T'Pol sat in her quarters, knowing that what she was about to attempt was not entirely professional conduct, at least not the Vulcan variety. But she had long since abandoned her attempts to adhere strictly to what Vulcan code of conduct demanded and had more or less adopted Human rules of conduct, and her plan was perfectly acceptable among humans, if perhaps somewhat badly timed, considering that she was the ranking officer with Captain Archer being on the planet. On the other hand, Lieutenant Reed was more than capable of commanding the ship and with Captain Archer apparently preparing to engage the Mallurians in a fire fight, he was perhaps even the better choice for guiding the Captain.

She eyed the small packages on the table and was still balancing the pros and cons of her plan. It was all Charles' fault, of course. As had been pre-arranged, he had uploaded the pictures they had made for transfer into Lieutenant Hess' gallery, while those images marked 'private' were to be encrypted and saved in the Lieutenant's private storage. Charles had apparently been most diligent in cataloging the images, but apparently he had not re-checked them before uploading, else he would have known that he had missed to catalog one picture – the last one.

In fact, she suspected that this image had been taken accidentally due to a programming mistake on his behalf, as it could not have been taken by him, seeing that all three officers were visible in it. What she had seen, had shocked, confused and intrigued her at the same time.

The Vulcan science officer had always suspected that Lieutenant Hess and Ensign McIlway would use a synthetic facsimile of a phallus to mate, but according to the picture, the Lieutenant was actually using her tongue to stimulate the Ensign's genitalia. At the same time she was penetrated by Charles' phallus, but apparently not her vagina. The picture clearly showed that he had inserted his genital into the Lieutenant's anus.

The shock mainly resulted from the fact that she actually saw Commander Tucker mate with another female. It had been one thing to know and accept it, seeing it was an entirely different sensation. Her shock was even bigger due to the fact that she wasn't discomforted by the thought, in fact it had aroused her to see him pleasure the Lieutenant. Since Charles' second in command was probably the only other female on the ship with breasts that were comparable in size to her own, she found it surprisingly easy to mentally exchange the likeness of Lieutenant Hess for her own.

And that was what had piqued her scientific interest. Why had Lieutenant Hess decided to be penetrated rectally? Her own childhood memories of taking medicine rectally, usually suppositories, did not register the insertion of even a small object into her anus as a particularly agreeable sensation. The obvious choice would be that there was no chance to being impregnated, but a dose of contraceptives from Phlox could easily serve the same purpose.

Asking Ensign Sato for advice was entirely unacceptable in this case. The young human female had been a trustworthy adviser in many topics pertaining her difficult relationship with the ship's chief engineer, but speaking about matters of sexual contact was simply not something she could imagine speaking about publicly. She had come close to doing so with Lieutenant Hess and her mate, and she remembered it as a singularly uncomfortable conversation.

Thankfully the Humans were much more forthcoming with information about matters of intimacy and the publicly accessible portion of the medical database contained large amounts of information about sexual practices among humans. The sheer amount of different sexual techniques the humans had developed had almost been overwhelming and the emotions they invoked ranged from intrigue to downright disgust. It seemed as if there was hardly any part of their bodies that humans would not involve in one facility or other to stimulate an intimate partner.

The technique employed by Lieutenant Hess was apparently called "Cunnilingus". Instinctively, as a scientist, she had wondered if the etymology of the term had something to do with the profanity "cunt" that she had heard being employed by some of the less tactful crew members when referring to female genitalia. However, that thought had lingered for mere moments before it had been pushed to the back of her mind by the overwhelming urge to devise a way of learning if Charles would be willing to perform such a technique on her.

Of course any thought of engaging in sexual relations with Charles would expose her to the risk of being persecuted for having mated with someone else but her childhood betrothed, even though said betrothed had mated with a different female several times by now, and according to the Eldest Mother, was desiring to be bonded with her. However, one of the many things she had learned from her human ship mates was, that if there was a rule, there was a way to circumvent it.

Although she had no more intention to marry Koss than he had to marry her, the authorities could easily subject her to a medical scan that would easily reveal whether she had mated or not. T'Pol had never understood, why her species, which was so intent on safeguarding each others privacy, allowed such indiscreet measures to exist. Therein, however, lay the 'loophole' as humans routinely called a way to side-step a law or regulation. Until finding those entries in the human database, for her the term 'mating' had always amounted to the act of vaginal penetration for the purpose of inseminating the female. Considerations like sexual stimulation, and therefore alternative methods of achieving such, did not exist in the highly structured world of her species.

Since Vulcan females possessed an equivalent to a human female's hymen, prior mating was easily detected by a medical scan, and it was not difficult to determine if it had been a female's betrothed or husband, who had ruptured it.

However, considering the multitude of techniques that humans had developed to engage in sexual relation without penetrating the female's vagina, there was a whole selection of activities available that she could practice with Charles, while a medical scan would still suggest she had never mated before.

"I love science," Charles' voice reverberated in her mind, and she was momentarily confused. She had imagined Charles' voice before, but it had never sounded so clear and life-like before.

-=/\=-

That girl has a problem, a big one, Malcolm thought to himself as he leaned back into the captain's chair. He could only imagine what a pre-industrial society would make of a phaser weapon being discharged. A bright beam of light appearing out of thin air and making an oil lamp explode, according to the captain's report, was bound to bring up fairy tales of the woman having the 'evil look' or some such silliness. At least the blast had taken out the remaining Mallurians.

"How's the status Captain," he inquired, after contacting the away team. "The signature and radiation from the reactor seem to be gone."

"I have taken it offline, quite permanently in fact," the captain's voice sounded over the com link. "I doubt our chief engineer would have approved of the methods I employed, but we don't have the time to make it neat. There's a mob outside, and they are literally carrying torches and pitchforks. I'm afraid we'll have to risk a matter transport.

"I take it that involves your companion, too?" Malcolm asked, signaling Hoshi to order Kelby to the transporter alcove. Being able to converse in sign language was an awfully convenient thing in such situations.

"We have no other choice, Malcolm. She would not survive a single day if we left her here."

"Kelby is on his way, standby for evacuation," Malcolm replied.

-=/\=-

T'Pol had to table her plans and waited, operating the transporter console. She had ordered Lieutenant Kelby to relinquish control of it. Risking the use of the experimental matter transporter was a sign of an emergency situation and the large risk of the captain or his alien companion to die due to a malfunction were too large a responsibility to be imposedon a junior officer, no matter if he was willing to accept it or not.

She almost heaved a sigh of relief, when the bodies of Captain Archer and the alien female materialized on the platform. The female however was screaming in terror and only calmed down when the captain had gathered her in his arms. Even to T'Pol it was obvious that the two individuals before her were strongly attracted to each other.

"You should visit Doctor Phlox," she suggested, using a hand scanner to check the two, fortunately unharmed, arrivals. "Our guest is clearly distressed and she has been exposed to substantial radiation. She should urgently be brought to decon, as should you, captain. You were also exposed to strong radiation."

She accompanied the captain and their unexpected visitor towards sickbay.

"Heard anything from the vacation group?" the Captain asked.

"The… non-standard part of their schedule has been concluded and Ensign McIlway has started to research local Flora to determine which plants, fruit and vegetables could be used to replenish or augment our food reserves."

She answered the Captain's knowing smile with a raised eyebrow.

"I have taken the liberty of having T'Lara delivered to join the away team. She has grown quite attached to Commander Tucker and was showing signs of distress over his prolonged absence."

Again the Captain smiled, no doubt amusing himself with thoughts of what a profound impact Charles had on females of all species and age. Had she been human she would probably have shared the sentiment, if it wasn't for the fact that she knew that her chosen was probably more than distressed by now. She could just hope that his two female companions could alleviate his almost inevitable self-reproach."

-=/\=-

"What's the matter with you, Trip?"

Anna sat down next to him as he emptily stared into the remnants of the campfire.

"Is that so hard to understand?" he said, his voice thick with emotion. "When she was brought aboard, she was half-naked and she was raped by humans – male humans! She shouldn't be seen completely naked by any human male ever again."

"Sorry to be so blunt, Trip, but you are completely irrational," Anna said and to emphasize her point she tapped his forehead with her index finger. "Considering that you're hopelessly in love with a Vulcan and have a Vulcan adoptive daughter, you should really update your knowledge. Being naked is a complete non-event for Vulcans. They consider their body a mere shell for their soul. In fact they think it is completely illogical to wear anything when taking a bath. So where the hell is your problem?"

"I just feel like a complete weirdo, going into the water with a naked girl. She's a kid, 'fer chrissake."

Anna snorted. "Jeez, Trip, have you ever been to a beach? Pat and I are willing to help, but you can't leave it to us to take her into the water. She's starting to wonder why her adoptive dad, whom she loves a lot by the way, is suddenly acting so strange around her. Of course she'd rather chop a leg off than admitting it, but she was looking forward to spend time with you. Instead you run off and hide as soon as she strips down to go swimming."

"I'm being an idiot, aren't I?" he sighed in defeat.

"To be brutally honest, Trip, yes you are. Liz Cutler told me what kind of ridiculous dresses they were in when coming aboard, and I can understand that you were shocked when seeing that she was still a kid. It's not exactly difficult to tell if a girl is adult or not, especially if she's effectively topless. But you're still beating yourself up over it, despite the fact that that was the least of her problems, because Vulcans basically don't give a hoot. Now, Nadya is suffering, but she's human. T'Lara isn't. Get that into that thick skull of yours. She needs you, and you've been avoiding her. That's much worse for her than whatever those monks wiped from her mind."

-=/\=-

It was perhaps the least surprising piece of news ever, T'Pol thought. Seeing the abundance of crystal clear, blue water from orbit, T'Lara had expressed an interest in bathing. Unfortunately, as every Vulcan, she would not even consider to wear clothing, as it was completely illogical to be dressed for a bath or a shower. Inevitably that would cause distress for Charles, who had so far always left the premises as soon as T'Lara needed to change clothing.

The reasons were not hard to determine, considering that human males were programmed to react in certain ways to the sight of an unclothed female body. He was consumed by irrational fear that he could experience unbidden signs of arousal, and, like most species, humans considered desiring children or ones own offspring an abomination. Ensign Sato had explained that many human males experienced that sort of distress if they had female offspring, especially when said offspring started to mature, but she had also assured her that parental instincts would usually preclude any unwanted arousal. Apparently Charles didn't trust his parental instincts, despite the fact that he had accepted the role of a surrogate parent with much more ease than she had done herself.

The short communique from Lieutenant Hess had confirmed her fears, but the human woman also insisted that she had 'set him straight', which Ensign Sato explained as Charles having been convinced of how illogical his thoughts were. According to the letter she had received from the surface, Charles and T'Lara were finally sleeping, with the child being afforded to be in the desired physical contact with her adoptive father, although Lieutenant Hess had amended, that, of course, he had enforced the presence of nightwear, despite the high temperatures.

It was however an agreeable compromise. Although Vulcans usually didn't wear any clothing in bed, after all the nights where the only time on their planet when they were not exposed to oppressive heat, Charles would probably never overcome the instinctive discomfort at being in physical contact with his adoptive daughter while undressed. Unlike for Vulcans, nudity simply had too many sexual connotations for humans due to their evolution. T'Pol made a mental note to explain that fact to T'Lara upon her return, as she didn't want the child to unwittingly offend the human member of their small family.

The thought of being a family reminded her of the aborted experiment. Although there was no doubt that both she and Charles wanted to spend the rest of their lives in each others company and were more than willing to be adoptive parents to T'Lara, there was the simple, yet disagreeable fact, that so far she had deemed herself unable to fulfill her desired mate's needs without risking her own life. This experiment would have to show if she was able to engage in sexual relations without doing so as far as Vulcan science was concerned.

She opened the box that rested on the table in front of her and for several moments she stared at the synthetic phallus that humans, quite fittingly, referred to as a 'vibrator', as the device started to vibrate when being activated. The logic behind this wasn't really clear to her. After all, although the device was quite realistically shaped like a human penis, if somewhat smaller than what she had seen Charles being in possession of on the unwittingly taken picture, he would certainly not vibrate if engaging in intimate contact. At least there had been no mention of such a phenomenon in the human database. For the sake of scientific accuracy, she decided to assume that Charles would not be subject to vibration and that she would conduct the experiment with the device's function being deactivated.

T'Pol checked her scientific notes one last time. Having revisited the parts of the Vulcan database that were not accessible for her human shipmates, not even the captain, she had determined that, although anal penetration was unknown to Vulcans, it should theoretically be possible to ease tension using the technique as the Vulcan perineum, at least in females, contained two neural nodes that were effective in easing emotional control and hormonal imbalance. Granted, Vulcan science presumed that those neural nodes were stimulated from outside the body, but there was nothing to suggest that it wouldn't work if the stimulation came from inside her anatomy.

Human texts had been quite unambiguous in their insistence that a lubricant be used before engaging in anal intercourse, so she generously coated the device and her own sphincter with a substance called 'Vaseline'. She suspected that this particular technique of sexual contact was still attached to some sort of stigma, even among humans. How else could it be that there were protocols in place that allowed the acquisition of the substance and a synthetic phallus in such a way that not even Lieutenant Reed and his security department would ever be able to determine, who had made the purchase?

-=/\=-

"What the fuck?!" Trip hissed, looking at his groin in disgust. He could feel the familiar heat of a massive blush on his cheeks as Anna and Pat were trying not to laugh hysterically. They both failed abysmally. Thank the heavens that T'Lara was not around to see this indignity, having a midday nap in the tent. For no reason whatsoever, he had developed an erection, despite the fact that, unlike most of the time, Anna and Pat were actually wearing bikini bottoms and a shirt.

"Jeez, help the poor man, will you?" Pat cackled in Anna's direction and turned to leave. Not even his guilt, knowing that for whatever reason Pat was grossed out by male genitalia could lessen Trip's ridiculously painful erection that had come out of nowhere, and why was his ass tingling?

-=/\=-

Oblivious to the crisis on the surface, T'Pol shivered uncontrollably in the aftermath of the first orgasm she'd experienced in her life.

For reasons she couldn't explain, the experience had not only been more than agreeable, she had also felt as if there had been some indiscernible external stimulus. For what it was worth, her scientific experiment had been more successful than she had ever imagined.

"I am ready to receive you, ashayam" she whispered breathlessly before consciousness abandoned her mind.