Epilogue

Author's note: You know what I really like about the reboot? That everything is back on the table as far as the future goes. And that in this timeline some people get to have a future.

Ceti Alpha V

Fifteen years in the future…

"Zorah, tell me how many People there are now."

Marla waited patiently while the child stood to answer.

"One hundred and twenty two, ma'am," Zorah said proudly.

"Soon to be one hundred and twenty three," the little boy seated next to her added.

The classroom erupted in giggles.

"That's enough, children. Very good, Zorah, thank you." She eyed the rest of her classroom. There were nearly thirty students of all ages seated on the benches.

"Tommorrow we will cover Earth history from 1790 to 1845. We will also be visiting the greenhouse to study the vascular structure of our native plants. Class dismissed."

The children happily ran for the door to the shipping container that served as their classroom. The two suns of Ceti Alpha V were still high in the sky, leaving them lots of time to play before their parents called them home.

Marla absently rubbed her swollen belly. She always forgot how tired she got this late in her pregnancies. A few more weeks and one of the other women would have to take over for her while she prepared for delivery.

"Here you are, Mother." Her second daughter, Sara, brought her the stack of workbooks the students had left on their desks. Marla had painstakingly made each one by hand out of recycled paper. Nothing on the planet was ever wasted.

"Thank you, darling."

"I helped, too!" Her youngest boy, Joshua, smiled up at her, brandishing a handful of pencils in his fist.

"You're a big help, love," she told the boy. "Let's go home."

As she walked with her children she shaded her eyes with her hand and gazed across the desert sands of the planet she now called home.

The Federation had left Khan and his people here fifteen years before. They had set the sleeping pods to open only once the starship was out of the area.

Marla had no idea why they'd chosen Ceti Alpha V, except perhaps because it both could support life and was isolated from other inhabited planets.

In fact, the People, as they now called themselves, would not have known they were on Ceti Alpha V had the Federation not left them a tablet computer containing that information and what little the Federation knew about the planet.

That tablet had of course long since ceased to function. But Marla had been sure to transcribe all the information by hand before it did.

Once a historian, always a historian, she supposed.

The human settlement consisted of only two dozen buildings, arranged around a central courtyard. Most were made from the containers the Federation had left with them when they'd been abandoned on this planet. Originally filled with food, medical supplies, and other useful items they now were houses and kitchens, a medical clinic and a workshop.

Ceti Alpha V was uninhabited, save for a few native animals. Some the People hunted for food and for their skins. Others, like the burrowing, crustacean-like Ceti eel, were only nuisances.

The planet was bleak, but there was water enough to sustain them and their crops.

It was a basic life, and a hard one. But it grew easier year by year.

Marla's husband Khan was the one to thank for that. None of them would have survived this long if not for him.

He'd chosen his crew wisely. They were not only Augments but each had possessed skills valuable to a fledging civilization-medical knowledge, botanical training, and even hunting experience.

When Marla had awoken to this new world she had not know if the Augments would accept her. She was, after all, just an ordinary human, one still suffering from the aftereffects of her phaser wound. And Khan's female followers were much more attractive than she was. Marla had half-expected that Khan would refuse to resume their previous relationship.

But Khan had told his people what she had done for them. He'd claimed her as his wife, and had declared that no woman was braver or more superior than she.

No one had disputed him.

And so their new life on this new planet had begun.

Her family had their own quarters made of mud brick. The walls were thick to protect against Ceti Alpha V's punishing suns and dust storms. A high arched roof provided ventilation and made the small space seem larger. There was an open hearth in the center for the cold desert nights. Low curtained sleeping lofts in each corner gave each family member a little privacy. Instead of a door or windows the thick skins of the native ba'ash covered the openings in the evenings and during the planet's frequent dust storms.

The house reminded Marla of photographs she had seen of sod houses the pioneers on Earth's Great Plains had built generations ago.

Sara and Josh played quietly by the hearth, giving Marla a chance to rest after her day's work.

She smiled at them. Because their mother was not genetically enhanced her children did not grow quite as fast as the offspring of two Augments did. But they still grew faster than children back home. Josh was only two, but was closer in size and knowledge to a boy of four. Sara was five, but seemed seven or eight.

In some ways this had proved a blessing. The Augments were exceptionally healthy, but they did age, more so now in these harsh surroundings. And the medical care the colony could offer was minimal at best.

They would not live forever. Marla certainly would not.

Fortunately the first generation of children born on the planet was now reaching adulthood. Many had already begun families of their own. Her oldest son, she expected, would be marrying soon. It was hard to wrap her mind around sometimes.

The more adults their community had, the more hands there were to help with all the work that needed to be done. And the more children born, the better the chances the People would survive.

Of the seventy-one Augments, only thirty had been women. With fewer women than men Khan had made it clear that people would need to choose their mates carefully. Divorce was permitted, but not encouraged. Families tended to be large.

It still made Marla chuckle a bit. She had born the first human child on the planet less than a year after they had arrived. At first the Augments had seemed a little puzzled at bringing children into the world in this way: they had all been created in labs, after all. But nature had eventually taken its course.

Marla kept careful records of all the births and deaths on the planet so future generations would know who was related to whom. Deliberate genetic enhancement was no longer possible under the conditions in which they lived, Khan had explained to his People. But it was still important that children be born as strong and healthy as possible. To that end those related too closely would not be permitted to marry.

She set aside her reveries and started supper. Kneeling over the hearth Josh and Sara helped her add ba'ash meat to a pot of boiling water. Marla added chopped numor, a starchy, melon like vegetable that grew well in their irrigated fields, and some seasonings.

The animal skin that covered the entrance was pulled back, and two cloaked figures entered. Their heads and bodies were carefully swaddled to protect them from the sun and the dust of the deserts beyond the settlement.

Marla smiled and got gingerly to her feet. "I was wondering when you'd get home. Supper's almost ready. Sara, would you get the water pitcher and basin, please?"

"Yes, here it is." While the two men unwrapped themselves the child poured out a basin of clean water so they could wash the dust from their hands and faces.

Marla picked up their coats and head coverings, carefully shaking them out before hanging them up. "Were you able to repair the evaporator in the Alpha quadrant?" She asked hopefully.

"We were," her husband told her simply. Eager for his attention Josh went to him and pulled on his sleeve. Khan laid a hand on the boy's head in acknowledgement.

His skin was deeply tanned from the sun and silver threads laced through his dark hair at the temples. But he was still the most handsome man she had ever seen.

"Good." Marla was relieved. The evaporators-Khan's own design-helped supplement the limited natural rainfall of the planet.

"Damn dust got inside the condenser, as usual," her oldest child, Finn, told her. Named after his maternal great-grandfather, he was tall, fierce, and intelligent, like his father. He had Marla's red hair and blue eyes.

"Those new filters John Jr. designed aren't working as well as expected," Finn added. "He'll have to go back to the drawing board."

"John's going to be mad about that," Sara observed in her child's way.

"Your brother is a scientist," her father told her. "He understands that what has been designed often need to be redesigned."

Marla had insisted on naming her second child, also a boy, "John Jr." She and Khan were the only ones on the planet who got the joke.

While Finn was clearly destined for leadership, John was quieter and preferred tinkering in the workshops to hunting. But like all their children he, too, had his father's fine mind. He had a gift for machines and for improving the limited technology available to the community. His father let him experiment as much as possible. John now lived in his own quarters attached to the colony's main workshop, so he would be available at all hours for repairs and consultation.

The family sat down to supper together around the hearth. Marla spooned generous portions of stew into bowls made from the skulls of maran, the large, predatory fish that lived in the handful of rivers on the planet. The spoons they used had been crafted from bone as well.

"Any news of Maria?" She asked her husband and oldest son while they ate.

"Joaquin heard from the hunting expedition earlier today. All is going well," Khan told her. "They should be home in a few more days."

Marla nodded. Joaquin was another Augment, and Khan's most trusted advisor besides Finn. It was he who had made the beautiful dishes for them as a gift to mark Maria's birth.

Maria was their third child and their first daughter. Recently finished with school, she was a skilled tracker and hunter who put her skills to work for the People.

Marla smiled privately to herself as she ate. Thus far among her grown and nearly grown children she'd produced a warrior/politician; a mechanic/scientist; and a hunter. It was not the sort of aspirations Marla might have once had for her children. In her old life, she had always assumed that if she had children they would have all been bound for university and then Starfleet, just as she had been. But they were certainly much more practical professions for this planet.

"Many bellies will be filled thanks to my sister," Finn said proudly. Unlike his younger brothers and sisters Finn was old enough to remember the lean years when they'd first arrived, when there often hadn't been quite enough food to go around.

"Yes, you're right, of course," Marla said with a nod. She paused and rubbed her stomach. The baby within her kicked vigorously.

Khan, who was seated next to her, laid a hand on her belly. "How is she today?"

She smiled. "Fine. You know she's always fine." The gender of this child, their sixth, was not yet known.

Khan wanted another daughter. He had told Marla it was because there were still more men than women on the planet. Women were highly valued in the colony because of it. They enjoyed greater equality here than even on Earth.

But Marla also suspected he fancied having three girls to go with his three boys. He'd even chosen the child's name already-Ona. He'd decided all of the names of the women in his clan would end in "a," like Marla's own.

Marla sometimes amused herself that it would be a boy. But her husband had made up his mind for a girl, and he usually got his way.

Marla took a moment to lay her hand over his. They seldom had any privacy or time alone together these days. She'd learned to relish every moment she had with him.

The suns were down and Marla busied herself tucking Sara and Josh into their shared pallet. The children had few toys, clothes, or possessions of any kind. But the house was snug and cozy, and their bellies were full. As a mother Marla could not ask for much more for her children than that.

She finished telling them their favorite story, the story of how the People had come to Ceti Alpha V. They had listened, wide-eyed, even though both knew it by heart. Every child on the planet did. It was a part of their history, too, now.

Marla smoothed the hair from Josh's brow.

"You two remember what I've told you," she encouraged. "So you can tell you own children some day."

"Yes, Mother," both children said with nods.

"And don't forget the most important thing, my loves," she reminded them. "If anyone from Starfleet ever appears on this planet, what do you do?"

"Kill them," they said in unison.

Marla smiled fiercely.

"That's right." She kissed both children.

"Sleep well, my superior ones," she told them.

FIN