-Chapter One-

CX-431 Alpha
2261.15

The settlement was small, but busy. Bare-chested men worked in the hot summer sun to construct somewhat primitive buildings, joined by a few women in sleeveless shirts. Others of both genders milled about, doing things that construction required of them. A select few worked with more modern equipment, preparing food or processing build materials. In short, the place was loud and somewhat chaotic.

"NOLAN!"

By rights, no one should have been able to hear the shout over the din, but everyone instantly stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to the woman searching the construction site frantically.

Otto, the foreman of the project, shouted, "Keep eyes wide, everyone, he is out again!"

"He" was fifteen-month-old Nolan Harrison, son of Anthea Harrison and her husband, Khan Noonien Singh. The currently-only child of the settlement's leader, Nolan was a precocious handful, and everyone had very quickly learned to keep an eye out for him.

Anthea hadn't meant to let him get away, but the little boy-who could walk far too well for his tender age-had a tendency to disappear if she took her eyes off him for more than a few seconds.

"Nolan!" she called again.

"Over here!"

With relief, Anthea turned towards the voice of her sister-in-law, Kati. The other woman had Nolan in her arms. Though the child struggled, there was no way he was going to escape his aunt's iron-banded grasp.

"Thank you," his mother said with relief, as she took him from Kati. "I'm going to have to put him on a leash!"

"Good luck with that. He'll just find a way to escape again." Kati reached out and ruffled the toddler's black hair.

With Nolan located, Otto gave the order to resume work. Anthea propped her son against her hip and carried him back towards "home", presently the interior of a starship named Reliance.

Her husband was in the medbay-turned-laboratory with Yves, one of the only two colonists with medical training. Khan didn't look up as she entered, merely asked, "Did you find him?"

"Kati did." She leaned on one of the medbay's two beds and sighed. "I've got him locked in our cabin for the moment. But as soon as he's tall enough, he's going to be able to trigger that door."

Yves glance over at her. He was a tall, lean man with blonde hair and chocolate-brown eyes. "Hopefully, he will have better judgement by the time he is tall enough, non?"

"I certainly hope so." Anthea moved over to where Khan peered through a microscope. She laid a hand on his shoulder, rubbing lightly. "What are you working on?"

"I am studying Kati's latest blood sample."

"Is she still rejecting the transfusions?"

He sighed and sat back, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Yes, and I'm not sure why. We're working on modifying the formula for the serum Dr. McCoy developed, using Kati's own blood as a base, to see if we can find a reason for it."

"I'm sorry it's not working."

His sister was the only one of the "family" that was actually related to Khan by blood, aside from his toddler son. When he and his people had been exiled from Earth in the twentieth century, she had, with her brother, spent centuries asleep. He had access to much more advanced technology, had even discovered that his own blood cured nearly anything.

Anything, it seemed, but whatever flaw in Kati's genetic engineering had given her epilepsy. Her blood was, so far, the only one that rejected Khan's blood outright. They'd tested everyone in the settlement, and in every sample, Khan's blood overwhelmed and "fixed" the DNA. Except Kati's. He'd given her a transfusion weeks before, and it had sent her into convulsions that had nearly killed her. And now, while his people laboured to build houses on their new home planet, he spent his days in the lab, toiling to find out why.

"Have you thought to try Nolan's blood?" Anthea asked. "I'm loathe to offer him up as a guinea pig-"

"-Or dead tribble," her husband muttered.

"Pardon?"

"Nothing." He turned in his chair and looked at her. "I hadn't thought of that. His DNA is might be sufficiently different from mine . . ."

"Shall I fetch him?"

"If you wouldn't mind?"

Anthea went to retrieve their son. As she walked down the corridor, she mused on the last six weeks. For the most part, Khan's crew accepted her as his wife. They didn't treat her with the same deference they did him-anything he ordered or requested was followed immediately and without question-but no one had outright protested the presence of a "normal" human in their midst.

She knew some didn't like her. Rodriguez, for example, but a large part of his dislike of her stemmed from a dislike of women in general. He was the only one who had made a fuss over her presence, but he'd very quickly learned not to say anything in front of their leader.

Others, however, just gave off a vibe. She hoped that in time, they would accept her more. She didn't fear any of them, she just wanted to not receive the side-long looks and whispered remarks. Considering all she'd done for them, one would think they'd give her a little more respect, and not only keep silent out of deference to Khan.

Anthea scooped Nolan out of his playpen and hugged him close. There were no words for how much she adored her little boy. Having Khan back, after nearly two years apart, was wonderful, but Nolan really made her life complete. Becoming a mother, even unintentionally, had been the best thing to happen to her.

"Hi, sweetie," she said to him. "Let's go see Daddy for a bit."

Nolan gave her a big, gap-toothed grin. "Dada!"

Her son had a pretty advanced vocabulary, but what else could be expected of the son of Khan Noonien Singh? Still, Nolan *was* fifteen-months-old, and had trouble with a few of his letters, mostly with pronouncing his Rs. He was bright and intelligent, and usually a very happy, cheerful little boy.

Life on their colony wasn't easy, but for her husband and her son, she would do anything.

Back at the medbay, she carried Nolan in. She set him on one of the two beds and retrieved an extractor unit. "How much do you need?" she asked Khan.

"One unit should be sufficient."

Khan rose from his chair and came over, watching as she used the tool to take a sample of their son's blood. They were designed to be painless; still, it was difficult for both of them to do it.

He wasn't generally an openly demonstrative man, except when it came to his small family. Anthea made him feel more than he could recall in all his years, and Nolan . . . Nolan's very existence made the heart he'd once locked away swell with pride.

He had taken on Starfleet by himself for the sake of his crew. For his son, he would take on the universe singlehandedly if he had to.

Glancing at his wife as she handed him the vial of blood, he knew that he would never have to do it alone. He gently ruffled Nolan's hair, taking the vial from Anthea with his other hand.

He didn't savour remembering those days after he'd fled Starfleet, when he'd thought Alexander Marcus had killed his crew, when he'd feared that his capture on Qo'noS had meant Marcus might go after Anthea, if he hadn't already. He'd hoped she would be safe with her family in Scotland while he sought vengeance for his crew. He hadn't been able to kill Marcus in time to keep the admiral from seeking her out. It was a minor miracle the arrogant old man hadn't done anything to his wife, but at the time, sitting in a brig aboard the USS Enterprise, he'd had no way of knowing if she lived or not and every reason to assume the worst.

His crew lived, despite Marcus's attempts to the contrary. And not only had his beautiful wife given birth alone while he was locked in a cryotube-unaware of his son's very existence-she had stolen him and his people right from under Starfleet's nose, and brought them here.

Khan owed her so very much for that, and an immeasurable amount for their son. Knowing he was a father had shifted his world view ever so slightly. He'd thought, the day he'd crashed the USS Vengeance into the city of San Francisco, that he had lost it all. But now he knew better. He had everything.

But he said none of this, at least not in front of his crew.

Resuming his seat, he set about his latest test. But he paused in preparing a slide to watch as his wife left, taking his little boy with her.

There was, he thought, very little that could bring him down now.