To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh Read Free

Earth-standard gravity, but the heavy ceramic-polymer shell of the suit felt like it weighed a ton.
I could use a bit of Khan’s genetically enhanced strength and stamina right about now,
he thought enviously.
    He paused atop the ridge, taking a moment to catch his breath. Spock and McCoy joined him, the doctor lagging behind his hardier Vulcan colleague. “Well, I’ll be damned,” McCoy muttered as he peered past the hill they had just climbed.
    The crest of the ridge looked out over a shallow depression, partially shielded from the storm by steep granite banks, like the eye of a tornado. Less blowing sand meant better visibility, so all three men were able to see, nestled at the base of the hollow, several half-buried large metal structures. The sharp right angles of the rectangular buildings stood in stark contrast to the sinuous curves of the wind-crafted dunes and rock formations.
    Just as Chekov described,
Kirk thought. Unlike the unlucky Russian, he knew right away what he was looking at: a crude shelter fashioned of recycled cargo carriers, Khan’s dismal abode during his long years of exile on Ceti Alpha V.The ugly, boxlike shacks were a far cry from the sumptuous palaces Khan had enjoyed during his glory days back on Earth.
    Anxious to get a closer look, Kirk set out down the leeward side of the ridge. Haste warred with caution as he carefully descended the pebbly concave slope, being careful not to lose his balance. Despite his impatience, he had no desire to tumble down the ridge head over heels.
    Behind him, McCoy and Spock made their way down with equal care, but that wasn’t enough to keep McCoy’s feet from sliding out from beneath him as he awkwardly negotiated a particularly treacherous incline in his gravity boots. He toppled backward, waving his arms in a futile attempt to regain his balance.
    Fortunately, Spock was there to grab the front of McCoy’s environmental suit, steadying the wobbly physician. “Careful, Doctor,” he admonished McCoy. “As I have often noted, your impetuousness will be your undoing.”
    “There was nothing impetuous about it!” the doctor protested, not about to let Spock get the last word. “I just had a little slip, you pointy-eared rapscallion.”
    Even with the somber nature of today’s outing, Kirk could not help but smile at his friends’ familiar bickering. It was good to hear Bones banter with Spock again, especially considering that, not so long ago, Kirk had thought they had lost Spock forever.
    Thanks to Khan and his insane lust for revenge,
Kirk recalled angrily.
Khan may not have succeeded in killing me, but, like the bad marksman I accused him of being, he damn well murdered enough people in the process!
    Kirk still found it hard to accept that Spock had actually died, albeit temporarily, in this very sector less than a yearago. He winced at the thought of the Vulcan’s agonizing final minutes in the
Enterprise
’s radiation-flooded engine room.
One more death laid at Khan’s doorstep,
he reflected,
and perhaps, indirectly, at my own
.
    Reaching the bottom of the slope, he arrived within moments at Khan’s literal doorstep. The pitted exterior of the cargo bays had been stripped of paint by the wind and sand, exposing the dull gray metal underneath. Signs of corrosion mottled the pressed steel walls. Rusted metal blinds covered a single small window, concealing what lay within the makeshift shelter.
    Kirk had seen shantytowns on desolate mining asteroids that looked more livable than this.
    He waited for Spock and McCoy to catch up with him, then took hold of a closed steel door, roughly fashioned out of an old bulkhead. Decrepit hinges creaked loudly as he tugged open the door, which led to a cramped vestibule that must have served Khan and his followers as a sort of primitive airlock. A second door occupied the far end of the entry. Stuck in its frame, the inner door resisted Kirk’s efforts, and he had to ram it with his shoulder before it