Star Trek and all its intellectual property is owned by Paramount. No infringement intended.
Beta'd by BookQ36, to whom all due thanks!
Author's note: Please note that some readers may feel I'm pushing my characters beyond a permissible line. I haven't done this to intentionally offend, but if you ARE easily offended, this story may not be for you.
"We'll be at Risa again in two days' time," remarked Lieutenant Anna Hess with a grin, sitting back in her chair. "I'm sure looking forward to it."
There was never likely to be any dissent on that score from any of the other women sitting around their table in the Mess Hall. Ensign Em Gomez, Crewman Liz Cutler and Ensign Hoshi Sato had arranged to meet up with her for dinner, this being one of the few days when their shift rotations coincided neatly enough for them all to be off duty and awake at the same time.
"I think anyone who isn't must be dead. Especially after how quiet it's been these last two weeks." Anna sipped her coffee. "You three got any plans?"
"You mean apart from the usual?" quipped Liz.
Em let out a cackle, from which it could be inferred that her plans, and indeed two of the others', were indeed pretty well for business as usual.
Hoshi, however, looked thoughtful, which did not escape her friends' notice.
"No plans for improving your Risan this time, then?" asked Liz with a saucy grin, poking her in the side. "Or is Mr Nice Guy not available?"
"I haven't contacted him. Actually," she took a deep breath, "I wondered if I could hang out with you three instead."
Anna almost spat her coffee all over the mess table. Liz and Em stopped eating and stared.
Em was the first to recover. "Well," she said carefully, "it's not ... it's not like you wouldn't be welcome, bueno, but I've never got the impression that the sort of places we go to would be really your thing."
"Because I'm a 'good little girl'?" There was unexpected bitterness in the reply. "Well, where does being a good girl get you?"
"Doesn't seem to have held you up too badly," commented Anna with a grin, although unnoticed by Hoshi she exchanged a look with Em that shared and confirmed the diagnosis of the real problem.
"So you fancy something a little different this time?" The armory's Gamma-shift leader set down her knife and fork and looked thoughtful. "I dare say we could find something that'd catch your interest. Expand your horizons a bit."
"Among other things." Anna winked and leered. "People at the kind of places we go to always appreciate a cunning linguist." Her tone left no doubt as to what was really meant by the double entendre.
"Are you sure, Hoshi?" Liz, as usual, was the cautious one. "It can be a bit ..."
"It can be different, for once," the comm officer interrupted, annoyed. "Why is it that when the captain needs an interpreter on an away mission I'm expected to act all grown up, but when we're on shore leave on a pleasure planet you all treat me like I'm about twelve?"
"Horses for courses, es todo," said Em peaceably. "We only get a couple of days down there. Everyone should get what they want out of it – not what they don't want."
"Well, this time I want a change. I'm tired of just listening to all the crazy things you three get up to and wishing I had the nerve to join in. And I want to give it a try!"
"You've sure changed your tune since you came on board." Liz patted her shoulder affectionately.
"Grown a pair, you mean," growled Hoshi, stabbing a piece of sushi with her fork.
"Might want to change your underwear design if you have." Anna did a comical double-take. "They must be really small, I can't see them."
"She'll see stranger things than that if she comes with us." Cutler grinned.
"You never know what we'll turn up to impress her with." Em's gaze drifted as if by accident to meet Anna's again. "I can think of a few places we could try that we've spotted real talent in in the past. ¡Caray!"
"Yeah. And not just little-girly stuff either!" Sato pointed her fork accusingly. "Or I'll go looking on my own!"
"Keep your shirt on, Ensign. Se obtiene la imagen. Strictly adult entertainment required." Em grinned lazily. "Just don't blame us if your eyes bug out of their sockets."
"Sounds to me like that's what she's hoping for." Anna was incorrigible, and another cackle ran round the table.
"If you've got nothing to wear I can lend you something," offered Liz. She and Hoshi were much of a size and had occasionally borrowed pieces from each other's wardrobe in the past.
"Thanks, but I've got something." She didn't exactly blush, but her lashes swept downward. The gesture was a telling one, as was the fact that if she owned such an item of clothing none of them had seen it, or even heard of its existence.
Three pairs of eyebrows rose. The comm officer's taste in off-duty garments tended towards elegance; this wasn't exactly in keeping with what would be considered suitable dress code in the sort of places she was demanding to visit. Certainly it would invite attention, but on a first visit that might not be such a good thing. And yet it seemed that their concern was needless. Hoshi – sweet, butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth Hoshi – had apparently obtained or brought with her from home something that had definitely been hidden in the deepest recesses of her closet until now. This in itself was revealing – probably in more ways than one.
"Bueno, then it's a deal." Em checked her chronometer. "I'd better run or I'll be late for shift changeover and the patrón will have my ass."
"You should be so lucky," said Anna automatically.
"I bet Malcolm's going to be at loose ends on his shore leave," remarked Liz as they all stood up. "I hear Trip's drawn a different rotation."
Em grinned. "Gracias a Dios! At least he'll come back with his clothes this time, then."
"And his weapon thoroughly discharged."
The laughs were raucous, but one of them sounded just a little forced.
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