Greetings Readers! My apologies for taking so long with this but up until now this story only had a very general direction. Now, it has a solid one. This won't be real long, maybe 8-10 chapters I am guessing, maybe a few less, maybe a few more. It will not touch on the events of Into Darkness. (Maybe if I ever feel like doing a sequel to this story I will. But Empathy will be finished first.)

Hopefully there are some new readers who have come from Empathy to see what I've written here. If so give me a shout out in the reviews and let me know what you think!

Standard Disclaimer – Sadly, I don't make any $ from this, nor from anything Star Trek related. Boo hoo hoo. LOL! Although I would do a bit part in the next movie for free just to meet the cast!

I would like to thank my not official beta friend (because she doesn't write ff) who I will name JerseyGirl for proof reading this for me. All errors are mine.

Chapter 3 – New Mission

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Even with the call to the Admiralty looming on the horizon Jen went about her morning, business as usual. However, the comm they were scheduled to receive that morning was the first time that it was scheduled to be live with five of them. Previous live comms had generally been only with Pike or Nogura.

She began to run gel moistened hands through her short locks and was momentarily assailed by extremely unpleasant memories reminding her of why she would keep her hair short for the rest of her life. Memories of the evening when eight year old Jennifer found herself being drug by her stepfather, Frank out of her bedroom by her hair, down the stairs, though the house, outside, through the yard to the barn and thrown into the manure pile because her brother left home. She had chopped off her ponytail before school the next morning and stopped at the barber in town on the way home. Frank pitched a fit, calling her a boy. Jen told him that she should call him Jim then and ran up to her room and pushed her table in front of the door. The next day Frank had given her boy chores including washing the car which she proceeded to drive off the cliff. A little voice in her mind told her to live, so she jumped out at the last minute.

She was snapped out of her disturbing ruminations when the door chimed. After one last check in the mirror to make sure she didn't look like she had just gotten out of the shower, she moved to go face the music for getting herself injured on another away mission or whatever other perceived wrong she had committed.

Expecting to simply be able to walk into the hallway she walked full tilt into Spock who was waiting to enter. Jen was somewhat stunned, feeling like she ran into a brick wall. Spock grabbed her by her upper arms, missing the uniform sleeve and catching skin. There was a strong electric jolt that ran between them.

They both wanted to step forward, closer, but instead they stepped back. As soon as she was stable on her feet he let her go. Cerulean blue eyes met chocolate brown ones for a couple of long seconds before Spock and Jen spoke simultaneously.

"Excuse me Captain./Whoa Spock, no give!"

Jen started to laugh.

"What do you find amusing Captain?" Spock asked. He really wanted to know. When he empathically understood that Jennifer enjoyed educating him in the nuances of humor, he found through hours of meditation that, he in turn, enjoyed receiving the education. "It will take more hours of meditation to understand the sensation I received when I touched her. Curious," he thought.

"The whole thing: My running through the door, right into the you doing an excellent imitation of a bulkhead, then us talking at the same time. Very amusing Spock, very Vaudeville," Jen exclaimed, eyes sparkling "very Vaudeville."

Spock's eyebrows drew together momentarily, before he blinked and his normal non-expression returned. Jen had become rather adept at reading her First in the relatively short time they had been a team. However he surprised her. When he replied she realized that he had not been confused as she had thought, he had been accessing his databanks.

"Vaudeville: theatrical entertainment, either individual or in a group generally involving acts by comedians, singers, dancers, magicians and/or acrobats," he said, as if he were a twentieth century Webster's Dictionary. "I do not think my statement met that definition Captain."

His recitation of the definition caused Jen to laugh harder as they started to walk toward the conference room. She clapped Spock on the shoulder as she settled and explained, "I know, but that definition didn't include the description of physical humor Spock, and trust me when I tell you that the whole incident at my door could have been considered a slapstick comedy act. Except the usual punch line would have been that I would have landed on my ass, instead of you catching me before I fell."

"I see," was Spock's response. Jen was pretty sure that in that case his reply really meant that though he thought he might understand her words, he really did not "see". He was, in fact, more confused by the illogical behavior it denoted than before, however, he was absolutely not going to admit that in front of the mere Human's.

They arrived at the Captain's ready room at 0948 and had Uhura set the appropriate security for the call.

When Spock heard the Captain ask Uhura to set the security for the call to the highest possible. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she shrugged¸ before sighing and saying, "I don't understand either Spock. Pike sent me a message instructing me to set the security code at the highest after I hit the bed last night. I have no clue as to what they are going to say, except maybe to chew me a new one for getting hurt again. But five of them? Shit, I hope this isn't going to be too bad."

Spock was pondering the phrase about the Captain expecting to get "chewed a new one" when the signal came through that the call was ready.

Jen put on her best smile and informed Lieutenant Uhura to put it through.

When the screen lit up Jen had a very hard time keeping her expression as her blood ran cold. The comm was not what she had been thinking; it had to be a serious situation with Archer and Chen both at the table. She had expected Barnett, Norgura, Komack, Pike and Lu or Johnson.

Instead the center seat was taken by non-other than the ancient, yet indomitable Jonathan Archer. To his right was his ex-first officer T'Pol. On her right was another, much younger Vulcan, a civilian that Jen did not recognize; however, there was something about the way Spock had stiffened told her that he did. Seated directly to the left of Archer was Admiral Xiang Chen, the head of Starfleet Intelligence. To the left of Chen was Barnett and finally there was Pike.

Jen thought about Chen for a moment: when you met him he acted like a real sweet man, but what most people were unaware of was that he had an eidetic memory and could recite every conversation word for word. After she and Spock had been in the Jellyfish and the Narada, Intelligence had been all over them for information about any future technology. Chen had been particularly suspicious of them after reviewing their debriefs which left several questions unanswered: why did Nero want to show Spock the destruction of Vulcan and who was that mysterious Vulcan from the future that Jen on Delta Vega claiming to be another version of Spock from the same reality as Nero and where did he go?

Jen shook her head as Archer got right to the point with his first words, "Captain Kirk, Commander Spock, we may have a serious problem along the Romulan Neutral Zone."

Something in Jen's brain stopped as goose bumps and a chill passed through her at the words 'Romulan Neutral Zone', at the vague recollection of a bad feeling from last night's dream. A small tremor ran through her as she processed that. Jen knew Spock would notice and ask her about it later.

"To Admiral T'Pol's right is Soval, who was the head of a group of negotiators sent by the Vulcan High Council to some fringe colonies along the Romulan Neutral Zone to attempt to garner trading rights. Soval, if you would please inform them of what you found." Archer concluded opening the little conference.

Soval stood and pressed a button, lighting a large screen behind the four who remained seated and swiveled in their chairs to observe. He appeared to be very tall and thin, although it was difficult to tell. When he spoke his voice was a nasally tenor. "Captain, from this point forward the transmission will be changing encryptions every thirty seconds. Ensure that your communications people keep up or you will have glitches in the information."

Jen bristled at the perceived insult to Uhura who would have no problem keeping up with the encryption changes and couldn't keep her big mouth shut. She raised an eyebrow in a perfect imitation of her first, and with sarcasm dripping from her tongue like venom she said, "Ha, ha, ha, was that a joke from a Vulcan?" Under the table her hands had, unconsciously balled into fists.

Soval raised an eyebrow of his own and replied, "I can assure you there was no humor in my statement Captain." Turning, he pressed another button on a device in his hand and the screen projected a space map with a line and the title 'Romulan Neutral Zone' at the top; several systems on the Federation side of the border were highlighted.

Jen's only reply was a very slight sharp exhale through her nose, that was only noticed by Spock. "Right," she thought, flexing her hands until they relaxed. "I can assure You that You have as much humor as a dry sponge has water in the Sahara. Sanctimonious prick, insulting my crew!" She listened as he described the first planet, Arnat V, a mining colony. Arnat V supplied many types of mineral salts throughout the quadrant. The only life forms on the planet were various bacteria and amoeba like creatures that were living in the mineral rich oceans. There was very little good land on Arnat V, it consisted of many, small, swampy islands. However, it was enough to allow for a small colony of Bajoran's who had escaped before the Cardassian's attacked them, who had been mining the salts that collected around the islands and selling them for over a century.

"Dear Lord, I am so glad that Spock is not that monotone!" Jen thought while she mentally slapped herself to ensure that she stayed awake listening to his monotonous voice.

"When the VSS Solkar arrived we found that the island that had supported the colony appeared to have been attacked," Soval intoned as he pushed the button on his remote and a picture of the remains of the colony came up on the screen. All of the buildings, boats and equipment had indeed been blasted and rendered useless. There was one thing missing from typical pictures of an attack however, bodies. Jen had her suspicions and she did not like them.

Soval highlighted the next system along the line. "Our captain was wary in his approach to the third planet in system JX3725. At the outer edges of the system we began picking up transmissions in Romulan. The exact transcripts of those transmissions are in the packet of data which is being transmitted as we speak. The third planet in system JX3725 is rich in dilithium, latnum and other useful minerals. It has been mined heavily by an independent group known as "The Conglomerate," consisting of members of several Federation and non-Federation races, including several humans and a Vulcan.

"It became apparent that the Romulan's had taken over the operation by force and had occupied the planet. The current population were made into slaves." There was finally a hint of anger in his voice when he spoke the next part and Jen could see it in Soval's body, especially the slight narrowing of his eyes, "there was one transmission that spoke clearly of their Vulcan prisoner and the vulgar sexual acts they did to him as they slowly and very painfully executed him. The entire time they laughed at any kind of reaction he had to the pain or humiliation they inflicted on him."

Soval briefly looked down, shoulders, oh so slightly turned downward. It may have only been a slight movement and one that in Jen's experience, most Human's missed, but that slight movement spoke volumes of grief; one more broken bond. The empathy in her reached across space and felt herself compelled to say, "tushah nash-veh k'dular." (I grieve with thee.)

Soval's eyes snapped to hers where he met a gentle smile. However it was Spock who spoke, "nam-tor hayal Soval. Khart-lan Kirk gal-tor Vulcan por-sen opi' Va'Pak." (be calm Soval. Captain Kirk [can] see Vulcan emotion since The Immeasurable Loss.)

At first Soval had felt his anger rose instantly. However, as Spock spoke he realized how illogical it was to be angry at her for recognizing the subtleties of Vulcan emotions lowered his eyes, relaxed his posture and said, "indeed."

Soval straightened and turned back to his presentation. He hit a button and the picture on the screen pushed back so that the area of the Neutral Zone in question was once again shown. There was a fourth system highlighted. The Petronis system. There was only one planet in the Petronis system worth anything. It was a highly prosperous farming colony run by the Petronis family as it had been for two hundred years. They had employed hundreds of others in their operation.

Leo Petronis had been into everything he could and shortly after WWIII he had worked along with Zepharn Cochrane on his warp engine. He copied the plans so he could build his own warp engine and improved the design. Instead of using an old nuclear missile, Leo had found a scuttled space shuttle named Atlantis in Cheyenne Mountain. Three days after Cochrane had launched his ship and brought the Vulcan's to Earth, Leo Petronis had launched his warp ship along with his family. They had not all lived to their destination, but Leo built his family an empire.

Petronis II was a planet 1.5 Earth's in diameter but of the same mass and a very similar biota. It had two moons, both of which were now being mined.

As Soval began his speech about what occurred there Jen got chills down her spine. She glanced over at Spock because she felt him looking at her. He raised an eyebrow then looked back toward the screen. Soval continued to relay the information about their approach to the planet and all had gone according to plan until they hailed the colony.

When they did they received the following reply: A man with graying hair, piercing (color) eyes, a hawkish nose and a goatee greeted them. He stuck his nose up as high as possible as he said, "I am Anton Karidian and I am the new governor of this colony. We do not to business with species that the universe has decided to eliminate, such as you Vulcan's. You will get no assistance here." And he cut transmission.

As soon as Jen saw his face her eyes widened and she started breathing heavier. Under the table she was wringing her hands. "Calm down, calm down," she told herself.

Spock saw everything.

At that point Admiral Chen spoke up, "I suppose you can see why we need you now Captain Kirk?"

Jennifer forced herself to look the motherfucker in the eyes, forced the words out of her mouth, "sure I do. Because I know who he really is… Kodos the Executioner." She could feel her fingernails making cuts in her palms as she had made her hands into fists without even realizing.

She stood up and gripped the edges of the conference room table as she growled, "I won't let the bastard get away, again." The again being a remark specifically going to Chen for letting him get away the first time.

Chen narrowed his eyes holding her eyes for a moment, testing her resolve. She narrowed her own eyes and stared right back at him. Finally, he nodded and said, "Captain Kirk, your orders are to report to Starbase 19. There you will drop off Mudd and the three women and a team of Starfleet Intelligence best infiltrators who will accompany you on your mission. Then you will proceed to the Petronis system to capture or kill Kodos and secure that colony once again for the use of all species."

"Understood Admiral," Jen replied.

This time it was Archer who spoke, "good luck Captain Kirk." And the screen went blank as they cut the transmission.

Jennifer just sat there in shock as she digested everything she just found out. Kodos was alive. He had been reported dead, they had told all the survivors that they had DNA proof that it had been his body they found in the crashed shuttle. So, how could that be him?

She was interrupted from her ruminations by a hot hand on her shoulder. She jumped because she had forgotten that she was not alone.

"Captain," Spock said, "are you alright?"

She sighed, stood up and straightened, then nodded and relied, "oh, um, hi Spock, yeah, I'm fine."

He raised an eyebrow and said, "fine has variable definitions…"

She didn't let him finish his sentence. She looked him in the eyes and gave him an honest reply. "Spock, stop. You're right. Fine does have variable definitions. However, Human's frequently feel variable, so in those cases fine is the absolute honest answer. And right now I feel fine. Understood."

Spock nodded, thinking how that reply was going to take some processing to fully understand.

"Now, something else you need to understand about the reply 'fine'; it's neither good or bad, but it could be either," Jen told him knowing this would confuse him further and put him off the subject of her reactions during the conference call.

Spock thought about what she said for a moment. It was totally illogical. He shook his head and brought himself back to his original line of inquiry.

"May I make a personal query?" Spock asked.

Jen sighed realizing that her tactics hadn't worked. She dreaded the question he was going to ask. She stretched her lips into what she hoped was a semblance of a smile rather than a grimace, saying, "not right now Spock. Come see me in my quarters after alpha shift and we'll talk. In the mean time you have the con. Set course for Starbase 19. I need to take care of some details and see to the logistics."

Spock held her gaze for a few extra seconds before he nodded, did an about face and left. Jen followed him out but went to a different turbolift to head to her quarters. The first thing that she planned on doing was taking an hour for herself to get her head together.

When she reached her quarters the first thing she did was get out of her dress uniform and into a comfortable one with slacks. She thought those dresses were just way to short and made sure the quartermaster would supply uniforms with slacks to any female who wanted them. She set her alarm for forty five minutes, lit a candle and sat down to meditate, but the memories bubbled to the surface…

When Starfleet arrived on Tarsus IV they found Jennifer Kirk hanging from her wrists in the town square, naked, beaten, chunks of hair pulled out by the roots and furious. The doctors had wanted to treat her immediately for her wounds and malnutrition. But she wouldn't hear of it. She told that there were kids hidden in the hills and that they needed food, clean water and medical attention immediately! While they got the supplies together they got some clothes onto her then she led them to 'her' kids. There had been ten alive when she had left them to get food four days previously; before she got caught. When she got back she found that two more of the younger ones had died. At that point her anger at everything had overloaded and she went ballistic on the Starfleet officer that she had led to 'her' children for not arriving soon enough to save them.

On the return trip to Earth they found that she was called JT by the children and that they were all very protective of each other. However, none were more protective than JT. None of them knew some of the nasty things JT had to do to protect them, or find food for them. When she had left Earth she had been a rebellious twelve year old girl from an abusive, broken home and come home a granite hardened fourteen year old, young women with a chip on her shoulder the size of the moon. She was JT: protector of children and abused females of all species. Although once she had returned to Earth the JT moniker remained a thing for the record books and, a protective blanket in her mind.

Jennifer knew she needed two things to go on with her life: the ability to control her emotions and how to protect herself. All of the survivors of Tarsus were offered the services of a Vulcan mind healer and Jennifer had been one of the first to take up that offer; she no longer wanted to feel any emotions. T'Lara had taught her many things, including the fact that Vulcan's did, in fact, have emotions.

In order to accomplish her second goal she had taken Kung Fu and found she enjoyed both the physical and mental discipline. She had become such a good fighter that at the Academy Pike had gotten her a position teaching Advanced Hand to Hand Combat classes from her second semester. She smiled with her last memory; pinning Cupcake to the floor in that very class and seeing his surprised eyes, shaking her head to clear it for her meditation.

It surprised her when the first emotion to come up was not fear and not anger either, but rage; white hot rage. As the rage bubbled in front of her, like molten metal she heard a hysterical giggle. Turning she observed herself in the glow. She looked like she had when she was released from hospitalization with one exception; this version of her realized that Kodos remained alive and wanted nothing more than vengeance. Not just personal vengeance, no, her emotions were not that simple. Young Jennifer Kirk, JT, wanted revenge for everything that monster had done: every person he killed, every person he tortured, every child he molested. And she gleefully looked forward to personally delivering that monster to justice.

Jennifer took her rage and her gleeful desire to avenge the thousands that died at Kodos hands, and realizing that those emotions were there was able to put them to the side and look for what others were in the mess. She looked for her fear. It had been her initial reaction before the rage took over.

Before she found fear she found she felt a fierce desire to protect her crew, her current family, from the monster. She took her protectiveness and put it to the side and continued to look for other emotions.

When she found her fear she realized that it was the least of the destructive emotions she was feeling at the moment and it was the easiest one to set to the side.

However, beneath everything was something that nearly overwhelmed her for a moment: pain. Genuine pain and the pain associated with guilt. Underneath every emotion, every memory from Tarsus IV was pain. Her physical pain had been minor compared to the mental anguish she felt from Emily as she died from fever in Jen's arms, her sister moments behind her and there had been nothing she could have done to save them. That fever killed three more of the children. They even still had plenty of food then, but not the right medicine.

Others had died under her watch. Aunt Helen had told her to keep them safe, not someone else. Underneath everything she knew that she was not responsible for the deaths of the eight more children that had died from wounds, illness and starvation. She knew; she understood, comprehended, however, that didn't change how she felt, deep down.

Jen felt much better as she reentered the bridge.

"Captain on bridge," announced Lt. Scarn, current security officer assigned to the bridge. His antenna turned her way as she began to walk by, as his eyes continued scanning his equipment.

She nodded to him, "thank you Lieutenant." She stopped causing him to look at her, "I wanted to extend a personal thank you for the work you did over the last few weeks with Mudd and his women." Jen put up a finger as the Andorian tried to open his mouth. She knew that he would tell her that, basically it was his job. She looked him in the eye, smiled, put her hand on his shoulder and continued, "and it's not quite over. I know that you will continue your exemplary work. Not just because you are an Andorian warrior, but because that is who you are." She continued eye contact raising an eyebrow, nodding, to allow that last bit to sink in before giving his shoulder a squeeze and continuing to 'The Chair'.

Earlier, when Spock had asked if he could ask her a personal query, Jennifer knew what the question was she just hadn't known how to answer it. She had been blindsided by the admirals and was an emotional jumble. However, her meditation gave her he clarity she needed for the conversation to come.

Beta shift personnel were filtering onto the bridge and as she caught the eye of her replacement she made her way over to the science station.

Spock was still bent over his console logging his latest readings when he noticed Jennifer step up onto his level. He looked up at her and she nodded and said "time to answer your query, meet me in my quarters in fifteen minutes." Spock's eyes followed her as she turned walked to the turbolift and disappeared inside; he had not liked the icy look she had in her eyes.

Jennifer headed to sickbay. There was one other person who needed to hear the details of the story she was going to share and she was only going to tell it once. McCoy never left at the end of his shift, he always stayed behind to catch up on paperwork so he was easily found.

The first thing she saw when she entered sickbay was her Chief Engineer, Montgomery Scott and his assistant, Keenser sitting on biobeds. Scotty looked furious, Keenser was grumbling in his native language and his coloration was darker than she had ever seen him. They each had bone knitters attached to their forearms, Scotty's left and Keenser's right.

"What happened to you guys?" she asked.

"Idiots." Keenser grumbled, shaking his head. It was the first word he had spoken in standard since she entered.

Scotty nodded in agreement, "aye Captain, we were movin' some equipment when the junior engineers dropped the piece down on us. We're lucky that's all that got hurt! Those two'll be doin' nothin' but scrubbin' coils for the next year or two!"

Her lips quirked in amusement, but the smile didn't quite reach her eyes. Christine Chapel came over to check on the two as Jennifer turned toward McCoy's office. The door was closed so she knocked.

A very grumpy voice replied, "who is it?"

"It's me Bones, I need to talk to you," Jen responded.

"Git your butt in here woman," McCoy said as soon as he heard the plaintive tone in her voice.

McCoy was the only person on the ship who knew that she had been on Tarsus, although he didn't know all the details. Being her roommate at the Academy he wound up the victim of several of her more vicious nightmares when he tried to wake her. When she had first woken she gave away the source when she was fighting like a demon possessed and screaming at someone named Kodos. McCoy wasn't stupid and quickly put everything together pulling the basics of the story out of her.

He took one look at her and reached for his drawer where he kept a bottle of Saurian Brandy. However a quick shake of her head stopped him, "not yet Bones, this is extremely important; I need you to come to my quarters. Bring a sedative and be there in ten." She did an about face and walked out the door.

His mouth opened to ask a question but that quickly she was gone. McCoy snapped his mouth closed and stared at her retreating back. He didn't know what he needed her for, or the sedative, but he didn't like it, whatever it was. And he knew that, without a doubt, he needed a drink before he went to meet with her.

Jen retreated to her quarters. She had a couple of minutes before Bones and Spock arrived, so she took the time to change into sweats. She wanted to be in comfortable clothes if she got so agitated that Bones needed to use that sedative.

She dug out her stash of Klingon Blood Wine that had been a gift from Chancellor Gorkon when they signed the non-aggression treaty and poured herself a shot. In her book this stuff was more potent than Romulan Ale. Gorkon had told her that it contained more than alcohol, but that she didn't want to know, and he had laughed. It had made her shudder.

By the time the door buzzed Jen had taken several shots and felt a bit looser. "Come," she called.

Spock entered, hands behind his back. Taking in her appearance, he stopped after several steps allowing the door to close, cocked his head to the side, raised his eyebrow and said, "Captain?" The question was obvious in his voice.

Before she could answer the door buzzed again. Spock stepped aside as Jen said, "come in Bones."

McCoy walked in ranting, "damn it Jen, what the…" He stopped short when he noticed that they were not alone.

"Why don't you two sit down. We have to talk about our upcoming mission and the effect it will have on the ship's Captain; the potential of emotional compromise," Jennifer said.

They both sat, McCoy sat next to her on the sofa and Spock took the desk chair and placed it opposite her. McCoy looked confused.

"Bones, since you weren't in on the conference call this morning I'll fill you in on the next mission." She took a deep breath and released it before she finished, "the Federation has incontrovertible evidence that Kodos the Executioner is alive and our mission is to capture him dead or alive." As soon as she finished the sentence she threw back the shot of Blood Wine she had in front of her.

"Sweet Jesus girl!" McCoy said as he reached for one of the other shot glasses on the table and poured one, downing it immediately.

Jen looked at Spock who saw the doctors horrified reaction to the news and she could see that he was about to open his mouth so she answered him. "Spock," she said, getting his full attention. "I was there, yes."

Jennifer sighed deeply, looked at the floor, then at her friends, "I was one of the nine children that had been on the death lists to make it out alive. And because it is possible for this mission to emotionally compromise me you need to know exactly what happened and why it might compromise me so you can help me. Understood?"

They both nodded.

TBC

A/N: Please, please take a few seconds to let me know what you think in a review! I also take PM's.

Next chapter will be Jennifer's story.