Chapter 2: The Borderland

April 10, 2067*

Location Unknown

14 days. It had been 14 grueling days since she had been foolish enough to think a 25 year old knew anything about quantum mechanics. She had spent the first 24 hours trying in vain to repair the pod's engine with her limited toolkit and it had taken a nasty burn to her entire right arm from a blown conduit to convince her that the thrusters simply could not be fixed with the tools on hand. Accepting that she was well and truly dead in the water and that Enterprise was not coming after her had been hard. She had thought losing her father was difficult, but this was so much worse. Death was final. There was a satisfying sense of closure that accompanied death and, in most cases, death wasn't accompanied by an overwhelming sense of shame.

She couldn't feel a sense of closure with this separation as her family and friends we neither dead nor dying. While unintentional, she had removed herself from their lives and them from hers by choice. The overwhelming regret that filled her was only compounded by the deep sense of shame she felt for burdening her mother and Lorian with her loss so close to the loss of her father. In the matter of a year her family had lost a husband and a daughter, a father and a sister and she didn't know how she would ever forgive herself for the pain she was causing them.

Her Vulcan physiology was helping her survive both the lack of sustenance and social accompaniment of her situation. Although not the master that her mother and Lorian were, T'Liz was able to rely on meditation as a means to refocus her mind and avoid the creeping insanity that she had felt numerous times over the past two weeks. Had she been born a full blooded Vulcan, she could hope to survive a full six to eight weeks without water and longer without food. However, her human half demand more maintenance. Just two weeks in and she could already feel the toll the lack of hydration was taking on her body and she knew she could no longer afford to float silently in the abyss waiting for Enterprise to possibly emerge from the corridor.

Her knees protested as she stood from her meditative pose for the first time in five days. Sitting in the pilot's seat, she readied herself to compose a distress call.

"To any and all space travelers passing within range of this signal, I send you an urgent plea for help. I am T'Liz, daughter of Vulcan, and I am stranded with no food, water, or propulsion systems. I am in need of whatever assistance you may provide. Peace and long life."

She had decided that masquerading as a full blooded Vulcan would raise fewer questions and had composed her message in Vulcan, adding the traditional Vulcan salutation for effect. She may not have been the master of emotion that Lorian was, but she had always had the upper hand on him when it came to language. She had often conversed with her mother in Vulcan and a running joke in their household had been that the women of the family "spoke a different language." Pushing down the sense of nostalgia this line of thought summoned, T'Liz resumed her meditative stance on the floor.

It may have been hours or days, but the next time T'Liz opened her eyes, it was to a persistent beeping coming from the instrument panel. Standing quickly, T'Liz moved to see what was causing the disruption. A glance at the comm revealed no hails so she moved to check short range sensors. She had almost forgotten that prior to entering her meditative state almost 2 weeks ago, she had set an alert for any vessels detected within scanning range. It would appear that her alert had been triggered, as she was now picking up a large vessel approaching her shuttle.

T'Liz felt an odd sense of both relief and fear as she had no way of knowing who was approaching or their intentions. She could only assume that their approach had been prompted by her distress call which, after checking the chronometer, appeared to have been sent just 12 hours ago. Her call had been sent in Vulcan in hopes that more species were familiar with her maternal species and would be inclined to help. However, she also realized that by specifying that she was Vulcan, she could be painting a target on her defenseless ship.

Before T'Liz could finish this train of thought she felt the familiar pull of a transporter and dissolved into a shimmer of green light.

She didn't know what had happened after she had been transported away from her shuttle, but she could only assume she had put up a fight upon materializing. Her knuckles were bloody and she had a fresh cut on her right temple where it felt like she had lost a fight with the butt end of a phase pistol. An incessant burning sensation on her neck alerted her to a device that appeared to have been embedded in her carotid artery. She reached to pull at the foreign object but was interrupted by a voice to her right.

"Don't touch it."

Searching for the source of the mystery voice, her eyes fell on a young Andorian woman seated diagonally across from her. The woman looked like she had also put up a fight when she was taken captive. She was sporting a nasty gash on her face and several dark blue bruises on her arms and around her neck.

"What is it?" T'Liz asked.

"It's a slave control device, intended to keep you from putting up a fight and to keep anyone who may be looking for you from finding you. I suggest not touching it. Their implantation process is rather crude and you wouldn't want to give yourself an infection by clawing at it. Trust me, you want to fetch the highest possible price at auction and no one wants damaged goods."

The woman looked away then, clearly not keen on speaking anymore. T'Liz had too many questions though and her human half wouldn't allow her to sit silently while she, according to this woman, being sold into slavery.

"Where are we? Who took us? Where are we being taken? Are you just accepting the fact that you're about to be sold like an animal? Who are you? How did you get here?"

She had only intended to ask where they were and who had taken them, but once she started speaking the torrent of questions had come spewing out of her along with her rising sense of panic.

"Well, it would seem I have wrongly judged you Vulcans," the woman began lazily. "It appears you can be quite emotional when your control is tested. Shran will be amused to find that not all of you are so unflappable."

T'Liz suddenly felt like a fool. She had momentarily forgotten that she was masquerading as a full blooded Vulcan and had allowed her emotions to surface quite plainly. She needed to get a handle on her emotions or risk drawing unwanted attention to herself.

Collecting herself, she replied "Do not judge my people based on my actions. It has been a trying month and my control is not what it should be. I'll ask you again, where are we?"

"I did not mean to offend. It's just not often that I get the chance to see a Vulcan actually appear affected by their situation. It's refreshing. My name is Talas." The woman looked expectantly at T'Liz, clearly wanting an introduction before continuing."

"T'Liz."

"T'Liz? That's a unique name. Not sure I've ever heard of a Vulcan with that name. You Vulcans are usually so unoriginal. If I meet another 'Surak' I think I may scream." Talas laughed. "We're currently traveling through the Borderland. It's a lawless region between Orion and Klingon space that is largely controlled by the Orion Syndicate. You've been abducted by the Syndicate and are en route to a slave market to be sold to the highest bidder. We should be getting close now. I've been aboard for three days now and the guard rather rudely told me when he dumped me in here that I would be 'a slave in 72 hours' time'."

T'Liz nodded and took a moment to further examine her surroundings before replying. She was locked in a 10 by 10 cell with Talas and three other women. She wasn't able to identify the species of the other three women and had actually only been able to identify Talas as Andorian due to the history lessons she, Lorian, and the other Enterprise children had been given by Dr. Phlox. In addition to their lessons, the children had been given access to Enterprise's mission logs so they would know what species their ship had encountered and when. It was the thought of these logs that jolted T'Liz back to the present.

"Shran? As in Commander Shran of the Imperial cruiser Kumari?" T'Liz asked tentatively. She wasn't sure it was wise to reveal her recognition of Shran's name, but she hadn't been able to stop the question from passing her lips. It was highly unlikely that the Shran Talas had referred to was the same Shran from the Enterprise logs she had read as a child, but she had to find out. This could change everything.

Talas sat up straighter and her gaze immediately became suspicious. "How do you know Shran? Who are you and what do you know of the Kumari?"

Her blood ran cold. It was evident from Talas' reaction that T'Liz had been correct. But that was impossible. Enterprise's interactions with Shran and the Kumari had occurred before the Xindi attack on Earth, before the mission into the Expanse, and before the ship had been thrown 117 years into the past. If Shran was alive and in command of the Kumari then she couldn't possibly still be in 2067 and neither could Enterprise.

T'Liz could hear her heart pounding in her ears and feel her palms begin to sweat. She found herself once again unable to control herself when she suddenly asked, "What year is it?"