When Molly came to she had no idea where she was. As her eyes regained focus she realised she was sitting in the cockpit of a Starfleet Shuttle. But when she attempted to move she found she couldn't. Looking down she saw that she was restrained; her hands and feet were secured by metal restraints.

"Computer, release me," she ordered.

"Unable to comply," came the response.

"Why not?"

"Because the only one with authorization is me," came the recognizable, if somewhat disembodied voice of Admiral Marcus.

Molly turned her head, searching for and finding the small view-screen on the control panel.

"Where am I?" she demanded.

But her attempt to appear strong was undermined by the tremor in her voice.

Marcus heard it. His triumphant smirk almost splitting his face in two. "You Lieutenant Hooper are on a shuttle that has just crossed the Neutral Zone into Klingon air space."

In the shuttle the computer sounded a warning. "Shuttle is headed for the planet QoNo'S. Current heading will result in a collision with the planet. Abort. Abort."

Before Molly could open her mouth, Marcus reminded her. "All command codes for the shuttle have been redirected to my authorization only."

Molly tried desperately to free herself, but the restraints wouldn't budge.

She turned to look at Marcus, refusing to beg for her life. She was determined not to give him the satisfaction. Instead she stated. "Your fear of what may happen has driven you mad."

Marcus ignored her. "Better hope you die as the shuttle hits the planets atmosphere. Because if you should survive and the Klingon's find you, you really will wish you were dead."

He paused briefly. "And don't expect Khan to come to your rescue. No matter what he has told you, you are nothing to him."

"I never thought he would," Molly said bravely.

"He was just using you."

"As you used him."

But the view-screen had been disconnected, so he had not heard her defiant last words.

As soon as Khan discovered the torpedoes were missing, he knew there was only one person who could have taken them.

Rage and fury built up inside him, but he would not let them overwhelm him. He needed to remain clear-headed.

Since regaining his memories he had been forced to face the uncomfortable realization that he was under the power of another. And that someone was a person he regarded as totally inferior. For the one-time ruler, this had been a very bitter pill to swallow.

But he had done it.

He had very little choice.

The ultimatum had been made crystal clear. If he wanted to be reunited with his crew, he had to agree to be Marcus' pawn. Marcus wanted to start a war and Khan had the skills and knowledge he needed to achieve it.

But it soon became apparent that Marcus had, and probably never would, keep his end of the bargain.

So, desperate times called for desperate measures.

And although he had still rather frustratingly not been able to find where the Admiral kept his crew. Khan was confident in his own abilities to track them down. Once he had, he was going to need the modified torpedoes.

The now missing torpedoes…

"Lost something?" There was no mistaking the smug satisfaction in the enquiry.

Khan had of course heard Marcus when he'd entered the room, his superior hearing made sure of that. No matter how quiet the Admiral thought he was being.

He turned to face the Admiral, no longer bothering to disguise the absolute disgust he felt towards the man now standing before him.

"Where are they?" he demanded.

Marcus barely batted an eyelid. Such was the confidence he had in his hold over the Augment.

"I've taken possession of them."

"I was still working on them."

"Yes I know," Marcus responded. "The modifications you've made were… very specific."

Khan stiffened. "Meaning?"

The Admiral glared at the other man. "I may not have your superior intellect," he snapped. "But that doesn't mean I can't recognise when torpedo casings have been altered to hold cryotubes."

Khan took a step towards Marcus. "Where are they?" he asked again. Though asked quietly this time, there was no mistaking the menace behind it.

Marcus, sensing a shift in their ongoing power struggle attempted to regain control of the situation. "Your crew are safe for now," he replied.

Khan took another step closer.

Marcus looked into the Augment's eyes. They were cold, hard and emotionless. It occurred to him that threatening Khan, even if only implied was not the best way to go about things. But he was dammed if he was going to show this man any fear.

"Kill me and you'll never learn the location of your crew."

Khan paused, but only for a moment. "I will find them," he said. "With, or without your help."

Marcus realised the situation was slipping out of his control. He tried again, but his growing fear that he could no longer mask was making him desperate. "You may find your crew, but what about your little accomplice? Or was I right when I informed her you were just using her."

Khan was now only a step away from the Admiral. But he paused again as his words sunk in.

Accomplice?

He then realised Marcus was referring to Molly.

"What have you done with her?" he snarled.

Marcus, in his position of power was more used to Khan's forced capitulations to any of their arguments. But with that power now quickly fading the Admiral had never felt more vulnerable.

But then he realised that with Khan's unexpected ferocity of feeling that he was showing towards such an insignificant Lieutenant, the Admiral could not believe his good fortune. His confidence that had been dwindling now began to grow again. Khan, the great ruler had lost his heart to a little slip of a girl.

Here was an opportunity for him to regain the upper hand. He knew he was playing with fire. Khan was an undoubtedly dangerous individual. But he got an immeasurable amount of satisfaction whenever he could get a rise out of the Augment, who usually was so cool and calm. He couldn't help testing just how far he could push him.

"I wouldn't worry yourself about her," he replied. "If the shuttle she's in hasn't burnt up on entry to QoNo'S' atmosphere, then I'm sure the Klingon's will finish the job."

Marcus barely had time to realise how badly he had miscalculated the situation. Even as the words left his mouth, Khan was on him, his eyes full of unrestrained rage as he grabbed the Admiral by the head.

"You should have let me sleep," he roared as he applied pressure, and with his extraordinary strength crushed the admiral's skull.

Khan left Marcus' body where it dropped.

He went to the monitor on his desk and made quick work of accessing the movements of all Starfleet spacecraft.

It didn't take him long to find the identification of the shuttle Marcus had sent spinning uncontrollably towards the Klingon Home world.

Next he unlocked a cabinet under his desk. Opening the cabinet he removed a rectangular metallic box.

He rechecked the current position of the shuttle before entering the co-ordinates into the box.

As he felt the familiar sensation of particle beams enveloping him, he couldn't help but wonder how it was possible for Montgomery Scott, the creator of this particular device, to have not realised that the errors in his calculations, the end results that had seen him posted to Delta Vega for an indefinite period, had been due to the fact he had not considered that space was the thing that was moving.

An error he had very quickly spotted and corrected.

The cockpit of the shuttle was being inundated with various alarms. Warning of loss of stabilizers, that the shields were down and being on course to crash into the planet it was currently hurtling towards.

On top of this the shuttle's computer was doing its best to alert the only occupant of the perilous position she was currently in.

"Life support is failing."

"Evacuate! Evacuate!"

"Life support is failing."

But even though Molly wanted nothing more than to get free and escape her present predicament, she couldn't.

She had tried again, and again, and again to get lose from her restraints. But they were too strong.

She had even briefly entertained the idea that Khan might come to her rescue, her dark knight. But the closer the shuttle got to QoNo'S the less likely that possibility seemed.

After all, why should he? He barely knew her.

And as much as she hated to consider it, a nagging doubt worried her. Maybe Marcus was right. Maybe Khan had used her.

It was a sobering thought.

But as she began to lose consciousness she sincerely hoped that wasn't the case.

She could still remember the passion of his embrace and his unique taste on her tongue.

As her eyes closed for the last time she thought she glimpsed the unmistakable signs of a transporter beam. But instantly dismissed it as wishful thinking.

The metal restraints were ripped away by strong arms with a superhuman strength. Those same arms then gently lifted the unconscious Lieutenant from her seat and enfolded her against a muscular chest.

They dematerialised moments before the shuttle finally broke up into thousands of tiny pieces. All of which burnt up in the atmosphere never hitting the surface of the planet.

A war averted, with the Klingon's none the wiser.