"I am sorry Nyota, I cannot allow you to do this."
They dragged him, they dragged Khan away. After all he had done for them.
"Your involvement with him is endangering everyone aboard this ship,"
They dived on Nyota, like she was a loose grenade, about to explode.
"This could cause major interference with this mission,"
For the first time, she saw true fear in his eyes.
"What you have done is nothing less than betrayal to Starfleet and your fellow officers."
Their own kind, their own allies, about to tear them apart.
The war may be over, but she feared that theirs had only just begun…
Planet Earth was in a quiet period of recovery. Starfeet had commenced its post-war operational strategies and for the people inhabiting the planet, their lives were slowly returning to a new normal. The war had been won mostly thanks to Khan and his tactics, but the world had forgotten the vital part he played in ensuring their safety.
"I have nothing more to tell you…" Nyota shook her head, gaze set on her hands in her lap, feeling depressed with the weight of defeat.
"You can mind-meld me, interrogate me, torture me; but my story won't change. I have told you everything."
The windowless subterranean levels of Starfleet Headquarters had become an unwelcome home from home. Out of options, out of time, Nyota could do nothing more than comply with the orders of her superiors, and face whatever may come her way.
The hum of the glass cased brig-cell she lay in did nothing to distract her from her thoughts, or her last memories of her family and Khan. God only knows where they were.
Returning to the surface of Earth was the first time in over two-hundred years for the personnel of the Vengeance, for they had only lived in stasis there since they were banished, but after everything and their association with Khan, Uhura couldn't imagine that they would have been allowed to walk away freely, or warmly welcomed back into Starfleet as reporting officers.
As for Khan… His expression of fear, of anger. In all the time she had known him, she had never seen him like that. Whenever she closed her eyes all she saw was the way Starfleet tore him away from the Vengeance, from his crew, from her. She could hear his cries of fury and pain, and see the way he fought them, determined to do anything but be dragged away again.
The final look Khan gave her was undoubtedly the worst. One of pleading, apology and heartbreak as she had screamed out to him to stop, whilst praying he would never give up.
Nyota was lead to a lift and up a few floors into daylight. She gazed out of the windows and up at the sky and the light, longing for freedom as she was walked along a new corridor.
They reached the Admirals office where she was immediately taken inside, un-cuffed and sat in a chair opposite the desk. The two guards who had escorted her moved to the back of the room, but did not leave, as the Admiral walked across to her from the window.
The Admiral drew up a hologram in front of her, showing a recorded list of everything she had said to the officers since returning to Earth. The entire truth about her relationship with Khan was on the screen before her along with their profiles and file photographs side by side.
"So, this is everything?" He asked her calmly from the other side of the projection.
"Yes sir." Nyota nodded. The projection fizzled out, leaving her face to face with the Admiral, and contemplating her reasons for being here.
"Do you have anything left to say for yourself?" He sighed.
"I love him." She replied without hesitation. "Since when was being in love with someone a crime..?"
Her eyes pleaded with him. She was exposed to him now, to everyone. There couldn't be a soul left on Earth who didn't know that she loved Khan.
"What more do you want from me?"
"I want you to have not gotten involved with him in the first place." He told her and she exhaled a laugh, shaking her head. Too late.
"Lieutenant," He began, "Your reputation in Starfleet has been tarnished, and there are numerous black marks against your name since you disappeared from Earth to become a crew-member of the Vengeance over a year ago, and following your plans made with Khan."
"In light of these circumstances and all the information that has been brought to light in recent weeks, your current position in Starfleet has been terminated."
Nyota felt her heart sink, but oddly, she was at ease with the decision.
"However, because of the nature of your crimes, Lieutenant, you will not be allowed to return to civilian life."
She frowned at him, curious by what he meant. What else could she do if her position here had been terminated?
"You are now considered to be a constant threat, having shown willingness to side with the enemy, and be lead from an emotional standpoint. Yet with your knowledge and intelligence regarding current Starfleet, letting you walk free is a risk." He paused, thinking. She still had no idea what he planned to do.
"If undesirable agents were to find you and capture or manipulate you, they would gain access to all the information you have on the Fleet, your personal intelligence and be able to utilise your knowledge in order to infiltrate our systems."
He paused, waiting to see if she had followed, and took a breath.
"You will be cryogenically frozen as an alternative to imprisonment, and as effort to preserve your life so you may be of service again to future Starfleet, when enough time has elapsed for your crimes to have been forgotten."
The ability to function left her. Nyota simply sat, gaping at the Admiral. They were going to end her life without actually ending her life. The realisation of this was worse than any punishment for herself she could have possibly imagined. To be kept in stasis, knowing she would be awoken in the future and have to live with the memories of her time now; of opportunities missed, family and friends passed on, and that the love she shared with Khan would be forever unfinished.
Through the horror, she asked the last thing left on her mind.
"What about Khan?"
The Admiral was unprepared for her selfless thinking, but was straight with her.
"You will never be seeing him again. Ever."
"But what's happened to him? Where is he?" She asked, the Admiral raised a telling eyebrow.
"Where do you think he is, sweetheart?" He patronised, trying to suppress a smirk.
That was it. The tipping point.
Nyota lunged out of her seat and straight at the Admiral, throwing a clean punch at the left half of his face.
"How could you, you bastard!?" She screamed, hearing the security guards approaching from the back of the room, she threw another punch while she still could.
"After everything he did for you!? For Starfleet and this planet!" Her blood was boiling as the guards hauled her off of the Admiral.
The Admiral held his hand over his nose in a failed attempt to stop the bleeding. He raised his free hand to the guards to hold Uhura still.
"You have two days!" He yelled, all calm talking aside and disregarding her questioning. "You will be taken back to your cell, and given two days for your family and friends to come and say goodbye. And you'll think yourself damn lucky you're getting out of this with your life!"
With a wave of his hand, she was dragged, kicking and screaming, out of the office and back down to her cell, where she was dumped and left to come to terms with the decision of her future.