A/N: if you read it, please tell me what you think, whether good or bad.
# # #
Khan had deigned it fit to appear five hours later, as cool and collected as ever, while Carol felt anything but. For some irrational reason his composure infuriated her. He managed to pour gasoline over the fire by calmly asking if they were ready to leave.
"We are, if you are done with your stroll around the neighborhood," she replied caustically.
He tilted his head to the side, a bemused expression crossing his features. "Do I take it that I have been missed?"
She didn't think. She just flung her half-drunken mug of coffee at his head. He ducked and the cup shattered itself against the bulkhead.
"Are you feeling better?" he asked loftily.
She scoffed. "I would've felt better, if I hadn't missed."
He gave her a smile that was almost impish. "Would you like to try again?"
"No, I think I'm done... for now."
"Something to live for then," he remarked.
Carol rolled her eyes and jumped into the command console seat before he could. She arched an eye-brow at him, when he gave her a pointed looked, and began lifting-off procedures. Left with nothing else to do safe bodily removing her from the chair, he sat in the place of the co-pilot. Minutes later, they maneuvered their way up into the atmosphere and far away from the planet. They had to cut through the Badlands to avoid spending longer than necessary in Federation space. With experience and a fully operational vessel, the could do so faster and more efficient than the first time around. For a while they navigated in silence, falling into the familiar rhythm of a team work that had been startlingly easy to establish.
"Could we transfer helm to stand-by for a while?" she asked. "I want to show you something."
He agreed and she strolled to the charts at the back of the bridge. "Have you heard of the Xindi?" she inquired once he followed her there.
"An alien alliance currently bordering the Federation but negotiating for entrance. You've had unfortunate entanglements with them in the last century."
She smiled slightly. "Well informed as usual." She tapped her right index finger against the location of the Azati star system. "In the 22nd century Azati Prime housed a weapons base, but it's now occupied by civilian installations and Xindi-Aquatics cities. However, a planetoid on the edge of the system is being used as junkyard for ships with outdated technology. I know it's quite a detour from our route to Talos III, but at least, it's through territory Section 31 can't have access to. And the security around abandoned ships is bound to be light, if there is any to begin with."
"You think I could find a ship there for me and my people."
"Well, you won't be fitting seventy-two cryotubes on this one, not without a cargo bay. These ships would be out of commission so their technology is going to be decades or even a century behind the one currently being used by the Xindi, but they are more advanced than most Federation members and they do build to last."
He nodded, looking thoughtful, as he looked over the distance from their location to the Azati system.
"This ship used to belong to the Denobulan doctor on the Enterprise that made first contact with the Xindi so you should find a lot of information on their 22nd century tech in its databases," she continued. "Since we now have full power, I can take care of the brunt of piloting the ship, while you learn what you need."
"Thank you, Carol. Would you mind if I started right after we plot a course for the Azati system?"
She assured him it was fine. "Aren't you going to ask why I didn't tell you all this sooner?"
He gave a speculative glance. "No, I am not!"
# # #
"Insectoid and Reptilian ships? You'd prioritize the most bellicose of the Xindi species," she observed glancing over his shoulder at the Denobulan-style pad he was studying. She backtracked to the unoccupied seat on the bridge and made herself comfortable, balancing her plate of Risian sea food on her lap.
"You seem to know quite a lot about Xindi," he noted.
She shrugged biting into a fried Risian sepia. "I had a Xindi-Arboreal classmate at Oxford," she explained once she had chewed and swallowed her mouthful. "He was very friendly and eager to talk about his people. He later caused a quite a scandal when he ran off with our Andorian professor of quantum temporal mechanics, ending up entangled in the complexities of Andorian familiar relationships. It almost dissolved into an interstellar incident."
He set his pad on the console in front of him. "Are there a lot of aliens studying at Terran universities?"
"Yes, especially in the last few decades. Anyone can apply, regardless of their planet of origin and some of our universities have formed consortiums with similar institutions outside the Sol system. For instance, I hold a double doctorate from Oxford and the Archer University in New Samarkand on Alpha Centauri III."
He was staring straight at her, an unfamiliar intensity in his kaleidoscopic eyes. Something surged to the forefront of her mind and she chuckled. "Oh, that's right. You occupied the old Samarkand."
He smiled indulgently, not tearing his gaze from her. "Not for long."
The spell was broken a second later when the burst of static form the sensors alerted them that they were entering the Azati system. Their journey through Xindi space had been uneventful. While Starfleet needed permission from the Xindi Council to breach their territory, the excellent relations between the Federation and their neighbors made regular ships belonging to the members a common sight in this area of space so nobody had bothered them along the way.
They slowed down to impulse, as they slipped inside the star system and carefully slithered to the moon where the ship junkyard was located. The red giant cast incandescent burgundy and magenta rays, silhouetting the four planets and their satellites both natural and artificial against the darkness of space. Among them stood the turquoise shape of Azati Prime sprinkled with the white of vapor clouds.
"It's beautiful," she murmured.
The ship gave an abrupt jerk, distracting her. "Is there something the matter?" she asked pouring over the instruments.
"No," he shot back. "I merely increased speed. We're pressed for time."
She stole one last glance at the Xindi-Aquatic jewel in the distance before returning her attention to her console and to maneuvering their vessel into position above their intended destination. She had never been in Xindi space before, but she had heard many good things about Azati Prime that had come a long way since Archer's historical mission the previous century. The Xindi military had withdrawn from the system and the Aquatics had apparently built modern and sleek underwater cities that were not only very prosperous but quickly becoming a tourist attraction renown in the entire section.
Carol felt a pang at the thought that had she entered the Azati system on the Enterprise, she could have visited both Prime and the other local Xindi colony and immersed herself into the culture of a most unique civilization, with which her own world had a fascinating history. She shoved the regret into a corner of her mind best reserved for lost causes and concentrated on the task at hand, even as her fingers were numb while activating the commands of her console.
Their ship was just beginning its descent, when the sensors demanded her focus again. "Wait," she cautioned. "I'm getting a strange reading off the surface of the planetoid... . Hold... . Life signs!"
"Xindi?" he inquired.
"No. This celestial body's atmosphere is too rich in fluorite for any of the Xindi species and there is no other habitat structure down there except for the abandoned ships."
"Could it be an animal?"
"A large one at that. Many planets devoid of sentient life forms do have non sentient ones, some of them predatory. We'll have to be careful." She straightened herself up and looked at him. He was scowling, hovering protectively over his console. "Seen anything you like?" she asked.
"I have," he said looking thoughtful and pulled the imagine of the ship he wanted on the view screen. It was a threefold 22nd century Insectoid ship with a blue-gray hull.
"Are you sure you want an Insectoid one? This one reads as fully-functional, but it doesn't even have a bridge."
He rotated the view of the ship sideways. "This is precisely why I chose it. Its command processes are distributed throughout so I can route them to a central unit and fly it on my own. Any of the other ships would have required a full crew compliment."
Her eyes darted from the Xindi vessel on the screen to his impassive, sculptured profile. "May I ask you something?"
"It depends on the question," he said without missing a beat.
"How long did it take you to learn about Starfleet ships?"
"Several hours," he responded casually. He expertly landed their vessel on the side of the Xindi ship he had set his sights on. "I have an eidetic memory and an estimated IQ of 380. I also might have slightly exaggerated, when I told Kirk and Spock that your father wanted to exploit my savagery and not my intellect."
She got out of her chair in order to follow him off the bridge. "Too bad there isn't a gene for modesty," she quipped as she caught up with him.
He didn't reply to her barb, only lifted a querying eyebrow when they reached the tiny decontamination chamber attached to the medical bay. She went in first. "I wouldn't miss the opportunity to see inside a historical Xindi ship for anything in this world," she said as she keyed the the room sealed and switched environmental controls to negative pressure, once he stepped inside as well.
"Alright," he acquiesced reaching for one of the nearby space suits.
# # #
The Insectoid Xindi ship closely resembled a hive, a darkened, cavernous one with narrow corridors and arched opened area filled with inert equipment. The vessel seemed to have been retired rather than decommissioned, as her tricorder was informing her that its fuel reserves were intact and the warp core was ready for flight. Carol had to give it to him: he couldn't have made a better choice. She was currently inspecting something familiar to her: the weapons systems. The torpedoes had been removed, but the particle cannons and the shields still worked. She was alone, after they had parked the Denobulan vessel in the Insectoid one's roomy shuttle bay, and Khan had gone to test his theory of rerouting operational command to a central processor.
The atmosphere aboard had been calibrated for Xindi Insectoids, but it had the option of being switched to something humanoids would tolerate so they had had no problem in making themselves at home. She was looking into turning the shields on, when she heard a noise behind her. She pivoted around, drawing her phaser. It was the only weapon she and Khan had and he had seen her take it along, but he hadn't objected nor had he asked for it.
The phaser flew from her hands before she had had an opportunity to properly aim it, pain exploding up her arm. What had hit her was a vigorous, scale-covered tail of a large quadruped that wasted no time in putting her on her back, giant paws pressing onto her chest, restricting her breathing. A set of four, oval orange eyes stared her down from above gleaming fangs. A thunderous roar broke shattered the silence of the empty ship. Panic licked at her consciousness, as her arms flailed, padding at the floor in search of her dropped phaser.
Then the beast was gone. Khan had grabbed it by the mix of fur and scales on its nape with an inhuman growl of his own. She recognized the savage determination etched into the lines of the augment's face. In that moment Khan had more in common with the wild animal he was engaged in combat with than with her. The muscles in his arms bulged, the laser focus in his gaze burning with malevolent fury. Paralysis locked her limbs, even as in the back of her mind, she knew she should grab her phaser and help him in the fight with the creature that had attacked her. Before she could react, however, a loud crack reverberated in her ears.
Everything shifted. The sandy brown light became a blue hallo. The walls changed shape. Pain sparked in her leg. The pain of shattered bone, chips of it cutting into her muscle. Her father... . She had seen his skull break open under Khan's fingers, blood splattering against the floor. The augment had wiped his stained hands on her father's uniform. Revulsion and despair overcame her, as her heart was beating out of her chest. The same blood-stained hands had been on her, caressing, searching for skin underneath her clothes.
She screamed in horror, as Khan advanced on her. Her stomach was roiling and her cheeks were wet. She tried to draw back, but the bulkhead was blocking her escape. She wanted to stand and run, but the pain in her left leg was now excruciating. Her head was spinning.
"No... please," she begged, appalled at how pathetic she sounded.
Khan was calling her name, cajoling, asking if she was hurt. He crouched in front of her and extended his arm to touch her leg. She remembered the phaser by her side, took it and trained it on him. "Get away from me or I'll kill you," she warned.
He held up his palms, which were oddly enough clean of blood. "Carol, listen to me," he besought. "You are safe. You are no longer on the Vengeance."
"I said: get away from me!"
He did not budge. "Alright, but first tell me: are you in any kind of pain?"
"My leg," she rasped, her vision growing increasingly blurry. She was crying again. Crying and holding a weapon with a trembling hand.
Her surroundings were fawn-colored once more, the lightening bleary and alien. She relaxed her grip on the phaser and chanced a look at its settings. It was on kill. Awkwardly trying to straighten herself up, she slowly put the weapon down. Through it all Khan had not moved from its range, his eyes filled with concern as he looked her over. Behind him the alien wild life form lay on the floor, its neck twisted at an unnatural angle. Whatever that thing had for a spine, Khan had snapped it clean and saved her from being torn to shreds.
TBC