(This story is written for the March challenge. In this challenge we are to show a hero, or in this case a villain, as they face character defining moments in their lives. All though this is a new segment, it takes place back in the early times of this story, just about a year ago, in real time, and I’d say about five-six years before the current time of Exodus. Now, briefly; Khan Noonien Singh, in my “PHASE-ONE/EXODUS” universe, is an augment. Meaning, his body is that of a clone, and his memories are the implanted, memories of another man’s life; that other man being the real Khan Noonien Singh. Garak will also show up on this story. My version of Garak is of a human who worked for the highest bidder to obtain services or goods; meaning he isn’t a nice guy. His number one client was John Gill, who will also show up in this story. John Gill was a former US Senator who was against the “new world order” that proceeded Earth’s entrance into the Federation. This story takes place before Earth even knew there were aliens out there; right before the first manned mission to Mars. SAVVY readers will recall this “PHASE ONE/EXODUS” story was far different back at the start. I just wanted to do a brief recap for those who may have started reading EXODUS at some later date. John Gill and Garak have long since been killed off in the story, but Khan is still alive and well; and a very angry bitter twisted/ man.) He was there...in the small hospital outside of Punjab India. With tears in his eyes, and joy in his heart, Khan Noonien Singh watched as his young son, Hament, came into the world. Watching his son born was like watching a miracle happen, and, not only being a witness to the miracle, but part of its creation. And as the nurses cleaned the baby up, Khan looked down upon his wife on the hospital bed, Sonali was her name, and smiled, and then kissed her. The pain she had experienced while giving birth to their son would have been more than any man could bear. "I love you so much, my wife," Khan told her, "we have both created a miracle, our son, but you are the inspiration of that miracle. I want to thank you so much for validating my life, because that is what having child does." "Oh Khan, I love you so much," Sonali told him, as he used soft tissue to dry the sweat on her forehead off. She took his hand into hers, and held it tight. -- He was there...at the same hospital several years later. Khan's mother, Saji, suffered a heart attack, and faced inevitable death, Khan stayed every night at the hospital, after a long day’s work, for seven long days, seeing to it that she was comfortable. And on her last night of life, Khan sang to her old Sikh poems that put her at ease, and then he closed her eyes after death had finally come to her. Khan's father had died during the third India/Pakistan war of 2035, when Khan was just five years old. His mother, Saji, worked hard, very hard, at menial jobs to provide enough money to send Khan to the best schools, all private, that money could afford. His drive and ambition came from her example, and he would reciprocate by providing the same for his children as well. -- He was there at that same hospital again, two years later. Sonali became pregnant with their second child, but had complications; Khan comforted her as best as he could. Although the child was his child as well, Khan knew that women had a maternal connection to their children that fathers could never quite attain. And when the child was still borne, at eight months in term, he took time off from work to spend time with his wife, and their now seven year old son Hament. By that time Khan had become one of the leading construction engineers in the World Space Agency. He had gone through the Academy, and proved his abilities. Khan had risen to the top of his field so that when the first mission to Mars was planned, it was Khan who was designated the Mars mission colony commander. His responsibility would be seeing to the construction of the infrastructure of the colony. Khan’s son, Hament, was now twelve years old, and would miss his father for the three years the mission would take to accomplish. But Hament and Sonali both knew how important this had been to Khan, and both supported Khan on his quest follow his dream and lead the first mission to Mars, aboard the USS Enterprise. All was right in the world, for Khan, and the goal he had strived for during most of his adult life was at hand; and he was there trying his hardest grab it, and would try to make his dream come true. But life had other plans for Khan; plans that would cost him his life. Khan, though he wasn’t a perfect man, took pride in the fact that when his mother, wife or son, needed him; he was there. -- One late night, at the testing facility on the outskirts of Punjab, after running tests on new construction fibers, and the mission to mars just three months away, Khan, very tired, was walking out to his car, having completed a very long day of work. It was night, and the moon was full, casting a glow upon the city. With stringent environmental laws having been in place for two decades, the smog levels of the city had been lowered, allowing for spectacular views of the moon. He smiled at the point of light just beyond the moon; it was the planet Mars. “I’ll be there soon,” Khan said with a broad smile. Khan opened the door to his car, got in, and shut the door. He hadn’t noticed that a man was sitting in the front passenger seat. The man had flowing gray hair, and a very cold look on his face, and was holding a gun, and was aiming it at Khan. “Who are you?” Khan asked. “My name is Garak, you can call me plane simple Garak,” Garak said with a slight sneer on his face. “If you wish for your wife and child to live past this night, you will drive your car to where I tell you. If you try to escape, or do not do as I tell you, the men I have standing outside your home will slit your son’s throat, then they will rape your wife, and kill her; do you understand?” “What is this all about?” Khan asked. “Every second you do not drive this car brings your wife and child closer to death,” Garak told Khan. “So, if you would, please start driving. I am actually a man of very good will, but I take my job seriously, so do not put me to the test; drive.” -- After driving for nearly an hour, and with no discussion in that amount of time, Khan Noonien Singh did as Garak instructed and turned off of the main road, and parked his sedan in cover parking structure. Khan had thought about escaping, or confronting Garak, and why not? Khan had taken the basic military hand-to-hand coursed during his academy years. In fact, he had been so adept at the martial arts, he had accidentally knocked his training partner completely out; Leonard McCoy. But that had been years ago, when both were up and comers. But with the lives of his wife and child at stake, Khan didn’t try to escape. For now, Garak had the upper hand. -- Khan was led into a building, and into a large darkened room, with just a simple chair in the middle of it to sit in. Garak was still holding a gun aimed at Khan. “Take off your clothes,” Garak said softly. “Is this necessary?” Khan asked. “Yes, it is,” Garak said. “You could use your clothing to try and kill yourself. Your shirt could be tied around your neck. The shoelaces on your boot could be removed for the same reason. “Why would I want to kill myself?” Khan asked. “I have everything in the world a man could want; a loving wife, a great career, and a son that means the world to me.” “I have found,” Garak said, introspectively, “that when a man loses those things he most treasures, as you treasure your wife and son, it may lead him to do the unspeakable, like taking his life.” “You told me if I came here, with you, they would be unharmed.” Khan said, slightly angered. The door to the darkened room opened and another man entered, and walked over to the center of the room where Garak and Khan were standing. As he got closer, Khan recognized the new comer. “I know you,” Khan said softly, “you’re an American Senator, John Gill.” John Gill smiled at Khan. “Former senator, actually,” Gill corrected Khan, “I resigned last year.” “Your views on the United Nations, and the World Space Agency, have not been, to put it mildly, kind.” “You are quite right,” Gill began to say. “I do not have the slightest faith that mankind can evolve, as long as freedom stands in the way. The world should be united, but not under an olive branch, but an iron fist.” “That’s been tried,” Khan came back with, “and failed.” “If you mean men like Hitler, or Napoleon, I would agree with you,” Gill said, in a very pleasant tone. “They were fools, puppets really; front men for ideas that others gave to them. Trust me, I am not anyone’s puppet, and if I have my way, the rest of the world will soon understand.” Gill nodded at Garak. “Take your clothes off, Mr. Singh,” Garak said. Khan was powerless to resist and took of his clothes in front of the other two men. Then, once that was completed, Garak motioned with the gun for Khan to sit in the chair. The instant Khan was in the chair, latches came up from the floor and clasped around his ankles. “What are you going to do with me?” Khan asked, as the door opened again, and two men with white medical jackets came in and began to walk over toward the center of the room. “You have lived an extraordinary life,” John Gill said to Khan. “I have read all about your accomplishments, the tragic loss of your mother, your wife’s still birth years ago. How you came from such setbacks and reveled in your career with the World Space Agency. And, as fate would have it, you became the Mar’s colony commander.” “That isn’t for another three months,” Khan said. “Precisely,” Gill said. “That’s just enough time for your replacement to acclimate himself to his surroundings.” “He’ll never get past security,” Khan said as the men in the white jackets, who wheeled a cart behind them, stopped and prepared several needles for use. “Now, don’t you worry about that,” Gill said, as he patted Khan on the shoulder, “he wont’ have to get past anything because, my dear sir, he will be you.” “I won’t help you, not matter what threat you hold over me.” Khan spat back. “I believe you,” Gill said, “I believe, at some point, you would do just that and find someway to compromise all that I have been working for, and ruin everything.” Khan looked beyond Gill and saw two stretchers wheeled into the room. One of the stretchers was empty, no one was on it. The other contained a body. Gill stood back from Khan and turned watch as the two stretchers made their way to the center of the room. When Khan saw the body on the stretcher, all he saw was what appeared to be a man, naked as he was. There facial features, just a whole where the mouth would be, and to tinier holes where the nose would be. “What is that thing?” Khan asked softly. “That is you,” Gill replied. “Your DNA, your appearance, even your memories, will soon become part of this lifeless slab of skin you see here before you.” “A clone,” Khan said. “Not exactly,” Gill said, “but close enough.” “No cage is permanent,” Khan said, with anger in his voice. “I’ll find my way out of here, and notify the Federation!” “You seem to be missing the point, Mr. Singh,” Gill said with a slight chuckle. “Once we are done with what we need from you, you will be dead. Escape is not an option.” “You can’t do this! What about my wife and son, and what about MY life?” Khan demanded. Gill stood over the lifeless slab of flesh on the stretcher before him. Then Gill turned around to face Khan. “Don’t you mean, his life, his wife and,” Gill paused for effect, “his son?” Gill asked as he looked down on the clone. “Please, don’t do this,” Khan asked, as he watched one of the men in a medical coat prepared a syringe. “I’ll do what you want, just don’t do this!” Khan pleaded, realizing that his life was at its end. “I thank you,” Gill said, with a warm and friendly sound to his voice, “I thank you for being an instrument in my goal to crush this evil we know as the United Nations. Now, because of you, Mars will be mine, and now that red world will be the cornerstone to my ambition to rule the world. When you see your mother, Saji, thank her for me.” Khan began to scream obscenities at the two men in the medical jackets, as Gill, and Garak, stepped back and let the two doctors do their jobs. Gill watched as one of the doctors forcibly held Khan’s head back as the other doctor slid a large up and into Khan’s left nostril. Khan could only give in and felt apprehension as the needle went higher into his nose, and then there was a quick twinge of pain. It was as if he were at an old style 3-d movie, but without the archaic glasses that people wore to experience the 3-d effects. He saw his life play out as though he wasn’t apart of it. Old friends, old memories, flooded his mind. He saw his father again, teaching the basics of Cricket. Then he saw his mother, seeing him off to school. The memories skipped through time until he saw Sonali on their wedding day, and then, the happiest day in his life, when his son Hament was born. And although his life was ending, he smiled. He smiled because, all in all, his life had been good, until the very end. And then a tear came out of his life as he realized that for the first time ever, when his wife called out for him, or his son needed the wisdom of a father, Khan would not be there. -- Several hours later, a man rang the doorbell of a home in suburban Punjab. The man waited for the door to open, and finally it did. “Where have you been?” Sonali asked her husband. “I was so worried.” Khan smiled; he was there, and even though he had memories of coming through the same door, hundreds of time before, somehow it felt as if this time was the first time; and it was. But, not matter, as he entered the home and hugged his wife. At least… He was there. End…