AN: My apologies for not stating this earlier- but I do not own Star Trek, nor plan to make any profit from this story. The original creations are the Federation Intelligence group and Anna and her team.

If you're reading this- thank you! Even if you don't leave a review, I appreciate your time.

Prologue:

The river at the bottom of the cliff had been a witness to many things- acts both cruel and kind. The creatures of this world had worshipped it as a sacred thing but also as a transporter of souls. In their language, they had called it the gateway, the judger of all acts, the cleanser of sins. It was impartial, all knowing and all consuming. It had been through wars, and had been an observer of acts of violence so great that the living would rather forget- but the river had a memory as long as it was deep. It would remember and forget all things.

Tonight though, all was peaceful.

A creature shrieked a mating call in the distance. The water rushed past the rock side, making a whispery scream itself. Three shimmering moons were reflected in the moving water, two were bright white and one was blood red. It marked the river.

But for a long while, nothing really happened.

Suddenly, a body crashed into the river. Dressed in all black, with its face covered, it fell into the water with its arms and legs extended. At impact, the body stopped moving and lay still for a moment before it began sinking into the water's depths.

A second body entered the water, with much less force. This one was smaller and more lithe. Its arms were stretched forward and its legs stretched back, the entire body almost

making a perfect line, straight into the water. This second body began to swim as soon as it was submerged and its head was moving around wildly, as if looking for something.

Beside it, a red laser beam cut through the water. It too, was searching for something.

The second figure moved quickly, pushing itself further down and away from the beam. Its legs kicked wildly but with purpose as it dove further down into the darkness.

The beam swung in the other direction, blind and unseeing but with equal purpose. It sliced through the water plants floating by with clean, swift efficiency.

The second figure held its arms out and grabbed onto something.

A limp, covered hand.

The second figure began to pull up the first but it was too heavy, the water was too strong and it was losing too much strength. But still, the figure held on.

The river knew then that both bodies were close to dying, though one was still struggling, still fighting its fate. The smaller figure fought so hard and with such violence against its death, against the dark current, that it soon grew weaker. The river seemed to sigh then, wearied by the struggle.

The body grabbed onto its limp partner, wrapping both arms around its chest and clasping its hands behind securely. It began to kick up and away from the laser but it had gone too deep.

Its movements began to slow… slow…. slow…

Both figures were still in the darkness.

And then they were gone.

Chapter 1:

James T. Kirk, captain of the USS Enterprise for nearly two years now, ran up to the figures sprawled out on the transporter platform. They were both slim and dressed in an all black. Pools of greenish, gray water had formed around them and he could clearly see that they were drenched.

Something caught the lights above, a flash of something which made his eyes narrow and then widen slightly.

It was a small thing, really. A communicator much like his own, but shaped like an O and colored dark gray, made to resemble something like a halo. The other difference was that this communicator, the one both figures on the floor wore, he realized belatedly, was used only by officers from one organization.

"Federation Intelligence," Spock said behind him. Jim turned around to face his First Officer with an expression of shock on his face. Spock merely nodded. "I suspected this. The Admiral would not have requested participation of a flagship on a simple rescue mission, even in hostile territory."

"They were both in water when I pulled them out," Scotty spoke up behind his console. He stood up and looked at the two bodies worriedly, his brow creased. "It was a difficult thing because I think they were caught up in a current. Awful complicated to lock their signals, from my perspective."

Scotty turned to Spock and frowned, scratching his chin. When he spoke next, his accent was thick with curiosity. "If you don't mind me saying so, sir, I didn't think the Federation Intelligence group existed. Thought it was just a myth."

Spock lifted an eyebrow. "Though they are a secretive organization, they are clearly not myth," he said. He looked at Jim, who stared back at him evenly. They would speak about the shadowy FI after the two officers were taken care of.

A muffled groan made Jim turn back around and before he could do anything else, Dr. McCoy came rushing into the room with an assistant at his side.

The dark haired man knelt down and gently began to undo the straps around one figure's neck as his assistant did the same with the other. Officers on the rare stealth mission wore thin but strong protective head coverings, with shaded eye holes and masked breathers attached to a small tank of oxygen at the hip. It seemed the same was true for the Federation Intelligence officers on the pad but the fabric was much sturdier and made of different materials.

"Goddammit, these straps," McCoy muttered as he pulled the last strap off. "Don't they know these things can kill a person if…"

He cried out then and jumped back suddenly. Jim rushed forward and McCoy looked up at him, his features furious and dark.

"It shocked me!" he said. "These damn suits are…"

"It would seem that their suits are electrified," Spock said. McCoy glared at him.

"No shit, you green…"

"Bones…" Jim began but Spock stepped forward and studied the figure in McCoy's care.

"Doctor," Spock said calmly. "The water may have short circuited their suit systems. I doubt that the electricity is more than a weak field though, meant for communication purposes. There do not seem to be any battery systems or a grounding source."

McCoy shook his head and reached for his patient's mask again. "You could have just said it was a fluke," he muttered, shaking his head.

He gently pulled out the visibly cracked breathing mask and slowly moved it away from the figure's face. His assistant, watching carefully, began to do the same to the other body.

Water mixed with blood flowed out of the attached tube and McCoy winced.

McCoy glanced up at Jim with a grim look. "They probably have water in their tanks too. Depending on how long they were in that water…"

He didn't have to finish his sentence- the outcome was obvious.

The figure in McCoy's care, clearly a woman now, coughed suddenly, splattering blood and water over McCoy's blue uniform. To his credit, he didn't flinch but Jim took a step forward, seeming not to notice. His blue eyes were dark and incredulous.

"I can't believe this," he said, his arms falling to his side. "This isn't happening."

Spock lifted an eyebrow and looked at the captain.

"I assume you know who that officer is," Spock said. Jim nodded without looking at him.

When he didn't elaborate, Spock said nothing but carefully noted his captain's reaction. He moved closer towards McCoy on the platform and looked at the woman.

She was long limbed and had dark hair, pulled back from her pale face. She blinked slowly, clearly dazed. Her eyes were large and pale- gray in color, perhaps, he couldn't tell from his vantage point- and there was fresh and drying blood all over her face. Their suits must have been waterproof on the inside since there was no trace of water on her features.

On the left side of her face was a large, rapidly darkening wound and her neck looked like one giant bruise. There was a long scratch along one cheek and a ragged puncture mark at the side of her neck, near her jaw. Her mouth was swollen and her bottom lip was split.

She looked up at McCoy, fear cutting through the haze of pain she was clearly in, and she pushed him away.

"You're safe, we're with the Federation…" he began in a low, soothing tone but she sat up with surprisingly swiftness, her face twisting into a grimace and she held her arm- which looked to be broken- against her chest.

"Where's Daniel?" she screamed at McCoy, pushing herself back with her feet against the floor. She left a streak of river water at her feet. Her eyes were bright and shiny with panic.

"Who are you and where's Daniel?"

"Ma'am, you are on the USS Enterprise and…" McCoy began again but Jim kneeled beside him and looked into her face.

"Her name is Anna," he said firmly, looking briefly at McCoy. In a softer tone, he said, "Anna, it's Jim. You're safe. It's over. You're safe."

But there was no recognition in her eyes. Instead she only glanced at Jim and then started looking around the room again, making desperate, frightened sounds in the back of her throat as if she had no access to words anymore. They could all see it then, how scared she was and Jim frowned, holding out his hands, palms up.

"Anna, it's Jim Kirk," he said again. "Remember? Back in Iowa? It's Jimmy. Anna, you're safe now."

"Daniel!" she screamed, not hearing or not caring about the man next to her. Her eyes scanned the room wildly and she cried out when she saw the other figure on the floor a few feet away from her. A myriad of expressions fluttered across her face then- fury, fear, panic- and without warning, she launched herself at McCoy's assistant.

The assistant scrambled to his feet, startled by the sudden movement but Jim was faster.

He jumped forward on his haunches and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her arms together, pushing her down on her back firmly but gently with his body. Spock moved forward and took hold of her legs, pushing them down. Her back arched and she gritted her teeth, snarling at Jim.

She looked at him with pure hatred in her eyes and her teeth were bared in an expression of animalistic fury.

"Let me go!" Anna screamed and she cried out in pain when Jim's arm pressed against her broken limb. "I'll kill you if you hurt him! I'll kill each and every one of you!"

She bucked against Jim and he struggled to keep her down without hurting her but she was much stronger than she appeared. To his horror, she slammed the back of her head against the floor and he pushed her head down with his other hand as she snarled and cursed at him. A pool of blood began to grow beneath her hair.

He looked up at McCoy who was already holding out a hypospray filled with a sedative.

"Bones, do something!"

"I believe she's been drugged," Spock said, looking down at her face. His voice was strangely dispassionate despite the struggling body beneath his hands. "Her eyes are dilated and there is a puncture mark right below her jaw line."

McCoy leaned forward, and pushed her head carefully to one side with one hand as Jim leaned back.

Spock was right- her gray eyes were dilated and they were moving from left to right, scanning the room wildly but without intelligence.

"Don't touch me again, you fucking bastards!" she cried and Jim had to press down on her harder to keep her from getting up again.

"Hurry up, Doctor," Jim muttered under his breath. His eyes were fixated on her face and his lips were pressed together in a grim expression.

"Captain, if she's been drugged I can't give her a sedative now," McCoy said. "I have to get her into the medical bay for a tox…"

Suddenly, Anna gasped and her back arched, almost throwing Jim off. He felt her breath leave her beneath his arms and then she went limp. He looked down at her face and for a moment, she stared up at him, her gray eyes confused and glassy. She had the pleading gaze of a badly frightened child.

Then her eyes fluttered and closed. She lay still.

Spock frowned and McCoy leaned forward with his scanner, sweeping it above her suddenly motionless body.

For a moment, there was silence in the transporter bay.

And then McCoy was yelling into his communicator for additional support and equipment.

###

Consciousness was slow in coming.

When she was younger, she loved to go swimming. She loved the weight, the feeling of building pressure as she dove deeper and deeper into the water. When she learned how to dive as a teenager, she found that her favorite part was coming up from the depths. Slowly moving through the water, looking up at the sun or the moon growing brighter and bigger as she moved towards it.

This was a similar feeling but there was no enjoyment in it. Instead it was a struggle. She heard voices- indistinct and fuzzy. Slowly… slowly she heard words. And then fragments of sentences.

"…a year younger than me…good friend, she disappeared when we were…"

"…broken ribs, almost punctured her lungs- she took a bad beating too…"

Years ago, she had been drugged. All cadets in the Federation Intelligence program had to go through drug trials to see how well they could resist various truth serums, hallucinogens and other mind altering chemicals. She, along with the rest of her graduating class, had been able to mentally and emotionally claw themselves out of the stupor or chaos.

But this time felt different. Her responses were slower and it was difficult to think.

"…not just a drug but a poison… complete organ failure if we hadn't…"

"She's lucky we got to her in…"

"…much longer will she be out? You have to let me know when…"

"…her partner will be okay. His physical injuries were much more severe but he wasn't dosed with the same…"

Daniel.

Her mind snapped to at the word partner.

"Where?" she spoke but her voice sounded foreign. Dry and hoarse. She coughed suddenly, feeling a dull ache in her chest.

In the back of her mind, she registered pain and categorized it. Broken ribs- two on the left side and one on the right, broken radius and ulna, possible trauma at the back of her head.

Her face hurt too and she suspected that she looked frightful at that moment but didn't care. She was breathing and breathing meant she was alive.

Two figures, (two heads? Human?) dark against a bright light suddenly filled her vision and she realized that her eyes were open.

"Where?" she asked again. Her throat hurt something awful but she would ask for water later, once she determined where her and her partner had been taken.

"Anna, you are onboard the USS Enterprise," a male voice said from one of the dark figures above her and something inside her loosened with relief. She was safe then. Vaguely, she thought the voice that had spoken sounded familiar… but trying to think, to remember, was difficult.

"You and your partner were rescued from the planet designated J-311 in the Gamma quadrant, two days ago, star date 2260.199.95 at 0300 hours. We suspect hostile forces were in pursuit."

The figure leaned in and she could almost make out his features.

"Jim, it would be a miracle if she even remembered her name at this point," the other figure said gruffly. He had a lower voice, almost a growl really and it sounded a bit further away.

"FI officer or not, she probably doesn't have the capacity to make sense of anything. That poison was a powerful hallucinogen- there are still traces of it in her system. Come back in a couple of days and then tell her the star date."

Ah, two males then. One named Jim and one obviously a doctor. She was in the medical bay on the USS Enterprise.

Something about the ship's name plus the familiar voice rang alarm bells in her mind but she pushed it aside. There were more important issues at hand now.

Anna tried to lift her non-broken arm and found that she had been restrained. A sliver of panic went through her though she knew the USS Enterprise was a Federation ship. She tried to move her legs but they had been restrained too.

Breathe. Slow and steady. I'm okay. I can move my legs and my arms so I'm not paralyzed.

They needed to restrain me because…

Because?

"Stay still, you're going to be fine," the one with the gruff voice said. The doctor, then. "If you move, you'll tear your replicated skin."

"Where… partner?" she forced out. Her eyes began to water and she closed them briefly.

"Partner- where is he?"

She felt something on her forehead then- warm fingers gently brushed against her skin. It was a touch meant to comfort.

It was familiar.

"He's still sleeping," the doctor said. "He's safe, just like you are."

Then the figure named Jim said, "You should close your eyes, Anna, and get some rest."

"My name," she said, blinking. Things were beginning to come into focus now but their features were still blurry. "How... know my name?"

Silence.

"How…"

"Anna, it's Jim Kirk. I'm the captain of this ship."

She only blinked, her mind trying to go as fast as it could despite the drugs. Jim Kirk… Captain Kirk…USS Enterprise. She knew his voice, his name, his ship's name… but right now all she could think about was Daniel and her partner and that damned fucking race of…

Jimmy?

"S-sorry," she said, her voice becoming a whisper. It really did hurt too much to keep speaking but she went on. "I d-don't know."

"Jim, she can't…"

"Anna, we lived on Poplar street in Riverside," the voice continued. Steady but with a sense of urgency in his tone. "You moved next door to me when you were seven. I helped you climb the county water tower and you fell off and broke your leg for the first time. I came to see you in the hospital and tried to sneak you out, remember?

"When you were ten, we ran away from home and camped out near the English river and you fell in the water. You almost drowned. I taught you how to swim that day. Anna, it's Jimmy. You have to remember."

She remembered a skinny blonde boy, only a few inches taller than her, with bright blue eyes and a crooked smile, telling her to climb out of her bedroom window and jump down to the ground. I'll catch you. She remembered sitting in a class, her heart racing with fear and dread because she was the only twelve year old in this high school and the kids around her eying her with contempt and disdain… and then relief as the blonde boy entered the class and gave her a grin. She may have been the only twelve year old but he was the only thirteen year old in their high school.

Images passed through her mind's eye and she tried to make sense of them, tried to pull out an emotional response, tried to put together facts and dates. But she was so tired. She had tried to push aside the pain in her body but it was creeping back, marring her thoughts.

"Tell m-me," she whispered. She felt her eyes growing heavy but she fought against it. Her lips hurt when she touched them together and she heard her voice, weak and slurred, stuttering over the words. "When Trig wakes up. P-please. Have to b-be okay."

The hand at her brow moved slowly and she felt herself beginning to drift. It was hypnotic, the slow gentle motion of fingertips on her skin.

"Sure thing," the man- Jim said. "Doctor McCoy here will let you know as soon as Trig wakes up."

The other man, Doctor McCoy, muttered something that sounded suspiciously like a curse word and Jim muttered something back. Their voices began to fade again and Anna felt her eyes closing again, against her will.

No. Can't sleep. Daniel's still down there. I…

"Failed," she whispered. "Have to go b-back. Have to get him. They t-took him."

The hand on her brow paused.

"Who?" Jim asked. "Who do you have to get back?"

"Daniel," she said. Her words were slurring together now, stuttering over certain sounds, becoming worse. "He's alive…"

"Is that another officer?" Jim asked. "We were only told of two officers. Who is…"

She heard Jim asking her more questions. Heard both men's voices mingled together in a hushed argument. She wanted to speak, to tell them how to help her, but she was sinking back into the depths, into the darkness… the light above her was fading.

And then everything went black.

###