Part Six
When Mary Travis turned up at Vin Tanner's quarters, the helmsman had to admit he was not surprised even though he did wonder why she was here. Mary had been a frequent visitor to his private sanctum ever since she began tutoring him on mastering Vulcan mental disciplines. Although was not as telepathically inclined as he and if truth be known, he was nowhere as good as he ought to have been, it was still Mary who managed to make the most of his potential as far as could be attained without years of training. Most Vulcans began this kind of training almost out of diapers and at his age, the best he could hope for was some rudimentary understanding of mind melds and the ability to keep his consciousness from invading others. This suited Vin just fine because the Vulcan way was not his way and as Alex often told him, there was something liberating about not being expected to be anything because one was so different.
Nevertheless, there were still some things about being Vulcan Vin simply could not do without knowing, especially when one came equipped with more telepathic ability than he liked. Mary had been pivotal in the questions he had needed answering from time to time and it was rather comforting to know that had he any quandaries of being what he was, he had her to turn to for assistance. Having been married to a Vulcan, Mary had an insight into the culture that he was unofficially exiled from and since most Vulcans found him to be something of an aberration any way, she was also his only source of information.
"Mary, what can I do for you?" Vin, who had just stepped out of the shower, asked when he found her standing at the door. The helmsman had fortunately slipped on a bathrobe and could confess to uttering many expletives when he was forced to emerge prematurely from his shower. Despite the fact that most of the Maverick's crew preferred to use the sonic showers, Vin felt that there was nothing more refreshing than the old-fashioned method of soap and water. Toweling the wet strands of dark hair that were still plastered to his face as he invited her in politely, Mary said nothing as she made her entrance into his quarters.
She waited until the doors had slid to a close behind her before she chose to answer. "I just thought I'd drop in and see how you were doing." She said with an enigmatic smile.
Wrinkling his brow in confusion on why she would find that inquiry necessary when it was only a few hours ago that they had last seen each other on the bridge, he supposed that some women's reasoning was hard to understand. Until coming on board the Maverick, Vin had not known all that many and thus chalked up his confusion to lack of experience. "I'm fine. Thanks anyway." He remarked a little bewildered as she sauntered deeper into the room before taking a seat on the sofa that was half covered with his clothes.
A typical bachelor, Vin immediately made a beeline for the chair and removed the garments hastily, rolling them up into an untidy heap in his arms before tossing them away somewhere unseen, hoping that she did not think him too much of a slob. Mary seemed bemused by his efforts and patted the space next to her in a gesture for him to sit. Something about her manner made him wary but he nevertheless complied, not having the understanding to appreciate the minefield he was walking into with that one obligatory gesture.
"Mary," Vin asked again, suddenly feeling a little anxious about the glimmer in her eyes and feeling something that was akin to alarm even though he could not understand what it was that concerned him so much. Something about her felt different. He wished he could explain it, but his ignorance allowed him no further than that. "What's on your mind?"
Vin wished that she would just tell him and put an end to his speculation. He had just put in a rather lengthy stretch on the bridge and the truth was he was looking forward to having some dinner with Alex. Even though he liked Mary well enough and always had time for the lady, since she had so often returned the favor when he needed her help, Vin still could not shake the feeling that he ought to be worried.
"You're a handsome man Vin," she said silkily. Her hand moving to his brow where she flicked an errant stand of wet hair from his eyes. "I wonder if you know how much."
Oh hell.
This was the first thought that came into Vin's mind upon hearing that statement. He started to move away abruptly when he felt her other hand on his thigh, her fingertips brushing lightly against the skin. It was meant to be seductive and for a human male it would have been extremely arousing but for Vin it was rather ticklish. However, the physical sensation he felt was nothing in comparison to the blind panic he felt at recognizing the intimate overtures being made to him by the protocol officer, not just the protocol officer but the love of his best friend. He gulped visibly when another sobering thought entered his mind.
He was messing with the captain's girlfriend.
"Mary, this isn't right." Vin stuttered and started making a fresh attempt to pull away when Mary placed her hand on his cheek.
"Of course, it is," she whispered. "You know deep inside that I am the only one who can show you the delights you long to feel." She drew closer until he could feel her breath on his skin and it prickled his skin and caused a tingle to ripple through his spine. He could not say whether it was pleasant, it was equal parts that and blind terror.
"Nobody can show me any delights," he stammered once more but Mary maintained her grip on him as Vin felt her fingers pressing against his cheekbone and temple. He was thinking fast and furiously on how to extricate himself from this situation without offending her and at the same time, not to have the practice of keelhauling revived should his captain found out what was transpiring at this moment between Vin and the woman he obviously loved. "I'm not old enough."
"Silly boy," she offered him a smile and a look that made him feel like a dumb, ignorant child. "You may not be able to partake the carnal pleasures of the flesh endemic to humans but for Vulcan's sensation does not end with touch. It transcends the physical and seduces the mind. You think that Vulcans know each other's pleasure simply by exploring the flesh? There is a more sensuous experience to be had Vin, you have just never met another Vulcan to experience it."
It was too late that he realized what she was doing when he felt the warmth pulse flooding his body. For an instance, he felt disorientated by the link that was being established and focus came when he discovered, he was not alone in more ways than mere physical presence. Vin felt his head swim as the meld took hold. She was barely able to rate as a telepath, but Mary knew how to push into his mind. Mary knew how to let the raw power of his abilities to extend her own as she began a warm deluge of images inside his head. Pictures flashed in his mind like a kaleidoscope. At first, they appeared in his mind so rapidly that he had no time to register them. However, the images became incidental when the substance of them entered his mind.
Pleasure.
Beautiful, seductive sensation seared into his mind the likes of which he had never known. Vin stopped resisting immediately as he felt himself drift through Mary's thoughts about her heated couplings with her husband Syan. How she had done this, he had no idea, but he could see Syan making love to Mary, not only could he see it, but he could also feel it. Whispery touches against the skin, lips tasting, tongues dueling in heat. He felt hands running through his hair and was unaware that he was leaning back against the sofa as she started to ravage his mouth, oblivious to what was real and what was false. He wanted to fight her, but it was impossible. Vin had ached to know what this was, every time he looked at Alex, he wanted to know what it was to have her touch him, to really touch him as she would touch a lover.
Headlong he felt into the ecstasy of what it felt like to be coupled with another body, to feel the incredible pressure of beatific sensation making him throb so hard, he groaned out loud. He was conscious of legs straddling him, of hands running over his face and bare chest when it splayed open his robe. He knew his mouth was being plundered this but none of it had as much effect as the mental stimulus that was slowly overwhelming him. He had no idea that his hands had snaked up her back, that his fingers were running through her golden hair, relishing the feel of every golden strand in his fingertips.
"Mary." Vin groaned once again. "How?" He managed to ask as she desisted a moment to not overload his mind.
"Does it matter Vin?" She responded before covering his lips again and used the memories she held captive as easily as she held Mary Travis herself, to bombard the inexperienced Vulcan again.
Pon Farr.
The word screamed louder than most in Mary's thoughts. The infiltrator who held control over her mind immediately latched on to the memory, forcing it to the surface until there was nothing left of the seductive sensations she was imprinting directly into Vin's mind. Although he was not mature enough to enjoy what she was doing physically, mentally he was fully developed and completely open to the onslaught she was delivering upon him with brutal intensity. He was gasping beneath her; unable to cope with anything she was forcing him to endure simply because he had never even imagined it let alone had any idea how to fight it.
Pon Farr.
Raw. Fire. Heat. Power. It flowed in through him like molten lava. It made his heart pound in his chest and the blood boil in his veins. His brain began to cook and suddenly, suddenly this was no longer pleasurable, and the pain slammed into him like a thousand knives digging into his flesh. Vin's eyes opened wide and he shoved Mary off him, unaware that he had swatted her away like a flying in the doing. He stood up abruptly and felt the air escape his lungs. His thoughts shredded inside his head and all he could feel was this blinding rage as well as this overpowering need he could not control. He wanted…he needed….
Vin looked at Mary barely registering her and seeing only Alex.
The Mary entity realized that he had been pushed too far. His mind was not ready for the most turbulent chemical change of his species' biology and the meld had forced it to surface far earlier than its time. Assessing the knowledge inside her host's mind, she realized that he was going into shock unless the link was broken but not before he vented the full desire for flesh that Pon Farr was meant to engender. His mind had to be rendered unconscious. Instinctively, she grabbed the first thing she saw in this case, a rather heavy book end and slammed it against the back of his skull. She ensured that she applied enough force to incapacitate him, not kill him, which the object was heavy enough to do. Vin who had dropped to his hands and knees hit the floor without uttering a cry of pain when Mary brought it down on him.
Her determination to save his life was purely self-serving. Had he been allowed to lapse into neural shock, there was the possibility he might die, and the ship sensors would undoubtedly detect the termination of one life reading which would be relayed to the bridge. Currently, that did not serve the needs of the Many. Until they finally decided to take the nerve center of the Maverick, nothing could alert the captain to their presence. He and the first officer had the power to shut down the ship with a word and halt their journey home in its tracks. The Many had waited too long to allow that to happen.
She stood over the unconscious Vulcan dispassionately, dropping to her knees to see if he was still alive. The pulse she felt confirmed that soon enough. No doubt he would wake in a few hours sporting an intense headache but then that was a few hours away and by that point in time, the Many would already have seized control of the ship, so it mattered little what stories he had to tell regarding this incident. Smoothing her dress and fixing her hair back into place, Mary Travis stepped over Vin and made her way to the door. She only hoped that that the others were moving against their assignments with as much success as she had neutralized her target.
Buck Wilmington was starting to get exasperated. He had been on the bridge for some hours now, unable to contact the Captain who always seemed to be unavailable whenever the first officer made some attempt to contact him. Chris had disappeared some hours ago and seemed to be hiding out in the holodeck with specific instructions that no one was to bother him. When Buck had tried to make some sense as to the reason for such an extreme order, the response he got in return convinced him to let the matter rest until Chris was ready to talk about it whenever that might be. Despite Chris' odd behavior, things seemed to be running smoothly. Engineering had reported a malfunction in one the transporter tubes and was presently taking steps to repair it, necessitating it being taken off line for the duration. However, other than that minor hiccup, the Maverick was running business as usual.
The bridge was rather quiet. Ezra had ended his duty shift a few hours ago, not long after Chris had decided that it was time for him to get some time in the holodeck. Vin had been relieved of the con and was no doubt getting some slack time in his quarters. Alex had not been seen of or heard from since she had begun her study of the alien artifact although this was not unusual. The science officer was known to disappear into such mental sabbaticals when a particularly difficult problem pitted itself against her formidable acumen. Buck had no doubts that she would turn up after learning everything one could possibly ascertain about the artifact with an equally lengthy report. Except for himself, JD was the only other member of the senior staff on the bridge.
"So how long until we get to Pacifica?" Buck asked.
"She's nine hours away Buck." JD responded with a sigh.
Buck could tell that the young man was bored and itching for something to happen. Unfortunately, it did not look like much in the way of excitement would be coming at them when their course heading was taking them to a pleasure palace. It appeared that the only excitement they were going to be enjoying this trip was the recovery of the artifact they had found earlier today and somehow Buck did not believe that JD would be terribly enthused by that. However, Buck supposed no ensign truly could be satisfied with anything that did not echo trumpets of glory and mystery. All young ensigns had their time to learn patience. Buck had endured his, just as Chris had and even Ezra. Now it was JD's time.
"Get used to it junior." Buck said with a hint of affection, remembering how young JD was despite his ability to handle himself. "The problem with the exploration of space is a lot of time there's nothing but just plain old space in between the big discoveries."
JD frowned and nodded begrudgingly. "I guess so." The younger man accepted that he had to pay his dues and found himself glad that they would soon be at Pacifica where he could feel sunshine on his skin and fresh air in his lungs that was not recycled or ventilated but just the pure natural product.
Suddenly the turbo lift doors slid open and deposited Alexandra Styles onto the bridge. The science officer scanned the bridge, no doubt wondering where everybody had gone while clutching a data pad in her hand. When she realized that it was only Buck in the room, she made her way down to the floor of the command chair and addressed him.
"Commander, I've finished my analysis of the artifact." She announced.
"Oh good," Buck said with relief. At last, something to break the tedium. This day was getting to be too much of a crawl for his liking and though he hated to show it to the other members of the bridge crew, he was getting bored out of his mind too. "I'm all ears Commander, lay it on me."
"Actually," she met his gaze with an expression in her eyes he could not quite read. "I think I should do this in private."
Buck tensed. Such a request was not made lightly and usually indicated trouble. Instinctively, he began to feel guilty asking for excitement when it usually turned out to be a gift not worth the trouble it caused. "Something wrong?"
"No, not at all." She said pleasantly. "However, I would like to see you alone."
His brow furrowed in confusion as he tried to make sense of her request and decided that this was no nonsense Alex who did not know what trivial meant even if it came and bit her on the butt. She did not waste people's time with incidentals and if she requested of him an audience in private, then she usually had a very good reason for doing so.
"Alright," he nodded and glanced at JD who appeared to be burning with curiosity to know what it was that Alex had found and looked somewhat disappointed when Buck had conceded to her request to make her report in private. "Let's take it to the Captain's ready room, I'm sure he won't mind." Buck rose to his feet and gestured Alex to the Captain's inner sanctum.
Alex nodded and strode across the floor with Buck following close behind as they disappeared into the confines of the captain's ready room to have their little talk. Buck was somewhat curious himself as to the reason for her enigmatic request and then told himself to give up trying to figure out Alex because that was one woman he would never understand. The only one who was at all equipped to unravel that riddle of the female gender was Vin Tanner.
"Okay Alex," Buck said once the door had slid close behind them giving the two most senior officers of the Maverick after the captain himself, the privacy that they required. "What's going on?"
What was going on was beyond Buck's ability to comprehend when Alex turned around, closed the distance between them into two short steps before grabbing hold of his collar and pulling her to him just in time to catch his mouth with her own. As he felt her tongue slid past his teeth, exploring the moist cavern of his mouth as she guided him to the nearby wall, Buck felt his breath literally stolen away by the power of those incredible lips devouring him with unbridled passion.
"Alex!" Buck recovered his senses enough to push her away so that he could regain his senses and ask someone if hell had indeed frozen over by the fact that she was here now, doing what she was. This was Alex whom he considered one of his best friends, whom since the day she arrived on the Maverick had revealed to him that while she valued his friendship, it was clear that she thought him to be a womanizing pig. "What's gotten into you?"
"Nothing yet," she said with a husky voice. "Give it another five minutes and who know?" The suggestive gleam in her brown eyes left no doubt as to what she was intending to happen between the two of them.
"Weren't you the one who said this morning that..." He stammered, still too commingled with astonishment to offer any other comment then that muted response.
"I know what I said." Alex responded kissing his neck lightly as she pinned him up against the wall, her body pressing against him as her hand molded to his rapidly hardening member.
"Oh god," He groaned slightly when she found it and started stroking it gently through the fabric. What she was doing with her hand was magical and his cry of pleasure only forced her mouth against his again as she plundered his lips with even greater intensity. "Alex, stop. This isn't right." He moaned as her moist lips moved down his neck and began nibbling at the skin there, all the while her hand gliding over his erection, coaxing it to reach a point where he would no longer be able to pull back until he had taken her. "Vin is my friend."
She stopped and met his gaze. "Vin can't give me what I need." Her eyes burned with hunger and there was something about her manner was animalistic, menacing, inherently dangerous and so goddamn sexy that she damn near capable of shattering his resolve with just the promise of what he saw there. "I need you Buck." She whispered in his ear. "I need you to ride me so hard, I'll never remember what happened to me with those Cardassians. Show me how love is made properly Buck. Touch me the way you always wanted to touch me, and I'll make you scream with pleasure by the time we're done."
As she slid to her knees and he felt the beginnings of ecstasy being delivered to him by way of those heavenly lips, one errant thought flashed through his mind when he felt himself plunged head long into exquisite sensation.
How the hell was he going to tell JD what the report was about.
"Any luck?" Nathan asked Rain after she had pried open the panel of the turbo lift they were presently trapped within. It had been almost two hours now since they had been locked inside the lift following their short-lived attempt to escape from Four Corners where Inez and a mob had tried to capture them. Unfortunately, their flight seemed to have ended inside these narrow confines of what was meant to be their escape route and despite numerous efforts by both to contact someone who could help them, it seemed that they were well and truly caught in a trap of their own making.
"No," Rain slammed the panel shut with a huff, clearly disappointed by her lack of success. Their com badges did not work and by the looks of it, someone had completely disengaged the turbo lift from the rest of the ship. There was not even power enough for the lights and both were sitting on the floor of the lift, bathed in the reddish glow of emergency lighting. "We've been taken off line."
"They have engineering." Nathan retorted.
"They?" Rain looked at him.
"Whoever it is that has taken over the ship." He answered, having spent considerable time trying to unravel the mystery of what was going on while Rain had been trying to reactivate the lift. As a scientist, his creed was logical deduction and as he replayed the events in his mind, trying to discern just when the trouble had started, he found that it all seemed to coincide with the arrival of the artifact. Everything seemed to coincide with that one event. Suddenly, something else made sense to Nathan to and the flash of insight that came to him at that instant explained everything else as well.
"You're a Trill." He stared at Rain.
"I'm glad to see those years at doctor school didn't go to waste." She grumbled and not really listening because she was searching their prison to find an alternate way of escaping if they could not rely upon someone coming to help them.
"Thanks," Nathan deadpanned and continued. "Let's assume that it's not a virus or some strange disease and something has taken over the ship. An alien entity perhaps."
"Not perhaps," Rain retorted. "Most likely. Where did it come from?" She asked, since they were playing 20 questions.
"The artifact that we beamed on board earlier today." Nathan replied automatically. "It was storage device, we worked out that much before we got it on board."
"Okay," she nodded, becoming more and more interested in what he was saying. "What it would have stored?"
"Not what," Nathan replied. "Who."
Rain turned sharply to him. "You mean you think something was alive in the artifact and it's taken over the crew?"
"Not alive as in having a body," he quickly responded, not wanting to mislead her. "Alive as in consciousness. If a symbiote can store the personality of every host its lived in why cannot the same be done in a different manner? Whatever that artifact is, we know that it was for storing something. What if by bringing it in contact with flesh and blood life, we gave it access to use our bodies?"
"But why just women?" Rain demanded because what he was saying did sound plausible to a certain extent. "And why not me?"
"Because you are not alone in your mind." He explained, and it was this point that allowed him to deduce the rest. "You are several personalities in one mind. An invading entity may not have been able to defeat all the minds you carry inside you. That's why you heard all the host voices scream, that's why when Alex..." his voice drifted off as things became clearer. "Alex would have been the carrier. She was assigned to examine that thing. Chances are she would have been the first to contact it."
"When she touched me, she was trying to pass it, whatever it is, on!" Rain exclaimed, understanding now what happened. "That's why she did not follow me in when I collapsed in the lift!"
"That's right," Nathan nodded. "That's why they're after us now because they knew it did not work with you when they tried to infect you."
"Oh, damn Nathan," she swallowed truly appreciating the magnitude of the crisis the Maverick was facing. "We have to get out of here. We have to warn the bridge."
"Well I am open to suggestions." He frowned gesturing to their surroundings. "This isn't exactly my field of expertise. I'm a doctor, not Harry Houdini."
"I have an idea," she confessed after a brief pause. She had not wished to take this course and hoped to use it as a last resort but clarification by Nathan regarding their situation told Rain that this was the only way out and they would have to take it. "How good a climber are you?"
"I can do trees." Nathan answered automatically as he saw her gaze shifting to the service hatch on ceiling of the turbo lift.
"We're going to have to climb up the Jeffrey's tube and several decks to get to the bridge." She said with a sigh. "Can you manage?"
"Rain," he said putting his hands on her waist and lifting her up towards the hatch. "We don't have a choice. I'll manage."