Chapter 29 —


Back on Tek'Xzen, T'Pol excused herself to check on her mother, while Trip headed for Mess Hall 2. After a day like today he needed something sweet. This time of night, the place was largely deserted, save for five crewmen playing a game of poker in one corner of the room, and Alice gazing into her coffee at the other end of the Mess Hall, and after a pass through the line Trip joined the doctor, a cup of coffee in one hand, a plate full of mochi in the other.

"Hey," said Trip, as he sat down. "What are you moping around for, Alice?"

"You're about to kill us all you daft fool," said Alice, "so I think that gives me the right to pout about the matter."

"Here," said Trip, sliding the plate of mochi to the middle of the table. "Eat something sweet. You'll feel better."

"Mmmm," said Alice, a moment after biting into the sweet. "It's good. What is it?"

"Mochi."

"No, I know that, but what flavor?"

"The translucent-white half of it is lychee, the yellow is jackfruit. Do you approve?"

"I do," said Alice, after taking a delicate bite from each half of the mochi. "How did things go on Earth? You officially a minister now?"

"Yes," said Trip, "and a target for assassination as well, apparently. So thinks Malcolm, Polly, probably Ke'Zrell, and a dude named Harris I just met this evening."

"Yes, well, we all have to go sometime," said Alice, fatalistically resigned to the idea.

"I suppose," said Trip, "and I'm glad you're taking the idea my assassination so stoically. Now really, what's got you so down tonight, Alice?"

"Are you kidding?" said Alice, snorting at Trip in good hearted derision. "If the Federation screws this up, the Sol system is toast. I think that's reason enough to be down, no? Two entire species, Human and Vulcan going down in flames."

"We won't screw it up," said Trip.

"I've got family down there, you know?" said Alice. "Haven't seen them for years. We're not close, but they're still family."

"Oh, yeah?" said Trip.

"Yeah," said Alice. "Sister, brother, my mom. I've even got three nieces."

"Have you visited them since we got back?"

"No," said Alice, head hanging, the good doctor looking deep in her cup, her left hand clenched into a fist. "Last time I saw them, it was an ugly scene. I don't want to go into it, so leave it at that. Now I'm afraid to go. As fucked up as they are, the adults I mean, if anything happens to them…"

"Afraid or not, go see them anyway," said Trip, placing his hand atop Alice's. "in case Tek'Xzen falls to the Gorn. Do it for your nieces, if no one else."

Alice nodded, and it was thus that T'Pol found them when she stepped into the Mess Hall, but there was no drama here… the Vulcan considered Alice a friend, and beyond reproach on some subjects, and so T'Pol merely joined them both at the doctor's table.

"I have to go," said Trip. "Phlox was expecting me in Medical ten minutes ago."

"He wants to requisition some medical supplies," said Alice.

"I figured," said Trip. "Take the day off tomorrow, Alice. I'll see a shuttle is made available for you."

"Thanks," said Alice, giving Trip a smile, then burying her face in her coffee cup once more.

"Do you want me to leave?" said T'Pol. "Give you privacy?"

Alice looked up, silent for a moment, then said, "No. Come to my quarters. I have something to show you."


"Ok," said Trip, after taking a look at the long list of items on Phlox's list. "I'll make sure you get what you need, Doctor. I'll deal with it before I turn in for the night."

"Thank you," said Phlox, giving Trip one of his unnaturally wides smiles, at least unnaturally wide were Phlox a Human.

"I'm sorry we've dragged you into all this, Phlox," said Trip. "Denobula is far from Hegemony space, far enough that you shouldn't be out here."

"Nonsense," said Phlox. "With decades to go before the Black Sun falls, the Gorn will reach Denobula if Earth falls. Even if that were not the case, I'm a doctor and I'm needed here."

"You are," said Trip. "Thank you, Doctor."

"Of course," said Phlox, giving Trip a supportive nod. "So what do I call you now? Captain? Minister?"

"Call me anything you want out there," said Trip, reaching out his hand, "but when we're alone, call me Trip."

Phlox grabbed Trip's forearm, and nodded supportively before the minister left the good doctor to his own devices.


"Harder!" gasped Ajan. "Harder, damn you!"

"Furkana, slah sell tak!" said Malcolm, which roughly translated to something like "Silence, property which is mine to exalt or debase at my pleasure!"

Roughly speaking of course, for the Klingon version was more concise, but for Ajan it carried a delicious and overt declaration that Malcolm saw her as his property - she would have to test him soon, make him jealous, see if he truly meant the words he spoke, or if he'd just dropped honeyed words without truly understanding their meaning.

"Harder!" whispered Ajan, lightheaded now and climaxing like a freight train.

Now in his kinder and gentler days, Malcolm would have held back here, but despite her relatively easy going nature, Ajan was a Klingon through and through, and she liked her sex rough, and frequent, and nasty…

…not that Malcolm objected here and now, and so he tightened the belt looped round Ajan's throat 'till the Klingon struggled for every breath, and even as Ajan struggled to groan aloud, Malcolm drove himself into the Klingon with a vicious harshness, and she as wet as a slip and slide, as hot as the sun… and when the Klingon fiercely climaxed once more, just moments after the previous salvo, her nails dug deeply into Malcolm's back, each and every finger drawing blood, and a groan of his own from Malcolm, as his back carried ten ruby red marks, a gift from his Klingon lover.

And now the tension left Ajan's body with her climax, and Malcolm released his hold on the belt, and the Klingon gasped and gulped greedily for air even as Malcolm still moved within Ajan, and eventually the Klingon began moving sensuously against Malcolm of her own accord, as she kissed his neck, the Klingon eager to bring him off as well, and eventually she did, with a last feverish grind from Malcolm... and basking in the afterglow, the two made small talk until BorrTok joined them on the bed, the targ touching noses with them both.

"He's looking good," said Ajan. "I think he's put on a couple of dakt."

"He has," said Malcolm, converting that Klingon measure to it's Human standard equivalent 1.4 pounds in his head. "And gained a half inch already."

And just then Ajan squealed, for BorrTok, seeing and recognizing a nipple, tried to help himself to some milk, courtesy Ajan, but Klingon breasts were not as tough as a targ's, and BorrTok's milk teeth were sharp as needles.


Trip had just reached his cabin, when his Comm officer notified the minister that he had a call from Earth.

"You bastard," said Archer, and for once, the newly frocked Commodore Archer wasn't joking around with a good friend.

"Jon," said Trip somberly.

"Good people died because of you, Trip," said Archer. "You knew some of them. Do you want to know their names?"

"No," said Trip. "And StarFleet attacked first."

"And there'd have been no chance of that if you'd stayed away from Sol system," said Archer. "Damn you, Trip! Damn you!"

"Jon, you're no fool. You know what's coming. Would you really have Sol system face that threat without a Federation fleet on hand to assist? Seriously, Jon. The truth."

"No," said Archer, and then the commodore ended the comm stream abruptly, and Trip knew it would be a long time, if ever, before Archer would forgive him.


"Here we go," said Alice as she entered her cabin. "Come on."

T'Pol did just that, as always her keen senses picking out the scent of the various oil paints which Alice used to create the artworks which were liberally spread about the cabin, for Alice was an inveterate painter.

"This is new," said T'Pol, her eye caught by an adorable nature study of a kaissa, something of a Vulcan llama.

"Oh, yes," said Alice. "I went down to Vulcan with the last medical team, in search of some medicines for your people, and the pharmacy we shopped had a statue of a kaissa outside the store's entrance. I thought it was cute."

"Mmmm," said T'Pol. "You have done a good job of—"

"Ok," said Alice, excited now, for she'd found what she sought. "Close your eyes, T'Pol."

T'Pol obliged, and Alice took a painting she'd laid between her desk and the wall, and placed that painting on an easel which monopolized the room by virtue of it's location, under the best light that room offered.

"Open your eyes, T'Pol," said Alice, looking at T'Pol with a smile. "What do you think?"

T'Pol drew closer to the painting, eyeing it closely… there, on the canvas, T'Pol saw herself, rendered in wonderfully bright colors, dressed in the elegant and diaphanous robes of a temple dancer. The painting was somewhat stylized, for Alice had made T'Pol even more elegant and beautiful than real life, hard as that might be to imagine, but she'd not taken it so far as to be unrealistic.

"It is a beautiful work, Alice," said T'Pol, truthfully. "You are a genius!"

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are," said T'Pol, unwilling to concede the point.

"If you insist. It's not quite finished," said Alice, "but I wanted you to see it in case, you know… the Gorn kill us. I… you… I consider you a friend, T'Pol."

"I feel the same, Alice," said T'Pol, and the Vulcan pressed herself to Alice, and laid a light kiss on the Human's cheek.

The gesture was completely unexpected and quite gratifying, for Vulcans do not generally indulge in physical contact with others, save family and close friends, and Alice knew that for a fact from her time in the Uhlans.

"Look at me," said Alice, misty eyed. "I'm making a fool of myself."

"Nonsense."

"No, it's true," said Alice, dabbing the corners of her eyes. "

"Well, no one is here to witness your foolishness then, and since I'm your friend, I'll never tell," said T'Pol, as cool as a cucumber once again…

…but it was palpable. Something had changed between Alice and T'Pol, and it was something Alice grasped right away - T'Pol had lowered her shields with her since boarding Tek'Xzen, and now she'd done away with them completely… and it was a beautiful thing to witness.