Thanks for your reviews, they really help!

Yes, the last chapter was supposed to be funny and I'm happy I gave you some laughs. I can have a rather dry humor sometimes and in writing I often don't know if I'm really funny or not. ;)

Irina realized she had a little headache while she walked to her quarters. So her brain really needed to adjust to telepathy? It had felt quite good though and it was so intensely rewarding to be able to feel him. After all he didn't talk much about his feelings, but when she was in this telepathic link she could get an inkling of them, his warmth for her, his mood and she felt so close to him.

A lot of it felt very vague though like she wasn't able to fully grasp everything yet, but it was also strangely compelling, it made her want to feel more of him, delve deeply into him. But it was also slightly scary, she had never experienced a closeness of that kind before. She realized that she hadn't let her former boyfriends into her mind like that, it wasn't normal for her and maybe that was why it felt slightly scary. But then the scariness was also tempting somehow, like crossing a line or beaming down to an unknown planet...and part of her felt like she could basically trust him, there was just the other part still somewhat careful about all these strange Vulcan things.

She took the medicine the doctor had given her against the headache and went straight to bed. She felt her mind relax when the effect of the hypo kicked in and she realized how tired she was.

She was standing in the desert alone and there was no path to walk, just an endless sea of sand. She knew she was on Vulcan and felt totally lost on a planet she had never been before. She tapped her comm badge, but no one was answering. She was completely stranded on this planet in the middle of some Vulcan desert with no idea where she was exactly and no map showing her the next populated area.

She looked around and saw only dunes. But after a few moments she suddenly saw that behind one of the dunes there was a man in the distance and he seemed to look in her direction.

She started walking towards him and he walked towards her. When he came closer she recognized Soltek and started to run and hugged him, but something wasn't right, her cheek somehow couldn't connect to him as if there was some barrier between them and she couldn't feel his arms around her. When she let go of him she realized that she was wearing a spacesuit.

'You have to undress,' he said.

As she put off the helmet she suddenly saw him standing there naked and when she put off her suit she realized that she didn't wear any clothes underneath it either.

'Can you see me now?' he asked and put his warm arms around her. She had the same wonderful feeling again as when he was touching her face in his quarters, she felt much more closer to him than just being in his arms, she could reach inside him and feel his...love for her – and she realized there was more...sensual pleasure...desire...and some kind of powerful heat.

She then realized that he had one hand fully on her cheek and started to kiss her beginning at her mouth and then moving under her chin. She let him lower her into the warm sand and while he was kissing her on the mouth again both his hands travelled under her chin and she felt like a wave of heat crash over her and everything became blurred.

That was the moment she woke up and realized she was in her quarters. The time display showed that it was 0834 already. She wasn't on duty today – it was Sunday and she was living on jupiter station now, whatever deity was watching over the universe, bless those free weekends...but she had slept enough and needed a cold shower.

'Lights,' she called and she walked into the bathroom. She decided to take breakfast in the 'Coffee Corner', a little restaurant on the 5th level with a good sunday morning buffet. After that kind of dream she needed some fresh air.

Irina spent the rest of the morning cleaning up what she didn't manage yesterday. In the afternoon she spend some time relaxing and then took up Lark's book about Vulcans. She went over the relationship section again, some things made more sense now, but she started to wonder how Soltek was coping with some of the things she had confronted him with. According to the book he was quite out of line to permit the way she touched him...and she wondered if even Vulcans sometimes behave 'naughty' and break the rules...? But well, he clearly told her to not be too hasty with the hand-to-face-thing, maybe that has been too far over the line for him.

Soltek had needed quite some time yesterday evening before he had managed to calm himself down to the point where he was actually able to fall sleep.

He had to be more careful around Irina. She was very abrupt in her display of affection and she probably didn't know how much that kind of touch and sensing her desire for him would...make his blood burn.

It was quite disturbing to observe such a reaction in himself. It wasn't his time, but he had displayed some startlingly similar symptoms yesterday and something might have happened if she hadn't stopped it.

He still wasn't able to eat, but more meditation will take care of that. He quickly wrote a message to Irina inquiring after her health to make sure his telepathic activity hasn't caused any problems for her. He didn't want to call her and least of all see her right now, but he had to know if she was okay.

A few minutes later the message alert sounded and she had written back: 'Thanks, I'm fine! I had a bit of a headache, but it quickly cleared away after I took the hypo Dr. Lark has given me. Are you okay?'

'I am pleased to hear you didn't suffer much discomfort. I am in good health as well,' he replied instantly seating himself in front of the screen – after all his problems didn't mean he was ill.

'I'm sorry if I crossed a line with the hand-to-face-thing,' she replied, 'I hope I didn't cause discomfort to you.'

He took a deep breath before replying, 'it doesn't cause discomfort, but it is important for you to know that a deeper level of telepathic contact is more difficult to control than a lighter one.'

He was actually relieved that they were discussing this over written messages as he felt the blood rise to his head while thinking about it again.

'Don't you put your hand on the face of someone when you do a mind meld?' she asked.

He wondered how to explain to her that he would never attempt a mind meld with her because he wasn't sure he would be able to remain in control. Yesterday's incident suggested such an endeavor would most likely turn into another kind of telepathic connection...

'Yes, but a mind meld can be difficult to control under certain circumstances,' he replied.

'Oh, okay, then let's be careful,' she wrote back.

'That is a most logical conclusion,' he answered.

'It was a wonderful feeling though,' she replied.

He felt the heat rise in him again and took slow breaths. Then another message appeared on the screen:

'I hope we can do this some day again when you are ready.'

Soltek felt the strong urge to walk over to her quarters and do that right now, but took more slow breaths to regain control over himself. If things were continuing like this he should declare Koon'ut'so'lik soon... But she had made it clear that she wished to get to know him better and there was no logic in asking for something she wasn't fully willing to do right now. He wasn't under the fever and he will calm down.

'Soltek, are you still there?' asked the next message.

'Yes,' he replied his heart pounding, 'I also wish to do this with you.'

':-)' her next message said. Soltek wondered if she accidentally hit the wrong buttons.

'Your last message was scrambled,' he replied.

'No,' she answered, 'that means I'm smiling. It's called an emoticon.'

'Fascinating,' he replied.

'I think I should show you a list of them for translation at some time,' she answered.

'I would appreciate that,' he replied.

After a pause she messaged, 'have a wonderful day, I have a cooking appointment with Lamira this evening, I look forward to see you tomorrow!

:*

(That's a kiss-emoticon by the way.)'

'I look forward to see you too,' he replied and found himself at an internal struggle over the last emoticon. Part of him wanted to send the same one back to her, but it was totally silly of course. Then another voice in his head said, why not if it is her form of communication? It's not like he was doing something improper, he wasn't even kissing her for real, just copying her human sign language. And nobody else would read the message. - But she might feel rejected if he didn't respond to it and it was illogical to make her feel this way...

':*' he typed and pressed the send-button.

I know it's a rather short chapter, but more is on the way...