Presently, Lieutenant Warren found herself inside a circular room approximately ten meters across that had a seemingly boundless ceiling and no doors from which one could leave or enter through. The gradient blue of the walls reminded the Lieutenant of the clear skies that could be found on her home planet. The floor of the room was painted in a headache-inducing fluorescent red, and positioned directly in the center of that floor was a large, flat, round pillow that was similar in color. And a top that pillow sat the same young woman that Warren previously met in engineering. However, this was no apparition, yet the physical body of the being Warren had just spoken to.
"Where am I?" Warren's eyes wandered around the room, albeit there was not much else to see.
"I protect," the crossed-legged woman responded. "Your ship of men must be destroyed; they must be stopped! Those most vile creatures are disgusting! Why is it you serve with them?"
"They're not disgusting," the Lieutenant approached the large pillow. "They're people like you and me."
"Who were the ones I saw twice before?" the naked woman recoiled at the thought. "They were with another female before. Is she in command? Are you in command?"
"You mean Mr. Spock and the Captain?" Warren surmised.
"Captain!" she spat. "Men can be no Captain! Disgusting creatures! How is this possible?!"
"Where I come from, uh- The Federation," Warren stammered, "Both men and women can hold positions of authority. There are also people who don't identify as female or male and they also hold positions of power."
"No female or male?" the thought angered the strange being. "That is senseless!"
"Not really," the Lieutenant lowered herself onto the pillow in front of the irrational creature. "Gender is really just a label; it doesn't define who you are. Where I come from, what you do defines who you are."
"But men, they are savage animals!" the woman shook her head, appearing to be confused by the Lieutenant's statement. "Are you a woman?"
"Well, yeah," Warren shrugged, "but that doesn't make me better or worse than anyone else."
"Where I come from; before my colony," the woman tapped at her own chest, "the men were savages, murderers, fiends. All they did was fight and argue, so we left to be without them. Our scientists could create children for us. We did not need the savages."
"It's a bit different where I come from. A long time ago you could easily argue that men did a lot of bad things, but we got better. Our men are not savages."
"They got better?" she questioned. "I do not understand."
"It's the way it is," the Lieutenant smiled. "We were all humans, all capable of mistakes, but all people nonetheless. We all found the goodness inside ourselves to be better."
"Your men will not come to destroy our planet?" a look a pity and sadness crossed the woman's face.
"Of course not," Warren answered, unaware of the cataclysm that had already struck Nera Five. "Like I said, we come in peace. We bring greetings to your people; no hostilities."
"We will return to your Captain and allow your ship to bring peaceful greetings to my planet," the woman stood, smiling for the first time and reached out her hand to the Lieutenant.
Aboard the Enterprise, Spock had scanned the anomaly once more and noted to the Captain that there were now two life forms aboard it.
"The Lieutenant?" Kirk asked.
"Logically," Spock replied.
"Can we beam her back aboard?"
"It may be unwise, Captain."
"Explain?" Kirk spoke as the tips of his fingers began digging into the side of the Captain's chair.
"Before the Lieutenant was beamed off the ship, the alien woman said that they will decide what to do with us," Spock explained. "Therefore, it may be unwise to transport the Lieutenant off the anomaly before negotiations have been made."
Chekov flipped away from his console, glaring at Spock. "Negotiations? And what if they decide we are to be destroyed?"
"Highly unlikely, Mr. Chekov," Spock dismissed the Ensign's illogical conclusion. "Lieutenant Warren is a loyal Starfleet officer. I am under the strong impression she will do what is best for the Enterprise and its crew."
Thoughtfully rubbing his bottom lip, the Captain gazed over to Spock at his console. "I hope you're right," he said. "It's up to the Lieutenant now."
"What if she never comes back, Captain?" Chekov started a new theory. "What if the other two-thirds of our crew don't wake up? Should we not just blast it with our phasers?"
Although he would not admit it, Spock took immediate offense to the Ensign's suggestion, "Have you forgotten that Lieutenant Warren is aboard that vessel and still alive?"
"If she never comes back, what difference does it make?" Chekov coldly replied.
Uhura stood up from her console, frowning at the young man. "It is our sworn duty to protect each other. We can't just abandon the Lieutenant, just as she wouldn't abandon us."
"Lieutenant Uhura is quite right," Spock added to the argument. "It is only logical that we wait for Lieutenant Warren's return."
"Aye, I know," Chekov dipped his head, realizing the foolishness of his statement. "You're right. Let us hope for the best, then."
As an old human saying once went, speak of the devil. The second Chekov finished talking, both Lieutenant Warren and the naked woman beamed onto the bridge of the Enterprise.