SEA CHANGE
"Are you done for the night?" asked Scotty. His bedside reader had displayed the same screen for over ten minutes. He wondered, and not for the first time, what supreme power women had to suck the living marrow right out of a decent man's mind. He had so much reading to catch up on, but no matter how hard he tried, his eyes and his thoughts kept wandering right back to Mira.
"Not quite," said Mira Romaine from the desk computer. She took a break to rub the fatigue back into her eyeballs.
"Like what?" Mira's voice was distracted. She toggled a switch and pulled up a new display: the Memory Alpha communications grid. She sighed. Even before the tragedy with the Zetars, it was going to be a big job and now, with the librarians dead, that much more of the installation process fell to her. So much work--
Scotty came around the mesh divider and sidled in behind her. "When ye talk sexy like 'optimal orientation for the mnemonic transponder array'. Say it. Say 'transplannal anything--completely abandoned. "I love it when ye talk like that."
"Like what?" Mira's voice was distracted. She toggled a switch and pulled up a new display: the Memory Alpha communications grid. She sighed. Even before the tragedy with the Zetars, it was going to be a big job and now, with the librarians dead, that much more of the installation process fell to her. So much work--
Scotty came around the mesh divider and sidled in behind her. "When ye talk sexy like 'optimal orientation for the mnemonic transponder array'. Say it. Say 'transplanar data metacouplers' just for me." He leaned over her body and massaged his hands slowly up her thighs as he whispered the words into her ear.
Mira twisted her neck away and zoomed in to the first coupler position, trying her best to act like he wasn't there. She did change to voice control; it's not easy to use a toggleboard with a full-grown man hanging over your shoulders. "Computer: show me the primary data metacoupler interface."
"Mmm! Aye, that's it! You're going to drive me crazy, lassie." Scotty pushed his lips in against her neck. He loved the little dint in her breastbone where throat met chest. What do you call that spot? He'd have to look it up sometime. He nuzzled her and nudged his head against her chin until talking was as difficult as toggling.
"Oh, you're crazy all right, but I'm pretty sure it happened before you met me." Mira tried to brush him away--tried, but not too hard.
Her perfume intoxicated his senses and her hair brushed soft along his cheek. There was no question: her body made him insane; her soul made him hers. "Crazy for you. And it wouldn't do to upset a crazy man, so I suggest that you cooperate fully. "
Mira leaned back to meet his kiss, acknowledging the surrender for what it was. "Oh, I think that that can be arranged." The work would still be there in a few hours. One thing that the Zetars had taught her is that one should not assume the same of mortal lives or loves.
His hands made their way under her uniform and together they made their way to the bunk. At first there was laughter and silly chatter about dynamic egonium hyperion rods, then there was only the soft sounds of two healthy people very much in love.
When it was over, they lay with his head on her breast. She stroked his head and he made lazy circles on her stomach with his hand.
"Why am I so lucky?" she asked.
"Pardon?" Scotty pushed away the lull of sleep.
"That you should be here waiting for me. Why weren't you taken long ago?"
"I was. By the finest ship ever built. But for you, she'll just have to learn to share." Scotty cuddled her closer to him.
"No, silly." She shoved her palm into his stomach. "I mean by a real girl. Why aren't you already married?"
Scotty rolled over on to his back, Sleepiness was no longer a problem. "I guess I never met the right woman."
"In all that time?" The skepticism in her voice could have cut through a bulkhead.
"Ih've been immersed in engineering programs since I was fourteen. For me whole life, I've been surrounded by men. As you may have noticed, women aren't exactly swarming around impulse vents and antimatter pods."
Mira giggled. "Of course I noticed. Why do you think I went into engineering?"
Scotty chuckled. "That's me girl." He kissed her on the nose. "So, surrounded by all of us dashing and brilliant engineers, why haven't you been swept away by the right man?"
"I have." She tugged at him playfully. He still uncomfortably sensitive there--as well she knew--but somehow, from her, he didn't mind.
"I meant before now. "
"I thought I was; I was wrong." She let him drop from her hand.
"I'm sorry." He pulled her back against him.
"It's okay," she said. "If I things didn't happen like they did, I wouldn't be here now." She kissed him on the chin.
"So, nice try on the change of subject, Scotty boy. Back to you: all that time and you never met the right…person?"
Scotty admired the carefully chosen word. "No, lassie; I never have."