Author's note: This obviously shares characters with A Bad Day For Shore Leave, but the two stories are stand-alone, and can be read in any order.
Almost, but not quite. A group of five people stood on a broad ledge on a mountainside, the only sentient life for over a thousand miles around. Behind them stood the shuttlecraft James Cook, nestled calmly amidst the snowbanks. Around them, all was still, not even an alien bird wheeling in the sky.
Max Dorner, Lieutenant, j.g. in the Starfleet Sciences Division, breathed out into the chill air, his breath forming a cloud of white mist that rapidly dissipated. The air was fresh, and clean, as much so, if not more, than the skies of 24th century Earth, now that technology had conquered pollution. There was a slight alien tang to it, probably from the local plant life, such as it was at this time of year, a reminder that they were not on Earth at all, but a colony world many light years away. A colony world, moreover, where all the settlements were at the far end of the continent, close to the equator.
He was, like all the others, wearing Starfleet cold weather clothing, the sort that got issued when the planet wasn’t frozen enough to require proper survival suits. Instead of those, internally heated, all-over suits and face masks, these consisted of a heavy parka trimmed with synthetic fur, thick trousers, gloves, and snow boots. The parka was in bright division colours with white trim, making people easier to spot against the snow – a useful feature if anyone became lost.
Like most of the others with him, Max’s parka was, of course, a deep shade of azure blue. He had to admit, though, that the others did not seem quite so comfortable wearing these bulky uniforms as he did, and three of them obviously weren’t too keen on the fresh, icy cold of the air on their faces.
The only other human in the little group was Matsu Genji, the medical officer, who stood to one side, formal and stiff, apparently having seen all he wanted of the scenery when he had stepped off the shuttlecraft. On many ships in Starfleet, an away team where the humans were outnumbered would have been unusual, although hardly unheard of. But, on the USS Endeavour, any other possibility would have been remarkable.
The Endeavour was one of the premier science research vessels in Starfleet, and it was crewed with some of the brightest scientific minds that that organisation had to offer. They came from many worlds across the Federation, since Earth and its colonies hardly had a monopoly on scientific acumen. As a result, on the Endeavour, humans were in a minority.
As the leader of this little expedition amply demonstrated. Max, Matsu, and Edrilli were all facing her as she stood in front of the shuttlecraft, briefing them on the task ahead. It wasn’t as if they didn’t already know all that she had to say, and Matsu seemed to be the only one really listening to the speech. Edrilli, for instance, the younger of the two xenobiologists, seemed chiefly to be worrying about the cold.
The young Bolian ensign was standing slightly hunched, her gloved hands tucked up under her armpits, the hood on her parka pushed forward so far that little more than her eyes were visible behind the ring of fur. She was, from what Max could see, trying not to fidget, eager to get the briefing over with.
Sh’ree, of course, was the exact opposite. Her parka was part undone, the blue of her uniform visible beneath it, the hood pushed back to let her pure white hair fall free. As so often, Max found his eyes drawn to her antennae, gently twitching, a code he had yet to interpret. He forced his attention back to what she was saying, trying to ignore the way that the colour of her clothing so complemented that of her skin.
“The Endeavour is scheduled to return in ten days,” she said, “until then, we have the planet, or at least this half of it, to ourselves. The planet is beginning to enter a warm period, part of a long-term climate change which I am sure Lieutenant Dorner can explain in greater detail,” she looked towards him, and he fancied he saw a brief smile flash across her blue lips, but it was gone in a second. “Our task is to evaluate the effects on the local wildlife, especially the avian forms, which automated instruments indicate have become unusually scarce of late.”
“Ten days of bird-watching, in other words? On an ice-world. Great.”
Sh’ree looked round in irritation at the final member of the away team. Lugmilla was leaning casually against the side of the shuttlecraft, her arms crossed over her short but stocky frame. The shuttlecraft’s pilot, she was the only one not dressed in blue, the burgundy parka a marked contrast with everyone else’s. She was also, technically, the most senior person here, even if Sh’ree was in charge of the scientific operation that was their only reason for visiting the planet.
“It’s not an ice-world,” pointed out Sh’ree, “there are jungles at the equator. Inhabited planets generally don’t have just the one terrain type, you know. In fact, overall, this planet is about the same temperature as Tellar.”
“And you still manage to send us to the edge of the tundra. Or the Captain does,” she added, forestalling the obvious objection. “Same thing.”
“There is a research base just over the ridge there,” replied the Andorian, “we all saw it on the way down. It’s automated, but it does have full facilities for visiting scientists. Replicators, heating, all of that.”
“It has heating?” asked the Tellarite. “Then what are we standing out here for?”
---***---
The base did, indeed, have heating. It was a single-story prefab building that, nonetheless, managed to look almost like the sort of chalet you might find at a ski resort. Somebody, probably in the Starfleet engineering division, had evidently had some sense of aesthetics. Kitted out with modern, 24th century technology, it was remarkably comfortable, and all the generators and other support equipment were concealed somewhere in its structure, tidily hidden away.
Three bedrooms, a communal bathroom, and a maintenance and equipment store surrounded a central dining and meeting area. Most of one wall was taken up by a huge window of transparent aluminium, looking out from the top of the shallow cliff on which the base perched. Now out of his cold weather clothing, Max stood at that window admiring the view. It was, he had to admit, stunning, and, for all its alien nature, it reminded him in some ways of his home in Austria.
“There’s a lot out there. We’re going to be busy.” He turned to see Edrilli, standing next to the long couch set up immediately in front of the window.
“Yes… I imagine it will take a while. Still, we have long enough.”
“Easy for you. The atmosphere isn’t going anywhere,” she indicated the weather station, just off to one side, the only structure outside the base’s main building. There wasn’t a lot Max could say to that. “Speaking of which,” said the Bolian, leaning closer, and lowering her voice, “is it just me, or is the temperature just a little too warm in here?”
Max didn’t think it was uncomfortable, but now that he thought about it, it was a few degrees above the standard shipboard temperature on the Endeavour. He glanced over at the maintenance room, where the thermostat was probably located. He had seen Lugmilla coming out of there a short while before… given her griping about the weather, it was easy to see what had happened.
“Probably,” he said, “but are you going to argue about it? We’d never get done.”
Edrilli grinned in response; she knew the Tellarite well, and had likely come to the same conclusion.
“Food’s up!”
That was Matsu, carrying a tray across from the replicator area at the back of the room to the main table. The three of them gathered round, Lugmilla at one end of the table, facing the window, and Edrilli facing Max. Matsu fetched across a second tray of food, and sat down next to the Bolian woman.
“Come on, Sh’ree,” he called out, “you don’t want to let it get cold.”
Max glanced up towards the door to the room that Sh’ree shared with the Bolian ensign, and froze for a second, slightly flustered. As the Andorian stepped out of the room, he could tell that she had noticed the extra warmth as well.
She had discarded her uniform top, wearing instead a tight sleeveless vest that hugged her curves. They were, as Max had noticed many times before, very shapely curves indeed, her body firm and athletic for a scientist, her breasts prominent without being over-sized. But it wasn’t really much more than he’d seen before, he told himself as he tried to look disinterested, unless you counted the bare blue skin of her arms.
Yet, somehow, Sh’ree in that vest was a sight that brought more warmth to him than it should have done.
She sat down at the one free place – which, of course, happened to be the one next to him – and pulled the meal towards herself.
“Are you sure this is good for us?” asked Edrilli after a while, “I didn’t expect something quite so fattening from you, Dr. Genji. Not that it isn’t delicious!”
“I dialled up the fat content on the replicator,” replied the medical officer, “and, please, call me Matsu.”
“Very well… Matsu,” she said with a grin and a shy sideways look that made Max wonder if he wasn’t the only one at the table feeling an inappropriate attraction to a member of a different species, “but is that good for us?”
“Absolutely,” he said, taking another mouthful of the replicated stew, “in a cold climate, especially when we are going to be involved in some strenuous hiking, it is important to eat food with a high calorie content.”
“Works for me,” said Lugmilla, who was, perhaps, the one out of all them that was least likely to do any hiking. Although, thought Max, wondering how much of it was really just down to her race, she didn’t look like somebody who normally kept to low calorie diets anyway. “Although what about those of us who don’t think it’s cold outside?” She nodded towards Sh’ree.
“Andorians…” began Matsu, before the away team’s leader interrupted him.
“Andorians have a higher metabolic rate than most other humanoid races,” she said, “so we burn calories quickly. Especially…” she paused, apparently changing her mind about what she had been going to say. Max wondered if it had been a dig at Lugmilla’s ample frame. “Well, especially in extremes of temperature. Both hot and cold, in fact.”
Matsu nodded, “Andorians have a remarkable tolerance for a wide range of temperatures. I really wouldn’t recommend an Andorian sauna to humans; it might well kill you.”
“So you do consider it cold outside?” asked Max, curious. “I’d have thought it was warmer than much of Andoria.”
“It doesn’t feel cold,” she said, “cool, perhaps, but not cold.”
“Funnily enough,” added Matsu, “it’s even further below Andorian body temperature than it is below ours. That high metabolic rate, again. The extra body heat staves off the cold.”
Sh’ree reached across and put one of Max’s hands on the bare skin of her arm. Her flesh was hot, burning like a fever, its warmth spreading through his fingertips despite that of the room, or of the food that was settling in his belly.
“See?” she said.
Max looked away, trying not to show how the touch of her soft, warm skin against his own had affected him. He didn’t think they’d really touched before, and the sensation reminded him more than ever of how, for all her blue skin and white hair, she was a remarkably beautiful woman. Probably, though, she found his own pink skin unappealing, and he doubted that somebody with such a warrior heritage would find a slightly geeky alien meteorologist to her taste.
Nonetheless, she flashed him a quick grin as he took his hand away, her antennae flicking in his direction as she did so.
“Your fingers are cold, “ she told him, “better eat up.”
---***---
The next day, Sh’ree, Matsu, and Edrilli headed off into the wilderness to begin their survey of the local wildlife. Max instead busied himself at the little weather station, collecting data as he waited for their return.
The station was automated, and seemed to have been running without a hitch since it had last been visited. It was a small structure, two and half metres high by one and a half across, filled almost entirely with sensing equipment and the computers necessary to run it and store the resulting data. It was all standard scientific equipment, the kind he had used dozens of times before, so operating it was simple enough, but the sheer volume of information took some time to sift through.
So engrossed was he in his work that he didn’t hear Lugmilla trudging up from the shuttlecraft’s landing site until she was almost up to him.
“Going well?” she asked, in a manner that was rather friendlier than she had shown so far on the trip. Perhaps she just wanted someone to talk to.
“Yes. Nothing too odd about the weather patterns themselves, although it’s interesting how they have been changing as the local star enters its more active phase. There’s something anomalous in the composition, though. Some chemical in the air… I think it’s probably organic. I could smell something odd when we landed, so it might be that. But, whatever it is, it’s been rising in quantity over the last few months.”
She nodded, “I think I know what you mean. Smelled like some kind of alien tree resin to me.”
He shrugged, “I guess we’ll know later, once we can all compare notes. For all we know, the trees always smell like this. Alien conifers.”
Lugmilla looked out over the vista below them, shielding her eyes against the glare of the sun in the crystal clear sky. Apparently seeing nothing worthwhile, she turned away again, wrapping her arms around her ample chest, breath misting around her pig-like snout.
“Not too bad to look at, I guess,” she conceded, “but I wish it was warmer.”
Max wondered what part of Tellar she came from. Her skin was slightly darker than that of most of her race that he had seen, and her hair was jet black. If Tellarites were like humans, she probably came from warmer climes, although likely not from the tropics themselves.
“Maybe we’ll go to a desert world next,” he said, “there’s plenty of them out there. A lot of worlds seem to be rocks and sand, in my experience.”
“Let’s hope so,” she agreed, “I could do with somewhere I didn’t need to wear all this clobber.”
Max tried to scrub his mind of the image of Lugmilla in the same sleeveless, tight fitting vest that Sh’ree had been wearing in the base. It wasn’t likely to be a pretty sight.
“Is it my imagination,” he said, changing the subject, “or do you think that Edrilli quite likes our medical officer?”
Lugmilla looked at him, her eyes narrowing slightly. “You sound surprised. Is he ugly, or something? I can never tell with humans.”
“No, no, I guess he’s quite good-looking, really. To a human. But she’s Bolian, that’s my point.”
“Oh, so that’s what this is about!”
“What?”
“You and Sh’ree.”
“There is no ‘me and Sh’ree’.”
“No, but you’d like there to be. There’s no point denying it; it’s more obvious with you than it is with our Bolian friend.”
“Well… but…” Max stammered. Had he been that obvious? Damn… Lugmilla was the last person he had wanted to work that out. Apart from the object of his misplaced affections herself, of course.
“Oh, good grief man, grow up!” She stomped her foot on the snow to emphasise her point. Whatever it was.
“Huh?” was all he could think of to say in response.
“You’re a human, she’s an Andorian. Hence you bringing up Edrilli and Matsu. Look, for your information, it’s pretty obvious that humans and Andorians are similar enough to find each other attractive, at least some of the time. If you can get over the fact that she’s blue, do you really think she can’t get over the fact that you’re pink?”
“Personally, I don’t think either of you are going to win any beauty contests back on Tellar,” she went on, “but who cares? You humans have got it lucky on the Endeavour.”
“I’m not sure many would agree with you.” It was a constant problem; the Endeavour had less humans per head than almost any other starship of comparable size, which really cut down on the romantic possibilities.
“They’re idiots, then,” said Lugmilla firmly. Max could tell that she was building up to an argument. “Do you know how many Tellarites there are on the Endeavour?”
“Uh, let’s see…” he began to mentally count.
“Besides myself, nine,” she butted in, before he could finish. “Four of whom are women. Of the five men, two are elderly, two are in solid relationships, and the other one’s an arsehole.”
Max’s mouth flapped open uselessly.
“For the last five years,” she continued, remorselessly, “and, frankly, for most of the last twelve, my entire love life has consisted of the occasional night alone in my cabin with a warm mug of gerut-ja, an erotic novel, and my trusty vibrator.”
“Have you ever heard the human expression ‘too much information’?”
“The point, my skinny human friend,” she said, jabbing a gloved finger towards him, “is that you don’t have such limitations. There are more humans than that, not to mention Betazoids, Trill, and all the rest it’s so hard to tell apart from you. And Andorians, apparently. Sh’ree rather likes you, take it from me. Don’t miss out on the opportunity when it presents itself.”
“Because,” she finished, “at least you have an opportunity!”
---***---
“Checking with the previous records,” said Max that night as they all gathered round the table for supper, “this organic, whatever it is, has been increasing in the atmosphere as the planet enters its warming phase.”
“Biological response, then,” said Edrilli, “something in the plants, probably. They’re starting to become more fertile now that they can take advantage of the higher temperatures.”
“Is it likely to be connected to what you’ve been studying.”
“Probably. It’s ecology; it’s all interconnected. Not that that makes it obvious what the connection is, of course.”
“How did your bird watching go?” asked Lugmilla.
“So far,” replied Sh’ree, “all we’ve done is confirm the existing observations. There are far less bird-analogues around than there have been before. The trees may be getting more fertile, but the birds are disappearing.”
“Migrating?”
“No… that’s what the colonists down near the equator thought at first, but there’s no sign of it on the satellite data. We should be able to spot the life signs, but we can’t. Besides, they’d have to be heading north, and there isn’t much north of here… the poles are just barren ice fields.”
“So what, then?” asked Max.
“We think,” said Edrilli, “that they might be hibernating.”
“But it’s getting warmer… isn’t that the wrong away around?”
“Aestivating, then,” said Sh’ree, “same idea. Some animals avoid the heat of the summer.”
“Okay… but where? I mean, wouldn’t the life signs still show up?”
“Not so well, perhaps, but yes, they should. That’s the problem.”
“We saw some nests,” said Edrilli, “quite a few, in fact, but almost all of them were abandoned. And the ones that weren’t were clearly being used by the few birds that are still about, so there’s nothing hibernating in them.”
“Which leaves only one direction they could have gone,” agreed Sh’ree, “down.”
“Down?”
“We saw some cave entrances,” said Matsu, speaking for the first time, “maybe they’re like bats.”
Edrilli nodded. “Hibernacula. Um… aestivacula… whatever the word is.”
Lugmilla broke in, “if the life signs are weaker when they’re hibernating, it probably wouldn’t take much to hide them completely. It’s hard enough to detect life signs underground at the best of times.”
“Exactly,” said Sh’ree, “we’ve identified two caves we want to take a look at. Just an exploratory survey, to begin with, nothing too difficult.”
“We didn’t decide which one we’d look at first, though,” pointed out Edrilli, “perhaps we should do that now?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. Why not check out both at the same time? It’s just a preliminary look, after all.”
“Can’t do that,” said Matsu, firmly, “there’s only three of us. And we can’t have anyone go down alone for safety reasons. Preliminary or not.”
“True enough,” admitted the Andorian, turning to the other human, “so, Max, you’ve got your basic readings, and I’m sure the meteorological equipment can run itself for a while. Do you fancy joining us tomorrow?”
---***---
The cave entrance was larger than he’d been expecting, almost ten metres in height and half that across, a great crack in the side of the cliff face, bushes growing across its base. Max shone his torch inside, but couldn’t see anything of note.
Edrilli had looked delighted when Sh’ree had paired her with Matsu. Max wondered if he was right about her feelings towards the Japanese doctor… not that the latter showed any indication of noticing, let alone reciprocating. More importantly, of course, it left Max himself with Sh’ree.
He wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that. This was business, and he found her rather distracting. Even if he had been willing to make himself obvious by visibly admiring her, it would hardly have been an appropriate time to do so. Still, he did like being with her, quite apart from what he knew was surely an inappropriate attraction.
“We’ve reached the cave,” came Edrilli’s voice over the comm, “heading inside now.”
“Don’t go too far,” that was Lugmilla, back at the base, “I don’t want to lose comms signal.”
“It should be all right,” replied Sh’ree, “so long as we don’t go down any pot holes. But let us know if the signal starts to weaken significantly.”
“Will do.”
They stepped inside, the roof of the cave shutting out the sun, despite the blue sky visible through the entrance behind them. The ground crunched underfoot, and Max looked down to see what appeared to be dark gravelly sand. Seeing nothing worthwhile there, he headed further in, shining his torch upwards at the cavernous space above them, then forward into the gloom. The cave apparently went a long way.
“Organic, at least partly.” He turned to see that Sh’ree had taken more interest in the gravel than he had, and was waving her tricorder over some of it. “Detritus, small traces of saprophytic fungus, and… look,” she stirred some of it with a gloved hand, “small bones in among it. Partly digested, too.”
“So what do we think?” asked Max. “Rats, wolves? Or the local equivalent.”
“More like owls, I would have thought. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“I’ll remind you of that if we get attacked by a giant man-eating owl.”
She smiled as she stood up, her examination over, “we’d probably have seen them. Although there are large carnivores on the planet, and I suppose it’s possible they might sleep in caves. So you never know.”
Sh’ree followed his gaze, as Max involuntarily glanced towards the phaser at his belt.
“That is set to stun, right?” she asked, “even if there’s an arctic cave hyena in here, we can’t harm the local wildlife.”
“Arctic cave hyena?”
“You don’t have them on Earth?”
“Not really. But more to the point, do they have them here?”
“Not that I know of. And is it?”
“Set to stun? Yes.”
She grinned. “Good. Now let’s go on.”
The cave was cool and dank, although, without the wind, probably warmer than it had been outside. Max couldn’t see much of interest, and certainly no bat-birds, hibernating or otherwise. Perhaps a geologist would have been more excited, but it had been a while since Max had studied any rock strata. Being a Starfleet officer, rather than a civilian scientist, there were plenty of things to be doing other than studying, and it wasn’t directly part of his field.
After a while, he came across the entrance to a side tunnel, barely high enough to walk down without stooping. He shone his torch down it, and something glistened in the light.
“Might have something here,” he called out, “I’m not sure what… could just be crystals.”
Sh’ree walked over in his direction, from where she had been examining one of the cave walls. “Can you get a closer look?”
“It’s down a side passage. Not sure how good the reception will be on the comms.”
“Could you get close if I stay out here to act as a relay? If it’s too far, don’t… we can always come back later with the full team.”
“I should be all right,” he replied. He would wonder later if that had been bravado, showing off in front of the attractive alien woman with the warrior heritage. Or if it just hadn’t looked that dangerous at the time.
Max stepped into the passage, torch out ahead of him. It still wasn’t clear what was causing the reflection, and the roof of the passage was dipping ahead of him. Not wanting to look worried, he ducked his head and moved deeper in.
“It’s all over the wall…” he said after a while, his voice echoing back towards where Sh’ree stood at the entrance to the passage, her own torchlight presumably showing little but his back. “Not crystals, though… perhaps some sort of coating. I’ll try and take a sample.”
“Be careful,” called out the Andorian, “you’re pretty far in, and I don’t want…”
He took a step forward, not registering that floor was covered in the same substance.
With a loud cracking sound it collapsed beneath him, and with a surprised yell, Max plummeted into a concealed hole, flailing about to grab something but finding only empty air.
He hit the bottom with considerable force, all the wind knocked out of him. The torch rolled away uselessly, and he lay there half stunned, seeing only blackness above him. He heard a sound, a scrabbling noise, coming closer. But he was too dazed to react.
Light poured down onto his face. He could see the beam of a torch straight above him, shining through a ragged hole in whatever was above him. He could just about make out Sh’ree’s worried face through the gap. He realised then that the sound had been her rushing down the passage after him.
“Max! Are you all right?”
He pondered the question.
“Max!” There was a frightened edge to her voice that finally brought him to his senses.
“Yes… yes, I think I am...” he replied, “wait a minute…” He tried to stand, and found that he could. He hurt in a number of places, but that seemed to be about the extent of the damage. “Nothing broken, I don’t think. Could have been a lot worse. What the hell just happened?”
The Andorian let out a sigh of relief, then looked cautiously around herself.
“The walls here are covered with some kind of resin-like substance. Looks like the bit of floor you stepped on was a solid sheet of the stuff, plugging this hole. Solid enough, but not sufficient to hold your weight apparently. Very difficult to see in this light.” He appreciated her saying that; it made him feel less stupid. “Can you climb out?”
“I don’t think so,” he said. The hole looked too far above him, in a flattish roof that stretched some way to either side.
“Hang on, I’m coming down!”
“No, wait! We just need some…”
Sh’ree dropped down gracefully beside him. It obviously wasn’t so hard if you were expecting the drop.
“…some rope,” he finished lamely.
She looked him over, and pulled back the hood on his parka, running her hands over his scalp, looking into his face with concern. Max felt embarrassed under her gaze, but couldn’t help but notice again how warm her hands were.
“Yes, you look all right,” she said, stepping back. “No sign of any head injury or bleeding.”
“But now we’re both trapped down here.”
He caught a flicker of shock on her face. She really hadn’t thought of that? Her concern for him was touching, but not, perhaps, so helpful under the circumstances.
“We’ll call the others,” said Sh’ree, after a momentary pause, and tapped the comm badge. “Sh’ree to base.” Static. “Sh’ree to base.” Still static.
He didn’t need to state the obvious: they were too far in.
“They’ll find us,” she told him, “they know where we are.”
He forbore from commenting on that, either. Instead, he shone his torch around them. “Speaking of which, where are we?”
They were in a large cavern; that much was obvious. A stream ran through the middle, although he had not really noticed its gurgling before now. Max could see some bones on the floor, and couldn’t help but notice that they were much larger than those near the entrance up above. Arctic cave hyenas, indeed.
Sh’ree instead shone her torch upwards, where the cavern roof stretched away from them. They were standing near the top of a slope, and the cavern became much higher further out. “Look!” she said in wonder.
Max looked. The roof of the cave was marked by occasional stalactites, but what was more noticeable were the vast clusters of gelatinous pods that obscured almost the entire ceiling. Sh’ree fumbled with her tricorder as the human kept his torch trained above them. There had to be thousands of the things here… maybe more, depending on how far the cavern went.
“Yes, that’s it!” The Andorian’s antennae were twitching excitedly, and there was a smile of triumph on her face. “We were right, they were hibernating. Those cocoons contain birds. Well, not literally birds, of course, so perhaps we should start calling them something else. But the local flying creatures anyway.”
“That thing we fell through – it must be a plug of some kind.” She pointed her tricorder down at the shards that had fallen onto the floor beside them. “Yes! It’s made of a kind of solidified mucus. It must help preserve the atmosphere in here, or something like that. Perhaps they need a stable environment. They come in, cocoon themselves, and then the last ones seal of the entrance before they join them. I can tell that there are different species in here – not so different from bat colonies in that respect, really – so they won’t all behave exactly the same. The few we saw outside yesterday must be more summer-resistant species, adapted to surviving a drier, warmer, climate than most of their fellows. This is fascinating!”
“All triggered by the climate cycle, as the planet’s orbit changes around its star,” added Max, “makes sense.”
“Affecting the plants, too. Hence the change in the chemicals in the atmosphere you detected.”
“Which could affect the birds, in turn. Pheromones, kind of.”
“Mystery solved!” said Sh’ree with satisfaction. “Although there’s a lot of detail to be filled in.”
“And,” pointed out Max, “we still need to get out.”
“Yes, that,” conceded the Andorian woman. “Well, you know what else strikes me about this?”
“What?”
“There’s another exit.”
“There is? How do you know?”
“The bones on the floor. Some of them aren’t that old, and they’re large enough not have been left here by the birds. Or by anything that came in the way we just did. So there has to be another way in and out.”
“Used by a large carnivore.”
“Or scavenger.”
“Maybe.” He was doubtful.
“Of course, most scavengers will also eat fresh meat if they can.”
“Great.”
“Anyway, if there is another way out, I think we should find it. Coming?”
---***---
The obvious solution was to follow the stream. It had to go somewhere, and it seemed sensible to follow it downstream, in the hope that it exited somewhere further down the mountain slope, rather than following it up to what might turn out to be a narrow crack in the rock.
It turned out, however, that the stream eventually disappeared through an archway at the end of the cavern. There was no solid bank to walk on, and Max, at least, could not tell whether the rock ceiling above the stream dipped down below water level further on in.
“Dead end?” he asked.
“Maybe. Let me take a look.”
Sh’ree stepped down into the water, which soon reached her knees, and lent forward into the tunnel that the stream vanished into, peering into the darkness. The cold-weather clothing was waterproof, but not intended for long term immersion. Max imagined that it must be freezing, and shivered himself at the thought.
Sh’ree turned back towards him, “turn your torch off,” she said, flipping the switch on her own. Puzzled, he complied, and they were plunged into blackness.
“I can see light,” the Andorian called out, “it’s not very bright, but it’s ahead somewhere. There has to be some kind of way out down here.” She turned the torch back on. “Follow me in, and I’ll see if we can find it.”
Reluctantly, he did so. The seal between the boots and the bottom half of his parka was impressive, and nothing leaked in as he had half expected it to. Score one for Federation technology. The water was not as ice cold as he had feared, either – or else the clothing was an effective insulator even when wet.
The tunnel was, however, cramped, and he had to bow down his head, walking along almost bent double as Sh’ree led the way. His feet slipped a few times on the uneven bottom, strewn with small rounded stones worn smooth by the flow. The light from the torches danced along the walls and across the surface of the water, and he could hear nothing but gurgling and splashing
“Here, up above!” called out Sh’ree. “There’s light coming in through another of those mucus plugs. Can’t be the way our creature gets in, if it’s here at all at this time of year. But it might be a way for us to get out. I’ll cut it open, and see what we’ve got beyond.”
Orange light flooded the passage as the Andorian cut away at the substance with a phaser beam. With a series of splashes, their sound amplified in the narrow tunnel, chunks of the material fell into the water. Sh’ree’s head disappeared into the opening she had created above her.
With a thrill, Max realised that he could see sunlight flooding around the woman in front of him. He flipped the torch off, and tucked it back in his belt. A few moments later, his eyes adjusted to the conditions, and he saw Sh’ree’s legs vanishing upwards as she hauled herself into whatever space there was above.
“Yes, there’s a tunnel here,” she said, her voice muffled by the rock. “Wait a moment, then follow me in. I can see light at the end. It should be climbable.”
“Be careful,” he called out, but it sounded as if she was already moving upwards and away, and if she heard him, she made no reply.
Max moved forward until he stood below the gap. There was a tunnel of some kind above him, some water trickling down through it. Perhaps it was a sinkhole of some kind, but the details didn’t matter. Reaching up to grip the sides, he hauled himself up into it, seeing Sh’ree’s heavily insulated legs moving up ahead of him.
The climb was exhausting, leaving his arms and legs aching. He should have attended more of the fitness classes on the Endeavour, he reflected, as he stopped for a short breather. He could hear Sh’ree continuing to climb, her muscles apparently stronger than his. Then, with a shock, he realised that he could hear a similar sound from below… something climbing the pipe after him.
He looked down, below where his legs were braced against the irregular rocky sides, and saw it, almost filling the tunnel. It was too dark to make out much, just a row of sharp jagged teeth and the glint of four reddish eyes. It was more than enough to convince him that, whatever the creature was, it wasn’t friendly.
Drawing his phaser as swiftly as he could he fired blindly down the tunnel. The thing responded with a bellowing roar, echoing in the narrow space. How had he missed it? How could he possibly miss something so close in such a confined place? He fired again.
He heard a yelp, saw the thing lose its grip on the sides, and drop – just as a great load of snow fell onto his head. Had the roar loosened it? Had he, somehow? Or Sh’ree? He couldn’t tell, and it was all he could do not to be knocked down the tunnel after the creature.
The snow covered him, filling the pipe like a thick plug. It was packed against his face, against his arms, pinning him in place. Max couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything, couldn’t even breathe. He tried desperately to calm his rising panic, as he feared for a brief moment that this might really be the end.
But it was only a moment, for shortly after, he felt motion in the snow, felt strong gloved hands grabbing his shoulders, hauling him upwards, still unable to see anything. Before he knew it, he was out in the sunlight, rolling into a fresh bank of snow, Sh’ree gripping him, rolling on top as the pair slid down a slope to skid to a halt in a drift.
“Think… think I got it…” he gasped.
There was no sound of pursuit, but he was too disoriented to see what the Andorian had just pulled him out of. And her face was above his, just inches away, antennae twitching, eyes wide, flakes of snow melting on the soft blue of her cheeks. Even under the circumstances, he could not help but think how beautiful she was.
He had no idea who made the first move, but the next thing he knew, they were kissing, her blue lips pressed against his, her breath hot on his face. She pulled back for a moment, a strand of white hair drifting free from her hood, mouth panting, breath misty in the cold air. Then they kissed again, longer this time, gloved hands around each other’s heavily insulated bodies, tongues entwining.
A beep from their comm badges finally put an end to that. Sh’ree rolled off him, regaining her composure, and sat up before pressing the badge. Max looked up, to see where they had fallen from. There was a hole there, in the snow, but no sign of anything coming out of it. He looked back to the Andorian, head spinning from what had just happened.
“Sh’ree to base,” she was saying, “we’re all right. No need to send out a search party. We had a bit of trouble, but we’re both fit and well now.”
“Glad to hear it,” came Lugmilla’s reply, “because Edrilli isn’t.”
---***---
The four of them were standing outside the shuttlecraft, Edrilli already inside. Lugmilla had flown it across, closer to them, and they’d been able to take a stretcher up to the others, and then carry it all the way back down again with the Bolian on it. It had been tiring, but it could have been a lot worse.
“It’s nothing too serious,” Matsu was saying, “just a broken leg; a clean break of the tibia, according to the medical tricorder. If I had access to the sickbay, it would easy enough to fix.”
“But not with what we have in the shuttlecraft?” asked the Tellarite.
“I’m afraid not. I’ve done all I can with painkillers and a splint, but to knit the bone back together, I’m going to need more than we have here.”
“That settles that, then. We’re off to the colony. They’ll have what you need, right?”
“Absolutely. How long it will take?”
“We should be there by nightfall. They’re half a planet away, but,” she tapped the hull, “she’s fast.”
“I agree,” said Sh’ree, still officially in charge of the expedition, “I guess we’d better make a start now.”
Lugmilla stepped towards the door, and then turned back again, a thought apparently striking her.
“Actually,” said the Tellarite, “we really only need Matsu. If you and Max have scientific data to go over, you might as well do it here. The facilities at the base are better than I have on board, and we’ll be back tomorrow anyway.” She turned to Matsu, “We will, right?” He nodded. “There you go. You can have the base to yourselves until tomorrow afternoon.”
Max glanced at Sh’ree. The feel of her lips against his still hadn’t left him, but her expression was unreadable.
“That sounds a good idea. If you’re okay with it, Max?”
“Uh, yes, sure. Of course.”
“There we go then,” said Lugmilla, climbing back into the shuttle. She turned one last time, winking briefly at Max. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
---***---
Max stepped out of the bathroom, wearing a fresh vest and uniform trousers. He felt clean and refreshed, the few cuts and bruises already treated with the wonders of modern first aid equipment. He noticed that Sh’ree hadn’t bothered to turn the temperature down, and was back to wearing the sleeveless top that she’d been wearing before, her uniform jacket, like his, draped over a chair nearby.
“While you were in the shower, Lugmilla contacted us to say that everything’s okay,” she told him, “they’re at the hospital now, and should be back here a little after noon tomorrow.”
“That’s good to hear. Well, the shower’s all yours now.”
She smiled, and stepped past him into the room. As she did so, her bare arm brushed against his, her soft skin warm, making him catch his breath for a second. Then the door shut between them, and he was on his own again.
He wandered over to the table, where the tricorders were sitting, data displayed on the nearby PADDs. He was intending to get some work done, but soon found that his mind kept drifting away.
She had kissed him. Sh’ree, the gorgeous, shapely, and intelligent woman who had so often haunted his dreams had kissed him. Not just kissed him, either, but kissed him properly, responding to his passion in kind. Had Lugmilla been right, or had it all been the emotion of the moment, the sudden exhilaration of freedom?
His eyes glanced back towards the door to the bathroom. He could hear the water running from the shower, and inevitable images leapt to his mind. Steadying himself, and still not quite sure of what the Andorian woman really wanted, he instead looked out of the large window at the front of the base.
It was dark outside now, stars twinkling down through a moonless sky, a mantle of blackness cast out over the land. A dancing light caught his eye, sheets of green over the mountaintops. The aurora, the northern lights. He had never seen them so clearly as this, not on any planet he’d had the chance to visit.
Entranced, he dimmed the lights in the base, giving him a clearer view of the sky. For a while, even Sh’ree was forgotten, lost in the inky dark strewn with so many diamonds, and the strange ephemeral light in the sky. You almost forgot the beauty sometimes, when you were travelling through the depths of space nearly every day of your life. But take the time to rest, to take it all in, and it was truly breath-taking.
He didn’t know how long he stood there, staring out over the planet’s wild beauty, but after a while, he heard the bathroom door open. He hadn’t even noticed the shower stop running. He continued looking out as Sh’ree stepped up beside him, then glanced her way… and his heart leapt in his chest.
Sh’ree had acquired a dressing gown from somewhere. It was probably replicated, he reflected, although he hadn’t seen her doing it. It was white, made of some material that looked like silk, or as close as the replicator could get. It concealed more of her body than her other clothes had, yet its thinness and the fact that she was surely wearing little, if anything, beneath it, made him almost giddy.
She was looking out of the window, as he was, a slight smile on her face, antennae almost still, the white of her damp hair complementing the gown. She looked absolutely stunning.
“Wow,” she said, softly, “that’s quite a view.” He blinked, then realised she was talking about the window. He nodded, and she moved over to the small padded bench set up before the window. “Sit beside me,” she said, “the lights are so beautiful tonight, we may not get another chance.”
He did so, and she slid up closer, her body warm through the fabric that separated them. She slid an arm around him, pulling her bare feet up onto the couch, and resting her head on his shoulder, all the while gazing out into the night sky. Hesitantly, he put his left arm around her too, and she didn’t resist.
Together, they looked out in silence, the green lights shimmering in the sky like a magical curtain, inexpressible in their wonder.
He couldn’t say how long they remained like that, arms entwined, just watching, comfortable in each other’s presence. But, eventually, the lights began to fade, and, while the stars were beautiful against the clear night sky, it was a sight that was more familiar from their time in Starfleet.
Max had fallen into a reverie, and was only brought out of it when Sh’ree suddenly disentangled herself and stood up. He couldn’t help but notice that the dressing gown had loosened a little. It didn’t show much more than it had before; just a flash of shoulder and a part of her collar bone, but just that was enough to flash images of more through his mind.
“Well, time for bed, don’t you think?” asked the Andorian with a smile, and walked over to the door to the room she had shared with Edrilli.
“Uh, yes, right,” he replied, his mind returning from the pleasant place it had been wandering. “See you in the morning.”
She turned back to him, and gave him a quizzical look, her antennae twitching visibly. Max was suddenly conscious that he must look disappointed, and tried – unsuccessfully, as it turned out – to put on a more neutral expression. Sh’ree grinned, a flash of white teeth against blue lips, and turned away into the darkened bedroom, leaving the door open.
A moment later, she called from inside, “I mentioned it was time for bed. I didn’t say ‘time for sleep’.”
Transfixed, Max heard the sound of the dressing gown falling to the floor, and then a rustle of sheets. Unaccountably, he felt nervous, clenching and unclenching his hands. Steadying himself, he walked in a daze over to the open door to the bedroom, and peered inside.
Sh’ree was lying in the bed, sheets tucked up under her armpits, her shoulders, neck, and arms bare, and watching him expectantly.
“Well?” she said, pulling aside the sheet beside her, and patting the mattress. The bed, he noted, was hardly king-size, but it was large enough, wider than the ones junior officers got on the Endeavour. “Aren’t you going to join me?”
A little voice in the back of Max’s mind was still telling him that he couldn’t be this lucky, even after what had already happened this day. He told the voice to shut the hell up, before rapidly pulling off his vest, undoing his belt, and stepping out of his trousers. Of course, he then embarrassed himself by doing an awkward dance to get his socks off, but if Sh’ree thought it amusing, she gave no sign. Max walked over to the uncovered side of the bed, his arousal now highly evident through the grey fabric of his uniform shorts.
Sh’ree rolled over on her side to face him, and waved a bare arm in the direction of the remaining item of clothing. “You won’t be needing those,” she informed him, “unless there’s something I don’t know about human anatomy.”
He actually took it seriously for a second. What if there was something different? She was an alien, after all, and he’d never seen a naked Andorian, of either sex. But it was a ridiculous idea, of course, and she had only been joking. Max pulled down his shorts, his erect cock at last springing free. Sh’ree’s eyes were fixed on it – had she just wondered what he had? If so, the answer had clearly been to her satisfaction.
He climbed into bed beside her, and a moment later, they were in each other’s arms, kissing.
Despite what she’d just said to him, Sh’ree was still wearing her knickers… but nothing else. Max wrapped his arms around her, running them down her bare back, and through her soft white hair. She felt fever-hot beneath his touch, but pleasantly so, her skin smooth beneath his questing fingers. Warm hands traced the outline of his shoulders and down his spine to cup his buttocks and hold him close.
Their lips were crushed together, tongues probing each other’s mouths as Sh’ree rolled on top, breasts against his chest as he caressed her neck. Eventually they broke apart, panting slightly for breath. The Andorian was grinning widely, hair falling down around her face as she held his head in her hands, stroking his cheek, then running a finger around the inside of his ear.
Her antennae were pointing forward, down towards him, their tips brushing his forehead. One hand sliding down her back, he raised the other to her face, brushing aside a strand of hair, and tracing the base of one of the alien appendages.
“Are they sensitive?” he asked.
“Not in that way… but, yes, a bit.”
“They’re very pretty. But so is the rest of you.”
He rolled her over then, onto her back, so that he was now on top of her. He was very conscious that his erection was pressed against her knickers, the heat of her body more than apparent through the thin fabric. But that was not what he was interested in. Not yet anyway.
Raising himself up slightly on his elbows, he leaned forward and kissed her on the nose. She sighed in response, lips brushing over his chin before he moved again, planting another kiss, this time at the base of her right antenna.
It twitched slightly in response; he didn’t know whether that was an involuntary act, or a deliberate one on her part. The slender blue stalk was curved in his direction, a number of little ridges forming rings around it. He brushed his lips along the length, tasting her. Sh’ree lay very still beneath him, and he could feel the soft caress of her breath on his neck.
He reached the tip, and, as gently as he could, slid it between his lips. His tongue flicked over the protuberance, darting inside the smooth skin of the small cup that flared there. The antenna twitched again, more vigorously this time, and popped further inside his mouth. He ran his tongue around it, feeling the ridges, and then dipped inside the cup again.
“Oh,” she said with a little gasp, twitching again inside his mouth, “you’re good at that.”
He released her then, only for her to pull him in for another deep kiss on the mouth, her arms hugging him tightly. She felt so incredibly good against his body, for all that he was already starting to sweat from the warmth pouring out of her, her hot breath against his face.
Soon, her hands were all over him, feeling every inch of his back and sides, giving his buttocks a squeeze, wandering over his belly and chest. He was glad that a life in Starfleet kept him at least reasonably trim; if he’d stayed a civilian meteorologist, his figure would have been even less muscular than it was.
“You feel chilly,” she told him, her voice quiet, fingers stroking his back again, “as if you’ve come in from the cold.”
“Is that bad?”
“No. Actually, it’s kind of sexy.” She took one of his hands, and placed it on her breast. “See?”
The Andorian’s nipple felt completely human-like beneath his fingers. Human-like, and decidedly perky, rising up at what he presumed was his cold touch. He stroked her breast, feeling the smooth curve of it and, with his free hand, pulled the sheet down for a clearer view.
The light in the room was dim, but, even so, he could see that Sh’ree’s aureoles were darker than the surrounding skin. He would later think of their shade as a deep, rich azure, contrasting clearly with the pure sky blue of her breasts. For now, in the gloom, he bent down and kissed her there, sucking lightly on the swollen nipple. The Andorian woman let out a slight gasp as he flicked his tongue over the nub, her back arching up from the bed, hot fingers stroking his shoulders.
Insistently, she pulled him up to her mouth, and they kissed again, Max’s hands wandering over her flanks, down to slide across smooth blue thighs. She was hungry now, passionate, her body moving against his, one hand roaming down his belly to grab his cock, squeezing and pulling on it, so that it was now his turn now to gasp in delight.
She pushed him back a little, off of her just a small way, and let out a little cry of frustration as she reached below the sheets, pulling her knickers down over her thighs. Max helped her remove them, both their movements swift now with desperation and eagerness for more. A short while later, she had them loose and threw them to one side of the bed, wrapping her legs around his as she pulled him back in for another kiss.
Their breath came in pants as they grasped at each other, rolling around on the bed, sheets no longer covering their upper bodies. First she was on top, raining kisses over his neck and chest, antennae brushing against his skin, one hand fondling his balls. Then their positions reversed, Max nibbling her ear, trailing kisses across her shoulders, down to where he could once again suckle at those perfect blue breasts.
Sh’ree ran one hand through his hair, the other gripping his increasingly sweat-slicked shoulders. Gasping, he pulled himself up to lie over her again, gazing into her eyes, the pupils wide in the semi-darkness. Her thighs were either side of his hips, and he could see the longing in her face. She reached down to grip his cock again, sliding down its length and pressing it against her body.
“Max…” she gasped, voice full of hunger.
He called her name in response, and at last thrust himself between her legs. Sh’ree cried out, her body arching as she gripped his back. Her thighs gripped his, as her fingers dug into him. Overwhelmed by the feel of her body, nostrils filled with her slightly alien scent, he continued, the pair of them soon finding a mutual rhythm.
The heat that ensheathed his cock aside, the Andorian felt like any human woman. And yet, for Max, it was better this time than ever before. They seemed made for each other, and the affection that he felt for her, the culmination of this long pent up desire, filled his heart as well as his loins. She was energetic too, enthusiastic, her body responding to every thrust, her cries and moans echoing with pure delight.
One of her hands gripped his ass, pushing him deeper inside as she began to move faster. He responded in kind, the bed now creaking with their exertions, Sh’ree’s legs wrapped round his own, her hard nipples pressing into his chest as her cries became louder. He was gasping himself, his body sweating more than hers as he sought to give this wonderful, passionate, Andorian woman all she could desire.
He could not last much longer, and it was evident that she could sense that, too. She stared into his eyes, her mouth a silent ‘O’, her own eyes wide. A moment later they both cried out as they climaxed together. Sh’ree’s body jerked beneath him, throwing her head back, her antennae going rigid. As she did so, the walls of her vagina gripped his cock, squeezing it, milking it, with muscles that were surely stronger than those of a human woman.
Indeed, it seemed some time before she was able to release him, and Max reflected that here, at last, might be some difference between her species and his. But it was pleasant, a good feeling, keeping them bound together even after the act, and it felt better yet when her muscles at last began to relax, and he found himself free.
Max rolled over onto his back, sucking in gulps of air, recovering from the most passionate, the most wonderful, love-making of his life. The air of the room felt cold against his bare chest now, although the sheets still entangled both their lower bodies. Sh’ree cuddled up to him, stroking her fingers over his skin, breathing in the smell of him as they lay there together.
He slipped his arm around her shoulder, holding her close, just delighting in her presence. It felt so relaxing, so right, just being there with her, and he found his eyelids drooping as he began to doze off in the comforting warmth.
It must have been some time later, but before he had quite fallen asleep, he felt her hot hand sliding over his belly and down between his legs. Max’s eyes opened, and he turned towards her, seeing that the Andorian was still wide awake.
“Later…” he murmured, not sure he still had the energy.
“Shh… we’ll see,” came her whispered response.
Despite himself, he found his cock stiffening as she gently stroked it beneath the sheets. Sh’ree leant across him and kissed him on the lips, her hand still at work.
“Perhaps in the morning…” he managed.
“Just lie back,” she said, moving further over him so that his cock – which seemed entirely more eager than his muscles – rested against the hot flesh of her abdomen. “Let me do the work.”
She kissed him again, swinging a leg over his hips. Despite himself, he was fully erect now, and all trace of sleep had departed. Beneath the sheets, he could feel her stroking him, rubbing his erection against her belly, fingers sliding over the head as she moved her body sinuously. Max gasped, and wondered if he did have more strength left than he thought. A second bout certainly didn’t feel beyond him now!
Sh’ree sat upright, pulling the sheet away so that it now rested only over his knees. For the first time, he saw the whole of her naked body – not that he had not already explored it thoroughly by touch alone. Her antennae twitched as she raised herself up on her knees, hand still gripping his cock, and then lowered herself atop of him.
They both groaned as he found himself pressed once more inside her. Slowly, Sh’ree’s hips began moving, grinding against him, as her hands reached out to caress his chest, stroking his nipples. He could see her body silhouetted against the little light that came from a high window, the stars glittering in the blackness.
Her antennae were pointed towards him, something he now clearly interpreted as desire, her white hair falling loose about her face. She began to move with more speed, her body rocking against his, enfolding him in her warmth. Gasps escaped her mouth, and Max reached up to cup her swaying breasts as she leant forwards, pressing the dark blue nipples into his hands.
His exhaustion was gone, and he found his own body rising to meet hers with each undulation, pressing himself deeper inside her than ever before. Max looked down, at the curve of her hips, saw a flash of white hair against the blue, saw his pink cock sliding in and out between shapely thighs the colour of a pale winter sky.
Her response to his groan of pure pleasure was to slow her movements, and he saw that she was determined to make this last as long as it could. She would get no arguments from him on that front.
She continued to move above him, her own energy seemingly limitless, her alien biology giving her stamina beyond his own. Every now and then she would increase her pace, pressing down on him more deeply, only to slow again a little later. He reached a hand up, and stroked her cheek, delighted in seeing her smile in response, her gaze full of affection.
At last, it seemed that it had been long enough, and, instead of slowing, she began to move still faster. She leaned forward, hair trailing downwards almost in a line with her antennae, blue breasts heaving as she pound against him with increasing vigour. She was gasping, crying out, the sound almost overwhelming the slap of flesh on flesh. They called out each other’s names as he gripped her sides and her pace reached a crescendo, before they climaxed for the second time that night, human seed spilling into a wondrous alien body.
They kissed and caressed, and it seemed longer than before until she was able to release him, the relaxation of her muscles once again bringing that brief feeling of blissful relief just before he slipped free. She pulled the sheets up over them and nestled her face into the crook of his shoulder, content, it seemed, to sleep at last.
And sleep they did.
---***---
Max woke from what seemed one of the most pleasant dreams of his life.
It did not, however, take long before he realised that he had not dreamt at all. Sunlight was pouring in through the high window, and from the main room. And it fell on the sky blue shoulder and arm of the woman sleeping next to him, and on the shimmering snow-white of her hair.
Gently, hardly able to believe the reality, he brushed away a few loose strands of hair from Sh’ree’s face and lay there, just watching her sleep. He felt like he didn’t want to move from that spot ever again.
In the end, it was she who moved first, opening her eyes and smiling a morning welcome. They didn’t speak, lying there for a moment in each other’s arms, savouring the feeling of togetherness.
Eventually she spoke. “The others will be back in a couple of hours, if all’s well,” she said, “much as I’d like otherwise, it’s time we were up and about.”
He nodded reluctantly, as she swung herself out of the bed. It gave him the chance to watch her moving naked around the room, the unblemished colour of her skin more evident than ever in the bright sunlight.
“Come on,” she said, finally finding her knickers and pulling them on, “you as well.”
He nodded, knowing she was right, and followed her out of the bed.
“I think I need another shower,” he said.
“Mmm.”
“Last night… it wasn’t…?” He couldn’t bring himself to say ‘one off’, but she obviously sensed his meaning.
The beautiful Andorian walked over to him, and kissed him briefly on the lips.
“No, it wasn’t.”
He grinned with relief, and headed for the shower, humming a happy tune.
Outside, the sky was cloudless, a pure and limpid blue.
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