The Price of Free Will (Gaila)

This one shot is a small snippet from what I imagine Gaila's life pre-federation to be like. No sunshine and roses for the green girl, but a lot of difficult choices and an uncertain future... May be a trigger for some people...you have been warned.

The first time Gaila kills it's the only choice, left. For the first time in her life she disobeys, for the first time she forges her a path toward her own destiny.
And in that moment she finds the price of will.

His body shuddered against hers, and his stale breath was hot in her ears. His arms were pinning her down and she could scarcely move as his weight held her body in place. Desperate panting sounds issued from his mouth. His nails scratched her body gouging deeply, He trembled violently and then he stilled. They both did. Gaila stared up into his yellow eyes, he leered at her. His red face was even ruddier and his grey hair hung limply in his sweaty face.

He leaned down and bit her neck, she gasped as he pulled away, his mouth bloody. He smiled kissing her. She tasted her own blood in his mouth, it made her stomach churn at the coppery taste and his own salty saliva. Her body was slick with blood from the cuts, and scratches he had given her. Her pain was tied in with his pleasure and it was her job as a lodubyaln to satisfy his desire, even at expense of her own self. Her master demanded it as he did of the other girls in his control. She tried not to cry out as he pulled out a knife and carefully almost sensuously carved a line down the middle of her abdomen.

This was what he had paid for. His species was particularly violent and sadistic. Mating for them was equal parts pain and pleasure and they reviled in both aspects. Gaila had been bought for this; he had paid almost twenty times what was normal with the promise for more to fulfill his desire. It was a ritual common to his race that had a great similarity to the Terran species of black widow spider, the only difference was after the mating the female was the one to die.

Her Lodubyal Ot or house-mistress had been very clear about what she was to do. She thought she was stupid, but Gaila had made it her business to know her customers and so when Vina had tried to drug her to make her more compliant she had swallowed the concoction only to throw it up as soon as she could. Even now she could feel the drug in her system, dulling her senses but it was less so than it should had been. She was still in possession of her faculties enough to see that the end was nearing, after hours in the man's company she was weakening and he was reaching his own peak.

Gaila wasn't sure what had led her to this moment. Maybe it was her rebellious pursuit of learning, or her questions that often earned her slap, maybe even her exotic appearance of atypical red hair paired with the green skin that some customers found appealing but led others to turn her down in favor of someone more traditional. But whatever it was had led Vina to decide that out of all the girls she was most expendable.

In all her fourteen years she had never imagined that this would be the end of her. Dying at another's hand's and both Vina and the customer expecting to be unwitting and unfighting, was the farthest from how she expected to go. Duty to the house and master had been beat into her, but if it meant her death she couldn't follow what had always been her guiding imperative. Other girls would have gone along with what they were ordered to do even without the use of drugs , they were that obedient, they were that jaded. But while her body may not have been her own, her mind was.

She had no allusions that if she followed through with what she was planning then she would face severe punishment perhaps even death. But she would rather die on her feet after defending herself, then like a willing participant to her own murder.

The man, she refused to acknowledge his name, rubbed his hands in her blood. Her brushed her cheeks ; his fingers wet with her blood as he caressed the cuts he had made. Gaila's head was spinning with pain, intoxication, and exhaustion but she found enough energy to reach for the knife she always had on her hidden, even if she was nude. As he reached for her neck she didn't try to break his grip, she hadn't attained her full strength yet, she was too young and even so his race was slightly stronger than Orions. She felt her airway begin to close as he crushed her throat in his hands. She struggled as she knew he would expect it, but her fingers scrabbled desperately for her blade. As her fingers reached the cold metal she pulled it up, lighting fast and even though her vision was dim now she plunged it upward into where she knew his heart beat above her. He gave a grunt of surprise and slowly his fingers loosened. His body collapsed onto of her. His blood gushed out of the wound covering her in hot slickness.

She pushed him off with difficulty and reached for her clothes. Once she had dressed in her skimpy dress , she glanced back at the dead man lying behind her. His body had flipped over as she had pushed him off. He was staring sightlessly ahead. She retrieved her knife from his chest, and stowed it away for next time. Because she knew there would be a next time…there always was a customer who was to violent or refused to pay but still wanted her. That was the life of a lodubyaln. That was the life of a person who was nothing more than property to be used, wasted ,and abused.

Her entire body ached, but there was no comfort to be given. Eventually Vina would come expecting to collect her body and the payment and instead find the customer dead. Tears trickled down Gaila's face, blood dripped off her body…she trembled as she imagined what would happen now.

But she had done what was necessary…for once in her life she had fully and utterly chose her own destiny.

The price of free-will was paid in blood.

A little background: Orions are known for their having a form of sexual slavery with the women in which girls from the age of five are trained to basically serve as prostitutes. At age fourteen they typically begin working steadily. I got to thinking about Gaila and what her life was like before Starfleet and this one-shot was the result. I'm planning on doing a story about her because she's a great character who didn't get enough screen time. I prefer to think she didn't die, but she probably did.

This story also was the product of considering all the people out there who are involved in sex trafficking and other forms of bondage. Thanks for reading.