Time off

A/N: please review!

Back in her room Nyota felt more restless than usual. She had been on the bridge, doing what she loved and to be back in that stuffy little room was nearly unbearable. Then there was the fear. What if Spock did not return? Scott had said that they would make other arrangements, meaning she would be passed on to someone else. Though he was by no means a kind or upright individual, she had a feeling Spock was probably better than most men aboard the Enterprise.

Forced to look at things from this perspective, she had to ask herself what it would mean if he did not return. Nobody here cared about her. He did not care about her, but he did desire her, which gave her some value to him. He had noticed her weight loss and decided that she would have more food and extra care. But he had been the reason for her malnutrition in the first place.

He provided her with food, clothing, and a place to sleep. He really was not required to give her any of this. She decided that things could be much worse. Still, she could not forget nor forgive the assault. She had not resisted, but only because she knew the consequences. He was not too rough but only because he had used her own feelings against her in order to subdue her.

She had seen the world outside the confines of Spock's quarters and only lasted a few minutes before she was put into the booth. She had not tried to escape again after that torture. Things were much worse out there, and if he did not come back she would have to face that world. It was a frightening aspect and one that she decided to push out of her mind until she absolutely had to deal with it.

When Kutav brought her dinner that evening he was alone for the first time. He looked exhausted as he staggered in with the heavy tray. Nyota greeted him with a smile and took the tray from him. "With all the commotion going on, you still bring me my meals?" The short man smiled politely and turned to leave. "He's not here. Why don't you say anything? What are you afraid of?" Nyota asked, trying to coax him into a conversation. He looked down at his feet and shifted uneasily. Nyota stooped so that she was on eye-level with him. "I am sorry."

He opened his mouth as if her were going to speak but nothing came out. Nyota suppressed her immediate reaction of shock and disgust when she noticed that there was a short fleshy nub where there should have been a tongue. Why had she not noticed before? He was incapable of speech; his tongue had been almost completely removed. "Spock did this?" She asked in disbelief. Kutav nodded his head slowly. Nyota stood and went to her desk to retriever one of the PADDs she had been translating. "Can you explain?" she asked handing it to him.

Kutav cautiously took the PADD and quickly scribbled a short message on it. The small devise on his hip chirped and he bowed quickly handing the PADD back to her as he hurried out of the room. Nyota shook her head and looked down at the PADD in her hand. The crude scribbles were hardly legible but she was able to make out the short note:

The punishment for those who talk too much.

As the days wore on Nyota could not help but wonder what had happened to the Captain and Spock. Spock had not returned, and she had not been moved to another room. Perhaps they were still en route to Shaltas. For the first time since she had arrived on the ISS Enterprise, Nyota felt somewhat relaxed. Sure it could all change at any moment, they could come under attach again or she could be taken to someone else's quarters. For now though things were a little stable. Spock was not there to bother her and Kutav had begun to communicate with her more freely using one of the PADDs she had cleared.

As it turned out Kutav, whose name was actually Thisben, had stowed away on the Enterprise when it had docked for repairs several years ago. When he had been found hiding in engineering, the captain decided he would be kept as a servant of the crew. He considered himself lucky since his only other option was death.

Whenever he arrived alone, Thisben let Nyota out of her room and into the office area where she was able to browse the shelves of books and stretch out a bit. She had tried to access the computer station but found that it had a touch screen for user verification. She took a few small books back to her room to read for later.

High on one of the shelves in his office she found a small, dusty oil lamp. It was Identical to the one Spock kept in their quarters for meditation. The thick bronze lamp was decorated with intricately carved glyphs that wrapped around the base and spiraled to the spout. It was a beautiful work of art, but it had no functional use here. It was just as out of place as she was. Feeling a sort of affinity for the displaced object, she took it, hoping it would go unmissed.

In addition to the new reading material she decided to keep a journal on the other PADD she had been translating on. She decided she would document her experience. She wrote of her first frightening days aboard the ship and the strange counterparts that were nothing like the people she knew. She wrote of her Spock, and how much being here with his strange doppelganger made her miss him all the more. Those were the hardest parts to write.

Spock. She wondered how things must be for him now. Her lover and friend, who had lost so much in the past, had lost her as well. She had tried not to think of his loss, and the pain it must have caused him. His life had just begun to settle again. The pain from the loss of Vulcan and his mother had become a dull ache that only troubled him on rare occasions. And when those ghosts made their presence known she was there for comfort and support. Now she was the cause of his pain, and the guilt she felt was immeasurable.

They would have to carry out the standard procedures. She would be classified as missing in action. Her family would be notified. She could not bear to think of their reaction to the news. She could not help but wonder if she had inadvertently caused the situation. Had she done something wrong when transporting up to the ship that had caused this 'permanent displacement'? She replayed the events over and over again; she had done everything right.

Just when she thought she had come to terms with her predicament, reality always seemed to catch up with her. It always happened when she had been alone too long; too much time to think. After her initial reaction to the reminders of her reality it had been nice to sit and talk with Spock the first time he had taken her to his room. He had seemed almost friendly then, telling her about his life, the ship, speaking in Vulcan. It hardly seemed like the same man who had forced himself on her only a few nights ago. Nor had he seemed like to type to cut out a man's tongue for talking too much. But he was that man and if he was capable of torture and rape he could be capable of much greater evils.

Nyota lay sprawled out on the bed one afternoon having fallen asleep reading one of the thick books she had taken from Spock's office. When Thisben entered the room he shook her frantically. She sat up startled by the sudden intrusion. "What's going on?" she murmured looking around the room. Thisben quickly handed her the PADD she kept on her desk and rushed out of the room. He was always in such a hurry she thought; it was a shame how hard they worked him.

With a sigh she brushed back a frizzy lock of hair squinting at the PADD:

Dilithum returned to Shaltas, the plant is habitable. Crews are beaming down to Shaltas for armed battle against Shaltasians.

Nyota stared at the small screen; they had returned the dilithum only to lure the Shaltasians onto the planet so that they could use their strength and numbers against them. The last of the species would be eradicated for the greed of this 'Empire'.

He would return soon. Nyota sighed as she pushed the PADD under her pillow and went about the task of securing her pilfered goods. An executive PADD with computing capabilities that she had not been able to activate and a rare Vulcan text written in the ancient form were wrapped in one of her thin dresses and tucked into the bottom of the clothing bin. She hid the lamp on the floor between her bed and the counter.

Her dinner came and Thisben was once again accompanied by the guards. There was no sign of Spock but she could sense a change in Thisben's demeanor. That night she couldn't sleep. Every time she began to nod off, she kept thinking that she heard someone trying to key in to her room. She wasn't afraid of him coming; she had prepared herself for that. It was the fear of him sneaking up on her, jolting her from sleep, when she was completely vulnerable.

The waiting became difficult; she just wanted to get it over with. She worried that the battle would make him less merciful in his treatment of her. There was the possibility that it would reinforce his notion that in order to remain in control he would have to consistently demonstrate his power.

Three days after she had been informed of the combat situation, Thisben arrived with her lunch, and there were two new guards with him. Unlike the others they spoke freely and did not seem to care that she could hear their conversation.

"Hey Raj what happened to Mr. Spock anyway?" the younger guard asked as they stood at the entrance of her room. Thisben kept his eyes averted as he sat the tray on the desk and slowly collected her breakfast dishes. "Are you kidding? A disrupter shot grazed his head; he doesn't stand a chance, even for a Vulcan." Raj smirked. Though she listened intently Nyota did not react, she examined her tray idly as her mind raced.