Papers and tools cluttered the long steel table situated in the middle of a buzzing room. Sparks blazed as metal struck each other, and melted iron leaked into one another as they combined to become one. The air stung with the smell of various mixtures and acids, and the very breath of hot, stale air entering the body would cause nothing more than burnt lungs.
This small workplace served for one person and one person only. No one was allowed in when he was working, but no one really dared. All he did was work.
Khan was stooped over blueprints and textbooks as he studied them closely. His broad back was arched over in a perfect curve, and his face was deep in concentration. It was such a statuesque sight; a genius in his place.
The task of creating and mechanizing for the admiral seemed simple and accomplishable for the superhuman intellect, but everyone seems to be forgetful of his true age. Almost 300 years have passed - Khan had 300 years worth of new knowledge to catch up on.
Starfleet's technology also grew throughout time, so the ancient Augment had to learn as much as possible in order to follow Marcus's growing orders. Khan felt like a primitive surrounded by such advanced spectacles the Starfleet of his day would've never dreamt of accomplishing, but of course, his great mind quickly grew out of astonishment. Except for one device that had caught his eye.
It shocked him, amazed him,
and angered him.
The transporter.
A common device today, but an unthinkable miracle three centuries ago, and Khan couldn't help but obsess over it. The thought the ability of one object being able to dematerialize, transmit and reassemble an object astonished him so much that he had practically dedicated most of his time in learning about every single inch of the device, and soon enough, he was even able to create his very own with only the help of his extreme knowledge. An incredible feat for an ancient man, but was kept secret and was told of to no one.
But one thing kept haunting Khan everytime he pondered on the concept of the transporter, something that had him clenching his fists in rage.
200 years ago, the subspace device had replaced the cryotubes in use for long-range transports and had eliminated the need for frozen sleep. A simple fact written in every student's textbooks, but to Khan, it was a missed opportunity.
He thought about that day that had branded itself in his mind ever since it came back to him.
The chaos, the goodbyes, the sacrifices,
his brother.
Oh the things he would've done to bring this machine back into the past. He could've saved his whole crew, and he could've save Mycr-
Khan threw a lethal punch at the steel table, denting it deep and tearing its sides. He clenched his eyes in guilt and shame.
Khan couldn't even recall his own brother's name and it crippled him.
"After all he's done to protect me," he whispered to John one day as he sat in front of him in anguish, "and I can't even remember his bloody name!"
And because of it, Khan himself had worked on advancing the very transporters that could've saved everyone.
He worked quietly and efficiently, using only the leftover scraps and equipment granted to him for Admiral Marcus's requests. No one ever suspected, nor foresaw the genius's secret contraptions.
As Khan welded and assembled, one knuckled knock vibrated against the door of his workplace. No disturbances were permitted, but only one man was enough in rank to break it.
Khan tsked, but he had no choice. With a push of a button, all buzzing equipment slowed to a hum, ventilation powered on, and the doors slid open with a slight hiss. The admiral, strict and posed entered without a moment of hesitation. In the crook of his elbows held various rolled up blue paper.
The busy Augment looked up from his work and pushed up the goggles now pinning down his raven-black hair. His eyes narrowed in on the contents tucked snuggly on the admiral's arm.
"Surprised to see me?" Marcus said casually as he made his way across the table.
"You never seem to trouble yourself by visiting me, what brings your honored presence here in my domain?" Khan's gloved hands swished around the room in mock grace as he smiled at his unamused superior.
Marcus, knowing Khan's sarcastic charade, went on to continue explaining his arrival.
"I'm here to deliver more blueprints-"
"Oh? Don't you usually send your men to do that tedious task for you?"
Marcus glared and shook his head. He carefully laid the large papers down onto a clear surface and carefully smoothed it out for the Augment to exam, pinning the edges with random tools as paperweight.
"These, I want prioritized."
Khan snapped out of his recent demeanor and hunched back over above a new set of requests. But this time, his focused eyes widened in such bafflement, a small surprising gasp would've squeaked out of his throat if it wasn't for great control.
Printed on the thick blue paper, etched in thin white lines, formed something greater than what Khan had ever created. In front of him laid the unfinished blueprints of an enormous starship much larger and fiercer than what Starfleet had ever designed. It had a chilling form, almost monster-like in size. Although there were missing lines and empty space, the ship on paper already felt like it was ready enough to engulf a whole planet. Khan tore his gaze away from the design to quickly meet eyes with Marcus's, smiling before him.
"Impressed?"
"What is this?"
"My most favored creation, and your most important project." The hazy blue eyes of the admiral gleamed with pride. "This is the very first of the Dreadnought class ships. Two times the size of a Constitution class and greater in power."
"And you want me to build it?" Khan cocked an eyebrow at Marcus's stiff chuckle.
"No no, this will be far too much for a lone person-even for you. Leave the building to us. What I want is you to help design it."
The admiral then began to trace the lineless spots on the paper, pointing them out and tapping them with the edge of his nail. Khan observed.
Whatever this monstrosity was, the clever Augment knew it wasn't going to be made for just expedition.
Ignoring the babblings of Marcus's explanations, Khan straightened in form and looked him dead in the eyes, claiming his attention immediately. This was no ordinary space ship.
In a dark, demanding tone, Khan asked deeply, "What is its purpose?"
What he suspected was a vague answer or a shake of the head in refusal for an answer, but what he got instead was Marcus's gleaming eyes.
"To destroy Kronos once and for all."
Blunt.
Apathetic.
The admiral simply shrugged off the answer as if it was nothing but a casual reply. Khan's brows furrowed and his stare burned in anger and confusion.
Khan had learned everything he needed to learn about Kronos and the Klingons. He learned that they were not to be meddled with and are the source of great intelligence and savagery. Kronos, was marked untouchable. Those who do so will spark immediate war with the specie,
and that person was standing right in front of him with the very weapon between them.
"I'm making you in charge with designing the weapons for this ship. I need it more advanced than a Constitution's, and effective enough to destroy ships and Kronos with a single push of a button- do you understand?"
The two stared at each other in silence until Khan was finally able to open his mouth, their stare still tightly locked into each other's.
"I have read and studied everything there is to know about the Klingon Empire and there is no information effective enough for me to specifically design a weapon targeted for their specie - I don't know their weaknesses! I need more information!-"
"There is no more information! What you've learned from all those textbooks and archives-everything you know about them is all there is! What the Klingons gives to us is all we've got! They are a closed-off, warrior race to be feared with-"
"THEN WHY EVOKE WAR?!" Khan's sudden outburst nearly made the admiral himself jump out of his own skin. The table rattled slightly in reaction to another torn corner unknowingly ripped out of pure Augment strength. Marcus's eyes caught glance of the jagged steel piece carelessly thrown out of Khan's strong hands and scoffed.
As the ringing of leftover echoes subdued, another tasteless silence hung in the air mixed with angered glares.
Marcus leaned forward slightly and threw his own fists on top of the blueprint splayed across the much abused surface, his face now scrunched up in unhidden rage. "Do NOT question ME, Khan. You are to simply obey MY commands without a word- do you understand."
Steaming animosity began to bubble inside Khan's delirious mind. So badly did he want punch that old wrinkled face and spit words of fire into his direction, but he knew better. Little by agonizingly little, he suppressed his spontaneous emotions by biting his tongue until he tasted blood well up inside his mouth, but he couldn't care less. He could already feel the healing effects stitch his splitting tongue back together in no time.
"...What do you need me to do?" His sentence was spoken softly but through gritted teeth.
Marcus sneered.
"Like I said, you'll be designing the weapons. Know that this class ship is solely made for combat so there is no limit to your creativity. Listen to me when I tell you this. I do not just want your intelligence for this Khan, I want your savagery."
"Fight fire with fire..." The Augment stared at the sketched ship before him.
"Glad you're finally seeing it through my perspective."
Ignoring the toothy grin, Khan pointed out the rest of the missing designs. "And the rest?"
"I'll let you be creative with the rest. Add in what you think is necessary, and include the plans I've created as well. Once you're done, I want the blueprints sent to me, and the weapons done and ready for transport. I want you to deliver it to where the ship will be built."
"Where?"
"It'll be constructed from the Io Facility, a space dock in orbit of the Jovian moon Io."
Khan blinked in surprise. "Jupiter?"
"Is there a problem?"
He couldn't help but stifle a chuckle. "You want me to deliver the weapons myself? Finally allowing me to see the 'glorious' world above?"
Marcus smirked deviously. "Mister Khan, think of yourself simply like an animal in a box. Once in awhile, you've got to open the lid to let it breathe. I look forward to your input on my ship, Khan. I'm sure you're crew would also be proud of what your intellect has done."
Khan gritted his teeth at the snarkish mention of his crew and watched as the admiral left once again out the door. But fortunately, he took this precious opportunity of silence to finally breathe.
He leaned on the surface of the table, his arms supporting his heavy body and his hanging head. Below him, the Dreadnought floated amongst the blue space, and his mind raced with ideas of destructive components and durable armor.
Out of the corner of his vision, his eyes suddenly shifted to his hidden device stashed amongst pieces of scraps and finished projects.
Grabbing a pencil with quick agility, Khan then began scribbling into the lineless corners and empty space of the blueprint. His hands squirmed in rapid fire, attempting to keep up with the information Khan's mind was spilling out and within moments, the simply sketched lines of an enlarged Starfleet ship was now a fully equipped war machine. He was truly a brilliant mind. A whole ship designed in less than a day.
The bridge was modified into a small and cramped space designed to be run by the captain single-handedly, engineerings were designed so that it could run autonomously if needed, and deflector dishes were created with protective armored plates to defend during battle. Powerful arrays of advanced phaser emitters were also included with single hits able to to penetrate Constitution shields and damage hulls and an advanced warp capability three times the speed of any other. Khan designed this ship with only one thing in mind:
To become what SS Botany Bay was not. The memory of that flimsy prototype still haunted him to this day. The easily deteriorating foundations and the failing protective shields that took the life of his brother made him take advantage of the future's advanced creations to avoid another of that vulnerable ship. That was his intention for the Dreadnought.
But Khan wasn't done yet. He still had one weapon in mind.
As the tip of his pencil tapped against the table, Marcus's words echoed in his mind. "...like an animal in a box...open the lid to let it breathe..."
Khan found himself chuckling deeply as he analyzed those very words. With one last single swipe of the lead, he added in his last design to the great ship and smirked.
"Be carefully when you open the box, admiral," Khan whispered as he stepped back to take a full glance at the now finished blueprint. "the beast inside might just jump out from right under your nose..."
Sketched right above the floating vessel was a single crown, simple but noticeable, marking it as king.
Everything was easily falling into place.
His chessboard finally gaining a piece.
It wasn't long until he could finally play.
A/N *A Constitution-class ship is what the Enterprise is.
Alright so I didn't expect chess to play a big part in this, but as soon as I learned the Queen Dance and applied it to my own interpretation of Khan's plans and motives, I started laughing because it fitted so well, so here is one very important concept to remember if you don't know the concepts of each piece in chess: The queen is the most powerful piece on the board - the king is the most important - but the queen is more powerful than anybody. Keep that in mind now.
Reviews are helpful and welcomed! :3