I haven't even seen this film, but I will just for everything in this post.

I posted this f-locked a bit ago, reposting it here makes sense. Context: In an interview, the writers said she was an escaped Orion Slave Girl, which I think makes her 10x as awesome. So, bit of her pre-escape life. WARNING: dark/disturbing concepts one might expect when writing about the backstory of an escaped sex slave.

*

She spends her earliest years on a farm. She is fed and watered and in turn, she feeds and waters the other livestock and tends crops and it's not until she's much older that she understands the irony. It's not until she's older that she understands what irony is. It's not until she's two years past the onset of puberty that she acquires a name, of sorts, but none of this is anything but normal for her and her kind. She is what she is. She doesn't question it. She also doesn't fly or shit rainbows. Why would she? It would never occur to her.

She is what she is.

*

One of her earliest memories is one of the other girls weeping in the toilets, trying desperately to rip out the hairs that are growing between her legs and under her arms. But the girl has been working the root crops for the last few weeks and her fingernails are worn down to nubs and she can't gain purchase on the downy little hairs.

She who will one day choose to be called Gaila doesn't really understand why her friend is so terrified of the hairs, but she has fingernails and teeth and if they are that bad, if they bring things that are that bad, she will rip them out for her friend. Gaila is a girl who is quiet and listens hard to all the things the other girls whisper. They talk of sleeping on their stomachs to slow the swelling in their chests. They talk of the ones who get taken away and never come back.

Gaila likes her life. She wants to stay here. She likes to feed the cows. She likes it when it gets warm and she's barefoot in the sunshine pushing holes in the dark dirt with her fingers, and counting out the seeds. She likes the way the sprouts that erupt in the springtime are sometimes the exact same color as her fingers. She loves brushing her fingers over the sprouts and watching them grow a little more each day.

She doesn't like the games that the guards play at night, but they're not always so bad. And she's better at being quiet than most of the girls.

*

It doesn't matter what you do. Hair grows, breasts grow, and one morning you wake up with bloody sheets and that's it. No more cows. No more strawberries and wheat and corn to peel the silk off of and make silly wigs from.

You belong in a new place now. You belong to a new person now. You learn to dance. You learn how to keep the perfect smile on your face no matter what. They don't like it when you cry, except for when they do. And the girl who will one day choose to be called Gaila learns how to do that as easily as smiling. It's funny, she thinks, how so many of them will take tears when it seems like they're looking for blood. A few tears and the right noises and they quit their looking. They don't want pain so much as the evidence of pain. It only takes her a couple times to get that, and after that, she learns the right noises.

Even better is when she learns that some of them want pain, and how to spot those ones and keep them so pleased they keep coming back. Giving pain is much easier than faking pain, and it has the added bonus of lessening the time you spend with those whose favorite game is to smash their toys. It is better to find the ones who prefer the toys with sharp teeth. It is smarter to find the ones who - in the quiet, secret, whispered bed games in the darkest night like to play at *being* toys. It is smarter to play with those toys until they are almost but not quite broken.

*They* make the keepers happy. They come back with sparkling gifts and silly promises and they make it so you get the good food and to sleep in so that when they return you can break them all over again all night long. Gaila gets it pretty quickly.

Gaila knows she is a toy. She knows, from keeping her mouth shut and listening, that she is a good toy. She would like to be a better toy in hopes that one day, she is something other than a toy. No one has ever told her that this is possible, but somehow, she knows deep down that it is. It must be.

This is so tragic but so ferocious.

No fic from me right now, but go check out seriousfic's Academic Discourse.

I love that so hard.

In it to win it.

Agreed, GAILA IS AWESOME! Alright, I'm not sure what I'll have to contribute yet but I'll be refreshing this post often tomorrow. Thanks for setting this up taraljc! I think Gaila has so much potential and can't wait to read more of her.

As I fell asleep last night, I started thinking of Starfleet Intelligence sending Enterprise on a covert mission to investigate the Orion Syndicate activity on some border world, and Sulu and Gaila having to go undercover. Once the book is turned in, I AM SO WRITING THAT SHIT OMG.

And she's secretly a member of a covert ops force codenamed GIJOE....

Best idea EVAH. I've duly pimped on my LJ. Yay Gaila!

There were a dizzying number of Federation ships and stations she was passed through, one human hand guiding her shoulder to her next caretaker. They were all women, though, that she remembers - that and at the time she thought they must all be different species to be so many colors. She doesn't even remember their names because it was back when English still sounded like gibberish and they hadn't found a portable translator unit that knew Orion.

So it wasn't until she reached Earth itself that they started her through processing. The Federation Department of Immigration gave her a bulky portable communicator that attached itself via magnets to the coat they had bundled her in, and inserted an identity chip into the palm of her hand. Then she filled out paperwork with her court-appointed social worker for what seemed like hours - it probably wasn't, she was fourteen.

"When I file this form, you will be granted refugee status within the Federation for a period lasting no more than one Earth year. A translation from Earth time to a time calculator of your choosing can be found by accessing the nearest datapad. Extensions can also be granted here after the initial term is completed." Her Vulcan social worker used her stylus to demonstrate her enumerated rights, which whizzed past her ear in a verbal translation. She had clutched the audio translator so close to her head that the soft plastic was leaving marks on her hand. "Do you intend to petition for citizenship?"

Gaila felt her lungs catch. She looked around the glass room with its marble floors. It was a cold winter afternoon in Paris, nothing like her mother's harem. She wanted to curl up in the sleep nest she shared with her sisters. She wanted one of her mother's men to do the rest of this for her.

"I don't know what that is," she lied.

"Citizenship. A legal term defining personal membership of a sapient being in a political community. Citizenship confers additional rights and responsibilities upon a person, such as the right to vote."

She felt herself starting to cry. "I want to go home."

Beside her, the Vulcan shifted in her seat and tapped her stylus. "It is not logical to cry at this moment, as your refugee application has been accepted."

Gaila sniffed, and wiped her eyes with the felt ends of the coat that had been given to her. It smudged her kohl eyeshadow. "I guess I need to think about it. Is it important to do it soon?"

"The process can take many years. Adjudication is more timely for minors." Her social worker straightened in her chair. "You are not ready to decide. We will move on so that you may be taken to housing by nightfall."

T'sura took her by autocar (this was the same as on Orion Prime and it made her briefly feel comfortable despite the cold) to an apartment building, where they rode a fast turbolift to her level. T'sura also showed her how to wave her hand in front of the public maker to debit credit from her allotment, open her room door, and use the computer. "I will contact you in a week's time to schedule you for placement tests. Should you need to speak to me sooner, you make contact me by asking for me through your private datapad unit."

And then she left. Gaila curled up on the strange, rectangular sleeping area and cried herself to sleep.

In the morning, Gaila woke up feeling cold and aching. She rubbed her eyes and lifted her head, marveling at the quiet of the building. Outside, rain was falling as snow. She wrapped the blanket around her, stuffing her feet into the boots she had been given. It was lonely, she thought, without her sisters and her mother and her mother's three men.

"But I'm done crying now," she said aloud. "Gaila of the clan Kallea doesn't cry - crying is for men, not the ancestors of pirate queens." She tied the blanket around her neck like the cloaks used by clan queens in her history vids from home. Then she bundled up in the coat.

She moved into the bathing chamber; it was stocked with soap and other larder. She stuffed these things in her pockets before tying back her hair with a band. The human women who had guarded her were fastidious about their hair. She wiped yesterday's makeup from her face and applied new kohl and lipstick. "I will look more like I belong if I am neat," she said aloud. From the bathing chamber, she went to the computer unit attached to the wall and said, "Computer, display the Earth for me."

It did so immediately, with a live picture. She rotated it with her finger. It was a large planet, with many different ecosystems. She considered them, flipping though page after page about cities and continents and history. It was too much information to go through audio translation. "Computer, locate nearest transportation center."

"The nearest transportation center is located two blocks west in the plaza Arc de la Paix." She looked at the map and decided that it would be easy to find, then left the room. She went down the turbolift, smiling awkwardly at the Klingon who was already inside. He seemed to be going to the same place, so Gaila simply followed her.

Once inside, the Klingon stamped his shoes free of snow, and held a hand up to the transport pad. It flashed a word in English, then he said the name of a place to the attendant. Gaila slipped after him, pressing her hand to the console and then taking the next spot. In a brief moment, they left from one transporter pad to another - in a similar looking transit station. It was much warmer, however.

Gaila stepped outside to bright sunlight and a tropical beach. There were many humans and Vulcans and Tellarites laying out, absorbing the sun. The Vulcans were dressed, but the humans and Tellarites were barely clothed. Children were bouncing in and out of the surf. It looked like fun. Gaila blinked and trotted down to join them.

She took off her boots and stripped the blanket and the jacket, dropping them in a heap by the nearest wall. She pulled off the dress and then hooked the translator to her undergarments.

"Uhura?"

The African cadet glanced across at her roommate. Gaila's tone was more serious than usual -- though perhaps that wasn't surprising, since ship assignments were due in the morning.

What was surprising, Uhura reflected, was that the Orion hadn't been out celebrating -- or in celebrating, for that matter. Ordinarily, Gaila's response to pressure was predictable, energetic, and guaranteed to occupy most of the evening. Tonight, though, she'd scarcely moved from her workstation. Uhura couldn't imagine what her roomate had been doing; they were both done with regular classes now, and if Gaila was involved in some sort of independent study project or other Starfleet-related research, Uhura didn't know about it.

"Yes?" she said, her curiosity aroused.

"I -- need your opinion on something."

Uhura's eyebrow went up -- or tried to; she was still trying to figure out how Spock managed that gesture so effectively.
"Why me? And why now?"

Gaila turned her head toward Uhura. "Because you're good at music. And I may not have another chance to -- ask."

"Music takes in a lot of territory," Uhura said carefully. "And we may not have the same tastes." Actually, she was fairly sure they didn't, but there was an odd, almost wistful note in Gaila's tone.

"I know. But would you come look at this?"

Restraining a sigh, Uhura got up, crossed the room, and bent to look over Gaila's shoulder. The Orion touched a control, and the image frozen on the display came to life -- an antique video marked by primitive effects work and even plainer background. The audio was equally plain, but the slightly scratchy voice lent an odd sort of purity to the words. Uhura bit back the impulse to laugh after the first line; when the song ended she found herself brushing a tear from her cheek.

She glanced down as her roommate swiveled in the chair. "Where on Earth--?"

"A children's-library archive," Gaila said. "I'm still not sure what 'Muppet' means."

"Neither am I," said Uhura, not quite stifling a giggle. "But that's...eloquent." She pulled a cushion over and plopped onto it. "Thank you."

Gaila's tentative expression widened into a smile. "I hoped you'd like it. And I was thinking--Vulcan blood is copper-based, isn't it?"

Uhura blinked. "What does that--oh." She frowned thoughtfully "Oh. You know," she told Gaila, "I think I need a copy of that."

"Done," Gaila said cheerfully.

"Thank you," Uhura said. "For everything."

Oh, that is the CUTEST THING EVER. I'm making squealy high-pitched noises!

Sounds like a great place to post the Gaila fic index I've been working on! :D

I haven't had a chance to read all these yet, but this is all the Gaila fic/meta I have found so far...

* Gaila as a main character

Payback, by cleo2584 (Uhura/Gaila)
Author's summary: Summary: Gaila's surprise backfires.

Subtleties, by fembuck (Uhura/Gaila)
No summary provided.

Confidence, by green on the DW ST2009 flashfic comm (Uhura/Gaila)
Author's summary: Gaila helps Nyota find her confidence again.

Home Early, by inell (Spock/Uhura/Gaila)
Author's summary: Summary: Gaila gets home early from her date

Just Doing Her Job, by jedibuttercup
Commentfic for the prompt, "Kirk and Gaila, awkward"

First Time, by moryssa (Gen)
Author's summary: "She had always assumed that it was just random chance that landed her with Gaila as a roommate. Surely there wasn't any sane being anywhere who actually placed the two of them together on purpose."

Academic Discourse, by seriousfic
Author's summary: There are some subjects an Orion woman finds a little hard to study.

unlikely friends by st_aurafina
Commentfic for the prompt "Uhura, unlikely friends"

House Rules, by taraljc (Gen)
Author's summary: It was Gaila who started "The Rules".

sweet little lies by taraljc
Commentfic for the prompt "Kirk/Gaila, sweet little lies" (posted in a batch with 3 other commentfics, scroll down to find the Kirk/Gaila)

independence by yahtzee63
Commentfic for the prompt "Gaila, independence"

* Spock/Uhura stories with Gaila as a secondary character with a significant part in the story

Speaking In Tongues by monimala
Universal Language by ryann_blackwood

* Anon Kink Meme snippets featuring Gaila indexed on del.icio.us

-- Bones/Gaila by anonymous, "Gaila has a tendency towards bringing guys to her room. McCoy is having a post-divorce mid-life crisis."
-- Uhura/Gaila by anonymous, "it's not just guys that Gaila brings back to the room; sometimes it's her roommate."
-- Uhura/Spock, Kirk/Gaila, by anonymous, Uhura/Spock in her dorm, Green Chick voyeur. Bonus points if Green Chick and Kirk are hiding under the bed(s).
-- Uhura/Gaila by stwexler, Kirk didn't know just how right he was when he said Uhura has a talented tongue

* Gaila meta

box_in_the_box,
It's not easy being green
Showing love for the most underrated character in the new Trek flick

liviapenn, Small feminist criticism re: ST2009
Criticising the apparent sexual double standard re: Jim and Gaila, lots of interesting perspectives on possible Gaila characterization in the comments

Edited at 2009-05-22 09:32 (UTC)

Thank you for compiling all these links!

This is part of longer Uhura fic I wrote, which you can read here if you're interested.



The last person Uhura expected to see sharing her new quarters was a green Orion woman. She’d heard rumors there was one joining the cadet class, but she’d dismissed them as being the overheated fantasies of...at least half the cadet class.

Her roommate spent their first month together trying to be subtle about her seduction attempts, though the Orion version of subtle was somewhat different to what Uhura was accustomed to. Instead of lingering looks and suggestive double entendres, Gaila tried to get Uhura drunk and talk her into nude calisthenics.

Their second month together saw the beginning of a daily litany of “Please? Oh, c’mon, you know you want to,” with numerous variations. Uhura found that the effort to come up with an equal variety of refusals challenged her creativity. By the time she was falling back on Academy regulations prohibiting sexual activity in cadet quarters, she knew the well had run dry. Everyone knew no one had been called out for rookie nookie in 25 years.

“Look, if I say yes and we do it JUST ONCE, will you promise never to ask again?”

Her roommate swore on the seventh moon of the seventh planet of the Orion system, an oath Uhura knew to be considered absolutely inviolable by her roommate’s people.

After the event, Uhura spent the rest of the year kicking herself for having been so incredibly stupid. The green woman’s touch was downright intoxicating; Uhura had never felt sexual release like that before. Must be some damn unusual pheromones, she realized. Of course, the oath her roommate had sworn did not prevent Uhura from becoming the aggressor, but she had her pride. Barely.

Cute and funny. :)

Hot. Or: the most awkward conversation ever, until Gaila decides to end his awkwardness. (OMG, Kirk, you shagged T'Pol?)

..You win the internet for doing this. ^____^ Will read through it when I get the chance.

And here I was wondering who the hell would accept Poison Ivy into Starfleet Academy.

Sincerely, Allaine

Gaila is a great character. I don't know why I'm surprised that she's getting shit online, but she shouldn't.

I do have to wonder, however, whether or not it even matters. Wasn't she on the Farragut? And wasn't it destroyed? Isn't she, you know, dead? I presumed so, which made the loss of all those ships all the more tragic.

We never actually heard what ship she was on; apparantly she's in the award ceremony at the end (in the background, and probably because it and the hearing scene (where she's behind Spock) were shot with the same extras on the same day), so she might have been on the Enterprise.