To say that Gaila was intrigued by Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott was quite the understatement.

Gaila had learned many things in her short time on Earth, like Terrans thought it appropriate to consume food and other sustanance in front of others, even those they were unfamiliar with (ew!), and most Terran courting rituals involved some sort violence, including but not limited to murder of another being in the most creative way possible. Gaila also learned that most Terrans who were not members of the Imperial Fleet were almost...nice.

She had met a few on her journey after fleeing from Rigel VIII, and most had been innocent enough (she had to admit she almost regretted killing a few of them), but all of those in the Imperial Starfleet, they were the most ruthless Terrans she had ever come across. Her favorite while in the Academy had been one James T. Kirk.

He was the only human she had met that she could stnd to be around. Sure, when she angered him he would pull out an apple from Q-only-knows-where and eat it in the most disgusting way possible, however she rather enjoyed sex with him, especially when she was not expected to do him any favors. It was the one thing that irritated her the most about humans. Who were they to use sex as a weapon? They surely didn't use food as a weapon (actually they did, as she found out later).

However, James Kirk ("Please, call me Jim.") kept her entertained. Even when he had his clothes on, which was a miracle in itself. Her room mate at the time, Nyota ("Dammit, I told you, it's Uhura.") was not a big fan of the Casanova Cadet, but Gaila was never one to listen to good advice. Besides she knew he was a keeper when she told him she loved him.

"I think I love you," she had muttered. It was dark and they were in her room, and his mouth was attacking her all over, and she could not have enough of him. She hadn't meant to say it, in fact she knew she didn't feel that way, but she concluded that humans and their stupid tendancies were rubbing off on her. She could feel her skin form an oily sheen when she realized he had frozen and had her pinned with a cold gaze. Her phermones were practically holding up a neon sign declaring her panic.

"That is so weird," he finally muttered, his eyes softening abit, no doubt the phermones taking a quick effect since he was so close. She had laughed then, her voice bubbly and high, her fear disapparating. This was why she was fond of Jim Kirk.

"I say 'I love you' and you say 'That's so weird'? I feel as though any terran woman would have thrown you out of her bed by now." Gaila said teasingly, slapping his shoulder lightly. He had chuckled before his mouth returned to it's original spot on her neck.

"You didn't even mean it," he accused. "Although, you're right about the throwing me out thing."

"That's not the point," she giggled, her fingers grasping tightly at his hair. He groaned into her neck, his fingers sliding over her flesh.

"By the way," she muttered nonchalantley. "Didn't you come over with the intention of 'dicussing a matter of extreme importance' before I managed to get you out of your clothes?"

He had pulled away then. He was glaring at her. She frowned. She sighed to herself, mentally rolling her eyes when she realized the implicantion her words had held.

"You don't manipulate me Gaila, got it?" he was mad she could tell, but she couldn't help herself. She giggled lightly and pulled herself into a sitting position and kissing him lightly on the nose (he always hates it when she does that).

"I don't try to manipulate you Jim. I actually like you. I'd like to think that you also liked me enough that if I required something of you, I wouldn't have to manipulate you to get it." she said smugly, leaning forward to give him what she was sure was a spectacular view of her breasts. However, he wasn't paying attention to her obvious come-on.

"Actually, I feel the same way," he muttered, his eyes lifting slowly to meet hers. She had quirked her head to the side in question. "What do you require of me?" she asked with all seriousness.

"Nothing big," he assured her, but she saw the way his eyes were glinting in the light. "I just need you to open an e-mail tomorrow. Say, around 1500 hours?"he said, his lips quirking upward, and his eyes dancing. She had given him a withering look.

"You know I have a class around then. In fact, that is Prof. Spock's class. We're monitoring the Kobiyashi Maru simulation again, and - " she stopped right there. She looked at Jim and watched his grin grow a fraction wider. She took satisfaction when the grin then faltered when she growled at him. She could see the fear growing in his eyes, the way he licked his lips nervously. Muri, such as herself were not creatures to be manipulated.

"What do you want exactly Mr. Kirk?" she growled, letting her vocal cords relax so it came off more as a threating rumble. He backed away from her then, perched on the end of her bed like she may pounce for his throat at any second.

"Look, Gaila," he began, trying to hold his voice from shaking. "The Kobiyashi Maru is unbeatable, yeah? A no win scenario,"

"And you don't believe in no win scenarios," she snapped. Her patience was wearing thin, and her Muri blood sang a very primal song in her head, wanting nothing more than tackle him to the floor and scratch his face for his insolence. He nodded, trying to play a brave face.

"Yes, and so, I have a way to change the conditions of the test, just to make it win-able. However - "

"You have no way of getting your virus into the simulator's mainframe, and you want me to do it?" she snapped again. He nodded again slowly.

She had to admit, he was brave asking for her help, especially considering what she was. Muri were almost half-breeds, except they were allowed in normal Orion society, for the most part. Her father had been a Ruddy Orion, his skin the color of golden sand and hair bright as human blood, and her mother had been a Green Orion, with emerald skin and sharp blue eyes. Both had sadly carried the recessive gene to create aMuri, an animal child. Her parents had not teated her with the same adoring attention as her sister Vina, however, her Muri genes gave her an advantage when they were sold into slavery. Apparently Muri were celebrated creatures and were very expensive on the Orion market.

She didn't like that he wanted to use her, but she also had to admire him for not turning tail or trying to sweet-talk her into doing what he wanted. She sighed, not complety happy, but not disapproving either. Humans always had such an interesting effect on her.

"I'll make you a deal," she growled at him, this time lacing her voice with enough blatant lust that he couldn't ignore it. From the way his jaw dropped at her rapid mood swings, she guessed he got the hint. She made it a point to lean towards him and drag him back to her by his hair before she continued.

"If you swear to spend the entire night with me tomorrow, and I mean you stay with me, doing whatever I want until I let you go, and I'll help you beat the Kobayashi Maru." she was fully aware that between her phermones, the alpha tracks in her voice, and her hands on his body, this could technically be considered "manipulating."

"Deal," he had gasped as her hands dipped between his uniform briefs. She giggled as her mouth covered his and she pushed him down on the bed. Jim really was too much fun.

Soon after that, the lights had flickered on and her room mate Nyota had come back, spoiling all the fun after she forced him out at knife point in nothing but his underwear. But never-the-less, she had hacked the Kobayashi Maru as promised (and only spent an hour in the booth for it!).

That was how she got transferred to the ISS Enterprise after the Nero Incident. She had been expecting to have to plead with him, but he had simply looked around to see if no one were watching and had hugged her fiercely.

"I'm really glad you're alive," he had said, and for a blind moment she thought he was crying. But before she could analyze him further, he had pushed her away and held his knife threatening in his hand. "I swear if you tell anyone I just said that," he glared. She laughed at him as usual and asked to be shown to her new department on the Enterprise.

And that is how she met Montgomery Scott.

At first she thought he was a typical old grumpy man from the way he was hunched over a thruster, pulling and tearing at wires with a small green dog (oh, wait, was that a person?) at his feet. But then she got a good look at his left arm when he turned towards the Captain calling his name.

Somehow his bright red cyboric eye seemed to glow a bit brighter when his eyes landed on the Captain.

"Aye Capt'n. How canae help ye?" his voice was thick with a scottish accent (one of many Earth dialects), yet there was a trace of something...robotic underneath of it. Jim formally introduced them ("Scotty, this is your new Second-in-Command for Engineering, Gaila."), but she couldn't take her eyes off of the pristine looking metal, electric wired arm attached to the terran. She didn't notice there was an uncomfortable silence until the little green dog growled at her.

"Oi! Keenser! Shut up wit all yer yappin'! I'm sick o' listenin' to it!" Scott had snapped at the thing, who slinked off into the corner and hopped up on another thruster across the room. She turned her attention back to her new Commander, this time her eyes finding his face.

"Aye Lass, I'll show ye 'round. I got 'er from'ere Capt'n." Scott said to Jim, tipping his head slightly in acknowledgement. The scottsman then turned and walked back over to the thruster he had been working on. Jim was grinning at her when she turned to him. "Try not to stare at it, it's new. He isn't quite used to having it. Also, don't ask about Lester."

With that Jim waved cheerily to Scott and hopped into the turbo-lift giving her a happy wave. She could feel herself sweating phermones again.

Lester, she found out later was an engineering ensign who decided to make a snide comment towards the "robot" and was found strangled with his own intestines, dangling from a walkway above the boiler room. ("If you promise not to ask me about Lester again, I'll let you call me Nyota. I swear.")

She wanted to smack herself when not ten minutes later when Mr. Scott gave her instructions on where to find her quarters, which were across from the main entrances to the Engine Rooms, she was caught staring at his metallic arm. The man shifted uncomfortably, and it seemed that he was worried he had offended her. He had coughed awkwardly and shuffled away from her.

"Wait, why don't you show me?" she blurted out before she could help it. Oh good Gaila, being Orion is enough, but now you have to ask him to show you to your quarters? Really?

She couldn't believe the verbal vomit that had spewed from her mouth, but Mr. Scott hadn't seemed to notice. He had just stopped and stared at her with an open mouth. She could feel her cheeks darkening at his look, and her phermones began stirring again, releasing her embarassment in the air. She was very thankful that no Orions or other species with sensitive noses were in the vicinity.

Suddenly she found herself on her knees, bowing before him the way she had been taught during her time caught in the Orion slave trade. Her arms were stretched out painfully infront of her, her hips tilted just so that her backside angled upwards, and her forehead rested on the cold floor of engineering. She hoped that this would tell him that she meant no harm, but she could never be certain with Terrans. She heard a strangled choking noise and thought he was angry with her.

"Lass, wha-what in 'ell are ye doin'? Get up. Get up I said! Stop wit this, it's embarassing," he muttered as he helped her off the floor, even reaching out to dust off her uniform skirt until he caught sight of his own metal arm. Then he snapped to attention, his arm tightly at his side.

"I'm sorry Lieutenant, but I cannae be escortin' ye," he said. He gazed at her for a moment, as if figuring out if she were human or not, then he sighed and with a painful grimace he motioned to some wires that she had not noticed sticking out of his metal arm. She followed the wires with her eyes and it only took her a moment to realize that the wires disappeared into darkness. Into the bowel of the ship. She gasped when she realized the implication. Mr. Scott was not only a member of this ship, he was apart of it. Literally.

"Dismissed," he snapped angrily, the bright red light in his eye socket flashing irritably. Then she noticed another wire attatched to the back of his head that also disappeared into the darkness above them. Before she realized what had happened, Mr. Scott was gone.

Try not to stare at it, it's new. He isn't quite use to having it yet.

She sighed. Her first day on the Enterprise and she was going to end up hanging by her intestines.

Surprisingly, Mr. Scott didn't mention it again. She greeted him the next day, ready to apologize for her obvious rudeness, but he had just grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to a window filled with touch-screens that linked to the whole ship's mainframe.

"The Capt'n said yer very good wit the computers, and our last guy didn't last too long, so this'll be yer work station."

Gaila noticed that anytime he showed her something on the ship, he made it a point to use his right arm, his human arm. This time, she showed enough sense to not stare at him, but at the screens and the machines that built the inside of this fantastic ship. By the end of her shift, she was ready to hug the scottsman. He was obviously brilliant, if not a little insane at times, but she could tell that would be grateful to have him as her commanding officer and not some lech who she was sure she was going to get.

Gaila had stayed in Engineering long after Mr. Scott ("Lass, just call me Scotty. Yer far too upity.") had dismissed her. He assured her that he could handle everything until the morning shift arrived. Apparently no one had wanted to work "Graveyard" shift with the mysterious Montgomery Scott, so Jim had assigned Gaila as the only person to that shift. She was very grateful for that.

Scotty loved to tell stories about his childhood and his dog (technically Keenser was an alien, but she reminded her so much of a dog when he whined that she couldn't help it) and especially the ship. Gaila had seen love only a few times in her life, and the love that Scotty had for this ship, the Enterprise, she could tell it was something special. It was quite fascianting to listen to him go on and on, and after quite a few nights where the scottsman would shoo her to her quarters right as the overachievers of the morning crew came in early (Why couldn't they go to the mess until their shift began?), she was positive that she was beyond intrigued with this man.

They fell into a routine after the first night ("Lass, ye may want to wear somethin' a little more decent if yer plannin' on climbin' around in engineering.") and some nights she would sit on the main screen flickering through controls and running test, and others she would spend manuevering around in tubes and engine parts, usually pressed very close to one increasingly attractive Montgomery Scott.

It was about a month before she felt she had enough courage to ask.

"Um, Scotty? What did happen to your arm? If you don't mind me asking of course!" she was prepared for him to get angry and lash out or to fall silent, or just dimiss her in general. But he surprised her by sighing and reclining in his seat. They were both seated infront of the main screen that he had shown her the first night in engineering. She had a cup of her favorite Orion tea (Scotty had gifted her with it a week ago, but she promised herself to only drink it when she was with him) and he had a glass of scotch. He had stared into the glass before downing it in one gulp and then pouring himself another.

"It was that damned Nero crap," he had muttered. She knew as well as he did that the alcohol wouldn't effect his brain function since half of it was machanic anyway. "I had to eject the warp core to get away from tha' damned black hole. One of the consoles exploded. Sent a metal shard into me eye," he pointed to the glowing red orb sticking out of his socket. "Then when the warp cores ejected, one of them wasn't properly prepared, and when I released it, the whole damn thing exploded. My arm was useless.

"Admiral Archer just wanted to give me off to some experimentation units he had lined up. You know, revenge for his beagle. But McCoy managed to save my ass. Said he could put me back to work on this beautiful lady. And Kirk damn near threw a fit when Archer tried to replace me. So McCoy did his experiments and here I am."

By now he was pouring his third scotch. Gaila had been listening intentl throughout the whole story, so intently her tea had gone cold. Essentially, it was a powerplay on Archer's part. He approved McCoy's experiments because it locked Scotty up in the dark bowels of a very famous ship, and one of these days Jim wouldn't be able to protect him if he got promoted, or if he got another ship. Scotty would forever be trapped in the bowels of this ship.

"Are you still here Gaila?"

Gaila jerked awake, lifting her head, staring up at Lieutenant Kyle. Immediately she jumped out of her seat, glancing around for Commander Scott. It appears that he had drifted off to do something productive while she had slept and had covered her with his uniform jacket, which she held protectively to her chest as Kyle's eyes swept over her.

"So Gaila, why do you spend so much time down here? You should really come get a drink with me later after my shift. We could make a date out of it," he lieaned far too close for her comfort as he whispered these words in what she guess he thought was a husky voice. It made her cringe. She had only met Kyle once before, and that was when he had been harassing a young pretty Yeoman outside of the turbo-lift. Gaila had punched him clear in the face for his sheer disrespect of the female body and ever since then he had been following her.

"No thank you Lieutenant. I'm currently already seeing someone," she snapped. She knew that he didn't understand the offense of his request, she was not his mate or his family or even close to him, so why would she ingest things with him? Scotty was different. She felt comfortable around him and so ingesting liquids (such as her tea) had been a small step, even if Mr. Scott didn't understnd the culture difference.

"Tell me you aren't referring to Commander Scott?" Kyle laughed when she froze and her cheeks darkened. She whipped her head around to look at anything but him. She still held Scotty's jacket close to her chest. She reached out to snatch her PADD from the desk and turned, fully intending to push past Kyle and retire to her room. She would give the Commander his jacket back later this evening.

Kyle had obviously been anticipating this as he had one arm braced against the door frame effectively blocking her exit. A growl bubbled up in her throat. She wanted to growl and claw and bite the stupid man infront of her, but somehow she managed to hold back. For some reason she knew that Commander Scott still lurked somewhere down in the darkness that was Engineering, and she didn't want him to see the Muri in her. It may be celebrated in Orion culture, but she knew from Jim's reaction, human's didn't think it was so great.

"Come on. Your the hottest woman on this whole ship. Hell, you could even have the Captain if you wanted," he said smoothly. She resisted the urge to snarl at him that she had already had the Captain when Kyle moved closer to her, backing her against the desk behind her. He braced his arms on either side of her, closing her in. Trapping her.

"And your going to choose Commander Scott? Is it his rank that gets you all bothered?" he whispered in her ear, the laugh in his voice obvious. His hands were moving to her hips and the growl in her throat kept building and building.

"I suggest you get your dirty hands off of my Kyle," she snarled finally. She could hear the alpha tracks in her voice, making her sound more like an animal than a humanoid, but Kyle didn't seem deterred.

"I've always wondered about the animal woman legend that you Orions have. I wonder if your that woman Gaila."

He had a firm grip on her now and his face was a mere inch from her own. The only thing protecting her bare stomach from him was the Commander's jacket held in her death grip. Gaila didn't bother to hide the deep rumbling in her throat. The man was oozing testosterone and it was making her nauseous. She bared her teeth in her most threating show of aggression, but when his hand clasped the back of her neck to pull her in for a kiss, and his hips pressed his obvious arousal into her hip, she saw red.

"Gaila! Gaila! Lieutenant, that is enough!"

When Gaila came back to herself, she realized there were two strong arms wrapped around her. One soft and warm, the other cold and hard. Some part of her mind realized it was Commander Scott who she was thrashing violently against, but the rest of her wanted to sink her claw-like nails into the bleeding groaning body on the floor.

She registered the blood seeping through Kyles shirt, and the three long marks on his face, but it wasn't enough, she wanted to taste his blood on her lips. How dare he touch her? He had no right! She had made it quite clear that she was not interested, that she already had a mate in mind, and it certainly was not a low-life peice of human waste like him. He deserved so much worse than she had given him. He deserved to pay with his life, and if the Commander hadn't been holding her back she would have repainted all of Engineering with his blood!

She didn't realize she was screaming all of this outloud. She didn't realize that she was being dragged away through engineering towards an rarely used office that belonged to the Head of Engineering. She did finally realize that an audience had gathered around the main room where Kyle's mangled body lay, along with her PADD and the Commander's jacket.

Finally she was released.

She ripped away and hit the floor, backing herself into a corner. The feral, primal part of her mind was still reeling from the smell of Kyle's blood. She knew that she was making herself look like a damn fool infront of the Commander, infront of the one she wanted as her mate, but it was uncontrollable.

However, Scotty waited patiently, his red eye flickering and the wires connected to his back humming. A moment later Gaila watched as Yeoman Rand tentively stepped into the room, muttering a few words to the Commander. His one human eye darkened at her words.

"An hour in the booth. If he lives, send him to Doctor McCoy." he snapped at her. She nodded firmly and dashed out of the room. Commander Scott approached her slowly, as though she may attack him. Her eyes raked over his body. Without his jacket, he only wore a tight black undershirt, not hiding his well defined chest, or the rough scarred skin where his metal arm had been stitched to his skin. She wasn't sure why this aroused her.

Gaila was sick of this. It wasn't fair. Males assaulting her at every turn, and how dare a female talk to the one she wanted. The Muri in her would allow no more. Before she knew what was happening, she was on her feet and had tackled her commanding officer to the ground.

She sat perfectly on his thighs, one hand in his hair, the other clutching the metal plates on his let shoulder. Her lips found his, molding perfectly to him, taking him by surprise. She felt his hands clutching at her bare arms, trying to push her away, his muffled protests sending her into a frenzie.

"Why are you denying me?" she couldn't help but scream at him when he finally pushed her away. He was still gazing at her with uncertain eyes, as if she didn't trust himself to speak, but his hormones gave him away. She could smell his arousal. He wanted her, yet he was not allowing himself to have her. She could not understand.

"Gaila," he said breathlessly, which made her want to jump him again. "Ye aren't yerself lass. Ye need to calm-"

"I know what I need!" she growled as she mounted his thighs again. "I need you. Now."

Scotty looked shocked and abit scared, but he didn't put up a fight when she latched herself onto him again. He pushed against her, rolling her to her back. She wrapped her legs around his waist, her hands roaming under his shirt over his chest.

Soon their movement became blurry. She remembers him snatching her clothes off and she remembers ripping his shirt because of those damn wires protruding from his back and after that all she can remember is the feel of him barreling inside of her. Her hands in his hair and her blood singing as he thrust into her over and over and over.

After that she remembers waking up in his bed. In his quarters. He was not with her.

For a long moment, all Gaila wanted to do was cry. Commander Scott had been nothing but a gentleman to her. He had never tried anything with her even though they had spent well over enough nights alone on shift together, and what did she do? Maul one of his crew members and throw herself at him like a cheap whore.

She tried to curl up into a ball and pull the sheets tighter around herself, when she realized that is wasn't a blanket that was draped over her shoulders, but Commander Scott's jacket. The one she had dropped on the floor after attacking Kyle.

And suddenly she is crying. She is sobbing hysterically, the jacket covering her face, both to muffle her sobs and so that she could inhale his scent.

Suddenly, there are arms wrapped around her, pulling her against a warm hard body. There is a soft voice in her ear and soft lips pressed into her hair. She knows it is him. She doesn't have to turn around to know it is him.

"Why?" She chokes out. She doesn't understand why she isn't in the booth right now. She doesn't understand why he took her to his bed, she doesn't understand any of it.

"Hush dear. Yer fine. Nothin' is gonnae happen to ye, I promise. An' if it gives ye peace, Kyle is in the hands of dear ol' Doctor McCoy." he whispers into her hair, not caring when her warm green fingers wrapped around his cold metal one. It makes him frown, but he knows she doesn't care. She showed him plenty of times last night that she didn't care what he was made of. He had only wished he could have been able to unlatch himself from this blasted ship long enough to treat her like a real lady.

"Ye said ye wanted me as yer mate. Is that still true lass? There was honestly no reasonin' with ye last night. Believe me I tried." he chuckled the last part, hoping to get a smile out of her. There was a soft flicker on the corner of her mouth and he tried to kiss it to make it come back. She whined and turned in his embrace.

"I would very much like for you to be my mate. However, I do not wish for you to feel as though you are obliged. I will be happy to take another shift - "

"Are ye daft woman?" he snapped. She jerked her head up to gaze into his one chocolate brown human eye. "Yer the only person besides the Capt'n that has seen past the wires and the tubes and the..." he waved his metallic arm uselessly.

"Ye expect me to punish you for treatin' me like a human? Hell, lass, ye made me feel like a man again." he murmurred softly, his lips falling onto hers and not moving until her hands were resting on his body, pulling him closer to her.

"I'm glad you aren't treating me like a slave girl. I'm not a damn whore." Gaila's eyes darkened as she thought about Kyle and his words and his implications. She looked back at Scotty, her mate. She smiled at him, an almost evil smirk.

"If what Ensign Smith said holds any truth, you most definately are more of a man then he could ever be." she grinned at him and latched her lips onto him. He groaned and shifted ontop of her.

"Scotty! Where the hell are those reports I ordered dammit? You still have alot of work to do Commander! Look, I'll even officially marry you two later, but can you please get this crap with Kyle fixed first?"

Both Gaila and Scotty groaned at the interruption.

"Leave it to Jim Kirk to interrupt us at a time like this," Gaila smirked at him. He merely smiled back before reaching for a button next to the bed.

"Aye Capt'n, but I'll be holdin' ye to that promise."

Gaila remained stone still on the bed even after Scotty pulled himself off of her and began to pull on a shirt, carefully manuevering it so there would be room to reattact himself to the ship's wiring. He could only stay unhooked for maybe an hour at the most.

"What does the Captain mean by 'marry'?" Gaila asked finally when he came to stand beside her to retrieve his jacket. Scotty raised an eyebrow at her.

"It means...well, it's a human's way o' sayin' we're mates." he said to her smiling and giving her a long kiss before a small console on his arm beeped, warning him he had approximately ten minutes to hook himself back up to the main computer. He sighed and pulled away, taking his jacket with him.

"Ye have the day off to relax and...recover. Let me take care of Kyle," Scotty said with a slight growl of his own, and it made a warmth bloom in Gaila's chest when she realized that he wanted to be her mate and was even will to oversee the mutilation of the one who assaulted her. As the doors slide shut and her mate was gone, Gaila rolled over and snuggled with a near by pillow in the hope that it held his scent.