In The Orbit (Part I)

24. Khan

Khan enters the ship and waits for the oxygen to fill up in the room again. Then he takes off his helmet. Strom opens the trapdoor and looks down at Khan. Khan hands him the explosive and Strom shuts the trapdoor. Then the trapdoor opens again and Strom peeks in.

"Do you have your phone on you?"

"Yeah," Khan replies.

Strom holds up an earpiece. "Hook it up to this. It's connected by bluetooth. I set up a little bluetooth hotspot on this ship."

Khan nods. "It's in my pants pocket. Can you get it? I have the gloves on, you know."

Strom literally rolls his eyes. Khan feels bad for not knowing that Asians could roll their eyes. Columbia Falls wasn't the most racially diverse area in the world.

Strom unzips the butt of the spacesuit. He has to undo all of the other airtight seals. It's a very small room and there is hardly room for both of them and Strom is having some difficulties. Then he reaches past Khan's butt and gets the phone out of his pocket.

Khan squirms. He is highly uncomfortable with this situation, but he can't get the phone himself.

"What's your passcode?"

Khan tells him and Strom hooks it all up. Then he has to put the earpiece on Khan's ear, which tickles horribly. Khan is really glad when it's all over. This is the guy he punched after all.

"Fifi will keep you on speakerphone, follow our instructions."

"I know what I'm doing, I'm not stupid," growls Khan.

"Are you sure?" Strom replies.

Khan wants to punch him again, but he can't with the space gloves and there isn't enough space to get a good swing.

"We're here!" Fifi yells down to them. Strom climbs out of the air-lock room. His foot flicks Khan in the nose as he goes up. Khan doesn't know if it was on purpose or not.

Khan puts his helmet on and secures it. Then he checks the knot that Strom tied onto a handle, and the knots of the rope that criss-crosses his torso. Then the door opens and Khan kicks off the wall and shoots into space.

Immediately, he is floating. He loves the sensation. It is warm and cozy inside his spacesuit and he is just drifting. He feels like he is flying. The only problem is, he is slowly tumbling head over heels and he can't stop because there is no gravity. He sticks out his arms and tries to stop spinning, but it doesn't work. Then the bomb hits him and he hears his pinky and ring finger on his right hand crack.

He screams in pain.

"Hey Khan," says Strom's voice in his ear. "We are going to drive and pull you around the bomb. Please get it this time, ok?"

"Yeah, yeah," Khan replies. He doesn't know why Strom is so annoyed with him. His fingers throb.

The ship yanks him back and pulls him what Khan assumes is a few miles away.

"Look left. Get ready to get it... NOW!" Strom yells.

Khan reaches out and grabs the bomb. Once he gets a good grip on it, he opens the panel, and pushes the buttons that Strom showed him. Strom had pulled up a diagram of the bomb on the way out into space and showed Khan what to do with it. Then he spent a really long time looking at the wiring.

Khan grabs the unmoving bomb as Fifi drives the ship close to Khan. Khan grabs the rope and starts pulling his way onto the ship with one hand. He collects it under his arm as he goes. Soon he is back on the ship with the door closed behind him. Oxygen fills the room and Khan takes off his helmet and unhooks the oxygen hose.

"Hey," this time its Fifi who pokes her head into the room. "Strom's trying to figure out how to diffuse it. He is really deep in thought. I have the ship on autopilot to go where it needs to."

"Sweet," Khan says, and hands her the bomb.

"Ok, let me just check on where we are, the next one shouldn't be far away."

She clambers over to the pilot's seat and squeals.

"Oh my god! Khan put on your helmet, I'm gonna open the door. HURRY UP THE BOMB IS COMING RIGHT TOWARDS US!!!"

Khan hastily puts his helmet on and connects the oxygen hose. Fifi opens the door not a moment too soon, and the bomb comes speeding in and hits Khan in the chest, knocking the wind out of him.

He grasps it and punches the buttons. Fifi closes the door so neither Khan or the bomb can go floating out into space.

"THAT WAS FABULOUS!" Fifi yells in his ear. Khan had forgotten about the earpiece. "We are going to do that again!"

Khan is wrestling with the fifth bomb when Fifi says, "Khan listen."

She must be holding her phone up to Strom's phone because he can hear Karma.

"Hey. So... uh... we have a bit of a problem."