Hope you like violence and suspense because it's coming at you in this chapter. Please review and tell me what you think.
Chapter 52
I'm at home alone now. Aaron is sleeping in his room. Truk and the girls are making a supply run for medical supplies and Cassie and Khan give medical care for some Vulcans and humans who were wounded in a Klingon raid (but, knowing Khan, he's probably blowing things up with Flame down in the labs). The raids are getting more frequent—more brutal.
Captain Kirk said that within a span of two weeks, there were at least thirty different attacks. Our long range communications are down, as those of the Enterprise. We're sitting ducks and Star Fleet is sitting back and laughing at our hopelessness. The Captain and his crew fought for Khan's life and those of his crew as did I. Now, we're all in the same boat and left at the mercy of a merciless foe.
I'm upstairs. The moons blink down at me from the window and I smile weakly up at the stars. A gentle breeze stirs from the north and brings with it the scent sweet of the last flowers until spring. Amichai rolls onto his back and smiles up at the roof with his eyes closed in quiet contentment.
It's calm. Quiet.
I sigh and lie on my bed and stare up at the roof and will sleep to come. It doesn't. I groan and walk over to my book shelf and pick up a diary I had found while exploring some ancient ruins by the canyons. The writer was a woman named Rose, one of the first humans to be brought here from Earth during the times of our colonization and Earth's Eugenic Wars.
April, 10
It's weird being here, She writes. The plants look strange—blue instead of green. Foreign animals cry from a huge and overgrown forest and much of the water is toxic. We test what we can for poisons, but what doesn't poison is filled with bacteria that make many fall ill. They die soon after. The supplies come in once a week, baring more food, medicine, clothes, and more clueless settlers. There are about three hundred of us now…but few seem to be useful. Most are common men and women—no children.
...
I get bored and skip about thirty pages.
...
December 20
There's snow here. By now, we have a small city: houses, streets, stores…
I had to run away yesterday, I and my little brother, David. I did something bad—I gave blood to save a little girl's life. She will live, and she will heal rapidly…but they will know what I am—their cameras will have recorded me doing the forbidden act. If I stay, they will kill me for what I am. I and my brother, we will both burn for my mistake. I saw some caves the other day. I will gather supplies now and break the news to him. We will leave in an hour's time, never to return again. I refuse to die for what I am and I will not apologize for being created the way I was.
I am not a part of their war. That doesn't not mean that I don't miss my dark night with his pale blue, smoldering eyes…but now, we must flee or die for doing a good deed.
...
I think for a minute. What is she? An Augment? Is her 'dark knight' Khan? What the heck? I slam the book closed and refuse to read another word. All these stupid riddles and secrets are getting annoying.
"Mommy," Aaron stands in my doorway with his blanket hugged to his chest. I blink.
Something is wrong.
"Is everything okay?" I hold out my arms and he runs into my embrace. "What's wrong?" I ask as I ruffle his hair.
"I heard a noise." He whispers. "Do you think bad guys are here?"
"Everything's fine. You probably had a nightmare—"
A thud sounds downstairs and Amichai jerks awake and growls softly. His hackles raise in a quiet challenge and I can hear the stairs creaking. It's not Khan—he can't come up to the second floor, his collar prohibits it. Truk would have made more noise since the girls are with him. The would have been laughing and giggling, making all kinds of noise. The door is locked—Cassie would never have gotten in. Then who is here?
If they have to hide, then it must not be anyone good.
I think of the White Coats (The scientists from Sector 31 or Meditech) and curse.
"Get under the bed," I whisper. "And don't come out until I come and get you." I breathe and I move to grab my knife.
"I'm scared," He hugs me and I can smell the sharp sting of fear jumping off of him. My heart breaks for a moment. I'm scared too.
"Nothing is going to hurt you." I hug him back and gently push him beneath the bed and pull my blanket down to better hide him. "I promise." I say before standing back up and creeping towards the doorway. My doorway.
It's black.
Pitch black.
I can smell the foreign scents of the intruders and hear the air shift as they move and breathe. Small rivulets of fear shake through my body and I fight to squash the streams before they build into a flood that will grab me and drag me away. To lose control is to forfeit my life.
I will not be like Rose. I will not run away.
I reach the staircase and start to go down it slowly.
They creak a little under my weight and I tense, expecting phaser blasts to rip into my chest. Or for knives to sink into my flesh. Any second now, I am going to get hurt and blinding pain is going to become my reality.
Nothing.
I sigh quietly and continue to moving forward slowly. A figure looms ahead of me, huge and intimidating. It's too broad to be Khan, too tall to be Cassie or Truk. Most of the Enterprise people are now staying in spare rooms in the SAR…even so, this guy is much too large to be any of them.
What is it? I wonder as my heart pounds faster in anticipation of the fight soon to come. I hate violence and pain. I hate how my body reacts and ignore my mind as I become a machine, my knife flying as easily from my hand as a Frisbee would from a child's.
And I never miss my mark.
Never.
White hot, searing pain rips through the tissue of my right foot and I stifle a scream…but a strangled groan still manages to escape. The figure turns towards me and roars, its hand flying towards it's abdomen, probably to grab a weapon. I don't think—I act. I hurl my knife at the figure and wince at the dull thud that follows at the blade finds its mark in his skull and he crashes to the ground. I limp downwards and retrieve my knife.
One down…but how many to go?
Two?
Eight?
Slowly, I limp from room to room. I find two more in the kitchen. Like the first one, one of the two charge me straight on. I see the gleam of a Klingon blade: a mevlak.
Wait…Klingon blade?
What are Klingons doing in my house?!
I dispatch him easily by throwing a kitchen knife into his throat. He gurgles and falls.
The second Klingon slams into me and hurls me across the room. I slam—hard—into the wall and wince as pain flares up my spine. He laughs coldly and flicks the kitchen light on. My eyes burn at the sudden light and I lie on the ground, stunned from the impact, as I try to steal my breath back into my lungs. My ears ring and my heart pounds as he creeps forward at a tauntingly slow pace. I gasp and force myself up by my elbow.
"Look what we have here," He jeers. He has deep ridges on his forehead and short brown hair. His blue eyes laugh coldly at me and I glare at him defiantly. "An Earth female." He spits. More warriors trickle into the room: I'm outnumbered four to one.
Just great…
"Are there no warriors here capable of putting up a good fight?" He continues. "Or are you all there is?" He laughs and my fingers slip around the hilt of my knife.
Unbeknownst to most, the hilt can snap in half, giving me two blades to fight with…I would have two blades and four enemies. They are stronger than me and warriors trained in the art of killing. All four are heavily armed and would have no qualms killing me.
The one day, I'm I get a reprieve from my family and babysitting Khan and these idiots show up!
Really, universe? REALLY?!
I throw my knife and hold onto the spare. The knife takes down the leader, the one who laughed at me. The other three draw phasers and I leap to my feet and slip over to the steak knives, grab three, and duck as phaser blasts split the night. Moving quickly, I limp from the room and turn to drop another one with a knife to the throat. He drops instantly, just like the others. Pain leaps through the palm of my foot but I ignore it as I run, leaving bloody footprints in my wake. The kitchen lights flicker off as the intruders slip into the shadows and I tremble slightly in fear. It will be harder to kill them when I can't see them and they already have enough advantages over me in this duel to the death.
Headlights flash in from the window and my heart drops.
More have just arrived, haven't they?
Wonderful…there goes mom's day off, kids. Better luck next year, I guess. Well, if there is one. Yay, optimism.
…
Cassie slows the car down and both her and Khan look at the house carefully. The front door is hanging off the hinges and a window is broken. The lights are off and there's not a single sign of life. Okay…is this another one of Ze'eva's experiments or is something wrong?
Khan is out of the vehicle before Cassie even has a chance to stop. She freezes at the idea of being left alone and quickly jumps out of the car and rushes after him. He gives her a curious glance but doesn't remark on her presence. She shadows him as he slips inside.
…
With a roar, one Klingon on rushes at me and begins to fire. I jump out of the way and am shocked to see his blasts burying themselves into his friend's abdomen. His friend's mouth opens in a wordless scream as he hits to floor dead. The other one tackles me and I slam into the ground. His hands twist around my throat and he lifts me up and slams me into the wall over and over until my vision starts to go black and I see stars. My feet can't touch the ground and I begin to panic because I can't breathe! I gurgle and he draws me closer to his face.
"Try again." He sneers. "I didn't hear you."
"Drop dead," I growl as I pull my remaining knife from its hilt and stab into his stomach over and over again.
He hurls me away from him and I slam into the wall again and crash ungracefully onto the hard floor. Struggling, I slip my fingers around another knife that had clattered to the ground and hurl it at his knees as he lunges for me. He goes down hard and more footsteps rush into the room. I get ready to attack.
The light flicks on again and I narrow my eyes in aggravation.
"Ze'eva!" A woman (Cassie?) yells and I find the air rushing out of my lungs as she drags me into a stifling bear hug.
"'Sup?" I gasp as I push her away.
"Are you alright?" Khan asks and his eyes light on my for a second before he goes back to surveying the room. There are bodies all over the room and blood everywhere.
"Yeah," I lie and his eyes narrow at me and flick to my foot which is still bleeding badly. Cassie follows his gaze and gasps.
"What happened?" Her fingers touch the wound and I flinch and barely muffle a scream.
"Apparently, someone left some tacks on the staircase," I say, wincing as her hands continue to probe the sole of my foot. I consider kicking her but dismissing the idea quickly; no, that would hurt worse. "Was it you?" I glare at Khan and he shakes his head.
"No." He says firmly but I don't believe him for a second. He notices and narrows his eyes indignantly as if being called a liar is a foreign concept to him. It's not.
"Hold on, Ze'eva." She rises and looks around the room quickly before picking up a fork. "I'll have them out in a few minutes."
Khan smiles at me coldly as she yanks the tacks from my foot with the fork and I consider killing him. And then Cassie sanitized the wound with rubbing alcohol.
Heck, for all this pain, she may as well take my whole foot off! Jeez!
…
"So, what happened?" Khan asks when Cassie drives away to go home. The Enterprise crew was called in hours ago and they begin to haul the bodies into trucks to take to large burn pile or mass grave. Spock frowns at them from the kitchen but Kirk quickly orders him to help Scotty get one particularly large guy outside. Together they grunt and lift the limp form towards the doorway
Ze'eva shrugs at Khan. "I'm not sure." She admits and she examines the bandage Cassie had applied to her wound. "It's weird. Usually they attack entire cities, not specific homes. And when they do attack, it's from their ships…not personal assaults like this."
"And you just killed them?" He inquires quietly. "Just like that and you're…fine?" He finishes and lifts and eyebrow. She wasn't a cold blooded killed like he was. She had morals, a conscious unlike him.
How is she not in shock? How is she not screaming or breaking into tears?
"Yeah," She shrugs. "I guess I did, didn't I?" She looks away to gaze up the staircase and sighs. "Well," She yawns. "I need to check on Aaron." She meets his gaze of a split second and he can see the fear and sorrow raging beneath her blue-green eyes before limping away. "See you tomorrow."
She runs away before he has a chance to call her back.
