"Commander Harrison. The report on the launch analysis from last week, sir." Rich purple manicured fingers held out a PADD for Khan to take. After nearly a year he was still unused to being addressed by a different name, a name that was not actually his own.

He turned to the owner of the manicured hand, taking the device. "Thank you, Lieutenant."

She smiled at him. The lieutenant was of average height, pale skin, long blonde hair falling in ringlets over her shoulders, clipped tidily with pins over each of her ears. She had green eyes, and precisely pink lips. She turned to leave him, but hesitated, half turning toward him again.

"We are still on for tonight, aren't we John?" She asked quietly, eyes taking in the sculpt of his face.

"Of course, Evelyn." He replied, treating her to the sly smile she was waiting for. She smiled, skipping off back to her duties in administration.

Khan exhaled, returning to his work. She was a nice enough woman. Undeniably beautiful, he often saw other officers and men ogling her, or flirting with her. She had reasonable level of intelligence, he respected her job in administration as it's not easy being part of the team who kept track of the entirety of Starfleet. She was one of the few administrators who knew about the work of section 31, so was one of the officers he liaised with occasionally for reports and PADDs.

He had seen straight through her from the moment they met. Her body language was shy, yet suggestive. She twirled the ends of her hair absentmindedly as they spoke, she would always chat with him, ask about his welfare when they saw one and other. So after a few weeks, Khan decided to indulge, and ask her on a date. They had been on one date so far, to the Luna Lounge. A bar on one of the Starfleet outposts on the Moon. It captured the history of the first man on the moon, and was a popular location among personnel. They had a good night, and even though she had wanted him and he, on a primal level had wanted her, he had been a gentleman. Yet he couldn't honestly say he felt anything for her. She would be suitable for a dalliance, to satisfy some cravings and some urges. He was fairly sure he'd have no trouble finding comfort between her ample, voluptuous, brea-

"Commander."

An unfavourable voice distracted him from his thoughts.

He looked up to see Admiral Marcus.

"Close up here, you're done for the day." He ordered, leaving as quickly as he arrived and expecting Khan to follow.

Khan sighed, begrudgingly doing as instructed.

xxxx

Evelyn giggled as they stepped into the elevator to take them up to Khan's apartment. She smoothed her hair out in the lifts mirrored walls, seductively making eye contact with him as the doors closed behind them.

She turned and kissed him as they stepped into his home. She'd wanted to do that all night, and Khan was going to indulge. His hands found her waist, pushing her to the nearest wall and sliding his hands to her wrists, pinning her hands above her head. She sighed into their kiss. He loosened his grip and she grabbed his shirt collar, gently pushing him.

"Bedroom." She breathed. He led the way.

He tugged the hem of her dress, gliding it up over her head and throwing it to the floor, he pulled off his own shirt, moving back to kiss her, when the light from his computer caught his eye.

His machine was completely hacked, operating on a system undetectable to Starfleet yet open to any and every frequency and channel from across identifiable space. There were a few usual notifications and signals that he received from the few planets he had on tab, but something different was there. A red outline, flashing. He'd picked up something he didn't recognise.

Evelyn held his neck, trying to draw him near her again.

"Hang on." He whispered, walking to his computer. He pressed buttons on the machine, entering various numbers to unlock it. He clicked on the notification and it loaded a scrambled mess, he frowned, but manicured hands had found their way onto his body before he could try and decipher it.

"Leave it for now." She purred, running her hands down his stomach, over his trousers, "Come to me."

He sighed, too distracted by the hands now undoing his trousers. Khan turned to her, scooping her up and ravaging her neck, it could wait for now…

xxxx

The space suit locker door was jammed. Nyota pulled it and it stuck. Grabbing the lever with both hands she gave it a hefty tug, and the broken panel fell off its hinges. She kicked it aside angrily, wiped a few escaped tears from her face and grabbed what she needed from the locker. Suit, boots, oxygen tank, radio communicator. She paused, looking at the communicator, not like there was anyone to communicate with exactly. Switching the device on, she programmed it to long range frequency signals, and sent out a basic distress call. The radio comms could only manage short range, but it was a chance she had to take.

Quickly, she changed out of her tattered Starfleet dress, and into basics, feeling warmer already, climbing into the suit was like momentarily climbing into a warm bath. She sighed. It would be a comfort for now, but as the ships essential systems continued to fail, she would feel the bitter cold again.

Nyota had no concept of time. None of the consoles or equipment had enough energy running through it to even power a clock. There was no sun or orbiting moons to gauge the time from. She sat on the floor of the bridge, slumped against the captains chair among the dead, staring out into the vast black nothing before her and cried. So many talented lives wasted, and after so many years learning, pining, striving, succeeding; this too looked to be her end.

xxxx

Khan's eyes opened to find green ones already watching him softly.

"Good morning handsome." Evelyn hummed. Khan smiled. "Good morning."

She kissed him lovingly. "How long have you been awake for?" He asked.

"A minute or so."

He kissed her again, enjoying the company and warmth of waking up to a woman in his bed. It had been such a long time, but he was at least proud enough to be able to say he hadn't lost any skill. Eyes flickering open, he glimpsed his computer screen across the room and remembered the scrambled signal he'd received yesterday. He broke their kiss. Evelyn made a noise of disappointment.

"We should get up." Khan said, trying to gently encourage her to leave without actively kicking her out.

"I think we could have five more minutes…" She suggested. He glanced at the clock over her shoulder.

"It's 08:23am." He told her.

"Oh shit!"

Evelyn practically sprang out of bed. "The Admirals have their analysis meeting today in an hour!" She darted about to find her shoes and clothes. "I've got to go, I'm so sorry!" She pulled last nights dress on looking apologetic. Khan got out of bed, pulling on a black robe to show her to the door.

"It's no problem." He said, secretly glad at how easy her leaving had been. She kissed him quickly at the door.

"See you later."

"See you."

Khan returned immediately to the bedroom, taking the chair at his desk and sitting at the computer, he re-accessed the scrambled message he had received last night. It was long-form transmission, parts of the code had been erased or not sent properly. It was obviously a distress signal yet where it was sent from and who by was for now undeterminable. Knowing that Admiral Marcus had a meeting this morning bought him some time. He broke into the file, broke it down, extracted and re-worked it, slowly piecing back together the puzzling distress signal. When he looked up from his computer again, the sun had shifted half way across the sky. It had taken nearly all the day, but he could finally see the signal was an audio package. Sitting back in his chair and watching the screen intently, he pressed play.