Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this story except for my OC, Rachel Deveaux.

Warning: This story contains graphic violence and rape. If these are triggers of yours, I highly advise that you do not continue reading.

An Atrocity Aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise

Chapter 1

"These are the new samples," McCoy said as he handed a package to the Enterprise's biochemistry officer.

"Finally," Officer Deveaux exclaimed. She was expecting the ground team to arrive fairly quickly from acquiring the samples as they had on the previous trip, but was disappointed to find herself cooped up in the lab for nearly three days with no way to progress on her research.

"I… I mean thank you Officer McCoy." She corrected her tone as she accepted the package. Patience had never been her strong suit, but politeness was one of the qualities she always tried to exhibit, especially to a higher ranking officer.

"No problem sweetheart," McCoy responded with his usual southern accent and that familiar schoolboy grin. "What do you expect to find that's got you so worked up?"

"Well, the chemicals in the last sample of foliage proved to hold certain hormone influencing qualities, and if these samples are anything like the last, we might have stumbled upon a jungle that could be cultivated into medicines that could potentially cure anything from acromegaly to the Klingon disease that's been wreaking so much havoc lately," She stated as she opened the package.

"You really think that the properties of these plants could be that advanced?" McCoy questioned with excitement.

"I'll only be able to confirm the true extent of the possibilities after I've studied at least two more samples after this one. We need to scour the whole jungle before we get any conclusive results." Deveaux answered as she readied the samples for study.

"Well I should probably let you get to your research then, but the Captain wanted me to let you know that the rest of the ground team and I won't be able to get to the other sample sites for at least five days. Some kind of ritual is going on down there with the natives, and they won't let us into the jungle until it's over," he explained. "We were ushered out this morning and the locals were angrier than a group of Klingons on a ship overflowing with tribbles that we hadn't left the previous night like we were supposed to."

"What kind of ritual lasts for five days?" Devaux asked with a hint of irritation peeking through her otherwise relaxed tone.

"I don't know, but Officer Spock seems to think it has something to do with mating and the native's beliefs about the moon cycle in relation to the supposed mystical properties of the jungle." McCoy answered with his usual annoyance at the mention of Officer Spock.

"Well that certainly puts a damper on my research, I better drag out these samples for as long as I can with such a bleak time estimate for the arrival of the next ones."

McCoy watched Officer Deveaux as she slipped her sample under a microscope and meticulously turned the dials into focus. She was a petite woman with extraordinarily gracious curves for having such a small frame. Though she was in her late twenties, her usual hairstyle of short pig tails kept her looking more around the age of nineteen and gave her a cute but edgy look. Although McCoy usually found that the soft long hair of ultra-feminine types was what commonly drew him to a woman, he could not escape the fact that he found Officer Rachel Deveaux completely entrancing, especially as he watched the way her regulation dress slid up, as she bent over the microscope, to show off her smooth toned thighs.

"Hey, uh… Since you won't be having any new samples coming through for a while do you thi…"

Suddenly Officer Spock came through the doorway and interrupted McCoy by stating "The Captain has requested that the two of you report to the brig immediately."

Startled, Deveaux looked up from her microscope and was about to ask the reason behind such an odd request when McCoy blurted out "What for? And why couldn't he tell us that through the intercom instead of having his pointy eared messenger come to fetch us?"

"Two days ago, the Captain and I had returned from a shuttle run and the results of our expedition were… Troubling. We are finding that we may require some additional assistance. The captain has chosen not to request your presence through the intercommunications speakers so as not to draw attention to the brig. I cannot disclose to you any other information, although I am assuming that more details will be revealed to you upon your arrival to the brig," Spock responded calmly, but with the implied intent of urgency.

McCoy and Deveaux followed Spock through the ship's corridors as they both wondered to themselves what was going on and as McCoy cursed the fact that Spock had to choose that exact moment to barge in. McCoy had fancied Rachel from the first week she reported for duty on the enterprise, and found the contrast between her usual quirky attitude and the sardonic disposition that reflected his own demeanor, which she exhibited in the absence of an interesting project, to be adorably endearing. And her ever-so-subtle French accent didn't help matters much either. Rachel had certain feelings for the chief medical officer, and knew quite well of his feelings for her. It's always easy to sense in a good old southern boy when he gets sweet on someone, she thought. Although she felt this mutual attraction, professionalism and the love she had for her career usually deterred her from giving in to another officer's charms, even when that officer was a doctor as well as a southern hunk. So she was subtly, if not mistakenly relieved at the interruption of McCoy's latest attempt at romancing her with the presence of Spock and his relaying of the Captain's odd request that now found her and the other two officers entering the brig.