PROVING IT

RATED NC17

DISCLAIMER: Paramount owns the characters and the premise behind Star Trek.

Voyager gracefully held her orbit around the newly discovered and inhabited planet below. On her bridge, preparations were being made for an away team to beam down to the surface. Captain Janeway insisted on accompanying her newly appointed First Officer, Chakotay, and Lieutenant Kim. Only four weeks had passed since the crews of the Maquis and Starfleet had been thrown together. Everything was proceeding in a satisfactory, if somewhat tense, manner.

Tuvok mounted an immediate protest. ‘For both the Captain and First Officer to leave the ship simultaneously is not recommended,’ he cautioned.

Scans had determined the planet’s inhabitants to be a very primitive race, armed only with rocks and spears, hardly comparable to Voyager’s modern technology. Captain Janeway discounted Tuvok’s comments, desiring Chakotay to feel comfortable in his new position, at her side.

‘We’ve left Voyager in your capable hands before, Tuvok. I assure you we’ll be careful. I’m looking forward to a first contact situation. They might have something we can use, you know. And I’m sure Commander Chakotay looks forward to his first away mission with us.’

Chakotay nodded assent. The matter settled, Janeway headed for the turbolift while Tuvok’s brow furrowed. ‘May I at least suggest a security team accompany the three of you.’

‘I don’t think that will be necessary. We’ll have phasers.’ Eager to be off, Janeway dismissed the cautious Vulcan.

~ ~ ~

Materializing into a strong wind on the verdant planet’s surface, Janeway and her companions immediately felt the effects of an approaching storm. They made their way, huddling together, to a clearing wherein several crude hogans were set in a rough circle. Kim’s tricorder showed the hogans to be occupied, and they were basically humanoid. They didn’t have to rely on scans long, however, before several warriors emerged from the central hogan, surrounding one magnificently costumed male.

‘The chief?’ asked Janeway.

‘Very likely,’ replied Chakotay.

‘They’re a lot bigger than we are,’ Ensign Kim remarked, nervously.

‘Put on your best first contact face, Mr. Kim. We may get more than we need from these people.’

The trio remained still and calm as the group approached cautiously. Staring intently at Janeway, they immediately began jabbering among themselves.

‘What are they saying?’ asked Janeway. The universal translator clicked in a futile manner. It was failing them, as it often did in the Delta Quadrant, where no base language was programmed. They were constantly revising the software to deal with the many new species and new languages they encountered.

Chakotay studied their body language. ‘They’re very taken with you, Captain. Your reddish hair fascinates them.’

At this point several women emerged from the hogans, curiously drawn to the new visitors. Each was of massive size; as tall as the men and heavyset.

‘What is this, the Land of the Amazons?’ Harry Kim wondered aloud. ‘No wonder they’re fascinated with you, Captain. You’re half the size of their own women…’

‘That will be enough, Mr. Kim,’ said Janeway. She stepped forward with her hand held high in greeting. Knowing they would not understand anything but the tone of her voice, she spoke as gently as she could.

‘We come in peace. We are from far away. We need supplies, and would like to barter with you.’

Her comments were met with blank expressions. She stooped to the ground and smoothed the dirt. With a stick, she drew two simple figures, each giving the other something. The chief studied it then nodded. As Janeway rose, he motioned to one of the women to come forward. Roughly, he grabbed her arm and shoved her toward Chakotay. He then motioned for Janeway to stand at his side.

‘I don’t think you made yourself clear, Captain,’ Chakotay ventured.

‘Perhaps not,’ she conceded. ‘All right, it’s your turn.’

Cornered, Chakotay attempted basic sign language. While he spoke earnestly to the chief, two warriors had stepped closer to Janeway and were now looking her up and down, daring to touch her hair and finger her uniform. She remained calm, but instructed Kim to request immediate beam-out. She didn’t want to pull phasers on these simple people – not yet. Just as Kim tapped his badge Voyager responded, one of the warriors struck him with a spear. Kim fell back and the transporter caught him in the beam, whisking him back to the ship and leaving Janeway and Chakotay alone in the midst of an ever-increasing number of natives.

~ ~ ~

On board Voyager, Kim immediately requested beam-out for his Captain and the Commander but was thwarted by the intensifying storm.

‘I requested three to beam up!’ he barked at the crewman attending the transporter.

‘Sorry, sir, your message was garbled. I thought you said one.’

‘Never mind that now! We have to get the Captain and Commander back!’

~ ~ ~

Janeway and Chakotay found themselves in the midst of many jabbering natives, some of whom shoved them ahead, forcibly rushing them inside the chief’s hogan out of the approaching storm. Their weapons were taken from them. Forced to sit by the fire, they were surrounded by a ring of tribesmen. None of the women were in attendance. The chief sat nearby. As the wind howled outside, he made Janeway increasingly uneasy by touching her hair, her uniform, her hand. The situation had lost its humor.

Chakotay attempted to explain that they were only visiting, that unless they wished to trade, he and Janeway would have to leave. The chief smiled, and Chakotay had a feeling that he understood far more than he let on; that he knew exactly what Chakotay was saying. He felt increasingly uneasy. The chief now smoothed the dirt floor and drew for his visitors a sketch depicting what he had in mind. A stick figure of Janeway and one of the chief were pictured in what looked like a ceremony. Another figure depicting Chakotay was shown leaving the village. The chief even simulated the strange transporter technology by wiping Chakotay’s freshly-drawn figure from the dirt. Nothing about the visitors seemed to awe them but Janeway and her red hair.

‘Captain,’ Chakotay ventured quietly, ‘we have to figure a way out of here. Does your communicator work?’

Janeway surreptitiously tried it without success; the storm was still blocking transmission. ‘No,’ she said. ‘What’s wrong here? What does this man want?’

‘Well, Captain, I’m afraid what he wants is…you.’

‘You’re joking, right?’

‘I wish I were. I can’t interpret it any other way. Look at the drawing. It’s a mating ritual, or perhaps a wedding ceremony.’

She leaned forward and peered at the crude sketch in the dirt. As she did so, the chief clarified himself by seizing her wrist with one hand and cupping her breast with the other. Shocked, she jerked back away from him.

‘No!’ Chakotay yelled, moving to place himself between Janeway and the chief.

The warriors behind them were on their feet; voices rising, as they threatened and shook their weapons at the two officers. Amid the bedlam, Chakotay had an idea. ‘NO!’ He yelled again. He held Janeway close to him and struck his own chest. ‘Mine!’

Janeway tried to pull away but he held her tightly to him. ‘Chakotay, what are you doing?’

‘The only thing I know to do – I’m telling him you’re my wife. Maybe he’ll honor that – if they’re monogamous. Not many such tribes are.’

She didn’t waste time questioning his knowledge of anthropology. ‘What if he doesn’t?’

‘One thing at a time, Captain.’ He turned again to the chief. Still holding a very uncomfortable Janeway close to his chest, he repeated forcefully: ‘MINE!’

The look in the chief’s eyes disturbed him. Unintelligible language spewed forth. When Chakotay again claimed Janeway, the chief once again resorted to sketching on the dirt floor.

When he finished and leaned back, Chakotay stared at the drawing, horrified. The chief’s eyes gleamed.

‘What is it, Commander?’ asked Janeway.

He couldn’t answer right away until he studied it and was sure. For there on the floor was a clear picture of himself and Janeway coupling, amid a generous number of tribesmen including the chief, witnessing the act. The chief wanted the two of them to prove Janeway was his; to prove she was his mate. Forcing them to have sex would prove this. There would be witnesses. Otherwise, there would be no other obstacle to his claiming the red-haired female for his own. He had drawn that proviso out, too. It was all too clear.

Swallowing nervously, he turned to his Captain and explained the situation to her.

‘No,’ she said, equally horrified, shaking her head. ‘We’ll wait for the storm to clear and our communicators will operate. Then, somehow, we’ll get ourselves out of this.’

‘Surrounded by tribesmen? Without phasers?’

While Chakotay was whispering, the chief, taking note of the strange red-haired woman’s negative headshake, glowered at her. Tired of negotiating, he barked an order.

The Captain and Commander found themselves in the clutches of the tribesmen. Chakotay stood stoically but Janeway struggled mightily as the natives stripped the uniforms off the two officers. They brought a large animal skin of some sort and forced the two nude people down upon it, wrapping thongs around their limbs to bind each to the other. Then they returned to their seats, whispering among themselves in tense anticipation. The chief stood menacingly over them with a spear, stabbing at them to begin.

Chakotay kept his eyes averted. ‘Captain…all due respect - my apologies, but if we don’t do this, they’re going to kill us.’

Janeway would not look at him. Bound by her wrists to his wrists, her ankles to his ankles, lying on her side facing him, her face was scarlet but her mouth firm. As best she could, she was trying to maintain her position and her dignity. ‘How can you be sure, Commander?’

‘Well, just look at them!’

She knew it to be true. However, several uncomfortable minutes passed during which the two officers made no move. Impatiently, the chief sliced into Chakotay’s shoulder with his spear. He made a move to do the same to Janeway, but Chakotay rolled her onto her back, shielding her. He glared up at the chief. Turning back to Janeway, he sighed.

‘I hope you’ll forgive me…Kathryn…’ he said softly as he moved close to her and kissed her. She only struggled for a moment before yielding against impossible odds. Make love with this man or die? Never in her career had she been called upon to make such a decision or perform such an act for such a reason – or with such a man! Only weeks ago this man was her sworn enemy!!

Her heart pounded in anger until she realized that Chakotay had taken it upon himself to instigate an act forced upon the two of them in order to protect her. Even in this extreme situation he was ironically behaving as a First Officer should: his duty was to safeguard his Captain. So far, only his blood had been shed. It dripped from his wounded shoulder onto her breast. In some primal way, that seemed to bind them together better than what they were about to do.

Her anger was melting for another reason. Her new ‘husband’ was exceptionally skilled at lovemaking. His lips were arousing feelings in her nearly forgotten in the weeks since she had been thrown 70,000 light years away from Mark. She and Mark had been lovers for years but now, in fact, she could not even call up his face, for Chakotay’s brown eyes were locked with hers, coercing her cooperation and her trust.

He closed his eyes; his lips left hers and traveled to her neck. Secure in the knowledge that the chief would not harm them if they cooperated, he lay over on his side. He could not hold Kathryn in his arms as he wished, not with their wrists bound, so he folded their hands together beneath her breasts. He continued kissing her throat, inching downward. Why in hell they had to bind them in such a manner maddened him more than anything, for Kathryn was a petite woman, while he stood well over a meter and a half. His legs were bent awkwardly and the thongs pulled painfully at her ankles. He could hear the accelerated breathing of the onlookers and that maddened him, too. For a split instant he had been lost in Kathryn, oblivious to his surroundings, but now he was alert and calculating.

He would not drag this out. He would not make a show of this for their amusement. The old fool was going to be satisfied, but damned if Chakotay would give him or any of his tribesmen anything extra. He rolled Janeway to her back, pulling her arms over her head as he supported his weight with his elbows. His ankles took hers with them as he spread his legs, bending the knees outside hers. Carefully, he positioned his hardness to trail between her legs, using his stomach muscles to guide it up and in. Poised to enter her, he dared look her in the eyes with a sudden intensity. She was not ready but he entered her slowly, inch by inch, allowing her to accommodate him as he went. She did what she could to help him. Forcing herself to relax, she was able to take him inside her. They lay together, joined, for a moment. At any other time, the feeling would have been exquisite, but this was made to be an abomination.

Now Chakotay began moving, slowly, within her. He focused only on Kathryn, continuing to kiss her tenderly as his hips moved in the ancient rhythm. Supported on his elbows, his hands, bound to hers, could only caress her hair and face. He hurried. As he neared the end, he buried his face in her shoulder, whispering things to help her forget the onlookers and join with him in the protective sphere he was trying to build around them. He succeeded, and she arched, clenching beneath him. He then felt a small explosion, the culmination that failed this time, to bring him delicious exhaustion which was the normal response. Saddened, he listened and knew that for her, it was the same; their breathing had barely escalated. They were not here to enjoy. They damned sure weren’t going to entertain. They were here only to survive. After a moment, Chakotay spoke, for them both, and he knew he would be understood.

‘You have your damned proof. Now release us!’

The chief acquiesced. He ordered their bonds removed and their clothing returned. Ignoring the circle of tribesmen who stared at them in awe, Janeway and Chakotay turned their backs on each other in order to dress. Janeway glared daggers at the chief, but continued to play her role, grasping Chakotay’s arm after their uniforms were on and they stood together in as much dignity as they could muster.

‘Mine,’ she told the chief in no uncertain terms.

The chief nodded, satisfied. He would not be able to obtain the small fire-haired woman he wanted so much for his own. The union between these two had been verified, according to their own ancient law. He respected the fact that this woman belonged to this man with the strange forehead markings, who apparently loved her very much.

The chief waved his hand in dismissal.

They were free to go.

~ ~ ~

Returning to the beam-out coordinates, Janeway and Chakotay were gratified to note that the storm had passed. A quick check of their communicators confirmed that they would soon be able to leave this planet to which they now wished they had never come. Perhaps it would be better, each thought privately, not to beam down together any more, as Tuvok had suggested.

Just before the transporter grasped them in its light to scramble their somewhat shaky molecules, Chakotay ventured, ‘Some first contact situation, huh, Captain?’

He could feel the hot glare of her eyes through the beam.

The End