Red 17

By the time they arrived in London the museum was closed. So they checked into the hotel and grabbed a bite of food. Did some exploring and more shopping. Sam was having a blast and her earlier upset in Vegas was long forgotten. Her misgivings about Kirk seemed to be just that, misgivings. He really did have good boyfriend potential and was quite the attentive lover. She knew there were going to be quite a few disappointed females on campus if they became a steady item. Of course Kirk had never been in a steady relationship before so he was already behind the learning curve so to speak.

Sam was tired so she decided to give Jim some alone time with his friend and retire to the room while they hit one of the local pubs. Sam was comfortable on the huge overstuffed bed so she drifted off to sleep quite quickly. She was thinking about the museum they would be visiting tomorrow and returning to the academy at the end of the week. That was probably why she didn't recognize when her dream changed to something else.

She was in a hallway. It was metal with no doors but it had the modern feel of this time period. She came to a door at the end of the hallway and entered. There was a body on the floor. His neck was at an odd angle and he was dressed in some sort of jumpsuit, almost like a prisoner would wear. The clothing looked familiar so she knelt next to the man and turned him over.

The stain on the front pocket looked even more familiar and then it hit her, she quickly stepped back. It was what Khan had been wearing in her last dream but if this guy was wearing it, where was Khan? She quickly left the room and made her way down the hall.

A group of people approached her so she darted into an alcove and held her breath. Most people couldn't see her in these dreams but Khan's man had and shot at her that one time. The people passed right by her oblivious to her presence. She crept out and kept going. She found two more dead bodies before she found him. He was trying to get past a security access panel but kept entering the wrong code. For a few minutes she debated leaving him there. After what she had found out in Vegas she wasn't sure she wanted anything to do with him anymore.

She started to turn and walk away. They would eventually find him and arrest him for the dead bodies he left in his wake. Her hand was above the door panel when she heard him swear. It was so unusual to hear that level of frustration in his voice, that she turned back to regard him. He looked disheveled, frazzled even and was clearly frustrated. She moved closer so she could see his face. She saw pain and some fear reflected there.

Something that he never would show unless something was terribly wrong. The door buzzed that he had the wrong code again, if he entered another wrong one security would be alerted. He was armed so she doubted he would go quietly, but for some reason she was worried about him. He was scared so maybe they would do worse than arrest him. She had never known this man to fear anything in his life, so that moved her to action.

"Try seven two one four zero" said Sam

He froze and turned towards her voice.

"Samantha?" he said in a whisper

"Yes just try it, you only have one try left before they dispatch security" said Sam

He nodded and punched in the numbers. It accepted the code and asked for a password.

"Try Carol" said Sam

He gave her a perplexed look but punched it in. The door promptly slid open and he rushed through it. He looked relieved when he turned towards her.

"How did you…?" said Khan

He never got his answer, because she was fading from view before he had turned. With a worried look, he turned towards the last stretch of hallway to the exit. All he had to do was get past the guards and he was home free.

He hoisted the weapon into position and his gaze happened to fall on the door panel one last time. The message displayed there chilled him to the bone and sent a very real stab of terror through his heart, the message said "Have a nice day Admiral Marcus"

He moved forward with a determined look on his face.

Sam came to and rolled over. She heard snoring so she turned towards it. Kirk was asleep beside her. They must have come in earlier saw she was sleeping and decided not to disturb her. She climbed out of bed because her pulse was still racing like it always did when she had one of those dreams. She would never be able to sleep now. She felt guilty again, and the dream had reminded her she had yet to look up any information on him.

She remembered seeing the library down the street. Kirk's reaction to the name had forced her to reconsider going inside. Kirk was however asleep and according to her timepiece it was six thirty in the morning, which meant they were open. She could slip out do her research and then bring them back breakfast. Decision made, she left them a quick note and headed out the door. The library was nearly deserted this time of the morning, but Sam still found a secluded corner.

Sam logged into the system under her academy id and started looking up the information. She found quite a bit about the war he started and his regime but nothing about how he died. In fact most of the articles were a bit vague on that fact and she only found one picture of him. It took her breath away because it was without a doubt him.

She glanced at the clock and swore softly, Kirk and McCoy would be getting up anytime now, if they weren't already. She logged off and headed for the door. She didn't see the man in the hood watch her leave or when he slipped out to follow her. She went to the café on the corner and ordered something fast and to go. As soon as they handed her the bag she took off towards the hotel at a run.

The man watched her until she ducked inside. He headed for a transport that went near the hospital, he would need to accelerate his plans now that she placed herself in danger like that. He still couldn't believe it was her. He had been watching the building, to see if he was going to be pursued. He saw her enter the upper floor that served as the public façade of the place, as a library. At first he thought his eyes were deceiving him.

On impulse he followed her inside, taking care to conceal his face from the cameras. He shadowed her because he still couldn't believe it was her. She was real, alive and here. That made him pause because she was here. She had given him the code to escape and now she was looking him up under his real name in the very same building. Less than twenty four hours later to boot. Hopefully his escape was enough to draw the admiral's attention because the last thing he wanted was for the man to make the connection between them.

She had just endangered herself without even knowing it and there was no way he was going to let that man find her. He was going to have to take out the whole building now just to cover up what she did. He mentally upped the amount of explosive he planned to use, as he stepped off the transport and walked into the hospital.

Sam was trying to open the door with no free hands and her elbow, when suddenly it opened. Kirk sighed, and took the bag from her mouth, and hand.

"Where the hell have you been? We were just about to go look for you?" said Kirk

"The library, I was looking up what we talked about in Vegas" said Sam

Kirk gave her a worried look and opened the bag in his hands.

"What did you talk about Vegas?" said McCoy.

He was coming out of the restroom. Sam gave Kirk another angry glare.

"Something personal, I brought breakfast" said Sam

McCoy frowned at her and took the bag from Kirk's hands. He pulled out one of the muffins and took a bite out of it.

"And you couldn't wait until we could go with you?" said McCoy

He was still chewing when he asked so it came out slightly garbled. Sam shrugged

"Look I couldn't sleep so I went down the street to the library, it's no big deal" said Sam

"Yes it was, we had no idea you were even gone. What if something happened to you?" said Kirk

He sounded worried and that shocked her.

"He's right someone could have attacked you or something and we wouldn't have even known" said McCoy

Sam sighed this was ridiculous.

"Okay for one I left you a note, so yeah you did know where I was, and two if anyone had been dumb enough to attack me I would have wiped the floor with them. I beat the instructor four times in self-defense and he used to be section 44"said Sam

She trounced past both boys in a huff and walked into the restroom. It was times like these she really hated those sliding doors she really wanted to slam the door, it would have been so much more satisfying then that soft swish.

She stayed in there for a few minutes attempting to calm down. She was already shaken from the dream this morning and what she read earlier didn't help her mood any. The boys just chose the wrong time to get on her last nerves. One of them knocked on the door after she heard them briefly arguing about who should knock and apologize. It made her smirk and lessened her anger just a little bit.

"Sam?" said Kirk

"What?" said Sam

In the surliest tone she could muster.

"Look we're sorry we were just worried about you okay" said Kirk

She heard an humph sound like someone had hit him in the stomach

"Not that you can't take care of yourself we know you can but... well… you scared us" said Kirk

Sam unlocked the door and stepped out slowly. They both eyed her warily.

"We good?" said Kirk

Sam nodded yes, but Kirk didn't lose that worried look until she wrapped her arms around him, and hugged him tight.

"That bad huh?" said Kirk

She nodded yes into his chest. McCoy just stood there looking confused.

"We'll explain later" said Kirk

McCoy nodded in understanding but you could tell he was still confused. She stayed like that hugging him tight enough to bruise until Jim finally said something.

"Do you want to talk about it?" said Kirk

Sam shook her head no.

"Okay, whenever you're ready I'm here alright" said Kirk

He kissed her forehead and Sam reluctantly loosened her grip.

"So are we good to go now?" said McCoy

He was digging into the bag of food she had brought. He dug out another one of the muffins and unwrapped it. Kirk snagged the bag from his hand

"Hey don't eat all of them" said Kirk

He pulled one out handed it to Sam and then grabbed the last one for himself. They ate the muffins on the way to the museum, where Sam once again lost herself in nostalgia. She had a blast explaining to the two guys what each thing in the museum from her time period was and it was interesting finding out what happened after she was frozen on a show she had very much been a fan of.

After several hours there they went on a tour of what used to be Buckingham palace and then went on the restored London eye. Stopped for authentic fish and chips for lunch then Hit the Sherlock Holmes museum, which even had a section on the television remakes from her time period and even a few they did after. She laughed her ass off at the list of books on one of the plaques, that had the Harry Potter series next to Twilight and Sherlock Holmes all listed as classics. By then it was getting quite late so they hit a few more places, took a short train trip to Cardiff to see the plas where Torchwood used to be filmed. They ate dinner there and headed back to catch the shuttle leaving for the states.

He finished his business early and then tracked them down. It was absurdly easy because they were acting like tourists. He almost lost them inside the palace, so he brushed against one of the guys while they waited for Sam to come out of the restroom, and planted a tracking device on the man. He wanted to make sure they were well away from the area when his plan was implemented.

The device told him they were returning so he waited in view of the shuttle port just to make sure they were leaving. He almost sighed in relief when they came into view carrying luggage. He waited until the device showed they were out of England and out of range before he walked into the shuttle port. He memorized the schedule with a glance then quickly left when he noticed some Starfleet personnel walking his way.

He went to one of his hide outs and started plotting his next move. Now that he knew she was real and here it changed things. If he was going to do this he needed to know she was safe. He had lost enough already he was not going to lose her too.

He had to be careful around her. Just the fact she knew Marcus' code was proof she had already gotten too close to the man already. The last thing he wanted was that man having any influence on his Samantha. He didn't care if he had to kill a continents worth of people so long as it kept the blood off her hands.

He crushed the coffee mug in his hand and the mug shattered. He absently picked the shards out of his hand and wiped the coffee off his hand with a towel before he started on the next phase of his plan. He headed off to meet a man about a large quantity of pure sodium and a few other elements that would enhance its explosive properties.

All that was left was for him to put them together into something that could be smuggled past security. He passed a tourist shop and a trinket caught his eye. He remembered watching Sam pick up a very similar ring and he smirked.

"Once again Samantha I am in your debt" said Khan

Sam fell asleep on the shuttle flight back to New York. She was just so exhausted from their whirlwind vacation that it finally hit her. Kirk and McCoy let her sleep. Kirk promised bones he would clue him in later about what Sam had been so freaked out about earlier that morning. Sam was too tired to really walk so they got a hotel room in New York since it was only Friday and they technically didn't have to be back until Sunday for the ceremony. He let her sleep until nearly noon the next day.

He checked on Pike and started writing his speech that Pike had warned him about. Sam wandered out of the bedroom area while he was about halfway done.

"Whatcha doing?" said Sam

Kirk visibly jumped and she giggled. He laughed slightly at his reaction

"Trying to write a speech, Pike warned me they usually ask you to say a few words at things like this. So I'm trying to prepare, rather unsuccessfully I might add" said Kirk

She curled her arms around his neck and buried her head in his neck.

"Why don't you just wing it like you usually do?" said Sam

Kirk shrugged and shoved the Padd device across the table. He rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Yeah I suppose you're right, I'll know what to say when the time is right and so will you" said Kirk

Sam gave him a confused look.

"You're being honored too remember?' said Kirk

"Speaking of which we should really get going what time is it?" said Sam

She started to rise and Kirk gripped her arms.

"Not just yet" he said