Thanx to JWinterCNA for this view of Star Trek's history of the future.

Chapter 11 - Hawkeye, Who Saved The World

July 25 , 2003

The Superior Man viewed his own image in the mirror. His own perfect image. He would not fail, he could not fail, now. The fate of mankind's evolution rested solely with him. This powerful speech would undo all the setbacks and solidify all the gains. Khan Noonien Singh prepared to face the cameras.

Once content to manipulate from behind the scenes, Khan and his followers moved forward to bloody conquest. His people held the Balkans. They held Northern Africa, down to Rwanda. Virtually all militia or apocalyptic groups worldwide were lead by men and women who worshipped him and his genetically engineered fellows as the new humanity. Once Khan's rule was firm, of course, these lessers would be the first to die. It was, after all, natural law. The way of things. They would understand. If they did not-well, then, that didn't matter.

Boldly, Khan had his forces spread thin. Any real push by the governments of the world could bring them low, quite easily. But now, he would show that they had no spine to do so. His weakness of position would be their undoing, when he put them in an untenable position.

The speech was one that any true leader would know as their own. Worldwide, cameras carried it on every media source. It was a classic, about sheep, and wolves, choices and order - order brought about by one man's will. The speech was itself unremarkable, but the speaker was quite extraordinary. Those who weren't carried away by his speech---had help.

Whole towns around the world had been seized by Khan's forces. Their's was enforced applause, only neccesary for about an hour. In places he did not hold outright, agent provocatuers shouted down opposition to the interactive speech. Some dissidents were more than shouted down. But some people can not be bribed, controlled, threatened, or beaten. Some will speak up and continue speaking up until evil is destroyed, no matter what the cost. One such man now spoke up, and in so doing, turned back night on Earth.

"So, the choice is between the Four Horsemen, and their weak-kneed allies in government, or the world I now offer you. A hell of nightmares or a land where dreams may come true for those who dare, a veritable Fantasy...."

"Shut the hell up, you pea-brained moron! God, Burns didn't go on as long as you! Winchester, maybe, but even he had more interesting insults than you have ideas!"

It was the first time anyone had actually dared to interrupt Khan. The cantakerous older-seeming man was, unknown to Khan, a product of the same experiments that had birthed his band. Unaware of this, the plants in the crowd spoke up.

"Shut up, old man!"

"Yeah! Khan has the right to speak!"

"Let him be heard!"

The crowd seemed to murmur in Khan's direction, but the man's wife - also a product of unwanted metabolic enhancement and not as old as she seemed - could have told the young toughs that trying to get him to shut up was all but pointless.

"He's all we've been hearing! Ever since we climbed out of the trees, it's been 'Let the leader take care of it'. Not good enough? Stronger leaders! Things go wrong? Appoint a dictator! Can't find one? Make one out of a test tube!"

Khan was livid at being interrupted, but did not allow it to show. One of his followers came at the man with a gun. It was extreme, but this speech was all-or-nothing. Khan would proclaim revolution, and there would be one world government, under him.

"I thought I told you to shut up, Old mannnnn.....aaaarggh! Stop it"

The older man was pummelling the young punk with his cane. Since the cane was an affectation for public consumption, he didn't need it to walk. The punk might, though. The man took his gun away, and held it up. Khan tried to recover.

"My friend, will you not allow me a chance to speak? I have rights too, you know, and the people wish to hear my words...."

"Stuff it, Hitleresque! I'm not buying! See this pea-shooter, folks? THIS is what he's all about. Our little pal, here, has Khan artist's tattoo. So do his friends, I'll bet."

"Are you saying that my followers don't have rights, because, if you are, then we have nothing..."

"Dorian Taylor!"

Khan fell silent. He knew that name well.

"Doctor Taylor was a great mind, responsible for many genetic breakthroughs. If such as I had a mother, she would be it!"

"She was a pretty monster who helped create other pretty monsters so they can give pretty speeches to make the world a whole lot uglier!"

"I have not seen fit to insult you, mister...."

"Pierce. Doctor Benjamin Franklin Pierce. This is my wife, Margaret Houlihan Pierce. Us and the folks at Immunita are old pals...so to speak."

Khan was silent again. It was study of the Pierces that had given Immunita knowledge enough to create him. Shaken, Khan started to rant. It was from Pierce that his strength derived. Against Pierce and his wife, Khan Singh was not the Superior Man.

"Kill those two! KILL THE PIERCES! KILL THEM! DO YOU HEAR ME!? DO YOU STUPID, BLEATING SHEEP HEAR YOUR ONE TRUE LEADER!?"

Hawkeye and Margaret then began to chant.

"We want something else! We want Something Else! We Want Something Else! WE WANT SOMETHING ELSE! WE WANT SOMETHING ELSE!"

The chant took over the crowd, and the crowd took over the world. The new masters of genocide were rounded up and imprisoned. Their armies fell without a shot fired. FBI Director Mulder personally arrested Khan himself. A new NASA experimental shuttle was refitted as a cryo-prison, and a UN war crimes tribunal threw the launch switch on the so-called "Botany Bay". Still alive, Khan could not even become a martyr to his failed cause.

With the support and backing of his beloved wife, Hawkeye Pierce had saved the world from evil. Since the results of those 1st Eugenics experiments kept their aging at an extremely slow rate, the Pierces disappeared to begin a new life under another name. But Hawkeye Pierce would be remembered.

SPACE STATION DEEP SPACE NINE

Worf shut off the holo-viewer. Pierce and his friends stood like deer in the headlights. Trapper spoke first.

"Figures, Hawk. Not only do you play do-gooder for the whole wide world, but you still get the last word, 5 centuries later. Alright, that's it! You two are getting those blood tests! They got the facilities here, and no one will know! Cause that gray hair on you in that tape was as phony as a 3-dollar bill!"

Winchester agreed. "Indeed, your would-be vivisectors at Immunita are long dead, after all. I should like to see those test results, though. I have an queasy feeling about all this. And, Pierce, I still say, it was only one world!"

Margaret shot back, "Charles, you touched your nose!"

Soon-Lee Klinger looked terrified.

"Doctor Taylor is an evil woman? Oh, no! But I thought genetic acceleration was a good thing! It worked so well for Hawkeye and Margaret. My poor Max is a Guinea hamster!"

A stunned Pierce was still silent. Jadzia Dax Rozhenko was not.

"Genetic Acceleration? You know about Immunita? In 1956? Everyone, down to Sickbay! We need to establish a few things, before we figure out this Dominion mess! Worf, darling, please stay!"

When the time-travelers had left, Jadzia let loose on Worf.

"Are you crazy? What about the Temporal Prime Directive? You told them about their future, Worf!"

"I felt they deserved to know, especially Pierce. Besides, they will forget this upon returning to their own time. The drugs will be given to erase their engrams, and..."

"WORF! Those drugs have to be administered carefully, for one! For two, we didn't bring them here! The Orb did! And it could send them back at any time, without warning! The Prophets won't tell us first!"

Worf sat there as an angry Jadzia left.

"I was --- not aware of this!"