I held my breath, crouching towards the sand-laden, yet grassy surface of the planet. The sky was a pale yellow, slightly more oxygen-rich than the comfortable Earth-Normal found on the ship, and hot as blazes. The heat was amplified as the powerful sun cast rays that gleamed off of the metallic structure less than 100 feet away, radiating warmth like a campfire, and seeming, at this angle, to be shooting sunbeams directly into my unshaded eyes. I turned away.
Glancing upwards and to my right, Chief Science Officer Spock stood stoic and unsmiling as he waved a small metal box back and forth over the area. The box beeped and whirred, unprecedentedly. Weep-weep-weep-whhr.
Several hundred feet ahead, Captain James T. Kirk also crouched low to the planet's surface. He cupped the white quartz sand, which covered the strange grassy plains, in his hand and perhaps unaware of my gaze, he brought it to his nose for a quick sniff. He was wearing the bright green V-necked number with the gold trimming, ripped nearly in half, from our previous encounter. He let the sand slip between his fingers and then held up his palm with a quick reflex akin to a cat.
"Whatever you do, Ensign Delesprit, do not - and I can not stress this enough - do not fire off any phaser blasts in this area."
I didn't respond verbally, though I did shake my head ferociously in his direction. As the Astro-Herpetologist assigned to this particular away mission, I was most informed on the sonic communication that the particularly deadly Taldurin Beta Land Snakes used as distress signals.
"Sensors indicate no sign of life, Captain. Cold-blooded or otherwise." Chief Science Officer Spock determined after the small metallic tricorder in his hands had finally, with a ping-ping of red light, ceased to spit and whir. He then walked cautiously towards the wreckage of the Klingon Vessel that initiated the need for this mission, when it so inauspiciously crashed on the surface of Taldurin Alpha at 8:26 this morning, space time. The box began to whir again.
"The Taldurin Beta Land Snake is hot-blooded, Chief Science Officer." I spoke with a cracking voice, regaining my confidence - and my footing - after the near-recent rumble of the earth around us that sent myself and Captain Kirk crouching to the ground.
"It is this trait that makes the Land Snakes so particularly deadly. You see, it is the rapidly heating temperature of their blood that gives them their venomous flame bite. Of course, you have a natural defense against such an attack, as a Vulcan, your blood has a much higher tolerance for-"
"That green blood!" Chief Medical Officer Leonard H. McCoy spat. "Is there anything that can kill him, Jim?" He emphasized the 'can' quite dramatically.
Chief Science Officer Spock did not seem to take notice.
"Ah, Bones." Captain Kirk cooed. "Spock, like you and I, like Ensign Delesprit herself, is just a man, after all. And like all men…"
As Captain Kirk placated Doctor McCoy, I stopped listening.
I was beginning to get nervous standing around this crashed spacecraft in a deserted part of the planet that had recently become infested with horribly dangerous, volatile Taldurin Beta Land Snakes. Especially after my fellow Ensign and Taldurin translator, Flannigan…Chet? Chip? Chip Flannigan. Was so quickly felled by a Taldurin Spore Servant upon our immediate arrival.
Best case scenario - his corpse has since been melted completely by the large funguses acidic spores. Worst case scenario - he'll show up at any moment as a mindless plant-controlled zombie.
Still, this left me the only Ensign remaining on this mission. I cursed the Captain internally, for not also bringing along an Astro-Botanist. After a string of curses, I decided to join Chief Science Officer Spock by the crash site.
The large and quite beautiful, silver spacecraft now lay in a crumpled heap, filling the air with a noxious black gas. From its exploded side panels, three feet wide at least, were slithering imprints in the sand that darted out in every direction before disappearing into the soft earth.
"A biological weapon, I assume." I added, as Spock silently scanned the empty cockpit, showing no signed of a manned flight.
"What was that, Spock?" Kirk called, his arm still slung around Doctor McCoy's hunched shoulders.
"Unmanned, Captain. Logically, this ship was intentionally sabotaged in order to release the Taldurin Beta Land Snakes into the environment."
"Damn it." Kirk called, making a large gesture. He slowly sauntered towards the wreckage.
"So the Klingons sabotaged their own ship, filled it full of Taldurin Beta Land Snakes, and crashed-landed it here. That much we understand. But…why? Why? That's the real question. Taldurin is a neutral zone, sure enough, and their supply of Taldurin sorghum is…"
Suddenly, the ground began to shake.
"Good God, Jim. Sounds like an earthquake."
"That's no earthquake, Bones." Captain Kirk spoke cooly, holding out his hands in a protective barrier around he and the doctor. Spock too, backed away towards me. The earth rumbled again. Then sat silent.
From the cracking rubble emerged, with both the speed and the size of a large train, a hooded serpentine head. Deep purple in color and flecked with red diamond-shaped patterns. Followed by the massive, scaled body behind. It arched upwards between us, splitting the party, and flared it's thin, vein-filled and viper-like hood - bearing fangs.
"Naja Taldurii Betii." I gawked, wide-eyed. Even if I has wanted to fire a phaser blast at the beautiful creature, I wouldn't have been able to move. It's massive form was captivating, to say the least. As it soaked up the hot rays of the Taldurin sun, it's body throbbed slightly, and it's fangs dripped red venom.
"Kill it, Jim!" Doctor McCoy called.
And with those lighting fast reflexes, Captain Kirk grabbed his phaser gun from his hip like an old-fashioned cowboy. Lined up his shot and took it. In a flash of blue light, the Taldurin Beta Land Snake's black eyes seemed to widen, before it disappeared all together, and all that remained was a massive, ringing, sonic blast.
"Run for you life!"
Captain Kirk's voice was warbled over the deafening sound of the phaser blast, but I didn't need to hear him. I turned tail on my own, sprinting as fast as my long legs could take me as far away from this Klingon vessel, the insufferable Doctor McCoy, and the irrational, though powerfully handsome, Captain Kirk, as possible.
—
It was near nightfall before I realized that I could probably stop running. I was high on a stone mountain range, now officially out of sight of what I imagined was a massacre designed only for me. It was thirty seconds after I collapsed onto the warm stone, and an additional thirty seconds after the sound of the pounding blood behind me ears ceased to ring, that I realized that I wasn't alone. I pulled a pale, now flushed pink and freckled, cheek from the ground and raised my head towards the winded figure beside me. I tucked a strand of loose strawberry-blonde curl back from my face.
"Chief Science Officer Spock?" I cooed, leaning towards him.
He lay hunched against a large, warm boulder. His sheet-white and expressionless face was now flushed, coated with a fine layer of sweat, and twisted into an expression of exhaustion and pain. Aside from a wide tear in his shirt, showcasing a lean abdomen of tensing muscle, he seemed unscathed.
"Ensign De..le..espirt." He gasped quietly. I flushed. I always had a thing for the Science Officer, ever since I was first stationed on the U.S.S. Enterprise six months prior.
"Are you hurt?" I moved in closer, getting a better look at the rip in his shirt.
"Only a scratch."
But as I opened up the velvety, pale blue shirt that covered his surprisingly toned form, it became apparent that the scratch was far worse than that. The flesh about it was a deep red, raised, and beginning to boil.
"A bite!" I exclaimed. "Chief Science Officer, you've suffered a Taldurin Beta Land Snake bite. We must find Chief Medical Officer McCoy. He has the anti-venom!"
I kneeled, and attempted to lift Spock to his feet by tucking myself under one of his long arms, but his weight was too great for my petite form, and my legs were worn to the quick from hours of fleeing.
"Mustn't try to move." Spock coughed. "Not…logical."
I slung my pack over my shoulder and grabbed from it a canteen of water, pouring it over his wound, forehead, and between his parted lips.
"Without anti-venom, not even your Vulcan blood can stave off the effects of this bite for long. Too soon you will be overcome by the fever." I checked his forehead. Hot.
I thought for a moment as his breathing quickened.
"Rest. I can help. I remember an herbal supplement, if properly mixed and applied, it should buy us at least 24 hours."
I left him leaning against the rock and walked out over the edge of this great expanse of mountainous hillside, my hands on my hips. Sure, I could remember the herbal ingredients used to create a concoction to help with the venomous flame bite, but we are on Taldurin Alpha, a completely different landscape with an entirely different set of flora and fauna.
You can imagine my surprise when I found every ingredient used in this salve within the next eight minutes.
"A remarkable place, Taldurin." I spoke aloud, but to myself as I crushed several different seeds and plants between two flat rocks in our makeshift campsite. Overhead the setting of Solun, the first sun of Taldurin, created a pink and purple aura in the sky. Soldu, the second sun and much farther way, trailed behind it.
I kneeled in front of Chief Science Officer Spock. My green eyes flickered. In my right hand I held a pale yellow, fragrant paste. Concentrated and powerful and smeared over two fingers. With my left hand, I reached down and grabbed a fist-full of Spock's velvety shirt. Nervous at first, I only managed to tear it a bit. He moaned and pressed his hands harder against the swollen wound. So, I just really went at it, ripping the shirt open and revealing his bare chest.
I swallowed a dry mouth.
Pristine pale skin stretched over a lean, muscular form as a light trail of black curls danced over his chest, disappearing at a solid abdomen, and reappearing to guide my wandering eyes past a finely cut, abdominal-V and towards the leather belt that secured his pants.
"Err." I said, as I moved his hands from the wound, and slowly and at length, massaged the powerful salve into the cut.
—
Two hours later, as Saldu was just setting and I was just managing to get a small fire started, Chief Science Officer Spock awoke.
"Ensign?" He called, voice cracking. I moved towards him and supplied him with more water.
"Please, it's only us, I would love if you would call me Eveline." I hoped.
He did not. He simply hoisted himself onto his long legs and moved towards the warmth of the fire, using the light to look off into the distance. After several minutes, he spoke.
"You did good work, Ensign. I must repay you."
"Oh…no…" I trailed off.
I had spent the last two, lonely hours daydreaming about six different ways he could repay me. This was my moment.
"You're an Astro-Herpetologist, is that correct?"
"Yes, sir. I also minored in philosophy and psychology."
"Fascinating." He did not sound fascinated. "In which lab are you working?"
"Sector Six, sir."
"I could get you a position in Sector Four, easily."
Though I was truly thrilled about the prospect of moving to Sector Four, which almost never took damage when the Enterprise was under attack, I had different plans in mind for the Vulcan Scientist. Ones, though considerably easier to maintain in my head than from my mouth, should prove successful is properly applied.
"I would actually love that, but."
"Yes, Ensign?" He now turned away from the overlook, the fire illuminating his face. Square jaw, high cheekbones, curved brow ridge, and pointed ears. His features were all perfectly Vulcan, powerful and beautiful. But I knew what twinkled behind those dark eyes - a man.
"I want to have sex with you."
—
"Quite flattering, Ensign. Is that correct?" He lowered his raised eyebrows without changing the expression of the rest of his face, a skill I would have to learn.
"You are a pleasing Human specimen, your face is remarkably symmetrical. Though I have no plans for reproduction now, nor in the future."
I flushed red. This conversation was considerably less uncomfortable in my head. At this point, he was supposed to be holding me in his arms and a light wind should be blowing back our hair. I should have attempted to seduce Captain Kirk. This would be over by now, if I had.
"Nor do I, Officer." I took a shallow breath and mentally prepared myself. You go girl.
"We're alone in the cooling Taldurin Alpha night, and though I understand quite…logically…that after our sweat has evaporated our body temperatures will lower, it is well known that the contact between two bodies, unclothed, is more likely to provide the warmth needed to sustain Human, and humanoid, body temperatures in cooling climates."
Not my ideal starting point.
"Naturally, Ensign."
I sighed and chewed on my bottom lip. He was watching me, I thought, though I wasn't completely positive if he was looking at me or through me.
Start over. Think logic. Cold, scientific fact. Just like you practiced.
"I find you incredibly attractive, Officer. Before you say anything, I understand. You consider attraction in this way to be a Human emotion, but it's not. Lust, libido, is a perfectly biological function, a purposeful one outside of procreation. I know that Vulcan design is incredibly similar as well."
"True. Human and Vulcan anatomy is almost identical, phenotypically and in many ways genotypical."
"Sexual gratification is hormonal, estrogen for myself and androgen-based, for you. I am certain that both Humans and Vulcans possess these endocrine functions. It is not only the brain, of course, designed for sexual pleasure. Take for example, the female…clitoris."
I could feel myself beginning to sweat.
"Its bodily position suggests that this organ is designed strictly for the production of pleasure, and unlike the male…penis, with dual functionality, this organ has no connections with reproduction. Suggesting, on an evolutionary basis, that sexual intercourse is rooted in pleasure as thoroughly as it is rooted in procreation."
Spock, likely having not considered the female anatomy thoroughly in quite some time, or perhaps ever, though I couldn't be sure, was attempting to get a mental image of Human anatomy. After several seconds passed, he nodded.
"Logically. Continue."
"Pleasure - not only associated with the sexual, or course - pleasure's biological basis is rooted in reward. Reward functions evolutionarily, in that it produces responses that help organisms adapt to a particular environment. Natural selection has favored reward, favored the genes that influence the organization of the brain so that it can produce adaptive behavior."
"Logical, Ensign."
"Logical, of course." I continued, attempting to hold back the giddy smile that was creeping over my face.
"My attraction to you is biological, Officer. My body is designed for pleasure, to receive it and to grant it, and the reward for our copulation? Warmth, in this cooling Taldurin night. A heightened scene of awareness to danger. And a, however…perhaps brief, companionate bond in defense of this mutual territory."
Chief Science Officer Spock's shirtless figure appeared to dance in the firelight. He stood with his thumbs hooked in the pockets of his trousers. Head slightly cocked. Square jaw catching the flickering florescence and his angular features appearing knife-blade sharp. He took two steps towards me.
My heart-shaped face flushed. Freckled cheeks glowing. Large, bright green eyes dancing with hopefulness and golden flecks of light. I tucked another stand of loosely curled, red hair behind my ear and bit my bottom lip, smiling coyly.
I think I nailed this. I did. Vulcan logic.
"Ensign,"
"Eveline."
"Eveline…" Chief Science Officer Spock considered my name. He took another step towards me, and I now knew that the tilt of his head was in study of my features. His dark eyes scanned me systematically, seeming to take note of the angles of my cheekbones, the space between my eyes, the curve of my parted lips - down to the gentle perk of my breasts, the width of my waist, the length of my legs.
"Guess." I toyed. His eyes flicked back upwards and met my own.
"I no not understand."
"Go on, Spock." I held my breath. No correction to Officer. "Guess."
"32, 25, 34."
I smiled. Let pale pink lips part and maintained eye contact.
"I think you understand."
—
He pressed two long, skilled fingers against the inside of my wrist. Silently, he counted. Using the bridge of his nose he tilted my jaw away, stared into my eyes.
"Pulse raised. Pupils dilated." He spoke, softly.
"And yours?"
He moved his hand from my own and pressed the same two fingers against his throat. Unexpectedly, the left corner of his mouth formed a slight smile, and his eyes twinkled.
"Naturally." His voice was gruff but seemingly no longer robotic.
I enjoyed a brief, fleeting, magical, wonderful moment of disbelief. I mean, I really let it sink it. I felt like a hero. I felt like a fucking genius. A heroic, genius, sex goddess. One who was about to enjoy a hot, passionate night with a man in a desert thats temperature was rapidly dropping, on an old rock. I didn't let this phase me. Instead I reached out my hand, maintaining my sexiest tone, pressed a palm against his soft cheek, and spoke.
"Logically, Officer."
—
His warm, rough hands slid under the red, velveteen fabric of my uniform. My skin, already so heightened by wanting, nearly burned at his touch. With the precision of a man practiced in this art, he disrobed me. And in a moment, his mouth found my own, lingering just long enough to steal my breath before it navigated lower and ever so lightly grazed the responsive flesh of my breasts.
My fingers danced around the buckle of his belt. Gentle at first, and then hungrily ripping it free. I pressed soft fingers against his lean, tense abdomen, mindful of his healing bite, and with my free hand unlatched and tugged loose his black trousers.
I gasped loose a ragged breath that I had been trying so hard to contain. My head was light. I felt my shoulder blades dig into the old bones of the mountain, still hot from the sun, fighting against my weight. I curled my intertwining fingers around his neck.
"I hope that I am able to give you the pleasure that you so desire."
"Oh my god, Spock."
And in a brief flash, stars passed before my eyes.
—
I awoke to the bright light of Solun and Soldu, as they sent heat rays directly into my eyes. Reaching out aside me, my fingers grazed the soft, still slumbering form of Chief Science Officer Spock. I leaned upwards on my forearms and admired him. His curled, nude form was as perfectly delicate and masculine as I had imagined it would be. As flawless in day as it had been in night. I reached out, with an outstretched toe, to grasp at my discarded undergarments, when from just beyond the ridge I heard a familiar sound. Weep-weep-weep-whhr.
"Definitely lifeforms nearby, Bones. Must be them."
"Gotta hurry, Jim. They could have frozen in the night!"
I didn't even get to celebrate.
I roused the sleeping Vulcan and pressed my finger against my lips, signifying silence. With speed and grace, and without the giddy joy of morning lovers, we found our clothing, and I wiped whatever shit-eating grin I was most definitely wearing off of my face.
I was still tugging on the hem of my - at this moment feeling so much more than ever - noticeably short uniform, when the beeping and whirring of Chief Science Officer Spock's own tricorder ping-pinged its red light, and shut off. I was instantly faced with a soft half-smile that crept over the full lips of Captain James T. Kirk.
"Spock!" He reached out and slung his arm over the shoulder of the Vulcan Officer, who stood stiff and with his ripped shirt bunched in his clenched fist, at the side of his best friend. "Spock, my first in command, we thought we lost you."
"Not lost, Captain. But not unscathed. I have suffered a graze from the Taldurin Beta Land Snake, and I fear Doctor, that I am well over-due for a shot of your anti-venom."
Chief Medical Officer Leonard H. McCoy looked suspicious and dumbfounded, like he usually does in the face of Chief Science Officer Spock.
"But how? Not even Vulcan blood can stave off the bite of a Taldurin Beta Land Snake. You've been lost in the desert for sixteen hours."
As he spoke, he produced from the pouch that he carried at his waist, a simple syringe. Pressing down on the plunge and filling the air with a soft hissing sound, he administered the treatment to Spock's shirtless arm.
"I had aid." Spock stiffly extended his arm in my direction. Since the start of their dialogue, I had drifted into the background. "Of Astro-Herpetologist Delesprit."
"Ah," Doctor McCoy said, and nodded his head. "Well, Jim. After the events of the last 24 hours, I think we should return to the ship."
"Agreed, Bones. Let us find a suitable spot to be beamed up." And with this, and his arm still slung around Spock, he flipped open his communicator with those swift reflexes and a flick of a skilled wrist. "Scotty, do you read me?"
I could hear a reply, fuzzy and warbled over the airwaves, but laden in a thick Scottish accent, that he could read us 'loud and clear, Captain'.
I suppose that was that, then. Strange, as it felt like we hadn't accomplished anything that we were meant to thus far. Perhaps Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy were able to glean more from this mess than I.
Trailing behind as the party began to descend the natural rock slope of this desert mountain, I glanced over my shoulder at the burned out remains of a fire, and chewed my bottom lip. As I caught up with Doctor McCoy, walking cautiously behind the Captain and Spock, I caught just what I wanted to hear of their hushed conversation.
"I suspect you're becoming more and more human all the time." Kirk spoke.
"Captain, I see no reason to stand here and be insulted."
Jackpot.
—