She awoke on a bed, her hands and feet restrained. To her horror, there was a tube in her arm, filled with a clear liquid. On a tray next to her was a syringe.

Footsteps sounded. She turned her head to see a humanoid with red skin approaching.

"You!" she gasped, trying to pull away.

The alien looked at her, confused. "Have we met before?'

"Charlotte Hope, from the USS Enterprise. Remember me?"

Realisation crossed his face. "It's you!"

"No phaser this time, unfortunately for me."

"But fortunate for me." He eyed her, slightly amused. "Pulling at those straps won't get you anywhere."

"No harm in trying."

"No," he agreed. He picked up the syringe.

"Keep that thing away from me!" Charlotte cried, pulling harder.

"Stop pulling," the alien said gently, "It will only make this harder. It will hurt if your muscles are tensed up."

Charlotte sighed and submitted. She winced as he plunged the needle into her, and eyed him, feeling scared. "Why are you doing this? What is that stuff?"

"This is a science and research vessel. Our race is usually ignored, so we must find out about other species my means of our own."

"You kidnap other species and turn us into lab rats?"

"In a manner of speaking."

"That's disgusting." Charlotte watched as he pulled the needle out of her arm. "What did you inject me with? When will you let me go?"

"A solution that will bring out any hidden genetic traits. And I cannot let you go just yet; I have much more research to do on you."

"I don't understand. I'm a simple human being. Haven't you ever seen one of us before?"

"Yes, but you are not just-" Suddenly, a klaxon sounded, and lights began to flash. The alien looked at her. "Don't go anywhere."

Charlotte snorted. "It's not like I have a choice."

As he hurried away, she once again began to pull at her restraints, all the time knowing it was useless to do so. As she did, she wondered what was going to happen to her. 'But you are not just…' How was that sentence going to end? What did he know about her that she didn't even know about herself?

"Struggling isn't going to get you anywhere- unless you're as strong as Data!"

Charlotte gasped. "Geordie?"

"Don't worry, we're here." Geordie and Data appeared on either side of her and quickly started pulling off the straps. "We distracted them by setting off an alarm."

"We have found where they are holding our shuttle; it is not far from here."

Geordie carefully extracted the tube from her arm and helped her up. "Let's go."

They hurried down a dark corridor to an open door. Inside was a small shuttlebay, and resting near the doors that separated them from space was their shuttle.

Data and Charlotte got inside and Geordie ran to the console to the side of the bay. "Opening shuttlebay doors."

Suddenly, the air was filled with shouts and phaser fire. "Stop them! The subjects must not escape!"

As the doors began to open, Geordie ran to the shuttle under the cover of Charlotte's own phaser. Once inside, they flew out the doors and circled the ship. Charlotte targeted their weapons, remembering the last battle. With one hit, the alien's ship's weapons were disabled, and Data quickly warped them out.

The three of them relaxed when they realised they weren't being followed. Charlotte surrendered the comm to Geordie and took her station at the other console, but it only took her a few minutes to realise something was wrong. "Lieutenant, my console is about to-"

There was a flash of blinding light and she was hurled out of her chair as sparks flew everywhere. Geordie immediately ran to the console to find out what happened while Data helped her up. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine… I think." Charlotte pressed a hand to her head. "I just feel a little strange, but I'll be fine."

"Your console overloaded… it seems whoever it was who abducted us was tinkering around in here before the alarm sounded. They must have caused some sort of power surge. It'll be alright now." Geordie helped her into her seat. "You sure you're ok?"

"Yes, yes." She waved him away. "It's nothing to worry about- I just got a bit of a shock."

"Alright." They went back to their seats, and Charlotte wondered why she was feeling like something important had happened. It was the shock, she decided. The shock had disoriented her. She was perfectly fine…