Chapter 6: The Wrath of Khan (part 2)

The towering white-haired figure looked at Oseno with a small this smile on his lips. but their was neither joy nor friendliness in the smile. it was the smile of a crocodile.

"Don't insult my intelligence, Commander. I can hear your heartbeat and sense your body temperature change when you lie. You know who he is... and you know where he is... you know what he did..."

He let a moment of silence pass before looking askance at the Bajoran's empty stare, then lifting a snowy eyebrow.

" You mean... he never told you the tale? To amuse his crew, no? "

He took a deep breath as he then lowered himself to bring his face closer to that of Jureth as he spoke.

"Never told you how he, Captain Kheren, found this... derelict starship and boarded her while his own vessel was being taken over by fanatics intent on claiming her as a prize as well... But they tried to overpower her with the aid of a... sentient hologram, and his tampering conjured, from the very nebula I had died in, my presence here. It was but an easy matter for a greater mind like mine to destroy that invader and assume full command of this ship... only to have Captain Kheren and his minions sabotage it and hurl it away, damaged, powerless and blinded to the very edge of the galaxy, with barely enough battery power left to sustain me...."

There was bitterness in the last sentence. But then, he turned away, taking another deep breath and his voice took a distant tone.

"On Earth... hundreds of years ago... I was a prince... with power over millions... "

Before Jureth's very eyes, the image of Khan suddenly became that of a man at least thirty years younger, wwearing a white turban on his head and a long vest of glod inlaid with pearls, a red sahs around his slim waist with a jeweled dagger at his hip. But his far away expression did not change.

"Captain Kirk  found us... me and seventy of my most trusted followers from the year 1996 in cryogenic freeze... then opposed my return to power  and exiled us all on a savage, untamed world that six months later was thrown out of it's orbit by the explosion of it's neighbor...  turned into a barren sand heap... with only the content of a few cargo bays to sustain us... "

Now, the man looked like a thirtyish old dark-haired, hard-edged version of himself, wearing a silvermesh suit... and then it was replaced by a red-shirted, black pants and boots uniform of a mid-twenty-third century starfleet engineer. And still he spoke as if he was alone on the eerie bridge.

"Twenty years... twenty years we survived, until I and the remnant of my people were found again, this time by Captain Terrel of the USS Reliant... We took his ship... and the Genesis device it guarded, the instrument of my overdue conquest... only to have Kirk stand again between us and our rightful destiny... destroy the last of my kind... and escape my just wrath even as I sacrificed myself detonating the device. "

The white-haired old man in the tattered late twenty-third century uniform reappeared. He nodded to himself, a strange, unexpected sadness creeping on his angular features and in his hard, accented voice.

"He is dead now... old... friend... a life ended in disgrace, demoted, retired, disintegrated by a spatial anomaly... to the very end robbing me of my just revenge... And then came the USS Artemis... and Captain Kheren... "

He closed his eyes, oblivious to all around him.

"It is only the fact of my superior intellect that allowed me to survive."

Shocked would be a less than accurate description for Jureth's state of mind at that very moment. The infamous Kahn, somehow, some way alive, or a part of him anyway. The records from the Enterprise, and Kirk's logs, held the former dictator to quite mad and Oseno could see Kirk's appraisal was accurate. Whatever this...thing...was, it was clearly insane and somehow he knew that either he, or the Horizon would have to find a way to stop it. Presently though, the two Jem'Hadar gripping Oseno were preventing him from doing anything never mind this recreation of Kahn. His initial thought had been to take command of this ship and beam back to the Polaris, but in Kahn's own words he controlled the Nemesis so that plan was out of the question. For now, he stuck to the facts...

"Captain Kirk did not die disgraced, he died as he lived, a hero of the Federation. Without him Captain Picard would not have stopped the man who was willing to sacrifice countless lives for his own personal gain, much like...you."

Perhaps Oseno had some repressed death wish, or perhaps it was just the fact that he often spoke before he thought, but either way he had already leveled the veiled insult at Kahn but Jureth didn't stop when he should have..

"If you ask me, Kirk and Kheren both did the right thing."

This time, a genuine smile now appeared on the face of this reborn Khan.

"I like a brave man."

He then stretched out a hand to one of Oseno's captors. The Jem-Hadar on his right, the one that had proclamed himself to be the First on their earlier meeting, went to his pocket and fished out a small object that he deposited in the one ungloved hand. Khan flipped it gently between his fingers a moment, letting the pale eerie lighting of the dormant bridge play over it,s glossy, transluscent surface before looking at the Bajoran again.

"I am in need of your ship... Commander... Oseno... isn't it? More precisely, of it's power. You will give me your command code to access your engineering section ant the antimatter containment and reserve units. Now, will I need to exert some... persuasion... or, will I find them myself within this?"

He showed the small flat object in his hand. It was Commander Redding's personal data chip.

Oseno glanced at the chip, knowing what it was, but also knowing that without Redding there was no way to get to the information it contained. Then it was his turn to smile "I'm sure your Jem Hadar told you: I locked down the Polairs command functions using my voice authorization code. Without my voice even the codes are useless, and if you think I will unlock the command functions then you don't know Starfleet captains as well as you should. I would sooner destroy this entire base and everyone on it then surrender my ship to you."

The last statement wasn't false bravado on the part of the Bajoran either, Jureth would rather deliberately breach the Polaris' warp core rather than turn the ship over to Kahn, and given an opportunity would do just that if he felt he could not stop Kahn any other way. Oseno did not relish the thought of dying nor of taking so many lives, but  it was something he was prepared to do.

"Oh, you mean that I would have to speak like this?" said Khan.

His voice was exactly that of the Bajoran Commander.

The figure of Khan shook his head. His voice returned to his own peculiar pattern of speech and tone.

"Everything changes... except Man. "

He went to a console, obviously at the science station of the dimly lit bridge, and inserted Redding's chip in a slot. He activated no control nor did he give any verbal command or signal; yet, the board activated itself and the computer started working on the encoding algorythm of the data chip.

"Yes, it will take time," said Khan speaking to himself. "No matter; there are many roads to Rome."

He turned back to stand again before Oseno.

"Yes, I know you, brave Starfleet officers. You care little for your own death and suffering. But it is quite another thing to watch someone else suffer and die... especially because of you."

With a dark gloved hand that he brought back to his opposite flexed elbow, he pointed to the main viewing screen. The Bajoran turned to see on the large screen a composite image showing the insides of the Achilles class starship. Jureth recognized an engineering room that looked state of the art despite being of a quarter of a century old styling.

"I'm sure you recognize these containers, " said Khan behind him.

Indeed Oseno recognized the very distinctive containement tanks used on a starship to keep antimatter.

"And the meaning of this indicator..."

Even if he did not, the labelling over it was easily readable; they were the energy level indicators of the magnetic containement field that kept antimatter stored without risking the inevitable devastating contact with matter. At the moment, the indicator read zero.

Then, the point of view changed and showed the inside of each antimatter container. Each was completely empty of the highly reactive anti-deuterium usually stored there. But the containers where not empty. In each dormant magnetic bottle was encased a humanoid form.

His crew.

Then the viewing angle returned to the indicator of each. It concentrated on one that was attached to the bottle containing T'Lana. Slowly, it started to rise.

"I beleive it will take about four minutes for the magnetic levels to fry her brain," explained Khan as if he was speaking of a cooking recipe. "But of course her nervous system will be electrocuted quite before that, leaving her permanently paralysed... but not before enduring much pain as her muscular system will start to tetanize after a few seconds."

Behind Oseno, the voice came very close to his ear.

"How many people do you have among your gallant crew, Commander? Sixty I beleive? I lost seventy-eight dear friends to James Kirk... them and my beloved wife. I will show you more mercy than he ever did to me and my people... to her... I leave it to you how long you will want to enjoy admiring how well your people will die for you."

And on the screen, Jureth could see that even the stoic Vulcan woman could not force her own body to resist the slowly rising electromagnetic current that made her muscles start to spasm like bubbling water under her redening skin.  of course,she did not cry out; she was Vulcan. But the sweat starting to pearl on her brow told at what price.

For a brief moment, it was too much even for Jureth to watch and he shifted his glance despite himself. And there, in a darkened corner of the bridge, he saw her.

She was a young girl, Human, fair-skinned, barely out of her teens, with what appeared to be long blonde hair and big blue eyes, wearing a Starfleet cadet uniform of half a century ago.

He saw her for only an instant. She vanished like a half-remembered dream when Khan shifted behind him, probably following his diverted stare into that same dark corner. But it had been enough for the Bajoran to notice her... and notice something else.

She was crying.

Oseno blinked to clear his head because he believed he was seeing things, and his mind quickly returned to the urgency of his situation. His choice really was simple...his crew, or the ship. He did not doubt the resolve of the madman in front of him, and while he knew that all Starfleet officers were prepared to die in the performance of their duties being sacrificed because their commander was unwilling to save them was another thing altogether. Jureth knew his Federation history, knew that the original Khan had slaughtered countless people in the pursuit of his goals and Jureth knew that his people meant absolutely nothing to either Khan or the Jem'Hadar. He also knew that Khan may very well kill his people anyway, but he had to try.

"Stop," Jureth said "I surrender."

Khan barely blinked and, on the screen, the indicator stopped. There was still magnetic forces wracking the Vulcan woman's body but they were not rising anymore.

"Brave and wise. Your Starfleet chooses it's leaders well. A captain must put the welfare of his crew before that of his ship; isn't that one of your Directives?"

With a frozen smile, he looked intently at Oseno.

"Your command code if you please, Commander?"

Jureth hesitated, but only for a fraction of a second, he was beaten and he knew it. He had suspected the Jem'Hadar had simply been trying to intimidate him earlier and would not have killed the innocent woman, but Khan...Khan would not hesitate. There was nothing he could do, there was no code he could give that would disable the Polaris, or activate its auto-destruct sequence. So, he did what he believed he had to

"Give me a data pad, I will input the code."

One of the Jem'Hadar thrust a data device at him, and Oseno grimly entered his command authorization on the device and then the Jem'Hadar soldier roughly snatched it away and Oseno looked at Khan with defeat on his face.

"You have what you wanted, I suppose this is the part where you exterminate me and my crew anyway."

There was genuine surprise in the face of the white-haired stern man. On the screen, the monitor droped back to zero and T'Lara's body crumpled inside the tank. She was unconscious but still breathing evenly.

"What kind of a monster do you take me for, Commander? The truly great need not squash a vanquished enemy. Your bravery and devotion to your people warrant respect. "

His smile became harder at the edges.

"Besides, I need to verify those codes before I implement them... and corelate with this interesting encrypted datachip you brought me... before I decide about your fate."

With his black-gloved hand, he took in the bridge around them.

"But in this, I can also be generous.... and put it in your hands. Truth is, I can control this entire ship all by myself, but I am still in need of a crew to discharge me of the more... menial tasks in attending to her while I use it at last to build and conquer my new empire. My current followers are remarkable warriors... but they are too few and, frankly, a bit worn out. The rest of the prisoners in this facility can attend to this base's maintenance, but they are less fit to manage such a vessel as you and your gallant crew."

He then fixed his intense stare in the eyes of Jureth.

"Join me... and I will spare you and your crew. Serve me well... and I will share with you the glory of my destiny; to rule in the heavens as I did once in Hell."

Oseno looked intently at Khan, a hint of his earlier defiance returning to his eyes, and asked a question he was certain he knew the answer to.

"And if we refuse?"

Khan crossed his powerful arms over his large chest with a small smile at the corner of his thin lips.

"There is always a need for inferior beings in mining this asteroid and doing the menial labor. Those we had are quite worn out and getting to old for the work, even the few young ones we had over the years. If... "

He stopped talking and his eyes lifted as if he was looking at something far away or listening to some sound only he could hear. Reflecively, Oseno followed what his gaze seemed to behold and, on the main viewer, he saw an extrior view of the asteroid docking area, where a Jem'Hadar attack ship was coming in.

Behind it, tethered by an old-fashioned magnetic tow cable, was a Delta Flyer shuttlecraft.

The strategic ops officer of the starship Horizon couldn't read the designation on the too distant hull, but he had a pretty good idea, this far out at the edge of the galaxy, from where this craft was coming from.

"Ah... more guests to participate in my return to greatness," declared Khan. 

He gave the padd with the command codes to the First.

"Take the antimatter from this one as well and transfer it all to my flagship."

The two Jem'Hadars saluted with a head toss and left Jureth alone with Khan on the bridge of the Achilles class starship. The white-haired figure again bore his intense gaze on him. His smile was now as cold and hard as that of a terran crocodile.

"Well, Commander? Will you and your people take a seat and a console... or a pick and a shovel?"

Oseno's mind raced, he knew the Delta shuttle had to be from the Horizon, and he knew they must be looking for him, the Polaris and her crew. He had no way to warn them off, and if he let Khan put them to work in the mine then they had no way to try and stop him. Perhaps, from aboard the ship they could figure out a way to stop khan or sabotage the ship or something. Jureth's lone advantage was knowing that his people were all experts in their given professions from all over Starfleet. As far as he knew Khan did not posses that knowledge, or at least he didn't yet. Maybe all together they could find a way to subvert Khan, he was a computer after all..even if he was a sentient one.

"Very well, we'll run your ship but I would like permission to...remove the old crew."

Khan simply nodded.

Oseno was now alone with Khan; or so it seemed. As he moved to the nearest dessicated body, something caught the corner of his eye. Without turning his head, he strained his field of vision to look without giving any sign of doing so.

And there she was again. In a dimly lit corner near the escape hatch of the half-lighted bridge; willowy, young, blonde, wearing a decades old style Ops Ensign uniform. She looked in her late teens, a Caucasian-type Human female. 

And she was observing him, head bowed, as if in solemn prayer. A single tear glistened on her left cheek.

Then, it was at this moment that Khan spoke behind him.

"It appears that we have an unnanounced guest... Carry on, Commander."

And then, he simply vanished.

As soon as he was gone, the figure of the young girl took a step towards Oseno and, looking around like a frightened child, she whispered with urgency in her tone.

"Quick, now that he is distracted; run! Save yourself!"

Oseno stared at her intently trying to figure out exactly what was going on and where this girl had come from. For the second time since he'd been aboard the warship he believed he was seeing ghosts.

"Wait, who are you?! You should come with me!"

The girl blinked at him a moment, looked around again and stood at attention.

" Ensign Thetis Achilles, Yeoman, USS Nemesis... People call me Tess, '' the petite blonde girl answered. Then her expression showed a strange mixture of pride and sadness as she went on. " I can't come with you. But you, you must go, leave the ship... and quickly!

Around them, the bridge suddenly lighted up and all systems signaled full readiness. A glance at the engineering station showed what Tess then announced with widening eyes.

"We have full power!"

And as the antimatter gauge flared up on the engineering board, Tess seemed to become more... alive before Oseno's eyes... and more agitated. She went to a wall panel and opened a locker containing EVA suits of an outdated design but in pristine condition.

"If you use one of these and go through the bridge's emergency airlock, he won't notice immediately that you are gone. You barely have time to do so while he's occupied. But hurry! He will not be distracted for long! As soon as he disposes of her... "

Oseno looked at the displays briefly and then with concern back at Tess

"Disposes of who? If I leave he'll kill my crew, I have to find a way to stop him."

For a moment, Tess looked as if she was thinking. it lasted but a second or two, then her unblinking eyes rose back to his.

"The asteroid is being evacuated... to your ship... the Jem'Hadar attack ship... and the shuttle if towed back here... there is weapons fire in the USS Polaris... and several lifesigns, Human... Tellarite... Orion... with the Jem'Hadar ones... except the two now loading a second antimatter tank from your ship to mine..."

She blinked once.

"He is distracted by the encoding of your datachip, much more complex than anything on record except maybe... and his attention is now on the beaming in of another... a lifeform I have never seen before; Vulcanoid, black-skinned, white-haired, purple-eyes with a uniform like yours except for the white shoulder pads over the black uniform. He is... curious about her. "

Then she became alarmed again.

" I can not isolate those sensor readings from him indefinitely... He will soon realise that I am diverting data from his operating consciousness... and then... Please go while you still can!"

"Snowfire!" Jureth said instantly recognizing the description of the Horizon's Chief Science Officer, "they're trying to rescue us, and stop him they must have some sort of plan. The Vulcanoid, can you and I help her somehow?"

The girl hesitated.

"I... I don't know. He erected a forcefield around the deck room where she is... I can deactivate it but then in mere seconds he will notice and slap it back up... and me down at the same time. She... she has a personal short range transporter device..."

She looked into his eyes, fully aware that he already had understood without her having to finish her train of thought.

"But.." Oseno mused thinking alout "beaming her out does no good, at least not beaming her anywhere aboard the ship. I can't beam to her...I need to try to do something to draw his attention away from her...overload a console, or an eps conduit..something that will give her time to do what she came to do. I don't care if he comes after me, but I have to try and give her time to stop him."

Oseno moved to the tactical station on the bridge for it was the one he was the most familiar with given its similarity to the Alsea. The console was not locked, and so he began looking over critical systems careful not to run any programs that looked like anything more than a diagnostic. He wasn't ready to draw Khan's focus, not yet. He scanned vital control junctions, and conduits but could find nothing that Khan couldn't bypass or override. He could start a core ejection, but Khan would shut it down, maybe though if he started a cascade of failures of critical systems it would draw Khan's attention just long enough. Jureth looked over at Tess,

"I want to start a cascade failure of multiple critical systems, each time he stops one, I want something else to fail culminating with an emergency warp core ejection. If I'm right, between that and the data chip he won't be able to maintain his concentration on Commander K'leysha."

Oseno waited for a response from Tess, but she appeared to be "thinking" again and did not immediately offer any advice. Jureth was not an engineer, but he knew enough about power systems that he could attempt what he was proposing on his own. The Bajoran was determined to help Snowfire somehow and given that he had access to most of the major systems he had already decided that this was the best way.

Jureth could see that the console readings around the bridge were beginning to go green and knew he had to do something fast. He drew on information from his earliest years at Starfleet Academy and basic starship engineering classes that all cadets were expected to take. He entered commands in the console and began a massive power influx to the weapons arrays. Normally, one would do this in a controlled manner to reinforce the ship's weaponry and make it more powerful or sustain fire for a longer period of time, but Jureth did it instantly betting that the older vessel's less developed eps system wouldn't be able to handle the sudden influx of power.

Unfortunately for the crafty Bajoran, the Nemesis, formerly the USS Achilles, first of her class, had been the very prototype for all current modern tech and even beyond as far as computer and tactical technologies were concerned; and as a pure warship of unequaled firepower with Klingon engineering involved as well as Starfleet's, fast and excessive surges of power to weaponry had been taken well into account in it's design. Not only did the EPS conduits take the sudden, brutal influx of power in stride, they did it better than most modern vessels could.

"He's coming!"

Beside him, Tess vanished.

And then, Khan reappeard on the eerily red-lighted bridge.

"Well done, Commander, " he stated from the command podium, again looking as his later life self. "Take the tactical station and prepare to open fire."

Jureth hesitated, he couldn't fire on his own people, not really, but if he didn't it was likely that Khan would kill him then and there. His plan to overload the ship's weapons systems had failed miserably, not only failed but backfired in his face. Snowfire had also obviously failed in her mission and was now incarcerated on board, and Oseno now had a choice. The Bajoran had already called Khan's bluff once and now he was going to do it again..he glared at Khan

"I will not, if you want to fire on those ships you can do it yourself."