TITLE: What Hoshi Wants
AUTHOR: MikeJaffa
SYNOPSIS: Hoshi and Travis, by request. Spoilers for "Two Days, Two Nights," "Sleeping Dogs," and "Vox Sola"
DISCLAIMER: Enterprise is owned by CBS. I am making no money off writing and publishing this fic. 8
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Ensign Travis Mayweather sat upside-down on the ceiling of what he called the *Enterprise's* sweet spot. Every Starship had one, a place where artificial gravity fields cancelled each other out and gravity would go to zero and reverse itself. "Up" on the floor "above" him, Ensign Hoshi Sato's head popped up through the hatch. She studied her tricorder. "Oh, crap," she lamented, "it is up there."
"Hoshi?" Travis asked. "What are you doing here?"
"We went through a solar storm a little while ago," she explained, "unplanned solar flare from this system's star."
"So that's why the lights flickered."
"Uh-huh. The ship's ok. But navigation and communication are down. And half the routers in the ship's intranet are messed up. And there's one on the…ceiling…next to your feet." She put her hands on either side of the hatch. "Like this?"
"Yeah."
Hoshi pushed off, and she started tumbling. "Whooooooooaaaaa-ooooooo…"
Travis pushed off, floated up, and caught Hoshi. Then he guided her back to the ceiling. "See? Nothing to it."
"Thanks." She opened the "floor" pane and found the router. She pressed a couple of switches and connected her tricorder. Lights on the router started blinking, and ultimately pleased Hoshi. She disconnected the tricorder and closed the ceiling panel. Then she sat back against the wall and closed her eyes.
"What are you doing?" Travis asked.
"Little meditation technique I learned from T'Po"l, Hoshi said. "Kinda like a five minute nap, but you stay awake." She pressed her first two fingers into one palm. Then took a deep breath and opened her eyes. "There. Now I'm not gonna hurl when I try to get out of here."
"So what is the deal with you and T'Pol?" Travis asked.
"What deal?" Hoshi replied. "There's no deal."
"That's not what Lieutenant Reed says."
"Oh, god. What does he tell you?"
"I didn't talk to him, but I talked to someone who heard from him-" (Hoshi rolled her eyes) "—and the scuttlebutt is that when the three of you were on that Klingon ship, you and the Sub-Commander went off someplace for a few minutes."
"The Lieutenant was dehydrated. I went to get some water."
"And Sub-Commander T'Pol went with you. He said that when you came back, you were different."
"Not that different, Travis. Have you ever seen a Klingon galley? Not for the squeamish…meaning me. I had a panic attack. I told her I sometimes wished I could bury my feelings the way Vulcans do. And…she buried them. She had me give her my hand and did this guided meditation. It calmed me right down. When we got back, she taught me how to do it myself."
"So you can be just like her."
"So I can do my job without freaking out at every little thing, or at least not showing it."
"Yeah, but I heard that Reed said, you came back more gung-ho. It was your idea to detonate ten torpedoes at 100 meters."
"It was six torpedoes at 500 meters."
"You call that calm, Hoshi?"
"I call it not going down without a fight, Travis."
"But T'Pol went along with it without arguing."
"I think she didn't like the idea of being crushed to death."
"Yeah? So why did she indulge you when you wanted to spend more time in decon?"
"Reed wanted to stay, too. Are you asking him about T'Pol?"
"Point is, you wanted to spend more time in there and she went along."
"Just her way of trying to fit in, especially after what we'd been through together."
Travis grinned. "The way you said 'together,' Hoshi, there's something there. And then T'Pol had the idea to go to Risa."
"Oh, sure, Risa proves everything! She did that for the crew, you idiot. She is obligated to do that, and efficiency was down by 3%."
"Yeah, but the way I heard it, one person was down more than anybody: You. You were so far off, you dragged down the whole ship. So we went to Risa, and you were the only one who had a good time. Whatever Hoshi wants, Hoshi gets, thanks to her 'big sister.'"
Hoshi slapped her own leg. "You caught us, Travis! When we were in that Klingon galley and I told her I was scared, she came over and gave me a big kiss on the mouth. We had a lesbian quickie, and I was so good, she diverted the whole ship to Risa just so I could meet some guy and have a good time. Congratulations! You're living in a porno."
"Come on, Hoshi, that's not what I mean."
"Isn't it, Travis? Come on. You're being ridiculous. Me and T'Pol? I'm not saying she's not attractive and I'm not saying I've never been with girls and I'm not saying I wouldn't do her—assuming Vulcans can do it more often than once every seven years-but I have to like somebody before I'd even consider the possibility, and I didn't stop disliking her until a few months ago—not until right before Risa, as a matter of fact."
"Really?"
"One of the last holdouts. Even after the Captain had been won over, even after the Klingon ship, I still had reservations. I guess I was waiting for the other shoe to drop."
"Really, Hoshi? I didn't know."
"I guess she did a good job showing me how to bury my feelings, Travis. But no, she took a long time to grow on me."
"Why?"
"She was reading all my log entries and double-checking my translations. She was always questioning my decisions. I thought she didn't want me on *Enterprise* and was harassing me until I couldn't take anymore and arrange with the captain to send me home."
"What—why would she do that, Hoshi?"
"Women can be really mean to other women, Travis, especially women bosses. If you're younger, cuter, and in some ways, better than your boss, she might just push the boundaries to put you in your place. And when you figure T'Pol came onboard with that catsuit and—for a while at least—the worst cheap perfume anybody could wear-though thankfully she ran out—well, I thought she had it in for me. Especially if that kept up after she got the captain on her side. In some ways I really thought she was my enemy."
"You don't now?"
"We were doing that translation when the alien took over the cargo bay, the one that snagged the captain and Commander Tucker, remember? And I confronted her. I said, 'You don't want me here, do you?' And she said, 'On the contrary, it would be a loss to Starfleet if you weren't on this ship.' She said she was holding me to a high standard because she thought I could do it, and that's why she was hard on me."
"And that made it all better?"
Hoshi smiled a little. "Well, it's like her way of looking out for me. T'Pol is…T'Pol. I think she wants to be part of this crew and make friends, but she's still a Vulcan. So she'll do it her way. But if you start out thinking that in her own way, she cares, and in her own way, she means well, it makes sense. But honestly, Travis, her and me? Please. I know who she's got her eyes on, and it's not me. It's Commander Tucker."
"Seriously? How do you know?"
"Controlling my emotions somehow makes me better at reading other peoples'. She's got her tells. If she's interested in anybody, it's him, but she also doesn't want anyone butting in. But if you were looking for T'Pol to hook up, it would be with Commander Tucker. I almost feel sorry for her. If he's like half the guys on this ship, he won't notice. He could go back to his quarters, find her naked on his bed, and he'd say, 'Dayum, Sub-Commander, put a shirt awwonn! It's cay-old for Pete's sayke.'"
"Well, I'd notice," Travis said.
"Really," Hoshi said.
"Someone was interested in me, I'd know it."
"Really."
"Absolutely."
"Then how come you've never asked me out?"
"What!? Are you serious?"
"Oh, yeah, you'd notice, yeah, right."
"Wait—what—Hoshi-" Travis felt as if he'd entered a parallel universe: Up was down, black was white, dogs and cats were living together, and Hoshi was saying she was interested in him. Not that he hadn't felt attracted to her, but he hadn't thought she liked him.
"Come on, Travis," Hoshi said. "It's not like you didn't have a million opportunities to ask me, and it's not like I haven't eaten with you in the mess a gazillion times, and I know for a fact you're not seeing anyone, and I'm 99% sure you're not gay. And you wouldn't worry about me being a lesbian if you hadn't been checking me out. Whether you're afraid I'm unavailable or you want to watch or both, you're interested. Reading emotions, remember? But nope, nope, nope, you didn't make a move. Then we went to Risa. When I found out we were both on the list to go, I spent all morning on my hair and makeup and I made a point of sitting next to you in the shuttle pod. 'Well, I'm not doing anything.' Hint, hint, hint. 'I'm just going to sit around and talk to people.' Hint, hint, hint. 'Someone make me a better offer, like the black stallion who flies the ship.' Hint, hint, hint. 'Asian girls do like black boys.' Hint, hint, hint. But did you take the opportunity I gave you? Nooooooooo. You were like, 'I'm going rock climbing. I can't wait to go rock climbing. I love rock climbing more than anything.' What's a girl got to do, Travis? Hit you over the head with a sledgehammer?"
"Well…YOU could have asked ME, Hoshi!"
"Why on Earth would I do that?"
"I…Jeez, Hoshi, I need a moment to think about-"
"Ensigns?"
Travis and Hoshi looked up and saw T'Pol's face poking through the hatch…below them.
Hoshi said, "Yes, Sub-Commander?"
"The last routers have been repaired," T'Pol said, "but navigation and communication are still out. Neither of you will be required on the bridge for an hour. You can have some free time."
Hoshi said, "Thank you Sub-Commander."
"You're welcome, Ensign." T'Pol disappeared down the hatch. A moment later, Hoshi and Travis heard the hatch clang shut.
Hoshi smiled and said, "So, what do you want to do?"
Travis' first thought, to ask Hoshi if she wanted to go the mess hall and get something to eat, crashed into the wall of the entire conversation. He pointed weakly at the hatch. "Hoshi, were, I mean…what…did you and T'Pol plan….uh…."
"Plan what? I don't know what you're talking about."
Travis looked into her eyes and tried to discern what she was thinking. But then he asked himself if it really mattered
He slid closer and smiled as he put his arm around her. "Well, anyway, I think I may have an idea of something we could do, Hoshi."
"Really Travis?" She settled into his embrace. "For the whole hour? I hear boomers do it at warp speed."
"No, I use thrusters only, and I take my time when I'm…docking."
"You'd better. You don't want my 'big sister' to get the impression you disappointed me."
"We can't have that now, can we?" Travis said. And he kissed her.
THE END