'Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven' - Chapter 9

[nikki4noo]

Marla heard a voice calling her name as she snuggled deeper into her pillow. She was sure she had a few more hours of sleep before she needed to be up. Also, the lights in her room were set to come up gradually to simulate sunrise to help her wake up, like they were for most of the personal rooms on the ship.

“Marla,” she heard said again, this time accompanied by someone shaking her.

“Whuh?” she said as she blinked her eyes open. There was someone leaning over the top of her, blocking out the pale light of the room in ‘sleep mode.’

She recognized the shape of the man. It was Khan.

He moved back out of the way as she sat up in her bed, pulling the sheet up with her.

“How--” she started to ask how or why he was in her room, but he put a finger to her lips to stop her from speaking further.

“Shh,” he said. “I need your help. The captain has decided that the life support systems are going to be turned off on my people.”

Marla was shocked, staring at him, before it started to really sink in and she shook her head, disbelieving it.

“I know it is hard to believe, but I heard him. I couldn’t sleep and went for a walk. I was worried about my people. As I stood in a room, looking out the window at the glory of the stars, I heard the far door open and in came the captain and his friend, the doctor. I was hidden from them and my escort was standing outside the other door. They wouldn’t have known I was there. Your captain was saying he had orders to turn off the support and that I would be dealt with when they return to the Starbase. It is why they have given me an escort. Will you help me Marla, will you help me rescue my people? There is sadness in me at this world that would so easily destroy what they do not understand.”

Marla let the sheet drop down as she brought her hands up to cover her mouth. “No,” she said, completely disbelieving what he had told her, but he seemed so earnest.

“I can’t believe it,” she told him.

“It is true, I have not lied to you. I need your help Marla, people’s lives are at stake. People from the past, without you they will have no future,” Khan declared, leaning forward to speak to her urgently. His hands were pressing into her mattress and his face was so earnest, that she considered his words. It seemed so horrible, but her life had told her that people could be horrible and the world not see it.

“I would like to help you, but I don’t know what to do. I mean, he’s the captain and if he has orders from Starfleet... I’m just the historian,” Marla said, shaking her head at the idea of turning off life support for eighty people.

“You can help me. You can help me save my people and help us get away.” Khan was now holding her shoulders, pleading with her to help him. She had never seen him like this before. He was always so calm and controlled.

“Okay, but I don’t know what to do,” she said.

“Get dressed and come with me. I know what to do,” Khan said as he straightened up. His tone wasn’t as urgent anymore and he was more like the man she had first met.

oOo

Marla walked up to the transporter control desk. “Hi, I’m Lt. McGivers from Control Systems. I had a report on a glitch in the targeting scanners,” she said to the Transporter Operator.

“I don’t have any record of that,” the man said as he turned to look over at the control panel.

“It was just a small one, but you know how small things can cause havoc,” Marla said quickly, hoping her nervousness wasn’t showing. She patted the man on the shoulder as she stepped around him to open up the console and peer inside.

She heard the door open and before the operator could turn around, she was pointing out the ‘glitch’ to him. “See right here,” she said.

He bent down all the better to see what she was pointing at. Marla glanced behind him and recognized Khan walking swiftly toward them. He had told her to keep the operator’s attention away from the door and that was all. Any questions she had were waved away and she was told that time was of the essence to save his people.

“I don’t see--” the man said before she heard a smacking sound and the man collapsed on top of her.

She cried out as she felt a solid body connect with her own. It made her collapse even further, banging her head back against the console. She lifted a hand up to rub at it, looking at her fingers to check if there was blood, like Aunt Evania had told her to.

“Marla! Marla!” Khan was yelling at her.

“Huh?” she asked as she looked up at him.

“Up Marla, get up,” he said.

“You hit him,” Marla said, looking at the man lying on the floor near her. Khan must have moved him off of her when she bumped her head.

“Yes. Now I need you to set up a delayed transport for us both,” Khan was leaning over her to speak.

“What?” she asked as she slowly stood up, her head was throbbing from where she had bumped it.

“Set up a delayed transport for you and I to beam over to the Botany Bay,” Khan said.

“How do you know about that?” Marla asked. Delayed transports were rarely used, except in emergencies. Only the higher level transport operators knew of them, but she also knew because of her role as a control systems operator. Without knowing how to do something, you couldn’t monitor if the systems were operating properly.

“Marla,” Khan yelled at her, making her jump and interrupting her thoughts.

“Yes?” she asked, a little scared of him in that moment. He had never yelled at her before.

“Set up the delay now, we don’t have much time,” he said as he walked over to the far wall.

She nibbled at her lip as she closed the console and started setting up the procedure. She looked down at the man lying behind her once the delay had been set up. She only needed to start it now. He looked so still, she wondered if he was dead. With one shaking hand outstretched she slowly turned and started to bend down toward him. To touch and see if he was alive or dead. Khan wouldn’t have killed him, surely? He was so set on saving his people, he wasn’t a killer. She hadn’t ever touched anyone that was dead before.

“Marla!” Khan yelled at her again. She snapped up straight and turned her body to see that he was standing on one of the pads on the transporter. “Start it, and then come up here,” he ordered.

She turned back to start it and then rushed over to the pad, not wanting to make eye contact with Khan. Extreme pressure can cause people to do things they normally wouldn’t do, she told herself over and over. Her counsellor had drummed that into her until she had started to believe it. Khan only hurt that man because he needed to save all the others. He was probably just knocked out, not dead.

Her thoughts consumed her as the transporter consumed her molecules, transporting them over to the coordinates of the Botany Bay.

oOo

Nyota was going through the reports from Sanchez when a call came in from the Sickbay.

“Nyota, was Mr. Khan called elsewhere?” Leonard asked her.

“No, I haven’t seen any transmissions to or from his room, apart from the one I see you just made,” she replied.

“Yeah, there was no answer. Wanted to talk to him, but got no answer from him or from the unit in the hallway.”

“Let me check. He may have gone for a walk, or to the mess for breakfast. I’ll get back to you. Uhura out,” she said as she disconnected the communication line with Sickbay.

“Lt. Uhura to Security,” she said as pulled up the list of security staff on Alpha shift.

“Lt. Commander Burly here, Uhura,” Caden’s voice came through her ear piece. He sounded a little tired, but she knew that he often needed at least two cups of coffee to make him sound ‘chirpy’ in the morning.

“Can you check Khan’s security detail for me?”

“Sure, Smith and Jones relieved Harris and Liu from Gamma. Why?” he asked.

“Dr. McCoy called Khan’s room and got no answer from him or from the comm unit on the hallway, I said I would talk to you to track him down,” she told him.

Her hand was resting on her console but her fingers were itching to just check straight away for the location of Smith and Jones.

“Caden?”

“Yeah?”

“Smith and Jones? Really? You been watching vintage Sci Fi again?”

“They do work well together and nothing wrong with the Doctor,” she could almost hear the pout in his voice. “Let me check in with them and get back to you.”

“Okay, Uhura out,” she said as she once again disconnected a comm line. She picked up the PADD and continued reading the report, checking the main communications that occurred during Gamma shift.

“Security to Lt. Uhura,” Caden said. His tone and the use of her title had her putting the PADD down immediately. Something wasn’t right.

“Khan is not in his room but Ensigns Smith and Jones are there, unconscious.”

“Thank you Lieutenant Commander. I shall inform the Captain. Uhura out.” She had noted a call being made from the hallway unit to medical, so she stood up and signalled Tezgarian to take her place as she pulled the earpiece out of her ear. She handed it over and walked around from her station to the captain’s chair.

“Lieutenant?” Jim asked as he looked up at her.

She leaned over to speak quietly to him. Telling him, in as succinct a way as she could, all that she had just learned.

Jim nodded once and then she saw his finger, that had been resting on the side of the chair’s armrest move over to press the communication button. She headed back to her station as she heard him speak to the ship.

“All decks this is the Captain speaking, go to Yellow Alert. I repeat, go to Yellow Alert.”

Nyota stood off to the side as she saw that Tezgarian was taking calls from the other areas of the ship.

“All decks confirm, Captain,” Tezgarian said.

“Thank you ensign,” Jim responded.

Once Jim had acknowledged the announcement Tezgarian stood and passed the ear piece back to Nyota and she resumed her seat.

“Captain,” Spock said from his place by the science station. Nyota turned her chair so she could see Spock.

He had one hand on his console, his finger resting on a place, obviously holding the information he wanted to relay to Jim.

“Yes, Spock?” Jim asked.

“There has been an unauthorized transport from the main transporter room. It took place at 0747.”

“No report?” Jim asked.

“No, captain,” Spock replied.

“Destination?”

“SS Botany Bay.”

“God damn him,” Jim growled.

Nyota started the comm line to security, instinctively knowing what Jim would want next, while silently berating herself for not checking the computer to locate Smith and Jones as soon as she found out their names. She wouldn’t have been able to prevent the transport over to the Botany Bay but any medical help the two ensigns needed might have arrived a little quicker. She had learned the hard way that seconds really do count.

“Lt. Uhura, send security to the main transporter room. Then contact the personnel on the SS Botany Bay.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” she replied, but before she could send a message to Security there was a hail coming in.

“Captain, we are being hailed from the SS Botany Bay,” she announced, waiting for Jim’s response.

“Put it through,” Jim said in a tone that she knew well. Jim was angry, very angry.

oOo

Chapter 10 this way