-Chapter Seventeen-

Anthea wasn't skilled at hand-to-hand, though she'd had training both through Starfleet and with her husband. Still, it wasn't her strong suit, and she wasn't sure how she'd fare against the cyborgs. She didn't want to find out.

"Barton is with them," Khan said, and his voice was curiously flat. "They've started their . . . assimilation."

"I'm sorry, darling," she told him.

He shook his head. "I'll take the two on the right, you go for the one on the left."

"Barton's on the right, I'm guessing."

"Yes."

"Hopefully they haven't finished and he still knows some of who he is."

They moved as one, firing their phasers mostly as cover. It didn't affect the Borg more than knocking them back a little with each blast, but it was enough to distract them from doing any shooting of their own.

Khan dove low, tackling the thing that had been his friend, knocking it into the second Borg. They both fell like dominoes, which had been his intention.

The third Borg didn't take its eyes off Anthea. She palmed the butt of her gun, aimed.

The Borg shot at her and her own went wide. Then she was too close, and it swung its gun arm at her head. She had to duck to avoid taking the blow in the face. As it was, it hit her in the shoulder and sent her sprawling.

She rolled, raised her gun from her prone position, and shot upwards, hitting it twice in the chest. She was assuming it was human, but just in case it wasn't, she spaced the second shot to the farthest side of the left ribs, where Vulcans, Romulans, and Rigelians had their hearts.

When Anthea got to her feet, she saw Khan had Barton pinned. The other Borg was still active, and struggled to regain its feet.

As it lurched upright, Anthea knee-capped it with a shot to each limb. It dropped back. Feeling strangely calm, she stomped on its chest, bent, and shoved the muzzle under its chin.

"Let's see you assimilate this," she said.

The Borg's head disintegrated in a shower of gore. Anthea straightened, saw Khan was struggling with Barton.

"We are-" Barton trembled, seemed to seize. "Borg! No! Khan, I can't-"

Wordlessly, Anthea handed her husband the gun.

"Khan," the man on the ground gasped out. "I'm fighting. I've been- fighting-"

His head jerked to the side, and whatever was within him said, "Drone conversion error. Assimilation incomplete."

Barton convulsed, flailed his arms. When he got control of himself, he said, "Do it! Before they get into my head and find us all!"

"Barton," Khan began.

"No, no. You have to-" He spasmed, then looked at Anthea. "Tell Marla I'm sorry. Tell her I-

"Resistance is futile," the Borg part of him intoned.

Khan took a deep breath, steeling himself for what he had to do.

Anthea, who had just executed four of the Borg with no qualms, had to look away.

The shot echoed off the deserted buildings, and the whirring and grinding of the machinery the Borg had savagely attached to Barton's body fell silent.

The only sound then was a single, ragged sob from Khan as he said goodbye to yet another friend.

"I can't believe we took care of it that quickly," Anthea said later, after they'd brought Barton's body back to the Reliance and destroyed the other Borg's remains. "I feel like that was too easy."

"I know."

Khan was supervising the loading of the last of their purchases into the cargo hold, as they prepared to leave. The locals had offered to celebrate them for taking care of the invaders, but Khan wanted no such thing. He did, however, accept the money they were offered. Anthea knew Khan felt a bit like they'd paid him to kill his friend, but her husband was just ruthless enough to know that the two didn't equate and that they needed the money.

She trailed her fingers lightly down his arm, then said, "I'm going to check on Marla, see if she's awake."

She didn't look forward to relaying Barton's last words to the other woman, but if it had been Khan . . . No. She couldn't think those thoughts.

In the infirmary, she found Marla awake and sitting up.

"Did you-" Marla broke off when she saw Anthea's face. "He's dead, isn't he?"

"Unfortunately, we couldn't save him. He was too far gone. He did get a few words out. He said to tell you he was sorry, and that he loved you."

The second part was a partial truth. Anthea had no doubt it had been what Barton was going to say, before the Borg took over, but he hadn't actually said it. Still, it was a kindness she was willing to offer Marla, knowing she'd want to hear it if it was Khan. She knew what it was to care for someone, and to suddenly lose them through horrific events. Marla would not be getting Barton back; a small lie seemed a kindness in the situation.

"Thank you," Marla whispered. She stretched out on the bed, rolled to her side, and turned her back on Anthea.

Knowing she'd been dismissed, Anthea left the medbay and tracked down her son in Kati's quarters. When she opened the door, Nolan sprang up, singing, "Mummy!"

"Aww. I'm not Mama anymore?" It was a silly thing, but Anthea felt her eyes start to burn.

Nolan stretched his arms up, and she lifted him effortlessly, hugging him tight.

"Always Mama!" he told her.

She took a long moment to just nuzzle his neck, breathing in the still-baby scent of him. He giggled and hugged her neck tight.

"Eloran patrol says there's no unknown vessels in their space," Khan said, as he came up the corridor, where Anthea still stood in the open doorway. "We don't know how the Borg came here, but I'm guessing they have transwarp technology. They'd have to, to beam in from wherever their ship is presently. I suggest we vacate before they send anyone else."

"And abandon the Elorans?" Anthea asked softly.

"We're not responsible for these people. The only people I'm responsible for are either on this ship or back home." His voice went tight as he spoke.

Anthea put Nolan down, told him softly to go play with his toys. Then she closed the door and wrapped her arms tight around her husband. "It's not your fault," she whispered. "You did what you could to save him. They did all that to him in a matter of a few hours. There was nothing you could do to stop them, darling. I know he was your friend, but he asked you to do it, Khan. You gave him a mercy."

Khan pressed a kiss to her hair and embraced her, pressing his face against her shoulder. "I know," he mumbled. "But every time I lose someone, I feel I've failed. It takes me back to when we were on the run on Earth, to . . . when the torpedoes on the Vengeance exploded and I thought they were all gone. All of them."

"You haven't failed. You haven't. This was a completely unexpected and horrific situation, and you did everything you could to get him back. And when . . . it was obvious that we couldn't help, Khan, that was the only thing you could do. Don't blame yourself for that."

He let out a shuddery breath and straightened. "What would I do without you?" he asked her softly. "Come, let's go home."

She followed him into the small bridge and took her seat at the navigation chair. Khan deftly piloted the ship up and out of the atmosphere. Anthea had scanners going, but nothing of note popped out on the sensors.

As Khan prepped for warp, Anthea scanned the space ahead of them with her eyes. Out in the distance, in the black between the stars, just for an instant, she thought she saw a shimmer of green light. She blinked, and it was gone.

She shook her head, decided she was imagining things.

The Reliance jumped to warp, and home.

When they landed at the makeshift airfield on Sitara, Khan noted there was a smaller craft under the wing of Otto's Bird of Prey. It was barely larger than a shuttlecraft, just large enough to have a warp drive.

"Where did that come from?" he mused aloud.

"I have no idea," his wife replied. "Let's go find out."

As they exited the ship, they were greeted by Otto and Chin, both of whom looked serious.

"Kaiser," Otto said, "we have visitors. They came asking for Kaiserin. We put them in the brig to wait for you."

Anthea frowned. This was so not something she wanted to deal with after the last few days they'd had. She still hadn't had a decent night's sleep and longed for her own bed. "They were asking for me?"

"Ja," Otto confirmed with a nod.

"Show me."

She followed Otto aboard the Bird of Prey, trying not to think of the last time she'd been aboard it. He led her, ironically, to the very cell she and Nolan had been held in while prisoners of the Klingons.

He opened the door, and-

"Anthea! Oh, Anthea, tell them to let me go!"

"YOU PUT MY MOTHER IN THE BRIG?"

Anthea took two steps and engulfed her mother in her arms. Over Martha's shoulder, she shot Otto a look that should have fried him on the spot.

Otto cringed.

Without a word, Khan dragged Otto out into the hallway and made him release "the other prisoner", Anthea's father. He wasted no time hustling his wife and in-laws off the Klingon ship, telling Anthea, "Take them up to the house. I'll have a word with Otto."

Anthea nodded, still completely boggled and wondering if she were still asleep and merely dreaming. But her mother's hand was warm in hers.

"How did you even get here?" Anthea asked breathlessly, as she led her parents into the house. "How did you find us?"

"We received a message," Graham said. "It was encoded, sent straight to me. When I got it unencrypted, it had the coordinates here, and said 'Come find me'. It was signed with just an A, so I hadta assume it was you. We took a huge risk, sold off everything, including the townhouse in London, an' bought the best warp-capable ship we could afford."

"But why?"

Martha took her daughter's hands. "Because you're our daughter, and if you needed us, nothing in this universe would stop us from coming, darling. You should know that."

"Even after the way I left?" Anthea asked, as Khan came into the living room.

Her mother hesitated. "When we got your message, after you disappeared . . . We were devastated. I'd thought John was dead, as you did, and I was so confused that you'd said you were going with him. I didn't know what that meant. And you took Nolan with you. We hunted all over for you for weeks. Starfleet is looking for you, as well."

"We know," Khan said dryly. Looking at Anthea, he said, "I'm assuming that our . . . dear friend Jim had a hand in this."

"Probably, but I can't fault him, for once," his wife said. Looking back to her mother, she asked, "But still, to risk everything and come all the way here on a chance?"

"We had to," Graham said. "If you were calling for us, we had to."

"I didn't, but I can't express how grateful I am to see you. I . . . This is the last thing I expected, honestly. I thought I'd never see you again."

"If you didn't send the message, who did?"

Anthea and Khan exchanged a look. "We have an . . . associate in Starfleet who's sworn to protect the secret of where we are. His name is James Kirk, captain of the USS Enterprise. He can be a little . . . impulsive."

Martha kept glancing at Khan, and Anthea pulled her hands from her mother's grasp to take Khan's hand. "Mum, Dad . . . You know I was involved with John Harrison, the man Starfleet came to the house looking for."

"Aye," her father said. "That much was obvious. Thought he died, though. Who's this, then?"

"It's a long story, one we don't have huge amounts of time for at the moment. Short version is, John Harrison never existed. Yes, I married him while we were both working for Section 31, which is a top secret organization within Starfleet, but John wasn't real. He was a false identity created for this man, who was taken as a prisoner by Admiral Marcus and forced to develop weapons for Starfleet. But he's the same man, the one I left Earth for. Mum, Daddy, this is my husband, Khan Noonien Singh."

Her father stood, sizing up the tall, powerfully built man before him. "Khan Noonien Singh," he repeated. "Name doesn't fit the look."

"My mother was of Indian nationality. My father is unknown," Khan murmured. "I was, however, raised in New Delhi and the surrounding area."

"And you married my daughter without asking me," Graham continued.

"Daddy!" Anthea objected.

Khan's smile was slow and mellow, not the least bit sardonic. "You're correct, sir. I did not. I know Anthea well enough to know she would not have liked to be treated as a possession. And her well-being, that of her and our children, is my utmost priority."

The two men eyed each other. Finally, Graham sighed. "So you're the, what, leader here?"

"Yes," Khan said. "This is our planet, Sitara, which is Hindi for 'star home'. It's a small community, and I am the . . . leader."

"King, really," Anthea put in. "Raj, Kaiser, whatever. Most of our people are from . . . Khan's time."

"Time?" Martha asked. "What?"

"Khan and his people were cryogenically frozen," her daughter explained. "There was a war on Earth, in the early 1990s, and they were exiled. They were frozen for nearly three hundred years."

Martha, who had been a teacher back on Earth, frowned. "I seem to- The Eugenics Wars?" she asked Khan with wide grey eyes. "You're from that time?"

He nodded. "I once ruled a quarter of the world. Now I am reduced to less than eighty subjects and a distant home on an unfamiliar world, just to ensure the safety of what's left of my people."

Anthea smirked and rubbed a hand over her belly. "Not to mention rudimentary running water and other living conditions close to the nineteenth century."

"We're improving things," her husband reminded her. "Slower than I would like, but we only just returned from a supply run."

His wife gave a small shudder. "Anyway . . . I suppose the two of you can stay for a time in the room that was going to be my study. Winter is coming and I believe all of the cabins we've built are occupied. We can't get you a place of your own 'til spring, I think."

"We could stay on the ship-" her mother began.

"No," Khan and Anthea said in unison.

"No, no," Anthea continued. "We had to do that ourselves while Khan was building our home, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. It's fine for a single person to sleep in a ship's cabin, but I remember too well cramming the three of us in our cabin aboard the Reliance. No, you'll stay with us. We have the room."

She looked to her husband. "How soon can we have one of the beds set up?"

"Minutes. I'll take care of it," he told her. "Get reacquainted with your parents. Oh, and I'm going to need the pistol. I think I'm going to see if we can replicate it. I have a feeling . . ."

"I know," she whispered. "Go ahead."

He left, and she turned back to her parents. "Come, you need to see Nolan, and meet Kati. Kati is Khan's sister."

Graham and Martha exchanged looks, but didn't comment on the tension. "Yes," her mother said, "I want to see Nolan."

"He's on the Reliance," Anthea said, "or Kati's bringing him. We left them on the ship in case there was trouble."

It hadn't been trouble. It had been something wonderful. But as Anthea showed her parents around their new home, she kept thinking about that green light she'd seen, and the body they had in medbay on the ship.

She hoped the Borg wouldn't be back, wouldn't find them.

She was afraid they would.

Once, her worst nightmare had been something happening to Nolan. Now it was the Borg. How many were they? Where did they come from? How much had they got from Barton before he'd been killed? She just didn't know, and the uncertainty frightened her.

But she saw Khan across the main clearing, talking to Otto, Chin, and Inigo, and knew that whatever came next, they'd do their best to protect their people. They had to.

Across a wide gulf of space, deep within the Delta Quadrant, in the heart of a dark, cube-shaped vessel that blinked with green light, she waited. Dark eyes narrowed, and a cruel mouth smiled.

"Not now," she said, to the thousands upon thousands gathered around her. "We wait. We need to know more before we consider assimilating them, and we do not have enough information. In time, we will use them. But not yet. We have time. We are endless, after all. We are Borg."