ENDEAVOUR NCC-194
Phobos
LegalStar Trek was created by Gene Roddenberry and is the property of Paramount Pictures.
All members of the Endeavour crew and the rest of the material in this story is my own work.
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Chapter One
December 2, 2164
"Look at all the rides! Roller coasters and log rides and haunted houses and…" Her excited little voice faded away as she skipped ahead, cobalt blue eyes darting around, full of joy and wonder.
"And…and…and…and…" Mimicked Kana Nain, following behind the child, stomping her immaterial feet. When Alex, her human host and best friend, had planned this day out as a treat for Susan, Kana had protested from the start. Amusement parks were not her idea of good fun. Her complaints had fallen on deaf ears.
Alex Nain, a short woman with spiky red hair and matching eyes, cast a look over her shoulder at the spectral form of her alien other self. Her mental voice chided, "You're not still complaining?"
"I'm in no hurry to stop."
"This is for Susan. Come on, don't you think the poor kid deserves a little fun every now and then?"
"And why should her fun be torture for me?"
"Because you have no idea how to have a good time. Come on, Kana, you used to love roller coasters."
"No, that was you."
"Can't be. I still like roller coasters," she grinned.
"Alex?"
The voice shook her back into the real world with a start. She blinked, surprised to find the pale, angular, but not unattractive face of Doctor Sarn watching her closely. The Vulcan officer was an attachment to the Endeavour from her people's government. Since very few Vulcans were willing to officially join the human-dominated Starfleet, most of the Vulcans on Federation starships were exchange officers of one kind or another. Technically, she was on a temporary assignment, one that could end at any time, but Alex considered her very much to be a part of the crew. She had missed her terribly during the Endeavour's recent action in rescuing the captured Starship Daedalus from the Vyar.
"Something wrong, Sarn?"
"You seem distracted."
A ready smile took its place on Alex's thin lips. "Off in my own little world. As usual. I was thinking of all the times I visited theme parks in my childhood. I loved them."
"Indeed. I hope that Susan finds today's experience a pleasurable one."
"That's the plan, isn't it?"
Susan was an Augment, a genetically engineered human being, created by a secret section of Starfleet Intelligence to be the perfect espionage agent. She had been modified for psychic ability, a power that she had demonstrated to have a firm control over. She had spent most of her life locked up in the lab that had created her, before the project had been terminated, and with it almost Susan herself. She had survived only thanks to the intervention of Doctor Miranda Pauli, a psychologist hired by the secret section to monitor the Augment's mental health. Dr Pauli had become deeply attached to Susan, had begun to consider the child her own daughter, and when she discovered what her creators intended for her she had risked everything to get Susan away from Earth.
Her creators had not given up on them easily. They had the Orion Syndicate put a bounty on their heads, attracting the attention of every bounty hunter in the galaxy. Susan and Miranda had only survived because fate had brought them to Mansfield space station, where Alex and Kana had been meeting an old acquaintance. With the Nains' help they had been able to escape the Orion hunters and make it safely to the Starship Endeavour.
Afterwards, Kana had paid a little visit to the Syndicate boss and convinced her to retract the bounties, before she had confronted Mister Black, the man who had issued the contracts in the first place.
The upshot of that meeting was still a mystery to Alex. She had been resting in deep unconsciousness when Kana had borrowed her body for those errands, and the other her was characteristically reticent to discuss what she had done. All she had was Kana's assurance that the matter was taken care of.
Which was enough.
The Endeavour was now back at Earth, undergoing repairs after its action with the Vyar. The majority of the crew was on leave, specialists from Spacedock handling the repair work, and Alex had decided that this free time should be used to treat Susan. She had never had a normal childhood, and Alex wanted to give her one, at least for a little while.
Miranda had been less enthralled with the idea, and she obviously still wasn't happy. Alex smiled at her. "You're all fidgety."
"I think this was a bad idea."
"Finally, someone who agrees with me!""It mightn't be safe. There might still be people looking for us."
Kana looked disgusted again. "Okay, that wasn't what I was thinking. Alex, you did explain to her that the contracts have been withdrawn?"
"Yup. I don't know how much listening she did, though."
"We're fine," she reassured aloud. "There are four of us keeping an eye on Susan. Nothing will happen."
The fourth she referred to was not Kana, as she had told none of her friends about the entity that dwelled within her, but Miho Inogashira, the ship's head of security. The Japanese woman was a couple of years older than Alex, already in her thirties, but she retained a youthful appearance and quickness. There was no one faster on their feet on the starship, and even the excited, over-energised Susan couldn't get away from her.
Alex also knew that, although she appeared graceful and delicate, Inogashira was a fearsome warrior. Alex had been present when the security chief had broken up a minor riot on Starbase Two. Most of the rioters had had to be taken to the infirmary. Even Kana had been impressed.
No one was going to grab Susan while Inogashira was around.
Of course, Susan knew all of their fears as well as they did. She was constantly scanning with her telepathy, an act for her as natural as breathing. She knew all of their thoughts. At first, it had troubled Alex and her shipmates that the child could be privy to their innermost thoughts and desires, but Susan had always been delicate, she never betrayed secrets (even Alex's big one, which she had known about since before they had met, somehow) and over the last couple of months they had got quite used to her. Few people even thought of her as strange anymore.
"Runaway train!" Exclaimed Susan, leaping higher than ever, jabbing a finger in the direction of the fake mountain that rose out of the winter fog. "Let's go on that, let's go on that!"
Sarn raised an eyebrow. "Runaway train?"
"It's the name of the ride. Come on, you'll love it," promised Alex, her enthusiasm getting into high gear. "High speed that crushes you into your seat, and sharp turns that threaten to throw you out of it, artificial cave roofs skimming by just above your head at seemingly hundreds of kilometres an hour!"
The other eyebrow went up to join the first. "I see. What is enjoyable about that?"
"Beats me. It just is."
Visiting the theme park in winter, not the most traditional of times, had the great advantage of keeping the lines short, and within a few minutes the shipmates had reached the mock Wild West station into which the cars pulled up. Susan, Miranda and Inogashira crowded into the front car, and Sarn was set to follow them until Alex took her hand and led her down to the cars further back. As they slid into their seats, Alex told the Vulcan, "It's faster back here."
Sarn understood that. She had seen part of the course the train took when they had been in the line. The train was often moving quite slowly as it approached corners and drops, only to accelerate after it had reached them. Those further back in the train would be going faster when they met those sharp turns, and obviously that was the experience that Alex wanted. For her part, Sarn was content to sit next the helmsman and hold onto the safety harness.
The train shot out of the station abruptly, and next to her Alex whooped for joy at a volume that was most painful to the Vulcan's sensitive ears. She seemed to realise her gaffe, for Alex turned her head as best she could with the train racing along, and smiled apologetically. Sarn wondered when she had become so adept at reading all the different emotions that Alex could convey with a simple smile. It was a necessary skill, she informed herself. The helmsman spent so little time not smiling that it was essential to be able to read her smiles if one was to gauge her mind.
Why was it necessary to do that, though?
The ride dived through the mouth of a fibreglass cave and started to crank slowly upward. The sides of the tunnel were made to look something like rock and were spray painted brown, with yellow lights set into them and twinkling – presumably gold. The sounds of the cars being winched up clattered around the enclosed space.
Alex was glancing at her again. "Sorry. This must be very painful for you."
"I have endured worse."
"Wait until we get to the top. Then the real fun begins!" Her grin was manic now, her red eyes shining. Something in Sarn responded and smiled as well, but she was sure to keep the expression from her face.
Maybe her parents had been right. Maybe she did need more training in emotional control.
She heard the forward cars go plunging over the edge and her heart started to race. Definitely needed more emotional control! A glance out of the corner of her eyes showed her the almost demented excitement in Alex. Not for the first time, she wondered what went on in the human's head.
Then their car reached the top of the 'mine shaft' and plunged down the twisting, curving, twirling track, leaving Sarn's stomach and her logic at the top. She loved every second of it.
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Captain William Drake was also making the most of his leave time. Alex had invited him to join her on her day out, but he had declined for two reasons: he didn't think it would be seemly for a Starfleet captain (one who had made a name for himself during the Romulan War, and was consequently quite recognisable) to be seen on roller coasters, and he had a very important matter to take care of. It was twenty-three days until Christmas and he had a present to get. Plenty of time, his civilian friends had told him, but he reminded them that, as a Starfleet captain, he might be on Earth one day and on the other side of the cosmos the next. Today, he could get at shops, good shops, and he wasn't going to let the opportunity slip him by.
He had a very special gift to buy for a very special lady.
Initially, he had considered asking Alex to come with him, but even before he had heard of her plans he had rejected that idea, for while Alex was undeniably of the female gender, a lady she definitely was not. She didn't like jewellery, the only makeup she wore was black lipstick, she thought dresses were silly, and her idea of a good time was to imbue large quantities of alcohol and wake up with someone she barely knew. She was his best friend and he treasured her, but he often thought he understood the female mind far better than she did.
Lieutenant Max Walker strolled along with him, glancing into windows every now and then. From time to time, he would stop and deeply inhale the crisp winter air, and every time it brought a smile to his face. Drake understood. He remembered when he had been a young officer, how he would look forward to getting off the ship, how he would savour the clean air of a planet. These days he had spent so much time in space that the sanitised, slightly musky recycled air of a starship felt better on his lungs. When he had beamed down to Earth this morning he had had to take a pocket full of tissues.
He had just about got over the sneezing now, but every so often they would pass a new smell that would set him off again. It was a common problem for people who spent too long in space; the body got so used to sterile air that the pollen and pollutants in planetary air caused an immune response. Spaceman's hay fever, it was called. Drake had had it before. He knew that it would clear up in a day or two.
In his experience, Alex never suffered from it. She was lucky like that. She didn't get sick very often, and when she did, she recovered quickly. Good immune system, he supposed. His own was a little weaker than he would have liked. He had always been susceptible to colds and the like. If there had been a bug going around school, he was guaranteed to get it and get it bad. As an adult, things hadn't much improved.
Starships were definitely better for him than planets.
"It's good to be in the fresh air again," said Walker. "The ship was getting stuffy."
Drake dabbed his dribbling nose with a tissue. "Uh-huh."
"Sorry, sir."
"No, no. You're right; it is nice to be outdoors. I'll appreciate it even more when I get over the hay fever."
"You didn't go on any of the landing parties in August, did you, sir?"
"To the planet where we found that statue? No. The shuttles were always full. You science guys had all the fun."
"It was a great expedition."
Drake didn't remember it quite that way. Admiral McCaffrey, commanding officer of Starbase Two and the ships attached to it, including the Endeavour, had sent them to explore a newly discovered M-class planet on the fringe of his sector. It had been pointless make work, an excuse to get the Endeavour away from the real action, the simmering tension along the Klingon border. McCaffrey hadn't liked Drake since the two men had served together on Kyoto, at the beginning of the captain's career.
For days they had sat in orbit above a planet that looked very much like every other Earthy world Drake had ever seen, sending down team after team to poke around other bits of it. They had made some interesting discoveries: Sarn had found some crystals with unusual subspace properties, and the archaeologists had learnt a lot about the Roman-age people who had once inhabited that world, but Drake still considered the whole exercise to have been a waste of time.
Except for one little detail that was truly interesting, even to him, a military man. In one of the ruined cities the scientists had discovered a statue, a depiction of two women, one strong and noble, the other dark and cruel. The same woman, but two different versions of her. The same woman with spiky hair, a cloak, and a very familiar face: Alex.
Although the science teams had worked on it, they had no real explanation for that statue. It was genuine, they knew that much – it had been carved more than three thousand years ago, at the height of that civilisation's power. How Alex came to be its subject…theories ranged. Maybe time travel was involved. Maybe there had been a doppelganger living on that world – they still didn't know what those people had looked like, although it was assumed they were humanoid. The second theory was the more widely accepted, simply because no one much liked the idea of time travel.
Oddly, and Drake really did think this was strange, Alex didn't seem to care. Where the statue had come from and what it might mean for her destiny – if such a trite word could be appropriate – didn't matter to her. She kept saying that, whatever came, she would deal with it in her own time, and then she changed the conversation. Was she really worried and hiding her fear? Did she not understand? Did she know something that they didn't? Alex was brilliant at talking a lot and saying nothing. It frustrated Drake that he didn't know his friend's mind about this.
There was something else about the statue that nagged him. The darker Alex figure…he was sure that he should understand that. Some of the more philosophical members of the crew had suggested that it depicted the capacity for evil that lurked within the hearts of every person. But it was more than that. Somehow, he knew it was. Something deep in his memory was trying to tell him something.
As usual it wouldn't come, and Drake put it out of his head. He was here to get a gift for Annabelle, not to worry about Alex.
"What are you thinking of, Captain? For a present, I mean."
"Last time I saw Annabelle in the flesh, she was talking about jewellery. A nice necklace, I think. Something along those lines is what I'm thinking."
Max chuckled. "Now I see why you didn't ask Alex."
The captain gave him a look. "What does that mean?"
"Well…" he felt like he had been put on the spot, and he wished he had kept his mouth shut. "Everyone knows how close you two are. I was surprised when you asked me to come with you. But that sort of thing…Alex isn't really into…girly things, is she?"
"No," Drake smiled. "No, she's not. All the female officers went with her to that theme park."
"Except for Tholiar."
"True. But I'm buying for a human female. Andorians have different tastes." There was also the issue that, while he knew Tholiar perfectly as a first officer, he hardly knew her at all as a person. He skimmed over that, continuing, "Besides, you're a married man, Max, so you must have gone through all this at one point."
The science officer was one of that very rare breed of Starfleet officer who had managed to sustain both a career and a healthy married life – even through the darkness of the Romulan War, when he had been stationed aboard Earth Base Three as a sensor operator, his wife on Earth, and more than a year had gone by between their seeing each other at all; visual subspace communications had been as much an impossibility as being face to face. He was only the second married officer Drake had ever served with, the first being the tactical officer of his wartime posting, Challenger.
Unlike Helen Morrison, Max had recently surrendered to the immense difficulties of maintaining a marriage across the light years. Since he wasn't willing to give up his wife for his career (and Drake, having met the lovely Katherine, could not blame him) and Starfleet did not provide for families aboard starships, he was left with only one choice.
"Sure," he laughed. "Gifts to show you care. Christmas and birthdays are the worst, aren't they? I mean, you've got to get a really good present then, better than the other little ones you've got her during the year; otherwise it looks like you're not trying. Believe me; I fell into that trap once. Took me a year to get out of it."
Annabelle DeCroix was a science officer on the Federation research ship Von Braun. She was beautiful, charming and intelligent, and more than one man had been pursuing her when Drake had met her at a Starfleet party. It had, as the old cliché went, been love at first sight, as the two major flaws with Annabelle demonstrated: she was a scientist, and she couldn't stand Alex Nain. Usually, either was enough to kill a romantic relationship stone dead, but with Annabelle, Drake was able to look past them.
Walker took the lead and showed his captain into Spencer's, a nice little jewellery shop off the main high street. This was where he had got both his engagement and his wedding ring, he announced, and the elderly man behind the counter recognised him. They talked casually while Drake browsed the shiny chains on offer. Walker was also doing his Christmas shopping. He had bought his wife a new portable computer for her work, and now he was looking for something for his son, who was about Susan's age. Walker had married young, when he was still nineteen. Drake, personally, thought that was far too young to be starting a family. Before he had even lived, Max had been bringing new life into the world. That didn't seem right to him.
Maybe he just thought that because he was nearly forty now, and a bit of him worried that he might have waited too long. He could feel himself slowing down, his strength beginning to fade. When his kid wanted to play ball, would he be able to? Would he have the stamina to show the boy (or girl, he wasn't fussy) how to ride a bike, or swim, or play football? Would he be able to be a decent father?
While he was looking at the jewellery he thought about his earlier little outburst at Walker. It shouldn't have happened, and he cursed himself for it. He was too sensitive about Alex, and always had been. He suspected that was part of the reason Annabelle didn't like her, she saw Alex as competition. He understood why. The two of them had always been closer than just friends. He often found that his thoughts strayed to her; he knew that there were rumours about their relationship circling the ship, despite his best efforts to have them stamped out.
He told himself over and over that he had no interest in Alex as anything but a friend, and yet when he looked at his own actions he wondered if that was a lie. How often had he fretted when she had been away? Pacing up and down his cabin, around the ship, full of nerves…
No, he was being ridiculous. He loved Annabelle, end of story. And…even if he did love Alex – love her in that way – he knew it was hopeless. The age difference wasn't the problem; it was something more fundamental than that. Alex didn't know how to love. She knew how to care and how to make love, but when it came to devoting herself utterly to someone else…that wasn't possible for her.
Sad, really.
Something else that he found sad was that the end of this year would also see the end of his association with two Endeavour officers. Max Walker and Doctor Richard Ilerson were both leaving the ship in the New Year – Max to begin his new teaching job and be closer to his young family, and Ilerson moving back to Starfleet Medical. He would haven to find replacements for the two men before long. He had a list of candidates that he was slowly going through, waiting for the perfect personnel to leap out of the page at him. For the doctor, he doubted that that would ever happen. Ilerson was just the ideal starship doctor: patient, creative, and able to work medical miracles with nothing more than a few bandages and some aspirin. Every ship in the fleet wanted him, and Drake had been damned lucky to secure his services for as long as he had.
As a replacement science officer, he had one candidate in particular in mind. In an ideal world there would have been two, but he knew that Annabelle would not want to serve aboard a military ship, and that she probably wouldn't be a good choice for the post anyway – she was a researcher, first and foremost; leading a department would be a nightmare for her. But he had in mind someone who would be perfect for the job on Endeavour. He would approach her just as soon as Walker had left the ship and the post was officially open.
The perfect present sparkled invitingly on a tray. In his mind, he could see Annabelle wearing it, along with that stunning black satin dress she had worn on their last dinner date. Was there ever a more beautiful image?
"I'll take that," he said, pointing.
While the storekeeper wrapped up the box for him, Drake's mind was anticipating Annabelle's delight. He would get to see her again, soon, he knew. The Von Braun returned to Earth on the fifteenth. Come Hell or high water, he would be there when that ship made port. They would spend Christmas and New Year's together.
If there was a better way to see out 2164, he couldn't imagine it.
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They had taken a break for lunch; unhealthy food from one of the burger bars; it had been Susan's choice. Sarn and Inogashira had eaten veggie burgers, but the other women were carnivorous. The adults had opted for coffee with their meals, except for Alex, who had joined Susan in fizzy soda. Which had been a mistake. She had no table manners, and the soda had made her burp, a lot. Susan had found it very funny, but the women had not been impressed, even though they well knew Alex's reputation as a ladette.
Out in the cool air again, letting their meals settle before they tackled another ride, Sarn walked with the helmsmen. The others were further ahead, trying to keep Susan from running off and making herself sick.
"Why do you behave like that?"
"Like what?"
"The way you do," said Sarn, very unspecifically. "It is not dignified."
Alex shrugged her narrow shoulders. "Like I care. Oh, Sarn, don't take it that way. I didn't mean to upset you. I've just never really cared what people thought of me. Love me, don't, it doesn't bother me." She laughed. "If that sort of stuff mattered to me, would I dress the way I do? Nah, I'd be all boring and ordinary. Be part of the crowd and no one makes fun of you, but no one notices you either."
"So you act as you do to stand out?"
She contemplated that for a second. "Sort of. And I've never liked girly things, anyway. All soft and sweet and…bleugh!" For a moment she looked quite sad and she added quietly, "Maybe they're okay if you've got time to be soft and sweet."
Sarn found that comment curious. "What do you mean?"
Alex shrugged, but she was not yet back to her regular self. For the first time, Sarn noticed that beneath all the cheer in her eyes there was a cool hardness. She wondered where that came from.
The human ignored her question and continued, "Besides, if you've gotta burp you've gotta burp. It's illogical not too, right? Your body wouldn't do it if there wasn't some point."
"The same could be said of emotions, Alex. Yet my people suppress them."
"That's a necessity. If you didn't you would be blood-drenched savages, barely more than animals, for all of your intellect." The warmth was gone from Alex's voice; it too was cold and hard. She noticed and smiled, the cheer returning to her. "Sorry. That was rude, wasn't it? I'm very sorry."
"It was an accurate observation," said Sarn carefully.
Alex shook her head. "Shouldn't have been made. I'm a rude girl, yes, but there's belching at table rude and then there's rude, and that was rude. Forgive me?"
"Of course."
The helmsman was obviously relieved, and she patted Sarn affectionately on the shoulder. As a rule, Vulcans did not like to be touched. The low-level psychic fields that surrounded them often made physical contact uncomfortable. In this case, however, Sarn did not object.
Kana had observed the conversation silently, but now she spoke. "She touched on a sore spot there, didn't she?"
"It wasn't her fault. She doesn't know."
"I'm curious. Do you really wish things had been different? Do you wish you could have grown up with dolls and pink wallpaper?"
"Hell no." Her metal voice sounded ill. "And I don't think it would have made any difference if I had; I'd still be me. But…well…it might have been nice to…"
"Have a family?" Offered Kana.
Alex wished that she could show her other side the fondness that she felt in her heart, but Sarn would see and she wouldn't understand. "I've always had a family."
"You know what I mean."
"And you know what I mean. A couple more people in my life… Really, what difference would it have made?"
Kana didn't say anything. Alex's real feelings were often as much a mystery to her as they were to Sarn. If her lost family mattered to her, Kana couldn't tell, and didn't want to risk making a wrong guess.
A man approached Alex and her friend. He was a little younger than she, in his early twenties, and he was obviously keen on her; his wandering sapphire eyes gave all away. Even with her cloak drawn around her against the cold, Alex was a pretty sight. She would never win any beauty pageants, but most real women wouldn't.
He started talking to her, ignoring Sarn more completely than one might ignore a dog. It wasn't that he found the Vulcan unattractive – anyone with eyes could tell that she was a stunning example of the female form – it was that she was Vulcan, and he, like too many on Earth, was prejudiced against non-humans. She could have been naked, oiled, and begging for him and he would have looked straight through her.
The man repulsed Alex. Not because he was unattractive – he wasn't – but because of his attitude towards Sarn. She hated prejudice. She prided herself on having only one prejudice, and that was against prejudiced people, like him. His presence, so close to her, almost touching, sickened her. That he hoped to get closer to her made her angry indeed.
She wished that a male crewmember had accompanied them. Will, preferably. Or Brok – as much as she teased that oaf of a Bolian, she loved him. She wished that Miho were nearer, able to come to her rescue. The Japanese woman would have drawn the man off nicely – she was better looking, and Alex wouldn't refute that. She wished that she could let Kana emerge, let her other soul handle this mindless fool. She wished…
She was suddenly aware of someone kissing her. For a horrible instant, she thought that the man had been too forward, but she quickly realised her mistake. Warm, smooth skin pressed against her lips, and she felt her flesh tingle slightly. Not in the way that pleasure made her tingle, but her nerve endings responding to the actions of a weak psychic energy field.
Sarn!
Good solution thought, Alex, noticing the way the man was backing up. Almost any other woman, she was sure, and he would have been hugely aroused; but because it was Sarn, a Vulcan, he was repelled. Good! She kissed Sarn more heartily. She had a little experience with this sort of thing, a few drunken fumbles, a couple of flings where both she and the other woman were solely interested in fulfilling carnal desires, but this was quite different. Sarn was surprisingly tender for a supposedly emotionless creature. Alex closed her eyes and lost herself in the kiss.
It was Sarn who broke it off, and Alex found herself oddly disappointed – why had such a perfect kiss had to come to an end? But she turned with Sarn to face the racist man, wrapping an arm around the Vulcan's slim waist and pulling her closer. Sarn held out her hand to Alex, index and middle finger extended, the rest balled into a fist. Alex recognised the gesture as one intimate Vulcans made. She copied and touched her fingers against Sarn's.
"We are happy with each other," the Vulcan said to the man.
He was stepping back, looking appalled. Inside her mind, Alex was roaring with laughter. "You…you two…?"
"You wouldn't believe what she's like under the sheets," said Alex with a big grin, tracing Sarn's hip with her index finger.
That was more than he had wanted to hear, and he departed hastily, pausing only when he was a long way off to shout back, "You two are sick!"
Kana laughed throatily. "What a way to deal with that bigoted fool! I'm impressed by Sarn's quick thinking. And her snideness. Who would have thought she had it in her?" She suddenly noticed that Alex wasn't saying anything, and that she hadn't yet let go of the Vulcan; not that Sarn was complaining. A new interpretation came to mind. "Or was it snideness? Our Vulcan friend has always been quite drawn to you. And what of her mate back home? Vulcan children are partnered off at birth, and yet she has never mentioned one." She chuckled. "Amusing. Could it be that she has…wayward tendencies?"
Alex wasn't listening. "That was…a hell of a kiss."
"I am sorry if I disturbed you."
"Hell no," laughed Alex, holding Sarn's dark intelligent eyes in hers. "Like I said, it was a great kiss. And a great idea. Got rid of that bloody moron. Good thing, too. That guy was such a wanker, and if you hadn't leapt in I would have hit him."
"For what reason?"
"I didn't like him coming onto me. Especially with the way he was treating you. Bigot. I can't stand that sort of thing, Sarn."
"Perhaps he thought you were more attractive than I."
Alex laughed at that. "Nah. The only reason he wasn't chasing you is you've got pointy ears and green blood. You're much more beautiful than me. I think you're gorgeous."
"Careful, Alex. Don't get her hopes up. That's just mean."
Alex still didn't listen. She realised that they had been standing around for some time, and that the others would be far ahead of them by now. She grinned at her favourite Vulcan. "Come on. We should catch up with the others."
"Yes." Sarn looked at Alex's arm. She had moved it up a bit now, so that it was around her stomach, but she hadn't let go. Alex noticed her gaze and said, "Want me to move it? It's just I was thinking, if that guy comes back, or anyone else tries it, this would be easier. Keep them away."
"Logical," said Sarn. Whatever her true feelings were, for once she was able to keep them perfectly hidden, even from herself.
Kana gave her host a curious stare. "I didn't know you were into that sort of thing."
"Neither did I."
When they caught up with the rest of their party they were in the line for the haunted house ride. Susan was the first to notice their approach, of course, turning around sharply as they walked up. There was a knowing light in the girl's eyes, and Alex was reminded that although she was young she had knowledge and experience of things far beyond her years. She probably understood what had passed between she and Sarn better than either of them did.
Miho grinned at the two of them. "You're acting very friendly."
Sarn looked like she might step away, but Alex wouldn't let her. "Young love," she said, with a smile that added she might or might not be serious. The security chief didn't seem perturbed or surprised, but Miranda obviously didn't approve, even if the helmsman was just joking around.
"You make a lovely couple," said Miho. "I think you've finally made a good choice, Alex. Sarn'll be good for you. Help you grow up a bit."
Susan laughed hysterically. "No! She'll make a kid out of Sarn."
"I think they're insulting me."
There was an amused twinkle in Sarn's eyes now. "I think their observations are valid."
"Keep that up, my love," warned Alex, "and you'll be sleeping on the couch tonight."
Miranda was the only one who didn't at least laugh in her heart.