Once on the Jupiter base, he got handed a demand from the Admiral to create a better torpedo. Marcus wanted a whole bunch of things from the new weapon, some of which looked likely to be mutually exclusive. Lovely. He might be a genius, but that didn't mean he could change the laws of physics. This would likely keep him too busy to hack the computer system much.

It did, for the mucn of the next few months. Then something happened that changed his priorities. Khan was sitting in the almost empty mess hall late one night, having finally figured out how to make a torpedo engine that wouldn't leave a trail that would show up on sensors, when he overheard something from the two medical staffers eating at a table near the other end of the hall. "Oh, Joachim's way ahead of schedule. Significantly faster growth, language aquistion and so on. Sounds like a mini-professor some of the time."

Joachim? Khan tensed. Surely not... surely Marcus wouldn't break his word so obviously, and for so little benefit. Studying him was one thing, but if they'd harmed Joaquin and Suzette's three year old son, death would be too good for Marcus and the two people at the other end of the hall. Beside him, Connor picked at his food, obviously both exhausted and oblivious to what was going on in the room.

"When he isn't imitating Kelly's cussing," the other said. "God, the kid's cute." She chuckled quietly.

"Better you than me. What happens when he grows up and turns on you, or when the Admiral decides he's learned all he needs from the kid?"

"We're raising him right. Jo'll think of himself as one of us and be a real asset to humanity. He's too little to really remember the others much."

Khan's eyes narrowed as he pretended to study his plate. Not if he had anything to say about it, the boy wouldn't. Joaquin and Suzette would never forgive him. Khan abruptly realized that the fork had bent in his grip. Khan closed his eyes and counted to 10, then opened them and carefully straightened the fork. He couldn't let his rage get the better of him or he would get all his people killed. And he needed to listen.

But the conversation had moved on to other topics, leaving Khan fuming impotently and without any further interest in his dinner, or in sleep for that manner.

He glanced at Connor. The man was obviously exhausted. Khan almost pitied him. If the Admiral really wanted to keep tabs on him he should have assigned more than one person to do it. Oh well. Connor was quite welcome to go sleep if he wanted to, but he needed to spend some quality time with a punching bag.

Then he needed to get serious about cracking the computer system and finding out just what was happening with Joachim. It might not look like Jo was in any immediate danger, but he needed to know that for certain.

As for his agreement with Admiral Marcus, that could go hang. The man was patently lying to him._

Khan didn't get much sleep for the next while, though he allayed suspicion on Connor's part by doing much of his research in his room after Connor had gone to bed. With the changes he'd made to the logger, Khan was safe so long as no one saw his computer screen. Khan smiled, but it wasn't a kind smile. Connor should know better than to try to keep up with an Augment.

Unfortunately, getting the crew out didn't look like it was going to be easy. He'd located all of them, secluded in two different storerooms on Jupiter station.

Joachim, meanwhile, was living with Amy and Kelly Greenwood, two Section 31 people who lived on the far side of the station near the medical research labs. That area had its own mess and recreation facilities, which explained why he hadn't run into little Jo in the halls. It was tempting to go take a walk down that way, but he couldn't risk it.

Amelia he'd seen in the main mess hall during that overheard conversation, while Kelly was one of the doctors who'd been involved in the experimentation on him. Kelly likely knew Khan's real identity, but he wasn't so sure about Amelia. If she did know about him, she wasn't very observant.

That was all well and good, but how was he to get his people out when they were in three different places, well, four if he counted himself, and he was the only adult awake? Not good.

Khan also found out more about what Admiral Marcus planned to do in the event that Khan turned on him. There were orders for if something happened to Marcus himself - a deadman switch that meant all the Augments would die. That turned Khan's blood cold because it not only meant their deaths if he killed Marcus, it also meant their deaths if Marcus died for other reasons, which could be anything from a preemptive strike by the Klingons to a heart attack. Bastard.

There was nothing written down about giving the Augments their own ship and letting them go in the event of everything going right. Likely the man had been lying to him all along, using his desperation to keep his people alive against him. Vengeance against the conniving liar was definitely ON, but more important was getting his people out alive.

Khan pondered how to do this as he continued working on designing the torpedoes. What he had down so far would satisfy most of the Admiral's conditions, but not all, not yet. They were also getting rather larger than he'd initially intended. Certain shapes just didn't fit together and left a space... Khan concentrated on the torpedoes and tried to ignore his people's situation for now. Then something clicked.

If he moved one component only slightly, a cryotube could fit inside. He could explain the gap as access to the torpedo's interior, at least until he put the cryotubes inside.

Cryotubes from storage into torpedoes, torpedoes onto Vengeance, steal Jo from his minders and go. He'd have to do some work to make the Vengeance at least marginally operable by one man if this was to work. It would be difficult, but it would be possible. Khan smiled. He had a plan.