Subject: The last of the genetically-engineered Supermen led by Khan Singh had been forced off Earth by a people who had NO interest in being ruled any more.

The Botany Bay was not a Warp vessel.

DY-100 sleeper ship Botany Bay was launched in 1996 and inserted into
high Earth orbit.

While her initial course is unknown, the nuclear-powered ship boosted
away from Earth, breaking orbit and headed out into the Galaxy,
exhausting most of her fuel.

While primitive by Federation standards, the Botany Bay was a
well-built, strong and capable vessel designed before the breaking of
the Time Barrier. Flying into the depths of space, she faithfully
carried her hibernating crew DEEP past the Solar System.

In truth, it was a suicide mission.

Khan Noonien-Singh KNEW that a ship escaping Earth and leaving the
Solar System would have NO hope of finding a new planet - it was
mathematically so unlikely to be unconsidered.

But they had to TRY. The last of the genetically-engineered Supermen
led by Khan Singh had been forced off Earth by a people who had NO
interest in being ruled any more.

Singh KNEW they were going to their death deep among the stars. It was…acceptable.

This great, hard man KNEW there was no coming back from the abyss. He
said it himself: “Have you ever read Milton, Captain?”

That says it ALL.

It is better to die in the darkness of space than to accept the rule
of inferior Humans.

THAT is why the Botany Bay burned her engines once in Earth orbit.
They would go out on a mission of conquest. ANY result would be
acceptable because it would be on THEIR terms.

God - it was magnificent. Glorious suicide, the final act of defiance
for a people who could NOT accept surrender or the rule of another.

So Botany Bay burned her engines and left the Solar System. And had it
not been for a million-to-one chance and sensors that had developed in
over 200 years, it would still be flying…eternally…forever.

But…

271 years after its launch, SS Botany Bay was FOUND by a Federation
Starship patrolling space near Earth.

USS Enterprise located the sleeper ship, boarded and awoke its
passengers.

And the rest…

is history.

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