Chapter 18

Finally! An away mission! Khan nearly jumps into the air with excitement when Kirk called him and Meira into the conference room.

"Alright, everyone. You're all here because of your unique talents. We're doing a survey tomorrow on an uncharted planet, and all of you are coming along."

Four red shirts for security, five science officers, a communications officer, Kirk, Khan, and Meira.

"Meira, you're a field medic right?"

"Yeah…" She answered and Khan shoots her a surprised look. Field medic? Since when? She had said that she was a hacker! "What? I have a lot of talents." She whispers defensively.

"Humility, apparently, is not one of them." Khan whispers back.

"One could say the same about you," She retorts.

"Hey, guys." Kirk gives them a stern look. "Anything you would like to share?"

Khan scowls, "No."

"Alright. Then pay attention. What was I saying? Oh, right. We'll land somewhere around here. And then go on to explore this area here and take samples…"

Bored, Khan nudges Meira and then nods towards a security officer picking his nose. Meira snots to hide a laugh and quickly hides her smile behind her hand. Warmth floods Khan's body at her reaction. They were finally getting along and enjoying the other's company. Who had ever thought that day would come? She had hated him with a passion and he had thought her nothing more than a plaything. How strange everything was now…

"So, everyone know what they're doing?" Kirk asks. The room murmurs a yes and then they're dismissed. "Not so fast."

Kirk rushes forward to grab Khan's sleeve. "I still need to talk to you two. Khan, you're to help with security. Meira, I need you to give medical aid if need be. Now, are you guys going to be alright working together or…?" Kirk raises an eyebrow.

"Why would we not be?" Khan asks calmly.

"Well, you just seemed a little distracted." Kirk shrugs. "If it's a problem—if you can't properly focus—I could make two different groups and put one of you in each one."

"That would not be necessary." Khan says stiffly and Kirk grins widely at the two of them.

"Alright. Just…be more mindful of your surroundings."

"Don't patronize, Captain," Khan warns. "I'm not one of your feeble underlings."

"Whatever. Go to supply and pick up your packs. We leave in two hours."

But the excursion, was doomed to fail, and, looking back, Khan could spot multiple harbingers of the tragedy to come…but hindsight was always twenty-twenty.

…

They go eagerly into the shuttle. Khan and Meira find a place near one another and sit down in their seats with their packs sitting comfortably against their backs. They were laughing. Smiling. Oh, but how everything changed in a span of minutes.

Excitement turned to worry.

Worry bloomed into wild, primal terror.

Communications are the first to go. By now, they've just hit the atmosphere. The bright white planet gleams happily as it catches them in its death like grip. Soon, they are spiraling out of control. Kirk screams something about the fuel cells malfunctioning when the ship begins to explode and break apart. Meira screams, terrified, as her seat buckles and comes loose, but Khan moves fast. He unclips her from her chair and crushes her tightly against him as they spin and spin out of control.

His seat goes next. One minute the hard metal floor is pounding into his feet, the next, it's gone. He roars at the gravity sucks them away from the ship and away from the frantic crew. They crunch hard into the ice and Khan throws his arm forward to protect Meira from being crushed beneath his weight and that of the packs as they roll uncontrollable down a long, icy hill.

They crash into something hard that instantly stops their motion. Khan and Meira breathe heavily as they reign in their emotions and try to process what had happened.

"Are you alright?" Khan asked worriedly as he released Meira. She falls back in the snow but otherwise seemed unharmed.

"Yeah…I think so." She stands slowly and tests her weight. "What about you?"

"Fine." He was always fine. How could she not know that by now?

"Where are the others?" She asks and Khan frowns.

That…was a good question. Slowly, he looks around them. There was no spoke. No screaming voices. No people. There was nothing but ice and snow and mountains.

"We need to get to higher ground," But even as he says this, he knows that they are probably all dead. "It'll make it easier to see them."

If the snow weren't so thick, it would have been a viable option. It would have sensible. Instead, it was useless. They climbed for hours hoping against hope that the weather would clear but instead, it got worse. Before they could see several yards in front of them, now they couldn't see their own hands in front of their faces.

Meira grabs onto the back of Khan's long, black coat to keep them together.

"Come," Khan yells over the roaring wind. "We need to find shelter!"

It doesn't long to find a cave. Khan finds some vegetation within and gets to work on making a small fire for warmth; inwardly, he hoped that the others had found somewhere to weather to storm as well. He may not like Star Fleet, but he wouldn't wish a frozen death upon anyone…except maybe Marcus.

"What do we do now?" Meira asks, shivering into her jacket. Khan grabs her lightly and brings her closer to the fire to help warm her up.

"We wait," He says. "And look for the others as soon as we are able—when the storm dies down."

Had he been alone, he could have kept searching. Eventually, he was sure that he would have found one of the others…but Meira would not survive the frigid temperatures and he couldn't risk leaving her here alone left he get lost in the storm…or something attack her while he was away. He takes his coat off and wraps it around her before firmly pushing her down onto the cave floor.

"Sleep," he says simply before walking to the cave mouth and gazing out.

Where are you, he wonders. Do any of you still live?

It's darker now as the fire begins to die. Meira shivers and curls tighter into the jacket. Khan sighs and glances into his pack. There was a thin blanket that had been put in there for him. Quickly, he goes over and finds another on in Meira's. After stoking the flames and throwing more alien vegetation into the dying fire, Khan carefully puts the blankets on top of Meira and then crawls in beside her to lend her some of his body heat.

Dread fills his stomach as he watches the fire cackle and die. They had run out of vegetation. Hopefully, they wouldn't freeze to death during the night. The cold nips at him. Shivering, he curls closer to Meira and wills himself into a state of semi-consciousness where he could rest but remain alert should a predator try to attack them during what he assumed was 'night'.

Tomorrow, he hoped would be better.

But it wouldn't be.