A Bad Day for Shore Leave

Sumati pulled her uniform jacket taut over her body, glancing down briefly to confirm that she looked suitably smart. It really shouldn’t matter, she thought to herself, as she flicked aside a few stray hairs from her jet black fringe. Here, just beyond the borders of Federation space, nobody was going to care that much.

Except that the senior officers might very well care, especially with the Captain being such a stickler for rules. The Captain always looked immaculate, almost infuriatingly calm and polished. And Sumati knew exactly what the Captain would say: today she was representing Starfleet, and couldn’t afford to let the side down.

The last thing Sumati wanted right now was to turn up at the transporter room and be sent back to tidy herself up. Perhaps it wasn’t very likely – it rather depended who was on duty – but she wasn’t going to take the risk.

Update

So... in a few weeks there will be a new story up here. Yes, really. 

It has no connection at all to the existing saga, which I still have no plans to revisit, so sorry if you were hoping for that. It's also a one-off story, that stands alone, so that's another difference. And it isn't even fantasy.

The problem with science fiction, when doing the sort of stories I've been doing here, is that there's no consistent archetype to borrow from. I'd have to actually explain the setting, which I'm all for doing in something serious (as an RPG writer, I've had stuff published that's consisted of little else) but doesn't work for this kind of story. Because, essentially, what I'm doing is exploring something familiar, and seeing where it goes. It's easier for the length of the stories, too.

So, let's nick a sci-fi setting that everyone knows, preferably one with human-looking aliens, and use that. You can probably see where this is going...

Obviously, an erotic story set in the universe of Star Trek is not the most original thing anyone's ever written. But then, this blog has never really been about that sort of originality. On the plus side, it's all new characters, which about 90% of fanfic isn't (so far as I've seen, anyway). I guess that also gives it kind of an RPG vibe, keeping with what passes for a theme here.

I'm deliberately vague about the era, but the technology and so forth imply it's at least contemporaneous with DS9, although it could be the Next Gen movies, the Voyager era, or anything up to Star Trek Online. If it proves popular, I might do more, focussing on minor characters from this story, but there's no guarantee. And they certainly won't be out regularly.

But, hey, new content, right?