A/N: Sorry for the delay in this chapter's arrival. I had a little bit of an issue writing this chapter for whatever reason. As a writer, sometimes you get to a point in the story where you need to tread carefully, otherwise you risk screwing things up big time and letting the reader down because the plot just decided to screw with your head, if that makes any sense.
Thanks for all of your feedback and reviews, and don't be afraid to continue to provide that wonderful constructive criticism I value so much as a writer. Enjoy!
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Khan powered down the shuttle after landing in a small, unused hangar on Starbase One. After he sealed the hangar's door by quickly hacking into the station's systems, the hangar almost immediately went dark. Faint emergency lights in red and blue tints flickered on, barely lighting up the immediate area. Khan did another quick check through the shuttle's computer, discovering that the entirety of Starbase One's power had been shut off, leaving only life support and artificial gravity to hold the place together. The entire station had also gone into lock down. If Khan needed to leave at a moment's notice, it would be harder than he'd planned. A piece of him warned him someone knew he'd arrived, and he briefly cursed himself for not being more cautious when he hacked into the starbase's systems in the first place.
Suspicious of the timing of the outage, Khan readied his handcrafted phaser and headed for the shuttle's hatch. He paused briefly to consider Spock, who watched him silently through a bruised and battered face, dotted in dried green blood. Leaving Spock there alone would only give the Vulcan an opportunity to escape, potentially putting Khan back in square one, and tackling the entire Starbase alone as someone's potential target was too great a risk. Without a word, Khan broke the ties around Spock's wrists, then held out his phaser. He'd designed it so the kill setting only responded to his own biometrics. He wouldn't have to worry about Spock backstabbing him.
The Vulcan raised an eyebrow and took the offered weapon gingerly, his free hand kneading the raw skin on his wrist.
"Cross me and I will not hesitate to kill you," Khan said as he retrieved another phaser he'd stowed away in the shuttle just in case.
"What do you intend to accomplish with this?" Spock asked. Khan noticed how the Vulcan kept a careful amount of space between the two of them as they climbed from the shuttle.
"I'm following a lead. Do you know anything about this facility other than its use as a transportation hub for Starfleet?"
"That is what it is," Spock replied. "Do you have a reason to believe otherwise?"
Khan considered telling him what Owen Gallagher had confessed before he left the man for dead at the Io Facility, but the thought of allowing Spock to acquire the same amount of information as Khan was currently clinging to didn't sit well with the Augment. He would do anything to get his crew back, and that included killing Spock if it came down to it, or anyone who crossed paths with him.
A collection of armed soldiers had entered the hangar as they spoke and were now firing on their position. Khan and Spock pulled back behind the shuttle, but when the Vulcan prepared to fire, Khan motioned for him to wait. They needed to draw them closer, for more accuracy, especially since Spock's phaser wouldn't actually kill. Khan reminded himself again that the only reason he had done this was to minimize any chance of the Vulcan successfully turning on him.
After a moment the firing ceased, and the shouting of the group's commander amplified as multiple bootsteps came closer. Khan waited until the soldiers were nearly on top of their position, then signaled Spock. They ran out into the open, firing blast after blast until the eight men had fallen in seconds. With their bodies momentarily stunned and helpless on the hangar floor, Spock and Khan relieved them of their weapons. Khan noted they were not wearing typical Starfleet uniforms or any sort of insignia that could give away their allegiance, but rather plain grey and black, noticeably similar in design to the uniforms worn by the private security forces who had patrolled the underground bunker in California.
Khan stood over the group's commander and held his phaser at point blank range to the man's face, prodding his chest with his boot to get his attention. The man groaned, blinking rapidly to bring himself back to his senses, tensing when he saw the phaser.
"Who ordered you to attack us?" Khan pressed.
The commander held up his hands in a defensive posture, eying Khan's phaser. "I get orders from my superior officer. I don't know who gives him orders."
Khan took the commander's shirt collar in his fist, pressing the phaser into his forehead. "Who runs this station?"
"How should I know? I'm just a contractor."
"Who hired you?" Khan's tone was threatening, and he was anxious to get moving.
"The station head has an office in the center of the station. But we're locked down. You won't be able to—"
Khan shot the man in the face and stepped over his body, motioning for Spock to follow him.
Lockdowns had never stopped him before.
With the station's power almost completely out, Madelyn easily made her way out of the brig, followed closely by McCoy and Janeway. They walked quickly down the main passageway that Madelyn had been previously escorted through by station security. She knew to some extent where she was going, and earlier she'd seen hints of her objective's location, only this time she wasn't restricted by handcuffs and a phaser in her back.
A few people rushed past them, giving them little attention, chattering nervously amongst themselves, some complaining they couldn't get back to their ships. Madelyn wondered if she should ask Janeway if they should return to the Entente, but getting to a room where she could scour the station's security footage was more important right now. She needed to find Khan, and if Janeway and Bones were sticking with her, she wasn't going to complain.
Feeling like she was in the right section of the station, Madelyn started glancing into every open door she passed, but so far she passed only rentable living quarters and the occasional lounge room or office. She paused to tell Bones and Janeway something, but as soon as she opened her mouth, phaser fire struck the wall next to her. She instinctively ducked, whirling around to see a group of eight or nine armed officers running towards them. Janeway gave a cry as more phaser blasts hissed around them, and McCoy pulled the captain back through the nearest open door, followed closely by Madelyn. She quickly hit the keypad inside to send the doors hissing shut to firmly lock in place. The door was beat on a few times from the other side, and when it was clear the doors weren't opening, Madelyn let out her breath.
She turned to see Janeway sitting on one of the numerous cushioned couches in the room and clutching her left arm. Bones knelt over her, grumbling about not having the proper equipment to deal with burns, his hands quickly forming a makeshift bandage from a piece of Janeway's shirt. Madelyn quickly went over to see how badly the captain had been injured, worrying on her lower lip when she caught sight of the blackened skin beaded with bright red blood, the captain's shirt partially seared into the wound.
Seeing the look on Madelyn's face, Janeway shrugged. "I'll be fine. I've had worse."
Madelyn could only imagine, but then, so had she.
Suddenly there was a loud, crackling boom that shook the floor. A fiery glow from outside drew their collective attention to the window. Madelyn found herself standing when she realized she was watching a massive explosion tear through one of Starbase One's docking hubs.
Even as McCoy and Janeway tried to verbally make sense of what was happening, Madelyn just knew. This wasn't right. Khan wouldn't set off a massive explosion like this, not if he knew she was onboard the same station. The doubt in her mind swelled as she wondered whether the power outage wasn't caused by someone else, someone who had something devious up their sleeve.
Bones came up to the window beside her. They watched as chunks of debris were flung kilometers into space, spinning into black oblivion. "What the hell, Madelyn? You sure you want to find Khan?"
She glanced at him, unsure if she was just trying to confirm her own doubts or trying to make sense of what was happening. "This isn't Khan," she said.
"Then who the hell is it? How do you even know?"
She returned her gaze to the window, pressing her lips together. "He wouldn't blow up half a space station for no reason, especially not if he knew I was onboard."
"He didn't have a problem crashing the Vengeance into San Francisco with you onboard," the doctor replied.
Madelyn wanted to give McCoy one of his own looks, but instead kept her eyes fixed on the destruction outside. The Vengeance had been different. That had been before things between the two of them had changed. And Khan had just been betrayed. He'd thought he'd lost everything. He'd wanted nothing more than to take revenge at the expense of everyone else. But even then, she reminded herself, he had saved her life during the aftermath. She had just refused to accept they still had a connection, after everything.
It had been so complicated. And now it was so simple.
"Bones, this isn't Khan."
"It could be Klingons," Janeway said from the couch behind them. "Admiral Marcus tried to start a war with them. We don't know how much his actions could have succeeded in provoking them."
She could be right, but for Madelyn, the timing of the power outage was too strange, considering everything had gone down before the explosion. It was almost as if someone was preparing the station for an attack they knew was coming.
But why?
McCoy's voice ripped through her thoughts as he spoke into his communicator.
"Dammit, Jim, where are you?! Half of Starbase One just went up in smoke!"
"Yeah, Bones, listen, I'm headed for the Enterprise. She's docked on the spoke across from the one that just blew up."
"Thank god. I was afraid she was gone."
"Nah, but the whole station is on lockdown and that's not the weird part."
"What do ya mean?"
"The lockdown was initiated before the explosion, but after the power was cut. Like someone knew what was about to happen."
The three of them exchanged glances. Madelyn was becoming more and more convinced that something suspicious was going on.
"Captain Kirk, this is Captain Janeway. Can you get to the Enterprise from where you are?"
"I can try, if I run fast enough. This place is crawling with private security. I've never seen so many on this station; usually it's just Starfleet people. There's one problem though."
"What's that?" Madelyn asked.
"Madelyn, is that you?"
"Yeah, Jim, she's with us. Now what's the problem?"
"Well there's no way to get the Enterprise undocked with so many systems shut off like this. We'd risk tearing her hull apart."
"But if you get onboard, you could at least beam us out of here," said Madelyn.
"Wait, where are you—woah, gotta run! Security's on my ass. Kirk out!"
The communication link was cut and McCoy lowered the device without a word.
"We should head back to the Entente," said Janeway suddenly, standing from the couch, still cradling her burned arm. "The couplings holding her in place were an older design. We might be able to retract them manually."
"You wanna go out there with security runnin' around shooting everything that moves?" McCoy retorted.
"Captain, I can't do that either," Madelyn said. "If Khan is on this station, I need to find him before more people die."
"Madelyn, if he's here, every security officer on this damn station is gonna be looking for him," said McCoy.
She clenched her jaw. "I know. Which is why I need to find him. Something weird is going on."
Janeway was shaking her head. "How do you even know he's here?"
"I don't. But if we can find a security station, I can find out."
McCoy was about to respond when there was another loud boom that shook the lounge violently. Madelyn caught herself from falling over on the nearest piece of furniture, glancing out the window as another fireball vaporized into the vacuum of space. This one had severed the already damaged spoke from the station's hub, sending it floating into the void in a mist of debris.
"Either way, we can't stay here," said Janeway. "Eventually they'll override the lock sequence and get in here, or this part of the station is being blown up next. I don't want to take any chances."
McCoy frowned hard, glancing between the two of them. Madelyn was determined to make him understand.
"Just help me find a way to view security camera footage," she said. "If he's here…"
She didn't want to say out loud what she was feeling, that something was very wrong with this situation, that the fact she'd been let out of her cell on purpose made a lot more sense if Khan was here and someone wanted them both. And that if that someone really wanted them, they were going to violent lengths to obtain their prize.
McCoy finally conceded, and Janeway gave a firm nod.
"We'll have to be fast," she said.
Madelyn couldn't help but smile. "No problem."
A quick glance out the window of one of Starbase One's corridors told Khan everything he needed to know when the explosions occurred. They were under attack from someone who had rigged the station to explode from the inside, and coupled with the convenient power outage, it was very suspicious timing. There was no sign of an exterior threat and no signals being sent through the emergency lighting that could indicate anything else was going on, and though Khan was having trouble making sense of how, he knew he had just walked into a trap.
The sudden weight of his mistake, his desperation to find his crew, weighed on him with each passing step. Whoever Owen Gallagher had been working for, they were on this station and thought they could corner him by leading him on with the promise of finding his crew. He should have paid a decent amount of respect to Spock when the Vulcan had said he didn't understand why his crew would be onboard this station. And much to Khan's hidden displeasure, he and Spock worked well together, taking out every single security officer that happened to find themselves in their path.
They made their way quickly and easily into the station's central corridor system, which on a normal day would have allowed massive amounts of cargo and crewmembers to traverse its gargantuan size with ease. Due to the lockdown, the corridors were empty, save for the occasional unlucky security officer.
Khan's attention was momentarily drawn to a slightly familiar male voice in the distance. He saw that Spock had heard it too and was prepared to defend it when it came charging around the corner. Khan felt his brow tighten as Captain James Kirk came running towards them, holding a communicator in one, being chased by several private security. Khan and Spock easily dispatched his pursuers as Kirk skidded to a halt in front of them.
Spock shared Khan's confused expression as he stared down at the captain of the Enterprise, who was leaning on his knees to catch his breath. "Captain? I do not understand—"
"Spock. Khan." Kirk acknowledged them both between breaths, his expression growing increasingly confused. "What the hell?"
"It's an unfortunate story you wouldn't want to hear, Kirk," Khan replied neutrally. "But I would ask you the same thing."
Still breathing hard, Kirk waved a hand through the air as if to brush off the implied question. "Do you know what's happening?"
"It appears that someone within this starbase is doing a poor job of trying to destroy it," said Khan, unwilling to point out the inconsistencies that had led him to the conclusion it was all for him.
"That was my conclusion also," said Spock.
"Are the others here with you?" Khan asked, anxious to confirm his suspicions that were growing by the second.
"Yeah, the Entente was docked a few hours ago. Orders."
"Where is Madelyn?"
Eyeing Khan suddenly, Kirk seemed to hesitate. "She was arrested when we arrived. Seemed totally cool with it, like she knew."
Khan felt his jaw stiffen, his fist tightening around his phaser until the handle bent in his palm. It seemed everything he'd tried to avoid for so long had been inevitable.
"But she's with Bones and Janeway now. I just talked to them."
A pulse of hope shot through him, but he contained his expression, glaring hard at Kirk.
"Where are they?"
"How should I know? This station is huge."
"Captain, perhaps we should return to the Enterprise. We would be able to use the life signs detector to find Dr. McCoy's signature, which would lead us to all three of them."
"Thank you, Spock. As always your input is much appreciated," Kirk said, half smirking at Khan.
"Mr. Spock is not going anywhere, Kirk," Khan said, raising his phaser to meet Kirk's eyes as a friendly reminder. He wasn't about to lose his last asset to finding his crew, though his priorities had once again been turned on their head now that he knew Madelyn was somewhere nearby.
Kirk immediately tensed, catching Spock's gaze. Khan saw the Vulcan raise his phaser out of the corner of his eye and braced himself for the stun blast. Instead, he was thrown to the floor as the station shuddered with another blast. The ceiling shuddered above them, and screams were heard in the distance. Khan pulled himself up just as Spock and Kirk leaped to their feet and ran off down the corridor. Khan's upper lip curled. The Vulcan had gotten away again. He considered going after them and sending a phaser blast set to kill, but he knew he needed to focus. The station hub was in the other direction, and Madelyn was still somewhere onboard.
Madelyn, McCoy, and Janeway had no problem finding a usable security console. Located at the intersection of three major corridors, it offered them a wide view of the surrounding area with enough space to hide should more private security make an appearance. They felt the floor shudder as another explosion ripped through another spoke, upping the damaged spoke count to two.
"It's like someone deliberately built this place to explode," McCoy exclaimed as Madelyn and Janeway knelt over the various monitors and consoles that would allow them into the security feed. Much to both Madelyn's frustration and hopefulness, it gave them access to the entire station, and because it was running on emergency power, required no identification to use.
"Have you tried contacting Kirk again?" Madelyn said, glancing up at the doctor who was wearing a perpetual frown.
"Yeah, but something's jamming the connection. I can't get a lock on anyone's communicators."
"Well, let's hope he makes it to the Enterprise before these blasts do," said Janeway. She used one hand to scroll through the list of open feeds, while Madelyn scanned each one, looking for any sign of Khan.
"What are you gonna do if you find him?"
Madelyn glanced up at McCoy again, noticing the slight smirk on his face, even as the walls shuddered to another distant boom.
She honestly didn't know. She just needed to know where he was, know that he was safe, that he wasn't about to walk right into a deathtrap. She knew Khan could take care of himself, but she still felt a need to make sure. It may have seemed irrational, but the look on McCoy's face told her he knew exactly why she was doing this.
"Wait, stop." She put a hand on Janeway's, scrolling back up to one feed in particular. She pulled it up again, just catching sight of Khan's black head disappearing out of the frame. She quickly scrolled to the next feed and watched as Khan jogged down the corridor, phaser in hand, alone.
"Dammit, where's Spock?"
Madelyn swallowed, not willing to consider the idea that crossed her mind. She pulled up the information pane about that camera, glancing at the location. Her heart sank into her gut.
Khan was headed for the heart of the station, and if Madelyn's suspicions were right, he was running right into a trap.