Carol looked at Khan. He was the one with the tactical skill. Khan ran over to the other dead cryotube, positioning it vertically so that the opening was as thoroughly blocked as possible.

He stilled, then whirled to face Carol. "What waiting, wake them!" Khan ran back to the live cryotubes.

Carol returned to starting the revival sequences. All but 25 or so were started now. Her hands flew over the now familiar keys, on first one cryotube, then another, and another.

Outside the door, she could vaguely hear muttering and scraping noises.

Khan left the cryotube he was activating and stalked over to the door, face intent. After a few tense seconds, he spoke. "Admiral Marcus, deactivate the grenade. I have your daughter in here, and you don't want her to die."

Oh great, now I'm a hostage, thought Carol. It beats getting blown up by accident, but I am going to get Khan for this later. At least he isn't actually pointing a blaster at me, so the threat is clearly for show.

A few tense moments passed, in which Carol could hear whispering from outside.

"Prove it," said Admiral Marcus.

Khan nodded to her.

"Hi Dad," said Carol. "Are you really going to blow me up?"

"Carol…" sighed Marcus. "How do you get yourself into these situations? I told you he wasn't a stray kitten!"

"No, he is an angry tiger that you had by the tail." said Carol.

"You have Vengeance. Give ship, let go. I give Carol back unharmed." Said Khan.

"I can't give you the Vengeance!" said Marcus.

"Give other ship. With weapon." Said Khan.

"If I do that, I'll get court-martialed."

"Admiral Pike is already on his way," said Carol. She didn't actually know that for sure, but if she could just make her father stand down… "You've lost, father. Getting arrested is better than dying. Please?"

"Et tu, Carol?"

"I have to," whispered Carol. She raised her voice, choking a little on the words. "You've gone too far. What's the point of winning if we're just as bad as the enemy?"

A bunch of whispering came from outside. She started the next cryotube. Khan had been continuing to wake them, even as she spoke to her father.

"Send a team to delay them." Her father said more loudly. "For God's sake, come to your senses, girl. You're helping a monster. If I get court-martialed, imagine what's going to happen to you? You'll be spending the rest of your life in a prison cell. And that's the best that could happen. You know Section 31 gets… tetchy when betrayed by its own."

"I've already know that. Did you really think I didn't think this through before getting involved?"

"Yes," said Marcus. "I'm sure you haven't thought it through." They continued arguing about everything Carol could come up with for the next ten minutes, punctuated by Khan threatening her life should Admiral Marcus come through that doorway. Meanwhile, they kept working on waking the Augments.

It was working. Khan helped the Japanese girl out of her cryocapsule, she leaning heavily on him as she struggled to find her feet.

That was when Dr. Marin hurled his shoes at Khan's head. Khan let the shoes bounce off, then stunned him again. Marin fell heavily back to the floor. "You saying?" he said politely.

Then the door blew in, spraying shrapnel everywhere.

Et tu, Brute? It's latin. According to Shakespeare, this is what Caesar said when he discovers his friend Brutus is among his assassins. It means approximately: You too, Brutus? It probably isn't accurate, but it is certainly dramatic.

Sorry for the short chapter length and long wait. The original short story collection 'The Box Turned Inside Out' is now up on Amazon, and STTID has finally made its way back up my priority list. If you want to make me really happy, go check out 'The Box Turned Inside Out' The-Box-Turned-Inside-Out-ebook/dp/B00M08LQDU . More to the point, I'm now back to trying to finish off STTID. Enjoy.