"Why did you sacrifice yourself for him?" Krall spit out. He was so close, she could feel his hot breath on her skin and smell his decayed teeth with her adrenaline-enhanced senses.

Nyota fought to calm her rapid, hammering heart with slow breaths, eyes hardened in a desperate attempt to show no weakness. But her mind was a frenzy of questions and her voice still wavered, curse it.

"Because he would have done the same."

It sounded like a pathetic reason, even to her, but what else could she say? Even if she tried to explain using the best of her xenocommunication skills, Nyota doubted Krall's ability to understand. How could she explain to this deranged creature what she felt for her captain, crew, ship, and cause? To this man who had just killed his own people, not to mention so many of her own crew of the Enterprise without a second thought, how could she explain the ideas that drove her, like duty, loyalty? She vaguely registered a small part that wanted to say more to herself, but shook it off and fixed Krall with a glare.

"The captain will find us, and then he will come for us." Perhaps if she said it out loud it would sound like the truth. Was Jim even alive? Where was he? How many of the Enterprise crew were alive? Where were the survivors? To her alarm, Nyota felt the world around her spin and her vision blur as the adrenaline in her body began to ebb and the panic set in, the world disintegrating into a dull roar around her. She clenched her jaw and dug her nails into her palms to little avail.

Stay tall, Nyota Uhura!

"I'm counting on it." Krall said with relished contempt.

She struggled to memorize the layout of the compound as she was pushed through the dark tunnels that led to a copper door. As soon as her captors opened the chamber, Nyota was unceremoniously shoved in to fall on the hard stone floor to the general exclamation of "Lieutenant Uhura!" from the people inside. Quick hands helped her up as the heavy metal swung shut, and stuttered relief found Nyota when she laid eyes on familiar Starfleet uniforms. Relief that quickly turned into dismay when she couldn't find…

"Uhura!" A figure in command yellow pushed through the crowd to sweep her into a hug.

"Sulu!"

The two quickly embraced, and Nyota felt some of her panic fade as she reunited with a fellow senior member of the bridge. When they separated, Lieutenant Sulu wasted no time in bringing her up to speed.

"There are roughly fifty or so crew members here," he said with his characteristic calm, "we're the only senior officers present. I'm not sure about anyone else— the last I saw of Mr. Chekov or the captain, they were still on the bridge when I ejected, and…" he paused with a slight frown, and Nyota's heart leadened as she waited for him to take a breath and continue. "I'm sorry Uhura, but Dr. McCoy and Commander Spock didn't make it back on the bridge. I'm not sure where they were during the fall."

The all-consuming roar around her ears returned in full force as Nyota digested the information Sulu gave her.