Disclaimer: I own nothing Star Trek-related…though I might consider the idea of beaming Kirk, Spock, Khan, and the actors who play them to my house, once I manage to construct my own transporter. Until then, nothing is mine except original characters.

AN: At last: familiar, friendly faces that everyone's probably been missing for a while. Enjoy, and please don't forget to review. Thanks!

Chapter 7: Lost & Found:

"How could this have happened?" Khan demanded, his voice a quiet hiss as he interrogated his crew. "I thought we had every security measure in place. How did she escape?"

For a moment, there was complete silence as they tried to gather their thoughts. Everyone knew Khan expected an answer and an explanation, but if it wasn't good enough, someone was going to die.

As things stood, everyone already knew that Adrianna Drake had escaped on the missing escape pod. Khan himself had allowed it to go, but only because he had been assured that it was empty. If the tech at the sensors had been mistaken…

But he had checked the ship's logs, and there had truly been no sign of life aboard the pod. The fault was not Green's, so the man had been spared any punishment, as had the rest of the crew on the bridge. However, Khan did have a few questions for those in charge of the ship's computer security.

"I don't know how it happened, sir," Miranda Isaacs said, her face a mask of emotions ranging from fear to frustration and confusion. "We've had eyes on the systems at all hours. The girl must have had some impressive skills to slip past our protections."

Behind her, several of her people were doing a diagnostic of the ship's systems. All of them looked understandably nervous and terrified as they worked. They'd been at it for hours, ever since Khan had woken everyone up and begun interrogating them about Ria's escape.

Engineering had been both the first and the final stop on his list. He had first ordered them to look and see if anything suspicious could be found in the computer systems. They were to alert him the moment they discovered something.

Once they were busy, Khan had returned to his quarters, where he began calling each crew member to him and questioning them closely. Unfortunately, this had produced nothing useful –even her guards had seen nothing strange during their watches. With nothing, Khan had returned to Engineering to see how the search progressed.

"Sir, I found something," Carlson said, getting everyone's attention. Khan rushed to the computer console to look. "It appears that someone has been slipping past our security protocols to access the main computer systems."

Khan's eyes never left the screen. "Can you determine who?" He could guess, but he wanted to be sure. "Is there a trail to follow?"

"Running a diagnostic now," Carlson replied, fingers flying as he pressed a dozen different icons. "It looks like it goes to Miss Drake's quarters."

A cool calm settled in Khan's stomach. "She must have accessed it using the computer pad provided to her. But how?"

Joining him, Miranda looked unhappy as well. "She must be better with technology than we thought. She did go to that Academy and serve aboard one of their ships; they must have taught her more than she let on."

Was it possible? Had Ria actually been far more thoroughly educated than he'd thought? He had assumed that, because she was from further in the past than him, she had been far more primitive. Could she have learned such advanced skills from the Academy, or even aboard Kirk's vessel?

'Had she been deceiving me this whole time?'

It wasn't an idea that Khan particularly liked. He hated being made a fool of, especially in front of his crew, and yet, that's exactly what had happened. Just the thought of it made his anger burn. Ria had played him for an idiot, and now his people would begin to doubt him. He could not afford that. He had to take the matter in hand, and show them he was still strong.

And in order to do that, he needed to find Ria and punish her for her actions.

"Contact the bridge," he ordered. "I want them to trace the pod's trajectory. We'll find it."

He turned towards Miranda. "Meanwhile, I want you to find out how she did any and all of this. Bring me a full report as soon as possible."

He barely acknowledged her salute as he left Engineering for his quarters.

Miranda put together a report, as requested. It listed the things that Miss Drake had supposedly done, and ideas on how she might have achieved them. Everything from accessing the computers to how she might have seized the pod was all downloaded into the pad in her hands. Now all she had to do was put it into Khan's.

As she made her way through the corridors, she couldn't help noticing how worried, afraid, and edgy everyone was. Whenever Khan was unhappy, he made damn sure that everyone else was, too. Wasn't there a saying of some kind, about misery loving company?

Khan, however, took it to extremes. If there was a way to remedy the problem, he'd set as many people as possible to fix it, as quickly as possible; if there wasn't, things tended to get very messy.

Miranda had to shudder at the memories that resurfaced. She'd seen the end results of Khan's temper –it ranged to rooms filled with broken furniture, to rooms spattered with the blood of those caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. She hadn't envied the ones assigned to clean up after any of those instances.

Her small group was no exception to the nervousness that flowed through the air. They were as anxious as the rest of the crew, and it showed on their faces as they tried to go about their business. Of course, because they had committed treason against their leader, they were fearful of being caught; but with the whole crew on edge, they were able to blend their worried faces in with the others without someone getting suspicious.

Mercifully, her people were holding it together rather well, all things considered. They had planned Ria's escape well, and had covered their tracks by making it look as though she had been far more clever and intelligent than she had appeared. Khan was buying the whole thing (at least for now), and he was so blinded by rage that he probably wouldn't see anything than the reports and theories that Miranda and her people put before him.

'If his suspicions go up, we'll have to try and think of another plan to keep our lives.' She'd have to get Green started on that ASAP, just in case.

Right now, though, she had a report to deliver.

The report in his hands, as well as the ones on his desk, told him much, but yet, not exactly what he wanted to know.

Oh, he know knew how Ria had managed to obtain all the information that she had, and still somehow managed to gain access to the escape pod without people noticing. She'd somehow slipped past the ship's security protocols using access codes from Starfleet, and used her know-how to do it undetected. She had also gotten access to the transporters, the ship's crew schedules, and used both those to slip past his people, primarily while they were asleep.

It was partly Khan's fault. He had ordered minimal crewmembers to be on duty at night, so that many could get a full night's rest, or a little time to relax. They had worked hard to put the ship back together, and had managed to obtain extra materials through the trade of their fighting skills to helpless worlds in exchange for supplies. The ship was nearly complete, thanks to their hard work.

'But if the science teams had just done their work a little faster, we'd probably have a home now, and Ria would still be with us!'

Well, that was a little unfair; even he had to admit that.

His scientists had spent the past several months looking for an ideal spot to settle upon, but not much had come up. Most of the worlds already had native inhabitants, or had been colonized by a Federation race. There had been a few moons that might have suited them, but the climate had been too harsh, or had pleasant enough atmospheric conditions only three months of the year. Or, of the ones that looked promising, there was a severe lack of the materials required to survive.

'I can hardly blame them, though it would be easy to do so. They've been so busy and working so hard, I'm amazed that they haven't met themselves coming and going.'

Still, someone should have noticed the unauthorized access to the ship's systems! That's what they were trained in, it's what they should have seen, and Khan did put a bit of blame on them for their failure. They had to be punished, which had to fit the crime.

But that left him at another conundrum. The trail to Ria's computer pad had been scrambled, which made it nearly impossible for them to pinpoint which times she access the central computer. This, of course, meant that Khan couldn't put the blame on a few particular individuals, and since punishing all of his engineers would be foolish, he would have to punish them all, and far more mercifully than this sort of situation normally called for.

With several problems before him, Khan decided to kill two birds with one stone: as they searched for where Ria might be, they would also look for a planet to call their home. There had to be at least one world out there that the Federation or its allies hadn't laid claim to, and as they searched for that, he would have sensors scanning for any sign of Ria's escape pod.

'For as much as I want to find her, we do need to find a place to call our own. Our home planet must come first, but while we do that, I will assign one or two individuals to find her trail.'

And once he found her, there would be many consequences for her actions.

As intended, I had no recollection of anything after getting that sleep drug pumped into my veins.

Technically, Dr. Thomas's serum should have made it more difficult for any kind of drug to work on me, but since I was a 'lesser version' of Khan's people, drugs still did what they were supposed to –it just took a more powerful version of them.

When I did manage to snap out of it, I was groggy, and it took a bit for me to gather my thoughts together. Once my body began to function as it should, I checked the computer and found that I'd been out for about three days. That very much explained my growling stomach, and why a trip to the bathroom was badly required.

After using the toilet and stretching out my stiff muscles, I searched through the kit that Miranda had left me. There was a replicator aboard the shuttle, but since I didn't know how long I'd be out here in space, I decided to keep my food intake to a minimum.

When I sat at the controls, I tried to recollect the training I'd had at the Academy. The helm here was more basic and smaller than the one I'd been trained on, but it worked in generally the same fashion. I was able to pull up where I was, and where Federation space might be, if I wasn't in it already.

With a quick search, I was relieved to find out that, yes, I was in Federation space, but a very good distance from Earth. Escape pods weren't meant to travel far, or very fast, and a quick calculation told me that it'd take months to get there. I had no idea how long the power cells on the pod would last, so I'd have to either choose between necessities if I wanted to get back to my home planet.

Another choice was that I could just land on a nearby inhabited world, but I didn't relish that idea, either. Who know how long I'd be there before another ship came by?

I did another check on the computer, and discovered that Miranda's people had in fact disabled the automatic distress call, which would have gotten the attention of every Federation ship in range. It would not only keep Khan from finding me, but every other ship, too. Damn it.

Even worse: with limited sensors, it was difficult to find out if any ships were close by. Damn it again.

"Okay, don't panic," I muttered, fingers flying across the panels. "Think logically, like Spock."

I knew that Khan would keep to the far limits of Federation space; he didn't want to get caught, and it was likely that he'd find a planet to settle on there. If I headed in the opposite direction, I'd probably come across some starship that was friendly to the Federation, if not a Federation ship itself.

Punching in a request into the computer, I managed to find the coordinates for a space station. It wasn't even remotely close to where I was, but if I put myself back into a deep sleep, I might be able to pour the power from life-support into the engines to get me there faster –or at least alive and in one piece.

Heading to the medical supplies, I found a container of high-dose tranquilizers. Perfect.

With a plan in place, I punched the coordinates for the space station into the computer. As the pod began to head into warp one, I lowered the life-support levels and settled down on the bunk bed I'd been on before.

I sighed. 'Well, here goes nothing.'

Taking a deep breath, I used the hypo-spray and injected the tranquilizer into my system. Hopefully, when I came to, I'd be in safe hands.

"Sir, I'm picking up an escape pod," Sulu declared as he examined his console. "But I'm not picking up signs of a ship or debris of any kind."

Jim looked up from the report he was reading. "Onscreen. Uhura, hail them, see if they're okay."

She nodded and turned to her station. For a moment, there was silence on the bridge as Uhura hailed the pod and the crew waited for word. "No response, sir," she reported. "I'm not even getting the standard Starfleet distress call. Something must be wrong, if that's down."

"Life signs?" Jim asked.

"Very faint," Sulu replied. "Only one."

"Mr. Sulu, put a tractor beam on the pod and haul it into the shuttle bay," Jim ordered as his fingers flew across the console of his chair. "Bones, there's an escape pod coming in. I need you and a medical team to head down there, in case there are some severe injuries."

"Got it," the doctor replied through the communications systems.

Looking over his shoulder, Jim looked at his second-in-command. "Mr. Spock, take a security team there as well. We don't know who's in that pod, and I'd rather not have any unpleasant surprises."

"Aye, sir," Spock replied, turning to obey.

Minutes later, a group of security guards and medical personnel stood in front of the retrieved pod. Scans still indicated that there was only one person aboard, but the guards still had their phasers out, as a precaution.

Taking the initiative, Spock had his weapon in hand when he reached up to enter his security code to unseal the door. When the doors depressurized and no one came out or called for help, he raised his weapon and went inside. The sight before him was a surprise, even to him.

"It's who?" Jim asked, staring at his second-in-command and wondering if he'd heard right.

"It is Ensign Adrianna Drake," Spock repeated, calm as ever.

It took a minute for that to sink in. Once it did, Jim's brain began working again. "What's her condition? Is she alright?"

"She appears to be in good health, though Dr. McCoy is examining her," Spock replied. "It appears she injected herself with a powerful sedative, which allowed her to divert power from life-support to the engines."

"Smart girl," Jim muttered. "Okay, I want a full report as soon as possible, and I want to know the minute she wakes up and can be asked questions."

"Dr. McCoy has declared that he has managed to off-set the sedative, but it will still take some time for it to be purged from her system," Spock reported immediately, somewhat to Jim's irritation and amusement. "She will need to rest for the next few days, but once she is recovered, the doctor will contact us."

Out of the corner of his eye, Jim spotted Uhura listening in as she tried to look busy. "Well, I'm sure Ria will welcome some visitors, as soon as she's up for them. I'll visit her tomorrow, if Bones will allow it."

Uhura smiled and turned back to focus on her work as Spock nodded his agreement. "I will inform the doctor of your intentions, sir."

Sitting back in his chair, Jim felt a weight lift off his shoulders. For months they had been simultaneously doing their duty to Starfleet and completing missions, all while searching for any sign of Khan and Ria. Jim would rather have devoted all their time to finding his lost crewmember –however, he and his crew had sworn an oath to Starfleet, and wherever they were ordered to go, they went. That didn't stop him from feeling guilty, however.

Try as he might, Jim could not convince Starfleet to allow him to pursue Khan –Starfleet Command had felt that it would make the mission too personal for Jim's crew, and refused his request.

Instead, they had sent out what ships it could spare, but given that Khan and his people had a derelict ship, the Admirals all felt that the vessel would break apart before they got too far into space.

But as the weeks dragged into months, Starfleet Command was beginning to think that their choice was the wrong one. Only one of their ships had seen or heard anything about the escaped prisoners: a scan of a planet on the edge of Federation territory had shown signatures of Federation weaponry, even though their technology wasn't that advanced. It was clear that Khan's people had been there, and used Starfleet weapons to assist them during a rough period. The Federation starship that had scanned the planet had found no trace of remaining weapons, which was a mercy –Jim hated to think how they would have influenced that culture, if anything had been left behind.

However, besides that one clue, nothing could be found. A few ships had found faint warp trails, but they were too old and faded to track to their source. It was always back to square one, but Starfleet still refused to let the Enterprise lead the search. Instead, they had sent Jim and his crew on missions all across space, trying to keep them busy while preventing them from conducting their own search for Khan and Ria.

But now Ria was here, safe and sound. Jim had to wonder if Khan had let her go, or if she had escaped. Either way, he was going to visit his friend, and see if she could provide any answers.

The beep of his personal communications link brought him back to the present. "Yes?"

"Jim, you'd better get down here," Bones said, his voice serious.

"Mr. Spock, you have the bridge," Jim said as he rose from his chair.

Uhura stopped him at the lift. "Sir, I'd like to accompany you."

Jim nodded, and the two of them headed to sickbay, where they were greeted by a obviously concerned Bones. "What's going on? Is something wrong with Ria?"

The doctor sighed and took the two of them into his office, shutting the door behind him. "Normally, I wouldn't blurt out patient conditions, but considering that this might put us in a heap of trouble, I think you need to know."

"Know what?" Uhura demanded. "Is she sick or dying?"

"No," Bones sighed, running a hand through his hair. "As wrong as it would be for me to say it, if she were, it might make things easier."

Since Uhura looked as though she were going to take a swing, Jim stepped between her and the physician. "So what's the matter?"

Bones took a deep breath. "Ria is pregnant."

All Jim could do was stand there and stare at him. "She's what?" he asked, wondering for the second time today if he'd heard right.

Sighing, Bones brought out a data pad and pulled up his file on Ria. "She's pregnant. I'd guess a couple months, thought it's hard to tell without a more thorough scan. For that, I'd need Ria's consent, but from what information I've got, it looks like three months; two and a half, at least."

He shook his head. "And with all the sedative I've found in her system, it's a miracle that she hasn't lost the poor thing. She downed enough to kill an elephant."

"But who's the father?" Uhura demanded, fists clenching at her sides. "I'd put bets on Khan, and knowing the man he is, she probably didn't do this willingly."

"Okay, let's calm down," Jim said, holding up his hands to halt any further arguments. "As soon as she's conscious, we'll talk to Ria about it. For now, I want this kept quiet. Don't tell anyone about this until we have all the facts and I make a report to Starfleet Command."

Both crewmembers nodded solemnly. For Ria's sake they'd keep quiet. In the meantime, Jim would have to find a way to protect Ria from the inquiries that were bound to start once word got out about this.

AN: Review?