Character/Pairing: Uhura, Spock, Kirk, Scotty, OCs

Rating: T

Summary: Uhura beams down to a research complex on an inhospitable ice planet as a last minute replacement on the landing party.
Warning: Violence! Swearing! UST!
A/N: This is from Uhura's point of view. This is very early in the five year mission, Spock and Uhura are just getting to know each other.

Winner of the first annual 2009 Halloween contest at the LiveJournal spock_uhura community!

'Scotty, could you just give me a minute? I've got to run back to my quarters and get some things.'

The engineer nodded at her from the captain's chair, his eyes still on the viewscreen, 'Aye, alright lass. But hurry up, the captain wants you down there on the double. There's a big comm problem you need to fix.'

Uhura left the bridge and ran back to her quarters to quickly change into her overalls. She hated being rushed like this and was uneasy with the task at hand. It had been agreed on beforehand that Ensign Ortiz would go down to the complex since she needed the practical experience, but at the last minute, the young woman fell ill and McCoy had her confined to Sickbay. She grabbed her tool bag, then headed for the transporter room.

She nodded to Lt. Kyle at the controls and got up on the transporter pad. It wouldn't be so bad, their communications were outdated, despite being a very prestigious research facility. At worst, she'd have to spend extra time reviewing their blueprints as she went along with making the upgrades.

'Energize.' The coldness of the beam seeped through her clothes, into her skin and the world slowly blacked out.

Then, the world faded back in and she was in the complex's transporter room, a starkly lit facility with the usual white walls and sleek lines. Suddenly, someone jostled into her from behind. She gasped as she heard a hiss, then felt a sharp scrape on her neck from something hard and pointy.

Before she could even turn around, she heard two things, a low moan and someone falling to the floor, but not before she breathed in something that left a metallic taste in her mouth.

She looked down and saw a woman, with a hypospray held loosely in her hand, lying face down on the floor.

With her left hand on her neck, Uhura pulled out her communicator with her other one, then looked back at her left hand. No blood. 'Enterprise, come in! Enterprise, please come in!'

The woman hadn't moved from the ground but Uhura kept close watch as she fiddled with the frequency. 'Scotty! Enterprise, come in!'

Finally, Scotty's faint voice came through, 'Enterprise. We canna hear you too well, Uhura.'

'Scotty, I've been attacked, but I think I'm ok. The woman who attacked me is not responsive...' She nudged the woman with her boot, '...she's not responsive. Do you copy?'

The seconds ticked by, 'Enterprise, do you copy?' Uhura looked around the room as she continued fine tuning the frequency, and then to the door, it was chilly inside. And no one had appeared yet to come help. What the fuck was going on?

'Scotty! Please come in!' She waited as feedback from the communicator cleared, but only for a moment. It was Scotty, she was sure of it, but he sounded so faint and now the signal was intermittent. Finally, the connection went dead. Not even white noise, just dead air. 'Shit.'

Crouching down next to the unconscious woman, Uhura rolled the woman onto her back. She looked to be in her thirties, human with light brown skin and dark hair pulled into a pony tail. She was wearing a dark grey uniform. A researcher, maybe? It was difficult to tell since this wasn't a military institution. She could've been anyone. Uhura shook the woman's shoulder, attempting to get a response. 'Hey!'

She stood up quickly and went down the transporter steps to the door. It swooshed open and she stood out in the corridor, looking up and down the empty halls. 'Hello?' She didn't like the way her voice echoed, but she waited to see if someone would walk by. With a facility of this size, there would be someone nearby who could help her.

Clearly there was something wrong with the woman to have attacked her. And where was the captain and Mr. Spock? It was like she'd stepped into a trap. Uhura shuddered and wondered what the hell could've been in that hypospray. Since she lost contact with the ship, she couldn't ask McCoy either, but she also didn't have her tricorder, so it wouldn't have helped anyway. She squinted, trying to peer all the way down the hall, looking for any movement. The floors and walls were rather glossy and off-white, with light clusters at periodic points along the ceiling.

Her ears were perked, straining to hear something. But, nothing. None of the sounds that a busy research complex would make. No footsteps or voices or even equipment. Unnerved by the eerie quiet in the hallway, Uhura went back inside the room. She'd take the hypospray with her and once she met up with the others, she could show it to them and get it analyzed.

She froze in her tracks as her eyes fell to the empty spot on the floor of the transporter pad. The woman was gone.

But then, not really gone. It was a credit to her aural sensitivity that alerted her to the small rustle behind her. As Uhura swung around to confront the woman, her eyes widened as she saw streams of dark fluid running down the woman's face and eyes. Horrified, she reached for her phaser and grabbed at the empty spot on her hip. Fuck! She'd forgotten it in her room when she changed clothes.

The woman was upon her now, fetid breath hot on her face as Uhura grappled with her before stepping to one side, and then pulling her off balance to the floor. She fell and Uhura leaped onto the transporter pad to get the hypospray. She needed a weapon. Anything! She whirled around just as the other woman charged up the stairs, noises from her throat wet and garbled.

At the precise moment, Uhura brought the hypospray down on the woman's head. She had swung with all her might, completely committing to the movement of hypospray meeting head. She wasn't prepared though for the dull crack of shattering bone or the way the woman fell backwards full length along the floor. Her arms flopped outward.

Uhura stepped off the transporter pad, wishing she had her tricorder to get some readings on this woman. As she leaned over to inspect the woman's head, she jerked back as something popped on the woman's face, spraying a dark emission all over Uhura's pants. Something on the woman's cheek had split open.

Shocked, she backed up about ten feet and stared on in horror as the woman's body physically corrupted right in front of her. She couldn't explain the sudden putrefaction, such a thing should be impossible, yet here she was an unwilling witness to this terrible thing. She didn't know this woman, didn't know what caused her to attack, but she knew that this was someone's daughter and to see the human body decay in such a rapid manner was terrifying.

She squeezed her eyes shut and turned away just in time to avoid seeing the woman's abdomen finally burst from all the gas built up by the rapid decay. Nothing would ever make her forget the smell though, or the sounds being made as the flesh liquefied and oozed onto the floor.

Keeping her hand over her nose and mouth, she slowly turned back to look at the mess. There was a light steam rising from the remains. Mostly it was a large puddle of red and black goo on the floor. The bones seemed to have lost their rigidity as well, looking deflated and soft.

Holding tightly onto the hypospray and her toolbag, she started backing away. She couldn't stay any longer in this place. Uhura ran out into the hallway and after a moment of hesitation, turned right and headed down the corridor. She jogged for a bit, wanting to put distance between herself and the transporter room. She kept looking over her shoulder, but there was no one there.

Stopping, she caught her breath and tried hailing the ship again. Nothing. Finally, she hailed the captain and breathed a giddy sigh of relief when he answered.

'Kirk here.'

'Captain! Thank god I found you! I was just attacked in the transporter room by a woman who must've been infected by something. I fought her off, but then she just died...'

'Where are you?'

She looked around her, trying to find a sign or an indicator of where she could be. 'I'm not sure, I just left the transporter room and turned right. I'm still in the same corridor.'

'Is Mr. Spock with you?'

'No, Captain. No else was there in the transporter room and I haven't seen anyone since then. Captain, what is going on?'

'Did you contact the ship?'

'Yes, I tried raising them, but only got through to them once. I can't seem to reach Scotty again.'

'You updated them on the situation?'

'I tried to Captain, but I only told Scotty that I was attacked. I'm not sure what the situation is exactly...'

'Someone will come get you.'

'Sir, is everything okay? Where is everyone?'

But the link had been cut off and she couldn't raise him again. She looked over her shoulder, and waited. She paced up and down, then in a circle, waiting for someone. She squashed the frightened feeling that tightened her stomach. It occurred to her that something must've happened, that communications had been compromised, usually though, there was a code to use in such situations.

Why hadn't the captain used the code if he knew they were being listened to? If there was danger? How did she even know he hadn't been compromised himself? And why was it so cold in here? She could see her breath.

As she paced, out of the corner of her eye, there was a blur of movement. But it was only for a second, and it was at the far, far end of the corridor. She stopped and squinted. The layout of this place was ridiculous. Why set up corridors a half mile long? She waited and watched.

There was a tiny speck moving toward her. Fear turned her insides cold, it was a man running towards her. That much she knew. But she still couldn't tell who it was. Should she wait to see? It was the waiting that was terrifying. But she wasn't going to wait around to find out who he was and then be terribly wrong.

So she began to walk in the opposite direction. There was no way in hell she'd allow someone to roll up on her unawares like her previous attacker. She looked for a door, or a tangent hallway she could duck into. Shooting another glance over her shoulder, she started running full tilt down the corridor. She had to get away or find a hiding spot quickly. And she was at a severe disadvantage for having not studied the layout of the complex.

Panic began setting in as she could dimly hear his running footsteps now. He was getting closer and moving quickly at that. She found a door. Locked. The next door was to a hallway filled with more doors. Oh, living quarters. Ok!

Hope surged within her as she ran down the hall past a few doors and then tried each one. None would open. Of course they would all be locked. But she hit a door that wasn't and ran blindly into a pitch black room. The lights flickered on. Storage? Huge boxes that were once neatly stacked in rows were toppled haphazardly. What was this place?

But right now she needed a hiding place. She ran down one side and found an opening between the rows. It was a deep row and she got down on her hands and knees to crawl under a box that had fallen against another. She prayed that they were stable and wouldn't fall any further.

She crawled until she was able to stand again and edged deeper into the room. She took long, slow breaths, trying to quiet herself. Being in a tight space like this seemed to amplify the sound of her movements. Or maybe it was just her imagination.

Taking out her communicator, she flipped it open to look at the time. It had only been twenty minutes since her beamdown. She waited quietly for the man to come, wondering how long she should stay before emerging from her hiding place.

Leaning against a column of crates, she braced her forearm against the cool surface and rested her forehead on her arm. She closed her eyes and listened. The lights went out, the distinct click it made startled her. She screwed her eyes shut tighter, calmly telling herself that they were automatic and went off when no movement was detected. That's how it was in this facility, right?

She should only worry when they turn back on, right?

Waiting. Shifting from one foot to another. Counting backwards from 100. Thinking of her last evening off, where she spent it in the company of the very charming, Southern gentleman Dr. McCoy. She expelled a breath slowly, trying to release some tension. She would wait for an hour. If nothing happened, if no one came in, she would have to guess that it was safe. And then maybe she could leave and find Captain Kirk or Mr. Spock.

The stopover at Giotta was to have lasted for about half a day. The captain was friends with the director of the facility and she had been the one to answer Dr. Grant's hail when the ship established orbit. Giotta was an icebound planet with no indigenous people and few animals. Starfleet had built the research facility there given the highly classified nature of the work being done. There was less risk for exposure to a general population, save for the researchers themselves. The planet's system, while well within Federation space, was quite isolated and not on regularly trafficked routes.

Tired of standing in one place for so long, Uhura decided to ease deeper into the row. Maybe she can touch the wall and then come back. Just to see how wide the room was. It was like being Alice, the little girl Len told her about, who fell down the hole. She had fallen into a hole too, that's for sure.

As she tiptoed down the aisle, she resolved to find a computer. She needed information. First, she had to figure out the layout of this place. Then, she'd find a better weapon. Even though this was a research facility, they had to have some kind of security. She'd then make her way to the communications area and re-establish contact with the ship.

She breathed another slow sigh. It was getting better. The fear and adrenaline were starting to taper off and she felt on a stabler mental footing than she had been earlier. She shook off the images of the decaying woman. Once she got in contact with the ship, she'd get Scotty to send down a security detail and they'd go find Mr. Spock and the captain and get to the bottom of this. Maybe there were Klingons? But she doubted that any Federation enemy could've made it all the way to Giotta without being detected or the Enterprise not alerted.

She had stopped tiptoeing and was now walking faster, curious to see when she'd hit a wall. Ah, the row was coming to an end. Cautiously, she stuck her head out. It was dim in the storage room, but there wasn't a wall. There was about ten feet and then a wall with a door. It was odd that there would be a storage room for equipment this big in the living quarters area.

There were about three hundred people who lived and worked at the complex. Perhaps there was an epidemic that wiped out the entire population? But if that were the case, why wasn't the Enterprise notified? If the Captain knew about it when he and Spock came down here, why hadn't they informed the ship of what happened?

She'd only managed to wait about fifteen minutes, but she took a deep breath anyways and then bolted towards the door. The lights flickered on and her boots rang out in the silence as they struck the floor. Belatedly, she realized she didn't have an end game for when she got to the door, what if it was locked? And to make matters worse, she'd impulsively ran like a scared little girl. For all she knew, she'd just given away her position to the very person she was hiding from.

But the door opened, thankfully, and she swung through it breathlessly. It was the cafeteria. She looked back over her shoulder, but still, there was nothing. Only a coldly lit storage room with giant black boxes. She felt simultaneously ridiculous for running and yet seriously creeped out by the silence. Uhura quickly shut the door behind her. Maybe this cafeteria had an office with a computer.

She ran by the tables and past the bank of food replicators, looking for an office. There was one in the back, the door slightly ajar. Finding no one in it, she sat behind the desk and tried accessing a layout of the place on the computer. Success. And sure enough, there was a security area nearby. She stared at the monitor memorizing the layout, closing her eyes to commit it to memory. She also looked to see where the administrative offices were, thinking that this could be where Kirk and Spock were located.

Suddenly, she looked up, there was a noise that came from the cafeteria. Quietly getting up from the chair, she slipped out of the office. She sure as hell wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. She really needed to keep a cooler head. Gripping her toolbag, she rooted around in it with one hand, grasping a pointy tool she could use to defend herself.

Looking out into the cafeteria, she could see no one there. But she decided she'd be safer if she waited to see if anyone came through. She started to look for a hiding place, when it occurred to her to try raising the ship again.

Getting out her communicator, she tried hailing the ship, whispering into it. But it still was the same. Situation Normal All Fucked Up. She was about to hail the captain again, when an arm snaked around her waist and her communicator was roughly taken from her hand.

A/N: Be sure to visit my wordpress site that's linked on my profile. I've posted some really great pictures to go with this story. Thank you for reading! :D