Chapter 22
"We're never getting back to the Enterprise, are we?" Kirk whines and Khan glares at him.
"Please have some faith, Captain. Rome wasn't built in a day."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Kirk exclaims and Khan closes his eyes in frustration before glaring at the captain once more.
"It means that I'm nearly finished. Go away," his lip curls in disdain.
"Fine, but if I die of boredom, it's on you."
"Keep talking and you won't be dying from boredom, Captain."
"Well, aren't you just a breath of fresh air?" Kirk snorts before stomping down the hallway on the way to the kitchen.
"Is he always that dramatic?" Meira asks, poking her head in.
"Pretty much." Khan scrutinizes the panels and then flips a switch. The gears whirl within and some lights flicker on.
"What's happening?" Meira asks, taking a step into the room.
"Just watch," Khan's voice is calm but firm. "It's heating up."
"How old is it?" Another small step.
"Decades." He doesn't look away from the machine.
Inwardly, he wills the stupid contraption to work. Their food supplies were running low and their water was even lower. They had no way of testing the snow outside to see if it was compatible with systems without using Kirk or the science officer as lab rats…which he doubted Meira would approve of.
Why must humans be so sentimental and have (he shudders inwardly) morals?
"Will it work?" She asks.
"You doubt my capabilities?" Khan asks and he spares her an amused sideways glance.
"Not you, just your methods. I would have stripped the wiring out and completely redone the electrical before checking the other components."
"Says the girl who can't even fix the AC unit," Khan rolls his eyes and then freezes when the display lights up. "It's working." He breathes.
"Did you doubt your capabilities?" Meira taunts and Khan chooses to ignore her comment. She smiles secretly.
"Hello?" Khan hears Mr. Spock's voice coming through the speakers. "Captain? Is anyone there? This is Commander Spock from the USS Enterprise. Can anyone hear me?"
"Mr. Spock." Khan states simply.
Silence on the other end.
"Mr. Singh?" Spock asks and Khan sees Meira blink at his last name. He can see her putting the pieces together slowly. So, it would seem that he past has caught up with him once more. "Where are the others? Your ship disappeared from our scanners several days ago."
"Spock!" Kirk runs into the room and snatches the microphone from Khan's hands. "Oh my God, Spock! Get us out of here!"
"Drama queen," Meira nudges Khan with her elbow and he nods once in agreement.
…
"So, what now?" Khan asks as he allows Kirk to make the appropriate arrangements. "Now that you know who I am and what it is I have done? I suppose you'll want your own dorm?"
"Oh, the dorm is mine, make no mistake about that. That war is not over—not by a long shot, pops." He frowns at that. He wasn't that much older than she was. "But why would anything change? You're an Augment: so what? Who cares?"
"You don't mind that I've killed thousands of people and would continue to do so to save my family?"
She looks at him for a long minute.
"You're not a monster, Khan." Her voice is quiet.
Soft.
Forgiving.
She continues: "Whatever happened, it wasn't your fault. You were trying to save your family from a lunatic. How could I fault you for doing something like that? You ended lives to protect your family; I've ruined them just to find mine. I've been irritating you for weeks and you've yet to try to kill me. I think that's a step in the right direction, don't you?"
"I don't know." He looks at the ground at a loss for words. He was a monster, of that he was positive…but it was nice to know that nothing had really changed.
…
"They're working through the electrical interference. Spock made some calculations. We'll have a small window to get out of here tomorrow, when the storm weakens enough for us to be beamed up." Kirk looks at them both expectantly.
"Sounds good," Meira says. "Though, I have to admit that I'll miss taking hot baths."
Kirk smirks, "Same here. So, I'll collect some snow samples in a few jars from the kitchen and try to get a soil sample. Anyone want to help?" He looks straight at Khan. "Perhaps someone with superhuman strength that can break through the ice and get to the ground..?."
"I think he's talking to you," Khan nudges Meira with his elbow and stands to leave.
"Khan!" Kirk wails. "It would only take you, like, two seconds! KHAAANN!"
"Fine! But stop whining! Have at least some dignity!" Khan stomps outside.
What they didn't know was that they weren't the only people on that planet…and the others were much closer than they could have ever suspected.
…
Something was wrong. Khan could sense it the moment he walked back inside. The air tasted of blood and death.
"Meira?" He called.
No one answers.
Quickly, he pulls Kirk's phaser out of the back of his pants (the nitwit still hadn't noticed that Khan had it), and he moved stealthily through the hallways, checking each room in turn.
"Hey, Khan!" Kirk yelled from the entrance to the station. "Wait up! Where are the others at?"
Khan ignored him. The Augment carefully steps over broken bottles and then frowns at a lifeless form in one of the bedrooms. He enters slowly with his weapon raised and rips back the sheet. Relief fills him as gazes down and realizes that it was the science officer and not Meira who he was looking at. He had been killed in his bed; his throat cut. Heart pounding, Khan checks the next room and then the next one. He hears Kirk swear when he discovers the body of the science officer but he pays the blond no heed.
"Crap! Where's my phaser?!" Kirk shouts. Khan says nothing.
He checks the entire compound and then looks again just to be sure. She was gone. He runs outside. There were drag marks on the ground but the snow was quickly covering them back up. By now, they were probably miles away here. There would be no point in following the trail; in a matter of minutes it would run cold (no pun intended).
"Khan?" Kirk runs outside and looks at the Augment wordlessly. "What's going on?"
That was precisely what he wanted to know.