Chapter-10:

It was well underway. He had been back at Starbase 12 for nearly two months, a regretfully small percentage of that time spent with the woman who increasingly took over his every thought and desire. To have her—to be had by her—was just enough to quell the rage inside of him for a little while. He often entertained the thought that the only reason why Lassiter was still alive was because of Marla. However, even she was blissfully unaware of just how close he was to breaking the young Commander in two every time he hovered over where Khan was working. She managed to inspire mercy in him, or lenience at the very least. But there were larger things at play than his affair with her, which was potentially doomed to end upon his escape if she wasn't strong enough to follow.

Though he tolerated it with bared teeth, the majority of these past two months was spent on finally realizing the designs he had made of new long-range photon torpedoes. Marcus was greatly impressed by these particular designs. With these, a starship could destroy a target from beyond sensor range, so as to be untraceable and allowing for stealth attacks. Khan personally preferred his victims to know full well who was about to decimate their lives or destroy it completely. That was the true way to gain power. Concealment only carried one so far, and Marcus was more secrecy than assertiveness. All it would take was for someone to shine a light on Marcus's shadows, and he would crumble from top to bottom. Those were politics that Khan could do without.

So, Khan played on Marcus's obsessive need to be covert by specially designing these torpedoes. The schematics that Khan had transmitted to the admiral were slight variations of the ones he was truly using in his building, however. What Marcus didn't see was the extra space within the shell of the weapon that was just large enough to contain a cryo-tube.

The time came to report the completion of the prototype torpedoes to Admiral Marcus. The last of his crew had been hidden in the weapons. Once reported, they were to be shipped to the secret space dock immediately, naturally escorted by his usual keeper, Commander Lassiter. It was a long enough journey to Jupiter where anything was bound to happen—such as his daring and imminent escape.

There was one thing he needed to do before taking another step. He was in the secure hangar, where his torpedoes were being stored. They were pristine looking weapons, finely crafted and ingeniously designed for superiority and fraud. They were both functional warheads and life support systems; a contradiction of giving or destroying life. No cargo was more precious than this.

He carried a PADD, making the official report to maintain his guise of cooperation. The report was mostly to pass the time, for the thing he was truly waiting for eventually came through the door at the far end of the hangar. Even through the noise and clamor of the forklifts and working personnel, he knew when she came in. When she spotted him amongst the clutter, a smile blossomed on her face that almost provoked one onto his own. Due to so many people at work around them, they kept a professional outward attitude towards one another, but that didn't stop him from drifting in close.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked nonchalantly, though he could see her breath catch as he trailed a knuckle across the soft edge of her hand.

"I'll be transmitting the report within the hour," he did not need to explain the implication. She knew. "Are you afraid?"

"Yes… but in a wonderful way." She was still smiling. She had developed such a lively glow about her since he had first seen her, one that he knew he had no small part in.

"Everything will unfold quickly the moment our ship undocks," he warned. "Alarms will be raised and death warrants issued. You could avoid prosecution if you tell them you were threatened. Or, you could come with me."

He paused to watch her reaction, to see if he could read any sudden panic. Her lips only parted slightly, her eyes fixing on his.

"Be at my side," he could not help the underlying plea of his words. "I refuse to manufacture any love from you, and so I leave you free to choose. If you come with me," his words came out more carefully, more concisely as he watched her every expression, "it is because it is what you wish to do."

"I'm coming with you," she did not even hesitate to answer.

It made his heart soar and sink all at once. Either she truly did love him and would follow him to the ends of the universe, or she was a blind follower. It was maddening that he did not know for certain. "Don't answer now," he spoke more sharply now. "There's little value in words alone. I'll know once and for all where you stand when you come here at 18:00 tomorrow. If you're not here, even one minute past, I'll know. And I'll leave alone."

She still smiled beautifully. "I'll be here. No matter what, I'll come."

"18:00," he reminded, almost too emphatically for a man who never repeated a command twice.

Another officer had come nearby, and though she was busy with her own inspection of nearby crates, she was near enough to be a nuisance.

"You may go, lieutenant," he said curtly, turning his shoulder to Marla as he bowed his head over the PADD once more.

"Thank you, commander," she contained a smile as she turned on her heel and walked out the way she came.

He stole a moment to lift his eyes from his report to watch her, just before she vanished from his line of sight. If she decided against coming with him, this could very well be the last time he laid eyes on her intoxicatingly red hair. There was a great possibility that in the next 20 hours, she could change her mind.

It frightened him.