The pain seared across her back, white hot and constant, and barely bearable, as Tarral, her father, burned her ceremonial tattoo onto her scarred, pale skin. Nakai was skin and bones, nearly fed and never taken care of. Slaves didn't deserve that kind of treatment, especially not on one of Romulus' mining colonies. She was only receiving this tattoo because her father was one of the Romulans ordering the slaves around. It definitely wasn't because of her Vulcan mother who, like her, was a mining slave. No need to ask how Nakai was conceived. Everyone knew. It even sparked pride amongst certain Romulans.
Nakai felt the pain subside, but she was immediately thrown to her feet. She couldn't stand. Her knees buckled and fell, scraping the palms of her hands onto the rocky floor. She heard a growl behind her and a few seconds later someone grabbed her by the hair and violently pulled her up. The smell of Romulan Ale reached Nakai's nose.
"Welcome to the family, Nakai," her father hissed in her ear, in his native Romulan dialect. "Now, go join your bitch mother."
Tarral shoved his daughter forward so that she fell a few feet away. Her entire body hit the floor and rolled down a short, rocky hill. Nakai ignored the dark laughter coming from the Romulans behind her and rose, observing fresh scratches on her body, and began to walk bag to her mother, T'sor, who was most likely in the same spot she left her. Small, loose stones littered the floor causing Nakai to trip as she went along. After seventeen years in this darkness, she didn't need a torch in front of her to see the entrance back into one of the mining shafts. Instead, she remembered the path by touch, as she had followed the damp wall with the tip of her fingers, without a care as to the state of her nails, for the first few years of her life. All of a sudden, flaming torches sparked to life, lighting up the tunnel ahead and bathing the entire cavern in a flickering orange glow. The sounds of drills and hammers filled her ears, with the occasional crack or zap of a laser weapon on the back of a slave.
T'sor was once a beautiful Vulcan. Her long, matted black hair was once smooth and coiffed. Her dark chocolate eyes once held sparkle. Her frail body was once her temple. But now, after over twenty years of slavery, T'sor, Nakai's mother, was barely more than a shell. As her daughter approached, she stood and extended her arms, turning her daughter around to see the fresh tattoo that covered her back. She sighed.
"They allowed you to chose it," T'sor said in her Vulcan tongue, letting out the breath she'd been holding. "I am relieved."
"They allowed me to chose it, yes, but that is all the courtesy they extended me, mother," Nakai replied in the same tongue.
"Get back to work!" a Romulan spat at them.
T'sor looked around her and detached a chain from her neck and clasped it on her daughter's. Nakai looked at her and frowned.
"There is a shuttle that no one guards towards the east, go there and leave."
"Mother? What are you talking about?"
"You need to leave, Nakai. You are old enough, and I have taught you how to fly. There is nothing keeping you here!"
"I said get back to work!"
The Romulan came over and smashed T'sor over the head, sending her to her knees.
"Run, Nakai!"
"I love you, mother!"
Nakai bolted. Her feet slipped outwards on the wet stone as she rounded a corner, the damp air shocking her throat and lungs as she inhaled deeper, faster. With each footfall, she got faster, her Romulan and Vulcan genetics working full speed. With each footfall a jarring pain shot throughout her body. Her heart beat frantically. As she neared the shuttle, she came across a small Romulan work station from which she stole a long coat and a disruptor. A few meters later a Romulan jumped out at her, but she aimed the disruptor at her and jumped over his limp body. Nakai swung on the coat she'd stolen as she reached the shuttle bay. She pressed the entry button on its exterior and the door lifted, allowing her to enter and lock the door behind her. She ran to the helm of the shuttle and crashed onto the captain's seat. Her fingers flew to the command board and she began typing in the correct sequencing. Suddenly, the small Bird-of-Prey sprung to life and Nakai took off.
Her heartbeat slowed dramatically. She was finally gone. She was finally free from the torment. Finally free of her poor excuse of a father. But her mother- Suddenly, a proximity alarm went off. Ahead was a large explorer ship with a saucer-shaped helm was approaching. Nakai immediately swerved towards a different control panel and let out a distress signal since she couldn't remember how to hail a ship through all her fear. It took a few moments, but finally, a foreign face presented itself on her viewing screen. He was Human and at least in his mid-thirties, with greying brown hair and soft green eyes. Upon seeing Nakai, his expression changed from curiosity to worry.
"My name is Jonathan Archer, captain of the Federation Starship Enterprise," the man said in English. Nakai's years of listening to the slaves' dialects in the colony had been useful. "We received your distress call."
"I am Nakai Sekatha," she introduced herself in English but with a strong accent. "My mother has just facilitated my escape from a Romulan slave camp. I fear that they will come for me." Tears began falling from her eyes, confusing the crew. Vulcans never showed emotion. "Please, I am in dire need of your assistance."
"If you are willing, there is a space for you aboard my ship."
Nakai graciously accepted and boarded the ship quite rapidly, leaving the Romulan Bird-of-Prey behind and climbing aboard the Starship Enterprise. She was lead to the bridge where Archer's crew was working quite harmoniously. Seeing everyone in their uniforms made Nakai feel surprisingly under dressed, even naked. Her skin was covered in dirt and dust, her clothing was ripped and her hair was matted, drenched in dust and sweat. Everyone else was clean-cut and proper; Nakai looked down to the ground.
"I apologize for my appearance, but I- "
"There's no need to apologize. What happened to you is not your fault," Archer said. "Here. Let me introduce you to my main crew. This is First officer, Commander T'Pol," he gestured to a pale-haired Vulcan who remained stoic;
"Commander Charles Tucker III, my chief engineer," he gestured to a man of the same age but with pale brown hair who nodded to her, his mouth full of food;
"Lieutenant Malcom Reed, my chief armory officer - don't mind him," he added as Reed ignored his introduction;
"My helmsman, Travis Mayweather," he pointed to a dark-skinned man who smiled brightly at her;
"Hoshi Sato, my communications officer," he gestured to an Asian woman who curtly bowed to Nakai;
"And last, but certainly not least, Doctor Phlox, my chief medical officer," the Denobulan man smiled and extended his hand.
"I am so very pleased that you managed to get out," he said, shaking Nakai's trembling hand. "Here, come, let's get you to sick bay."
"Thank you."
And so, Nakai spent the next few months aboard the Starship Enterprise while it changed it's course back to Earth. During that time, she had gotten particularly close to Captain Archer and Lieutenant Reed, whom of which she spent most of her time with. He taught her how to speak English better, and she even began to lose her accent. Reed also taught her about weapons, walked her through tactical scenarios, taught her about onboard security. Archer said that moments with Nakai were the moments he most spent talking. Reed was also the one who convinced Nakai to join Starfleet and she was later assigned as a security officer under Reed's supervision. The crew of the Enterprise was the closest thing she had to family. But she never told them about her true heritage. Most assumed incorrectly that she was a Human-Vulcan hybrid and simply acted more Human.
Nakai received two medals of honour for her work on Romulans, from the Vulcan High Council, as well as for her feats in the Earth-Romulan war which every other member of the Enterprise received upon the end of the war in 2159. That same year, due too her accomplishments and her tragic past, Nakai was awarded her own Starship, the U.S.S. Hamilton, making her the youngest captain in the history of Starfleet. She captained the Hamilton for two years until, due to the tensions between Klingons and the Federation, Nakai was taken as an example.
The Hamilton was decimated. A pillar of smoke and dust, still boiling up from where the photon torpedoes had gone off, was filling the air. A series of new flashes broke out, lifting and spreading the incandescent radioactive gasses, and then a great gush of flame rose. A column of pure hydrogen must have rushed up into the vacuum created by the explosion; the next blast of flame came and great rags of fire, changing from red to violet and back through the spectrum to red again, went soaring away to dissipate into space. It was a miracle that Nakai managed to save her crew. She alone manned the U.S.S. Hamilton while her crew escaped on shuttles. She had accepted it. Death. She didn't want to die, but if it meant saving her crew, she'd do anything. But then something changed. Nakai spotted her mother's pendant dangling from her neck and she knew. She knew that she couldn't die after her mother had sacrificed so much for her.
Nakai ran to the commands and initiated the self-destruct sequence. She had one minute to escape. Running as fast as her Vulcan-Romulan legs would take her, she sprinted to the docking stations which were mostly destroyed but was unable to find a shuttle for herself. Thinking quickly, she ran straight to Med Bay with twenty seconds left to the countdown. She ravaged the storage compartment and found what she was looking for. Using some knowledge acquired by Dr. Phlox in the past, Nakai opened and activated a cryo-tube in which she hoped she'd be safe until the time being. She lowered herself into the tube as she heard the final seconds fly away. Ten... Nine... Eight... Nakai engaged the cryo-tube and lied down. Seven... Six... Five... She took a deep breath to calm herself and returned her breathing to normal. Four... Three... Two... Everything faded to black.