I'm back!!! So I don't think I have much to say with this chapter, except that Spock (which my autocorrect always changed to Sock until I added the damn word to dictionary) is still terribly OOC, though I will continue to hid behind the excuse that he's just trying to keep her sane. For reasons known only to him. But anyway, here's part two, which has even less Chekov than part one. I'm sorry. He will be back, and with a vengeance!!

Natalia woke up the next morning to the sounds of Man-Mountain returning. She sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and scanning the small cell. Spock was in the far corner, meditating. She smiled, part of her still glad he was there. Of course, that was the entirely wrong way to think, as his survival was more likely the further away from this spacecraft he was. But then again, there's only so much human side of Spock one can see without growing attached.

She looked up at Man-Mountain, who was still as difficult to see as ever. Natalia began to wonder if he was just made like. A genetic entity with its own cloaking device. She sighed, trying to contain her wandering thoughts.

"You." Man-Mountain spoke, his deep voice fitting his large form. "Girl." She snorted, against her better judgment. Everyone clearly thought she was twelve or something. She was eighteen, for crying out loud. She was officially a woman. She could vote and everything. "Come." He said, and she stood, walking through the small cell as carefully as she could, and once she was sure everything still worked, she quickened her pace, moving through the door Man-Mountain had opened. She waited patiently while he closed it, her eyes looking for an escape route she knew wasn't there. She allowed him to poke and prod her down the hall, and the walk was in the opposite direction of the walk to the communication center. Natalia stole glances wherever she could, and certainly heard more people working behind the closed doors. She saw that what Spock had told her the night before was true, and the was an air of opulence to the structures, though it had fallen into disrepair. Whatever crew the craft had was small and not thorough.

Man-Mountain finally opened a door at the very end of the hall, and Natalia suppressed a small gasp. It was clearly the bridge of the ship, if the large amount of beeping things and the familiar hum of working hardware was an indication. She bit her lip as she approached the main console, reminding herself that it was purely coincidence that it looked almost exactly like the one she had left behind. She studied it hard, and found many things that were not exactly right. It was not her console., not the one she shared with…

She stopped her thoughts cold, turning back to Man-Mountain, who had kept within arms reach of her after he had let go. He had turned his attention back to the door they had just entered, where very angry noises were coming from. Natalia could not recognize the language, and felt another pain that felt like homesickness as she realized that Uhura would know.

The shouting stopped, and after three seconds, the red-head walked in, looking as though she hadn't been shouting at anyone. Natalia tried not to roll her eyes. This ship was damn weird.

"Ms. Flores, I hope you have slept well." She said, walking to the console that Natalia was at. "I see you have correctly identified your work station, and now I will present you with your task." She motioned to the chair Natalia had naturally gravitated to, the center seat at the center console. Feeling her heart sink, she sat down, trying to stop her fingers from tingling in anticipation. Her body was sending her signals that it was time to work, and she didn't like how readily her body responded to an enemy's request.

"Now, Ensign, you will see that we have recently upgraded our own weaponry." Natalia nodded, and could see the almost-not-quite-smug expression that Spock wore whenever he had proven Captain Kirk wrong. "I want you to figure it out. My own crew here does not have access to the same brilliant schooling that you clearly have received, and so I wish to see you work out any kinks that might be present. Put that wonderful mind to the test." The woman dragged her long red fingernails through Natalia's sweaty, knotted hair, hitting the same stubborn sore spot that had not gone away. "I'll be watching."

Natalia nodded once, and ran a finger over the touch screen. It burst to life immediately, and Natalia instantly went forward to do basic scans of all the weaponry, sighing when she saw that nothing had been done to them besides physical installation. Knowing she had a long day of her, she got to work, her fingers flying over the keys as she programmed everything individually.

***

Natalia had only reached the midway point in her attack on their weaponry when the door opened again and Spock was lead in by Man-Mountain, who seemed much smaller. Natalia kept her eyes glued to the screen in front of her, silently cursing Scotty for having done all this work for her on the Enterprise, as now she could barely remember if she was right. She had already earned herself one long scratch down her arm with a red fingernail for daring to pause and stretch. It was much easier to curse Scotty than admit that she really missed him.

Spock was given his task in the same threatening manner by the tall red-head, though he seemed much less troubled by the task than Natalia has felt. Of course, that could be deceiving.

They worked in silence for at least an hour, nothing but the soft padding of fingers against screens. Finally, though, something went wrong on one of the screens. Natalia scratched her head, ignoring the pain it caused when she hit a dead end. Staring at her screen, she blinked a few times, unsure of what she was being told.

"We've seem to run into a problem." She admitted, steeling herself for whatever amount of pain she just earned.

"What kind of problem?" The woman asked, stalking over to her.

"Well, I have now started on repairs and upgrades to your shields, but…I can't find them." She admitted, running the scan again and showing her the completely blank section of screen. "The system does not recognize them as present."

"Fix it!" The woman said.

"I can't." Natalia shrugged. "You don't understand. It's not that your shields are reporting low, they are not reporting at all. Now, is there someone down in your engine room who would know if any equipment was offline or malfunctioning that could interfere with the operation of defensive systems?"

The woman stalked off, yelling into a communicator as she went. Natalia took a moment to look at Spock. He was still working at a steady pace, though Natalia had a strange feeling that he had something to do wit her sudden problem. She returned to her work, skipping over shields for the time being. The woman stalked back to her, eyes flaming.

"You're right. Ms. Flores." She practically hissed. "There has been a malfunction in the engine room, and currently all shields are offline. As you are not the one to blame, I suppose I cannot punish you." She glared at the younger woman, wishing she could hit her. "Get back to work." She said, stalking away to yell at someone else. Natalia did as she was told, her fingers flying across the screen.

Finally, after what seemed like 12 hours of nonstop agony to Natalia, Man-Mountain motioned for her to stand up. She groaned as he took her arm, but followed as compliantly as she could. She was tired and hungry and in all forms of discomfort and pain, and it was not helping her mood any. They did not turn to return to the cell, though, and that caught Natalia's immediate attention. She was lead back to the communication room, and she sighed. The teenage girl in her reared her head of perfectly maintained hair and shrieked at her current appearance. She looked like death warmed over, she was pretty sure, and there was a fairly large part of her that did not want to be seen like that.

She was surprised to see that the red-headed woman was already there, struggling to keep her temper while discussing something with someone on screen. Natalia listening intently for the responding voice, and smiled when she heard Kirk swear.

"Captain!" She yelled, and Man-Mountain tightened his grip on her arm, though she hadn't tried to get away.

"Looks like your little brat is here." The woman said, taking her arm in those scary red claws and dragging her into the screen. "She's far brighter than I expected her to be, I must admit. I did not believe the stories of her brilliance before. But she has made quick work of our tactical system, haven't you Ms Flores?"

"It would be quicker work if your ship was in better order." She said, scanning the scene before her. Everyone was exactly where they had been, those Dr. McCoy and Scotty were now very much visible. "You would cry in shame if you could see this, Scotty."

"Natalia, what are they making you do?" Kirk asked.

"Same thing I did for you, sir." She said slowly. The woman had stepped back, seeming to let them talk. "I just have to start from scratch here, because like I said, their ship is pretty much shit compared to the Enterprise."

"Is Spock with you?" Kirk asked. Natalia looked at the woman, who nodded, allowing her to answer freely.

"He is, sir. I would like to say he is holding up admirably, but it is Spock, after all. Any less would be shocking and wrong." She smiled gently, though it hurt a bit to do so. "He's currently reprogramming their system to be more effective and compatible with the weapons updates." She paused, something in her head clicking together. Spock had started his reprogramming after she had started her weapons work. The shields had been fine, running quite well, actually, until Spock had showed up. She smiled wider now, hoping that her thought process had shown on her face.

"Ms. Flores, do you know when you will be finished with the work you are doing there?" Kirk asked. He was keeping her on the line as long as he could, standing just in front of Uhura, who was tracing the signal as best she could.

"I'm not sure, Captain." She admitted, trying to figure out how to choose her words. "There is a lot of new equipment to work with here. It's not like the Kobayashi Maru, where everything is handed to you in working order." She saw his eyes widen suddenly, and was sure that she had his attention. "There's a lot of reprogramming to do, and there are some pesky subprograms to weed out. It's a good thing Spock is here to catch them all."

She watched as Kirk nodded, and almost visibly saw the click happening in his mind. "I understand, Natalia." He said, nodding. "It is quite impossible to tell when you will be able to return."

"Unfortunately, Captain." She said, her eyes scanning the bridge. Suddenly, she noticed another missing person, and she felt as though the ground let out below her.

"Captain, where is-"

"He's fine." Kirk said, having followed her eyes to the empty chair. Natalia nodded, though she seemed shaky. "He's working on getting you back." Kirk said, and she nodded again, finally tearing her eyes from the spot.

"Okay, time to say goodbye now." The red-headed woman come forward, trapping Natalia's arm again and smiling wickedly. "We will be in contact again, Captain Kirk,"

"I look forward to it." He said, and then disappeared.

"I'm hungry." Natalia said as soon as she was walking again.

"There will be food for you when you get back to you cell." The woman said. "You should be grateful that I allowed you to speak to your captain."

"I am." Natalia said. "I just can't express it through this all consuming hunger."

"Quit your whining." She said, handing her off to Man-Mountain. "Rest up, mija. You'll finish your task tomorrow, with any luck."

Natalia snarled at the misused term of endearment, but did not get a chance to respond. Man-Mountain was pushed her back towards the cell, and she allowed him, too fuming mad to stop him. When she was pushed back into the four walls of bars, she turned and started swearing at him in Spanish. Man-Mountain didn't notice, and just locked the door an lumbered away. Natalia continued swearing, throwing herself down against the wall. She barely notice Spock until he interrupted her rambling.

"You are quite angry, though I cannot understand why, Ms. Flores."

"Spock, I just upgraded half a weapons system to a quality just a step below that of the Enterprise." She said, as though he were a two year old. "The only reason it is not equal to the Enterprise is because they didn't manage to get Scotty here as well. Their main energy frame is only capable of so much, and right now they are pushing it." She sighed, running hand through her hair. "I just outfitted the enemy."

"But you are alive." Spock pointed out. "That is very important, Ms. Flores." He moved slightly, and produce what seemed to be a tray covered in what must have been food. Natalia's stomach rumbled with joy. "It seems you are hungry."

"You have no idea." She said, pulling what seemed to be some kind of bread off the plate. It was bland, though she didn't really notice. She munched happily, though her frustration was not ebbing. "I just wish there was something more I could do."

"Did you speak to Captain Kirk?" Spock asked

Natalia smiled at that. "I did. I also warned him that there might be a certain computer programmer who happened to have installed a subroutine that would effectively disable the enemy shields, in a perfect mirror of a certain Starfleet Captain's third attempt at the Kobayashi Maru simulation." She smirked, and she could have sworn Spock returned the gesture. "Nice thinking, Commander."

"I thought Jim would appreciate the gesture." He said simply, and Natalia rolled her eyes.

"You do realize that probably just saved our lives, right?" She asked, and he shook his head in disagreement.

"I may have made our rescue easier, though I have no doubt that Captain Kirk would have figure out how to retrieve us on his own." He too was eating something, though he seemed to be enjoying it far less than Natalia was.

"I just hope you're right." She said, taking another large bite.