Molly felt a tremor course through her body. It was as if she physically experienced the ripple of events taking place outside her immediate purview. She shook her head but the sensation was too compelling to ignore. For a few seconds, she drifted as she tried to lock onto the images dancing in her mind akin to mirage waves.
"Dr. Hooper?"
She shook her head and looked up from her tricorder at the ship's blue-skinned Andorian pilot sitting atop one of her examination beds. Her patient's white brows arched above luminous crystal-blue eyes. An antennae twisted in Molly's direction slightly as if it were a miniature radar dish hunting for a signal.
"M-My apologies, Cedider," Molly murmured, "my red matter seems to be active again."
Fear widened Cecider's eyes. "Should I leave?"
Molly wagged her chin. "No, no, please, I am doped up with enough anti-matter to implode a small star. Besides, this feels . . . different. I cannot explain but, I-_ have control over it now."
"That is good to hear."
Molly dipped her chin. Guilt lashed her conscience. Cecider had only come to sick bay after it was clear her skin was going to scar and she had no choice but to seek treatment. Molly could sense her misgivings, the Andorian's anxiousness hummed in the air around them like a plucked string only Molly could hear. She inhaled a shallow breath, passed her thumb over the panel of the tricorder again and lifted up towards Cecider's mottled face. A magnified image of Cecider's flesh appeared on the screen. There were still several patches where her skin was still lacking Filigum, the Andorian protein responsible for her blue pigment. Molly reached for a dosing gun and gave it a shake. At least there was something she could do to help.
"I need to inject this into your neck, it is a . . . erm, well, like a steroid? It will help repair your burns."
Cecider nodded and tilted her head to one side. Molly pressed the dosing gun to her neck and gave her a shot. Just as Molly pulled the instrument away, she had another fit of visions. Cecider swam in and out of view. Then, she was replaced by the visage of a stone-faced Khan striding down a corridor with Commander Jorr at his side. Her patient's voice pulled her out of the moment before she could see where they were going.
"Wh-What? Sorry, what did you say?" Molly asked.
Cecider blinked a few times. "Will I need any more injections?"
"Oh, I think you might need another one in a day or so, but we will see how this goes, okay?"
Cecider nodded and stood up from the bed. Molly fought back a vision of Khan again.
"Thank-you for giving me a chance to tend to your injuries-"
The Andorian frowned. "What? Doctor, you saved our lives. None of us begrudge you our injuries. We are all very grateful for your help . . ."
"But you are afraid of me."
Cecider appeared to flush a deeper shade of blue.
Molly smiled sadly. "Hey, please, it is alright. I am afraid of me."
They finished up and Cecider departed. Before the sick bay doors could shut behind her, Molly was inundated with scenes from the shuttle bay. Finally, she could understand what she was seeing. She slammed her dosing gun into the sterilizer, shuffled out of her lab coat and sprinted for the turbo lift down the corridor from her medical bay.
"Computer, main shuttle bay!"
The turbo lift doors closed with a hiss. The lift didn't move, though.
"Computer! Shuttle. Bay."
"Dr. Hooper-"
Molly huffed. "I will move this lift on my own."
The computer did not offer a retort. Instead, the lift shifted and Molly felt its inertia hurtling her to her destination. In short order, she stomped into the shuttle bay to see Khan and Jorr in the cockpit of Jorr's craft. Khan's eyes flicked to her through the viewport and a wrinkle of irritation appeared between his brows. Molly rubbed her lips together as she felt her temperature rise.
"Where do you think you are going?" she shouted at the craft.
Khan stretched his neck behind the window into the shuttle. He said something to Jorr and they both put on their safety harnesses. Molly felt a great well of anger spring up inside. They were trying to leave without her! The sound of the engines powering up filled the bay. A voice resounded from above, it was Khan's timber patched over the system.
"Go back to duty, Dr. Hooper, we will return later."
Molly gritted her teeth and worked a kink out of her shoulders. The shuttle's engines grew louder and the craft levitated. Molly glowered at Khan.
"You aren't going anywhere," she muttered.
She lifted her hand and closed her fist. Instantly, the engines died and the bay went silent. She held the shuttle in a hover for a few seconds, then lurched it forward at an angle so that she was practically standing nose to nose with Khan. The Captain's lips pulled taut and his eyes narrowed. Jorr appeared to sigh and hunched forward. He turned his gaze to his co-pilot and hiked a brow. Molly watched him mouth the words, "I told you this was not going to work." Khan's nose wrinkled. He didn't answer though, he just flung off his belts and pushed out of his seat.
Molly opened her palm and the shuttle drifted backwards before allowing it to come down gently. Just as it settled into place, the shuttle hatch popped open. In a matter of heartbeats, Khan thundered out of the vehicle, crossed the floor and hovered over her like a storm cloud. A hot breath fanned through her hair which popped with static.
"This is ridiculous," he bit out as he stared down at her, "you are staying on board this ship and that is final."
She heaved in a breath. "No, I am not. I do not belong here."
Khan appeared to suppress a flinch. For a few seconds he glared down at her, his brows grew heavier. Then, he seemed to come to some sort of conclusion. His eyelid twitched.
"You think belong on Jevek? A planet you have never set foot on?"
Molly swallowed. "N-No."
His nostrils flared. His next words were rushed.
"Then why? Why do you want to leave m-, mm . . . ahem . . . leave here?"
She did not have a good answer for him. In truth, Molly was desperately afraid to be on her own. However, she felt like she was trapped in a nightmare at times as they winged their way through space. She just wanted to step onto the surface of a planet, any planet, and feel the ground beneath her feet and a breeze through her hair. The red matter had made her someone or something else that she didn't understand and she was scared of losing her humanity to its will. Even in that moment, with Khan hovering over her, she felt disconnected from him and everyone on board the Shrike. It was as if her loneliness had her falling backwards into a pit with the bright sky above receded like a closing aperture.
Molly took a moment to memorize every curve and line of Khan's unique features as if it was the last time she would ever see him. Something in his intense expression gave her this unhinged feeling of deja vu, though, and she began to feel insecure about her choice to leave. Even her red matter vibrated differently around him.
"I am coming with you," she whispered, "you do not have a choice in this."
She expected fury to spark in his eyes but instead he appeared momentarily resigned. His lips parted as if to say something but then he swore and glanced away. In a flash she was privy to a swirl of indecision within his brain before it shifted like an iceberg breaking off a glacier. Too late she realized what that meant.
"Ow!" Molly slapped a hand to her neck.
Her vision swam as she felt the icy spread of something through her collar. Her vision blurred. When her knees buckled, a strong arm caught her against a solid frame.
"Whut . . . di-id . . . y-you do?"
Khan leaned down, his chin brushed past her cheek. "I . . . I did what I had to do to keep . . . you."
Darkness closed in at the edges of her fading sight and she was scooped into his arms. Her head lolled against his brawny chest.
"I think I h-hate you, Khan Noonien Singh," she mumbled into his tunic.
"Good," bitterness laced his tone, "you should hate me for what I have done . . . what I will do . . ."
Molly awoke swearing and flailing to a dark room her quarters on the Shrike.
"I hate you!"
For several seconds she was quite groggy but bounced back from her slumber like the snap of an elastic when she recalled why she was there. She beat her fists against her mattress.
"Aaaarg!"
Like a charged lightning bolt she arced from her bed and paced in circles. Khan had drugged her somehow and knocked her out. He must have beat a hasty retreat afterwards for she was still dressed in her uniform. She felt rage slam into her like a tsunami at his betrayal. It was such an intense feeling that it felt foreign and for a tick, she experienced a sort of dual perspective as if she was both in a rage and watching one. Her scalp prickled and next thing she knew, her hair fitzed and popped as it lifted from her shoulders. Out of the corner of her eyes, her floating locks glowed pink and orange.
"Dr. Hooper," the Shrike's voice interrupted her tumultuous thoughts, "I sense an instability in your red matter infection."
"Uh-huh, thank-you for your insight," Molly ground out in a voice that echoed as if it were several tones layered over tones, "tell me, Shrike, for all your programming, you aren't really bound by any of it are you? Not if you can choose to ignore it?"
There was a brief silence before the ship responded.
"Dr. Hooper, you are compromised . . . Starfleet convention dictates-"
Molly's spine straightened like a rope pulled taut. "Bollocks!"
"Dr-"
"No, listen, Shrike. I get it, I do, but neither you nor Khan nor any being in existence is going to keep me a prisoner. I am leaving here, understood?"
A vacuum ensued for a tick.
"Understood, Dr. Hooper."
"Now, how long has he been gone?"
"Two hours. He landed on Jevek forty-three minutes ago."
Molly closed her eyes and peered through a red haze. Rain was just beginning to fall on Khan dressed in a trench-like jacket and Commander Jorr in something similar as they navigated their way through the streets of a city comprised of bubble-like glass structures nestled between giant ferns. In a blink, she was there, standing in his path. Khan was in the midst of speaking to his second in command when he glanced forward and their eyes met. His steps faltered two yards from where she stood and he half-turned his head as if he were having a hallucination. His eyes slid warily to Jorr then again to her. The drizzle increased to a determined shower. His hair flattened on his head and water trickled down his face. He smoothed back his bedraggled fringe. Molly's focus fixed squarely on him, she barely registered the humanoids and other forms scurrying about to get out of the torrent. The rain didn't touch her, though. It was as if the drops themselves leapt away from her like pedestrians from a runaway car.
"How did you get here?" he called warily, water flicked from his lips.
Molly snapped her fingers and she was under his nose. "Like that."
He teetered back. His face was stone but there was an uneasiness in his eyes. He gaze jerked over her face and took in the sight of her hair which still fluttered around her head like sea grass rolling in gentle waves.
"Molly-"
"Q!"
A sing-song voice cut through Molly's consciousness. She frowned. Something in the tone caused her head to pivot towards the source. To her left a lean, dark haired man in a black suit loitered near one of the bubble-like structures eating an apple. Just like her, the rain did not seem to fall on him. His brows twitched up when they made eye contact.
"Q," he lilted in an Irish accent, "come now, you must recognize who I am! It's me . . . Q!"
She squinted at the man. Memories, distant ones from her past life, rumbled forward like tumbling rocks. She had flashes of an evening at her old flat in London and of theatrical voices warbling from her television as she snuggled next to someone.
"Jim?" she thought, not knowing exactly why that name came to mind.
Molly's attention briefly reverted to Khan when he swore under his breath.
"Who is that?" Jorr muttered.
"Trouble," Khan returned, "at least from what I have heard. I have never met one. He must think Molly . . ."
Khan's voice trailed off as a thought appeared to niggle at him. He blinked and wagged his head as if in disagreement. His perplexed gaze scanned back and forth over her face.
"Nooo," he drawled slowly, "no, you are human."
The Irish man started chuckling and sauntered forward but every other step he disappeared and reappeared as if he were jumping through time. In milliseconds he was standing next to Jorr and examining him disdainfully. His nose scrunched and he peered at Khan with an equally bemused expression.
"Nah, she's not human, mate," he took a bite of his apple then spit out bits of it as he spoke again, "she's Q but I don't expect your puny little mind to comprehend that."
A blip in time later, the man's arm was around her shoulder and he squeezed it like they were long lost friends. He flipped the half-eaten apple out of his hand. Before it landed, there was a pop and the fruit disappeared.
"You bored yet with all of this, Q?" he asked with a swan of his free arm. "I mean, not that time matters or anything but, geez, you've been here for how long now? Uhg! Ten seconds and I want to take my own life! Ha! Let's go, shall we?"
Molly wiggled out of his grasp and stumbled back.
"N-No! I don't even know you."
The man threw up his hands dramatically. "Wha-at? Q! That hurts."
He snapped his fingers. The rain stopped sheeting instantaneously and they were bathed in a blistering sunlight.
Their visitor winked at Khan. "She acts coy but she knows me very well . . . veeery well."
Khan's eyes narrowed to a furious glower at the taunt.
The man's brows drew together in a mimic of his fury. He poked his lips out as he waggled his brows at her once more.
"Ooh, Q, he's mad. That's fun!"
Molly heaved in a breath. "My name is not Q. It is Molly Hooper. I do not know you, sir."
She must have gotten through to him because his amused mask fell away. He lifted his chin and started shaking his head.
"Ah, no, darling, you are not Molly Hooper. You are Q and you are coming home with me."