Chiksa

       "So, how are you feeling today?"
       Chekov pulled forward and away from the hand placed on his shoulder. "Don't talk to me," he ordered coldly without turning around.
       Vargik grinned murderously at Sulu. "He knows he doesn't have long to get ready for me, doesn't he?"
       The very pointed way that the ensign did not make eye contact as he returned for another container from the cart they were unloading let the lieutenant know his input was not welcome.
       "Don't come near me," Chekov warned flatly as the circuit of his task brought him near the guard again.
       "Well." The Mergonian sat down on top of the stack of containers on the warehouse floor. "I see the little princess still has an attitude problem. Does he know what's going to happen to him if he doesn't sweeten up?"
       Another non-look from Chekov dissuaded Sulu from replying as he handed the ensign the next container from the top of the cart.
       "I heard your threat." The ensign began a new stack of containers next to the guard's foot. He straightened and looked down at the guard. "And I decided I'd rather die."
       Vargik had no immediate reply for this. As Chekov moved back to the cart for another load, the Mergonian spread his hands in a nonverbal critique of Sulu's rhetorical skills. The helmsman could answer only with a small shake of his head.
       "Mmm." Vargik watched as the ensign deposited the container beside him. "No gratitude, eh?"
       Without breaking stride, the Russian replied using a local idiom that made up in crudeness for what it lacked in feasibility.
       "Not exactly what I had in mind," the guard said mildly, watching the ensign make another circuit. He put his foot up on Chekov's new stack of containers. "Maybe I've been going about this wrong."
       The ensign started another stack without comment.
       Vargik stopped his progress with a hand on his chest. "What if I say I'm going to kill him instead?" he asked, nodding towards Sulu.
       Chekov looked back and forth between them for a moment, frowning at the lieutenant as if this last variation had been his idea instead of the Mergonian's. "I don't believe you."
       "Oh, it can be done," Vargik assured him, leaning back against the stack of containers and smiling. "A hundred different ways."
       Chekov looked to Sulu for confirmation.
       "Don't listen to him," the lieutenant advised, ignoring his deep assurance that the guard was speaking the truth.
       "I wouldn't have any trouble getting away with it either," the Mergonian bragged. "After your last temper tantrum, you don't have much credibility in the commandant's office. He'll believe my version of any... uh, unfortunate accidents over yours."
       "Harm him," Chekov promised, "and I'll kill you."
       The guard laughed and stood, letting the size difference between the two of them argue the emptiness of the ensign's threat. "What a temper you have, chiksa. I'm just going to have to help you learn to control it."
       "Leave him alone," Sulu pleaded.
       "But look at the poor little princess," the guard protested. "He's gotten all hot now. Ready to boil over and get himself into trouble. An hour or two of extra duty with the disciplinary detail clearing ice from the yard will cool him off very nicely. Give him some time to think. That's what you need, isn't it, sweetheart?" The Mergonian stroked the ensign's flushed cheeks solicitously.
       Chekov knocked Vargik's hand away and replied with a choice phrase in the inmate patois.
       "Chekov, don't!" Sulu warned, again too late.
       "Poor little dear." The Mergonian easily pinned the ensign's arms behind his back and cuffed them together. "A little cooling down it is."
       "No, wait!" The lieutenant jumped down from his perch atop the loaded cart. However, by this time, another guard attracted by the sounds of a scuffle had arrived to prevent him from interfering.
       "Don't worry," Vargik called as he hustled the ensign towards the warehouse door. "He'll have it all thought out by the time he gets back to you."
       Sulu feared this was absolutely true.

       Sulu was working on replacing the padding in the toe of his ill-fitting prison-issue shoes when a guard brought Chekov back to their cell. He continued with his task without looking up as the mesh was rolled up, as if watching his fellow officer being delivered in handcuffs had become routine.
       The ensign remained silent and motionless as the guard released him and rolled the mesh back into place. He was damp and blue-lipped from the cold, but remained stubbornly motionless as if defying Sulu to comment or intervene. When it gradually became apparent that neither one of these things was going to happen, he released what sounded like a rather disgusted sigh and marched to his locker for a dry uniform.
       Sulu kept his eyes on his shoe as the ensign changed. This is stupid, he thought to himself as the silence wore on, interrupted only by the locker banging open then shut. I know he doesn't want to talk to me, but I refuse to go on with this infantile game of...
       "So," the ensign began abruptly, as he crossed his arms and sat down on his bunk. "What must I do to satisfy this... person?"
       Sulu looked up, but couldn't interpret the Russian's expression. "I don't know," he replied safely.
       Chekov frowned. "I'm not being rhetorical."
       "Oh..." The lieutenant studied his friend. Although Chekov was still shaking from the cold, the young man was a picture of determined resolution. "So, you've decided to..."
       "What will I have to do?" the ensign cut him off sharply, as if to indicate that he wanted input only on the mechanics of the course he'd decided on.
       "Well..." Sulu began. When no more of the sentence came to him, he realized he needed more time to consider. He dug into the hole in his mattress and pulled out one of the packets of kassa that he and Chekov had stolen from the guards' dining hall. Kassa was a caffeinated beverage somewhere between coffee and tea. He ran a cup of hot water and emptied the packet into it. All right, he decided, stirring the dark liquid with his finger. If he wants to be purely practical about this, we'll go that way.... For now. But he's not going to make this decision by himself, though. Not by a long shot.
       "Well," he began aloud, handing the mug to the ensign. "The thing that you probably want to do least... That's probably what he'll want to do most."
       "Oh...." The Russian's face fell a little as he took the kassa. Sipping the warm liquid immediately brought some color back to his features. "And if I do this thing I do not wish to do, will he leave us alone?"
       Looking at him, Sulu suddenly didn't have the heart to tell the ensign the truth. "I don't know. I don't know how his mind works..."
       This reply was met with only silence from the ensign. When he looked up at the lieutenant, the silence took on an accusing tone. The expression in his eyes was like that of a child who knows only enough to know he's being lied to.
       "Yeah," Sulu admitted reluctantly, unable to withstand that gaze. "Yeah, it looks it's a dominance thing. Chances are he'll lose interest in you if you don't resist... But you're going to resist."
       The ensign frowned at him for pointing this out. He took another long sip of the kassa and considered. Still looking down he asked, "This thing I don't wish to do..... It will be painful?"
       Sulu hesitated, but another piercing brown-eyed stare was ready for him, forbidding equivocation. He sighed. "Yeah. This is a worst case scenario. You've never done it before. You don't want to do it. You hate this guy. He only wants to do it to humiliate you..."
       "Would it make a difference?" Chekov interrupted.
       "What?"
       The ensign gestured vaguely. "If I had done this thing before."
       Sulu pretended like he didn't know what this suggested. "That still wouldn't take care of the fact that he's not going to be..."
       "It would make a difference though," the ensign concluded.
       The lieutenant shook his head and closed his eyes, refusing to see the look that would make him tell the truth. "I don't know..."
       "I would know what to expect," Chekov said slowly, working it out for himself. "I would not be so afraid."
       Sulu's heart thudded in his chest. He knew that if the ensign asked him to do what he thought he might, he wouldn't be able to refuse. He also knew that he might not be agreeing for all the right reasons.
       As if to spare him, the lights-out warning siren sounded.
       "Drink the rest of that," he instructed the ensign, as he hurried over to stow his shoes and get into bed before the lights were extinguished. "Don't pour it out."
       Chekov obeyed, but paused to complain, "I won't sleep well."
       Like you were going to anyway, Sulu thought as he stripped off his uniform and pulled his locker down.
       The noise from a corridor full of prisoners simultaneously doing the same thing was so great that he didn't notice Chekov had stepped beside him until the ensign's hand was on his wrist.
       "You will help me," the ensign half asked/half demanded.
       His touch was electric. "I... I..." the unprepared lieutenant stammered helplessly.
       "Get into bed, chiksa," a passing guard ordered.
       "Yes, sir."
       The lieutenant continued to stare dumbly after the ensign as he returned to his side of the room.
       "You too!" the guard he'd forgotten about barked.
       "Yes, sir." He quickly got under the covers. At least the Mergonians weren't particularly stingy with blankets. Chekov would be able to warm up.... The thought of the Russian made his mind go agonizingly blank. What should he do? Sulu turned his face to the wall as the room plunged into murky darkness. Chekov, he knew, was only trying to be practical. If I agree to have sex with him, will I be doing it for strictly practical reasons? he asked himself.
       No.
       "Sulu," came a whisper from across the room.
       "Yeah?"
       "We have thirty minutes until the guard passes by again."
       That was it. The lieutenant knew that was as much of a come-on as he was going to get. He pushed the covers back slowly as he sat up. "Chekov, are you sure this is what you want?"
       "No." came the immediate reply. "I want to kill him."
       "But you can't do that."
       "And apparently I can't simply allow him to kill me either," the ensign said. "This is my third choice."
       A short, near-hysterical giggle burst out of Sulu's mouth. "God, you're a romantic."
       "Are you going to do this or not?" came the impatient reply.
       Swallowing his doubts, the lieutenant threw back his covers and padded quickly across the floor to Chekov's bunk. The ensign pulled the blankets aside for him. He shivered as he climbed in and quickly pulled the covers up over them both.
       They lay face to face looking at each other for a few moments. The situation was suddenly too awkward and too intimate for comfort. It put Sulu in mind of a disastrous camping trip he'd once been on with a supposedly platonic friend.
       "Chekov," Sulu said, careful not to touch the ensign. "I don't know how much easier this is going to make things for you."
       "What do you mean?" the ensign asked shortly.
       "Physically, it's still probably going to be pretty unpleasant for you with Vargik. And then afterwards on top of all that, you'll have a weird situation with me to deal with."
       Pale blue-white light from the window illuminated the ensign's face. The lieutenant wasn't sure if it was the lighting or the situation that made the Russian's features look so set and stony. "However..." Chekov began for him.
       "It may make things a little less bad physically," the lieutenant admitted. "Knowing what to expect should give you a psychological edge.... If you're sure this is what you..."
       The ensign cut him off. "We have limited time."
       Sulu sighed. "Okay." He rubbed his hands together to warm them before putting them on the ensign's body. He slid his arms around the Russian's bare shoulders and hugged him close.
       This must not have seemed too bad to Chekov, who reciprocated. The warmth of the ensign's arms around him nearly broke Sulu's heart. He hugged the ensign tightly and wished with all his soul that this moment had come as a result of an entirely different set of circumstances. He kissed the white shoulder and neck before him, working his way slowly and carefully to the navigator's lips.
       Before he reached them, Chekov pulled back.
       "Is this necessary?" the ensign asked suspiciously.
       Sulu's grip loosened. He felt painfully stupid and awkward once more. "Chekov, I... I'm not a rapist. I can't just..."
       "Oh." The ensign considered with an astonishing degree of dispassion. "So, then it's the same as with a woman..."
       "Yes, of course."
       "Hmmm." The Russian didn't quite sound believing. He released a slow audible breath through his nose. "All right. You may continue."
       "Okay," Sulu agreed numbly. Underneath his own discomfort and embarrassment, he hoped Chekov was usually a little more responsive and tactful with a lover. The lieutenant tentatively began to kiss the ensign's neck once more.
       "It's just," the ensign said after a few moments. "It's almost as if... you want to do this..."
       "I...I..." Sulu stammered. "Of course not... I..."
       "Have you never even thought about...?"
       "Thinking about something," the lieutenant reminded him, "is not doing it."
       The Russian inflicted another of his truth serum silences on the helmsman.
       "You know," Sulu said, drawing away and pulling back the covers. "This is exactly the approach you should take with Vargik. The man will never be able to keep an erection."
       "Wait, wait." the ensign put a restraining hand on his arm and coaxed him back into bed. "Please. I apologize for breaking your concentration. It won't happen again."
       The fact that the Russian accompanied this apology by taking the lieutenant into his arms once more made it irresistible. The ensign pulled the blankets securely around them. He then brushed the lieutenant's hair from his face and looked deeply into his eyes.
       "So," he continued in his best prosecutorial manner. "Then you have had thoughts about me?"
       "Oh, come on, Chekov," Sulu groaned. He closed his eyes in defeat. "Okay, okay. Remember when you told me you were having a persistent dream about being in a turbo lift with Cynthia Chang? You knew it wasn't going to happen and you didn't mean any disrespect. It was just a harmless fantasy."
       Chekov considered this so long, Sulu thought he might be off the hook.
       "In my fantasies, though," he replied. "I was quite disrespectful."
       "Okay, okay!" Sulu put his hands up in defeat. "You caught me. I'm attracted to you. I've had improper and disrespectful thoughts about you."
       Chekov nodded and the lieutenant thought for a moment that the admission had satisfied him. He was wrong.
       "For how long?" the ensign persisted.
       "From the minute I met you 'til about three minutes ago."
       "Three minutes ago? Why three minutes ago?"
       "Because that's when you started to be prick about the whole thing."
       Chekov blinked at him as if it took a moment for this complaint to translate. "Oh." he said, when the idea he could be doing something wrong finally sunk in. "Sorry."
       "It's all right." the lieutenant accepted magnanimously.
       Chekov blinked at him for another moment. "Well, go ahead then," he prompted at last.
       Sulu sighed as he took the ensign into his arms once more. He was on the verge of beginning to feel sorry for Vargik. After a moment, he began to reconsider. The navigator seemed more relaxed this time, however, and responded to his caresses a little less stiffly. When he moved to the ensign's lips, Chekov was watching him.
       "From the first moment we met," he began seriously, "you were actually thinking...."
       Sulu decided to try shutting the ensign up with a kiss. It worked. It worked well. It worked so well, in fact, that the lieutenant vowed never to shut him up any other way. Kisses, he decided, were indeed the galaxy's most natural and perfect way to shut Pavel Chekov up.
       When he finally pulled back, the ensign was breathless and looked shocked.
       "Sulu, I..." he tried to begin.
       More shutting up was clearly called for. The lieutenant resolutely applied himself to the task. He sucked at the navigator's delectable lower lip and teasing it open. When the ensign let his jaw drop a bit, the lieutenant pushed his tongue inside eagerly. The Russian responded, timidly at first, but then with growing abandon. Their tongues caressed as they slid next to each other.
       Holding the ensign tight, Sulu could tell Chekov was as aroused by this as he was. Nevertheless, the ensign pushed him away.
       "Sulu, I apologize," he gasped, shaking his head as if to clear it. "I was becoming... carried away."
       "Oh, that's all right," Sulu said, pulling the ensign on top of him, glad to have the chance to shut the young man up yet again.
       Apparently, laying on top of a lover was comfortingly familiar to the ensign. The Russian sighed and closed his eyes as he relaxed into the lieutenant's welcoming arms and lips.
       There was no shyness or hesitancy this time. Chekov's mouth was generous and eager to be taken. As they kissed, the ensign's hips began to thrust gently against the lieutenant's. Sulu let first one caressing hand and then the other settle on the young man's backside.
       The Russian paused and looked at him questioningly. His dark eyes seemed huge in the pale light.
       "Kiss me," the lieutenant ordered.
       As his subordinate obeyed, the helmsman slid the young man's underpants down to the middle of his thighs, leaving his rump bare and vulnerable. As shiver of fright or delight passed through the Russian's body as his naked backside was caressed.
       Sulu put a finger into the ensign's mouth and let him suck it. He wasn't sure if the Russian knew what he was helping prepare for. No matter, Sulu decided, sliding the wet finger down to the young man's buttocks. Chekov would soon figure it out.
       The ensign was deliciously, virginally tight. He moaned as the finger gently eased into him.
       Sulu kissed his open mouth. "That's a good boy," he crooned while working him gently. "That's a good boy. Just relax. Yes."
       The ensign squirmed resistantly when it was time for the second finger to go in, but a few kisses soon soothed him into submission.
       There was no such problem when the time came for the third finger. The navigator thrust against it eagerly.
       "You're ready now, aren't you?" the lieutenant asked as he tenderly chewed the ensign's ear lobe. "You want it now."
       "Yes," came the hoarse reply.
       "Hold on." Sulu got out of bed and quickly crossed to the compartment over the sink. From it, he removed a bottle of oily lotion Chekov had decided was a shaving supply, but he had always privately thought was meant for exactly the purpose he intended for it now.
       "Hurry," the ensign groaned.
       Sulu guided him half-out of the bed so the navigator was bent over the bunk. Pulling his underwear the rest of the way off, the lieutenant spread his subordinate's legs and applied the oil. Pausing only to take in one deep, shuddering breath, he parted the young man's buttocks and entered him.
       Chekov didn't last long. He came with a loud groan only a few strokes after he was penetrated. Sulu abstractly wondered if the reaction was psychological or physical. He knew that it would be considerate for him to stop after the other man had climaxed, especially since this was Chekov's first time and he hadn't seemed to want to be screwed at all... at least not at first. Unfortunately, consideration was not an option at this point.
       The ensign made noises that sounded vaguely like sobs as the lieutenant pounded his buttocks to a relatively quick but violent climax.

       "How are you this morning?"
       Sulu didn't expect that Chekov was going to give Vargik much of an answer. Thus far, when he'd asked the same, the ensign had informed him that he was fine; no, the lieutenant hadn't hurt him; and no, he didn't want to talk about it.
       Sulu's guess was right. Chekov didn't bother to reply at all. He merely concentrated on creating the illusion he was eating his breakfast rather than just pushing it around. They had been allowed to eat with some of the other prisoners this morning. Sulu was sitting at the end of the bench.
       Vargik leaned past him to stage whisper to the ensign, "I heard you lost your virginity last night."
       The navigator froze for a moment, then lifted the flat spoon to his mouth as if nothing had been said.
       The guard leaned in closer. "I heard you enjoyed it."
       Chekov became very still. Sulu could hear him taking short, angry breaths in through his nose. "It's no concern of yours," he replied at last.
       "Oh, but it is." Vargik put a hand on the ensign's shoulder. "Since I know you were only doing it so that when I...."
       "No." Sulu was somewhat surprised to hear the word come out of his mouth instead of the navigator's.
       Chekov and the guard both turned to look at him.
       Sulu reached out and firmly removed the Mergonian's hand from the ensign's shoulder. This gesture might have not been the wisest or most appropriate, but his feelings would not let him take any other course of action. To see Chekov tormented by this man was absolutely intolerable.
       "He's mine." Sulu kept his voice quiet, but he could hear a tremble of emotion in his tone. "No one touches him except me."
       Both the ensign and the Mergonian seemed dumbfounded.
       "So that's how it is, huh?" Vargik's tone carried his customary insolence, but the guard's body language projected his intimidation.
       Sulu put his hand on Chekov's shoulder. "That's how it is."
       "I figured it might work out like that between you two," Vargik sneered and he moved away. "And I don't think I want your seconds."
       Chekov watched in disbelief as the Mergonian turned without further comment and crossed to another side of the room. He then turned back to Sulu. He looked pointedly at the lieutenant's hand on his shoulder.
       "Sorry." Sulu could feel that hand trembling as he lifted it away.
       Chekov checked back on Vargik who was already busy haranguing a prisoner on the other side of the hall. He then looked back at the lieutenant. It seemed as if he couldn't quite process the incident despite having been an eyewitness. "Why didn't you do that earlier?" he asked, at length.
       "I tried to," Sulu answered, still shaking from the passion that had overtaken him. "I don't think he believed me before."

       The long-awaited announcement of their release seemed distinctly anticlimactic when it came later that afternoon.
       The two Enterprise officers were together constantly for the next few hours as they were debriefed by first the Mergonians and then the Federation. Despite overt and covert indications that he should not do so from both parties, Chekov was voluble, elaborating on each and every occasion where Mergonians had failed to meet UFP standards for the treatment of prisoners of war.
       Sulu could see his helm partner's efforts were useless. From the way their respective delegates were behaving, the Federation was in the midst of a major effort to woo the Mergonian Star Empire into joining that organization. Mention of sentient being rights violations was obviously nothing more than an embarrassing irritant to both sides. The lieutenant thought that Chekov had probably come to the same conclusion, but continued to protest for the sake of principle, sheer stubbornness, or perhaps to avoid thinking about the events of their last night in the Mergonian prison. That event was conspicuous by its absence in the ensign's otherwise overly thorough accounts of their captivity.
       "I'm sorry it took so long to get the two of you released," Captain Kirk said, when they finally sat before him in the briefing room of the UFP diplomatic corps's ship.
       Sulu had heard rumors that the negotiations process had been speeded by some of the captain's patent brand of gunboat diplomacy.
       "Bureaucrats," Kirk said, condensing all his frustration with this and a history of similar situations into one word. Knowing much of this history, the lieutenant looked over at Chekov and smiled. The ensign started to smile back, perhaps only out of sheer force of habit. The Russian paused and looked down instead.
       "Gentlemen," the captain continued, "You may never see any results from your complaints about your treatment, but I have arranged for each of you to be granted some extra leave time. Although nothing can adequately compensate for what you've been through, at least you'll have the opportunity go somewhere pleasant and try forget about it."
       Chekov was biting his lip. "Sir, may I be dismissed?" he asked, avoiding eye contact. "I'm very tired."
       "Certainly, Ensign."
       Sulu wondered, as the ensign rose, if the Russian were going to go shave. He usually did this time of day. The lieutenant felt a surprising pang of nostalgia for their Mergonian cell. He would miss those moments together and the easy closeness between them.
       Somehow I'm going to find a way to make things right with him, Sulu promised himself silently. It may take some time, but I'm not going to let him go.
       As if sensing his helm partner's eyes on him, Chekov paused before exiting and turned to look at Sulu. He didn't smile, but he did nod.
       The lieutenant knew that it was probable that the ensign was only being polite. He clung to that small spark of friendliness, nonetheless. I won't let him go, he thought. I can't.
       His captain was frowning as the door closed behind the navigator. "Chekov didn't act like he believed me," Kirk said. "I know it may not be as much as he'd like, but if I say the two of you will have some leave time, then..."
       "I don't think it was the part about the leave he had trouble believing, sir." Sulu sighed. "I think it was the part about forgetting."

Author's Note: I know this ending gives less than complete closure. I didn't want it to. First, because I'm a cruel and inhuman monster and secondly because I wanted it to serve as a jumping off point for subsequent stories that explore a few different ways things could go from here. I humbly (but very, very enthusiastically) invite you to write a sequel of your own... or two.

And Laurel Leigh did just that. To go to her continuation, click here.

Return to Valjiir Stories

Return to Valjiir Continum