Chapter Text
The soft sound of her shading pencil coloring across the white page is music to her ears. Ever since she had discovered this small planetoid, she had been in Heaven with the beautiful flowers that decorated the planet’s surface. The large bodies of water, the trees, the soft breeze that filtered through the air.
It was beautiful.
It reminded her of Earth, but with no buildings and no humans, except for herself.
It was a perfect day for her to spend time documenting nature here.
Shelby had taken up a new hobby about a year ago, by drawing flowers on a page and then going to the locations where they were. She had begun local, wildflowers, roses, dandelions, etc. She had gently taken one of the flowers and pressed it down onto the second page before making sure it was flat, before writing down what the flower was if it was deadly or poisonous. She was extremely careful when it came to the more deadly ones, thankfully she had Abraxas for that.
Abraxas, her AI, had been a life-savor for her ever since the car accident that damaged her right leg and severed another part of her, she could never recover (not that she wanted to). She could still walk, but she had to use a cane to help with the crippling agony she felt all day long. Even after multiple surgeries, she refused to be poked and prodded and experimented on and just dealt with the pain. The accident was when she was 16 and at 17, she was a permanent cripple. Thanks to her sister.
Abraxas had been wonderful to her. While he was an AI, he still held a certain charm to him that would indicate that he was sentient. He had never fully really come out to her that he was, but Shelby had a hunch that he was sentient.
“Shelby,” Abraxas’s deep, mechanical voice echoed in her earpiece, that was also a Bluetooth device that could, when she pressed a button on the side of it, could scan anything she needed to. “It’s nearing 4 PM, Earth-Time. My scanners indicate that this planet will be dark by 5 PM, due to the distance from Earth.”
“Alright,” Shelby nodded and gently closed her sketchbook, before standing up with a soft wince. “I was thinking of staying the night tonight and going back tomorrow afternoon. There’s still a lot of floral here I want to document.”
“I have no disagreement to that,” Abraxas said.
Shelby held her sketchbook close to her chest as she limped towards her small ship. It was small, but it held enough room for three people at least. It had a small bathroom, a bedroom area and then the cockpit, which had two seats for the pilot and co-pilot.
As Shelby neared the entrance of her ship, a sonic boom rumbled through the sky. She glanced up quickly, her attention towards something falling quickly from the sky, with what looked like a ship going after it. Shelby pressed the button the side of her earpiece and the scanner zoomed in, to which she saw that the flaming ball was actually another ship.
“Abraxas, what kind of ships?” she asked, watching the scene unfold in the sky.
“The one falling is a transport ship and the other is a pirate ship.” Abraxas answered.
“Shit,” she whispered, watching the pirate ship catch up with the other.
Without warning, a beam of blue phaser energy erupted from the ship’s side and collided with the transport ship, literally cracking it in half. Pieces fell to the ground, and she yelped, ducking down as the back half of the ship sailed over her head, landing about 200 meters away from her. The front half landed somewhere farther away, exploding in a burst of fire.
“Holy shit,” she whispered.
“It would be wise for us to leave this planet,” Abraxas dead panned.
“Whoever was piloting that ship could be hurt,” Shelby said, entering her ship to grab a gun. “I’m going to go see if there’s any survivors.”
“That is unwise, Shelby.” Abraxas sighed.
“Just keep an eye on me, okay?” Shelby said, before quickly leaving the ship and heading towards the crash site.
It didn’t take her long to start seeing the path of destruction that was left from the back half of the transport ship. Fifteen, twenty minutes maybe. Once she arrived, she stepped around the small fires from pieces of metal. She snuffed them out with her booted feet, before approaching the downed ship.
The area where the ship was sliced in half was wide open and inside, she saw what looked like a broken cryostasis tube. The window was broken, and green fluid had just paused on seeping out of it. Her eyes narrowed in confusion, and she approached the broken tube, noting a bit of blood that was on the glass and the ground.
Whoever had been inside had woken up and gotten out, cutting themselves on the glass.
But that meant-
SNAP
The sound of a branch snapping startled her, and Shelby quickly whirled around, her gun aiming for the source of the noise. She froze upon seeing a man standing near the trees, a very tall and intimidating figure of a man. He couldn’t have been any older than in his early to late 30’s, although she could barely see any wrinkles. His face was free of any facial hair, his dark locks short and disheveled, bangs falling across a pair of icy blue eyes that froze her right to the spot she was in. His clothes, a pair of dark gray trousers and a long black sleeve shirt, were torn in places, and he wore a pair of simple black boots.
And the man’s gaze was locked on her, shoulders tense and fingers flexing, to which she noticed was a sign of wanting to strangle her.
Shelby slowly rose a hand to her earpiece and Abraxas scans over the man before her. It only takes a few seconds and as soon as the scan is complete, a picture of the man comes up and a profile, with a single word next to his name.
Khan Noonien Singh, Deceased.
“Oh my god,” Shelby whispered, hazel hues meeting the blue ones of the Augment before her. “You’re-,”
Her sentence is cut off when she hears the sounds of shouts and yells coming from nearby. The man’s attention is drawn to the cliff above them, where both he and Shelby, see a small group of men at the top, holding phaser weapons.
“There he is, boys!” one of them shouted.
It all happens too fast for her to register. One moment she was standing and the next, Shelby was thrown over the Augment’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes, her gun and cane falling to the ground from surprise. She yelped, feeling a powerful hand on her back that kept her cemented to the man’s shoulder. And without warning, he was sprinting with her on his shoulder.
“My cane!” she called out, but the man didn’t stop.
The men on the cliff fired their weapons, and Shelby put her arms over her head to avoid getting hit. But the Augment carrying her seemed to dodge every single fire, quickening his pace to lose the men chasing them.
They came to a hillside and the Augment slid down it, before jumping to the bottom and glancing around quickly. After a brief second, the man ran over to the right and tossed vines and branches out of the way, before ducking down into a cave-like opening. It didn’t go very deep, but it would prove to be a good hiding spot due to the darkness.
“W-what-?” she began to ask, but a hand clasped across her mouth, silencing her words.
“Quiet,” the Augment ordered quietly.
He pulled her forcefully against him, sinking down with her against the wall of the cave. Shelby noted that he was strong (she could feel the muscles underneath her palms), and he was warm, despite having woken from cryostasis. It was not even 30 seconds later when the pirates came bumbling down the hill, glancing around before one of them shouted and they went in a few different directions. Shelby didn’t release a single breath until the men’s voices finally faded away and even then, when she did breathe, she did so very quietly.
The Augment released her mouth and pushed on her shoulder, silently telling her to get up. Shelby winced from her leg, getting up slowly before leaving the cave, the man following suit.
“Who were those men?” the Augment asked her.
“Um, pirates, I think. They’re relatively new. They wander the galaxy looking for stuff to steal and then sell, people included.” Shelby replied, taking a few deep breaths.
“Do you have a ship?” he asked.
“I-I do, but we have to get my gun and cane-,”
“Forget them. You will fly me out of here,”
Shelby’s jaw dropped slightly at the demand. How could he just demand that of her? “I-I…. look, I know who you are, and I…. j-just give me some time to process all of this-,”
A hand shot out and wrapped around her throat, yanking her closer to the Augment. She yelped in surprise but noticed that he wasn’t choking her. His hand was below her jaw, fingers wrapped around her delicate neck. “You will fly me out of here, is that understood?” he asked, his voice low and demanding, but also very intimidating.
She swallowed thickly and after a moment, gave a nod. “O-okay,”
~ ~
By the time they had gotten back to the ship, Shelby was in so much pain she was nearly crying. The door to the ship opened and she tumbled inside, a soft whimper leaving her throat from the pain in her leg.
“Shelby, take a seat on your bed.” Abraxas told her and turned his attention to the Augment. “Khan Noonien Singh, do not move another inch. Do not lay a finger on Shelby again. Is that understood?”
The Augment – Khan – narrowed his eyes slightly but gave no comment. Shelby hadn’t been lying when she said that she had a sentient AI that was extremely protective of her. The AI’s mechanical arms and hands aided her in taking some medication for her leg.
“Shelby, there is damage to the ship. There’s a slice in the hull that was caused by falling debris. Unless we can repair it, I’m afraid we are staying longer on this planet.” Abraxas spoke.
“Shit,” she cursed softly. “What about the front half of the ship? How long would it take to get there to get parts?”
“About a day, to and from there.” Abraxas replied.
“Then we go now,” Khan said.
“I’m afraid not. Shelby’s pain threshold is far too high for her to be able to travel. Unless you retrieve her cane, it will have to wait until tomorrow morning.” The AI said firmly.
Shelby flinched when the Augment’s eyes narrowed once more. “Very well,” he finally spoke.
~ ~
It was one AM when Khan’s eyes opened.
He lifted his head, taking care of the kink in his neck as he glanced out the large front window of the ship. He sat up and looked over his shoulder towards the bedroom area, where the young woman was sleeping in the full-sized bed. She must have fallen asleep not too long after he did.
Khan still felt the effects of waking up from cryostasis once the adrenaline wore off and he had taken a seat in the pilot’s chair and dozed off, still recovering his strength. He stretched, before getting up and heading for the door.
“Where are you going off to?” the AI spoke, his voice a bit softer so as to not wake Shelby.
“To retrieve the items you requested earlier,” Khan replied.
Khan was gone and back within fifteen minutes, setting the cane and the gun down on the table that was connected to the wall. He glanced down at the sleeping young woman, noting how vulnerable she looked.
“If she did not know who you were, she would have shot you on sight.” Abraxas spoke.
“Then I would have ended her life.”
“And I would have ended yours.”
Khan scoffed.
“You should be grateful,”
“Why should I?”
“Because she’s the reason why your species lives,”
Khan paused, tilting his head slightly.
“Allow me to explain. Sit down in the chair and I’ll show you,”
Khan, after a moment, sat down in the pilot’s chair. The screen on the dashboard lit up dimly as Abraxas began to speak. “At the age of 17, Shelby wrote a paper on the history of Augments that gained the attention of her school, the authorities and then the Federation. She advocated for the Augments, declaring that it was unfair what happened to them in the past 600 years, and what happened to you, especially.”
The screen showed Shelby, at a younger age, speaking in front of a large crowd.
“At 18, Shelby was approached by the Federation and asked why she was advocating for a group of enhanced humans who ruled over the Earth in the late 1900’s. She replied that they were living beings, just like humans and deserved a chance at a better life. Shelby fought for the Augments and gained the approval of over three billion people. At twenty, she became the CEO of the Nova Program.”
Khan’s gaze flitted to the scene on the screen. A planet, similar to Earth in shape and size, was named Nova. “This planet was found six months before the program started and thus named the Nova Program. The next five years took place with homes and survival necessities being built on the planet over a span of 500 miles, a beginning city. Once the city was ready, your crew was released from cryostasis.”
“And why was I not released with them?” Khan asked.
“The Federation declared you dead,” Abraxas replied. “Their response was that your cryotube had malfunctioned and you had died in your sleep. Although we know now, that was far from the truth. While Shelby was helping the Augments adjust to life on Nova, she looked for you, Khan. She’s been looking for you for the last four years, to reunite you with your people. While this was happening, we also found two thousand frozen embryos, all healthy and all Augments. Fifty of them were brought out to live and thrive on Nova.”
Khan glanced over his shoulder at Shelby, who’s form hadn’t moved at all. All he could make out was the slow rise and fall of her side.
“If it was not for Shelby, your people would have been executed a long time ago.” Abraxas finished. “You’ll do well to be grateful.”
The screen went black, and Abraxas went quiet as well, leaving Khan to himself.
His people were alive and thriving. His crew, his family. His heart aches at the thought knowing that they were alive. And he had one human to be thankful to.
He would help her and then be reunited with his people.