Chapter 37

Beth lay in the crawl space beneath the research station until she was sure Khan was gone. He had not left on foot as she'd expected, instead she'd heard muffled voices one second – it sounded like a recording that he was watching – and then footsteps and then complete silence and Beth realized he had beamed right out of the control room. She knew he had gone to the cave; he'd promised to return in the morning.

She was glad he'd gotten the transporter to work - she'd been counting on using it after losing so much blood cutting through her bonds with a sharp rock and virtually slashing her wrists in the process. She never could have walked the twelve miles to the southern compound, even if she'd been be able to navigate in the dark. Instead she'd crept up to the research station and hid out of sight. She'd tried to coordinate her movements with noises made by forest animals so Khan's extra-sensitive hearing wouldn't detect her approach.

The fact that he was already travelling by transporter was a problem; he could be back in a matter of minutes after realizing she'd escaped. She would have to move quickly; no time to dress the wounds on her wrists and hands, no time to leave a note for Khan.

Beth raced up the station's exterior ramp and went straight to the control room. It was empty. She set down the bag of clothes and other things she'd salvaged and took a minute to examine Khan's work routing the sensors and transporter through the amplifier orb. She saw that he was logging every transport and he had indeed beamed himself over to their cave entrance. She shivered, imagining his reaction to her escape. Would he see it as an act of self-preservation, or take it as a personal rejection? Would he be able to contain his anger when he finally caught up with her? Would he listen to her or had she ruined any chance of happiness with him?

Beth deactivated the log. He could probably guess where she was headed but she didn't need to give him her exact coordinates. She also saw that he had linked some sort of controller to remotely use the transporter and sensors. She unlinked it, knowing he would have to return from the cave on foot, maybe buying her ten more valuable minutes.

Scanning with the new amplified sensors she was able to see the buildings to the south. There were seven of them, laid out in a horseshoe pattern with tunnels and skywalks connecting them. In the middle was a paved rectangle. The lines she could see painted on the surface confirmed her original guess that it was a landing pad. Her heart raced at the thought that she might actually find a ship there. She didn't care how decrepit or slow it was, as long as it got her off the planet's surface.

The sensors could not see details inside the buildings but it saw enough that Beth could choose a safe destination for her transport: a large open area inside the largest building, possibly another hangar. She entered the coordinates and then searched for another safe location, this time for Spock. She didn't want him to come with her, but she also couldn't leave him behind to bear the brunt of Khan's wrath. She would beam Spock to the southern-most corner of the valley, about five miles from the buildings where she was headed. When he traveled north he would find the compound and maybe his own escape.

First she had to face him, if only for a minute. Khan had described his condition as delicate, and she didn't want to upset him further, but this would probably be the last time Beth would see Commander Spock and she wanted to say a proper goodbye to someone for once in her life.

Using the controller console, she unlocked the door to his holding cell. She heard the heavy clunking sound of the metal bolt sliding open, and several seconds later she heard the door squeaking as it swung out, and then slow, tentative footsteps approaching up the corridor.

Beth braced herself, her hand next to the transporter controls, ready to beam Spock away if he came at her. But when he appeared in the doorway, he just stopped where he was and regarded her with two raised eyebrows. She supposed for a Vulcan that was an expression of shock.

"I did not murder you," was all he said and Beth felt almost like it was a question.

"No," she said. "Is that what Khan told you?"

"And Starfleet. He has arranged for a ship to come and arrest me for your rape and murder."

Beth shook her head. Did Khan ever pass up a chance to be cruel? "You didn't rape me either."

"I am glad."

"But you did almost kill Khan. I saved him." Spock had no reaction or comment to that news. Beth thought he seemed much like his old self; the enigmatic scientist she'd first met when interviewing for her position on the Enterprise. "He's planning to seize the ship and use it to find his crew," she added.

Spock tilted his head and looked quizzically at Beth.

"I thought he had a right to know," she explained.

Spock nodded. "That is unfortunate." He looked around the control room. "Is he with you?"

"No," Beth told him.

"Are you with him?"

She understood the distinction. "I don't think so. Not anymore."

"Did he hurt you?" Spock asked, looking at her wrists where blood had soaked through the makeshift bandages she'd made out of a white shirt.

Beth shook her head but wanted to say that yes, Khan had ripped her heart to pieces. "No," she said quietly. "I just couldn't let him have the things he wanted." She knew that could be interpreted in many different ways, but Spock seemed to understand.

"We must contact Starfleet," he said. He stepped forward and Beth put her hand on the transporter controls. He saw the movement and stopped. "What are you doing, Lieutenant?"

"I'm sorry, Commander. I don't want Khan to hurt you, or anyone else, but I don't want him to get ambushed and killed either. I think he still might choose to leave peacefully."

"With you?" Spock asked, and his voice did not hold the skepticism Beth had been expecting.

"Or after me," she said. "I'm leaving and I hope he follows."

"And if he doesn't?"

Beth didn't want to answer. She knew she should contact Starfleet and have them contain Khan before he kidnapped the crew of the Ishita or hurt anyone else, but could she actually do that to him? She looked up at Spock, who was watching her closely. "We're wasting time," she said suddenly. She knew Khan was on his way back to the station, probably running through the forest, she could almost feel him getting closer. "Before I say goodbye, Commander, I am asking you to tell me where Khan's crew is being held."

"Do you plan to help him revive them?"

"I don't know," Beth admitted. "But I know he will find out someday, somehow, and it might save a few lives – maybe even yours – if he doesn't need to… extract… the information."

Spock considered the logic of this. "I can honestly tell you I do not know, Lieutenant."

"How can you not know?"

"After the incident in San Francisco the Federation moved Khan and his crew to a secure, highly classified location."

"Does Captain Kirk know?"

"I do not think so, but if he did he would not be permitted to tell me."

Beth sighed and nodded. She started sliding the transporter control up, initiating the sequence to beam him into the valley. "I wanted to say goodbye to you, Spock, and to thank you for helping me, and believing in me. I don't think I could have survived everything without you." He opened his mouth to interrupt but Beth continued. "I'm sorry about the bad things that happened to you because of me, on the Enterprise and since we left."

"Lieutenant…"

"I'm going to beam you somewhere safe and I hope you stay hidden from Khan. If I get off this planet I will send Starfleet your location so you'll be rescued."

And as the transporter signal locked onto Spock and his particles started to shimmer Beth held up her right hand in a traditional Vulcan salute. "Live long and prosper."

When the Enterprise dropped out of warp at the Ishita's location in sector thirty-five-J, Kirk was shocked to find the small escort ship accompanied by two Galaxy-class starships and a fleet of twenty destroyers.

"Yellow alert," he announced immediately, leaning forward in his chair.

"Captain, we're being hailed on a secure channel," Lieutenant Uhura said. "By an Admiral Green."

Kirk frowned. The only Admiral Green he knew of was a retired and decorated war hero. Kirk had studied his most famous battles at the Academy and seen his lectures on military strategy several times. "On screen."

The crusty voice came across before the image appeared and Kirk recognized it immediately. "Enterprise, what the hell do you think you're doing here?"

"Admiral Green," Kirk said quickly, standing up. "My name is Kirk. Captain James T. Kirk. It's an honor, sir."

"That doesn't answer my question, does it?" The Admiral's gray eyes bored directly into Kirk's soul and Kirk wondered how he managed to do that through the viewscreen.

"No sir, we're on a mission to rescue two kidnapped members of our crew."

"And you think we have them?"

Kirk tried to answer without revealing Uhura's prohibited decryption of the Ishita's secure transmission. "We were searching this sector and it looks like you're gearing up for some kind of battle. May we offer our assistance?"

"Does it look like we need your assistance, Captain?"

Kirk was beginning to think Admiral Green was a lot more likeable in theory than in person. "With all due respect, sir, yes, it does. I'm assuming you're here because Khan has escaped Federation custody, again." The Admiral's silence was answer enough. "I've fought with Khan, alongside him and against him, and I know how he thinks and operates. I can tell you that all your ships won't do any good if you don't know what you're up against."

"So you think you can teach me what I need to know?" Admiral Green asked. His voice was surly but his eyes were shining with interest. "Your assumption is partly correct, Captain, but I'm afraid Khan is just the tip of the iceberg. You'd better come aboard the Ishita so we can talk securely." He smiled. "Apparently our encrypted channels aren't all they're cracked up to be."

"Aye, sir," Kirk said, but the Admiral was already gone.

Beth materialized in a pitch black room and immediately reached for the small yellow lantern in her bag. As she turned it on she tried not to remember using it in the cavern to illuminate her lovemaking with Khan.

As it flickered on she realized that the room she was in was even bigger than she'd realized. The lantern lit up the floor and a few dust particles in the air, but could not reach any walls or the ceiling or anything else around her.

"Lights," she announced, hoping they would work much like the lights on the Enterprise and other Starfleet facilities, but nothing happened. "Computer, lights," she tried again. Still nothing.

Perhaps the building predated voice-controlled computers and there was some kind of manual control. Beth started to walk in what she hoped was a straight line, knowing that eventually she had to run into a wall that she could follow. After walking for what seemed like a full minute, she saw something up ahead of her. It was long and cylindrical, maybe two feet high and made of dark gray metal. It was not a computer, nor a craft of any kind. Perhaps it was a component of a ship or engine. Beth examined it and became aware that there were others close by, lined up in rows.

As she held the lamp up to see them more clearly she realized that at one end of each cylinder was a clear plastic window. Peering through one of these windows, Beth was shocked to see a face inside. The eyes were closed and it looked too well preserved to be a cadaver. This was a person in cryostasis and Beth's heart began beating faster than it ever had before in her life. She knew what she was looking at – this sleeping man, with his even features, strong jaw and flawless skin was an Augment. He was a member of Khan's lost crew. The Federation had hidden them on a planet that no ship could scan, where there was no official record of the storage facility ever existing.

Beth moved from cryotube to cryotube, looking at the faces of the men and women, all appearing to be in their twenties and thirties, all different skin colors but all of them beautiful. There were dozens of them, so many that Beth lost count. This had to be everyone.

She grinned. It changed everything. Khan's search would be over before it even began. No war with the Federation, no kidnapping, no killing, no abandoning her on a lonely planet. She almost giggled with relief. She had to tell him. She had to find him before the Ishita arrived to complicate things irrevocably. Maybe Khan was on his way here now. He would be so happy.

Even better than just telling him, Beth realized she could revive one of them before he even arrived. Surely if she was the one to find them and wake them up, they would bond with her. If hers was the first face they saw they would not see her as a threat; she would be the one who had rescued and re-united them.

Looking at their faces Beth tried to see them as Khan saw them. He had spoken of them with such devotion and fondness, even love. She imagined his delight at seeing one of his old friends coming around the corner towards him, walking alongside the woman he also loved.

She found a face she particularly liked; a young man with wide-set eyes and a mouth that was curled into a smile even in his sleep. She held the lamp over the control panel of his cryotube and was pleased to see it was similar to the cryo-containers she used in the lab to preserve insect specimens. She keyed in the command to start the thaw and a blue light began to blink inside the tube as the body was radiated. It took longer than she was used to, which made sense because this body was considerable larger than any invertebrate she'd ever studied, and several minutes later when it was finished the blue light stopped flashing and Beth was able to unlock the tube and lift the lid.

The man was long and lean and clad in a simple gray jumpsuit that revealed his toned physique. Beth was about to touch his hand to see if it was warm, but remembered to keep a layer of material between her skin and his so he wouldn't be affected by her errant pheromones. That would be all she needed – to spark a romantic rivalry between Khan and one of his crew. She prodded the man in the arm, through his shirt. He did not stir and she looked at the screen inside the tube that showed a strong and regular heartbeat.

"My name is Beth," she said to him, fairly confident that he was either conscious or close to it. "I'm a friend of Khan's. What's your name?"

He did not reply and Beth remembered the way Khan had pretended to be asleep in Ward Seventeen. "I'm here to help you," she continued. "You've been asleep for a long time, I think three hundred years or so. You can keep your eyes closed, I know you're probably frightened and confused. You're the first one I've woken up so I'm a bit frightened as well." She laughed nervously. "We can wait for Khan. He should be here soon. He's been looking for you for a long time. All of you. The rest of the crew is here. If it makes you feel better I'll wake up someone else; a familiar face for you. Is there a friend you want me to wake up while we wait for Khan?"

"Yes," the young man said, making Beth jump. His voice was clear and rich and it echoed around the cavernous hangar. Beth gasped as he opened his eyes and looked upon her with no trace of apprehension or fear in his beautiful pale eyes. "Let's wake up Ram."

Uh oh, not Ram! It's nice Beth is trying to ingratiate herself with Khan's other family, but what has she gotten herself into? How will they react to her, and will they figure out what she is before Khan arrives? What will Khan think of Beth waking up his crew without him? And how about all those destroyers hovering around with the Ishita and the Enterprise? Hope this is an exciting turn of events - thanks for reading!