The next few months dragged on as the Vengeance continued to grow closer to their designs. It was beautiful, Khan thought. Sleek, powerful, big and dark where the typical Starfleet vessel was pale. It stood out a lot less visually against the darkness of space, which would be all to the good in action, but the color also amused him. Between the color and the name, the ship seemed decidedly sinister. As the lynchpin of Marcus' plans to start and fight a preventive war, that was highly appropriate.
In order to get the cryotubes into the torpedoes, Khan had eventually decided to make use of Scotty's transwarp equation and a miniaturized transporter. He'd never get hold of one of those officially - he'd have to steal one. He could crack the code needed to get in just fine, but he'd have to make sure nobody saw him with it. At least they weren't all that recognisable, looking more like a briefcase than anything else.
He was going to have to make Connor sleep because he would definitely figure out something was wrong. He'd explain it as the man having a cold if he had to, or even just say he was exhausted and Khan hadn't wanted to wake him.
Khan pushed his sunglasses back up his nose. There was a lot that could go wrong with the plan, and once he began moving his crew there was no easy way to explain the situation away. If everything went completely to hell he might be best off escaping and bringing the situation to the attention of the media and the rest of the federation. Non-humans would probably be best as they would have no prior experience with the Augments and no reason to hate them.
The best choice might be the Vulcans, as they had very recent experience as victims of genocide themselves. They were also on average physically stronger and smarter than humans, and therefore likely to feel less threatened by the Augments.
Yes, a good choice. With their nonviolent tendencies and the recent violence against them, they might even like to have the Augments present on New Vulcan as a form of protection. The higher gravity and dry climate was more suited to Vulcans than humans but was within easy Augment tolerance... but he was getting ahead of himself here.
New Vulcan was well out of torpedo range from Earth, so he couldn't just launch the torpedos there broadcasting an explanation as they went. He'd need to take them there in the Vengeance. Not good; there would be people on the Vengeance and he didn't really want to kidnap his coworkers. They'd try and stop him and it would be distracting when he was trying to fly the ship. Maybe early in the morning before most people were awake...
He'd also need to grab Joachim before doing any pleading for his people's lives. The boy would be far too vulnerable in Marcus' hands. Jo would also be much easier for people to sympathize with than an ex-dictator.
The boy would probably be in daycare if he left in the morning... he'd have to check his carer's hours.
Khan continued fiddling with the torpedoes as he plotted.
Several months on, everything was ready. The Vengeance was flyable but not fully finished, the torpedoes had been loaded onto her and Khan had the codes to get to the miniature transporters. Maria really ought to have hid it better when she keyed it in last week. Incompetent. He'd also cobbled together an extra powersource that should allow multiple warps without recharging.
That morning, Khan was tense. He picked the lock on Connor's door, walked in and shook the man's shoulder. No response, and the water glass by the man's bed was empty. Khan smiled. Good, what he'd given the man should make him sleep the day away. He walked out, closing the door softly behind him.
Next, the miniature transporters. That was near the other end of the base. He wound his way through the corridors, stopping briefly in the mess to grab coffee and a muffin and continue on his way.
The halls were quiet this early. Khan keyed in the code to the room containing the 'special' supplies. The door whooshed open and Khan walked in unopposed. Next, the locker with the miniature transporters. That was even easier to get into, and Khan picked up two of the transporters, carefully signing it out under Maria's name.
Stage one, accomplished. Next, Khan went to the Vengeance. There were a few more people here, and the risk correspondingly higher. Khan nodded pleasantly to Al as he walked into the Vengeance's main hanger, then on to the first torpedo where he'd left the external power source.
He crouched beside the torpedo and carefully plugged in the power sources to the transporters. They were a little odd-looking since he'd cobbled them together out of spare parts, but it should work just fine. Then he opened the torpedo and set the coordinates. Yellow light shimmered as the cryotube appeared. Khan peered in the faceplate. Hiroko Sen lay there, quiet and cold, waiting to be woken. Khan smiled at her and closed the torpedo back up.
Then it was on to the next, and after that the next. One by one the torpedoes filled with Khan's crew. Khan was four torpedoes from the end when Carol Marcus poked her head round the side of the torpedo. "John, what are you doing?" she asked.
Khan froze, then forced himself to smile and relax. Of all the people he didn't want to see right now... "Just making a few final adjustments," he said. Behind her two more sets of footsteps.
"With a miniature transporter?" said Maria. "That doesn't make sense. You don't have permission to access those. How did you get at them?"
"Where's Connor?" asked Carol.
Maria reached for her communicator button.
Khan hit her in the neck with one hand.
Al shot him with a phaser. It was set to stun, and Al didn't have time to regret that as Khan attacked him. Carol hit the fire alarm, and that began ringing and the sprinklers started spraying everything with water. Ow! his ears. Damn.
Carol looked at John. "Why?" she said. Silly girl didn't even have a phaser on her.
"Your father holds my family hostage," said Khan, and stunned her with Al's phaser.
Khan carefully pushed the three of them under the torpedo. He took their communicators and stunned Al and Maria with the phaser to make sure neither didn't woke up too soon. He didn't particularly want to kill them, but if it happened, it happened. The phaser beeped. Khan cursed. The stupid thing was low on power. Looked like Al hadn't kept it fully charged. He tossed it aside.
Khan ran down the ramp, holding the transporter in one hand with the attached powersource flailing along behind it.
"You ok there?" asked Katya. Khan couldn't really hear her over the ringing in his head, but risked an answer.
"Fire near torpedoes. We need evacuate... here." said Khan, gesturing madly at the docking area. The longer he could keep worried firefighters from entering the vessel, the better.
"Oh great," said Katya from behind him. "John, stop!" We need more information..." But Khan wasn't paying attention. He got a lot of startled glances as he ran through the halls, but only a couple of people tried to stop him and he simply brushed past, knocking them aside as he went and leaving them staring after him. Speed was now far more important than secrecy. Curse Carol's quick thinking!
It took only a couple of minutes for him to arrive at the daycare. Khan opened the unlocked door and glanced around at the group of toddlers, small children and two adults who were staring back at him.
With a squeal, a small blond blur launched himself at Khan's legs, yelling "Uncle Khan, uncle Khan!" knocking down the multicolored block tower that had been teetering on the table. One of the toddlers began to bawl.
Khan started entering the data for transport back to the Vengeance, his fingers flying over the keys, saying "Yes, Joachim, it me. Hang on!" With a yellow shimmer, they transported back to the main hanger bay on the Vengeance.
Right into the middle of a group of 10 heavily-armed firefighters cum security, in hazmat suits.
Khan launched himself at the nearest, intending to grab the heavy-duty phaser he was holding. He tripped over Jo, who was still holding onto Khan's legs.
Jo shrieked and let go, Khan rolled forward into an upright position and grabbed the phaser, breaking the man's wrist as he went. Just in time to be shot in the shoulder by one of the others, with a phaser that definitely wasn't set to stun. He managed to hang on to the phaser, but there was no way he'd be able to shoot accurately for the next few minutes. So he used it to blungeon nearby guards instead.
"Jo, hide!" yelled Khan, barely registering the child as he ducked behind a torpedo.
The next 5 seconds passed in a blur. Khan downed the last guard and looked up just in time to see another group entering the hanger. Khan felt a burning sensation and look down. Apparently the shoulder wasn't the only place he'd been shot. There was no way he was going to win this and get the Vengeance out of here now. Khan wavered on his feet, then dived for the remaining transporter.
"Put the weapon down!" yelled the soldiers.
"Jo come," yelled Khan, beckoning. The child ran to him, but had tears on his face. Khan grabbed his arm and stabbed the preset location button. He felt himself hit again as they disappeared.