CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE


Madelyn practically fell out of bed when the alarms began. At first she thought she was dreaming, until she stubbed her toe on the bed frame and immediately realized something wasn't right. Confused and slightly worried, she pulled on her clothes and ran out into the corridor.

Pulsating red lights illuminated the walls and the alarms were so loud she couldn't hear herself talk. She called out for Khan but even if he'd heard her and answered back, she wouldn't know. A sliver of panic inched its way into her gut. She jogged the length of the corridor, noticing every door was shut. He could have gotten trapped in his own lab by the lockdown.

She ran down to his lab and banged her fist on the door, but all she heard were the alarms and all she felt was the dull metal vibrating under her pounding. Her doubts spreading, she went back to their quarters and quickly began to gather her things. She didn't know where Khan was, but she wasn't about to hang around and wait for him if something was wrong. He should have shown up by now.

"Hello, Maddy."

She stopped what she was doing and slowly turned. She already knew who it was just by the voice, but her heart sank nonetheless as her eyes fell on the man she had once considered her friend.

"What are you doing here, Owen?"

He gave no answer and advanced on her. Out of instinct, she backed away, almost tripping over her pile of half-packed things. Upon catching herself against the bed, she sent a fist towards his jaw, but he caught it easily in the air before she'd even raised her elbow, and she froze. His fingers tightened until she hissed in discomfort, and then his knee met her gut.

She crumpled over onto the bed, gasping to refill her lungs, bracing herself for his next blow. Instead he grabbed her hair and yanked her head backwards, pulling a yelp out of her throat. Her scalp burned. She grappled for the only thing she could reach, succeeding in pulling the sheets off the bed as Gallagher dragged her from the room.

She yelled and screamed as he pulled her down the corridor, crimson lights still surging across the walls. He struck her again, this time in her side, close to her kidney. The pain blazed through her body, for the moment submerging her persistence to struggle with him. Then her vision was hit with blinding sunlight. They must have been outside the bunker, or he'd just killed her. Glancing up, she realized he was focused on moving fast, and took advantage of his momentary lapse in attention by kicking her foot out in front of him. He stumbled over her, though it hurt her shin just as badly. She twisted around in his grip, adrenaline canceling out the pain in her scalp, managing to break free of him for a moment. She caught his jaw with her fist again, then managed to wrap her fingers around his neck. She felt foolish for not planning this out, since he easily seized her wrists, his fists tightening until the feeling in her digits trickled away, and she was forced to let him go. He kept one wrist in an iron grip, making her grit her teeth as she felt bone grind against bone. Why he didn't just break her apart and be done with it, she didn't know.

Turning away from her without a word, he dragged her behind him down the old paved walkway that led away from the bunker's door, eventually stepping off of the pavement and into the woods. They tore through the trees, branches snapping past him and into her face. A small break in the underbrush appeared up ahead, revealing a basic shuttlecraft, unmarked but clearly designed by Starfleet for interplanetary transportation. Panic welled in her stomach as Gallagher manually slid opened the main hatch at the back of the vehicle, then turned to her and ordered her to get in. When she hesitated, he slapped her. She glared at him, pressing a hand to the stinging skin. The sinews in his neck were showing, his nostrils seemed permanently flared, and his pupils were dilated as though he was high. She noticed all these things in a matter of seconds, and they completely unsettled her. She thought about obliging him, just so he wouldn't hit her again, but she was too stubborn for that. Rolling his eyes, Gallagher grabbed her and shoved her into the open door. Flinching as the hatch slammed shut behind her, she was left in the dark.

She stood up and frantically felt along the walls for a door handle or any mechanism that could let her out, but found nothing. The floor vibrated as the ship hummed to life and the lights flickered on. She was in the airlock. She held her breath at the brief thought that Gallagher was going to kill her by shooting her out the airlock. Then he opened the interior door and yanked her through it into the main cabin. She was left alone again while he disappeared around a wall into what she assumed was the cockpit. After a moment, the ship rumbled slightly and then that familiar strange feeling overcame her, causing her head to spin, and she knew they were now moving at warp speed.


Khan's entire being was shaking with fury. He'd ripped the heavy steel doors to his lab apart in a matter of seconds after letting adrenaline course through his system, swearing he'd heard his name called as he'd warped the steel under his fingers. Seeing no sign of Madelyn in the corridor, he'd then raced to their quarters. There were clear signs of a struggle, her things scattered across the scuffed floor, the sheets torn from the bed. Questions raced through his mind as to who this intruder was, where he had been hiding this entire time, how he had known when to strike. The red lights still flashing in the corridor mixed with the anger in his mind, and Khan wanted nothing more than to destroy something. Then it hit him, a solution so obvious he hated himself for not realizing it sooner. An abandoned underground military base designed for optimal safety during the Eugenics Wars had to have a means of optical security.

He found the room full of monitors easily by looking for the only set of doors that had not been locked tightly shut. He depressed the buttons that rewound the recorded footage, until he saw the man he'd least wanted to see, dragging Madelyn down the corridor by her hair. The image sent a shudder of rage through him and he slammed his fist down into the monitor, sparks flying momentarily. The fact that the man had been too stupid to turn off the recording equipment kept a sliver of hope within him, but the destructive action released some of his pent up emotion so he did likewise to the remainder of the room's dated technology, leaving a pile of severely dented metal and shattered glass in his wake. His hands marred with red, Khan stormed down the corridor, making for the doors Gallagher had used to escape. He would not let this man take away the final remnant of his family.

He saw the shuttle lift into the air and disappear from the atmosphere in a flash of blue light. Panic joined the rage that spilled onto his features. If Gallagher had Madelyn on that ship, they could be millions of miles away already. His first instinct was to formulate a plan to break into the nearest shipyard in Sacramento and commandeer a warp capable vessel, but even if that proved to be successful he would most likely be unable to track the shuttle with any specificity, which would prove to be a waste of time. There were only a limited number of ships within Starfleet which he knew contained technology capable of tracking a warp signature, and he could not commandeer one on his own.

But if there were others still searching for Madelyn, and Khan knew there were if his interception of communications from a few nights ago had proven anything, then he had one other option. He was disgusted that he was even considering the idea a feasible possibility. These were the same people who had murdered his crew, destroying everything he'd fought so hard to reclaim. If it had been another time, if his people had been with him, he would never have even considered it. But the cards were falling much differently than he'd ever planned, and he had waited long enough to get the last remaining member of his family back. To have her ripped away from him yet again, and by the same man who had attacked her and caused her miscarriage, that was the final straw, and he knew he was willing to do whatever was necessary to get her back.

For the first time in Khan's life, going to the captain of the USS Enterprise for assistance was necessary.


Madelyn glanced around the cabin, noting the basic essentials for living that were built into it: a pair of stacked beds, a tiny enclosed bathroom with only a toilet and a sink, and rows of mostly empty storage shelves that lined the opposite wall above a single row of padded seating. There were no windows. A single storage pack had been casually tossed into one of the shelves, and she went to investigate its contents. There were a dozen or more MREs, a plain metal box, and a few odds and ends that might have been useful before she was dragged onto that ship, including an old-fashioned pocketknife. She opened the box to discover two dozen or so syringes, each one filled with a dark, unidentifiable substance. She wondered if this was Gallagher's supply of serum that Dahl had synthesized from her blood.

There was movement from the cockpit. She replaced the box, the took the knife and slid it into her pants' pocket, just as Gallagher came back into the room. She backed away from the shelf, watching as he glanced at the bag then at her, but he didn't seem to suspect she'd been poking around in his stuff.

"Where are we going?" she asked carefully.

Gallagher crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall. She winced slightly at the crooked smile that appeared on his face. "Somewhere Khan will never find you."

She shot him an angry glare. "Why?"

"Does it matter? I think by now I should have gotten what I deserved," he said.

She snorted at the thought that popped into her head, that what he deserved was to be writhing around on the floor of the ship in pain.

"You don't deserve anything," she said slowly. "You murdered my child." She didn't raise her voice; she barely let the words escape from her mouth. She was clenching her teeth as hard as her fingertips were digging into her palm.

The look that passed over his face gave her a smudge of hope, but it disappeared just as quickly. He advanced on her in one firm stride and wrapped his hand around her neck, backing her against the empty seats so that he bent over her threateningly.

"I wanted you and now I have you, and that's all that matters." His voice had a strange tone to it, something darker, something hungry.

She swallowed at the chill that snaked down her spine. Dahl's serum had done more than just make him stronger. He was also more aggressive because he had no one to order him around, and now he thought he could get away with anything. His fingers dug into her skin but she didn't dare reach up to pry them off. She knew he could crush her windpipe without hesitation. She guessed he was practically as strong as Khan while on the serum. She wondered what would happen when he ran out of it. She just stared back at him without hesitation, taking in his bloodshot eyes, noting how his pupils were slightly less dilated. He already coming down and would probably need another injection soon.

His expression unreadable, Gallagher removed his hand from her neck and pulled the small metal box off the shelf, taking it with him into the cockpit. Madelyn fingered the knife in her pocket. She had to wait until he brought them of warp speed before she could attempt to take the ship from him, otherwise she'd be trapped at warp forever, since she knew next to nothing about flying a ship. But she was going to take the ship from him. After that, she'd send out a distress signal, and hope they were still in Federation space.