Trip
Alright, this really takes the cake, I thought to myself. If she was going to chew me out for something, she had a very interesting idea of how to go about it. My attempts at not starting to dribble became more and more desperate. T'Pol looked at me as if it was completely normal that she would meet me in her quarters wearing absolutely nothing in regard to clothing. She was buck-ass naked.
"If you would close and lock the door please, Commander?" she asked me without so much as raising an eyebrow about my stunned reaction.
Although my mind was currently hazy at best, I somehow managed to find the button and the door closed. In an unexpected feat of coherence, I even managed to find the lock button. I turned around and savored the sight before me.
T'Pol stood – her hands clasped behind her back and if her patient look was anything to go by, she actually wanted me to ogle her. Now that was something I had absolutely no problem with. I couldn't pry my eyes away from her amazing naked frame anyway.
Most of what I saw wasn't new to me as I'd had spent way more time than strictly necessary observing her three recordings from the experiment, but seeing her for real, right before me, was an entirely different matter, and one that caused a rather embarrassing pressure against the fabric of my uniform in a lower region of my body.
T'Pol wasn't as muscular as Anna, but it was obvious that there wasn't a single gram of excess fat on her body, except where it belonged – in her spectacularly gorgeous boobs. That was of course a matter of speculation. Considering how proudly her breasts towered over her chest, defying gravity, they could just as well have been made from tritanium. Most likely it was the lower gravity that made them look this firm, despite their size.
The one region I hadn't seen before was the love triangle between her legs and I couldn't see much at that moment either since – to my surprise – it was covered by a thick bush of brunette curly hair. Who would have thought that the efficiency and logic obsessed Vulcans would retain a patch of hair that had lost its evolutionary purpose when we'd stopped sniffing each other's bottom to find a suitable mate. Finally, I realized that I must have had ogled her for several minutes and it would perhaps be a good thing to say something – anything.
"I-if I may state the obvious, Subcommander – you're sort of n-naked."
It sounded completely lame, and I stammered like a fifteen-year-old five minutes before losing his virginity to his long-time crush, but it was just about the only thing my dazzled brain could come up with at the time, all the remaining capacity was hogged by trying to comprehend how someone could look this amazing.
"Most perceptive, Commander; your vision is apparently unimpaired."
Such a dry zinger – and she had developed a habit of delivering quite a few of those lately – would normally have been a source of much amusement, and most likely a reply in kind would have been delivered, but at the moment I was too stunned to react in my usual manner. After the experiment had been concluded, the pictures had been locked away in the encrypted storage of the science department, which was why I had not thought I'd ever see this spectacularly gorgeous and simply perfectly shaped body without a uniform again – and now she stood before me in her birthday suit and this time she didn't even bother to hide anything.
"I-if it isn't too impolite; may I ask why you're naked? Not that I would complain..."
She regarded me with a look that would have seemed completely empty and devoid of emotion to most of the crew, but I had spent enough time with her to know that she was somewhat amused, at least as amused as her Vulcan heritage allowed her to be. The slightly cocked right eyebrow gave it away. Not even trying to hide her body while I was still staring at it like the village idiot, she provided an answer.
"I had a certain suspicion about your most expressive evaluation of my recordings in the experiment. I wanted to make sure that you were really that substantially impacted by the sight of my unclothed physique and not just following a false sense of obligation to compliment me."
I stared at her blankly. If I hadn't known better, that sounded like a very Vulcan (read: roundabout) way to say she needed confirmation that she was really as attractive as I had written in the form that came with the experiment. Hell, for all it was worth I had even exercised an understatement that would make Malcolm proud while writing my appraisal.
"In addition," she continued, and I had to grin a bit when I saw a slight greenish blush appear on her cheeks. "I noticed during the recording of the images and the immediate aftermath that not wearing clothing was a somewhat… invigorating sensation. Unfortunately, the ambient temperature is too low for a prolonged state of undress. Temperatures below twenty-nine degrees centigrade appear cold to Vulcans after a time."
"Nothing easier remedied than that," I said with grin, happy to be back in my element. I pointed at her wall-mounted panel with the environmental system controls. "May I?"
T'Pol
There was no doubt that I would need a sizable amount of additional time for meditation that evening, due to the amount of unknown and quite potent emotions our encounter had stirred in my mind. I would never have exposed myself to anyone but Commander Tucker, and just as I had hoped for, his strong reaction to my appearance had caused a significant amount of arousal in myself. I began to understand what Ensign Sato had referred to when saying that being visually appraised by a trustworthy male could become addictive.
The ship's young communications officer had played a vital role in my finding out how agreeable a sensation it was to divest myself of all clothing for the sole purpose of personal comfort. Undressing completely for any purpose other than a bath or a medical examination was an emergency measure on Vulcan. Those who did not have environmental controls in their homes often had to undress at the height of the yearly summer drought to avoid heat stroke. I could speak from experience as I had always refused to remove my clothing as a youth and had suffered several heat-strokes as a result, much unlike my mother, who was rarely wearing any kind of attire at the height of summer season. In a way it was ironic that it would take me sixty-three years to see the logic, in an environment that no longer necessitated such measures.
The discovery had come entirely by chance. Doctor Phlox, in his capacity as my assistant in this experiment had visited all participating females in their quarters to produce the recordings. At the time when he visited me, I had been talking to Ensign Sato. Instead of leaving, however, the Ensign had observed the recordings of my postures and having fetched her own items of attire, her recordings had been made in my quarters right after mine, which had saved the doctor another lengthy walk to the other end of the ship.
Having posed completely undressed for the third recording, the young linguist had not donned her attire again, choosing to remain unclothed with my permission. Apparently she rarely wore clothing in her own quarters for reasons of personal comfort. Felling somewhat 'overdressed', as Commander Tucker would say, I had simply divested myself of all clothing as well, which led to the discovery of how comfortable such a state of undress was, although I have to admit that the first minutes had been awkward.
While I had been distracted by my own thoughts, Commander Tucker had been working on enabling my environmental controls to be adjusted to higher temperatures than the default settings allowed. He kept looking at me in a way that he most likely perceived as very surreptitious, but for a former operative like me his frequent glances at my unclothed physique were hard to miss and I realized I found his attention and obvious appreciation of my appearance most agreeable.
"Commander, are you willing to assist me in interpreting the results of the experiment?" I asked while he started to reassemble the panel. Apparently he was nearing completion of his work.
Upon hearing my question, he put his tools back, which he seemed to carry everywhere in various pockets of his uniform. Why he wiped his palms clean on his uniform when he was supposed to provide a verbal answer eluded my understanding.
"I'm not sure the other guys would want me to know what they think about the girls. Malcolm told me, so we can discuss that, but I'm certainly not in a position to discuss the Capn's beauty ideals."
"All participants have agreed that the results could be discussed with other participants. The only restriction is that none of the females will be informed of who provided which comment, with the obvious exception of me of course."
"Alright, what do you want to know?" he asked me and he returned to finishing his work on my environmental controls. I tapped the record button on my PADD to save our upcoming conversation for later analysis.
"Seven months ago, you and Lieutenant Reed were rescued from shuttlepod one and both of you were inebriated," I told him. "When the Captain ordered me to investigate the shuttle's voice recorder, I overheard a remark made by Lieutenant Reed that hinted at a fascination with my posterior. I believe the exact phrase was: 'She has an awfully nice bum.'"
He emitted a groan, normally a sign of discomfort or embarrassment. "Please don't tell him you know that. He's stuck-up enough as it is."
I nodded but saw no logic in providing any comment on his request.
"However, in the experiment, Lieutenant Reed commented on my bust instead of my posterior, and he identified the derrière of Ensign Sato as superior to mine. Are such preferences subject to frequent change or has my behind deteriorated in any way?"
To my surprise, he turned around and he was clearly amused. "He likes Hoshi's tush the best because it's Hoshi's - simple as that. Malcolm is hopelessly smitten with her. She could have three black teeth and he'd still say she has the nicest smile. That's where your experiment fails to factor in the element of love. We have a sayin' – love makes you blind."
"Your perception of attractiveness changes when a male develops affection for a female? I believe that is what the word 'smitten' means, does it not?"
The Commander did not answer immediately. Instead he finished his work on the environmental controls after announcing a short delay to his answering my inquiry. The logical explanation was that his explanation was of a lengthy nature and he did not wish to present it in a state of alternating between his work and concentrating on our conversation.
Once he had finished his work and the temperature rose, which I acknowledged with a grateful nod, I indicated him to take a seat and noticed that he took the time for another appraisal of my unclothed body. He had now been able to observe me for seventeen point six minutes and his fascination with my physique appeared to be unchanged in its intensity, although his initial confusion and surprise seemed to have been replaced by a state of relative contentment. I memorized these thoughts for later recording.
"Look," he started his explanation and I noticed an even more pronounced urge than usual on the Commander's part to support his speech with hand gestures. "I'm not a behavioral scientist, but I would bet that all of the guys in that experiment had a unique taste in whom they found most attractive and why."
"There were indeed no major similarities in any of the results," I agreed, but then I remembered that I was violating a major custom of human hospitality. Immediately seeking to correct that oversight, I offered what I should have offered much earlier.
"Before we continue, do you wish for a refreshment?"
"Well, I could use a bit of water or something, now that the temperature in here starts gettin' quite cozy."
I stood and walked to my chest of drawers. With interest I noticed that the inevitable movement of my bust – his main focus when he observed me – caused his pupils to dilate slightly. Movement could apparently increase the visual impact of a body parts' shape on the perception of a human. It would be an explanation for why many depictions of nude human females involved lifting or slight squeezing of their own bust.
His reaction turned to a mixture of positive surprise and contentment when he realized that the offered refreshment was a moderately alcoholic beverage called 'beer', a beverage I had seen him consume with a certain preference at the few festive occasions the crew had had in the past nineteen months.
"I can unfortunately not offer a glass or mug," I apologized, but his amusement indicated that the absence of such a container was apparently not a violation of hospitality etiquette.
"Don't worry, I was a bottle-baby," he explained with obvious mirth radiating from his mind. He raised the bottle in salute and enjoyed the offered beverage straight from the bottle. I doubted severely that the current situation was in some way indicative that he had been an early weanling in his infancy. In fact, it was most likely a fabrication and the Commander's usual way of indicating unconcern by using a colorful analogy.
"Anyway," he continued, remembering his task of providing a theory to answer my question. "There is a reason that different guys have different tastes. If we'd all be the same, you'd end up with millions of guys going after the same girl or all girls only being interested in one guy. Even as an engineer I can see that such an idea wouldn't be the most effective reproductive strategy."
His last statement was of course logical. The different interpretations of attractiveness seemed to be part of an evolutionary strategy.
"But if the relative attractiveness of a human's physique determines the potential selection of a mate, why did Lieutenant Reed's preferred shape of posterior change? There are distinct differences in shape between Ensign Sato's derrière and mine."
His statement "I can't believe I'm discussing Hoshi's butt with our science officer", which was muttered in a mixture of abashment and disbelieving amusement, was apparently not meant for conversational purposes and I waited patiently while he consumed some of the beverage in a bid to gain time for composing himself.
"It's not a solid scientific theory," he qualified his impending explanation preemptively. "But that's how it worked with me. First of all, it's not only the body or how much or little clothing it is concealed with. The character and your relationship to the other person matter, too. I mean, you know that I've described you as the most attractive one."
I acknowledged that fact with a nod.
"I've known you're the most beautiful creature I've ever seen since I first saw you. Just a couple days later, when we got back from Rigel X, we ended up in decon, rubbing stuff all over each other's bodies, so I got an even better idea of what you look like. The thing is though, had you done that experiment back then, I'd probably have said Anna was the most attractive, because it isn't only the body, but the personality as well. Back in the day I didn't know the first thing about you and your unemotional behavior was a huge turn-off, as it made you appear arrogant and condescending. Anna is easy-going, a good friend; that made up for the divergence of her body from my idea of a perfect woman. That make sense?"
"You are trying to say, returning to the topic of Lieutenant Reed's preference, that in theory my derrière is still closest to his ideal, but her personality in connection with her physique and his obvious affection for her make Ensign Sato more attractive to him and he therefore assigns less emphasis on conformance of her physique to his theoretical ideal."
"Couldn't have said it better," he explained, having finished consuming his beverage.
"Your explanations were most helpful, Commander," I offered with sincere gratitude and decided to discuss another idea for an experiment. "Are you gifted in art forms like drawing or sculpturing?"
"Gifted is a bit much, I liked drawing sketches when I was younger, and they usually turned out quite okay. I still do it when preparing engineering reports, but these days it's mainly engine parts I'm drawing."
"Would you be willing to produce drawings in an experimental context to further assist in my research?"
"Sure, no problem."
"Then I would like to ask you to return here on Tuesday nineteen-hundred or to give me advance notice if the time has to be changed."
"No problem," he repeated and pointed at the empty bottle. "Thanks for the beer, much appreciated. Want me to dispose of it?"
"That would be most thoughtful. Thank you for your assistance."
This conversation had indeed been enlightening not only as far as my studies were concerned. It had given me a most interesting insight into the mind and character of Commander Tucker. He was a most intelligent individual and apparently he was quite willing to speak candidly about his intimate thoughts when he could justify doing so as a scientific endeavor.
Most fascinating…