AN: Dear bubbles and pops, I'm doing it again. I have once more been seduced by a new fandom. I don't know when I'm going to update my other stories. I can't even guarantee that I'll finish this one. All I can promise you is that you'll enjoy it while it lasts. May the Muses have mercy on my soul.

Prologue:

God, this couldn't be happening. Stars were flying past the huge window of the Officer's Observation Deck, but they were no more than a blur to him through his tears. This couldn't be real. How could his life have turned into this? A tiny nudge, like a little moth was trapped amongst his intestines, made him laugh and sob at the same time.

Oh, this was happening alright. He was so screwed. What the fuck was he supposed to do now? How did he tell… As his sobbing took over, wracking his whole body, he slowly sank to the floor, shaking uncontrollably. He'd never been so scared in his entire life, and with the life he'd had so far, that was really saying something.

Chapter One: A Virrian Reward

Planet Virrin was possibly the most beautiful and peaceful Jim Kirk had ever come across in his two years of Captaincy. Sure, it only got about two Terran hours of sunlight each day, but the planet had nine moons, so it wasn't exactly pitch dark for the other fifteen hours. It might not be the twenty-four hour cycle humans were used to, but the hospitality of the Virrians more than made up for it. Jim thought Virrin might even turn out to be more popular than Risa, given time.

Thank God it hadn't been found by any unfriendly non-Federation aliens yet. The people weren't averse to defending themselves if absolutely necessary, which was frankly a breath of fresh air compared to some of the sheep Jim had met. Sure, most of them were farmers, but many of them hunted for venison as well. These were no timid herbivores. They were even strongly telepathic, so they weren't defenceless, even against enemies with far superior technology to their primitive village-hamlet stage of development.

The only reason they hadn't advanced further was because, strangely enough, mining ores and minerals went against their cultural beliefs. All of their homes, furniture, and tools were made primarily of wood, clay, glass, and river-stones. In other ways they were advanced far beyond what their simple plant-fibre based tunics might suggest. They had astrophysicists capable of impressing Scotty, and Jim had never seen Bones looking so enthusiastic about another world's medical procedures. Some of the medicinal plants the planet had seemed almost magical in their effectiveness.

There was even one floral species which the people had learnt to manipulate into reproducing suitable organs for when one of them needed a transplant, complete with the DNA of the recipient so that it wouldn't be rejected. In one demonstration, a replacement kidney for an injured security ensign was grown within two Terran hours. It was something every blue-shirted crewmember was utterly agog over. A lack of metals and plastics had done nothing to inhibit their academic growth.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Virrians was that, reproductively speaking, they were kind of the opposites of Andorians. Instead of having four sexes, they had only one. They were all hermaphrodites. Despite this, they had a lower reproductive rate than humans. Individuals had monthly fertility cycles, much like human females, but this halted for seven years each time they fell pregnant, even though gestation only lasted for eight months.

In addition to this limitation, mature individuals were only fertile for thirty at the most, and children didn't always survive to maturity. Family groups consisted of two or three committed adults, each having a child every seven to nine years, but staggered so that the children were born two to four years apart. The largest family they met had four committed adults and just nine children.

The very first thing the initial landing party had noticed was just how treasured the people's children and pregnant adults were to them. They were fiercely protected, almost revered. Every adult tended to the needs of every child, whether they were related or not. It was clear that they took the saying 'it takes a village' very seriously. When they learnt that most alien species had two sexes, and that males were incapable of pregnancy, the people were absolutely horrified, and wasted no time in expressing their sincerest condolences. Apparently there was no greater gift in their culture than carrying a baby within their bodies.

The mission wasn't without its snags. On the fifth day Jim was exploring the forest when he heard a painfully high-pitched scream. It resonated inhumanly, letting him know it was a local, and probably a child. He hadn't heard any of the adults in the village speak with such a shrill voice. A panic not his own had seeped into his bones, the children didn't have as much control over their telepathy as the adults. Sprinting through the foliage wasn't easy, but he could still feel the child, which had to mean that they were still alive.

Jim burst into a small clearing, and instantly took in the scene. He could just spot a tiny blue-haired head ducking behind a rock outcropping. Doing its utmost to climb the rocks and reach the child was a huge beast. It had short bottle-green fur, and a stubby bobtail, but Jim was more interested in its huge fangs, sharp claws, and powerful-looking leg muscles. It crouched down, obviously preparing to jump. Jim already had his phaser out, set on 'stun'. The first shot only succeeded in getting the creature's attention. "Shit!"

Jim turned up the setting to 'kill' without even glancing down at his weapon, knowing instinctively that if he took his eyes away from the beast for even a split second, he'd be dead. The second shot took the creature down mid-leap as it lunged for the Captain. Jim wasn't sure whether it was dead or not, and he didn't stop to check. He climbed up the rocks as quickly as he could, picked up the small child, and made his way back towards the village. It was slower going than he would've liked, but with a child in one arm and his phaser still in his other hand, the hike was no easy task.

He didn't stop walking until he reached the small village where the rest of his landing party was socialising with the Virrians. Jim didn't put his phaser away until he was passing through the local leader's doorway. The child started to squirm then, so he let it down. The Virrians were a bit short, but it still startled him to realize that the child wasn't much taller than his knees. They immediately ran to the Authority, babbling in the local language. The Universal Translator in his comm did its best, but the strange trills and reverberations, the grammar and sentence structure, was like nothing it had ever had to contend with before.

Jim only got a few disjointed words, but it was clear that the little one was explaining what had happened, and he suspected that the adult, the Authority, was one of the child's biological parents. Later he learnt that the Authority was actually a sibling of the child's birth-parent, but had become the little one's primary caregiver after both its parents had died in an accident. A tree had collapsed on their cottage during a storm. At any rate, the Authority was extremely grateful to Jim, the Enterprise, and the entire Federation. Score one for diplomacy.

That night was one of the stranger ones, for Jim. After a celebration which had been held in his honour, the Authority had insisted that he sleep on the planet's surface rather than beaming back up to the ship like he usually did. Not wanting to dampen the mood, he'd happily agreed, and since it was clearly safe, he'd insisted that the rest of the crew get back aboard. They were due to leave on their next mission in the morning, and there was a great deal of preparation for them all to get done before then.

Jim faintly remembered having dreams which were a magnitude of weird which he hadn't experienced since the last time he'd had an allergic reaction to one of Bones' hypos. When he woke up just after dawn, his head felt fuzzier than usual, and there was a dull ache in his abdomen. His limbs felt like they'd been neatly arranged by somebody, carefully placed in the narrow cot.

Normally he woke up sprawled right across his double bed, hugging his pillow to his chest and drooling on it. He lifted his shirt and inspected his skin, but there wasn't so much as a bruise to explain his discomfort. Eventually he just figured something he'd eaten for supper hadn't agreed with him. It certainly wouldn't be the first time some alien's cuisine had left him with a stomach-ache.

In his distracted state, he didn't notice the suspicious smiles some of the older Virrians kept flashing at him as he politely declined breakfast and called Scotty to beam him aboard. The Enterprise left, Jim felt completely normal by lunch, and he forgot all about it. Besides, if he went to Bones he'd just get half a dozen hypos stabbed into his neck. Sickbay was to be avoided at all costs. Of course there wasn't much choice involved three weeks after their discovery of planet Virrin.

Spock's eyebrows creased minutely, and he lifted his eyes from the readings on his scanners' screen. What was that smell? He knew he'd come across it before. He lifted his head, subtly scenting the air. There! The heavy smell of iron hit him like a brick to his face. It was human blood, a lot of it, and it was coming from… "Captain! You are bleeding copiously. Lieutenant Sulu, inform Sickbay that the Captain will be arriving in approximately ten minutes, and is severely wounded. You have the con."

The young helmsman nodded sharply, quickly sending the communication directly to Doctor McCoy. Jim slowly stood up from the Captain's chair as Spock hurried towards him. The young Captain fell to his knees, pale and shaking, a frighteningly large smear of blood left on his seat. His regulation black pants were unusually dark, and obviously damp. Spock could tell by the way his throat kept bobbing that Jim was fighting nausea. The Vulcan picked up his Captain in a fireman's lift, carefully avoiding placing any undue pressure near Jim's middle, and swiftly strode into the turbolift.

When Jim tried to struggle and protested feebly, Spock took the most logical course of action available to him. He knocked his Captain out cold with a nerve-pinch. Jim could court-martial him later. Bones was ready and waiting for them when they arrived, he helped Spock lower Jim onto a biobed and instantly begun his scanning. Spock stiffened when he saw Bones freeze and pale at the sight of his readings. "Doctor…" Bones snapped back to the present, and his head whipped around to face Spock.

"Out! Nobody comes in here until I say so!" When the First Officer hesitated, Bones set his mouth in a grim line. "He'll live Spock, but I need to do a full physical exam, and you're not doing him any good by just standing there. Don't you have any work to do on the Bridge?" Spock nodded stiffly, and headed out. As he disappeared through the doorway he called back, "I will expect updates on the Captain's condition every half hour."

Bones huffed, he didn't have time to waste replying to Spock even though he knew the Vulcan's hearing would still be able to pick it up until he'd left Sickbay altogether. He was too focused on Jim, cutting off his pants to find the source of the bleeding. He'd already hooked up an IV with some electrolytes, and hypoed Jim with two doses of a slow-release iron supplement, a dose of antiemetic, and a shot of the only slow-release painkiller Jim wasn't allergic to.

"Ha ha Bones, that's very funny. Now seriously, what's wrong with me? I don't really think that right now is a good time for jokes." Bones glared at his stubborn patient. "Neither do I. Jim, I know perfectly well that it doesn't make a lick of sense, but the fact remains. You're menstruating." Jim slid off the biobed, swayed slightly, and slumped back against the bed. Bones rolled his eyes whilst he hurried to deactivate the alarms trying to tell him that his patient had just died. "Bones, I don't know if you've noticed this, but I'M A MAN!"

Bones shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest. "Jim, you saw the scan results yourself. Sometime after your last full physical four months ago, you somehow managed to get a womb, two ovaries, and all of the associated plumbing grafted onto the last foot of your small intestines. You might as well be a Virrian, Jim." The Captain's knees gave out, and Bones had to help the stubborn idiot back onto the bed. "The Virrians… Oh God, they did this to me… Bones, The Virrians turned me into one of them! They probably used that weird organ-growing plant of theirs! They made me into a hermaphroditic freak!"

Bones slapped his hysterical friend. "Jim, if you don't calm down right this second, I'm giving you a tranquilizer. You didn't actually lose that much blood, but you're still anaemic." Jim took a few deep breaths. Bones was right, panicking wouldn't get him anywhere. "Is this really what women go through for a whole week, every single month? Fuck, I had no idea what bad-asses they all are. I've found a whole new respect for them." Bones chuckled, patting Jim's shoulder warmly. "I'm sure you have."

Jim glared at him. "What the hell do I do now?" Turning away, tidying his medical equipment now that the emergency was over, Bones answered him. "Listen, I could operate to remove the organs if you want, but if I do any surgery it has to get reported to Starfleet. I'm pretty sure you don't want a hysterectomy on your permanent medical record. I can give you some medications which should make things easier for you, and iron supplements so you don't get anaemic in future. I can also discretely provide you with the necessary hygiene items. It would be a hassle, but nothing a woman can't handle."

The Captain sighed, running a hand over his face. "Wouldn't it be risky? I'm not exactly built to have lady-parts. Besides, what do I do about the Virrians? The Federation was ecstatic to welcome them to the fold. Why the hell did they do this to me?" Bones sighed, and sat on the bed next to his friend. "There shouldn't be any health risks to keeping the extra reproductive system, but I can give you regular check-ups to make absolutely sure. If you decide to lay a formal charge against the Virrians to Starfleet, it would be pretty difficult to keep a lid on that, but I know you probably ain't eager to let them get away with this, either."

Jim went quiet for a minute, thinking over his options. "Get me the Authority from the village our party stayed in. They must have known about it, they were probably the one who ordered it. I need to find out what their motivation was. I'll decide what to do afterwards." Bones nodded, hopped off the bed, and contacted Communications. It took a little while to get through, but then the Authority's face was on the screen of Jim's PADD. The Captain gritted his teeth when the Virrian grinned broadly at him. "Star Authority, you found gift from us."

Jim smiled, but his eyes were hard. "Yeah, you could say that. You know, normally gifts don't involve surgery." The Authority nodded slowly, a habit they'd picked up from the Enterprise's enthusiastic ensigns. "You speak truth. But this gift is best gift, best reward for hero. You save child, now you have own child. Feel child grow inside you, press skin from inside, swell belly. Know when child sleep, when play. Feel child life. Celebrate with mate."

Jim paled, and quickly muted his microphone so the Virrian Authority wouldn't hear his question to Bones. "They didn't actually make me pregnant, did they?" Bones quickly shook his head. "I would've told you if they had. They've only made it possible, but you'd still need a boyfriend." Jim took a deep breath, relieved beyond words. Switching his microphone back on, he addressed the Virrian. "You really don't understand. For me to… use the gift you've given me, I would need to take a male as my mate. That goes against my nature as a male. I feel attraction for women, females. I can't feel lust for males, I will never mate a male."

To the Captain's frustration, the Virrian just smiled knowingly. "Lust will come when you find love, love will come when you find mate. Mate is not male or female, mate is more than just body. Mate is most treasured person, one person you do anything for, one person you never want lose. Maybe you use gift, maybe no, but you have choice." Before Jim could respond, the Virrian ended the call. He wanted to be angry at the alien, he really did. He just couldn't be. Sure, the Virrians had overstepped and conducted an invasive surgery on him, but technically they hadn't hurt him, and they'd honestly had only the best of intentions.

Bones raised a questioning eyebrow at him, forcing Jim to fight back a snicker as he was reminded of Spock. "Leave it, they didn't mean any harm by it. I'll keep the changes, the last thing I need is for somebody to get a hold of my medical records and tell the entire Galaxy I got a hysterectomy. I'm a major celebrity right now, there's a chance of that actually happening." Bones nodded, he'd suspected Jim would go that route.

"What are you gonna tell the crew? The whole Bridge saw you bleeding all over your Captain's chair, and from now on you'll need a lot more check-ups. Whatever you decide to go with, I'll back your story." Jim grinned wryly. "I'll just tell them I had another allergic reaction; Orion cake makes me haemorrhage. I don't like that stuff anyway, it's too sweet. It makes my teeth ache. You'll just have to be a little more discrete about randomly stabbing me with hypos, save the lady-shots for when I'm in my quarters." Bones huffed, a little exasperated, but shook Jim's hand in agreement. Orion cake allergy it was.

AN: This is the part where I shamelessly beg for reviews. No, seriously. They're yummier than chocolate. ^_^