Chapter 6: Askew

Scotty had been dancing continuously for nearly thirty standard minutes of Earth time. The technologically advanced fabric of his shirt was giving in to sweat and sticking to his back. He couldn't help himself; Lieutenant Sulu and Ensign Jones, or Jonesy, played one irresistible song after another. Compelling, sinuous bass lines, perfectly accented treble flourishes, songs with voices and without, shuffling rhythms – he was, temporarily, in heaven.

The familiar opening notes of an old line dance song poured from the speakers set into the walls of the room. Nyota saw Spock's mouth turn upward in a half-smile; he'd requested one of his favorites again. She glanced over at the DJ stand; Jonesy winked at her and saluted. No Enterprise crew member would dare forget a musical request from Spock. His willingness to indulge in such a profoundly human pastime as line dancing should have made him less intimidating, but somehow things didn't quite work out that way. Oh, well. You couldn't be accepted by everyone, everywhere.

With a bounce in her own footsteps, Nyota followed Spock onto the dance floor. Other crewmembers were already stepping and moving their hips and shaking their shoulders in a wobbling motion. Some bounced a little. Some grooved. Some moved rhythmically, smoothly and sensually, like Spock beside her and the two tall men in front of her…

Serranstivlen! Stelendos! Nyota's mouth dropped open in surprise; then she closed it and kept time with the pace of the dance. Other crewmembers stared openly from the edge of the dance floor.

The Vulcan men followed the song too well to be dancing it for the first time. Nyota wondered exactly what their personal activities on New Vulcan involved. During my next visit to New Vulcan, I'm going to find out where these guys go after work. Obviously, New Vulcan's citizenry has a life beyond Parliament and meditation chambers.

…back it up…

Serranstivlen's well-formed backside backed up and swiveled; his bare arms gleamed under the colored lights.

Jump forward…

Jump back…

Step right…

Stelendos put more sway into his broad shoulders than his hips, but it made his movements no less interesting to watch.

Step left…

And right...

The pattern of the dance called for the dancers to turn; Spock playfully bumped her hip with his, and Nyota looked up at him. He cut his eyes towards the young Vulcans, raised an eyebrow, and shrugged, making her giggle.

And turn, two, three four, five six, seven eight.

Other unexpected dancers moved across the floor with them. Leaning and wobbling right: Drs. McCoy and M'Benga. Now leaning and wobbling left on behalf of the Engineering and Sciences Division: Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, Lieutenant Charlene Masters. Lieutenant Sulu and Ensign Jonesy had stepped away from the DJ stand to dance.

A young blond woman, lucky enough to find herself standing next to Serranstivlen when the song began, aimed flirtatious glances at him and smiled as she followed the steps. Serranstivlen, being Vulcan, didn't smile back at her but appeared to return her interest. Would Donstelralth be angry, Nyota wondered? To her knowledge, neither of the apprentices violated cultural codes by dancing. Perhaps moving hips and shoulders involved too much personal expression, if not outright emotion? She would ask Spock later tonight for his opinion. All Enterprise crew were aware of the Captain's implied warning to keep their hands off their Vulcan guests; however, Nyota suspected that at several people were tempted to violate Kirk's directive.

The young Vulcans appeared to find the dancing agreeable, though it was difficult to say that they openly enjoyed themselves. Okay, maybe not so difficult. Serranstivlen's hips added the flourish of an extra bump and Stelendos' hands rose in the air in his own variation on the dance.

The young Vulcans were attractive, but as the dancers turned again, Nyota admired her bondmate. Spock's sleek, dark head, his trim, muscled body, the way he moved his hips, the elegant looseness and smoothness of his movements...she didn't love him for his appearance, but she certainly appreciated it. A wave of sensual desire moved through her and across the mental bond, where it met and blended with an equally heated flow of desire from her Vulcan mate. Spock gave her a knowing look as they turned again in the pattern of the dance, and his appreciative gaze swept up and down her body. He spoke to her through their bond.

Shall we leave this party early, tal-kam?

Maybe, big man. Have you got any more requests lined up?

Indeed, I do have 'more requests' tonight, but not for songs, and only you can fulfill them.

A slow song began: a half-spoken, half-sung duet. People paired off to sway and cuddle in the dimly lit room. Someone turned on a blue light to heighten the romantic mood. Scotty looked down at his sodden clothing, then smiled ruefully at Charlene.

"Sorry, 'Lene. I'm afraid I wouldn't be nice to hold onto in this state…unless ye have a towel handy?"

"Next time, Scotty," she chuckled, and moved out onto the floor with Larry Riddle from Engineering. Scotty watched her go. Oh well, he had all night, so he'd try again. He'd been trying to work up the courage to suggest a slow dance. Too much time aboard a Starship dulled one's dating skills. Charlene had danced by herself to faster music that required no partners, sometimes moving close enough for him to watch her. He'd thought she wanted to dance by herself to release the tensions of the day as he had, but maybe he was wrong. She'd met his gaze several times and smiled back.

Hope was such a scary thing sometimes.

Sulu and Jonesy gathered their tech items from the DJ station, chatting about the apparent success of their temporary reign as musical navigators.

"It's about time you two took a break," Scotty said. "Ye see I'm pure dead soaked! Great songs, thanks! Who's up next?"

"Umm…Neville Morgan, I think," Sulu replied. "You know him – guy from Sciences?"

Scotty let out a mock groan. "I'll be on the floor all night at this rate; he's got as fine a musical taste as you two do. I'd better go change me shirt before I start drippin' on folk."

Jonesy smiled as she watched Scotty leave. "That's high praise – I share a DJ stint and not only is the music good enough to make the head of Engineering dance, but he has to change clothes! Hey, I even saw you and Mr. Spock on the floor," she giggled to her colleague Nyota Uhura.

"We had a good time. Thanks, both of you," Nyota said. "Jonesy, you know that nothing can keep me away from a good stress releasing dance party."

A woman approached and winked at Sulu. He nodded at Nyota and Jonesy and joined the woman in a slow dance.

"Oh, Hikaru is so smooth," Nyota said. "As for Spock… he never met a line dance he didn't like. He never forgets the steps, of course, and he knows so many routines – some of them are decades old, it's amazing." Like so many things, Spock approached learning dancing as a research project, albeit a particularly enjoyable one.

"Yeah, he gave me some challenging requests. Miss Jones, do you have convenient access to audio recordings of the following songs, and if so, may I request that you play them…? Fortunately, I did have the files. He was nice about it, but I'd quake in my boots if I had to tell the First Officer of the Enterprise that I didn't have his favorites in my collection," Jonesy said wryly. "It's good to see people enjoying themselves. It's been a demanding month for the crew. You notice that the Captain isn't here."

"He's been working very hard lately," Nyota said. Jonesy was right. It was strange, not seeing Jim anywhere near scantily clad women and the relaxed party atmosphere.

…

Spock gazed down at Nyota while they moved to the slow, romantic music. The light fabric of the dress she wore revealed little to the eye; its hem was longer than her uniform skirt and it had short sleeves. However, he felt her warmth and the curve of her waist through the dress and if they had been alone his fingers would have moved lower. He held her carefully away from his body in the most polite and decorous partner position he could manage. Heat made the collar of his shirt feel too heavy. She rested one hand on his shoulder and each time her fingertips brushed the skin of his neck, he caught fragments of her fantasies. He knew that she thought of undressing him, trapping his arms behind him with the long sleeves of his shirt. Cool, slender fingers teased his nipples, then slid over the tapered V-shape of hair low on his flat belly and into the open waistband of his trousers. Spock drew in a deep breath.

"T'hyla, I can wait no longer," he murmured. She gazed up at him with an innocent expression.

"You wanted something, Commander?"

A faster song began; Nyota and Spock looked at each other. In silent agreement, they left the dance floor. Her hips swayed slightly. Perhaps he would allow her to take the lead tonight; perhaps he would undress her instead, or insist that they each left some article of clothing on.

…

Scotty peeled off his damp clothes, quickly refreshed himself in the sonic cleansing unit, redressed himself in civilian gear, and headed back to the party. Whistling to the distant melody of a tune from Ensign Neville Morgan's set, he half-walked, half-danced through the empty corridor to leading to the large reception room that had been taken over for the evening's party.

The small cluster of flashing lights made him blink; he flattened himself against the wall and watched as it moved towards a vent, then disappeared. Barely three seconds elapsed before his hand found the emergency comm panel set into the wall.

"This is Chief Engineer Scott. Alert - possible intruder aboard the ship. It takes the form of a cluster of colored lights, has moved into ventilation system through the wall in ship quadrant RR-4. All gatherings disperse immediately."

From the reception room, Scotty heard another measure of steady rhythm and vocals - "Carry go bring come—" and then a low whoosh as the cluster of colored lights, now compressed into a flat shape, flew out of the vent. Reshaping itself – it was now obvious that the intruder was indeed solid and had a changeable form – the cluster hovered, aimed itself at Scotty, and moved forward. He ducked, but it flew low enough to scrape his forehead.

Charlene ran from the reception room as soon as she heard Scotty issue the intrusion alert; she intended to run to Engineering and join the effort to preserve the ship's operating systems.

She gasped when she saw the Chief Engineer struck by a small, flying bundle of flashing lights. As it flew towards her head, Charlene raised her tote bag and blocked the flying object's path. It connected with a solid thump, knocking the bag and the padd it contained out of Charlene's hands. The mysterious object and the padd crashed to the floor and burst into flames.

Vulcan vocabulary for this chapter:

Tal-kam= dear one.

T'hyla= lover or companion/friend.

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