The Opulence was still, facing the wreck of the Enlightenment square on. Nyota gazed at the devastation of the ship from the safety of the warm bridge.

Khan was aligning parameter target lines on the view screen, focusing in on the view screen of the opposite vessel to get as clear a shot at it as possible. Happy with his alignment, he waited a moment, watching Nyota. Looking out onto her other ship, she looked somewhat serene despite still being in tattered clothes, and her left leg held slightly lifted to ease the pain of her wound.

"Are you ready?" He asked her.

"Yes." She nodded, eyes not leaving the view. "Please set them free."

Khan hit the switch, and a single line of phaser fire darted across space, hitting Enlightenment's view screen and shattering it. Debris and bodies were sucked out into the blackness of space.

Nyota's fingers gripped the console before her as she watched. Tears ran down her face, the loss of it all hitting her, saying goodbye to the people she had loved for so long. Khan sat quietly, letting there be silence around them for a good few minutes, to give her the time to just stare, and think, and cry, to be exhausted by it all, and accept it all for the tragedy it had been. He pressed his lips together, knowing that there was more to this mess than either of them realised, that this devastation was somehow planned. He thought about telling her, yet he wasn't sure what good it would do now, and he had so little evidence or information, to stir bitterness into her sadness would just be a cruelty at this moment.

Quietly, Khan got to his feet and approached her.

"Come on," He said, carefully extending a hand out to her back, "Lets get you rested, and I shall see to your leg wound."

xxxx

Nyota had changed out of her tattered suit and uniform, showered, and was sat on the bed in a fresh t-shirt and shorts in the second bedroom quarters.

The door pipped, and Khan entered the room carrying some medical equipment. Nyota rubbed her neck, tiredly gazing at all the things he held.

"Now, sit back." He said, and she moved herself comfortably, stretching her legs out before her. Khan sat on the end of the bed and examined her burn wound.

"Fortunately it does not look as though you got any parasitic secretions in there." He said, "But it is starting to look infected. I will clean it and give you some antibiotics, and you should heal fairly quickly."

"You seem to know a lot." Nyota commented.

"I worked in medicine for a while." He told her, getting to work, "The London Children's Hospital."

She smiled, "Wow," her voice was heavy with exhaustion, "I wouldn't have pegged you as the type."

"Well, I like to be full of surprises."

He worked quickly but delicately. Wiping up the wound gently, using soft strokes and dabs of cleaning fluid, reducing the sting. Working in the children's hospital he had developed every technique to ensure things healing could be as pain free as possible. He bandaged her leg with an added cool pack.

"I'm going to give you a little something to help you sleep, if that is alright?" He asked. "You will heal better."

Nyota was too worn out to disagree, in fact, she welcomed the drugs, for she feared she may not sleep as soundly as she would like to after all she had been through and seen. Khan gently pressed an injector to the side of her neck, hearing the click and immediately starting to feel the effects of the drugs.

Khan watched her a moment. He sighed. Why would the Admiral want to be rid of Nyota and all the people aboard the Enlightenment? They were just ordinary Starfleet personnel, in what way were they threatening? He walked to the end of the bed to pull the covers up over her, noticing the bandaging on her leg already starting to bleed through. He did not want to see her suffer any more, so decided he would heal her himself.

Khan returned briefly to Opulence's supply room, grabbing a syringe, blood bag and transfusion line. Returning to Nyota's room, he extracted a dosage of his own blood into a vile, emptying the content into the blood bag and carefully hooking it up to Nyota's veins. He watched, it took a few minutes for her body to absorb it all, but once the last drops cleared, he extracted the line and collected up the medical equipment. Hopefully she would be much better when she awoke.

xxxx

'Khan… Khan..?'

The communicator next to his bed spilled his name.

'Pick up, Goddamn you, I know you can hear me you bastard.'

Khan rolled over, arm reaching out from the covers to grab the device, flicking it open.

"Found my channel have you, Admiral?" He addressed Marcus.

'Your secret channels are not the highest on my list of concerns right now, Khan.' He said his name with venom. 'Why the hell are you in space?'

A smile cracked over Khan's face, he stretched, taking his time.

"Oh I think you already know the answer to that." He tormented him, "In fact, I think you know a lot more answers than I do about all of this."

He could hear the Admiral muttering some curse words and something about how he should have restricted his grounds clearance.

"So, would you like to acknowledge that I was correct about the survivor on the Enlightenment now or later?"

'Listen here boy, you are not bringing that survivor back to Earth. You are not to make any mention that there is a survivor from that ship. You try and get anywhere near Earth and I will have you blown to smithereens, understand?' The Admiral spat. 'I know the location you set course for, and I am coming out to get you, and you and the survivor will be dealt with accordingly.'

"Tell me Admiral; what did these people do?" Khan asked, "Why would you put a ship full of officers on an expedition guaranteed to result in death?"

'Enough.' He replied, 'I'll be getting to you shortly.'

The line cut dead, and Khan did not waste any time. There was no chance he was going to hang around the location of the Enlightenment and be caught. Who knows what Marcus might do, or what he might do to Nyota. Getting to the bridge he woke up the ship and warped her, setting a course for Titan. It would be enough of a diversion for a while.

"Are we going home?" A soft voice asked from behind him. Khan turned in his chair to greet Nyota.

"Not exactly." He told her.

"What do you mean? Why not?"

"Please, sit down." He gestured to the chair next to him.

Nyota eyed him, he could see she was dubious, but she took the seat. Khan punched some numbers into the comm, opening up a saved audio file and played her the message he had received from the Admiral.

"Who was that? Was that-?"

"Admiral Marcus."

The audio continued, Nyota heard Khan's question to him.

"I knew there was something off about this expedition…" Nyota said quietly stunned.

"Part of the reason why I was so keen to find you was to get some answers, but he is not admitting to anything."

"How do you know the Admiral?" She asked.

"I work for him in a sector in London." He said, "We do not get on. The man is.. corrupt."

Nyota shook her head slowly. "Why would he do this? Why would he want rid of us?"

"I do not know, but I am going to find out."