Chapter 20
The time had finally come.
"You'll be alright?" Khan asked and Silver Moon nodded slightly.
The children all hid around her feet as the cargo bay hatch opened. They had decided that when he went to get his slumbering crew, Silver Moon, Sharp Quill, and the children would stay at a village in a peaceful quadrant in the galaxy. That way, if things went wrong, at least some of his loved ones would be safe from Star Fleet.
Silver Moon had picked that planet—a lovely orb the color of lavender. She claimed that 'The People' had been fleeing to that location for years. She and the children (and Sharp Quill) would simply go to live with their people while Khan sought out his. They would be safe and the ones that were already there would help them assimilate into the native's culture and disappear among the masses…should the need arise.
Should he fail and doom them all.
"Go, we'll be okay." She smiled slightly but it didn't reach her eyes. Little Wolf stayed behind Silver Moon and hugged her mother's leg lightly. Fox held his mother's hand. Khan crouched down and looked at the both of them.
"Listen to your mother and behave," Khan said softly. Fox nodded at him but Little Wolf simply stared.
"You behave," she retorted and Khan frowned slightly before he saw her tiny smirk. "Be good, weirdo." The smile grew.
"You too," he smirked back at her and then she rushed forward, wrapping her arms lightly around his chest. Before he could hug her back, she had scrambled back behind Silver Moon…and then they were gone. They pulled their bags onto their backs and walked down the ramp. Silver Moon cast him a look over her shoulder before they disappeared from sight.
"Goodbye," he whispered before closing the hatch and walking slowly to the cockpit.
Stay safe, he willed them inwardly before lifting off.
…
The water was…strange, Little Wolf thought as she looked down at her feet.
The ground was squishy and moist like a sponge. As long as they continued moving, it would hug their feet softly but allow them to move without incident. If they paused in their walking, they would begin to sink. Weird. Beneath the sponge-like material, the liquid of the ocean bubbled up at them.
Why was it like that? How was it made? Was the water under our feet safe to drink?
She asked her mother, but Silver Moon didn't know.
"What's up there?" Little Wolf pointed to the forest where a thin line of white smoke was rising from the tops of the navy blue trees.
"A village, probably. People."
"Our kind?" Little Wolf asked.
"I don't know: maybe. We'll find out, just be patient, little one," Silver Moon smiled down at her. "Are you excited?"
"Mmm hmm. We're on an adventure!" Little Wolf smiled and then bounded a few yards ahead of the group before running back to them. "Come on, come on! Move faster! You move so slow! I want to explore!"
"You keep yelling at me like that and I'll smack you so hard with my cane, your head will spin for a week!" Sharp Quill snapped.
"You'd have to catch me first," a sly smile crept up on the girl's face as she considered grabbing her elder's cane and running off with it.
"Don't tempt me," Sharp Quill warned and Silver Moon laughed at the pair of them.
"We're almost to the bank now—see it? Over there? Just behave until we get over there, alright you two?"
"Okay," Little Wolf agreed.
"I'll smack you too, ordering me around like I'm a child. Well! I never!" Sharp Quill muttered under her breath.
They reached the bank and all of them sat down. Fawn and Hawk played pirates with some sticks they had found while baby Beaver waddled near the trees. Little Wolf played with the spongey material. She put her hand on its moist, blue surface and allowed it to slowly swallow her arm up to her elbow. Her fingers could feel the cool liquid beneath.
"Little Wolf! You get away from that right this minute!" Silver Moon yelled and Little Wolf snatched her arm back and scrambled away from the sponge ocean.
Silver Moon continued to chide the girl and Sharp Quill smacked her sharply with her cane once for good measure. Little Wolf scowled at the ground and glanced back at the sponges when the two adults weren't looking.
But it was fun, she thought. Already her mind was working at sixty miles an hour to get back over to bizarre geological feature.
…
They walked some more and reached a camp by midnight. The people they encountered were kind. They had tanned skin and dark hair, like Natives Americans. Their faces were painted with colorful paint and they had clothes made of dark furs that helped them to blend in with the black forest foliage. They gave the tired group warm soup to fill their bellies and beds made out of furs to use for the night.
The next morning, they arose early. Again, the people gave them food to eat and a few of the women doted on the children, giving them sweets and simple toys. Beaver cooed and waved his chubby fists happily. Fox hid behind Sharp Quill before one woman managed to coax him out with the promise of a colorful book. Silver Moon watched their interactions carefully and smiled when she saw Little Wolf already beginning to figure out the workings of their new friends' foreign tongues (*languages*).
…
Of course, so intent was Silver Moon watching the children, she never noticed the Star Fleet officers observing them from not too far away.
"Is that her?" A blue shirted officer turned to his superior.
"I do believe it is. Get in contact with the ship and tell the crew to ready an extraction team. When the group leaves the village, we'll capture them all."
"And what of the children?"
"Capture all of them." The captain ordered.
"And what do you think Khan will do when he discovers the decoy?" The blue shirted officer raised an eyebrow and his caption, who shrugged back at him in return.
"He'll come back to look for his family and eventually realize that we have them. We won't need to set a trap for him—he'll come to us. This time, I'll make sure the bastard doesn't escape. Are the extraction teams ready?"
"Yes, Captain. They await your command."
"Good, tell them to set their phasers to stun; we need them alive for this to work."
…
Khan approached the first base and infiltrated it easily, leaving behind body after fallen body. The alarms blared loudly to alert the others that an intruder had gained entrance but the officers that ran at him were pathetically out matched. Within minutes, he had killed hundreds of them. The others, no doubt, would be cowering in their quarters—too afraid to come out lest he kill them as well.
Well, he wouldn't bother with them. So long as they stayed out of his way, he'd spare their pathetic lives. All he needed to do was destroy the cloaking device, get back to his ship, and warp his people over. All in all, it was easy.
Childishly easy.
He had expected…more. This mission was a disappointment to say the least. He warped the torpedoes on board and jumped back up to the planet's atmosphere. He had destroyed their communications and weapons capabilities; they were sitting ducks, completely at his mercy. Smug, he waltzed down to the cargo hold and froze.
Those were not his torpedoes. He ran back to the cockpit and scanned the facility once more—there were no other torpedoes there. Enraged, he landed the ship and proceeded to go room to room to search more thoroughly for what was his. He killed the inhabitants off as he raided the dormitories only to come up empty handed. Only when each and every last person had been killed did he return to his ship, his hands dripping with others' blood. He had captured the CO of the base and threw him and his second in command in the brigs. He would interrogate them both thoroughly later. Right now, he needed to get back to Silver Moon and the others…because he had a seen a picture of them on the base.
The picture had shown the woman and children sleeping around a campfire…and dozens of Star Fleet Officers surrounding the camp, phasers drawn.
…
"Mom," Little Wolf yawned as she woke up. A twig had snapped and then another. "Mom," she shook Silver Moon's shoulder. "Mom, wake up! I think there's something out there."
"It's fine, Little Wolf. Go back to sleep," the woman murmured.
Dark figures muttered among the trees and the girl watched as they moved, getting closer and closer with each passing minute.
"MOM!" She screamed just as phaser blasts filled the air.
The officers moved in quickly, taking the stunned group into their custody.
"Put the adults in the brig and send the children to medical," The captain ordered and his first officer hurried to obey the order.
"Yes, Captain."
…
"Hello, it's about time you woke up. I was starting to wonder if I'd have to use an epi-pen, kid." Little Wolf blinked, her vision blurry. Slowly, a man in blue came into focus, the silver Star Fleet logo on his shirt snarling at her.
She screamed.