I do not own nor profit from Star Trek or Gene Roddenberrys creations

A/N: Thank you Icesong180, and also the Purple Cricket for their reviews. I always love reading them, and always love responding. :)

The walk to the med bay was quiet, as others were busy sleeping and eating, or speaking with their comrades in quiet conversation. Safiya stepped in, looking at Edison who was healing from his surgery. The stitches appeared to be well healed, though a little red still. Gavin stepped out of his office and walked over to Edison.

"He's recovering well." He sighed, titrating some of the meds that went into his arm.

"Good. I am glad to hear." She spoke shortly, as she looked over him. "I would like to retrieve some of their bodies for you to study." She said pointedly.

"Is that so?" Gavin lowered his eyes to her, raising his brow.

"That is so, Gavin. Will there be a problem with that?" She asked.

"Yes. There is. You want me to bring a deadly animal on to this ship so I can study it?" He shook his head shocked.

"No, I want to bring a dead animal on this ship so that you can study it. I wish to know more about their anatomy. In time, my goal is to study them living in their habitat." She walked around the med bay, looking around at some of the other Augments who were still being cared for.

"So, you are going to go back out there to get a couple? Is that it?" He put a his hand on his hip, the other resting on the table.

"Yes. I that is it. I am sure there are a few dead ones on the field out there. With luck, you can even develop a useful antidote to their poison, as opposed to a post-poison cure. We can also look into purifying and intensifying it their poison. Just a thought, but we must get a few of them on board for study before we can look into that." She turned away.

"Is Khan alright with that decision?" Gavin asked after her.

"Gavin, ask Khan. It won't matter to me if he is alright with this or not. I am requesting you do this as a discovery mission of this planet. It would behoove us all to learn more about our environment. If you wish to be a part of this, then I would welcome you." She left her words at that as she left.

She passed Trick and Ebony as she walked towards the bridge. They were speaking softly in the hallway, their fingers laced in the others.

"Safiya, it is nice to see you." Ebony caught the woman by the arm, pulling her in for a hug, breaking her hold on Tricks hands.

"And it is nice to see you two as well. Are your injuries better?" She inquired, looking them over.

"Yes, I'm a lot better." Trick rotated his arm, showing he had good use of it. Ebony showed she wasn't walking with a limp.

"Good, then you two will come with me to retrieve some bodies. Get ready and meet me in the shuttle bay." She said flatly as she walked away, her hands held behind her back. Trick gave his wife an odd look as they shrugged and went to get changed as requested. She got to the bridge, and sat back in her chair. Essex was at the consoles, looking over the systems.

"Didn't I tell you to go rest and recover?" Safiya arched a brow.

"I did, but, I can't sleep or eat anymore." He shook his head.

"Could you be doing something else instead of trying to work?" She got up, standing next to him, her arms crossed. Essex looked a little put out.

"I could, I'm sure. I just, I thought I would try to help."

"Well, I don't want you helping until you are ready. You will be of little use when you are compromised. Do you understand?" She rested a hand on his shoulder as he nodded.

"I'll just look over a few more things before going." She nodded in response to him, before walking away.

"Oh, and Essex, while you're here, do a deep life scan for a radius of 40 kilometers. Upload your findings to my padd, I'll look them over while I'm gone." She began to walk away. "In fact, I want a scan... 150 kilometers, deep form, but narrow it towards the cats den. I want to know how deep that rabbit hole goes." She mused before taking her leave.

Back at her room, she pulled her large fur coat on, tying it closed. Back in London, she bought herself a warm hat, and flexible leather gloves that she put on as well. Her mukluks were tied close to her calves as she left to meet Trick and Ebony at the shuttle bay. A hand grabbed her arm spinning her around before she was pinned against the wall.

"What the hell is going on in that head of yours?" Khan hissed. News of her attitude must have gotten to him no doubt from Gavin or Ebony. She smirked at him, as she pushed against the wall with her leg, turning the tables, slamming him against the wall where she just was. Her eyes glanced across his lips before she kissed him.

"Khan, I think it's high time I start being more assertive." She moaned softly into him, knowing the voice turned him on. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he pulled her into him. His lips crashed against hers, tasting her. All too soon, she pulled away, gently nibbling his bottom lip before stepping back. "I'll be back later. Don't worry." She straightened her jacket.

"Where do you think you're going?" He demanded.

"I am starting my mission, Khan. Starting with the most dangerous thing we've encountered so far." She stated nonchalantly.

"Is that where you're taking my crew?" He arched a brow.

"No, that is where I'm taking Trick and Ebony. The rest of the crew will remain here." She smirked.

"I will not allow you to put my crew in danger by taking them back out there." Khan hissed.

"Do you really want to do this right here Khan?" Her tone lowered. "Because I can have a row, right here. Right now." Khan puffed his chest out.

"You are treading dangerous ground Safiya. Don't tempt me." He growled.

"No Khan, I think it is you who fails to realize you are on thin ice. I've been far too kind with you, Khan. I've let you had your way, and I've said and done very little. I won't be that simple girl anymore, not for you. I've been through way too much Khan, to be resigned to some lovesick girl who follows you blindly."

"You have followed blindly? You've had tantrums like a little brat." He sneered.

"Instead of just up and leaving like I could have."

"Like you did."

"And yet here I am, Khan. Had I left in a bratty tantrum, I would not have returned. You had better thank whatever you believe in for my patience. For the fact that I did come back getting you out of the danger that you, Khan, ultimately put them in." Her tone angered him almost more than her words. She spoke to him as if he was a child, and that just does not sit well him. He punched the wall hard, yelling, but she did not bat an eye.

"Now, if we are done here, I have some game to retrieve." She sighed walking away from him.

Even though Khan was livid with her, he could not deny he was highly turned on by this woman in his midst. There was a fire there that he had not seen before. Perhaps it wasn't there, or perhaps he had just never noticed it. But he was seeing it now, and he hated it and loved it all in the same breath.

Ebony lowered the shuttle to the ground, feeling the slight dip in the hydraulics as it settled. "Well, there are quite a few left out here. Do you think any more will come while we're here?" Ebony looked out of the craft window towards the canyon.

"If they do, drop what you've got, and get back to the shuttle." Safiya replied, as she hoisted a roll of thin rope over her shoulder.

"How many are we getting?" Trick zipped his heavy jacket, stomping his boots firmly onto his feet.

"As many as we need. I'd prefer to get samples of males and females if we can. But no matter." She waited for the shuttle door to open. Ebony was good to drop them close to the bodies, which were barely visible under the blowing snow. The best indicator they had was the mounds that they created when the snow blew over them, burying them to be forgotten.

Safiya brushed the snow off of one, as it's menacing growl was frozen on it's face. "Lucky it's so damn cold, at least they're preserved." She hollered to Ebony who was busy shoveling one up onto the surface. They were frozen stiff, frozen in their death positions. Some had quite grotesque wounds, she noticed, as she lashed the ropes around their bodies. When they had a string of 6, the three of them dragged the bodies back to the shuttle.

"Keep them in the back. I don't want them to start stinking in the heat." Ebony smirked, shaking her head.

"Better yet, this shuttle should have a stockpile of body bags. We can always seal them away." Trick began looking through the compartments.

"No, these things are far too big for any body bag the fleet would issue on a little shuttle like this. The best thing we can do is get them back to the ship and get them into cryo or something until Gavin needs them." Safiya sighed, putting her hands on her hips as she blew a few strands of hair out of her face. "Take us out, Ebony. Let's get back to the ship."

Gavin shuddered as they wheeled the 6 bodies through the med bay.

"Don't worry Gavin, they've been through decon already. I'll take them through the sonic shower, then they are all yours." She smirked at the irritated doctor.

Safiya stood dressed in an autopsy gown, her face covered by a mask and eye shield. Ebony was there for documentation. Gavin was dressed alike to , as they prepped the first one for dissection. It was still wet from the shower, but the hot water had thawed the beast mostly through and through. They combed through the thick mat of hair, taking notes.

"Thick double coat of fur, looks like a white undercoat... Interesting. The top of the hairs in the undercoat are white, below they are brown like the top coat." Gavin combed through meticulously.

"There are animals on Earth that have this..." Safiya mused, as she too noticed what he was seeing. "The Arctic Fox has a winter and a summer coat... Minks also have this trait." She began to pick through hairs on the animals hindquarter. "This is a bad sign." She murmured.

"Several stab wounds it looks like... Hmm. These may be bite marks. Yes, large round puncture wounds, no doubt caught in a fight with another one of it's own." Gavin took out the clippers, shaving a patch of hair down to the skin for a better look. "Hand me the ruler." He held his hand out waiting for the small metal rule. "This would be consistent with the canines on these creatures." He gestured for Ebony to take a picture with the autopsy camera for it's file.

Gavin turned his attention towards the head. "I do want to look at one thing really quick, out of turn for a typical autopsy." He held a small dental mirror in the animals mouth. "Just as the others, the canines on this specimen are hollow. "Ebony, a flexible syringe, please." He took the thin metal tube. "Picture." The camera clicked.

"Are you looking for a venom sac?" Safiya looked as he slowly inserted the syringe up the hollow tooth.

"Correct. I want to see how much venom I can extract from this bastard." He slowly withdrew 80cc of a grayish yellow venom. "It almost looks like bile, if it weren't so gray." Gavin mused.

They all looked up towards the door as Khan walked in, gowned up as the rest of them were.

"What have we learned so far?" He asked in a heavy voice.

"Well, they carry a lot of venom... even if he has a single venom sac, 80cc is a lot to drain. If it has two, then you can double those figures, and this is a smaller specimen. It's reasonable that a larger beast would have a larger sac. When we are done with the physical exam, we can run a CT, and get better specs on it's facial cavities." Gavin grunted as he pried open the jaws further. "Denture foam, Ebony." He filled in the cats mouth with the foam, closing it's mouth again so it could harden into a cast of it's dental profile.

Two hours later, they had only been through about half of the body, as they took in every bit of information that they could. Safiya heard her padd beep noisily, as she stepped back from the table, looking at the new intel that was uploading. "Gavin, I'm scrubbing out. I want you to upload your report to me, and meet me in the conference room when you are finished." She looked back at him, as she had Ebony untie her gown. Khan followed suit. Ten minutes in the scrub room, and they left to the conference room themselves.

"I'm surprised you're coming with me, Khan." She spoke, not looking at him as they walked.

"Well, since you've taken up making decisions and plans without me, I supposed it would be best to know what's going on by following you." He smirked.

"Yes, well, I can understand that point." She nodded, sighing. The door to the conference room slid open, as Essex sat to left where Akkare had been only days before."

"You got my data then?" Essex looked hopeful.

"Yes, I received the data." She said distracted, as she projected the information to the screen across the room. Khan dimmed the lights before taking a seat next to her.

"Khan, Essex performed a deep earth scan. The first was a 40 km radius of our ship. The second, was a scan narrowed down to the direction of the the caves. As you can see, there is nothing significant around us. All of the orange dots and lines you see, are likely to be insect hills, or small rodent nests."

"Like ants, or termites? Prairie dogs?" Essex asked.

"Similar, but same concept." She nodded, as Essex turned the 3-D model that was displayed in front of him, just a smaller model of what was on the large screen.

"Now, if we look at the deep earth model that he did of the caves, you can see how large and expansive their hive is." She flipped the image to the creatures hive.

"Yes, it's easily 15 km from the entrance to the deepest chamber. The deeper the hive goes, the darker it appears on the scan." He explained. "There is plenty of activity in these caves as well. We calculated 2500 to 3000 of those things down there." He leaned back sighing. "If we did want to clear these out, then it would be best to use some sort of flash-bang." He shook his head.

"But I don't want to clear this out." She narrowed her eyes at him. "We were blissfully unaware of their existence until that day they caught up to me and Ren. There is no point to try and clear them out right now. Even after having the taste of our blood in their mouths, they haven't tracked us down. It would be better to track them. What they do, where they go, and investigate them further to learn more about them. I'm not here to commit any sort of genocide on the natural ecosystem." She crossed her legs, her elbows propped on the arms of her chair.

"And what if they come into our camps?" Khan turned to her expectantly.

"Then we defend our camps, but we do not go on the offensive. I have no desire to strike them first." She eyed him.

They had food brought to the room as they continued their conversation about how to go about these creatures. As soon as the meeting was adjourned, Essex left, but Khan stayed next to Safiya.

"Something tells me you are withholding something from me." Khan spoke sternly. She sighed.

"I'm sure Gavin already has picked up on it. But yes, I am withholding something." She looked him in the eyes. He could hear his blood pounding in his ears, his breath quickening. She placed her hands in her lap.

"What is it? Are you going to tell me, or are you going to keep me in the dark?" He wanted to know what was going on, he hated not being in the loop.

"Khan, we observed white hairs in the undercoat of the cat on the table." She sighed. Khan let out a deep breath.

"Thank god, I thought you were going to say you are pregnant." He leaned back, shaking his head.

"Well, I could be... or we could get working on it." She winked, sending him a seductive smirk. "But as I was saying. Artcic Foxes and Minks, creatures like that on Earth, change their coats according to the seasons for better hunting. This snow has already been going on for a couple of months, and yet their coats haven't even fully turned." She shook her head.

"So? What are you saying?" He cocked a brow waiting for an answer.

"So, it is quite likely that winter started far earlier than expected. This snow may continue for many months." She shook her head.

"And if it does?"

"If it does, then I would say at worst, evacuate to the ship until the spring comes. We could orbit for a few months, maybe take that time to explore. Or we could just move back into our homes, stockpile on the blankets. We have plenty of food here to take back. That choice should be a family choice." She stood up. "I say we convene everybody tomorrow, and ask what they want."

Khan pulled her in, and hugged her. "You are doing far more than I could have hoped for." She smiled.

"Khan, when you said, you felt married to me, did you mean it?" She looked up, her voice the soft gentle voice that soothed his raging soul.

"Would you like to make it official?" She bit her lower lip. "We can truly be recognized as married, if you still want to be." She blushed.

"I would make it official with you." He leaned down and kissed her. "But it does not mean I'm not mad anymore." He smirked kissing her neck.

"And from you Khan, I'd expect no less."

A/N: These last few chapters I've imagined the song "Sail" from Awolnation. The lyrics seems to reflect Khans view of love, and how he loves. I think it's time for Safiya to start getting her spine back as well, hence her attitude. Thank you all for the R/R, always love reading the reviews, always love responding! (when it's an option)