Star Trek: Uncharted Territories

8 Years Ago

2240 August 12

Hour One

"You girls stay near R'ea, understand?"

Nods from all three of us.

"Admiral Stanley, on the bridge, sir."

"I'll be there in a second." Stanley, (Dad to Astrid and I), turned to the person who was speaking.

R'ea, a pureblood Vulcan, was looking slightly disgusted at us. We stared at her curiously.

"Be good, Astrid." He nodded to my older sister. His eyes fell on me, "Be good, Hadley." I nodded my head obediently. His eyes rested on our friend, "And you keep them in line, June."

She laughed, as did we, and he turned his back and walked away from us.

R'ea took us to the living quarters, and we engaged in a game of hide and seek.

Hour Two

"Hadley! June!" We heard Astrid screaming.

We grabbed hands and ran towards her voice. She was 16, older than us and much wiser, so when she got scared we knew something was up.

"Astrid!" I called, following the sounds of her continuing to call our names. We ran into her head on. She was sweating, her long brown hair sticking to the back of her neck.

"What's going on?" Demanded June, her blue eyes wide as saucers.

The lights suddenly turned off, the back up red ones coming on. Everything was bathed in an eerie red glow, and the alarms sounded. 

"Enemy breach on the sky walk." Came the computer's voice over the PA.

The alarms were too loud to hear what Astrid said, but she grabbed both of our arms and ran towards a closing door. I was almost too scared to move, and June was the same. Astrid forced us along though, throwing us under the closing door just as it was touching the ground. She was still on the other side.

"Stay inside! Don't make a-" Her voice on the other side was cut off by her screaming, and June and I copied her.

"ASTRID!" I yelled, banging on the doors.

"No, no, no!" June was screaming.

I turned to look at her fearfully, my eyes even wider when I saw the beam lights making her disappear. I was even more afraid when I saw them on myself.

"Astrid!" I screamed as my body left the USS Lionheart.

Hour Seventy-two

Bright lights. Voices I didn't understand.

Pain.

I struggled to look around, like I was being forcibly restrained. 

Hour One Hundred

Astrid groaning. My hands closing over her's. Blinding light. June stirring next to me. I wasn't restrained anymore, but we were on hot metal beds and wearing nothing but thin shifts. I had forgotten what I was wearing before we were beamed aboard this ship. I was beginning to forget many things. 

Nasty objects being forced down my throat. 

Food? It was slimy, unnatural to anything I had ever had. 

Hour Two Hundred Thirty-Five

I'm used to the person coming in and feeding us. Not used to the green liquid being injected in my arm though. It knocks me out. Sometimes it makes June vomit. She wasn't looking good. I had never seen somebody as pale as her before, human wise.

There's a large cut under my chest, where there are nasty colored stitches covering it. I think it's infected.

Hour Two Hundred Thirty-Six

Astrid shaking me awake. June next to her. My eyes focus on the bright room around me. It's made from lights. Astrid and June dragging me from the place. I'm too weak to walk on my own. Is somebody is helping us? Won't they catch us? I'm too confused.

He hands my sister a backpack and I can see stars from trying to be awake this long. The pain intensifies and the ground looks comforting. Every step makes me more dizzy and makes me more nauseous. 

June leads us to a cave. She's looking slightly better. 

Hour Two Hundred Forty

"Where are we?" I ask, my eyes having a hard time opening. The pain is worse, if possible. My chest is pulsating where the long cut is. 

"Shh.. They're looking for us." Astrid's hand clamped over my mouth. I realized that I was curled up in her lap. She had me close around her body. I finally feel the fear.

"Who?" I heard my voice, but didn't know I was saying it.

"The Klingon."

Klingon. "Why? What do they want with us?" My eyes focused better, out of the lull. Hunger panged in my chest, almost overriding the pain of my cuts and operation marks.

"They took all of the children." Astrid responded, her voice breaking, "I saw them... They... They didn't make it."

"All of them?" I croaked, uncurling myself from her lap.

"The ones in our area during Warp. There were 23 of them, counting us three. The blood they were injecting in us is poisonous to our human bodies. June and I got you away, you were almost gone." Astrid was watching my face.

"Are we on Klingon?" I asked her quietly.

She shook her head, "An uninhabited planet. A large vessel of Klingon are about 2 kilometers from us. When your strength returns, we're leaving this place."

I closed my eyes when she said strength. I had none. I could barely move my arms. "I'm hungry, Astrid."

June came into view, holding a package. "I managed to get this from the main ship." She dropped, weakened too. She handed me a small portion of a slimy, slug looking liquid. I slurped it down, tasting the same stuff I tasted in the ship.

Remembering how it had tasted before, I was surprised I accepted it so graciously. 

Hour Two Hundred Fifty-Two

We moved to another location. I don't know where we're at. We're in another hole in the ground, Astrid explains to me the planet has a lot of Karst deposits so as long as we keep moving we'll never run out of a place to sleep. My chest is infected, I think, but Astrid won't let me look at it. 

"There are the animals in the red lake down there, that the Klingon were feeding us." June was saying. I was still too weak to understand much of it. "We can get them with the stun gun. They all float to the surface."

"Good, we have a food supply. Stay awake, Hadley. I need you to stay awake."

I was close to darkness again, but Astrid's voice pulled me out. Our brown eyes locked, and I nodded my head. "Drink this, don't think about it." She handed me a steel cup, and I looked in it.

It looked like water, except with red in it. Not bloody and thick, just tinted red. I nodded my head at her and took a drink, the feeling coming back into my body. I felt stronger, and without realizing how dehydrated I was I knew I'd be better soon.

"How long have we been here?" I asked her quietly, needing to know how long I've been useless.

Astrid looked to June, and June looked at a wall with calculations on it.

"10.5 days." June responded.

I slumped against the wall. Almost two whole weeks. Was our father looking for us?

"How long will we be here?" I asked another question, feeling more awake after drinking the water.

"Indefinitely."

I felt myself slump again, passing out once more.