Chapter Text
The first thing you noticed when you woke up was how thirsty you were. Your mouth felt like a desert and your eyes were dry enough that they stung.
The second thing you noticed was that you didn't remember falling asleep.
Before you could start to panic, someone spoke.
"Oh good Lieutenant Y/L/N, you're awake."
You opened your eyes and saw Christine Chapel sitting next to you. You looked around; you were lying in a large room full of bio-beds, each holding one of your colleagues. From the look of it, it was an all female dormitory-style med bay.
There were only a few empty beds; everyone else seemed to still be unconscious.
You wondered what kind of disaster you had missed, and where all the men were.
"Here," Christine said, handing you a sealed water bottle. "Their method of transport seems to be more dehydrating than what we're used to."
You drank, letting the cool water soothe your throat. You drained two full bottles of water before speaking.
"What happened?"
"We've been captured." Christine said calmly.
You sat up, suddenly much more awake. "What?"
"We've been captured," Christine repeated, keeping the same calm tone. "Don't worry, they don't seem particularly violent, just.... unusual."
"Unusual how?" You asked, nervous.
"Well, first of all, their technology is decades beyond ours. They managed to selectively transport all of the women from the ship to their planet as soon as we entered their solar system."
"That shouldn't be possible," you said, confused.
"It gets better. Their whole society is divided among gender lines. I've noted that they've captured people according to their genitalia, not their sexual assignment at birth or their gender identification."
"Oh?" You asked. You looked around more closely. Further down the line you saw that there were, actually, a few men. Interesting.
"The entirety of the ruling class on this planet are women. They seem to believe that anyone without a vagina is a lesser being. From what we've gathered, it was the other way around until a violent revolution a few decades ago."
You considered this. Gender (or in this case, genital) based subjugation was barbaric, but this put you in a better position than if it had been a penis dominated society, you decided.
"What do they want with us?" You asked.
"It seems they've decided we needed liberation," she said. "If you'll excuse me, I believe Lieutenant Barrows is coming to. Lieutenant Uhura is negotiating with them now, we'll know more when she gets back. Have some more water."
She walked away and you let yourself fall back onto the bed. Even for the Enterprise, this was a weird day.
==== Three Days Earlier ====
"Y/N! Lassie! You're needed in medical! That blasted sensor cluster is out for the third time this week."
You smirked, fixing the last bolt of your current repair job back into place. "You know what they say Scotty, if you want something done right..."
"Do it meself?"
"Nah, send me in the first place!" You chirped, smirk growing into a full grin. He chuckled.
"Don't get cheeky, lass, get moving," he joked in return, and you hopped to it, gathering your tools and heading to medical with an extra spring in your step.
It was a good day to be you, you thought. You loved your job, your boss was nice, and you got to go fix things in sickbay where the eye-candy lived.
You whistled to yourself, doing a little spin in the hall when nobody was around just to feel your skirt twirl.
The uniform may not have been the most practical in the world-- lord knew you'd had enough awkward moments crawling through the various nooks and crannies of the ship in front of someone with the knowledge that there was one layer of thin tights keeping them from seeing your panties -- but it sure was cute and fun. It made you feel powerful.
And besides, you liked having people look at you every once in a while. You had a nice body and it was unfortunate how little fun you got to have with it.
You continued on your way until you made it to the sickbay, grinning as you heard him before you saw him.
"-- don't know why we even have these scanners installed if they never work the way they're supposed to!"
Something about Dr. McCoy had always called to you. It wasn't simply how pretty he was-- plenty of men were pretty and they didn't strike you the way he did. It wasn't how smart he was either-- the Enterprise was full of geniuses, like the academy had been before it.
Maybe it was his candor. You always knew exactly how he was feeling. He didn't suffer fools.
Or maybe you just had a type-- grumps with a heart of gold.
You'd been interested in him from the first time you'd met him, but it was his dedication to his patients, especially the hopeless cases anyone else would have given up on, that really got to you.
"I seem to remember those scanners being a key part of the diagnostic process of several recent cases, doctor," you said, walking in with a grin.
"Lieutenant," he said, curtly. "What took you so long?"
You only grinned wider. "I came as soon as I was told, doctor."
"They should have sent you days ago, when the damn thing started up in the first place!" He said with a huff.
"That's exactly what I told Scotty," you said, stepping from a chair up onto the biobed and reaching up to start unscrewing the panel covering the sensors.
"Be careful up there, now," he told you. "I don't need you splitting your head open."
You nodded and kept at the repair, trying to keep your mind focused on it instead of on the fact that he was standing beside the bed, keeping an eye on you in case you fell. It was a position that meant he was practically looking right up your skirt.
You shifted your weight slightly, hoping he had a good view.
What you wouldn't give for a good, hard knock to the ship right now. 'What does a girl have to do for an excuse to fall into the arms of a hot doctor, huh?', you thought to yourself.
You finished the repair and stepped down, taking the hand he offered to help you off the chair and to the ground. His hand was warm and steady-- your weight had been nothing to him.
"Well doctor, that sensor cluster is as good as new. I've looked over every part of that thing twice. If it breaks again, it's cursed, and you should call a witch to fix it."
To your surprise, he chuckled. It was a rare, warm sound that you wanted to melt right into. You blushed.
"Thank you, Lieutenant."
You nodded and collected your tools, going over the interactions again in your head. A warm hand. A chuckle. The chance that he may have looked up your skirt.
It was more than you'd had from anyone in a long time.
You practically skipped back to engineering. What a great day to be you, indeed.
By the time Lieutenant Uhura returned, most of the others were awake. The quiet conversations around the room stopped entirely when she walked in.
As the only member of the command crew present, she was in charge in this scenario. You waited for orders silently.
"I have been speaking for the past several hours with the leaders of this planet. I have good news and bad news."
You didn't like the sound of that.
"The leaders of this planet have a law that states that women have something called the 'right to satisfaction.' They are willing to let us return to the ship if we all individually prove that we have access to this right through what they call the Trial of Satisfaction."
She looked around the room grimly.
"Let me speak candidly. For every individual to go back, they will have to prove that one of the men aboard the ship is capable of satisfying them sexually. We are being held sexual hostage."
The temperature in the room dropped.
"You said you had good news?" Nurse Chapel said, after a tense moment.
"The good news is that I have been allowed contact with the ship. The remainder of the crew on the Enterprise are unharmed and they are aware of the situation. The Captain and I have been negotiating terms with the Shi'ia and we have been able to provide ourselves with some dignity."
"Instead of a public arena, there will be one observer from the Shi'ia counsel and they will be behind one-sided glass so you will not see them. Instead of having a partner chosen for you, you will be allowed to elect a partner from the Enterprise, so long as they agree. Those whose personnel files state that they are asexual or have a history of sexual assault have been exempted and will be allowed to return after the other trials."
Several people in the room let out sighs of relief, and there were a few sobs.
"A member of the command crew must also be present at your trial. Captain Kirk has asked me to inform you all that he is well aware of how distressing this is and has given his word that what happens in the trials will be treated as highly confidential and will not be recorded in any way including in writing unless a medical incident occurs which necessitates a medical report."
"You are allowed a meal with your elected partner before the trial in order to solidify your choice as we have informed the Shi'ia that this is a common custom among our culture. If your date goes poorly, you will not have a second chance and will be electing your partner blindly."
"Lieutenant? Will the observing command crew member be randomly assigned or will we have a choice?" An ensign you didn't know asked.
"I'm afraid that due to the number of trials we have to witness in order to get everyone back on board, the Captain has decided that random assignment is the most practical."
"However," she said, as noises of distress started to fill the room, "if you choose a partner from among the command crew, they will count as an adequate witness."
You thought about the command crew.
Captain Kirk, Commander Spock, Commander Scott, Lieutenant Uhura, Lieutenant Sulu, Ensign Checkov-- he was too young, right?
"There will be an exemption made for... underage crew members, I assume?" You asked, cutting through the murmurs in the room.
"What do you mean?" Yeoman Rand asked, "we're all of age, aren't we?"
"Please clarify, Lieutenant Y/L/N" Lieutenant Uhura prompted you to continue.
"Isn't Ensign Checkov underage?" You asked, quietly. "He shouldn't be made to watch even if he is part of the Command Crew, that's just not right." The room fell silent again.
Lieutenant Uhura's eyebrows raised, then lowered again.
"I will bring it up with the Captain, Lieutenant. He will be exempted." You let yourself sigh in relief.
"Please take some time to consider your choices and you will be called upon in order of hiring date. The trials will start in fourteen standard hours. Are there any further questions?"
Yeoman Arcus spoke up in a small voice. "What if we lose the trial?"
Lieutenant Uhura's face was grim.
"The trials will not be timed, Yeoman. You have as much time as you need in order to... reach satisfaction. If your partner gives up, they will be put to death. If you give up, you will become a citizen of this planet and treated as a refugee. Please choose your partners wisely."
There was a grim silence.
"Further questions?"
"Then I suggest you all rest. There are bathing chambers through those doors," she indicated two double doors on the far side of the room, "and meals will be provided to us as soon as we are able to adequately communicate our dietary requirements."
She sighed.
"They are resistant to the idea of allowing us our own supplies, including food and replicators, but we're working on getting something we can eat."
She turned, as if to go, then turned back.
"I am truly sorry that we were unable to stop this from happening. Trust me when I say I am working to provide you with as much agency and dignity as I can."
You looked around at all the grim faces. You had to do something.
You stood, drawing everyone's attention, and saluted, holding the position to honor Lieutenant Uhura. It was all you could do to thank her for taking something that sounded like a nightmare and making it something you could live through.
You'd give her a proper thank you in person later.
After a beat, others began to rise and salute her as well, until the whole room was holding a salute.
Lieutenant Uhura's normal steely composure cracked, slightly. She pressed her lips together and closed her eyes, briefly. She then opened them, blinked hard, and took a deep breath, saluting back.
"Dismissed," she said, and the tension in the room dissipated as everyone went back to their conversations.
You sat alone, having few true friends among the crew outside of Scotty. You'd only been hired four months ago, replacing an engineer who had taken a bad fall in a moment of crisis and left the crew short handed.
According to Scotty, he hadn't been much of an engineer in the first place.
In those four months you had been friendly to everyone, but distant. The last few assignments you had been on had ended poorly-- one with a Captain you didn't respect and transferred away from as soon as you understood his character, and the one before that with a breakup of your long-term relationship.
He had been wonderful at first, but the two of you had issues stemming from his inferiority complex and he had slowly become more and more hateful until you couldn't take his yelling anymore and had requested a transfer.
It wasn't your fault he couldn't give you an orgasm.
Speaking of orgasms... it sounded like having one was your only way out of here, which wasn't good news.
You had never been a "push button, pull trigger" kind of person-- it took a lot to get you to the finish line, and it wasn't always consistent. To say you were anxious about this situation was an understatement.
If you had been less difficult in bed, you would have chosen a stranger-- someone on the Enterprise that you didn't know, but that the other girls would vouch for being a gentleman. You'd never have to see him again, and if you did, you could just brush him off.
But you were who you were, which meant you were going to have to confess your attraction to a certain Doctor sooner than you would ever have considered in any other circumstances.
As horny and indulgent in your desires as you were internally, you were quite shy when it came to expressing those desires, normally. Now, though, there was nothing for it.
You went to find Lieutenant Uhura. You had a date to set up.
Your trial was one of the last. You had been in this room for days, trying to avoid what you were calling in your head the 'nosy statistics corner'. It was run by some of the exempted individuals who were trying to run the numbers on which partners were chosen and how often.
It was the kind of gossip you had always found insidious. It was a bad situation anyway-- this kind of thing only made it worse.
The trials were slow going. By the time you were approached for your choice, the nosy statistics corner had announced that if everyone was telling the truth, the Captain had just had sex with more than a third of the female population of his ship.
You rolled your eyes. Gossip like that was never actually true, and even if it was, it wasn't anyone's business except Captain Kirk.
Though if it was true, he was working at astounding speeds.
You shook your head and approached Lieutenant Uhura when called up. The two of you walked into a supply closet that was serving as her makeshift office. She closed the door.
You sat down at the desk, the rest of the room bare except for what you assumed was some kind of Shi'ia communicator equivalent, likely heavily monitored
"Alright Lieutenant Y/L/N. Have you made a choice?" She asked you, not unkindly.
You nodded. Your stomach clenched. You'd never been good at confessing crushes, and this was something else entirely.
It was proposition, delivered thirdhand. 'How romantic,' you thought to yourself sarcastically.
You took a deep breath.
"Would you ask Doctor McCoy if he'd be willing, please?" You said, professionally.
"But emphasize that he doesn't have to. I don't want him to feel pressured," you said, nervously, after a moment, losing the professional mask and blushing.
Lieutenant Uhura placed her hand on yours, kindly.
"I'll pass the word along," she said. "Wait outside for a moment?"
You nodded and stepped back out, closing the door.
There were eyes on you from the nosy statistics corner. You kept your eyes down. The door behind you opened after a few minutes and you were waived back in.
You sat in tense expectation for a moment.
"Doctor McCoy has agreed to meet with you for a meal, Lieutenant Y/L/N. He will be planetside in approximately two standard hours. You'll be escorted to your meal by a Shi'ia guard who will remain in the room with you at all times."
"If your date goes well, your trial will be tomorrow at around midday. A Shi'ia guard will meet you at the doors and escort you to the trial room. Because Dr. McCoy is not a member of the command crew, your trial will be witnessed by Captain Kirk as well as the Shi'ia representative."
You blushed. You'd assumed he'd be too busy to bear witness to anyone else's trials, but maybe he hadn't been as busy as you'd thought. Or maybe he used witnessing other trials as a break between his own.
At least it wasn't Scotty witnessing you. You'd have a hard time looking him in the eye again if he'd been assigned to you.
"Did he seem--" you blurted out, then caught yourself. You pressed your lips together tightly.
"I did not speak to Doctor McCoy directly," Lieutenant Uhura said to you, gently. You nodded.
"There are some details you should know about the trial," she said, refocusing. "The Shi'ia are resistant to the idea of anyone 'cheating'" she emphasized the word with finger quotes, "during the trial via masturbation. Therefore during the trial you will be expected to wear arm restraints."
You swallowed, letting the idea sink in. Not only would you be being watched, you'd be tied up? You unconsciously clenched at the idea. If there were less dire consequences for failure, you might actually thank the Shi'ia for this.
"Additionally, it is up to you and your partner to decide how to help you achieve satisfaction. There need not be any penetrative genital contact between the two of you. If there is, rest assured that the Enterprise medical team is waiting with appropriate medical care to prevent pregnancy upon your return."
"Every partner coming to trial has to pass a medical exam ensuring that they are free of sexually transmitted infections or diseases in order to participate. We are taking your health and safety incredibly seriously."
You nodded, absorbing the information.
"Lastly," Lieutenant Uhura said, "I need to define the term 'satisfaction.' As the Shi'ia understand the term, it is not simply achieving an orgasm. They are a people with intense empathic abilities and we have come to understand this term as meaning that you have experienced the full spectrum of sexual enjoyment possible for you at the moment and any further sexual conduct would be unpleasant to you. For some that has been a single orgasm. For others it has been quite a few."
You felt your heart speed up a bit. It had been a while and you knew a single orgasm wasn't going to cut it for you.
"Do you have any questions, Lieutenant?" She asked you.
"No, ma'am. Thank you again, ma'am, for all your help making this reasonable," you said, remembering the personal thanks you owed her.
She smiled kindly at you.
"Of course, Lieutenant. Please be at the door at the appropriate times. You are dismissed."
You stood and walked to the door, butterflies in your stomach. In a few hours, you would be having dinner with Dr. McCoy.
You wished it was under better circumstances.
The guard lead you into a room with a low table, covered in the same exotic fruits and meats you had become accustomed to over the last few days.
Dr. McCoy was kneeling at the table, but stood when he saw you come in. The guard closed the doors, and stood next to them at attention, in a way that, to her credit, was as unobtrusive as a guard in the room could be.
"Lieutenant Y/L/N," he said, awkwardly.
"Y/N, please," you said, knowing that the formality would only make things worse.
His shoulders relaxed a bit.
"Then I'm Leonard to you, darlin'," he said.
You blushed at the nickname, heat running through you. His eyebrows twitched at your reaction, but he didn't mention it.
The two of you stood awkwardly for a moment, before he gestured to the table, and you walked over to it, kneeling on the cushion placed there for you. He knelt beside you.
"So," he said, after a moment. "This is quite the situation we've found ourselves in."
You chuckled a bit.
"You can say that again," you said. He grinned at you, for a moment, then became serious.
"May I ask," he said gently, "why you chose me of all people?"
It was a fair question, and one you had been considering the answer to carefully. Something in you knew he would ask.
"There are several reasons. First of all," you said, blushing "I've had my eye on you for a while. You're smart, and passionate, and you don't put up any fronts about who you are, which I really like. And I like your eyes. And your accent. And talking to you."
You glanced up at him and saw that he looked shocked, but pleased.
"I probably would have ended up asking you out for a drink eventually," you said, "but it would have been months from now at least. I'm not so good with moving this fast."
His astonished look faded into something gentler, and he reached out to take your hand. You were reminded of the day he'd helped you off the table-- it hadn't been that long ago.
"I had no idea," he said. "Though I can't lie and say I haven't been doin' my own fair share of lookin'."
You squeezed his hand, pleased. Your blush had only gotten worse, and when he squeezed your hand back, you tried to use the sensations to ground yourself and calm down a bit.
"There are... some more practical reasons, too," you confessed, knowing that this part of the conversation was important.
"Oh yeah? And what would those be?"
Now came the point that you had to be frank and honest and open even though you were flustered and wanted to shy away. You took a deep breath.
"I uh. I'm not the easiest girl to satisfy, if you catch my drift," you said, turning so you didn't have to meet his eye.
He let go of your hand and gently grabbed your chin, moving you to look at him.
"None of that, darlin'. I'm a doctor. Ain't nothin' you could say to embarrass or scare me Y/N. I'm gonna need you to tell me what that means, though, because the stakes are a little higher here than normal."
You met his eye, face feeling like it was going to burst into flames. But he was looking back at you steadily, and after a few beats, you calmed.
"There y'are honey." He let go of your chin and trailed his thumb up your jaw, reaching around to cup the back of your neck gently.
You sighed, relaxing. His complete lack of pretense and his patience made you feel safe, even now, with his life and your future on the line.
"I've never had a partner give me an orgasm," you said frankly. He blinked a few times in surprise, but you powered on.
"I can usually get myself there, but it's not like the same thing works every time, and it's kinda unpredictable. That's why I chose you. I've seen you read people's reactions from across a room, and you've got the steadiest hands in the fleet. If anyone can get me there, it's you, but I'd understand if you don't want to try," you said.
He blinked in a way that let you know he was processing what you said, then studied you for a minute.
A slow smile crept across his face.
"You don't just like me, you trust me," he said, grinning and squeezing the hand at the nape of your neck. You nodded.
"Then I think we're gonna come out of this just fine," he said. "It's gonna be my honor to be the first one to take you apart, Y/N."
You shivered at his tone and he chuckled. He let go of your neck and turned to the table, taking his first bite of food.
The two of you snacked in silence for a few minutes. You were grateful for the chance to calm down. You didn't want to wait until tomorrow-- you wanted this over with. You felt like you had been on edge for days, thinking about the idea of him being the one to satisfy you.
You were so glad he had agreed.
"Thank you, Leonard," you said, looking at him from under your eyelashes. "I know this is much more of a risk for you than for me."
He shook his head.
"You're the one in a pickle here, darlin'. As much as I'm happy to take care of you, this ain't fair to you or any of the others. It's damn near assault," he said, growling the last few words.
You shrugged a bit.
"I mean, it's a little weird that it'll be in front of a stranger and the Captain, but Uhura argued them down from a whole arena, so it could be worse."
He blinked at you. "In front of Jim?"
"Yeah, he's the witness from the command crew," you said.
He breathed out a long sigh. "Aw, hell. I'm gonna catch so much shit for this from him," he grumbled playfully.
You laughed.
"According to the nosy statistics corner he's fucked a solid third of the women on the ship thus far so he has no room to talk," you said.
He raised an eyebrow. "The nosy statistics corner?" He asked.
"A few girls are interviewing people about who they're asking and then keeping track of who gets how many asks," you said. "It's disgusting behavior. I'll be reporting them when I get back to the ship."
"Don't they realize that you're going through enough without all the scrutiny?" He asked roughly.
You shrugged. He let out another sigh, but dropped it.
"A third, huh?" He asked. You nodded. "Though I'm not sure how many people are just claiming that to get the nosy statistics corner off their backs," you said.
He snorted, then checked the time.
"Alright honey, before we go, there's a few things we should cover," he said, trying to get us back on track.
"How far are you comfortable with this going, for one?" He asked.
"What do you mean?" You said.
"I mean do you want me to stick to using my hands? Can I use my mouth? Should I keep my dick in my pants the whole time? What are you comfortable with?" He asked.
You blinked at him. "Len, you can come inside me so long as you're willing to help me prevent a pregnancy later," you said frankly. It was sweet of him to look out for you, but he was underestimating your interest.
For the first time in the conversation, you saw him pink a little. The back of his neck went red, too. It was cute.
"Don't worry about that, darlin', I'm a doctor, I'm not going to let you get pregnant on accident." He said, responding to the second part and not the first. You grinned at him.
"Then you'll fuck me?" You asked, wanting to see him blush a little more but having the feeling you were playing with fire.
He chuckled, eyes gleaming.
"You don't need to worry about that either. I'll give you what you need," he said.
You shifted, squirming in your seat a bit as you clenched around nothing. You watched him clock the movement and get a hungry look in his eye.
"I can't wait to get my hands on you, darlin'," he said in a low, promising voice.
You shivered. You had been right about playing with fire, but somehow you didn't regret it.
"Anything you want me to avoid doing?" He asked, after giving you a moment to sit in the tension of your attraction.
"I don't like being degraded or yelled at during sex," you said, "but you don't seem the type anyway."
"No you wouldn't, would you? You're definitely a good girl," he said, studying you so he could catch your reaction.
And react you did-- your breath caught and you felt yourself clench down again on nothing. He grinned.
"Anything else?"
"I don't want to be choked. You can be a bit rough, just not actually mean," you said. Your partner, before had been a little too rough with you, and you didn't want a repeat of it.
He nodded.
"Anything you want me to know that you do like?" He asked.
"Nothing you haven't noticed already or won't figure out pretty quickly," you said ruefully.
"Alright, then. I think I'm good for tomorrow. You?"
You thought about it, then glanced at the guard who was pretending not to be there.
"Would you kiss me once, here? Before we're under all that pressure, while it's just us?"
He smiled at you, then reached out to cradle your jaw in one hand, the other going to your waist. Your hands rose to his chest.
He was so solid, strong and steady in a way that made you feel safe. He leaned in and pressed his mouth to yours.
You pressed closer to him, tilting your head to deepen the kiss and he took full advantage, supporting your weight and tilting you back slightly until you felt claimed by him.
He pulled away after a long moment and you shivered and panted for air, moving to hide your face in his neck and chest. He pressed a kiss to your forehead and held you close.
"I've got you, honey, it's all gonna be okay," he said, when you parted.
You nodded. "I know," you said. You weren't scared. If anything, you were more aroused than you'd ever been in your life.
Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough.