Chapter 34: The Belly of the Beast
The man in the cell looked up from his hard cot on which he was reclining languidly as loud thuds and cries of pain reached his ears
He frowned adjusting his glasses as he caught sight of the shadow beyond the glass surface of the front of his cell.
They were garbed in a strange suit of dark grey material with a black full face mask over their face though it didn't completely mask the shaven dark bald head on which a strange animal was tattooed, seeming to claw its way over the skin. It looked to be a lion at first with its large mane and powerful body, only it couldn't have been for it had long curved goats horns rising from behind its ears and hooves on its back legs. It's tail too was long and whip like and scaled an had the hissing spitting head of a serpent attached to its end, its long fangs extended as if to strike along with the snarling front feline's face.
The man in the cell's eyes widened as he caught sight of the security guards that were supposed to be guarding his isolated cell. All of them were lying on the ground bleeding from various large slashes across their bodies.
"Keith Magnus Lance" the masked figure spoke, his voice metallic and harsh as the mask over his mouth scrambled any semblance of their true nature. "Why am I not surprised to see you end up in here?"
"C-Captain" Lance stuttered stood up quickly from his bed to stand before the glass. "What are you doing here?"
"Just picking up an old friend"
The masked figure chuckled, the mask making the deep tones echo eerily about the room as he brought his hand to the small hand held voider that sat on the edge of the transparency and held it out in front of himself.
"Oh great" Lance, sighed with relief smiling wide as the circular window expanded wide…but the hole that was opened in the glass…was only thirty centimetres wide in diameter.
The prisoner's Adams apple bobbed like a buoy in the waters of San Francisco Bay as he gulped nervously as the masked man put both his arms through the hole and grabbed the scruff of his neck.
"Captain?" Lance's brow was now wet with sweat as his nose came level with the black mask, so close that he could see the pair of strangely luminous crystal blue eyes, crinkled and glinting with cold malicious pleasure.
"Sorry old boy…it's just business"
And with that a hand, swift as lightning crashed down upon Lance's skull.
He barely had time to gasp…didn't even have time to register what had happened.
He only fell forwards his face planting painfully on the glass which his suddenly immobile body dragged down slowly, squeaking against the transparency.
The stranger now turned cold blooded murderer barely had pulled out the long thin almost needle like blade out of the crown of the dead man's head before the man was already laying on the floor.
"Pathetic" he muttered as he shut the voider hole in the glass.
"Captain!" a voice called from across the room and the masked captain turned to see another man running towards him, dressed in dark clothing but with a dark blood red cloth mask over his mouth and nose so that only his dark eyes and eyebrows could be seen. Whatever skin could be seen from amongst his cover was tinged slightly green, like the small spot of blood from the tip of one of the subtle double v shaped ridges that sat just on the bridge of his nose.
The Romulan panted as soon as he came to a stop before his leader who straightened up to his full and remarkably threatening height as he rumbled.
"What is it Khaiel?"
"Sir everyone is in position, T'Lona is waiting your command by the control room"
"Was there trouble taking it?"
"No sir, easy as cake" Khaiel snorted smugly.
His captain smirked beneath his mask.
"Good…now it's time we arranged a little meeting with an old friend of ours"
Khan sighed as he turned another corner only to find someone else already walking down the corridor. He had just left Admiral Josephine Sterling to mull over her proposition.
He had to admit it was a very tempting offer, almost too good to be true. Sterling was no doubt a good woman, very set in her old fashioned views on fairness and justice, not to mention being understanding of the love and the pain that came with raising children. But Khan still did not feel so sure about letting Starfleet hold onto the one small piece of his heart he had left to him.
Look at me…all soft and sentimental. How on Earth could this have happened?
Khan snorted to himself but then, as if berating him, his own mind conjured up an image of a dark haired girl laying comatose in a bed on her own.
He shuddered, a chill of horror slipping through his entire body as he remembered her pale pallor…pale as death…
He shut his eyes and sighed heavily.
No…Layla was safe and she was fine…at least he hoped she was.
"Khan Noonien Singh"
Khan quickly looked up. That had spoken was old, filled with much wisdom of years gone by and had spoken to him with clear recognition and yet the Augment knew that he didn't know any elderly being from this timeline at all.
Eventually his gaze fell upon an old Vulcan male who was slowly and cautiously walking towards him, his dark reddish brown robe like clothing as stiff as his emotionless face.
Khan's eyes darted over the wrinkled lines, taking in the swept up eyebrows and the dark brown eyes that seemed very familiar though he could not pinpoint why.
But then he remembered. He was the old Vulcan that had helped Spock and himself venture into Layla's mind when she was in the coma. He never got his name though. The elder Vulcan had been adamant about not revealing any personal information about himself, despite the fact he seemed to be very amicable with Kirk and the Enterprise's crew.
"Who are you and what do you want with me?" he asked, not caring if he sounded rude but the Vulcan did not seem to respond at all indeed he kept walking till he was within arms distance. When he spoke it was in that same composed emotionless tone that so many Vulcan's were accustomed to use throughout their lives.
"I hope you don't mind if I answer your second question first Mr Singh. I have come to inform you of your daughter's current whereabouts and hopefully if you acquiesce to conversing with me I shall tell you of certain events that I believe you should know o-"
"Who are you?" Khan repeated coldly and the Vulcan muttered softly to himself
"Still as cautious as ever"
It could have been exasperation, it could have been amusement. But like all Vulcan's the Augment had encountered there was no emotions attached whatsoever to the sentence. Not that it improved his mood.
He narrowed his eyes upon the old Vulcan who slowly straightened up to look him dead in the eye.
"my name is Spock and I am-"
Bang!
The whole ground shook beneath both their feet like an Earthquake and the red alert sirens began to go off all around them.
"You ok to go?" Hawke looked down on Layla as he stood to his feet.
"Yeah…let's get out of here" She nodded scrubbing at her eyes before rubbing down her thighs. Both she and him had been sitting side by side in the closet for over an hour, either in silence or in sporadic bursts of benign small talk.
He held out his hand for her and she took it gingerly.
But before she could get a proper grip on the limb the entire room seemed to shake.
"Oh!" she squeaked as she crashed into him sending him ramming into the wall with her body plastered against his painfully.
"ow" Hawke hissed as he felt the back of his head bump painfully against a shelf as the entire room shook once more as something deep and guttural rumbled eerily close.
"What was that?" Layla gulped as she pried herself off Hawke's chest rubbing her forehead. It had banged hard into his ribcage and there was a tiny red mark already on her crown.
"No clue" Hawke winced as he straightened up and rubbed the back of his head just as the white sterile lights above turned a vermillion red. "But it can't be good"
It wasn't.
No sooner had the words left the young augment's mouth there was the familiar tiny beeping sound as a communications link opened up.
Layla quickly looked in the left hand corner of the small space where she knew the computer station was positioned behind the metal sheeting on the walls.
"Warning. Code Red emergency. There has been a station breech in decks Fifty D, Sixty E and Seventy C. All personnel make your way calmly to the evacuation shuttles in section"
But the communications officer in charge of the emergency message didn't get to tell them where the shuttle bay was…nor did he get to live to breath his next breath.
Layla gulped she heard the strangled last rasp and spluttering before someone chuckled. Their voice was metallic and distorted like it was being run through a horrible computer speech recognition software and yet the young girl felt her veins and arteries turn to ice at the sound as the mysterious person spoke.
"Forgive us for the interruption ladies and gentlemen, but none of you are going anywhere. If any single one of you makes to escape there will be severe consequences. However I will be willing to spare you all on one condition. I now speak to you Layla Serena Singh, daughter of Khan. You have until Terran Dawn tomorrow at zero five hundred hours to come to me. If you don't I shall not hesitate to kill every single last man, woman, child and any other living organism aboard this station. For I am Captain of the Chimera and I do not tolerate insubordination of any kind let alone from a child like yourself. You have until dawn"
There was a silence as the communications link shut off with a tiny blip.
Spock Prime quickly turned to Khan and saw that the Augment's face was paler than ice.
So…
The elderly Vulcan's eyes shut briefly as his face tensed.
It seems you've finally decided to come out of the shadows…Marius…
i know i do this a lot but still...DUN-DUN-DUUUUNN~!
and the plot thickens. Who is Marius? what connection does he have with Layla? blah blah blah. you get the cliffhanger questions.
I think i should tell you guys now that we're actually coming close to the end of this adventure and i think you know what that means. what would you guys think of a sequel? I've got one waiting in the wings, still in the planning stages and it doesn't have a title but it is an idea nonetheless.
feel free to review your thoughts on the matter.
and on that note Adieu for today