![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltdAn end of waiting
ST:TWoK
Khan/Joachim
PG
Two hundred years was a long time to wait for anything. Joachim pushed the band up higher on his forehead to keep the hair off his face. It had grown long in the last weeks, and he needed to have it cut, since it was interfering with his breathmask.
He bundled into his outdoor things and cycled through the airlock of the ship. Twenty years and they were still living in the battered hull. There had been houses, once, and they had lived in them for five months. The breather was bitter in his mouth as he adjusted the sand goggles.
He stepped onto the shifting sands with the caution they warranted. He made his slow way to where he knew he would find Khan.
High on the rocks he climbed, knowing his leader’s favorite spot. Just short of the summit was a cave. Small, barely big enough for four people, and hard to reach, it suited Khan’s brooding needs and he came up here often. He had, some of the people said, buried his wife here, although how he cut through the stone was a mystery.
Joachim shook the sand from himself before he entered. He sat quietly on the floor. Khan had taken the only free rock to serve as his own seat.
“Why do you disturb me, old friend?”
“Sasha dreamed again. We will all be needed at the ship very soon.”
“How soon?”
“A day. No more than two. Her dreams are quite clear, she says. But she will not tell us what they are. She says she doesn’t wish to create false hope.”
Khan shrugged. “All know how unreliable the precognition enhancements were. Psychic powers are still not understood, even two hundred years later. No matter. We shall be there. Have a feast. We need a reason to celebrate, even if her dreams are nothing.”
Joachim regarded his friend a moment. Merriment was not in Khan’s nature. His mood had taken a turn for the vengeful after the death of the Starfleet woman. He said, “We shall have the feast.”
“Leave me, my friend. I wish to be alone with my wife.”
“I think, you should not be alone.”
“Are you my keeper? Do the others think me a mad old man to be reined in by you?”
“Sasha tells none of the others her dreams. But she tells me.”
Barely hidden betrayal lurked in Khan’s eyes. “She would. Yes.”
“She tells me to give you this word :‘Kirk.’ She says the time is coming.” Joachim did not mention the rest of what Sasha had said, her head close to his on the pillow, whispering in his ear the symbols she had seen until he stopped her mouth with a kiss. He could make no sense of angels, worlds within nebulae, and the one he had understood, death, he did not like.
“Ah, Kirk.” Khan stared back at the roof of the cave. “My old enemy. Returning after so long to gloat.”
As he had said, many times, Joachim returned, “I think, had he known of the disaster, he would have rescued us.”
Khan’s response was almost rote after so many years. “Never. He is, as are all normal men, afraid of our kind. They know we are their successors, and no one goes willingly to his own extinction.”
They sat in silence for a time. Then Joachim looked up at the craggy face of his leader. He had never believed in the augmentation, only in Khan. “I never betrayed you.”
“Of course not.”
“Not with Lena. Not with Sasha. Not with Bao Not with Allan. They warmed my bed, gave me comfort against the loneliness of long years. It was always you I loved.”
“Yet,” Joachim heard the danger in Khan’s reasonable tone, “you never offered me that comfort after her death.”
“Would you have taken it if I had?”
Khan sat quietly for a moment. “No. For I was too full of grief.”
“If I offered myself to you now?” Joachim’s comment was almost too low to be heard, but Khan’s ears were sharper than those of ordinary humans.
Khan stood, his black clothing fluttering about his face. He extended a hand down to his oldest friend. The one who had conquered Russia, yet always deferred to him. The one who had stood beside him in battle, who had overseen the escape from Earth. Through it all, there was never a disloyal word, never a moment’s doubt, not even when he was supplanted by Marla as first in Khan’s affections.
Joachim took the hand and allowed Khan to pull him to his feet, only to find himself caught in arms that could crack the ribs of a normal human without trying.
“I would say yes, now. Grief and despair have given way to the first hope in twenty long, dry years. Now, now I would say yes.”
Khan’s mouth was that of a conqueror, taking what he wanted, and vanquishing any resistance. There was none. Joachim gave himself freely, completely, yielding as thoroughly as India and Persia had. It had been too long since he had enjoyed the taste of another, but he broke the kiss reluctantly.
“We can do no more here. Come to my cabin tonight.” After a second searing kiss, Khan slid his visor into place and strode off into the perpetual sandstorm.
Joachim sat for a moment more, feeling the bruises around his waist from Khan’s arms, and bruises starting on his mouth from the kiss. Tonight, he would go to his leader, and offer his body in the most intimate services he could render. He had slaughtered, conquered and more in this man’s name, all out of love, but all of it inadequate to demonstrate.
The low clench of aroused excitement, long absent, took hold of him as he ventured into the storm.
ST:TWoK
Khan/Joachim
PG
Two hundred years was a long time to wait for anything. Joachim pushed the band up higher on his forehead to keep the hair off his face. It had grown long in the last weeks, and he needed to have it cut, since it was interfering with his breathmask.
He bundled into his outdoor things and cycled through the airlock of the ship. Twenty years and they were still living in the battered hull. There had been houses, once, and they had lived in them for five months. The breather was bitter in his mouth as he adjusted the sand goggles.
He stepped onto the shifting sands with the caution they warranted. He made his slow way to where he knew he would find Khan.
High on the rocks he climbed, knowing his leader’s favorite spot. Just short of the summit was a cave. Small, barely big enough for four people, and hard to reach, it suited Khan’s brooding needs and he came up here often. He had, some of the people said, buried his wife here, although how he cut through the stone was a mystery.
Joachim shook the sand from himself before he entered. He sat quietly on the floor. Khan had taken the only free rock to serve as his own seat.
“Why do you disturb me, old friend?”
“Sasha dreamed again. We will all be needed at the ship very soon.”
“How soon?”
“A day. No more than two. Her dreams are quite clear, she says. But she will not tell us what they are. She says she doesn’t wish to create false hope.”
Khan shrugged. “All know how unreliable the precognition enhancements were. Psychic powers are still not understood, even two hundred years later. No matter. We shall be there. Have a feast. We need a reason to celebrate, even if her dreams are nothing.”
Joachim regarded his friend a moment. Merriment was not in Khan’s nature. His mood had taken a turn for the vengeful after the death of the Starfleet woman. He said, “We shall have the feast.”
“Leave me, my friend. I wish to be alone with my wife.”
“I think, you should not be alone.”
“Are you my keeper? Do the others think me a mad old man to be reined in by you?”
“Sasha tells none of the others her dreams. But she tells me.”
Barely hidden betrayal lurked in Khan’s eyes. “She would. Yes.”
“She tells me to give you this word :‘Kirk.’ She says the time is coming.” Joachim did not mention the rest of what Sasha had said, her head close to his on the pillow, whispering in his ear the symbols she had seen until he stopped her mouth with a kiss. He could make no sense of angels, worlds within nebulae, and the one he had understood, death, he did not like.
“Ah, Kirk.” Khan stared back at the roof of the cave. “My old enemy. Returning after so long to gloat.”
As he had said, many times, Joachim returned, “I think, had he known of the disaster, he would have rescued us.”
Khan’s response was almost rote after so many years. “Never. He is, as are all normal men, afraid of our kind. They know we are their successors, and no one goes willingly to his own extinction.”
They sat in silence for a time. Then Joachim looked up at the craggy face of his leader. He had never believed in the augmentation, only in Khan. “I never betrayed you.”
“Of course not.”
“Not with Lena. Not with Sasha. Not with Bao Not with Allan. They warmed my bed, gave me comfort against the loneliness of long years. It was always you I loved.”
“Yet,” Joachim heard the danger in Khan’s reasonable tone, “you never offered me that comfort after her death.”
“Would you have taken it if I had?”
Khan sat quietly for a moment. “No. For I was too full of grief.”
“If I offered myself to you now?” Joachim’s comment was almost too low to be heard, but Khan’s ears were sharper than those of ordinary humans.
Khan stood, his black clothing fluttering about his face. He extended a hand down to his oldest friend. The one who had conquered Russia, yet always deferred to him. The one who had stood beside him in battle, who had overseen the escape from Earth. Through it all, there was never a disloyal word, never a moment’s doubt, not even when he was supplanted by Marla as first in Khan’s affections.
Joachim took the hand and allowed Khan to pull him to his feet, only to find himself caught in arms that could crack the ribs of a normal human without trying.
“I would say yes, now. Grief and despair have given way to the first hope in twenty long, dry years. Now, now I would say yes.”
Khan’s mouth was that of a conqueror, taking what he wanted, and vanquishing any resistance. There was none. Joachim gave himself freely, completely, yielding as thoroughly as India and Persia had. It had been too long since he had enjoyed the taste of another, but he broke the kiss reluctantly.
“We can do no more here. Come to my cabin tonight.” After a second searing kiss, Khan slid his visor into place and strode off into the perpetual sandstorm.
Joachim sat for a moment more, feeling the bruises around his waist from Khan’s arms, and bruises starting on his mouth from the kiss. Tonight, he would go to his leader, and offer his body in the most intimate services he could render. He had slaughtered, conquered and more in this man’s name, all out of love, but all of it inadequate to demonstrate.
The low clench of aroused excitement, long absent, took hold of him as he ventured into the storm.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 05:51 pm (UTC)