"You're the only one qualified, Hoshi."
"Is this an order, Captain?" Hoshi couldn't decide whether she'd prefer it to be, or not. On the one hand, the last thing she wanted to do was make a fool of herself in front of T'Pol. But on the other was the vision that had been coursing through her mind ever since she heard that she had to teach the commander to swim: a vision of T'Pol in a sleek, black bikini, dripping as she stepped out of the water and shook her hair sensuously...
"Hoshi? You still there?" She snapped back to Captain Archer's ready room where he was smiling, knowingly.
"Sorry, sir."
"She needs taught; what if we had to make a water landing?" Okay, it was a stretch, but he was the captain, it's his ship.
"Yes, sir." She resigned herself to the work. This could either turn out really well or really poorly. But, T'Pol in a bathing suit? She decided it was worth it.
Travis was shuttling them down to the planet where they were to camp out near the beach for the duration of their leave. In an effort to ease the silence between them that was growing uncomfortable, Hoshi asked "I trust you brought your swimsuit?"
T'Pol raised an eyebrow. 'That little movement can mean so many things,' Hoshi mused, 'It is communication, so it's my field. Maybe I should write a book.'
"I was unaware protective attire was required for this activity," T'Pol responded. 'Great,' Hoshi thought, 'that means she's probably never even seen somebody swim. Hey! How'd she get out of the Captain's water polo nights?' Keeping her curiosity about T'Pol's excuse for missing the captain's videos inside, she said, "It's not protective, but it is sleek, to reduce resistance, and doesn't get heavy when wet."
"Then it is unnecesary." 'Oh please,' Hoshi prayed, 'don't tell me she plans of doing this naked! They'll have to send Phlox down because I'll have had a heart attack. That, or she'll have ripped my head off because I kept drooling over her.' She then let her thoughts go off on a tangent. A completely relevant and related tangent that occupied her mind for some time. And it could be summarized like this: 'I wonder how Vulcans make love?'
"Ensign. Ensign." Hoshi was jolted out of her reverie by the object of her thoughts, and subsequently blushed.
"Sorry, Commander."
"We are on final descent. We will arrive in approximately 2 minutes, 27 seconds. You should prepare."
"Thank you," Hoshi smiled, and was rewarded with an acknowlaging nod. So far, it wasn't shaping up to be that bad.
