These 3 chapters (48-50) were added to The Anomaly on 10/1/2013, so they might be a repeat for you.

Warning: very mature content, some disturbing sexual situations and graphic descriptions. Please skip to chapter 50 if you are uncomfortable reading about women being sexually abused.

This chapter is basically completely different from the original version - let's just say I got inspired :)

Chapter 48

She dreamed of Khan again. They were together in the cave on Centula. She was standing beside him, watching him try to pry a crystal out of the rock wall. He did it finally with his bare hands and turned around to hand it to her. His fingernails were broken and his skin was torn and bloody, but he looked so satisfied that Beth just took the crystal and smiled.

"Thank you," she said, and Khan opened his mouth to speak, but she could already feel herself pulling away. She tried to fight it, tried to keep herself calm and shut out the world, but in the next moment he was gone and Beth was awake.

Even before she opened her eyes she knew she was somewhere she'd never been before. She was laying on a hard bed in a dingy apartment, but it was not her hard bed, and it was not her dingy apartment. Daylight streamed in through grimy windows. She sat up and her head throbbed with pain that echoed all the way down to her tailbone.

"How do you feel?"

Beth turned her head quickly toward the woman's voice and instantly regretted it. "Who's there?" she asked, squeezing her eyes shut in an effort to block out the pain.

"They sent us to get you ready," the woman said. "Then they want to see you."

Covering her eyes with her right hand, Beth peered through her fingers at the woman sitting in a chair across the room. She was dark-haired and younger - maybe in her mid-twenties - heavily made-up with deep red lips and smoky eyes. Her hair was draped over her shoulder in an ornate braid decorated with red ribbons. She was wearing a simple white robe tied in the front but her legs were clad in sheer red stockings and red high heels.

The woman held out a plastic bag to Beth. "Take your clothes off and put them in here."

There were two large, tattooed men standing behind the woman. Beth thought she recognized them from her building. Was she in her building, in the den of prostitution that she'd always suspected existed upstairs? The last thing she could remember was being out on the street behind the Citadel.

She slowly slid to the edge of the bed and put her bare feet on the cold concrete floor. "I want to go home," she said wearily.

The woman did not respond for a while. Beth looked at her, and then the two men. One of the men was smirking, but the woman looked sorry for Beth. "Take your clothes off and put them in the bag," she repeated. "Either you do it yourself or Mozzie will do it for you."

"Mozzie?" Beth asked, confused.

The woman pointed to the smirking man over her shoulder. "And trust me, you don't want that." She threw the bag onto the bed beside Beth.

Beth stared at it. "I'm not getting undressed," she said. "Where am I? Why am I here?"

The woman was obviously uncomfortable, but disguised it with a severe tone. "It's not my job to explain everything to you. Just take off your clothes or we'll both be in trouble."

"In trouble with who?"

The man called Mozzie stepped forward, leering at Beth. She saw him pull out a knife with his right hand, squeezing his left into a fist.

"Okay, I'll do it," she said quickly, holding up a hand. She picked up the bag to prove she meant it and stood shakily, turning around. Facing away from her audience she pulled her old black turtleneck over her head and put it in the bag. "Do you have another robe at least?" she asked.

"They'll dress you afterwards," the woman said.

"Afterwards? After what?"

"Keep going," one of the men warned and Beth undid her trousers, pushing them down and kicking them off her feet. It was warm in the room but she was suddenly shivering.

"You have to take everything off," the woman told her. Beth guessed her voice got more and more harsh the worse she felt, but Beth didn't care how upset the woman was.

"I will," Beth snapped, feeling humiliated as she unhooked her bra and worked the straps down her arms, reluctantly letting it fall to the floor. "Please tell me what's going on," she begged, telling herself over and over again that she was not going to cry. She held her breath as she took off her underpants, half expecting to see them soaked in blood after her earlier fall down the stairs. But they were clean - it was a miracle she hadn't miscarried the babies - they were either strong like their father or stubborn like their mother - either way they were in as much danger as Beth at that moment.

When she was completely naked she stayed facing away from the others while the woman picked up the rest of her clothes and put them in the plastic bag.

"Thank you," the woman said. "Now, follow me."

Beth covered herself as best she could with her hands and arms but said nothing as she followed the woman out of the apartment and into the corridor. It looked just like the corridor outside her studio apartment and there was a man leaning against one of the walls that Beth also recognized. He looked up at her with interest as she walked past, but he didn't seem at all surprised to see a terrified, naked woman in the hallway. She felt like she was back at Dr. Neel's medical outpost, being escorted from one torture chamber to the next by armed guards. At least back then they'd let her wear a robe.

"In here," the woman said, opening a door and leading Beth inside. It was the size of another studio apartment, but the whole flat had been tiled over and converted into a sonic shower block. "Clean yourself," the woman said. She held out a purple bottle of body oil. "Then cover yourself in this."

Beth looked pleadingly at the woman, who refused to meet her eyes. "I can't help you," the woman finally said, thrusting the bottle at Beth until she took it.

"I can," Mozzie laughed, grabbing the front of his pants. The other man laughed as well and Beth couldn't hold her tears back any more. She gasped loudly, turning away to hide her face. She went to the wall and pushed the button to turn on the shower. Soon she was surrounded by ionized steam and was grateful for the temporary concealment as she bawled against the cold tiled wall. What had happened? She had been so close to escaping, to returning to Earth.

After ten minutes or so the shower timed out and Beth grudgingly rubbed the oil into her skin.

"Rub it everywhere," the woman told her. "You'll be better off." She didn't have to explain what she meant and Beth's hand was shaking as she applied the oil between her legs.

"Oh, for God's sake," the woman said, her firmness wavering. She approached Beth, taking off her own robe. Underneath she had on a red, low-cut bustier that pushed up her small breasts and only half-concealed her nipples. She had nothing on the bottom and was completely hairless on her mound. Beth stared at it as the woman draped her robe over Beth's shoulders and pulled her arms through the sleeves. "You'd better toughen up, and quick," she told Beth quietly. It was not a threat; she was giving her advice.

The woman led the way back down the corridor, striding confidently despite her near-nakedness. Beth shuffled in her bare feet, not really comforted by the robe. If anything it made her more nervous because she knew she would probably have to take it off again soon.

They reached a door guarded by two more men. The men ignored Beth and ogled at the other woman's crotch. "You joining the party, Layla?" one of them asked as she knocked on the door. "Is anyone invited?"

"You couldn't afford me," she told the man witheringly. "I should charge you just for looking."

Layla pushed the door open and held it for Beth. Mozzie and their other escort didn't follow them into the room. As soon as they were inside Beth realized why. The room was already full of beefy guards. She recognized more of them, again confirming that she had somehow ended up back in her own apartment building. Some of the men were better dressed, in dark suits like the guards in the Citadel casino.

In the middle of the men was a young blonde woman, her shirt off, kneeling in front of a short, well-dressed man. He was older - maybe fifty - and didn't seem to belong there among the younger, thuggish gangsters, but he definitely seemed to feel at home with a blonde between his legs. Leon was sitting on a chair against the wall and Beth was too scared to be pleased that his hand and leg were still bandaged and bleeding where she'd stabbed him. He looked up at her and his smile was wicked as he stood and limped towards her.

"Ah, finally," he said, stopping in front of her. "Armie, this is the one I told you about."

He was talking to the older man, who suddenly lost interest in the young blonde and pushed her aside, stepping over her to approach Beth.

"So you're the one who stole from me."

Beth looked him in the eye as hard as she could, and as he made a big show of raising his hand to strike her she drew back her fist and punched him first in the jaw. It was not hard a hard punch at all but he stepped back, more in surprise than pain. A second later he lunged forward and hit her hard across the face. She cried out, clutching her temples as her already aching head exploded in agony. Armie looked satisfied with her reaction and rather than hit her again he pulled on the cord of her robe.

"Let's see what was worth twenty-thousand credits," he said, exposing her before she realized what was happening. He looked disappointed and let her snatch the robe shut again. "She's nothing special."

"That's what I thought," Leon agreed. "But she grows on you."

"And Haal confirmed the amount?"

"Yes, he was very taken with her. He even offered to pay us what she owed."

"Did he?" Armie mused. "That's not like him at all." He turned to Beth. "Show me again," he ordered.

"Fuck you," she spat and one of the guards came up behind her, roughly yanking the robe off her shoulders. Armie smiled, pleased by her resistance. The same guard held Beth's arms as the man turned her face into the light and felt her breasts, weighing them and squeezing them like he was evaluating a prize animal. She didn't struggle - it was useless and he would enjoy it too much. Then his hand went between her legs and he fingered her roughly. Beth heard a growl emanate from the back of her own throat as she bared her teeth at him. He again seemed surprised - this was a man used to submissive women.

"You feel very nice," he told her intimately, like it was foreplay, like she should be thrilled by his assessment. "But I wouldn't pay twenty thousand for you."

"Well technically Haal didn't pay twenty thousand," Leon admitted as the man removed his fingers and smelled them and then wiped them on someone else's shirt.

"What do you mean?"

"He paid her with services worth twenty grand. He created a new identity for her."

"I see," Armie said, and then raised his eyebrows. He smiled slowly. "So this woman has a brand new identity?"

"That's right."

Beth didn't like the way he was smiling at her. "So she's untraceable?" he asked.

Leon shrugged. "I guess so. She's on the run from Starfleet so no one knows she's here."

"Yes they do," Beth lied.

"Well then I think I know a quick way to get our money," the man said excitedly, smelling his fingers again. He stared at them, rubbing them together.

"Yes?" Leon prompted him, waking him from his reverie.

The man looked at him, then smiled as he remembered his train of thought. "Contact the usual buyers, Leon. We're going to have an auction."

"What auction...?" Beth started to ask but Layla gasped by her side, and that small and frightened sound shook Beth more than any other answer she could have gotten.

Hope this is not too dark! Please let me know what you think. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.