Part Two: Dinner Conversations
Hoshi sat in the nearly empty mess hall, picking at her dinner, listening to the conversation between her friends half-heartedly. Once a week she had a late dinner with Liz Cutler, Tammy Slivowitz, Maggie Chu, and Cynthia Anderson to shoot the breeze and gossip. There were two strict rules; no talking shop and no politics. Everything else was fair game, as long as it didn't get too personal. Normally, Hoshi would be happily knee deep into who was seeing whom, playfully rating the men on the ship, recommending music, trading novels and discussing movies, but tonight she had her men on her mind.
Ten weeks of Trip and Malcolm was fun, challenging, and exhausting. It wasn't that they were together all the time that exhausted her, it was the amount of energy they had to put into not being found out. Double checking the hallway, not going into the mess hall at the same time, rotating who sat next to each other at movie night and at meals, not to mention keeping up a very professional front while on duty. Details, details, details. So many damn details.
Malcolm and Trip treated it all like a game. Malcolm applying his tactical and strategic know-how, Trip addressing their situation with an engineer's eye for detail. At times it Hoshi found their attitude to be fun and she could laugh delightedly at their plans. At other times she found it to be childish and it pissed her off to distraction. The plus side to all of it was that the two of them were getting to be pretty good at reading her moods. And they were getting very good at cajoling her out of any bad mood. Last night had been one of those nights. Hoshi recalled how in the shower, Trip had started kissing his way down her back, while Malcolm had started down her front and then...
"Earth to Hoshi! Helloooo Hoshi!" Hoshi blinked and looking up saw that Cynthia was waving a hand in front of her face. "Care to share your deep thoughts?"
Hoshi gave her friends a wan smile. "Sorry, I was thinking about some work I did on the UT today. What were we talking about?"
Maggie snorted. "We were discussing how the English stud muffin's been looking so relaxed lately. You're on the bridge with him, any guesses as to why he's been mellower?"
Hoshi blushed as an image of Malcolm kissing his way down her stomach, with Trip licking her nipples, leapt into her mind "No not really..."
"Oh, you know something Hoshi! Come on, give it up," exclaimed Tammy.
"Really, I don't have any good guesses, I was just remembering how badly I did at target practice today." said Hoshi, struggling to keep her composure under her friends' watchful eyes.
"Well, Hoshi may say that she doesn't have an idea, but I do," said Cynthia in a smug tone. "You're holding out on us, Sato."
"Oh hell, now I've done it," thought Hoshi. She vainly tried to push down the rising sense of alarm that was building up her stomach as four pairs of eyes focused on her.
"Don't get bratty Cyn, if Hoshi doesn't want to say anything, she doesn't have to," said Liz.
Cynthia tossed her hair back and leaned forward. "Come on Hoshi, I saw Malcolm Reed go into your quarters two nights ago after movie night. What's going on?"
"Good lord girl! Are you knocking boots with the Armory officer too?" Maggie gasped incredulously.
Hoshi could feel the blush grow hotter on her cheeks and she could feel a rising tide of anger building up in her chest. These were her friends, for God's sake. Didn't they know when to lay-off?
Liz looked in confusion at Hoshi, then at Maggie and Cynthia. "What the hell do you mean by too?"
"I saw Trip Tucker coming out of Hoshi's quarters last week, at around 0500."
Liz gave a whoop of laughter. "Busted, my friend, you are so busted."
Cynthia leaned back in her chair and her expression twisted. "My God, Hoshi, you are an operator! Fucking both the good old boy engineer and the stiff upper Brit! Tell me, do you assign them their own nights to keep them from knowing? When did you become such a bitch in heat?"
Hoshi was now very, very, pissed off. "Cynthia, if I were you, I'd drop this right now."
As she stared daggers at Cynthia, she felt Liz put a hand on her arm. "I thought we all agreed that if we didn't want to discuss our personal stuff, we wouldn't. Enough Cyn, okay? Let's change the subject."
"Oh, so when I question Hoshi about fucking around with two of the most yummy men on the ship, it's time to switch gears? No one did that for me when Maggie was grilling me about Sam," said Cynthia petulantly.
Hoshi saw Maggie and Tammy glare at Cynthia in annoyance. "Cyn, I didn't grill you, you were volunteering waaaaay too much information," said Maggie.
"And if Hoshi's seeing two men at the same time, there's nothing wrong with that. After all, there are more of them than there are of us. And you've slept with several men, so you shouldn't be giving Hoshi a hard time," said Tammy quietly.
Cynthia's voice was pure venom as she retorted, "So what? I at least have my men one at a time. Hoshi's screwing two at a time, and in my book that's playing the slut."
Hoshi was seeing red and she was ready to strangle Cynthia. Before she could say or do anything, Tammy shot her a sympathetic look and came back with, "No one's playing the slut here. I'm sleeping with two men, two men who I've been with since the Jentiram forced us to double up. Does that make me a slut, a whore? I don't think so. I enjoy being with them and they enjoy being with me, and that's all that matters."
Cynthia stared at Tammy in disbelief. Maggie and Liz started to laugh and Hoshi looked at Tammy with new regard.
Cynthia's face went from shock to disgust. "You, you are in a threesome? That's sick, perverted. Don't you have any concept of fidelity? Of morality? I thought I knew you."
Maggie and Liz stopped laughing, and Tammy kept her face calmly composed.
Hoshi took a deep breath and gave herself permission to rip into Cynthia, letting loose of her pent up anger in a long hiss. "Oh, that's rich coming from a woman who has slept through half of the men in engineering. Morality? Morality is letting the men in your life know where they stand with you. Fidelity? Is hopping from man to man a sign of fidelity? Why do we have to assume that being faithful means we can only love one person only? The Denobulans have marriages with three wives and three co-husbands each and they are faithful to each other. The Linnar have five husbands to one wife, the Omari two husbands with six wives and the Jentiram, one male to three females. Is that sick? Is that wrong?"
Now Cynthia's face was red with anger. "Those are alien races Hoshi, we expect them to be different. But human beings weren't meant to go beyond the bonds of matrimony between two people. There's no harm in trying out different models before settling down, but we're only meant to love one person at a time. Anything else is immoral."
Liz snorted in disgust. "That's the most stupid, hypocritical thing I've ever heard you say Cynthia. Do you believe that crap you just said? We have a huge capacity to love, in many different ways."
"I'm not being a hypocrite. We're supposed to be in relationships one at a time, with one person at a time. Anything else, is warped and unnatural. Sleeping with two men, either at the same time or rotating them on a weekly basis, that's being perverted."
Hoshi knew that if she didn't leave, she'd beat Cynthia into a bloody, pulpy mass. She didn't want to make a scene, but in a tight, low voice, ground out, "You've said a lot of outrageous things before, but tonight you've proven yourself to the world's most closed-minded bitch I've ever known."
She then stalked out of the mess hall, shaking in rage, ignoring the curious looks of the few other diners in the mess hall. She could hear Liz and Maggie continue to argue with Cynthia as the doors of the mess hall shut behind her.
As she walked hurriedly down the corridor, Hoshi heard Tammy calling after her. "Hoshi! Hoshi! Wait up!"
Hoshi stopped, turning towards Tammy as she joined her. They started walking together.
"Are you ok?" asked Tammy.
"No, I am not ok!" snapped Hoshi. "I can't believe that Cynthia turned out to be so, so, so..."
"So fucking narrow-minded?" said Tammy wryly.
"Oh, that is such the understatement of the year! I don't know how you could be so calm while she spewed such crap!"
Tammy laughed. "Calm? I was picturing the Captain asking me why I spaced her, followed by Lieutenant Reed leading off me handcuffs. That was the only way I could refrain from bitch slapping her senseless."
Hoshi couldn't help it, she started laughing along with Tammy. They laughed for bit longer together, until they both sobered.
"Well, anyway, I think we've seen the end of our Tuesday night dinner sessions, at least with Cynthia," said Tammy.
"Two understatements in the space of five minutes. I think you set a record."
Tammy stopped and Hoshi saw that her friend was giving her a searching look. "You got angry not because you're sleeping with Trip Tucker one night and Malcolm Reed the next. You got angry because your relationship with those two is much, much more complicated."
Hoshi looked around the corridor apprehensively. There was no one else around, so she nodded her head and said, "Yes. But I don't want to talk about it out here."
"Look, my quarters aren't far. Let's go there."
When they got to Tammy's quarters, Hoshi paced the room while Tammy sat on her bunk, waiting patiently for Hoshi to start. Finally, Hoshi stopped her pacing and sat down next to her friend.
"It all started with the Jentiram. Trip and Malcolm ended up bunking with me. I thought it would be like having a slumber party with my brothers. And then there they were, doing some goofy sparring and I came out of the shower. When I saw them, I was so turned on and some part of my brain said "go ahead, jump right in, the water's fine." So I did, I went after them right then and there. For all fourteen nights the Jentiram were here, we...we slept together every night and hardly got any sleep." Hoshi stopped and smiled a large satisfied smile.
Tammy waggled her eyebrows at Hoshi and said, "Oh, yeah, I know where you're coming from. It was the best sex you've ever had too, I bet."
Hoshi's smile became devilish. "Another understatement from you. Yeah, the sex was, hell still is, great. We tried after the Jentiram left to go back to being just friends, with no more playtime with me."
"Obviously, that didn't last long. What happened?"
Hoshi blew out a long sigh. "We became very uptight around each other. We stopped spending time with each other, except on duty, and even that became strained. I felt so guilty about what I had done and I couldn't sleep. The whole thing went on for weeks. Night after night, I thought about them, about my actions, and finally, I started writing it all out. I came to the conclusion that I love them both. I also figured out that I wouldn't choose between them. One night, we all ended up in the mess hall and talked. By the end of it we were all back in my quarters."
Tammy chuckled in appreciation. "Yeah, Ivor, Billy and I went through something similar, but for only a week. I think Luis, Kim and Martin took four days."
Hoshi felt her eyes widen in shock. "How many more of us are going through this and how the hell do you know so much?"
"Kim and I work together and she tells me everything, whether I want to know or not. As for the how many, I really don't know, but, to borrow a phrase from the Sub-commander, if you look at it logically, it isn't really isn't surprising. I mean, come on Hoshi, we were packed in like sardines. Shit happens. I bet for the others, it was over once the furry guys left the ship. But for us, we came to realize that we weren't ready for things to end."
Hoshi looked at her friend with new respect. Then a worrisome thought crept into her head. "Do you think everyone's going to react like Cynthia? I thought she would be more, more tolerant than she turned out to be. Oh, lord, now I wonder how Jon, I mean the Captain, would react."
Tammy patted Hoshi on the shoulder. "Yeah, well, to tell you the truth, I was a bit surprised by Cyn too. I mean, she's more sexually active than most women on this ship. Maybe she's jealous, maybe she's threatened. Does it matter? As for the Captain, you'd know better than I would, he's your friend, and hell, he's Commander Tucker's best friend. I don't think any of us really have to worry, the Captain strikes me as a very pragmatic man. We're going to be out here, what another five years? We can't live monks and I think the Captain understands that."
"You'd think that, but now, after tonight, I'm not so sure..." Hoshi began, and then was interrupted by the chiming of Tammy's door.
Tammy got up and opened her door, revealing a nervous Liz and Maggie. "Come on in ladies."
"Hey Hoshi, Tammy, we thought we'd find you here," said Maggie as she sat down at Tammy's desk.
"Well, either here or at Hoshi's. But since you're closer to mess hall than she is, we thought we'd try here first," elaborated Liz as she sat herself down on the floor.
"So what happened after I left?" asked Hoshi. She could feel her anger return and start making knots in her stomach.
Liz grinned ruthlessly. "Well, let's just say that Maggie and I went into mega-damage control, because Cynthia was ready to go into full gossip spreading mode."
"That bitch! Oh, shit, I could kill her, I could take one of Malcolm's phase pistols and shove it up her..." raged Hoshi.
"Whoa there girl!" exclaimed Maggie. "We took care of her, in the best way possible."
Liz's ruthless smile became even more pronounced. "Maggie and I were beautiful, absolutely beautiful. I think we make an excellent blackmail team."
Tammy started laughing, and Hoshi looked at her other two friends in disbelief. "Are you two going to tell us what you said, or am I going to have torture it out of you?"
Maggie and Liz shook their heads and joined Tammy in her laughter. "Let's just say that she is now in mortal fear of her next physical..." Liz gasped out.
"And that she thinks that I have some security footage of her doing certain acts in certain off-limits areas..." added Maggie, tears streaming down her face.
"So the two combined should make sure that she keeps her mouth shut for along time," finished Liz.
Hoshi was laughing so hard she couldn't breathe properly. The four of them sat there, holding their sides, gasping, trying to wipe tears from their eyes.
Eventually, Hoshi managed to control herself and said, "Thank you both, very much. I'm not ready to deal with gossip about Trip, Malcolm and I just yet. And I know the guys aren't yet either. I'm glad you both weren't as closed minded as Cynthia was."
Maggie sobered up first, and gave Hoshi a small smile. "Hoshi, who you love or how you love them is your business. I know how difficult it is to own up to being in a relationship that doesn't follow tradition. My brother, he lives in San Francisco and is part of a line marriage. Most of my family freaked out when he married into the line, even though it's been legal for fifty years. My father and mother won't talk to him and pretend that he doesn't even exist. The only family members who still talk to him are myself, my cousin, and my grandmother."
Liz nodded her head sympathetically, saying, "I have a cousin who lives on a research commune in Oregon, and she and her two partners share three children. However, my family's a bit more tolerant since she's provided the only grandchildren so far."
Hoshi got on the floor and gave Liz a small hug and patted Maggie's knee in appreciation. Then Liz gave her and the others a thoughtful look, continuing with, "Seriously, there's more to it than being used to my cousin. I always thought that being an explorer in Starfleet meant that we're not only learning about new alien races and cultures, we're also supposed to learn about ourselves. That as we explore, we expand what it means to be human. If we can't tolerate differences in ourselves, it means that ultimately we can't accept them in the others we meet out here. That would mean that maybe the Vulcans are right - we're just children who don't belong out here."
"Liz," said Tammy quietly, "That was beautifully said. I couldn't have said it better myself."
The four of them sat quietly, and Hoshi could tell that Liz was very pleased with Tammy's praise.
Hoshi noticed that Maggie was giving her a speculative look. "What is it now?"
"Well, now that we've gotten some serious stuff out of the way, spill it Sato. How did you end up with both "he trips over alien babes" Tucker and "I love explosions" Reed? Come on now, I want details! Juicy details! Last week I spilled the beans about Travis and I in zero gee, so it's only fair."
"Yep," chimed in Liz, "I've always wondered if engineers really know how to fit all the parts together and if armory officers really know how to use their phase pistols. C'mon Hoshi, I want dirt, good dirt."
Tammy erupted in hysterical laughter and Hoshi felt her face turn hot. She buried her face in her hands. "Oh, give me a break, please..."
"No!" shouted Liz and Maggie simultaneously.
They didn't give up for the rest of the evening.
Hoshi sat in the nearly empty mess hall, picking at her dinner, listening to the conversation between her friends half-heartedly. Once a week she had a late dinner with Liz Cutler, Tammy Slivowitz, Maggie Chu, and Cynthia Anderson to shoot the breeze and gossip. There were two strict rules; no talking shop and no politics. Everything else was fair game, as long as it didn't get too personal. Normally, Hoshi would be happily knee deep into who was seeing whom, playfully rating the men on the ship, recommending music, trading novels and discussing movies, but tonight she had her men on her mind.
Ten weeks of Trip and Malcolm was fun, challenging, and exhausting. It wasn't that they were together all the time that exhausted her, it was the amount of energy they had to put into not being found out. Double checking the hallway, not going into the mess hall at the same time, rotating who sat next to each other at movie night and at meals, not to mention keeping up a very professional front while on duty. Details, details, details. So many damn details.
Malcolm and Trip treated it all like a game. Malcolm applying his tactical and strategic know-how, Trip addressing their situation with an engineer's eye for detail. At times it Hoshi found their attitude to be fun and she could laugh delightedly at their plans. At other times she found it to be childish and it pissed her off to distraction. The plus side to all of it was that the two of them were getting to be pretty good at reading her moods. And they were getting very good at cajoling her out of any bad mood. Last night had been one of those nights. Hoshi recalled how in the shower, Trip had started kissing his way down her back, while Malcolm had started down her front and then...
"Earth to Hoshi! Helloooo Hoshi!" Hoshi blinked and looking up saw that Cynthia was waving a hand in front of her face. "Care to share your deep thoughts?"
Hoshi gave her friends a wan smile. "Sorry, I was thinking about some work I did on the UT today. What were we talking about?"
Maggie snorted. "We were discussing how the English stud muffin's been looking so relaxed lately. You're on the bridge with him, any guesses as to why he's been mellower?"
Hoshi blushed as an image of Malcolm kissing his way down her stomach, with Trip licking her nipples, leapt into her mind "No not really..."
"Oh, you know something Hoshi! Come on, give it up," exclaimed Tammy.
"Really, I don't have any good guesses, I was just remembering how badly I did at target practice today." said Hoshi, struggling to keep her composure under her friends' watchful eyes.
"Well, Hoshi may say that she doesn't have an idea, but I do," said Cynthia in a smug tone. "You're holding out on us, Sato."
"Oh hell, now I've done it," thought Hoshi. She vainly tried to push down the rising sense of alarm that was building up her stomach as four pairs of eyes focused on her.
"Don't get bratty Cyn, if Hoshi doesn't want to say anything, she doesn't have to," said Liz.
Cynthia tossed her hair back and leaned forward. "Come on Hoshi, I saw Malcolm Reed go into your quarters two nights ago after movie night. What's going on?"
"Good lord girl! Are you knocking boots with the Armory officer too?" Maggie gasped incredulously.
Hoshi could feel the blush grow hotter on her cheeks and she could feel a rising tide of anger building up in her chest. These were her friends, for God's sake. Didn't they know when to lay-off?
Liz looked in confusion at Hoshi, then at Maggie and Cynthia. "What the hell do you mean by too?"
"I saw Trip Tucker coming out of Hoshi's quarters last week, at around 0500."
Liz gave a whoop of laughter. "Busted, my friend, you are so busted."
Cynthia leaned back in her chair and her expression twisted. "My God, Hoshi, you are an operator! Fucking both the good old boy engineer and the stiff upper Brit! Tell me, do you assign them their own nights to keep them from knowing? When did you become such a bitch in heat?"
Hoshi was now very, very, pissed off. "Cynthia, if I were you, I'd drop this right now."
As she stared daggers at Cynthia, she felt Liz put a hand on her arm. "I thought we all agreed that if we didn't want to discuss our personal stuff, we wouldn't. Enough Cyn, okay? Let's change the subject."
"Oh, so when I question Hoshi about fucking around with two of the most yummy men on the ship, it's time to switch gears? No one did that for me when Maggie was grilling me about Sam," said Cynthia petulantly.
Hoshi saw Maggie and Tammy glare at Cynthia in annoyance. "Cyn, I didn't grill you, you were volunteering waaaaay too much information," said Maggie.
"And if Hoshi's seeing two men at the same time, there's nothing wrong with that. After all, there are more of them than there are of us. And you've slept with several men, so you shouldn't be giving Hoshi a hard time," said Tammy quietly.
Cynthia's voice was pure venom as she retorted, "So what? I at least have my men one at a time. Hoshi's screwing two at a time, and in my book that's playing the slut."
Hoshi was seeing red and she was ready to strangle Cynthia. Before she could say or do anything, Tammy shot her a sympathetic look and came back with, "No one's playing the slut here. I'm sleeping with two men, two men who I've been with since the Jentiram forced us to double up. Does that make me a slut, a whore? I don't think so. I enjoy being with them and they enjoy being with me, and that's all that matters."
Cynthia stared at Tammy in disbelief. Maggie and Liz started to laugh and Hoshi looked at Tammy with new regard.
Cynthia's face went from shock to disgust. "You, you are in a threesome? That's sick, perverted. Don't you have any concept of fidelity? Of morality? I thought I knew you."
Maggie and Liz stopped laughing, and Tammy kept her face calmly composed.
Hoshi took a deep breath and gave herself permission to rip into Cynthia, letting loose of her pent up anger in a long hiss. "Oh, that's rich coming from a woman who has slept through half of the men in engineering. Morality? Morality is letting the men in your life know where they stand with you. Fidelity? Is hopping from man to man a sign of fidelity? Why do we have to assume that being faithful means we can only love one person only? The Denobulans have marriages with three wives and three co-husbands each and they are faithful to each other. The Linnar have five husbands to one wife, the Omari two husbands with six wives and the Jentiram, one male to three females. Is that sick? Is that wrong?"
Now Cynthia's face was red with anger. "Those are alien races Hoshi, we expect them to be different. But human beings weren't meant to go beyond the bonds of matrimony between two people. There's no harm in trying out different models before settling down, but we're only meant to love one person at a time. Anything else is immoral."
Liz snorted in disgust. "That's the most stupid, hypocritical thing I've ever heard you say Cynthia. Do you believe that crap you just said? We have a huge capacity to love, in many different ways."
"I'm not being a hypocrite. We're supposed to be in relationships one at a time, with one person at a time. Anything else, is warped and unnatural. Sleeping with two men, either at the same time or rotating them on a weekly basis, that's being perverted."
Hoshi knew that if she didn't leave, she'd beat Cynthia into a bloody, pulpy mass. She didn't want to make a scene, but in a tight, low voice, ground out, "You've said a lot of outrageous things before, but tonight you've proven yourself to the world's most closed-minded bitch I've ever known."
She then stalked out of the mess hall, shaking in rage, ignoring the curious looks of the few other diners in the mess hall. She could hear Liz and Maggie continue to argue with Cynthia as the doors of the mess hall shut behind her.
As she walked hurriedly down the corridor, Hoshi heard Tammy calling after her. "Hoshi! Hoshi! Wait up!"
Hoshi stopped, turning towards Tammy as she joined her. They started walking together.
"Are you ok?" asked Tammy.
"No, I am not ok!" snapped Hoshi. "I can't believe that Cynthia turned out to be so, so, so..."
"So fucking narrow-minded?" said Tammy wryly.
"Oh, that is such the understatement of the year! I don't know how you could be so calm while she spewed such crap!"
Tammy laughed. "Calm? I was picturing the Captain asking me why I spaced her, followed by Lieutenant Reed leading off me handcuffs. That was the only way I could refrain from bitch slapping her senseless."
Hoshi couldn't help it, she started laughing along with Tammy. They laughed for bit longer together, until they both sobered.
"Well, anyway, I think we've seen the end of our Tuesday night dinner sessions, at least with Cynthia," said Tammy.
"Two understatements in the space of five minutes. I think you set a record."
Tammy stopped and Hoshi saw that her friend was giving her a searching look. "You got angry not because you're sleeping with Trip Tucker one night and Malcolm Reed the next. You got angry because your relationship with those two is much, much more complicated."
Hoshi looked around the corridor apprehensively. There was no one else around, so she nodded her head and said, "Yes. But I don't want to talk about it out here."
"Look, my quarters aren't far. Let's go there."
When they got to Tammy's quarters, Hoshi paced the room while Tammy sat on her bunk, waiting patiently for Hoshi to start. Finally, Hoshi stopped her pacing and sat down next to her friend.
"It all started with the Jentiram. Trip and Malcolm ended up bunking with me. I thought it would be like having a slumber party with my brothers. And then there they were, doing some goofy sparring and I came out of the shower. When I saw them, I was so turned on and some part of my brain said "go ahead, jump right in, the water's fine." So I did, I went after them right then and there. For all fourteen nights the Jentiram were here, we...we slept together every night and hardly got any sleep." Hoshi stopped and smiled a large satisfied smile.
Tammy waggled her eyebrows at Hoshi and said, "Oh, yeah, I know where you're coming from. It was the best sex you've ever had too, I bet."
Hoshi's smile became devilish. "Another understatement from you. Yeah, the sex was, hell still is, great. We tried after the Jentiram left to go back to being just friends, with no more playtime with me."
"Obviously, that didn't last long. What happened?"
Hoshi blew out a long sigh. "We became very uptight around each other. We stopped spending time with each other, except on duty, and even that became strained. I felt so guilty about what I had done and I couldn't sleep. The whole thing went on for weeks. Night after night, I thought about them, about my actions, and finally, I started writing it all out. I came to the conclusion that I love them both. I also figured out that I wouldn't choose between them. One night, we all ended up in the mess hall and talked. By the end of it we were all back in my quarters."
Tammy chuckled in appreciation. "Yeah, Ivor, Billy and I went through something similar, but for only a week. I think Luis, Kim and Martin took four days."
Hoshi felt her eyes widen in shock. "How many more of us are going through this and how the hell do you know so much?"
"Kim and I work together and she tells me everything, whether I want to know or not. As for the how many, I really don't know, but, to borrow a phrase from the Sub-commander, if you look at it logically, it isn't really isn't surprising. I mean, come on Hoshi, we were packed in like sardines. Shit happens. I bet for the others, it was over once the furry guys left the ship. But for us, we came to realize that we weren't ready for things to end."
Hoshi looked at her friend with new respect. Then a worrisome thought crept into her head. "Do you think everyone's going to react like Cynthia? I thought she would be more, more tolerant than she turned out to be. Oh, lord, now I wonder how Jon, I mean the Captain, would react."
Tammy patted Hoshi on the shoulder. "Yeah, well, to tell you the truth, I was a bit surprised by Cyn too. I mean, she's more sexually active than most women on this ship. Maybe she's jealous, maybe she's threatened. Does it matter? As for the Captain, you'd know better than I would, he's your friend, and hell, he's Commander Tucker's best friend. I don't think any of us really have to worry, the Captain strikes me as a very pragmatic man. We're going to be out here, what another five years? We can't live monks and I think the Captain understands that."
"You'd think that, but now, after tonight, I'm not so sure..." Hoshi began, and then was interrupted by the chiming of Tammy's door.
Tammy got up and opened her door, revealing a nervous Liz and Maggie. "Come on in ladies."
"Hey Hoshi, Tammy, we thought we'd find you here," said Maggie as she sat down at Tammy's desk.
"Well, either here or at Hoshi's. But since you're closer to mess hall than she is, we thought we'd try here first," elaborated Liz as she sat herself down on the floor.
"So what happened after I left?" asked Hoshi. She could feel her anger return and start making knots in her stomach.
Liz grinned ruthlessly. "Well, let's just say that Maggie and I went into mega-damage control, because Cynthia was ready to go into full gossip spreading mode."
"That bitch! Oh, shit, I could kill her, I could take one of Malcolm's phase pistols and shove it up her..." raged Hoshi.
"Whoa there girl!" exclaimed Maggie. "We took care of her, in the best way possible."
Liz's ruthless smile became even more pronounced. "Maggie and I were beautiful, absolutely beautiful. I think we make an excellent blackmail team."
Tammy started laughing, and Hoshi looked at her other two friends in disbelief. "Are you two going to tell us what you said, or am I going to have torture it out of you?"
Maggie and Liz shook their heads and joined Tammy in her laughter. "Let's just say that she is now in mortal fear of her next physical..." Liz gasped out.
"And that she thinks that I have some security footage of her doing certain acts in certain off-limits areas..." added Maggie, tears streaming down her face.
"So the two combined should make sure that she keeps her mouth shut for along time," finished Liz.
Hoshi was laughing so hard she couldn't breathe properly. The four of them sat there, holding their sides, gasping, trying to wipe tears from their eyes.
Eventually, Hoshi managed to control herself and said, "Thank you both, very much. I'm not ready to deal with gossip about Trip, Malcolm and I just yet. And I know the guys aren't yet either. I'm glad you both weren't as closed minded as Cynthia was."
Maggie sobered up first, and gave Hoshi a small smile. "Hoshi, who you love or how you love them is your business. I know how difficult it is to own up to being in a relationship that doesn't follow tradition. My brother, he lives in San Francisco and is part of a line marriage. Most of my family freaked out when he married into the line, even though it's been legal for fifty years. My father and mother won't talk to him and pretend that he doesn't even exist. The only family members who still talk to him are myself, my cousin, and my grandmother."
Liz nodded her head sympathetically, saying, "I have a cousin who lives on a research commune in Oregon, and she and her two partners share three children. However, my family's a bit more tolerant since she's provided the only grandchildren so far."
Hoshi got on the floor and gave Liz a small hug and patted Maggie's knee in appreciation. Then Liz gave her and the others a thoughtful look, continuing with, "Seriously, there's more to it than being used to my cousin. I always thought that being an explorer in Starfleet meant that we're not only learning about new alien races and cultures, we're also supposed to learn about ourselves. That as we explore, we expand what it means to be human. If we can't tolerate differences in ourselves, it means that ultimately we can't accept them in the others we meet out here. That would mean that maybe the Vulcans are right - we're just children who don't belong out here."
"Liz," said Tammy quietly, "That was beautifully said. I couldn't have said it better myself."
The four of them sat quietly, and Hoshi could tell that Liz was very pleased with Tammy's praise.
Hoshi noticed that Maggie was giving her a speculative look. "What is it now?"
"Well, now that we've gotten some serious stuff out of the way, spill it Sato. How did you end up with both "he trips over alien babes" Tucker and "I love explosions" Reed? Come on now, I want details! Juicy details! Last week I spilled the beans about Travis and I in zero gee, so it's only fair."
"Yep," chimed in Liz, "I've always wondered if engineers really know how to fit all the parts together and if armory officers really know how to use their phase pistols. C'mon Hoshi, I want dirt, good dirt."
Tammy erupted in hysterical laughter and Hoshi felt her face turn hot. She buried her face in her hands. "Oh, give me a break, please..."
"No!" shouted Liz and Maggie simultaneously.
They didn't give up for the rest of the evening.