Lieutenant Commander

As he said that, I scrambled over Pavel to get out of bed.

"I'm sorry about the rude awakening," I told him as I hastily pulled on my boots over my sweatpants.

("Uh...I'll wait in the hall.")

"Eets okay," he yawned, throwing off the blankets and sitting on the edge of the bed. He glanced at the clock on my bedside table, "I need to get ready for my next shift anyways."

"Good," I said. "And thank you, Pavel," I said, leaning over and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

I missed the small smile that appeared on his face as I walked out the door.

Jim smirked as we made our way down the hall, "And you were mad that I gave you a roommate."

I punched his arm, "Shut up Tiberius." But I hid a smile as we neared the turbo lift.

~~~~~~~~~~

"You found a person?" I asked while the turbo lift shuttled us to the brig.

"Yeah, an actual frozen human being," he replied grimly, clearly still puzzling what this could all mean.

"What the hell is a frozen man doing in a torpedo?" I asked.

"We're about to find out," he said as the doors opened and we stepped into the brig.

We marched over to the cell containing Harrison, who watched us approach with a smug expression on his face.

"Why is there a man in that torpedo?" Jim growled.

"There are men and women in all those torpedoes, Captain. I put them there," Harrison responded calmly.

"Who the hell are you," Jim demanded.

Harrison clasped his hands behind his back and stared Jim in the eyes. "A remnant of a time long past, genetically engineered as to lead others to peace in a world at war. But we were condemned as criminals forced into life as exiles. For centuries we slept hoping that when we awoke things would be different. But as a result of the destruction of Vulcan, star fleet began to aggressively search the far quadrants of space my ship was found adrift," he explained. "I alone was revived."

Jim glared at him, "I looked up John Harrison, up until a year ago he didn't exist."

"John Harrison was a fiction created the moment i was awoken by your admiral Marcus to help his cause," the convict paused... "My name is Khan."

I raised an eyebrow. Something about Harrison had always seemed different, and now Marcus' strange behavior started to make much more sense.

"Why would a star fleet admiral ask a 300 year old frozen man for help?" Jim asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Because I am better," he stated simply.

"At what?"

"Everything," Khan replied, "Alexander Marcus needed to respond to an uncivilized threat in a civilized time. For that he needed a warriors mind, my mind, to design weapons and warships."

 Spock, who had been standing there silently, said, "You are suggesting that the admiral violated every regulation he vowed to uphold simply because he wanted to exploit your intellect."

"He wanted to exploit my savagery," Khan snarled back. "Intellect alone is useless in a fight, you you can barely break a rule how would you be expected to break a bone?" he said with a smug little smile.

"He may not be willing to break a bone, but I am," I muttered under my breath. Harrisons eyes flicked to me, for a moment seeming sorry that I had to witness this.

"Astrid," Jim whispered. I looked up at him and he shook his head in warning.

"Marcus used me to design weapons to help him realize his mission of a militarized Starfleet," Harrison continued. "He sent you to use those weapons, to fire my torpedoes on an unsuspecting planet. And then, he purposefully crippled your ship in enemy space. Leading to one formidable outcome...Marcus could finally have the war he talked about, the war he always wanted."

Jim shook his head, "No..No. You're lying."

I shook my head. "But Sector 31...Thomas never would have agreed to any of this," I said.

"Oh, but he did," Harrison sneered, "At least at first, when he thought Marcus just wanted the weapons for defense. But by the time he found out what was really going on, it was too late. He was under an oath of secrecy, and as we all know breaking one of those is treason. He had no choice but to play along."

"And then you killed him," I said in a strained voice. "He did everything you wanted and then you killed him anyway."

Khan looked down on me. Something flickered in his eyes. Amusement or pity...I didn't know.

"No," Jim muttered, starting to pace. "No, I saw you open fire on a room of unarmed Star Fleet officers, you killed them in cold blood!"

"Marcus took my crew from me."

"You are a MURDERER!" Jim shouted in response.

"He used my friends to control me." Khan turned away from us, staring blankly at the wall of his cell. "I tried to smuggle them to safety by concealing them in the very weapons I had designed. But I was discovered. I had no choice but to escape alone. And when I did...I had every reason to expect that Marcus has killed ever single one of the people I hold most dear. So i responded in kind."

"My crew is my family, Kirk." Khan turned back to us, "Tell me Captain, is there anything you wouldn't do for family?"

"How dare you say that," I kissed dangerously. "How dare you! When you have killed other people's families!" I shouted, hitting my fist on the glass. 

Jim grabbed my arms and pulled me away.

I glared at the man on the other side of the glass. "When you have killed my family," I whispered.

Suddenly the the brig intercom buzzed.

"Proximity alert," Sulu's voice came through, "There's a ship at warp headed right towards us."

Jim sighed and looked at the ground. "Klingons?" he asked.

"We both know who it is," Khan sneered.

"No sir," Sulu's voice responded, "It's not coming at us from Kronos."