Mandatory

Ch.2

I'm not a professional writer and some of the personalities may be a little off, so I thought I'd warn you ahead of time. Also it's gonna get pretty angsty. Peace and Long Life…

He had to leave for alpha shift, and Nyota was still asleep. He quietly got out of bed, and went through his normal daily routine exceedingly silent so he wouldn't wake her. Before leaving toward the bridge, Spock looked back into their sleeping quarters as Nyota lay peacefully sleeping. She was, and to Spock, will always be beautiful, and the fact that she was rounded with the growth of his children only added to the factor. He had this odd feeling when he looked at her, of course he had always had an odd feeling when he looked at her, but this was a different one. As illogical as it might seem, it was a feeling of somewhat trepidation. He turned and headed for the bridge, a feeling such as this was completely illogical, but disconcerting none the less.

It was a rather quiet day on the bridge. They were in a Klingon sector of space which was worry some at first, but they had been there 3 whole days, and oddly enough they had yet to witness anything out of the ordinary. It should have been alarming, but Spock found it somewhat peaceful. Taking advantage of the under use of his thoughts, they began to slowly drift back to Nyota.

Her smile, her laugh, the way she always traced the outline of his ear after they kissed. How she always brought out the more human side of him, how her eyes would light up at mentioning their children that she carried at the present. He had to admit that the thought of their children was indeed very amorous, but he had learned the hard way not to rely entirely on the positive.

She has become impregnated twice before in the time that they had been bonded. She carried the first, a boy for 2 months. It was a devastating experience for Spock; it hurt him deeply, like the pain of the destruction of Vulcan and the death of his mother, multiplied by ten. He could not then nor now, explain how it felt to look upon the small face of his son, an infant who was dead before he even got a chance to know him.

Now too long after grieving the loss of their son, they tried to salve the horrible memory with attempting to procreate yet again. The second had been a girl lasting less than the first, and it had made Nyota remarkably weaker than acceptable. After the death of their daughter, Spock didn't want to try again; he didn't want to see the pain on his Nyota's face, he didn't want to see the blood, or feel the tiny light of the new life being ripped from him again. He couldn't do it, not again. Later, almost a year so, they had found out that yet again, Nyota was pregnant, with twins, a boy and a girl. Within the first two minutes of obtaining the new information, he was only painfully reminded of the negatives of her pregnancies. Slowly but surely he began to warm up to the possible outcome.

This was a rare gift indeed; twins were such a rarity to Vulcans, that it dawned on him that maybe this was a compromise of some sort, that maybe the twins were given back in exchange for the first two lost, possibly that the miscarriages had happened to insure that Spock and Nyota understood the true gift of the children.

Nyota was terrified at first, as though every day over the two month mark was taken and not given, only after the near end of the third month did her worry begin to reside. She was always paranoid, but never as much as he did…

"Captain, we're receiving a transmission from an unidentified ship." Lt. Rick, Uhura's replacement stated snapping Spock out of his thoughts.

"What is it saying?" The captain questioned.

"I don't know sir, there's too much static."

That was odd, Spock had been monitoring his science station and he had not picked up anything on another ship, and he was usually one of the first to notice.

"Sir even through the static, I believe it's an empty transmission." Lt. Rick's hands were now steadily flying over the communications board in search of any hint of words being said.

Just as Spock was standing to go look over the communications module, the power went down. According to Spock's internal chronometer, it was off for precisely 3.44 seconds, and then slowly flickered back on.

Yet again it was odd, they were receiving transmissions from a ship neither identified nor shown on any detection. After about 3 minutes of worrying over the incident, everything went back to normal. Perhaps it was a malfunction of the equipment that would explain why Spock didn't receive necessary information.

"Spock, what just happened? The captain questioned taking his seat, and turning around to look at his First Officer.

"To which incident are you referring Captain?" Spock asked sitting back at his Science Station.

"Does it matter! We're in a Klingon sector of space receiving random transmissions of a ship we can't even see! What just happened, I need any information that you can spare." Before Spock had a chance to respond to his captain's inquiry, he was interrupted by the irritating trill of the Red Alert alarm. With an exasperated sigh Kirk threw his arms into the air.

"What now!" he questioned walking over the 's station.

"Sir, we have readings of an intruder on board. I'm not exactly sure how they boarded unnoticed, but they did-" Rick stopped mid sentence, just as the alert sounded off, his hands flying over the communications board, trying to get information on the alert.

Kirk and Spock were both intending on getting the ship examined at the next space station docking. "We have no casualties, no injuries, and no sightings of an intruder. Now, we're receiving a video message from the same unidentified origin."

"Play message." Kirk replied on impulse.

"Affirmative."

Spock and Kirk both turned in unison to the main view screen, just as the image wavered into a clear vision. A Klingon in what Spock had presumed to be a Captain's uniform, practically glared at the screen. The Klingon's eyes then briefly scanned the bridge in search for something.

"Captain James Tiberius Kirk, come forward." He ordered in standard, with a thick almost misunderstanding and rough accent. Kirk, taking his eyes off of the Klingon, walked in a very professional manner to the center of the view screen.

"You are the Captain aboard this ship? This will be easier than expected; you humans look even weaker than you are. I am Devok, I command this vessel. As you are the Captain, I am here to inform you of my presence in yours." Unabashed by the Klingon, Kirk's curiosity was piqued he just stood and stared at Devok, as it was the returned.

"What do you want; I see nothing wrong on my ship that has negatively affected you."

"You will surrender your ship to me, for it is the flagship of the federation, and with it we will begin our rise into power. You have a choice to surrender easy, or you will pay with the price of the life of one of your own."

"I will not be giving you my ship, for any reasons. We have equipment to insure that you do board this ship, and do not harm any member aboard it." Kirk almost laughed at how easily Devok expected him to give up the Enterprise.

"You have acted foolishly, for you did not even question whether or not we already have the someone to pay for your incompetence in our possession. Perhaps if you see what we have taken you will change your mind." Just as he stated that, the viewing changed, and the person on the view screen made everyone on the bridge aside from Spock, gasp.

He felt as though he had just indured being set on fire, he felt his heart drop from his side, he felt a knot at the pit of his stomach, he felt the wind being knocked out of him, he felt a feeling that he never wishes to feel again. It was a feeling very unbecoming of a Vulcan, yet he found that he didn't care. She had a gash under her right eye, her hair was a tangled mess, and she was severely bruised. He helplessly watched as she struggled to try and escaped out of her confines, refusing to look him in the eye. He felt his knees buckle; she was there because of him, it was his fault that she was now in the hands of monsters that would care less if she died, or if the babies died. He couldn't move, fear glued him to where he was standing. He had to save her, Nyota.

TBC….