AN and Disclaimer: I do not in any way shape or form own Star Trek. I'm just having a bit of fun here.

Thanks to all those who read, reviewed, put me on story alert or author alert. It's because of you that I write! And yes Uhura and Spock will be together in this story for those who were wondering.

Chapter Three: Time

She stared into the darkness that surrounded her, trying to push aside the fact that her body was aching in places that had never hurt and she was pretty sure that some bones in her body were broken. Time was trivial here. The only thing that she needed to do was make sure that she stayed alive wherever she may be going. She knew that she was still on her abductors' ship. But who were her abductors?

She knew that they weren't Romulan nor Klingon. That she was certain of. During the brief times that she was interrogated, the glances that she had gotten of her captors where blurry. Yet, a few things she was certain of. First off, her abductors were human and spoke the standard languages. Secondly, for some odd reason they reminded her of Ancient Roman soldiers from centuries ago on Earth. Third, her captors were brutal. Both Na'kita Origil and X'rena Yousef were dead. She knew that the blurry memories of their execution were actual and not made up.

'What am I doing right?' she wondered.

She thought back over her interrogations. Her captors had never asked her much – mainly about who she was, what she was doing and whether or not she was a telepath. And each time she refused to answer their questions, instead reciting her name, rank and ID number for the United Federation of Planets. It was then that she felt their anger, just before they began beat her in some form or fashion – anything from a hit in the back of the head to being thrown across the room. Each time she never had a chance to react, since the feelings of anger overwhelmed her and the fact that she couldn't see that well didn't help her case any. During these interrogations, she was often injected with some sort of drug that made her memories blurred and jumbled.

After her fifth interrogation and beating, she had come to the conclusion that her captors were searching for a telepath for who knows what reasons. But there were very few life forms that were telepathic and she was not one of them.

If anything, she was empathic. She could read people and sense their feelings. That was one of the reasons why Starfleet Intelligence had recruited her, much to her father's dismay. She had the ability to pick a liar out of a room full of people. She didn't consider it a gift or special ability. She just knew what to look and sense for.

Yet the fact still remained – why hadn't they killed her yet?

This was the last thing on her mind as she let the darkness surround her and sleep take over.

Time.

Where she was, here was no telling just how much time she had left…

The Vulcan sat in shock as he listened to his captain talk about Callista Montgomery. Without saying it, Spock knew that James Kirk was or had been in love with her at one time. Who knew that the Starfleet Academy's most notorious womanizer turned Enterprise captain knew what true love was.

But from what he was hearing, there was no denying it. To him it sounded much like what he felt about Nyota. Love was a mysterious, yet fascinating feeling. Spock would never question that. It brought species together in wondrous ways. And now he knew that it could change people for the better as well.

He was seeing it change Kirk.

And he knew that it was changing him as well.

Finally, Kirk was done with his stories about him and Callista. That was when a page from the deck came through.

'Keptin, we're approaching station 24,' Chekov's voice crackled over the comm in Kirk's quarters. Kirk quickly responded with a thank you and stood up to leave with Spock right behind him.

But before they left Kirk's quarters, the Vulcan did say one last thing.

"I'm sure we will find her, Jim."