Chapter 26: Going South
Groundhog Day, he thought to himself. Like the two evenings before, everyone had already retired for the night, while he sat, stoking the remnants of the campfire. And, to make the deja-vu complete, approaching footsteps told him that Anna was about to join him.
Except, it wasn't Anna. It was Pat, who sat down next to him, staring into the fire. Like most of the time over the last three days, she wore her bikini bottom and nothing else. Yep, Anna was definitely rubbing off on her better half.
"I gave Anna a piece of my mind," she said. "She had a point that you were being unreasonable, but she could have been a bit more diplomatic about it. I can imagine it isn't easy for you with all that T'Lara has been through."
"Sorry," Trip said. "I don't really want to be the reason for you and Anna fight'n."
"We didn't fight," Pat said and smiled at him. "Sometimes I just have to give her a refresher course in diplomacy."
"I have a whole new idea about what we put our poor dad through," Trip sighed.
"What do you mean?"
"My sister Lizzy and I weren't much different than T'Lara as kids," he explained, pushing his stick into the sand when its tip caught fire. "As soon as we saw a body of water big enough to jump into, we'd strip naked and splash-dive. We called it the 'Tucker Bomb'. That was all well until Lizzy hit puberty. Suddenly dad wouldn't go to the beach with us anymore, only mom."
"You think your...um… episode had to do with T'Lara?"
"Jeez, no," Trip gasped. "She's a kid, and just thinking what she's been through… It's not that I didn't know this would happen. I can't flee forever whenever she changes into her night clothes. I know she'd prefer to go swimming with me rather than you or Anna, but she wouldn't understand why I wear shorts doing so. The thing is, I'm afraid she'll have flashbacks when seeing a naked guy."
"Didn't the monks at P'Jem wipe that memory?" Pat asked.
"Can you guarantee it'll work forever?" he asked back. "I mean amnesiacs often get their memories back, or parts of them."
"No I can't," Pat admitted. "But I can give you my take on it. You probably noticed by now that I'm not too comfortable around guys, especially when they don't wear anything."
He nodded, remembering that Pat had always looked away when he had had his morning swim.
"The reason for that is sordid, but simple. I've known since early puberty that I'm attracted to girls, rather than guys. When I told my parents, my father apparently decided to 'reverse my polarization'."
"Jeez, Pat, tell me he didn't!" Trip gasped in horror.
"Not himself, but he brought buddies of his home and he made me pleasure them. That's how I came to be grossed out by men and their you-know-whats."
"Shit. And I made you uncomfortable every morning. I'm so sorry."
"You don't have to be," Pat said and gave him a genuine smile. "You are the first man I'm comfortable with. The first one who doesn't creep me out. And that's the same for T'Lara. Even if she were to regain her memories, you're different to her. Just as you're not just another guy to me. I could never have gone topless with any other guy than you around here."
"I'm nothing special, Pat, so why?"
"You don't get it, do you?" she asked, smiling at him. "Yes, you've been a bit of a drama queen before finally agreeing to give Anna a good time, but that just shows how strong your moral compass is. Trust me, there are not too many guys like that. We could have found sixty other guys all too willing to take those pictures of Anna and me, but for most of them, the important part would have been what happened afterward. You? I practically had to talk you into letting Anna take care of your… problem."
Trip shook his head. It was weird hearing that, especially as he didn't feel like such a 'great guy'.
"Let me tell you a secret," Pat admitted. "I actually considered helping you myself when you had that problem today. If nothing else, just because you've been so good to me and my better half."
"PAT!" he gasped.
She just smiled. "That's why I didn't do it. Not because I don't like you, in fact I'm sure I even would have enjoyed it a bit. But I knew that my past would come out at some point and then you'd be scandalized about me blowing you."
"You got that right, hon. With all I know now, I could never enjoy something like that."
"My point, Trip Tucker. There are a lot of guys, who wouldn't give a hoot as long as they can shove it in a willing woman's mouth. And many girls are not the least bit better in that regard, by the way. You always put your partner's needs and condition before your own. Do me a favor and never lose that."
"That's an easy promise to make," he said. "In fact T'Pol has chewed me out for doing that too often."
"I know. T'Pol and I are talking quite often. I never thought I'd mention myself and the word 'talk' in the same sentence."
They both chuckled.
"Well, T'Pol and the word talk aren't exactly best buddys either," he said with amusement. "I'd say in that regard the two of you help each other."
Suddenly Pat went silent.
"Something wrong?" he asked
"I nearly forgot why I came out here in the first place," she replied. "Trip, I know it might sound crazy at first, but I think I might have a possible explanation for what caused your 'episode' today."
"No matter how outlandish that theory is, _any_ sort of clue would be welcome," he snorted. "Jeez, if T'Lara would have seen me getting the boner from hell for no reason..."
"I don't think it was for no reason," Path said with a giggle. "You uploaded the pictures this morning, didn't you?"
He nodded.
"Well, Trip Tucker, you might be a brilliant engineer, but you haven't quite mastered the camera yet. When Anna and I browsed the pictures today, we saw you forgot to turn off the auto-release and you've sent T'Pol a picture of you boning my sweetheart's rear-end while she had her face stuffed into my juicy bits."
"Oh my fucking god…." he groaned and buried his face in his palms.
"Don't kill yourself just yet," Pat said, way too amused in his opinion. "You might have hit the jackpot."
"Huh?"
"Look, T'Pol told you you two can't do the nasty because of that government of hers. But how would they be able to find out about it? That means Vulcans must have some equivalent of a hymen, right? I bet you that as a Vulcan she had no idea of anal sex until she saw you stuffing it into Anna's butt. And she's a scientist. Scientists experiment..."
"Shit! My butt!"
"Your butt?" Pat asked and laughed.
"When that stuff happened today, my butt was tingling," he explained, blushing about disclosing that particular secret.
"It exists," Pat said excitedly.
"Of course it does, I'm sitting on it," he replied, slightly confused.
"Look, since T'Lara has taken a shining to hydroponics, I've been taking Hoshi's Vulcan classes so I can talk to her in her naive language. A couple days ago I was reading some old Vulcan text. I only got less than half of it, but it must be some sort of love story. It's about a Vulcan pair of mates two thousand years ago. And those two had something called a tel. It's basically some sort of telepathic mojo. He could feel what she feels and vice versa. What if something like that really exists and you and T'Pol can sense what the other one feels?"
"That would be inconvenient, because that would mean she had anal sex and I wasn't part of it," he said, the ice-cold fire of jealousy starting to burn inside.
"Jeez you guys can be thick sometimes," Pat giggled.
"Huh?"
"Ever heard of dildos, Einstein?" she asked him, cackling like a schoolgirl. "Do you really think T'Pol walks up to the captain and asks if he could kindly do her in the bum, just for scientific purposes? Of course you guys only need a hand to take care of things. Not so easy for us woman folk. There is a system in place on the ship where women can order sex toys anonymously."
"Wait-a-minute," he gasped. "We shipped out with a stash of dildos aboard?"
Pat nodded. "T'Pol told me that the relaxation of the no-frats was decided before we shipped out, so certain non-standard supplies where loaded. Just because there are fewer girls than guys aboard doesn't mean we don't need some help for us poor ladies. I'm not the only one, who's not too keen on hooking up with a guy."
"Jeez, this mission takes 'weird' to a whole new level. So if I get that right; You think I felt what I felt because T'Pol was having fun with herself?"
"I'm almost convinced. She tries not to show it when you're around, but that she can't have you is hurting her a lot. At some point she was bound to consider skirting the line. If she let's you in through the backdoor, the front door remains nicely sealed and her government will never know anything."
"But why try with a dildo then? We go back to the ship tomorrow. It's not like I'm not willing."
Pat groaned. "I told you, as a Vulcan she had probably no clue that something like anal sex even exists. Do you really think she'd try with you for the first time? What if it hurts horribly for Vulcans? You can't even stomach that your daughter goes skinny-dipping. You'd kill yourself if you would hurt T'Pol. She had to make sure it works for her before even considering to do it with you."
"What happened to the shy botanist?" he chuckled. "Where have you hidden her corpse?"
"It's all your fault," Pat said with a wry smile. "You and T'Pol got me out of my shell and you have no idea how great it feels being able to talk to people."
"You always had it in you, Pat."
"Yeah, but it took two very special people to convince me," she said and his eyes got wide when she placed a small kiss on his lips. She sauntered off, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
Now, if that theory of hers was true…
-=/\=-
"T'Pol, can you accompany me to our quarters? I think there's a talk we should be having."
Charles and T'Lara had only returned to the ship several hours ago. The child was currently under the care of Ensign McIlway. Considering the content of the inadvertently taken additional image, she assumed that Charles wanted to seek the privacy of their quarters to confess having had sexual relations with Anna Hess. Considering that she had given her expressed permission to do so, as a way of dealing with the foreseeable arousal, it was not necessary, but Charles was old-fashioned.
When they reached their quarters, she sat down on the bed. Since she had anticipated that he would feel a need for private conversation, she had procured several bottles of beer. He had acquiesced to her request of drinking less of it, but once in a while she granted him a larger amount, accepting the risk of inebriation.
"First of all, why haven't you warned me that the little one would like to go swimming? You knew I wouldn't be comfortable with that."
She could hear the slight reproach in his voice. He removed half the bottle's content in one draft while waiting for her answer.
"Had I warned you beforehand, you would have tried to convince me not to send her to join you at all. In fact I omitted a warning for a reason. You cannot continue trying to avoid certain situations. T'Lara might be a child, but she is fairly intelligent. She has noticed that you always leave, even if she just changes the shirt. And I do not believe your explanation of being afraid that her sight might arouse you."
He let out a snort. "Of course not, T'Pol. Unlike her I remember why she's with us now. That's the coldest bucket of water in the entire quadrant. But you knew she would expect me to accompany her into the water, and sans pants too. Are you really willing to risk that she gets flashbacks from seeing a naked human male?"
She finally understood his reasoning and she immediately reproached herself for not having given him all the details about the ritual in P'Jem. She could have spared him days of discomfort.
"The ritual that was performed in P'Jem is called the Fullara. With adult Vulcans this is done to permanently suppress memories and emotions the individual cannot deal with. And, yes, there are recorded cases of Vulcans regaining parts of those memories, even years later. However, since T'Lara is a child and therefore her mind is not yet near maturity, those memories could be permanently removed, not only suppressed. She simply doesn't have them anymore. They were supplanted by different memories, fabricated by the mind of an experienced healer and melder."
"That sounds like a damn dangerous thing to me," he said, starting his second bottle.
"It was necessary. T'Lara is the only female, who can save the house of Surook from extinction. It will be hard enough to fabricate a medical background to explain why she is not a virgin anymore, I believe that is the word you use for females who haven't yet mated."
Charles just nodded, and she could see that being reminded of T'Lara's gruesome fate hurt him.
"Had those memories not been taken from her permanently, a flashback, as you called it, could have prevented her from being able to mate. Her time only comes in three decades, but it was important that she would never remember had had been done to her."
She could see him ponder something and it took nearly two point one-six minutes until he spoke again.
"Okay, so I don't really need to worry about flashbacks, and heck, I doubt we'll run into a beach again any time soon, so the question of swimming won't come up for a while. However, back down on the surface, I had a bit of an incident yesterday and Pat offered an interesting theory."
"What kind of incident?" she asked, not really knowing where he was going with this. The mission reports had not contained any information about an incident.
"This question might sound a little strange, but I need to know, T'Pol, have you done any physical experiments on yourself, experiments that required an item that can be ordered anonymously."
Suffering a momentary lapse in her emotional control, T'Pol gasped. How could he possibly know?
"Have you?" he asked again, when he saw her reaction and the subsequent struggle to find an answer. Finally she nodded, feeling an unusual heat on her cheeks.
"I did indeed simulate anal intercourse using a synthetic device after seeing the situation on the inadvertently additional image you uploaded."
"Did that experiment take part between 1330 and 1400?"
"Indeed it did. How can you know this? Have you been monitoring me?"
"No I didn't, I was too busy trying to find out why I was suddenly getting an almost painful erection, had a tingling sensation in my bottom and suddenly climaxed although Anna, who'd tried to help me, had barely touched me yet."
"But tels are a myth, Charles. I helped Patricia comprehend the text, but I also imparted on her that most of those texts from before the time of awakening contain a substantial amount of fabrication."
"How do you explain it then?" he challenged her back. "How do you explain that I could feel your arousal hundreds of kilometers away? Why do I feel confused and shocked right now, when it is you, who's confused and shocked."
"I do not know?"
"I know one, who could tell us. Considering how easy Soval worked out that we have it bad for each other, I bet he knows whether or not those tels exist. Or perhaps Phlox. If this is really some sort of telepathic connection, it should show up on a brain scan, at least on yours."
"Indeed. Perhaps we should first consult with doctor Phlox."
"I'll make an appointment on my way to Malcolm, but before I do that. Is it possible to ask if that experiment was successful? It was for me, but what about you?"
She could hear the hope in his voice, and she could acutely feel it, too. It would be a scientific sensation if she could really prove a contemporary case of a tel, and involving an alien on top of that.
"It was indeed successful," she said and could see his face light up. "It is possible to engage in anal intercourse without destroying the medical impression that I have never mated. So if you wish..."
She started opening her uniform, but he quickly stopped her.
"Hold your horses, darlin'. I'm really happy that you found out it is possible, but one thing I know without any telepathic trickery is, that your rear-end is sore. And besides, after those three days down there, I'm quite good to go another few days without. Our first time deserves a somewhat more romantic setting."
"Indeed."
-=/\=-
"I'm gone for three days, and you finish everything, just to prove I'm easily exchangeable," Trip ranted, not very convincingly. Having done a bit of fine-tuning on his social skills, Malcolm could easily tell though, that not everything was meant in jest.
"What did you expect," Malcolm snickered. "The pool only needed the final test of the ejection system and most of the Officer's mess was installed by the quartermasters team anyway. You didn't expect me to tell the lot they have to wait another week, do you?"
"Something tells me you're really warming up to that morale officer job," the American teased him.
Malcolm shrugged. "It has its advantages. I get a whole host of excuses to drop by and visit Hoshi, and knowing what is going on in different parts of the ship is not the worst thing for a security officer. It certainly beats sitting naked on a dais."
"That'll take some time," the chief engineer waved his little dig at him off. "I've spoken to Mayumi Rao. She says that there are still two or three in her art class, who are there for the wrong reasons, so she lets them paint still-lifes and sculpture tea pots until the 'oglers' have given up, before she lets anyone ditch the frock."
"So how was it down there? That you had fun is a given. I must tell you, those pictures you've made of Anna and Pat have caused quite a stir."
"In what way?"
"Let's just say people were more than impressed. Especially with Pat. Everyone knows she's utterly shy and there she was showing them to the world. And you must admit, she's got a gorgeous pair of knockers."
"Scratch shy off the list," his friend said. "She has surprised the hell out of me more than once down there, including that photo. It wasn't planned. It was her idea."