fateandfortune | Transporter Beam Accidents Do Happen

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Transporter Beam Accidents Do Happen

An anomaly.

Space was full of them, but all of the points of instability no matter how small in the Sol system had been exhaustively catalogued. Grade school children took field trips to collect redundant data on them to analyse over apple juice and animal crackers. Or kelp wafers, or whatever they fed people now. Khan had encountered a few undocumented anomalies in his longer-range scans and tended to avoid them whenever possible in his transporter experiments, but he hadn't even bothered scanning first this time. Why would he? The coordinates he was using were in the path of Earth's orbit, no region of space had been better studied than that one.

There were several distant anomalies in the known galaxy which could warp local space-time into crumpled aluminum foil, but this one didn't have the right energy signature. It wasn't a false reading, even though by all rational standards it should have been. These subspace energy patterns never occurred naturally, not in the vacuum of space. It looked almost like a life-form signature that had been abandoned mid-transport, no stabilizing beam either from point of origin or destination, and somehow hadn't disintegrated in the process.

Well, no sense in ignoring the interesting finding. Ultimately, Khan intended to use transwarp teleportation with living subjects anyway. While he wasn't prepared to start sacrificing lives at this stage, this wasn't his doing. Whatever this creature was, or had been, it essentially didn't exist right now. Its matter was no longer part of any known or theorized parallel universe. It wasn't alive, so rematerializing it in his test chamber wasn't going to kill it no matter what went wrong. He might as well bring the thing in and have a look at it before blasting it back out into the vacuum of space.

After recalibrating his instruments to lock onto life signs, Khan locked onto the signal with far more precision than the instruments currently in wide use could have done. Khan was alone in his workshop with no weapons and he really should have considered calling in a xenobiologist first, but he had no interest whatsoever in expanding the frontiers of shared knowledge for the rabid warhounds of Starfleet. A few more buttons punched and the golden swirls began forming on the platform inside the spherical force field. Khan would have to shut the field off in order for sound waves to cross the distance between them, but right now he should be able to see what was inside well enough to determine if it should be jettisoned immediately. That would definitely be necessary if it turned out to be too large for the containment field, no sense in triggering an explosion of guts all over the sensitive instruments.

Of course, if the life form reassembled correctly and actually possessed senses corresponding the the human visible light range, it would also be able to see him. It would appear at roughly his chest-height on a warm white disc three metres in diameter, the force field bubble completely transparent but hard as glass to the touch. The room was a small deserted hangar built of dark metal, well-lit but almost empty, with nothing else in it but a large desk sized console, a chair, and a dark-haired man with a quiet curiosity. Khan stood up from his console and took a step closer, watching the form take shape out of the whirling photon-emitting spirals.

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Between the look Harrison gave her and the words he used, Rogue had a sick, sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that she would bet good money wouldn't go away anytime soon. He'd confirmed her fear that she would end up exactly that if she were caught by whoever ran this place, and she was completely out of her depth in this time and place.

Best not to worry too much about it, though. She was stressed and exhausted enough without adding to it by overthinking a situation that she really couldn't do much about. Unless he managed to do whatever it was to get her back to her time, she was stuck here, and she'd have to keep her wits about her to make it out alive and in one piece.

"I'm sorry about before," she said, lowering her gaze to the floor as she seemingly changed the subject. But it was important that he knew so he didn't try anything again. "When you told me to hide and you... My mutation is in my skin. More than a few seconds of contact would kill you."

Khan's mind whirred along steadily in the task of forming strategies and contingencies for ensuring her safety. She might not enjoy some of the necessary restrictions to her actions and movements, but he was reasonably sure that she would find the situation tolerable.

At the same time, the current topic also had his attention. Not only would he have a better chance of planning strategies if he knew her strengths and weaknesses, but it was also an interesting conversation on an academic level.

"Are you poisonous?"

Khan would find Rogue extremely willing to do whatever it took to make certain she didn't end up strapped to another lab table. She had hundreds of psyches in her mind who had died in the agony of her touch and she would rather be killed herself than be forced to murder innocent people again.

"I wish it were that simple," she said with a sigh, scrubbing a hand over her eyes. "When I touch someone, I absorb their life force, memories, skills - it's like I have a copy of them permanently stored in my mind. With other mutants, I borrow their mutations for a little while." Crossing her arms again, she wore a somber but serious expression as she met his eyes. "It only takes about ten seconds to kill a baseline human. With someone enhanced, it's a bit longer, but not much."

He contemplated this for a few moments. "There are many sentient species in this galaxy who have frequent and mutually profitable interactions with Earth's people. A significant minority have stable psionic powers of various kinds. I wonder how your abilities might be related to theirs."

Khan slid off the disc to land on the floor, no longer concerned that his guest would react like a cornered animal. "Not that I'm any kind of xeno-neuro-psionic-bio-aura-reading-guru-ology expert, or what-have-you. I'm familiar the anatomy of humans and that of my particular subspecies, but I've only had brief interactions with other sentient species."

Rogue watched him move with curious caution, but his choice of words made her smile, the corners of her lips curling slightly upward. How long had it been since she'd last smiled? It must have been years.

"I've had a few interactions with the Kree and Shi'ar, two of the major intergalactic forces in my universe. But they mostly steered clear of Earth - there were extenuating circumstances for why they contacted the group I was with." Which was another long and complicated story. "From everything we've seen, my abilities are... unique. My mentor had never seen anything like them, and he'd been working with mutants for half a century when I met him."

"Half a century of individual breakthoughs in human evolution, no matter how numerous and diverse, can't offer the same insights as the gradual adaptation of thousands of unique sentient species over the course of billions of years." The mutant might be jumpy around Khan and with good reason, but he wasn't about to shy away from her. He would afford her the amount of space generally required for polite social interaction, but not a centimeter more.

Khan kept his eyes focused on hers and his hands at his sides when he approached. "This galaxy has entire civilizations of touch-telepaths, energy vampires, memory thieves, and absorbers of personality. We have parasites who take on the identities of their hosts, doppelgangers who can mimic physical abilities, those who can establish psychic links to gain access to the knowledge and experience of another, the list goes on."

Perhaps this mutant was afraid of social bias as well as being captured as a specimen? Khan could offer her some reassurance on that level, at least. "Humanity will always have more than its fair share of reactionary fear-mongering bigots, of course, and some separatist groups, as do many other cultures. In the greater galactic community, however, it's unspeakably rude to behave in a suspicious or fearful manner around such individuals. Tactful curiosity is usually acceptable. The automatic assumption is that any psion who poses an actual threat will take it upon themselves to steer clear of polite society."

Khan would never have to face the specific sort of prejudice that psionics were vulnerable to, but he was all too familiar with growing up in a world of humans where envy and murderous hate went hand in hand. "They will still exploit us if they can, but they don't band together to hunt us down like diseased monsters."

It was actually a little reassuring and almost comforting that he didn't keep a great distance between them, but didn't get closer than was polite either. Such a consideration was a great deal more than she was used to from anyone outside her very close circle of friends, and even they had shied away from her at times in the early days.

"It sounds like a very eclectic and fascinating universe," she commented, choosing her words carefully. "My Earth is still searching for proof that we're not alone. I almost wish I could live to see us become part of that community, to find out if things are as wonderful as they are here."

It was like a dream, the idea of being able to interact with other species and not have them automatically be terrified and assuming the worst of her. "I hope- I hope that we've fixed things. That our Earth survives to take its place in the universe, because it wasn't going to before. The governments of the world had come together to hunt us down, like you said. Anyone with the mutant gene, anyone who sided with mutants, anyone whose genetic line would eventually have the X gene... Most were just killed, but those of us with useful abilities were put into prison camps to be studied. Over three-quarters of the planet's population was dead or captured at last count, and they weren't going to stop."

She cleared her throat and looked away from him, quietly adding, "I hope we can make the world a better place this time. For everyone."

"It's dreadful. Humanity has lost its survival instinct. Some create excuses to set off pointlessly destructive conflict. Others are so sheltered they don't recognize danger under their noses." He broke eye contact and took a diagonal step forward so he could fiddle around with his console switches again.

"I wouldn't worry about whether or not you succeeded. With my help, you'll have access to every place and every time you've ever touched, or ever will touch. We might discover that your better world came about in part because I was able to restore your continuum by repairing the damage in the fabric of space-time that managed to annihilate you."

Rogue honestly didn't know what to say to that. His words whirled around in her head, mixing with everything that had happened that day, and she suddenly just felt heavy. The walls in her mind groaned under the strain of the day and she sighed as she pressed fingertips to her temples.

"I apologize, I don't mean to be rude," she said quietly as she closed her eyes, still pressing against the ache growing in her mind. "Things are a little rough in here right now."

"You'll be safe in my quarters, but it will take the better part of an hour for me to clear a path to get you there." A few more button presses and a three dimensional display screen made entirely of projected light appeared in the air. Khan started manipulating the image with various gestures in front of it. "You can do what you like in the meantime, so long as you stay in this room."

She looked up as he spoke, watching as he changed the display and seemed to get straight to work. It was fairly impressive and Rogue couldn't help but stare for a few moments, not having seen anything like it outside what the X-Men had developed themselves. Their technology had always been at least a decade more advanced than that available to the general public, for the simple fact that some of the greatest minds of her time belonged to mutants.

Shaking herself out of it, she glanced around the room before finally just sitting on the floor a few feet from where he was working; close enough to duck into her hiding place if need be, but with enough space between them to be out of the way. Crossing her legs, she set her hands on her knees and closed her eyes, jumping right into the familiar practice of meditation that had helped keep her sane all these years. There were a lot of weak spots in her mental defenses that needed tending to, and if she didn't do it soon things would get a hell of a lot worse. The last thing she needed was to be even more of an annoyance and burden to the man who seemed so willing to help her.

She wasn't any kind of annoyance or burden. The mysterious mutant from between dimensions not only provided the most promising avenue of escape yet, but she was very decent company in a galaxy completely devoid of it otherwise. Khan was disappointed that she didn't seem interested in having a conversation while he worked, but he wasn't going to bother her unnecessarily.

Only fifteen minutes had passed before he spoke, this time navigating two different virtual screens at once and more quickly than he had at the beginning. Things were falling into place. "Can you see in pitch darkness?" Maybe she wasn't listening, and he would have to let go of his data streams to get her attention. If she did respond now, that would save them a good thirty seconds that would be useful, but they didn't actually need them.

Rogue honestly would have loved to have had a conversation with him, but she had other more pressing matters demanding her attention. The last few days hadn't been kind to the veritable fortress she'd built in her mindscape to house all the psyches she'd accumulated; it had become more like a ramshackle cottage than anything. Building it back up to what it had been would take more time than she had at present, would require that she feel a lot safer than she currently did, but in those first few minutes she managed to accomplish quite a lot regardless.

His voice filtered through the hallways she was realigning and while it took a few seconds to work her way back to the surface, she did open her eyes to address him. "No better than the average human. But I'm not afraid of the dark, if that helps."

Having done what she could for the moment and feeling quite a more stable, she stood and made her way back to the console to watch him work.

Was it callous of Khan that he hadn't even considered the possibility that she could be afraid of the dark? Probably, but he hadn't yet made any allowances for her hypothetical fragility and wasn't going to start now.

He triggered a third screen, and pulled up a schematic blueprint display. Khan zoomed in and tapped two closed cells, which filled in white and yellow. "We are here, my quarters are here." Then he drew a red line, zigzagging down hallways and looping around inconveniently sized larger structures. "I can't see in the dark either, but I'm familiar enough with the route that I could navigate it easily at a fast walking pace. I could guide you by holding your hand. I leave it up to you to come up with an acceptable alternative."

It wouldn't have occurred to Rogue to expect him to consider whether she would be afraid of or unable to handle something. She'd worked past that during her early years with the X-Men, and since then she'd become a skilled fighter and pilot and led her own team. Considering her own emotional limitations wasn't something she'd ever done at that, and after Alcatraz, her focus had become thinking of the others first, herself never.

Frowning in concentration, she examined the path he'd laid out, trying and failing to see any other option. Not that she knew about the facility to even make a semi-decent stab at finding one; she had to trust him on this. "You'd have to hold onto my wrist, not my hand," she informed him, moving to zip up the sleeves so her wrist and the palms of her hands were covered the grey material. "I lost my gloves and it's too risky to try touching you while we do this - you could end up incapacitated and then we'd both be in a world of hurt."

Khan nodded without looking at her, leaving the schematic up for her benefit but focusing his own attention on the two other screens. One devolved into a brisk stream of binary and he stared at it intently until the scrolling stopped. Satisfied, he banished the screen and turned to the one which was a complex series of system status updates.

"You'll be able to synthesize any clothing you wish once you get there, but that won't help us now. I'm not sure if you need some kind of special material, but if any kind of cloth will do and it's that much of a concern, you could use a pair of socks as mittens." Her socks, his socks, whatever. Not that Khan would have any problem dragging her along by her wrist, but she knew far more about the probability and consequences of accidental contact.

"We leave in three minutes."

She hadn't thought of that. It had been so long since she'd had to think of keeping others safe, she felt a bit like she'd lost her creativity for doing so. Pondering the display for another few seconds, she finally came to a decision and knelt down, undoing the fastening for her pantleg to access her boots.

Everything about the outfit she was in was designed to provide as much skin coverage as possible while still allowing for multiple points of exposure. It would have time-consuming and dangerous to have her disrobed before every experiment, so the uniform had layers of zippers and folds of fabric and hidden seams that would allow access to different parts of her body without too much risk. All in all, it took almost the entire three minutes for her to retrieve one sock and get everything back in order enough to be able to move quickly. One was all she needed anyway - her mutation was her only major defense at the moment, she needed to keep one hand free in case something happened.

Khan stood near the door, clearly waiting for her but also appearing to be as patient as stone as he did. As they neared the three minute mark, the patterns of lights on the console began switching around with no direct influence. The binary code appeared again, and small sections were highlighted in turn. The platform behind them began to hum as well, and system messages started scrolling quickly.

"There's no one to hear us, but it will be best to avoid unnecessary conversation. You'll have a motion-sensitive light source in my quarters but everything else will be shut off. You'll be there alone for a few hours. When the door opens I assure you that it will be me and no one else."

When she seemed finished suiting up as well as she was able, he turned sideways and offered her his hand, palm down, oriented so that she would have the best freedom of movement after giving him her more shielded wrist.

Rogue glanced up while she worked, noting the way he was standing there waiting and the changing lights and display. Whatever he was doing, it seemed to be working.

Standing, she moved forward to put her wrist into his waiting grip, any deadly flesh covered by a grey sock, just in case. He seemed to genuinely be helping her, the last thing he probably needed was for her to repay that gesture by sucking the life out of him like some kind of vampire.

"Thank you," she said quietly. For the reassurance that she wouldn't have to spend those hours on edge waiting for someone else to find her there. For going to the trouble of helping her at all. For a lot of things.

She had just thanked him? For the first time since she had arrived, Khan seemed genuinely at a loss. Nobody ever thanked him, for anything, and he never expected it to happen. After wasting a good three seconds giving her a flummoxed look, Khan decided to stop thinking about it and get back to business. "Fifteen seconds."

He tightened his grip experimentally, getting a feel for the physical resilience of her body, and made small adjustments to the angle of his hold. Yes, practical matters were much better to think about. "We won't run into anyone and we have more than enough time. Our only obstacle will be the walls themselves."

Rogue knew that look. How many times had she seen it on others, worn by those who worked tirelessly with no gratitude for their efforts, or those who had been taken advantage of for so long that gratitude was simply incomprehensible? Too many times, for all of them. If he was the type to wear that expression, then she would say her thanks at every opportunity that presented itself from then on, to make sure he knew that she truly meant it. Not everyone would go to this much trouble for a total stranger.

She didn't move her hand as he adjusted his hold, letting him work it out because he was the one who would be leading them. It was important that he be able to move easily and not lost track of where they were, if the darkness was going to be so thoroughly pressing. "Just don't let go of me," she pleaded with him quietly. "Please."

Rogue didn't think she was afraid of the dark, but it had been so long since she'd really been in it. What if she was wrong?

His answer was completely matter-of-fact. "I'd sooner break your arm."

That might mean something different to her than what he had intended. In this day and age, mending even the most badly crushed wrist was the work of minutes with basic medical facilities. Even if they couldn't get access to the sorts of instruments that were just lying out in the open in different rooms around the facility, giving her a small sample of his blood would repair the damage at no cost to himself. It was very possible that some glancing physical contact would provide her with enough regenerative powers as well, not that either of them wanted to perform that particular experiment. On the other hand, even if they had no options except for crude splinting and weeks of immobilization, he would still break her arm rather than let go.

The room lights went out, though the console and the area of the transporter platform both remained lit up and active. In the faint glow, Khan pulled open a panel and yanked a lever that opened the door, not with a swoosh as it had for his unexpected caller but with a grinding pull. Manual controls, the power to this entire section had been shut down completely. Khan glanced back at his hapless companion one final time before stepping out into the jet black void, pulling her along.

It did mean something rather different to her than it did to him, but there was an intention there that softened the words themselves. He would do what it took to get her through this, even if it meant going that far. In a way, it was oddly comforting knowing that he wouldn't back down even in the face of such an extreme measure. And really, something told her that this far into the future, a broken bone wasn't likely to slow anyone down for very long. Either way, she'd been through a hell of a lot worse.

She hadn't understood what he had been doing at the console, but the pieces were starting to come together. Turning off the power in the area, having to use what appeared to be a manual way of opening the door - he'd been rather thorough.

When they entered the black, Rogue couldn't stop the panic that rose in her chest. Memories clung to her like fog, recollections of waiting in the dark, seeing the lights of the sentinels coming out of nowhere, watching them tear about homes and take away the people who meant the most to her. It didn't matter that most of them weren't her own, she still had to concentrate on keeping her breathing steady while taking one step after another, matching his speed and following carefully as he led the way.

Completely disregarding what he had said just a few minutes ago, Khan started talking as they went.

"I'm supposedly doing some particularly sensitive experiments right now. Central command has issued the orders that this entire section be evacuated for the duration. Every living thing has been cleared out, anything that could emit an electronic signature has been deactivated. No motion sensors, no microphones, even the air circulation has been suspended. This section has been sealed off from the rest of the facility, and it will stay that way until I give the all clear."

He slowed as they rounded a corner. "With my research, small miscalculations could cause large scale disintegration. I doubt anyone would breech my containment parameters even with direct orders.

The explanation was unexpected, both in content and the fact that he'd given it after having instructed she keep talking to a minimum. She'd been set on following that instruction, determined not to make a peep as they walked, but now that he'd taken that plunge, she couldn't not say anything herself.

Scientific research and the need for precautions was something she'd understood from working with Hank and Forge and a number of others over the years. It was a different kind of science that what she'd been subjected to, and the specific precautions this command had put into motion were telling of the importance placed on the work he was doing.

Still, there was something bothering her. She kept her voice quiet, her words careful as she said, "Why do I get the feeling that you're not doing all this research out of the goodness of your heart?"

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