Across the Stars for You

A Familiar Face

Opening her eyes to the darkness that surrounded her, Abigail stood from the cold return pad of the Starship Vengeance.  She could hear the slow breathing of another person, most likely the admiral's daughter,  near her on the ground.  What she assumed to be the door opened and flooded the compartment with bright light.  Blinking rapidly to adjust to the brightness, she felt her arm being roughly grabbed by one of Marcus's private security guards.  She bit the inside of her cheek to avoid the urge to easily fight her way free, and allowed herself to be pulled out into the hallway.  Hearing the other guard grab Carol and follow the two of them in the direction of the bridge, she calculated every single point she could incapacitate the guards at, the blueprints that Khan had designed flashing through her head.

As they entered the bridge she felt the guard holding her give her a little push forward to signal that they were almost there and she was being slow.  Grinding her teeth together, she spun around to face the guard and felt the tip of a phaser being held to her belly.

"Oh please," she growled, her eyes locked on the brawny man before her, "make my day."

A flash of uncertainty passed over the guard's face and she watched his eyes flit passed her shoulder and to Marcus's as she heard him rise from the captain's chair.

"Marcus, I'm sure you're curious to see if it'll incapacitate me," she began, keeping her eyes on the man before her as he held the phaser steadily.  "I won't stop you."

"If you're looking for pain all you had to do was ask," the admiral replied steadily.

Abigail felt a pinch at her shoulder, seeing the plunger being pushed down in her peripheral vision just before she snapped her arm up to grab the throat of the needle wielder in question.  The syringe dropped to the floor and she heard the phaser go off at point blank range.  Her head snapped forward, knocking unconscious the guard who dropped the phaser before having his head smashed into the oncoming head of the man who had injected her with only God knew what.  Both men dropped to the ground and she met the horrified blue eyes of Carol Marcus.  Silently, she pivoted to face the admiral once again, distaste for the man filling her gaze and coloring her thoughts red.

"If you were curious as to what was in that syringe, it was just something that I had my boys in the lab whip up incase Khan were to do anything...ill advised."  Marcus walked back towards the captain's chair, sitting in it slowly, as if his back hurt.  "It's meant for Augments like you, so that should be taking effect soon."  He faced her slowly, looking up at her with intrigue as he twisted the chair to line up with the direction his head was facing.

Abigail raised her eyebrow, keeping her face measured as she looked down at the man before her.  She walked over to stand in front of him.  "I don't particularly care," she replied, venom laced in her words.  Her muscles began to ache slightly, a faint echo as if from a past injury spreading from the injection sight and through her limbs.  She didn't think that it had shown through until the man continued.

"It'll start like an ache.  Sore muscles building up to a shooting fire running through every single vein in your body until you can't take it anymore.  You'll slowly begin to lose your sight and control of your arms and legs.  But you should be able to hear just fine."  He smirked then, thinking of her crumpled on the floor, defenseless as he commentated her distress.  "Until your ultimate demise that is."

"I don't care," Abigail repeated, watching the admiral raise his eyebrows.  "As long as I can hear Khan ending your life, I don't care."  She laughed then, watching any satisfaction drain from his eyes in that moment.

Admiral Marcus stared at the woman a moment, realizing the fierce devotion and loyalty the Augments seemed to have.  Abigail in particular.  This woman didn't care what happened to her as long as Khan, whatever he meant to her, had had his vengeance.  Marcus knew that when faced with the unknown of expiration, Abigail would face Death with a smirk and welcome it as though it were an old friend.  The admiral's eyes flickered over to the watery eyes of his daughter who stood trembling, still restrained by the guard to her left.