Chapter 1: When darkness no longer slumbers…

Underground archives, section 54:9. London. April 7th 2262, 22:56h.

"You lose… again." Peter said with a grin as he put down his cards on the table.

His colleague groaned and threw his own cards on the surface again.

"I swear to god, you cheat. You can't win 8 times in a row." Vincent pointed at the other man.

Peter shrugged and took a quick peek at the monitors. It was true that their jobs were hardly called for. Guarding just another section of the vast archives of London, it was softly said a job with low risks. There were just some occasional drunk cases of vandalism. But their weapons, the guns on their belts, they were almost completely for show.

"I am just a lucky man. Lady Fortuna favours me with that strategic mirror in the corner over there." Peter answered with a smug grin.

Vincent let out a disgruntled snort and stood.

"Don't you ever wonder what we are actually guarding in this shithole of boredom?"

"It's not my job to wonder that."

"You're a boring prick."

Peter shrugged and shook the cards again.

"Maybe being a new dad does that to you."

"Oh yeah, how is the little girl?"

Peter took a paper out of his pocket, showing the picture of his new-born girl to his friend.

"She's absolutely beautiful."

Vincent nodded in agreement. There was a bit of rustling and Peter looked at the monitors.

"That's weird."

Vincent turned and looked over his partner's shoulder.

"What is? I don't see anything."

"Here. In hangar 6 the temperature just dropped about 8 degrees centigrade. And it corrected itself almost instantly again. Like a cold gust of air."

Vincent sighed.

"Oh no, maybe a book farted."

"Shut up you jerk. Maybe someone came in, opened a door." Peter grabbed his flashlight. "Or would you rather be scrubbing away graffiti tomorrow again?"

Vincent grunted.

"Stupid kids."

Peter looked at the monitors once again.

"I don't see anything, but we should just take a look."

Five minutes later the two arrived at Hangar 6. Peter lit his own fingers with his flashlight.

"The doors haven't been forced open, no faulty codes entered into the log either. They did not get in through here."

"Or maybe the air-conditioning just got a little over-excited." Vincent swayed his flashlight around.

"You are useless sometimes."

Peter closed the maintenance-box again and walked to the control-panel. He opened the door and walked in. While shining the light around he tried to assess if anything had been touched.

"What's that on the floor?"

Vincent had his own light fixed on Peter's feet. The other man looked down.

"Water I guess."

Peter kneeled and took a few drops to his scanner.

"It's cryo-tube fluid." Peter furrowed his brow. "It must be from the Cryogenic sleeping-dock. You know, those 73 tubes in the back."

Vincent nodded and walked to the back, not waiting for Peter to follow. He could immediately spot the misplacement. One tube was on the floor, shattered. He looked at it and shone his light at it. There was a trail leading from it. He kneeled and looked under an angle. Footprints, of bare feet. Like the owner had broken out and just… walked away. He felt a press at the base of his skull.

"Do not move." The voice was cold and smooth, the demand simple but deep with meaning.

Vincent looked up to where he'd left Peter, to call for help.

What he saw there was enough to make him stumble back anyway. Peter was dead and his skull was just… crushed. He fell back and looked up, crawling away.

"What kind of man are you?" the other sounded vexed.

It was a man, with sharp features and such cold eyes.

"You… you're Khan…"

"Oh how observant." Khan rolled his eyes as he buttoned up the jacket he'd grabbed from elsewhere in the archives. An old Starfleet uniform, from the 21st century.

"Please! Please don't kill me. You… I… I won't say a word. I swear."

"Not a word you say? Well that would be highly inconvenient. I require you to deliver a message for me. To a certain captain…"

Somewhere on the edge of the Gamma Quadrant. April 8th 2262. 01:34h.

Midnight used to be quiet. People used to actually sleep on this hour, with a minimum number of crew-members to mind the ship. But then again, people also did not usually get a very, very threatening call at midnight. Sulu turned in his chair, the captain's chair. His to sit on when Kirk wasn't there, or in this case, snoring in bed.

"Uhura, wake the captain. It's urgent." He said as he looked up from the screen of the private transmission that just came in.

"What will I tell him it's about?" she asked, putting down the charts from engine-maintenance she had been reading.

"Khan."

She looked at the lieutenant for a trace of dishonesty when he said that one cursed name. When the man did not take it back or say another word she inclined her head and walked away from the bridge. It echoed in a way, that one word, that one name. And the look on Sulu's face made her fairly sure that it was not good news about Khan that was to be shared. She walked to the sleeping-quarters and pressed the buzzer next to the door. What would she actually say? She knew nothing yet, just the one thing, the one name. Kirk stumbled out with the most sleep dazed eyes Uhura had seen on a person for a long time. A lazy grin came over his features.

"You look very good, you and Spock on another anniversary party? Because I am not doing that stripper-act when I'm sober, hate to disappoint you." He slurred with half a smirk.

Normally Uhura would have grinned and maybe slapped Kirk a bit. Now her lips just thinned for a moment.

"Sulu has summoned you to the bridge. There is an urgent transmission coming in for you."

"Transmission? What about?"

Kirk yawned a little and slowly returned to a more alert state of mind.

"Jim… Sulu said that it was about Khan."

She swallowed and anxiously tried to read her friend's face. Kirk's half-smile wavered completely and suddenly very alert blue focused fully on Uhura.

"What about Khan?" he asked with clenched jaw.

"I don't know captain. Sulu has only said that it was urgent."

He disappeared shortly in his room and appeared a few seconds later, pulling his shirt over his head. He passed Uhura with just a nod, a tense nod before he returned to the bridge.

"What has roused the captain?" Spock said from behind Uruha's shoulder.

"I have."

"With what reason?"

Uhura turned to look at Spock, a tiny smile wavering immediately as she caught his eyes.

"Because Khan is back."

No, she had not been told so with that many words, but what else could cause that much panic around Khan?

"That is highly illogical." Spock droned immediately. "Khan has been put back to cryogenic sleep. It is very unlikely that he woke from this sleep without aid."

"Well, maybe some sick mind helped him, maybe he tricked it somehow."

"How would someone 'trick' cryogenic sleep?"

Uhura sighed.

"I don't know Spock… What matters is that he did somehow get back here. And now he's contacting Kirk. Take some advice and switch off the logic button for once. The captain will not take too good to it at the moment."

And that was one thing Spock did understand.

When Kirk arrived on the bridge Sulu was already standing and waiting. His face grave, his eyes dark with a kind of anger that was not a good sign. Kirk gave him a nod and sat in the chair. He looked at the screen, one transmission put on hold.

"Do you want me to open the line again captain?" Sulu asked, his entire posture tense.

Kirk nodded and looked at the screen.

"Show me."

For a moment the transmission loaded and then there was a face on the screen. Not Khan. And Kirk almost sighed in relief, even though the person on camera looked very unhealthy. Kirk watched as the young man slowly shifted, hazy grey eyes on the camera again, breathing raggedly.

"Captain Kirk of the Enterprise?" he asked hopefully.

Kirk shifted, his gut twisted. Maybe, on second thought, he'd have liked it better to have Khan on screen. This guy looked sick, really sick.

He was sweating, strands of brown hair sticking to the sides of his face. A pale hue over his features.

"You must listen well, for I will only say it once."

A rehearsed message for sure. The stranger looked to his right as if to ask for something in silence.

"I speak on behalf of Khan Noonien Singh. A man you should not have crossed captain Kirk."

He interrupted to let out a groan and hunch over in pain. There was some rustling and he grabbed a note.

"I have told you that my crew was my family did I not captain? Since you have destroyed my family, consider this an act of retaliation. From today on, a member of your family will die each day. You would not be able to save them. Tell me captain, how mad would you go if you could not save those you hold dear?"

The young man crumpled the paper.

"Consider me an example of future events."

Something was handed to the stranger. Kirk sat up straight.

"Wait! Wait! Tell me where he is! Tell me where I can find that son of a-"

A loud bang echoed through the speakers and a flash of light blurred all the sights on screen into white for a fraction of a second. When it died out again Kirk slumped in the chair at the sight of the dead body that lay bleeding on the floor.

"Tic toc captain."

Khan's bodiless echoed through the room before a pair of boots stopped in front of the camera. The screen tilted and shifted until Khan's face showed up. He was smiling.

"How fast can your ship go? How many do you think you can save?"

Kirk got pale. Khan knew very damn well that he had all the time he'd need to carry out his vengeance. They were at the very outskirts of the known universe.

"I will kill you." Kirk said, his knuckles turning white around the armrests. "I will rip you up and burn all that's left, see how you regenerate from that you dick!"

"Tut tut captain. Such bad tongue."

Khan looked at the body behind him.

"In my defence… He did kill himself, I only handed him the gun."

"But you also made him hurt enough to want to die!" Kirk stood now, trying to lose that tension in his limbs, that urge to destroy something just to ease his fury.

"Well, he did ask me not to kill him. I complied."

"You're sick."

Khan chuckled darkly.

"You are wasting precious time with your slander captain. You should use your time to try and run home, and save what will be left of those you held dear."

Kirk screamed at him in rage. Not a word would do to make his point come across any differently.

"I must go now captain. But fret not, you'll hear from me again soon."

The transmission broke and an icy silence crept over the bridge. Kirk screamed again and started raining punches on the screen, as if the window could still hurt Khan, as if it would somehow transmit his violence to that man's face.

Sulu grabbed him, cornering his arms against his chest. Kirk fought it, trying to stumble away.

"Captain! Captain you must contain yourself." the lieutenant said with effort. "You are not doing yourself or anyone a favour with hurting yourself!"

Uhura and Spock entered too.

"Can one of you fetch Bones? I think he broke a hand." Sulu said as he managed to just about squeeze the calm into Kirk.

Uhura immediately nodded and walked away, answers would come later she was sure of that.

When the other man slumped and breathed out steadily again he slowly set him on his knees again. Kirk succumbed to an almost apathy, staring ahead as his mind tried to wrap itself around his desperation. Spock looked at Sulu. The Asian thinned his lips and shook his head.

Spock kneeled to Kirk's level.

"Captain?"

"He is going to kill everyone Spock." Kirk said hollowly.

"I do not understand what you mean to say captain. Without an army or mass destructive weapon Khan is not capable of a complete genocide."

"No Spock. My family. He is going to kill each and every person in my family. One each day. And I can never be home quick enough to save them."

Spock looked at his friend. He looked broken. He quickly did some math. With their current location and the warping possibilities they would need a total of 35 days to return to Earth. And that would be the quickest schedule. He opened his mouth to say so. But he remembered what Uruha said. And he saw the way Kirk looked so shattered within, it withheld him from doing so.

"You have amazed me with solving impossible scenarios before captain. I would say it is highly improbable that we will find a way home to be in time. But if there is someone who would be able to prove me wrong once again I believe that would be you."

Kirk looked up, a light frown on his features.

"Highly improbable you say?" he repeated weakly.

Spock nodded.

"But not impossible." He added.

"I think I've worked with highly improbable before." Kirk stood, wiping his bloody hand on his trousers.

"Mr. Chekov. What is the quickest warp schedule back to Earth?"

"At least…. 35 days Captain."

Kirk nodded. Uhura returned with Bones shortly after. Unasked the doctor started to probe Kirk's injured hand.

"Mmm yes, that feels like a fracture right there."

Uhura looked at Spock.

"I think you would do best to think of a solution in a quieter place captain." Spock said. "As always, your crew will look after the ship."

Bones nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I should patch you up if you want to hold a spoon tomorrow."

"If anything changes, if Khan as much as says a word to us, we will come to report captain." Sulu added.

Kirk looked at his crew and gave them a quick nod of gratitude.

"I want everyone to look at each possible loop-hole in the system, anything you can find to get us back to Earth faster."

"Yes captain." The answer was unanimous.

"Let's hope the son of a bitch gets run-over by a car in the meantime." Kirk grumbled as he followed after Bones towards the sickbay.

He could no longer think straight, so far he had no idea how he could save any family member. 35 days was enough for Khan to wipe away everyone he cared for deeply. Well, except the ones here on the Enterprise. But that was such a mild comfort that it stung. All he could really think about was who he would lose first. What tomorrow, would bring. Because tomorrow, or maybe even sooner, this would get very real for him, very very real. He wanted to call everyone and tell them how important they were in his life. Tell them to run to safety. But Khan would find them anyway. And Kirk somehow thought it would be better if they would not live in bitter fear of the end these last days.

"Captain?" Bones tried again.

"What?" he looked up in half confusion.

"Are you okay? Buddy…"

Kirk looked away again, staring out of the window into the darkness of space.

"We're light-years away from home Bones… What kind of man am I? I cannot even be there to protect the ones I love."

"You can't blame yourself for this. Khan must have planned for this, must have known that you would be nowhere near. We'll burn his wretched ass. And everybody on this ship will do whatever it takes to get you home to your family cap. We all will."

The doctor wrapped up Kirk's hand after placing the stabilisers to heal the fracture. Sulu came in shortly after that. He looked pale as a ghost.

"Captain."

Kirk immediately lost all colour in his face. In this context he didn't need to ask what it was about.

"Who is it?"