-Chapter Seven-
The Beta Quadrant
2261.85
Aboard the USS Enterprise, life went on pretty much as it had for the last year. Hopping from one system to the next, looking for life signs, seeing if any present civilisations were space-faring yet. Kirk was adamant that they obey the Prime Directive this time around. The last time he'd ignored it, a good friend of his had died. It hadn't been directly related, but it was close enough in his mind that he didn't want to risk pissing off any sadistic diety that might be listening in.
At present, they were near the Brinthini system, where Doctor Leonard McCoy, known affectionately to Kirk as Bones, was trying his hardest to convince the captain they needed to visit on shore leave.
"Jim, if I spend more than two more days on this ship, I'm going to lose it."
Kirk held up a hand. "Alright, alright! There's one more system between us and Brinthini. It's supposed to be uninhabited."
"Yeah? Then why are we going?"
The captain shrugged. "The civilsation vanished, Starfleet has no idea why. They last surveyed . . . ten years ago? They want us to swing by, see if we note any changes that might explain things. I think it's a waste of time, but it should be fast and easy."
"Yeah, that's what I thought about my ex," Bones said under his breath. "Fine. What's this planet called, anyway?"
Kirk poked at the display on his captain's chair. "Uh . . . Doesn't have an official name, just a designation. CX-431. There's three planets, but the first doesn't really count, since it's a nice, toasty rock. Says here the atmosphere burned away a couple millenia ago. Then there's CX-431 Alpha, and CX-431 Beta. Beta's a gas giant. Alpha's the one Starfleet wants us to peek in on."
He turned to the navigator and pilot. "Hey, Sulu, how close are we to CX-431?"
"We should be there in a few minutes, Captain," Hikaru Sulu replied. "Coming out of warp now."
The Enterprise dropped out of warp, and they found themselves at the edge of a small solar system, with a yellow sun similar to Earth's. Near them floated CX-431 Beta, a blue-green gas giant nearly as large as Jupiter. The system was on the edge of a brilliantly coloured nebula, space awash with purple, blue, green, and red gases.
"Wouldja look at that," Bones said. "Now that's somethin' to look at."
"Yeah, it's . . . Okay, it's pretty," Kirk laughed.
"Pretty, Captain?" Spock asked from behind him.
"Well, yeah! Look at it, Spock! It's all rainbow-y and sparkly!"
Over at the communications station, Uhura snorted.
The planet they were aiming for was currently closest to the nebula, in its orbit around the star. It, too, was jewel-like, with green fields, blue oceans, and white, fluffy clouds. Smaller than Earth, just a little, it looked peaceful and serene.
"Scan for seismic activity, volcanos, that kind of thing," Kirk directed his crew. "Also life. Just for the hell of it."
"Yes, sir."
Spock moved to stand next to Kirk's chair. "It certainly looks habitable. Perhaps we should make an excursion to the surface, and-"
"Captain," Sulu said, interrupting the first officer. "I'm picking up life signs on the surface. Seventy-fo- no, seventy-five individual signatures."
Kirk had been leaning back in his chair, somewhat lazily, and now he sat forward. "Run that by me again?"
"Seventy-five individual life signatures. They're registering as humanoid."
The Vulcan tipped his head. "Perhaps, Captain, a nearby system has ventured out to colonise? Brinthini, perhaps?"
Jim Kirk stared at the planet, as it grew larger in the viewscreen. "I dunno, Spock. I've got a bad feeling about this."
"Is that not a quote from a fictional character in the 'Star Wars' series?" Spock inquired. "That disreputable smuggler, I believe."
"Shut up, Spock, Han Solo's awesome. Sulu, you've got the con. Spock, we're going down to the surface. Uhura, you're with us. We might need to talk to people."
Their new home was almost done. Anthea was pleased with the space. It wasn't fancy, but Khan and Joachim had put in fireplaces in both the living room and in the master bedroom. Annoying as he was, it turned out Joachim was actually good for something.
"This is lovely," she told her husband.
"We still need to finish installing the generator and the electricity. And I'm afraid the plumbing isn't quite up to twenty-third century standards."
"Alright, so I didn't put toilets on the list of things to steal from Starfleet."
He snorted.
"It'll be fine. We'll upgrade when we make a trip to Brinthini to trade. We may not have a lot in products, but I stashed away a fortune in Vulcan, Romulan, Klingon, Betazed, and Ferengi credits, just to name a few."
Khan made a face at the mention of Klingons, but before he could make any snide remarks about the species, he was interrupted.
"Khan!" Otto burst into the cabin. "Khan, there is a . . . vessel approaching."
"What kind?"
His lieutenant hesitated. "I . . . do not know, Kaiser."
Immediately on alert, Khan strode out of the cabin and grabbed one of the phaser rifles from the table at the centre of camp, one he himself had designed while at Starfleet. Anthea was hot on his heels, Nolan tucked against her side.
It was a Starfleet shuttle, emblazoned with "NCC-1701" on the side, and it had just come to rest at the edge of the village.
"Shit," Anthea said vehemently.
"Sit!" Nolan repeatedly gleefully.
Khan spared her one brief, amused look before levelling the rifle at the door of the shuttle. "I thought, darling, you said they didn't know where we are," he said.
"I took great pains," she said, "but Kirk seems to have preternatural luck."
Anthea was decidedly less than thrilled at the thought of seeing James Kirk again. She'd met the man only once, a year before, and things had been left very awkwardly. At the time, she hadn't known Khan was still alive, and she had, in a moment of extreme weakness and loneliness, had one night of . . . not precisely passion, but intimacy with the Starfleet captain. Her husband was aware of it, and didn't seem to be angry with her.
Kirk's continued safety over the matter was little more debatable.
As they watched, the ramp of the small vessel lowered. Out of it stepped four people: James Kirk, the Vulcan named Spock, Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, and a lithesome blonde Anthea was disgusted to recognise as Dr. Carol Marcus.
"Oh, look, it's the brat who can't keep her nose out of things," Anthea muttered to her husband.
"I see she's walking again," he replied in kind.
"Why wasn't she walking?"
"I broke her leg."
Anthea didn't blame him in the slightest. If Carol Marcus had been able to keep out of their business two years before, Khan wouldn't have had to flee Starfleet, or fear for her life and those of his people. He would have been able to smuggle them to safety. She wouldn't have spent so long without him.
Their unwelcome guests approached with their hands up, well aware they were walking into a situation they had no chance of leaving if they pissed off the colony's leader. Kirk took the fore, hands above his head.
At last, the tall, burly blonde captain spoke. "You know, when we scanned and detected life down here, this was not what I was expecting to find. Hello again, Khan."
"James Tiberius Kirk," Khan intoned. He flicked a switch on the rifle, changing it from "stun" to "kill". "I cannot say it's a pleasure."
The landing party from the Enterprise waited in tense silence, knowing they were sitting ducks if Khan and his men decided to press their advantage.
"Get off our planet," Khan growled. "This is not Federation territory. We have claimed this world as our own. Have you not done enough to us, Captain?"
Anthea pushed his rifle down, so that it wasn't aimed directly at the Starfleet captain. "All we want is to be left alone," she told Kirk. "To not be imprisoned and exploited and used as slaves."
"'We'?" Uhura repeated, stepping forward. "You're not one of them!"
"You do not speak to Kaiser Khan's wife so!" Otto burst out, and several others grumbled their agreement.
Khan held up a hand, silencing his men with a simple gesture. "My wife is, indeed, one of us," he said. "Any who suggests she is not will face my wrath."
Kirk took a few steps towards them. "I should arrest you and haul you back to Earth!" he exploded, pointing at Anthea.
"Over my dead body!" Khan roared, and brought his rifle back up.
Anthea handed Nolan to Kati and shoved between the two men, bracing a hand on each of their chests. They were both considerably taller than she, but they stopped advancing on each other when they realised she was in their way.
"Khan," she said softly. "Let me handle this."
Her husband's jaw tightened in anger, but he gave a terse nod.
She looked to Kirk. "Don't do this. We came here to live in peace."
"He's a criminal!" Kirk burst out. "And so are you!"
"And it's not a crime to condemn a man to an eternity in frozen silence, without a trial?" She had to tip her head up to look at him. "Please . . . Jim."
The way she said his name instantly transported him to a year ago, in his apartment near Headquarters, when she'd cried in his arms over the death of her husband. When she'd let him seduce her, while he'd known that Khan was, in fact, still alive.
He shoved aside the memory of her writhing in his arms and gritted his teeth. "Fine. For now, I won't kill him."
"Ever," she snapped. "I'm not kidding, Kirk. All we want is to live here, quietly, on our own, and not be subject to the whims of Starfleet."
"You and your husband are fugitives," he said. "You broke at least a dozen regulations doing this-"
"It may come as a surprise to you, Kirk, but my family is more important to me than the whole of Starfleet. Which, let me remind you, I joined before you did. Don't lecture me about regulation or the bloody Prime Directive or what-have-you. We're not in Federation space, and these people are not Federation citizens."
She jabbed him in the chest with a finger. "Now, you can finish your bloody survey or whatever the hell it is that brought you here, but when you're done, you need to get the hell off our planet."
"It's not your-"
"It is now," Anthea said. "It's not a Federation territory and there are no other claims on it, aside from ours. That makes it our planet."
Khan rested the rifle against his shoulder. "She happens to be correct, Captain. Even according to your precious Federation law, which we do not recognise as we are not part of it, this planet is ours now. I'll give you one day to conduct your survey, but then I expect you to leave this system and forget we are here."
Kirk folded his arms across his chest. "And if I don't? How will you make us leave the system?"
"Kirk," Khan drawled. "If you're not off this planet within twenty-four hours, I will make sure you don't ever leave it."
He stalked off, back towards the cabin construction site, leaving Anthea to be the less volatile diplomat.