Anne is looking at the folder that Admiral Barnett gave her, laying on her stomach and fingering through the few papers that sit in it, still in her yellow command uniform. With her feet up in the air behind her, her head snaps up when she hears a knock on her door.

"Give me a second!" she calls before shoving the contents back into the folder, concealing the file, and getting up off of her bed. She glances herself over in the mirror, fixing her loose ponytail before she tells the computer to open the door.

"Anne!" Nyota cheers while practically jumping up and down, and entering the room with a blindingly white smile upon her beautiful face. Anne looks at her communications officer, noting that she is still in her Starfleet-mandated dress as well. Her long black hair sits in a high ponytail, straight as a pin. "Did you hear about the ceremony?" she interrogates, looking at her best friend and captain curiously.

"Yeah, yeah," Anne replies mindlessly, her mind still on the folder that she put under her pillow so that it could remain top-secret. She glances to the bed, happy when she sees no trace of it being there, hiding under the white bedspread.

"Well what are you going to wear?" She questions suggestively, waggling her eyebrows while she shimmies. Apparently, she missed her captain's look or she decided to ignore it. "What am I going to wear?" She gasps, worried about her appearance.

"What the hell do you mean, Nyota?" Anne retorts with a frown, looking back at her friend. She's confused as to where Nyota is taking this, especially the former statement, but has a gut feeling that is has something to do with the linguist's recent break-up with a certain science officer. Anne never asked for the details, she decided that Nyota would spill if she wanted and it wasn't any of her business anyway.

"Oh, this is bullshit. I know, and everyone else knows for that matter, that you have a thing for Spock. You pretend you don't, but girl it is obvious: you both have it so bad. And what makes it even funnier is that you both have no idea how the other feels," Nyota chastises.

Anne glares in her friend's direction. "What do you mean 'how the other feels'?" She asks in a deadly tone before turning to the offensive. "My feelings toward Spock are completely professional," she insistently lies. "Plus, I doubt that, even if I did have un-professional feelings for him, he would return said feelings." She waves her arms around, attempting to prove a point.

"Anne, he is so head over heels for you; but again, he chooses to ignore it like the, as you would put it 'pointy-eared bastard' that he is," Nyota responds quickly with a sigh.

"Okay, Nyota, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Spock is my first officer. It would be so wrong to have a non-professional relationship with him, no matter how we both feel. Not to mention against the rules," Anne emphasizes, again flailing her arms around like a madman.

"When have you ever listened to the goddamned rules?" Nyota asks while pointing at the blonde in front of her before turning to leave. "The ceremony starts at 2030 hours. I'll be back here at 1900. Then we are going to make you look perfect," she tells her captain. She turns her back, walking towards the door, hips swaying in sync with her hair before the door whooshes behind her.

For once, Anne feels like she isn't the captain of the USS Enterprise, but Nyota's kid. Anne goes back to her bed; lying again on her stomach, she opens the file again and thoroughly reads it, picking up a long note. It could be considered a letter, but Anne just ignores that and reads the paper.

Captain Kirk and Commander Spock,

The Federation has much changed since your departure five years ago. A few months after you left, a man by the name of Thomas Wilkes joined Starfleet with the intention of overthrowing Starfleet Command. Roughly two years ago, he succeeded. Anyone who turned against him or his gang was killed, and many of us learned our lesson and went along with his psychotic plans. I hate to say that, in some ways, our actions completely demoralize the intentions of Starfleet as a whole.

He shut down Command's communication systems in the hope that the Enterprise would not find her way home. He knows that you two would be key players in taking him down, which is why he wanted you both out of the way. Now that you both are back, he will likely take the necessary measures to dispose of you, which is why I am warning you before he gets the chance.

Now on to what he's done in his "time of reign", those are his words, not mine. He's really changed things up: from our government to military affairs to finances to even things like marriage. He controls everyone's lives, from jobs to even people's deaths. I hate to tell you this, but at the ceremony he is planning to throw, you will all be paired off and expected to marry whomever he puts you with. Kirk, I know for a fact that you have been paired with him, he's made that painfully clear. I know that contradicts what I said about him wanting you dead, but he had a feeling getting rid of you wouldn't be that easy, so he created a backup plan in case you were to return. No one knows what this plan is except for him. He's only said that he will have you for a wife, and none of us doubt that.

No one has known how to overthrow him successfully; many have tried, and all have been killed. This is the reason I am telling you two all of this. If the Federation has any chance of beating this guy, it starts with you two. Starfleet Command (or what's left of it) has been secretly meeting and has decided that you two are the most trustworthy of all our officers and that you will be able to help us through these dark times that we will undoubtedly encounter.

Unfortunately, I do not think that Wilkes will stop at anything until this universe is "perfect", which in his mind is likely without non-human races. He has shown disgust towards any creature, humanoid or not, that wasn't 100 percent human. You two are smart enough to figure out where I am going with this statement.

Anne gasps in realization as she sees what Barnett means. Her eyes get a small flash of determination in protection of her first officer as she understands that if he gets the chance, he will kill Spock. She pictures her friend being brutally tortured, his green blood sliding down his perfect face and experiences a sharp pang in her heart. Despite her attempts to keep herself from it, because she rarely cries, Anne feels a few tears fall down her cheeks. Already, Anne feels a strong hatred toward this man. Who the fucking fuck does he think he fucking is? She curses in her head. I will kill this son of a bitch, Anne vows to herself and to Spock as well. After a good five minutes of going back and forth between cursing this bastard and sitting depressed and hopeless, Anne returns her attention to the file at her elbows. She searches the file until she comes across the letter again and begins to read it, starting where she had stopped.

But keep in mind that I'm only guessing here, this is worst-case scenario. Kirk, don't do anything rash, it will only tip him off to what you know. Until you come up with a course of action, I strongly suggest that you act remaining oblivious to the entire situation; don't do anything to piss him off. Spock, he hasn't done anything about his hatred of other races yet, I just want you to be aware of what may happen. Kirk, get on his good side, you may be able to win him over if you're persuasive enough.

In the folder, I have attached all of the information I feel is most necessary for his downfall. He's very pompous and arrogant, so if you want to find something out about him, it shouldn't be too hard because he is full of himself. It's easy to find information on him if you know where to look. Good luck, Kirk. Spock, live long and prosper.

Regards,

Admiral Barnett

(PS. Burn this file the first chance you get.)

Anne flips through the file on this Thomas Wilkes character and notices that his face seems familiar. He's got an angular one with deep-set sea green eyes that seem to pierce the soul. His hair is light brown and wavy, cut a bit short. He appears to be muscular and Anne admits that he is attractive. But not as attractive as Spock, she thinks with a snort. Turning her mind back to where she may know this guy from, it hits her like lightning.

Shit, she thinks as she remembers that he's the guy on the "Our Leader" posters and that she ran into him when she and Spock were going into Barnett's office. So he is as big-headed as Barnett said, and that would explain the suggestive look he gave me as he walked out if the admiral's office, the young captain thinks. A light blush crawls its way into her cheeks as she remembers the Vulcan holding her after she ran right into him and he put his hands on her waist to help her from falling. Turning her head back to the file, an idea strikes her and she hurriedly grabs her communicator off of the side table. "Kirk to Spock," she says quickly, hoping that he's on the other end.

"Spock here," he replies. A small smile crosses her face as she knows that he's okay.

"Come to my quarters immediately," she says. "That's an order," she quickly adds even though she knows that it's not necessary because he'll come anyway. Flipping the communicator shut, she runs to the bathroom and fixes herself up, because she can't look too good if she's been crying like she has. She tosses some cold water onto her face and wipes it off with a towel. Roughly, she tugs the hair tie out of her blonde locks and tosses them back into a sloppy side ponytail, letting the hair cascade down her small shoulders and fall just above her waist in its natural wavy fashion. She sees that it's going to be obvious to Spock that she has been crying, her eyes bloodshot and rimmed with red. She fixes her rumpled dress as she hears a knock on the door.

Walking into the main room of her quarters, Anne is sure to grab the manila folder that's sitting on her bed and she orders the door open. Spock is waiting expectantly on the other side and Anne almost jumps for joy seeing him there. She can't even put into words how relieved she is to see him, still perfect. She waves him in and he follows her instruction while he looks her up and down.

"You are bothered," he states in an even voice, stepping further into the small, homely vicinity of his captain's personal quarters.

"No, I'm not," she lies insistently, shaking her head vigorously.

"Julie-Anne, you and I both know that this is a false statement," he points out. There is only one person in the entire universe that Anne allows to call her by her given name, and that one person just did. She lets Spock call her Julie-Anne because she can't deny that he says it so well and makes it sound like the holiest name of all time. Whenever someone else calls her Julie-Anne, she flips out in a fit of rage that most people consider unwarranted, so most people don't call her by her given name because they don't feel like facing her awful wrath. If only they knew why I hate my name, Anne thinks, turning her attention back to Spock.

"Okay, so maybe I'm not okay," she admits willingly, shrugging slightly. Anne sees the smallest twitch of Spock's lips as he tries not to smile. "I just read the file Barnett gave us, and it's eating away at me," she explains.

"Captain, I do not understand how a file could possibly 'eat' you," Spock comments, his confusion obvious in his eyes. Even though he's been in the company of humans for some time now, he fails to see the "logic" behind some of their odd statements.

"It's an illogical human expression to say that something is bothering you," Anne explains in a vernacular that her first officer would be more likely to understand.

"I see," Spock tells her. "You requested my presence?" he queries, looking at her thoughtfully. He's still standing a few steps, possibly five feet, inside the doorway, hands folded behind his back as usual and his posture like a rod.

"Oh, yeah," she remembers why she called him to her quarters in the first place. "I have an idea," she says with a guilty look.

"This will not be a 'good' one," Spock retorts with as much humor as a Vulcan can have. This earns a smile from Anne as she begins to explain her thought process.

Fifteen minutes later, Anne is finished with her sharing, watching Spock for any trace of emotion. He must really be trying to hide it, because she can't see a damn thing. They sit on her cream colored sofa with a small mahogany table in front of them, the contents of the folder splayed out haphazardly across it.

"This is an illogical plan, as it puts you in danger. But I see no other, more logical alternative to the predicament at hand," Spock says, looking her in the eye. Anne tries to keep her heart from melting when he does this. And she tries to not jump across the sofa and make out with him, but that's a different story. Anne considers her first officer's words in an attempt to distract her.

"You just said this plan puts me in danger," she comments. "When in fact, it puts me in no immediate danger," she smiles brightly, thinking she has won.

"The key word, Captain, in your sentence is 'immediate'. You would be in no immediate danger, but there is always danger when it comes to you. This I have come to learn over time," he points out, remembering all of the away missions where she had managed to get herself into trouble and or hurt.

With a huff, Anne accepts this conclusion and crosses her arms as a young child would. "So are we doing this or not?" she demands, wanting an answer. Spock does the Vulcan equivalent of what Anne considers a sigh before responding, his voice uncommonly uneven.

"As I have previously stated, I see no other logical alternative to the present situation." He agrees solemnly.

A/N: I would like to thank everyone who has added this to their favorites or follows! I would also like to thank my Beta, who has offered me wonderful advice on improving my writing. With that, that was the second installment of The Dictatorship. I hope to update again within the next week, and remember that reviews help inspire my writing! -sr.75