She never got the chance to tell Captain Christopher Pike that she owes him everything.
Every time Gaila dreams, she dreams of Captain Pike. It's not a sexual thing (although there are the odd few of those thrown in there too, he's super hot for an old guy) and she doesn't do it very often because Orions don't exactly dream. Or sleep for that matter. It's more a courtesy thing at this point, as she gets all her energy from the sunlight. But when she's stuck inside all day without direct light, mimicking the humans and resting in bed does the trick as well.
She's not even sure that it's Pike, because in her dreams the man doesn't have a face. But as she feels the unmistakable warmth wash over her, the feeling that things are going to be okay, she knows who it is.
The man who gave her everything.
The first time she meets Captain Pike, he's still just a Commander on some exploration in the delta quadrant where she's fifteen and working as a dancer in a Orion cocktail bar. (The irony of the earth song is really not lost on her.) It's shore leave for two days. Gaila knows this just as she knows what his colors mean because ever since her first meeting with a Starfleet officer, she's researched whatever she could on the Federation. To her it's this glorious place where she's not made to please men because she has to, but because she wants to. It's full of promise and hope, and she clings desperately to that unreachable dream when she wants to curl up and die. She's not happy with this life, being bartered and sold like she's not a person. Because she very much is.
At first she thought all officers would think like her, that they'd find a way to get her out of this life and give her freedom, give her choices to be her own person. But over the years Gaila's view of these upstanding gentlemen becomes tainted, every man that makes hands at her stripping away a layer of hope that someone will help her get out of here.
That is until Christopher Pike walks into the bar. The manager assigns her to him, saying that he's some up and comer in Starfleet so keep him happy no matter what. The bar has been in a lot of trouble with the Federation, so whenever one of them comes in they're top priority. The guys enjoy this, get a kick of of having their own personal slaves for the duration of their shore leave. Slowly resigning herself to this life, Gaila just accepts this without questions and sidles over to him, plastering a dazzling smile on her face.
It's kind of off-putting when he doesn't ask for a drink, or a lap dance. Instead he says, "what's got you so down?"
"N-nothing. Nothing at all." She tries to convince him, puts on her best flirtatious smile. But he's not fooled and every pass she makes at him he simply asks her again why she's so blue. (Which, at first, is really confusing because she's green, hello?)
In the end she caves. It's humiliating at first, the fact that she can't stop all these thoughts and feelings from pouring out. She doesn't break down. She does her job, and does it well. She's one of the youngest girls in the place, but she's learnt the tricks fast. It gets the men out of there quicker. Still, he simply sits back and lets her babble on, reaches forwards to pat her shoulder when she finds herself in tears. Smiles when she mentions Starfleet, and the Federation, and how she wishes she was there and not here.
"Starfleet is hard." he warns her. She's not sure if it's his intention to stop her tears by making her mad, but it works.
"I'm smart." she counters. Gaila makes him hand over his comm and then proceeds to prise it open, rearrange the wiring and put it back together. "There." To her satisfaction it works, the sound coming through crisper than before.
"That's pretty damn impressive." Pike concedes after a moment of deliberation in which he spent fiddling with the device. "You know, I'm kind of stubborn." Gaila snorts at this. It's obvious. "I'm a big fan of challenges. The ungettable get. You know we don't have any Orions in Starfleet. Federation won't work with them with the syndicate in practice. It's a damn shame." With that he's up and moving over to the manager.
Three days later, Gaila is on a ship heading back to earth.
She's not sure why Pike does it. Why he fights to enlist her in a secondary school to fast track a basic education, why he finds a foster family willing to take her. She'd like to say that she made it out of that place on her own, that she didn't need a man to save her. Heroes didn't exist anymore. Except they did, and while she made damn sure she graduated from school with top grades, despite doing ten years of work in three, she owes a lot to Captain Pike as he becomes three months after she sets foot on earth.
When she enlists in Starfleet, there is a glowing reference from him in her application. When she gets hauled in front of a tribunal for numerous demerits (apparently public sex is forbidden, who know?) he's there fighting her corner. He points out that Orions behave in different ways, and Starfleet should be more considerate of other species. They expect people to welcome them, so it should work the same way for her. Later when she sobs on his shoulder and swears that she won't ever have sex again and she shouldn't be here, he simply listens.
"Just remember kiddo. You chose to sleep with them. Nobody forced you. Everything you do here, it's all on your back. I'm not saying that freedom doesn't come with a price, with a certain responsibility. But it's all up to you. That's what you wanted, don't forget it. I know you can do better than this."
So she realizes that she might not have rescued herself, but she can take her freedom and do the very best she possibly can. Make Captain Pike proud. It becomes something of a motto over the years, make him proud. Most of all, make herself proud. He just gave her the means, she had to do the rest.
When Kirk tells her that Pike recruited him with something of the same promise, she simply smiles. It doesn't surprise her.
Gaila doesn't even try to sleep with Pike over the years, though she wouldn't mind the experience. And slowly he backs off, stops fighting in her corner so she learns to do it herself. By the time her second year rolls around, she only speaks to him a handful of times a year, just to tell him that she's doing great. He's not surprised.
The day of her final exams, he sends her a brief transmission. 'Well done kiddo, you made your dreams come true.' The sentiment means a lot to her, and she's about to type a reply telling him exactly how much his support has meant to her, thank him for saving her life in more ways than one. Then Jim turns up and she makes a mental note to do it later.
She'll never get the chance to send that transmission.