A/N: Apologies for my day delay...I got sucked into watching Supernatural yesterday and couldn't concentrate on editing this (I'm almost through season 1 and I'm still not sure if I like the show or just the Winchester brothers).
I'm also slightly rushing this posting because we're celelbrating our pup's first adoption day! We rescued her last year, several months after my first dog passed, and I'm glad we did. She's a pip!
Anyway, enough of my gushing...here's the chapter. Enjoy! Oh, the whole title of the chapter didn't fit in the box for some reason, so the whole title is "Destruction to the Rest: This Pause Between".
Back in her apartment, Lash retrieved the red Starfleet shirt from the back of her closet and put it on over the crew neck; she grabbed the blue and gold shirts as well, just in case. She grabbed an extra pairs of trousers and one more long-sleeved, crew neck shirt. She shoved all of her clothes (along with some underwear, naturally) into a small duffle bag she kept at the bottom of her closet. She grabbed a gray-blue jumpsuit with red in the triangles on the shoulders and put it on over her 'uniform'. She zipped up her boots and looked around.
Lash debated whether to erase the memories of her monitors and PADDs, but didn't bother. If she was caught with Khan, it wouldn't matter if there was more evidence to condemn her. Marcus would obviously be no help if she were caught, either.
Grabbing the PADD of her creation and her duffle, Lash walked out of her apartment and headed to the Starfleet shuttle bay.
She had no trouble getting on board a shuttle headed for the space station. Marcus was good on his word, there, anyway. Once on the shuttle, it was only a short ride to the station. Once docked and cleared to exit, she made her way through the station until she found the correct docking bay for the USS Enterprise. Again, getting on board was no problem. Now, she had to make herself scarce...and find a place to hide her duffle. She decided to head down to engineering, thinking she could easily find a place to hide out in. It didn't matter if the space was the size of a cubby hole, she wouldn't be using it that long.
On her way to the nearest turbo lift, Lash met up with Nurse Davies. She wasn't expecting to ever see the nurse again after waking up last year. She was wearing a blue dress and a medical insignia on her left chest. The two stepped into the turbo lift together. Luckily, they were the only two.
"Hello again, Nurse Davies." Lash grinned as soon as the doors closed and pressed a button for the medical bay.
"Lash...er, Lieutenant McGivers." The nurse stumbled.
"I think 'Lash' will be fine from now on." The woman replied. Davies nodded. "Did Marcus assign you on here to keep an eye on me?"
"No. Well, yes, but I don't really think I'll have to." Davies replied. "I mean, you want to see Khan, so you'll do what Marcus wants. Right?"
"Unfortunately, yes." Lash grumbled as she unzipped the jumpsuit and quickly took it off. She shoved it into her duffle. "Could you do me a favor and store this somewhere for me?"
"Sure." Davies knew not to ask questions when it came to this woman.
"Thank you." Lash replied as the lift doors opened to the medical bay. "See you later, Nurse Davies." She said with a smile as the nurse stepped out.
Surprised at the genuine tone in the other woman's voice, Davies nodded and continued on her way.
As soon as the door closed, the smile left Lash's face. She pressed the button for the engineering levels. She wanted to at least get a look at the warp core before the ship departed. (She had already come to the conclusion that slightly damaging the core would be the best course of action.)
She walked around the decks, holding onto her PADD, and making it look like she was doing work, when what she was really doing was scanning for the best place to sabotage. She had gotten to the warp core when she felt the ship leave the moorings.
They were off. Shortly, the Enterprise was thrown into warp and about a minute later, Kirk sent a ship-wide message.
"Attention crew of the Enterprise: as most of you know, Christopher Pike, former Captain of this ship and our friend, is dead. The man who killed him has fled our system and is hiding out on the Klingon home-world, somewhere he believes we are unwilling to go. We are on our way there now. Per Admiral Marcus, it is essential that our presence goes undetected. Tensions between the Federation and the Klingon Empire are high and any propagations could lead to an all-out war." There was a long pause and Lash wondered if he was debating with himself. "I will personally lead a landing party to an abandoned city on the surface of Kronos, where we will capture the fugitive John Harrison and return him to Earth so he can face judgment for his actions." Another, shorter, pause. "Alright. Let's go get this son of a bitch. Kirk out."
Again, Marcus was right. Kirk wasn't going to kill Khan.
Lash grinned to herself as she walked around the warp core area. She watched her screen, looking for any way she could bring the Enterprise out of warp without completely damaging the ship.
The one time she glanced higher up the core, thinking there might be something on the second level, when she noticed someone who looked a bit familiar. She raised her PADD to do a facial scan, all while looking around to make sure she wasn't drawing attention to herself. When the scan finished, she glanced at the screen in mild surprise before looking up to the woman again.
Wonder if Marcus knows his daughter's on board. Lash grinned to herself. This could be fun after all.
Storing the new information away, Lash continued her search on the core. She was about to move up to the second level when she found something: the coolant tanks. A small crack in the container would allow coolant to leak out and would eventually knock the ship out of warp; if the core can't be cooled, the possibility of the ship exploding increases. There are, however, safety defaults the ship puts into effect so explosion doesn't happen. Dropping out of warp is one of those default settings.
Her plan fully developed in her mind, Lash now had to wait until the Enterprise was close enough to Kronos. It would take several minutes for the ship to drop out of warp, though, so she went off to find somewhere to sit down and keep an eye on the distance. Bringing up a schematic of the ship on her PADD, she noticed that she wasn't very far from the cantina. Felling a tad bit dehydrated anyway, Lash made her way to it, under the pretense of getting a drink of water.
Once in the cantina, her water in hand, Lash set herself up at a table in the corner, away from everyone else. She watched the schematic, biding her time, waiting for just the right moment to make her move. No one bothered her while she waited.
When Lash felt like the ship was getting close to a good distance away from Kronos, she quietly got up from the table, discarded what remained of her water, and began her trek back down to engineering. On her way, she looked up who was currently in charge on the level. Making note of the name, she lowered the PADD and walked. As she approached where she needed to be, she saw an Officer checking the core. With a silent curse (she hoped no one would be around), she walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Yeah?" He asked, turning around, looking slightly annoyed at being interrupted in his work.
"Mr. Chekov was looking for you." She replied, confidently.
"Really? Why?" He looked suspicious.
"Didn't say." She shrugged a shoulder.
With a huff, the Officer left. Lash hoped he wouldn't remember her and wouldn't come back to this area for a while.
Lash looked to make sure she was the only one around before she stepped closer to the coolant pipes. Miraculously, she found a tool that had been left behind by the Officer. She didn't know what it was or what it was really for, but she didn't care; it had a sharp point and would do the job. Taking one more look around, Lash tucked her PADD into the back of her trousers, and stepped up to the pipes, reaching around behind them. Being careful not to touch the actual pipe, Lash jabbed a few holes in the back of it. She reached up to another pipe and punched a few more holes. She squatted down and found yet another pipe to easily punch holes in; better safe than sorry. Seeing that her job was complete, Lash hid the tool before standing and walking away.
She no longer needed her PADD, so instead of leaving it somewhere for someone to find, she quickly made her way to the med. bay, where she knew Nurse Davies was being kept busy. Lash hopped in the turbo lift and pressed the correct button. When it stopped, she stepped out into the bustling medical facility. She saw a few people already taking up residence in beds, but none looked serious; a minor burn here, a broken finger there. She stood off to the side and looked around for Davies. Not seeing the younger woman, she stopped a passing nurse.
"Excuse me. Do you know where Nurse Davies is?" She asked, still looking around.
"Oh, yes. She's with a patient over there, but should finish up shortly." The nurse replied, pointing in the proper direction.
"Thank you." Lash grinned and walked over to patiently (on the outside, anyway) wait for Davies to finish.
When the nurse finished with her patient, saying 'I'll be right back with your medication', she walked around the bed and saw Lash standing off to the side. Startled, she walked over to the much older woman.
"Something I can help you with?" She inquired.
Lash nodded. "Could you put this in my duffle, please? I won't need it." She pulled her PADD from out of the back of her trousers and handed it to the nurse.
"You did it, then?" The nurse lowered her voice, eyes wide.
"Did what?" Lash smirked as she turned and walked away from Davies and out of the med. bay.
Lash re-entered the turbo lift and hit the button to return down to engineering. She wanted to hide down where she could keep an eye on her 'project', make sure no one came around too soon to fix the problem. She traveled one level up and across the way; a perfect spot to keep an eye on the pipes. Up there, she also found a break in the machinery where she could tuck her body in and remain unseen by anyone walking by.
Lash had just gotten comfortable when the Enterprise finally fell out of warp and jostled her about, making her smack her head into some metal tubing. Wincing in pain, she brought a hand to her forehead, where she discovered a cut above her right eyebrow. With a growl, she wiped the blood away with the sleeve of her shirt. It's red anyway. She thought...and she would be taking it off before long. She wasn't too worried about the cut. It felt shallow enough that it would heal completely within a few hours.
She watched the people in engineering run around frantically, trying to figure out what happened. Lash grinned and mentally congratulated herself on causing chaos. Khan would be proud. She sighed, hoping she would see him soon.
It was maybe another ten minutes before Kirk finally decided to do something. She heard an announcement asking for the shuttle crews to have a shuttle ready for Kirk. At this point, Lash wished she hadn't been so hasty in getting rid of her PADD, then she could keep an eye on Kirk and know when he returned...with Khan. Huffing, she settled back and watched the circus going on below.
Another ten minutes passed before anything of importance was heard. It happened to be a ship-wide message directed at "Harrison". It seemed they found him.
"Attention John Harrison. This is Captain Hikaru Sulu of the USS Enterprise. A shuttle of highly trained Officers is on its way to your location. If you do not surrender to them immediately, I will unleash the entire payload of advanced long-range torpedoes currently locked onto your location. You have two minutes to confirm your compliance. Refusal to do so will result in your obliteration. If you test me, you will fail."
Pfft. Captain. Lash thought, rolling her eyes. She wasn't too worried about Sulu's threat. She knew Khan wouldn't risk the safety of their crew. He would know that those seventy-one torpedoes contained the cryo-tubes.
Lash peeked out of her hiding spot before slowly unfurling her legs and stepping out. It seemed that the landing crew was going to bring Khan on board shortly and she at least wanted to get a glimpse of him to make sure he was well. Lash mentally went through the blueprints of the Enterprise to figure out the fastest way to the shuttle bay. Having the picture in her mind, she looked around once more before walking with purpose towards the turbo lift again.
Stepping out of the lift at the correct level, she walked around curve after curve until she came to the hub. She found an out of the way place where she could stand and be mostly hidden from prying eyes. She managed to find three metal support beams that met at the floor; she hid in between them. And waited.
She waited for what felt like hours before a shuttle returned and docked. Hoping that this was the shuttle Kirk (and whoever else was with him) took to get Khan, she straightened her posture to get the best view that she could.
Lash watched a team of security Officers come to the door of the shuttle. After waiting a few more minutes, the door to the shuttle finally slid open and Khan's tall and familiar form stepped out. Kirk and four others stepped out after him, but Lash didn't care. Her eyes were trained on Khan.
She watched him carefully as he was marched away, looking for a sign that he was in pain or hurt in any way. Aside from a few scratches on his cheeks (which was quite possibly the results of a scuffle), he was unharmed. His hair even looked perfectly slicked back.
She followed him with her eyes as he walked past. Only when he was out of her eyesight was she able to breathe again, albeit raggedly. She felt her heart skip beats as it sped up. She didn't realize how hard she had gripped a support beam until she pried her hand away, seeing the light indent she left behind. Leaning against one of the beams, she brought a shaking hand to her head; she felt slightly dizzy, yet light-hearted. He was okay. Khan was alive.
She had to get control of herself before she even thought of initiating the next step in her plans. She also knew that Kirk and his First Officer, Spock, would want to interrogate Khan. So to give them (and herself) some time, Lash headed back to her hiding spot on the warp core level. She was curious to see how far along they were getting on the leaking coolant pipes as well.
Upon reaching the correct level, Lash easily found her hiding spot again. She crouched down and maneuvered so her back was tucked in first, then she pulled her knees up to her chest. Sitting as comfortably as she could in the tight spot, Lash wrapped her arms around her shins and rested her chin on her knees. As she watched engineers work frantically to fix the holes she made, she cleared her mind (which was no easy feat in and of itself) and concentrated on her breathing and her heart beat. If she was to start her own personal 'phase two', she needed to be in complete control.
Several minutes later, Lash had regained control of herself. It still wasn't nearly enough time, so she stayed hidden. She watched as a few engineers got to work on hastily fixing the pipes. She had to admit, they were competent and very efficient; they moved effectively as a single worker and as a group, somehow knowing when to step out of the way or get in it without even looking. Lash found herself grinning at them.
A/N: So Lash was the problem that dropped the Enterprise out of warp. Sneaky bugger...
I made this chapter a little longer than previous ones so I could get to Lash and Khan's reunion sooner. Looks like it'll be the next chapter. Yea! And a big reveal that shocks even Spock! Well, he'll show as much shock as can, anyway...we all know what he's like.
Thank you to all who have read, reviewed, alerted, and/or favored!