Epilogue

Trip Tucker lies on his bunk, so thoroughly asleep that he doesn't feel the young woman roll over behind him, her head supported on her open hand, a smile on her golden lips.

Tia Anlor lay behind Trip in his bed, the warmth of his body suffusing her cooler, bare flesh. When she came in, being unable to rouse him, she had gotten onto the bunk between him and the wall and nothing she'd done then or later had disturbed him. She lay as naked as he, snuggling against his body as he lay facing the room, just enjoying the moment.

For two hours she'd lain behind him, lost in pleasant thoughts, one arm draped unfelt over him, dozing occasionally but full sleep still eluding her. Finally she shifted high enough to look over him, head propped in her hand. With a small, mischievous smile, she reached up and started running her fingertip along the ridges of his ear.

"Tia?" he calls, his voice heavy with sleep.

"It me is," she said softly.

"No kidding." As if anyone else could have access to his quarters, or would get into bed with him. He moved his head impatiently. "That really tickles," he said in mild complaint. "I don't know about you, but it makes me tingle all the way down to my toes."

"To stop do you me want?"

"Yes!"

"Ca-klir." 'All right' she whispers. She stopped teasing his ear, though even her tone wasn't disappointed. He tries to rub the sensation away.

"I'm sorry, I am really, really tired. I didn't get to bed until oh-three-hundred."

"Know that I do. Came to visit at oh-four because sleep I could nyasi, but wake I you could nyasi."

"Not a chance. I am dead."

He closed his eyes again, wanting to doze off. She waited a few moments, then took a few strands of her long, golden hair and played the ends along and into his ear.

"Tia!" He brushed the sensations away again, rubbing his ear. He didn't want to get annoyed at her – ever – but sleep is his desperate and deeply desired wish.

"Do you get up want to nyasi?"

He forced his eyes open just long enough to barely focus on the chronometer, and then closed them again.

"No. It's 0620 on my day off! You're the only one who needs to worry about getting to your shift."

"Daai." She came up a bit higher on the bed so she could lean closer over him, her long golden hair curtaining them as she whispered in his ear, her warm breath tickling him: "Li vantis cuvilir, Salyuuni."

x

That got his attention. He rolled over, looking up at her, her smiling face framed in the curtain of her golden hair. "I love you, too."

She came down to kiss him, a soft brush of her lips over his, but then her lips moved from his to his throat, not moving, a human gesture replaced by an Auran one even more intimate. "But I'm very tired. I really just want to get some more rest."

"Ca-klir," she whispers into his neck. He turned over and closed his eyes. He almost started to doze off again when, with an even more mischievous smile, she gathered her hair back, came down and stuck her tongue deep into his ear.

"Yeesh!" he cried, leaping out of the bunk, the blanket flying away. He turned back to her, now thoroughly aggravated. "All right. I'm up. I'm up!"

She looked him over, particularly one part of him now thoroughly exposed, and smiled seductively, slipped to the edge of the bed, equally naked. She knew he can sleep again later, and this time he'll be far more relaxed.

"Yet nyasi," she whispered hotly, licking her lips; then cast her eyes up as she reached out, drew him closer. "But a piwu – a minute give me."

The Saga Continues in the Enterprise TV Episode 'In A Mirror Darkly' and concludes in my Episode 'Empress Sato'.