"Captain, They Have MEN."

No one spoke, you could have heard a pin drop, but finally the silence was broken by Lieutenant Tiloth. "You're not the only one who has been conversing with your counterpart, captain," The Andorian began. "Were you aware that, out of their original crew compliment of three-thousand, over a thousand people survived? Were you also aware that out of those thousand approximately two hundred were MALE?"

It was all over but the shouting at that point. Of the Surviving Crew of the Ishtar, I estimated approximately forty-nine-percent were lesbians or bisexual. This left a slight but statistically significant majority who would have just about murdered someone to have their cunts filled with a long thick bar of pulsating man-meat right then. Several more people rose to speak, but it was clear to everyone which way the vote would go by the time it was called for. Of the crew fifteen women voted against joining the United Galactic Imperium or abstained. Every one of them was part of the group I suspected of being of the lesbian sexual orientation. The other 75 percent, including Minya (who the captain had decided should be part of these proceedings for reasons best known to the captain), voted to join. Shortly we were back on the bridge.

"Captain." Brevet-First Officer Kokuru of the I.S.S. Justice said, inviting Captain Lance to speak.

"We have taken a vote among the crew and it has been decided by a significant majority to accept your offer of membership in the United Galactic Imperium, on a small handful of conditions. Point one: unlike standard procedure, other than changing our designation to I.S.S. and modifying our ship's iconography, we would retain our call signs and so forth. The Ishtar will remain the Ishtar, rather than be rechristened. Point Two: rotations will be arranged between our crew and yours to alleviate the lingering effects of the virus, as I am given to understand that you were fortunate enough to manage to save a higher percentage of your male crew-members. Point three: I will, having been awarded the rank of captain under Star Fleet procedures, retain that rank, and will not be appending 'Brevet' or any such identifier to it. Is this acceptable?" Captain Jeri asked, and the Imperial Kokuru, dark brown lips masked with black lipstick, smiled.

"Accepted, provisionally. The Brevet-Captain must make the final decision, provided you agree to some of the other frequently objectionable items. All duplicated crew members must be given unmistakable differentiation by whatever means are appropriate to their cultures and races, such as tattooing and/or scarification in the case of humans, and your ship will need to be overhauled to bring it up to Imperial specs at the earliest opportunity." Kokuru paused. "Also, while I am sure there will be several men in our crew more than willing to help your own personnel with the lingering effects of the virus, you ARE aware that slavery, especially of a sexual nature, is highly illegal in the Imperium? We cannot **** anyone to 'service' your crew-members."

It was Captain Lance's turn to smile. "That actually was a strong point in your favor when we discussed joining. Take it from Ensign Davis here, we take an EXTREMELY dim view of such things ourselves; otherwise his sexual organs would be scraped raw from overuse..."

I didn't blush at the comment, but it was a near thing, however I took this moment to interject. "If that is the Case, Brevet-First Officer, what about what we all observed my counterpart and your Ensign Trask doing when we first talked?"

Brevet-First Officer Kokuru did blush at that. "I don't know about YOU Ensign, but our Linda and Skylar were like that BEFORE the virus, the only change is they fuck on the bridge now when they meet at shift change in addition to after hours in their quarters..." she said, grimacing.

This time I couldn't help the faint flush coming into my cheeks. "I SEE." I said, clasping my hands behind my back and looking down at the floor while I fought to get my emotions under control. It didn't help that several people, including our own Kokuru, were trying and failing to suppress giggles, nor that my constant hard on was back with a vengeance.

"When can we expect the Brevet-Captain's answer?" Captain Lance asked, trying to drag things back out of the gutter by main ****.

"She's asleep right now, finally managed to nod off after a day and a half, so I think it will take another five hours at least. However, as I have made provisional acceptance we can start pairing off those crew-members who are awake to do the differentiation procedures. Speaking of which": Brevet-First Officer Kokuru turned to her counterpart and began speaking in their native Swahili, somehow temporarily disabling our universal translator. "Unajisikiaje kuhusu Laurel wreath juu ya dada yako kushoto shavu?"

"Na kwa dada yako mwenyewe tattoo?" Our own Kokuru replied.

"Mimi nilikuwa kufikiri ya kupata Dola mapanga walivuka juu ya haki yangu." Her counterpart said before captain Lance punched up an override code and brought the translator back on-line.

"Acceptable, but we'll have to talk about something for the intimate-," our own Kokuru blithely continued before realizing that everyone could understand her again, "Captain, has anyone ever told you eavesdropping is RUDE?" She asked.

"Has anyone ever told YOU that having private conversations in public is VERY rude?" Captain Jeri shot back and the First Officers, one clothed, one nude, both ducked their heads in acknowledgement of the rebuke.

"We'll talk later, on the secure line in my quarters." Imperial Kokuru said and our own nodded.

"Well, if that's settled I leave you both your respective cons. I'm going to my quarters to try to take a power nap." Captain Jerry said, stifling a yawn.

Try as I might, even for all my self control, the yawn was infectious, and the captain noticed. "Ensign, how long has it been since you properly SLEPT?" She demanded, and I knew I was busted. "About three days captain." I replied and Jeri rolled her eyes.

"Go get some rest. That's an order." she declared, and I followed her into the turbo lift down to the habitation deck...