Over the next 3 months he writes a whole book, it's actually turns out to be pretty therapeutic. He might not know what its like to be a sex slave but in writing her background his time on Tarsus IV leaks out, things like running from Kodos's men turns into his main character Vivnu escaping the slavers. The starvation and watching the kids under his projection die from phaser blasts, infection or starvation into Vivnu watching her cellmates and sisters dying the same way and blaming herself like he does. The torture he went through at Kodo's own hands in the last week on Tarsus IV after he and Tom fixed an old communication device in Hoshi Sato's basement to send out a distress signal into punishment from Vivnu's Masters, and something from before Tarsus IV comes out as well, what his step-dad Frank use to do to him in the middle of the night becomes Vivnu being raped by her 'clients' and masters.
He even bases the big bad on Kodos, a dark creepy man who tortures people, who believes in eugenics and who wants to kill everyone who doesn't meet his genetic standards.
It's weird, hard in spots but mostly therapeutic to get it out of his head and onto paper, okay not paper but you know what I mean.
When Jim's done he doesn't know what to do next, he never told anyone he was writing the book and he can't show it to anyone without them asking how he can describe starvation in such morbid detail or the feeling of a blade ripping through his back, and not matter how good it feels to write it down there's no way he could get the words out of his mouth to tell someone.
So it sits on his PADD for another month before he makes a decision, people might like it, people might need a story where the Orion character isn't just used for sex.
So he makes up a name and sends it off to a couple publishers, and gets a reply only a week later from someone wanting to publish his book. He forgets about it for a while, until it's released four months later.
Purple Shadow and The Crimson Slayer (yes dumb name but Jim had fun with the hero/villain stuff and embraced the ridiculousness wholeheartedly) jumped to the top of the Federation bestseller list and stays there.
"Hey guys!" Gaila grins joining their group (Bones, Uhura, Sulu Chekov and himself) sitting in at their usual corner table in the cafeteria. "Have you read that new book in the library?" she grins, sitting down with her PADD clutched in her hands.
"The library got a shipment of dozens of new books this week, you'll have to be more specific" Chekov speaks in a cheerful voice before taking a sip of his soup.
Gaila shoots him a look, "Purple Shadow and The Crimson Slayer, what else would I mean?"
Jim almost chokes on his burger in surprise. His book? He knew people would read it but he didn't think anyone he knows would! Especially Gaila who was a sex slave like his character.
Uhura frowns thoughtfully "I think I heard about that. Its a superhero story right? Based on the popular ones from the 21st century."
"But it is set now isn't it?" Sulu thinks, "A assassin trained, human hero in black and purple who goes by Purple Shadow."
"Not human" Gaila corrects with a grin, "A Orion ex-sex slave who learns how to fight so she can help people like her."
Bones blinks in surprise "Why are you happy then? I thought you hated how your people were presented in media."
Jim looks down at his burger not sure he wants to hear what she is going to say next, he wrote his book thinking of Gaila and her people wanting to do the opposite of what writers normally do with Orion characters, she might sound happy but what if she hates it or thinks it's insulting? He did a lot of research into her culture and asked her a lot of subtle questions but there's a lot he could have gotten wrong.
Her grin some how gets bigger "Vivnu is nothing like the walking sex toys you always see. She is a badass with no love interest, who doesn't need saving or reward the saver with sex! The book doesn't even have her using her beauty or pheromones to her advantage! Its all about her doing detective work, bonding with her best friend, fighting the bad guy and dealing with her trauma!" she bounces a little in her seat, "It actually acknowledges and shows in flashbacks that what we go through is traumatic, not just free training for how to fuck!"
Thank god, he didn't insult her! And she liked it, Jim smiles at that, she liked his book.
Uhura smiles, surprise clear in her eyes "That's great Gaila. Can I read it after you?" she requests.
Gaila keeps grinning "I already read it twice and bought my own copy" she puts the PADD she is holding down and reaches into her bag and pulls out a library PADD, "Here."
"Thanks" Uhura nods gratefully as she takes it.
Gaila grins, spotting another one of her friends walking past, "Hey Danny! Have you read this new book?" she jumps out of her seat and runs after him.
"Well she's happy" Jim can't help noting as he watches her tell someone else about his book.
"Of course she is" Sulu shrugs on his own PADD, looking up the book "It's the first piece of popular media that doesn't make her people look awful" he pauses, "And according to the reviews it's genuinely a good book, pretty dark though."
Uhura nods, "As her room-mate I've heard more than one rant on this subject, you don't get how much this means to her Kirk."
"I dated her a few months ago Kyosmi, I've heard the same rants" he reminds her.
She rolls her eyes, "Creative but not even close."
"I will learn your first name some day!" Jim vows with a grin, the name thing is more of a game than anything else now but that doesn't mean he's not determined.
"Sure you will farm boy" she snorts with a half smile looking back to the borrowed PADD.
Everyone at the table now as their PADD's out, all buying his book.
Jim grins to himself and takes out his own PADD just so he doesn't get any looks from their groups language expert and brings up the third book in the series (having finished the sequel a month ago and already sent it to his publisher, he loves writing this character and doesn't see a reason not to, even before it turned out popular) and reads over the first chapter and does some editing.
