol full on when we get there."
"Why not?" Khan growled the words, and they rumbled from his chest rather than being spoken.
"She called me 'dear'. I always knew I was in the shitter when she called me 'dear'. She's up to something. Khan you have to trust me on this." As Kirk finished his last word, a familiar swirling light engulfed each of them.
On the Herodotus right in front of Carol's eyes, three forms materialized. One had his hands to his side while another held onto chains that bound the thirds' wrists.
"Carol." Kirk started to step forward until he saw the phaser in his wife's hands.
"Stay back, Jim. Guards, retrieve Khan's shackles from Captain Kirk."
"I don't understand."
"You rarely do, husband. If you have truly captured Khan and he is mine to pronounce judgment on as I see fit, you will have no problem joining me while I meet out his punishment."
Kirk allowed a smirk to creep to the corner of his mouth as he relinquished Khan's chains to the guards. "Of course not, Admiral. What did you have in mind?"
"Oh, I have a present waiting for our guest of honour." She eyed each of the men gauging their level of threat. "Guards, man up. Four each to Khan and the Captain. Two for the Lieutenant."
Kirk tried to lighten the tone. "Are you sure that we'll all fit in the lift?"
But, Carol was having none of it. "Everything on the Herodotus is bigger and better, Jim dear. If any of them put up a fight," Carol addressed her guards while looking Jim squarely in the eyes, "kill them."
The Admiral led the contingent down the turbo lift till they reached Deck 17. Then without a word, she led them down the corridor to Cargo Hold 8. Once outside the hold, the three men were marched inside with Kirk in front, Khan in the middle, and Marshall at the end. Khan's body was in such a state that two of his guards had to drag him along.
Punching in her security code, Carol stepped in as the doors slid open to grant her access. The command, "Lights," leaving her mouth before she even realized that the lights were already illuminating the space.
The entire group filled the cargo hold, and the door closed behind them. As Carol's attention was drawn towards the stasis tube with its shattered and bloodied glass, she found her voice, "What the hell?"
With the Admiral distracted, all three men acted at once. Khan slid out of his guards' grip and landed on the floor. At the same time, Marshall swept the legs out from under the guard to his left. The guard hit the floor and sent his phaser spinning across into Khan's still shackled but waiting hands. Kirk dodged two of his guards who ended up shooting and killing each other before knocking the phaser out of the third guard's hands and head butting the fourth one, dropping him to the floor.
Khan shot all four of his guards in quick succession before making quick work of Marshall's guards and the two that Kirk had left. With the guards neutralized, Khan swung his phaser towards Carol only to find her leveling her own phaser at her husband.
"Well, isn't this interesting?" Carol tried to steady her voice but could not hide the tremble in it.
"Not really." Khan almost purred, "You are out of options, Admiral."
"I can kill Jim and Marshall before you get to me."
"Go ahead. I don't care. You can kill them both but I will still get to you. I can capture you without killing you, and then I will make you watch as I take my revenge out on David."
At that, Kirk looked at Khan questioningly.
"But, we can avoid all that if you help me find Sara. I take it you are surprised of her escape. You should not be: for Sara is advanced. If she and my child are safe and unharmed, I will take them, leave your time, and never bother you again. That is my best offer: one that is generous considering who I am and more generous than you deserve."
Kirk's eyes widened. "Child? What child?"
"My child, Kirk. Mine and Sara's. Sara is pregnant with my child."
"Bullshit!" Kirk spat out. "Augments are infertile. Children aren't possible."
Carol saw a chance and decided to take it. If she could just turn them against each other, she still might have a fighting chance. "Didn't he tell you about that, Jim? That's all he's good for – half truths and empty promises." She turned towards Khan, "Do you honestly think that I will believe your offer?"
"Not at all. But right now, you have no choice. Put the phaser down, Admiral. Or you will be dead before the count of three."
Carol sighed and handed her phaser to her husband. As she stepped up to Kirk, she said in a hushed voice, "You trusted him once, and he betrayed you. Don't make the same mistake twice."
Kirk returned, "The same could be said for trusting you, wife."
Khan stepped closer trying to interrupt Carol and Jim's burgeoning domestic. "Now, Admiral. You will help us find Sara. Kirk, I need you to inspect the cryo-tube."
Kirk moved closer to it. "It's malfunctioned. Glass broken from the inside. She fought her way out of there. A malfunction in the tube should have killed her, Khan. What kind of woman could do this?"
Khan's grin curled up the side of his face. "A superior one."
Marshall knelt down to the cryo-tube. "One thing I don't like is the blood. It looks as if Sara punched her way out of the tube. I'm not a doctor, but it looks like she lost a lot."
Khan glanced at the tube and ordered, "Admiral, conduct a ship wide search for Sara. Do it! Do it now!"
"Oh, she can do better than that." Marshall stood up and stepped towards Carol.
"What? What can she do, Marshall?"
"She put a tracking device in Sara's clothes."
Carol looked up and grinned, "I like to take precautions. Just in case you stole her away, I'd be able to hunt you down."
Khan reared back his right hand and prepared to strike Carol across the face. But another arm, just as strong as his, stopped him. Khan glared at Kirk; hatred blazing from his cold pale eyes.
"She'll be no good to us if she's knocked out."
Khan wrenched his arm away from Kirk and spat at Carol, "The tracking device. Activate it. Now."
"It's not possible to do it from here. I can only activate it from my ready room."
Kirk shook his head. "Isn't that convenient. We have to march all the way back to the turbo lift through the bridge and into her ready room without being stopped or challenged by the crew. It won't work."
"We don't have to walk." Marshall smiled, "We can be beamed from here straight to the ready room."
"The transporter crew will suspect something." Kirk offered.
"Yes, but by the time they react, Sara would have been located." Marshall countered.
Khan nodded towards Marshall before stepping up to Carol – towering over her. "Very well. You, my dear Admiral, will say exactly what I tell you to say. You will not deviate. You will not attempt to be clever. Or, trust me, I will break more than your knee this time."
When Sara reached the ready room, she took her time and waited - trying to rest. Once she left the confines of the interior walls of the ship, she would be exposed and vulnerable. She would have to be at her best in order to take down this Carol woman. But, she didn't know how good her best would be. With the cryo-tube and the climb, Sara had started to notice an ache in her womb. Sara admitted to herself she was in a no-win situation. She might not be ready now; but if she waited too long, the possibility increased that she would weaken rather than grow stronger.
The fact remained that once she crossed into the room, there was no going back. For a fleeting second, she allowed herself to wish for Khan. If Khan were here, she'd feel stronger. If Khan were here, she knew she could face anything. But she stopped those thoughts with the iron-clad reality. Khan wasn't here, and nothing she could do would change that. She had to be strong – for herself, for Khan, for the life growing inside her. Besides, Khan wouldn't want her to be afraid.
Finally, after taking a deep breath, Sara opened the panel and slipped into the ready room.
It was empty. As she looked around, Sara found mementos of Carol's life on her desk. Pictures of her with an ugly old man. 'Must be her father,' Sara thought to herself. Pictures of a wedding. Pictures of a child – a son. Pictures of that son growing up.
But, regardless of the normal life this woman had lived, it still did not change the fact that Carol had attacked her and the child inside her. Who was she to be judge, jury and executioner? Especially when she had not done anything. All she had done was fall in love with Khan. And who the hell could really blame her for that?
In the middle of her musings, Sara gasped. In front of her, four sets of shimmering lights appeared. Not knowing what these lights were, the 20th century woman crouched down beside Carol's desk gripping her knife tightly in her hand.
Khan, Kirk, Marshall and Carol materialized in the ready room – their backs facing Sara. In Sara's determined and focused mind, once she realized that one of the four had blond hair and was the same shape as the bitch who brought her here, Sara zeroed in on the figure, sprang from her hiding place and attacked.
Sara felt her knife secure in her hand as she plunged the serrated blade into Carol's neck slicing the carotid artery. Before the men could react, Carol had fallen to the floor; and Sara went down with her. Stabbing Carol once in the back, Sara turned the blond woman over. Sara's hand went straight to Carol's jaw shaking her and trying to make her open her eyes.
"Look up, bitch!" Sara hissed, and Carol's eyes opened. "I want you to see who's killed you. I am Sara Augustine Trevathan, I have been told I am superior, and you fucked with the wrong woman."
Remembering that there were three other people in the group, Sara jumped up, brandished her knife, and readied herself to fend off the attacks that were sure to come. But she rose too quickly making her head swim. Falling backwards, Sara's head clipped the edge of Carol's desk and she went down with a groan.
As Khan realized what had happened, he screamed out an agonizing, "Sara!" But before Sara could register the voice that was calling her name, she had already slipped into unconsciousness.
Please don't hate me too much.
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