Chapter 29
Ventilation vents were such…flimsy things. Khan smirked to himself as he carefully lifted the grate off of the wall. Scotty had yet to fix the problem of the lack of gravity, much to Kirk's chagrin.
Meira's pup, Amichai, floated above his head. It whined in frustration when it realized its legs were essentially useless to help it propel itself from one location to another. Slowly, it began to flip out of control, head over heels. Khan watched as it bounced lightly from one wall to the next. It was irritated but appeared unharmed.
Quickly, Khan pulled the object out of his pocket and chucked it—hard—into the shoot. His powerful feet pushed off of the wall and he propelled away from the vent and caught Amichai easily. A quiet explosion sounded followed instantly by a surprised shriek and uncontrollable bouts of coughing.
"KHAN—!" Meira managed to scream before pepper raced down her throat and up into her nose. She gagged and fell into another coughing fit. Frantic for air, she kicked off of the ceiling and rushed towards the door. Only, there was a problem.
The door wasn't opening.
…
"I will accept your surrender at any time," Khan taunted from the other side of the door.
The corners of his lips curled upwards cruelly as he imagined the woman inside, fighting for air. Oh, how he had missed ruining people's lives—and what was even better: she had asked him for this. She had challenged him for ownership of their shared quarters; clearly a mission that had been lost before it had even been conceived. Well, he wouldn't dare think of…denying her of her just desserts. After all, he wasn't a monster.
"Not—" uncontrollable coughing, "going—" more coughing. Perhaps he had added too much pepper to his contraption. "To happen!" She managed to spit out the words before she fell into another fit.
"It's a pity, you know," Khan said coyly and he yawned loudly to feign boredom. Within him, his blood turned to fire and his adrenaline kicked into overtime.
He continued to speak: "You see, you have something I want, and I, in turn, have something you need. The room is already mine—that was a predetermined truth you had, unfortunately, seemed to miss. What I want, is your unconditional surrender. Once I have that, the door will be opened and you can have fresh air—and no more coughing. So, I believe a deal is in order?"
"Never!"
He smiled triumphantly and looked down at the pup in his hands. It licked his nose and he scowled.
"Also," his fingers threaded through its fingers, "I have a hostage," he said offhandedly. Of course, he'd never hurt the animal. Despite his reputation, he really didn't approve of casualties especially in a nonviolent conflict.
"Hurt the dog," coughing, "And you're bedding burns!"
"You're bluffing," Khan growled.
"Am I?" She gasped and the burning in her throat intensified. Her nose ached and a bout of sneezing ensued, quickly followed by gasping coughs. Her eyes turned red and puffy, tears running down her face as she fought for air. "Try me," she wheezed.
Silently, she floated over towards the replicator and got to work. Within minutes, she finished. Carefully, she pulled the air mask over her face and fitted the goggles over her eyes. Air, sweet, sweet fresh air! It soothed her burning lungs and caressed her aching throat.
"Go ahead," she heard Khan purr from the other side of the door. "You'll only be shooting yourself in the foot. It would be so…tragic" his voice dropped dramatically in pitch, "if the room were to fill with smoke as well as pepper. Give in now, and perhaps I'll consider giving you privileges to use the replicator."
Meira thought for a minute. Yes, that would be a problem, that much was true…but even smoke could serve a purpose: it could blind one's adversary. Oh, Khan, your arrogance will be your downfall.
Now, it was her turn to smile.
…
It was surprisingly easy to set things on fire inside a Star Fleet vessel. In the pamplets, they always stressed that everything was flammable and perfectly safe. Turns out, they had lied: his bedding caught like dry kindling soaked in gasoline. The fire quickly roared to life while she moved her belongings carefully to the bathroom.
"Meira?" She heard Khan call out. "Meira?"
She said nothing. The smoke was not thick enough yet to be billowing out into the hallway. She grabbed her pillow, yanked the air ventilation grate off of the wall, and shoved her pillow into the space. There, all sealed up.
"Meira?" He called again and a touch of worry tinged his voice. She smacked—hard—on the wall where she thought head was.
"Do you accept my terms?" He growled and she smiled at the wall.
Nope, soon you'll be accepting mine, she thought. He continued to speak, pausing every now and again to wait for her response. She held her tongue. The worry in his voice came back, but still she stayed silent. The burning mattress began to wane; she tossed his pillow onto the flames. When that began to smolder, she added his blanket.
The room was black with smoke and ash.
"Are you listening to me? Meira?"
She allowed the worry to gnaw at him as she moved to the back of the room and hid in the shadows. It didn't take long for him to react the way she wanted to. He abandoned the pup in the hallway, allowing it to drift towards the bridge as he rushed into the room to make sure she was safe. His eyes had gone wide with shock when he was attacked by the smoke. A sudden projectile, slammed into him, throwing him to Meira's bed. Waves of pepper, soot, and smoke rushed into his opened mouth and he coughed violently as his spine hit the mattress of Meira's bed. Small hands blenched at the sheets on either side of his head and Khan squinted his eyes to see Meira floating above him, a triumphant smile on her face.
"I accept your unconditional surrender, Mr. Singh, and I do believe that the 'replicator privileges' are mine to grant or deny as I see fit."
Khan scowled. Scotty chose that moment to flip the gravity back on and Meira fell on top of Khan. Her body forced the air out of his lungs and he gasped in air only to sputter like an idiot as the fruits of his device turned on him.
A sign was posted in the hallway the very next morning: "It is not advisable to create fires, pepper grenades, or mock war games resulting in decontamination of the ship. Please refrain from such activities in the future. Any infraction of these rules shall be dealt with severely. Also, the use of animals as hostages is also morally frowned upon."
