To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh Read Online Free PDF Page B

blinding sunlight. His sleek black hair was knotted at the back of his neck. Dark brown eyes gazed out at the world with confidence and keen anticipation. He started to raise his hands, to shield his eyes,then remembered the sturdy steel bonds locking his wrists together.
    Captain Kirk was taking no chances, not that Khan blamed him. He had, after all, briefly captured the
Enterprise
and tortured Kirk nearly to death, so the captain’s precautions were only logical.
I would have done the same,
Khan admitted.
    A full contingent of Starfleet security officers were also on hand to ensure Khan’s cooperation. They stood, phasers at the ready, all around the unrepentant superman, while more of their number kept watch over the mass of Khan’s followers, who waited silently for their leader a few meters away.
    At Kirk’s insistence, Khan—and one other—were the last of the exiles to be transported to the planet’s surface, the better to keep the ruthless Sikh dictator under wraps until the very last minute. There would no replay of Khan’s previous escape from custody.
    A gentle hand grasped his, and he glanced down at the woman who had beamed down alongside him: Lieutenant Marla McGivers, late of Starfleet. His accomplice in his short-lived takeover of the
Enterprise
, and his eventual undoing as well.
    A woman of the twenty-third century, born some three hundred years after Khan and his fellow expatriates, she was a willowy beauty whose graceful figure was well displayed by her crimson Starfleet uniform. A short skirt and polished black boots displayed a pair of slender legs, while her auburn hair flowed freely over her shoulders, just the way he liked it.
    “So this is our new home,” she whispered, a trace of apprehension in her voice. Chestnut eyes, tastefully highlighted by pale blue eyeshadow, took in the untamed rivervalley before them. Thorny shrubs and scattered palm trees dotted the grassy savanna stretching beyond the shores of a mighty river. To the northeast, a range of snowcapped mountains rose in the distance, no doubt many days’ journey north. Over the roar of the coursing river, the caws and squawks of the native wildlife could be heard. Avian life-forms, boasting impressive wingspans, circled slowly above the grassy plains, although whether they were predators or scavengers Khan could not tell.
    He squeezed her hand reassuringly, taking care not to damage her fragile, merely human bones. Unlike Khan and his other followers, Marla was not a genetically engineered superhuman; small wonder she faced their new life with some trepidation. Khan was deeply aware of just how much she had sacrificed to be with him.
Like Eve with Adam,
he mused,
she has turned her back on the paradise of the twenty-third century to dwell with me in the wilderness
.
    A young Russian ensign—Chekov, by name—stepped forward from the ring of security officers. Khan recalled that the youth had shown courage during his short-lived takeover of the
Enterprise
, leading a failed charge to retake engineering from the superhumans; that the Russian’s charge had failed did not diminish his valor in Khan’s eyes.
    “Excuse me, Mr. Khan,” he said, a trifle nervously, “but I’m to inform you that
Enterprise
will be departing shortly. As arranged by Captain Kirk, the provisions for your colony have already been delivered to the planet’s surface.” The youth gestured toward an assortment of bulky metal cargo containers, resting safely distant from the muddy banks of the river. “Besides your supplies from the
Botany Bay,
Captain Kirk has also provided you with some essential technology from our ship’s stores.”
    “I see.” Khan nodded in approval. “I am certain that all is in order, per your captain’s instructions.” Kirk himself had chosen to take his leave of Khan in the transporter room of the
Enterprise
; their farewells had been terse and unsmiling, as befitted two recent adversaries. “Just as I am certain that my