Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ. Longest hiatus EVER. I am ever so sorry for the massive delay on this update, so as a way to (attempt) to make it up to you guys, this chapter is extra long ;P...ENJOY THE CHAPTER!
P.S. Don't own shit.
"What exactly are we looking for?" Connor questioned as his fingers flew across the nav system's touch screens on the small shuttle.
"Not sure." Scotty replied as he steered the shuttle precisely toward the coordinates Jim had relayed to him. "Kirk suspected we'd know it when we saw it."
"Helpful, that." Connor mumbled as they crested one of Jupiter's many moons. That was when they saw it. "What the bloody hell is that?" Connor muttered, eyes wide as he stared at the singular space dock floating between Jupiter and Io, one of the large planet's moons.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Scotty muttered as he stared wide eyed at the station that hadn't shown up on any database he had looked at. "But for supposedly not existing, that is one bloody huge space dock."
Connor nodded in agreement without taking his eyes off the enormous floating dock. "Should we try to board? I think we should, but considering it's not supposed to be here, I'm guessing the security is pretty tight."
As Scotty opened his mouth to agree, they spotted a party of work ships approaching the station. "We don't have time to discuss this. It's now or never." Scotty quickly swung their craft around and joined the party of incoming vessels. To their amazement, and relief, they were not contacted or recognized as impostors as the fleets approached the now slowly opening doors.
"Here goes nothing," Connor said.
"What've we got?" Ana asked as she entered the med bay, almost plowing over Bones as he rushed past the door to his cluttered desk.
"You better see for yourself. Bit hard to explain how hidden inside the mysterious torpedoes Admiral Marcus sent us to use on Harrison, are cryotubes containing people we can only assume are genetically enhanced like our unexpected guest, whose blood is showing some pretty astounding qualities, by the way." At Ana's look of bewildered shock, Bones paused in his frantic activity and gestured over his shoulder. "I told you, you better see for yourself. Kirk's in there."
Ana, trying to process what sounded to her like craziness, entered through an archway to find Kirk, Spock, and Carol Marcus gathered around what she took to be one of the torpedoes Bones had mentioned. The top of the torpedo was open to reveal a figure inside of it, enveloped in frost and appearing to be asleep.
"What is this?" she asked no one in particular.
"Bones and Carol discovered this when they went down to the uninhabited moon to see what was inside these things. It was a bit of a difficult process, but Harrison's information seems to be valid." Bones, who had just entered the room, looked shocked at Kirk description of a "difficult process."
"Oh, it'd seem much more difficult if it had been you down there about to get your arm torn off and your pretty little head blown all the way into Klingon space!" Kirk gave him a smile.
"Bloody hell! How long was I asleep for?" Ana looked between her comrades, her brow furrowed.
"Only as long as we could spare you." Jim replied, arm crossed over his chest and a serious expression on his face. "We need your expertise."
"I knew there was something strange about these torpedoes since I heard about them." Carol cut in. "Usually my father keeps me well informed about new weapons tech, so when he kept me in the dark about these," she motioned towards the torpedoes, "I grew a bit suspicious. I never thought this was what he was trying to hide, however."
"Is that what Harrison was talking about in the brig? The torpedoes?" Ana asked before her brow furrowed in confusion. "Wait a second." She turned to look at the blond doctor. "The admiral is your father?"
"Yes." She responded a bit breathlessly before thrusting her hand towards Ana, who had no choice but the grasp it. "Carol Marcus. Pleased to meet you, Captain Sullivan." She then immediately turned back to Spock and continued voicing her suspicions about the torpedoes, including repeating Ana's previous question about Harrison's knowledge of the weapons.
"He did not specify what we would find, but merely suggested there was something suspicious on board the Enterprise." Spock stated. "The captain assumed, however illogically, that Harrison was referring to the torpedoes, and ordered Dr.'s Marcus and McCoy to, as he referred to it, 'pop one open.'"
"If I hadn't ordered it, we would still be in the dark about these." Jim waved toward the open torpedo and the cryotube inside. "It was a pretty significant detail for Marcus to leave out when he ordered these on board my ship." The usually easy going captain had a look of both anger and concern on his face.
"Well, it seems to me that we are going to have to talk to Harrison again to find out how much he knows." Ana suggested. Kirk nodded almost absentmindedly.
"Right." He turned to look at Ana. "I want you there with Spock and me when we talk to him again." Ana hesitated for a moment before answering.
"Very well." She replied before following Kirk and Spock out of the med bay and towards the brig.
Jim, followed closely behind by Spock and Ana, entered the brig and approached Harrison's cell. The man in question was seated on the simple cot in his cell, back ramrod straight and his hands placed firmly on his knees. Ana immediately noticed that his eyes followed her closely as she made her way closer to his cell to stand between Jim and his Vulcan first officer. Only when the less than congenial Starfleet captain spoke, did Harrison's gaze move from her to study Kirk.
"Why is there a man in that torpedo?" Kirk questioned simply.
"There are men and women in all those torpedoes, Captain." Harrison responded without hesitation. "I put them there." Jim's brows furrowed in confusion as he quickly glanced at Ana before turning his gaze back to Khan.
"Who the hell are you?" Harrison stared at the three of them for a moment before answering.
"A remnant of a time long past. Genetically engineered to be superior so as to lead others to peace in a world at war." Ana thought back to her face off with Harrison back on Kronos and suddenly everything made sense: his strength, speed and his intelligence. Ana probably didn't stand a chance against him back on Kronos. By the time she was able to turn her thoughts back to the conversation at hand, Jim was speaking once more.
"I looked up John Harrison. Until a year ago, he didn't exist." Jim stated, arms folded across his chest.
"John Harrison was a fiction created the moment I was awoken by your Admiral Marcus to help him advance his cause," he tilted his head to the side and squinted his eyes ever so slightly, "a smokescreen to conceal my true identity." His intense cerulean gaze found Ana's once more. "My name is Khan."
It was just a name, Ana attempted to convince herself. But for some inexplicable reason, when spoken by him, it became more. From the deep rasp of his voice to his cold, intense gaze, his name became a threat. A warning of what was yet to come. Apparently the revelation of "Harrison's" true identity had the same effect on her compatriots. Both Jim a Spock remained silent for a moment before the former spoke up.
"Why would a Starfleet admiral ask a three-hundred-year-old frozen man for help?" Jim questioned.
"Because I am better." Khan declared as his gaze drifted towards Ana momentarily.
"At what?" Kirk questioned snidely.
"Everything." Khan stated simply, before he began to pace around his cell. "Alexander Marcus needed to respond to an uncivilized threat in a civilized time, and for that he needed a warriors mind—my mind— to design weapons and warships."
"You are suggesting the admiral violated every regulation he vowed to uphold, simply because he wanted to exploit your intellect." Spock asserted.
"He wanted to exploit my savagery." Khan countered. "Intellect alone is useless in a fight, Mr. Spock." Khan looked the Vulcan up and down with a smirk on his face. "You, you can't even break a rule, how can you be expected to break bone?" His smirk turned into a frown. "Your Admiral Marcus is not the upstanding Starfleet officer you believe him to be. He is a ruthless man whose ambition nearly matches my own and it has been his goal to transform Starfleet from a peace keeping and exploratory armada, into a deadly weapon. He began this mission nearly twenty years ago when he was just a captain and he conspired against his fellow officer, James Sullivan, and ordered the assassination of him and his Romulan wife." He turned his heated gaze on Ana before continuing. "He then framed Romulan assassins for the attack in order to create greater tension between the Federation and the Romulan Empire. His plan worked and he was immediately put in charge of a new, top-secret division of Starfleet, ordered with the task of creating offensive weapons: Section 31." The three Starfleet officers outside of Khan's cell remained silent for a few moments.
"How the hell do you know all of that." Ana questioned, her voice low and slightly uneven.
"I assure you, the admiral was quite open with me about the subject." Khan responded.
"You're lying." Ana stated simply, shaking her head in denial.
"I speak the truth, Captain Sullivan." He countered. "Perhaps you are simply choosing not to believe it." Khan approached the glass wall of his cell and looked down at Ana and lowered his voice into a low murmur. "How does it make you feel, Captain Sullivan, knowing that you have been bowing and scraping to the man who had your parents killed right before your eyes?" He smiled darkly. "It burns you, doesn't it?" At this point, Ana was shaking with anger, her pent up emotions of betrayal, sadness, and rage welling up inside of her. Khan noticed her walls crumbling, and so did Kirk.
"Ana." Jim put a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe you should step out for a bit."
"I'm fine." She responded, a bit too sharply.
"Captain Kirk is correct." Spock stated. "I believe that your emotions have been compromised." Ana ripped her shoulder out of Jim's grasp and after glaring at Khan one more time, stormed out of the brig, Khan's gaze boring into her back. When she was back in the brightly lit hallway of the ship, Ana leaned heavily against the wall and took a deep breath. She didn't have the time or the luxury to let herself dwell on what Khan and just imparted to her. He was attempting to get inside her head, and if Ana was being honest with her self, he was succeeding. She needed to push it to the back of her mind and turn her thoughts back to the situation at hand, which was getting the blasted ship back in working order and taking Khan back to Earth so he could be locked up indefinitely. Ana sighed. Marcus was not going to be happy with her about not following orders and eliminating Khan back on Kronos, and with the less than pleasant thoughts about what her punishment would be once she got back planet-side, she made her way towards the med bay to search out Dr. Marcus and Dr. McCoy. Ana wished to discuss in more detail who and what exactly they thought Khan and his "crew" were.
Khan glared after the two incompetent Starfleet officers as they ran out of the brig and towards the bridge. These people were lauded to be some of the best and brightest in the galaxy, and yet they couldn't even recognize the wolf within their very own fold. A wolf by the name of Alexander Marcus. Khan was suddenly roused from his thoughts as five, very large Starfleet security officers dressed in red approached his cell. Khan gazed at them, unblinkingly, as one broke away from the group and approached the control panel on the outside of his cell and entered the access code. The glass wall of Khan's prison disappeared and a moment later, he was surrounded by the security officers and led out of the brig and towards, what he assumed, was the med bay. As he was being led through the brightly lit corridors of the Enterprise, Khan couldn't stop his thoughts from turning once more to Rhiana Sullivan, the perplexing half-Romulan Starfleet captain who both confused, enraged, and impressed him with her strength and her unflinching loyalty to an organization such as Starfleet. Even when faced with the truth about her parents' fate at the command of Admiral Marcus, Captain Sullivan still held strong to her beliefs. Which, Khan reflected, would have been an admirable quality, if it wasn't so foolish. Khan was so uncharacteristically lost in his thoughts pertaining to his grudging admiration for Captain Sullivan, that he did not notice that he and his "entourage" had reached the double doors of the med bay, which promptly swished open, revealing the subject of Khan's previous and highly distracting reflections.
"What the hell is he doing here?" Captain Sullivan questioned from her position next to the doctor who had taken his blood earlier.
"I could ask you the same question, Captain." Khan responded, as he was led to a nearby bio-bed and forced to take a seat. "Shouldn't you be on the bridge with your comrades? It sounded as if they were having trouble."
"Kirk suggested I take a break and calm down, so that's exactly what I'm doing." She stated as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him across the med-bay, whose other occupants had stopped what they were previously doing to silently observe the conversation with great interest. "Not that it's any of your bloody business, Khan." She paused for a moment. "Or is it Harrison? One could not help but be confused when lies surround you like a moat around a castle." Khan observed her silently for a moment as she glared at him in return, and he was reminded of the thoughts he had of her as he was being led to the med bay not five minutes ago. Looking at her now, standing straight-backed and confident before him, her eyes alight, cheeks flushed slightly green with anger and her crimson hair like a flaming halo crowning her head, Khan could not help but to view her as more than a respected and admirable adversary, but as a beautiful and, if Khan was being completely honest with himself, a decidedly desirable woman. In fact, if circumstances were different, Khan would have enjoyed making Rhiana Sullivan his next conquest…but sadly, circumstances were not different.
"Perhaps you should take Kirk's advice, Captain, and calm yourself." Khan finally responded, following his brief moment of reflection. "You're letting your anger get the better of you." Ana took an angry step towards him and opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, the screens in the med bay filled with the disgruntled image of none other than Admiral Alexander Marcus. All thoughts of Rhiana Sullivan fled as Khan's body went rigid with hatred while the other occupants of the med bay turned their attention to the various view screens and began watching the exchange between Kirk and Marcus with great interest. Captain Sullivan immediately noticed his reaction to Marcus' image and eyed him suspiciously before turning to watch the confrontation herself, a confrontation which was getting rather heated at that point.
"Is there something I can help you find, sir?" Kirk questioned.
"Where is your prisoner, Kirk?" Marcus countered, causing Khan to grit his teeth in annoyance. Prisoner, indeed. He was here because her chose to be, in order to protect his people and to seek revenge on the bastard who put them in danger in the first place.
"Per Starfleet regulation, I'm planning on returning Khan to Earth to stand trial." Kirk responded. There was a brief, but heated silence before Marcus spoke once again.
"Well, shit." He muttered as he rubbed his brow irritably. "You talked to him." It was a statement, not a question. "This was exactly what I was hoping to spare to you from. I took a tactical risk when I woke that bastard up, believing that his superior intelligence could help us protect ourselves from whatever came at us next." Marcus leaned forward. "But I made a mistake. And now the blood of everybody he's killed is on my hands." He stated, not an ounce of feeling behind his words. "So I'm asking you, give him to me so that I can end what I started." Kirk stared at him intently for a moment before sighing.
"And what exactly would you like me to do with the rest of his crew, sir?" He queried. "Fire them at the Klingons?" End seventy two lives?" He shook his head. "Start a war in the process?"
"He put those people in those torpedoes." Marcus shot back, voice raised. "And I simply didn't want to burden you with knowing what was inside of them. You saw what this man can so all by himself. Can you imagine what would happen if we woke up the rest of his crew?" Khan continued to stare straight ahead, back rigid and face impassive, but on the inside he was raging. He would die before Marcus came within a foot of any member of his crew. Khan was so lost in his own anger that he did not notice that Kirk was speaking once more.
"He's in engineering, sir." Kirk stated. "But I'll have him moved to the transporter room right away."
"I'll take it from here." Marcus said before he ended the transmission and all the screens in the med bay went black momentarily before switching back to their normal functions. Khan couldn't keep the small and momentary smile from his face. Kirk had taken pity on him and now he was willing to protect him from Marcus, not that he needed that oaf of a man's protection, but he would need Kirk's help if he wanted to get onto Marcus' ship…which he intended on doing as soon as possible.
Ana glared at Khan across the med bay, eyes narrowing when she noticed a brief smile flit across his face following the termination of Jim's altercation with Marcus. What was that bastard up to? Her thoughts were interrupted when the ship suddenly sprang into warp. She sighed.
"Nice job, Jim." She muttered sarcastically. Now every crew member on that ship would be considered a traitor to the Federation. Defying the orders of a Starfleet admiral wasn't exactly the best idea…she would know.
"Well, at least we're moving again." Ana heard Bones state as he began scanning Khan with a tricorder.
"If you think you're safe at warp," Khan murmured, "you're wrong." Ana immediately felt a sense of dread at his words. Apparently she wasn't the only one…
"Carol, what is it?" Ana questioned after noticing the strained expression of the weapon's specialist's face.
"Something's not right." The blond responded cryptically before bolting out of the med bay. Ana immediately bolted after her and followed her through the winding corridors of the Enterprise and towards what Ana assumed was the bridge.
"Carol!" Ana half-yelled from behind the surprisingly nimble doctor. "What the bloody hell is the matter?"
"My father's ship." She shouted breathlessly over her shoulder. "It's not what it seems!"
"Not helpful!" Ana shot back as they reached the doors to the bridge, which promptly slid open.
"Permission to come of the bridge?" Carol inquired, slightly winded.
"Dr. Marcus." Kirk replied, a confused expression on his face which intensified when he spied Ana standing behind her. "Captain Sullivan?"
"He's gonna catch up with us," Carol began speaking immediately and at a rather accelerated speed, "and when he does, the only thing that's gonna stop him destroying this ship is me, so you have to let me talk to him."
"Carol, we're at warp." Kirk responded. "He can't catch up with us."
"Yes, he can." Carol countered, without skipping a beat. "He's been developing a ship that has advanced warp capabilities…" But she was suddenly interrupted by a very distraught Sulu.
"Captain! I'm getting a reading I don't understand." The pilot stated, brows furrowed. Not a moment later, the ship lurched dangerously as they were fired upon. Ana grabbed onto a nearby railing before she was thrown across the bridge, but could not prevent begin knocked of her feet, her head hitting the brightly polished floor with a painful crack. She winced as she assessed her surroundings and noticed that much of the bridge crew were in worse shape than her. The ship gave another jarring lurch before dropping out of warp and coming to a dead stop.
"Where are we?" Kirk immediately inquired.
"We're 237,000 kilometers from Earth." Sulu responded before Jim demanded a full damage report of the ship. A moment later, the attack continued and the bridge was again filled with flashes of red and orange light as the view screen displayed the image of the giant starship that Ana assumed was Marcus'. Kirk was in the midst of shouting more orders when Carol interrupted him once more.
"Captain, stop!" She shouted. "Everyone on this ship is going to die if you don't let me speak to him." Kirk stared at her intently, breath coming in huffs, before turning to address his communications officer.
"Uhura, hail him." Kirk ordered. Carol turned to face the screen and began speaking.
"Sir, It's me." She stated. "It's Carol." The phaser shots ceased before the confused and angry visage of Admiral Marcus filled the view screen seconds later. His expression grew almost murderous, though, when he spotted Ana standing next to Jim. Apparently he hadn't expected to see her on the Enterprise…or alive, for that matter. Maybe Khan was right about him, Ana thought grudgingly before Marcus finally spoke.
"What the hell are you doing on that ship?" He questioned, voice rough with anger and disbelief. Whether the inquiry was aimed at his daughter or at Ana was unclear, but Carol was the one to respond regardless.
"I heard what you said." Carol began, stepping closer to the view screen. "That you made a mistake and now you're doing everything you can to fix it." She paused, her face softening with emotion. "But, Dad, I-I don't believe that the man who raised me is capable of destroying a ship full of innocent people. And, if I'm wrong about that, you're going to have to do it with me on board." She raised her chin in defiance as she finished her statement.
"Actually, Carol, I won't." He declared, and not a moment later, Carol was enveloped by the swirling lights of a transporter beam.
"Can we intercept the transporter signal?" Kirk questioned.
"No, sir." A crewman responded. A heartbeat later, Carol disappeared from the bridge with a scream. Ana and Jim shared a sideways glance before Marcus spoke up once more.
"Captain Kirk, without authorization and in league with the fugitive John Harrison, you went rogue in enemy territory, leaving me no choice but to hunt you down and destroy you." He sat back in his captain's chair before giving the order: "Lock phasers."
"Have you lost your mind?" Ana exclaimed as she approached the view screen, an expression of horror on her face. "Do you honestly intend on killing all of us in cold blood? You're the bloody head of Starfleet, not a mass murderer!" Marcus glared at her intently for a moment before speaking.
"You know what, Sullivan?" He said, a considerate expression replacing his glare. "You're absolutely right." He agreed. "I can't kill all of you. After all," he leaned forward in his chair and stared directly at Ana, "I'm not finished with you yet." Seconds later, Ana was surrounded by bright, swirling lights and then everything went black.
Dun, dun, DUN...