CHAPTER 36:

It was the best dinner that Marla had had in years, even if it was replicator-made. The machines were able to create the most savory and rich flavors, particularly meat, without any animal having to be hurt in the process. When living on Ceti Alpha V, that was one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome. But she surprised herself at how quickly survival can turn one into a killer, even if it was animals and not humans on her part.

More than the food, it was having the company. After dinner was eaten and a majority of the dishes cleaned up, Carol sat with her at the table to share coffee. David was in the other room, just within sight of them, playing with baby Nanette who sat on the floor and laughed at whatever antics the boy discovered she liked.

Marla was smiling to herself, the warmth of the coffee and the company seeping into her and comforting her. It made her recent near-panic attack seem silly and unfounded. Their conversation had covered varying topics, from motherhood things, to reminiscing about the brief time they spent together so long ago on Starbase 12, before everything fell apart.

"So much has happened since then…" Carol mused quietly. "It was only 8 years ago, and here we are as if it's been twenty."

"Feels more like a hundred," Marla chuckled lightly. Her hand, as it was in the habit of doing now, rested atop the swell of her belly. "Who could have imagined you'd still end up being my only friend…" It wasn't until she said it that she realized just how self-pitying that sounded, but she meant to be grateful.

"Surely you've made some friends with Khan's people…" Carol's tone was a little tight, seeming skeptical of the very notion.

"In a way," said Marla. "There are a few people I trust and who… well, seem to tolerate me. But there hasn't been anyone I could really sit with and laugh with. Like this. It's hard to find things in common with people who have such a different history from your own. I should say, people who are history."

"They hardly seem copacetic amongst themselves," Carol commented. "It's no secret that half of them aren't exactly thrilled with Khan."

Marla only nodded, lowering her eyes as she sipped her coffee in hopes that Carol wouldn't see the shame in her eye.

"There's always been tension," she admitted quietly. "Would be impossible to have that many superior beings together without egos and opinions clashing…Everything has just escalated so much further than it should have…"

She looked through the doorway to Kati's orphaned daughter, laughing and playing with David Marcus without a clue about her parents and the politics that killed them or the ability to even begin understanding it.

"What happened to her parents?" Carol asked, her blue eyes also looking into the other room at baby Nanette.

"Mindless violence…" Marla said quietly, feeling surprisingly numb to the question. "Kati wanted to kill me with poison and accidentally used it on herself. In order to save Nanette… she cut her out with a knife."

"Oh my God…"

It felt like it happened to someone else the way that Marla was talking about it. "I can't hate her for it, though… She was angry and desperate."

Carol carefully set her coffee down, her full attention on Marla with a look of horror. "What happened to the father?"

"Khan killed him."

There was no surprise on Carol's part, but she said nothing, only intently waiting for elaboration.

"It was terrible, Carol…" Marla's voice finally weakened as she thought on it. "Do you remember when we said goodbye on Ceti Alpha V? Captain Kirk was kind enough to leave us with all kinds of supplies, to help us begin a new life there, including a single phaser."

"I remember…"

"That phaser…" Marla shook her head slowly. "A stupid, standard hand phaser which saved our lives more often than not in the beginning when we were struggling just to survive. And that same stupid phaser is the reason why everything had fallen apart so horribly…" She tried to sound bitter, but the bitterness was choked in her throat. "There was only one between the 73 of us, so it only made sense that Khan would carry it, to ensure that it was used conservatively, to last us as long as possible until we could manage well enough without the convenience of that kind of technology. There were always arguments and disagreements on how the colony should be managed, that's human nature.

"The most vocal person against Khan was Kati's husband, Hans. He was a good man, for as well as I knew him. But his opinions were often the complete opposite of Khan's and people began to take sides. It wasn't long before those sides began to form their own opinions of who had the right to carry the most powerful weapon on the planet. At first, Hans tried to convince Khan to simply share it, but Khan wasn't about to hand it to a man who was making him his enemy. Honestly, I was afraid of who would use it on Khan… or me… I was always the strongest evidence against Khan's suitability as the leader of a superior race…

"This went on for years. Disputes, arguments, a rare punch being thrown. Hans told us both that this was never going to go away and he asked Khan's permission to take his followers and form a colony of his own elsewhere. We had a whole planet to ourselves, after all. There was plenty of room. At least, I thought so… Khan refused to agree to a separation. Any divide now, even under peaceful conditions, would turn them into rival colonies. A hundred years later it could mean war between two groups that had forgotten their common ancestry. That wasn't the world that Khan wanted to create. When he'd tell me about the days of the Eugenics Wars, it was always about unity. Purifying and bringing everyone together. That's the only way to have peace. He wouldn't let Hans take his people away from him, to turn them against us, even if that wasn't his intention at that moment in time. There should be no 'us versus them' in our colony, he would say. You can imagine that Hans wasn't going to agree so easily…

"His own followers encouraged him—I always heard them. They wanted him to replace Khan, to take control for himself. All else failed and Hans finally agreed. One night, he led a coup in the colony to arrest Khan and take control for himself. But we knew it was coming. One of Hans' own told us what he had planned, so we were ready. When it comes to strategy, Khan is efficient. He subdued them within moments and before I knew it he had Hans restrained and on his knees with his followers. I was so scared. I knew this was going to end bloody. Khan was furious, there was no telling what he was going to do.

"He took out the phaser and showed it to everyone. It was what everyone had come to see as the symbol of power on Ceti Alpha V, and he said he was going to ensure that it wouldn't be an issue anymore, that he was going to destroy it. I was relieved. Until he took rope and began to bind it around Hans, with the phaser tied to him…"

Her heart was pounding at the memory's vivid return.

"Besides Khan, I was the only one who knew what the sudden ear-piercing ringing sound was…."

"Oh God…" Carol breathed, but put a hand over her mouth as if to keep herself from interrupting.

"Then he told Hans to run. Run as fast as he could or he'll blow them all to hell." Her voice shook. "The phaser was set to overload and there was nothing that could stop it. The moment Hans understood that, he… he ran. He ran away from the colony, away from the people, and away from his wife who was being held by his enemies. He barely reached a safe enough distance before it finally went off… Everything shook, a couple of houses were damaged, but didn't fall. No one was hurt though, aside from a few headaches and ringing ears… But Hans… There was nothing left of him. No trace that there had even been a human. Only a crater. A crater that Khan had filled and erased the very next day. He didn't want to give them a landmark for their martyr..."

She didn't have to look directly at Carol to know that the woman was looking at her with horror. Marla felt it too, to this day.

"Khan had every intention of killing Kati along with her husband, since she had been his right hand during all of this. The only thing that saved her from his wrath was that she was pregnant. I wish I could say it was mercy on Khan's part… But it was calculation and I knew it. I still know it. But Carol, these cruel things that he does aren't for their own sake. I could see past his rage that it was breaking his heart to have to fight his own family like this. That they would betray him and force his hand. He's so disconnected from everyone because he's looking ahead at the bigger picture. I can't see that far. I can't see past the present pain and anger. So for a while I stayed away from him. The more time that passed, the more Khan seemed to…"

"Seemed to what?"

"I hate the word, but… grovel. He was begging me to come back to him, to understand that he did what he had to do. For as much as I could understand it, it scared me too much to accept. It still does. That's why I'm terrified of him being out there right now with Captain Kirk, the rest of our fates hanging in the balance for what he does or doesn't do."

"And you have no idea what he's going to do?"

Marla shrugged. "I'm afraid he'll do something, but in all honesty I'm not certain that he will. After what he did to Hans, he changed. We all did, I think. It affected the colony and how it behaved as a whole. There were some who thought Khan did the right thing, the thing that any fearsome leader should be willing to do. There were others who just thought it was pure cruelty. They were afraid of him, either way. Even more than they already were. And I had him eating out of my hand."

A silence fell as the weight of her story lingered. Finally, Marla looked to the blonde intently. "Carol, I tried to talk to Otto. He and Rodriguez have taken over Kati's position as the leaders of Khan's opposition. I told him that I wanted to help them get away without anyone getting hurt."

Carol went a little white. "Marla, that's dangerous…"

"Not for me," she answered without a beat. "I hate lying to Khan, I do. But I can't let him do to them what he did to Hans and would have done to Kati. Khan thinks unity is best, but if he's forcing everyone to stay together through terror, it'll blow up under him. I'm afraid of what they could do to him when they've had enough."

"Maybe you shouldn't get involved."

"I am involved!" She caught herself from raising her voice, a deep breath taken in as she contained the need to scream or cry. "Whether or not they ever accept me, they are my family now. I won't be passive here, Carol. All they see me as is some inferior dead weight, a weak link in their chain. Maybe genetically, yeah I am. But I'm not useless. If there's one thing I've never lost from my learning at the Academy it's that you try to save lives where you can. When you see the right thing to do, you don't turn your back. Even if Khan ends up hating me, finally writing me off for good, at least I'll know that I didn't stand by and let his anger get the better of him and do something he might regret."

Carol's face was hard set as she looked from Marla to the children, who continued to giggle and play in the other room. She couldn't tell what the blonde was thinking, if she was just utterly disgusted with Marla.

After a long silence, Carol finally sighed and looked to her. "How can I help?"

Marla stared. "What?"

"I want to help," Carol said with more confidence. "I'll be honest… I would feel safer if these people were as far away from here as possible, and if helping them escape Khan's wrath is the way to do it then I want to help."

Marla was shaking her head. "No… No, Carol, I couldn't ask you to get involved. You have a career and a son to worry about!"

"That's exactly my reason for wanting to help," Carol was leaning forward now. "What can I do?"

Five hours and thirteen minutes ago they received their orders from Rear-Admiral Cartwright and now the away team was latched onto the side of a Klingon outpost, magnetic grips fastening them to the structure and preventing them from floating into nothing. They had taken the shuttlecraft from the Enterprise as far as it could safely take them, then launched themselves in environmental suits via thrusters. Flying the shuttlecraft was Sulu, because Jim trusted his piloting skills more than anyone else's in this delicate mission, and he waited patiently for them at the rendezvous point.

The away team of four was color coded by the different operations. Spock's environmental suit was lined with the science blue—Khan, Rodriguez, and Gelya in red. Rodriguez had proven himself the most savvy when it came to 23rd century technology and Gelya was the most physically capable with her apparent background of fighting (at least these were the explanations that Khan provided for his choice in away team members).

The transmitter itself was much smaller than Spock had anticipated. It was no larger than one of their helmets and easily carried along in the space jump from the shuttlecraft to the outpost. Rodriguez held onto the transmitter while Spock and Khan crawled along the outer hull of the outpost, tricorders whirring as they tried to detect the best access point for the incoming and outgoing Klingon frequencies.

"There," Khan's voice filtered through the communicator in his helmet. He turned off his tricorder and left it at his side where it was strapped close to his suit. "There is a panel here as well that will conceal the transmitter should they do a visual inspection. I will install it. You, Mr. Spock, will calibrate it."

The Vulcan's pride bristled at being ordered by the augment. But they were a team now, and to argue would have been for argument's sake and interfered with their efficiency. Also, Spock knew with some modesty that he was the best fit for the job being done right.

He hovered close, looking from where Khan worked, to Gelya, whose eyes were looking away from the outpost, no doubt focused on her display's sensor readings to keep an eye out for patrol ships that might come their way. Rodriguez, meanwhile, carried the transmitter while the others worked. He was paying attention, keeping as close as was required.

But Spock noticed something odd.

With the lights in their helmets, it was easy to see Rodriguez's face. He wasn't looking at Spock, the outpost, or even Khan's hands where he was working. His eyes were fixed on Khan himself. He was sweating in a suit that maintained a comfortable body temperature, his nostrils flaring and his eyes unblinking.

Just as Spock thought he detected something was amiss, Rodriguez's hand moved and something flashed on Khan's back where his oxygen unit was placed. The impact thrust Khan forward, smashing him into the outer hull of the outpost. Rodriguez held tight onto the structure, his leg kicking Khan hard towards the openness of space, the escaping oxygen a powerful thruster to launch him outward.

It all happened so quickly, it was pure reflex that had Spock reach out and catch Khan by the wrist before he drifted too far to be easily recovered. Khan knew as quickly as Spock did what was happening, and though he was losing oxygen quickly, he took advantage of the escaping air. Pulling on Spock's arm that held him, Khan used the thrust of his damaged pack the propel himself at Rodriguez.

They collided together and against the outpost. In the process, Rodriguez had let go of the transmitter—which would end their entire mission if the Klingons found it adrift in the Neutral Zone. The weightlessness of space did little to slow their deadly movements, each man groping and tearing and pounding at the other in a savage attempt at overpowering the other, their growls and gasps cacophonous in the communicator.

"Excellency!" Gelya called to her leader and fired her thrusters to charge herself into the brawl that occurred between Khan and Rodriguez.

If they kept fighting, there was a risk of the Klingons being alerted, and Khan's pack was continuing to lose air. In the chaos of the fight, the Vulcan clung to his logic. They had priorities.

Kicking off the outpost, he made a straight line for the transmitter that spun away from them. Grabbing a firm hold of its metal casing, he spun, firing multiple thrusters around his suit in order to redirect himself. From the distance, he saw a flash of a phaser—someone had come armed against all orders. The weapon fired twice, once into space, the other directly at Spock. A blue light burned his retina—then nothing.

Kirk fidgeted in the captain's chair as they watched the progress of the away team on the viewscreen. He made sure to put Sulu in the pilot's seat of the shuttle, since he knew no better helmsman, but Kirk himself resigned to stay where he was supposed to on the ship. God, he hated it.

They deployed without trouble and managed to reach the outpost undetected. Khan and Spock were working together smoothly, much to Jim's relief, and they had begun to install the transmitter.

Suddenly it all went wrong.

They couldn't actually see what what happening at this distance, all they could follow were the blips on the viewscreen and listen to the shared transmissions of the away team. It sounded like a struggle. On Khan's stats, his environmental suit was damaged and losing air fast. Then Spock's vitals were shocked and he was unconscious. Someone stunned him with a phaser when there should not have been phasers to begin with.

"Spock! Khan!" Jim was shouting through the communicator. "What the hell is happening?"

Suddenly, Rodriguez's vitals flat-lined. Khan's voice came hoarsely through.

"Rodriguez attempted to kill me!" He spat viciously, though breathlessly. "Mr. Spock is alive but drifting…I can catch him…"

"Khan, you're running out of air," Jim warned, but his eyes were glued on Spock's stats.

"Sir, wait, I can't carry you both back if you pass out!" Gelya sounded alarmed but remarkably in control.

"I've got him. Take him, Gelya… The Transmitter must be calibrated and activated…"

"Sir," Lieutenant 0718 worked at his station. "The Klingons will have detected the energy from the phaser fire."

"Khan, get back to the shuttle, never mind the transmitter, we have more." Jim gave the order firmly, ignoring the panicked palpitation of his heart as he stared at Spock's stats.

"Nearly finished…" Khan grunted heavily.

"Khan!"

"Transmitter activated! Gelya… take Rodriguez. I will take Mr. Spock…"

The blips began to move to rendezvous back with the shuttle. Spock's vitals were steady, since he was merely stunned, but Khan's were dropping fast. Any normal person would have passed out or stopped breathing at this point, but his superior physiology kept him moving without sufficient oxygen.

They reached the shuttle.

"Away team back on the shuttle!" Sulu announced rapidly. "Returning to the Enterprise!"

Jim hit the intercom for a ship-wide announcement. "Hangar deck, stand by for returning shuttle. Medical personnel report to the hangar and be prepared to receive three casualties!"

Three out of four. That was not a wholly successful mission.

"Sulu, how's Spock?"

"He's alive, sir. Just stunned."

"What about Rodriguez?"

"Dead," Gelya was speaking this time. "Khan switched the phaser to kill and fired on him point blank. He had no other choice, Captain…"

"That will be decided later in the inquiry," Jim snapped. "And Khan?"

"Unconscious," Gelya's normally strong voice was drenched with concern. "He collapsed as soon as we got on the shuttle…"

"Helm, get ready to warp at our last heading. As soon as the shuttle is cleared get us out of here."

"Yes, sir," Mr. Leslie began to punch in the commands.

Their first covert away mission and everything went wrong. But Spock, thank god, was still alive and coming home.