The next problem was getting the information they'd found to Admiral Pike without immediately alerting Admiral Marcus. They couldn't just encrypt it when there were so many people in Section 31 who had decryption in their job description!

Carol eventually ended up writing a letter using as many context-specific information codes as possible. It should look innocent to the average reader, but hopefully Uncle Chris would recognize it for what it was. Unfortunately, that meant that if her father saw it he would know even more easily what it meant. Still, Carol very much doubted Admiral Marcus was surveilling her mail personally. He had people to do that sort of thing for him.

She'd never written anything like this before beyond a brief fondness for playing spy when she was 10, and quite honestly she wasn't entirely sure Chris would be able to figure the letter out - but she really couldn't afford to have her father's censors forward it to him. She gritted her teeth and sent it.

At least there was a backup plan: Khan knew the correct sequence to wake his crew. It shouldn't actually take that long or go wrong the way Khan's own awakening had - Khan's problems had been due to the medics using a totally different method that assumed standard human oxygen consumption patterns that did not hold true for Augments.

Then they'd break out and steal the Vengeance. This was likely to get both some of the Augments and some of the Section 31 killed, even if they managed to cover for long enough to wake everyone. That was why it was the backup plan.

Admiral Christopher Pike wasn't entirely surprised to find a message from Carol in his inbox. However, he read it and it didn't make sense. She kept making references to things that had happened years ago that he'd just about forgotten. A code? Was this about Harrison? Pike read it again. Oh of course! and oh #$! Admiral Marcus has woken the ORIGINAL Khan.

And Carol was stuck in the middle of it, very close to Khan. Hopefully the Augment would not seek to use her as a hostage against her father if things went sour for him.

Pike stood up, thumbing his communicator as he did so. "Admiral Barnett, I need to speak to you immediately. Yes, it's important! The future of the Federation may be at stake."

Admiral Pike later remembered the next day as among the most insane in his entire career, and with good reason.

Having grabbed together the scattered files and bits of information he'd been able to piece together, he walked down the corridor to Barnett's office.

He also contacted Jim Kirk. The man was still on leave, and it took precious minutes to track him down. He'd had his communicator with him, but apparently had been occupied with activities unmentioned when Pike called. Pike told him to get back to the Enterprise now, and to call in Spock as well. He'd a feeling he was going to need the Enterprise at its best, and shaking up the senior officers would not help with that.

"I mentioned my concerns with Admiral Marcus to you some time back." He dumped the papers and main PADD on Barnett's desk. "It is worse than either of us feared. It seems he has found the Botany Bay and woken Khan - yes, Khan Noonien Singh, THAT Khan. That is in addition to breaches of this list of laws..." Pike shoved the PADD at Barnett. "We cannot wait any longer."

Unfortunately, Barnett didn't seem willing to believe him, at least not in any timely manner and he wanted to go through channels. It would take days to arrest Marcus that way and they simply did not have the time. Marcus would undoubtedly see Carol's letter soon. Pike walked out. At least he had the Enterprise to deal with the problem at its source. If he moved quickly enough it ought to be enough. Hopefully he wouldn't get court-martialled for this when all the dust had settled.

"Admiral Marcus, you wanted to be informed if Admiral Pike does something out of the ordinary..."

"Yes?" said Marcus, looking up from a very odd letter of Carol's that had just been forwarded to him by his censors.

The letter was to Pike. Suddenly, everything made horrible sense. They know about Khan. The game was up. If Marcus wanted to come out of this alive, much less still in charge of Starfleet, he needed to remove the evidence. It would have been nice to neutralize Pike, but the man persistently didn't do anything arrest-worthy and he was too decorated an officer to simply disappear without trace.

Barely listening to the man's description of Pike's call to Kirk and paper-flapping descent on Barnett, Marcus nodded and walked to the closet where his own, personal miniaturized transwarp device was hidden. He'd never used it for real before, but there was a first time for everything.

He paused at the closet door, then stepped back to his desk. "Thank you son, that will be all," he told the somewhat flustered Lieutenant, and turned the call off, switching it to Dr. Marin on Jupiter station. "Destroy the sleeping Augments, and put every piece of related documentation into the incinerator." he told him.

Dr. Marin gaped at him. "But we were getting such promising results! I think I may be able to keep many of the positive traits without the excessive ambition and aggression. Surely, if Khan is a problem you can simply terminate him and leave the others and my research be."

"Destroy them. I don't have time to argue with you." Marcus ended the message, wondering if he was going to have to do everything himself, then sent another to Commander Smith-Kanawa, telling him to kill Khan and make sure Marin followed his orders.

For now at least, it was probably better for Marcus to be visibly present far from the Jupiter Base. Marcus grimaced. Although Khan had a horrible tendency to do the unexpected, and with Carol there... Marcus turned to the transwarp device and unlocked it. He wasn't leaving his daughter at the mercy of that monster even if she'd been fool enough to fall for his wiles.

A/N: I had this strong desire to have Marcus tell Marin to "execute order 66", but I refrained. Aren't you glad?