Chapter Seventeen: Professionals

Marla had wondered if Khan had missed Marcus on purpose.

Certainly the chaos surrounding the conference room was enough of a distraction. She had heard of the trails he faced on the battlefield in the past. Khan was a beyond brilliant shot. She smiled at the thought of locking canons on Marcus then slowly pulling off in another direction. Marla imagined he had missed on purpose like he suggested perhaps so that they could meet again. She was glad for the opportunity.

Currently she was on a pod ready to be escorted on the Enterprise, the star ship containing the remaining augments and the torpedoes in one. Marla had been given another identity by Khan who had made sure she could survive without Starfleet ever giving much notice. He had chosen the name Kali Edison for the young woman, given her a dark wig and went off to ensure Harewood filled his end of the bargain.

Marla had went over the details of the false identity, who Khan had input into the system days before he had even escaped. She was, like Marla, a doctor, however Dr. Edison's specialty seemed to be Klingon culture. It would have to make sense as to why she had suddenly become a part of the crew. She had on her red Starfleet uniform pulling idly at the dress trying to recall what needed to be done.

The torpedoes should not be fired. Khan had to be safe. Somehow the idea of the augment being killed was so unfathomable. He had already survived centuries. This savage display of power he enacted was guaranteeing his survival. Marla thought over the ways things could go wrong. She tried to recall of reasons to abandon the plan. There were none. Her father was unstable. Her brother didn't speak to her. The friends she did have thought she was dead and probably assumed she had died inside long ago.

She tapped across the information on her pad trying to remember words in Klingon. She had studied the language in the academy knowing bits and pieces of the culture. She could get by, but mainly Marla planned for Kali to go unnoticed until she felt the need to stand her ground, when Khan was in need. He would be in need.

"You're place is to convince them not to fire on me." He had said right before he left. They had both been hastily dressing themselves after sending small moments trying memorize the other's flesh. Her fingers flexed now at the memory of his biceps flexing to hold her torso closer to him. "They'll see my savagery and try to match it."

"Marcus would." Marla insisted with a confrontation to his remark. "If he sends a crew, a captain who cares like a Starfleet captain should, there will be sentiment." The last word linger in the air twisting its way from her lips to his ear. They shared that word now. Despite how much neither of them wanted to see it the bond had formed too strong for them to want much more than that feeling, but both appeared duty bound. "He will not want more death even to a single deserving individual. That's not Starfleet's purpose."

He had caught her hair between his finger then, her real hair, short and wild against her head and back of the neck. He looked at her with such knowing, taking in all the good parts of her as he swallowed. His body never lingered out of the military posture he had adopted. His lips lingered to open, speak words that she did not want him to say.

A man of action, like Khan Noonein Singh, could not say anything loving or caring even if he deemed the woman he chose as a partner worthy. Those words were wasted. Those words were meaningless. She did not want him to say anything, only to act. When he lingered with his fingers gripping strands of deep red she leaned forward. She held his face in her hands and kissed his lips carefully at first, then she folded into the idea that this was the last time her lips would touch his. The last time a human could ever be this intimate with an augment.

He responded with wrapping an arm around her face while his shoulders brought her closer. His tongue buried deep to explore her mouth one last time. Marla didn't want it to end. She needed this to continue. The woman also needed the admiral dead. Her heart felt too heavy with revenge. It was the only reason she broke. He didn't meet her eyes when it ended. Khan simply turned grabbing the combination of blood and bomb exiting their hidden escape.

"Captain Kirk." The sweet voice blistered the current dark haired beauty from her thoughts. She peered to her left to see a woman she recognized. Her eyes widened.

She was introducing herself as a science officer. Another new transfer now was deemed as suspicious. Marla had introduced herself to the captain moments before though the captain didn't seem that taken aback with Marla as he was with the young woman. She knew her from the elevator back in the archives. She hoped that when Carol sat between Kirk and his science officer she wouldn't peer over.

Marla knew she could have a face that blended in easily if she tried. She pushed hair to the side of her face getting used to the fact that she had her hair hanging long again. It wasn't exactly her hair, but the way it felt against her was comforting. She swallowed hard feeling a bit of nervous bile rise in her throat. She tried to remember how long she had been free of disease as the pod approached the Enterprise.

Her mind tried to distract her with forced feelings of hope.

Marla knew there was going to be a firefight.

She was counting on it.

"Do I know you?"

Her voice was resounding and posh. Marla had her fingers on the surface of the torpedoes. Her eyes fluttered up with a distant quality to them. She had been thinking if Khan's first officer was inside this one, Jaoquin. She knew he cared about him. Marla had been wondering if she could find that torpedo she could try to keep her best attention on him at the very least. She remembered Khan's eyes had lingered over a certain serial numbered torpedo when they were loaded. He had perhaps whispered the word brother.

"I'm sorry?" Marla's accent was still there, slightly higher to meet the blonde haired woman.

"It's just," Her eyes narrowed as her lips twitched in confusion. "You look a bit familiar." She shook herself out of the notion. "Sorry," She then saw Marla's uniform. "You aren't a science officer."

"No," Marla agreed. "A historian of Klingon culture and a linguist." She hoped they didn't need her to mutter another alien language beside Klingon. She was rubbish at anything other than those two languages yet Khan had driven in her skills sets making her sound like a confident woman of many cultures. "Just curious."

"Yes I know, these weapons," The words lingered on the science officer's tongue as she scanned over them. "They're quite baffling." They were only that way because he had wanted them to be. Immune to sensors and hiding the last of his race. It was everything she had dreamed of finding in the Earth. She hadn't known the most valuable of augment culture had been floating in space. "Are you interested in these kinds of weapons," She searched for a name on Marla's face.

"Doctor Edison. Kali Edison." Marla proclaimed with a bit of an ending stutter for good measure. "And it's a bit of a hobby. I've studied Klingon weaponry and –"

"Doctor Edison!" The captain's voice called out gleefully. He slapped her on the back causing her to jump a bit. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything between you and Ms. Wallace here."

"Miss." The blonde corrected Kirk.

"Can I talk to you for a moment, Doctor?" Marla looked wide eyed at the blue eyes of the over smug captain. Once he took her aside the expression he had faulted to one of uncertainty. It was something a captain never should have.

"What is it, Cap-tain?" Her voice stuttered breaking the word up. She saw him swallow. She felt calmness take over her when she noticed his posture. He was comfortable. He was open to attack if need be. She could very easily take him out. He was full of trust.

"You speak Klingon?"

"I do, Sir." She nodded softly as she saw him wrinkle a smile.

"And if we land on Kronos, what method of attack would the Klingons use?" He was planning on taking Khan alive.

She felt a glimmer of glee steady her insides. Sentiment. The down fall of all captains including hers. They all had sentiment for their crews at some point, it was a needed a emotion then, though this Captain James Kirk was feeling it toward ending a life. She wondered why he could not bring himself to fire those torpedoes at the one who had ended the life of his former captain. She had read his files. Captain Kirk didn't exactly take the rules as law. Just a guideline to his own brand of Starfleet. Luckily today he was feeling the need to land on Kronos.

"Well certainly," She made herself shuffled unnerved at the suggestion. A bit of acting to throw them off. "They'd come at you. Brutally and bitterly. We'd – um – be breaking the treaty you know." She whispered stepping closer with a strong unease in her eyes. Kirk merely nodded.

"I'm aware," He stated. "What if the part we land on is uncharted? Could we manage to go undetected?"

"I suppose, but Klingons don't tend to remain unfocused. They patrol. If you landed a small party and they did catch you they wouldn't – um – see you as much of a threat." Her knowledge of savage men and aliens benefited Marla McGivers in that moment. "Any provocation could lead to an all-out war."

"Are you willing to go on this party, Doctor?"

"Me? W-why?" She wondered aloud, though internally she wasn't sure how all of this was going the way they wanted. Perhaps Khan and her had known the game too well, known Marcus' players from the start.

"You speak Klingon, correct?" He was staring at a pad, at her files, at her falsified files. "And you know the culture, weapons, and oh very nice," He looked to her with a smile. "Fighting techniques." She wanted to roll her eyes. Of course Khan would make her seem too good to be true. "Don't look like much of a fighter, Doctor."

"I can handle myself, Captain." She straightened up a bit trying to seem proper. "If you want me with the party, then I will do as you wish of me."

"Okay then." He slapped her back softly. "Let's get this son of a bitch."

After Kirk left Marla wandered around trying to think of it all. Landing on Kronos would be difficult. She spoke Klingon, yes, but her battle techniques were rusty. She tapped the sore spot under the collar of her uniform. Metal had been implanted before she had boarded the Enterprise. She could always be brutal if the time came. She knew the time was coming.

The captain made a pretty speech about taking on Harrison while Marla leaned against a wall in the hall toward the elevators. She closed her eyes briefly taking in the words. Terrorist lingered in her mind. She swallowed her smile thinking how the plans they made together were coming through. Marla felt as though the captain's trust on her was something she had simply required by being a meek woman. Someone who kept to books and not much else.

Perhaps that's the reason Khan had thought to trust her as well. He hadn't made a seduction immediate. He hadn't done anything to her that was unwarranted. She had taken control giving him what he wanted. Perhaps he suspected it. Though he had grown to appreciate her. She had hoped he was found of the way she had chosen to carry out their plans, what she required from him. He may have even admired her choice for vengeance over life. Perhaps that was why he rewarded her with his blood.

She had taken the reigns when it came to Khan. Marla had chosen to engross herself with the man they called terrorist. The word was too close minded for what he was. He was meant to bring terror, though he had been born to keep peace. The peace keeping soon to be tyrant fit better.

She soon found herself lowered to the floor. Marla took a sitting position uncertain why. Her hand was against her stomach feeling uneasy. Something pounded hard in her chest.

"I've been here before."

The Enterprise jolted. Her breath caught as she slid. She tried to swallow, but only swallowed down lumps of hot air. The core had overheated. Once the ship steadied she stood though hunched. Her fingers gripped the fabric at her chest as she breathed heavy. She couldn't find her breath. Where had it gone?

"Not . . . again." She managed between breaths.

Her hands balled into fists as the rippling scent of burning heat settled in her memory. The commotion was calling out the same as the Reliant. Her eyes focused hard. She forced them. Marla tried to stand her ground, but felt her heart in her ears and her breathing at gasped through her shoulders. She started walking forward uncertain where to in the moment.

"I will not die this way." She told herself aloud.

"Doctor Kali Edison to the shuttle bay."

Kronos seemed a better place to die if needed. She'd be finally fighting alongside the augment.

Author's Note: I've always imagined Marla as looking like either Katia Winter or Rebecca Hall, just for the record. Thanks to everyone for the continued support and reviews of this story. It is greatly appreciated. Next chapter has a lot of action and surprises coming. Stay tuned.