Chapter 23

McCoy glanced at his slumbering charges before putting a nurse in charge of the medbay for the night; it was time for some well-deserved rest. Slowly, he clambered into his office and gathered his belongings. He picked up the toys the children had played with earlier and placed them in a box next to one of the beds.

"Are you positive that you can handle them? They can get a little rowdy when they're excited and whatnot, especially the little one there." McCoy told the nurse as he pointed to Beaver.

A soft smile crept onto his face. He didn't care for all the diaper changing, but the blond haired tyke and his older sister, Fawn, were starting to worm their way into his heart. Beaver had crawled into his lap earlier during the day and handed McCoy a teddy bear that the boy had dubbed "Dr. Fluffy". Beaver then made McCoy bandage "Dr. Fluffy's" arm because the toy "had a boo-boo". Fawn had helped McCoy gather the supplies and her small hands had held the toy still as he wrapped the uninjured appendage up in a bright yellow synthesized bandage…ah, good times.

She smiled at him: "Yes, doctor. I'm sure everything will be fine. If I need anything, I'll call you, and I'll keep a special eye on the little one there."

"Alright, good. Have a goodnight." McCoy shook her hand and she smiled at him.

"You too, sir." She watched him leave.

…

Fox slowly opened one of his eyes. When the nurse turned her back, he slipped out of bed and arranged his blankets to make it look like he was still sleeping in bed. He slipped under a desk, as she walked past him.

Many of the nurses gathered their things and went towards the door as the next shift came in to relieve them. Fox ran out of the still open doors and padded down the corridor. He had seen Little Wolf go this way earlier but she hadn't told them where she had been.

Little Wolf must have found something really, really cool to want to keep it a secret. Maybe she found a lot of toys or candy! Fox smiled and moved faster. Well, he wanted some too!

There were voices up ahead—maybe they knew where the candy was! And then they could help him find his Mom and John—his Dad. After that they'd go back to that planet with the nice lady with the book! And see a dinosaur! Just like the ones he saw in the book!

"Fox?" Fox looked at the source of the voice and smiled.

"Mom!" He ran towards the cells but stopped before hitting the transparent barrier. "Hello, Dad." He smiled happily. "Are you having fun? Why are you in here instead of being with us? I miss you. Dad, can we go back to the planet with the sponge water now?" Fox looked at Khan. "Can we, Dad?"

Khan blinked in surprise: this was the first time Fox had ever acknowledged that Khan was his father, let alone call him 'dad'. He snapped himself out of his reverie. Now was not the time for sentiments. If one of Kirk's idiot underlings overheard what Fox was saying, the boy would be shipped off to Section 31 for sure to be ripped apart by Marcus's scientists. The less any of the children were seen with him, the better their quality of life would be.

"Where is your sister?" Khan asked, irritation leaking into his voice. Didn't he already go through this today with Little Wolf? Why was it so hard for his kids to stay put?

"Little Wolf is asleep in the doctor room but none of us are sick. Why are we in the doctor room if we aren't sick?"

"Go back to the room with the doctor," Khan snapped, ignoring the boy's question.

"But the doctor got to leave and it's boring in there!" Fox whined. "Why can't I go in the glass room with you?"

"The answer is no. Get back to your sister now!" Silver Moon glared at her son, her anxiety growing. What if someone was watching on the other side of the camera? Their son could be killed!

It didn't take long for Khan and Silver Moon to convince the boy to leave, but by that time, the damage had already been wrought.

…

The agent watching the security footage pulled out his communications' device to alert the Admiral of all he had discovered.

Khan had been a fine test specimen; how much more so would Khan's—the Khan's—offspring be? How many vaccines could they make from his progeny? How many scientific breakthroughs? And they were Augmented, were the other children members of the Augment's sister species? Oh, the possibilities!

Marcus was going to be pleased.

…

A jolt shudders through the ship. Kirk curses under his breath and jumps out of bed. Quickly, he manages to pull some clothes on just as alarms began to blare.

Shit! Khan must have escaped!

He ran from the room and began shouting orders.

"Everyone set phasers to kill—not stun! If you see the Augment, shoot to kill—no warning shots!"

"Captain," Spock ran around the corner. "Khan is still detained in the brig, as are the women. We are being attacked by another ship." Spock continued to rush towards the bridge.

Kirk cursed again and ran after him barefooted.

"Who? Who's attacking us?"

"I am unsure."

"Is it Klingons?" They reach the brig.

"No, Captain," Uhura says. "It's a federation vessel." Their shields fail. The lights flicker on and off.

"Scotty!" Kirk yells into his COMM. "Please tell me the warp core is—"

"I'm sorry, sir, but it's failing!"

"Captain, we're being hailed!" Uhura yelled.

"On screen! Now!" Kirk ordered, flopping into his chair.

"Kirk," Admiral Marcus appeared before them. "Don't worry, I'll be gone in a minute; I just needed to pick something up. When you return to Earth, you're going to be a few passengers short: I'm going to go ahead and collect the little one's now. There really isn't any point in waiting."

"What..? You're attacking us so you can kidnap children?" Kirk's eyes went wide.

"Don't be like that, son. Look at the bright side, you'll have less mouths to feed and all that jazz. It's come to my attention that these children are not being contained properly. People like them are incredibly dangerous, son. As I said before: their kind needs to be exterminated. So, I'll take them and leave. Be sure to drop Khan off afterwards. When you're done, you can have your five year mission and all the glory that goes with it. Don't worry, the damage on your ship is only tempera. Once I'm far enough away, your ship will be good as new."

Kirk jumped to his feet: "Sir, I don't understand. What are you talking about? 'Their kind'? These aren't the kids we were arguing about before—all those children are dead! They died in a Klingon raid! These are just children—human children!"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, sport. Well," Marcus glanced at a monitor, "Well, looks like I've got what I've come for. Have a nice day." His ship jumped into warp.

A nurse could be heard screaming down the hallway: "Doctor! Doctor! They're gone! The children—they're all gone!"

In frustration, Kirk closed his eyes before flicking them both open and snatching up his communicator: "Scotty! For the love of God, give me some good news!"

"I'm sorry, Captain! The warp core is still down as are the engines. We're running off of power from the generators, sir, but they won't be enough to help us catch up to him, let alone survive an attack…I'm sorry, sir."

"Is there any chance of a radiation leak?" Spock inquired emotionlessly.

"No, Commander." Scotty answered.

Kirk hung up and furrowed his brow as he thought.

Down the hallway Kirk could hear loud and angry banging as Khan punched the transparent wall to his enclosure over and over again. The Augment bellowed with rage as his fist connected with the barrier only to leave him trapped in his make-shift prison.

Sighing, Kirk rose to his feet and ran to the medbay even though he already knew what he would find. The medical beds were empty. The nurse had been right. He then ran to the bridge where a very angry Khan glowered at him.

"The children?" Khan bit out with barely suppressed fury.

The pit of Kirk's stomach clenched even though he knew he was safe from the tyrant's anger…so long as the barrier held.

"Gone." Kirk answered carefully.

Khan's eyes narrowed: "And by whom were they taken?"

Kirk opened his mouth to speak but Spock cut him off swiftly.

"Captain, I do not think engaging the prisoner further would be a wise idea."

"Be quiet, Spock." Kirk said, his gaze never breaking away from Khan's.

"Let me out," Khan pleaded quickly. "I can help you find them—"

"I'm taking to Earth so your ass can be put down like the dog you are." Kirk stepped forward until Khan's and his nose were mere breaths apart. "There is way—in hell—that I'm going to let you out of your cage until we get there or did you forget what happened the last time I decided to release you?"

"You would let them die? You would let Marcus torture them to death?" Khan's voice, deadly quiet before now rose to a deafening roar. "Children! You would allow children to perish over our rivalry?"

"And what's the other alternative?" Kirk countered. "Releasing you and watching as you slaughter my entire crew? Letting you out so you could destroy yet another city? I'm not quite that stupid, Johnny." Kirk glared at the Augment without bothering to hide his hatred. "And then what? You live happily ever after? You. Are. A. Murderer! I watched you fire upon a room full of unarmed Starfleet officers? What the hell makes you think that I'm going to allow you to do that again?"

"Punish me, then," Khan challenged before looking Kirk over disdainfully, "Kill me; torture me; experiment on me. Don't let someone else pay for my crimes, left of all the innocent. Put a GPS tracker on me if you wish and track my movements to your heart's desire. Outfit me with behavior-altering technology—I don't care." Khan walked from Kirk and turned his back on the man before he continued to speak. "Don't let them die because of what I am. The punishment is mine and I refuse to have the weak bear it for me." He turned back to face Kirk.

Kirk frowned as he considered Khan's words. Spock's mouth opened as he prepared to speak, but Kirk was already leaving the room, ordering men to let Khan out of confinement.

"You want to save the children?" Kirk shot over his shoulder. "Fix my damn ship, first."