A/N: If you have been following this story from the beginning, I recommend re-reading the first chapter as I added a large chunk to the end and parts of this chapter won't make sense unless you've read that. DISCLAIMER: The only things I own are the basic plot and my OC, everything else belongs to Paramount Pictures and affiliated parties.

For once it was blessedly quiet in the dark. The racket inside her head had fallen silent. It was the first time in years that she was able to hear herself think. She floated through the peaceful darkness in bliss, falling back into the abyss of a dreamless sleep.

An unfamiliar beeping noise sounded in her ears an unknown amount of time later, intruding into her quiet sanctuary. She tried to ignore it, but the noise slowly dragged her back into reality as she surfaced from her sleep. She opened her eyes to an unfamiliar white ceiling. She was lying on something soft that was elevated off of the floor. Her hands and fingers explored the item and confirmed that it was a real mattress. No wonder it felt so foreign to her. She had never slept in a real bed before.

Her brain was still a little sleep-fogged as she tried to make sense of her surroundings. This wasn't on Narend, of that much she was certain. No one let her have a real bed there. If she wasn't on Narend, then where was she?

She turned her head to the side, looking for the source of the beeping sound that had woken her up. It appeared to be coming from a strange, square machine that displayed mysterious figures and rows of numbers on it. There were wires and cords trailer from it and she followed their path, alarmed to see that some of them were attached to her, even underneath her skin. She attempted to scrabble backward to get away from them but only succeeded in getting them tangled around everything.

"Good, you're awake." She froze at the distinctly male voice. She turned her head to see a man in a blue shirt and black trousers rising from a desk in the middle of the room. She looked around the room and realized that there were multiple beds in here, separated by curtains. All of them except hers were completely empty.

The man approached the bed she was occupying. She watched him with wary eyes, unsure of what might happen. There was something familiar about his face though, and his voice. For once she had to search for a memory, but once one came, they all came flooding after it. It wasn't as fierce as before, but after the quiet she had just experienced it was a little overwhelming.

She remembered vaguely that she had finally broken under the weight of her Keeper's memories and she knew that she had been sent off planet to die. She didn't need to have a memory for that part. Everyone knew that's what happened to Vessels once they reached the end of their usefulness.

She looked at the man standing at the foot of the bed. She had a faint remembered feeling of calm and safety when she looked at his face. He was certainly not from Narend then. Her memory bank provided her with dozens of images to reference in figuring out where he was from. He was human and the language he had just spoken was English. Sometimes, very rarely, having a headful of unwanted memories that weren't yours could be helpful.

"You're on the USS Enterprise, a Starfleet ship. I'm Doctor McCoy, the Chief Medical Officer," the man, Dr. McCoy, informed her. He had a strange accent to his voice. Her memory couldn't place it specifically; it just told her that he was from some country called the United States on his home planet of Earth. The memories of Earth that she possessed were some of the more far-reaching ones that she had. Humans had particularly fascinated her back when she could still control the memories.

She tried out one word in English, the language feeling awkward and cumbersome on her tongue. "Starfleet?"

He looked confused for a minute before comprehension dawned on his face. "Even after being out here for a year and a half I still forget not everyone knows what Starfleet is." He leaned forward and braced his hands on the foot of the bed. "It's essentially a group of people from all sorts of different places and backgrounds and our mission is to explore space or the final frontier as they call it."

She thought that sounded like something that she would love to do, to be able to see some of the places in her head for herself. As if sensing her thoughts thousands of memories came surging forward showing her places she had never been but had vivid memories of. She closed her eyes and tried to shove them away. They retreated, but just barely. She could sense them hovering just on the edge of her control.

"How're you feeling?"

She opened her eyes to find the doctor looking at her with keen green-brown eyes. How could she explain what was going on to someone who had no idea?

"How long have I been here?" she asked him, skipping around her problem entirely. It still felt foreign to use this new language, but her memory was helping her with the words and how to say them.

"You've been on board the Enterprise for four days," Dr. McCoy told her as he crossed to the strange square machine and examined the display.

Four days! She had been asleep for four days?

As if sensing her thoughts, he elaborated. "When we found you, you were severely malnourished and dehydrated and appeared to be trapped in some kind of trance-like state. You reached your body's overall stress maximum and your brain just shut everything down to protect it. I kept you unconscious in what we call a medically induced coma for the last two and a half days until your body regulated itself back to what I assume are normal conditions and we got some nutrients and fluids back into your system." He paused here then added, "by the way do you have a name?"

She thought about that for a moment. She had to sift back through the tidal wave of memories to some of her earliest memories that were actually her own before she became a Vessel. She knew she had a name, but her Keeper had only ever called her "Girl." She finally found it.

"Vendra. Vendra Gray."

He gave her a smile. "Nice to meet you Vendra. Since it's still pretty early in the morning and everyone's still asleep, I suggest you get some more rest before the Captain learns you're awake. He loves learning about new places and people in space, as does our First Officer. You'll need all the energy you can get."

Vendra still wasn't used to people being this nice to her. She was the bottom of the social hierarchy on Narend. The only ones lower than her were the ones with no potential or abilities at all. As she tried to sort things out she reached up for the pendant that hung around her neck constantly. It was her way of anchoring herself to the present and separating what was real and what wasn't. Only it wasn't there. It was then that she realized she didn't have any of her belongings with her.

"Where-" she looked for the right words. "Where are my things?" The beeping from the strange machine increased in pace as her heart sped up in the beginning stages of panic. She fought to control it, but it was too late. The barely suppressed memories surged forward, crashing over her and threatening to drown her.

She struggled to breathe. The doctor disappeared from her side only to return a minute later, holding some kind of container in his hands. He set it aside and took hold of her shoulders, pressing her gently but firmly to the mattress.

"Vendra-hey, look at me. At me. It's okay, I have your things right here," he told her indicating the container. "They're right here. I need you calm down for me first, okay?"

She fought through the haze of memories and focused on his voice and it's steady cadence. It carried a strange calming influence and she grabbed on to it and slowly began to retake control. Her heart rate slowed down and her breathing evened out. The memories still swirled and dashed through her mind, but she was anchored enough in the present to sort of hold them at bay.

Once he was certain that she was calm, Dr. McCoy released her shoulders and set the container next to her on the bed. It was a long and narrow, semi-transparent box. She could make out the familiar shapes of her few belongings inside.

"Here let's make you a little more comfortable," he said. He leaned down and pushed a button on the side of the bed. She felt the upper part of the bed begin to move until she was in a partially upright position. Vendra was amazed. Not only was she in a real bed, but it also moved.

Once the bed was adjusted, Dr. McCoy straightened. "I'll let you look through your things in peace. If you need anything, I'll be over there." He indicated the desk where he had been sitting earlier.

She nodded absentmindedly, already dragging the box into her lap. He walked away as she pulled the lid off.

Inside were the five things in the whole universe that she could claim as her own. On top was her sleeveless, dark green tunic with the embroidered neck line. Next was the pair of brown trousers that were normally tucked into the pair of well-worn animal skin boots with their soft, felt soles. She picked up the heavy chain belt that she normally wore, each link reminding her of the weight on her mind. Finally her fingers found what she had been looking for.

The white stone pendant hung on a string of black leather that wrapped around the tail of the big cat the pendant was carved into. It was a Sun Cat, one of the animals native to the Narendian plains. While the stone was white, the cats were tawny gold in color with a black muzzle, paws, and ears, a white mane, and eyes the color of a deep, natural spring. The pendant was the only thing she had to connect her to her family she had never met. She ran her fingers over the pendant's smooth surface. The familiar action helped calm her mind and remind her of the only home she knew, such as it was. She continued to run her fingers across it until she eventually fell asleep.

hhh

Leonard had been keeping a close eye on their guest since her unusual arrival on board. Her body had been on its way to complete shutdown when they had carried her into the sick bay. He and his team had eventually gotten enough medicine, nutrients, and fluids in her system to stabilize her physically. Mentally her system was still in overdrive. He made the decision to keep her in a temporary coma to see if he could help her take some of the stress off.

He had pulled her off the sedative yesterday afternoon once all of her vital signs and readings had evened out as far as he could ascertain. It took her another day and a half to wake up.

He had been having another sleepless night and decided and he would go check on his patient in the sick bay and get some of the more mundane paperwork and reports out of the way. He had probably been there for an hour or so when she finally regained consciousness.

Once she was awake he had explained to her where she was and what had happened. After she got over her initial fear and confusion she had been surprisingly calm about it all, at least until she realized her belongings were missing. Not wanting her to get too upset again, he had immediately brought her things to her before leaving her in peace to rest and sort through things.

Now he sat at his desk, watching her pick through her belongings. Vendra, he had to remind himself. Her name is Vendra Gray. Certainly a unique name he mused to himself.

As he sat there, Leonard wondered what her story was. From what he had gathered over the past few days, he guessed it probably wasn't a happy one. She was plagued by some terror or the other and he sensex that she was at her breaking point and if they didn't help her, she may shatter beyond repair. He wasn't going to let that happen if he could help it.

hhh

Leonard wasn't the only one up in the bleary hours of the morning. Jim was also awake and doing some research on the Enterprise's visitor. For the past three nights since she had arrived, he and Spock had been searching through Starfleet's extensive databases for any mention of either a ship or a species that matched what they had found. So far they had both come up empty.

It was three in the morning when he finally came across a mention of someone who resembled the girl. A Starfleet crew stationed out on the Frontier had encountered two people who had resembled the girl with their sharply arched eyebrows, eyes that slanted down at the corners, ears that were pointed at both ends, and elegant, fine-boned features.

When asked, they had identified themselves as Memory Keepers from the planet of Narend.

"Memory Keepers?" Jim muttered to himself. He continued reading the document, but there was little more information offered. No one knew where their home planet was or what exactly it was that they did other than work with memories. The best one crewmember could describe them as was "memory doctors."

Intrigued, Kirk saved the document to his PADD to show the others later and searched for another hour or so to see if he could find any other mention of these Memory Keepers. He came up empty again. Whoever these Memory Keepers were, they were an enigmatic bunch.

He set his PADD back on his desk charger and sat back in his chair, dragging his hands over his face as he yawned. It was time to retire for the night. Maybe the morning would hold more answers.

A/N: And this is the part where I shamelessly beg for reviews. Seriously, they really do help the story stay alive. Leave me one after this note. ~Naomi