Chapter Text
Chapter 2: Scotty Wakes Up
I fell asleep waiting for the engineer to wake up, but he was already awake when I opened my eyes. He and Kirk were talking quietly, but I could hear, so I eavesdropped as the injured man told Kirk of his torture.
“He didn’t even ask me any questions.” The Scottish man said confused, “he just kept cutting me with that knife. And when he was done, he just smiled at me and said it was time for a ‘reunion’.” He shivered. “Thought he was gonna kill me for sure.”
“I am sorry, Scotty.” Kirk said looking down in shame. “This is all my fault.”
Before I could stop myself I had already spoken, and I was getting really tired of speaking without thinking first. It never worked out well for me.
“No. It’s not all your fault.”
Kirk jumped and turned on his only his neck to look at me, still kneeling next to Scotty. I was sat on the floor, leaning against the cell wall with my arms wrapped around my knees. My neck hurt from the position I had been in while sleeping but it didn’t hurt me enough to keep my head from snapping to Scotty as he realized who I was.
“What the hell, Captain. What is she doing here?” he asked angrily.
I sat up straight, knowing that it was all over.
“What do you mean? She got accidentally transported over here with Khan’s crew and he locked her up.” Kirk said, his brow creasing, taking a longer look at me.
“Oh. Is that what she told you?” Scotty spat.
Standing up I stepped into the corner furthest from Kirk, which just so happened to be the closest I could get to the Brig’s door. Taking a defensive stand, as subtly as possible, I prepared for Kirks impeding onslaught.
“She’s the bitch who betrayed us! She got the Enterprise blown up and everyone aboard her killed.” Scotty yelled, pointing a battered arm.
Kirk looked like he had been punched in the stomach.
“The Enterprise, blown up? Wha- What about the crew! Surely Spock got everyone into escape pods? Did Khan shoot them down?” Kirk sputtered.
“Aren’t you listening, Captain?” Scotty said vehemently.
“But it can’t be…” Kirk said defeated.
Scotty glared at me past Kirks slumped shoulders. I tensed as Kirk slowly stood and turned his entire body to look at me in confusion.
“But… you’re… you…” He mumbled, and then his entire demeanor changed becoming harsh and volatile. “Who are you really?”
“I told you.” I said shortly.
I didn’t really want to fight Kirk; he was after all my Captain. Even if I did betray him and get everyone I considered my crew killed, still couldn’t help but want to protect him. And I did feel bad about the Enterprise and her crew, but maybe not as bad as I should have. Didn’t I do the right thing? Wasn’t the destruction of the Enterprise and her crew not my fault but Spock’s instead? It was a decision I made in a split second and I stand by that decision. I would do it again, but did that make me a monster?
Kirk took the four purposeful steps across the room to get right in my face. We were close to the same height, but he still stood over me by a few inches. But it wouldn’t matter. If Kirk swung at me there was no way he would be able to beat me. My lineage made certain of that.
“Don’t lie to me.” Tiny drops of spittle came out of Kirk’s mouth, one of them hitting my eyelid and made me flinch.
Growing angry and defensive myself I hissed right back, “I didn’t.” and then I deflated, because I had lied to him, just not about my name, rank and position.
“Well,” I continued, glancing down ashamed. “I did lie about how I got on this ship, but I wasn’t lying when I told you who I am.”
His anger didn’t abate at my admission; in fact he just got more aggressive. Grabbing my wrists, which were still up in a defensive posture, he slammed me against the corner I was backed into.
Pissed off, my eyes turned to slits, I used my upper body strength and Kirk’s hold on my wrists to pick up my knees and plant my feet flat on his chest, curling my stomach up to pull them in and then kicking my legs out and him away from me. His grip on my wrists dropped as the air got knocked out of his stomach and he stumbled back away from me. A hand rested on his abdomen where I had kicked him, his face half turned to the ground and his glaring eyes boring a hole into my face.
He straightened up and took one step forward. That was all it took to set me off. He hadn’t backed down and if I didn’t show him who was the more powerful out of us two he would continue threatening me. It was a purely animalistic mindset, but it had helped me survive many times before so I didn’t fight it. Instead I leant forward and barreled into Kirk, slamming him into the opposite wall.
Picking him up around the waist I bent backwards and slammed his head into the ground. Letting him fall, I spun around on my toes and grabbed the neck of his Starfleet uniform and pulled him onto his feet, his back to me. Once I had him up I slammed him into the transparent wall of the cell so hard it cracked. Letting go of him I sent a barrage of punches into his back along his spine and the exposed parts of his ribcage. My punches were the only thing keeping him up against the clear wall. Suddenly the wall shattered and Kirk fell like a tree on to the floor. The shattered piece of wall disappeared as he fell. It must have been some early form of force field and not a real wall at all, I mused.
Over the sounds of my heavy breathing I made out the thumping of feet coming in our direction. Taking a step back and a new defensive stance I refocused my attention from beating the living pulp out of Kirk to defending myself from the Augments that were about to come through the Brig door.
Three men burly men came through the door as soon as it slid open, phasers raised and pointing at me. I knew I couldn’t take all three of them, even if they weren’t armed, so I lowered my stance and raised my hands to show I was surrendering. The tallest man, who appeared to be the leader, lowered his phaser and walked over to Kirk to check his neck for a pulse.
Slowly the thought that I might have killed Kirk leaked into my consciousness and shocked me out of my instinctual survival mindset.
“Is he alive?” I asked, managing to not sound afraid.
The man kneeling by Kirk gave me an appraising look and the corner of his lips turned up slightly.
“McPherson,” he called out in a German accent, keeping his eyes on me. “Take Kirk to Medical. Tell Joaquin that Khan wants him kept alive.”
Relief flooded my mind, and must have leaked onto my face because McPherson smirked at me as he lifted Kirk off the ground and onto his shoulder. He left immediately, leaving the remaining two of Khan’s men facing me and Scotty forgotten on the cell’s bench.
I kept my hands up as the leader approached me. His walk was very masculine, with his pelvis leading every movement and his shoulders straight and proud; his gaze was just as arrogant. When the toes of his military style boots were flushed against my Starfleet issue boots he lifted a hand and brushed a strand of hair, which had come out of my braid, behind my ear. His fingers trailed on my cheek in their retreat.
“You must be very strong. I wonder how you would fair against one of us.” He said in a quite rumbling voice that spoke a challenge.
“Not nearly as well as I did against the Captain, I assure you.” I breathed, wondering if my breath stank yet.
His chuckle was low and mirthful as amusement passed through his eyes.
“You have seen the Khan in battle.” He stated, sure of his assumptions validity.
And who could blame him. No one knew that descendents of the Augments survived, that standing on this very ship was a descendent of one of the Khan’s people. That although my blood had been diluted by generations of inferior mothers, I still inherited enough augmented blood to be superior to the lower versions of humanity, even after three hundred years.
I didn’t correct him. I wasn’t certain that revealing my heritage would be a good idea and after all of the quick decisions I had made lately that had unpleasant consequences… Let’s just say I wasn’t too keen about thinking on my feet.
The leader looked over his shoulder at the other Augment. “Rodriquez, stay here and watch that one.” He said, gesturing around me at Scotty.
I stayed completely still, not liking what I suspected he would say next.
“You’re coming with me. The Khan will want a word.” The still unnamed leader said.
Rodriquez didn’t look too pleased on being put on guard duty for an invalid, but he didn’t object as I followed the other guy out of the Brig.
We walked down the black and silver corridors of the Vengeance silently. I didn’t bother trying to escape, even though he had holstered his weapon and was walking ahead of me as if I wasn’t a threat, and let’s be honest; I wasn’t. At the end of the corridor we got on a Turbolift and he told it to take us to the Bridge.
He hummed merrily as the Turbolift zoomed up eight decks. I stayed alert, knowing I wouldn’t forgive myself if I let my guard down around any of the Augments, despite wanting to be accepted by them.
When the doors to the lift whisked open he quickly grabbed onto my upper arm and pulled me out on the Bridge. I managed to keep from stumbling as he hurried me down the three steps and in front of the captain’s chair. Seated in it, very relaxed with his right leg thrown over the arm and right arm slung over the back of the chair, was Khan. The man who brought me onto the Bridge stood behind me and used his hands on my shoulders to push me onto my knees before Khan.
Tentative, I met Khan’s eyes to see him quirking one of his eyebrows.
“What did you bring her here for, Otto?” Khan asked the man standing behind me still.
“She beat the shit out of Kirk and broke the force field thing you told me was impossible for them to break with their bare hands. Had McPherson take him to Joaquin to get fixed up, ‘poor’ man was barely alive.” Otto said cheerily, quite clearly enjoying my predicament. It occurred to me that he had simply brought me to Khan so he could be entertained. I became irked that I was being used for a sideshow.
“She did?” Khan said interested. He sat up straight, pulling his leg off the arm of the chair and setting in on the floor in front of me. He lent forward and gripped my chin between his finger and thumb, tilting it from side to side and up. Otto’s laugh came from his belly. It pissed me off.
Pulling away from his grip, glaring lasers, I swept off my knees and hooked my ankle around Otto’s feet, knocking him off balance. I was nobody’s amusement.
Khan was up and out of his seat before I had the chance to turn my body back towards him. His hand went around my neck. I found out that his long fingers were stronger than they looked as he tugged me back in front of him by my neck. His nostrils were flaring and his eyes wide with anger, his mouth ready to curl into a snarl.
Having trouble breathing through his grip and having to stand on my toes, I felt well and truly unbalanced for the first time in my life. I actually had to struggle not to grab at his arms, even knowing that to hold onto them would be a sign of weakness. The shock knocked the gusto out of me.
Otto, however, was still laughing, even as he got off the floor.
“She’s got a temper, that one.” Otto chuckled, dusting himself off.
Khan huffed hand pushed me back into the waiting arms of Otto and settled back down into his seat, all of the amusement gone from his face.
“The first time we met you said you knew why I had my people breed with the Inferior Race, even though there were other augmented factions to lay with. You changed your personality like flipping a coin and seemed angry that some would attempt to imposter me. You even sentenced your entire crew to death in favor of aiding me. Now you have beaten a man larger than you nearly to death and have managed to unbalance one of my greatest warriors. What are you hiding from Starfleet so desperately? What are you?” He hissed in a low base voice that sent shivers down my spine.
Otto shifted me in his arms so that he was holding my upper arms and so that his feet were pressing mine together. The result was very distracting. I realized that not only was I very attracted to the tall dark and handsome Khan I was also lusting for the blonde haired German Augment.
Biting my lip I tried to decide whether outing myself and my family was safe. Khan wasn’t pleased with my hesitation.
“Speak.” He growled.
Swallowing my fears I complied. “I am one of your descendants. Well- not one of your descendants…” I stumbled over my tongue, “One of your men is my great-great grandfather.”
Gulping, I immediately began to worry about my family. Until I realized that my great-great grandfather might be on this ship… alive.
Again that nearly black eyebrow lifted in question. “Why would you need to hide that from Starfleet? Surely after all this time no one would care about some random descendant of one of my men.”
His comment stung a little. After all he did just call me “some random descendant”. Of course he probably didn’t know how few of us there were.
“I would have been barred from Starfleet if they knew, or worse locked up in some rehabilitation laboratory, along with my father and grandfather.” I said, my voice gaining strength. “Even I have enough Superior DNA in me to present a threat to their,” I raised my hands in quotation symbols, although I could not separate my elbows from my sides, “‘higher morals’.”
“So you joined Starfleet to help them spread their ‘higher morals’ about the galaxy?” he said in umamused disbelief.
“No, I joined Starfleet Security because it was my only way off world that didn’t require a genetic scan or place me on some merchant ship running the same routes over and over again.” I explained.
“So you settled for being a thug of an organization you proclaim to be at odds with. Did ambition get bred out of you?” he mocked.
“No.” I argued vehemently, “I sacrificed my ambitions to protect my family.”
“Then why did your family simply not move off world, some place where the Federation has no jurisdiction? If they were in so much danger on Earth you should have taken them elsewhere.”
“I tried. They wouldn’t leave. Said Earth is their home, besides we wouldn’t have been able to get the money.” I admitted.
“That’s so messed up!” Otto exclaimed.
I must have looked surprised at such an arcane expression being uttered by someone who wasn’t awake whilst it was uttered by the mainstream, because Khan smirked a little. Tilting his chin up, he glanced behind me at Otto.
“Been going through the computer’s cultural database?” Khan asked, clearly amused.
“Corecto-mundo, Daddy-o!” He cheered.
I turned my head to give him an appalled look. There was a reason why certain phrases went out of style. Khan seemed to share my sentiments.
Otto’s chuckles resounded in my ears.
I returned my attention to Khan and decided I wanted to explain why I had warned him about the torpedoes, to explain why I betrayed my crew. “I didn’t betray my crew out of spite, you know.” I pleaded with him to understand. “Commander Spock plotted your death right in front of me. He planned to make you die believing your crew had been used to destroy you. It was so despicable I felt sick just thinking about it. I warned you because it was the right thing to do. I wasn’t thinking about getting to meet my Great-great grandfather or even switching sides. And I didn’t want the Enterprise or her crew to be destroyed. But they were the ones who set the bombs to detonate.
“I am not trying to displace the blame for the deaths,” I hurried to say, “I know that I chose to let them die to save your life. I know that I effectively murdered almost the entire crew of the Enterprise, a people I considered mine to protect. I hate myself for killing them, but in the end I cannot make myself regret it. I still believe I made the right choice.
“I am aware that because of what I did you might never be able to trust me. But I feel I should tell you that the instant I was certain you were Khan you could have ordered me to murder my own parents and I would have done so.” Scoffing at myself I paused as my own pathetic-ness sunk in.
“I don’t know if it is somehow written into my DNA or if I have just been waiting for one such as you my entire life, but… out of all the oaths I have sworn, my un-sworn loyalty to you comes first.” I finished resolutely staring into his eyes.
He stared right back at me unchanging. Silently he lifted his chin slightly and it must have been some signal to Otto because I was pushed forward by him with enough force for me to lose footing. I stumbled and suddenly found myself partially on Khan’s lap, both of my hands braced on his thighs to hold myself up and a knee placed on the seat between his. My face was right in front of his chest and as air rushed into my nostrils in shock I breathed in his enchanting aroma. It seemed as if everything about Khan was made to captivate me.
Before I could pull myself together and get off of him he grabbed onto the tail of my braid and tugged it down so that my chin went up. Looking down at me, our faces were so close that his breath brushed against my face.
“Understand this; I spared your life because I owe you a debt. Your actions saved my crew, my family, and my own life. I don’t trust you. As far as I am concerned you are still a member of Starfleet and you always will be. The moment you took an oath to them you betrayed me. You have earned your life but you will spend it in a cage in penance.
“Furthermore,” he growled in displeasure, pulling on my hair just a little harder. “Kirk is mine to hurt. If I wish to use you as an instrument of torture I will let you know. Until then, you are not to touch him. If you attempt to kill him again you may consider your life forfeit. The same goes if you try to escape or harm one of my crew.”
Raising his other hand he pushed an errant strand of hair out of my eyes. His touch was so gentle and in comparison to his grip on my hair it was so pleasurable that I could feel myself blush. In the blink of an eye his touch disappeared from both my hair and face and he was speaking to Otto over my head.
“Take her to Joaquin.” He ordered, completely dismissive of me.
Hurriedly I gathered myself and stood, taking a step back from Khan and right into the waiting hands of Otto.
“Yes, Sir!” Otto said cheerily, taking a hold of my upper right arm and leading me back to the Turbolift.
“But I’m not injured…” I protested weakly to non-listening ears.
Khan didn’t watch us go.
The Medical Bay of the Vengeance was on Deck 14. Joaquin, a red haired man with a stocky build and not an ounce of fat on his body and wearing an old fashioned business suit, was moving around the prone body of Kirk, who was looking a measure better than I expected him to. His cheeks were a normal, healthy shade and he wasn’t showing any signs of bruising or any injuries at all. It was so unexpected that it seemed miraculous.
The man who had brought Kirk in was still there, leaning against a cot near Kirk. He looked up when we walked in, although the busy doctor ignored us. His name was McPherson, I remembered.
McPherson stood up straight when Otto lead/dragged me over to the Joaquin and him.
“Lieutenant,” Joaquin greeted without taking his eyes off a medical console.
“Hiya, Doc!” Otto exclaimed while pulling me in front of him. “This here is…” he paused and looked at me confused. “Oh! I don’t know your name. How terribly rude of me.” Otto chided himself good naturedly.
McPherson, Joaquin and Otto all looked at me expectantly.
“Andrea Smith.” I said shortly, still embarrassed about how I had acted in front of Khan.
“Wonderful to meet you Andrea,” Joaquin said in a Midwestern-American accent.
I nodded in acknowledgement. Otto was still holding onto my upper arm, so he lifted it to show Joaquin my hand. I hadn’t noticed but my knuckles had suffered a beating as well. They were bloody and looked raw, but for some reason they didn’t hurt. I imagine adrenaline was still pumping through my system at the time.
Joaquin “hm”d and took a hold of my wrist to take a closer look. “You must be Mr. Kirk’s assailant.” He said.
“He looks much better now.” I observed aloud, trying to lead him to explain whatever medical miracle they had developed in the mere hours since they had been awake.
Either he refused to oblige or he was dense because he said, “Yes, I am afraid that the Khan would not like it if I let Mr. Kirk die. I am afraid I will have to get in your way again if you attempt the murder of Mr. Kirk another time.” He said, the smile never leaving his face. I do not think he meant to mock me.
“I wasn’t trying to kill him.” I announced.
McPherson gave me an odd look, “Sure didn’t look like it. The way you were pounding on his spine it looked like you were trying to turn his body into mush.”
“I was targeting the correct nerves to cause him the most pain.” I said defensively. “He threatened me. I was just making sure he never made that mistake again.”
Otto laughed, sidling up beside me and patting me on the head.
“You were watching us the entire time?” I realized.
“Of course, we have CCTV monitoring you all the time.” Otto answered.
“Would you have come to my aid if Kirk had been trying to kill me?” I queried angrily.
“Sure. Khan says you get to live. We enforce that.” Otto said.
“Not that you would have needed our help.” McPherson interjected merrily.
“Still,” I replied, “It is nice to know that Khan wouldn’t stick me in a cage with two men who want me dead and tape my demise for future entertainment.”
“Oh, I don’t know about wouldn’t…” Joaquin joked, or at least, I hoped he was joking.
“This Starfleet that Khan mentioned must have great combat training for its warriors.” McPherson mused. “Watching a small thing like you destroy him,” he gestured to Kirk, “while he couldn’t even react… it was fascinating.
“Oh… I, uh…” I mumbled, not sure if I wanted to tell him that it wasn’t special training but special DNA that gave me the superior advantage over Kirk.
“She’s one of ours.” Joaquin interrupted.
I froze. How had he picked up on that? I wondered.
Sensing my shock, Joaquin explained, “The Khan gave me orders to do some blood work and physical tests on you to test the extent of your superior genetics. He also wants me to find out, if I can, who your ancestor is. Who knows, he may be on this ship.” A smile graced his face as he spoke in a friendly manner, as if he wasn’t telling me that I was going to be submitted to laboratory testing like I had always feared. I had always avoided hospitals and laboratories because of my instinctual fear of being turned into a lab rat. Quelling my anxiety, I resigned myself to the fact that it was bound to happen someday and that they wouldn’t be trying to turn me into a weapon, when they were better weapon’s themselves.
Nodding, I allowed Joaquin to lead my by the wrist over to an examination table. He pushed me down onto it, nodding in satisfaction when I laid my head down on the stiff pillow. Picking up a tricorder he ran some scans while I stared at the ceiling grimly.
“Well,” Otto sighed, “You won’t be needing me anymore. McPherson. You stay with Kirk. If Miss Smith here needs an escort anywhere, radio me on the comms and I will send someone adequate over. I’ve got to see to the broken cell door in the Brig.” He announced.
I tried to pick up my head to watch him leave but Joaquin pushed me back down with one finger and gave me a look that said quite clearly, “Don’t move or I’ll tie you down.”
McPherson came over and lent on the cot next to mine, looking down on me.
“So your one of us,” he exclaimed excitedly. “Any idea who your great-great grandpa might be?”
“No.” I said quietly, attempting to move as little as possible.
“No?” he said exasperated. “How can you not have a single clue?”
“My great-great grandmother tried to murder her son before he was old enough to ask. Fortunately he was old enough to kill her instead. Heartless bitch…” I muttered the last part under my breath.
McPherson whistled. “Damn. I knew things were bad after we left, but I didn’t think they got that bad. …Wait. Did, did your great-great grandfather rape your great-great grandmother?” he asked appalled.
I shrugged. “Would it be horrible of me to admit that I wouldn’t care?” I asked, disinterested.
Joaquin chuckled. “From what I’ve heard about you I wouldn’t expect you to care if other’s thought you were horrible.”
My eyes snapped to the doctor as he was busy entering some figures into his datapad. I stayed silent not sure what to make of that comment, or how to respond. He took hold of my elbow and stuck a hyponeedle against my skin.
“I need to take about two pints, which you should be able to handle without any ill effects.” He said as he pressed the button at the base of the hyponeedle and blood began to seep into its chamber.
I looked away. I could never watch my blood be drawn without feeling sick. Something to do with my fear of becoming a lab rat, I’m sure. Fortunately I had avoided most needles my entire life, having been born at home and given medical care by my mother. Even once I joined Starfleet I had managed to skip any blood tests by tricking the system into believing I had them done already. But there was no skipping this one, and maybe that was okay.
Joaquin’s tests didn’t take as long as I expected them to; in fact I was back in the Brig within a couple of hours. All he did was take a few blood samples and make me do a few physical exercises while hooked up to a monitor so that he could collect data on my heart and lungs and such. Every time he started a new test he explained to me what he was doing and what information he would collect. By the time he had finished I think he had enough data to make a holocopy of me down to the cellular level. Even so I wasn’t bothered. This man had my trust, whether he would be worth of it or not was yet to be known.
Kirk didn’t wake up until the next morning, by the way, so he slept through my tests. So far the two other prisoners hadn’t seemed to guess my true heritage, or maybe the thought hadn’t even crossed their minds. Regardless, they had no idea that I had just spent the last day practically socializing with my own kind for the first time in my life, and my resulting joyous mood was perturbing to them.
They didn’t bother trying to talk to me, although I could quite clearly understand everything they were whispering to each other. They talked about me a little, although it was mostly nasty comments about my sanity and calling me a slut, assuming that I must have been sleeping with Khan, and of course, they discussed escape. It was be unusual if they hadn’t, but I listened anyway, more out of boredom than interest. Their ideas were mostly illogical and impossible, but as I listened they slowly put together a plausible escape plan.
I contemplated beating the shit out of Kirk again so I could discreetly get a chance to tell one of the Augments, but the chances of that backfiring on me were too high. For one I had no desire to earn Khan’s wrath, even if he might once again spare my life for loyalty, and on the other side I no longer had confidence that I knew my own strength.
I had spent too long pretending to be inferior that my control over my strength had disappeared. Even if it was to warn Khan of their plans, he would not forgive me if I almost killed his toy again. And to be honest I really didn’t want to hurt Kirk.
I know that my loyalty to Khan is unconditional, but the idea of killing another person, not just someone that I knew and cared for, was just painful. I was already struggling not to hate myself for all of the childless mothers I had created; making one more might just break my heart. And besides, Scotty’s life depended on Kirks.
Instead I walked up to the glass and stared at the camera I had discovered in my boredom earlier that day. I waited about ten minutes before the Brig doors whisked open and Otto bounded into the room in a gleeful stride. His grin was wide and friendly as he made his way over to the glass-like force field, newly tuned to hold up against my strength. Standing right in front of me he cocked his head to the side just a mere centimeter and asked me with his eyes, “What do you need?”
Feigning embarrassment, I lied. “I need to see the Doctor… urgently. I’ve got ah… a womanly issue of a time sensitive nature that I need his- assistance with.” I fumbled my words purposely, glancing over my shoulder at Kirk and Scotty to make my point.
Otto, having realized what I was alluding to, went red in the face. “Uh… sure. One second.” He mumbled as he pressed a few buttons on the comms attached to his waist.
It was interesting to see such a normally cocky man become so awkward from a mere bodily function. It was almost too amusing for me to keep from laughing, but I knew doing so could alert him to my lie, or worse, alert Kirk and Scotty to my more relaxed nature with the Augments.
The force field disappeared and I quickly stepped out of the five sided box, the strange feeling of the force field reappearing tingling on the short hairs of my neck.